In the early hours of January 10, 1998, the victim was in her home in Violet, Louisiana, when two men pushed into her home. They raped her and robbed her while a third person waited in a car outside. Mr. Ballard’s sister confessed to being the person in the car, and stated that she had traveled there with two men. DNA testing would later inculpate two men who confessed to committing the crime. One of those confessions named Jarvis Ballard as a third male participant in the crime, which was inconsistent with the victim having named two perpetrators. The other male identified by DNA testing confessed to the crime, but insisted that Mr. Ballard was not there, and that there had only been two of them.
Weeks after the crime, in her formal statement, the victim acknowledged the possibility of a third suspect after being asked leading questions by police, though she never claimed to see a third person. The victim identified Mr. Ballard, who wound up falsely confessing after being beaten by police. The victim’s grandson, present during the crime, told police that he remembered seeing two men. Mr. Ballard and several alibi witnesses testified that he was at home during the crime. Despite these discrepancies, a jury convicted Mr. Ballard of aggravated rape in July 1999, and he was sentenced to life.
Innocence & Justice Louisiana’s investigation revealed evidence that the state withheld exculpatory information, including victim statements, police reports, and witness statements that showed that the crime had been committed by only two men—those whose DNA was recovered from the scene. Before a hearing could be held regarding the state’s withholding of evidence, the St. Bernard Parish District Attorney’s Office reviewed Mr. Ballard’s case. It determined that DNA evidence, witness recantations, and polygraph testing supported Mr. Ballard’s innocence claim. In August 2021, over 23.5 years after his wrongful conviction, Mr. Ballard was exonerated and released.
