Glenn Ford: Man freed after 30 years in jail for murder he did not commit dies of cancer

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When he stepped out of Louisiana’s Angola jail – finally cleared of a crime he did not commit - Glenn Ford did not realise just how little time he would have to enjoy his freedom.

Cancer, the doctors told him soon after he was released. You don’t have long.

In the early hours of Monday morning, Mr Ford passed away, 16 months after he was released from jail where he had spent 30 years on death row over a murder charge for which he was later exonerated.

“Glenn slipped away very quietly and peacefully,” said a statement released by Mr Ford’s supporters. “He was held and surrounded by people who cared about him, and was listening to a song he loved.”

Mr Ford was convicted in 1984 of shooting Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweller and watchmaker for who had done some part-time gardening work.

Always insisting that he was innocent, Mr Ford fought his case from behind bars. Two years ago, Judge Ramona Emanuel voided the conviction and sentence based on the new information. It showed that Mr Ford was not involved in the attack on Mr Rozeman.

Mr Ford was eventually let out of jail in March 2014. On his release, he said: “My sons, when I left, was babies. Now they grown men with babies.”

Earlier this years, the prosecutor who sent Mr Ford to jail issued a public apology, both for his personal actions and for a system that destroyed the man’s life.

AM “Marty” Stroud, a prosecutor from New Orleans, said that he was responsible for convicting the black father-of-four.

“In 1984, I was 33 years old,” he wrote in a letter to The Shreveport Times.

“I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself. I was not as interested in justice as I was in winning.”

Mr Stroud went to visit Mr Ford, accompanied by television cameras, and told him how sorry he was for his action.

The ailing man was polite but said he could not forget what had happened and the years taken from him.

He said: “It cost me 31 years of my life. I’m sorry. I can’t forgive you.”