Speaker 1: It was July first, the start of the July fourth
Speaker 1: weekend nineteen seventy seven, in New Orleans, in the then
Speaker 1: predominantly white working class ninth Ward, two black men approached
Speaker 1: the welcome in bar, requesting two beers to go, and
Speaker 1: the owner obliged, believing that she had recognized the shorter
Speaker 1: of the pair from the neighborhood. They grabbed the cans
Speaker 1: of beer and then forced their way in a gunpoint,
Speaker 1: demanding money from the register as well as from the
Speaker 1: intoxicated patrons, one of whom Cecil Lloyd, was fatally shot.
Speaker 1: The assailants set their beer cans down on the bar,
Speaker 1: leaving their fingerprints behind. The police began their investigation, casting
Speaker 1: a wide net, considering all the local black men as
Speaker 1: potential suspects, including a young man named Elvis Brooks, who
Speaker 1: had previously been wrongfully arrested for a nineteen seventy four
Speaker 1: robbery and attempted murder. When three of the surviving witnesses
Speaker 1: identified Elvis from a photo array and again in court,
Speaker 1: it must have seemed to the jury that his parade
Speaker 1: of thirteen alibi witnesses were perjuring themselves to save Elements
Speaker 1: from prison. But this is wrongful conviction. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back after this. Welcome back to wronful Conviction. Today, I
Speaker 1: have a case out of New Orleans, and it's a
Speaker 1: case of cross racial misidentification, which, as you know, in
Speaker 1: study after study, has been found and proven to be
Speaker 1: even less accurate than guessing. And with us to discuss
Speaker 1: the case is the man himself, Elvis Brooks, who did
Speaker 1: over four decades in Angola Penitentiary. Elvis, Welcome to wronful Conviction.
Speaker 1: Jason and joining Elvis is one of his post conviction attorneys.
Speaker 1: She's the supervising attorney for case development at Edison's Project
Speaker 1: New Orleans, also known as IPNO. Charrelle Arnold, Welcome to
Speaker 1: ronfel conviction.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: So. This is Orlands Parish in nineteen seventies. We've covered
Speaker 1: several other cases from this era, both in Orleans Parish
Speaker 1: and elsewhere in the surrounding areas Bobby Jean Johnson, Vincent Simmons,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Alexander, where it seems like the state was running
Speaker 1: more of a kidnapping racket than anything resembling justice or
Speaker 1: public safety.
Speaker 2: Orlean's Parish has been really challenged for a long time
Speaker 2: in terms of the administration of the criminal legal system,
Speaker 2: how Orleans Parish has treated people of color and particularly
Speaker 2: its black residents. In nineteen seventy seven, mister Brooks lived
Speaker 2: in an area that was primarily white. His family was
Speaker 2: one of the only black families who lived there. Honestly,
Speaker 2: that was part of the reason that he was targeted
Speaker 2: for this crime. This was an area that was very
Speaker 2: like white working class back then. The Lower ninth Ward,
Speaker 2: of course, would become an area that was largely black
Speaker 2: area obviously by the time Hurricane Katrina came, So this
Speaker 2: was an area that was really kind of on the
Speaker 2: cusp of Frankly, I think many white residents believed something dangerous,
Speaker 2: but in actuality was an area where black families would
Speaker 2: eventually become homeowners and grow a really vibrant neighborhood. So
Speaker 2: many of the witnesses I imagined in this case, or
Speaker 2: people who lived around there, would later be part of
Speaker 2: the white flight of white residents of Orleans Parish who
Speaker 2: left to the suburbs.
Speaker 1: And this is a phenomenon we saw all over the
Speaker 1: country in this era, with white residents fleeing to suburbia.
Speaker 1: Talking Brooklyn, Detroit, and of course New Orleans and Elvis.
Speaker 1: You grew up in that fraught time. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about your childhood.
Speaker 3: I was one of twelve kids, five boys, the seventh girls. Oh,
Speaker 3: the middle boy. You know, I had it known. I'm
Speaker 3: a kid life, you know. I went to school and
Speaker 3: I had two of the best parents in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'd have to be kids is no small feat.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine that's in some superhero category. And
Speaker 1: it must have been hard for them to keep you
Speaker 1: all in line.
Speaker 3: Out the bed. Look key, and I ain't no my
Speaker 3: daddy he used to have to come to school quite
Speaker 3: a bit for me and my Beretta. Young teenagers, you know,
Speaker 3: acting crazy, you know, fighting, joy ride, you know, shooting,
Speaker 3: hooking all we never heard anyone, you know.
Speaker 1: Now. Joy Riding was a bit of a raucous teenage
Speaker 1: trend back then, where you'd steal a car for a
Speaker 1: short period of time with the intention of returning it
Speaker 1: or abandoning it unnoticed. Which it's foolishness for sure, but
Speaker 1: it's certainly not murder. But I can also imagine that
Speaker 1: the joy rides at least pissed people off, right.
Speaker 2: I think he could have been upsetting some people. I
Speaker 2: think these were crimes that frankly, white teenagers were committing
Speaker 2: that people did just call joy rides, right, and they
Speaker 2: weren't getting arrested, or they weren't getting.
Speaker 3: Through Me and my partner I better. We'd be hanging
Speaker 3: out there, you know, just hanging out, you know, and
Speaker 3: the police has come threatened us. You know, we know,
Speaker 3: y'all all, get off the street. We're gonna arrest y'all,
Speaker 3: you know, but put some charges on y'all. You know,
Speaker 3: we were being young. We ain't take them serious, you know.
Speaker 1: So since you had this reputation as a troublemaker, they
Speaker 1: would threaten you with bogus charges to enforce some sort
Speaker 1: of an unofficial curfew that they made just for you.
