November 10, 2021 • 36 mins
In early May of 1977, Keith Laborde and his 14 year old twin cousins, Karen and Sharon Sanders, allegedly picked up a hitchhiking black man at a gas station in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. About 2 weeks later, when asked about a scratch on his neck, Keith Laborde and the twins told a story about this armed hitchhiker who allegedly forced Laborde into the trunk and raped both girls. Despite not matching the description, a man with a few petty priors, Vincent Simmons, was arrested, put into a suggestive line up, and ultimately selected. When he refused to confess, police officer Robert Laborde shot him in the chest. Vincent survived, but only to have ALL discovery withheld by the state, including the medical examination that proved that Sharon Sander's could not have been raped. Years later, according to the alleged victims' family members, the whole story appears to have been a cover for recurring incestuous victimization, yet Vincent remains in Angola penitentiary to this day.
To learn more and get involved:
https://gogetfunding.com/legalfundvincent/
https://www.change.org/p/vincent-simmons-is-innocent-and-has-been-imprisoned-in-louisiana-since-1977
https://wrongfullyconvicted.info/vincent-simmons/
The Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odx9NEHc17M
Shadows of Doubt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98lCNnEnxno
https://lavaforgood.com/with-jason-flom
Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
In May of nineteen seventy seven, fourteen year old white
twin sisters Karen and Sharon Sanders allegedly went to help
their eighteen year old cousin, Keith Laboard, cleaned his house
in a vols Parish, Louisiana. Years later, Keith Laboard admitted
to carrying on a sexual relationship with Karen Sanders, but
back in May of seventy seven, when asked about a
(00:23):
scratch on his neck, Keith began to spin a narrative
supported by the twin girls, that led in a well
tread direction. According to Keith and the twins, they picked
up a hitchhiking black man who allegedly pulled a gun
and forced Keith and Karen into the trunk before raping Sharon,
followed by Karen. Conflicting accounts and descriptions, as well as
(00:44):
a rape kit that confirmed that Sharon was still a virgin,
didn't stop the accusation of an alleged black assailant. While
police officer Robert la Board was out searching for a
potential culprit on the morning of May nineteen seventy seven,
his partner Floyd Juno, spot at Vincent Simmons whom he
knew from previous petty crimes. Despite not matching what we're
(01:05):
already conflicting descriptions of this imaginary black man, they arrested
Vincent for the alleged rapes. Both girls and Keith picked
out the only handcuffed black man in the lineup, and
when Vincent refused to confess, Officer Robert Laborde shot him
in the chest. Miraculously, Vincent survived, but only to have
all evidence, all of it exculpatory withheld from him at trial,
(01:27):
condemning him to serve one dred years and a goal
of prison. Vincent's fight against a web of family connections,
lies and the worst in American racism continues to this
very day. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction.
(01:55):
I'm Jason Flam. Today's case is so trouble that I
don't know where to start. But I will tell you
this before we even get into it, and I introduced
to you the man himself, Vincent Simmons, who's still incarcerated
in Angola Penitentiary for over forty four years now for
a crime he had nothing to do with. I will
(02:16):
tell you that this case has a toxic mixture of
small town racism, false accusations, a total lack of evidence,
a police officer who was closely related to what should
have been the obvious suspect, who actually shot Mr Simmons
in the police station when he refused to confess in
(02:39):
the chest by the way, narrowly missing his heart and
killing him. Yes, you heard that correctly. And everybody involved
basically is white, except for Mr Simmons is black. And
now that's just the freaking beginning. So first of all, Vincent,
I'm so honored that you're here today to talk to us.
I'm so sorry that you are where you are, that
we're talking to you from prison, and I'm hoping that
(03:01):
soon we'll be having a totally different conversation from the
free world. So welcome to wrongful conviction. Thank you, We're
very happy to have you, and we apologize to our
audience in advance for the audio quality on Vincent's phone.
It sounds like he's calling us from a time capsule,
and in many ways he really is. As Angola Penitentiary
(03:22):
was built on a literal plantation, which couldn't put a
finer point on what this case is all about. And
joining us today as a man who you may be
familiar with from our coverage of Nelson Cruz in Brooklyn
and Marcus Wiggins in Chicago. Now today he's fighting for
Vincent's case pro bono, flying back and forth from New
York to Louisiana. So justin bonus, thanks for coming back
(03:46):
to wrongful conviction not a problem. Jason's great to be
on here again as well. So this insane saga goes
all the way back to nine seven. So Vincent, before
this happened in your life got turned upside down and
inside out, what was your life like before the insanity? Yeah,
(04:07):
I was borne in a ball parish, a place called
man Stilla, Louis. Yeah. When I was living in man Stilla,
I had had some involvement with all parents share of
the fault. I was involved with competitive crime. I moved
(04:27):
to Houston and I got a job and I was
learned that my father had time and I come back
to Louis Yeah. I was back for about a month.
I would live with my sister. O leave you and
I was on my way to work and I was
(04:49):
picked up of all Terrish Codine. So you were a
known entity to a bolds Past police before heading to
Houston for work and returning when your father asked away,
which made you available to be picked up for what
allegedly happened to these twin girls on May nine seven,
and the date, I mean, we're not even sure of that,
because the girls were never really clear on a date
(05:11):
and time. But the narrative that comes out is a
sadly familiar American tale, a false accusation of a black
man by an alleged white victim or victims in this case,
and the alleged crime that took place. The narrative that
set this horrible and justice against Vincent in motion is this.
On May nine seven, twin sisters Sharon and Karen Sanders
(05:36):
allegedly went over to the house of their eighteen year
old cousin, Keith la Board remember that last name, to
help him clean, and while driving the sister's home that night,
the three allegedly stopped for gas when Vincent Simmons allegedly
approached and asked La Board for a ride home, to
which the Board supposedly agreed. And then the claim is
(05:58):
that six miles outside of Marksville, on a deserted stretch
of Little California Road, Vincent allegedly took out a gun,
forced Keith la Board and Karen into the trunk while
he allegedly raped Sharon, and then he allegedly put Sharon
in the trunk, drove on for a bit before retrieving
Karen to do the same to her. Now afterwards, Vincent
(06:21):
allegedly threatened them all before dropping himself off to catch
a bus. So about two weeks after this alleged incident,
May is when this narrative is first reported to the
Sheriff's office and the investigation, if you can even call it,
that begins justin take us through this nightmare. So there
(06:41):
was Karen Sanders, Sharon Sanders and then Keith la Board
that were allegedly basically kidnapped, thrown in a trunk. The
two sisters were raped. That's their story. So on May,
John la Board, Keith's father calls the sheriff because Keith's
father is the parish assessor. What you have to understand
(07:03):
about the law Boards is there's like ten thousand of
them in a vols parish. This is a very strong family.
