Ex-prosecutor to wrongfully convicted man: 'I apologize'
SHREVEPORT, La. — Saying the words "I apologize" seems so inadequate at times. And this is one of them for attorney A.M. "Marty" Stroud III.
But he feels it must be said to Glenn Ford, the man who spent almost 30 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit.
Stroud, 63, was the lead prosecutor in Ford's 1984 murder trial. Even though it was a jury of 12 people who unanimously voted to convict Ford of the Nov. 5, 1983, shooting death of Shreveport, La., jeweler Isadore Rozeman then chose the death penalty as his punishment, Stroud takes responsibility for the decision — one he now admits was flawed with inaction on his part and coupled with the admitted "arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself" attitude of the attorney he was then.
In perhaps an unprecedented move by a former prosecutor, Stroud is offering a public apology to Ford in a three-page letter to The (Shreveport, La.) Times in response to the newspaper's coverage of Ford's plight.
In a separate interview Thursday, a contrite and agonizing Stroud still displayed the struggles of a man coming to grips with decisions made three decades ago.
"I view it as a stain on me. It's still there," Stroud said.
He doesn't stop there. Stroud takes the state to task for fighting Ford's effort to gain compensation for his wrongful incarceration. And he calls for the abolishment of the "barbaric" death penalty — a stance he says changed over his 38 years as an attorney, but even more so now realizing his role in asking a jury to consider putting to death a man innocent of a crime.
"I'm relieved because he was released from death row and did not get the death penalty," Stroud said. "On the other hand, I'm shocked and devastated that I had, albeit unwillingly, sent a man to a hell hole who had no business being there in the first place."
It's too easy to take the position of "Oh, I didn't know," he said. But when a person's life is at stake, an "attitude like that doesn't cut it."
Innocence Project New Orleans had no comment to add to Stroud's letter. "We think the letter is powerful on its own; it doesn't need any additional commentary," said staff attorney Kristin Wenstrom, who is representing Ford in his compensation lawsuit.
Efforts to reach Ford were unsuccessful.
Ford became a free man March 11, 2014, walking out of Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola a day after the Caddo Parish District Attorney's office filed a motion vacating his conviction and death sentence. New evidence that someone other than Ford killed Rozeman discovered during the investigation of an unrelated homicide prompted the move.
District Attorney Charles Scott, who was not in office when Ford was convicted, is not as convinced as Stroud that Ford is an innocent man.
Scott is steadfast in his belief Ford was "guilty of committing crimes relative to Isadore Rozeman."
Asked his reaction to Stroud's letter, which he admitted he hadn't read fully, Scott said, "Glenn Ford was attempting to purchase a weapon before the murder and attempting to sell a weapon after the murder; although he claimed it was on behalf of someone else. He is hardly an innocent man.
"Although we dismissed the murder case and asked the court to vacate the conviction and sentence because with the addition of newly acquired information we knew there was insufficient proof overall that Glenn Ford was in fact the killer. He may very well have been the killer. Or he may not have been."
NEW EVIDENCE
Stroud chose the unusual route of shouldering blame for the "miscarriage of justice" in the hopes that others in the judicial system will take notice.
"I wanted to express as one of the participants in the trial my feelings about the case. I'm not on the soap box or anything like that. I will tell people the way I feel. I'm ashamed of what happened, but I'm willing to put it out there for others to consider. I believe I bring a unique perspective because I've been on both sides of the issue."
Ford's death sentence was the first in Caddo Parish since 1972 and it was Stroud's first. At the time of Ford's trial, Stroud was first assistant district attorney. It was among three capital murder cases Stroud prosecuted.
Years later, switching to the other side of the aisle, Stroud defended many clients accused of capital murder but only two that went to trial. One was in state court and the other in federal court. The latter resulted in a death penalty last year.
Stroud recalled it was current First Assistant District Attorney Dale Cox who alerted him in 2013 to new movement in Ford's case. Cox asked him to attend a meeting with other attorneys and investigators involved in Ford's trial to tell them "credible information" had been obtained showing Ford did not kill Rozeman.
Cox went as far as saying if the information had been known in 1983 Ford would have never been arrested, Stroud said.
All charges against Ford were officially dismissed in June.
Stroud still doesn't know the extent of that new information that led to Ford's freedom, but he remembers Ford's assertion of innocence.
No arrest has been made in Rozeman's murder.
Stroud had no doubts at the time he had the correct information on Ford. Appellate courts subsequently upheld Ford's conviction and death sentence.
But there was a time Stroud began questioning aspects of the trial. "It was a circumstantial evidence case and circumstantial evidence cases can easily lead you down the wrong path."
The fact that an all-white jury convicted Ford, a black male, "also began gnawing on me." That coincided with Stroud's transformation to an anti-death penalty stance.
"This case shows the problems we have with the death penalty and why it should be abolished once and for all," he said.
The letter, he said, is an effort to let people know the "realities and what happens as the result of a wrongful conviction and the lives it literally destroys. Because it's not just the defendant."
While it is Ford who did the time, also factored in is the "jury and how they feel, the victim's family who thought they had closure, the court and that case was there as a result of an indictment brought by our office.
"And I was one of the prosecutors. And there is no way to color that. And there shouldn't be because again we're talking about the taking of a life and that to me is what separates death penalty cases from everything else."
MORE LAWSUITS
As Ford awaits the decision from a judge on his request for compensation — $25,000 a year capped at $250,000 — that state law allows for the wrongfully convicted, his attorneys have filed two new lawsuits in federal court.
One filed in the Western District of Louisiana seeks unspecified compensation for wrongful imprisonment and the other filed in the Middle District of Louisiana holds prison officials responsible for denial of adequate medical care.
In a 47-page wrongful incarceration lawsuit, Ford contends the investigators disregarded confidential tips and incriminating evidence about the Robinson brothers' involvement and never disclosed other pieces of potentially exculpatory evidence to his defense attorneys.
The 21-page separate lawsuit is aimed at Warden Burl Cain, other prison staff members and physicians that Ford claims ignored a 2011 test that discovered "indicators of cancer" in his blood. He said he was denied access to an oncologist.
If the cancer had been treated while at Angola, "it may have been able to be forced back into remission or otherwise managed," the lawsuit reads.
Ford also alleges he was subject to second-hand tobacco smoke, overflowing sewage, exposure to asbestos, fiberglass, mold and ash and a lack of ventilation.
In a Feb. 27 interview with The Times, Ford said he was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer shortly after his release from prison. But it had recently progressed to Stage 4.
Doctors told him Feb. 23 he could have four to eight months to live.
He realizes the short time span means he may not live long enough to see the resolution of his fight with the state for compensation for the time he spent wrongfully accused as a murderer. But he hopes there is some way, if he prevails, the money could be passed along to his children and grandchildren, with whom he's been reconnecting over the past year.
There is no timetable on when the judge will rule on Ford's compensation, which the Attorney General's office is opposing. Scott shares the same view.
"The Attorney General's office states our position as to whether he should receive compensation or not," Scott said.
Asked about the process used to evaluate compensation requests, Steven Hartmann, the Attorney General's office spokesman, said every case is judged on its own merit according to the provisions of Louisiana Revised Statute 15:572.8.
"Our office does research and investigate each of these cases," he wrote in an e-mail to The Times.
The state's denial is the "height of absurdity," Stroud said. "In fact, he should get more."
Welborn also reports for The (Shreveport, La.) Times.