We’ve all heard about the countless tragic cases of black men who have been prosecuted and sentenced and later found innocent after serving many years in prison. On the other hand, this one has to be one of the most tragic, if not THE most tragic, situations we’ve ever seen.
A black man named Glen Ford was arrested for killing a jeweler in 1984. This man occasionally made extra money from doing yard work, but Ford was not a killer.
Still, he could not afford an attorney or prove his innocence and was given an inexperienced defense team to plead his case. The prosecuting attorney, Marty Stroud, a young white fresh-out-of-college prosecutor, readily admitted that he was eager to win the case and couldn’t care less if the black man being charged was innocent.
He was so determined to win the case that he made sure the odds were stacked against Ford by withholding eyewitness information that could have exonerated him at the start. To add insult to injury, Stroud ensured he had an all-white jury for the trial.
Unfortunately, Glenn was charged and prosecuted with almost no evidence against him, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
The prosecuting attorney even admitted that when he won the case, he went out to celebrate and had drinks.
He was only concerned, admittedly, about winning the case, sans any sensitivity to the fact that it was a lie.
Once Ford was exonerated 30 years later, after being in a hellish Angola prison on death row, his life was stolen again when he discovered he had stage 4 lung cancer and was given 6 to 8 months to live.
So he had just gotten out of prison for a crime that he did not commit and lost 30 years of his life, and then he had a new death sentence.
Tragically he died at the age of 65 in 2015 from Lung Cancer.
The most shocking thing about the story is that the attorney who imprisoned him dared return to him and ask him for forgiveness while he was sick from cancer.
This story fails to mention that he is in his mid-60s when he comes to talk to Ford, which means he is retired and went on for many years as an attorney.
One has to wonder how many other innocent Black men did Stroud prosecute during that time, and should those cases be reopened and charges be placed against him after admitting when he did?
Looking frail and very ill, Ford talked to him during a visit to see if Ford would have the heart to forgive him, but Ford, sitting in a wheelchair and looking frail, told him he could not forgive him. He said that he couldn’t do it.
To that end, the actual killers are now in prison. The two brothers are also responsible for at least five additional murders in New Orleans but have not been charged with the jeweler’s murder.
Just when you think the story could not get any more tragic, Ford was entitled to $330k in damages for the wrongful conviction, paltry when considering 30 years of one’s life being stolen. However, a judge denied him that because he said he thought even though Ford was innocent, he still may have known the brothers did it.
So, Glen Ford, an innocent Black man, died penniless and sick, depending on the care of volunteers to help him, and never had a chance to live his life. Source ABC News
