Louisiana Father Serving Life Sentence Freed After Judge Vacates Double Murder Conviction

A Louisiana man walked out of prison after serving 29 years of a life sentence for two murders he says he didn’t commit.

“It's unbelievable you know from the dungeon to back to life again. I really thought I was gonna die in jail,” Larry Moses told WWL-TV after his release on bond in June 2023, calling being freed a “really feel-good feeling.”

On Jan. 4, 1994, Alma Causey and Daniel Ratliff were at an intersection in New Orleans when a man shot them both dead during an attempted robbery, according to Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO).

The following year, Moses, now 68, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life behind bars.

Charell Arnold, an attorney with IPNO, recently told WWL-TV that Moses wasn’t in New Orleans when the crime occurred and his alibi was corroborated by witnesses. Arnold also claimed the state withheld evidence from Moses’ defense team at trial and based their case on the testimony of a man who allegedly came forward six months after the crime — and only after seeing Moses with his ex-girlfriend.

According to IPNO, a second witness then also came forward and claimed she was 70 percent sure that the voice of the robber she heard when the victims were killed belonged to Moses — information she provided after learning the first witness had connected Moses to the deadly shooting.

“In this case... the sole eyewitness, or a man who claimed to be an eyewitness, both had motivation to lie, and to implicate Mr. Moses over a romantic rivalry, and that this eyewitness actually had pretty severe mental health problems and was committed and underwent a psychiatric evaluation,” Arnold said.

IPNO claimed the man’s account of what he alleged happened was inconsistent and that the witness admitted to others that he wanted to get back at Moses for seeing his former girlfriend.

While a judge has vacated Moses’ guilty verdict, Arnold noted prosecutors have not dropped charges against Moses and his client could still face a new trial, WWL-TV reported.

As he continues to fight to be fully exonerated, Moses said he plans to get to better know his 18 children, 30 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.

“Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you say, ‘Oh well, ain't much I could do about it, but get stronger, because if I give up and feel sorry for myself, I'm gonna disappear,’” Moses told WWL-TV.

He added, “Don't stop fighting, you know? And that's what I did.”