Shareef Cousin [SEP] convicted of
Shareef Cousin
Shareef Cousin (born 1979) is an African-American man from New Orleans who was wrongfully convicted of the first-degree murder of Michael Gerardi in 1996 and sentenced to death as a juvenile in Louisiana. At age 17, he became the youngest condemned convict to be put on death row in Louisiana, and one of the youngest in the United States.
Cousin was convicted almost solely on the basis of one eyewitness identification provided by a woman who was the date of the victim, who said he
the Innocence Project, a national organization that represents incarcerated criminals claiming innocence, 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish during Connick's 30-year tenure as DA have made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and 19 have had their sentences overturned or reduced as a result."
In the case of Shareef Cousin, Connick's attorneys withheld a key witness statement from the defense, arguing that the prosecution was under no legal obligation to disclose such information. As a result, Cousin was put on death row at the age of 16, but the