27 October 2025
By Robert Stewart
Contributing Writer
(Veritenews.org) — When the Louisiana state appeals court overturned Keith Ezidore’s murder conviction in July, the family and lawyers of the 73-year-old man knew there were still many potential roadblocks between Ezidore and release from prison.
For one, they knew that the state Attorney General’s Office could appeal the decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which it has since done.
They also knew that even if Ezidore got a bond hearing while the case was still pending, the bail could be set so high that it would make it practically impossible to get Ezidore out.
Despite that, they still had some hope. But the bail hearing that was scheduled to take place Oct. 14 was denied.
“I felt so slighted,” said Lashona Duhe, Ezidore’s daughter.
Early this month, Judge Steven Tureau of the 23rd Judicial Court of Louisiana in St. James Parish, the parish where Ezidore was convicted of murder in 1993, sided with the state, and denied Ezidore’s bail hearing on Oct. 2.
“My daddy is old already. He’s done missed so much time already,” Duhe said. “What are y’all going to do? Delay and delay and put things off until he dies?”
According to court documents, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office argued that because the office was still trying to get the Louisiana Supreme Court to review the decision of the lower court, and because the conviction that was overturned was second-degree murder, the court should approach the case with an abundance of caution, and a bail hearing should be denied.
Lawyers with Innocence & Justice Louisiana had requested a bail hearing for Ezidore on Aug. 21. They argued that with no conviction, Ezidore is constitutionally entitled to bail, that other district courts have set bail for people in similar circumstances and that Ezidore, who is elderly, handicapped and has a network of external support, does not pose a threat to public safety nor a flight risk.
In a statement, Ezidore’s lawyers with Innocence & Justice Louisiana, formerly Innocence Project New Orleans, said that after 34 years of imprisonment for a crime the group maintains he didn’t commit, Ezidore should be set free.
“The recent cancellation of Mr. Ezidore’s bail hearing is one more unjust act in the decades of injustice that he has endured,” said Richard Davis, one of Ezidore’s lawyers, in an email to Verite News. “Mr. Ezidore needs to be freed urgently, and we will keep fighting for that.”
Ezidore had been sentenced to life in prison in 1993 for the stabbing death of businessman Ralph Flowers in St. James Parish. He has maintained his innocence ever since. In July, the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal overturned his conviction, agreeing with his attorneys that prosecutors illegally failed to disclose the full juvenile record of a key witness against him – Tory Burnett, an alleged accomplice in the robbery that led to Flowers’ killing, who was given immunity for his testimony.
After Ezidore’s bail hearing was denied, his lawyers requested that the Fifth Circuit review the bail hearing denial, arguing that Ezidore has a constitutional right to a bail hearing. The state has until Nov. 3 to respond to the lawyers’ request.
As the ping-pong of litigation plays out, Ezidore still remains in prison.
Frustrated and upset with what she described as a state that is exhausting all possibilities to keep her dad behind bars, Duhe said she’s turning to prayer to cope with worry, but that’s no easy feat.
“I pray for God to touch the judge and the whole judicial system in St. James Parish to touch their hearts to make them do the right thing, like give them some kind of eye opener,” Duhe said. “And I pray for my dad … for him to be strong and not give up.”
This article originally published in the October 27, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.