See our previous reporting in partnership with @propublica.org here: veritenews.org/2025/08/25/l...

13- The Landry administration did not respond to requests for comment. A former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana who prosecuted the case in 1980, did not respond to requests for comment.

12- Read the full story here: www.propublica.org/article/loui...

11–“When you’re sent to prison with a life sentence, they send you here to die,” said Gray. “After 45 years, I’m no closer to freedom than the day I walked into this place.”

10–Gray has a court hearing Aug. 26 that could decide his fate, but there is a growing chance he could spend the remainder of his life in prison, even though his conviction would be unconstitutional today.

9–But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law last year that guts the ability of prosecutors to broker such deals, cutting off the last remaining avenue of relief for those imprisoned by nonunanimous juries.

8–In 2022, the New Orleans DA proposed a potential deal to Gray’s attorneys that would have secured his release: If he pleaded guilty to forcible rape, he would walk. The lesser charge carried a maximum sentence of 40 years; Gray had already served 41.

7. 1,000+ people currently imprisoned in Louisiana were convicted by split juries — ruled as unconstitutional in 2020. Yet the state Supreme Court has declined to grant new trials, and lawmakers have repeatedly denied a reexamination of their cases.

6-The DA’s office does not dispute the swastika’s existence or that a staff member might have drawn it more than 40 years ago, according to a September filing by prosecutors.

5. Suspecting that Lloyd Gray was convicted in 1980 due to racial bias, his attorney discovered last year that someone in the DA’s office had drawn a swastika on Gray’s file. “You never think that you’re going to find it in black and white like that.”

4. In 1980, a Black man, 19, was sentenced to life — despite the jury being split. 10 white people voted guilty. The only 2 Black jurors not guilty. “I knew that my voice would not matter,” said one of the two Black jurors. “I cannot believe that Lloyd Gray is still in prison.”

3. “There are a lot of injustices in our legal system we can’t fix. And yet, here is this issue that is so clear and obvious,” one law professor said. “When I look at Louisiana, It's really heartbreaking.”

2. When Louisiana put “Jim Crow juries” in place after the Civil War, they wanted to make sure Black jurors couldn’t stand in the way of convictions. The state is the last place where such verdicts still stand. From @veritenews.org @propublica.org

13- The Landry administration did not respond to requests for comment. A former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana who prosecuted the case in 1980, did not respond to requests for comment.