WEBVTT - #231 Jason Flom with Vincent Simmons 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.320 In May of nineteen seventy seven, fourteen year old white 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:10.080 twin sisters Karen and Sharon Sanders allegedly went to help 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.160 their eighteen year old cousin, Keith Laboard, clean his house 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.960 in a Voles Parish, Louisiana. Years later, Keith Laboard admitted 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.000 to carrying on a sexual relationship with Karen Sanders, but 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:23.720 back in May of seventy seven, when asked about a 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.880 scratch on his neck, Keith began to spin a narrative 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.160 supported by the twin girls, that led in a well 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.000 tread direction. According to Keith and the twins, they picked 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:36.920 up a hitchhiking black man who allegedly pulled a gun 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:40.640 and forced Keith and Karen into the trunk before raping Sharon, 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.639 followed by Karen. Conflicting accounts and descriptions, as well as 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.400 a rape kit that confirmed that Sharon was still a virgin, 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.880 didn't stop the accusation of an alleged black assailant. While 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:55.160 police officer Robert Laboord was out searching for a potential 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.040 culprit on the morning of May twenty third, nineteen seventy seven, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.400 his partner Floyd Juno spot at Vincent Simmons, whom he 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.160 knew from previous petty crimes. Despite not matching what we're 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.320 already conflicting descriptions of this imaginary black man, they arrested 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.040 Vincent for the alleged rapes. Both girls and Keith picked 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.760 out the only handcuffed black man in the lineup, and 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:19.480 when Vincent refused to confess, Officer Robert Leboard shot him 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.080 in the chest. Miraculously, Vincent survived, but only to have 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:27.240 all evidence, all of it exculpatory withheld from him at trial, 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.920 condemning him to serve one hundred years in Angola Prison. 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.920 Vincent's fight against a web of family connections, lies and 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.640 the worst in American racism continues to this very day. 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:56.120 This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. I'm 0:01:56.200 --> 0:02:00.880 Jason Flopp. Today's case is so troubled that I don't 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:02.960 know where to start. But I will tell you this 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.000 before we even get into it, and I introduce to 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:11.079 you the man himself, Vincent Simmons, who's still incarcerated in 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.320 the Angola Penitentiary for over forty four years now for 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:16.799 a crime he had nothing to do with. I will 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:21.200 tell you that this case has a toxic mixture of 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:26.160 small town racism, false accusations, a total lack of evidence, 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:32.080 a police officer who was closely related to what should 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.680 have been the obvious suspect, who actually shot mister Simmons 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.440 in the police station when he refused to confess in 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:42.919 the chest by the way, narrowly missing his heart and 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.840 killing him. Yes, you heard that correctly. And everybody involved 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.359 basically is white except for mister Simmons, who's black. And 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.840 now that's just the freaking beginning. So first of all, Vincent, 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.320 I'm so honored that you're here today to talk to us. 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.320 I'm so sorry that you are where you are, that 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.240 we're talking to you from prison, and I'm hoping that 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.959 soon we'll be having a totally different conversation from the 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.360 free world. So welcome to wrongful conviction. 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:09.560 Thank you, I haven't me. 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.160 We're very happy to have you, and we apologize to 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.160 our audience in advance for the audio quality on Vincent's phone. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.600 It sounds like he's calling us from a time capsule, 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.359 and in many ways he really is. And Gola Penitentiary 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.760 was built on a literal plantation, which couldn't put a 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.720 finer point on what this case is all about and 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:31.680 joining us today as a man who you may be 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.400 familiar with from our coverage of Nelson Cruz in Brooklyn 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.440 and Marcus Wiggins in Chicago. Now today he's fighting for 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.680 Vincent's case pro bono, flying back and forth from New 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:45.840 York to Louisiana. So justin bonas, thanks for coming back 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:47.640 to wrongful conviction not. 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:49.480 A problem, Jason. It's great to be on here again 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:49.920 as well. 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.480 So this insane saga goes all the way back to 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:59.760 nineteen seventy seven. So Vincent, before this happened in your 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.160 life that turned upside down and inside out, what was 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.600 your life like before this insanity? 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.200 Yeah, I was born in a ball Paris, a place 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:14.920 called Mansillah Lewis Air. When I was living in Mansilla, 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:22.120 I had had some involvement with a ball parent sheriff department. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:28.120 I was involved with competitive crime. I moved to Houston 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.120 and I got a job and I was learned to 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.120 test my father at had time, and I come back 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.679 to Lewis the Air. I was back for about a month. 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:45.039 I was living with my sister or leave you and 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.320 I was on my way to work and I was 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.560 picked up a ball of Paris police, So. