Rocky Joe and Leon Houston say they want the world to remember what happened the last time unwelcome visitors showed up at the family farm south of the Tennessee River. The photos might be disturbing and disgusting, but they’re no crime, authorities say.

“It goes without saying that any public display on their own property of these photos in whatever manner by the Houstons is despicable and certainly runs counter to the Houstons’ claims of innocence,” Russell Johnson, 9th Judicial District attorney general, said recently in a release.

The photos hang on a billboard — one of at least half a dozen that stand roadside on the Houstons’ land — along with various court documents, names of public officials and accusations of government corruption and conspiracy.

“This ain’t nothing complicated,” Rocky Houston said. “It’s real simple. We fear for our lives and our family’s lives, and we will continue to defend our lives.”

Jones, 53, and Brown, 44, died May 11, 2006, in a shoot-out with the Houston brothers in front of the family farmhouse. Jones died with 19 gunshot wounds, Brown with 12.

Prosecutors say the pair went to serve an outstanding arrest warrant for Rocky Houston on a charge of failure to appear in court. The brothers insist the men came to kill them. Prosecutors couldn’t prove who shot first, and no jury ever found either Houston guilty of any crime in either man’s death.

Forensic specialists for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) shot photos of the men’s bloody corpses sprawled inside Jones’ police cruiser at the shooting scene. Prosecutors shared those photos with the Houstons’ lawyers and introduced those photos as evidence at the brothers’ trials, making them public records open to any Tennessee resident.

Johnson didn’t prosecute those trials, but blasted the brothers for putting the photos on public display. The images also surfaced briefly on a Kingston woman’s Facebook page, apparently after she shot photos of the billboard.

Johnson said he asked Facebook to remove the photos from the woman’s page and was initially refused. But later the photos were taken off the page.

“It is the mother of all understatements to say that the posting of the pictures on Facebook is in the poorest of taste,” Johnson wrote in the release.

The DA said he’s spoken to the TBI about the photos and also told Ken Irvine, the special prosecutor who handled two of the Houston brothers’ trials.

“We have also contacted the Jones and Brown families so that they would know about the situation,” Johnson wrote.

Rocky Houston said the signs won’t come down.

“We are trying to report federal crimes, and we feel like our plea has fallen on deaf ears,” he said.

The brothers stood trial three times on double-murder charges in the shoot-out. A jury deadlocked in Leon Houston’s first murder trial in 2008, and a second jury found him not guilty on all charges a year later.

Rocky Houston’s only murder trial ended with a split verdict in December 2008, and Special Judge James “Buddy” Scott failed to declare a mistrial. The state Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Rocky Houston couldn’t be tried again.

Brown’s mother, Pat, sued the brothers for wrongful death and won a $5.45 million judgment from a Cumberland County jury earlier this year. The brothers say they won’t pay it and won’t give up their fight.

Rocky Houston said he’ll also continue to fight his only felony conviction for leading officers on a police chase that wrecked his truck in 2004.

“The felony’s out the door,” he said. “I will be purchasing a firearm to defend my life. I will be exercising my right to vote, and I’m considering running for public office.

He wouldn’t say what office he’ll seek.

(Contact Bob Fowler or Matt Lakin of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com)