William Most, Attorney for Death Row Exoneree Glenn Ford — Transcript

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1. 0:00So, as Katherine mentioned, I represent
2. 0:02Glenn Ford and I was also on his care
3. 0:04team as well. And so, I guess I'll start
4. 0:08by telling you his story because that's
5. 0:10something that he wanted everyone to
6. 0:12hear. Glenn was born in Shreveport,
7. 0:15Louisiana. And he was raised in
8. 0:17California by his grandmother and then
9. 0:19returned as a young man to Shreveport.
10. 0:21And unfortunately,
11. 0:22shortly after he returned to Shreveport,
12. 0:24he was arrested. Uh he was arrested for
13. 0:28in relation to the murder of a
14. 0:30Shreveport shopkeeper who Glenn had done
15. 0:32some yard work for but but Glenn had
16. 0:34nothing to do with his murder and that
17. 0:36was pretty clear to the police and
18. 0:39prosecutors but they decided to
19. 0:41prosecute him anyway. One of the
20. 0:43prosecutors later admitted that
21. 0:46he was more focused on winning than he
22. 0:48was on justice and that may have been
23. 0:50what led him to focus on Glenn who was
24. 0:52an easy target.
25. 0:54They uh they put Glenn on trial. They
26. 0:56arrested him for initially for
27. 0:58possession of stolen property. Then they
28. 1:00bumped that up to murder. And by 1984,
29. 1:03they had secured a conviction against
30. 1:05Glenn, which was surprising because they
31. 1:08only had one piece of evidence that
32. 1:11connected Glenn to the murder. That one
33. 1:13piece of evidence was the testimony of a
34. 1:17woman, Marlla Brown, who was the
35. 1:20girlfriend of one of the actual killers.
36. 1:23And when the prosecutors put her on the
37. 1:25stand, she said that it was everything
38. 1:28she'd said about Glenn was false. She
39. 1:31said that the Shreport uh police
40. 1:33department had forced her to make it up.
41. 1:36And you'd think that that would have
42. 1:38been the end of the case, right? Because
43. 1:40that was the only thing linking Glenn to
44. 1:41the crime, but but of course it wasn't.
45. 1:45And you know, this is a story that
46. 1:47probably many of you here have heard
47. 1:49before. It was an African-American
48. 1:51defendant. It was an all-white jury that
49. 1:53was cherrypicked by two white
50. 1:55prosecutors. It was a white white judge
51. 1:58and ultimately they were able to get not
52. 2:01only a conviction but also at the the
53. 2:04death sentence and that was in part
54. 2:06because they had withheld quite a lot of
55. 2:09exculpatory evidence that again the
56. 2:12prosecutor later on admitted that there
57. 2:14was evidence at the time of trial that
58. 2:16would have cleared Glenn.
59. 2:18So Glenn spent the next 29 years, three
60. 2:21months and five days on
61. 2:24uh at Angola on death row in solitary
62. 2:27confinement which uh other speakers here
63. 2:30will be able to speak to more eloquently
64. 2:31than I can. But he spent 23 hours a day
65. 2:34in his cell was only allowed out one
66. 2:36hour a day and even then sometimes he
67. 2:38chose not to take it because the only
68. 2:40hour you could spend out of yourself was
69. 2:43to spend time in a cage that I've heard
70. 2:45described as a dog kennel. was I mean
71. 2:47only in a very technical sense outside.
72. 2:51Um the good news was that Glenn was
73. 2:53exonerated last year on March 10th. The
74. 2:57district attorney's office, you know,
75. 2:59interestingly enough, it wasn't Glenn's
76. 3:00attorneys who, as good as his attorneys
77. 3:02were, it wasn't his attorneys that got
78. 3:04Glenn out of jail. It was for some
79. 3:07reason the district attorney's office on
80. 3:09their own said that they had found
81. 3:11evidence that convinced them that Glenn
82. 3:13wasn't guilty which was surprising cuz
83. 3:15they'd said for 29 years in all his
84. 3:17postconviction efforts that he's guilty.
85. 3:20He's guilty. He's guilty. He's guilty.
86. 3:21He's guilty. And then in 2014 they said
87. 3:24he's innocent. And the next day uh the
88. 3:28judge signed the order the same day. He
89. 3:30was let out the next morning on March
90. 3:3211th.
