A Matter of Justice

Mary P. Brown died back on February 13th of this year. A story about her death appeared in our local paper and while I recognized her story I did not know why she made the small local paper. It turns out that she lived not too far away in Etowah County, Alabama.

Mary's story became public when the movie A Matter of Justice appeared on TV. The movie was the story of the murder of Mary's son Chris by his wife Kathy Brown and Ralph Rocky Jackson, another marine who admitted to stabbing Brown 26 times.

Prosecutors argued that Kathy Brown convinced Jackson to kill her husband in order to prevent Brown from dropping her from his life insurance policy and obtaining custody of their daughter, Christy

The movie chronicled the five month search Mary Brown led to find her son's 2 year old daughter after the child was kidnapped. Mary Brown said Kathy Brown was the first person to be tried in Alabama under a parental kidnapping law passed in July 1983 making the act a felony.

I often wondered what happened to the subjects of the movie and thanks to the internet I've been able to answer this.

Chris's father is now deceased.

Chris's daughter, Christine was arrested for the following; I.D. theft, obstruction of justice, Meth manufacturing, fraudulent i.d. card, stolen fire arm, and Meth delivery.

Christine was only two years old when her Dad was murdered so she really doesn't remember him.

Dusty, (Kathy Brown) seems to have continued having run ins with the law and has been in and out of jail over the years.

Ralph Jackson (Rocky) is married now and has a daughter. He was released from jail in 2002.

I haven't watched this movie in years. I had taped it years ago and watched it many times. The story haunted me for years and obviously the ghosts of this murder still haunts all those involved.