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"Killing Time" An 18 Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom
Legal Marketing |
2011/05/22 13:43
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According to Harry Connick Sr, the former New Orleans District Attorney for 30 years, Angola's death row isn't such a bad place for an innocent man to spend 14 years, according to the New Orleans DA's office. Connick stated that John Thompson did not deserve the $14 million a jury awarded him, because nobody raped him and he got to play chess and watch TV. He wasn't denied medical treatment and made several pals in prison, prosecutors argued in an appeal brief. Our question to former DA Connick....How much would it have been worth it to you if you had spent the last 14 years of your life for a crime you were "FRAMED By" The New Orleans District Attorney's Office?
Thompson was railroaded in 1983, when Harry Connick was DA. In 2007, Thompson, who was wrongfully convicted of murder by Connick's DA office due to evidence withholding, was awarded a $14 million verdict by a federal court jury.
The jury found "that Thompson's 18 years behind bars (14 of which he spent in solitary confinement on death row) were caused by Connick's deliberate failure to train his prosecutors on their obligations to turn over exculpatory evidence"
"Killing Time-an 18 Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom" is a sobering look at our justice system, told with journalistic precision by our Guest John Hollway and his writing partner Ronald Gauthier. Told in careful timeline fashion, it details the story of John Thompson, an African American who was, in 1984, wrongfully convicted of the brutal murder of a New Orleans Hotelier, and sent, under a death sentence to Angola Prison to await execution. Thompson adamantly and unceasingly proclaimed his innocence. After Philadelphia lawyers Michael Banks and Gordon Cooney take on his case, they struggle to find areas of misconduct in his previous trials while grappling with their questions about Thompson's innocence. John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier have interviewed Thompson and the lawyers, and paint a realistic and compelling portrait of life on death row and the corruption in the Louisiana police and DA's office.
John Thompson, having been exonerated and freed thanks to the work of Attorneys Banks and Cooney is now deeply involved in the organization Resurrection After Exoneration or REA. He, once again, lives in Louisiana.
The Orleans Parish DA's office appealed and the case, Connick v. Thompson, was orally argued before the U.S. Supreme Court during the October 2010 term. By a 5-4 vote split along ideological lines,[6] the Supreme Court overturned the $14 million award in a decision issued on March 29, 2011.
The majority opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas construed the series of admitted violations to not amount to a pattern of similar violations of Brady v. Maryland (1963), and such a pattern was necessary to hold Connick liable for the incompetence of his employees.
The dissenting opinion, read from the bench by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, noted that Connick's office had in fact committed a pattern of violations, to wit:
• Failing to disclose exculpatory blood-type evidence,
• Failing to disclose audio tapes of witness testimony,
• Failing to disclose a deathbed confession of evidence destruction by the prosecuting attorney Gerry Deegan,
• And Failing to disclose eyewitness identification of the killer that didn't match Thompson.
There are other allegations of systemic misconduct by Connick and his prosecutors. "According to the Innocence Project, a national organization that represents incarcerated criminals claiming innocence, 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish during Connick's 30-year tenure as DA have made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and 19 have had their sentences overturned or reduced as a result."
For additional information on John Hollway's "KILLING TIME', please visit www.johnhollway.com
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"The Death and Life of American Journalism" by Robert Mc Chesney
Legal Marketing |
2011/05/22 13:42
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It is a frightening fact that, in a time of unprecedented advances in communication technology, the quality of that communication is in sharp decline.
Indeed in American Culture, quality journalism seems to be in crisis. Newspapers are closing, broadcast news rooms are being emptied of some of the brightest and most experienced reporters and public scrutiny of public business...particularly in the government...is absent at best and intentionally skewed at worst.