He calls the chief of police and he says that
my twin nieces have been raped by a black man.
That's how this begins. And then the girls are brought in.
The girls don't know what date it happens. The police
give them a date, okay. The girls provide their initial statements,
(07:27):
which weren't turned over at trial. Uh, they weren't turned over.
They give completely inconsistent statements. Sharon Sanders actually calls the
suspect the N word over and over again, says all
blacks look alike, okay, and that's why she wouldn't be
able to identify him. They don't talk to the boy,
(07:48):
Keith Laboard until after Vincent has already arrested. Neither of
these girls give a description that matches Vincent. They say
short and fat well. Vincent is five nine, one fifty. Again,
their descriptions conflict. You know, it's just one thing after another,
and specifically with regard to Karen Sanders, she talks about
(08:09):
being raped anally orally vaginally. When the doctor looks at
her after she talks to police, there is no injuries.
Sharon talks about a thirty minute rape vaginally to the
point where she bled. She said that she gave her
panties to her grandmother and they were washed, of course,
(08:30):
And what's interesting about Sharon is that her hyman was
intact when she was examined by the doctor in this case,
So okay, inconsistent statement. It's conflicting descriptions and outright lies
unsupported by physical reality. And the next day at am
on Vincent was just walking to work when he was
picked up off the street, arrested and brought to the station.
(08:54):
He was arrested on May twenty three, nineteen seventy seven,
on view for this crime. And what on view means
is they didn't have a named Vincent Simmons, They had
no probable cause to arrest him. They saw him on
the side of the street. When I say they, you
had mentioned a family member of one of the alleged victims,
(09:14):
and that was Robert la Board. And I don't know
his direct relation to Keith la Board, but I believe
it could be a cousin. So really, what you have
to understand with Vincent is he had a history with
the Marksville Police Department and the Valls Parish Sheriff's office.
And Floyd Juneau was driving with Robert la Board on
the day Vincent got arrested on May, and he knew Vincent,
(09:37):
he knew who he was before, and he knew he
was a troublemaker. And he's the glue to this. He's
the person that basically points the finger at Vincent first, right,
right right. And if you have the chance to watch
one of the documentaries about Vincent's story, there's the Farm
and Shadows of a Doubt. We'll have them linked in
to bio of course. But in Shadows of a Doubt,
(09:58):
Floyd Juneau described just arrest in much the same way
that Justin has. So that same morning, the sheriff sent
deputies for the twins, who were picked up from school
and brought to the station along with Keith Laboard, who
was brought from work, and told them that they were
going to view a line up with the perpetrator in it.
So officers picked out seven guys for the lineup, one
(10:19):
of whom was white. Okay, a few others were well
over six ft tall, but remember the description was of
this imaginary perpetrator was black, short, and bat right, and
they placed Vincent in the center. And get this, Vincent
is the only one who was handcuffed out of all
of them. I mean, it wasn't like they were trying
(10:40):
to be subtled. Here right as to who they wanted
them to identify. So the twins and Keith lo and
Behold all select Vincent as the perpetrator. They claimed that
I would identify and from that port they took me
into another roan and that's when he told me that
(11:00):
I had to give him a confession, and I refused
to give a confession. I told him that before I
confessed to a crime that I didn't do, I'll die for.
And that's when they hit me. And they knocked into
the flow and it started kicking me. And then when
I tried to get up, he kicked me again. And
(11:24):
then when I did you to chat, I was sitting
in to get up Robert lo Bold he raised up
from his seat where he was writing her confession and
pulled his weapon and shot me. He shot me in
the chat. I think something that I really want to
(11:58):
bring to your attention to her, Jason, is is is
that technically Vincent really should have been charged with kidnapping
Keith Laboard. They didn't charge him with that. Why, well,
you know, I think we know why. The other thing
is the police all said that Vincent attempted to grab
the gun of one of the officers and the safety
(12:19):
was on or something like that ridiculous story. They don't
ever charge Vincent with attempted murder of a police officer either,
And this is weird, right, because it's not like the
state typically has any issue at all with piling on charges. Right.
But there were no gun charges here either, as that
was part of the alleged kidnapping in this case as well.
So at the preliminary hearing on July seven, both twins testified,
(12:44):
but neither the alleged kidnapping victim, Keith Laboard, nor the
alleged attempted murder victims the police officers participated. Yeah that's yeah, sure, okay.
So during her testimony, Sharon has asked three consecutive times
to identify the man from the crime, and this is
the twin who states that all black people look alike.
(13:07):
She doesn't respond until the court steps in, and this
was when, for the very first time ever, she says
that the man said his name was Simmons. Now, Karen
also parrotted this statement that the culprit told Keith his
name was Simmons. But then in the same preliminary hearing,
when asked why it took two weeks to come forward
(13:28):
with this story. Karen testified that quote, we couldn't go
to the cops because we didn't know his name, unquote,
So which one is it? Karen, right, which is it?
Because both of those things can't be true. Everyone overlooked that.
That means that their testimony in the preliminary hearing that
they knew the man's name, and their testimony at trial
(13:51):
that they knew the man's name is false. That kind
of just got glossed over. So let's get to the trial,
and I'm gonna put trial in quote here it too.
So there's no physical evidence that these rapes ever actually happened.
Start with that. No forensic tests were done on the twins, clothing,
or the car in which the alleged rapes occurred, and
(14:11):
police reports did not include a single lead depointed to Vincent.
Doctors didn't find any signs of injury on either of
the alleged victims, including Sharon's intact him. And she was
a virgin who was, according to her statement, the victim
of a bloody rape, which of course is physically impossible.
So if you're listening to this now and going, well,
(14:34):
then there's all this evidence, right, how the hell could anyone,
even a black man in the Deep South in the seventies,
how could anyone get convicted on the basis of this. Well,
it later comes out with Vincent and his attorney received
exactly none of this. They received no discovery in this case,
but not I mean zero. What I'm saying is all
(14:56):
of that critical exculpatory evidence that you just heard wasn't
revealed to him for another sixteen years. His lawyers never
even knew about the shady lineup with the handcuffs, you know,
which was obviously done for one reason, so that these
alleged victims would know who to pick in this imaginary crime.
There were pictures of that, the inconsistencies and conflicts in
(15:19):
the initial accounts and assailant descriptions and initial statements. They
said they didn't know his name, but later testified that
he had told Keith his name was Simmons. How Karen
gave a clue to that discrepancy in her preliminary hearing testimony,
all of it. So the fix was in. So justin,
can you take us through what happened at this sham trial?
(15:40):
So they take him to trial and the girls get
on the witness stand and they say they know his name,
they say a rape happened, and the defense attorneys don't
do a great job of poking holes in there because
they don't have anything to poke holes in. They don't
have any cross examination material. Okay, they have three witnesses
(16:02):
that were allegedly with this man for three hours. That's
a long time to be with somebody. Mistaken identification is
not really something you can argue when you're around somebody
for three hours unless you saw the initial statements, right,
I can't really do it. I mean the trials a joke.
