Hearing in Vincent Simmons case to be held Tuesday

The following press release was sent by defense attorneys to the Avoyelles Today and other news sources on a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, April 20 in the Vincent Simmons case:
HEARING IN VINCENT SIMMONS INNOCENT CASE. JUDGE AND PROSECUTOR AKSED TO RECUSE THEMSELVES

Avoyelles Parish DA Charles Riddle Admits Vincent Simmons Defense Attorney Never Received Discovery File Prior to Simmons Trial in 1977

Hearing before Judge Spruill at 11 am on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at the 12th Judicial District Court, 110 East Mark Street, Marksville LA,71351

Simmons attorneys will request that DA Charles Riddle be Removed as Prosecutor in the case and Judge Spruill be forced to recuse himself. According to a Supplemental Motion filed in Simmons' case, Riddle is now material witness, who has consistently opposed a hearing that could lead to overturning Simmons wrongful conviction. DA Riddle has rubber stamped this terrible conviction for years despite all the new evidence that a great injustice has taken place.

"In a meeting with defense attorneys and civil rights advocate Allen Holmes, Avoyelles Parish DA Charles Riddle on Tuesday, October 20 at 11 am admitted that Vincent Simmons did not receive a fair trial and that materials favorable to his defense, discovery documents, were never turned over to his attorney at the time of trial in 1977. (Supplemental filing and list of documents attached). This is certainly a basis to grant Vincent Simmons a new trial and immediately release him after almost 44 years in prison."

Background

Two weeks after the night of May 9, 1977, two 14-year-old twin white girls and their 18-year- old cousin were visiting with relatives and mentioned nothing about being raped and kidnapped until one of the relatives noticed a scratch on the man's neck. Things immediately changed and the three told them a concocted story about being assaulted by an unknown Black man. The relatives, skeptical that they were telling them the whole story, two weeks after it allegedly occurred, advised them to go to the police.

At the police station, they could not provide many details other than a Black man attacked them. While there were no corroborating witnesses and no evidence at all of a rape and kidnapping, it did not stop the police from picking up a young Black man from town and taking him into the station. Unable to truly understand the charges against him, as he had only sixth grade education and was illiterate, the police denied him an attorney and the ability to make a call. He was then placed in a line up with a few other men, but there was only one man in the line up that day who was handcuffed and placed in restraints - Vincent Simmons. The twins and their cousin identified the man with the handcuffs and shortly thereafter in the stationhouse Simmons was shot point blank in his chest.

He was tried less than 60 days later and in one day convicted of the charges. He was sentenced to 100 years in prison. He has served nearly 44 years, mostly in solitary confinement. Old and sickly, Vincent remains in Angola Prison.

New evidence has emerged that the alleged 1977 rape of two 14- year-old white girls in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, never happened. New witnesses have come forward and provided sworn statements that there was no sexual assault, rape or kidnapping, and that the alleged victims lied about the attack by an unknown Black man. There was absolutely no DNA or other evidence tying Simmons to the alleged crime.

Other evidence includes the coroner report that was kept hidden from the defense at the time of the trial, and recently corroborated by a forensic pathology expert, proving that neither of the girls were assaulted and raped.

The lone Black person on the jury now states in a sworn affidavit that she was not only scared and coerced into a conviction, had she known of the medical reports, she would have likely acquitted Mr. Simmons. "I now believe Vincent is innocent."

Expert witness identification evidence that shows that the alleged victim identification of Simmons was shocking especially considering that he was handcuffed when placed in the lineup and selected by the alleged victims. See photo of lineup https://bit.ly/3jYA99n

According to experts, Vincent Simmons was convicted by "a legal process that paralleled the prosecutions of scores of black men accused of crimes by white women." Police conducted no investigation and there were efforts by police to coerce him to confess. One complaining witness told police that her uncle was very upset and talked about taking the law into his own hands. The other referred to black men as Niggers and told police that all Blacks looked the same to her. The trial was held 51 days after the crime, and defense counsel had very little time to prepare his case. Simmons was convicted by a jury composed of 11 whites and 1 African American in two days and received an extremely severe sentence. "His trial, for all practical purposes, was a legal lynching."