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In December 1984, a judge sentenced Glenn Ford to death for the November 5, 1983 death of a Shreveport, LA jeweler. In August 1988, Ford entered Angola’s death row, the nation’s largest maximum-security prison.
On March 11, 2014, Ford walked out of the maximum security prison at Angola with an exoneration of his claims of innocence, after 30 years of insisting he was innocent. Oh, and he was accompanied by Stage 3 lung cancer.
This is Louisiana.
I don’t really have to say that the victim was white, the jury all-white, and the convicted defendant, black, do I?
In November 1984, Ford went to trial first in Caddo Parish District Court. Prosecutors used their jury challenges to eliminate prospective jurors who were black and an all-white jury was empaneled. Ford was represented by two appointed defense lawyers—neither of whom had ever handled a criminal trial and one of whom had never handled a criminal case of any sort.
Prosecutor apologizes
In perhaps the most compelling essay ever written on why the death penalty should be retired, Attorney A.M. “Marty” Stroud III wrote a letter of apology.
Stroud was the lead prosecutor in 1984.
At the time this case was tried there was evidence that would have cleared Glenn Ford. The easy and convenient argument is that the prosecutors did not know of such evidence, thus they were absolved of any responsibility for the wrongful conviction.
I can take no comfort in such an argument. As a prosecutor and officer of the court, I had the duty to prosecute fairly.
But that’s not what he did:
My mindset was wrong and blinded me to my purpose of seeking justice, rather than obtaining a conviction of a person who I believed to be guilty. I did not hide evidence, I simply did not seriously consider that sufficient information may have been out there that could have led to a different conclusion. And that omission is on me.
The court-appointed defense attorneys weren’t the only new kids on the block. This was the first death sentence in Caddo Parish since 1972; and it was also Stroud’s first.
Stroud continued:
In 1984, I was 33 years old. I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning. (emphasis added)
Stroud calls for an end to the death penalty
The clear reality is that the death penalty is an anathema to any society that purports to call itself civilized. It is an abomination that continues to scar the fibers of this society and it will continue to do so until this barbaric penalty is outlawed. Until then, we will live in a land that condones state assisted revenge and that is not justice in any form or fashion.
You can watch a video interview of Stroud with the Shreveport Times.
Louisiana compensates individuals who have been wrongfully convicted.
Except in Ford’s case, the state is saying nope, not gonna do it, not our fault.
In addition to two defense attorneys who didn’t know what they were doing, we have this unethical (illegal?) behavior on the part of the police and DA’s office:
[N]umerous police reports … had never been disclosed to the defense. The reports showed that Shreveport police had received two tips from informants implicating only Jake and Henry Robinson in the robbery and murder. Other police reports showed that some detectives had falsely testified at Ford’s trial about statements Ford made during his interrogation—testimony that the prosecution should have realized was false, the defense claimed. Moreover, other police reports that were withheld from the defense contained conflicting statements by Marvella Brown and by the witnesses who said they saw Ford near the store at the time of the crime. The reports could have been used to impeach the witnesses’ testimony at trial.
Not our fault?
The state claims that Ford isn’t eligible for compensation, a measly $300K* for 30 years behind bars because “he cannot prove he is factually innocent.”
Earth to the state of Louisiana: the BURDEN OF PROOF of guilt is on the state, you idjits. Defendants aren’t charged with proving innocence.
Too little and too late.
Ford is now 65 and has Stage 4 lung cancer; doctors told him last month that “he is only expected to live for four to eight more months.”
Ford claims his cancer could have been – but wasn’t – treated at the state’s most notorious prison. Anecdotal evidence supports his claim:
[In October 2013], amid international fanfare, one of the prison’s most famous former inmates, Herman Wallace, was ordered freed by a federal judge (from another prison) after spending 40 years in solitary confinement at Angola for a crime he almost certainly didn’t commit. Three days later, he died of cancer that had gone largely untreated at the prison.
And a word or two about Angola
- “Its name is derived from the home country of the slaves who used to work the land.”
- “The prison has actually been the setting for a number of Academy Award-winning films, including Dead Man Walking.”
- In 1930, LeadBelly was jailed at Angola on charges of “assault with intent to murder”. This being Louisiana and LeadBelly being black, I find this explanation sadly believable. The governor would pardon him in 1934.
- 40 years in solitary confinement; yes, you read that right. No it wasn’t in the 19th century.
- 36 years in solitary confinement.
- 29 years in solitary confinement, initially for “plotting to kill a guard—a murder that occurred before he arrived at Angola.”
* Later news reports cap the $25,000/year compensation at $250,000
* Featured image: Flickr CC
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com