Mayor Thompson's Mistrial

Jonesboro Mayor Leslie Thompson is still fighting the same issues for which he went to prison in 2013. He was found guilty of three counts of malfeasance in office by an all-white jury in Jonesboro, LA and the judge sentenced him to 11 years of hard labor plus five years of probation totaling a 16-year sentence. After serving two and a half years in prison, attorney Louis Scott was granted a hearing before the supreme court of Louisiana who overturned two counts for insufficient evidence and the third count was declared a mistrial. The lower could have dismissed the count but instead chose to try the case again. The new trial was moved to Natchitoches, LA and began on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. However, the same judge heard the case. The jury consisted of one black female and the rest were all white. By the grace of God and the legal acumen of Thompson's attorney, George Britton, however, Thompson's case ended on Thursday, Feb 20, 2020 in a mistrial. This was the clincher: attorney Britton asked one of the state's witnesses a question whose answer prompted Britton to request a mistrial. Although the state protested by saying they had already spent so much money on the trial, the judge had no choice but to request Britton's request and declare a mistrial. We now have to see if the Jackson Parish District Attorney's office will go ahead and dismiss this ridiculous charge or go after Thompson the third time for the same charge for which he has already had two mistrials. Had he been found guilty he would have been removed from office immediately. A more comprehensive account of the case is forthcoming in the Dispatch soon.