Speaker 1: M M.
Speaker 2: A Wall Street line, shackle change, Oh do some gird
it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's
been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three.
Speaker 3: I'm here by.
Speaker 2: Byma Dies inside these walls, inside the wild.
Speaker 4: Hadn't went no girl as I'm.
Speaker 3: Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a podcast
one and forty two years in the making, the complete
story of America's bloodiest present. I'm Jim Chapman, and today
I'm gonna jump right into it and cover with you
the story of Corporal Betty's mothers, who was tragically murdered
while working extra duty for the Baton Ridge Police Department
at just thirty six years old. And y'all, I remember
remember this one distinctly. When this horrific incident occurred, I
was a senior in high school. I was the same
age as Betty's mother's son, war Done, who years later
would play in the NFL and even when the Walter
Payton NFL Man of the Year award, he was an
absolute stud on the field. And I knew firsthand because
I played against wark Done when he was at Catholic
High School and I was at Broadmoor High School in
Baton Rouge. Now, I also had a lot of friends
who were mutual friends with Wark done I grew up
in a neighborhood where many of my friends attended Catholic
High School in Baton Rouge, and all of my friends
would describe Warwick as as good a person off the
field as he was on the field, and that speaks
to the way he was raised in The full credit
there goes to his mother, Betty Smothers. So let me
tell you just a little bit about how amazing this
woman was at the time of her murder. Betty'smothers had
six children and these children ranged from the ages of
nine to the ages of eighteen. Just shy of eighteen,
war Dunbe was her oldest. He was weeks from being
eighteen years old. She had been a police officer for
fourteen years at this point with the Baton Ridge Police Department,
and she was a single mother. She was doing all
of this alone. Think about that her son, Warwick, as
I mentioned, he attended Catholic High School in Baton Ridge,
which is a very respected private high school where to
send your kids there typically you had to be someone
of some pretty affluent means. This was an expensive school,
and this was where Warick's athletic ability would play a
key role. Warwick was even well known before high school.
His athletic ability was very well known in the Baton
Ridge area, and by the time he got to high
school Catholic HI, they were more than happy to allow
Wark to attend the school to wish him free in
exchange for him playing football for the Catholic High Bears.
So think of it as a high school version of
a scholarship. In Warick, I'm sure was one of very
few to attend Catholic HI without his parents even owning
a home of their own in Betty's mother's case, which
this fact would come into play a little bit later
on in Warck's life. As you can imagine, with six kids,
single mother, and you're a police officer, you have to
work a lot of overtime to make ends meet, and
Corporal Smothers she would do as much off duty work
as she could possibly get. So I'm gonna take you
back to January seventh of nineteen ninety three and Corporal
Smothers is working a detail this night for a local
grocery store. The grocery store closed and the manager escorted
by Corporal Smothers, and they were both in her marked
police car. They'd go to the night deposit of the
bank to make the deposit. This was at twelve fifteen
am on January seventh, nineteen ninety three. As soon as
they pull up, a gunman appeared out of the dark
shadows of the bank and fires several shots, hitting both
the female grocery store manager as well as Corporal Betty Smothers.
Corporal Smothers slumps over the steering wheel, but somehow, I
would say it was an absolute miracle. The store man,
who has eleven bullet wounds, she manages to put the
police car into gear and steer it away from the bank,
which this totally foiled the robbery. As the guman they
did not pursue that vehicle. Corporal Smothers was shot five times,
killing her. The grocery store manager was shot, as I said,
eleven times. Many of the bullets hit Smothers and then
would hit her too. Her name was Kim and Lee.
She was injured, but she survived the attack just unbelievably.
Police they arrived at the scene and it was determined
from the spent shell casings. It was determined that twelve
rounds were fired. One hand gun fired seven, the other
handgun fired five, and they knew they were two different
handguns because they were two different calibers. Now earlier, when
I described scene, I used the term a gunman, and
that was because the surviving victim, miss Lee, she only
saw one gunman. However, you have two different weapons here,
and police by this point they were pretty certain at
least two people were involved in this shooting. So the
whole community in Baton Rouge, they were shocked by this
outrage by this. Corporal Smothers was beloved by everyone at
BRPD and everyone who knew her outside of it. Her
some work was extremely well known, one of the top
recruits in the country at this point. He was a
senior in high school, and this became national news quickly,
and right off the bat Seemingly everyone wanted to help
these kids. A memorial fund was set up the very
next day, and even the governor of the state of
Louisiana at that time, Edwin Edwards, he kicked in five
thousand dollars to the already one thousand dollars crime stoppers
reward for information that would lead to the capture of
those responsible. And this was a fourteen year veteran of
BRPD and the first officer to die in the line
of duty in Baton Rouge in five years. Police wanted
answers and the community wanted answers now the day after
the shooting, and this is absolutely amazing to me considering
her injuries, but the survivor, Kim and Lee, she undergoes
hypnosis at the hospital and she was able to provide
police with enough detail for them to create a composite
sketch of the suspect that she did see. Remember she
only saw one suspect. Then just a day after that,
a confidential informant he tells a detective Denicola that someone
by the name of Kevin Brumfield had killed Corporal Smothers
and that another guy by the name of Eddie Paul
had information about it. So police they pick up Eddie
Paul and they bring him to the station for questioning
and he tells police that his cousin West Paul, as
well as Kevin Bromfield and someone that he only knew
is aj Or Ray j had committed the crime. So
based off of this information, police they get arrest warrants
for both Kevin Bromfield and West Paul, and they are arrested.
