By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author.
Louisiana Revised Statute 14:64.1 says whoever commits first-degree robbery shall be imprisoned “without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of imposition or execution of sentence.” In February 2002, jailhouse informant Clarence Kennedy pled to a reduced charge of first-degree robbery and received 25 years — with 20 of them suspended. The suspension the statute forbids. (Court records, No. 01-F-0649; the Kennedy file.)
The timing: the plea came in the weeks after the State received the Gene Screen forensic report excluding Tony Hunter from the scene, the victims, and the weapon. At trial, Kennedy testified he had been promised nothing, received nothing, and came forward only because what he heard “really hurt him.” His originally charged armed robbery carried 10 to 99 years without benefits; as a fourth felony offender he faced up to 198. The State never multi-billed him.
The other half: the jury heard Kennedy’s convictions as presented and his cross-examination; the Second Circuit affirmed. The claim that this sentence was an undisclosed benefit has never had an evidentiary hearing. (The disclosure claims.)
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