(16:24):
Eddie Nole, who was the prosecutor, and the district attorney
and his wife are the ones that tried the case,
and this was a flam flam show. They actually, on
occasion during direct examination they would interchange when they thought
the other one didn't ask enough questions, or on cross examine.
I've never seen that, and they probably could have done
(16:46):
anything they wanted because without discovery, they had nothing with
which to hold the prosecution or any of the witnesses accountable.
Then you have these racially charged elements to white twin
sisters underage, by the way, fourteen years old, a black
guy in Louisiana in so they could have said that
(17:09):
he took them in a spaceship, hit them on the
head with a toaster of it, and then they went
and visited, you know, talking penguins on Mars. I mean,
they could have said anything. And I could actually picture
in my mind the jury just sort of sitting there,
you know, horrified with their mouths open, hearing about how
the two young girls were brutalizing. You know, these these
poor little girls. It's hard to turn away from that
(17:31):
kind of testimony. But there were some very significant things
that still should have sowed serious doubts in the minds
of these jurors. Now, I think the biggest thing here
that we started to uncover as we investigated is that
the area that Vincent allegedly sees these three at a
(17:55):
gas station in the middle of Marksville, but then he
takes him allegedly or tells them to go to a
part of a Vols parish that's like clan country. So
where these alleged rapes happen is in the middle of
clan country. It's not where the black community is. That's
(18:19):
what to me should have raised alarm bells for everybody,
including the white jury. This is not believable. What was
alleged to be a three hour long encounter with two
twin underage white girls being raped by a black man
in the middle of Clan country. I would have sooner
(18:39):
bought into the story about Mars and Vincent was able
to present something in his defense right. His attorney called
him to the stand where he said that he was
at a bar on May night and presented three alibi
witnesses who all dated that he was at the bar
with them. His alibi witnesses, they tried to discredit these
people with traffic tickets and like petty crimes because they
(19:04):
wanted to make the alibis look like they were not
law abiding citizens, even though they basically were. I mean,
one of the witnesses that testified for Vincent was a
business owner, and they attacked them using like speeding tickets
and parking tickets that he received. It was a joke.
The trial was a joke. Yeah, it was a joke,
but not not a funny one though, because eleven white
(19:25):
people and one black woman on the jury. I remember
at that time in Louisiana and all the way up
till two thousand and eighteen, they didn't need the unanimous
verdict to convict. It was one of the ways that
they disenfranchised black folks. You only needed ten of the
twelve members on the jury to vote guilty. So black
woman or not, let's just call it like it is.
There was no hope in hell for Vincent. And so
(19:45):
there you are, still trying to heal from a gunshot
wound to the chest at close range and watching this
ridiculous trial. Did you still have any hope that they
would see the discrepancies in this crazy narrative and se
that you were innocent? Oh? Yeah, that was no hope
because the way that was focused, Oh what the victims
(20:11):
were saying, there was no hope of the receiving a
fair crown. And even though I was shot, the ad
that was there was no question answer what happened. So, Vince,
at that moment, a lot had happened to you already.
But I have to think this would be the worst
(20:31):
moment of anybody's life to be wrongfully convicted of a
crime they didn't commit. Do you remember that moment when
they declared you guilty and sentency to a hundred years
in prison? Yes? I did. When I heard all those
lives and the juror come back and convicted. Even with
(20:54):
my alibi, the jurist believe their lies, and it was
amazing for me to believe that those people would. Yeah,
they kind of lied to the jury, and the jury
believed that. When I got dam golden and they slammed
(21:39):
the doors behind me, it was like a shot to me.
And from that moment then I was experiencing nightmares at night.
When I went to sleep, I tried to go to sleep,
I would have a nightmare as a being shot and
beating over and over again. When I got there. Given
(22:02):
the guys in the tail, they already knew what my
job was and I went to mulate experiences. They told
I brought all you ship human ways. You know you
taught U. I've been called several times, you know all
(22:24):
the skin come over my father, but I wouldn't report
it because they would call your retire At several night nights,
balls that were from of all pass they would make
it possible for they didn't make it got a home.
You the gods heard from of all pry they would
(22:48):
intentionally I could repot where I would be the repetrator
of the night. So from one laddob to another. That's
what called me to be locked down, and it controd
and all these years because I was being attacked and
(23:10):
being transfer to another lot said twenty some years and
solid confed. And I just got out in uh two thousands,
and that's where I got the call from Boston. See
as you would take my case, forty four years wrongfully convicted,
(23:34):
and twenty seven of those were in solitary confinement because
of constant assaults from other prisoners who also found ways
to believe the childish nonsensicalized that these three backwoods, redneck
low life told to cover up their dirty, disgusting little
incest secret. And I don't even know what to say
(23:55):
except that I'm absolutely amazed at your courage and strength
to persevere and just even be here at all. After
all you've gone through, Vincent, you are a living miracle. Suggested.
We know that the post conviction litigation started almost immediately
back in nineteen seventy eight, and it went about as
(24:16):
well as the trial did. But Vincent finally got a
break of sorts in can you talk us through that?
Vincent files a man Damis and somebody in the d
a's office copies the whole file. That's how Vincent gets
his file. That's when he first gets the discovery. And
then Vincent got a letter from his lawyer in ninety
(24:38):
eight saying that we've never seen these documents before. You know,
and by the way, that lawyer in night, I think
he was a judge by that point. I mean, these
are credible people that came forward and said that they
had never seen these documents before. Right, this is the
discovery with the details that we mentioned earlier. That if
Vincent's trial attorney would have had this at the trial
(24:58):
in nineteen seventy seven, and of course it was totally
illegal for them not to share it, but if they
had had this discovery, it's very possible that even that
jury could have come to the right conclusion. So, in
addition to that, more exculpatory evidence has developed over time. Meanwhile,
Vincent is denied parole again and again and again and again.
(25:21):
The sisters showed up at the parole hearings and said
all sorts of awful racist things. I remember seeing this
on the video and hearing about it. In one occasion
where one of the three members of the pro board
was a black gentleman and one of the sisters actually
said in the parole hearing that she wouldn't feel safe
alone in the room with him. And I'm talking about
(25:42):
the guy who was on the parole board, the black
guy in the pro board. Am I actually right about that?
You are? You cannot make this up? So now we're
all the way at October and Justin you've now joined
Vincent's team, and Vincent has applied for post conviction leave
based on several to process violations and newly discovered evidence
(26:03):
which shows that the alleged rape was a total fabrication,
and that part of the new evidence that was presented
is from a family member of the alleged victims themselves, right,
So can you tell us about that? Essentially, we have
a family member of the LA board's coming forward with
a detailed statement about an admission that Keith gave her.
