Moreese Bickham (June 6, 1917 – April 2, 2016) was an American resident of Mandeville, Louisiana who was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death for the July 12, 1958 killing of a sheriff's deputy, reportedly a local Klan leader.

According to trial transcripts, at around 11 pm on the evening of July 12, 1958, Bickham became drawn into an argument with two sheriff's deputies in a bar called "Buck's Place" in Mandeville.

An all-white jury convicted Bickham of one count of first degree murder (premeditated homicide) and sentenced him to death by electrocution.

He assisted in the visitors' center, maintained a garden in the prison cemetery, learned leather-making, and he became ordained as a minister in the Methodist faith.

In 1989, independent radio documentarian David Isay interviewed Bickham for a documentary on long-timers at Angola, entitled "Tossing Away the Keys".

In August 1994, New York corporate lawyer Michael Alcamo accepted Bickham's case pro bono.

Because local sentiment made a full pardon out of the question, Alcamo took the position that Bickham's sentence should be commuted, or reduced, to a specific term of 75 years.

Finally, in January 1995, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards granted the request for a sentence reduction to 75 years.

After a review of the prison record, the Angola warden agreed to certify as to Bickham's good behavior during his 37 years of incarceration.

Alcamo then petitioned the State under the good-time statute, that Bickham should be releasable as a free man after serving a term of 37.5 years.

Alcamo argued that once the State Penitentiary staff had certified Bickham's prison record, the inmate's release would be non-discretionary.

[4] At the time of his death Bickham resided in California and was an active participant in the movement to abolish capital punishment in the United States.

Burl Cain, the Angola prison warden, resigned from his post in 2015 after pressure arose over his business dealings with relatives of inmates.

Over a period of several years, Cain had entered into business partnerships with two men who had close ties with state inmates.

[9] Bickham's story was also featured on NPR's Snap Judgment with Glen Washington in show 329 entitled "Found."