31/10/2015 Reporters

at 11 o'clock. With more on the aeroplane crash in the Sinai

Peninsula. And now we have Reporters.

Welcome to Reporters. We send our correspondence to bring you the best

stories from across the globe. In this week's programme, 23 years in

jail for a murder that another man was convicted of, we report on what

could be one of America's worst miscarriages of justice in decades.

Can you feel confident that he played no part in the murder? Oh,

yeah, I fully believe that to this day. Africa's new army, Karen Allen

goes on the front line with the rapid reaction forces. These war

games are designed to test the battle readiness of these troops,

and many of them have combat experience, but this will also test

how well be different nationalities are able to communicate and

coordinate with each other. And... Giving the girls centrestage, Jane

O'Brien reports on women's voices, Festival in Washington trying to

bridge the gender gap in American theatre. -- a festival. We are going

to die. We keep on seeing the same story from the same point of view.

It has been called one of America's worst racially connected

miscarriages of justice, an African-American man has been in

jail for over 20 years after another man was convicted of the murder.

Julie Scott was in holiday in New Orleans in 1982, but the court found

a second man guilty of her murder and then Robert Jones is still

behind bars. It was right here, 23 years ago, that a newly engaged

British couple were walking when they were confronted by gunmen. He

tried to rob them, but in the chaos, Julie was shot in the head and died.

The murder of a tourist was huge news at the time, and back in the UK

the media took up because, one newspaper offering a big reward to

try to catch the gunmen. That led to calls and false leaves, but on the

basis of one tip police brought in Robert Jones, 19-year-old who had

never had a criminal conviction. His arrest hippie helplines, and was

seen by some media as a triumph -- hit the headlines. The murder of

Julie Stott was part of a crime spree happening at the time in the

city, and in each case there were similar descriptions of the car that

was used and the attacker, but an early indication that Robert Jones

was not that man was that even after his arrest the crime spree

continued. This man, Lester Jones, no relation to Robert, matched the

witness descriptions and was finally arrested, for crimes -- and the

crime sprees ended. He was found with the gun used to kill Julie

Stott, and Lester Jones was later convicted of her murder, but Robert

Jones was never released. The murder detective from the time was shocked

years later, to find that two men were serving time for the same

killing. As the detectives that worked on the case, we were under

the impression, we felt as though there was only one person involved

in the murder, and that was Lester Jones, because everything tied to

him. Weeks scooted everybody else. Can you feel confident that Robert

Jones played no part in the murder? Oh yeah, I firmly believe this until

this day. In a trial that lasted less than ten hours, when crucial

evidence was withheld, Robert was convicted of several other crimes in

this spree, including full rate and a killing that somebody else had

already been convicted for, and he has been behind bars ever since. The

district attorney says he is trying to correct the wrongs of the past.

The reputation of this office traditionally has been stained,

there is no question about that. There's also no question that there

have been cases, this is not the only case, there been other cases

where prosecutors intentionally or negligently, withheld evidence, so I

don't think there is a question about that. The best I can do is

move forward. But so long after the murder of Julie Stott, Robert Jones

is still waiting for news that he can walk free. Many now feel every

new day he is denied his freedom is a travesty. 13 years after it was

first conceived in Africa is about to get its own army, and the new

African stand-by Force will be able to respond to crises on the

continent from civil war and genocide to humanitarian disasters.

The African union force, which will begin in January, is seen as a

significant step in Africa being able to look after some of its own

security problems. Karen Allen has been given special access to its

training exercises in the Northern Cape region. The new landscape of

the African battlefield. As early as next year, these troops could be

scrambled to crises rather than rely on foreign boots on the ground. The

African stand-by force is being put through its final paces in this

major exercise. We are not going further than that. Many languages,

one drill, part of a multinational force. Capable of being deployed

with just a fortnight's notice. These war games I'd assign not just

to test the battle readiness of these troops, many of them have

combat experience, but this is also testing how well the different

nationalities are able to communicate and coordinate with each

other. The clear message, this is an African solution to an African

problem. But Africa's problems are fast becoming the world's problems,

thousands of miles on here, refugees are surging into Europe. Conflicts

have changed and they no longer respect borders, they are

transnational, and the source of the conflict today could be in your

backyard tomorrow, it is a case that we are all in this together. And

that is why the rich world is being asked to get on board and to

contribute to the $1 billion it is expected to cost to make the

stand-by force operational. What we want is to have the African military

and please and the civilians to actually create this peaceful

environment in which you can get development, economic development,

social development, and once you have got that, surely there is not

such a great desire to want to move to another country. The troops might

be trying, now it is the politicians who need to be primed to support a

force capable of intervening early to stop conflicts, spiralling into

all-out wars. Struggling artists are nothing new, but if you have written

a play and you are a woman the odds of getting a performed in the US are

stacked against you, and in the last three years only 20% of all plays

produced in America were written by women. A festival in Washington,

called women's voices, is trying to address the gender gap, and there

will be 56 world premiere is all penned by women. Jeremy has been to

meet some of them. In a matter of work, Hannah, an old slave, talks

about the value of life, the play was inspired by a real bill of sale

which valued Hannah at a dollar and a meal at $5. -- mule. For Marcia

Cole, this was a story she had to tell, even though American Theatres

produced relatively few plays by women. I was not surprised that I

was generally dismiss, that is what many female playwrights phase, --

phase, but they don't take women as serious the as they might, and we

really have got something to say. Her play is 156 new works making

their debut during the women's voices Theatre Festival -- one of

56. The first event to raise the issue of gender disparity in

American Theatres, barely one in five plays to hit the stage in the

last few years was written by a woman. But why does that matter? If

we don't need women's place can we don't need anyone's plays, but for

the health of the artistic field we need a diversity of voices, and if

we keep on seeing the same plate on the same person from the same

background with the same prejudices, we are going to die. As an artistic

field. At historic forts Theatre comedy stage is being prepared a

very different play, the guard by Jessica Dickey, which examines our

relationship with art over time. So why are more plays by women not

being produced? If you look at directors across the country, most

of the artistic directors are men, and men tend to be Jews male

playwrights. You produce what you know and who you know -- men tend to

produce male playwrights. We have got to be more conscious about

saying who are the playwrights we are producing within a season. 46

Theatres in the Washington district have been taking part in the

festival and other regions might follow suit, but many say that the

gender gap will not be narrowed until women are viewed differently

both on and off the stage. And that is all from Reporters this week.

From everyone at the team and here in London, goodbye.

It was a very mild Halloween, with temperatures in the middle teens,

but overnight