(26:24):
I think it was in two thousand and eleven, two
thousand twelve, And actually what happened forty four years ago
was she was there when Keith came into her mother's
house and he had a scratch on his neck. And
it appears is that Keith is the first one that
drops the story that gets Vincent thrown in prison, which
is that you know, he gave a black man a
ride home with the girls and the black man scratched
(26:47):
his neck, threw him in the trunk, and raped the
two girls. See the problem with that, though, if you
talk to this witness, she knows Keith the board. He's
a total psycho. Keith also, I believe I said two
thousand eleven, two thousand twelve, he admits did that there
was no black man. We actually have Facebook messages between
Keith Laborde's first cousin and Karen were Karen admitted that
(27:10):
Keith Labord raped her. Now you have to understand this
same cousin, Keith Laborde actually admitted that he had what
he termed to be consensual sex with Karen and through
Sharon in the trunk. So that's why Sharon's hyman is
intact as Key threw her in the trunk because she
didn't want to have sex with him. But he definitely
had sex with Karen. Now Karen says that it was
(27:31):
a rape. He says it was consensual sex. But at
the time of the alleged sexual act, Keith was an adult,
Karen was a miner. You know. Then we have an
investigative report from our investigator who spoke to Karen, where
Karen said she might have made a mistake that she
doesn't want to testify again in this case. This is
(27:53):
even worse than I originally thought, which I didn't think
was possible. So where are we now? What in the
world is it going to take to bring Vincent home?
Where are we right now? We filed the motion to
vacate the conviction of post conviction relief motion in October
of I mean, there's Affidavid's newly discovered evidence, there's scientific
(28:15):
reports and here identification experts, doctors, obviously the previous discovery
that wasn't turned over when the motion was initially filed.
Carry Sproul was the judge that was overseeing the motion,
and Charles Riddle was the district attorney. And essentially what
happened is in March of one, I got my hands
(28:40):
on a document where Carry Sprul admitted that he represented
Keith Laborde's daughter in a previous I don't know if
it was a custody case or a family court case.
And so we had a hearing to recuse carry Sprul,
and in that hearing to recuse Verry Sprool Kerry Sprool
(29:02):
not only admitted that he had represented keith La Board's daughter,
but also that he had a close relationship with keith
La Board since I guess almost childhood and actually hired
keith La Board to work on construction projects in his house,
so he had a longstanding relationship with keith La Board
and his family. And then after that is when we
had the motion to recuse the District Attorney's office where
(29:25):
we took testimony from Vincent's trial attorney, Mike Kelly were
Mike Kelly testified at the hearing that the defense received
no discovery, not a single document. They didn't know there
was a lineup, they didn't know that there was original
statements made, they didn't know anything. We took testimony from
a civil rights activist, Alan Holmes, who heard Charles Riddle
(29:49):
admit that Mike Kelly didn't receive discovery, and then we
took testimony from Charles Riddle himself, and Charles Riddle admitted
that he believed Mike Kelly when Mike Kelly tell stified
that they didn't have any of the discovery in this case.
That caused Judge Bennett to recuse Charles Riddle because Charles
Riddle refused to consent to give Vincent Simmons a new trial.
(30:13):
Essentially that Riddle was basically condoning a constitutional violation. Right
he knew that there was a violation and refused to
remedy it. And a prosecutor has a duty to act
fair and impartial, and his duties are based upon the Constitution.
He has to be fair to the accused, and when
(30:33):
there's a due process violation like there is in this case,
the only way he can remedy that is by giving
Vincent another trial, and he refused to do it. We
now have an Attorney General's office that's taken over there
trying to vacate the recusal of Charles Riddle. They're basically
trying to delay this as best as they can. No
one wants to give Vincent any relief here, and that's
(30:56):
where we are right now. We're in front of the
Supreme Court battling it out over the motion to recuse
the district Attorney. And I'm in the process of filing
something to try to compel the court to do the
right thing here. So before we go to the closing
of the show, is there something that our listeners can
do hopefully they're going to be inspired to take action.
(31:16):
What would you recommend that they do to help Vincent
or just to help in general. I would recommend that
they write Judge William Bennett the Attorney General's office, and
that they write the Governor of Louisiana, and that they
write the District Attorney of a v Alls Paris, Charles Riddle.
These are all people that have the ability to concede.
(31:41):
I mean, Vincent would love a retrial because the retrial
is not going to happen because it didn't happen. Vincent
has a page on the Friends and Family of the
Wrongfully Convicted, which is an organization that Derrick Hamilton's started,
and then he also has a change dot org web
page as well. We're gonna put everything in the episode
O bio for everybody to do what they can. And
(32:03):
I've gotten to know the Governor of Louisiana over the years.
I think he's a good man, and I think he's
a fair man, and I believe if he was made
aware of this, that he will feel inspired to take
the action that the local authorities are still to this
day unwilling to take. So with that, we now turned
(32:23):
to the closing of our show, and it works like this.
It's called closing arguments. First of all, I thank you
Justin bonus again for being here sharing you know, your
frustration and your thoughts on this case. And of course
Vincent Simmons stay strong. You know there's a lot of
good people out here that care about you. I'm one
of them, and so I speak for our whole wrongful
(32:45):
conviction community when we say we're rooting for you, A
lot of people praying for you and hopefully help is
a red around the corner. So now the end of
our show works like this. I turned my microphone off,
I leave both of your guys on, and I turn
it over first to Justin for his final thoughts whatever
he wants to say, and then of course Vincent, we're
gonna say the best for last all due respect to you, Justin.
(33:07):
Vincent is demand of the hour. And then Vincent, you
could just say whatever you want about whatever you want. Okay,
I'm now going to turn my microphone off and kick
back in my chair and just listen. Okay, Well, I
just want to start off by saying what's right in
front of the court right now is probably the most
egregious Brady violation in the history of the United States,
(33:31):
because I've never seen a case where no discovery was
turned over and almost all of the discovery is exculpatory
that the d A's office in a Vols Parish has
admitted that they believed if Vincent Simmons' defense attorney that
he didn't receive discovery in this case. The only way
(33:52):
you can remedy that situation is by a new trial,
and they are refusing to give him a new trial.
It should start there because the evidence that wasn't turned
over is what proves that Vincent Simmons didn't commit this crime.
This guy didn't commit this crime. He was railroaded, he
was legally lynched, and he's been in prison for almost
(34:14):
forty five years. It's a disgrace. This is simple. They
could give him a new trial right now, but they
know that they can't retry him because the people that
testified against him will never testify against him again because
they lied. All of the evidence that wasn't disclosed proves
that they lied. I took this case because my wife
said I have to take this case because that's how
(34:35):
much she believed he was innocent. But I believe he
will be victorious because he is innocent and every single
shred of the evidence shows him. And that's all I
have to Second, I say, God, and the length uncovered.
