Bobby Sneed is finally a free man after spending roughly 50 years in prison and then proceeding to fight for his release after initially being granted parole.
Sneed, a former prisoner of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, was released after the parole board agreed to a settlement in federal court.
He agreed to drop his state and federal lawsuits against the board under the terms of the settlement.
Additionally, Sneed, 75, must also complete a 28-day drug treatment program with the board agreeing to halt a parole revocation proceeding, for alleged drug use while in prison.
The settlement states, “Based on Mr. Sneed’s representation that he has requested drug treatment programming, his acknowledgement that he has a drug problem and his ongoing willingness to receive drug programming, the Louisiana Committee on Parole accepts this acknowledgement, agrees to Mr. Sneed completing the substance abuse rehabilitation program as a condition of parole, and agrees that no further revocation proceedings or adverse parole action would be instituted against him due to any personal drug use or other non-criminal purported parole violation occurring prior to the date of this agreement.”
According to the Louisiana Weekly, Sneed was released in December following a state Supreme Court ruling and then rearrested and sent to West Feliciana Parish jail on a warrant tied to Sneed allegedly using drugs while he was at Angola.
Sneed was originally scheduled to be released in March of 2021.
“Tragically, the week he was set to be released, he was found unresponsive in a prison dorm,” a GoFundMe account which was started to help Sneed get situated stated. “Miraculously, after multiple attempts to revive him, he survived. It was assumed, but never proven, that he had overdosed on drugs.”
Thomas Frampton, an associate professor of law at the University of Virginia, represented Sneed while he sought his release and said the possibility that his civil rights were violated would be examined.
“There is the possibility of forthcoming civil rights lawsuits,” Frampton told the Louisiana Record. “Ultimately, that is Mr. Sneed’s decision.”
Frampton added that there were no real winners in the state’s efforts to keep Sneed in prison after he was initially granted parole.
“In a sense we won, but in reality, everybody lost,” he said. "The state of Louisiana paid for over a dozen lawyers at one point, to fight (to keep) Mr. Sneed incarcerated in state court and in federal court. All of that was for naught. All of that was pointless and all of that was a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
Frampton added that Sneed is on parole and will be on parole for the rest of his life.
Sneed, a Vietnam veteran with no prior criminal history, was serving a prison sentence for his role as lookout in which a man was killed, according to the Louisiana Weekly.
Sneed was two blocks away from where the actual crime occurred but was charged with being “principal to second degree murder” and sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in 1975 in Bienville Parish, according to the Louisiana Weekly.
“After 47 years in prison (including the last 284 days in which he was just plain-old kidnapped) BOBBY SNEED IS HOME!” Frampton tweeted on Jan. 11.