An all-white jury delivered a guilty verdict without any physical evidence directly linking Ford to the crime, with the inexperienced public defenders unable to secure any witnesses. Evidentiary hearings in 2004 and 2005 found the state failed to disclose exculpatory evidence. The state actively suppressed evidence from before the trial that showed two confidential witnesses corroborating Ford’s story that he became involved in the crime after the murders, and that another man was in possession of the murder weapon after the crime. In 2013, the state notified Ford’s counsel that a confidential informant for the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office stated that another man confessed to the murder. Ford was exonerated and released in 2014.
