New at Reason: Jacob Sullum on the Disappearing Blood Stain That Nearly Killed John Thompson

March 31, 2010

John Thompson spent 18 years in a Louisiana prison, 14 of them in solitary confinement on death row. He was a few weeks away from death by lethal injection when his life was saved by a bloody scrap of cloth that prosecutors had concealed since his trial. Senior Editor Jacob Sullum argues that the Supreme Court should uphold the $14 million award Thompson won from a federal jury that concluded Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick had acted with "deliberate indifference" by failing to train his underlings in their constitutional obligations.

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