NEW VOICES: Lead Prosecutor Apologizes to Death Row Exoneree, Urges State to Offer Compensation

UPDATE: After Louisiana denied compensation to Mr. Ford — who is in hospice care, dying from Stage 4 cancer — Stroud gave an interview to the Huffington Post in which he says “death penalty prosecutions are a badge of showing how out-of-touch we are with other civilized societies… . We can’t trust the government to fix potholes. Why should we believe they can design a death penalty system that’s fair?” PREVIOUSLY: In a letter to the Shreveport (Louisiana) Times, attorney A.M. “Marty” Stroud III (pictured), the lead prosecutor in the 1984 trial that sent Glenn Ford to death row until he was exonerated in 2014, offered his apologies to Ford, “for all the misery I have caused him and his family.” Stroud voiced his full belief in Ford’s innocence, saying “There was no technicality here. Crafty lawyering did not secure the release of a criminal…Pursuant to the review and investigation of cold homicide cases, investigators uncovered evidence that exonerated Mr. Ford. Indeed, this evidence was so strong that had it been disclosed during of the investigation there would not have been sufficient evidence to even arrest Mr. Ford!” Stroud takes responsibility for being “too passive” in prosecuting the case. “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,” he said. “I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning.” Now he is calling for compensation for Ford — who is dying of stage 4 cancer that was untreated while he was in prison — and a reconsideration of the death penalty. “Glenn Ford deserves every penny owed to him under the compensation statute. This case is another example of the arbitrariness of the death penalty…. No one should be given the ability to impose a sentence of death in any criminal proceeding. We are simply incapable of devising a system that can fairly and impartially impose a sentence of death because we are all fallible human beings.”

(M. Stroud, “Lead prosecutor apologizes for role in sending man to death row,” The Shreveport Times, March 20, 2015; V. Wellborn, In wake of apology, ex prosecutor calls for abolishment of death penalty, The Shreveport Times, March 20, 2015) See New Voices and Innocence.