Posted on 03/31/2010 6:24:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
John Thompson spent 18 years in a Louisiana prison, 14 of them in a windowless, 6-by-9-foot death-row cell.
According to a federal appeals court, "There were multiple mentally deranged prisoners near him who would yell and scream at all hours and throw human waste at the guards." Thompson, whose execution was scheduled half a dozen times, was a few weeks away from death by lethal injection when his life was saved by a bloody scrap of cloth.
Although four prosecutors in the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office were aware of this evidence, Thompson didn't learn about it until 14 years after his death sentence, when an investigator hired by his pro bono lawyers discovered a crucial crime lab report.
In a case the Supreme Court agreed to hear last week, the prosecutors' boss, former D.A. Harry Connick, argues that his office should not be held responsible for the egregious misconduct that led to Thompson's 18-year ordeal. But if it isn't, no one will be, an outcome that would not only deprive Thompson of compensation but endanger every American's due process rights.
In 1985 Thompson, then 22, was arrested for the murder of a hotel executive who was robbed and shot outside his New Orleans home. After Thompson's picture appeared in a local newspaper, three people who were victims of an armed robbery a few weeks after the murder thought they recognized their assailant.
Unbeknownst to Thompson or his attorney, the robber was cut while scuffling with one of his victims, leaving blood on the man's pants. The blood was type B; Thompson's blood type is O. He never got a chance to present this exculpatory evidence because his prosecutors never turned it over, even though they were constitutionally required to do so.
The prosecutors decided to try Thompson for the robbery first, hoping to prevent him from taking the stand at his murder trial (since that would allow them to impeach his credibility by mentioning the earlier conviction) and to enhance the likelihood of a death sentence. They succeeded on both counts.
After the concealed evidence came to light, Thompson's robbery conviction was thrown out, and he won a new murder trial, during which he presented 13 pieces of evidence that, like the blood test, had been withheld by prosecutors. The jury acquitted him after deliberating for half an hour.
In 2003, Thompson won a $14 million award from a federal jury that concluded Connick had acted with "deliberate indifference" by failing to train his underlings in their constitutional obligations. An appeals court upheld that award in 2008.
It's hard to say which would be more appalling: if prosecutors intentionally hid the blood test, or if they did not know they were required to share it. There is evidence to support both theories.
In 1994, after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, one prosecutor told a former colleague (who kept this information to himself for five years) that he had deliberately withheld the blood evidence. But it's not clear he knew that was illegal at the time of Thompson's robbery trial, and testimony in Thompson's civil case indicated that other prosecutors in the D.A.'s office, including Connick himself, did not know they were legally required to share the crime lab report.
Thompson's lawyers note that one prosecutor's "misunderstanding" of the relevant Supreme Court ruling "was so fundamental that the district judge visibly registered surprise," prompting him to change his testimony.
The Supreme Court has ruled that local governments can be held liable for failing to train officials in their constitutional responsibilities when the need is "obvious," as with teaching police officers the proper use of deadly force. The need for prosecutors to respect defendants' due process rights is no less obvious. And since prosecutors themselves have absolute immunity for their trial-related misconduct, the threat of lawsuits against their employers is an important safeguard to prevent the pursuit of victory from trumping the pursuit of justice.
this is why I oppose the death penalty - humans enforce it. Sometimes pretty stupid ones, sometimes corrupt ones, occasionally honest ones.
$14 million is not enough.
There are way to many instances of prosecutiorial and police misconduct, such as the withholding of critical blood evidence in this case.
‘leaving blood on the man’s pants. The blood was type B; Thompson’s blood type is O.”
And what was the victim’s blood type? This is crucial.
There are some cases where I feel the death penalty is justified and the evidence is so conclusive as to assure the guilty person is being executed. For the others, and there so many of them, you are exactly right.
It’s a tough call, but there are certainly times when there is absolutely no doubt who did the killing and the circumstances are such that it could be nothing but premeditated murder.
The problem is absolute immunity, and not that some individuals whose conduct is suficiently heneious that they have forefitted their life. Governmental legal infallibity through absolute immunity always yields the worst unintended consequences.
A simple solution would be to mandate that in cases of purposeful prosecutorial misconduct of this sort of egregious nature the offending DA would be given the same peanlty that the victim received. In this case the DAs would be given lethal injections.
I foresee at least a 5-4 upholding of the award and possibly more, with quibbles from Thomas and Scalia dissenting as to the manner of legal approach.
They did both. Everyone asociated with the criminal justice system knows about Brady v. Maryland.
This kind of stuff is exactly why I am no longer a supporter of the death penalty in most cases unless there is considerable physical evidence.
If it can be proved these prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence which would have cleared this guy,, hey should be sentenced to the same term of prison, in the very same prison he served.
That’s justice.
Such an action is despicable and a warning needs to be sent to all prosecutors in the Country in cases like this one.
How could you possibly sleep at night knowing an innocent man was serving time in prison because you were more concerned with a conviction than justice???
HOW????
As long as you have unscrupulous prosecutors, lazy police, corrupt judges -- and I'm not impugning these professions per se--- I'm saying as long as you have human weakness and failure, you'll have cases like this, and innocent men and women who die at the hands of the State.
This case didn't involve the present political Administration. But, for the near future, when the State is corrupt from the top, with politically-vetted people at every level -- the Obamunist state --- it's even worse. I would not put the power of life and death into their hands.
The prosecutors in this case need to be jailed. To many liberal prosecutors who have no concern for truth or justice. Liberals like Kerry got their start as prosecutors.
Which probably makes him a democRAT.
“Connick had acted with “deliberate indifference” by failing to train his underlings in their constitutional obligations.”
Not to justify for one moment the heinous actions of these prosecutors, but didn’t they learn in law school about evidentiary standards and discovery requirements in criminal cases? Criminal Procedure and Criminal Law are required first-year courses. Why did they have to have their boss, who presumably hired them because they were already at least minimally competent at CRIMINAL LAW, train them on the basics?
Colonel, USAFR
Prosecutor, Judge, Defense Counsel
How could you possibly sleep at night knowing an innocent man was serving time in prison because you were more concerned with a conviction than justice???
_____________
I don’t know about Louisiana, but the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure clearly states that “the job of a prosecutor is not to convict, but to ensure that justice is done”. I quote that during every criminal voir dire I conduct as a city prosecutor. It is to my profession’s shame that too many prosecutors are more concerned with having a notch on the belt than seeing that justice is served.
Colonel, USAFR
You are a Great American.
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