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Available for over a year
In 1992, Robert Jones was accused of being behind a one-man crime spree of rape, robbery and then the murder of holidaymaker Julie Stott in New Orleans. Despite another man being convicted for the murder and overwhelmingly linked to all the other crimes, Robert Jones was sent to jail too, and remained there for 23 years. He was released in November 2015. His original trial judge and police detectives told the BBC’s Aleem Maqbool they believed he didn't commit the murder. Although he still faces a re-trial, the case has been called one of America’s worst racially inspired miscarriages of justice in decades." In this edition of Assignment, Robert Jones talks about the ‘nightmare’ of those 23 years in prison, and how he now wants accountability for what happened. Aleem Maqbool investigates how he was imprisoned, who’s responsible, and what it tells us about race and justice in Louisiana. And as he discovers, there could be many more cases like Robert Jones in the state with America’s highest incarceration rate. Produced by Ashley Semler and James Fletcher (Photo: Robert Jones out of prison joined by his family for the first time in more than 23 years)
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