Speaker 1: And it turns out that you should have taken those
Speaker 1: threats seriously. Now, this wasn't the detective in the case
Speaker 1: we're here to discuss today, but this guy did do
Speaker 1: something that put you in jeopardy for this case. There
Speaker 1: was a robbery turned homicide in your neighborhood at a bakery,
Speaker 1: and one night he made his usual threat to get
Speaker 1: you off the street. That you didn't take that seriously.
Speaker 1: But this time it got a bit more real for you, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, in nineteen centy full the detective put a robbery
Speaker 3: and a tip murder charge on me. I was seven.
Speaker 3: I ain't even know where the rivalry happened, you know.
Speaker 3: It happened on Saint claud and Treacle. That was about
Speaker 3: seven blocks away from where I live, you know, And
Speaker 3: he stopped me three times altogether. He told me if
Speaker 3: he ever catched me on the street again, he's gonna
Speaker 3: bring me up to jail for that charge. You know.
Speaker 3: Third time he saw me out there, he arrested me,
Speaker 3: you know, and brought me to my parents' house and
Speaker 3: told my parents. You know, I know he Elvers didn't
Speaker 3: have anything to do with this, but I gotta teach
Speaker 3: him a lesson. I said, I'm gonna arrest him. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna book him. I'm gonna put him on the line up.
Speaker 3: He ain't gonna get identified because he didn't do this here.
Speaker 3: But I got to teach him a lesson. I was
Speaker 3: frank of printed and I had a mug, you know,
Speaker 3: smug shot. You know. I went on the line up
Speaker 3: and I was out when they arrest me on this
Speaker 3: case here. That's all they talked about was that nineteen
Speaker 3: seventy four case, you know.
Speaker 1: So this detective trying to show you tough love, as
Speaker 1: if that was in his job description, put you permanently
Speaker 1: on the docket, ready to be sold off and shipped
Speaker 1: off to Angola. So three years later, that's exactly what happened. Chelle.
Speaker 1: Can you describe the events of July first, nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: at a bar in the ninth Ward called the Welcome
Speaker 1: Inn that resulted in the failed shooting death of a
Speaker 1: man named Cecil Lloyd?
Speaker 2: Sure? So this crib. I believe it was a Friday night,
Speaker 2: but it was just the start of basically the fourth
Speaker 2: of July weekend. And the bar was a small neighborhood bar,
Speaker 2: tiny place, not a lot of room to move around.
Speaker 2: There was a few patrons left, and I think one
Speaker 2: or two people working the bar. As far as we
Speaker 2: can tell, these patrons had been drinking all day, right,
Speaker 2: they were having a good time, enjoying the weekend. Two
Speaker 2: black men come to the door. And this was a
Speaker 2: bar that I think was primarily a white bar. Everyone
Speaker 2: who worked there was white, The owner was white. As
Speaker 2: far as I'm aware, The patrons were all white two
Speaker 2: black men come to the door and the owner says
Speaker 2: that they ask for beers to go, and she says
Speaker 2: that she opened the door to get them the beers
Speaker 2: because she recognized one of the men from the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: She hands them the beers and then they push in
Speaker 2: the door. But importantly to mister Brooks's case, they set
Speaker 2: their beer on the bar top. Just a couple steps
Speaker 2: inside the bar and they basically commence a robbery. So
Speaker 2: they empty the cash register. They demand everyone get down
Speaker 2: on the ground. There's sort of a lead robber and
Speaker 2: kind of the supporting robber. One of them is armed
Speaker 2: with a gun, or at least one of them is
Speaker 2: the one who fires the fatal shot. I believe only
Speaker 2: one shot is fired, and sadly, mister Lloyd is killed,
Speaker 2: seemingly for no reason. Mister Lloyd complied just like everyone else, so.
Speaker 1: This must have scared the living shit out of everyone
Speaker 1: in that bar. Lloyd complied and still got killed. So
Speaker 1: all bets were off. But these two men leave, and
Speaker 1: of course the cops are called in. What did the
Speaker 1: victims say to the police?
Speaker 2: They take witness statements from everybody. We now know that
Speaker 2: these statements differed quite a bit from one another in
Speaker 2: many ways. By the time of trial the statements would
Speaker 2: become remarkably more consistent. But that night, the witnesses give
Speaker 2: sort of general descriptions of the men. We know they
Speaker 2: were both black. They give a variety of different clothing descriptions,
Speaker 2: a variety of hair descriptions. We know that one is
Speaker 2: short and one is tall. Mister Brooks was eventually convicted
Speaker 2: of being the shorter of the two robbers. Who is
Speaker 2: the shooter?
Speaker 1: Right? It's my understanding that the shorter of the two
Speaker 1: assailants was about five four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, five full full by one hundred and forty pound
Speaker 3: out five eight by one hundred and forty something pound,
Speaker 3: and he said he had shot hair, but I had
Speaker 3: a big the shorter robber.
Speaker 2: I think it may have also technically bett afro. But
Speaker 2: mister Brooks's hair was like much bigger. You know, mister Brooks,
Speaker 2: he could be described as short, but the hairstyles that
Speaker 2: the witnesses described just didn't match mister Brooks.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing a market difference in height as well
Speaker 1: as length of hair. So how does Elvis even get
Speaker 1: dragged into the consciousness of these victims?
