A Jury View of the Jail Was Requested. It Was Never Ruled On.

By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author.

Before trial, Tony Hunter’s attorney filed a Motion for Jury to View the Ouachita Correctional Center — asking that jurors see for themselves the “protective double-plated glass window” through which two informants claimed to have overheard a shouted confession between a cell and the recreation yard. The trial court “deferred ruling” on the motion. The record contains no ruling, ever — and the jury never saw Pod 10. (The window page.)

Years later, two inmates who do not know Tony Hunter — Willie Campbell and Keith Davis — swore independently that a quiet conversation through that window “would be impossible… You can’t hear through the glass.” Their affidavits are transcribed in full. And the expert declaration filed in 2022 noted what was never produced at trial: “no video footage, recreation yard logs, or corrections witness to bolster the reliability of the alleged confessions.” (Bloom Decl. ¶ 17.)

The other half: the jury credited the informants’ account and convicted; the Second Circuit affirmed; the affidavits above have never been tested at a hearing. (Procedural history.)