A man who had been convicted of murder nearly two decades ago has been freed from prison after his conviction was overturned. Jesse Johnson, accused of the 1998 fatal stabbing of nurse’s aide Harriet ‘Sunny’ Thompson in her Oregon home, consistently maintained his innocence. He was convicted in 2004 and initially sentenced to death, spending years on death row. In 2011, Oregon suspended executions, leading Johnson to serve a regular prison sentence. In 2021, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed his conviction, citing the failure to interview a key witness who saw a white man leaving Thompson’s house on the night of the murder and the absence of DNA evidence linking Johnson to the crime.
This week, the Marion County District Attorney’s office requested the Marion County Circuit Court to dismiss Johnson’s case due to the unavailability of crucial evidence and the significant passage of time. Steve Wax, the legal director of the Oregon Innocence Project, alleged racial bias during the investigation, including racist comments made by a detective. Wax criticized Oregon for not providing any financial support to Johnson, who, now at 62 years old, was left with nothing. However, a GoFundMe campaign has raised over $20,000 to assist him.
