NEW ORLEANS — Alva Edwards has never seen her father a free man. Just a few days ago, waiting outside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, that changed.
“Just to have him free, away from there, it’s just a good feeling,” said Edwards.
Her father, 70-year-old Albert Damond was sent to prison on a split jury verdict more than 40 years ago. The 11 to 1 vote convicted him of a 1973 murder.
Eyewitness News spoke to his daughter as she was on the way to pick him up and bring him home to New Orleans.
“He had this feeling that this is it because we’ve been here before where he was supposed to get a good outcome and it didn’t really pan out,” said Edwards.
In 2018 Louisianans voted to end the practice of non-unanimous juries. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. So far, that ruling is not retroactive.
That’s where a new initiative from the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office comes in, looking at what D.A. Jason Williams calls unjust and racist convictions from Jim Crow era juries
“This is about doing hard work and righting the wrongs of the past,” said Williams.
Through Williams’ Jim Crow Jury Project, Damond’s case became one of 22 non-unanimous jury convictions to be vacated by Williams’ office.
“Jim Crow has shaped our history, but it doesn’t have to be our future,” said Jamila Johnson, managing attorney at The Promise of Justice Initiative.
Johnson worked on Damond’s case and PJI now represents about 900 Louisiana prisoners convicted through non-unanimous juries. According to the district attorney’s office, there are about 1,600 prisoners statewide in that category, about 340 are from Orleans Parish.
“For more than 120 years this relic of Jim Crow destroyed lives and weakened communities, sentencing thousands of mostly black men to spend the majority of their lives in prison,” said Johnson.
Of those 22 vacated convictions, only a few will be getting new trials. Most are pleading to lesser charges, like Damond. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was given time served, allowing him to reunite with his family.
“It’s still unreal to me. It’s just unbelievable,” said Edwards.
Williams says his office is reaching out to crime survivors and victim’s families as these cases move forward. There are also re-entry services for defendants to adjust back to society.