So I have faith and I have yes. God have
(35:00):
put in justice in my life and in this face
that is going to grant us justice. A thank you
for listening to Wrongful Conviction. Please support your local innocence
(35:23):
organizations and go to the links in our bio to
see how you can help. I'd like to thank our
production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden, Jeff Clyburne and Kevin Wardis.
The music on this show, as always, is by three
time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Twitter at wrong Conviction,
(35:43):
and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction is
a production of Lava for Good Podcast in association with
Signal Company Number one
In May of nineteen seventy seven, fourteen year old white
twin sisters Karen and Sharon Sanders allegedly went to help
their eighteen year old cousin, Keith Laboard, cleaned his house
in a vols Parish, Louisiana. Years later, Keith Laboard admitted
to carrying on a sexual relationship with Karen Sanders, but
back in May of seventy seven, when asked about a
(00:23):
scratch on his neck, Keith began to spin a narrative
supported by the twin girls, that led in a well
tread direction. According to Keith and the twins, they picked
up a hitchhiking black man who allegedly pulled a gun
and forced Keith and Karen into the trunk before raping Sharon,
followed by Karen. Conflicting accounts and descriptions, as well as
(00:44):
a rape kit that confirmed that Sharon was still a virgin,
didn't stop the accusation of an alleged black assailant. While
police officer Robert la Board was out searching for a
potential culprit on the morning of May nineteen seventy seven,
his partner Floyd Juno, spot at Vincent Simmons whom he
knew from previous petty crimes. Despite not matching what we're
(01:05):
already conflicting descriptions of this imaginary black man, they arrested
Vincent for the alleged rapes. Both girls and Keith picked
out the only handcuffed black man in the lineup, and
when Vincent refused to confess, Officer Robert Laborde shot him
in the chest. Miraculously, Vincent survived, but only to have
all evidence, all of it exculpatory withheld from him at trial,
(01:27):
condemning him to serve one dred years and a goal
of prison. Vincent's fight against a web of family connections,
lies and the worst in American racism continues to this
very day. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction.
(01:55):
I'm Jason Flam. Today's case is so trouble that I
don't know where to start. But I will tell you
this before we even get into it, and I introduced
to you the man himself, Vincent Simmons, who's still incarcerated
in Angola Penitentiary for over forty four years now for
a crime he had nothing to do with. I will
(02:16):
tell you that this case has a toxic mixture of
small town racism, false accusations, a total lack of evidence,
a police officer who was closely related to what should
have been the obvious suspect, who actually shot Mr Simmons
in the police station when he refused to confess in
(02:39):
the chest by the way, narrowly missing his heart and
killing him. Yes, you heard that correctly. And everybody involved
basically is white, except for Mr Simmons is black. And
now that's just the freaking beginning. So first of all, Vincent,
I'm so honored that you're here today to talk to us.
I'm so sorry that you are where you are, that
we're talking to you from prison, and I'm hoping that
(03:01):
soon we'll be having a totally different conversation from the
free world. So welcome to wrongful conviction. Thank you, We're
very happy to have you, and we apologize to our
audience in advance for the audio quality on Vincent's phone.
It sounds like he's calling us from a time capsule,
and in many ways he really is. As Angola Penitentiary
(03:22):
was built on a literal plantation, which couldn't put a
finer point on what this case is all about. And
joining us today as a man who you may be
familiar with from our coverage of Nelson Cruz in Brooklyn
and Marcus Wiggins in Chicago. Now today he's fighting for
Vincent's case pro bono, flying back and forth from New
York to Louisiana. So justin bonus, thanks for coming back
(03:46):
to wrongful conviction not a problem. Jason's great to be
on here again as well. So this insane saga goes
all the way back to nine seven. So Vincent, before
this happened in your life got turned upside down and
inside out, what was your life like before the insanity? Yeah,
(04:07):
I was borne in a ball parish, a place called
man Stilla, Louis. Yeah. When I was living in man Stilla,
I had had some involvement with all parents share of
the fault. I was involved with competitive crime. I moved
(04:27):
to Houston and I got a job and I was
learned that my father had time and I come back
to Louis Yeah. I was back for about a month.
I would live with my sister. O leave you and
I was on my way to work and I was
(04:49):
picked up of all Terrish Codine. So you were a
known entity to a bolds Past police before heading to
Houston for work and returning when your father asked away,
which made you available to be picked up for what
allegedly happened to these twin girls on May nine seven,
and the date, I mean, we're not even sure of that,
because the girls were never really clear on a date
(05:11):
and time. But the narrative that comes out is a
sadly familiar American tale, a false accusation of a black
man by an alleged white victim or victims in this case,
and the alleged crime that took place. The narrative that
set this horrible and justice against Vincent in motion is this.
On May nine seven, twin sisters Sharon and Karen Sanders
(05:36):
allegedly went over to the house of their eighteen year
old cousin, Keith la Board remember that last name, to
help him clean, and while driving the sister's home that night,
the three allegedly stopped for gas when Vincent Simmons allegedly
approached and asked La Board for a ride home, to
which the Board supposedly agreed. And then the claim is
(05:58):
that six miles outside of Marksville, on a deserted stretch
of Little California Road, Vincent allegedly took out a gun,
forced Keith la Board and Karen into the trunk while
he allegedly raped Sharon, and then he allegedly put Sharon
in the trunk, drove on for a bit before retrieving
Karen to do the same to her. Now afterwards, Vincent
(06:21):
allegedly threatened them all before dropping himself off to catch
a bus. So about two weeks after this alleged incident,
May is when this narrative is first reported to the
Sheriff's office and the investigation, if you can even call it,
that begins justin take us through this nightmare. So there
(06:41):
was Karen Sanders, Sharon Sanders and then Keith la Board
that were allegedly basically kidnapped, thrown in a trunk. The
two sisters were raped. That's their story. So on May,
John la Board, Keith's father calls the sheriff because Keith's
father is the parish assessor. What you have to understand
(07:03):
about the law Boards is there's like ten thousand of
them in a vols parish. This is a very strong family.
He calls the chief of police and he says that
my twin nieces have been raped by a black man.
That's how this begins. And then the girls are brought in.
The girls don't know what date it happens. The police
give them a date, okay. The girls provide their initial statements,
(07:27):
which weren't turned over at trial. Uh, they weren't turned over.
They give completely inconsistent statements. Sharon Sanders actually calls the
suspect the N word over and over again, says all
blacks look alike, okay, and that's why she wouldn't be
able to identify him. They don't talk to the boy,
(07:48):
Keith Laboard until after Vincent has already arrested. Neither of
these girls give a description that matches Vincent. They say
short and fat well. Vincent is five nine, one fifty. Again,
their descriptions conflict. You know, it's just one thing after another,
and specifically with regard to Karen Sanders, she talks about
(08:09):
being raped anally orally vaginally. When the doctor looks at
her after she talks to police, there is no injuries.