Speaker 2: The bar owner Ms Caruso, the woman who chose to
Speaker 2: let the men into the bar. She believes that she
Speaker 2: recognized the shorter robber from the neighborhood. And in the end,
Speaker 2: this is really the only connection that mister Brooks has
Speaker 2: to this case is that his family was a black
Speaker 2: family who lived in the neighborhood. Beyond that, police have
Speaker 2: nothing to go on. So what detectives do, and we
Speaker 2: know this from the police files that we've been able
Speaker 2: to obtain, is that they basically just started getting lists
Speaker 2: of black men who lived in the naighborhood Jesus Christ
Speaker 2: and so there are just lists and lists. Frankly, a
Speaker 2: man who could have been wrongfully convicted for this crime.
Speaker 2: Right if it wasn't mister Brooks, it certainly would have
Speaker 2: been someone else on one of these lists. Interestingly, when police
Speaker 2: create these lists, Elvis Brooks isn't on them. We don't
Speaker 2: know exactly what police did with these lists. It seems
Speaker 2: as though they may have gotten photos of some of
Speaker 2: these people and tried to show the robbery victims these photos.
Speaker 2: We don't know for sure. There's not great documentation on this,
Speaker 2: but for several weeks, police don't have a suspect in
Speaker 2: this case, they are basically all they have to go
Speaker 2: on is a black man who maybe lives in the
Speaker 2: neighborhood or has been in the neighborhood at some point.
Speaker 2: And so this is how randomly, right coincidentally, despite having
Speaker 2: gotten these lists of people, mister Brooks's name isn't on them. Suddenly,
Speaker 2: from reading the police report, one of the police officers
Speaker 2: would have you believe that he suddenly came to buy
Speaker 2: a suspect that matched the description who lived in the neighborhood,
Speaker 2: and that was Elvis Brooks.
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like a sinister game of eeny
Speaker 1: Meeni Mini mo right, And this is why we must
Speaker 1: remind people that black lives matter, because to these people,
Speaker 1: they simply don't. So even though he's four inches taller
Speaker 1: than the shooter, has a big afro unlike the shooter,
Speaker 1: they still put Elvis's photo in an array to show
Speaker 1: to the victims.
Speaker 2: I don't know that it's even like multiple photos on
Speaker 2: one piece of paper. They just have photos, and one
Speaker 2: of those photos is of Elvis Brooks. But it's not
Speaker 2: a photo from nineteen seventy seven. It's a photo from
Speaker 2: several years before, right, when mister Brooks had been arrested previously,
Speaker 2: and so they take this old photo where his hair
Speaker 2: looks differently, right, because it was two years previously. His
Speaker 2: hair is much shorter in this photo than his hair
Speaker 2: was in nineteen seventy seven. He hadn't cut his hair
Speaker 2: in between, because it was an afro that he was
Speaker 2: letting grow out. And so they take this old photo
Speaker 2: to the witnesses from the bar. But because it's the
Speaker 2: same photo, when a witness signed the back of it, right,
Speaker 2: Sometimes when you sign things, you can tell that there's
Speaker 2: writing on the back of something. So it's certainly possible
Speaker 2: that as they're showing the photo to the witnesses from
Speaker 2: the bar, it's very obvious which photo has been identified.
Speaker 1: So not only is the photo lineup suggestive because of
Speaker 1: the signature on the back, but also the photo of
Speaker 1: Elvis from nineteen seventy four more closely met the description
Speaker 1: of the actual assailant in nineteen seventy seven than Elvis
Speaker 1: did in that same year. This is also a situation
Speaker 1: where you have three fully traumatized victims, so not exactly
Speaker 1: a room full of people with clear heads, and the
Speaker 1: victims were white. The assailants were black. And we have
Speaker 1: to go back to this important point, which is that
Speaker 1: study after study has shown that cross racial identification it's
Speaker 1: less accurate than guessing. So they got three cross racial
Speaker 1: identifications from two patrons, mister Nodo, Miss Chibriani and the
Speaker 1: bar owner, Miss Caruso, But they didn't have to go
Speaker 1: down the identification route, right. What about the fingerprints they're
Speaker 1: right there on the beer cans.
Speaker 2: Correct. The police got to the scene and they knew
Speaker 2: exactly what would be probative to fingerprint in this scene.
Speaker 2: This isn't a case where they were figure printing the
Speaker 2: ceiling or something like that. They knew that the robbers
Speaker 2: had touched these beer cans and that they had then
Speaker 2: set those beer cans on the bar top. And so
Speaker 2: they collected those Kansas evidence and they were able to
Speaker 2: get usable prints that they could compare to mister Brooks's prints.
Speaker 2: And what we now know and what police and what
Speaker 2: the district attorney in nineteen seventy seven knew as they
Speaker 2: were trying to kill mister brook right to prosecute him capitally,
Speaker 2: was that the fingerprints onw those beer cans didn't match
Speaker 2: Elvis Brooks We don't know whose they were, but we
Speaker 2: know they didn't belong to mister Brooks.
Speaker 1: So they got these fingerprints, they knew that they didn't
Speaker 1: match Elvis, but yet they decided to go ahead and
Speaker 1: pursue the death penalty. Anyway, let's just marinate on that
Speaker 1: for a second. That sounds like state sanctioned attempted murder.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, if these folks were civilians, they'd be
Speaker 1: charged and punished accordingly. But our system has decided that
Speaker 1: these people have special privileges, including the right to kill
Speaker 1: for the advance of their careers with no recompense. And
Speaker 1: this was the notorious Harry Konic senior era, so this
Speaker 1: sort of behavior was the norm, even from the junior
Speaker 1: Ada who was trying the case. So they ignored the
Speaker 1: beer can fingerprints that they knew to be from the
Speaker 1: actual assailants, no question about it, and they got an
Speaker 1: a arrest warrant for Elvis instead.
