Half-Brothers Serving Murder Term Freed After Lesser Plea

Half-brothers who came within 16 hours of execution in 1983 before winning appeals of their death sentences were released Friday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Earnest Lee Miller, 31, and William Riley Jent, 36, entered their pleas and were sentenced to 12 years in prison during a hearing before Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson.

The time they had already served plus time off for good behavior allowed for their immediate release, officials said.

Judge Issues Warning

Swanson had said that Miller and Jent would not be allowed to plead no contest, which he said would enable them to appeal in the future, and he warned them to “walk the straight and narrow.”

The men left the courtroom shackled hand and foot, just as they had arrived. They were taken to jail for the final paper work before they were freed.

When they left about an hour later, they were mobbed by friends and hugged by their mother.

“Let’s get away from this cop shop,” Jent said.

They drove away with their mother and attorneys, stopping a short distance away to get soft drinks at a convenience store, where their lawyers purchased each of them a state lottery ticket.

The half-brothers were sentenced to death for the murder of Linda Gale Bradshaw, 20, of Cleveland, Tenn., whose beaten and burned body was found in the Richloam Game Preserve near a popular picnic area overlooking the Withlacoochee River in July, 1979.

Body Identified in 1986

The indictment identified the victim only as “Tammy,” and the body was not identified as that of Bradshaw until 1986.