Parole talk angers Stringbean's friends

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Parole talk angers Stringbean's friends[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Serif]Double murder was too callous, they say
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By KATE HOWARD
Staff Writer

[/FONT]As country music changed and Nashville generations passed, the fame of slain Hee Haw star Dave "Stringbean" Akeman faded.

This week, the state parole board heard all the reasons why the man who shot Akeman and his wife deserves a second chance, 34 years later. About a half-dozen spoke on behalf of convicted killer John A. Brown.

But the killer's name didn't ring a bell with anyone in the district attorney's office when the possibility of Brown's freedom came up. Most of the loved ones who spoke up in the past, Opry legends Roy Acuff and Porter Wagoner among them, have passed on. They had no children. And the friends who remain were never told a hearing was coming.

So, nobody stood to talk about the lasting impact of the day an unassuming country star named Stringbean was killed for his money, and his wife was silenced with a bullet while she begged for her life.

Brown and his cousin, the late Doug Marvin Brown, were sentenced to 198 prison terms for the killings.

The jury recommended that two life sentences be served concurrently, but the judge disagreed and handed down a sentence intended to ensure the cousins never lived free again.

A change in law afforded them the chance at parole, and two board members voted Wednesday in favor of Brown's release.

- rest at www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080726/NEWS03/807260364/1017/NEWS