in his testimony on behalf of the state. after testifying he saw thompson murder ray liuzza, kevin freeman was given a plea deal and only served ten months in prison. we also received leads about potential witnesses who would be helpful. there was a woman who lived across the street from mr. liuzza, she got a very good look at the perpetrator. ms. kelly and other witnesses who testified they saw a man with a blue steel revolver, 6 feet tall with close cut hair running past them. thompson was tall with a big afro. kevin freeman was 6 0 went by the nickname kojak because of his close-cut hair. once all the evidence was examined it was clear beyond imagination that kevin freeman, acting alone, murdered ray liuzza. michael and gordon now believe they had a strong case for a new trial. we had an evidentiary hearing
weren t in charge of their case when a man s life was on the line. visibly upset, overturned the carjacking conviction and ordered a stay of execution and connick to turn over every file on record to michael and gordon. that was the first time we really got a full look into the district attorney s files in the murder case against john thompson. and it was a moment that gordon and i looked at each other and said, he s 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. they lived. they lived. they lived.
john thompson was a low-level drug dearly and fence. he grew up in the projects in new orleans. was raised mostly by his grandmother. his father was a career criminal. richard perkins confronted mr. thompson after the fact and got mr. thompson to confess that he was the one that killed mr. liuzza. perkins said thompson also had an accomplice named kevin freeman. police arrested both freeman and thompson. the story that kevin freeman told police was that he and john thompson had been driving home together, and the car had run out of gas. ray liuzza drove past them, parked and began to walk across the street to his apartment. at that point, john thompson said i m going to hit that guy and pulled a gun out of his pocket. and then mr. freeman got cold feet, if you will and decided he didn t want to be part of it. as he was running away, freeman said he heard the shots. the police charged freeman and thompson with murder.
he gave me the maximum. 49.5 years. i realized that i was in some serious trouble. because now, we won t go to the murder trial. at the murder trial, both kevin freeman and richard perkins testified that thompson killed ray liuzza and since thompson had an alibi, thought the situation smelled bad. i can make chicken salad out of chicken. the facts are the facts of the case. we are one foot on the grave and one on the banana peel. if thompson took the stand in his own defense, jim williams would be able to bring up the carjacking conviction. i couldn t defend myself because the first question you asked me on the stand, have i been con victimed, yes, i had to say robbery. and so my lawyers advised me not to take the stand on my own
testimony and we wouldn t be able to use that evidence effectively if we couldn t cross examine him live on the stand. michael and gordon proposed an unorthodoxed solution. after freeman s testimony was read into the record they would cross-examine the empty witness stand as if he were 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 his 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 liuzza. the jury knew where we were coming from, they were able to