Wrongly convicted man who escaped death row dies of COVID-19

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A man who escaped death row in Louisiana in 2012 after he was exonerated by DNA evidence for a murder he didn’t commit has died of COVID-19. The Minneapolis lawyers who worked to free Damon Thibodeaux call his death earlier this month unfair for someone who never complained about a life that included abuse at the hands of family members. The 47-year-Thibodeaux, who eventually settled with his family in Texas, contracted the coronavirus in August, a few days after getting his first vaccine shot. He died on Sept. 2. Thibodeaux was convicted in the 1996 death of his 14-year-old step-cousin after he was subjected to a grueling interrogation that forced him to confess. He moved to Minnesota after he was cleared of the crime in 2012.