Robert McChesney brings his educated viewpoint to this crisis in the communications era. McChesney is the author of several books on media and politics, professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, host of the weekly talk show, Media Matters, on WILL-AM radio, and cofounder of the media reform organization Free Press. Free Press Co Founder and journalist John Nichols is his collaborator on this important new book
Not only does "The Death and Life of American Journalism" Take a close look at the forces...some economic, some accidental and some deliberate...that have put the craft of the journalist in a state of crisis...but the book also details how the same social and technological forces that have endangered the craft can revitalize it...and revitalize America in the Process.
For additional information on Robert McChesney "The Death and Life of American Journalism" please visit http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Death-and-Life-of-American-Journalism |
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Law Firms Paul Weiss, Lowenstein Sandler Sanctioned in Perelman Case
Legal Marketing |
2010/09/04 07:38
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A New Jersey judge ordered two law firms to pay $1.96 million in legal fees after sanctioning them for filing frivolous litigation they pursued on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman. Superior Court Judge Ellen Koblitz imposed the fees on Paul Weiss Rifkin Wharton & Garrison LLP of New York and Lowenstein Sandler PC of Roseland, New Jersey. Koblitz ruled the firms filed a frivolous amended complaint for the estate of Perelman’s late wife, Claudia Cohen, in seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from her father, Robert Cohen, and brother James Cohen. The judge said the evidence in the case should have convinced the firms that Robert Cohen didn’t make an oral promise before 1978 to leave Claudia as much of his estate as James would get. Koblitz said Paul Weiss, which made $650 million in revenue in 2009, and Lowenstein Sandler, which made $183 million, were unrepentant. “A monetary sanction will discourage a repetition of frivolous litigation, especially in light of the lack of acknowledgement of wrongdoing,” Koblitz ruled Aug. 20 in Hackensack, New Jersey. “Without remorse, or any acknowledgement of wrongdoing, how can they reassure the court that this behavior will not reoccur?” Koblitz, who dismissed the lawsuit last year after a trial, said that while Lowenstein Sandler now has an internal method to safeguard against frivolous litigation, Paul Weiss claims it has never been sanctioned for that reason in the 100-year history of the firm.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-27/law-firms-paul-weiss-lowenstein-sandler-sanctioned-in-perelman-case.html |
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Law firms join forces in Rothstein litigation
Legal Marketing |
2010/09/03 07:37
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Fort Lauderdale law firm Conrad & Scherer said it is joining forces with Miami law firm Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton to recover millions of dollars lost to Scott Rothstein’s Ponzi scheme. William Scherer filed suit last year against Rothstein’s now-defunct firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, on behalf of several defrauded investors. The suit seeks to recover $160 million from Rothstein’s $1.2 billion scheme. Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton was brought in to “provide the additional expert attorneys and support staff we need to successfully pursue such a massive and complex court case,” Scherer said in a news release. Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton specializes in complex commercial litigation and bankruptcy matters. Scherer’s lawsuit is believed to be the largest civil lawsuit in Broward County court history.
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Securities Arbitration / Litigation Lawyers
Legal Marketing |
2010/09/02 13:57
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Menzer & Hill, P.A. represents investors in the recovery of losses at the result of brokerage firms' failure to supervise their financial advisors who engage in unsuitable investment recommendations, the excessive trading of investors' accounts, inappropriate allocation of portfolio assets, misrepresentations and/or material omissions of fact resulting in fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duties, selling away, failure to advise their clients of risk management strategies and excessive use of margin.
In addition to their legal and arbitration experience, the attorneys and founding partners of Menzer & Hill, P.A. bring with them extensive securities industry experience which include in-house and chief corporate brokerage counsel, chief compliance officer supervising and regulating the practice of stockbrokers and financial advisors, as well as sales experience with advising clients and recommending the sale of securities and insurance. The attorneys and founding partners have essentially switched hats where they once represented the industry and broker-dealers, they now represent aggrieved investors. This yields a unique experience giving the firm intimate knowledge of the misconduct of brokers and the details and nuances of the securities and insurance products they recommend. Practice Areas
We represent clients in cases involving the following practice areas: |
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