Guy John Thompson News Today

In front of judge quinlan. and quinlan vacated the death sentence but he refused to vacate guilt. >> judge quinlan refused to grant a new trial. we were devastated. yes, it was wonderful to have john thompson spared from execution, but we were still looking at a man in his 30s who was going to be facing the rest of his life in jail. >> so youre going to take the death penalty back and give me a life sentence? i was scared to death even more so now. you tell me im never going home again? that did...

>> john thompsons testimony was that he did have the gun, but he had bought that from kevin freeman. >> kevin freeman sold the murder weapon to an unwitting john thompson. john was involved in buying and selling some stolen property. its not something hes proud of. >> i was a dope dealer. he was a burglar, you was a robber, you wanted dope, you need to bring me some type of collateral. he was bringing me tv, guns, jewelry. that was a part of a drug trade, being a fence. im sorry, thats how i cam...

The d.a.s office, harry connick sr. had retired and the new d.a. had run for office on an anti-corruption campaign. now, he wanted to make a deal. >> the district attorneys office was not really ig eager to go try this case again based on the evidence as it then existed. john could plead to some lesser offense and be immediately released from prison. >> im like, hell no. im not pleading guilty to nothing. after all this stuff we proved, these people are still trying to make me plead guilty to so...

This happen to me? its not what are you going to do to save my life? h it was about making us feel better about what wed done for him and making sure his son was going to be okay. thats the kind of guy john thompson is. >> we were mostly silent on the way from angola to new orleans. there was very little to be said. on the way, gordon checked his voicemail. >> gordon had a message from elisa. >> so theyre driving very solemnly. like, its over. as theyre exiting angola, they had no cell phone cov...

Contacted me. >> with john thompson scheduled to be executed in less than a month, defense investigator elisa abolafia desperately searched for answers. >> i, of course, was a complete nervous wreck because john was facing an execution date, may 20th. so i began with the carjacking case. first, i read the police report. >> in 1985 john thomson was convicted of carjacking three teenagers at gunpoint. without that conviction, thompson would have been much less likely to get the death sentence for ...

Type is blood "b." >> we were incredibly excited because we now knew the perpetrator had type "b" blood. >> but we didnt know what johns blood type was. so what we did first, we called john. >> my blood type? i dont know. they say, you dont know your own blood type? no. you think your mom will know? i said, i dont know, call her and ask. >> i spoke to his mother, please tell me you know his blood type? no, i dont. so im racking my brain. i asked john, did you ever have surgery at any time of you...

There. and he looked at us and said, whats the date? we looked aim him and said, john, its may 20th, which was basically a month off. >> id been around death row at that time long enough to understand what was going on. i was like, wow, its my turn, its my time. so i was trying to be strong. i was trying to, like, understand whats getting ready to happen. im getting ready to die for a crime i did not commit, anxiety kicked in. i didnt know how else to accept the reality that theyre getting ready...

John thomson had been on death row at angola state prison for 14 years. by 1999 michael and gordon had proven thompson had not committed the carjacking outside the superdome, they had yet to prove their client was innocent of killing 34-year-old ray liuzza in cold blood. however, material michael and gordon finally received from the new orleans d.a.s office provided ample grounds for appeal. >> the daily police reports showed us that these witnesses, freeman and perkins, had told very, very diff...

>> we were able to prove beyond any doubt that, in fact, a reward was promised and paid and that the prosecutors failed to disclose it, and yet despite that, the judge said there was enough other evidence of johns guilt that the reward issue would not have made a difference. >> michael and gordon appealed the decision to the u.s. district court, the fifth circuit court of appeals and finally the u.s. supreme court. they all denied the appeal. >> matters became desperate. now we had no more appea...

>> arguments were basically twofold. first, that carjacking conviction had been used to keep john from being able to testify in his own defense in the murder case. and secondly, we argued that all of the evidence that we had amassed had shown that john thompson was innocent of the liuzza murder. >> michael and gordon filed their appeal in february of 2002. five months later they received the decision. >> ill never forget it, a reporter called and said, what do you think about this decision? and ...