Vincent Simmons has been imprisoned at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for 40 years for a crime that he almost certainly did not commit and our vaunted system of justice is largely responsible for his inability to get a fair hearing.
The timeline of events alone should be reason enough to have granted him a new trial decades ago. Yet, he continues to languish at “the farm,” the name bestowed upon Angola in a 1998 documentary about Louisiana’s notorious maximum-security prison.
For openers, the time between public defender Harold Brouillette’s filing of a motion for preliminary hearing and Simmons’s conviction was an astonishingly short interval of only 27 days, hardly sufficient time to put on any semblance of a defense.
Normally, it takes much longer between an accused’s arrest and his trial. This is so defense attorneys can compile a list of witnesses, engage expert testimony, and obtain all evidence possessed by prosecutors. Sexual assault cases typically take SIX MONTHS between indictment and trial, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
It took half that long for the supposed victims to come forward and report that they’d been raped.
Here is the TIMELINE of events:
Monday, May 7, 1977—Twin 14-year-old sisters are riding around with their 18-yeaar-old cousin, Keith Laborde when they allegedly encountered an unknown black man at a 7-Eleven convenience store who asked them to give him a ride to his home. En route, he pulls a gun and forces Laborde to drive down a remote country road to a spot near a lake and there rapes the two girls.
Sunday, May 22, 1977—The two girls report—for the first time—to Sheriff “Potch” Didier, Maj. Fablus Didier, Capt. Floyd Juneau and Deputy Barbara DeCuir at the Avoyelles Parish Sheriff’s Office that a “black man” raped them on May 9, 1977.
7 a.m., Monday, May 23, 1977—Shift begins for Juneau and Lt. Robert Laborde (Laborde is a cousin of Keith Laborde).
8 a.m., Monday May 23, 1977—Juneau and Laborde make the decision to arrest Vincent Simmons.
9 a.m., Monday May 23, 1977—Simmons is walking down Waddil Street in Marksville when Juneau and Laborde, passing by on patrol, arrest him—without a warrant—on two counts of aggravated rape. Sheriff Didier orders a lineup. The lineup consists of seven blacks and one white. Of the eight men in the lineup, Simmons is the only one in handcuffs. Keith Laborde and the two girls observe the lineup from behind a mirror and pick out Simmons even though the girls had said all black men looked alike to them. Simmons is taken upstairs but is never interrogated. When Simmons refuses to sign a confession that had already been prepared by Laborde, he is shot in his left chest by Laborde. Laborde and Capt. Melvin Villemarette claim that Simmons took Villemarette’s gun and tried to shoot them, though he is never charged with that offense. Simmons is transferred to Huey P. Long Hospital in Pineville. Judge Earl Edwards now issues the warrant for the arrest of Simmons for the rape of the girls.
Tuesday, May 24, 1977—Coroner F.P. Bordelon, MD, examines both girls and discovers that one of the girl’s hymen is still intact, indicating she is still a virgin. The other girl admits to having had consensual sexual intercourse nine months earlier.
Friday, May 27, 1977—Simmons is released from the hospital and he is transferred back to the Avoyelles Parish jail.
Friday June 30, 1977—An Avoyelles Parish grand jury indicts Simmons on two counts of aggravated rape and two counts of attempted murder. Dr. Bordelon formulates his findings about his medical examination of the two girls and sends report to District Attorney Eddie Knoll. During trial of Simmons, jurors never learn of the existence of this report.
Thursday, June 23, 1977—Public defender Harold Brouillette, later to be elected a state district court judge, files a motion for a preliminary hearing. Judge Edwards orders that a preliminary hearing be held in the case of State of Louisiana vs. Vincent Simmons on the two counts of aggravated rape at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 7, 1977.
Wednesday, June 29, 1977—U.S. Supreme Court rules in Coker v. Georgia that the death penalty is unconstitutional for the crime of rape. This means that pursuant to the decision, the penalty for aggravated rape is only 20 years per count as opposed to attempted aggravated rape, for which no penalties had been set.
Thursday, July 7, 1977—At the 1 p.m. preliminary hearing, Judge Edwards schedules Simmons’s trial for July 18, 1977, giving Brouillette only 11 days to prepare for trial. This is known as a court’s “rocket docket,” whereby certain cases are moved to the top of the court’s list of scheduled cases.
Thursday, July 14, 1977—Assistant District Attorney Jeanette Knoll, wife of District Attorney Eddie Knoll, files a motion to amend the indictment to two counts of attempted aggravated rape. Judge Edwards signs the motion behind closed doors—without a second grand jury hearing. This opens the way for prosecutors to seek penalties of 50 years imprisonment for each count of attempted aggravated rape. Jeanette Knoll would later be elected to the Louisiana State Supreme Court.
