A man in Louisiana, who had spent 14 years on death row, had been wrongfully convicted of murder. The case was described in a recent United States Supreme Court decision styled Connick v. Thompson. Thompson spent 18 years in prison, 14 on death row, for robbery and murder crimes he did not commit. The case has been in the news because Thompson sued the New Orleans District Attorney for civil rights violations and was awarded $14 million, but the Supreme Court reversed the judgment. The basis for the Court’s decision is too technical to explain, here, but you can find the opinion at www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-571.pdf.

     As to the wrongful conviction, according to the Supreme Court, one month before his scheduled execution, Thompson’s attorneys discovered evidence that led to Thompson’s exoneration in both a robbery and a murder case. The prosecutor had a duty to turn the evidence over to Thompson’s attorneys, but admits it was deliberately withheld.

      The prosecutors’ actions leading to Thompson’s conviction and death sentence are disturbing. They intentionally delayed Thompson’s murder trial until after he was tried for robbery. Prosecutors knew the robbery conviction would mean Thompson would not testify at the murder trial, and they could use the robbery conviction to justify seeking a death sentence.

     Apparently to ensure the robbery conviction, prosecutors hid from Thompson’s attorneys the fact the robber left blood on a victim’s pants leg, and the blood type was not Thompson’s blood type, so he could not be the robber.

      After wrongfully obtaining the robbery conviction, prosecutors then hid evidence in the murder case. Thompson was arrested for murder based on an informant statement after a reward was offered. Prosecutors tape recorded the informant making clear he would name a suspect if the victim’s father, a prominent business man, would “help” him. Prosecutors never told the defense of the tape. They allowed the informant to testify he volunteered information about Thompson to police with no knowledge of reward money.  In all, prosecutors hid ten pieces of evidence from Thompson in the murder trial. Thompson was retried for murder, and the jury was out only 35 minutes before acquitting him.

     Next week we’ll discuss three death row inmates who have been exonerated in Oklahoma.