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I appreciate everyone’s patience — forces outside my control have slowed down my ability to research and write.

Mark

Let’s think about time for a moment. The exercise is worth it because in 1968 a man’s freedom depended on just how accurately we tell time.
As I write this there are four clocks in my immediate vicinity. The analog clock on the wall says it is about 2:14 p.m. My computer clock says it’s 2:16. Both my cell phone clock and the digital clock on the cable box say it’s 2:13 p.m.
When you ask someone the time and they say “2:15″ or “a quarter after,” do you wonder if their watch precisely indicates 2:15 or is it showing somewhere between 2:13 and 2:17? Does anybody really know what time it is?
For Dr. John M. Branion, Jr., convicted murderer, the answers to those questions made all the difference in the world.
Dr. Branion was not the kind of man anyone would expect to kill his wife. Educated at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, he was a successful and respected African-American physician at time when discrimination against blacks was openly practiced and accepted in America. His father was one of the most prominent criminal defense attorneys in Chicago, serving as the deputy public defender for Cook County — the first black man to do so, and Branion’s brother-in-law was an equally successful attorney.
Branion’s wife, Donna, came from one of the wealthiest black families in Chicago. Dr. Branion was active in the civil rights movement and had walked beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his visits to Chicago.
According to his defense attorney Branion once shielded King from a thrown brick with his own body. Unlike King, however, Branion’s involvement in the movement was not limited to peaceful protests; he was known to police as a doctor who tended to injured Black Panthers and other more radical activists, putting him on a U.S. Justice Department list of “undesireables.”
Although Branion had an on-going affair with a woman who shared his passion for civil rights activism, by all accounts the 30-year Branion marriage was normal and happy. The Branions had two children, a daughter and a son who was 4 years old in 1967.
The crime that put Dr. Branion in prison occurred in the morning of December 22, 1967 when Donna Branion was shot to death in her home. The evidence that pointed to Dr. Branion as the murderer was all circumstantial and at his trial Dr. Branion unsuccessfully used a defense of impossibility — it was impossible for him to have killed his wife because at the time she died he was someplace else.
That’s why time was so important in the Branion murder case.
Donna Branion was known to have been alive at about 10:15 a.m. when she spoke with her sister about some mundane topics. Donna’s sister, Joyce Tyler, testified that her sister did not sound agitated or upset about anything.
The first event occurred at 11:05 a.m. when a neighbor of the Branions returned home from shopping. Theresa Kentra later told police that about 20 minutes later she heard a “loud sound followed by two or three similar sounds” and then a commotion of some sort.
(The court opinions in this case refer to them as “sounds” or a “commotion” while Mrs. Kentra, on the stand, used the word “shots” — quite a difference in connotation)
Let’s agree that what Mrs. Kentra heard happened at 11:25 a.m because Dr. Branion’s defense and appellate counsel asserted it was so and the prosecution did not object.
Some 15 or 20 minutes after she heard those sounds, Mrs. Kentra saw Dr. Branion come out of his apartment and call for “Helen,” another doctor who lived nearby. For what it’s worth (and it might be worth a lot) Mrs. Kentra said Dr. Branion did not appear to be “agitated.”
Chicago police logged a call reporting Donna Branion’s death at 11:57 a.m. One minute later, the first patrol car was at the scene. Officer William Catizone testified at Dr. Branion’s trial that he found Donna’s body lying in the utility room of the Branion home. He said he went directly to the body and could not find a pulse.
Donna had been shot in the head, neck, and shoulder. Three bullets passed through her body and were found at the scene beneath her body while a fourth was found in her body during the autopsy.
There was no sign of forced entry and Donna had not been sexually assaulted. Robbery also did not appear to be the motive.
Almost immediately suspicion fell on Dr. Branion, despite the fact that he had no motive for killing his wife. They were a loving couple despite his unusually close relationship with Shirley Hudson, who he met in the civil rights movement and eventually married.
Money wasn’t an issue. Certainly Donna Branion came from a wealthy family, but Dr. Branion would not inherit anything as a widower; in fact, if all he cared about was his wife’s money, he had a strong motivation to keep her alive.
Police centered their attention on Dr. Branion because of the way he acted after discovering his wife’s body.
Entering the home, he turned on the light in the utility room, saw his wife lying in a pool of blood and simply turned off the light, left the room and called for help. He told police that he did not approach her because he could tell by her appearance that she was dead.
As the investigation into Donna Branion’s murder went on, other circumstantial evidence emerged. Ballistics experts determined that Donna was shot by a Walther PPK, a type of gun owned by Dr. Branion. However, when police asked him whether he had any guns capable of firing the .380 slug of the type that killed his wife, Dr. Branion did not tell them that he owned a PPK — which can fire .380 cartridges despite being a 9mm weapon.
Later, armed with a search warrant, police recovered two boxes of ammunition in the Branion home. One box was full, containing 25 cartridges. The other box was missing four shells.
That was good enough for the police. Dr. Branion was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife.
Next: “The evidence is circumstantial, but what circumstances!”

Back in January I was interviewed on camera for a Biography Channel show on “Murder, Inc.” It’s airing on Saturday, June 21, 2008 on the Biography Channel at 9 p.m. ET (US) and again on Sunday, June 22 at 1 a.m.

It should be a good show even though I’m in it …