on this episode of "death row stories," the murder of a wealthy young man in the big easy seals the fate of a petty drug dealer. >> that's the guy who did it, and there's no question in my mind. >> and gives two out-of-town lawyers a crash course in new orleans justice. >> first thing i asked him, you know, "do you really understand what you're up against?" >> but when evidence of innocence emerges -- >> something was going on that was very unscrupulous and was deliberate. >> the system will stop at nothing to get the verdict it wants. >> we had struck out, and he was going to die.

>> there's a body in the water. >> he was butchered and murdered. >> many people proclaim their innocence. >> in this case, there are a number of things that stink. >> this man is remorseless. >> he needs to pay for it with his life. >> the electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. >> get a conviction at all costs. let the truth fall where it may. world famous bourbon street, you can buy a song and dance for a dime. >> on december 5th, 1984, ray luizza, a fun-loving 34-year-old bachelor from a prominent new orleans family, was out on the town celebrating his promotion to vice president of one of the city's biggest hotels. >> ray was the epitome of people who are true new orleanians: the love of the art and the history, the fine cuisine as well as the music.

>> late that night, as liuzza returned to his garden district apartment, he was approached by someone in the dark. >> he was then robbed at gunpoint. he complied with the perpetrators, giving them up everything that he had. he asked them not to shoot him, and they did, five times. >> we got the call that there was a shooting on baronne street. the thing that distinguished the crime scene was the amount of violence that, that occurred. remnants of blood, bullet holes in the side of the house. the suspect just kept firing his gun, every bullet in the weapon that he had. >> and he laid there as the ambulance approached and the police officers. he said, "why did they have to shoot me?" he was then transported to charity hospital where he was pronounced dead, and my father

collapsed and had a heart attack and he coded blue and i'll never forget that night as long as i live. >> it was all over the news as soon as it happened. it was a tremendous amount of publicity. >> it's been a great shock to us. >> ray liuzza sr., a well-known member of the community, was able to recover from his heart attack and went public to find his son's killer. >> time is the great cure-all, and as time goes on, we will be able to adjust, but nothing will replace the loss of our son. >> the liuzzas set up a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of their son's killer, but a month went by, and police struggled to find any solid leads until one night, a local fence named richard perkins contacted the liuzza family. perkins claimed he had the

murder weapon. he said it had been given to him by a man named john thompson. >> john thompson was a low-level drug dealer 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 turned to him and 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, and as he was running away, freeman said he heard the shots.

>> the police charged freeman and thompson with murder. the local prosecutor wanted the death penalty for thompson but knew it would be an uphill battle because thompson had never been convicted of a violent crime. that was about to change. >> on december 28, 1984, 19-year-old jay lagarde, his sister, mimi, who was 16, and their younger brother, who was 12, went to the superdome for a college basketball tournament. after the game, as they were getting in the car, a african-american man jumped into the back seat, pulled out a .357 magnum, and said "i'm taking your car. i want your wallet. i want your valuables." jay was instructed to drive away from the superdome. rather than do that, he did something that was either very brave or very stupid and deliberately caused a car accident.

the carjacker then lept forward with the gun, and jay turned around and met him, and they had a fight. jay is pressed with his back against the driver's side door and manages to kick the carjacker in his face and out through the passenger-side door the carjacker, obviously injured, drops the gun and gets away. that crime remained unsolved until pictures of thompson appeared in the paper for the murder of ray liuzza. >> when thompson's photo appeared, all three of the lagarde children identified john thompson as their attacker. thompson went on trial for the carjacking first because prosecutors knew that a conviction would make him more likely to receive the death penalty for the liuzza murder. this was in keeping with the policies of long-term district attorney for orleans parrish harry connick sr., father of the famous musician harry connick

