Glenn Ford didn't commit murder, so after 30 years he's leaving Death
Row at Angola: James Varney

The Times-Picayune By James Varney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

The fact some innocent men languish on death rows is not the sole reason
to get rid of the macabre death penalty once and for all. But it is a
reason.

The truth of that was highlighted in Louisiana this week when Caddo
Parish prosecutors dropped murder charges against one Glenn Ford. The
same district attorney's office that sent Ford to Angola's Death Row in
1984 now acknowledges it did so for a crime he did not commit.

That's the only just course for them to take, of course, and good for
Caddo Parish for righting a wrong. After thirty years, Ford will once
again be a free man, albeit one who can never recover the three decades
of his life stolen from him.

How do death penalty proponents square this case with their belief the
state should be in the killing business?

The record shows Ford was ill-served at nearly every point in his
laborious and terrifying trip through the Louisiana criminal justice system.

First, although the police had informants telling them Ford was not
their guy, and the informants fingered the same two people Ford
mentioned when he voluntarily came to headquarters to talk to the cops,
that information was suppressed. In other words, officers could have
nailed, or tried to nail, the guys who probably killed Isadore Roseman
in his own home, but instead chose to go after someone who they had a
pretty good idea didn't.

Everyone should be scared by that.

Both lawyers who represented Ford at trial were rookies in terms of
criminal cases before juries. One was two years out of law school and
working for a slip-and-fall sort of firm, according to an account
released by attorneys with the Capital Post Conviction Project of Louisiana.

Then, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld Ford's conviction and sentence
despite raising "serious questions" about the quality of the state's
evidence and concluding the case for guilt was "not overwhelming."

One Supreme Court justice dissented, writing he was "not convinced that
a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the
crime of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt," the report notes.

Think about that for a moment. Let that one sink in. A handful of
Louisiana's keenest legal minds were willing to send a man to his death
even though they were obviously troubled by aspects of the case. No one
was talking about Ford serving a couple of years or so; this wasn't
about revoking probation or something.

This would have meant a man dying on evidence that looked a bit shaky to
the justices because, we now know, it was false! How good a lawyer must
one be to explain that one to the client?

It's incredible. How can anyone be comfortable with this? It is true
arguments about ineffective counsel and supposedly conflicting evidence
are staples of death penalty appeals and, almost always, there isn't
much to the charges.

But that doesn't mean sometimes they aren't true. Are "almost always"
and "sometimes" good enough bars for us to set when the punishment
involved is death?

http://tinyurl.com/q65a9co

On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:27:35 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

Glenn Ford didn't commit murder, so after 30 years he's leaving Death

cut'n'paste snipped

You'd be happier if they just killed babies, eh?

On 3/12/14, 8:58 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:27:35 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

Glenn Ford didn't commit murder, so after 30 years he's leaving Death

cut'n'paste snipped

You'd be happier if they just killed babies, eh?



Your synapses snapped. There are no babies involved in Mr. Ford's
improper incarceration. I hope he is able to sue Louisiana and collect
at least a billion bucks.

On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:03:47 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 3/12/14, 8:58 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:27:35 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

Glenn Ford didn't commit murder, so after 30 years he's leaving Death

cut'n'paste snipped

You'd be happier if they just killed babies, eh?



Your synapses snapped. There are no babies involved in Mr. Ford's
improper incarceration. I hope he is able to sue Louisiana and collect
at least a billion bucks.

I'm happy for Mr. Ford. I'd be happy if viable infants were not killed also.

On 3/12/14, 9:20 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:03:47 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 3/12/14, 8:58 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:27:35 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

Glenn Ford didn't commit murder, so after 30 years he's leaving Death

cut'n'paste snipped

You'd be happier if they just killed babies, eh?



Your synapses snapped. There are no babies involved in Mr. Ford's
improper incarceration. I hope he is able to sue Louisiana and collect
at least a billion bucks.

I'm happy for Mr. Ford. I'd be happy if viable infants were not killed also.


You're a funny guy, and so very typical of your kind. You want every
fetus carried to full term, no matter what, but if and when they pop out
and become infants, why, it's every baby for itself. While your
slimeball Republicans in Congress were leading the charge to cut back on
the SNAP programs that feed hungry kids, you didn't raise a finger to
get them to stop.

Right-wing hypocrisy at its finest.

On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:28:31 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 3/12/14, 9:20 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:03:47 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 3/12/14, 8:58 AM, Poco Loco wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:27:35 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

Glenn Ford didn't commit murder, so after 30 years he's leaving Death

cut'n'paste snipped

You'd be happier if they just killed babies, eh?



Your synapses snapped. There are no babies involved in Mr. Ford's
improper incarceration. I hope he is able to sue Louisiana and collect
at least a billion bucks.

I'm happy for Mr. Ford. I'd be happy if viable infants were not killed also.


You're a funny guy, and so very typical of your kind. You want every
fetus carried to full term, no matter what, but if and when they pop out
and become infants, why, it's every baby for itself. While your
slimeball Republicans in Congress were leading the charge to cut back on
the SNAP programs that feed hungry kids, you didn't raise a finger to
get them to stop.

Right-wing hypocrisy at its finest.

I suppose killing them is the proper solution, eh?