It was July first, the start of the July fourth weekend nineteen seventy seven, in New Orleans, in the then predominantly white working class ninth Ward, two black men approached the welcome in bar, requesting two beers to go, and the owner obliged, believing that she had recognized the shorter
of the pair from the neighborhood. They grabbed the cans of beer and then forced their way in a gunpoint, demanding money from the register as well as from the intoxicated patrons, one of whom Cecil Lloyd, was fatally shot. The assailants set their beer cans down on the bar,
leaving their fingerprints behind. The police began their investigation, casting a wide net, considering all the local black men as potential suspects, including a young man named Elvis Brooks, who had previously been wrongfully arrested for a nineteen seventy four
robbery and attempted murder. When three of the surviving witnesses identified Elvis from a photo array and again in court, it must have seemed to the jury that his parade of thirteen alibi witnesses were perjuring themselves to save Elements from prison. But this is wrongful conviction. We'll be right
back after this. Welcome back to wronful Conviction. Today, I have a case out of New Orleans, and it's a case of cross racial misidentification, which, as you know, in study after study, has been found and proven to be even less accurate than guessing. And with us to discuss the case is the man himself, Elvis Brooks, who did over four decades in Angola Penitentiary. Elvis, Welcome to wronful Conviction. Jason and joining Elvis is one of his post conviction attorneys.
She's the supervising attorney for case development at Edison's Project New Orleans, also known as IPNO. Charrelle Arnold, Welcome to ronfel conviction.
Thank you for having me.
So. This is Orlands Parish in nineteen seventies. We've covered several other cases from this era, both in Orleans Parish and elsewhere in the surrounding areas Bobby Jean Johnson, Vincent Simmons, Malcolm Alexander, where it seems like the state was running more of a kidnapping racket than anything resembling justice or public safety.
Orlean's Parish has been really challenged for a long time in terms of the administration of the criminal legal system, how Orleans Parish has treated people of color and particularly its black residents. In nineteen seventy seven, mister Brooks lived in an area that was primarily white. His family was one of the only black families who lived there. Honestly, that was part of the reason that he was targeted for this crime. This was an area that was very
like white working class back then. The Lower ninth Ward, of course, would become an area that was largely black area obviously by the time Hurricane Katrina came, So this was an area that was really kind of on the cusp of Frankly, I think many white residents believed something dangerous, but in actuality was an area where black families would
eventually become homeowners and grow a really vibrant neighborhood. So many of the witnesses I imagined in this case, or people who lived around there, would later be part of the white flight of white residents of Orleans Parish who left to the suburbs.
And this is a phenomenon we saw all over the country in this era, with white residents fleeing to suburbia. Talking Brooklyn, Detroit, and of course New Orleans and Elvis. You grew up in that fraught time. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood.
I was one of twelve kids, five boys, the seventh girls. Oh, the middle boy. You know, I had it known. I'm a kid life, you know. I went to school and I had two of the best parents in the world.
Yeah, they'd have to be kids is no small feat. I can't even imagine that's in some superhero category. And it must have been hard for them to keep you all in line.
Out the bed. Look key, and I ain't no my daddy he used to have to come to school quite a bit for me and my Beretta. Young teenagers, you know, acting crazy, you know, fighting, joy ride, you know, shooting, hooking all we never heard anyone, you know.
Now. Joy Riding was a bit of a raucous teenage trend back then, where you'd steal a car for a short period of time with the intention of returning it or abandoning it unnoticed. Which it's foolishness for sure, but it's certainly not murder. But I can also imagine that the joy rides at least pissed people off, right.
I think he could have been upsetting some people. I think these were crimes that frankly, white teenagers were committing that people did just call joy rides, right, and they weren't getting arrested, or they weren't getting.
Through Me and my partner I better. We'd be hanging out there, you know, just hanging out, you know, and the police has come threatened us. You know, we know, y'all all, get off the street. We're gonna arrest y'all, you know, but put some charges on y'all. You know, we were being young. We ain't take them serious, you know.