Speaker 3: And I was at work that day. You know. When
Speaker 3: I got home, my sister said, the police would look
Speaker 3: like you for you. I say it, for what they said,
Speaker 3: you kill somebody. I said, kill somebody. I said, I
Speaker 3: ain't never killed nobody. Then I went to the phone
Speaker 3: book called the Philip Prieston.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Ashually was they looking for all the books? And they said, yeah,
Speaker 3: they see where you're at. I said, I'm all paid
Speaker 3: for Saint claud and Fallston. Then way they came and
Speaker 3: got me right there.
Speaker 4: You know, we'll be right back after this.
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Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals.
Speaker 3: I had to go to get bond, said, that's the
Speaker 3: first thing I went to wish I didn't have any
Speaker 3: bond because the first degree murried. So after that they
Speaker 3: went into the motive identification brought me the colder. So
Speaker 3: I feel like, I know I didn't do it, I said,
Speaker 3: I said, these people here ain't gonna say I'd done it,
Speaker 3: because I knew I didn't do it. I say they
Speaker 3: got the wrong person. You know. When I go in
Speaker 3: the court room for emotional for identification, one of them said,
Speaker 3: he potative it wasn't me, you know, but the DA
Speaker 3: came in print at me said this ain't the man.
Speaker 3: He said, no, my pottier, that ain't the man. And uh,
Speaker 3: the two ladies you know, they said it was me,
Speaker 3: you know. But when I gave bet to trial a man,
Speaker 3: that change in mind, you know, and see it was me,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: So Joseph Noto when he went to court for the
Speaker 2: motion to suppress identifications, he essentially couldn't recognize if the
Speaker 2: man he had identified in the photo, if that was
Speaker 2: the same man who was in court. Someone who can't
Speaker 2: even look at a photo and say if it's the
Speaker 2: same person as someone's sitting in front of them, shouldn't
Speaker 2: be considered to be reliable evidence against someone.
Speaker 1: Yet somehow something helped him come around by the time
Speaker 1: of trial to make the identification.
Speaker 2: At trial, the evidence against mister Brooks is three cross
Speaker 2: racial stranger identifications. At least two of the witnesses were
Speaker 2: quite a bit older than mister Brooks. It can be
Speaker 2: more difficult to identify someone who's of a different age
Speaker 2: than you are. We most recognize people who look more
Speaker 2: like us. It's just easier for people to remember. And
Speaker 2: then also, these people had been drinking for hours in
Speaker 2: a dark bar. They were terrified. They were being told
Speaker 2: to lie down on the ground. Someone had just been shot,
Speaker 2: seemingly randomly. And this is a very quick situation. And
Speaker 2: so they've had only a few minutes to look at
Speaker 2: a person they've never seen before and to identify them
Speaker 2: after they've been drinking, some of them seemingly for hours.
Speaker 1: And then there's a fourth witness presented a trial in
Speaker 1: addition to the other three we've already mentioned.
Speaker 2: The fourth person is actually he's the victim who can't
Speaker 2: identify anyone. He describes the circumstances of the crime and agrees,
Speaker 2: you know, in many ways with the other witnesses, but
Speaker 2: he could never make an identification of mister Brooks. And
Speaker 2: so this was the evidence against Elvis Brooks. No physical
Speaker 2: evidence ever tied him to the crime, and in fact,
Speaker 2: the fingerprints right made it very clear that he was
Speaker 2: not one of the robbers.
Speaker 1: So what the hell is this? How is it that
Speaker 1: the defense did not bring this up?
Speaker 2: His lawyer didn't mention the fingerprints because he wasn't told
Speaker 2: about the fingerprints. The police right, they had gathered the evidence,
Speaker 2: they had tested the evidence, They knew about the evidence.
Speaker 2: We know that the assistant district attorney in this case
Speaker 2: knew about the evidence because of notes we would later
Speaker 2: find in the DA file. Mister Brooks's attorney was never
Speaker 2: told that there were fingerprints, exonerating his client. But in
Speaker 2: this trial that lasted only a few hours, mister Brooks's
Speaker 2: attorney fought. He presented witness after witness after witness, all
Speaker 2: demonstrating Elvis Brooks's alibi for that night. Mister Brooks also
Speaker 2: testified on his own behalf right. He told the jury
Speaker 2: that he was innocent, that he didn't do this. In total,
Speaker 2: the jury chose to believe four white witnesses who had
Speaker 2: been drinking in a dimly lit bar, oh for thirteen
Speaker 2: black witnesses who described almost to a t, the alibi
Speaker 2: that mister Brooks had that night. They all explained how
Speaker 2: they had come to be at the Brooks house that evening,
Speaker 2: what they were doing, the time periods they were there,
Speaker 2: what they saw Elvis doing. These were people who, yes
Speaker 2: many of them were related to mister Brooks, though not
Speaker 2: all of them, but these were also people who just frankly,
Speaker 2: they corroborated one another, not in a perfect way, right,
Speaker 2: not everyone had been there for the exact same time
Speaker 2: period that night. But they were clear as to what
Speaker 2: mister Brooks had been wearing, which wasn't the clothing described
Speaker 2: as the robber was wearing, what his hair had looked like,
Speaker 2: and what he had been doing. And they were all
Speaker 2: clear that in this small shotgun style house, which right,
Speaker 2: it's a house that it has one entrance and one exit.
Speaker 2: It's very clear when someone leaves a shotgun house, you
Speaker 2: can't sneak out. They knew that mister Brooks had been
Speaker 2: there all night, he couldn't possibly be the robber. Yet
Speaker 2: these black voices were ignored.