And this is on January eleventh of nineteen ninety three,
which is just four days after the shooting in the
murder of Corporal Smothers. Now, police are also looking through
arrest records and rap sheets to determine if they have
ever arrested someone with the street name of ray J
or DJ ORAJ or anything like that to figure out
who this guy is. And they come across a man
by the name of d Ron or Darren and Brooks,
and they show a photo of the guy to Eddie
Paul and they say, is this a guy you were
calling ray J? And he says, yeah, that's the guy.
So police get a warrant for Brooks. However, he's released
from questioning rather quickly when it's discovered that he definitely
could not have done this or been involved in it,
because at the time this murder went down, he was
in police custody. So they then focused their questioning on
west Paul. Now when he was arrested, as soon as
police arrive at his door, his comment was, quote I
knew y'all was coming. He also said, quote I didn't
shoot no police officer, and this was before anyone had
told him what they were there for. Also, they got
from his residence a camouflage jacket that Kim and Lee,
the survivor, had said the shooter was wearing the night
of the shooting. Now, in the meantime, Kevin Bromfield's questioning
was taking off, and initially, of course, he denies any
involvement in anything, but under several hours of intense questioning,
he confesses in a taped statement. So, according to his confession,
he said that he and his friend who he described
as Smoky which this was later determined to be Wes Paul,
and a guy by the name of Henry Broadway where
driving around. They were looking to what he referred to
as quote hit a hustle, which he described as riding
around looking for someone to rob. He said they were
drinking and they somehow knew about the grocery store making
these late night bank deposits, So they went to that
bank and they hid in the bushes until Corporal Smothers
and miss Lee showed up to make the deposits. That night,
he said that he and Broadway jumped out of the
bushes and Corporal Smothers saw them and that he panicked
and he just started shooting, which he said made Broadway
panic and he starts shooting. He said during this time
Wes Paul was around the corner in the car to
serve as the getaway driver. And he said that after
the shooting occurred, they jumped back in the car freaking
out obviously, and he said they actually passed police officers
heading to the scene as they were making their getaway.
So at this point in the investigation you have Bromfield
admitting to killing Corporal Smothers, as well as implicating Henry
Broadway in the shooting and the killing and implicating Wes
Paul as the getaway driver. Now and the questioning of
these three a lot was determined. First a little over
twenty four hours prior to it was determined that Kevin
Bromfield and Henry Broadway they go to a psychic in
the Baton Rouge area to obtain a tarrort card reading.
And it was during this reading that Bromfield, who according
to the psychic, was carrying a gun, said he planned
to commit a robbery and he wanted to know the
best day to do so, and with the cards tell
him that. It also came out that the day after
the murder, Bromfield told Eddie Paul, quote, I just killed
a some bitch. Eddie Paul also said he heard Bromfield
tell Broadway the murder was a waste of time because
they didn't get any money out of it. Also coming
out was that Broadway admitted to another robbery prior to
that robbery in Clinton, Louisiana. So on February fourteenth, nineteen
ninety three, twenty year old Kevin Bromfield, twenty two year
old Henry Broadway in twenty year old West Paul, they
enter please of not guilty in court, which of course
means nothing. They don't have anything to lose, and in
almost every case you'll ever hear about, they plead not
guilty right out of the gate, and the prosecutor in
this case a legend, if you will, in the Baton
Ridge area, prim Burns. She announced she would be seeking
the death penalty for all three of these individuals in
this case. Now. Shortly after this, it was also discovered
that the informant who called in the police this was
none other than Attie Paul himself. When the following article
ran in a Baton Ridge newspaper over a month after
those pleas were entered, and here's what the advocate had
to say. It starts Eddie. Paul just wanted to do
what was right when he called police on January tenth,
gave them a tip that led to arrest in the
death of Baton Ridge Police captain Corporal betty'smothers. But doing
the right thing landed him in an isolation cell and
cost him his personal belongings, some disability pay and peace
of mind. Quote. I never had so many headaches in
all my life, Paul said. I don't know what's going on.
They made my life a living hell. I know that
since calling police. Paul, who is fifty, was arrested as
a material witness and spent five weeks in a cell
at Parish Prison, booked as a principal to first murder
in smother's death. He was released February eighteenth. While he
was in prison, someone broke into his apartment. Quote, they
took everything I had, Paul said. They left my thirteen
year old daughter there by herself. Paul's daughter moved in
with her mother. Paul, a disabled McCann, moved to a
new apartment while he was in jail. The government discontinued
his disability payments, but his sense restored those. He said, quote,
I don't sleep well at night, Paul said, I'm back
on medicine. I take nerve pills. Sometimes it looks like
they don't even work. Paul's tip led police to three
men who were indicted in February for first degree murder.
