Glenn Ford, a black man wrongfully convicted of murder by an all-white jury in Louisiana in 1984, a man who has spent the last 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit following a trial filled with constitutional violations, is on the verge of being set free. Once that happens (and it could happen as soon as tomorrow after a hearing in the case) he will become one of the longest-serving death row inmates in modern American history to be exonerated and released.
Ford’s dogged lawyers and enlightened parish prosecutors in Shreveport both filed motions late last week informing a state trial judge that the time has come now to vacate Ford’s murder conviction and death sentence. Why? Because prosecutors now say that they learned, late last year, of “credible evidence” that Ford “was neither present at, nor a participant in, the robbery and murder” of the victim in his case, a man named Isadore Rozeman. -- Andrew Cohen (The Atlantic)“After 30 years, Louisiana’s longest-serving death row prisoner will get his freedom soon. Glenn Ford is living proof of just how flawed our justice system truly is. We are moved that Mr. Ford, an African American man convicted by an all-white jury, will be able to leave death row a survivor. We are more determined than ever to put an end to the death penalty, once and for all.” -- Thenjiwe Tameika McHarris, Amnesty International USA Senior Campaigner
The rest of the story:
✓ Death Penalty (Amnesty International)
✓ A case involving a black man convicted by an all-white jury in Louisiana decades ago may be reopened: Freedom After 30 Years on Death Row by Andrew Cohen (The Atlantic)
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