John Thompson was convicted and sentenced to death for a 1984 murder he did not commit. He served 18 years in prison, 14 of those years on death row. He was saved from execution by four hot shot young attorneys who worked pro bono on his case for more than a decade.
What they discovered in the course of 10 years of trying to prove Thompson’s innocence was the fact that the prosecution had deliberately hidden 10 different pieces of exculpatory evidence from the defense—from witness accounts to blood evidence—in order to convict a man who had zero to do with the crime.
After he was released, Thompson sued the New Orleans prosecutors and a jury awarded him $14 million in damages. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed that decision in a 5/4 ruling.
It would be hard to find a worse decision this year. Justice Ginsberg wrote an unusually scathing dissent, all but pleading with congress to step in with a new law that rectifies the situation.
Nina Totenberg’s NPR report tells you most of what you need to know about the rest of the story.
Then Law professors Bennett L. Gershman and Joel Cohen rip the decision limb from limb on the Huffington Post.
And the LA Times’ David Savage quotes plenty of people who are rightfully appalled at the Thompson decision.
For instance:
Advocates for the wrongly convicted denounced the decision. Prosecutors have “enormous power over all of our lives,” said Keith Findley, president of the Innocence Network, yet “no other profession is shielded from this complete lack of accountability.”
In Thompson’s case, at least four prosecutors knew of the blood test, eyewitness reports and other evidence that, once revealed, showed they had charged the wrong man.
“When this kind of conduct happens and it goes unpunished, it sends a devastating message throughout the system,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, a University of Maryland law professor. “It means more of these incidents will happen.”
Oh, yes, and in a separate but concurring opinion, Atonin Scalia wrote that the here is no duty under the Constitution for prosecutors to turn over test results “which might have exonerated the defendant.”
(Please don’t say any more, Atonin, you’re scaring us. And about the matter of the Constitution and the framers’ intentions, you might want to reread the 5th Amendment, specifically the line near to the end about that due process thingy.)
Oh, yeah, and in a really fun related item, the LA Times’ Jack Leonard reports that the No Cal Innocence Project has found 102 cases statewide, 31 from Los Angeles County, in which prosecutors engaged in misconduct. (You know, things like withheld evidence, intentionally misled jurors.)
You may find the cheering details here.
Photo by Patrick Semansky/AP
What a culero.