A family's request for review

Cyrus Casby

Acquitted of murder in state court in 2008. Convicted in federal court in 2013 over the same night.

Why this page exists

On November 10, 2004, a fire and four deaths at an apartment in Harvey, Louisiana, led to two prosecutions of Cyrus Casby. The Casby family believes he was wrongly convicted and that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office helped bring that result about. Several DNA profiles from items tied to the crime, including the knife, belong to people who have not been identified. The family is asking for an independent look at those questions.

The views on this page are the family's. Court rulings and press reports are linked below so readers can check them.

2008A state jury acquitted Cyrus on four counts of second-degree murder.
2013A federal jury convicted him of arson affecting interstate commerce.
2014He was sentenced to life in prison.
The open questionWhose DNA is on the knife and other items, and was it ever identified?

Puzzling Pieces: Whose DNA Is on the Murder Weapons?

Cover page of the Puzzling Pieces document

A seven-page summary of the case: the timeline, the DNA results, the confession, and the witnesses. Exhibits are linked inside the document.

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Click the cover or “Read the document” to flip through it page by page. It opens in a new tab.

Public record