A prisoner whose attorneys say DNA evidence proves him innocent has taken his fight for freedom before the state’s highest court.
James Thompson, 49, still sits behind bars at a Hagerstown prison — even after his co-defendant, James Owens, 48, won his release in the 1987 murder of a young woman based on the same DNA evidence.
“Thompson’s the case of the phantom accomplice,” his attorney, George Burns, argued in front of the Maryland Court of Appeals. “The state decides, well, Mr. Owens is not the accomplice. There’s some other accomplice with Mr. Thompson.”
Thompson is seeking to have the seven judges grant him a new trial in the murder of Colleen Williar, 24.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Marcella Holland ruled Aug. 24 that Thompson was not entitled to a new trial in the rape and murder of Williar nearly two decades ago.
Holland wrote in her ruling that Thompson’s 1988 confession outweighed the new DNA evidence. Thompson admitted to burglarizing the house of Williar and masturbating while co-defendant James Owens beat, raped, stabbed and strangled her in her Southeast Baltimore row house.
Thompson has remained behind bars despite defense attorneys’ announcement that new DNA results excluded either Owens or Thompson as the originators of semen on Williar’s body. The attorneys also said a blood stain on Thompson’s pants came from a man.
Suzanne Drouet, an attorney with Maryland’s Innocence Project, said Thompson gave a “false confession” after “trickery” from police and prosecutors. Burns told the Court of Appeals that Holland’s ruling is “simply a legal mistake.”
“The DNA is conclusive,” he said.
But Robert Taylor, an attorney representing the state of Maryland, argued that Thompson has exhausted the legal process and Holland’s ruling should stand.
“He’s had his process,” he said.
