Movie Script Revision Needed? High Court Accepts Case of Exonerated Inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the New Orleans District Attorney’s office may be liable for failing to turn over a crime lab report that could have helped an inmate avoid the death penalty.
Touchstone Pictures has signed a deal to produce a movie on the case of the inmate, John Thompson, who was acquitted of murder in a retrial after spending 18 years in prison for the crime. The Supreme Court granted cert on Monday to decide the liability issue, the Associated Press reports.
In 2007, a jury awarded Thompson $14 million for the district attorney’s failure to train its employees about turning over exculpatory evidence. On appeal, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals evenly split in an en banc ruling, which had the effect of upholding the judgment.
In the first trial, prosecutors had used Thompson’s conviction in a separate carjacking to obtain the death penalty. A crime lab report had found Thompson’s blood type did not match that of the carjacking perpetrator, but it was never turned over to the defense.
The cert petition (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) says inadequate training can be the basis for municipal liability if it shows deliberate indifference and creates a violation of the defendant’s right to exculpatory evidence. The cert petition asks whether a single violation of the right to such evidence—rather than a pattern of violations—can support liability.
According to earlier reports about the movie deal, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would play the pro bono lawyers from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who represented Thompson. The lawyers wrote the brief opposing cert (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog).