The thirty six year old officer was in bushed inner
police car on January seventh and shot repeatedly. She was
accompanying a grocery store manager to make a bank deposit.
The manager was severely injured. Paul tip police that Kevin Bromfield, twenty,
told Paul Hugh shot someone. Quote he didn't say who
he shot, Paul said Monday, as he waited to testify
in pre trial hearings for Bromfield Henry Broadway in West
Paul his cousin three days later. Bromfield had a gun
and children were playing nearby. Paul said, quote, Kevin was
hanging out around my house with a gun. That's why
I called the police on him. Police investigating the complaint
did not find Bromfield, but brought Paul in for questioning.
Bromfield was later accused of shooting Smothers, Broadway of shooting
her passenger, and west Paul of driving the getaway car.
Paul said he knew nothing of the case other than
Bromfield's comments quote, they took me to jail for all
that from the day they locked me up. I didn't
know what was going on. And that was an article
by The Advocate released March thirty first, nineteen ninety three.
So it takes a couple of years before this case
goes to trial, and in the meantime, one of those charges,
wes Paul, the getaway driver, he cuts a deal with prosecutors.
And that's not surprising. By the way, the prosecution was
going to seek the death penalty against wes Paul, and
it's probably not something they were really going to do
for the getaway driver. Be real hard to get a
death penalty to stick against a getaway driver who didn't
actually kill anybody. But prim Burn's amazing prosecutor and likely
was using this to scare Westpaul into cutting a deal,
which he did, and that deal stated that in exchange
for his testimony against Bromfield and Broadway, he would get
twenty five years and not life. In present and certainly
not the death penalty. So in July of nineteen ninety five,
a little over two years after the murder of Corporal
Smothers and the attempted murder of Miss Lee, Kevin Bromfield
and Henry Broadway they go to trial. Now, during this trial,
some key evidence comes out outside of the fact that
these guys had confessed to several people about the murder,
and most notably was the fact that the shellcasings found
that the scenes matched guns that were found with Bromfield
and Broadway. Judge Ralph Tyson, he presided over the proceedings
in two hundred the perspective jurors were actually narrowed down
to twelve for this trial. In the end, in early
July of nineteen ninety five, both Bromfield and Broadway are
convicted of first degree murder and both get sentenced to
death via lethal injection. Now, like the vast majority of stories,
I tell you, here's where the story really gets started.
Of course, especially with death penalty cases, you expect most
of the convicted are going to exhaust their appeals completely.
Maybe they'll get lucky, maybe a technicality is going to
be found somewhere, whatever, So in Bromfield's case, his appeals
really stood on one thing, and that was his mental
capacity was consistently measured between seventy and seventy five, which
would indicate a mental disability and cognitive impairment. Which here
is my opinion on this. You commit murder, this murder
right here, and then you take steps to hide the
fact that you murdered someone. That proves to me you
knew murdering this amazing lady and damn near murdering another.
You knew that was wrong, but you did it anyway.
You weren't so mentally incapacitated, you didn't know right from wrong,
otherwise you wouldn't have been trying to hide it after
the fact. So while all these appeals are going on
and they're moving forward, so is the family of Corporal
Smothers Warwick. Despite all the odds, I mean, this guy
had to become a mama and a daddy overnight. In
addition to going to college, he went on to become
a major football star in college, playing for Florida State,
much to my chagrin because I'm an LSU Tiger guy.
In nineteen ninety seven, he was drafted as the twelfth
overall pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he goes
on to play in the NFL for twelve seasons. He
made two Pro Bowls, He won the Walter Payton Mann
of the Year Award, and all kinds of other awards.
Off the field, he was equally outstanding. He established the
Quote Home for the Holidays program, which assists single parents
with down payments and fully furnished homes. Which I can't
think of a more amazing way to honor your single
mother and everything that she did for her kids than
by assisting other single parents with down payments for homes
because his mother could never afford a house, and it
just gives me chills thinking about it. He's helped over
three hundred families through that program. Now. In twenty sixteen,
something I consider shocking occurred when Kevin Bromfield is resentenced
from death row to life in prison after a court
apparently disagreed with me and decided that his mental capacity
was such that he couldn't get the death penalty. Warick
Dunn himself was against this. They felt he was too
mentally disabled to be sentenced to death. Then in twenty
twenty three, it was Henry Bromway's turn to try and
get out of death row, and in a clemency hearing,
famed lawyer Barry Sheck. You may remember him from the
OJ Simpson trial. He is also the founder of the
Innocence Project, which is now a national nonprofit that fights
to get people off death road that are innocent of crimes.
And I have respect for that. And he has had
several high profile cases where people were exonerated by DNA
and it was through pushing for their innocence through that program.
So I got nothing but love for that program. I
think if someone is innocent, the last thing you obviously
want to do is put him to death. And they've
done some great things there, but here they're not fighting
for someone that's innocent. And he spoke, of course, in
defense of Broadway. But guess what Ward done? Was there?
