The 1983 murder conviction of a man who spent nearly 40 years in prison was reversed on Thursday.
After leaving the courtroom, Raymond Flanks told reporters, “Even though it was delayed justice, it was justice. “Time and the truth won out in this case.”
Together, the defence and the prosecution requested that Flanks’ conviction be overturned. They claimed that the jury, which finally found Flanks guilty, was not informed of contradictions in the eyewitness testimony.
Innocence Project New Orleans, a criminal justice organization, claims that Martin Carnesi was shot in his driveway during a failed robbery in 1983.
The culprit, according to Carnesi’s wife, fled the scene in an old blue automobile and had a white spot on his face.
Shortly later, Flanks was taken into custody despite not having a white spot on his face and driving a brand-new blue automobile.
According to the Innocence Project, which seeks to free innocent individuals held to “unjust sentences,” when Carnesi’s wife showed investigator John Dillmann the mismatch between her description and Flank’s appearance, Dillmann reportedly shook his head and claimed that Flanks was the culprit.
“Det. Dillmannn falsely testified that Ms Carnesi told him the perpetrator’s only notable facial characteristic was a mustache, that he did not do anything to influence her during identification, and that Mr. Flanks’ car matched Ms. Carnesi’s description,” said the organization in a statement. This was kept from the jury.
The Orleans Parish District Attorney Civil Rights Division was established by District Attorney Jason Williams “to confront past harm and injustice,” according to the DA’s website. The legal team for The Innocence Project provided the division with the concealed material.
Flanks expressed his gratitude to the group for helping to secure his release.
“Effortless nights and waking up early in the mornings to investigate and to go get records, retrieve records that the jury has never seen or the victims family never seen,” said Flanks. “Their efforts, this is why I’m able to be free today. I can look up in the sky and see the birds flying in a different way now.”
Flanks regrets the racial injustice and inequity that he claims is a natural component of the criminal justice system when thinking back on the case.
One of the highest known rates of erroneous convictions in the nation, according to the Innocence Project, is in Orleans Parish in Louisiana. According to them, evidence is concealed in more than 70% of these cases.
“When you’re honest with yourself and you know that you’re not guilty for a crime that you were accused of, it gives you a sense of hope because you know you didn’t do it,” Flanks said. “There’s a seed in you every morning when you wake up and you know there’s a God.”