So since you had this reputation as a troublemaker, they would threaten you with bogus charges to enforce some sort of an unofficial curfew that they made just for you. And it turns out that you should have taken those threats seriously. Now, this wasn't the detective in the case we're here to discuss today, but this guy did do something that put you in jeopardy for this case. There was a robbery turned homicide in your neighborhood at a bakery, and one night he made his usual threat to get
you off the street. That you didn't take that seriously. But this time it got a bit more real for you, right.
Yes, in nineteen centy full the detective put a robbery and a tip murder charge on me. I was seven. I ain't even know where the rivalry happened, you know. It happened on Saint claud and Treacle. That was about seven blocks away from where I live, you know, And he stopped me three times altogether. He told me if he ever catched me on the street again, he's gonna bring me up to jail for that charge. You know.
Third time he saw me out there, he arrested me, you know, and brought me to my parents' house and told my parents. You know, I know he Elvers didn't have anything to do with this, but I gotta teach him a lesson. I said, I'm gonna arrest him. I'm gonna book him. I'm gonna put him on the line up. He ain't gonna get identified because he didn't do this here. But I got to teach him a lesson. I was frank of printed and I had a mug, you know,
smug shot. You know. I went on the line up and I was out when they arrest me on this case here. That's all they talked about was that nineteen seventy four case, you know.
So this detective trying to show you tough love, as if that was in his job description, put you permanently on the docket, ready to be sold off and shipped off to Angola. So three years later, that's exactly what happened. Chelle. Can you describe the events of July first, nineteen seventy seven, at a bar in the ninth Ward called the Welcome Inn that resulted in the failed shooting death of a man named Cecil Lloyd?
Sure? So this crib. I believe it was a Friday night, but it was just the start of basically the fourth of July weekend. And the bar was a small neighborhood bar, tiny place, not a lot of room to move around. There was a few patrons left, and I think one or two people working the bar. As far as we can tell, these patrons had been drinking all day, right, they were having a good time, enjoying the weekend. Two black men come to the door. And this was a
bar that I think was primarily a white bar. Everyone who worked there was white, The owner was white. As far as I'm aware, The patrons were all white two black men come to the door and the owner says that they ask for beers to go, and she says that she opened the door to get them the beers because she recognized one of the men from the neighborhood. She hands them the beers and then they push in the door. But importantly to mister Brooks's case, they set
their beer on the bar top. Just a couple steps inside the bar and they basically commence a robbery. So they empty the cash register. They demand everyone get down on the ground. There's sort of a lead robber and kind of the supporting robber. One of them is armed with a gun, or at least one of them is the one who fires the fatal shot. I believe only one shot is fired, and sadly, mister Lloyd is killed, seemingly for no reason. Mister Lloyd complied just like everyone else, so.
This must have scared the living shit out of everyone in that bar. Lloyd complied and still got killed. So all bets were off. But these two men leave, and of course the cops are called in. What did the victims say to the police?
They take witness statements from everybody. We now know that these statements differed quite a bit from one another in many ways. By the time of trial the statements would become remarkably more consistent. But that night, the witnesses give sort of general descriptions of the men. We know they were both black. They give a variety of different clothing descriptions, a variety of hair descriptions. We know that one is short and one is tall. Mister Brooks was eventually convicted
of being the shorter of the two robbers. Who is the shooter?
Right? It's my understanding that the shorter of the two assailants was about five four.
Yeah, five full full by one hundred and forty pound out five eight by one hundred and forty something pound, and he said he had shot hair, but I had a big the shorter robber.
I think it may have also technically bett afro. But mister Brooks's hair was like much bigger. You know, mister Brooks, he could be described as short, but the hairstyles that the witnesses described just didn't match mister Brooks.
So we're seeing a market difference in height as well as length of hair. So how does Elvis even get dragged into the consciousness of these victims?