Speaker 3: I had my brother, he come over there with his friend,
Speaker 3: and my sister she come over over her boyfriend and
Speaker 3: she had her three kids. Well I'm the one to
Speaker 3: open the door for them, you know, for the July
Speaker 3: was coming up, and uh, they wanted to come visit
Speaker 3: my mom and daddy. You know, no, I might have
Speaker 3: been a bad little kid, but my mom and daddy
Speaker 3: they were very honest people, you know, even if it
Speaker 3: was meant I had to help the death pending. It
Speaker 3: wasn't gonna lie for me. You know.
Speaker 1: After this very short proceeding, three cross racial misidentifications were made,
Speaker 1: but thirteen alibi witnesses swore that you were with them instead,
Speaker 1: and your life was literally hanging in the balance. Did
Speaker 1: you still hold out hope that the jury was going
Speaker 1: to believe your parents and your family?
Speaker 3: You know what, at that time, I was young, Like
Speaker 3: I said, I didn't take life serious then, you know.
Speaker 3: But I was saying to myself, I didn't do this.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm I'm not gonna get convicted, you know,
Speaker 3: because I didn't do it. You know. But when I
Speaker 3: got convicted, I learned the hard way just how much
Speaker 3: people hate out of people. You want to get somebody,
Speaker 3: to get the right person that's done it, you know,
Speaker 3: don't come just naching on anybody. That just made me
Speaker 3: look at people different. I learned the hardway. I'll never
Speaker 3: forget it, though.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. After a quick break.
Speaker 3: A week later, they uh sends me to life and
Speaker 3: fifty years in Ain't Gold. And after that a few
Speaker 3: months later, I was in ain Golder for the next
Speaker 3: forty son years. They put you in the field, you know,
Speaker 3: working like a sleeve, picking cotton, digging dishes, picking calm,
Speaker 3: doing quarter grains, cutting grass, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 3: I really wasn't familiar with those things that, you know,
Speaker 3: so I just had to get used to it. When
Speaker 3: I first went there, I was getting right ups, you know.
Speaker 2: So when mister Brooks was sentenced to life in prison,
Speaker 2: the sentence he only got because his mother begged the
Speaker 2: jurors to spare her son from the death penalty. He
Speaker 2: was sent to Angola Peditentiary, right the Louisiana State Peditentiary,
Speaker 2: where he got reprimands for essentially not doing hard labor
Speaker 2: fast enough or with sufficient enthusiasm for the hard labor.
Speaker 2: He was assigned lucky in.
Speaker 3: A hole in the dungeon, your son, And back then
Speaker 3: they give you extra duty, you know, something you got
Speaker 3: to do on the weekends, going the field on the weekends,
Speaker 3: or they might give you a isolation time, which is
Speaker 3: ten days, you know, without a mattress and all that.
Speaker 1: They never even tried to hide the fact that mass
Speaker 1: incarceration was just what slavery morphed into after the Civil War.
Speaker 1: And they still aren't. Louisiana just did have the opportunity
Speaker 1: as four other states did, who all passed it to
Speaker 1: remove the slavery loophole of the Thirteenth Amendment from the
Speaker 1: state constitution by ballot initiative. That was in November twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. But they voted to keep it. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it was the voters voted this way by a comfortable margin,
Speaker 1: which is I don't have the right words for it. Anyway,
Speaker 1: It wasn't bad enough for your mom to lose you,
Speaker 1: but your brother was in Angola with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was up then the Golda with me. He
Speaker 3: got killed. You know, his name was the Brooks. He
Speaker 3: got killed in nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear that. So I understand. They tried
Speaker 1: to get a friend of yours too to shoot him
Speaker 1: in for the taller shooter in nineteen seventy eight. And
Speaker 1: this was a guy named Alvin Keller.
Speaker 3: The Alvin Keller, they say. The second man was something
Speaker 3: like six feet a six'. One keller was same heighth as.
Speaker 3: Me you. Know they tried to arrest, him but H keller, said,
Speaker 3: MAN i WAS i was locked up when that, happened you.
Speaker 3: Know then they check and see it was real didn't
Speaker 3: they let him, Go but, no they ain't never arrest anyone,
Speaker 3: else you.
Speaker 1: Know so luckily for, him he was able to use
Speaker 1: their own words against them to escape being another, statistic
Speaker 1: another wrongfully convicted black man In louisiana at the, time
Speaker 1: and then being forced onto that horrible conveyor belt of
Speaker 1: free labor that fuels this. System you were making two
Speaker 1: to four cents an hour in the. Fields it's an.
Speaker 2: Amount of money that makes it impossible to save up
Speaker 2: so that if you, wanted like Mister brooks, did to
Speaker 2: try to get information about his, Case postage costs, money, right,
Speaker 2: envelopes paper cost. Money in, prison documents certainly cost. Money
Speaker 2: and when you're talking about making that little and having a,
Speaker 2: family that though they supported him as best they, could
Speaker 2: they just weren't in a position to support him financially like.
Speaker 2: That and so it leads to a situation where people
Speaker 2: are desperate to try to get information about their cases,
Speaker 2: right and they have virtually no tools to do. So
Speaker 2: and so for years Mister brooks struggled right to try
Speaker 2: to litigate his case pro sae meeting without a, lawyer
Speaker 2: because In louisiana once he wasn't given a death. Sentence
Speaker 2: he was no longer. Entitled he wasn't entitled to some
Speaker 2: sort of post conviction. Council. Right he did get to
Speaker 2: take it out of time appeal it was, Denied but
Speaker 2: those sorts of, things that's not going to reveal any new.
Speaker 2: Evidence that just going to review what occurred actually at
Speaker 2: the trial. Itself and so for years Mister brooks was
Speaker 2: just left alone to try to manage as best he
Speaker 2: could to try to scrape together the, buddy to get,
Speaker 2: documents to try to get information about right what he
Speaker 2: always knew that he wasn't the. Robber he knew he
Speaker 2: didn't do that, crime and he was certain that there
Speaker 2: would be something in those files to prove. It but
Speaker 2: he just couldn't get to.
