#294 Guest Host Patrick Pursley with Jarvis Ballard

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On January 10, 1998, a 60-year-old woman was robbed and sexually assaulted in her home in Violet, LA. Upon his arrest, Ulysses Pierre implicated his cousin, Jarvis Ballard, in the crime. After severe abuse from detectives, Ballard produced a confession and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for aggravated rape.

Patrick was wrongfully convicted for a 1993 murder in Rockford, IL, for which he spent nearly 24 years in prison. Remarkably, he ended up writing the law that set him free. Patrick and Jarvis met for the first time in person at the 2022 Innocence Network Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Their shared experience of mistreatment by the criminal justice system gave them a lot to talk about.

To learn more and get involved, visit:

https://ip-no.org/what-we-do/free-innocent-prisoners/client-profiles/jarvis-ballard/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jarvis-ballard-freedom-fund

This episode is part of a special series in our Wrongful Conviction podcast feed of 15 episodes focused on individual cases of wrongful incarceration, guest hosted by formerly incarcerated returning citizens and leading criminal justice advocates, award-winning journalists and progressive influencers.

Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jason Flom, host of wrongful conviction, and so far we've brought you hundreds of stories of
0:04.6	people stolen from their lives and families for crimes they did not commit. The sheer number of
0:10.2	cases we've covered speaks to the scale of the problem, but we've yet to even scratch the surface.
0:15.7	To amplify this message even louder, I've invited new voices to host the show
0:20.0	to create interviews of the system affected by the system affected. This is one of those interviews.
0:26.1	On January 10th, 1998, a 60-year-old woman in the small town of Violet, Louisiana heard a knock at the door.
0:36.6	It was two o'clock in the morning. That night she had been babysitting her 3 and a half-year-old grandson,
0:41.9	and she opened the door thinking it was her son to pick up the job. Instead, two men forced
0:47.4	their way into her home and demanded to be taken to her safe. When she insisted she didn't have one,
0:53.2	they raped her and stole her sterile equipment and a television. The next door neighbor saw
1:00.4	the two men walking out the house with the stolen goods. Then they saw them getting to a car with
1:05.6	a woman at the wheel. One of those neighbors was 24-year-old Louis Caesar and he recognized one of the
1:12.3	men as Ulysses Pierre, who also went by the name of Little Noon. Louis' mother, Yelanda called 911
1:19.2	to report the crime. Later that day, police arrested Yelisys and brought a man for questioning.
1:25.6	At first he claimed he acted alone, but police physically abused him until he admitted that two
1:31.6	others were involved. Yelisys said that city Williamsons, younger cousin Jarvis Ballard, were with him.
1:38.0	He also told the police where they hid the stolen items. Jarvis was arrested later that same day.
1:43.7	During their interrogation, he denied taking any part in the crime, but after the police threatened
1:49.5	and beat him, Jarvis eventually signed a false confession statement. Three men were arrested,
1:56.9	even though the victim and the witnesses said only two had been involved. On July 21st, 1999,
2:04.5	Yelisys Pierre, Sydney Williams and Jarvis Ballard were sentenced to life in prison.
2:09.9	But this is wrongful conviction.
	...

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