Nearly nine months after he was scheduled to be released, Bobby Sneed remains incarcerated. Louisiana parole officials refuse to release Sneed despite two separate court decisions ordering his release.
Civil rights attorney Scott Hechinger tweeted a thread about Sneed’s case Monday, amplifying news of the latest injustice and highlighting the uncertainty of where the older man would be spending his 75th birthday this weekend.
“A judge has twice ordered Bobby Sneed to be released,” Hechinger Tweeted. “Judge acknowledged warden & Parole Board are openly breaking the law. 3 days ago, finally, he was released. While waiting for pickup, parole issued an arrest warrant for a new fake contraband charge. Caged again.”
As reported by The Lens, the Louisiana Supreme Court determined that a decision earlier this year to rescind Sneed’s parole was impermissible. From all information provided, and by the parole board’s own admission, there is not a valid reason or legitimate public interest in keeping Sneed incarcerated any longer. And yet, Louisiana officials refuse to release him. (Read the full article here).
Parole board officials pointed to the discretionary nature of the decision to award parole as a justification for the arbitrary actions taken to keep Sneed incarcerated. His case highlights the concerns incarcerated people and advocates have about the discretionary nature of some parole processes.
An analysis by Reason explained that the parole board failed to follow basic legal principles such as the right to due process. The outlet also reported Sneed’s legal team was not permitted to review alleged evidence used to justify keeping him locked up. (Read the full article here).
In an interview with Reason, Louisiana Parole Project Deputy Director Kerry Myers told Reason the delay in releasing Sneed is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
“I don’t believe that there’s any threat to public safety….By keeping him incarcerated, at his age and with [his] medical conditions, it’s more costly with very finite taxpayer dollars to keep him [locked up] than to help him get substance abuse treatment,” Myers told Reason. “What’s at stake is: What’s the best use of resources?”
The Louisiana Parole Project supports efforts to reform the process for pardons and parole and helps people who have been given extreme sentences. One effort led by the Parole Project is the “Forgotten Men Project,” which seeks to liberate incarcerated people who were told they were eligible for parole after serving ten years and six months but have remained inside for decades.
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3. Herbert Alford
A Michigan man who spent nearly five years in custody is suing Hertz for failing to produce in a timely manner a receipt that would have proved his innocence long before he was convicted of a 2011 murder. https://t.co/kZaI5tdOv4
— NBC News (@NBCNews)
4. Walter Forbes
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— The Innocence Project (@innocence)
5. Termaine Joseph Hicks
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6. Clifford Williams, Nathan Myers
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— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org)
7. Calvin Bright
8. Kevin Baker, Sean Washington
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9. Theophalis Wilson
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10. Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins, and Andrew Stewart
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11. Deandre Charles
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12. Exonerated Five – Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise
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13. Anthony Ray Hinton
Name: Anthony Ray Hinton, who was on Alabama’s Death Row for nearly 30 years for a murder he didn’t commit. In 2018, he wrote about his experience in the NYT bestseller, The Sun Does Shine.
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14. Lamar Johnson
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15. Wilbert Jones
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16. Xavier Davis
17. Huwe Burton
2,372nd Exon: Huwe Burton was convicted in 1991 for stabbing his mother to death when he was 16. He was exonerated on Jan 24th after an investigation showed that his confession was coerced and that his mother’s real killer was likely a downstairs neighbor. https://t.co/TM3f76moQ5 pic.twitter.com/rsU1NlPr2y
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Continue reading Exonerated! Wrongly Convicted Black Folks Whose Names Have Been Cleared
Exonerated! Wrongly Convicted Black Folks Whose Names Have Been Cleared
Source: GoFundMe/Tricia Rojo Bushnell / GoFundMe/Tricia Rojo Bushnell
UPDATED: 6:30 p.m. ET, Nov. 23, 2021 — It is a story that mirrors that of far too many Black men: being convicted for crimes they never actually committed. What seemingly happens at a far lower rate is their exonerations. But that trend has picked up in recent months, including on Tuesday when news broke that Kevin Strickland would finally be set free after 43 years. The move comes after a Missouri prosecutor filed a motion after a new law was passed allowing local prosecutors to ask judges to free incarcerated people they believed were innocent. A judge ruled that the conviction could not stand because the confidence in the prior determination was undermined. Experts say Strickland’s case is the longest wrongful conviction in Missouri history, and one of the longest in the country. Strickland was 18 when he was arrested in connection with a triple murder. No physical evidence ever connected Strickland with the case. The only eyewitness previously recanted her statement before her death in 2015. USA Today reported that he learned of the decision while watching television and the announcement scrolled across the screen. The list of Black men, women and teens who have faced wrongful convictions from prosecutors after being unjustly arrested and accused by corrupt police officers is far too long. See below for more.
Exonerated! Wrongly Convicted Black Folks Whose Names Have Been Cleared
Source: GoFundMe/Tricia Rojo Bushnell / GoFundMe/Tricia Rojo Bushnell
UPDATED: 6:30 p.m. ET, Nov. 23, 2021 — It is a story that mirrors that of far too many Black men: being convicted for crimes they never actually committed. What seemingly happens at a far lower rate is their exonerations. But that trend has picked up in recent months, including on Tuesday when news broke that Kevin Strickland would finally be set free after 43 years. The move comes after a Missouri prosecutor filed a motion after a new law was passed allowing local prosecutors to ask judges to free incarcerated people they believed were innocent. A judge ruled that the conviction could not stand because the confidence in the prior determination was undermined. Experts say Strickland’s case is the longest wrongful conviction in Missouri history, and one of the longest in the country. Strickland was 18 when he was arrested in connection with a triple murder. No physical evidence ever connected Strickland with the case. The only eyewitness previously recanted her statement before her death in 2015. USA Today reported that he learned of the decision while watching television and the announcement scrolled across the screen. The list of Black men, women and teens who have faced wrongful convictions from prosecutors after being unjustly arrested and accused by corrupt police officers is far too long. See below for more.
This content was originally published here.
