Fear.less Magazine 13/7/2010 "Resurrection Yourself" by John Thompson
They fast on days of execution - no one eats anything at all – all they do is pray for the victim’s family, for the people who are waiting outside for the executions to happen, and for the prisoner. The hardest thing in the world is to watch a man who you became friends with and had known for years, get dragged away to be killed. Read more.
Reprieve 22/6/2010 "Resurrection After Exoneration" by Clemency Wells
In a small, chic art gallery in the French Quarter of New Orleans, three men stood on Saturday evening in front of a well-dressed, well-heeled crowd and told their stories. Greg Bright, tall, chiseled and imposing, Albert Burrell who with his cowboy hat, bolo tie and syrup-thick accent seemed to embody Texas and John "JT" Thompson, bespectacled, enthusiastic and articulate. Read more.
WWLTV Sunday Edition 20/6/2010 "Book tells story of inmate wrongfully convicted of murder"
Because a prosecutor withheld crucial blood evidence, a New Orleans man, John Thompson, was convicted of two crimes he didn't commit. He got out thanks to the persistence of two attorneys and the deathbed confession of a prosecutor who told a fellow prosecutor he had withheld that crucial evidence. Read more.
Times-Picayune 19/6/2010 "Ex-offenders set free to fail? A guest column by Jed Horne"
The warrant issued for the arrest of Curtis Kyles, in connection with the murder of a young woman earlier this month, has inspired I-told-you-so reactions from two very different camps. On the one hand are people who cite the warrant as proof that Kyles was a murderer all along. Others argue that he may have been turned into one by the twisting experience of his many years on Death Row and the lack of rehabilitative services once he was released. Read more.
Associated Press 22/03/2010 "U.S. Supreme Court to review $14 million judgment against New Orleans DA's office"
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider a New Orleans prosecutors' appeal of a $14 million judgment to a former death row inmate who accused them of withholding evidence to help convict him of murder. The court said Monday it will get involved in a case that divided the federal appeals court in New Orleans 8 to 8. Read more.
Gambit Weekly 22/2/2010 "$10 and a bus ticket" by David Winkler-Schmit
For most exonerees, no one is there to greet them when they get out. After what is often decades of imprisonment, Angola gives them $10, a bus ticket and whatever personal belongings they can carry. What they do have are numerous obstacles to overcome — no job, no money, no shelter, no clothes and no transportation — and the trauma associated with living in prison: mental illness and few life skills for surviving on the outside. Read more.
El Pais Semanal 18/02/2010 "A step away from death" by Alvaro Corcuera Ortiz de Guinea, translated by Anthony Ross Price
“I was only one hour from being executed, only one hour away from death, one hour from being murdered; because that is what they wanted to do. Do you understand what I am saying to you? I was only one hour away from being killed,” he says with a fixed gaze. Read more.
Shreveport Times 24/1/2010 "Death row exonerations point to flaws in system" by Alison Bath
Eight men have been found innocent of the crimes that put them on Louisiana's death row. All were exonerated before they were put to death and ultimately freed from prison. Most often, those exonerations came after it was revealed that prosecutors withheld evidence that was favorable to the defendant, relied on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch or used faulty eyewitness identification to gain a conviction. Those men aren't alone. Read more.
Jackson Free Press 12/08/2009 "Willis to be Compensated for 'Egregious' Prosecution" by Adam Lynch
Jackson resident Cedric Willis says he is happy that the state of Mississippi agreed to pay him compensation for wrongfully convicting him for the shooting death of Carl White in 1994, even though $500,000 doesn’t quite seem to cover it. Read more.
BBC World News 11/15/2009 "Adjusting to life after death row" by Dave Lee
John's time on death row was a constant battle against the law and his own state of mind. "You need to find out what they're trying to kill you for, what the rules and regulations is. They actually bring a warrant to your cell and tell you to sign it, for them to have permission to kill you. I never did." Read more.

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