91. 3:34And Glenn, you know, initially had
92. 3:36nowhere to go. And fortunately, he was
93. 3:40taken in by John Thompson, who I know
94. 3:43some of you here have met. John Thompson
95. 3:45is an exonery himself, who was on death
96. 3:48row at Engle at the same time as Glenn.
97. 3:52He after getting out several years
98. 3:54before Glenn started an organization
99. 3:56called Resurrection After, which which
100. 3:58Katherine mentioned, and it's and it's a
101. 4:00fantastic organization. They uh they
102. 4:03help exoneries as they come out of
103. 4:05prison and other people coming out of
104. 4:07prison who have no place to go. Uh Glenn
105. 4:10told me that he believed that he'd be
106. 4:13living under a bridge somewhere if it
107. 4:14wasn't for John Thompson and
108. 4:16resurrection after exoneration. And
109. 4:19considering the fact that Glenn had
110. 4:21terminal lung cancer, he probably would
111. 4:23have passed away many months earlier had
112. 4:25it not been for resurrection after
113. 4:27exoneration. So, I was initially
114. 4:29planning on coming here today to ask
115. 4:31people for
116. 4:33uh donations to Glenn Ford uh for his
117. 4:36medical expenses, but since that's no
118. 4:39longer necessary, you know, if anyone
119. 4:41feels moved to donate in Glenn's honor,
120. 4:43it's just resurrection after
121. 4:45exoneration, which did so much for him.
122. 4:49Um,
123. 4:51with Glenn's 15 months of freedom, he
124. 4:53got out last March. He was able to enjoy
125. 4:57life, and he really did. He one of his
126. 4:59great prides and joys was that he was a
127. 5:01father. He had several sons and he had a
128. 5:04lot of grandchildren. I'm not sure the
129. 5:06exact number. Um, but they they were
130. 5:08wonderful. And he was able to go out to
131. 5:09California and visit them and spend time
132. 5:11with them. And, uh, that that was a
133. 5:13great joy of his life. And most of the
134. 5:15time he spent in New Orleans of his his
135. 5:18release. and he was able to go out uh
136. 5:20and enjoy the live music and the
137. 5:22festivals and and so he he really lived
138. 5:25lived it up in the the last 15 months of
139. 5:28his life and and you know he was an
140. 5:30inspiration to everyone around him. He
141. 5:33was very forward focused, focusing on,
142. 5:37you know, his family and his friends and
143. 5:39what he could do with his life and was
144. 5:42amazingly to me not so focused on what
145. 5:45had been done to him. Although he was an
146. 5:48advocate for justice and one of his
147. 5:51goals was to make sure that what
148. 5:54happened to him never happens to anyone
149. 5:56else again and to do everything we could
150. 5:58to make it harder for what happened to
151. 6:00him to happen to anyone else.
152. 6:03[Music]
153. 6:05So he he had some time outside and I'm
154. 6:08sorry to say that yesterday morning at
155. 6:11at 2:11 in the morning Glenn passed away
156. 6:14and it was in recent weeks he was very
157. 6:18sick. So in some ways it was a blessing.
158. 6:21his pain is gone and I I was there with
159. 6:25him and holding him at the time of his
160. 6:26passing and you know I can say that it
161. 6:28was peaceful and it was quiet and he was
162. 6:32surrounded and held by people who cared
163. 6:33about him and it was at at his home. So
164. 6:37a lot had been taken away from him but
165. 6:39the circumstances of his dying were were
166. 6:42his and were about as good as I think
167. 6:45anyone can wish for.
168. 6:49So Glenn is no longer with us, but his
169. 6:51memory is and his legacy is. And I think
170. 6:55he's got a real legacy.
171. 6:57He, as Katherine mentioned, he has
172. 7:00several lawsuits that are pending. And
173. 7:02the purpose of those lawsuits because
174. 7:04Glenn will not, you know, we knew that
175. 7:05the day we filed them that Glenn
176. 7:07wouldn't see wouldn't see the end of it
177. 7:09or we were almost certain that he
178. 7:11wouldn't, but he wanted to file them
179. 7:13anyway because for two reasons. Number
180. 7:16one, he wanted to try and set his family
181. 7:18off with more opportunities than he had
182. 7:21been given in life.
