Posted on 03/12/2014 6:27:02 PM PDT by nickcarraway
There are many ways to measure 30 years, but for Glenn Ford, the yardstick is simple.
"My sons -- when I left -- was babies. Now they grown men with babies," he said, speaking as a free man for the first time in nearly three decades.
Ford, Louisiana's longest-serving death row prisoner, walked free Tuesday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
"My mind's going all kinds of directions, but it feels good," Ford, 64, told reporters outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, according to CNN affiliate WAFB.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
It’s not like he lost his important years, just the 30 years between the time he was 34 and 64.
I used to be very pro-death penalty. I now have zero faith in the legal system after years of stories involving innocent death row people, and frustrating stories like yours. Just one more rotting part of our nations corpse.
Maybe if everybody did believe God was in the parking lot they’d be more careful about not putting on circuses in court rooms. Good grief cubed.
I hope the guy gets a big check quick enough to enjoy it for a few years.
I've decided that it is not cost effective. Lock 'em up and forget 'em.
Agreed
Excellent point!
I’m so glad there is a group that actively supports guys who claim innocence and, as it turns out, they are innocent of the crime involved.
Of course, most of those who claim innocence are probably lying. But there are some who really were not guilty of the crime. It makes me think that DNA evidence is a good thing.
Still very little in the way of facts in this case. Does appear that Ford was in possession of items stolen in the robbery and his claim was that “a friend gave it to me” and that others were involved and at least one person testified against him. Appears that this woman may have changed her story. Is she lying now or then? Also the author makes sure that we know that he was convicted by an all White jury. We all know Whitey can’t be trusted to examine the evidence and render an impartial verdict.
Could be, but it sounds like they have an “informant” that convinced them he was innocent of any murder. I doubt they would let him off death row after all this time unless they were forced to do so with the informant’s evidence or testimony.
The withholding evidence during trial should be a pretty big deal, especially in a death penalty case.
Sure. Sounds like these were all people who knew each other. The woman was the girlfriend of on of the brother’s that were implicated. I don’t know what happened to them. From what I’ve read the girlfriend changed her story and there is a jailhouse informant. Both hugely problematic and suspicious. Sounds like the prosecutors don’t want to retry the case and are cutting their losses. Maybe he had nothing to do with it and everyone lied.
Come on, this guy got to watch a kick ass rodeo twice a year.
it sounds like he was at least involved in casing the shop and pawning the proceeds which makes him guilty of first degree murder.
Otherwise he went there to look for work. Shortly thereafter someone that Ford didn't know coincidentally entered the same shop, robbed the owner, murdered him and then, through a convergance of planets and stars met ford, gave a complete stranger jewelry stolen in the robbery and asked him to pawn it. Hmm...
Around 100 people have been released from Death Row since 1990.
It’s very curious that, afterwards, the real murderer is NEVER identified and brought to trial.
Here in Washington state, every year investigators solve one or two cold case murders.
But no one ever solves the cold case murders where an innocent man was imprisoned, at least not that I’ve heard about, anyway.
Someone else confessed to the crime. It was on my local news station. They didn’t specify whether or not DNA evidence was involved, but they said he would be paid $35,000 for every year incarcerated, up to $250,000, by the State of LA. Not enough for all he’s been through, in my opinion.
Just think of all he’s missed out on. I would not be as kind as he was on TV in the interview. Unbelievable.
For someone to say they are conservative but support capital punishment is to say they think the Government screws up everything it touches.....except the death penalty.
“Yup, that’s the problem, but then, why punish any crime because the perp might be falsely accused?”
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Unfortunately it seems that we may have reached the point at which that is a question to be seriously considered. We now have a criminal government at the national level and seem to be developing the same sort of government at state and local levels. We have a united states department of “justice” headed by an arch criminal. We have state and local law enforcement doing incredible things like shooting a one armed, one legged man who is in a wheelchair in a nursing home because he “cornered an officer and threatened him” WITH A BALL POINT PEN IN THE ONE HAND HE HAD LEFT.” That is just one example out of all too many. Maybe the wrong people are on the outside of the bars.
Now it seems that South Carolina lawmakers want to pass a law forbidding umbrellas of any size on the beach! I think I might prefer no law enforcement to the kind of insanity that is becoming so common. The current inclination seems more and more to be to punish the innocent and harmless and ignore the real criminals.
That is a very different thing than 'ceasing punishment for criminals.' This nation was founded upon citizen law enforcement and I'm totally with you there. The key is to deal with liability laws.
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