When a supply first informed me concerning 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 difficulty, however it additionally received to the guts of a narrative revealed 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 at some point of testimony, the jury returned with a 10-2 cut up verdict. The ten white jurors voted responsible and the one two Black jurors not responsible. When you’re an everyday shopper of courtroom dramas, you would possibly suppose a cut up verdict would imply a mistrial, and as we speak it will. However again then in Louisiana, the place nonunanimous juries had been authorized, it resulted in a life sentence for Grey.
Protecting the felony justice system in Louisiana typically means familiarizing myself with issues folks in different components of the nation would possibly discover stunning. As an illustration, many is perhaps shocked to be taught 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 Court docket dominated that the apply was unconstitutional and based mostly on an inherently racist regulation meant to uphold white supremacy, however the resolution solely utilized in instances going ahead; the court docket 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 typically be a surreal expertise. Even while you suppose you’ve reached a stage 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 lawyer was explaining the ins and outs of his case to me, he talked about that in some unspecified time in the future, somebody had drawn the Nazi hate image on the quilt of Grey’s case file. And certain sufficient, when Grey’s attorneys despatched me the quilt web page of his file, there it was, within the higher proper nook: a small doodle of a swastika.
It was exhausting to ponder how, at the same time as not too long ago 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 lawyer’s workplace doesn’t dispute its existence or {that a} employees member might need drawn it, however it doesn’t know who or when.
Credit score:
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 particular person, so the one solution to talk with him for the story was through his attorneys. I offered them with questions, and so they relayed his responses.
I wished to know what his life was like earlier than that fateful evening in 1980 when he was accused of rape. He described a contented childhood, saying: “The fantastic thing about it’s we had been liked. Me and my sister, my brother, we had been liked.” However he additionally recalled witnessing his mom’s mistreatment at a gasoline station at a younger age. “It opened my eyes to racism at its best,” 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 must be sufficient to, on the very least, rethink Grey’s sentence.
At one level, the New Orleans District Lawyer’s Workplace appeared to agree and proposed a plea deal that will enable for Grey’s launch. In Oregon, after the Supreme Court docket’s 2020 ruling, the state vacated the sentences of everybody convicted by a nonunanimous jury, after which prosecutors supplied plea offers with decreased sentences that allowed many to stroll free.
However once more, that is Louisiana. In contrast to Oregon, the state Supreme Court docket determined to not vacate outdated split-jury convictions and left it to the Legislature to take care of the problem. 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 affect of this regulation performed out in Orleans Parish Prison District Court docket in late August when the district lawyer’s workplace informed Decide Robin Pittman that the brand new regulation prevented it from waiving a missed submitting deadline by Grey and, consequently, it couldn’t dealer a deal. Pittman set a brand new listening to for Oct. 30 at which she’s going to determine if Grey’s case, by which he requested for his sentence to be reconsidered, can transfer ahead.
“If you’re despatched to jail with a life sentence, they ship you right here to die,” Grey informed me by his attorneys. “After 45 years, I’m no nearer to freedom than the day I walked into this place.”
