An appeals court has thrown out the conviction and death sentence for Jarrell Neal who was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder for the 1998 Metairie shooting deaths of Greg Vickers and Fergus Robinson. Executive Director of the Capital Appeals Project Cecelia Kappel said it’s an extremely unique event…
“Because the U.S. 5th Circuit is historically a very conservative court. But even the 5th Circuit saw that this case has so many errors, that Mr. Neal did not get a fair trial,” said Kappel.
Kappel said at his trial, then-21-year-old Neal, who is Black, was represented by a Jefferson Parish attorney who was completely unprepared. She said there was not a proper investigation nor forensic analysis used in the case.
“And this is a case where no physical evidence tied Mr. Neal to this crime scene and the state’s sole eyewitness identified his co-defendant as the shooter,” said Kappel.
Kappel said they believe Neal stayed in the car the entire time and had nothing whatsoever to do with the murders and his attorney failed to use physical evidence that connected his co-defendants to the scene of the crime.
“And so, what you have is somebody’s death sentence was based on the testimony of his co-defendant who was interested in saving himself and Jarrell Neal got the death penalty for that,” said Kappel.
Neal is among the death row inmates that have applied for clemency. Kappel said if the state does not seek a rehearing of the case, Neal will return to Jefferson Parish and face a new trial. In the meantime, he remains in custody.
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