Page 12 - Patrick Quinlan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 thomson spared from execution, but we were still looking at a man in his 30s to be spending the rest of his life in jail. >> so you're 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 i'm never going home again? that didn't give me no relief, none whatsoever. i was doomed. >> michael and gordon appealed the judge's decision, the...

Handle this, and rather than hold a big press conference and point the finger at the district attorney's office, we thought the first right step was to go to mr. connick himself. >> connick's reaction initially was that he wanted some time to think about it. we told him he had a matter of two, maybe three hours. we have an execution date in less than two weeks. and we said, if you can't agree even with these facts, we'll take the next step that we think is appropriate. >> mr. connick realized he had no alternative, the evidence was all too clear. it was physically and scientifically impossible...

Nothing more. we talked about the right way to handle this, and rather than hold a big press conference and point the finger at the district attorney's office, we thought the first right step was to go to mr. connick himself. >> connick's reaction initially was that he wanted some time to think about it. we told him he had a matter of two, maybe three hours. we have an execution date in less than two weeks. and we said, if you can't agree even with these facts, we'll take the next step that we think is appropriate. >> mr. connick realized he had no alternative, the evidence was all too clear. ...

He wanted all the citizens of new orleans to see. >> at the hearing, attorneys questioned the key prosecutors involved with thompson's case, including jim williams, the man with the little electric chair on his desk. a colleague testified that williams was given the blood results, but williams denied it. >> williams' story is that he never received it, he never saw it, and so at the end of the day, the choices between dishonesty and incompetence. they can either be the prosecutors who knew that evidence was being withheld in their case or they can be prosecutors who weren't in charge of their ...

Vacate guilt. >> judge quinlan refused to grant a new trial. >> we were devastated. yes, it was wonderful to have john thomson spared from execution, but we were still looking at a man in his 30s to be spending the rest of his life in jail. >> so you're 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 i'm never going home again? that didn't give me no relief, none whatsoever. i was doomed. >> michael and gordon appealed the judge's decision, they knew this would be thompson's last chance for a new trial. >> john's going to go...