Ward done? Sister? Was there? Many people were there and
Ward Done. He was having none of this. And you
have absolutely got to hear this in its entirety. This
is the clip from the hearing for Henry Broadway when
he was seeking clemency, and you're gonna hear Ward Done
speaking to the Louisiana Pardon Board. You're gonna hear his sister,
you're gonna hear the former chief of police b RPDS
great fairies, and you're going to hear the decision of
the board after they make their comments. So here's that club.
Speaker 5: First, we'd like to hear from the victims' family, mister Dunn.
Could we hear from you, sir?
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am. You know this is.
Speaker 6: You know, it's heartbreaking because I mean, I understand individuals
go to prison. We're only convicted. I do understand that
in this situation, that's not the case. And it's really disrespectful,
and I mean, I'm over here getting emotional listening to
you know, nonsense, not even understanding that if someone is
shot and killed your family members they come to your
front door, you're not going to have that. You're not
going to have that perspective. And then, if you think
about it, we have police officers that are supposed to
be protecting us, serving and protecting, and all of a sudden,
now we got a guy who's been on death road
for thirty years. He's able to get up every day,
eat three meals, call his family and what my kids,
my brothers and sisters, kids, you know, grandkids, won't be
able to meet their grandmother. They don't have that experience of,
you know, the values she could have added to their life.
And then everyone wants to talk about you know because
I play professional football and you know I help families. Well,
I'm not able to do the things that I do
for other individuals because my mom is not here. She
sacrificed her life to protect people. And to listen to
this nonsense, This is nonsense about an individual who has
been convicted, convicted, not innocent. And also well I heard
in the past, well he put a gun to another
lady's head in it jammed. No one talks about that.
I mean, this is it's just it's just frustrating because people,
people are sacrificing our lives, and the police officers, you know,
I you know, we let someone off death row lest
some clemency this or that any individual in this country
will go around thinking they could just kill and shoot
people and their consequences is that I'm just going to
spend the rest of my life in prison and I
need three meals a day, spending taxpayers dolls. Please, it's
just disrespectful and I mean, I'm I pose you know,
these two individuals, you know everyone who who's opposing that,
you know he needs clemency, that he needs to be
off death row or I just I oppose that. And
you know, I know my sister. I don't know if
she's able to talk, but she can also express herself
in a way that I mean, my younger sister didn't
have her mother nine years old. You think she could
have been a better woman today than she is now. Yes,
my sister could have. So you guys, don't understand anything
and go out defend people. I don't want innocent people
to die lose their life. I'm all about that, but
in this case, don't don't commit me and my family
who suffered all these years because at eighteen years old,
I had to become a father and I took care
of my brother's sister because that's what my mom trained
me to do over the years. Because we couldn't afford
a house, we could could afford this, and that we
were surviving.
Speaker 5: Thank you, mister done. That's summers. Mothers or would you
like to say a few words, Hey, you're you're still
on me.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, I'm in the car trying to uh drive
out me right you right?
Speaker 5: So I apologize, Okay, is there something like to know?
Speaker 7: Just to piggyback off of my brother, I did write
a speech and just wanted to make you guys aware.
As we reflect on this thirty year journey without our mother,
we're a constant reminded that we have a hold in
our horse that would never be filled. The pain won't stop.
In some memories fad, but the constant flashback of January seventh,
nineteen ninety three remains the worst part of it all.
I remember like it was yesterday. Each year getting harder
and harder to process. We all have grown up with
kids of our own, which makes it this part of
life most difficult to bear. People often ask, how do
you hear it from something like this? I replied, you
never heal, You always be broken. You always wondered what
life could have been if she was still here, But
instead we constantly try to explain to our kids who
our mother was. Have you ever imagined trying to explain
to a child what a cemetery looks like, why she's
not there, not here with us, or when they asked
to see their grandmother, you have to take them to
a burier, apply a tombstone that can't speak words of
comfort back or give them reassurance that everything is okay.
Have you ever opened a piece of mail and thought
you'd seen a ghost? Asking yourself, why does God keep
punishing us? We all received a letter from this attorney
office back in April, not knowing one of us or not.
One of us told the other one that we have
received this letter because it was going to open a
door that we all try to keep close. Within thirty years.
Within thirty years, we have never had anyone from the
defendant side check up on us. But what amazed us
as soon as Governor Edwards announced it was against he
was against the death penalty. The office engaged at the
defense victim out of specialists to inform us of the
new development in the case. We started trying to place
pieces together. We made phone calls to figure out what
was going on, and that's when we were informed of
Broomfield me I'm sorry Broadway petition to appeal once again.
How can you ever hear from something if it's a
revolving door. Our family has been through so much and
other in another. We're just devastating to the families. This
not only affects us, but our kids who now tried
to protest what's going on, learning about the unspoken, unfilled
to truth of our mother's death that we tried to
protect them from. They never knew the impact of our
minds have had on us. They just thought, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, somebody called. They just start trying to place
pieces together. Can found polity figure out what's going on?
