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The Case of Vincent Simmons
📻 Episode #231
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Nov 10, 2021
About This Episode
In early May of 1977, Keith Laborde and his 14 year old twin cousins, Karen and Sharon Sanders, allegedly picked up a hitchhiking black man at a gas station in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. About 2 weeks later, when asked about a scratch on his neck, Keith Laborde and the twins told a story about this…
The Case
In early May of 1977, Keith Laborde and his 14 year old twin cousins, Karen and Sharon Sanders, allegedly picked up a hitchhiking black man at a gas station in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana. About 2 weeks later, when asked about a scratch on his neck, Keith Laborde and the twins told a story about this armed hitchhiker who allegedly forced Laborde into the trunk and raped both girls. Despite not matching the description, a man with a few petty priors, Vincent Simmons, was arrested, put into a suggestive line up, and ultimately selected. When he refused to confess, police officer Robert Laborde shot him in the chest. Vincent survived, but only to have ALL discovery withheld by the state, including the medical examination that proved that Sharon Sander's could not have been raped. Years later, according to the alleged victims' family members, the whole story appears to have been a cover for recurring incestuous victimization, yet Vincent remains in Angola penitentiary to this day.
https://gogetfunding.com/legalfundvincent/
https://www.change.org/p/vincent-simmons-is-innocent-and-has-been-imprisoned-in-louisiana-since-1977
https://wrongfullyconvicted.info/vincent-simmons/
The Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odx9NEHc17M
Shadows of Doubt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98lCNnEnxno
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.
00:04:22“Speaker 4: I was involved with competitive crime. I moved to Houston Speaker 4: and I got a job and I was learned to Speaker 4: test my father at had time, and I come back Speaker 4: to Lewis the Air. I was back for about a month. Speaker 4: I was living with my sister or leave you and”
00:17:04“Speaker 1: Louisiana in nineteen seventy seven. So they could have said Speaker 1: that he took them in a spaceship, hit them on Speaker 1: the head with a toaster oven, and then they went Speaker 1: and visited, you know, talking penguins on Mars. I mean, Speaker 1: they could have said anything, And I could actually picture”
00:29:32“Speaker 3: hearing that the defense received no discovery, not a single document. Speaker 3: They didn't know there was a lineup, they didn't know Speaker 3: that there was original statements made, they didn't know anything. Speaker 3: We took testimony from a civil rights activist, Alan Holmes, Speaker 3: who heard Charles Riddle admit that Mike Kelly didn't receive discovery,”
Listen to the Episode
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Also on the podcast: #88 Vincent Atchity and Kelly Grimes · #287 Vincent Simmons · #316 Vincent Ellerbe