Topic: Brenton Butler

The Brenton Butler case was a 2000 murder case in Jacksonville, Florida. During the investigation of a shooting death outside of a motel, police arrested 15-year-old Brenton Butler and charged him with the murder. Butler subsequently confessed to the crime, and the case went to trial. However, during the trial he testified that he had been brutalized into his confession, and he was acquitted. The case gained significant notice in the media, and became the subject of an award-winning documentary.

In May 2000, two tourists from Georgia were accosted outside the Ramada Inn on University Boulevard. The wife was shot in the head in front of her husband and the killer fled. During the subsequent investigation, police picked up Butler, a 15-year-old student at Englewood High School who was on his way to submit a job application to a local Blockbuster Video. Butler was brought to the victim's husband, who identified him as the killer.

Police brought Butler in for questioning, and he confessed to the murder, both orally and in writing, in front of at least two detectives. State Attorney Harry Shorstein decided to prosecute the case. During the trial, however, Butler testified that two detectives involved in the investigation, including Michael Glover, son of the current Sheriff Nat Glover, had intimidated and physically abused him into confessing. His attorneys supplied a photograph of him with bruises on his face, which they claimed was the result of the interrogation. The jury deliberated for less than an hour before acquitting Butler; one jurist later cited the testimony about the interrogation as one of the key factors in their decision. State Attorney Shorstein and Jacksonville Sheriff Glover took the unusual steps of apologizing to Butler and re-opening the case of two unrelated suspects. However, Michael Glover denied the allegations against him, and Shorstein said there was no evidence that Butler had been physically abused during the interrogation.