Vincent Simmons

Vincent Alfred Simmons (born February 17, 1952) is an American man who was a life prisoner at Angola State Prison in Louisiana, where he was sentenced to 100 years in July 1977 after being convicted of the "attempted aggravated rapes" of 14-year-old twin sisters Karen and Sharon Sanders of Marksville.

Simmons has maintained his innocence throughout.

The United States Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia (1972) had ruled that states' laws on implementing the death penalty were so arbitrary in application as to be unconstitutional and ordered them to be rewritten.

Executions of persons on death rows were suspended and the respective state courts were ordered to amend their sentences to the next lower level of severity, generally life imprisonment.

The sentences of more than 600 persons on death row were commuted to life; 587 of these individuals were men.

In the years following, the Louisiana legislature rewrote its death penalty statute.

Among the crimes for which it imposed capital punishment was aggravated rape.

On May 22, 1977, Karen and Sharon Sanders of Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, 14-year-old white twins, reported to family that they had been raped by a black man two weeks before, on May 9.

In statements to police, the twins claimed that they, along with their 18-year-old cousin Keith Laborde (revealed to have been 20 at the time), had encountered a black man at the 7-11 in Marksville.

They gave him a ride, and he produced a knife and forced all three to get into the trunk of the car.

After driving to an isolated location, he took out each twin and raped her separately, then returned the three to town and set them free at the cemetery.

The twins said that their attacker threatened to have his buddies come after them if they told anyone.

At the time of their statements to the police, the twins did not describe or identify their attacker, saying that "all blacks looks alike."

Avoyelles Parish Police picked up Vincent Simmons the next day on May 23 in Marksville, where he was walking.

He had been back about a week after spending several years in Texas.

At the police station, they placed him in a line-up of seven men, including one white man.

Simmons was positioned in the center of the group and was the only man who was handcuffed.

Three police officers do not agree among themselves as to whether Simmons was in handcuffs in the lineup, or photographed in handcuffs with the group at a different time.

From that group, the Sanders twins and Laborde all identified Simmons as their attacker.

Simmons was taken into an interrogation room.

According to him, when he refused to make a statement about the purported crimes, he was manhandled by one of the officers, while still handcuffed, pushed down, and kicked while on the floor.

He struggled to his feet and was shot in the chest by deputy Robert LaBorde.

He later came to in the hospital, and was taken back to the police station after some treatment.

The police version of events is that Simmons, still in handcuffs, disarmed Officer Melvin Villamarette and tried to fire at LaBorde, but was unable to release the safety.

Simmons allegedly shouted, "You will never take me alive," before LaBorde shot him in the chest, inches from his heart.

Simmons was never charged for this alleged attack.

Prosecutor Eddie Knoll gained an indictment against Simmons from the parish grand jury on two counts of aggravated rape.

After receiving a copy of his evidence file in 1993, he had found that it contained exculpatory evidence that was not given to his court-appointed attorney by the District Attorney, and that there were inconsistencies in reports and statements of victims and witnesses.

Simmons is one of six subjects of the documentary The Farm: Life In Angola Prison (1998) (shown on HBO).

By 1999 Simmons had filed numerous habeas corpus writs, but had not gained an evidentiary hearing by a Louisiana court.

He is the sole subject of a follow-up documentary Shadows of Doubt: Vincent Simmons (1999), which explored his case, its weaknesses, and his severe sentence.

He is one of the subjects of The Farm: 10 Down (2009), which returned 10 years later to the survivors among the six men featured in the 1998 film.

Vincent Alfred Simmons is an African-American man from Mansura, a small town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana.

He is the son of Alzica and James Simmons, and has several siblings, including younger sisters Della and Olivia, and brother Philip "Bear" Simmons.

He has said he got on the wrong side of the law, and committed infractions when young which resulted in his being sentenced to juvenile facilities.

Later he was arrested but not convicted of burglary.

He left Avoyelles Parish for several years, living in Texas.

People warned him not to return to Louisiana, where he had attracted the attention of local parish police.

A week after his return, he was arrested as a suspect in the rape of two white minor girls.

He maintains that he is innocent of that crime.