d.a. s office failed to provide pertinent evidence and violated john thomson s constitutional rights. in 2007, the jury awarded john thomson $14 million. but the d.a. s office would appeal the decision for the next four years. meanwhile, john thomson transformed his life, building an organization called resurrection after exoneration to help exonerees adjust to life after prison. he s also become a leading spokesman against prosecutorial misconduct. it s extraordinary to see him as a 10th grade high school dropout become a really compelling advocate, the way he has taken this tragedy that happened in his life and turned it into a force for positive change. after years of appeals, the d.a. s office finally argued their case to the u.s. supreme court. 2011, the bitterly divided justices voted 5-4 to deny the
michael and gordon proposed an unorthodox solution. after freeman s testimony was read into the record they would cross examine the empty witness chair as if freeman was on the stand. we took the evidence of the lies and put them in the form of questions. you told the jury you didn t know that john thompson was going to rob someone. isn t it true, however, that you set out to rob someone? silence hung in the air after each question was posed, giving the jury time to imagine freeman s response. you suggested in your testimony that you stole nothing from mr. liuzza at all, but you admitted you stole all of mr. liuzza s property, didn t you? we asked a series of questions like that, culminating in the final one, which was isn t it true, mr. freeman that you, and you, alone, murdered ray luizza? the jury knew where we were coming from, they were able to see the lies in kevin freeman s
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 attorney s 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. i m like, hell no. i m not pleading guilty to nothing. after all this stuff we proved, these people are still trying to make me plead guilty to something i didn t do. the jury got it wrong twice before, there was some risk that a jury would get it wrong again, no matter how strong the evidence was. much as we were convinced of john s innocence, we had to think about getting him out of jail as our first priority. was like, john, we re not talking to you no more as attorneys. we re getting ready to talk to you as a friend.
to take the stand in my own behalf although we wanted to. the jury convicted thompson of killing ray liuzza within two hours. during sentencing, the prosecution was able to use the thompson s carjacking conviction to argue for the death penalty. the state called the carjacking victim in that little catholic school uniform, and she told a chilling story how the person that carjacked them was holding a gun to the brother s head, and she just knew both of them were going to be murdered together and she was never going to see their family, and that s the guy who did it, and there s no question in my mind. and with that, the jury decided that mr. thompson deserved to die. he killed this man and almost killed these three kids, so they decided to sentence me to death for a crime i didn t do. (vo) it would be great if human beings
original story. informant richard perkins also took the stand. this time his testimony was devastating to the prosecution. perkins admitted that one of the prosecutors put him in a room with kevin freeman before they testified at the original criminal murder trial and said, you guys get your story straight. perkins also admitted receiving $10,500 after thompson was convicted. we were able to show why perkins implicated thompson. perkins was a street kid who needed money desperately. he saw a chance for more money than he had ever seen or imagined in any one place in 1985 and he went for it. for the first time in 18 years, john thomson was finally able to take the stand and proclaim his innocence. you could hear a pin drop. i mean, literally. he finally had a chance to explain to a jury why he had the murder weapon.