Another black man, wrongfully convicted of murder, has been freed after spending 25 years of his life on death row.
Jesse Johnson walked free this week after spending a quarter of a century professing his innocence for a crime he did not commit. The 62-year-old was convicted of murdering Harriet “Sunny” Thompson, 28 at the time, in Salem, Oregon, 25 years ago. His death sentence was handed down in 2004. The prosecutors decided against a retrial two years after his conviction was reversed by the Oregon Court of Appeals
The Oregon Innocence Project represented Johnson’s case and maintained that a “heinous injustice” had occurred in the handling of Mr. Johnson’s case. Despite being given plea deals over the years, Johnson denied them as he maintained his innocence.
“We conclude that the deficient performance by petitioner’s trial counsel did result in prejudice,” Judge Rex Armstrong said on Wednesday, per CNN.
“There were clear and unambiguous statements of racism by a detective involved in the case who discouraged a neighbor from sharing that she witnessed a white man running away from the scene on the night of the murder,” said Steve Wax, the legal director of the Oregon Innocence Project.
Despite his asking for numerous please move the years, Johnson was denied until he was ordered a new trial. None of the evidence at the crime scene was a match to Johnson’s DNA.
What is more sickening is that neighbor Patricia Hubbard tried to testify and even told officers that she saw a tall white man park his van, and enter the victim’s home, where she heard a thud and screaming and then witnessed the white man running from the victim’s home, but she was allegedly met with disregard and racism. The officer is reported to have told her that a black woman was dead and that a black man would pay for it.
Thompson was stabbed multiple times and her throat was cut. Johnson was arrested a week later due to a probation violation, while he admitted that he knew the victim, he denied being at her home the day of the murder.
“For 25 years, the State of Oregon has fought to defend their deeply flawed case against our former client, Jesse Johnson,” added Wax. “There can be no more heinous injustice imaginable than for Mr. Johnson to have heard a sentence of death pronounced against him all those years ago in Marion County and to then waste away for years on death row.”
Upon his freedom, Johnson pressed his excitement for the next chapter of his life and remained positive despite all the years that were stolen from him.
“I’m happy and excited and ready for the next phase now,” he said. “Been a lot of years for something I didn’t do.”