As Thompson’s case moved to the murder trial, the prosecutors, robbery conviction in hand, failed to turn over the witness description of the murderer. You see, Thompson wasn’t six feet tall with close cropped hair. He was 5 foot 8 and wore his hair in a large Afro in 1984. Prosecutors also failed to turn over the audio tape of their “informant” showing that he was paid for his services. And that additional “witness” the informant led them to? He became the prosecution’s key witness. He was an African American, six feet tall, whose nickname was Kojak because of his close cropped hair.
Authorities also failed to produce a police report in which one of their witnesses gave statements to the police that contradicted their testimony at trial. They also coached witnesses, improper conduct by legal ethics standards, to work around evidence supporting Thompson’s innocence. In all, at least ten exculpatory exhibits were withheld from the defense.
No, that’s not all. In 1994, five years prior to Thompson’s scheduled execution, one of his prosecutors fell ill with terminal cancer. With just months left to live, and perhaps fearing for his eternal soul, he confessed to another former prosecutor who was not involved in the case that he had withheld the blood evidence. The confession was held secret for the next five years as Thompson languished on death row. It was not disclosed until after the investigator found the old microfiche of the lab results.