The bar owner Ms Caruso, the woman who chose to let the men into the bar. She believes that she recognized the shorter robber from the neighborhood. And in the end, this is really the only connection that mister Brooks has to this case is that his family was a black family who lived in the neighborhood. Beyond that, police have
nothing to go on. So what detectives do, and we know this from the police files that we've been able to obtain, is that they basically just started getting lists of black men who lived in the naighborhood Jesus Christ and so there are just lists and lists. Frankly, a man who could have been wrongfully convicted for this crime. Right if it wasn't mister Brooks, it certainly would have been someone else on one of these lists. Interestingly, when police
create these lists, Elvis Brooks isn't on them. We don't know exactly what police did with these lists. It seems as though they may have gotten photos of some of these people and tried to show the robbery victims these photos. We don't know for sure. There's not great documentation on this, but for several weeks, police don't have a suspect in this case, they are basically all they have to go on is a black man who maybe lives in the neighborhood or has been in the neighborhood at some point.
And so this is how randomly, right coincidentally, despite having gotten these lists of people, mister Brooks's name isn't on them. Suddenly, from reading the police report, one of the police officers would have you believe that he suddenly came to buy a suspect that matched the description who lived in the neighborhood, and that was Elvis Brooks.
I mean, it sounds like a sinister game of eeny Meeni Mini mo right, And this is why we must remind people that black lives matter, because to these people, they simply don't. So even though he's four inches taller than the shooter, has a big afro unlike the shooter, they still put Elvis's photo in an array to show to the victims.
I don't know that it's even like multiple photos on one piece of paper. They just have photos, and one of those photos is of Elvis Brooks. But it's not a photo from nineteen seventy seven. It's a photo from several years before, right, when mister Brooks had been arrested previously, and so they take this old photo where his hair looks differently, right, because it was two years previously. His hair is much shorter in this photo than his hair
was in nineteen seventy seven. He hadn't cut his hair in between, because it was an afro that he was letting grow out. And so they take this old photo to the witnesses from the bar. But because it's the same photo, when a witness signed the back of it, right, Sometimes when you sign things, you can tell that there's writing on the back of something. So it's certainly possible that as they're showing the photo to the witnesses from the bar, it's very obvious which photo has been identified.
So not only is the photo lineup suggestive because of the signature on the back, but also the photo of Elvis from nineteen seventy four more closely met the description of the actual assailant in nineteen seventy seven than Elvis did in that same year. This is also a situation where you have three fully traumatized victims, so not exactly a room full of people with clear heads, and the
victims were white. The assailants were black. And we have to go back to this important point, which is that study after study has shown that cross racial identification it's less accurate than guessing. So they got three cross racial identifications from two patrons, mister Nodo, Miss Chibriani and the bar owner, Miss Caruso, But they didn't have to go down the identification route, right. What about the fingerprints they're right there on the beer cans.
Correct. The police got to the scene and they knew exactly what would be probative to fingerprint in this scene. This isn't a case where they were figure printing the ceiling or something like that. They knew that the robbers had touched these beer cans and that they had then set those beer cans on the bar top. And so they collected those Kansas evidence and they were able to get usable prints that they could compare to mister Brooks's prints.
And what we now know and what police and what the district attorney in nineteen seventy seven knew as they were trying to kill mister brook right to prosecute him capitally, was that the fingerprints onw those beer cans didn't match Elvis Brooks We don't know whose they were, but we know they didn't belong to mister Brooks.
So they got these fingerprints, they knew that they didn't match Elvis, but yet they decided to go ahead and pursue the death penalty. Anyway, let's just marinate on that for a second. That sounds like state sanctioned attempted murder. Needless to say, if these folks were civilians, they'd be charged and punished accordingly. But our system has decided that these people have special privileges, including the right to kill
for the advance of their careers with no recompense. And this was the notorious Harry Konic senior era, so this sort of behavior was the norm, even from the junior Ada who was trying the case. So they ignored the beer can fingerprints that they knew to be from the actual assailants, no question about it, and they got an a arrest warrant for Elvis instead.
And I was at work that day. You know. When I got home, my sister said, the police would look like you for you. I say it, for what they said, you kill somebody. I said, kill somebody. I said, I ain't never killed nobody. Then I went to the phone book called the Philip Prieston.
