After nearly 30 years on death row, Glenn Ford is exonerated — and free

[Blue_Tires]

“My sons, when I left, was babies,” Louisiana’s longest-serving death row inmate told reporters after his release late Tuesday. “Now they’re grown men with babies.”

Standing outside in a denim shirt and dark-rimmed glasses, 64-year-old Glenn Ford said he feels resentment when remembering the nearly 30 years he served on Louisiana’s death row for a crime he didn’t commit. In fact, prosecutors now say he wasn’t even at the scene of the murder and did not participate in it.

But now, he’s a free man. A judge ordered Ford’s release from the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, where he had been held since March 1985.

He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die by electrocution by an all-white jury that found him guilty in the robbery and murder of Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport watchmaker who was killed in his repair shop on Nov. 5, 1983, according to Reuters. It was a verdict Ford always disputed, saying he wasn’t even there. But, until recently, the courts wouldn’t listen.

Here’s the motion to vacate filed March 11 in which prosecutors acknowledge that had they known then what they know now, Ford would not have been charged.

The Atlantic details the series of events that led to Ford’s conviction, including the testimony of a woman named Marvella Brown who claimed Ford was with two of the other suspects — and in the possession of a firearm — on the day of the murder. She then testified she had lied during Ford’s trial.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/12/after-nearly-30-years-on-death-row-glenn-ford-is-exonerated-and-free/?tid=pm_pop

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/03/freedom-after-30-years-on-death-row/284179/

[jsr]

1. Recommend

[freshwest]

2. The major reason against the death penalty. Glad he lived through this injustice. n/t

[thesquanderer]

3. 30 years for a crime he didn't commit? What a surprise, he's black. (n/t)

[question everything]

5. And an all white jury

And attorneys with no criminal background.

One of the points that several attorneys tried to make was the prosecutors dismissed two black jurors for no cause.

[Dustlawyer]

4. Reading the comments at the link is down right scary. One guy is convinced that this

man's receiving and trying to pawn some of the jewelry justifies his sentence. I wonder how he would feel in the same situation with an all black jury where all the whites were struck, evidence exonerating him was hidden... And Rethugs bitch about taxes and the deficit but want to lock up everyone accused of a crime for the rest of their lives! The level of hate and bigotry knows no bounds.