Saved from the death penalty but passed by COVID-19

A man who escaped his death sentence in Louisiana in 2012, after being released from DNA evidence for a murder he had not committed, died of COVID-19.

The death of Damon Thibodeaux earlier this month was the unfair “”, according to a lawyer in Minneapolis who worked to free his client after 16 years behind bars, after he was sentenced in 1996 for killing his 14-year-old cousin.

“I'm fighting to make peace with him, but you can't,” said Steve Kaplan, the now retired lawyer who helped release Thibodeaux and helped move to Minnesota to resume his life.

Thebodeaux, who eventually settled with his family in Texas, was a truck driver who landed at Jacksonville Hospital, Florida, after being affected by Corleone in early August. It was days after taking his first vaccine against the virus. After three weeks in and out of intensive care, 47-year-old Tebodeaux expected to return home.

I'm ready to leave this place and go home,” told his younger brother, David Thibodeaux, the evening of September 2nd. A few hours later, a doctor called David asking permission to stop Damon's reanimation after his heart had stopped beating, Star Tribune reported.

Kaplan and others from the law firm of Minneapolis Fredrickson and the Bureau helped prove the innocence of Thebodeaux, noting that his confession was out of harmony with physical evidence, that witness statements were at odds and that DNA tests showed no link between him and the murder.

The district prosecutor's own expert concluded that Thibodeaux had falsely confessed to the crime. He was released in September 2012.

Lawyers who worked for his release said that instead of being angry and angry, Thebodeaux kept a light smile along with optimism, kindness and grace.