You know.
Ashually was they looking for all the books? And they said, yeah, they see where you're at. I said, I'm all paid for Saint claud and Fallston. Then way they came and got me right there.
You know, we'll be right back after this.
This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making a positive difference in the lives of its employees and in the communities where we work and live. In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals.
I had to go to get bond, said, that's the first thing I went to wish I didn't have any bond because the first degree murried. So after that they went into the motive identification brought me the colder. So I feel like, I know I didn't do it, I said, I said, these people here ain't gonna say I'd done it, because I knew I didn't do it. I say they
got the wrong person. You know. When I go in the court room for emotional for identification, one of them said, he potative it wasn't me, you know, but the DA came in print at me said this ain't the man. He said, no, my pottier, that ain't the man. And uh, the two ladies you know, they said it was me, you know. But when I gave bet to trial a man, that change in mind, you know, and see it was me, you know.
So Joseph Noto when he went to court for the motion to suppress identifications, he essentially couldn't recognize if the man he had identified in the photo, if that was the same man who was in court. Someone who can't even look at a photo and say if it's the same person as someone's sitting in front of them, shouldn't be considered to be reliable evidence against someone.
Yet somehow something helped him come around by the time of trial to make the identification.
At trial, the evidence against mister Brooks is three cross racial stranger identifications. At least two of the witnesses were quite a bit older than mister Brooks. It can be more difficult to identify someone who's of a different age than you are. We most recognize people who look more like us. It's just easier for people to remember. And then also, these people had been drinking for hours in a dark bar. They were terrified. They were being told
to lie down on the ground. Someone had just been shot, seemingly randomly. And this is a very quick situation. And so they've had only a few minutes to look at a person they've never seen before and to identify them after they've been drinking, some of them seemingly for hours.
And then there's a fourth witness presented a trial in addition to the other three we've already mentioned.
The fourth person is actually he's the victim who can't identify anyone. He describes the circumstances of the crime and agrees, you know, in many ways with the other witnesses, but he could never make an identification of mister Brooks. And so this was the evidence against Elvis Brooks. No physical evidence ever tied him to the crime, and in fact, the fingerprints right made it very clear that he was not one of the robbers.
So what the hell is this? How is it that the defense did not bring this up?
His lawyer didn't mention the fingerprints because he wasn't told about the fingerprints. The police right, they had gathered the evidence, they had tested the evidence, They knew about the evidence. We know that the assistant district attorney in this case knew about the evidence because of notes we would later find in the DA file. Mister Brooks's attorney was never told that there were fingerprints, exonerating his client. But in this trial that lasted only a few hours, mister Brooks's
attorney fought. He presented witness after witness after witness, all demonstrating Elvis Brooks's alibi for that night. Mister Brooks also testified on his own behalf right. He told the jury that he was innocent, that he didn't do this. In total, the jury chose to believe four white witnesses who had been drinking in a dimly lit bar, oh for thirteen black witnesses who described almost to a t, the alibi
that mister Brooks had that night. They all explained how they had come to be at the Brooks house that evening, what they were doing, the time periods they were there, what they saw Elvis doing. These were people who, yes many of them were related to mister Brooks, though not all of them, but these were also people who just frankly, they corroborated one another, not in a perfect way, right, not everyone had been there for the exact same time
period that night. But they were clear as to what mister Brooks had been wearing, which wasn't the clothing described as the robber was wearing, what his hair had looked like, and what he had been doing. And they were all clear that in this small shotgun style house, which right, it's a house that it has one entrance and one exit. It's very clear when someone leaves a shotgun house, you can't sneak out. They knew that mister Brooks had been
there all night, he couldn't possibly be the robber. Yet these black voices were ignored.
I had my brother, he come over there with his friend, and my sister she come over over her boyfriend and she had her three kids. Well I'm the one to open the door for them, you know, for the July was coming up, and uh, they wanted to come visit my mom and daddy. You know, no, I might have been a bad little kid, but my mom and daddy they were very honest people, you know, even if it was meant I had to help the death pending. It wasn't gonna lie for me. You know.