183. 7:23Second reason was for justice. He wanted
184. 7:25to make it harder for, you know, the the
185. 7:28police department, the prosecutors to do
186. 7:32what they did to him. And also his other
187. 7:35law, federal lawsuit is against the
188. 7:37Angola prison where he received uh
189. 7:40woefully inadequate medical treatment.
190. 7:42And so he wanted to see things better
191. 7:44for his comrades in prison. And then he
192. 7:48also has, as Katherine mentioned, a
193. 7:50state petition for compensation under
194. 7:52Louisiana's wrongful conviction statute,
195. 7:54which at least purports to promise
196. 7:57compensation to wrongfully convicted
197. 8:00persons. But in Glenn's case, it has
198. 8:02been so far denied. So that fight
199. 8:04continues. So Glenn's legal battles
200. 8:06continue. And in fact, as some of you
201. 8:09may know, he was mentioned in
202. 8:11yesterday's Supreme Court case regarding
203. 8:14the death penalty. In Briar's incredible
204. 8:17descent that is a damning indictment of
205. 8:20the death penalty generally, he mentions
206. 8:22Glenn Ford in the context of showing how
207. 8:25incredibly unreliable the death penalty
208. 8:29process is. As everyone here knows very
209. 8:31well, um Brier pointed out that six
210. 8:35people had been exonerated for reasons
211. 8:37of actual innocence last year, last year
212. 8:39alone. One of them being Glenn Ford. He
213. 8:41talked about Glenn's experience. So
214. 8:43Glenn's memory lives on.
215. 8:46Uh he is remembered by the people who
216. 8:48knew him. His his lawsuits for justice
217. 8:51continue.
218. 8:53He will be remembered at resurrection
219. 8:55after exoneration. uh he will be
220. 8:57remembered by the people who knew him
221. 8:59and there will be a celebration this
222. 9:01this Sunday in New Orleans for his
223. 9:04funeral and remembrance. So if anybody
224. 9:05happens to be in town then you're more
225. 9:08than welcome to to come and and take
226. 9:11part.
227. 9:12So it's been one of the great honors of
228. 9:14my life to to work for Glenn and to work
229. 9:17with him and I'll continue working for
230. 9:19him even though he's no longer here.
231. 9:23and it's been uh a pleasure and an honor
232. 9:26and I feel very blessed to be a part of
233. 9:28it.
234. 9:30So if anyone has any questions about
235. 9:32about Glenn or about the process or
236. 9:34about you know my expertise is the civil
237. 9:36side of things not criminal, I'd be
238. 9:37happy to answer any questions anyone
239. 9:40has.
240. 9:42Yes, sir. Is this his federal lawsuit
241. 9:45that you had against the person for
242. 9:47monetary value? Uh yes. Yeah, it will.
243. 9:51It's seeking damages and hopefully it
244. 9:54will be successful. There's also a class
245. 9:57action lawsuit that we did not file but
246. 9:59another group, the ACLU, the Justice
247. 10:01Center, and a couple others filed.
248. 10:02That's a class action on behalf of all
249. 10:04Anglo prisoners for inadequate medical
250. 10:06treatment. And that suit just tries to
251. 10:09get things uh you know, get the policies
252. 10:11changed. So, we're kind of hitting them
253. 10:13from both sides. You've got someone who
254. 10:15got out suing them for damages and then
255. 10:17for all the men who and women who are
256. 10:19still inside
257. 10:21uh trying to make things better. Yes,
258. 10:23ma'am. How can the state deny his um
259. 10:27lawsuit if it's already found that he
260. 10:30falsely
261. 10:31convicted? Yeah, that's a really great
262. 10:34question and it blew me away when they
263. 10:36denied it. Uh the answer is a little bit
264. 10:38technical. Um can you repeat the
265. 10:41question? Sure. Oh yeah. The question
266. 10:42was, how is it possible that Glenn's
267. 10:44state petition for compensation was
268. 10:46denied when there's a state law that
269. 10:48says wrongfully convicted people get
270. 10:50compensated? Right. Um the short answer
271. 10:53is that Louisiana statute is terrible.
