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A Man from Louisiana Who Has Spent 47 Years in Angola is Rearrested on Day of His Parole

Following two court judgments ordering his release, a Louisiana man who has served 47 years in jail remains incarcerated nearly nine months after his parole date.

On March 18, the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole overwhelmingly approved Bobby Sneed’s release from Angola prison.

According to prison officials, Sneed fell on March 25, four days before his scheduled release, and tested positive for amphetamine and methamphetamine.

He was held over his release date for a disciplinary hearing, but the claims of drug use were dropped since the disciplinary committee couldn’t prove that the urine sample used to accuse the 75-year-old was his.

By Nov. 9, police at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana, had charged Sneed with a new drug offense, claiming that he was found unresponsive with “one eyedropper containing unknown liquid material inside the bottle,” which they eventually identified as PCP.

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Following that, he was found guilty of possession of a controlled substance at a disciplinary hearing and sentenced to one day in solitary prison.

Following that, he was found guilty of possession of a controlled substance at a disciplinary hearing and sentenced to one day in solitary prison.

The prison disciplinary board dismissed both the March and November allegations, and on Dec. 9, a district judge delivered his second judgment ordering Sneed’s release.

On Dec. 10, while waiting to be picked up at the gate, Sneed was re-arrested and taken to a nearby jail.

Despite the fact that the judge had ordered his release the day before, and another on Nov. 18, the parole board devised a plan to keep Sneed behind bars despite the favourable rulings, including its own vote.

During his brief release, the board issued an arrest warrant for a parole violation, claiming that Sneed’s two drug charges this year had breached his parole, despite the fact that he was still detained and not yet paroled.

“This latest illegal and retaliatory move by the Board of Parole—yet another foul blow in their Javert-like pursuit of Mr. Sneed—is an effort to prolong Mr. Sneed’s unconstitutional detention,” Sneed’s lawyer, Thomas Frampton, wrote in a federal court filing in response to his rearrest.

Sneed was sentenced to 47 years in prison in 1974 for his role in a fatal robbery.

Sneed was a lookout and was not there at the time of the murder, but he was found guilty of principle to commit second-degree murder since he was part of the crime that led to the murder.

He was given a life sentence in prison.

The parole board ruled in mid-March that Sneed was no longer a danger to society.

In 2005, he had a stroke and needed to be rehabilitated.

“I don’t believe that there’s any threat to public safety…. By keeping him incarcerated, at his age and with [his] medical conditions, it’s more costly with very finite taxpayer dollars to keep him [locked up] than to help him get substance abuse treatment,” Kerry Myers, deputy director of the Louisiana Parole Project, told Reason.com. “What’s at stake is: What’s the best use of resources?”

Despite the fact that the disciplinary committee cleared him for the positive urine sample, Sneed’s parole was revoked by the parole board in May.

However, a judge later decided that Sneed did not receive the due process that he was entitled to during his parole revocation hearing.

Neither Sneed nor his attorneys were given access to the evidence against him, nor did they have the opportunity to cross-examine or call any witnesses during the hearing.

“Because it is undisputed that no such procedures were followed when Mr. Sneed’s parole was stripped…this Court finds that [he] was deprived … of due process of law,” wrote Judge Ron Johnson of the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The warrant was issued based on a write-up Sneed received on Nov. 9, when he was found unresponsive and allegedly in possession of an eyedropper containing PCP. Only one member of the parole committee signed the warrant.

State and federal lawsuits are proceeding on both sides while Sneed’s destiny is still unknown.

The Louisiana Supreme Court determined on Dec. 16 that the lower court’s decision to release Sneed on parole was incorrect.

The Supreme Court argued that the case should have been forwarded to the parole committee for a revocation hearing by the district court.

Frampton filed a federal motion seeking to hold state officials in contempt of court.

He contends that because Sneed was still incarcerated and not on parole, he couldn’t have broken his parole.

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