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.280 You were a known entity to a Bowls Parish police 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.160 before heading to Houston for work and returning when your 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.800 father passed away, which made you available to be picked 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:06.080 up for what allegedly happened to these twin girls on 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.320 May nine, nineteen seventy seven. And the date, I mean, 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:10.240 we're not even sure of that, because the girls were 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.520 never really clear on a date and time. But the 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.800 narrative that comes out is a sadly familiar American tale, 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.200 a false accusation of a black man by an alleged 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.640 white victim or victims in this case, and the alleged 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.640 crime that took place. The narrative that set this horrible 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:32.040 in justice against Vincent in motion is this. On May ninth, 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:37.400 nineteen seventy seven, twin sisters Sharon and Karen Sanders allegedly 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.960 went over to the house of their eighteen year old cousin, 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.719 Keith Leboard remember that last name, to help him clean, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.200 and while driving the sisters home that night, the three 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:52.160 allegedly stopped for gas when Vincent Simmons allegedly approached and 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.080 asked the Board for a ride home, to which the 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:59.600 Board supposedly agreed and then the claim is that six 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.120 miles outside of Marksville, on a deserted stretch of Little 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.880 California Road, Vincent allegedly took out a gun, forced Keith 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.160 the Board and Karen into the trunk while he allegedly 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.719 raped Sharon, and then he allegedly put Sharon in the trunk, 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.120 drove on for a bit before retrieving Karen to do 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.760 the same to her. Now, afterwards, Vincent allegedly threatened them 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.880 all before dropping himself off to catch a bus. So 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.240 about two weeks after this alleged incident, May twenty second 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.040 is when this narrative is first reported to the Sheriff's 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:37.400 office and the investigation, if you can even call it, 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.920 that begins justin take us through this nightmare. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.680 So there was Karen Sanders, Sharon Sanders, and then Keith 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.880 the Board that were allegedly basically kidnapped, thrown in a trunk. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.920 The two sisters were raped. That's their story. So on 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:58.839 May twenty second, John le Board, Keith's father, calls the 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.760 sheriff because Keith's father is the parish assessor. What you 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:05.120 have to understand about the boards is there's like ten 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.359 thousand of them in a voles Paris. This is a 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.520 very strong family. He calls the chief of police and 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.640 he says that my twin nieces have been raped by 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.840 a black man. That's how this begins. And then the 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.760 girls are brought in. The girls don't know what date 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.160 it happens. The police give them a date, okay. The 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.920 girls provide their initial statements, which weren't turned over a trial. 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.280 They weren't turned over till nineteen ninety three. They give 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:38.080 completely inconsistent statements. Sharon Sanders actually calls the suspect the 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.400 N word over and over again, says all blacks look alike, okay, 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.440 and that's why she wouldn't be able to identify him. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.320 They don't talk to the boy, Keith Leboard, until after 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:54.720 Vincent is already arrested. Neither of these girls give a 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.320 description that matches Vincent. They say short and fat, well, 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:02.760 Vincent is five to nine fifty. Again, their descriptions conflict. 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.800 You know, it's just one thing after another, and specifically 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.760 with regard to Karen Sanders, she talks about being raped 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.720 anally orally vaginally. When the doctor looks at her after 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:20.520 she talks to police, there is no injuries. Sharon talks 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.560 about a thirty minute rape vaginally to the point where 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.560 she bled. She said that she gave her panties to 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:31.040 her grandmother and they were washed, of course. And what's 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.120 interesting about Sharon is that her hymen was intact when 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.959 she was examined by the doctor in this case. 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:42.840 So okay, inconsistent statements, conflicting descriptions, and outright lies unsupported 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.959 by physical reality. And the next day, at nine to 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.840 twenty am on May twenty third, Vincent was just walking 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.480 to work when he was picked up off the street, 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:53.520 arrested and brought to the station. 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.640 He was arrested on May twenty third of nineteen seventy 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.320 seven on view for this crime. And what on view 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:05.160 means is they didn't have a name Vincent Simmons, They 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.640 had no probable cause to arrest him. They saw him 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:10.560 on the side of the street. When I say they, 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.440 you had mentioned a family member of one of the 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.000 alleged victims, and that was Robert Leboard. And I don't 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.120 know his direct relation to Keith Leboard, but I believe 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.080 it could be a cousin. So really, what you have 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.200 to understand with Vincent is he had a history with 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.560 the Marksville police Department and the Vols Parish Sheriff's office, 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.920 and Floyd Juno was driving with Robert Leboard on the 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.160 Dave Vincent got arrested on May twenty second. And he 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.360 knew Vincent, he knew who he was before, and he 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.120 knew he was a troublemaker. And he's the glue to this. 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:48.920 He's the person that basically points the finger at Vincent first. