Monday, June 29, 2015
Bulletin: Glenn Ford: Sad, sad news: Glenn Ford, 65, who spent nearly 30 years on Angola's death row for a murder that prosecutors eventually conceded he did not commit, died in New Orleans early Monday (June 29), supporters announced, reports nola.com; "Supporters said all he had received from the state before his death was $20 for a bus ride home from prison."
Glenn Ford, who spent nearly 30 years on
Angola's death row for a murder that prosecutors eventually conceded he
did not commit, died in New Orleans early Monday (June 29), supporters
announced. He was 65. Ford learned he had lung cancer shortly after his release from Angola on March 11, 2014.
A news release from Ford's supporters said he died at 2:11 a.m., having
been "surrounded by friends, loved ones and family in recent days." Ford, who was born in Shreveport on Oct. 22, 1949, was convicted of
the 1983 murder of 56-year-old Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweler and
watchmaker for whom Ford had done occasional yard work. Ford had always
denied killing Rozeman, and on March 10, 2014, he was exonerated of the
crime when the state vacated his conviction. State District Judge Ramona Emanuel voided Ford's conviction and
sentence based on new information corroborating his claim that he was
not present or involved in Rozeman's death, Ford's attorneys said. Ford was tried and convicted of first-degree murder in 1984 and
sentenced to death. He spent 29 years, three months and five days in
solitary confinement on Angola's death row. At the time of his release,
Ford was the longest-serving death row inmate in the United States,
supporters said. The final 15 months of Ford's life were spent outside prison walls but not without challenges..........Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's office filed a petition to deny
Ford state-mandated compensation for his wrongful conviction and
imprisonment, arguing Ford failed to meet the law's "factually
innocent" clause..........First Judicial District Court Judge Katherine Clark Dorroh sided with Caldwell in a ruling three months ago,
deciding Ford was aware of the plan to rob Rozeman and failed to stop
it, and took and sold items stolen during the robbery. The judge also
ruled Ford tried to find buyers for the weapon used in Rozeman's murder,
and that he tried to hinder the police investigation by initially
giving a false name for the man he later identified as Rozeman's killer. Ford died while awaiting the outcome of separate federal lawsuits aimed
at securing compensation for his imprisonment and failing health, which
he claimed resulted from insufficient medical treatment while in
prison. Supporters said all he had received from the state before his
death was $20 for a bus ride home from prison."
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/06/exonerated_convict_glenn_ford.html