On July 1, 1977, the Welcome Inn bar in New Orleans was robbed by two armed men, who shot and killed a patron during the crime. The bar was closing when two Black men stood at the door and ordered two beers to go. The owner handed the men two cans and they pushed their way inside. Both men were armed with sawed-off guns. One perpetrator was much taller than the other. The taller man took money from the register while the shorter man demanded purses and wallets from the bar’s patrons. One of the patrons, Cecil Lloyd, was shot without warning while seated at the bar. Everyone was ordered to the ground and the robbers left.
Police arrived and fingerprinted the register drawer and the two beer cans that had been handed to the suspects. Patrons provided descriptions that were broadcast by police. One of the patrons told police that she thought she recognized the shorter perpetrator from the neighborhood. She was shown photos from the police computer, but could not make an identification. Police claimed to remember a person in the area who they thought fit the description of the shorter robber – Elvis Brooks. His photo was placed in a photo lineup and a patron identified his photo. The bar’s owner then picked out Mr. Brooks from the photo array. Mr. Brooks was arrested in July 1977, based on these cross-racial identifications. Though he had twelve alibi witnesses testify, a jury convicted Mr. Brooks of first-degree murder and three counts of armed robbery in September 1977. He was sentenced to life.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana was able to uncover a wealth of evidence that was never heard by the jury. Prints from the beer cans handled by the robbers were not from Mr. Brooks. Less than an hour before the robbery, the same suspects had committed another robbery a block away, in which the victims described two robbers with the same height difference and similar weapons. Those victims failed to identify Mr. Brooks. None of the witnesses initially reported the shooter wearing the outfit they all testified to at trial. Their testimony contradicted the police reports and the police bulletin that was broadcast that night. The jury did not hear about the two men who were actually responsible for this crime and several other armed robberies in the neighborhood. Those men, known in the neighborhood and by police to be armed robbers, committed other crimes using a sawed-off rifle.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana filed for post-conviction relief in January 2019, arguing that the state withheld exculpatory evidence and that Mr. Brooks was innocent. The state opposed this motion and offered Mr. Brooks a plea deal, in which he could plead to lesser crimes and be released, over 42 years after his wrongful conviction. Mr. Brooks chose release, but continued to fight his case. In April 2022, Mr. Brooks and pro-bono counsel were able to have his plea vacated and Mr. Brooks was finally exonerated.