gordon and michael filed their appeal in june of 1989 after five years of waiting, the court finally agreed to hear their case. 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 john s 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 appeals or challenges. on april 19th of 1999, the final death warrant was issued. we had struck out, we had failed and he was going to die. the state set an execution date.
criminal defendant. michael banks and cooney were pro bono lawyers. there was nothing we read that caused us to say, wow, this guy didn t do it. i was skeptical of his innocence, but i remember feeling a strong sense from reading john s file that things that happened in john s trial were u.s. fundamentally unfair. banks and cooney went to meet their new client. the first time i met john thompson was at the louisiana state penitentiary at angola. and frankly, we had a bit of a hard time communicating. they didn t know nothing about new orleans. we had a criminal justice system here that locked up more people than our state pane could hold. first thing i asked them was, do you really understand what you re up against? we had no idea we would spend a quarter of a century working with john thomson.
had drained out of his face and he said the district attorney s 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 victim s family had learned of the plea deal and voiced their objections to the district attorney. michael and i go to the prison, and john, again, put on a very brave face. he said, you know, i didn t want that plea. it was going to hachk hangover my head the rest of my life. i didn t do this. and you guys are going u.s. just going to win this case. but we had lost four days because we didn t realize that we were preparing for trial. we need some more time to prepare for the case. he said you won t do that. we re going to win this case. i can t spend another day in place. as we walked down a long corridor we turn around and look
in april of 2003, john thompson faced the decision whether to plead guilty and walk away from prison or stand trial and risk the rest of his life behind bars. i didn t kill nobody. i m not pleading guilty to nothing. i got on the phone, my mom said, baby, i want you home. i don t care what those people say, i know you didn t do it, i want you home. i called the attorneys and said, come on, let s do it, it s time for me to be with my family. gordon and i went down to new orleans to be there when john got out of jail to have our big celebration. i was figuring out where john was going to go after he was released from prison and a criminal defense lawyer walked into the conference room where i was working and all the color
we drove over to angola. john came into the room, we didn t tell him we had been coming, but he knew why we were there. and he looked at us and he said, what s the date? we looked at him and said, john, it s may 20th, which was basically a month off. i d been around death row at that time long enough to understand what was going on. i was like, wow, it s my time. it s my time. i was trying to be strong, i was trying to like understand what s getting ready to happen. i m getting ready to die for a crime i didn t commit or anxiety kicked in. i didn t know how to accept the reality they d be getting ready to kill me. and then john did a really remarkable thing. he said, my youngest son john jr. is the first person in my family who s going to graduate from high school on may 21st. will you please go to his graduation and make sure he s