DOJ Case Summary: U.S. v. Davis

On October 13, 1994, two men murdered 32-year old Kim Groves on orders from New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Officer Len Davis. Davis ordered the murder because Ms. Graves, three days earlier, had witnessed Davis and another officer beat a young man and had subsequently reported the excessive-force incident to the Internal Affairs Division of the NOPD. The men Davis hired to kill Groves were Paul Hardy, a New Orleans drug dealer whom Officer Davis protected in exchange for “favors,” and Damon Causey, a friend of Hardy’s. At the time Davis ordered the hit, he was unaware that he was already the target of an undercover investigation, and that his cellular telephone conversations were being recorded. Those recordings revealed that when Davis called Hardy to order the hit, he referred to Groves as “that whore” and told Hardy to “get her.” Hardy then located Ms. Groves and shot her in the head, killing her.

In August 1995, Davis, Hardy, and Causey were charged with violations of the federal civil rights conspiracy statute (18 U.S.C. 241); the law prohibiting the excessive use of force (18 U.S.C. 242); and a federal obstruction of justice statute (18 U.S.C. 1512(a)(1)(C)). The indictment alleged that these violations resulted in the death of Ms. Groves.

In April 1996, a federal jury convicted Davis and Hardy on all charges, and Causey on all but the obstruction count, on which they could not reach a verdict. Davis and Hardy were sentenced to death. The Department of Justice had not sought the death penalty for Causey, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

On appeal, The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Davis’s and Hardy’s convictions on the civil rights violations, but overturned their obstruction convictions, and remanded the case for new sentencing hearings on the death penalty. In October 2005, Davis represented himself at the resentencing hearing and argued that he was innocent, but the new jury again imposed the death penalty.