Man whose murder conviction was overturned released from jail

By Robert Stewart

Contributing Writer

(Veritenews.org) – Keith Ezidore, a 73-year-old man who spent more than three decades in prison on a murder conviction that was overturned last summer, walked out of the St. James Parish Jail on Tuesday afternoon (May 12) to cheers and applause from people gathered to witness the moment.

“I’m feeling better now. I’m free,” Ezidore said, leaving the jail bracing his steps with a rollator walker.

Ezidore, who traveled from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola to the parish jail Monday evening, had been sentenced to life in prison in 1993, convicted of second degree murder for the 1991 stabbing death of Ralph Flowers, a St. James Parish businessman in his mid-50s. But Louisiana’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeal overturned that conviction last July after finding that prosecutors had illegally failed to turn over evidence that could have impacted the outcome of the case. The court sent the case back to the district level for a new trial.

Since his conviction was overturned, Ezidore’s attorneys have been fighting to get him freed on bail pending a new trial. But the state Attorney General’s Office, which has handled Ezidore’s proceedings, sought to keep him locked up. After an unsuccessful appeal of the Fifth Circuit decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court, state prosecutors pushed for a high bail.

Judge Steven Tureau of the 23rd Judicial District Court initially assented, setting Ezidore’s bail at $1 million. But late last month,  the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that was excessive, and ordered that it be reduced to $100,000.

Finally, on last Monday, May 11, Tureau signed orders allowing Ezidore to be transported from Angola and released on bail.

The Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on Ezidore’s release. The Flowers family, some of whom had appeared at Ezidore’s bail hearings, were unreachable for comment.

Lashona Duhe, Ezidore’s daughter, arrived at the St. James Parish Jail just before noon last  Tuesday. Roughly a dozen people – including Ezidore’s attorneys from Innocence & Justice Louisiana – were also there for his release. Several chatted in the shade of the doorway in the increasingly hot midday as they waited for Ezidore to walk out.

“Twenty minutes!” said one voice from the doorway. Word was spreading from Ezidore’s attorneys inside the facility, to the people closest to the front door of the jail, to the small crowd outside.

Even moments before his release, Duhe still could not believe her father, who had been imprisoned since she was a teenager, would be able to walk free.

“I just was on a roller coaster yesterday. I was so giddy with excitement,” said Duhe, who spent this past Monday gathering provisions to cook Ezidore a feast – a crawfish boil, baked spaghetti, sweet peas and potato salad.

Her disbelief, she said, was partially rooted in the many times she previously thought he would be released only to have last-minute obstacles dash her hopes.

Ezidore’s bail hearing was first set for October, when the decision overturning his conviction was still before the state Supreme Court. But it was unexpectedly cancelled after Tureau sided with prosecutors, who argued that it would be premature to grant bail while the appeal was pending.

In December, the Supreme Court denied that appeal, making way for Ezidore’s bail hearing.

Bail hearings took months, and after Tureau set bail at $1 million, Ezidore’s attorneys went through a two-month long appeals process to have it reduced.

‘He deserves the right to be home’

Duhe and Ezidore’s attorneys were expecting him to be released on Monday, May 11,  after Tureau’s transport and bail orders came down. But an unexpected issue with the electronic system the St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office uses as an option for bail payments resulted in further delay.

According to Montrell Carmouche, a senior advisor with Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based restorative justice organization that posted bail for Ezidore, the electronic bond system had several unexpected issues.

The system, she said, capped payment allotments at $50,000. Each maximum allotment came with a five percent convenience fee. Because no payment could exceed $50,000 – including the fee –  that meant breaking the payments down into at least three allotments, which would have added thousands in unanticipated cost to the bail amount.

The other options were to use a bail bondsman or pay the bond in cash in person. Camouche, who said her organization had been following Ezidore’s story, joined Duhe and Ezidore’s attorneys at the jail to pay in person.

“He deserves the right to be home with his family while he fights,” Carmouche said. 

St. James Parish Sheriff Claude Louis declined to comment on the electronic payment system. Genesis eBONDS, which provides the online payment service for the jail, also declined to comment.

Elena Malik, one of Ezidore’s attorneys, described having Ezidore home as a “game changer” for his upcoming retrial.

“When you’re preparing for trial, and you’re thinking [of] questions like, ‘Who’s going to testify? Who are the witnesses going to be?’ you want your client to be involved in those conversations, and it makes for a better case when they are,” Malik said.

In a statement posted to social media, Innocence & Justice Louisiana said that the organization will continue to litigate his case and seek his full exoneration.

In his first moments after being released from detention more than three decades after his arrest, Ezidore said he wants to spend time with his family.

Duhe, who said she never had the chance to cook for her father when she was a child and is eager to do so now, said she knows Ezidore will be hungry for home-cooked meals now that he’s free, even if temporarily.

“I’m so overjoyed,” Duhe said. “I just can’t even put it into words.”

This article originally published in the May 18, 2026 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.