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.160 Right, right, right, And if you have the chance to 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.960 watch one of the documentaries about vincent story, there's the 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.240 farm and Shadows of a Doubt, we'll have them LinkedIn 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.360 the by of course. But in Shadows of a Doubt, 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.840 Floyd Juno described this arrest in much the same way 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:05.320 that Justin has. So that same morning, the sheriff sent 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.880 deputies for the twins who were picked up from school 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.640 and brought to the station along with Keith Leboord, who 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.079 was brought from work, and told them that they were 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.960 going to view a lineup with the perpetrator in it. 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.440 So officers picked out seven guys for the lineup, one 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:24.000 of whom was white. Okay, a few others were well 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.280 over six feet tall. But remember the description was of 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:32.040 this imaginary perpetrator was black, short, and bat right, and 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.680 they placed Vincent in the center. And get this, Vincent 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.240 is the only one who was handcuffed out of all 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.240 of them. I mean, it wasn't like they were trying 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:41.880 to be subtle here right as to who they wanted 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:46.600 them to identify. So the twins and Keith lo and 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.679 Behold all select Vincent as the perpetrator. 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:54.880 They claimed that I was identified, and from that point 0:10:54.960 --> 0:11:00.079 they took me into another room and that's when he 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.880 told me that I had to give him a confession, 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.760 and I refused to give a confession. I told him 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.320 that before I confessed to a crime that I didn't do, 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.960 I'll die first. And that's when they hit me. And 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:19.800 they knocked into the clothes and started kicking me. And 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.320 then when I tried to get up, he kicked me again. 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.560 And then when I did you to chat, I was 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:32.400 sitting in to get up Robert Loboid, he raised up 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:36.839 from his seat where he was writing a confession and 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:39.360 pulled his weapon and shot me. 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:41.520 He shot me in the check. 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:58.679 I think something that I really want to bring to 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.600 your attention to her, Jason, is is that technically Vincent 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:06.480 really should have been charged with kidnapping Keith Laboord. They 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:10.360 didn't charge him with that. Why, well, you know, I 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:13.280 think we know why. The other thing is the police 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:17.040 all said that Vincent attempted to grab the gun of 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.520 one of the officers and the safety was on or 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.320 something like that, ridiculous story. They don't ever charge Vincent 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.679 with attempted murder of a police officer either. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.440 And this is weird, right, because it's not like the 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.560 state typically has any issue at all with piling on charges, right, 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.800 But there were no gun charges here either, as that 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.160 was part of the alleged kidnapping in this case as well. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:44.320 So at the preliminary hearing on July seventh, both twins testified, 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.320 but neither the alleged kidnapping victim Keith la Boord, nor 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:53.280 the alleged attempted murder victims the police officers participated. Yeah 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.720 that's yeah, sure, okay. So during her testimony, Sharon is 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.760 asked three consecutive times to identify the man from the crime, 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.200 and this is the twin who states that all black 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:10.600 people look alike. She doesn't respond until the court steps in, 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.760 and this was when, for the very first time ever, 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.480 she says that the man said his name was Simmons. Now, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.640 Karen also parroted this statement that the Culport told Keith 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.920 his name was Simmons. But then, in the same preliminary hearing, 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.439 when asked why it took two weeks to come forward 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:32.280 with this story, Karen testified that, quote, we couldn't go 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.880 to the cops because we didn't know his name, unquote, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.440 So which one is it? Karen right, which is it? 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.200 Because both of those things can't be true. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:47.040 Everyone overlooked that that means that their testimony in the 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.920 preliminary hearing that they knew the man's name, and their 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:54.040 testimony a trial that they knew the man's name is false. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:56.360 That kind of just got glossed over. 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.240 So let's get to the trial, and I'm gonna put 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.720 trial in quotes here. So there's no physical evidence that 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.960 these rapes ever actually happen. Start with that no forensic 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.240 tests were done on the twins' clothing or the car 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.720 in which the alleged rapes occurred, and police reports did 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.000 not include a single lead appointed to Vincent. Doctors didn't 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:19.040 find any signs of injury on either of the alleged victims, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.800 including Sharon's intact hymen. She was a virgin who was, 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.560 according to her statement, the victim of a bloody rape, 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.920 which of course is physically impossible. So if you're listening 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.280 to this now and going, well, then there's all this evidence, right, 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.920 How the hell could anyone, even a black man in 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.480 the Deep South in the seventies, how could anyone get 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.440 convicted on the basis of this. Well, it later comes 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.040 out to Vincent and his attorney received exactly none of this. 