NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans man is home after spending four decades behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
A judge deemed his trial unconstitutional because of the prosecution's misconduct, and his murder conviction has been vacated due to law enforcement concealing evidence, according to the Innocence Project New Orleans.
Jerry Davis sat down with Eyewitness News reporter Eleanor Tabone hours after being released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary to reflect on what life was like being wrongly imprisoned.
"Well kind of miserable but you try to block everything out, don't think about it.... find other things that occupy my mind. You know, just to keep my mind off of where I'm at," Davis said.
In 1983 Jerry Davis was arrested and in 1984, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The jury spared him the death penalty.
Thursday morning he was released from state custody.
Now 64, the father of two and grandfather to four, is home. seeing his family for the first time in four decades as a free man.
"That was like the icing on the cake," Davis said.
Innocence Project New Orleans, Legal Director Richard Davis says Jerry wasn't even at the scene of the crime.
Richard Davis said, "A couple were visiting New Orleans, they were setting up a camper van in a trailer park off Chef Menteur in New Orleans East. They were approached by two men who robbed them and shot them."
"A police informant who was facing a 24-year sentence for an unrelated crime approached the police and gave them information about this case. He named a second individual. The police then went to that second individual and said, we know you were there."
Davis says that suspect was in fact the actual shooter and instead pointed the finger at Jerry Davis. "The judge recently found that both the prosecution witnesses gave false testimony, the prosecutors hid testimony that should have been handed over to Jerry and they did not correct their witnesses when they gave false testimony and in fact amplified those lies that convicted Jerry."
Jerry's big sister Myra Barthelemy says she's just thankful to have her brother home.
"A lot of times I was angry, but I prayed a lot. And I know it was gonna come to this day," she said.
Davis never got to say goodbye to his mother and two brothers, who passed away while he was incarcerated.
Davis says he plans to forget about the time he served, and move forward with his newfound freedom.
Freedom that was wrongly snatched away from him in the first place.
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