272. 10:55It it uh it caps the total amount that
273. 10:59anyone could possibly get at $330,000.
274. 11:03That's $25,000 a year for every year the
275. 11:06person was in prison up to 10 years. And
276. 11:08then you can get uh if you have make an
277. 11:11additional showing, you can get another
278. 11:1280 grand for lost life opportunities.
279. 11:15But to get it, you have to show actual
280. 11:18innocence. And you have to prove it by
281. 11:20clear clearing convincing evidence,
282. 11:21which is a higher standard than is
283. 11:23normal for lawsuits.
284. 11:25And actual innocence under the statute
285. 11:27means not only that you were a innocent
286. 11:29of the crime you were convicted of which
287. 11:31which makes sense right in the context
288. 11:33but you also have to show that you were
289. 11:35innocent of any other crime on the same
290. 11:39set of facts. In Glenn's case, you know,
291. 11:43he acknowledged that he had
292. 11:47uh pond items for the actual killers
293. 11:51because these guys were the actual
294. 11:53killers were really bad guys. and and in
295. 11:55Shreport in 1984, I get the sense that
296. 11:57you did what they said. Um,
297. 12:01and so he admitted that and so the judge
298. 12:03decided that since he had been in
299. 12:05possession of stolen property, she
300. 12:07denied him any uh compensation at all
301. 12:11for the 29 years he was in prison. And
302. 12:12to this day, he's received nothing for
303. 12:16uh the time he was in except $20 they
304. 12:18gave him when he walked out the door.
305. 12:20And I think that's something that um I'd
306. 12:22like to emphasize which is you know
307. 12:24everyone in this room I suspect is an
308. 12:27agreement that the the death penalty
309. 12:28should be abolished. Uh but you know
310. 12:30another thing that's really been eye
311. 12:32opening for me is the need for
312. 12:34prosecutorial accountability because one
313. 12:37was prosecuted. You know we got a
314. 12:39prosecutor who admits there was evidence
315. 12:41at the time that would have cleared him
316. 12:43prosecutor who admits that he was more
317. 12:46focused on winning than on justice. And
318. 12:48yet, as far as I know, not a single
319. 12:51person has lost their job. Not a single
320. 12:54person has had to pay a dollar. Not a
321. 12:56single person has lost their law
322. 12:57license. And uh I think one avenue for
323. 13:00people to pursue is is going after
324. 13:02people's law licenses because the law is
325. 13:05so difficult to get compensation. But
326. 13:07there's no reason why state bars can't
327. 13:09be more involved.
328. 13:11Yes, ma'am. I saw the video where the
329. 13:13prosecutor went to meet him. I think he
330. 13:16was in the hospital ill and the
331. 13:18prosecutor was saying he was also
332. 13:19advocating for him to get this money um
333. 13:24has done beyond this nice little video
334. 13:26clip. Sure. Um I want to know his
335. 13:29accountability as an individual um
336. 13:32beyond this little PR piece that he did.
337. 13:35Yeah, I I've thought about that too. Um
338. 13:37the question was what has Marty Stra the
339. 13:39prosecutor came and apologized to Glenn?
340. 13:41What what has he done? What steps has he
341. 13:43taken beyond just an apology? Uh the
342. 13:46steps he took was, you know, he
343. 13:50he sent a letter to the the editorial
344. 13:52page of the streets apologizing, calling
345. 13:56for Glenn to be compensated and calling
346. 13:57for an end to the death penalty, which
347. 14:00you know, which is just an apology, but
348. 14:02you know, that's so rare for a
349. 14:04prosecutor to apologize
350. 14:07that it elevated Glenn's story from what
351. 14:10was essentially a local news story and
352. 14:13it made it a and international news
353. 14:15story. So, there was that huge benefit.
