by Richard A. Webster, Verite News / ProPublica
This story was originally published by ProPublica, co-published with Verite News as part of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. Sign up for ProPublica’s newsletters to get their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Elvis Brooks thought he had an airtight case when he applied for compensation from the state of Louisiana after he was wrongfully convicted in a fatal 1977 bar shooting that kept him in prison for more than four decades. The 69-year-old New Orleans native has never wavered in his claims of innocence. It took nearly 45 years and a prosecutor admitting he failed to turn over key fingerprint evidence before the courts threw out Brooks’ conviction.
That decision made Brooks eligible for up to $480,000 under a program Louisiana lawmakers created to pay those wrongfully convicted in a state with one of the highest rates of overturned guilty verdicts. But Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, the state’s top prosecutor, has vigorously fought Brooks’ compensation claim, asserting in court filings that he is still guilty and should receive no money at all.
It isn’t just Brooks. Since taking office two years ago, Murrill has opposed all but one of 23 compensation claims brought by people whose convictions have been vacated by the courts, including cases in which the men were exonerated through DNA or blood evidence. She once threatened to block an exoneree’s ability to obtain a law license if he didn’t drop his claim.
“She knows people are innocent but she doesn’t care,” Brooks said of Murrill. “She wouldn’t want nobody to do this to one of her loved ones.”
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who served as attorney general for eight years and hired Murrill as the state’s solicitor general, opposed 10 of 12 compensation claims during his tenure. Murrill’s more moderate Republican predecessor, Buddy Caldwell, opposed just 33% of all claims. “I can’t think of an attorney general who has been quite as aggressive in trying to prevent people from getting compensation,” said Jeffrey Gutman, a George Washington University law professor and national expert on compensation funds.
Murrill declined interview requests through a spokesperson. She has told lawmakers that defending the state against these claims consumes an enormous amount of time and resources and that the fund should be abolished altogether. In June, Landry vetoed a bill, passed unanimously by the Republican-controlled Legislature, that would have increased the amount paid to the wrongfully convicted, describing many exonerees in his veto statement as “convicted criminals” whose only interest is money.
Of the 23 people who have had active claims under Murrill, four so far have been awarded compensation despite her opposition — two cleared by DNA evidence, one by blood serum evidence. Murrill has also used threats outside court: when exoneree Calvin Duncan filed for compensation in 2023, she warned she would charge him with perjury and block his law license unless he dropped the claim. He withdrew it.
Brooks filed his application in April 2024; more than two years later his case has yet to be heard by a district court judge, even though the law says the process should take no more than five months. His only income is a $994-a-month Social Security check. If he’s ever compensated, he says the first thing he’ll do is buy a bigger headstone for his family’s gravesite — seven relatives died while he was in prison, but there’s only room for three names.
“I want to put all our names on there,” he said. “Give them some respect, especially my momma.”