Prosecution of Rodricus Crawford

The prosecution of Rodricus Crawford attracted national media attention, because of extensive use of the death penalty in Caddo Parish, Louisiana,^[1] and comments made by the prosecutor.^[2] Rodricus Crawford, a young black man, was tried and sentenced to death in 2013 for killing his one-year-old son.^[3] The conviction greatly depends upon a disputed pathology report.^[2]

Crawford claims his son had been sleeping next to him, and was unresponsive when Crawford awoke in the morning. When police arrived, they asked about a bruise on the infant's lip. Crawford replied that his son had fallen in the bathroom the day before. Crawford denied that he had accidentally slept on top of his son.^[1]

That same day, James Traylor, a police pathologist determined that the bruise on the infant's lip indicated smothering and other bruises indicated child abuse. Traylor also noticed signs of pneumonia in the infant's lungs, but did not consider it serious enough to cause death. Based upon Traylor's conclusions, district attorney Dale Cox charged Crawford with homicide, and asked for the death penalty.^[4] The scientific validity of Traylor's conclusions has been questioned before, during, and after the trial.^[1] In 2016, the conviction was overturned due to additional pathology reports and allegations of prosecution misconduct.^[5]

During his conviction, Crawford was the second youngest man on death row, and was held at Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly called Angola.

Families

At age 23, Crawford had been living with his mother, brother, sister, grandmother, and uncle, in Mooretown, a neighborhood in Shreveport. The mother of his son is Lakendra Lott, a close friend Crawford had known since childhood. Both of them have daughters from other relationships. Lott lived with her family several houses away.

Conflicting pathology reports

Crawford's defense attorney Daryl Gold hired pathologist Daniel Spitz, who co-authored a pathology text book with his father Werner Spitz.^[6] The book is widely used in medical schools. Daniel Spitz determined the infant died from pneumonia. However, Spitz was not well prepared for prosecutor Cox's cross examination, especially when Cox's brought up a mistake Spitz had once made in another case. Since the trial, several other pathologists have questioned the scientific validity of the original conclusion that the infant died from suffocation.^[7] The case depends almost entirely on how to interpret complex pathology data.^[2]

Trial and conviction

Crawford was tried in Shreveport Louisiana and found guilty in November 2013. During the penalty phase of the trial, the defense called character witnesses, including his mother and brother. During cross examination, the prosecution brought up the facts that Crawford had dropped out of high school, had no job, and smoked marijuana, even though it was against the law. The same facts are also true for many of the other residents of his neighborhood.

Shreveport is the county seat for Caddo Parish, where juries have sentenced more persons to death than any other county in the United States.^[1][8] Prosecutor Cox, who won more than a third of death sentences in the county, has stated "I'm a believer that the death penalty serves society's interest in revenge."^[9] Cox also sent a letter to Crawford's probation officer, stating “I am sorry that Louisiana has adopted lethal injection as the form of implementing the death penalty. Mr. Crawford deserves as much physical suffering as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies.”^[2]

As Crawford's attorney expected, his first appeal^[10] was denied by the Supreme Court of Louisiana on November 14, 2014.^[11]

Release

In November 2016, Crawford's conviction was overturned by the Louisiana Supreme Court, who found that additional pathology reports indicated his son died from pneumonia, and that Prosecutor Cox may have discriminated against black jurors during jury selection.^[5] Crawford was released on bond, and his case is being re-evaluated by a new district attorney.^[12]

References

1. 1 2 3 4 Rachel Aviv (July 6, 2015). "Revenge Killing, Race and the death penalty in a Louisiana parish". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-07-08. 
2. 1 2 3 4 Campbell Robertson (July 7, 2015). "A Louisiana Prosecutor's Proud Goal: 'Kill More People". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-07-07. 
3. ↑ "Rodricus Crawford Sentenced to Death". Worldnow and KTBS. November 27, 2013. Retrieved 2015-07-04. 
4. ↑ Loresha Wilson (April 4, 2012). "Father faces first-degree murder charge in death of son". Shreveport Times. Retrieved 2015-07-04. 
5. 1 2 Rachel Aviv (November 23, 2016). "A Death Sentence Overturned in Louisiana". The New Yorker Magazine. Retrieved 2016-11-23. 
6. ↑ Spitz, Werner (2006). Spitz and Fisher's medicolegal investigation of death : guidelines for the application of pathology to crime investigation. Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas. ISBN 9780398075446. 
7. ↑ Sara Machi (December 22, 2014). "Shreveport death row inmate appeals for new trial citing new evidence". KTBS. Retrieved 2015-07-06. 
8. ↑ Radley Balko (April 6, 2015). "In Louisiana prosecutor offices, a toxic culture of death and invincibility". Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-07-05. 
9. ↑ Vickie Welborn (March 27, 2015). "UPDATED: ADA on death penalty: 'We need to kill more people'". Shreveport Times. Retrieved 2015-07-04. 
10. ↑ Cecelia Trenticosta (April 16, 2015). "Appeal from Conviction and Death Sentence Imposed In the First Judicial District, the Parish of Caddo, No. 304,048, Hon. Joseph Bleich, Presiding." (PDF). Retrieved February 6, 2016. 
11. ↑ STATE OF LOUISIANA v. RODRICUS CRAWFORD (November 7, 2014). Text
12. ↑ Sarah Crawford (November 23, 2016). "Death row inmate out on bond after conviction overturned". Shreveport Times. Retrieved 2016-11-23.