A 69-year-old New Orleans man who spent 42 years in prison for a murder a judge later said he did not commit is seeking $480,000 in state compensation. But Attorney General Liz Murrill says Elvis Brooks is not eligible because he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2019 in connection with the 1977 fatal shooting. Reporter Richard Webster…
“Attorney General Liz Murrill is saying that the plea deal should have remained in effect, the court should have never vacated it; so she hasn’t even gotten to the merit as to why he’s innocent or not. She’s just saying he pled guilty, that should hold,” Webster said.
Webster’s investigation for Verite News and ProPublica found Brooks accepted the plea deal before learning prosecutors had withheld potentially exculpatory evidence, including fingerprints recovered from beer cans handled by the gunmen.
“Elvis’ fingerprints did not match the fingerprints found on those cans. That was the key piece of evidence that later led to his exoneration,” Webster explained.
Webster reports that since Murrill took office in 2024, she has opposed compensation requests in 22 of 23 wrongful conviction cases. Brooks, who now lives on a $994 monthly Social Security check, says the compensation process has been torturous.
“He hasn’t even had a hearing yet, and he filed his claim two years ago. So you can only imagine what that experience has been like for him,” Webster noted.
Murrill declined to comment on Brooks’ case.