jr. during connick sr.'s nearly 3-decade tenure, his office handled upwards of 30,000 cases and often faced accusations of hard-line tactics. >> harry connick was tough on crime and death penalty cases. i don't think harry would have offered a deal. harry would have said "no, you can't have it," because he was very aggressive, and he wanted to lock them all up forever. >> connick's lead prosecutor was jim williams. jim took great pride in his numerous death penalty convictions. he even kept a miniature electric chair on his desk. >> jim was regarded as one of the most aggressive prosecutors in the district attorney's office. he described sliding up behind defendants in the courtroom and buzzing in their ears to mimic the buzz of electricity. >> thompson's carjacking trial lasted only two days. the testimony of the lagarde children was enough to convict thompson of armed robbery. he was given the maximum sentence. >> your heart just stopped

beating for a minute, you know? yeah, that was my first conviction, but he gave me the maximum, 49 1/2 years. i realized that i was in some serious trouble then for sure because now, now we were going to 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 no alibi, even his defense attorney thought the situation smelled bad. >> because, you know, i can't make chicken salad out of chicken [ bleep ]. the facts are the facts. the case is the case. with the publicity, the nature of the crime, the black on white, we were one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel when we went in that courtroom. >> 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 he would ask me on the stand, have i been convicted for anything. i would have to say yes. for what? i'd have had to say, "robbery,"

and so my lawyers advised me not to take the stand on my own behalf, although we wanted to. >> the jury convicted thompson of killing ray liuzza within 2 hours. during sentencing, the prosecution was able to use thompson's carjacking conviction to argue for the death penalty. >> the state called the carjacking victim in her little catholic school uniform, and she told a chilling story of 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 he almost killed these three kids, so they decided to sentence me to death for a crime i didn't do. someone i can trust. (impact, click)

who is with me for the long-term. who understands i'm dealing with lives, not only livelihoods. that in order to help people, i need more than products, i need quality support and insights. can i find someone who partners with me to achieve people's long-term success? with capital group, i can. talk to your advisor or consultant for investment risks and information. talk to your advisor or consultant you will see at vgreat and look great.ee "guaranteed" we say that too! you've gotta use these because we don't mean it. buy any pair at regular price, get one free. really! visionworks. see the difference. and my lack of impulse control,, is about to become your problem.

ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof! so get allstate where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. sorry! he's a baby! now you can switch to sprint and get both (paul) i'm going to keep this short and sweet. an unlimited plan and the samsung galaxy s10 plus included for just $35 a month. yup. short and sweet. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com. break out the butter loif you've been dreaming aboutr tender wild-caught lobster, dig in to butter-poached, fire-roasted and shrimp & lobster linguini. see? dreams do come true. or if you like a taste of new england without leaving home, try lobster, sautéed with crab, jumbo shrimp and more, or maybe you'd like to experience the ultimate surf and the ultimate turf...

with so many lobster dishes, there's something for every lobster fan so hurry in and let's lobsterfest. or get pick up or delivery at redlobster.com

john thompson was sitting on death row at angola state penitentiary awaiting his execution when he got an unexpected call. >> "j.t., we found you some attorneys. they're from philadelphia. it's a law firm from philadelphia. they coming down to see you." >> the call was from a nonprofit group devoted to appealing death sentences. >> i'm on death row. i got a date of execution, then you sending me some lawyer saying that they're representing me. i'm like, "come on. get real." >> gordon and i normally represent big companies in employment litigation, trade secret litigation, but this is my first case representing a criminal defendant. >> michael banks and gordon cooney were high-powered corporate lawyers with an interest in pro bono cases.