Speaker 1: Them but you got, crafty right when you weren't out
Speaker 1: in the, FIELDS i understand you actually started making, belts
Speaker 1: like with your own, hands from.
Speaker 3: Scratch they had a police they called a hobby. Shop
Speaker 3: belts with my pershon to. Items you, know we order
Speaker 3: all ow little we'll make our own products and sell,
Speaker 3: them you. Know so that's Why i've gotten a hobby.
Speaker 3: SHOP i went to making. BILLS i could sell bills
Speaker 3: in spute.
Speaker 1: Mysel so you worked on your appeals pro se and
Speaker 1: so on your own using the belt business in order
Speaker 1: to make enough money just to get postage and pay
Speaker 1: for documents and try to fight the state in post
Speaker 1: conviction of fighting against them with their unlimited, Resources.
Speaker 3: Your, sir and all of them got. Denied but would
Speaker 3: really helped me and a bunch of other people when
Speaker 3: THE da, files when they made it possible for us to,
Speaker 3: have you, know and The Supreme court say we were
Speaker 3: entighter to. It that's opened a lot of doors for,
Speaker 3: people because when you get, that you get the information
Speaker 3: that can help you something that you wasn't it tighter
Speaker 3: to it one? Time THE da Files and SO i
Speaker 3: found out about The Bill Cans Franker PRINCE da, Files
Speaker 3: well that was way. Later and the.
Speaker 1: Teens, Wow so you went in in nineteen seventy seven
Speaker 1: and didn't find out about the fingerprints until well after twenty.
Speaker 1: Twelve so when did The Nison's project Of New orleans get?
Speaker 1: Involved and how did this thing turn?
Speaker 2: Around, basically as soon as he heard about which we
Speaker 2: were founded in two thousand and, one he wrote to
Speaker 2: us and asked for, Help but so did thousands of
Speaker 2: other people and we're only one, office and so as
Speaker 2: best we, can, right we work through. Cases and, unfortunately
Speaker 2: And i'm so sad that Mister brooks had to wait
Speaker 2: even longer For hypno's, help but we were finally able
Speaker 2: to start looking at the case. AROUND i believe twenty
Speaker 2: sixteen was WHAT i first wrote to him.
Speaker 1: AND hypno and this Is Project, worlds of, course is
Speaker 1: an incredible, organization and they have done a ton of
Speaker 1: good in a place that has an insane backlog and
Speaker 1: just a tortured history of these kind of. Cases we're,
Speaker 1: talking of, course about the most incarcerated state in the.
Speaker 1: Country almost always Sometimes oklahoma takes their, place they flip,
Speaker 1: low But louisiana it's the most incarcerated state in the
Speaker 1: most incarcerated country in the. World so the task that they,
Speaker 1: face the uphill battle that they fight every, day no
Speaker 1: matter the, year it's, daunting to say the. Least so
Speaker 1: if you listeners can help them with a, dollar one hundred,
Speaker 1: dollars one hundred million, dollars whatever you got laying, around
Speaker 1: we'll have a link in the bio TO, ipno AND
Speaker 1: i hope our audience will be driven to get involved
Speaker 1: and help other people like Mister. Brooks so WHEN ipno
Speaker 1: finally did get, involved what did that investigation look.
Speaker 2: Like so in the post conviction, process one of the
Speaker 2: things we do to investigate is use the public records
Speaker 2: laws and request. Documents and we were able to, write
Speaker 2: go look at, them pick them, up pay for, them
Speaker 2: decide what you want to pay for what you. Don't
Speaker 2: that's something that people who are incarcerated often can't. Do
Speaker 2: though in Mister brooks's, case he actually had a sister
Speaker 2: who was really moved by what happened to her brother
Speaker 2: and she wanted to join the police force to make
Speaker 2: sure that didn't happen to another black, family and she
Speaker 2: unfortunately was injured and so had to eventually resign the.
Speaker 2: Force but during the time that she was there AT,
Speaker 2: atpd she tried to look in the record for documents
Speaker 2: about her brother's, case and she couldn't find. Them she
Speaker 2: was told that they were too, old that they probably
Speaker 2: didn't have them. Anymore so this is something where even
Speaker 2: someone who should be an insider right who's trying to
Speaker 2: help her, brother trying to do these, things and even
Speaker 2: as AN nopd, officer was being told that these documents didn't.
Speaker 1: Exist but as you've heard, before this fingerprint evidence that
Speaker 1: should have stopped this train before it even left the
Speaker 1: station did actually.
Speaker 2: Exist, unfortunately in this, case we were actually never able
Speaker 2: to find the physical. Fingerprints it seems as though they
Speaker 2: were lost or frankly possibly. Destroyed we found handwritten notes,
Speaker 2: that it turns out we learned were written by the
Speaker 2: assistant district attorneys Saying prince Not Elvis. Brooks. Right that
Speaker 2: was written on a notation next to a discussion of
Speaker 2: the fingerprints on the beer. Cans and so when we saw,
Speaker 2: that we, thought, wow, wow you, know what do you?
