By Michael Lyle, Nevada Current
This piece was originally published in the Nevada Current.
After nearly 22 years of incarceration in the Nevada prison system, Rickie Slaughter had his conviction vacated by a district court judge in March. But he remains in High State Desert Prison as the Clark County District Attorney’s office weighs retrying the case.
Criminal reform advocates and civil rights groups, including the Mass Liberation Project, the ACLU of Nevada, and the NAACP Las Vegas, gathered Tuesday at the Regional Justice Center, demanding that Slaughter be set free.
Slaughter recorded a statement that was played at Tuesday’s rally, saying he would not “be bullied by injustice.”
“This could be you next,” Slaughter said. “To allow my entire life to be stripped away for a crime I never committed is the ultimate injustice.”
The group has called on Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson to not to attempt to retry the case. The office told the court this month it planned to retry Slaughter.
“He has already been in prison for 22 years,” said Leslie Turner, one of the organizers for Tuesday’s rally. “There is no need to reprosecute this case. They can drop the case. They’ve done it before.”
Wolfson’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Turner said the calculation behind keeping Slaughter incarcerated longer – despite his sentence being vacated – shows a lack of humanity.
“They struggled to see his humanity,” she said. “This is a whole person’s life.”
The case also underscored that Slaughter exists within “a two-tiered system of justice,” said Athar Haseebullah, the executive director for the ACLU of Nevada.
Slaughter sits behind bars, while “people who have committed far more heinous crimes walk amongst us and often occupy government positions,” Haseebullah said.
The district attorney’s office has a chance to “acknowledge what happened, and release this man,” he added.
“If this was truly a system of justice, justice would demand that Rickie Slaughter would not be incarcerated,” Haseebullah said. “His conviction has been vacated by a federal court because of exculpatory evidence that would likely have seen Rickie released was improperly and unjustly withheld.”
Supressed evidence
Slaughter was convicted in 2005 of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and robbery, attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, battery, and robbery with the use of a deadly weapon.
David Roger was the Clark County District Attorney at the time.
While initially Slaughter pleaded guilty, he later withdrew that plea and filed a state habeas petition, “arguing, in part, that his plea was involuntary based on the promises that his sentence would permit his release in 15 years,” according to court documents.
He has not only maintained his innocence since then, Slaughter has fought for more than a decade to have his case reheard on the grounds he didn’t get a fair trial and evidence was withheld that showed his innocence.
Slaughter argued in his recent case that the prosecution “failed to disclose material exculpatory information, made relevant misrepresentations in open court, and failed to correct false testimony” and that the state “committed prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments.”
The court reopened his case May 11, 2022.
Federal District Court Judge Anne Traum, who vacated Slaughter’s conviction in a March 3 ruling, wrote “suppressed evidence would have affected various parts of this evidence and strengthened” Slaughter’s defense.
During a second pretrial photographic lineup, none of the witnesses identified Slaughter. That information was never presented to the jury, according to the ruling.
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who briefly spoke at the rally and echoed calls for Slaughter to be released, said he believed “Steve Wolfson is a rational person” and would do the right thing.
Haseebullah announced at the rally that the ACLU would be part of his legal team “and help guide him through the following steps of this process.”
The ACLU has not had a direct conversation with the DA’s office.
In an interview with Nevada Current, Haseebullah said while the ACLU doesn’t generally involve itself in criminal cases, “this instance when we are assessing what the underlying issues are here, mainly the nature of exculpatory evidence and the nature of a broken criminal legal system, the nature of an innocent man sitting incarcerated at the same time there are regressive actions by policymakers to land more people in prison, all of these demonstrate a systems-level need for involvement,” he said.
“Whether or not we are the actual litigators on a potential retrial or working with partner attorneys, there are underlying issues that need to be resolved,” he added.
The case also confronts the importance of holding the legal system itself accountable, Turner said.
“The onus is always on defendants or people in the community to be accountable,” she said. “The system is victimizing people and it’s not just Rickie … Where is the accountability for that? Why would this office even be allowed to prosecute this case in general? (The district attorney’s office) has already shown a lack of integrity. It’s a broader conversation about who has to be accountable.”
Democratic Assemblymember Jovan Jackson, the first known formerly incarcerated person to serve in the Nevada State Legislature, also spoke during the rally.
Slaughter “has been a leader within the walls of incarceration,” Jackson said. “That’s how powerful his voice is. We want Rickie Slaughter to come home …One thing with the justice system is that it’s not always just.”
Jackson, along with other speakers, pointed to Slaughter’s long history of advocating for change while incarcerated.
Slaughter has been outspoken about the treatment of those incarcerated within Nevada’s prisons, including chronically excessive heat inside High Desert State Prison. Lawmakers have also met with Slaughter to get his insight in crafting criminal reform policies, including a “second look act” legislation.
Unsuccessful legislation in 2025 sought to create an avenue for those incarcerated to have sentences reviewed by the State Board of Parole Commissioners after they’ve served extended periods of time.
Nevada law does allow for compensation for those wrongfully convicted.
“At the end when Rickie Slaughter inevitably is released – because that is what justice requires – the nature of how compensation ends up working requires our involvement,” Haseebullah said. “What we don’t want to happen is any random private attorney stepping in and saying they are entitled to a piece of his release.”
But even if he is freed, and even if he is compensated, there are aspects of his life he won’t get back. While he was incarcerated, he lost both his parents and was “never given a chance to say goodbye,” his sister said during the rally.
“He deserves to come home,” his sister said, to “laugh with his family, to rebuild what was taken, to grieve properly, and to live freely.”