>> the case itself did not suggest innocence. 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 very strong sense from reading john's file that things that happened in john's trial were just 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 penitentiary could hold, and so the first thing i asked them is, "do you really understand what you up against?" >> neither michael or i had any idea in 1988 that we'd spend the next 1/4-century working with john thompson. >> michael and gordon began

preparing an appeal. their key argument was that the prosecution's 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 elisa abolafia who knew new orleans inside and out as defense investigator on the case. >> if something smells fishy, there's a reason. humans lie, and they do things for their own advancement in their careers or for some cash. people are very unscrupulous. >> seeking a reward that today would be worth more than $30,000, richard perkins requested a meeting with the representative of the liuzza family. the conversation was recorded by police. >> mr. liuzza asked me to meet with you, and ... >> i don't mind helping them catch them, but i'd like him to help me, and i'll help me. >> because i know he will

appreciate it. >> you know, everybody up in there figure it's behind the reward he has, you know, but hey. we poor, you know. i ain't going to say my mama couldn't use nothing like that. >> all right. well, i'll tell you what. if you can give us all this information, we'll be straight with you. >> i just need help, you know, period. our family is large, you know, and we doing bad because my daddy has been gone all these years. >> maybe we can help you out with yours then, okay? >> people were paid to testify. you give a tip, and if it leads to a conviction, you get a chunk of money, and it's very enticing. >> perkins received over $10,000 in reward money immediately after the trial, and told by the police not to mention the payment of the reward to anybody. >> surely if perkins saying that he received the $10,000 to do this, the jury would have thought different about that. they wouldn't even have counted his testimony. >> gordon and michael filed their appeal in june of 1989. after 5 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 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. >> 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 aim 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 turn. it's my time," and so, you know, 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 did not commit. oh, anxiety kicked in. i didn't know how else to accept the reality that they 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 okay after i'm gone?" and then he spent the next 20 minutes trying to make us

feel better. it was not, "how could you let this happen to me?" it's not, "what are you going to do to save my life?" it was about making us feel better about what we had done for him in making sure his son was going to be okay. that's the kind of a guy john thompson is. >> we were mostly silent on the way from angola to new orleans. there was very little to be said. on the way, gordon checked his voice mail. >> gordon had a message from elisa. >> so they're driving very solemnly, like, "it's over." as they're exiting angola, and they had no cell phone coverage for miles and miles and miles, and i, of course, calling their office in philadelphia, just berserk. i'm going nuts. >> there on my voice mail was a message from elisa saying, "i found something very important. i think this is really big. you have to call me right away," end of message.

cologuard:

colon cancer screening for people 45 plus at average risk. some things are harder than you thought. and others are easier. like screening for colon cancer with me, cologuard. i'm noninvasive and you use me at home. i'm also effective. i find 92% of colon cancers using dna in your stool. so why wait? cologuard is not for those at high risk for colon cancer. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your healthcare provider if cologuard is right for you. most insured patients pay $0. and my side super soft? yes. with the sleep number 360 smart bed, on sale now, you can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. can it help me fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet. but can it help keep me asleep? absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. so, you can really promise better sleep? not promise. prove. and now, during the ultimate sleep number event, save 50% on the sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus 0% interest for 24 months on all smart beds. only for a limited time.

♪ g♪ i want to go, go,es go where my baby is ♪ hey. hey. you must be steven's phone. now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. only with xfinity xfi. downlaod the xfi app today.

a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! this city is like the perfect storm for lots of crime. there's a lot of poverty. there's a lot of corruption. there's a lot of drunk tourists. there was so much crime in the paper and in the news on a regular basis, i actually never paid attention to the murder of

ray liuzza jr. until michael banks and gordon cooney contacted me. >> with john thompson scheduled to be executed in less than a month, defense investigator elisa abolafia desperately searched for answers. >> i, of course, was a complete nervous wreck because john was facing an execution date may 20th, so i began with the carjacking case. first, i read the police report. >> in 1985, john thompson 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, warren pope. >> when we got there, two cars were involved in a traffic accident, and i noticed some spots of, like, fresh wet blood on one of the victims shoes. there was also some blood on one of his pants' legs. he was uninjured and so was his brother and sister, so we assumed that it was the perpetrator's blood. >> police files confirm that the

