Elvis Brooks spent 42 years in Louisiana's Angola prison for a murder he did not commit. He was only 19 when police arrested him for a 1977 shooting at a New Orleans bar, despite a dozen people testifying he was at a family party that night. Jurors were never told fingerprints from the crime scene didn't match his. It took until 2022, and a prosecutor's admission that key evidence had been buried, before a court finally threw out his conviction.

That ruling should have made Brooks eligible for up to $480,000 through Louisiana's wrongful conviction compensation fund. Instead, Attorney General Liz Murrill is trying to block his payout entirely, telling the court he should still be treated as guilty. She's gone further, asking the court to reinstate a manslaughter charge against him, tied to a plea deal Brooks only accepted because prosecutors had hidden that same fingerprint evidence.

Brooks isn't alone. In her two years in office, Murrill has fought nearly every wrongful conviction compensation claim that's crossed her desk, 22 out of 23, even in cases where DNA and blood evidence cleared the person completely.

"She knows people are innocent but she doesn't care," Brooks said, according to Verite News and ProPublica.

Brooks is 69 now, living on a $994 monthly Social Security check. If he's ever paid what the state owes him, he wants to buy a proper headstone big enough to list all seven family members sharing one grave, most of whom died while he was locked up for a crime he didn't commit.

He already waited nearly 45 years for the truth to matter. He shouldn't wait any longer for justice. Sign the petition demanding Attorney General Liz Murrill drop her opposition to Elvis Brooks's compensation claim and abandon her effort to reinstate his charge.