The Innocence Project is housed in a beautiful old building in the upper 9th ward here in New Orleans. Downstairs, Resurrection After Exoneration (RAE) is run by John Thompson, a death row exoneree who has begun to share his incredible story with us. RAE is a nonprofit that helps exonerees from Louisiana and Mississippi readjust to normal society after incarceration. John keeps getting phone calls and has been running off and now we understand why. His story is all over the news as the New Orleans DA is threatening to file for bankruptcy instead of paying John the compensation he was awarded in civil court - $15 million.
John spent 18 years in prison, 14 on death row, and evidence proving wrongful conviction of an armed robbery, which lead to his murder conviction, was uncovered only weeks before he was to be executed. This got him a new trial for the murder and he was found not-guilty. I'm unsure if there can ever be just compensation for 18 years of a person's life spent imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit - but I'm absolutely sure that the DA's office that blatently heaped false charges on John in order to get a murder conviction should not be able to worm out of paying up.
Read the AP story that has been picked up all over the country here.
And click here to see John on the news last night.
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