I'm sorry. Our family has been through through so much
in another just depth stating to our families does not
only affects us, but we're trying to process what's going on,
learning the unspoken truth of our mother's death. They just
started trying to notice the trends and behave you when
it comes to certain things in milestones. As I close,
I want to understand. I want you guys to understand
that hurt, the pain and love that I can't get back.
Imagine yourself at fourteen, being woken up to your news
that your mother was shot and kill not because she
was doing anything wrong, but because she was serving and
protecting the citizen of back Rudge. Now you and your
sibling has to figure out like who's gonna provide for you,
where you're gonna live, Who's gonna be or we're gonna
be able to stay together all why our prepreen to
bury your only parents you have? But we accept the
fact that mister Broadway continues to breathe life, get three
meals a day, continues to have conversation and see his family,
a privilege that we can't experience and have an experience
for the last thirty years. But we have to talk
to the tunes songs that don't speak back.
Speaker 5: We will be about I'm sorry to interrupt. Can you
wrap it up for us please?
Speaker 7: Yes, ma'am, I'm finishing up when we would be allowed to,
when we would be allowed to feel like the system
isn't broken and here's our Christ. All we want is
justice that's overdue. And I don't have the luxury to
know what the true mother loves feel like. I'm opposed
to this a petition for appeal for clearancy. This this
is something that we deal with all the time, and
we just u on my behalf of my sister and brothers.
We're opposed to this clemsy petition.
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am, thank you so much for taking the time
to speak with us today.
Speaker 8: Its sleep.
Speaker 5: Thank you's for going to read this opportunity to steal.
I have been silent for almost thirty one years. To
be exact, and not to take anyway thing away from Betty.
God rest your soul. But I lived in the shadows.
When this tragedy it's talked about, I'm not even spoken of.
I have, however, been living this every single day of
my life. January seventh will be thirty one years ago
this happened. This tragic event took everything from me. I
lived with surviv I lived with survivors guilt, and at
times it's more than I can bear.
Speaker 8: Any past I've lived in fear.
Speaker 5: I would look out my window and feel so hopeless,
sad and depressed.
Speaker 8: NICKI saw the glass half full.
Speaker 9: Not long after everything happened, I found myself locked up
in a mental hospital for three and a half weeks.
I tried to heal and move long with my life,
but it felt impossible. I saw a therapist for over
three years. I couldn't understand why this happened to me,
How could anyone do this? As time passed, I learned
to pick myself up and tried to move forward. Every
day was a challenge. I lived every day of my
life with PTSD. I will for the rest of my
days on earth. My coworkers, my friends, my family, my neighbor.
Speaker 8: No never to.
Speaker 5: Walk upon me without my full attention, because it sends
an into a dark place of fear and anxiousness. Please
understand by you doing this brings pain into all of
our lives, who will never give back what was taken
from us. I ask, and I beg of you, please
do not do this. One life was lost and several
lives were changed forever. By reducing the sentence from death
to life imprisonment, you were diminishing the atrocity of what
was done to us. Betty died, our children's lives changed forever.
I live with this my whole life. Our lives mean.
Speaker 8: More than this.
Speaker 5: And I will say, without any certainty, I know who
I identified, and I stand tall and.
Speaker 8: One hundred percent certain.
Speaker 5: I know the man that I saw that night and
that raining night was here Broadway without any doubt in
my mind. And I beg of you, Please don't do this.
You've lived in pain for so long. Thank you, Thank you,
mister Daniels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I sam for you.
Speaker 10: In oppositition named tomorrow Day representative Adage Police Department's times
A chiefs Fat.
Speaker 11: I think this is one of those events that you
grew up.
Speaker 4: In what do you work when you heard and it occurred.
Speaker 8: I also.
Speaker 10: Not a police officer at jack time, but over the
last twenty five plus years than our agency, I get
to watch and see that the time is still had
to heal. This is one of the still one of
the most common topics stussed in our police.
Speaker 8: Department, and we're still assisting.
Speaker 12: A lot of our officers were there or we were
friends who actually responded to the scene that night because.
Speaker 10: They're still in the hell process. We're very great opposition
of this request. We asked that you peace deny it
and again we pray for the family, law enforcement as
well as personally.
Speaker 5: Thank you, sir, mister mister Ferris H.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I'm fair glad. I'm Brett ferris Will, Chief to
ninth grade.
Speaker 11: And just a moment to rest the shares comments, every
confidences siggestion was gone.
Speaker 14: Thanks to spect.
Speaker 13: Here side and.
Speaker 1: All the way is what it is because kid states
the true lead is very strongly.
Speaker 15: Any chillative of police officers is one of the most
famous crimes.
Speaker 16: That can be committed because it is an attack on civilization.
It's the attack on the people. Team keep keep civilization.
That the nearest civilization will be its many killings of
police officers.
Speaker 15: Or what I would call them popular somebody who's newly
arranged or maybe a police officer responds to the investing issue.
By the investig issue, where emotions are at their peak,
he or she shot and kill.
