FIGHTING FOR THE INNOCENT
Keith Ezidore
September 3, 2025
Mr. Ezidore’s conviction was vacated in July 2025 because law enforcement had hidden evidence at his trial. After 34 years wrongfully imprisoned, he was granted a bail hearing, but the court cancelled it at the prosecutor’s request.
Keith Ezidore has spent over thirty-two years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Mr. Ezidore, who is now 72-years old and cannot walk unaided, has been challenging his 1993 conviction in the Louisiana court system for decades. Innocence & Justice Louisiana has been representing Mr. Ezidore since 2017 and has uncovered hundreds of pages of documents that the State had hidden from Mr. Ezidore. These documents contained evidence that would have prevented Mr. Ezidore’s wrongful conviction in the first place. Even while hiding evidence at Mr. Ezidore’s trial, the prosecution had been able to convince only 11 out of 12 jurors to vote to convict Mr. Ezidore—a non-unanimous conviction that would now be considered unconstitutional.
On July 16, 2025, the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal overturned Mr. Ezidore’s conviction. In a lengthy opinion, the Fifth Circuit found that Mr. Ezidore’s constitutional rights were violated when the State hid evidence about the sole witness who it recruited to testify against Mr. Ezidore at trial. The witness, who was just 13 years old at the time of the 1991 murder, has recanted his testimony and revealed that he was pressured by the lead detective to testify against Mr. Ezidore. The lead detective—who was also the witness’s juvenile probation officer—engaged in an 18-month campaign to maintain control of the young witness, including by giving him secret benefits and extraordinary assistance in exchange for his testimony.
On August 13, 2025, the Court of Appeal unanimously denied the State’s request for rehearing. Innocence & Justice Louisiana is fighting for Mr. Ezidore to come home on bail while his case is resolved and also litigating to exonerate him.