After this very short proceeding, three cross racial misidentifications were made, but thirteen alibi witnesses swore that you were with them instead, and your life was literally hanging in the balance. Did you still hold out hope that the jury was going to believe your parents and your family?
You know what, at that time, I was young, Like I said, I didn't take life serious then, you know. But I was saying to myself, I didn't do this. I mean, I'm I'm not gonna get convicted, you know, because I didn't do it. You know. But when I got convicted, I learned the hard way just how much people hate out of people. You want to get somebody, to get the right person that's done it, you know, don't come just naching on anybody. That just made me
look at people different. I learned the hardway. I'll never forget it, though.
We'll be right back. After a quick break.
A week later, they uh sends me to life and fifty years in Ain't Gold. And after that a few months later, I was in ain Golder for the next forty son years. They put you in the field, you know, working like a sleeve, picking cotton, digging dishes, picking calm, doing quarter grains, cutting grass, you know, stuff like that. I really wasn't familiar with those things that, you know, so I just had to get used to it. When I first went there, I was getting right ups, you know.
So when mister Brooks was sentenced to life in prison, the sentence he only got because his mother begged the jurors to spare her son from the death penalty. He was sent to Angola Peditentiary, right the Louisiana State Peditentiary, where he got reprimands for essentially not doing hard labor fast enough or with sufficient enthusiasm for the hard labor. He was assigned lucky in.
A hole in the dungeon, your son, And back then they give you extra duty, you know, something you got to do on the weekends, going the field on the weekends, or they might give you a isolation time, which is ten days, you know, without a mattress and all that.
They never even tried to hide the fact that mass incarceration was just what slavery morphed into after the Civil War. And they still aren't. Louisiana just did have the opportunity as four other states did, who all passed it to remove the slavery loophole of the Thirteenth Amendment from the state constitution by ballot initiative. That was in November twenty twenty two. But they voted to keep it. Yeah, and it was the voters voted this way by a comfortable margin,
which is I don't have the right words for it. Anyway, It wasn't bad enough for your mom to lose you, but your brother was in Angola with you.
Yeah, he was up then the Golda with me. He got killed. You know, his name was the Brooks. He got killed in nineteen eighty one.
I'm sorry to hear that. So I understand. They tried to get a friend of yours too to shoot him in for the taller shooter in nineteen seventy eight. And this was a guy named Alvin Keller.
The Alvin Keller, they say. The second man was something like six feet a six'. One keller was same heighth as. Me you. Know they tried to arrest, him but H keller, said, MAN i WAS i was locked up when that, happened you. Know then they check and see it was real didn't they let him, Go but, no they ain't never arrest anyone, else you.
Know so luckily for, him he was able to use their own words against them to escape being another, statistic another wrongfully convicted black man In louisiana at the, time and then being forced onto that horrible conveyor belt of free labor that fuels this. System you were making two to four cents an hour in the. Fields it's an.
Amount of money that makes it impossible to save up so that if you, wanted like Mister brooks, did to try to get information about his, Case postage costs, money, right, envelopes paper cost. Money in, prison documents certainly cost. Money and when you're talking about making that little and having a, family that though they supported him as best they, could they just weren't in a position to support him financially like.
That and so it leads to a situation where people are desperate to try to get information about their cases, right and they have virtually no tools to do. So and so for years Mister brooks struggled right to try to litigate his case pro sae meeting without a, lawyer because In louisiana once he wasn't given a death. Sentence he was no longer. Entitled he wasn't entitled to some
sort of post conviction. Council. Right he did get to take it out of time appeal it was, Denied but those sorts of, things that's not going to reveal any new. Evidence that just going to review what occurred actually at the trial. Itself and so for years Mister brooks was just left alone to try to manage as best he could to try to scrape together the, buddy to get, documents to try to get information about right what he
always knew that he wasn't the. Robber he knew he didn't do that, crime and he was certain that there would be something in those files to prove. It but he just couldn't get to.
