New evidence casts doubt on Black man's attempted rape conviction

Residents in a rural part of Louisiana have wondered for years: Did Vincent Simmons, a Black man, get a fair trial in 1977? 

Simmons was accused of attempted aggravated rape of 14-year-old twin sisters Sharon and Karen Sanders, who are White. Less than two months after he was arrested, Simmons, who was 25 at the time, was sentenced to 100 years in prison after being convicted by a jury of 11 White men and one Black woman. 

The latest attorney to take up Simmons' case, Justin Bonus, has filed a motion for his release, citing evidence that was never presented at trial and what he calls "explosive" new claims from one of the witnesses.

"There's no physical evidence that connects him to that crime. There's no blood. There's no semen, there's no hairs. There's nothing," Bonus told "CBS Mornings" lead national correspondent David Begnaud. 

"Sharon talks about bleeding all over the car. Karen talks about a violent rape. Where's the evidence in the car? Where's the blood in the car? There's nothing that supports a crime happened, and there's definitely not anything that supports a Black man committed the crime," Bonus said. 

The sisters, decades later, stick by their accusations Simmons raped and threatened them.  

"He told us he was going to kill us. And we believed every word of it," Karen Sanders told Begnaud. 

Two weeks after the alleged incident, the sisters reluctantly told the sheriff some details, claiming they were forcibly taken by a Black man to a country road and sexually assaulted for three hours in a car belonging to their 18-year-old cousin Keith Laborde, who they say was locked in the trunk. 

"We called him 'Simmons' all night. There's so many things about that night. He gave us his name," Sharon Sanders said. 

The sisters never told the sheriff the name when they were questioned; other than describing his race, they did not provide details of what the man looked like. 

"They testified before the jury they were brutally raped. They repeatedly asked them if they would be able to identify this person if they saw them, and they said no because all Blacks look alike," Simmons said at a parole hearing. 

The twins confirmed to Begnaud they never gave the sheriff a detailed description of the man.

"No, we did not," said Sharon Sanders. 

"You said all —" Begnaud began. 

"All Blacks look alike," they said together. 

"And you said all N-word look alike," Begnaud said.

"That's right. Sure did," said Sharon Sanders.

About a month ago, current district attorney Charlie Riddle offered to release Simmons — "40 years would probably be the sentence that we would request in a case like this" nowadays, he said — but Simmons would have to register as a sex offender.

Simmons turned down the offer, maintaining his innocence. 

"He's not a sex offender," Bonus said. 

Instead, Riddle is now left to defend a case that, based on new information, raises more questions about whether Simmons is guilty. 

Years after he was sentenced to prison, Simmons obtained the district attorney's evidence file for his case. The file, Simmons claims, contained a revealing medical examination conducted by the coroner, who was a doctor. 

A defense attorney claimed the defense never knew during the original trial the coroner said one of the girls was a virgin and that there was no evidence of sexual assault found on either them. 

The medical examination was never introduced as evidence at Simmons' trial. 

"The fact is, he still attempted (rape) and he wasn't successful, so he still raped me. And he did rape her," Sharon Sanders said. "By now I think if we were lying we would've given up. But I'm not giving up."

In 1994, Simmons took the medical examination report to a parole board and presented another piece of evidence he found in the file — what he said was a lineup photo showing him in handcuffs. 

"This is a joke. It's a joke. It doesn't get any more suggestive than this," Bonus said. 

Neither the lineup nor the photo was mentioned at the trial. 

The sisters and their cousin all picked Simmons out of the lineup, and Sharon Sanders insists that Simmons was not in handcuffs when they picked him. The district attorney said the deputies present at the lineup also backed that account. 

CBS News tried to speak with the former district attorney Eddie Knoll, who won the conviction, about allegations that he withheld evidence that might have exonerated Simmons, but Knoll declined an interview. 

However, in a sworn affidavit, Knoll says the defense had access to the entire file and he is convinced the evidence supported Simmons' conviction. Knoll also says he was told the photo of Simmons in handcuffs was taken after the lineup. 

Laurie White, who represented Simmons on his appeal in an attempt to get him a new trial before she became a Louisiana criminal court judge, said the evidence that was allegedly withheld could have led the jury to doubt the accusations. 

"It was pretty clear to me that the defense did not have information to impeach the witnesses, they did not have the police report, they did not have that photograph of a physical lineup. They did not have what was a rape kit at that time for the coroner to have physically looked at the two alleged victims. Had a jury heard, I don't think they would have convicted, or they would not have convicted, perhaps of that charge," White told Begnaud. 

White's appeal and the one Simmons made to the parole board are among the nearly 16 unsuccessful attempts to get his conviction thrown out. Now, it's Bonus' turn. 

Bonus has told the judge about what he calls "explosive" new evidence from a sworn statement made by Laborde's cousin Dana Brouilette. 

According to Bonus, Brouilette said Laborde admitted that Simmons did not rape the sisters or put Laborde in the trunk of the car. 

"Dana Brouilette goes on to say, 'He told me that he had had consensual sex with one of the girls and locked the other in the trunk while he was on Little California Road,'" Bonus said. 

Brouilette's affidavit says that in 2020, "Karen admitted to me that Keith raped her." 

Sharon Sanders responded: "Oh my God. She is a sick woman. She is a sick woman to even go there. She had no clue. That's sick. I'm sorry. But that is so sick." 

"Say that was the truth and they believe that really happened, why didn't they go report it?" Karen Sanders said, questioning why Brouilette didn't report that allegation to police. 

Laborde turned down CBS News' request for an interview, but he did say Simmons is guilty and he denied having sex with Karen Sanders. 

When asked if she had consensual sex with Laborde, Karen Sanders said, "We were kids. … We experimented. So yes, if that's consensual, that's whatever word you want to put to it." 

Karen Sanders said it happened before she accused Simmons of raping her, when she was 9 or 10 years old but not on the night of the alleged crime.

"That's as newly discovered evidence as it gets man, and it's out of the horse's mouth. It makes her look like she's no longer a victim," Bonus said. "My client's a victim. …  It's evidence that Vincent, at trial, his defense attorneys would have ran to that so fast they would have blamed Keith."

"We were young, we experimented. But that has nothing to do with what Vincent did. That's two separate incidents. That's two separate things," said Karen Sanders.

The sisters insist they are the victims, and blame the legal system for not ensuring that Simmons' unanimous conviction was irrefutable. They know the challenge they're now facing. 

Sharon Sanders said she would be willing to testify at a potential new trial, but her sister said she would not. Sharon Sanders tried to convince her sister to change her mind. 

"If we don't and we back down now, then it gives the world more of an opportunity to say they're lying and that is why they're backing down. They don't wanna fight it," Sharon Sanders said. 

"Sharon, guess what," Karen Sanders said. "There's coming a day when he'll stand before God and he will be miserable. He's already been judged guilty. He will die guilty. And when he goes and he stands before the Lord, he will still be guilty."

The judge who will decide on the motion for Simmons' release has already said the original conviction without all the evidence being given to his defense is a constitutional violation. If the judge orders a new trial, sources say the district attorney will not opt to prosecute Simmons in a new trial — he believes he'll lose.