The American imprisoned 23 years for a murder whose author was convicted

In the early hours of April 19, 1992, New Orleans police officers in the United States, knocked on the door of the house Robert Jones, a young black 19 year old living in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city.

After surrendering to the children of the house, the officers took Jones in handcuffs to the police station, where he was formally charged with the murder of British tourist Julie Stott, who died four days earlier in an attempted robbery in the French Quarter, one of the most tourist areas of "jazz capital".

Identified by the victim of a rape case occurred at the same time, Jones, who had no criminal record and denied the crime, thought it would be released when another suspect, Lester Jones (no relation to him), was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994, not only for the death of the British, but by a series of robberies committed in New Orleans.

The police had found Lester wearing jewels of the victims, and descriptions of the interior of his car matched the testimonies of the rape victim.

'Partnership'


Robert Jones, however, was 23 years in prison, and only released on bail last November 20. In March 1996, he also was condemned to life imprisonment for murder and some of the assaults allegedly committed by the suspect been arrested and sentenced.

                                
                                               The British Julie Stott

At no time of his trial the prosecution or even his defense mentioned that Lester Jones was behind bars. The argument of the prosecution was that the two were partners in crime, though the detectives investigating the case have denied the association.

When the jury returned the verdict of guilty, I felt as if he had died. It was a moment of total despair. The arrest was a total nightmare. I can not find words in the dictionary to describe the cruelty, "said Jones told the BBC.

The case aroused serious allegations of racial discrimination involving the judiciary of Louisiana, the US state that holds more in the country - 14 in every thousand adults in the region are incarcerated.

The trial of Robert Jones lasted less than 10 hours and the accused agreed to confess some of the crimes in exchange for viewing a murder charge be "downgraded" to guilty - a change that could avoid the death penalty.


The parents of Julie Stott, who had attended the trial of 1994 were never informed that a second man was convicted for the murder of her daughter.


                Jones was identified by one of the alleged victims of other criminal


Even the lead detective involved in the investigation, James Stewart, just found the conviction of Robert Jones in 2013.

Jones was sent to the State Penitentiary in Louisiana, known as Angola, and built on a former slave plantation. To this day, the prisoners, 75% of them black, often work in the cotton harvest, under the supervision of predominantly white guards.

To the judge in the case, Calvin Johnson, who is also black, the judicial system of Louisiana worked so young blacks were imprisoned for as long as possible. Johnson claims that the prosecution withheld evidence that could have helped the defendant.

"There was negligence in a number of cases and consistently. The fact that Robert Jones was arrested for a crime he did not commit weighs on my conscience," said the judge.

The two prosecutors involved in the case refused BBC interview requests on the grounds that were ethically prevented from talking about a case still in progress.

One of them, Roger Jordan, received in 2005 a suspension of three months of the Supreme Court of Louisiana for having concealed evidence in a case. The other, Fred Menner, found himself in hot water in September this year when it came to public a memorandum admitting the lack of convincing evidence against the defendant in the case of the British murder.

Suicides

The Louisiana authorities battled as they could to avoid the scrutiny of the case and tried to block a trip to the Federal Supreme Court. But in June this year, the agency decided that the 1996 trial was unfair and that a new should be marked.

The Attorney General of Louisiana, Leon Cannizzaro, tried to impose bail of US $ 2.25 million to the Jones family so he had probation - but a state court denied the request for Cannizzaro.

On the day of his release, Jones, who came to be nicknamed "the Beast of the Forest" by the British media during coverage of Julie Stott murder, he was met outside by a group of relatives that included the mother and daughter, Bree, born eight months after he was dragged from his house in handcuffs. Everyone cried, fewer Jones. Smiling, he told them that "everything would be fine."

        Bree painted a picture that appears next to the parent who just met in prison

The next day, he told the BBC report at a restaurant, the first he attends in more than two decades. In his hands is a smartphone, which won the daughter. He suffers to operate it - when he was arrested in 1992, the Internet barely existed and cell phones were the size of bricks.

The relationship with Bree, the youngest daughter, was built based on prison visits and phone calls with automatic duration of 15 minutes. They never had a chance to take a picture together, then daughter painted a picture of the two. "My father did not have the chance to ride a bike with me or go to my graduation from school. He is part of my life, but never came close," said Bree.

            For Johnson judge, "there are many other Roberts" in prisons in Louisiana

At the time he spent in prison, Jones studied law and eventually providing legal assistance to other prisoners. He said at least 39 prisoners whom he met in Angola committed suicide.

"Many members have lost faith in the courts. This motivates me to fight for my case bring them hope. I know that many of them were really innocent, why this fight is not only mine."

A view endorsed by Judge Calvin Johnson, for whom the prison system of Louisiana "has many other Roberts."