Monday, July 18, 1977—Jury selection begins in the trial of Vincent Simmons.
Tuesday, July 19, 1977, and Wednesday, July 20, 1977—Two-day trial of Vincent Simmons is held, concluding in a guilty verdict on each count of attempted aggravated rape.
Thursday, July 28, 1977—Judge Earl Edwards imposes a 100-year sentence (50 years for each count, to run consecutively) on Simmons.
So, there you have it: a delayed report of rape to the suspiciously quick arrest, an equally quick trial that made it impossible for a public defender with no funds to retain expert witnesses or to conduct extensive investigations, to the manipulation of charges so as to obtain the maximum punishment for a crime that Simmons most likely never committed. The fast track his case was put on—with such an obvious lack of supporting evidence—makes it appear that authorities were almost desperate in their haste to run him through the system and get a conviction. To think those charged with protecting our rights and freedoms would stoop to such tactics should send a chill down all our spines for who’s to say we might not be the next to undergo such treatment at the hands of the law and order advocates?
Someone coined the phrase “Justice delayed is justice denied.” This rings especially true in the case of Vincent Simmons. Justice for him has been delayed for 40 years—and counting. His story and sadly, as is true of so many others like him, is the type justice that a defendant might expect to encounter when he doesn’t have:
- Money;
- Connections;
- A name that screams influence;
- Highly-paid attorneys;
- The right color skin.
For an example of all the above, see LOUIS ACKEL.
Louisiana Voice 
Sounds like a documentary waiting to happen that needs to happen.
I wish somebody who was around and close to this case 40 years ago would fill in some blanks for us. As Tom says, it is evident the system was out to get Simmons and there has to be a reason. He clearly wasn’t picked up simply because he was the first black man the arresting officers happened upon, and there has to be a reason he was fast-tracked to prison. We may never know it, but it would definitely be good to have “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would say.
And you wonder why blacks act like they have a chip on their shoulder. Mr. Simmons should be able to reap a few million dollars from the State and Avoyelles Parish. I know the a$$holes that prosecuted him can’t be charged for what they did to him, but I would like to see him be able to sue them for all they have and 90% of any future income they get.
And Danny, you also have to wonder why folks get so puffed up over NFL players taking a knee and yet manage to look the other way when shown injustices like this. They refuse to see that the protests have nothing to do with the national anthem or the flag—it’s about the perception that blacks, Islamics, Hispanics, and even the original Americans are fair game in our system of justice.
It is called “The Free State of Avoyelles”.
This is so not ok, it turns my stomach. I agree with Buck Turgidson (above comment) that people who get in such an uproar over kneeling and the flag yet do not react when these injustices occur have their heads in the sand. We cannot continue to wrap ourselves in Americanism and treat fellow citizens as if they do not matter. It will be our undoing.
Just another injustice committed against a black man, that has, and is being ignored, I do not understand the mindset of those who keep yapping about NFL players taking a knee in protest against racial inequality, and yet they turn a blind eye to cases like this…..”with liberty and justice for all” not so much.
What everyone needs to learn is that there is only one race and that is the Human Race. Until we accept this nothing will change and we will continue to have confrontation after confrontation over and over again ending up just where we began.
These people who are responsible for this mans future should be ashamed of themselves for not moving forward with his court date. To hinder this process tells me that someone has something major to hide. It appears that they may have made a mistake and are too proud to admit it so they are just leaving him in there until he expires or his family gives up.
I know if this was my child, hell would freeze over first. I would be in their faces on a weekly basis to get answers. They should have filed a lawsuit on all of them to get the answers. If he is guilty then so be but it seems as though after all these years he would have paid his dues. The fact that they are not moving forward tells me something is not right about this picture.
I hope his family doesn’t lose faith. God sees all and he will see them through.
Anybody with a beating heart can’t help feeling sorry for this man and his family.
I remember the case,Tom, I am sure he will be released and compensated but what a nightmare. Mr. Winham, I think Eddie Knoll is still alive and Mrs. Knoll is on the La. Supreme Ct. They can’t comment. or can they? Ms. L check out White Rage by Carol Anderson which is not on point but tells a lot about how whites thought after the civil war. Current as hell but we can change if we LOVE
always ron thompson
This is truly unbelievable, yet it happens all the time. I have seen lots of other cases like this.If you ask those responsible, they always fall back on
We are protecting the public. I became aware of a book Three Felonies a Day! Interesting reading.
We have all been sleeping while this kind of thing occurs. I don’t have an answer. Does anyone? Where do we begin to reform this mess.
This Louisiana guy was even denied his attorney when he asked for one during interrogation. Check out the story. You can’t make this stuff up!
https://courtroomstrategy.com/2017/10/la-court-rules-asking-for-lawyer-dog-too-ambiguous-to-trigger-right-to-counsel/