Glenn Ford, who has spent 30 years on Louisiana's death row, could be freed as soon as March 12, after prosecutors filed motions to vacate his conviction and sentence. Prosecutors said they recently received "credible evidence" that Ford "was neither present at, nor a participant in, the robbery and murder" of which he was convicted in 1984. Ford, who has always maintained his innocence, was tried and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. One of the witnesses against him said at trial that police had helped her make up her story. A state "expert" who testified about the victim's time of death had not even examined the body. Ford's lead trial attorney had never tried a jury case before. A second attorney, two years out of law school, worked at an insurance defense firm. They failed to hire any experts to rebut the prosecution's case because they believed they would have to pay for the experts themselves. The Louisiana Supreme Court earlier said it had "serious questions" about the outcome of the trial, but did not reverse Ford's conviction. Ford may have been involved in trying to pawn jewelry from the victim that he received from one of the original codefendants.

Since 1973, 143 people have been exonerated and released from death row. (See DPIC's Innocence List.) It is possible that Ford will be added to this list.

(A. Cohen, "After 30 Years on Death Row, an Innocent Man in Louisiana is About to Go Free," The Atlantic, March 11, 2014). See Innocence and Representation.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has scheduled a vote on repealing the death penalty for March 12. The bill, HB 1170, would replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole for future offenses. The bill overwhelmingly passed the House Criminal Justice and Public Works Committee in February by a vote of 14-3, including supportive votes from several legislators who had previously opposed repeal. Six other states in the past six years have ended the death penalty. Rep. Renny Cushing, the sponsor of the bill, said "The death penalty does not protect public safety, it does not shield our police officers, it does not meet the needs of many families of murder victims, it is not consistent with the values we hear from our religious leaders...those who commit first-degree murder will spend the rest of their lives in prison with no chance for parole." A death penalty repeal bill passed the legislature in 2000, but was vetoed by the governor. The current governor, Maggie Hassan, opposes the death penalty. New Hampshire has not had an execution since 1939 and has only one person on death row. 

(G. Rayno, "Vote on death penalty repeal set for Wednesday," Union Leader, March 8, 2014). See Recent Legislation and DPIC's 2013 Year End Report.