Speaker 8: This wasn't the end.
Speaker 17: This was three people.
Speaker 18: Driving to set up and on the bank and Gilts
family and try to kill them successibly one unsuccessful, say
kill two people to commit an arm mode.
Speaker 13: It's about as bad as it gets.
Speaker 1: The way of.
Speaker 11: Kill him remeditated, replanning and tragically executed.
Speaker 19: Quite quite see, I cannot speak with the authenticipate of
work or summer.
Speaker 15: But let me take keep back. So I sat in
my vetter today. I have to kill him a revery
unteen unity three Tom and he and I went to
be very my engage both in the buildings. The old
man singing a chair on the right Olympic child and
get us laugh struck and said and company the child, well,
it said, I kissed. It's the child said you can
on the back. I've been a tough mission.
Speaker 8: That, of course is important.
Speaker 11: He has been incredibly successful, even being successful man high school,
college and front the Star running back Bounce as philanthropists.
Speaker 13: Often he has accommis to the lots.
Speaker 1: But what he does not have never it's his buildings.
Give his mother house procurred old day to be with her.
She passes away from the age of being.
Speaker 4: Never happened.
Speaker 1: Broadway.
Speaker 20: Two of the people pride and ambush, steal some money
and to kill people seemed to be killed two people
I find January nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: They succeeded that.
Speaker 14: You bet.
Speaker 8: It's about like almost see.
Speaker 17: Broadway has been through proud, It's been through feels all
the way up from the certain vision I think, and
how before that process has been that eviction best and firm.
Speaker 1: I have no reason, no reason to supports.
Speaker 21: A check's attention that this was a bad investigation for
a bad team that I constructed in chief of.
Speaker 22: Jacknives don vote just had to be done out absolutely right.
This was a feeling of resee officer, the most sensation
around that happened the batterie since January nine, seventeen and
had to be done right. And it's totally irresponsible, as.
Speaker 8: Some chief rejectives.
Speaker 1: Three days later it was as an out of time.
Speaker 23: Yes about a check, Uh, you'd been out a whole time.
Super basket advised like a road now in Chicago? Was
that go home and gets to sleep for folic part
in war. So for based fandom strong appetitions, there's.
Speaker 5: Thank you, so right, mister Molimus Barbara, all turnt everything else,
good warning warnings, all the checks.
Speaker 21: Uh you know, I just.
Speaker 24: I listened to all these statistics from these generations and
say I just need to step it, reponstrate it right
now that when we have an offender the foinder post invasion,
we in federal court and the judge turns that there
is a degree of intellectual visibility that we mean that
person cannot be executed and we entered into a contract
for life and that person's into the rest.
Speaker 8: Of his life.
Speaker 25: In general population in Angola, that is not an exoneration.
And it is extremely effensive that these anti death penalties zealous.
They have the right to their opinion. Disagree with it,
they have the right to their opinion, but don't misrepresent
the statistics. And hear no mention of the cases where
additional DNA testing is ordered and it in fact further
confirms the victims I've written this identification of the rapists
one day I had just.
Speaker 8: A few years ago and meets back of cherish.
Speaker 25: So yes, it's real easy to focus on the case
since DNA and make it exonerated people and we can
throw out names. But let's not talk anymore about those cases.
Let's talk about the fact that Kim and Me, by
the grace of God, was here to speak to you
this morning. Let's talk about the fact that, as retired
Chief Berry said, civilisation is completely disrupted and someone decides
to kill a law enforcement officer, someone who takes their
life to their hands every day. This was not a
domestic violence situation. We have unfortunately lost law enforcement in our.
Speaker 8: Communicates to that.
Speaker 25: This is a man who plotted with his whovivot to
commit this arm probbery.
Speaker 8: This is a man who.
Speaker 25: During his time at Angola, he filed complaints because his
sex novel wasn't delivered timely, or he didn't know the
method of execution.
Speaker 8: He waited to start taking classes. I think living in
Balance just started in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 25: This is a man who testified in this defense at
a trial and didn't just say I am innocent.
Speaker 8: He alleged that Kevin Lee was him on this, that
this was.
Speaker 25: An inside job. It doesn't get much more offensive than that.
As mister Lampert said, we sincerely appreciated having the opportunity
to speak to you at this phase of the process.
It is unprecedented and we thank you for that. This
individual is not intellectually disabled. There are still post combition
relief proceedings pending as we speak in federal This, ladies
and gentlemen, I respectfully submit to you, is not.
Speaker 8: The forum to litigate this claim of innocence. The United States.
Speaker 25: Supreme Court deny exert in this case. It is now
post conviction relief proceedings. Let that be litigated. There is
not a depth for it in this case. Henry Aureed,
whoever you pronounce its first name Broadway is not condemned.
Speaker 8: They are proclaiming innocence. They obviously.
Speaker 25: Are seeking release into our population, not general population at Angola.
Speaker 8: That man wants to be walking the streets.
