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The Case of Robert Jones
📻 Episode #28
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Jul 17, 2017
About This Episode
In the spring of 1992, Robert Jones was arrested for a series of attacks that occurred in the French Quarter of New Orleans, which included the murder of a British tourist, the kidnapping and rape of a woman, and the robbery of her fiancé and friend. He was arrested because the rape victim identified his…
The Case
In the spring of 1992, Robert Jones was arrested for a series of attacks that occurred in the French Quarter of New Orleans, which included the murder of a British tourist, the kidnapping and rape of a woman, and the robbery of her fiancé and friend. He was arrested because the rape victim identified his photo, and she and her fiancé identified him in a lineup. Robert had been attending his son’s birthday party at the time of the rape, and the other victims of the crime spree had declined to identify him as their assailant, but despite his alibi and the lack of evidence linking him to any of the other crimes, he was charged with the rape and a role in the murder. Lester Jones (no relation) was later arrested and charged for the crime spree after police found him in possession of the gun used in the murder, stolen property from the other crimes, and the car used in all of the crimes. Robert, however, remained in jail after Lester’s arrest. At trial, the prosecutor argued that Robert and Lester were friends, without any evidence to connect them. Robert was sentenced to life in prison. He requested DNA testing for his case, but all of the evidence was either lost or destroyed. In 2015, after 23 years behind bars the Innocence Project New Orleans was able to get Robert released from Louisiana’s State Penitentiary, Angola on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct and missing evidence, and he was completely exonerated on January 26th, 2017, his 44th birthday. In this episode, Robert is joined by the Director of IPNO, Emily Maw.
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:07:49“Speaker 10: on the ground. And a week later he robbed several Speaker 10: more people in the French Quarter, right around the corner Speaker 10: from where he had abducted the first party of people Speaker 10: a week previous. And in the second night of his Speaker 10: crime spree, he robbed two people. He walked around the”
00:27:49“Speaker 10: not permanently disbarred, which is a crime in itself. Speaker 5: That is a crime in itself, and of all the Speaker 5: horrible twists and turns in this case. For some reason, Speaker 5: it's really bugging me. I've just been imagining you showing Speaker 5: up at court and looking to your right and to”
00:46:24“Speaker 5: anger that we find ourselves in drives us forward, and Speaker 5: so that works for us, and I guess that's just Speaker 10: I do want to say that the problem I think, Speaker 10: and the thing that maybe makes me most angry about Speaker 10: Robert's case is I do see exactly how all that happen,”
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Also on the podcast: #116 False Confessions - Robert Davis · #133 Jason Flom and Kim Kardashian on Julius Jones · #215 Greg Glod on John Jones