Prosecution of Rodricus Crawford
| Rodricus Crawford | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1988 (age 28–29) |
| Criminal charge | Murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Parent(s) | Mother: Abbie |
| Killings | |
| Victims | Roderius Lott, his infant son |
| Date | February 16, 2012 7:00 AM |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Louisiana |
| Location(s) | 6800 block of Broadway, Shreveport |
| Imprisoned at | Louisiana State Penitentiary |
The prosecution of Rodricus Crawford attracted national media attention, because of extensive use of the death penalty in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, and comments made by the prosecutor. Rodricus Crawford, a young black man, was tried and sentenced to death in 2013 for killing his one-year-old son. The conviction greatly depends upon a disputed pathology report.
Crawford claims his son had been sleeping next to him, and was unresponsive when Crawford awoke in the morning. When police arrived, they asked about a bruise on the infant's lip. Crawford replied that his son had fallen in the bathroom the day before. Crawford denied that he had accidentally slept on top of his son.
That same day, James Traylor, a police pathologist determined that the bruise on the infant's lip indicated smothering and other bruises indicated child abuse. Traylor also noticed signs of pneumonia in the infant's lungs, but did not consider it serious enough to cause death. Based upon Traylor's conclusions, district attorney Dale Cox charged Crawford with homicide, and asked for the death penalty. The scientific validity of Traylor's conclusions has been questioned before, during, and after the trial. In 2016, the conviction was overturned due to additional pathology reports and allegations of prosecution misconduct.
During his conviction, Crawford was the second youngest man on death row, and was held at Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly called Angola.
At age 23, Crawford had been living with his mother, brother, sister, grandmother, and uncle, in Mooretown, a neighborhood in Shreveport. The mother of his son is Lakendra Lott, a close friend Crawford had known since childhood. Both of them have daughters from other relationships. Lott lived with her family several houses away.
Crawford's defense attorney Daryl Gold hired pathologist Daniel Spitz, who co-authored a pathology text book with his father Werner Spitz. The book is widely used in medical schools. Daniel Spitz determined the infant died from pneumonia. However, Spitz was not well prepared for prosecutor Cox's cross examination, especially when Cox's brought up a mistake Spitz had once made in another case. Since the trial, several other pathologists have questioned the scientific validity of the original conclusion that the infant died from suffocation. The case depends almost entirely on how to interpret complex pathology data.
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