Michael Brajss News Today

Had drained out of his face and he said the district attorneys office had pulled the deal. >> we thought john was walking out of jail the next day. this was five days before the trial was to start. and the d.a. said no deal. we go to trial. >> as it turned out the victims family had learned of the plea deal and voiced their objections to the district attorney. >> michael and i go to the prison and he put on a very brave face. he said i didnt want that plea, it was going to hang over my head for ...

Please dig it up for me. and she did. the hospital records showed that thompson had blood type o. >> it was a smoking gun that demonstrated that thompson was innocent of the carjacking beyond question. and theres no question that the prosecution had clear obligation to turn over evidence thats favorable to the defense. >> the carjacking victims had clearly misidentified thompson. >> eyewitness testimony is so unreliable. and the more traumatic the event is that they witnessed, the more likely it...

I said yes. we hugged, we were ecstatic. >> as michael and gordon began preparing for the retrial, they got an unsolicited offer from the d.a.s office, harry connick senior had retired and the new d.a. ran for office on an anti-corruption campaign. now, he wanted to make a deal. >> the district attorneys office was not eager to go and 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...

To stand trial with a risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. >> on the morning of may 7th, 2003, john thomson stood before the same judge in the same courtroom where he had been sentenced to death 18 years earlier. michael and gordon had a problem. they couldnt attack the damaging testimony of kevin freeman, the man they believed murdered ray liuzza. >> he was shot dead in 1995 while committing a robbery. >> with freeman dead, his previous testimony stood as evidence that thompson had ...

Terms we could jump in the lake. so we filed a lawsuit against the new orleans district attorneys office. >> they proposed a settlement of $500,000 hoping to get half that amount. >> under the united states constitution, prosecutors are required to give the defendants evidence is that is favorable to the defense, and these prosecutors did not. >> your job is to prosecute the guy and seek a conviction. thats your job. >> ada bruce whittaker received the blood report showing thompson didnt commit ...

Liuzza. >> michael and gordon now believe they had a strong case for a new trial. >> we had an evidentiary hearing 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. >> it was wonderful to have john thomson spared from execution, 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 g...

In reward money immediately after the trial, and told by the police not to mention the payment of the reward to anybody. >> perkins saying he received $10,000 to receive this. >> the jury would have thought different about that. >> they wouldnt even count his testimony. >> gordon and michael filed their appeal in june of 1989, after five years offinally agre their case. >> we able to prove without any doubt that a reward was promised and paid and the prosecutors failed to disclose it, and despit...

To michael and gordon. >> that was the first time we really got a full look into the district attorneys files in the murder case against john thomson. it was a moment that gordon and i looked at each other and said, hes really innocent. he did not kill ray liuzza, he was not there. we knew who the murderer was, we knew how it happened for the very first time. staying in rhythm... its how i try to live... how i stay active. so i need nutrition... that wont weigh me down. for the nutrition you wan...

>> michael and gordon appealed the judges decision, they knew this would be thompsons last chance for a new trial. >> johns going to go free or spend the rest of his life in prison. >> arguments were basically two fold. 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 thomson was innocent of the liuzza murder. >> michael and gordon...