The first page of the government file for the 1980 case against Lloyd Gray, who was charged with rape in New Orleans, has a swastika doodled on the upper right-hand corner. The document was obtained by ProPublica and Verite News, and the highlight was added by ProPublica.
At the time of the trial, two jurors didn’t believe Gray was guilty and voted to acquit. Today, a split-jury verdict would mean a mistrial and possibly Gray’s freedom. But back then, in Louisiana, it resulted in a life sentence for the 19-year-old.
Gray’s legal team has noted that he was convicted in a time of intense racial strife in New Orleans and contends that the Nazi symbol — potentially doodled by someone in the district attorney’s office — raises significant concerns about the prosecution’s motivations when trying a Black man. The district attorney’s office does not dispute the swastika’s existence or the idea that a staff member might have drawn it more than 40 years ago, according to a September filing by prosecutors, but a spokesperson for the office says it doesn’t know who did it or when.
Gray remains behind bars, and Verite News’s Richard A. Webster, a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, took a closer look at the legacy of split-jury verdicts in Louisiana.