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.520 They received no discovery in this case. By none, I 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.640 mean zero. What I'm saying is all of that critical 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.960 exculpatory evidence that you just heard wasn't revealed to him 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:06.880 for another sixteen years. His lawyers never even knew about 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.400 the shady lineup with the handcuffs, you know, which was 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.080 obviously done for one reason, so that these alleged victims 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:16.000 would know who to pick in this imaginary crime. There 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.680 were pictures of that, the inconsistencies and conflicts in the 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:23.760 initial accounts and assailing descriptions and initial statements. They said 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.400 they didn't know his name, but later testified that he 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.560 had told Keith his name was Simmons. How Karen gave 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:33.200 a clue to that discrepancy in her preliminary hearing, testimony, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.680 all of it. So the fix was in, So justin, 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.360 can you take us through what happened at this sham trial? 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.520 So they take him the trial and the girls get 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.600 on the witness stand and they say they know his name, 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:52.920 they say a rape happened, and the defense attorneys don't 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.240 do a great job of poking holes in there because 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.600 they don't have anything to poke holes in. They don't 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:02.080 have any cross examination material. Okay, they have three witnesses 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.280 that were allegedly with this man for three hours. That's 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:12.240 a long time to be with somebody. Mistaken identification is 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.080 not really something you can argue when you're around somebody 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.720 for three hours unless you saw the initial statements, right, 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.680 can't really do it. I mean the trials a joke. 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.360 Eddie Knowle, who was the prosecutor, and the district attorney 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.000 and his wife are the ones that tried the case, 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.560 and this was a flim flam show. They actually, on 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:39.280 occasion during direct examination they would interchange when they thought 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.640 the other one didn't ask enough questions or on cross examine. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:43.720 I've never seen that. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.840 And they probably could have done anything they wanted because 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.280 without discovery, they had nothing with which to hold the 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.320 prosecution or any of the witnesses accountable. Then you have 0:16:55.480 --> 0:17:00.800 these racially charged elements, two white twin sisters under age, 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.960 by the way, fourteen years old, a black guy in 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:09.400 Louisiana in nineteen seventy seven. So they could have said 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.600 that he took them in a spaceship, hit them on 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:13.480 the head with a toaster oven, and then they went 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.920 and visited, you know, talking penguins on Mars. I mean, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.000 they could have said anything, And I could actually picture 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:21.960 in my mind the jury just sort of sitting there, 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:24.760 you know, harfyed, with their mouths open, hearing about how 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.040 these two young girls were brutalizeding you know, these these 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.600 poor little girls. It's hard to turn away from that 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.800 kind of testimony. But there were some very significant things 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.160 that still should have sowed serious doubts in the minds 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:40.120 of these jurors. 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.920 Now, I think the biggest thing here that we started 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:50.560 to uncover as we investigated is that the area that 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:56.359 Vincent allegedly sees these three at a gas station in 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.760 the middle of Marksville, but then he takes them allegedly 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.800 or tells them to go to a part of a 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:10.320 Voles parish that's like clan country. So where these alleged 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:15.240 rapes happen is in the middle of clan country. It's 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:20.040 not where the black community is. That's what to me 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:26.600 should have raised alarm bells for everybody, including the white jury. 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:27.919 This is not believable. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.400 What was alleged to be a three hour long encounter 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.679 with two twin underage white girls being raped by a 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.600 black man in the middle of clan country. I would 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:42.479 have sooner bought into the story about Mars and Vincent 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.600 was able to present something in his defense right. His 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.760 attorney called him to the stand where he said that 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.520 he was at a bar on May ninth, and presented 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.880 three alibi witnesses who all dated that he was at 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:55.720 the bar with them. 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:00.359 His alibi witnesses, they tried to discredit these people with 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:04.760 traffic tickets and like petty crimes because they wanted to 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.560 make the alibis look like they were not law abiding citizens, 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.520 even though they basically were. I mean, one of the 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:14.159 witnesses that testified for Vincent was a business owner, and 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.479 they attacked them using like speeding tickets and parking tickets 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.800 that he received. It was a joke. The trial was 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:20.240 a joke. 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.480 Yeah, it was a joke, but not a funny one though, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.119 because eleven white people and one black woman on the jury. 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.200 I remember at that time in Louisiana and all the 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.240 way up till twenty eighteen, they didn't need a unanimous 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.639 verdict to convict. It was one of the ways that 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.119 they disenfranchised black folks. You only needed ten of the 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:41.119 twelve members on the jury to vote guilty. So black 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.199 woman or not, let's just call it like it is. 