Sharon talks about a thirty minute rape vaginally to the
point where she bled. She said that she gave her
panties to her grandmother and they were washed, of course,
(08:30):
And what's interesting about Sharon is that her hyman was
intact when she was examined by the doctor in this case,
So okay, inconsistent statement. It's conflicting descriptions and outright lies
unsupported by physical reality. And the next day at am
on Vincent was just walking to work when he was
picked up off the street, arrested and brought to the station.
(08:54):
He was arrested on May twenty three, nineteen seventy seven,
on view for this crime. And what on view means
is they didn't have a named Vincent Simmons, They had
no probable cause to arrest him. They saw him on
the side of the street. When I say they, you
had mentioned a family member of one of the alleged victims,
(09:14):
and that was Robert la Board. And I don't know
his direct relation to Keith la Board, but I believe
it could be a cousin. So really, what you have
to understand with Vincent is he had a history with
the Marksville Police Department and the Valls Parish Sheriff's office.
And Floyd Juneau was driving with Robert la Board on
the day Vincent got arrested on May, and he knew Vincent,
(09:37):
he knew who he was before, and he knew he
was a troublemaker. And he's the glue to this. He's
the person that basically points the finger at Vincent first, right,
right right. And if you have the chance to watch
one of the documentaries about Vincent's story, there's the Farm
and Shadows of a Doubt. We'll have them linked in
to bio of course. But in Shadows of a Doubt,
(09:58):
Floyd Juneau described just arrest in much the same way
that Justin has. So that same morning, the sheriff sent
deputies for the twins, who were picked up from school
and brought to the station along with Keith Laboard, who
was brought from work, and told them that they were
going to view a line up with the perpetrator in it.
So officers picked out seven guys for the lineup, one
(10:19):
of whom was white. Okay, a few others were well
over six ft tall, but remember the description was of
this imaginary perpetrator was black, short, and bat right, and
they placed Vincent in the center. And get this, Vincent
is the only one who was handcuffed out of all
of them. I mean, it wasn't like they were trying
(10:40):
to be subtled. Here right as to who they wanted
them to identify. So the twins and Keith lo and
Behold all select Vincent as the perpetrator. They claimed that
I would identify and from that port they took me
into another roan and that's when he told me that
(11:00):
I had to give him a confession, and I refused
to give a confession. I told him that before I
confessed to a crime that I didn't do, I'll die for.
And that's when they hit me. And they knocked into
the flow and it started kicking me. And then when
I tried to get up, he kicked me again. And
(11:24):
then when I did you to chat, I was sitting
in to get up Robert lo Bold he raised up
from his seat where he was writing her confession and
pulled his weapon and shot me. He shot me in
the chat. I think something that I really want to
(11:58):
bring to your attention to her, Jason, is is is
that technically Vincent really should have been charged with kidnapping
Keith Laboard. They didn't charge him with that. Why, well,
you know, I think we know why. The other thing
is the police all said that Vincent attempted to grab
the gun of one of the officers and the safety
(12:19):
was on or something like that ridiculous story. They don't
ever charge Vincent with attempted murder of a police officer either,
And this is weird, right, because it's not like the
state typically has any issue at all with piling on charges. Right.
But there were no gun charges here either, as that
was part of the alleged kidnapping in this case as well.
So at the preliminary hearing on July seven, both twins testified,
(12:44):
but neither the alleged kidnapping victim, Keith Laboard, nor the
alleged attempted murder victims the police officers participated. Yeah that's yeah, sure, okay.
So during her testimony, Sharon has asked three consecutive times
to identify the man from the crime, and this is
the twin who states that all black people look alike.
(13:07):
She doesn't respond until the court steps in, and this
was when, for the very first time ever, she says
that the man said his name was Simmons. Now, Karen
also parrotted this statement that the culprit told Keith his
name was Simmons. But then in the same preliminary hearing,
when asked why it took two weeks to come forward
(13:28):
with this story. Karen testified that quote, we couldn't go
to the cops because we didn't know his name, unquote,
So which one is it? Karen, right, which is it?
Because both of those things can't be true. Everyone overlooked that.
That means that their testimony in the preliminary hearing that
they knew the man's name, and their testimony at trial
(13:51):
that they knew the man's name is false. That kind
of just got glossed over. So let's get to the trial,
and I'm gonna put trial in quote here it too.
So there's no physical evidence that these rapes ever actually happened.
Start with that. No forensic tests were done on the twins, clothing,
or the car in which the alleged rapes occurred, and
(14:11):
police reports did not include a single lead depointed to Vincent.
Doctors didn't find any signs of injury on either of
the alleged victims, including Sharon's intact him. And she was
a virgin who was, according to her statement, the victim
of a bloody rape, which of course is physically impossible.
So if you're listening to this now and going, well,
(14:34):
then there's all this evidence, right, how the hell could anyone,
even a black man in the Deep South in the seventies,
how could anyone get convicted on the basis of this. Well,
it later comes out with Vincent and his attorney received
exactly none of this. They received no discovery in this case,
but not I mean zero. What I'm saying is all
(14:56):
of that critical exculpatory evidence that you just heard wasn't
revealed to him for another sixteen years. His lawyers never
even knew about the shady lineup with the handcuffs, you know,
which was obviously done for one reason, so that these
alleged victims would know who to pick in this imaginary crime.
There were pictures of that, the inconsistencies and conflicts in
(15:19):
the initial accounts and assailant descriptions and initial statements. They
said they didn't know his name, but later testified that
he had told Keith his name was Simmons. How Karen
gave a clue to that discrepancy in her preliminary hearing testimony,
all of it. So the fix was in. So justin,
can you take us through what happened at this sham trial?
(15:40):
So they take him to trial and the girls get
on the witness stand and they say they know his name,
they say a rape happened, and the defense attorneys don't
do a great job of poking holes in there because
they don't have anything to poke holes in. They don't
have any cross examination material. Okay, they have three witnesses
(16:02):
that were allegedly with this man for three hours. That's
a long time to be with somebody. Mistaken identification is
not really something you can argue when you're around somebody
for three hours unless you saw the initial statements, right,
I can't really do it. I mean the trials a joke.
(16:24):
Eddie Nole, who was the prosecutor, and the district attorney
and his wife are the ones that tried the case,
and this was a flam flam show. They actually, on
occasion during direct examination they would interchange when they thought
the other one didn't ask enough questions, or on cross examine.
I've never seen that, and they probably could have done
(16:46):
anything they wanted because without discovery, they had nothing with
which to hold the prosecution or any of the witnesses accountable.
