Abby Connolly
When she was just 16-years-old, LaQuanda “Faye” Jacobs was arrested and convicted for a crime she did not commit. She ended up spending half of her adult life in prison. Now free, she is trying to get her life back on track.
On February 9th, 1992, police in Little Rock, Arkansas, were investigating a case involving an aggravated robbery and shooting that had occurred in the afternoon.
Witnesses of the crime had described the shooter as a “woman in her thirties with scars under her eyes, wearing black pants and a black coat.”
The police ended up questioning and arresting 16-year-old Faye Jacobs one hour later while she was still wearing the white dress she had worn to church that same morning.
According to the Midwest Innocence Project, a foundation dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted and who represent Faye, there were an additional 5 witnesses who stated that Faye was not the shooter.
However, the jury never heard their testimonies because her defense attorneys never took the time to investigate the crime and speak to these eyewitnesses.
“Instead, Faye was convicted based on the testimony of the State’s two witnesses,” writes the Midwest Innocence Project.
One was a man who was incentivized and picked up on his own charges weeks later. The other was a “traumatized teenager” who couldn’t even recognize Faye after being shown a photograph of her twice.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Faye
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