Jesse Johnson, seen in his hotel on Sept. 8, 2023, days after his release from Marion County Jail in Oregon. Johnson spent 25 years in prison and police custody for the 1998 murder of Harriet Thompson, a murder he consistently denied committing.
Documents obtained via public records request / OPB
On Sept. 5, 2023, Jesse Johnson walked out of jail a free man. He’d spent a quarter century incarcerated, including 17 years on death row, for a crime he always insisted he didn’t commit: the 1998 murder of Harriet Thompson in Salem, Oregon.
Two years after his release, Johnson is suing the state of Oregon and the Salem police detectives who locked him up for much of his life. The lawsuit argues that flagrant racism played a key role in the investigation into Johnson that led to his imprisonment.
The case against Johnson was the focus of the first season of OPB’s investigative podcast series “Hush,” reported by Leah Sottile and Ryan Haas. Today, Haas joins us for an update.
Listen to all episodes of The Evergreen podcast here.