Speaker 2: Mean let's find these? Fingerprints whose fingerprints? Are and, unfortunately
Speaker 2: because of HOW edpd conducted it's fingerprinting back, then if
Speaker 2: they didn't find a, match if they didn't get AN
Speaker 2: id to, someone they just didn't record. It right back
Speaker 2: in nineteen, seventies IF edpd tested someone's, fingerprints compare the
Speaker 2: fingerprints and it wasn't that, person often they just didn't
Speaker 2: write a report because they, thought, well this is of no,
Speaker 2: use Right they, thought if it wasn't their, suspect what
Speaker 2: good would it do the same with if they showed
Speaker 2: a photo to someone and they didn't make an. Identification
Speaker 2: very often they would not write a report documenting that
Speaker 2: because it wasn't helpful to their, case and so in this,
Speaker 2: case there was no fingerprint report to. Find there was
Speaker 2: just these notes that happened to document that The prince
Speaker 2: did not belong To Elvis. Brooks so we conducted an
Speaker 2: extensive search for these prints down in like the bowels
Speaker 2: of THE edopd building right looking for this. Evidence and
Speaker 2: despite many many hours of, searching we weren't actually able
Speaker 2: to find their, figureprints which is sad because we could
Speaker 2: have found out who the real robbers, were, right we
Speaker 2: could have actually solved this case and gotten a little
Speaker 2: justice for Mister, lloyd and, unfortunately because of the evidence retention,
Speaker 2: practices we just weren't able to do that. Either but
Speaker 2: we were able to file on Mister brooks's behalf based
Speaker 2: on some of this new. Evidence there was also some
Speaker 2: other undisclosed evidence about another crime committed that night by
Speaker 2: people who seemed to match the, description and it was
Speaker 2: committed right around the corner that Mister brooks was also
Speaker 2: never told. About his lawyers never learned. About and so,
Speaker 2: unfortunately what we know about what happened the night the
Speaker 2: welcome it was. Robbed is probably only a sliver of
Speaker 2: what investigators actually found out back, Then but because they
Speaker 2: didn't document, it we're left to sort of follow the bread.
Speaker 1: Crumbs and those bread crumbs led to two conclusions that
Speaker 1: they had Prosecuted elvis knowing that he was, innocent and
Speaker 1: That elvis needed to be released. Asap so how did
Speaker 1: the state?
Speaker 2: Respond we were met with procedural objections by the. State
Speaker 2: it's not enough to find new evidence in your. Case
Speaker 2: before you could get any court to listen to your
Speaker 2: new evidence to consider the merits of your, claims you
Speaker 2: have to prove that you basically meet the procedural. Hurdles
Speaker 2: we had to demonstrate that this information had been withheld
Speaker 2: from Mister brooks and his. Attorney, unfortunately Mister brooks's attorney was,
Speaker 2: deceased and so we had to try to come up
Speaker 2: with other ways to show that he obviously didn't know
Speaker 2: this information about the. Fingerprints that had he, known right
Speaker 2: this attorney who put on thirteen, witnesses which was just
Speaker 2: unheard of in nineteen seventy, seven that had he known
Speaker 2: that the fingerprints on critical items didn't match his, client
Speaker 2: he obviously would have mentioned that to the, jury.
Speaker 1: And once the state was forced to look At elvis's,
Speaker 1: case they must have realized what had. Happened and this
Speaker 1: was The leon khannis our. Administration, still so instead of
Speaker 1: doing the right, thing on the eve of An october,
Speaker 1: fifteenth twenty nineteen, hearing they Brought elvis a. Deal they
Speaker 1: were asking that you plead guilty to a lesser charge
Speaker 1: and avoid a potentially very lengthy procedural battle which would
Speaker 1: have cost you much more, time might have even led
Speaker 1: to you dying in. Prison but was that decision to
Speaker 1: struggle for?
Speaker 4: You?
Speaker 3: YEAH i struggled with. It COULD i always? SEE i,
Speaker 3: SAID i ain't gonna never say guilty to this. Yere
Speaker 3: you know THAT i didn't do. It i'm not gonna
Speaker 3: never plead. Guilty BUT i went to danking WHEN i
Speaker 3: was offered a. DEAL i, said, man you gotta use
Speaker 3: kind of sense. Sometime you knew because you may not
Speaker 3: ever get out of. HERE i just wanted to get,
Speaker 3: out you, know BECAUSE i KNOW i didn't do, it
Speaker 3: AND i feel like forty two plus year was long.
Speaker 3: Enough you, KNOW i just made a. Decision you know
Speaker 3: That i'm gonna plead guilty to the lesser charge and get.
Speaker 3: Out you, know it was, tough but uh, oh my
Speaker 3: whole family SAY i did the right. Ding you, know
Speaker 3: they wanted to see me. Out this is WHY i
Speaker 3: went on and took the plea.
Speaker 2: BAGAIN i, mean we call it a, choice but in
Speaker 2: some ways that's not really a fair. Assessment it turns
Speaker 2: out later and we found out that the state was
Speaker 2: also aware at the time they offered him right that supposed,
Speaker 2: choice that they knew that the trial prosecutor hadn't turned
Speaker 2: over those. Prints they knew that because he told, them,
Speaker 2: frankly probably to avoid, liability THOUGH i could only guess
Speaker 2: as to their, motives but they found that out in
Speaker 2: a meeting with the trial, prosecutor and shortly, thereafter within,
Speaker 2: days they offered Mister brooks a.
Speaker 1: Plea so despite the sour taste in your mouth over
Speaker 1: having to plead guilty to get, out you were still
Speaker 1: free and back into the arms of your. Family how
Speaker 1: did that feel after all these?
Speaker 3: Years, whoa it felt, great you, KNOW i really couldn't believe,
Speaker 3: it you, know feel real great to be. Out you,
Speaker 3: know you're around my family and my, kids my, grandkids
Speaker 3: my further, sisters, nephew. Nieces oh damn miss my, parents you,
Speaker 3: know THE DDCs now so, well it's a wonderful feeling
Speaker 3: to be getting. Out it ain't going especially everybody telling me,
Speaker 3: congratulation you, know AND i was. Leaving they have a
Speaker 3: good feeling, there you.
