We have often discussed how prosecutors rarely are held accountable for botched trials due to misconduct or sending innocent people to jail. There remains a body count mentality with many prosecutors that tends to fuel such violations. One former prosecutor has proven the exception, however. Attorney A.M. Stroud III has written a letter, later published in the Shreveport Times, that took responsibility for sending away Glenn Ford (left) for the 1983 murder of Isodore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweler — a murder he did not commit. Stroud’s letter expressed shame with his own conduct as a prosecutor and further called for an end to the death penalty in Louisiana.
In his letter, Stroud, 64, states that as a prosecutor “I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning.” He admits that “[i]n 1984, I was 33 years old. I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning. To borrow a phrase from Al Pacino in the movie And Justice for All, ‘Winning became everything.'”
While he said that he thought justice was done when the death penalty was imposed, he admits that the conviction by an all-white jury was questionable at the time. One witness admitted that she lied to protect a boyfriend who was a suspect. Stroud says that he was too “passive” and uninterested in pursuing signs of innocence and “I did not consider the rumors about the involvement of parties other than Mr. Ford to be credible, especially since the three others who were indicted for the crime were ultimately released for lack of sufficient evidence to proceed to the trial.”
Stroud is now on the other side criticizing the state for opposing compensation for Ford for his time in jail: “The audacity of the state’s effort to deny Mr. Ford any compensation for the horrors he suffered in the name of Louisiana justice is appalling.”
He describes what is the most common form of prosecutorial abuse — not the active hiding of evidence but the refusal to pursue or acknowledge countervailing evidence: “My mindset was wrong and blinded me to my purpose of seeking justice, rather than obtaining a conviction of a person who I believed to be guilty. 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. And that omission is on me.”
He concludes with the following statement:
“I end with the hope that providence will have more mercy for me than I showed Glenn Ford. But, I am also sobered by the realization that I certainly am not deserving of it.”
Kudos: Michael Blott
A commenter above talked about the “pro sodomy crowd”. I think that this blog should make this into a topic. We have a dog here at the marina who can give an interview. His name is HumpinDog. He says that even if he humps LBJ Dog that he never goes all the way. We need to have clear and precise discussions of these topics which get reduced to lame words like gay marriage. I would get censored by WordPress if I talked about what the pro sodomy crowd is really interested in.
How many other bodies has this man mutilated or put in a cage through shoddy legal foundation and poor ethics???
Nuff said.
He is a lawyer. Huff said.
That is Fun
Squeeky
Love your comments as usual. lol 😉 You can bet they will be here later when they get up or maybe not because you were here first and they have a leader that is Charles Manson like for real and are all his groupies. 😉
Fund times at Ridgemont High
DBQ, You may be correct about his facing his own mortality. I guess that offers some shred of hope for the personality disorder here in that same demographic.
That took courage to admit, especially because he did not hide any evidence, but rather finally realized that he failed to pursue the possibility that the defendant was innocent. He was so sure he was right that he was blinded by it.
If he did not hide evidence, but rather was just so convinced that there was no way he could be innocent that he didn’t have an open mind, then is it criminal misconduct? Who is mainly at fault? The detectives who failed to exhaust all leads? The DA who failed to put them back on the case or ask enough questions? The defense attorney who failed to prove his client was innocent?
Why wasn’t the defense able to prove he was innocent if evidence was not hidden? Isn’t it the defense’s job to follow up on leads that can exonerate the client? I ask this in all sincerity because I am unfamiliar about the process.
What a terrible tragedy. Poor Mr Ford.
Mr. Stroud deserves some brownie points for admitting that he was more motivated by winning. The way he phrased it,
There are a lot of people here who need to have their “Stroud moment”. Like the liberals still pushing the racial stuff like it is still 1960 in Alabama while ignoring the moral and lifestyle choices made by Blacks which is really the major reason why sooo many of them are sooo bad off. Or, the pro-sodomy crowd who ignore the reprehensible behavior exhibited by the majority of gay men which has led to their tremendous health problems. etc.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Sorry an apology in this case is not enough. His actions should be investigated and he should be prosecuted. How about attempted murder? U til and unless prosecutors have to suffer some serious consequences of their actions the abusive system will not change. I see no courage here.
I would be interested in what led to epiphany.
He is probably facing his own mortality….up close and personal. This will get a person to reflect on their past wrongs and try to make apologies and possibly even make amends.
In AA a part of the “recovery process” is to make amends and apologize to those you have hurt. Sometimes, though, an apology is only for yourself and not necessarily for the person to whom you are making the apology..
Apologies are all well and good, warm and fuzzy feeling for the person making the apology.
How does this guy ever get his life back after 30 years wasted in jail? He can’t.
DBQ – the prosecutor does not change for 35 years and then expects the state to change on a dime. Really?????? He says he did nothing wrong or illegal and if that is so, then the guy got a fair trial.
It’s not just prosecutors anymore folks! It’s Rolling Stone reporters and Education Industry bureaucrats being judge and jury.
Unless prosecutors can be held liable, and even jailed for such misconduct, there’s no protection from this happening again.
When his time comes for his Interview with Saint Peter at the Holy Gates it is clear that this fellow will not get sent to Hell or Limbo (suburb of Saint Louis called Florissant) but to Heaven. Of course Heaven is not on a cloud up there with Apple and Google but a reincarnation back on Earth. And if he was a good fellow in more respects then he might granted the option to come back in the next incarnation as a Dog.
Big deal… he apologized for the inexcusable. At the minimum, he should sell everything he owns, give 80% of anything he makes from this point on and hand over any savings he has on hand to Mr. Ford. An apology… and that’s supposed to make everything all right. A guy like Stroud wouldn’t last a week in the penitentiary. Disgusting, pathetic coward.
He is not prevented from turning over his earnings to the man.
I would be interested in what led to epiphany. I was fortunate to have worked for a prosecutors office that was righteous. There are too many that are not. He finally did the right thing.
“Exonerated Angola inmate faces second death sentence”
http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/orleans/2015/03/02/glenn-ford-death-sentence/24247549/
“”I’m trying to make every day count,” he said from his home in New Orleans.
The need to measure every second zoomed into overdrive when he was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. On Feb. 23, doctors told him his life expectancy, once at six months to a year, had dwindled to four to eight months.
It was the second death sentence for Ford.”
“Justice delayed is justice denied.” – William E. Gladstone
Stroud, on the death penalty:
“Death penalty is ‘abomination that continues to scar the fibers of this society'”
Good for Mr. Stroud.
Not many people have the courage to publicly admit fault.
Still, small consolation to Mr. Ford.