Speaker 25: With you, Me, Myron Daniels, Day May's Clarence mclarno, retired
Chief Fairies hill or Moore, Kiman Lee and God forbidding
the rest of the Smothers family or or summer the
rest of them. Let this work itself out in federal court.
This conviction has been upheld. There have been evidentiary hearings
and district court. I believe there were five separate hearings
days in front of the Honorable Ralph Tyson thanking someone
to the federal for to grant let me senioring for
this man would just be one step further. And we
all know he will not be satisfied in general opulation.
Speaker 8: He once out on behalf of the family, half of one. Yes,
at least not.
Speaker 11: Needs the best.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 5: Smart did you want family? It's all good on more
than so?
Speaker 26: What for.
Speaker 27: Year and Jonny Jacksons charges have been around and you
know all the other general so we respect this year
and you know talk and turns. Marbella, I understand your
books from why you do what you're doing on have
you think you are pat them?
Speaker 8: And this case is a little beneath, a little different.
Speaker 27: I only wanted to stick up the manner in which
these folks would notify of what was going to happen,
and that it is really offensive. They received the letter
in the mail from a law office representing the defendant.
In that letter, it said that we have hired a
special victims council for you. They don't work for us,
they work for you. Ring my letter and please call
my office and get you in touch with you're a
victim representative.
Speaker 8: When they got that letter, warren't done called me and said,
look in the hell this going on?
Speaker 27: We obviously had no idea, and on that day all
of these fishers were filed in mass at one time,
obviously something I'd been in plans for a very long time,
and no notice was given.
Speaker 5: To us all the day that letter.
Speaker 27: And I can tell you that over in years the
number of times that I've called mister on sometimes in answers.
Speaker 8: Sometimes it takes time because he wants to know what's happening.
Speaker 27: That I could I could see the face, I can
hear it in this this this is show me you
know this family and all the other families that will
see THEE and a'mother picture. Guys in such a difficult position,
that a tough job to be. We work respectfully. Buys
the more specifics than.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you. There's no other comments to be made,
so I think there to them. I'm start with missus Jackson.
Speaker 28: First, I'd like to plank here and want today.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 28: For me, one thing is really important from me is
consistency and how I did things as a judge and
tried to be They've been handed in every case that
I have because it's important.
Speaker 5: I think that goes a long way to.
Speaker 28: Ensuring justice as well as confidence in the system. With
that being said, this war set certain guidelines for consideration
of onaments the application mister Broadway, and his application needs
social requirements just as any other applicant would, and granting
a hearing is.
Speaker 8: Not insurance in any way.
Speaker 28: Believe it's just a qut a process in place, and
I believe in a process in twice you should follow
that process. Another thing that concerns me in this case
is that there were three people involved in the stere
all three of them equally as culpable, every single one
of them. And yet Kevin Romphield, who is clearly acknowledged
as being the person.
Speaker 5: Who actually killed Officer's mothers I had.
Speaker 8: His will not ever be executed.
Speaker 28: There's a claim of intellectual disabilities, but as I read
the police reports time and time, his name came up
as the maid actor, the mastermind, and yet he is
not facing executions all equally as culpable led to attempt
on robbery receiving a twenty five year sentence. The only
person facing execution is hum be wrong.
Speaker 5: I will tell you that trouble that troubles me.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 28: And so, because he makes the requirements for hearing, and
because of my concern about the inconsistency of the outpout
in these stations, my.
Speaker 5: Role would be to grant a hearing. Thank you, missus Jackson,
mister rushed, Thank.
Speaker 4: You, Madam Trevor.
Speaker 11: A lot of the information controls me also.
Speaker 1: But and.
Speaker 26: Louisiana Cool, I was going to.
Speaker 5: Section five.
Speaker 4: Eight.
Speaker 26: You know eight reasons why I could deny an application,
and I'm just going to mention a couple of those
nature the serious nature of their gregious nature of the crime,
and is no more henny his crime than the murder
of a police officer, even if that person is not
a record responsible for he participated in a felony that
result in the death of a police officer and a
seriously woman warning of an assistant manager of a superlogist
or in the progress of doing their job. The second
reason that I'm going to use is his civil vision
in history. Mister Broadway has been a supervision on cheap
DIFTI occasions. Both of those occasions he was terminated unsatisfactory
simply because he had other fellainies all miss demeanor convictions,
and knowing I would I know after this ultimous lee,
the express opposition in the victim's family, mister Dunn and
his sister Summer, the adamate opposition from me Louisiana State
Troopers Association and the Turney General of the State of Louisiana,
bad News law Enforcement and the d a's office. And
he's bat Newish, who is admirally opposed to hearing this
based upon to Coma that it could it would inflict
on the viacan's family. I have no other charge then
to deny and reject this application based on information. All right,
I'm true.
Speaker 8: Thank you, mister Osha, Thank you about it. Gentlemen.
Speaker 14: I would like to thank everybody for being here, certainly
the victims in this case, the victims stamping. As mister
Moore pointed out, I've got a lot of friends involved
in this case. This is an extremely difficult case. This
is an administrative hearing to determine if this inmate meets
eligibility requirements for hearing. At this hearing, we have allowed
public comments comments those in and those who are opposed
to a recommendation from hearing. As a member of this
Pardon Board, I think it's important to note that every
sector of the criminal justice system has its own obligations
and responsibilities. Law enforcement has their responsibilities and their appligations.
