When a supply first informed me in regards to the case of Lloyd Grey in late 2024, I jotted down these notes: two Black jurors, a swastika and Gov. Jeff Landry. That was an oversimplification of a deeply troubling situation, nevertheless it additionally obtained to the guts of a narrative printed this week by ProPublica and Verite Information that haunts Louisiana and can proceed to take action for the foreseeable future.
Grey was simply 19 in 1980 when he was tried in a New Orleans courtroom on a cost of aggravated rape. After in the future of testimony, the jury returned with a 10-2 break up verdict. The ten white jurors voted responsible and the one two Black jurors not responsible. Should you’re an everyday client of courtroom dramas, you may suppose a break up verdict would imply a mistrial, and right this moment it could. However again then in Louisiana, the place nonunanimous juries had been authorized, it resulted in a life sentence for Grey.
Masking the felony justice system in Louisiana usually means familiarizing myself with issues folks in different elements of the nation may discover surprising. As an illustration, many is perhaps stunned to study that right here, for greater than 120 years, the state allowed folks like Grey to be despatched to jail for all times despite the fact that two jurors voted not responsible. The one different state to do the identical was Oregon.
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom dominated that the apply was unconstitutional and based mostly on an inherently racist legislation meant to uphold white supremacy, however the resolution solely utilized in instances going ahead; the courtroom left the choice about what to do with these convicted way back to the states. Louisiana refused to rethink the convictions of greater than 1,000 principally Black males despatched to jail for prolonged sentences by these split-jury verdicts.
Reporting right here can usually be a surreal expertise. Even once you suppose you’ve reached a degree of cynicism that may’t be breached, one thing new comes alongside that shocks your system. For me, that was the swastika.
Whereas Grey’s former legal professional was explaining the ins and outs of his case to me, he talked about that sooner or later, somebody had drawn the Nazi hate image on the duvet of Grey’s case file. And certain sufficient, when Grey’s attorneys despatched me the duvet web page of his file, there it was, within the higher proper nook: a small doodle of a swastika.
It was laborious to ponder how, whilst lately because the Eighties, somebody would really feel comfy sufficient to attract such a disgraceful factor on a authorities doc with out worry of repercussion. The district legal professional’s workplace doesn’t dispute its existence or {that a} workers member may need drawn it, nevertheless it doesn’t know who or when.
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Obtained by ProPublica and Verite Information. Spotlight added by ProPublica.
The Louisiana Division of Public Security and Corrections denied our request to interview Grey, both by telephone or in individual, so the one technique to talk with him for the story was by way of his attorneys. I supplied them with questions, and so they relayed his responses.
I needed to know what his life was like earlier than that fateful night time in 1980 when he was accused of rape. He described a cheerful childhood, saying: “The great thing about it’s we had been beloved. Me and my sister, my brother, we had been beloved.” However he additionally recalled witnessing his mom’s mistreatment at a fuel station at a younger age. “It opened my eyes to racism at its most interesting,” Grey stated.
Grey’s attorneys contend that the swastika, together with the 2 Black jurors voting to acquit, amongst different points, proves that his prosecution was tainted by racial bias and needs to be sufficient to, on the very least, rethink Grey’s sentence.
At one level, the New Orleans District Legal professional’s Workplace appeared to agree and proposed a plea deal that might enable for Grey’s launch. In Oregon, after the Supreme Courtroom’s 2020 ruling, the state vacated the sentences of everybody convicted by a nonunanimous jury, after which prosecutors provided plea offers with diminished sentences that allowed many to stroll free.
However once more, that is Louisiana. Not like Oregon, the state Supreme Courtroom determined to not vacate previous split-jury convictions and left it to the Legislature to cope with the difficulty. In flip, lawmakers, backed by Landry, shut off all paths to freedom for folks like Grey. They not solely shot down laws permitting for older split-jury verdicts to be reexamined, they handed a invoice gutting the power of prosecutors to supply plea offers. (The Landry administration didn’t reply to requests for remark.)
The impression of this legislation performed out in Orleans Parish Felony District Courtroom in late August when the district legal professional’s workplace informed Choose Robin Pittman that the brand new legislation prevented it from waiving a missed submitting deadline by Grey and, because of this, it couldn’t dealer a deal. Pittman set a brand new listening to for Oct. 30 at which she is going to determine if Grey’s case, during which he requested for his sentence to be reconsidered, can transfer ahead.
“While you’re despatched to jail with a life sentence, they ship you right here to die,” Grey informed me via his attorneys. “After 45 years, I’m no nearer to freedom than the day I walked into this place.”