carjacker's blood had been recovered from the victim's pants, but elisa wondered why that evidence had never been introduced at trial. >> so i went to the evidence room, and i see that the pants were checked out by one of the das and not returned. i'm like, "hello?" if they were so sure that john thompson was the carjacker, you would have tested his blood and gone, "ta-da," waved your crime lab report around the courtroom. that would have been your nail, so i knew that something was going on that was very unscrupulous and was deliberate, deliberate. >> the defense was never told that the blood had been tested, so that revealed quite a bit about the prosecutors who had been handling thompson's case. >> so my next move is to go to the crime lab and, you know, act kind of blase. you can't tip off people that work for the police department you're on to something naughty. i just go in and go, "i need to see this old report, please." i then get the crime lab report which tells me that the blood

type is blood b. >> we were incredibly excited because we know knew the perpetrator had type b blood. >> but we didn't know what john's blood type was, so what we did first was we called john. >> my blood type, i said, "i don't know." he said, "you don't know your own blood type?" no. they say, "do you think your mom would know?" i said, "i don't know. call her and ask." >> i spoke to his mother, "please tell me you know his blood type." "no, i don't." so i'm wracking my brain. i asked john, did you ever have surgery at any time of your life? because if you did, they had to draw your blood and test it. "yes, when i was a teenager, i was at charity hospital," like, thank goodness. again, scramble, scramble, scramble, go to my connection there who was the director of the records room. i said "3 weeks from now, this man is going to be executed. it is a matter of life and death. please dig it up for me," and she did. >> the hospital record showed that thompson had blood type o.

>> it was a smoking gun that demonstrated that thompson was innocent of the carjacking beyond question, and there's no question that the prosecution had clear obligation to turn over evidence that's favorable to the defense. >> the carjacking victims had clearly misidentified thompson. >> eyewitness testimony is so unreliable, and the more traumatic the event is that they witnessed, the more likely it is that they're going to be wrong in their recollections and their identifications. >> with clear evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, michael and gordon now felt they had no choice but to go after the legendary district attorney of orleans parrish, harry connick sr. >> harry connick sr. was certainly an iconic figure. he was a big fan of jazz music and actually had a regular singing gig in new orleans, 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 2, maybe 3 hours. we've got an execution date in less than 2 weeks, and we said, "if you can't agree even with these facts, we'll, you know, 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. upon learning of the hidden blood evidence, judge quinlan grew furious with connick. >> he said he was going to hold

a hearing in open court to try to determine exactly how this had happened. he wanted all the citizens of new orleans to see. >> at the hearing, attorneys questioned the key prosecutors involved with thompson's case including jim williams, the man with the little electric chair on his desk. a colleague testified that williams was given the blood results, but williams denied it. >> williams' story is that he never received it, that he never saw it, and so at the end of the day, the choice is between dishonesty and incompetence. they can either be the prosecutors who knew that evidence was being withheld in their case, or they can be prosecutors who weren't in charge of their cases when a man's life was on the line. >> visibly upset, judge quinlan overturned thompson's carjacking conviction. he also ordered a stay of execution and ordered 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. out investment ? rigorous fundamental research. with portfolio managers focused on the long term. who look beyond the spreadsheets to understand companies, from breakroom to boardroom. who know the only way to get a 360 view is to go around the world to get it. can i rely on deep research to help make quality investment decisions? with capital group, i can. talk to your advisor or consultant for investment risks and information.

that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa! 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. ensure max protein.

john thompson had been on death row at angola state prison for 14 years. by 1999, michael and gordon had proven thompson had not committed the carjacking outside

the superdome, but they had yet to prove their client was innocent of killing 34-year-old ray liuzza in cold blood. however, material michael and gordon finally received from the new orleans da's office provided ample grounds for appeal. >> the daily police reports showed us that these witnesses, freeman and perkins, had told very, very different stories in 1985 before the trial as compared to what they said on the witness stand, and we began to see how their stories were contrived to secure a conviction of an innocent man. >> there were numerous pieces of evidence inconsistent with john's guilt or consistent with freeman's guilt and that showed that freeman had lied at trial in his testimony on behalf of the state. >> after testifying that he saw thompson murder ray liuzza, kevin freeman was given a plea deal and only served 10 months in prison.