I can tell you by fifty years in the criminal
justice system, I have the utmost respectful. Prosecutors have their
obligations and responsibilities. I respect them. I was a prosecutor,
and I believe that I hope that I honorably carried
out those responsibilities. I respect the defense lawyers for the
job that they do. I was a defense lawyer. I
hope that I honorable character. Judges have their responsibility in
this system. I was a judge. Hope that I'm honorable character.
Legislators also have their obligations and responsibility, and the Pardon
Board as its obligations and responsibilities as well. And there
are difference, And I hope when this is all said
and done, and I'm offered the word that I can
honestly say honorably carried out. But I don't be my obligation.
Speaker 6: On the part of board.
Speaker 14: Our responsibilities, duties, and obligations are to consider all of
the circumstances and factors involved. We do not retry cases.
Speaker 1: We do not find fault in.
Speaker 14: The prosecution, jurors, or the course. We do look at
the facts of the crime. We certainly look at the
effects upon the victims and their families. Clearly, the pain
the grief suffering if they have ended is unimagined. While
considering all of these factors, our primary duty and responsibility
is to look at the inmate today. Who was he
when he committed this horrible crime nearly thirty one years ago, How,
if in any way, has he changed in the last
thirty years of incarceration. Who is he today? I think
it's important to point out that we are not being
asked to release this inmate. We are being asked to
consider granting this inmate an opportunity to have a hearing
to determine it he merits a recommendation from this board
to the God to change his sentence from death to
life with them rule.
Speaker 11: This is what this hearing has been.
Speaker 14: After reviewing the entire recD, including public comments, the comments
of those in favor, and the comments of those approach
after nearly thirty one years, Sir, he is classified as
a Lewis. He's got a good disciplinary record, nine write ups,
it has a good overall institution. My vote is that
this indate does meet the eligibility. I vote to brand
the here, ma'am Allen.
Speaker 29: Mister okay, A lot of things said this morning. First off,
I want to thank every want for showing up today.
Speaker 4: Uh, you know, it is hard. I'm sorry that the.
Speaker 29: Dunk family has to keep reliving this every time something
changes in our laws and every time they try to
change the way things are looked at.
Speaker 4: But you know, there is a process that we look at.
This is a capital murder, a capital murder of a
police officer, which theres no way they can say didn't
know she was a police officer, she was in her unit,
Miss Lee. They meant to kill you, there no out
my mind. They meant to kill you also, And so
I'll look at that process. A capital murder deserves more.
Speaker 30: Looking at and less and you should have to do
more to be eligible for relief in an a capital
murder case. And so that my problem and my vote get.
Speaker 5: Is to the not thank you, mister Crean. I have reviewed.
You know, this process was a little different than what
we usually do through administrative review. We had a lot
more information to look at than we usually do. After
considering all that, I noted that mister Broadway's case was affirmed.
As has been mentioned by the Supreme Court, his sentencing
conviction was affirmed over twenty four years ago in nineteen
ninety nine. He has no depth. He does have posting
adiction hanging in the Froneral Court up and after listening
to Miss Lee and mister Dunn and the smother's family,
I cannot vote to move this application forward to a
hearing and put these people through basgain. So my vote
today is to deny the application for a clemency hearing.
Mister Broadways received two favorable votes to move forward. He's
received three votes to deny his applications to move forward.
So today his application for clendency hearing is denied.
Speaker 3: So there you have it, denied. I love it. I
think that's the right decision. And I'll tell you what,
I don't know if you were as upset as I
was when one of those Parole board members said, oh
well there's you know, the other guy got off and
he I understand got off because of his mental capacity,
and maybe your mental capacity is not such. But there's
so many and I'm paraphrasing here, twisting turns to this
case that you should also get off of death row.
What is wrong with people? I'm sorry, that's shocking to me.
Where is that lady's heart? And that was a female,
she knows what it's like. I'm assuming she was maybe
a mother. If she was, you know what it's like
to be a mother, And you still fight for this
guy that killed someone and gravely injured another. Horrible but
there you have it. Clemency denied in Henry Broadway, to
this day remains on death Row. Thank you so much
for listening. Check out the Patreon commercial, free early releases,
and more Patreon dot com, slash Bloody and Gola podcast
and until next time for Bloody and Gola, a podcast
one hundred and forty two years in the making, the
complete story of America's bloodiest present. I walked straight line.
Speaker 2: Shackle change, Oh weesome, girdie, it's calling my name.
Speaker 26: There is no.
Speaker 2: Mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the huge
stream game wrangled the three.
Speaker 26: I'm here be.
Speaker 15: B I'm here to die.
Speaker 2: Inside these walls, inside the wild.
Speaker 3: Hadn't went no girl.
Speaker 16: Time.
Speaker 2: No, it's abody angle, ohbody angle.