Then you have these racially charged elements to white twin
sisters underage, by the way, fourteen years old, a black
guy in Louisiana in so they could have said that
(17:09):
he took them in a spaceship, hit them on the
head with a toaster of it, and then they went
and visited, you know, talking penguins on Mars. I mean,
they could have said anything. And I could actually picture
in my mind the jury just sort of sitting there,
you know, horrified with their mouths open, hearing about how
the two young girls were brutalizing. You know, these these
poor little girls. It's hard to turn away from that
(17:31):
kind of testimony. But there were some very significant things
that still should have sowed serious doubts in the minds
of these jurors. Now, I think the biggest thing here
that we started to uncover as we investigated is that
the area that Vincent allegedly sees these three at a
(17:55):
gas station in the middle of Marksville, but then he
takes him allegedly or tells them to go to a
part of a Vols parish that's like clan country. So
where these alleged rapes happen is in the middle of
clan country. It's not where the black community is. That's
(18:19):
what to me should have raised alarm bells for everybody,
including the white jury. This is not believable. What was
alleged to be a three hour long encounter with two
twin underage white girls being raped by a black man
in the middle of Clan country. I would have sooner
(18:39):
bought into the story about Mars and Vincent was able
to present something in his defense right. His attorney called
him to the stand where he said that he was
at a bar on May night and presented three alibi
witnesses who all dated that he was at the bar
with them. His alibi witnesses, they tried to discredit these
people with traffic tickets and like petty crimes because they
(19:04):
wanted to make the alibis look like they were not
law abiding citizens, even though they basically were. I mean,
one of the witnesses that testified for Vincent was a
business owner, and they attacked them using like speeding tickets
and parking tickets that he received. It was a joke.
The trial was a joke. Yeah, it was a joke,
but not not a funny one though, because eleven white
(19:25):
people and one black woman on the jury. I remember
at that time in Louisiana and all the way up
till two thousand and eighteen, they didn't need the unanimous
verdict to convict. It was one of the ways that
they disenfranchised black folks. You only needed ten of the
twelve members on the jury to vote guilty. So black
woman or not, let's just call it like it is.
There was no hope in hell for Vincent. And so
(19:45):
there you are, still trying to heal from a gunshot
wound to the chest at close range and watching this
ridiculous trial. Did you still have any hope that they
would see the discrepancies in this crazy narrative and se
that you were innocent? Oh? Yeah, that was no hope
because the way that was focused, Oh what the victims
(20:11):
were saying, there was no hope of the receiving a
fair crown. And even though I was shot, the ad
that was there was no question answer what happened. So, Vince,
at that moment, a lot had happened to you already.
But I have to think this would be the worst
(20:31):
moment of anybody's life to be wrongfully convicted of a
crime they didn't commit. Do you remember that moment when
they declared you guilty and sentency to a hundred years
in prison? Yes? I did. When I heard all those
lives and the juror come back and convicted. Even with
(20:54):
my alibi, the jurist believe their lies, and it was
amazing for me to believe that those people would. Yeah,
they kind of lied to the jury, and the jury
believed that. When I got dam golden and they slammed
(21:39):
the doors behind me, it was like a shot to me.
And from that moment then I was experiencing nightmares at night.
When I went to sleep, I tried to go to sleep,
I would have a nightmare as a being shot and
beating over and over again. When I got there. Given
(22:02):
the guys in the tail, they already knew what my
job was and I went to mulate experiences. They told
I brought all you ship human ways. You know you
taught U. I've been called several times, you know all
(22:24):
the skin come over my father, but I wouldn't report
it because they would call your retire At several night nights,
balls that were from of all pass they would make
it possible for they didn't make it got a home.
You the gods heard from of all pry they would
(22:48):
intentionally I could repot where I would be the repetrator
of the night. So from one laddob to another. That's
what called me to be locked down, and it controd
and all these years because I was being attacked and
(23:10):
being transfer to another lot said twenty some years and
solid confed. And I just got out in uh two thousands,
and that's where I got the call from Boston. See
as you would take my case, forty four years wrongfully convicted,
(23:34):
and twenty seven of those were in solitary confinement because
of constant assaults from other prisoners who also found ways
to believe the childish nonsensicalized that these three backwoods, redneck
low life told to cover up their dirty, disgusting little
incest secret. And I don't even know what to say
(23:55):
except that I'm absolutely amazed at your courage and strength
to persevere and just even be here at all. After
all you've gone through, Vincent, you are a living miracle. Suggested.
We know that the post conviction litigation started almost immediately
back in nineteen seventy eight, and it went about as
(24:16):
well as the trial did. But Vincent finally got a
break of sorts in can you talk us through that?
Vincent files a man Damis and somebody in the d
a's office copies the whole file. That's how Vincent gets
his file. That's when he first gets the discovery. And
then Vincent got a letter from his lawyer in ninety
(24:38):
eight saying that we've never seen these documents before. You know,
and by the way, that lawyer in night, I think
he was a judge by that point. I mean, these
are credible people that came forward and said that they
had never seen these documents before. Right, this is the
discovery with the details that we mentioned earlier. That if
Vincent's trial attorney would have had this at the trial
(24:58):
in nineteen seventy seven, and of course it was totally
illegal for them not to share it, but if they
had had this discovery, it's very possible that even that
jury could have come to the right conclusion. So, in
addition to that, more exculpatory evidence has developed over time. Meanwhile,
Vincent is denied parole again and again and again and again.
(25:21):
The sisters showed up at the parole hearings and said
all sorts of awful racist things. I remember seeing this
on the video and hearing about it. In one occasion
where one of the three members of the pro board
was a black gentleman and one of the sisters actually
said in the parole hearing that she wouldn't feel safe
alone in the room with him. And I'm talking about
(25:42):
the guy who was on the parole board, the black
guy in the pro board. Am I actually right about that?
You are? You cannot make this up? So now we're
all the way at October and Justin you've now joined
Vincent's team, and Vincent has applied for post conviction leave
based on several to process violations and newly discovered evidence
(26:03):
which shows that the alleged rape was a total fabrication,
and that part of the new evidence that was presented
is from a family member of the alleged victims themselves, right,
So can you tell us about that? Essentially, we have
a family member of the LA board's coming forward with
a detailed statement about an admission that Keith gave her.
