Glenn Ford

LOUISIANA (USA): DEATH ROW INMATE GLENN FORD RELEASED 30 YEARS AFTER WRONGFUL CONVICTION

March 11, 2014: After 30 years behind bars - most of them on death row - Glenn Ford, walked free tonight from the maximum security prison at Angola. Earlier in the day, a Louisiana District Court judge vacated Ford's murder conviction and death sentence and ordered his release.
Ford, 64, black, told reporters that he had mixed emotions about his release but that “it feels good” to be exonerated. Earlier in the day, Judge Ramona Emanuel vacated Ford's murder conviction and death sentence and ordered his release. Ford had been on death row for the 1983 murder of Isadore Rozeman, a jeweler for whom he did occasional yard work. He always maintained his innocence. Rozeman, 56, was found shot to death behind the counter of his shop on Nov. 5, 1983.
Reports say no murder weapon was ever found and there were no eyewitnesses to the crime.
When his conviction was finally vacated after 30 years, the news was welcomed by the family of the murder victim. "This is a positive reflection on the criminal justice system," Phillip Rozeman, Isadore Rozeman's nephew said of Ford's release, reports the Shreveport Times. "We don't have animosity for anyone. If someone else was involved or others were involved in his death there also will be justice for those people."
For years, Ford's attorneys had argued Ford was wrongfully convicted after a trial in which he had inexperienced counsel and information was wrongfully suppressed. By 2013, prosecutors notified the defense that "a confidential informant for the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office stated that Jake Robinson told him that he, not Mr. Ford, shot and killed Isadore Rozeman," Ford's lawyers contend. Ford was initially implicated in Rozeman's killing by a woman named Marvella Brown who later testified she had lied. Brown was the girlfriend of a man named Jake Robinson, whom Ford had identified as a suspect in the murder in the early stages of the investigation.
Robinson's brother, Henry, was also implicated by Ford. The two were charged, but later had those charges dismissed. Ford was tried and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. One of the witnesses against him said at trial that police had helped her make up her story.
A state "expert" who testified about the victim's time of death had not even examined the body. Ford's lead trial attorney had never tried a jury case before. A second attorney, two years out of law school, worked at an insurance defense firm. They failed to hire any experts to rebut the prosecution's case because they believed they would have to pay for the experts themselves.
The Louisiana Supreme Court earlier said it had "serious questions" about the outcome of the trial, but did not reverse Ford's conviction. Ford did occasional yard work for Rozeman and some witnesses placed him close to the scene of the crime on the day of Rozeman’s murder.
Ford immediately headed to the police station when he found out that the police were looking for him, and he cooperated with authorities all throughout the investigation. In 2013, a major development happened in the case when prosecutors disclosed the admission of another man to the murder of Isadore Rozeman. A suspect named Jake Robinson, whom Ford identified from several photographs, was the man who admitted to the informant that he shot and killed Rozeman.
Ford may have been involved in trying to pawn jewelry from the victim that he received from one of the original codefendants. During the investigation, Ford mentioned a man he identified as “O.B.”, who had given him jewelry to pawn. Later on, O.B. (whose real name is Henry Robinson) and his brother Jake were also charged with Rozeman’s murder, although the charges were eventually dismissed. Jake Robinson’s then-girlfriend Marvella Brown implicated Ford in the shooting, but declared that it was all a lie when she testified on trial.
Louisiana law states that exonerated convicts who served time are entitled to receive monetary compensation amounting to $25,000 per year of wrongful incarceration and an additional $80,000 for “loss of life opportunities”. (Sources: DPIC and HOC, 11/03/2014)