Len Davis Trial: 1996

Although Davis declined to testify on his own behalf, chief defense counsel Dwight Doskey fought hard for his client. So far as he was concerned, it was all a question of mistaken identity. Doskey threw out some heavy hints that Groves had actually been shot by longtime partner, Sylvester "Jimmy" Jones, with whom she shared a violent four-year relationship. Doskey even managed to produce a string of witnesses who described seeing someone close by at the time of the murder who strongly resembled Jones.

But the prosecution would have none of it. In their eyes Davis was "a street killer, a ruthless person." With Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael McMahon making an emotion-packed appeal to the jury not to forget Kim Groves' bravery: "What happened on that day to that poor woman, a citizen of the United States, should not have happened in this country. Maybe somewhere else; not in the United States. Because what the evidence showed, what we proved to you … was the existence of a police death squad in New Orleans, Louisiana."

On April 24, Davis was convicted of murder. As was his right, he refused to participate in the penalty phase of his trial, which ended on May 1 with Judge Berrigan sentencing him to death. Hardy also received a death sentence. Causey received two concurrent life terms. On August 16, 1999, Davis and Hardy had their sentences overturned on appeal, and they were referred back to district court for resentencing. (This was still pending in 2001.)

The FBI sting that inadvertently sent Davis to death row also led to convictions for a half-dozen former NOPD officers on drug trafficking charges.