Back To Life

Freed from Death Row, Shareef Cousin Has Reason to Be an Optimist

originally published February 7, 2007

Shareef Cousin

In 1996, at the age of 16, Shareef Cousin was convicted and sentenced to death for a murder in New Orleans. In 1998, the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned his conviction because of evidence improperly withheld during his original trial. The district attorney decided not to pursue Cousin’s case further, and the charges in his death penalty conviction were dropped. He maintained always that at the time of the murder he was playing in a videotaped city recreation department basketball game. He remained in prison until 2005 serving out a sentence for an armed robbery conviction that resulted from a plea in the 1996 murder case.

Cousin now lives in Atlanta, where he attends Morehouse College and works with the organization Fairness for Prisoners’ Families, a project of the Southern Center for Human Rights that seeks in part to form a support network recognizing the difficulties faced by the families of the incarcerated. Cousin plans to attend law school and to one day represent capital defendants. He will be speaking about his experiences with the capital punishment system in the UGA Chapel this week.

Flagpole

So, you grew up in New Orleans…

Shareef Cousin

I grew up in New Orleans, in the Ninth Ward, which is, you know, kind of famous because of Katrina.

Flagpole

Speaking of Katrina…

Shareef Cousin

Actually I was in prison right outside of Slidell when Katrina hit, which, we were affected by some of the wind from Katrina…. We had to evacuate to Angola.

Flagpole

What was it like being in jail during the hurricane?

Shareef Cousin

It was terrible: one of the main parts was you didn’t know what happened to your family. And then the prison cut off all the telephones, so you couldn’t really call out. So you were in limbo, not knowing what happened to your family. That was the most dreadful part of being incarcerated.

Flagpole

And how about your family? How did they make out during the hurricane?

Shareef Cousin

Well, they were in New Orleans, and one of my sisters, she was at the convention center. So she experienced everything at the convention center, but now they’re…  no one got hurt, everybody’s fine, but, you know: still affected.

Flagpole

And are they living back there, or where is your family now?

Shareef Cousin

Well, some went to Boston, and some went to Texas, and some went to Alabama.

Flagpole

Now that you’re working with Fairness for Families in Atlanta, that’s one question I had about while you were incarcerated: what was that like for your family?

Shareef Cousin

For one, I couldn’t talk to my family often because I come from a poor family; we couldn’t - my family couldn’t - afford the high telephone calls. They couldn’t afford those collect calls. And just, you know, I went to jail when I was 16, so it’s like they have this whole stereotype of going into prison young. So it didn’t matter what I told my family, that I was okay; they still had their own thoughts.

And, not being able to visit my family because I was four or five hours away, so there was no transportation. And it was like, the little money my mom did have, she had to keep at home to pay for the attorney. So she moved to Boston before the hurricane, and she was broke!

I think one positive effect it had on my family was that before my whole ordeal, they were never aware of legislative policies, or voting, they weren’t into those types of things. Even community work. And with my incarceration, they got more involved in community service; they got more involved in, you know, not just voting for people because it’s a name they might see on the television, but really got involved in the issues and the platforms that people were running on. So I think that was one of the positive aspects that my whole incarceration had on my family. Probably the only one.

Flagpole

And what’s the rest of your family doing now?

Shareef Cousin

Well, my mom, she wasn’t a high school graduate before my incarceration, but once I went to death row, that kind of inspired her to go back to school. So she went on and got her GED and went on to college, and graduated and got her Masters, and she’s a social worker for juveniles in the system.

And my oldest sister, who lives in Cambridge [MA], she had graduated from college already and was an electrical engineer, but once I went to death row, that kind of inspired her to go back and she’s at Harvard right now, in Harvard’s PhD Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government. So that inspired her to not just want to work in corporate America, but to want to make some type of change.

Flagpole

So, 11 years in jail, and you were released when?

Shareef Cousin

December of 2005.

Flagpole

So it’s been just over a year. What is it like?

Shareef Cousin

For one, it’s hard out here! [laughs] It’s hard out here, man. I can tell you, if I didn’t have the attorneys in the death penalty community - because that’s a small, knit community, those attorneys that do death penalty work - if it weren’t for that small community, then, you know: I went to jail when I was 16. I didn’t have any job skills, so I came home with no job skills…. It’s like, life can really be much harder than what it is for me, but one of the adjustments is having to pay bills!…

That was the biggest adjustment, because I didn’t have the opportunity to just go through the transition from teenager to young adulthood to adulthood. I went to jail when I was 16, and I came home when I was 27 years old…. I’ve got to work full-time to pay bills, and I want to go to school full-time because it’s something I want to do. And just working full-time and going to school full-time, just trying to balance those two is a hard task. After 11 years, you might want to come home and just relax for a minute, just to get used to being free. I really didn’t have that opportunity.

Flagpole

I don’t know if you saw that article in the Atlanta paper last month about Pete Williams, who was just released from prison. One of the funny things in that article - not to make light of it - was that a reporter asked Williams what things were strange about being out of jail, and he said he can’t believe everybody’s walking around with cell phones. It was kind of like a time warp, and the change in technology was remarkable. Did you have any experiences like that?

Shareef Cousin

No, because one thing that I did do when I was in prison: it’s not like I just came home one day and said, “I’m going to college.” That was something that I had instilled in myself even when I was on death row. Because while on death row, I basically educated myself, and I had taken my GED through correspondence while on death row… and then started taking courses through LSU on death row. And once I left death row, the prison had this basic keyboarding class where they had a professor come in and [he] taught you computer basics, how to type, things of that nature. And I was one of those inquisitive-type persons, and I started buying my own computer books, and so the teacher started teaching me from the computer books that I had bought on my own, and convinced the warden to allow me to go to the college to take my A+ certification. So that’s one thing I did accomplish while I was in prison: I obtained my A+ certification. So technology…  that wasn’t a big surprise to me, put it that way.

