‘SO UNFAIR’

Innocent Man Who Was Freed After 15 Years on Death Row Dies of COVID

Damon Thibodeaux, 47, spent a third of his life on death row for a murder he didn’t commit.

A man who spent a third of his lifetime on death row for a murder he didn’t commit has been killed by the coronavirus. Damon Thibodeaux, who was 47 when he died, was released from prison in 2012 after DNA evidence helped to prove his innocence in the 1996 death of his 14-year-old step-cousin. The state of Louisiana spent 15 years trying to kill him before he was freed, but he went on to rebuild his life working as a long-haul trucker in Minnesota, and later in Texas. The Star Tribune reported that he was on the road in Florida in August when he was hospitalized with COVID, and his condition suddenly worsened on Sept. 2, when he lost his life to the virus. Steve Kaplan, a retired Minneapolis attorney who helped free Thibodeaux, said: “It’s so unfair... I’m struggling to make peace with it, but you can’t.” His brother, David Thibodeaux, told the Star Tribune: “He proved to everyone that he wasn’t the monster that they made him out to be... I believe Damon is truly home and has found peace that he couldn’t find in the flesh.”