On May 22, 1993, a group of teenagers celebrated a girl’s 16th birthday at a hotel in New Orleans East. A group of boys in t-shirts looked like they might want to fight, so the victim, Clarence Landry, and his friends decided to leave the party. One of the friends tried to go back inside to get his cousin, but was accosted by two of the t-shirt boys. A larger fight erupted involving the two groups of boys. Mr. Landry was shot and died at the scene. Two of his friends, Hakim Shabazz and Rogers Mitchell, were shot and survived. The shots had come from inside the party room. One of Mr. Landry’s friends chased the gunman, who jumped a fence and got away. Jerome Morgan, 17 years old at the time, attended the party.
Police collected contact information from all of the remaining attendees. Mr. Landry’s friends gave statements to police and, almost two weeks later, two of them viewed a photographic lineup that contained Jerome Morgan’s photo. They did not make an identification. One friend picked out Mr. Morgan’s photo and stated that he wasn’t the shooter.
Months later, after speaking to Mr. Landry’s mother, this same witness claimed that police had misunderstood and that he’d identified Mr. Morgan as the shooter. Mr. Shabazz was shown the photo lineup after he recovered from his wound. He identified Mr. Morgan’s photo. Mr. Morgan was charged with second degree murder and aggravated battery.
The state’s case was based on the two identifications. Mr. Morgan testified that he’d been in the back of the party room, near the DJ, who was at the other end of the room from the door. He hid underneath the DJ table after hearing shots fired. Mr. Morgan learned that his friend, Mr. Mitchell, had been shot. He went to Mr. Mitchell and gave him his shirt to wrap the wound. The jury had to believe that Mr. Morgan fired a gun, fled the scene, ran down the street, jumped a fence, hid the gun, and returned to the party. They convicted Jerome Morgan of second degree murder in September 1994. He was sentenced to life without parole.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana’s investigation revealed that the state concealed a police complaint history that showed that police arrived at the scene in six minutes, not 30-45 minutes, as the jury heard. Further, the teens who’d identified Mr. Morgan recanted their identification and admitted that police had told them to name Mr. Morgan. Mr. Morgan’s conviction was overturned in January 2014, but his fight to clear his name continued. The state sought to re-prosecute him, even charging the two teen witnesses with perjury.
In May 2016, the state dismissed the charges and Mr. Morgan was finally exonerated, over 21 years after his wrongful conviction. He was imprisoned for almost 20 years for a crime he couldn’t have committed.
