In October, he left the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola after serving 42 years of a life sentence for murder. He’d maintained his innocence from the start, and his departure should have been a joyous moment. Lawyers working on his case had discovered fingerprint evidence previously concealed by prosecutors that pointed to a wrongful conviction.
Yet Brooks, now 62, didn’t walk out of Angola an innocent man. To secure his freedom, he had to “make a deal with the devil.” Rather than languish even longer as he tried to clear his name, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, forfeiting his right to sue, in exchange for immediate release.
“I cried at night in Angola,” confesses Brooks, sitting on his couch next to a pillow with “Blessed” stitched on its front. “I ain’t never thought I was going to get out. So I took the deal. It ain’t right, but that’s the way of the world. It’s a crooked world like that.”
Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro made the offer to Brooks just before a court hearing on whether his conviction should be set aside. Brooks agonized over what to do.
If he pleaded to manslaughter and three counts of armed robbery — admitting to something he denied as vehemently as ever — the district attorney’s office would not be held accountable and he could not seek any compensation for his 42 years behind bars. If he rejected the offer, the consequences were implicit: Prosecutors would fight him at every turn.
Cannizzaro declined an interview request, saying in a statement that Brooks’s case had been reexamined and his guilt confirmed. He defended his prosecutors, called the conviction “properly attained” and explained that Brooks was released only because he appeared to be “rehabilitated and will not go out to re-offend.”
“If he and his attorneys truly believed in his innocence, they could have pursued post-conviction claims,” the prosecutor added. “Notably, they did not.”
His office has secured five such plea deals in the past eight years. He has issued similar statements after each.
Yet Brooks, now 62, didn’t walk out of Angola an innocent man. To secure his freedom, he had to “make a deal with the devil.” Rather than languish even longer as he tried to clear his name, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, forfeiting his right to sue, in exchange for immediate release.
“I cried at night in Angola,” confesses Brooks, sitting on his couch next to a pillow with “Blessed” stitched on its front. “I ain’t never thought I was going to get out. So I took the deal. It ain’t right, but that’s the way of the world. It’s a crooked world like that.”
Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro made the offer to Brooks just before a court hearing on whether his conviction should be set aside. Brooks agonized over what to do.
If he pleaded to manslaughter and three counts of armed robbery — admitting to something he denied as vehemently as ever — the district attorney’s office would not be held accountable and he could not seek any compensation for his 42 years behind bars. If he rejected the offer, the consequences were implicit: Prosecutors would fight him at every turn.
Cannizzaro declined an interview request, saying in a statement that Brooks’s case had been reexamined and his guilt confirmed. He defended his prosecutors, called the conviction “properly attained” and explained that Brooks was released only because he appeared to be “rehabilitated and will not go out to re-offend.”
“If he and his attorneys truly believed in his innocence, they could have pursued post-conviction claims,” the prosecutor added. “Notably, they did not.”
His office has secured five such plea deals in the past eight years. He has issued similar statements after each.
