United States ยท Louisiana, Caddo Parish
Glenn Ford: wrongly convicted, exonerated
Convicted of First degree murder of a Shreveport jeweller during a 1983 robbery.
Convicted1984
SentenceDeath
Years in prison30
Exonerated10 March 2014
How the conviction was overturnedProsecutors asked the court to vacate the conviction and death sentence citing credible new evidence that another man committed the killing, and the court ordered his release, Caddo Parish court, Shreveport, Louisiana1,2,4
What went wrong
- Official misconduct, including withheld evidence that pointed to another man
- False testimony, with a witness later saying police helped shape her testimony
- Inadequate legal defense by a lawyer who had never tried a jury case
From conviction to exoneration
- Convicted by an all white jury in Shreveport and sentenced to death.1,2
- Released from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the day after the court ordered his unconditional release on the prosecutors' motion to set aside the conviction and sentence.1,2,3,4
- Died of lung cancer at age 65.1
- A Louisiana appeals court denied compensation to his estate after the state argued he was not factually innocent.3
Compensation
No state compensation was paid. A Louisiana appeals court denied compensation to his estate.
Today
Died in June 2015, about 15 months after his exoneration and release.
Sources
- Equal Justice Initiative, Glenn Ford Dies a Year After His Exoneration and Release from Louisiana's Death Row (22 July 2015)
- Al Jazeera, US man walks free after 25 years on death row (13 March 2014)
- The Marshall Project, Exonerated, Dead, and Still on Trial (3 May 2016)
- NPR, Man Exonerated, Freed After 3 Decades On Louisiana's Death Row (12 March 2014)