A key witness says he lied during the 1992 trial of a man who spent 27 years in prison in Maine for a murder conviction in the killing of his teenage girlfriend.
The Portland Press Herald reports Glenn Brown told the court Tuesday he lied when he testified he saw Tony Sanborn with a knife the night before the killing looking for 16-year-old victim Jessica Briggs. Brown says he lied because he was nervous about the police and jail.
Justice Joyce Wheeler had told Brown he could face perjury charges if he recanted.
Sanborn was 16 at the time of Briggs' death in 1989 and was convicted of killing her in 1992. He recently was freed on bail after another key witness recanted, and his case is getting a new look.
Another witness, Hope Cady, testified that as a 13-year-old she was pressured by police and prosecutors into identifying Sanborn as the killer.
"They basically told me what to say," Cady said.
Sanborn, now 44, had insisted over the years that he didn't kill Briggs, and supporters say he somehow managed to avoid becoming bitter despite being convicted as an adult and sentenced to prison for 70 years. In prison, his conduct was exemplary, and he taught classes to fellow inmates.
