In this episode of Bloody Angola, Woody Overton and Jim Chapman tell you some stories you will have to hear to believe regarding inmate of Louisiana State Penitentiary who were sentenced to DEATH ROW getting exonerated after DNA evidence or other substantiating evidence cleared them of their crime and saved them from getting the needle.
#DeathSentence #DNA #InnocenceProject #BloodyAngola #Podcast
*FULL TRANSCRIPT*
*Jim:* Hey, everyone. And welcome back to another edition of Bloody-
*Woody:* -Angola.
*Jim:* A podcast 142 years in the making.
*Woody:* The complete story of America's bloodiest prison.
*Jim:* And I'm Jim Chapman.
*Woody:* And I'm Woody Overton.
*Jim:* And we're going back to our roots, Woody Overton.
*Woody:* Right back inside the wire.
*Jim:* Back inside the wire. Just when you thought we got out. Just coming back here.
*Woody:* Yep. [crosstalk] They made me come back in.
*Jim:* That's right. Look, we talk a lot on this show about the advancement, especially DNA, something you've worked with in the past many times.
*Woody:* Yeah. This is a huge testament to DNA. When I started, it was really coming in its own. Now it's so much more advanced. I remember putting rushes on murder cases, and it taken six months to get the results back.
*Jim:* That's crazy. Even back, we talked about Sean Vincent Gillis, and that was really probably one of the first times they were ever able to really rush something to the point where it really helped because you had to get that serial killer off the street.
*Woody:* Derrick Todd Lee too. Still, even the rush back then took a long time. Not like it is now.
*Jim:* Right.
*Woody:* You know what? I'm totally for it. And let me do this real quick. I want to give a shout out to all our patrons. We love and appreciate each and every one of y'all. We love all you listeners, and bloody shooting to the top of the charts. It's because y'all are listening, liking and sharing. Please continue to do so. And we love y'all very much. Back to the DNA, it's just come leaps and bounds that continue to change every day. We always tell you Bloody Angola is going to be different, and this is different. You would think, oh, hard ass like me, lock everybody up, I don't believe in that. I believe if you're innocent you're innocent.
*Jim:* If you're guilty, lock them up.
*Woody:* If you're guilty, you- [crosstalk]
*Jim:* Don't wait [crosstalk]
*Woody:* [crosstalk] -you'll pay hella jail.
*Jim:* [laughs] Hella jail, that's right. We did want to preface this episode with some of these guys were exonerated from DNA. Some of them, it was other reasons. And we're going to get into that. The intriguing thing about today's episode is many of these guys that we're going to tell you about were actually serving in death row. They've been sentenced to death.
*Woody:* Today, we're going to be talking about people or convicts who were exonerated and released from Bloody Angola.
*Jim:* Yes. We want to kind of start this off. I'm just going to tell you about the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck, y'all, familiar with him through OJ. It was basically formed to assist incarcerated individuals who could be proven innocent, primarily through DNA testing. Although sometimes they find so many holes in a case, they'll pick up a case where there's so many problems that they take that case on and look for exonerations in those cases. The average prison sentence before they'll take on a case is 14 years before their exoneration or release. And so, it's a process, even with those guys, but we're going to them to it.
*Woody:* They don't just take anybody, right?
*Jim:* Yeah.
*Woody:* One of the ones I can tell you about if-- ready to get started?
*Jim:* I'm ready.
*Woody:* Is John Thompson. John Thompson was from Orleans Parish. I'll just read you some of the facts of the case, some of the highlights, and what ultimately ended up happening. Shortly after midnight on December 6th, 1984, Raymond Liuzza was shot several times in the course of an armed robbery just around the corner from his New Orleans, Louisiana apartment. When the cops arrived, they found Liuzza laying on the ground, but he was still conscious. He told them he was robbed and shot by an African American male and then took him to hospital and he died. On December 8th, responded to tip, the police arrested two men in connection with the crime. John Thompson and Kevin Freeman. Photos of the two men were published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and soon afterwards, police received a call from a family that had been carjacked several months earlier, claiming that Thompson looked like the person who had robbed them. Thompson was charged with the murder. Meanwhile, Freeman agreed to testify against Thompson in the murder trial, and in return, prosecutors charged him only with being an accessory to the murder. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. We're talking abo