Speaker 1: Know so he was, out but that was not the
Speaker 1: end of. It AND i can't stress this. Enough elections, matter, Folks,
Speaker 1: okay especially the local. Ones The conic And connaisaro eras
Speaker 1: left a harmful legacy in their. Wake and even though
Speaker 1: the Young condizarro was not seeking re, Election Jason williams
Speaker 1: was elected at The Orange paris DA's. Office and we
Speaker 1: Interviewed jason on my other, Podcast Righteous. Convictions we're gonna
Speaker 1: have that episode lengthd in the. Bio by the, way
Speaker 1: that having a man of his, Caliber i'm going to
Speaker 1: say it, now a great man Like Jason williams in
Speaker 1: that office means people Like elvis can finally get justice
Speaker 1: and have their names.
Speaker 2: Cleared he has cleared his.
Speaker 4: Name.
Speaker 2: Yeah earlier this, year Mister, brooks represented by a different
Speaker 2: attorney in a different, office did file another application for
Speaker 2: post conviction, relief seeking to withdraw his guilty plea and
Speaker 2: seeking to have his conviction overturned and so that was
Speaker 2: granted this, year meaning that at this point Mister brooks
Speaker 2: is fully exonerated as much as you can be in
Speaker 2: the criminal legal. System and in, fact the day that
Speaker 2: Mister brooks was able to go into court and that was,
Speaker 2: decided THE ada at that time made it very clear
Speaker 2: and apologized to him for all those years that were
Speaker 2: taken from him wrongfully and acknowledged his.
Speaker 3: Innocence this was, attorneys they admit To, rondo you, know
Speaker 3: to see They withhill and. Elvidents you, know it could
Speaker 3: have clear my name years, ago you, Know and they
Speaker 3: asked me how LONG i? TOO i say forty two plus,
Speaker 3: years you, KNOW i was locked. Up you, know it
Speaker 3: was great to get that. Done you, know LIKE i,
Speaker 3: SAID i would want board away from the tip. Ending
Speaker 3: it took my whole youth from. Me it took the
Speaker 3: best years of my, life.
Speaker 1: You, know and nothing could ever replace. It you have
Speaker 1: my deepest sympathies for. That and we'll have action steps
Speaker 1: for our audience if they'd like to help. You by,
Speaker 1: THAT i, mean there's An amazon wish list and a freedom,
Speaker 1: Fund so if you've got the wherewithal to do, it
Speaker 1: then please do. Help it means a. Lot and with
Speaker 1: that we now turn to the closing of our, show
Speaker 1: which of course is called closing. Arguments and it's the
Speaker 1: part of the show THAT i always look forward. To
Speaker 1: it's WHERE i get to turn off my. Mic that's
Speaker 1: not WHY i look forward. To it's because of what
Speaker 1: we're about to. Hear because WHEN i turn my mic,
Speaker 1: Off i'm going to leave your MIC's on so that
Speaker 1: you can share any closing. Thoughts it's why it's called
Speaker 1: closing arguments with me and our. Audience thank you, Again.
Speaker 1: Cherrelle why don't we start with you? First and Then
Speaker 1: elvis please take us out into the. Sunset you, KNOW.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you having us and for letting Mister
Speaker 2: brooks share a little bit of what happened to. Him
Speaker 2: AND i think in some ways this case is extraordinary
Speaker 2: in that every TIME i look at a new, FILE
Speaker 2: i hope that we're going to find something as sort
Speaker 2: of earth shattering as the physical evidence in Mister brooks's.
Speaker 2: Case it's, Fingerprints but in many ways it's more a
Speaker 2: kid almost to A dna. Exoneration, Right this isn't just
Speaker 2: a he, said she, Said this is this tangible evidence didn't,
Speaker 2: match and they do it didn't, match and they Framed
Speaker 2: Elvis brooks, anyways and they did it because they. Could
Speaker 2: and it's a. System where could they do it again? Today?
Speaker 2: SURE i THINK i think they. Could and so a
Speaker 2: lot of it is just about to me how little
Speaker 2: thought anyone gave to what they were. Doing they did
Speaker 2: it because they, Could they did it because it was.
Speaker 2: Easy maybe they thought Mister brooks was a. Troublemaker maybe they.
Speaker 2: DIDN'T i don't. KNOW i don't. Care, frankly it doesn't
Speaker 2: make it. Right he was a poor black boy who
Speaker 2: didn't have the means to defend, himself and they did
Speaker 2: it because they.
Speaker 3: Could i'm Just i'm just so happy to be amongst
Speaker 3: the free people, again you, know me at the forty
Speaker 3: two plus. Years you, know my help not really good right,
Speaker 3: now but you Know i'm. Alive you, Know i'm all
Speaker 3: here with my. Family you, know LIKE i, said all
Speaker 3: the people are missing with my mom and dad because they,
Speaker 3: passed you, know but everything else is. Good you. Know,
Speaker 3: NO i appreciate whatever y'all could, do you, know prayers
Speaker 3: and all. That you, know we need. That you, know
Speaker 3: look at this, waiting this world coming to right. Now it's,
Speaker 3: ridiculous you. Know i'd like to just thank, Y'all Thank Dan,
Speaker 3: surpriject thank, everybody thank, you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening To Wrongful. Conviction i'd like to
Speaker 1: thank our production Team Connor, Hall Jeff, cliburn And Kevin,
Speaker 1: wartis with research By Lyla. Robinson the music in this
Speaker 1: production was supplied by three TIME oscar nominated Composer Jay.
Speaker 1: Ralph be sure to follow us On instagram At Wrongful,
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Speaker 1: at Wrong, conviction as well as At lava For. Good
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