Them but you got, crafty right when you weren't out in the, FIELDS i understand you actually started making, belts like with your own, hands from.
Scratch they had a police they called a hobby. Shop belts with my pershon to. Items you, know we order all ow little we'll make our own products and sell, them you. Know so that's Why i've gotten a hobby. SHOP i went to making. BILLS i could sell bills in spute.
Mysel so you worked on your appeals pro se and so on your own using the belt business in order to make enough money just to get postage and pay for documents and try to fight the state in post conviction of fighting against them with their unlimited, Resources.
Your, sir and all of them got. Denied but would really helped me and a bunch of other people when THE da, files when they made it possible for us to, have you, know and The Supreme court say we were entighter to. It that's opened a lot of doors for, people because when you get, that you get the information that can help you something that you wasn't it tighter to it one? Time THE da Files and SO i found out about The Bill Cans Franker PRINCE da, Files well that was way. Later and the.
Teens, Wow so you went in in nineteen seventy seven and didn't find out about the fingerprints until well after twenty. Twelve so when did The Nison's project Of New orleans get? Involved and how did this thing turn?
Around, basically as soon as he heard about which we were founded in two thousand and, one he wrote to us and asked for, Help but so did thousands of other people and we're only one, office and so as best we, can, right we work through. Cases and, unfortunately And i'm so sad that Mister brooks had to wait even longer For hypno's, help but we were finally able to start looking at the case. AROUND i believe twenty sixteen was WHAT i first wrote to him.
AND hypno and this Is Project, worlds of, course is an incredible, organization and they have done a ton of good in a place that has an insane backlog and just a tortured history of these kind of. Cases we're, talking of, course about the most incarcerated state in the. Country almost always Sometimes oklahoma takes their, place they flip, low But louisiana it's the most incarcerated state in the
most incarcerated country in the. World so the task that they, face the uphill battle that they fight every, day no matter the, year it's, daunting to say the. Least so if you listeners can help them with a, dollar one hundred, dollars one hundred million, dollars whatever you got laying, around we'll have a link in the bio TO, ipno AND i hope our audience will be driven to get involved
and help other people like Mister. Brooks so WHEN ipno finally did get, involved what did that investigation look.
Like so in the post conviction, process one of the things we do to investigate is use the public records laws and request. Documents and we were able to, write go look at, them pick them, up pay for, them decide what you want to pay for what you. Don't
that's something that people who are incarcerated often can't. Do though in Mister brooks's, case he actually had a sister who was really moved by what happened to her brother and she wanted to join the police force to make sure that didn't happen to another black, family and she unfortunately was injured and so had to eventually resign the. Force but during the time that she was there AT, atpd she tried to look in the record for documents
about her brother's, case and she couldn't find. Them she was told that they were too, old that they probably didn't have them. Anymore so this is something where even someone who should be an insider right who's trying to help her, brother trying to do these, things and even as AN nopd, officer was being told that these documents didn't.
Exist but as you've heard, before this fingerprint evidence that should have stopped this train before it even left the station did actually.
Exist, unfortunately in this, case we were actually never able to find the physical. Fingerprints it seems as though they were lost or frankly possibly. Destroyed we found handwritten notes, that it turns out we learned were written by the assistant district attorneys Saying prince Not Elvis. Brooks. Right that was written on a notation next to a discussion of the fingerprints on the beer. Cans and so when we saw, that we, thought, wow, wow you, know what do you?
