A Rainy Night in Georgia

In December 2000, Derwin Brown, the newly elected sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia, was ambushed and murdered in his driveway just days before taking office. Brown had campaigned on reform, promising to confront corruption and restore integrity to the sheriff’s department after defeating the powerful incumbent in a bitter runoff. Tom Morgan, the county’s elected district attorney. Working with local, state, and federal law enforcement, Morgan pursued the case through dead ends, mounting pressure, and intense public scrutiny.

As the investigation exposed political intrigue, government corruption, and an alleged murder-for-hire plot, it also involved a previously untried legal strategy in Georgia’s criminal justice system. Then Morgan discovered that the threat had become personal: his own name was reportedly next on the killer’s list. Told from Morgan’s perspective, this true-crime account follows a politically charged murder investigation and the risks of pursuing accountability from inside the justice system.