Supreme Court: Withholding Evidence Now Officially OK

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Today I have the unfortunate job of following up on the case of John Thompson, who was sent to death row in 1985 after a New Orleans DA deliberately withheld evidence showing that Thompson’s blood type didn’t match a previous crime he’d been convicted of, and also deliberately withheld various other pieces of evidence that exonerated Thompson of the murder he was charged with. After the murder charges were eventually tossed out, a court awarded him $14 million in civil damages, but on Tuesday the Supreme Court overturned the award:

In rejecting the judgment, Justice Thomas described the case as a “single incident” in which mistakes were made. He said Thompson did not prove a pattern of similar violations that would justify holding the city’s government liable for the wrongdoing. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined to form the majority.

There were at least four other prosecutors who knew about the blood test, as well as a number of other cases like this one in New Orleans through the years. Nonetheless, Clarence Thomas figures this was just a single bad apple. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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