It's Time To Do Something About Prosecutors Who Break The Rules

My name is John Thompson. I am the victim of an attempted murder in New Orleans. The authorities know who the person is who tried to kill me, but they've never tried to bring him to justice. The man was a prosecutor, Jim Williams. He knew I was innocent, but he tried me for murder and argued for my execution. I spent 14 years on death row because of him, and four more in prison before I was exonerated in 2003.

Williams worked for Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick, Sr., who was the D.A. for decades. I was not the only one to suffer because of Williams' behavior -- he secured death sentences against six other men -- all of which were overturned, most because of prosecutorial misconduct. Connick's prosecutors sent scores of innocent Black men up the river to Angola prison -- either to die there or to live out our days on the plantation. Our lives didn't matter. They still don't. They wielded their prosecutorial power as they pleased, terrorizing the poor. They knew no one would care and no-one would pay attention. And they were right. No-one has ever tried to bring them to justice for it.

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