>> we also received leads from the police reports about potential witnesses who would be helpful. there was a woman who lived across the street from mr. liuzza, and she got a very good look at the perpetrator. ms. kelly and other witnesses testified they saw a man with a blue steel revolver, 6 feet tall with close-cut hair running past them. john thompson was 5-8 with a big bushy afro. kevin freeman was 6 feet tall, 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 in front of judge quinlan, and quinlan vacated the death sentence, but he refused to vacate guilt. >> judge quinlan refused to grant a new trial.

>> we were devastated. yes, it was wonderful to have john thompson spared from execution, but we were still looking at a man in his 30s who is going to be facing the rest of his life in jail. >> so you're going to take the death penalty back and give me a life sentence? i was scared to death even more so now. you telling me i never going home again? well, that didn't give me no relief, none whatsoever. i was doomed. >> michael and gordon appealed the judge's decision. they knew this would be thompson's last chance for a new trial. >> john's going to go free or spend the rest of his life in prison. >> arguments were basically two-fold. first, that carjacking conviction had been used to keep john from being able to testify in his own defense in the murder case, and secondly we argued that all of the evidence that we had amassed had shown that john thompson was innocent of the

liuzza murder. >> michael and gordon filed their appeal in february of 2002. five months later, they received the decision. >> i'll never forget it. a reporter called and said, "what do you think about this decision?" and i asked her to read it to me, and i said, "skip to the end. skip to the end." >> the last line read, "conviction and sentence reversed." >> i called gordon into my office. i couldn't get the words out. >> i remember it was july 17th, 4:30 in the afternoon. >> i, i was tongue tied. i said -- i couldn't, he said, "new trial?" i said, "yes." we hugged. we were ecstatic. >> but as michael and gordon began preparing for the retrial, they got an unsolicited offer from the da's office. harry connick sr. had retired, and the new da had ran for

office on an anti-corruption campaign. now, he wanted to make a deal. >> the district attorney's office was not really eager to go and 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 done proved, these people 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. >> michael and them was like, "john, we not talking to you no more as attorneys. we getting ready to talk to you as a friend. we can't control the mind of 12 people. we can only present them the facts. if 12 members come back and say you guilty, could you handle that? is it fair on your mom?

is it fair on your children? one hand you could walk out that door. on the other hand you might stay here the rest of your life, so before you make a quick decision like that, why don't you think about it?" ♪ applebee's new irresist-a-bowls now starting at $7.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. and i like to question your i'm yoevery move.n law. like this left turn. it's the next one. you always drive this slow? how did you make someone i love? that must be why you're always so late. i do not speed. and that's saving me cash with drivewise. my son, he did say that you were the safe option. and that's the nicest thing you ever said to me.

so get allstate. stop bossing. where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. this is my son's favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady? [tina] you're an old lady. cdc guidance recommends topical pain relievers first... like salonpas patch large. it's powerful, fda-approved to relieve moderate pain for up to 12 hours, yet non-addictive and gentle on the body. salonpas. it's good medicine. hisamitsu. now you can switch to sprint and get both (paul) i'm going to keep this short and sweet. an unlimited plan and the samsung galaxy s10 plus included for just $35 a month. yup. short and sweet. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com.

you will see at vgreat and look great.ee "guaranteed" we say that too! you've gotta use these because we don't mean it. buy any pair at regular price, get one free. really! visionworks. see the difference.

get it. get it. get it! get it! crowd chanting: get it! get it! get it! (crowd groaning) (crowd cheering) narrator: give your town a reason to celebrate because every goodwill item you bring home, brings job training and more to your community. goodwill. bring good home.