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:45.320 There was no hope in hell for Vincent. And so 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.680 there you are, still trying to heal from a gunshot 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.240 wound to the chest at close range and watching this 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.639 ridiculous trial. Did you still have any hope that they 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.199 would see the discrepancies in this crazy narrative and that 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:00.880 you were innocent? 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.680 Oh? Yeah, there was no hope because the way the 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:12.960 juror was focused, oh what the victims were saying, There 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:18.040 was no hope of receiving a fan crown. And even 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.080 though I was shot and they seed that I was shout, 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.800 there was no question answer what happened. 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.760 So, Vincent, that moment, a lot had happened to you already. 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:31.400 But I have to think this would be the worst 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.320 moment of anybody's life to be wrongfully convicted of a 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:38.720 crime they didn't commit. Do you remember that moment when 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.760 they declared you guilty and sentenced you to one hundred 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:42.520 years in prison? 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:44.640 Yes? I did. 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:50.679 When I heard all those yes sold and the juror 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:57.359 come back and convicted me, even with my alibi with Kevin, 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:04.760 the juror still believe their lives, and it was amazing 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.800 for me to believe that those people would, yeah, that 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.760 kind of lie to the juror, and the juror believed them. 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:40.280 When I got dan Gola and they slammed the doors 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.600 behind me, it was like a shot for me. And 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:50.560 from that moment then I was experiencing nightmares at night. 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.719 When I went to sleep, or tried to go to sleep, 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.560 I would have a nightmare of being shot and beaten 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:03.040 over and over again. When I got down. Even the 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.800 guys in the tail they already knew what my jarge 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:13.440 were and I went through mulate experiences. They so I'd 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.600 brought all you ship human weights. You know your torture. 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:24.800 I've been stalled several times, you know, all the skin 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.480 come off my padley, But I wouldn't report it because 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:33.000 they would call you a wreck here at several night 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:39.040 night falls. That was from of all pals, they would 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.240 make it possible for they didn't make the st a 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:49.679 home the guds He of all pals, they would intentually 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:56.000 like to report where I would be the sepetrator of 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:00.480 the night. So from one lock down to another, that's 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:05.119 what calls me to be locked down and solatarif confined 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:09.879 in all these years because I was being attacked and 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:14.879 being transfer it to another lockdown. I've said twenty some 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:22.520 years in solid confinits and I just got out in 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:26.640 two thousand nineteen, and that's when I got the call 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:31.040 from Justin say as you were going take my cakes. 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:36.080 Forty four years wrongfully convicted, and twenty seven of those 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:40.280 were in solitary confinement because of constant assaults from other 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:45.920 prisoners who also found ways to believe the childish, nonsensicalize 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:50.320 that these three backwards, redneck low lifes told to cover 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.920 up their dirty, disgusting little incest secret. And I don't 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.280 even know what to say except that I'm absolutely amazed 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:02.760 at your courage and your strength to persevere and just 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:06.560 even be here at all, after all you've gone through, Vincent, 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:11.080 you are a living miracle. So justin we know that 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:14.480 the post conviction litigation start almost immediately back in nineteen 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:17.159 seventy eight, and it went about as well as the 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.600 trial did. But Vincent finally got a break of sorts 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:22.760 in nineteen ninety three. Can you talk us through that. 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:27.800 Nineteen ninety three, Vincent files a man Damus and somebody 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:30.800 in the DA's office copies the whole file. That's how 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:34.680 Vincent gets his file. That's when he first gets the discovery. 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:37.680 And then Vincent got a letter from his lawyer in 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:41.040 ninety eight saying that we've never seen these documents before. 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:43.680 You know, and by the way, that lawyer in ninety eight, 0:24:43.680 --> 0:24:45.640 I think he was a judge by that point, I mean, 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:48.679 these are credible people that came forward and said that 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:50.800 they had never seen these documents before. 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:54.359 Right, this is the discovery with the details that we 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:57.400 mentioned earlier. That if Vincent's trial attorney would have had 0:24:57.440 --> 0:25:00.399 this at the trial in nineteen seventy seven, and of 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:02.719 course it was totally illegal for them not to share it, 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:06.320 but if they had had this discovery, it's very possible 0:25:06.359 --> 0:25:10.280 that even that jury could have come to the right conclusion. 0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:14.719 So in addition to that, more exculpatory evidence has developed 0:25:14.720 --> 0:25:19.800 over time. Meanwhile, Vincent has denied parole again and again 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.760 and again and again. The sisters showed up at the 0:25:23.800 --> 0:25:28.200 parole hearings and said all sorts of awful racist things. 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:30.920