Jan 192016
 

Raymond Julian Laborde (August 18, 1927 – January 17, 2016) is dead. Without its icon, Marksville’s “good old days” are almost over. On January 20, 2016, his interment will be at the St. Joseph Cemetery #1 (the same place, where Vincent Simmons allegedly threatened Sharon and Karen Sanders and their cousin Keith Laborde to kill them, if they told anyone of the rapes.)

Raymond Laborde’s first triumph was when he defeated his lifelong friend Edwin Edwards for senior class president at the local high school in 1943. Six years later, the Loyola graduate launched the Raymond’s Department Store, which he was running to the very end. It was directly across the street from the court house and much more than a simple clothing store. It was a place where small town politics was made.

Raymond Laborde held several honorary posts, served three terms as Mayor of Marksville, twenty years as state legislator in Baton Rouge, and four years as Commissioner of Administration under Governor Edwin Edwards. Since 2003, Laborde has been a member of the Political Hall of Fame in Louisiana.

A few years ago, he – along with District Attorney Charles Riddle – spearheaded the movement against Republican Ex-Governor Bobby Jindal’s proposal to privatize or even to close prisons in central Louisiana, especially the Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, where one of Laborde’s sons works as a GED teacher.

Some people wonder how Raymond Laborde has managed to keep a clean slate throughout all those decades in politics, while a number of his best friends and politicians close to him were investigated or even convicted.

Read more in the book “Louisiana v. Vincent Simmons: Frame-up in Avoyelles Parish.”

These articles might interest you:

Jobs – a free ticket for nearly everything in politics

Legislators slowly react to Louisiana’s collapsing penal system

USA: Almost 50% of all prisoners worldwide are in the “Land of the Free”

Ex-Governor Edwin Edwards back on stage

Ex-Governor Edwin Edwards’ credibility

 

Oct 142014
 

Thanks for voting! Please, share this poll widely! Let’s see, if we can get 1000 voices to speak up for Vincent Simmons’ cause here on Facebook. Of course, I also welcome people who are of the opinion that Vincent Simmons is guilty. BUT, if you say so, I want you to explain with proof why you think he raped or attempted to rape his alleged victims. I am here to challenge you. Can you challenge me?

This might interest you as well:
Case summary with documents on the Innocent in Prison Project International website at http://cases.iippi.org/vincent-alfred-simmons/

Current District Judge of Avoyelles Parish voted to keep Vincent Simmons incarcerated. See our online discussion and what he bases his opinion on at vincentsimmons.iippi.org/2011/07/29/online-discussion-with-judge-mark-jeansonne/

http://vincentsimmons.iippi.org/2014/10/24/judge-mark-jeansonne-and-his-successor/
Ensuring equal justice under law versa the interlocking of different interests

http://vincentsimmons.iippi.org/2014/12/31/race-card-judge-jeansonnes-last-verbal-bangers/

Nov 282013
 

Williamson County, Texas. Public domain map courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin, modified to show counties. The image was modified from the public domain source by either Wapcaplet or [[:en:User:

Williamson County, Texas. Public domain map courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin, modified to show counties. The image was modified from the public domain source by either Wapcaplet or [[:en:User:

Michael Morton was serving nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife that he had not committed. He was convicted in 1987 in Williamson County, Texas, based entirely on circumstantial evidence. As Vincent Simmons’ district attorney, Morton’s prosecutor Ken Anderson had withheld favorable evidence from the defense. Unlike Simmons, Morton was “lucky,” because he is one of those somewhat privileged victims of the system who could prove their innocence through the technology of DNA testing. Morton was exonerated in October of last year.

Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson resigned from his post as Williamson County District Judge by sending Governor Rick Perry a letter on September 23, 2013. According to the Innocence Project newsletter of September 30, 2013, “the state convened a Court of Inquiry to investigate whether Anderson committed criminal acts by failing to turn over evidence pointing to Morton’s Innocence. In April, a Texas judge ruled there was probable cause to believe Anderson violated three criminal laws, and he was charged with the offenses. The Texas Bar Association also brought ethical charges against Anderson. A trial on those charges was scheduled to begin today but was adjourned for a month.”

In the newsletter of November 27, 2013, the Innocence Project reports that “Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson entered a plea to criminal contempt for deliberately withholding exculpatory evidence pointing to the innocence of Michael Morton.” Anderson received 10 days in Williamson County Jail, a $500 fine, 500 hours of community service and permanently surrendered his license to practice law.

The Innocence Project newsletter reads, “This marks an extremely rare instance, and perhaps the first time, that a prosecutor has been criminally punished for failing to turn over exculpatory evidence that led to a wrongful conviction.”

The Innocence Project is cooperating with the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Texas Innocence Project to review other cases and determine whether there are more wrongfully convicted prisoners, whom Anderson had prosecuted.

Read more here and here.

If this damage limitation can be called “punishment” is another question. But if an unethical ex-prosecutor and current judge can be stopped this way in Texas, it is possible anywhere. When will it happen in Louisiana?

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