A Nashville pastor has defended his decision to give a job to the man who killed David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife once he is released from prison.
Stringbean, who was also part of the Hee Haw comedy show cast, was shot and killed along with his wife Estelle by John Brown and his cousin Marvin Brown.
The two men killed the couple at their small cabin home in Ridgetop, Tennessee, believing that the couple kept large amounts of cash in their home because Stringbean supposedly did not trust banks.
The Akemans were killed as they returned from the Grand Ole Opry, with Stringbean being killed first. Estelle attempted to flee but was reportedly shot dead as she begged for her life.
It was reported that money was indeed discovered in the chimney of the cabin two decades after the Akemans were brutally killed in 1973.
Marvin Brown died behind bars in 2003. John Brown will be free in weeks after the Tennessee Board of Parole granted his parole, a decision that has disappointed Stringbean's friend, Grand Ole Opry star Jan Howard, who told the WJHL network: "I have no sympathy for him. I don't care how many times he's been rehabilitated."
Cornerstone Church pastor Maury Davis feels very differently about it, telling WJHL that to create a "future good citizen, a functioning member of society who's out living a normal life" would be a service to the community.
"Churches are the place for broken people," he said. "Jesus said, 'It's not the righteous who need a great physician, it's the sick,' and obviously this is a man who has been broken."
Davis has in part been inspired by the act of kindness someone showed him after he left prison, after serving eight and a half years for murder.
"I think I have a heart for people because that's what the church did for me, exactly what I'm doing for John Brown. It's what a preacher did for me," he said.
