By MES Dispatch staff
The Briefing
• Former DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, convicted of ordering the 2000 assassination of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, has died in prison at age 86.
• Dorsey had been serving a life sentence plus additional terms for murder, racketeering and related offenses at Augusta State Medical Prison.
• Brown was shot and killed outside his Decatur home days before he was to be sworn into office.
• Prosecutors and investigators had linked Dorsey to the ambush after he lost the sheriff’s election to Brown.
• Additional convictions in the case included racketeering and violation of oath of office; accomplices also received life sentences.
DEKALB COUNTY, GA — Sidney Dorsey, the former DeKalb County sheriff convicted of orchestrating the 2000 killing of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, has died at age 86 while serving a life sentence in a Georgia state prison, authorities said.
Dorsey was incarcerated at Augusta State Medical Prison when he died Monday night of natural causes, a Georgia Department of Corrections official confirmed. He had been serving a life sentence plus additional years for murder, racketeering and violations of oath of office tied to the case.
Brown, a longtime law enforcement officer who had defeated Dorsey in the 2000 sheriff’s election, was ambushed and shot outside his Decatur home on Dec. 15, 2000, just days before he was to take office, authorities said.
In 2002, a jury convicted Dorsey of ordering the assassination; prosecutors said the killing was linked to Brown’s campaign to address corruption within the sheriff’s office. Two other individuals connected to the ambush were also convicted and remain imprisoned.
Dorsey’s death brings his decades-long imprisonment to an end; the Georgia Department of Corrections and local law enforcement agencies continue to maintain records of the case as part of the county’s law enforcement history.