John Thompson, Death-Row Exoneree and Social Justice Activist, Has Died

Death-row exoneree John Thompson (pic­tured), described by Innocence Project New Orleans direc­tor Emily Maw, as ​“an amaz­ing force in the world” and a ​“nation­al leg­end,” died October 3 at a New Orleans-area hos­pi­tal after suf­fer­ing a heart attack.

Exonerated in 2003, Thompson had sur­vived a cor­rupt Orleans Parish pros­e­cu­tion, sev­en death war­rants, and an immi­nent exe­cu­tion by the state of Louisiana for a mur­der he did not com­mit. Following his release, he became a nation­al advo­cate for crim­i­nal jus­tice reform and found­ed Resurrection After Exoneration, a re-entry and sup­port pro­gram for released prisoners. 

Thompson’s odyssey towards exon­er­a­tion began when he was wrong­ly charged with, and wrong­ly con­vict­ed of, two crimes that took place a few months apart in 1984 — a car­jack­ing and the unre­lat­ed mur­der of New Orleans hotel exec­u­tive Ray Liuzza, Jr. He was wrong­ly sen­tenced to death for Liuzza’s murder. 

Just 30 days from an exe­cu­tion date, an inves­ti­ga­tor in his case dis­cov­ered a report about excul­pa­to­ry blood evi­dence on the car­jack­ing vic­tim’s clothes that the state had nev­er revealed. The blood did not belong to Thompson and both the car­jack­ing and mur­der cas­es against him soon unrav­eled. A for­mer pros­e­cu­tor revealed that one of the pros­e­cu­tors who tried Thompson, Gerry Deegan, had con­fessed on his death bed in 1994 that he inten­tion­al­ly hid the blood evidence. 

Thompson won a new tri­al and was acquit­ted and released in 2003. He had spent 18 years in prison (14 years on death row), and lost his grand­moth­er and father dur­ing that time. 

Thompson was pros­e­cut­ed by the Orleans Parish Assistant District Attorney’s office dur­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr. His lead pros­e­cu­tor, James Williams — who had a repli­ca elec­tric chair on his desk and framed pho­tographs of the men he had sent to death row on his office wall — told a reporter in 2007, ​“There was no thrill for me unless there was a chance for the death penalty.” 

11 of the 36 men sen­tenced to death dur­ing Connick’s tenure had their con­vic­tions over­turned as a result of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and four — includ­ing two wrong­ly pros­e­cut­ed by Williams — were exonerated. 

Thompson lat­er won a fed­er­al jury ver­dict for $14 mil­lion in 2007 after suing the District Attorney’s Office for pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in a con­tro­ver­sial 5 – 4 deci­sion writ­ten by Justice Clarence Thomas, reversed the ver­dict, rul­ing that the pros­e­cu­tors had immu­ni­ty from lia­bil­i­ty. In a 2011 op-ed in the New York Times, The Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t, Thompson wrote that more than mon­ey, jus­tice was at stake. ​“I don’t care about the mon­ey,” he said. ​“I just want to know why the pros­e­cu­tors who hid evi­dence, sent me to prison for some­thing I did­n’t do and near­ly had me killed are not in jail themselves.”

After his acquit­tal, Thompson mar­ried his child­hood friend, Laverne Thompson, in June 2003 and moved into a Habitat for Humanity house in New Orleans’ St. Roch neigh­bor­hood. He remained vocal about the long-last­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal effects of his incar­cer­a­tion while becom­ing a nation­al voice for vic­tims of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al abuse, and found­ed Resurrection After Exoneration. 

“I’m still strug­gling,” he said often. ​“I’m still strug­gling every day.” 

Maw said Thompson fought for jus­tice as a proud New Orleanian. ​“He was near­ly mur­dered by the state, so Clarence Thomas tak­ing away a jury ver­dict was noth­ing for John, except that it said in the halls of pow­er your life still doesn’t mat­ter,” she said. 

Mr. Thompson is sur­vived by wife Laverne and sons, Dedric and John Jr.