(26:24):
I think it was in two thousand and eleven, two
thousand twelve, And actually what happened forty four years ago
was she was there when Keith came into her mother's
house and he had a scratch on his neck. And
it appears is that Keith is the first one that
drops the story that gets Vincent thrown in prison, which
is that you know, he gave a black man a
ride home with the girls and the black man scratched
(26:47):
his neck, threw him in the trunk, and raped the
two girls. See the problem with that, though, if you
talk to this witness, she knows Keith the board. He's
a total psycho. Keith also, I believe I said two
thousand eleven, two thousand twelve, he admits did that there
was no black man. We actually have Facebook messages between
Keith Laborde's first cousin and Karen were Karen admitted that
(27:10):
Keith Labord raped her. Now you have to understand this
same cousin, Keith Laborde actually admitted that he had what
he termed to be consensual sex with Karen and through
Sharon in the trunk. So that's why Sharon's hyman is
intact as Key threw her in the trunk because she
didn't want to have sex with him. But he definitely
had sex with Karen. Now Karen says that it was
(27:31):
a rape. He says it was consensual sex. But at
the time of the alleged sexual act, Keith was an adult,
Karen was a miner. You know. Then we have an
investigative report from our investigator who spoke to Karen, where
Karen said she might have made a mistake that she
doesn't want to testify again in this case. This is
(27:53):
even worse than I originally thought, which I didn't think
was possible. So where are we now? What in the
world is it going to take to bring Vincent home?
Where are we right now? We filed the motion to
vacate the conviction of post conviction relief motion in October
of I mean, there's Affidavid's newly discovered evidence, there's scientific
(28:15):
reports and here identification experts, doctors, obviously the previous discovery
that wasn't turned over when the motion was initially filed.
Carry Sproul was the judge that was overseeing the motion,
and Charles Riddle was the district attorney. And essentially what
happened is in March of one, I got my hands
(28:40):
on a document where Carry Sprul admitted that he represented
Keith Laborde's daughter in a previous I don't know if
it was a custody case or a family court case.
And so we had a hearing to recuse carry Sprul,
and in that hearing to recuse Verry Sprool Kerry Sprool
(29:02):
not only admitted that he had represented keith La Board's daughter,
but also that he had a close relationship with keith
La Board since I guess almost childhood and actually hired
keith La Board to work on construction projects in his house,
so he had a longstanding relationship with keith La Board
and his family. And then after that is when we
had the motion to recuse the District Attorney's office where
(29:25):
we took testimony from Vincent's trial attorney, Mike Kelly were
Mike Kelly testified at the hearing that the defense received
no discovery, not a single document. They didn't know there
was a lineup, they didn't know that there was original
statements made, they didn't know anything. We took testimony from
a civil rights activist, Alan Holmes, who heard Charles Riddle
(29:49):
admit that Mike Kelly didn't receive discovery, and then we
took testimony from Charles Riddle himself, and Charles Riddle admitted
that he believed Mike Kelly when Mike Kelly tell stified
that they didn't have any of the discovery in this case.
That caused Judge Bennett to recuse Charles Riddle because Charles
Riddle refused to consent to give Vincent Simmons a new trial.
(30:13):
Essentially that Riddle was basically condoning a constitutional violation. Right
he knew that there was a violation and refused to
remedy it. And a prosecutor has a duty to act
fair and impartial, and his duties are based upon the Constitution.
He has to be fair to the accused, and when
(30:33):
there's a due process violation like there is in this case,
the only way he can remedy that is by giving
Vincent another trial, and he refused to do it. We
now have an Attorney General's office that's taken over there
trying to vacate the recusal of Charles Riddle. They're basically
trying to delay this as best as they can. No
one wants to give Vincent any relief here, and that's
(30:56):
where we are right now. We're in front of the
Supreme Court battling it out over the motion to recuse
the district Attorney. And I'm in the process of filing
something to try to compel the court to do the
right thing here. So before we go to the closing
of the show, is there something that our listeners can
do hopefully they're going to be inspired to take action.
(31:16):
What would you recommend that they do to help Vincent
or just to help in general. I would recommend that
they write Judge William Bennett the Attorney General's office, and
that they write the Governor of Louisiana, and that they
write the District Attorney of a v Alls Paris, Charles Riddle.
These are all people that have the ability to concede.
(31:41):
I mean, Vincent would love a retrial because the retrial
is not going to happen because it didn't happen. Vincent
has a page on the Friends and Family of the
Wrongfully Convicted, which is an organization that Derrick Hamilton's started,
and then he also has a change dot org web
page as well. We're gonna put everything in the episode
O bio for everybody to do what they can. And
(32:03):
I've gotten to know the Governor of Louisiana over the years.
I think he's a good man, and I think he's
a fair man, and I believe if he was made
aware of this, that he will feel inspired to take
the action that the local authorities are still to this
day unwilling to take. So with that, we now turned
(32:23):
to the closing of our show, and it works like this.
It's called closing arguments. First of all, I thank you
Justin bonus again for being here sharing you know, your
frustration and your thoughts on this case. And of course
Vincent Simmons stay strong. You know there's a lot of
good people out here that care about you. I'm one
of them, and so I speak for our whole wrongful
(32:45):
conviction community when we say we're rooting for you, A
lot of people praying for you and hopefully help is
a red around the corner. So now the end of
our show works like this. I turned my microphone off,
I leave both of your guys on, and I turn
it over first to Justin for his final thoughts whatever
he wants to say, and then of course Vincent, we're
gonna say the best for last all due respect to you, Justin.
(33:07):
Vincent is demand of the hour. And then Vincent, you
could just say whatever you want about whatever you want. Okay,
I'm now going to turn my microphone off and kick
back in my chair and just listen. Okay, Well, I
just want to start off by saying what's right in
front of the court right now is probably the most
egregious Brady violation in the history of the United States,
(33:31):
because I've never seen a case where no discovery was
turned over and almost all of the discovery is exculpatory
that the d A's office in a Vols Parish has
admitted that they believed if Vincent Simmons' defense attorney that
he didn't receive discovery in this case. The only way
(33:52):
you can remedy that situation is by a new trial,
and they are refusing to give him a new trial.
It should start there because the evidence that wasn't turned
over is what proves that Vincent Simmons didn't commit this crime.
This guy didn't commit this crime. He was railroaded, he
was legally lynched, and he's been in prison for almost
(34:14):
forty five years. It's a disgrace. This is simple. They
could give him a new trial right now, but they
know that they can't retry him because the people that
testified against him will never testify against him again because
they lied. All of the evidence that wasn't disclosed proves
that they lied. I took this case because my wife
said I have to take this case because that's how
(34:35):
much she believed he was innocent. But I believe he
will be victorious because he is innocent and every single
shred of the evidence shows him. And that's all I
have to Second, I say, God, and the length uncovered.
So I have faith and I have yes. God have
(35:00):
put in justice in my life and in this face
that is going to grant us justice. A thank you
for listening to Wrongful Conviction. Please support your local innocence
(35:23):
organizations and go to the links in our bio to
see how you can help. I'd like to thank our
production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden, Jeff Clyburne and Kevin Wardis.
The music on this show, as always, is by three
time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Twitter at wrong Conviction,
(35:43):
and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction is
a production of Lava for Good Podcast in association with
Signal Company Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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