Len Davis (born August 6, 1964)[1] is a former New Orleans police officer.[2][3] He was convicted of depriving civil rights through murder by conspiring with an assassin to kill a local resident.[4]
Police career
Davis was known in the community as "RoboCop" because of his large size and as the "Desire Terrorist" due to his aggressive policing style.[5] He had been suspended six times and received 20 complaints between 1987 and 1992, while subsequently receiving the department's Medal of Merit in 1993.[6]
In 1994, an FBIsting caught Davis enforcing a protection racket upon the city's cocaine dealers.[7][8] Davis had extorted protection money from a drug dealer who was an FBI informant.[9] Nine other police officers, including two who would later testify against Davis, were later indicted for being part of a criminal conspiracy with Davis.[10][11] Twenty additional New Orleans police officers were also implicated in the scheme, but the investigation had to be aborted due to the murder of Kim Groves.[10] Davis would later be convicted of additional drug-related charges, while the other officers pleaded guilty.[8]
Murder of Kim Groves
In 1994, Davis beat a young man in New Orleans, mistaking him for a suspect in a police officer's shooting.[12] Kim Groves, a 32-year-old local resident and mother of three young children, witnessed the assault and filed a complaint with the New Orleans Police Department.[13] Davis was tipped off about the complaint by another officer and then conspired with a local drug dealer, Paul Hardy, to kill Groves.[14] Hardy shot and killed her on October 14, 1994, less than one day after she filed the complaint. A third man, Damon Causey, hid the murder weapon, a 9 mm pistol.[15]
Trial and conviction
Davis was convicted in 1996 on two federal civil rights charges for directing Hardy to murder Groves and for witness tampering. Davis was initially sentenced to death on April 26, 1996. The Fifth Circuit, however, reversed his death sentence when his conviction for witness tampering was thrown out. A subsequent jury also chose the death penalty for Davis, and he was formally sentenced to death again on October 27, 2005.[16][17][18] Davis is currently imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.[19] In 2025, President Biden offered clemency to Davis and commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hardy was convicted of conspiracy to violate Groves' civil rights and of witness tampering.[20] The witness tampering conviction would be later overturned.[19] He was initially sentenced to death, but in 2011, his sentence was commuted to life when he was found by a judge to be intellectually disabled.[21]
Causey was convicted of federal conspiracy charges and violating Groves' civil rights.[22] He was sentenced to life imprisonment after rejecting a plea bargain that would have given him six to nine years in prison.[15] His conviction was upheld on appeal.[23]
Aftermath and later developments
In 2018, the city of New Orleans settled a lawsuit with Groves' three children in the sum of $1.5 million.[13]
In October 2022, three men wrongfully convicted of murder, based on false testimony from Davis, were released after 28 years of incarceration.[24] Davis has been linked to that murder as well.[25] In December 2022, another man who was also convicted based on false testimony from Davis was released from prison after more than 30 years.[26][27]
On December 23, 2024, Davis's federal death sentence was commuted after outgoing President Joe Biden issued a sentence commutation to 37 out of the 40 inmates on the federal death row, so Davis would instead serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.[28] A week later, Davis filed a motion to block the commutation, because courts examine death penalty cases more closely for errors during appeals.[29]
^"Law & Disorder - Timeline: NOPD's Long History of Scandal". FRONTLINE. 2011-09-15. Retrieved 2018-10-18. He was RoboCop to some people, historian Leonard Moore tells FRONTLINE. But then he was, I would say, Officer Friendly to other people
^"IN THE BIG EASY, SCANDAL IN BLUE". Washington Post. January 3, 1995. Retrieved October 18, 2018. This is a city where 40 police officers have been arrested in the last three years on charges ranging from bank robbery to rape, from bribery to auto theft
^Whitcomb, Dan (2022-10-20). "Three Louisiana men freed after 28 years in prison for wrongful murder convictions". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-12-26. That agreement also cites the presence at the crime scene of two New Orleans police officers who were later found to have helped cover up murders for drug dealers and to have manipulated evidence in the case.
^Forges, Darryl (2022-10-26). "New Orleans wrongfully convicted men crime Len Davis now free". WDSU. Retrieved 2022-12-26. This comes as all three were found to be wrongly convicted of a murder after new evidence linked the murder to former NOPD officer Len Davis.
^"USA TODAY". USA TODAY. 2022-12-22. Retrieved 2022-12-26. Correspondence and court papers allege Singleton's arrest was based on false statements from a disgraced former New Orleans cop who is now on federal death row for murder and civil rights violations.
