August 10, 2026 Edit

Elvis Brooks, a 69-year-old New Orleans man who spent decades in prison after a wrongful manslaughter conviction, has been denied compensation from the state of Louisiana. Brooks was relying on a Louisiana program that allows the state to compensate people who have been wrongfully convicted. Although Brooks was eligible to get up to $480,000 under the program, he hasn’t received compensation, ProPublica reported.

Why hasn’t Elvis Brooks received compensation after being wrongfully convicted?

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is fighting back against Brooks’ claim, saying the New Orleans man is still guilty and he cannot receive any money. According to ProPublica, Murrill is still pushing the court to reinstate a manslaughter charge against Brooks.

“She knows people are innocent but she doesn’t care,” Brooks said about Murrill, per ProPublica. “She wouldn’t want nobody to do this to one of her loved ones.”

In the past two years, Murrill has blocked 23 claims from people who have been seeking compensation for wrongful convictions.

“I can’t think of an attorney general who has been quite as aggressive in trying to prevent people from getting compensation,” Jeffrey Gutman, a professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School, told ProPublica.

Some of the men who have been denied compensation were exonerated through DNA or blood evidence. In some cases, the court found that police fabricated the evidence.

Source: Elvis Brooks Was Wrongfully Convicted Of Manslaughter. Louisiana Is Fighting His $480K Claim