THE SINCLAIR CASE
Introduction
I know about crime, politics and redemption.
I am in my 60th year of penal and community supervision because of a December 5, 1965 shooting death of a convenience store clerk in Baton Rouge.
I am a published author and an award-winning prison journalist. Two articles I wrote for the prison publication, The Angolite, garnered me the 1980 George Polk Award, the 1980 ABA Silver Gavel Award, and the 1982 Sidney Hillman Award. I co-authored, with my wife Jodie, my memoir, Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story (Arcade Publishing 2000) and co-authored with Jodie a book, Capital Punishment: An Indictment by a Death Row Survivor (Arcade Publishing 2009).
The application of the death penalty, far more often than not, is determined by either the race of the offender or the race/social status of the victim.
Louisiana law in 1965 provided a jury with five verdict options when deciding a capital murder case: guilty as charged (mandatory death sentence); life imprisonment (release expectation after 10 years, six months); manslaughter (up to a maximum of 21 years imprisonment); negligent homicide (up to a maximum of 10 years in prison); or not guilty.
A district attorney in 1965 had unfettered prosecutorial discretion in what kind of indictment they would seek from a grand jury for an offense involved in the taking of a human life: murder w/death, murder w/life, manslaughter w/21, or negligent homicide w/10.
These prosecutorial decisions were determined almost exclusively by two overriding factors: the race of the offender and/or the race and social status of the victim.
The decision by the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office to prosecute my crime as a death penalty offense was based exclusively on the social status of the victim.
It became known as “the Sinclair case”—a notorious and infamous case that led to a death sentence, a reduced life sentence, and a commuted 90-year sentence that spanned a 40-year incarceration in the Louisiana prison system before I was released on parole in April 2006.
“The Sinclair Case” is a dark journey through victim demands for absolute revenge and a corrupt political system that accommodated those demands. The journey is not a pretty one. The path of truth is not always pleasant to travel. But the truth is what it is, regardless of who it may offend, hurt, or anger. Some will curse this journey. That is not my concern at this stage in my life. My concern is tell exactly what happened in “the Sinclair case” that produced a death sentence.