Transcripts for CNN Death Row Stories 20150824 05:13:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
but he was thought of as being fairly aggressive as well. it was a stated policy in his office to provide the defense the minimum amount of information required by law and 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. it was physically and scientifically impossible for thompson to have been the carjacker. michael gordon and connick met with judge patrick quinlan who had presided over both of thompson s trials.
Transcripts for CNN Death Row Stories 20150824 05:53:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
there was so much crime in the paper and the news on a regular basis, i actually never paid attention to the murder of ray liuzza jr. until the attorneys contacted me. with john thompson scheduled to be executed in less than a month, defense investigator elisa abolafia desperately searched for answers. i was a nervous wreck, john was facing an execution date may 20th. i began with the carjacking case. first, i read the police report. in 1985, john thomson was convicted of carjacking three teenagers at gun point. without that conviction, thompson would have been much less likely to get the death sentence for the murder. elisa found reports from the first officer to respond to the carjacking scene. i noticed fresh blood, one of the victims shoes had blood on his shoes and pants legs.
we had more people locked up. first thing i asked them, do you really understand what you re up against? we had no idea in 1988 that we d spend the next quarter century working with john thompson. michael and gordon began preparing an appeal. the key argument was that the star witness, richard perkins had a hidden motive in the case. mr. perkins had been promised reward money by the prosecutors, and that information never made its way in front of the jury. michael and gordon hired lisa who knew new orleans inside and out as investigator on the case. if something smells fishy, there s a reason. humans lie. and they do things for their own advancement and their careers and for some cash. people are very unscrupulous. seeking a reward that today