CLYDE CHARLES PASSES

A Houma native who enjoyed just eight years of freedom after serving nearly two decades of his life in Angola for a crime he did not commit, died peacefully in his home last Wednesday.

Clyde Alton Charles, 55, of Shrimper’s Row, just off Grand Caillou, died peacefully on Jan 7, according to his sister, Lois Charles Hill of Thibodaux.

She, together with her bothers – Octave, Wilfred, Arnold, Leo and Marlo, and her sisters, Wilberine Charles Theriot, Rochelle Charles Abrams, and Trudy Charles, worked from March of 1981 to December of 1999, to get their brother freed from having been accused and convicted of a raping a white female, also from Houma.

It was DNA evidence that freed Clyde Charles in the fall of 99.

Hill said that the alleged rape occurred on March 11, 1981 off Grand Caillou Rd involving a 26 year old Houma woman. She alleged she was beaten and raped by a black man.

Clyde Charles, who was 27 at the time, was leaving a bar in Houma where he had been with his brother Marlo. A police officer spotted Clyde and had brought him to the hospital in handcuffs, “where the woman was asked, ‘Is this the man who raped you,” and she replied, while seeing him in handcuffs, yes,” Lois Hill said.

Clyde was tried one year later by an all white jury of 10 women and two men. The only evidence the prosecution had were two strands of Caucasian hair that were found on Clyde’s clothing that were never conclusively proven to belong to the alleged victim, Hill said.

“This testimony was gathered from an identification the woman made, barely, hours after she was allegedly beaten and raped. She is white, her assailant was allegedly black. Being human, and being a white female in South Louisiana, what else was she going to say?” Hill asked.

Nonetheless, Hill said the family pooled their financial resources, to begin helping their brother Clyde in appeals of case, both of which were lost in 1982 and 1987.

In 1990 Hill and her sister Rochelle Abrams, sought DNA attempts to test the evidence in the case. However, Hill said for years their requests were ignored, blocked or denied by the state.

“We then found Barry Scheck – and the Innocence Project, who took the case,” Hill said.

DNA results eliminated Clyde as the rapist of the alleged victim, and he was released on Dec. 17, 1999. However four months later, his brother Marlo was arrested after a profile implicated him in the rape of the woman. However, the Charles family also stands behind their brother Marlo, “until we all really know the truth. But, we’re just financially tapped out,” she said.

“The state and Terrebonne Parish never once apologized publically or privately to Clyde for what they did, nor did they repay him for the injustice done against him,” Hill said.

“Terrebonne Parish gave him $200,000 and then told him to go away,” Hill said.

“This week, it’s about my brother, and all I can say is that a man set free after serving 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, on January 7, became truly free indeed,” Hill said.

“I have no regrets. Two weeks ago while visiting my brother at his home, while talking, Clyde looked at me and said, ‘Lois, I know what you did for me. I know you stood beside me when many people had fell along the way, and that made me feel real good. You can’t buy that kind of love.’ I have my brother’s love, and that is the best gift I have ever received,” Hill said.

The Charles family will hold a memorial service, Sat Jan 17, from 2 to 5pm, at the Blaine Clay Lodge #14 F.M., also known as “Prince Hall”, on 915 Lafayette Street in Houma.

Also, Lois Hill said the her brothers and sisters are planning to set up a checking account at a local bank, to create a foundation in Clyde Charles’ name.

She asks that persons interested in sending flowers to the memorial service, instead send donations to this fund.

Hill invites those interested parties to call her at 446-8100.

(pictured above right - Hill with Charles before they appeared in March of 2000 on CourtTV.)