Court affirms jury's $14 million award to a former death-row inmate

Prosecutors hid exculpatory evidence

In a tied vote that means a mandatory affirmation of the lower court's ruling, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the $14 million jury verdict against the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office for misconduct in the 1985 murder trial of John Thompson.

The full court reviewed the case, which District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro inherited along with the office in last fall's election, and delivered a split decision over whether Thompson has the right to reap millions in compensation from the prosecution that nearly sent him to the lethal-injection table. "Today's judgment raises issues that will continue to plague honest prosecutors' offices," Chief Judge Edith Jones wrote in her dissent.

The decision means that Cannizzaro's office remains stuck with the multi-million-dollar jury verdict, which, with interest, has grown past $15 million. His last chance is to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to accept the case for consideration. The cash-strapped office is still paying off a federal civil rights judgment from 2005 against Eddie Jordan, who was district attorney then.

Of the 16 judges who heard the appeal, the final vote was split down the middle. Another judge was excused from the case and did not weigh in. Judge Edward Prado, who wrote the court's order to uphold the $14 million verdict, said that the appellate court must give deference to the jury's verdict. He added that the Thompson verdict will not subject other cities to "widespread liability" because it is such an extraordinary case.

"The dissent is merely quibbling with the jury's factual findings," wrote Prado. "This oversteps our bounds as an appellate court. The dissent presents nothing more than a skewed version of the facts in favor of the District Attorney's Office...these factual disputes were for the jury to resolve."

Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the 1984 killing of hotel executive Ray Liuzza, He spent 14 years in prison before winning his freedom at a second trial at Criminal District Court.

Before Thompson's first trial in 1985, the Orleans Parish district attorney's office, led by Harry Connick Sr., prosecuted Thompson in an unrelated armed-robbery attempt, winning a conviction that caused him to avoid testifying on his own behalf during his murder trial. If he had chosen to testify, prosecutors would have been allowed to tell the jury about his attempted armed robbery conviction.

But it turned out that prosecutors in the robbery trial had hid a lab report showing that someone with a different blood type may have committed the crime. The information, discovered in 1999 after a deathbed confession by one of Connick's assistants, resulted in overturning Thompson's convictions in 2003.

Thompson was tried again in the Liuzza murder during Jordan's tenure as district attorney, testifying on his own behalf and using other evidence previously withheld by prosecutors. He was acquitted.

Original report here



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