Innocence Project New Orleans
Thompson, whose wrongful conviction was at issue in the sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court decision in Connick v. Thompson, will create a public education and advocacy campaign to demand accountability for prosecutorial misconduct.
Thompson is the director and founder of Resurrection After Exoneration, a New Orleans-based organization that provides reentry assistance, advocacy, and public education on behalf of formerly incarcerated individuals in Louisiana and Mississippi. In 1985, he was convicted of two crimes he did not commit and sentenced to death. He endured 18 years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, 14 on death row, and seven execution dates, until he was deemed wrongfully convicted—based on a series of unethical actions by the prosecutors in his case. Since his release from prison in 2003, Thompson has been a leading local and statewide activist for more equitable and accountable systems of justice in Louisiana. For both his past accomplishments and future promise, Thompson has been awarded an Echoing Green Fellowship, as well as a Petra Fellowship. In 2008, Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans selected him for its award for Courageous Social Innovation.