14 DAY TRIAL // After spending 34 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, a New Orleans man was allowed to walk free on Monday. Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office has released Reginald Adams from jail citing gross prosecutorial misconduct for their decision.
Mr. Adams had been serving a life sentence since 1983, when he was wrongfully convicted of murder. The man went to jail for allegedly killing Cathy Ulfers, the wife of a New Orleans police officer, in 1979.
“I'm just ready to go. Trying to build me a life. After 34 years, I don't even know how to use a cell phone,” Reginald said after his release. “I'm glad that I had the opportunity to get to this point, because when you're in prison, your life ain't no guarantees.”
According to The Wire, Adams was tried and convicted twice for the murder, and in both cases he was found guilty based on false testimony from NOPD officers and his taped confession, given while in New Orleans Police custody.
However, Adams claims he only confessed to the crime because detectives had given him alcohol and drugs during a four-hour interrogation.
Luckily, he was eventually granted a new trial after his lawyers filed a motion together with District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro. It was discovered that his confession was inconsistent with the details of the crime scene, and the defense also pointed out that the two detectives assigned to his case never shared supplemental evidence with Adams's defense team.
Additionally, material evidence that was favorable to Adams, including the murder weapon, which led to other two suspects and stolen jewelry, was concealed by police officers and prosecutors during the initial trial. As it turns out, Prosecutors Assistant District Attorneys Ronald Bodenheimer and Harold Gilbert claimed that the murder weapon was never recovered.
After putting all the pieces together and acknowledging that Reginald had been wrongfully convicted of murder, the District Attorney's Office dropped the case and announced it would not seek to re-try the now 61-year-old man.
“I will not tolerate intentional misconduct on the part of police or prosecutors. Their handling of this case was shameful. Not only did their intentional acts harm Reginald Adams, who was wrongfully incarcerated for more than three decades, but also it denied this community any opportunity to hold the real perpetrator criminally responsible for this violent crime,” Leon Cannizzaro said, cited by The Advertiser.
The District Attorney apologized to Adams both personally and for the misconduct of officers and prosecutors who supervised the case three decades ago.