. >> richard perkins confronted mr. thompson after the fact and got mr. ompson 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. 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 la guard, his sister mimi who was 16 and their younger brother who w

were coming from, they were able to see the lies in kevin freeman's original story. >> informant richard perkinsnd. 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 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