OK, this is it. Many of you have asked me over the years what you could do to help Crosley Green’s quest for freedom.
In a few days, you’ll have your chance: just show up.
On Thursday evening, July 30, faith leaders from throughout Brevard, as well as the local NAACP and Crosley’s attorneys, will host a prayer vigil in Titusville to stand together in support of the imprisoned man and pray for his freedom.
The vigil starts at 5 p.m. at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, 801 Dummitt Ave, Titusville, FL.
Show up. Be seen. Be counted.
“We want to show the community’s support for Crosley’s release,” said Crosley’s lead attorney Keith Harrison of the Washington D.C.-based firm of Crowell & Moring which has worked on the case pro bono for more than 15 years. “For decades, there has been an outpouring from Crosley’s supporters asking what they can do. And what we will be doing on July 30 is supporting Crosley through prayer for his freedom. We hope this event will be a reflection of the faith that Crosley has had during the entire time of his incarceration that ultimately justice will be done and he will be free.”
Yours truly will be speaking at the event along with others, including 48 Hours journalist and television personality Erin Moriarty, who like myself, has championed efforts to free Green for more than a decade.
“Anyone following Crosley Green’s ‘odyssey’ to get back home can’t help but be moved and inspired by his faith and resilience,” Moriarty told me on July 21. “And so I’m back for what could be the final chapter, a parole hearing either bringing him closer to freedom or ending it altogether.”
Erin and I also added our names to a letter in support of parole for Green that has already garnered signatures from some very influential people including lawyer and best-selling novelist John Grisham, lawyer and co-founder of the Innocence Project Barry Scheck, exoneree Amanda Knox, Sister Helen Theresa Prejean (author of Dead Man Walking) and numerous others.
Despite a federal court throwing out Green’s conviction in 2018, ruling that prosecutors withheld crucial information from his defense team at the time, and despite more than 100 prominent law professors, former state-court judges, current and former prosecutors, and others filing amicus briefs in support of Green, his best shot at freedom now has nothing to do with guilt or innocence.
It has everything to do with the state’s Commission on Offender Review correcting its own error.
Mistake
The commission erroneously added 40 years to Green’s parole date, virtually ensuring the man who many ― including myself ― believe to be innocent, will die in prison.
The error can be traced back to 2015. That’s when the Commission on Offender Review made a mistake while routinely calculating Green’s parole eligibility date. The commission erroneously took into account both Green’s felony murder conviction as well as the kidnapping conviction, which added 45 years to his parole eligibility date. By their own rules, the commission was only allowed to factor in the murder conviction.
Without this mistake, Green would have been eligible for parole about 12 years ago. As it stands now, his eligibility date is now set for 2054. Green would be 97 years old by then. Making this more frustrating is the fact that the chairwoman of the commission agreed that a mistake was made and voted to correct it during a hearing in 2023. But the other two board members voted to take “no action.”
So, the state made a mistake, admitted the mistake then voted to do nothing to fix their mistake.
Green’s attorneys have appealed that ruling and hope that things will be corrected on Aug. 12.
“The residents of Brevard County have faith in Crosley and faith that the parole commission is going to do the right thing and grant him parole,” Harrison said. “Now, as we look ahead to the parole commission hearing, Crosley’s family and friends, along with community and faith leaders, are coming together to pray and stand in faith for his freedom. It’s going to be a gathering filled with hope, and we are excited to hear that so many residents of Brevard County are planning to join us to show their support. Everyone is invited.”
Rejected a plea deal
Green has served more than 35 years in Florida prisons for the 1989 murder and kidnapping of 21-year-old Charles “Chip” Flynn.
Green, who rejected a plea deal offer of seven years, has always maintained his innocence. He was convicted by an all-white jury. The defense was unaware that the first two officers to respond to the scene told a prosecutor that they believed Flynn’s ex-girlfriend was responsible.
In 2018, a federal judge ruled that Green had been wrongfully convicted and said it was “difficult to conceive of information more material to the defense… than the fact that the initial responding officers evaluated the totality of evidence as suggesting that the investigation should be directed toward someone other than” Green.
But that decision was overturned on appeal. The 11th Circuit sided with the state and ruled that it didn’t matter that prosecutors never turned over the information. The court said even if the defense had known before the trial that a deputy and a sergeant who responded to the crime thought someone other than Green was responsible, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.
I’m not sure how they can make that assumption, but they did.
The Case
There was no physical evidence tying Green to the crime. Instead, the case was built on the word of Flynn’s ex-girlfriend Kim Hallock, who said a Black man carjacked the couple from Holder Park and drove them to an orange field where she claimed a shootout ensued.
Hallock claimed she left a wounded Flynn in the orange grove and drove to get “help.” But, in doing so, she passed payphones, a hospital and her own home where she lived with her parents and instead drove to the home of Flynn’s friend who talked her into calling 911.
She did not give clear directions to the officers sent to the scene and more than an hour passed between the shooting and first responders reaching Flynn. When Brevard County Sheriff’s deputy Mark Rixey and Sgt. Diane Clark arrived, Flynn ―who never mentioned a carjacking nor an assailant and never asked if Hallock made it to safety ― simply told officers he wanted to go home. Similarly, Hallock never asked about Flynn’s condition. He died a little while later.
Rixey and Clark shared their beliefs that Hallock was responsible with prosecutor Chris White, who took notes from their meeting. White never shared those notes with Green’s defense attorney. Shortly after the trial, four state witnesses recanted their testimony, saying they were coerced or threatened into testifying by White. All four were facing legal problems of their own at the time.
In a statement issued in June, the State Attorney’s Office in Brevard said it has no plans to revisit this case.
Other problems with the conviction included:
Vigil for Crosley Green
Green’s prison record is so exemplary that a warden and two correctional officers wrote affidavits on his behalf.
When Green was on conditional release from 2021 to 2023, after his conviction was overturned, he was fully employed, attended church regularly, and lived successfully in the community with the support of family and church members. When the ruling was later overturned, Green returned to prison peacefully, where he remains today.
Incredibly, Green still believes in the system and believes he will one day walk free.
You’ve asked me what you can do for Crosley Green. Here’s your chance. Come out on July 30 and join me in praying for him, praying for justice and standing together in solidarity. Most of all come out and let Green know he is not alone, that he is not forgotten.
The Crosley Green Prayer Vigil takes place at 5 p.m., Thursday, July 30 at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, 801 Dummitt Ave, Titusville, FL
Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @johnalbertorres
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: You’ve asked how to help Crosley Green. Now is the moment
Reporting by John A. Torres, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By John A. Torres, Florida Today | USA TODAY Network