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. so i got on the phone. my mom said, "baby, i want you home. i don't care what them people say. i know you didn't do it. i want you home." so 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 had drained out of his face and he said, "the district attorney's office has 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, and he said, "you know, i didn't want that plea. it was going to hang over my head for the rest of my life. i didn't do this. you guys are going to win this case," but we've just lost 4 days of preparation because we thought there was no trial. >> we needed some more time to prepare for the case, and he said, "you won't do that. we're going to win this case. i can't spend another day in this place." as we walked down a very long corridor, we turned around and looked back, and there was john with his head in his hands. he thought he was getting out of jail the next day, and now we found out that he had to stand

trial with a risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. >> on the morning of may 7th, 2003, john thompson stood before the same judge in the same courtroom where he had been sentenced to death 18 years earlier, but michael and gordon had a problem. they couldn't attack the damaging testimony of kevin freeman, the man they believed murdered ray liuzza. >> freeman was shot dead in 1995 while committing a robbery. >> with freeman dead, his previous testimony stood as evidence that thompson had committed the liuzza murder. >> we had all this evidence that freeman had lied in his original 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 propose 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 into 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 liuzza?" the jury knew where we were coming from, and they were able to see the lies in kevin freeman's 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. >> and for the first time in 18 years, john thompson 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. >> john thompson's testimony was that he did have the gun, but he had bought that from kevin freeman.

>> kevin freeman sold the murder weapon to an unwitting john thompson. john was involved in buying and selling some stolen property. it's not something he's proud of. >> i was a dope dealer. you was a burglar. you was a robber, and you wanted dope. you needed to bring me some type of collateral. they was bringing me tvs, guns, jewelry. that was a part of a drug trade, being a fence. i'm sorry. that's how i came about being in possession of the murder weapon. >> the defense rested, and the case was handed over to the jury. >> the jury get up and leaves with your fate in their hands, and you try to smile while they leaving, all them passing right by you. all of them looking you in your face like for the last time. >> the pressure was enormous. it was almost like you couldn't breathe. >> there's a lot of nervous energy and small talk that goes on. >> but before we can sit down and order food, the jury reached a decision. boy, i was so scared because, i said, "what? they did what? how? that fast?" >> the jury took only 35 minutes

to agree on a verdict. >> so the jury files back in, and whenever a jury comes back, you're looking at every juror trying to look for some hint, and it seems like an eternity. >> and the heart, meanwhile, now is racing faster and faster, and increasingly challenging. >> this was the most agonizing moment either of us have had in our careers. and in our personal lives. and then the judge asked that the verdict be read aloud. what'd we decide on the flyers again? uh, "fifteen minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance." i think we're gonna swap over to "over seventy-five years of savings and service." what, we're just gonna swap over? yep. pump the breaks on this, swap it over to that. pump the breaks, and, uh, swap over? that's right. instead of all this that i've already-? yeah. what are we gonna do with these? keep it at your desk, and save it for next time. geico. over 75 years of savings and service.

athat will have you seeingf with adouble.n iphone 11 all on t-mobile's newest, most powerful signal. get twice the deal, with 2 lines of unlimited for $90 and 2 iphone 11s on us. only at t-mobile.

man: how can i deliver superior long-term results? it begins with a distinctive approach to managing money. that for over 85 years has focused on keeping confidence up when markets are down. an approach where portfolio managers work well independently. and even better together. who don't just invest, but are personally invested. can i find a proven approach designed to deliver results? with capital group, i can. talk to your advisor or consultant for investment risks and information.

