Louisiana Man Freed 42 Years After Wrongful Conviction in Death-Penalty Trial

A Louisiana pris­on­er wrong­ful­ly pros­e­cut­ed for cap­i­tal mur­der has agreed to a plea deal that secures his free­dom after spend­ing 42 years in prison for a crime he says he did not com­mit. With the assis­tance of the Innocence Project New Orleans, Elvis Brooks (pic­tured) suc­ceed­ed in over­turn­ing his 1997 con­vic­tion and agreed to plead guilty to less­er charges in exchange for his release on October 15, 2019. 

Taking the plea was ​“some­thing I [didn’t] want to do, but I want­ed my free­dom.” Brooks said. ​“I’ve been locked up since ​’77. I’m not get­ting any younger. I’d like to get out.”

Brooks was arrest­ed when he was 19 years old and faced the death penal­ty on charges that he mur­dered a bar patron dur­ing an armed rob­bery. He was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to life in prison in a tri­al that last­ed less than one day. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Brooks to the mur­der and he pre­sent­ed twelve ali­bi wit­ness­es who tes­ti­fied that he was else­where when the mur­der occurred. The sole evi­dence against him came from cross-racial iden­ti­fi­ca­tions by three white strangers who had been inside the dim­ly lit bar dur­ing the crime and who picked out a pho­to­graph of Brooks, who is black, from a police photo array. 

Later inves­ti­ga­tion into the case by the Innocence Project New Orleans uncov­ered two major items of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence that pros­e­cu­tors had with­held from the defense at the time of Brooks’ tri­al. Fingerprints from the per­pe­tra­tors had been recov­ered from two beer cans at the bar, but they did not match Brooks. A pros­e­cu­tor had writ­ten a note about the fin­ger­print results — indi­cat­ing that the pros­e­cu­tion had direct knowl­edge of the evi­dence when it did not dis­close it to the defense, in vio­la­tion of Brady v. Maryland. Police had also inves­ti­gat­ed a relat­ed rob­bery that took place less than a block away imme­di­ate­ly before the bar rob­bery, but pros­e­cu­tors failed to dis­close that two black wit­ness­es to that crime had been shown a pic­ture Brooks and did not iden­ti­fy him as the perpetrator.

Studies have found that cross-racial eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tions are less reli­able than iden­ti­fi­ca­tions with­in racial groups. According to Innocence Project New Orleans, 29 of Louisiana’s 57 exon­er­a­tions have involved eye­wit­ness misiden­ti­fi­ca­tion. The National Registry of Exonerations reports that, as of October 2019, 25% of homi­cide exon­er­a­tions nation­wide involved mis­tak­en wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tions. Mistaken iden­ti­fi­ca­tions have con­tributed to sev­en of Louisiana’s 11 death-row exon­er­a­tions. 71% of homi­cide exon­er­a­tions nation­wide and all 11 in Louisiana involved some form of official misconduct.

Brooks agreed to plead guilty to manslaugh­ter and three counts of armed rob­bery in exchange for his imme­di­ate release. Although he main­tains his inno­cence in the crime, his plea deal blocks him from a full exon­er­a­tion or any com­pen­sa­tion from the state for his 42 years of wrong­ful incar­cer­a­tion. ​“Mr. Brooks nev­er sought a plea agree­ment. It is deeply unfair that an inno­cent man would be forced to choose between enter­ing a plea to secure his imme­di­ate free­dom and wait­ing years more in prison to prove his inno­cence through lit­i­ga­tion,” said Charrel Arnold, his attor­ney from Innocence Project New Orleans. ​“This sit­u­a­tion is par­tic­u­lar­ly unfair giv­en that the state has known about the new evi­dence pre­sent­ed in this case since 1977.” 

Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro main­tained that his office ​“did noth­ing then or now to deprive this defen­dant of a fair trial.” 

Brooks’ broth­er, Gregory, reject­ed sug­ges­tions that Brooks had com­mit­ted the mur­der. ​“I don’t believe he is inno­cent — I know he is,” Gregory Brooks said. Arnold described Brooks’ choice to accept the prosecution’s plea offer ​“an incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult deci­sion [that] was entire­ly up to him.… Mr. Brooks is already 62 years old and has spent his entire adult life in prison. The oppor­tu­ni­ty to get out was para­mount to him.” 

Arnold called Louisiana ​“one of the incar­cer­a­tion cap­i­tals of the world and a hotbed for wrong­ful con­vic­tions. That said, there are like­ly many wrong­ful con­vic­tions and peo­ple serv­ing time for crimes they didn’t com­mit, and we may nev­er know.” Both offi­cial mis­con­duct and mis­tak­en wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tions were fac­tors in the cas­es of Johnny Ross, Curtis Kyles, Shareef Cousins, and John Thompson, the four death-row exonerees pros­e­cut­ed in Orleans Parish.