Legal News

Federal Judge Upholds $14 Mil. Award for Wrongfully Convicted Man

By Brian Harris

By Gina Passarella
Of the Legal Staff

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $14 million jury award to a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death.The ruling marks the latest chapter in a 21-year representation by Morgan Lewis of John Thompson, who spent 18 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Thompson was exonerated in 2003.

The firm, mainly through partners Michael Banks and J. Gordon Cooney Jr., has represented Thompson pro bono for about 17 years.

?We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit has upheld the decision of a unanimous jury, the presiding trial judge and a prior panel of three appellate judges,? Banks and Cooney said in a statement. ?The opinion upholding the verdict correctly relied on the extraordinary evidence, which demonstrated both the near-catastrophic deprivation of John Thompson?s rights and the former District Attorney?s deliberate indifference to the obvious need to train junior prosecutors in his office.?

The 5th Circuit was rehearing the case en banc and issued a per curiam order because it was equally divided on the issue. Therefore the underlying ruling had to remain.

In a civil trial held in New Orleans in February 2007, the Orleans Parish District Attorney?s Office was found liable for $14 million for Thompson?s pain and suffering.

Thompson was wrongly convicted in 1985 of both the murder of a New Orleans hotel executive and an unrelated armed carjacking, which was used by the prosecutors in the murder case. As a result of the convictions, Thompson was sentenced to death in the murder case and to 50 years in prison without parole in the carjacking case.

During the 15 years of post-conviction proceedings, concealed blood evidence in the carjacking case that proved Thompson was not the carjacker, as well as witnesses, documents and critical information that had been hidden from the defense were all able to exonerate Thompson, the firm said.

The murder case was retried in 2003, and after 35 minutes of deliberations, the jury unanimously found Thompson innocent. He was released from custody after 18 years in prison.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 11, 2009 (boomark / email).