And prisoner rights advocate John Thompson has died at the age of 55. Thompson was a former death row prisoner who was exonerated after it was revealed that the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office had suppressed evidence of his innocence. After winning his release in 2003, Thompson became a leading organizer against prosecutorial abuse. He also founded the organization Resurrection After Exoneration to support former prisoners’ re-entry into the free world. This is John Thompson speaking in 2013.

John Thompson: “I spent 18 years of my life in prison. Fourteen of them was on death row. While on death row, I received seven execution dates. I also watched 12 men be executed, leave off my tier to the death house, never return. Cruel and unusual punishment start there, you know? To watch a man that claimed to be innocent walk away, claiming he’s innocent all the way, and then you read it in the newspaper or you know he don’t return back to the tier because he had been executed.”