Flagpole

Did you do any other reading on your own while you were in prison?

Shareef Cousin

Oh, all I did was read! [laughs]

Flagpole

What kind of stuff?

Shareef Cousin

Now, honestly, what I enjoyed reading the most was espionage books. My favorite author is Robert Ludlum.

Flagpole

He wrote The Bourne Identity, right?

Shareef Cousin

Yeah, he wrote The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum…. I read - this guy wrote 25 or 30 books - I must have read about 20 of them! Besides espionage, I like to read a lot of history books.

Flagpole

Any in particular?

Shareef Cousin

Honestly, I think the best book that I ever read during my incarceration - and I still haven’t met the guy - but I read the book Walking With the Wind, by John Lewis. And that was one of the best books I read throughout my whole 11 years in prison. It was actually a book that I kept: the only thing I walked out of prison with was that book.

Flagpole

Well, I hope you do get the chance to meet John Lewis; you ought to have that opportunity. If I can go back to your initial trial here, what were your lawyers like in New Orleans after you got arrested?

Shareef Cousin

Yeah, you know, contrary to what people might think, I didn’t have public defenders. Actually, my family scraped up close to $60,000 to pay for some attorneys. And the defense I got for $60,000 - I think I could have gotten a better defense if I’d had public defenders.

Flagpole

Was there a reason you didn’t have a public defender?

Shareef Cousin

I guess because of the stereotype you hear about public defenders, like “If you get a public defender you’re doomed, you’re through….”

[My lawyers] really didn’t do anything in the case. I guess it’s just one of those situations where, if you have a videotape of your client playing basketball, you think it should be an open-and-shut case. But they didn’t talk to a lot of the players; they just didn’t do anything, to be honest with you.

Flagpole

There was some pretty incredible stuff in the Time Magazine article that was written while you were still on death row, about some of the evidence that was and was not presented, some of the witnesses from the basketball team. And I guess you’re sitting there watching that happen - where the witnesses aren’t even there because somebody from the DA’s office took them across the street, supposedly for their comfort, and they’re showing the video from the basketball game - but the truth about what time you were there, and what time you were out of there, and when the murder happened…

Shareef Cousin

Yeah… that was just some of the things that had come out before my appeal, but after my appeal, there were thousands of documents that the police department had: evidence that actually linked to the real killer. Like, something they didn’t tell us was on the scene of the crime, they had a guy who was a birdwatcher. And at that time of night, he had his binoculars, he was watching the birds. And in the French Quarter, you know, they have these houses that sit up two, three stories high, and these balconies. And right below his balcony he saw three guys run and jump in a car and drive off, and got the license plate number of the car and called the police….

And then like two days later - they have Crimestoppers - well, somebody called Crimestoppers and gave a tip, and gave three guys’ names. So the detective on the case had the license plate number and the Crimestoppers tip. So the first thing he tries to do is find the car with the license plate number. When he finds the car, the car leads to one of the guys that someone called Crimestoppers on. So, I’m no detective, but I’m sure that they definitely have a lead. And they didn’t tell us about that; so many things they didn’t tell us about.

So, it was a mixture of incompetent lawyers, and a mixture of prosecutorial misconduct, and a mixture of, just, police frame-ups.

Flagpole

And you got fingered by a guy you knew who was in trouble for some robberies, right?

Shareef Cousin

Well, see, that’s not really how it went. See, this guy had a record for some armed robberies. And the DA came to him and said, “Look, we’ll make a deal with you. If you say Shareef did this murder, then we’ll give you a break on your armed robberies.” So the DA really went at him with the information, and wanted him to just agree with it in turn for giving him a deal on his armed robberies….

So [the detective] figured this guy comes from the projects - poor - nobody’ll miss this guy, so just put the murder on him. Why he did it, I couldn’t tell you that.

Flagpole

So what’s it like to watch all that happen?

Shareef Cousin

I guess, you know, I was young and it was just…  to me, it didn’t seem real. It seemed like a movie. Seemed like a movie. I had never been on trial before, and I was just kind of young and ignorant to the whole process.

Flagpole

And so what was it like when finally you got an appeal and it went to the state Supreme Court, and you were exonerated?

Shareef Cousin

I think that was when I felt like I was alive again. Because just being in the cell on death row, I felt like I was just existing. And when my lawyer got in touch with me and told me I was getting a new trial, I felt like now I had something to live for again.

Flagpole

Do you ever think about why it all happened? Do you try to find blame, or try to look for the causes of it all, or anything like that?

Shareef Cousin

You know, that’s something I’ve never done, because it’s like, I believe everything happens for a reason, and so I just try to focus on just my own sanity. Instead of placing blame on this person or that person, I’m a very spiritual person, so I just think God does things for a reason, and He places people in situations for a reason. And I know that even though I was innocent, there had been many more people that were innocent long before I was, and, you know: many more people that are innocent and they’re still going through the system. And then when you look on TV and you see guys that have been exonerated, guys that are coming out of prison in their late 40s, early 50s…  I came out, I was 27 years old, still a young man. I still have the opportunity to do some of the things that an 18-year-old can do. But just having that experience to take with me is immeasurable, you know?

So I just try not to look at it like, “Why did I have to go through that?” I don’t question it.

Flagpole

And I guess it’s given you some guidance now?

Shareef Cousin

Yeah, much. You know: more focus. I know what I want to do in life.

ben@flagpole.com

Shareef Cousin will speak at the UGA Chapel on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more info, see Out There!.