Mean let's find these? Fingerprints whose fingerprints? Are and, unfortunately because of HOW edpd conducted it's fingerprinting back, then if they didn't find a, match if they didn't get AN
id to, someone they just didn't record. It right back in nineteen, seventies IF edpd tested someone's, fingerprints compare the fingerprints and it wasn't that, person often they just didn't write a report because they, thought, well this is of no, use Right they, thought if it wasn't their, suspect what good would it do the same with if they showed
a photo to someone and they didn't make an. Identification very often they would not write a report documenting that because it wasn't helpful to their, case and so in this, case there was no fingerprint report to. Find there was just these notes that happened to document that The prince did not belong To Elvis. Brooks so we conducted an extensive search for these prints down in like the bowels
of THE edopd building right looking for this. Evidence and despite many many hours of, searching we weren't actually able to find their, figureprints which is sad because we could have found out who the real robbers, were, right we could have actually solved this case and gotten a little justice for Mister, lloyd and, unfortunately because of the evidence retention, practices we just weren't able to do that. Either but we were able to file on Mister brooks's behalf based
on some of this new. Evidence there was also some other undisclosed evidence about another crime committed that night by people who seemed to match the, description and it was committed right around the corner that Mister brooks was also never told. About his lawyers never learned. About and so, unfortunately what we know about what happened the night the
welcome it was. Robbed is probably only a sliver of what investigators actually found out back, Then but because they didn't document, it we're left to sort of follow the bread.
Crumbs and those bread crumbs led to two conclusions that they had Prosecuted elvis knowing that he was, innocent and That elvis needed to be released. Asap so how did the state?
Respond we were met with procedural objections by the. State it's not enough to find new evidence in your. Case before you could get any court to listen to your new evidence to consider the merits of your, claims you have to prove that you basically meet the procedural. Hurdles we had to demonstrate that this information had been withheld
from Mister brooks and his. Attorney, unfortunately Mister brooks's attorney was, deceased and so we had to try to come up with other ways to show that he obviously didn't know this information about the. Fingerprints that had he, known right this attorney who put on thirteen, witnesses which was just unheard of in nineteen seventy, seven that had he known that the fingerprints on critical items didn't match his, client he obviously would have mentioned that to the, jury.
And once the state was forced to look At elvis's, case they must have realized what had. Happened and this was The leon khannis our. Administration, still so instead of doing the right, thing on the eve of An october, fifteenth twenty nineteen, hearing they Brought elvis a. Deal they were asking that you plead guilty to a lesser charge and avoid a potentially very lengthy procedural battle which would have cost you much more, time might have even led
to you dying in. Prison but was that decision to struggle for?
You?
YEAH i struggled with. It COULD i always? SEE i, SAID i ain't gonna never say guilty to this. Yere you know THAT i didn't do. It i'm not gonna never plead. Guilty BUT i went to danking WHEN i was offered a. DEAL i, said, man you gotta use kind of sense. Sometime you knew because you may not ever get out of. HERE i just wanted to get, out you, know BECAUSE i KNOW i didn't do, it AND i feel like forty two plus year was long.
Enough you, KNOW i just made a. Decision you know That i'm gonna plead guilty to the lesser charge and get. Out you, know it was, tough but uh, oh my whole family SAY i did the right. Ding you, know they wanted to see me. Out this is WHY i went on and took the plea.
BAGAIN i, mean we call it a, choice but in some ways that's not really a fair. Assessment it turns out later and we found out that the state was also aware at the time they offered him right that supposed, choice that they knew that the trial prosecutor hadn't turned
over those. Prints they knew that because he told, them, frankly probably to avoid, liability THOUGH i could only guess as to their, motives but they found that out in a meeting with the trial, prosecutor and shortly, thereafter within, days they offered Mister brooks a.
Plea so despite the sour taste in your mouth over having to plead guilty to get, out you were still free and back into the arms of your. Family how did that feel after all these?
Years, whoa it felt, great you, KNOW i really couldn't believe, it you, know feel real great to be. Out you, know you're around my family and my, kids my, grandkids my further, sisters, nephew. Nieces oh damn miss my, parents you, know THE DDCs now so, well it's a wonderful feeling to be getting. Out it ain't going especially everybody telling me, congratulation you, know AND i was. Leaving they have a good feeling, there you.
