HUFFINGTON
08.04.13
AP PHOTO/BILL HABER, FILE
THE UNTOUCHABLES
victims of the armed robbery for
which Thompson was convicted.
The blood on the cloth belonged
to the perpetrator. The swatch
of clothing itself has never been
found, but according to the test
results, the armed robber’s blood
was type B. Thompson’s is type O.
Thompson’s death sentence
was vacated, the armed robbery
conviction was eventually thrown
out and he was granted a new trial
for Liuzza’s murder. His attorneys
were able to show that prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence at Thompson’s first murder
trial, too, including an eyewitness
description of Luizza’s killer from
the key prosecution witness who
implicated Thompson. In the new
trial, Thompson was also able testify and give his alibi. It took the
jury 35 minutes to acquit him.
When the buried blood test
was first made public in late April
1999, Harry Connick, the Orleans
Parish district attorney, called a
press conference. He announced an
internal investigation, to be led by
Orleans
Parish
District
Attorney
Harry Connick
launched
an internal
investigation
in 1999 after
investigators
found new
evidence in
Thompson’s
case.