Harry Connick and his father

a little dash of lies, a little pinch of deceit........and that's the recipe for making a wrongful conviction (ok it doesnt sound as good as the original HCJ piece but you get the idea)

Harry Connick , the croner, the New Orleans native is the son of a  former district attorney
He has built a career on how cool he is in the other world of Afro American jazz and the numerous friends of a different color
There is one Afro American that may not enjoy his next x mas album with Brandford Marsalis
the Respondent in the matter of Thompson v Connick
It seems that in addition to siring children who make inoffensive, poppy, boring jazz albums the senior Connick also trained his prosecutors to hide evidence and win at all costs
Mr Thompson was sentenced to death for a brutal murder in Orleans Parish
Problem is that he did not do it and spent years trying to prove that fact from Angola prison in the swamps of LA
Only after a (and this is becoming an alarming/welcome/strange trend) a couple of lawyers from a white glove firm spent hours of thier own time trying to free him did he eventually become acquitted
he then sued the senior connick and his band of rogue prosecutors

The Southern District of LA granted SJ and the Fifth Circuit reversed.  Did i say that right?  no it cant be! the Fifth Circuit of Herrerra v Collins fame, of Kerry Max Cook fame, of the Angola 3 fame, that fifth circuit????  it has to be crazy if the Fifth Circuit which is SEATED IN NOLA reversed. 

as my old law school professor said, stay tuned see the link below:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-571.pdf

Although Thompson does not contend that he proved a pattern of similar Brady violations, 553 F. 3d, at 851, vacated, 578 F. 3d 293 (en banc), he points out that, during the ten years preceding his armed robbery trial, Louisiana courts had overturned four convictions because of Brady violations by prosecutors in Connick’s office.^{6 Those four reversals could not have put Connick on notice that the office’s} Brady training was inadequate with respect to the sort of Brady Connick on notice thatspecific training was necessary to avoid this constitutional violation.7
huh? Hiding the ball was a way of life for this office.  WHile his son shot to stardom the elder Connick was slamming cell doors on innocent men. 

The opinoin essentially says that lawyers know they arent supposed to cheat but unless you show that the county (parrish here) told them to cheat and trained them in ways to do so (see Dallas DA) you cant make a claim for damages. 

I am flabbergasted.  I though i seen it all but this tears it.