Know so he was, out but that was not the end of. It AND i can't stress this. Enough elections, matter, Folks, okay especially the local. Ones The conic And connaisaro eras left a harmful legacy in their. Wake and even though the Young condizarro was not seeking re, Election Jason williams was elected at The Orange paris DA's. Office and we Interviewed jason on my other, Podcast Righteous. Convictions we're gonna
have that episode lengthd in the. Bio by the, way that having a man of his, Caliber i'm going to say it, now a great man Like Jason williams in that office means people Like elvis can finally get justice and have their names.
Cleared he has cleared his.
Name.
Yeah earlier this, year Mister, brooks represented by a different attorney in a different, office did file another application for post conviction, relief seeking to withdraw his guilty plea and seeking to have his conviction overturned and so that was granted this, year meaning that at this point Mister brooks is fully exonerated as much as you can be in
the criminal legal. System and in, fact the day that Mister brooks was able to go into court and that was, decided THE ada at that time made it very clear and apologized to him for all those years that were taken from him wrongfully and acknowledged his.
Innocence this was, attorneys they admit To, rondo you, know to see They withhill and. Elvidents you, know it could have clear my name years, ago you, Know and they asked me how LONG i? TOO i say forty two plus, years you, KNOW i was locked. Up you, know it was great to get that. Done you, know LIKE i, SAID i would want board away from the tip. Ending it took my whole youth from. Me it took the best years of my, life.
You, know and nothing could ever replace. It you have my deepest sympathies for. That and we'll have action steps for our audience if they'd like to help. You by, THAT i, mean there's An amazon wish list and a freedom, Fund so if you've got the wherewithal to do, it then please do. Help it means a. Lot and with that we now turn to the closing of our, show which of course is called closing. Arguments and it's the part of the show THAT i always look forward. To
it's WHERE i get to turn off my. Mic that's not WHY i look forward. To it's because of what we're about to. Hear because WHEN i turn my mic, Off i'm going to leave your MIC's on so that you can share any closing. Thoughts it's why it's called closing arguments with me and our. Audience thank you, Again. Cherrelle why don't we start with you? First and Then elvis please take us out into the. Sunset you, KNOW.
I really appreciate you having us and for letting Mister brooks share a little bit of what happened to. Him AND i think in some ways this case is extraordinary in that every TIME i look at a new, FILE i hope that we're going to find something as sort of earth shattering as the physical evidence in Mister brooks's. Case it's, Fingerprints but in many ways it's more a
kid almost to A dna. Exoneration, Right this isn't just a he, said she, Said this is this tangible evidence didn't, match and they do it didn't, match and they Framed Elvis brooks, anyways and they did it because they. Could and it's a. System where could they do it again? Today? SURE i THINK i think they. Could and so a lot of it is just about to me how little thought anyone gave to what they were. Doing they did it because they, Could they did it because it was.
Easy maybe they thought Mister brooks was a. Troublemaker maybe they. DIDN'T i don't. KNOW i don't. Care, frankly it doesn't make it. Right he was a poor black boy who didn't have the means to defend, himself and they did it because they.
Could i'm Just i'm just so happy to be amongst the free people, again you, know me at the forty two plus. Years you, know my help not really good right, now but you Know i'm. Alive you, Know i'm all here with my. Family you, know LIKE i, said all the people are missing with my mom and dad because they, passed you, know but everything else is. Good you. Know, NO i appreciate whatever y'all could, do you, know prayers and all. That you, know we need. That you, know
look at this, waiting this world coming to right. Now it's, ridiculous you. Know i'd like to just thank, Y'all Thank Dan, surpriject thank, everybody thank, you.
Thank you for listening To Wrongful. Conviction i'd like to thank our production Team Connor, Hall Jeff, cliburn And Kevin, wartis with research By Lyla. Robinson the music in this production was supplied by three TIME oscar nominated Composer Jay. Ralph be sure to follow us On instagram At Wrongful, conviction On facebook At Wrongful Conviction, podcast and On twitter at Wrong, conviction as well as At lava For. Good on all three, platforms you can also follow me on
both TikTok And instagram at It's Jason. Flapper Wrongful conviction is the production Of lava For Good podcasts in association With Signal Company number one