This Martin Luther King Day,
By All Means, Keep Moving
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. . . . Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.
– Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, August 1963
On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the power of the State to lock people in cages is being deployed in a broad, arbitrary, cruel and violent way that many of us have never witnessed. People who have committed no crime are being intimidated, physically harmed, and jailed. Principles of law enforcement are being used to justify military action against other countries. Prosecution has become a political weapon wielded at the highest levels of government.
Dr. King foresaw this when he famously said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” As the use of police power to oppress and incarcerate Black communities has become “normal”, it has been easier for those who wield that power to expand it, using many of the same tactics that Dr. King and his supporters lived through and marched against. Community public safety has been needlessly militarized. Dissent has been criminalized at every level of society. Fundamental freedoms have been labeled illegal—for everyone. It’s hard to make out the arc of the moral universe bending towards justice at the moment.
At Innocence & Justice Louisiana, we remain focused on working to free our clients and support them in freedom, motivated by Dr. King’s encouragement that service to others is our bedrock responsibility. At a time when many of us feel our ability truly to be of use is limited, we remember that he told us to stay in the fight however we can: “If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving.”
CLIENT NEWS
Keith Ezidore, whose conviction was reversed last summer, is still waiting for bail.
This week, Keith was finally granted a bail hearing. Even though his conviction was reversed in July, Mr. Ezidore has remained in prison waiting for the opportunity to ask the judge for bail.
On January 12, IJLA lawyers presented hours of testimony about why Mr. Ezidore can be safely released as he fights to be fully exonerated. The judge heard from witnesses about his poor health, his community support, and the weakness of the evidence against him. The judge continued the hearing for another month for further testimony. By the conclusion of the hearing, Mr. Ezidore will have been waiting seven months since his conviction was reversed without the opportunity to post bail. This, after being imprisoned since 1991 for a murder he did not commit.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana has represented Mr. Ezidore since 2017 and uncovered proof that the only eyewitness, who was 13 years old at the time of the crime, had been pressured into saying that Mr. Ezidore had committed a crime he had nothing to do with. Louisiana courts have ruled that he did not have a fair trial. Mr. Ezidore now awaits the decision of the attorney general to dismiss the charges against Mr. Ezidore or attempt to retry him.
LOUISIANA LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY DATABASE (LLEAD.CO) NEW REPORT
LLEAD Data Show Louisiana State Police
Uses Force Disproportionately Against
Black People
IJLA recently released a report analyzing recent data from the Louisiana State Police and finding that officers used force against Black people at greatly disproportionate rates.
The Louisiana Illuminator reported these findings, made through our Louisiana Law Enforcement and Accountability Database (llead.co).
Read more about LLEAD and the important role it plays in bringing transparency to policing in Louisiana in the Louisiana Illuminator.
UPCOMING EVENTS
CLIENT UPDATES
Mr. Skinner gets a new apartment and is happy to call it home!
IJLA Clients visiting Louis Armstrong International Airport, meeting with officials from United Airlines about potential employment opportunities. We’re grateful to Innocence Project in New York for setting up this collaboration.
Cheri Hayden and Ricky Thomas spending time with their grandchildren over Christmas, their first holiday season at home in many years.
LSU Wrongful Conviction Clinic students sworn in for a new semester of study and work towards DNA exonerations.
IJLA Peer Mentor, Jerome Morgan, presented to members of the
Newcomb Prison Project at Tulane.
Christmas Without Tears celebrated 20 Years! Proceeds benefitted IJLA. Thank you to Judith Owen and Harry Shearer for their support and generosity.