the retrial of john thomson lasted only a day and a half. the jury took 35 minutes to return their verdict. >> when the jury come back, the judge asked them, has the jury reached a decision? the jury said, yes, your honor. and then said, will the defendant rise? >> there's incredible tension and nervous energy. and you just don't know, because juries can do anything. >> each word slows down in time. it's, we, the jury, find the defendant, john thompson, not guilty. i can't describe it. >> i literally felt like i was lifted off my chair. >> i looked around at my mom and

my son. the relief i felt of knowing that i'm going home. this is finally behind me. this is finally over with. >> we each gave him a big hug. it was a moment. >> after 18 years in prison, john thompson was finally going home. but aside from his freedom, he was walking away with little else. >> kick in the behind and $10. they didn't have no compensation available for nobody like myself. no matter how many years you do in prison you have to fend for yourself. >> so we approached the district attorney's office and we said, look, john lost the last 18 years of his life. you all nearly executed him eight times. you need to do the right thing. we were told in no uncertain terms we could jump in the lake.

so we filed a lawsuit against the new orleans district attorney's office. >> they proposed a settlement of $500,000 hoping to get half that amount. >> under the united states constitution, prosecutors are required to give the defendants evidence that is favorable to the defense, and these prosecutors did not. >> your job is to prosecute the guy and seek a conviction. that's your job. >> ada bruce whittaker received the blood report showing thompson didn't commit the carjacking. in a deposition, michael asked him if the prosecutors were obliged to disclose evidence. >> the understanding was, if you disclosed -- >> exculpatory evidence? >> exculpatory meaning what? >> that's a good question, i don't know if that's -- that's the kind of stuff that was never, perhaps, clarified to the extent it should have been clarified. >> was there training for prosecutors on what that obligation meant?

>> i don't recall there ever being training on that. i don't recall there being training, period. >> jim williams who prosecuted thompson was asked who decided what evidence would be shared. >> it was up to the attorney trying the case. we were expected to follow the rules. >> were there any other guidelines that you can recall as to how you were to make that determination? >> no. >> when we asked the prosecutors about their knowledge of the law that requires that favorable evidence be produced they got it all wrong. the district attorney's office had a handbook, it was flat out wrong. >> their failures of understanding were frankly pretty surprising. >> i stopped reading law books when i was -- when i became the d.a. >> a jury concluded that under harry connick's leadership, the d.a.'s office failed to provide pertinent evidence and violated john thompson's constitutional rights.

>> in 2007, the jury awarded john thompson $14 million. >> but the d.a.'s office would appeal the decision for the next four years. meanwhile, john thompson transformed his life, building an organization called resurrection after exoneration to help exonorees 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 $14 million award. >> five justices of the supreme court believed the new orleans

district attorney's office could not be liable because there was not a prior pattern of similar misconduct. >> the majority opinion written by justice clarence thomas found that even though connick's office withheld evidence in the thompson case, that was not enough to prove a pattern. and yet a study done in 2008 reported that during harry connick sr.'s tenure in one out of every four cases where the death penalty was imposed, evidence was withheld. >> that was crazy. if that is not a pattern, i don't know what is. so who is going to get the last laugh, jim williams? >> in the photo of jim williams with the electric chair of the five faces visible, all of them were released from death row. >> in my mind, we should charge them with attempted murder, this district attorney using false information that he know is false to kill you. it's premeditated.

so we're saying he can get away with murder? what makes him so special? the only thing he was hiding behind, a district attorney badge. >> unfortunately, the thomas opinion is the law of the land and it gives me great concern. >> make no bones about it, prosecutors are now a lot less accountable for what they do, because they know that if they don't produce evidence there's virtually no sanction for them or the office. >> john thompson's activism continues to sound the alarm against the supreme court decision and innocent people being found guilty and executed for crimes they did not commit. >> now i'm thinking about my children, the same thing could happen to them. a person could have that much power over your life, and without being held accountable for it. i can throw the evidence away, and still try to kill you. whether you did it or not, without no consequences. that's scary. that should be scary to everybody in the whole world.

we didn't deserve to die. not that way, not at all. >> she fought by she gave us what we needed. >> planned, calculated, cold-blooded murder. >> the dna can direct an investigation. >> it's