354. 14:18Um,
355. 14:20Marty also, you know, I have to be
356. 14:21honest, made a very small donation, um,
357. 14:24less than $100
358. 14:26care, which seems as fault to me, but he
359. 14:31is also a defendant in one of lawsuits,
360. 14:34so there may be more accountability and
361. 14:38perhaps compensation coming down the
362. 14:40line from Marty Stra. Yes, sir. Yes. You
363. 14:44mentioned two lawsuits. Were those 42
364. 14:47USC 1983s and number one and number two,
365. 14:51how far have you gotten? Have you got to
366. 14:53summary judgement or anything close to
367. 14:55that? Yeah, the the question was are the
368. 14:59two federal lawsuits are they section
369. 15:001983 lawsuits and and how far along are
370. 15:03they? Um the the two federal lawsuits
371. 15:06are both you know the main sort of uh
372. 15:08core of the claim is 42 USC 1983 which
373. 15:13uh for those not familiar is the the US
374. 15:16federal law that allows you to get
375. 15:18compensation if your civil rights have
376. 15:20been violated. So yes that's the the
377. 15:23core of the two federal lawsuits and
378. 15:25they're very in their very initial
379. 15:27stages. So um
380. 15:30you know we haven't gotten to summary
381. 15:32judgement yet. There's been some motions
382. 15:33to dismiss filed but not yet decided on.
383. 15:36Uh it's been an artificially accelerated
384. 15:40case in part because Glenn was was dying
385. 15:43and so we had to move things along to
386. 15:46get Glenn's testimony recorded as much
387. 15:49of it as we could. Unfortunately, we
388. 15:51were not able to get all the testimony
389. 15:53that I wish we'd been able to get from
390. 15:55him before he passed away. But, you
391. 15:58know, I had great hopes for these
392. 15:59lawsuits. And, you know, I had a very
393. 16:04frank conversation with Glenn when he
394. 16:06when we were talking about filing them
395. 16:08because being involved in a lawsuit is
396. 16:10never fun. Uh, even if you're the
397. 16:12plaintiff, and it's it's unpleasant and
398. 16:14it's tiresome and this was the last
399. 16:17months of his life. But he told me that
400. 16:19he wanted to do this because he wanted
401. 16:21justice. He wanted to see his family
402. 16:23with more opportunities than he had. So,
403. 16:27in the back.
404. 16:31So,
405. 16:32this is a question you probably can't
406. 16:34answer.
407. 16:35[Music]
408. 16:36Why Why are there laws so
409. 16:40proseing
410. 16:46the death? Why are the
411. 16:49trial attempted? Because that's really
412. 16:52what it is. Yeah, great question. And uh
413. 16:55the question was how is it that there
414. 16:58aren't laws accountability for
415. 17:00prosecutors and when you know if they
416. 17:03know someone's innocent and they're
417. 17:04putting them on death row that should
418. 17:06really you know in one sense be
419. 17:08considered attempted murder and that's
420. 17:10exactly the phrasing that I've heard
421. 17:12that I heard from John Thompson who was
422. 17:14a death row exonery. Uh I think I heard
423. 17:18Glenn say the same thing that this is
424. 17:20this is attempted murder which is what
425. 17:22was done to them. you know that it's
426. 17:26hard to say why exactly but it is
427. 17:28shocking. I don't think people in this
428. 17:30country broadly understand to what
429. 17:32extent prosecutors are immune to
430. 17:35liability for what they do in their role
431. 17:37as a prosecutor. This the Supreme Court
432. 17:39and just generally America has made it
433. 17:41very hard to sue prosecutors and it's
434. 17:44given them uh immunity for for many
435. 17:46things far beyond the immunity that
436. 17:48police officers are afforded. And I I
437. 17:50think a lot of the conversation in
438. 17:52America about criminal justice recently
439. 17:53has been about police, which is, you
440. 17:55know, completely appropriate. There's a
441. 17:56lot of problems with police
442. 17:58accountability, but I think part of the
443. 18:00untold story is prosecutorial
444. 18:02accountability cuz prosecutors have so
445. 18:04much power, especially when a a vast
446. 18:08majority of cases never go to trial. The
447. 18:10uh the real power lies in their hands,
448. 18:13the prosecutor, to make deals. And yet
449. 18:16it's very hard to know what prosecutors
450. 18:18do, hold them accountable, and sometimes
451. 18:21there's not even any guidelines. Most I
452. 18:23I was reading in prior to that most DA's
453. 18:26offices don't even have guide books or
454. 18:28handbooks or manuals for how to execute
455. 18:30or exercise their. So I think it's a
456. 18:34conversation that needs to be had and I
457. 18:36think the the laws should change. So
458. 18:39thank you very much everyone. I I really
459. 18:41appreciate