Man exonerated of murder dies of COVID-19 complications

A man who was wrongfully convicted of murder died of COVID-19 complications nine years after he was released from prison, according to CNN.

On Sept. 2, Damon Thibodeaux died from complications related to COVID-19 despite no history of underlying conditions that could cause more intense cases of COVID-19, according to CNN. 

Thibodeaux’s brother, David Thibodeaux, said he began experiencing symptoms of the virus shortly after receiving his second Moderna vaccine. 

“As we were talking, I was like, ‘Man, it sounds like you’re congested,’ and he said that he wasn’t feeling good and he was exhausted. He thought that he was getting a sinus infection,” David Thibodeaux said.

Shortly after their phone call, Damon Thibodeaux went to an emergency clinic, where he lost consciousness and fell. David Thibodeaux didn’t hear anything for a few days before receiving a call from his brother, who was hospitalized for COVID-19 related pneumonia.

“He called me barely able to talk. He’d go three or four words and then have to gasp for air,” David Thibodeaux told CNN.

Damon Thibodeaux was put on and taken off a ventilator and it appeared he was recovering from the coronavirus, but not pneumonia.

Damon was sentenced to prison for murder in Louisiana in 1997 after giving an “apparent confession” to the rape and killing of his 14-year-old step cousin, according to CNN. 

During the time after his conviction, Damon Thibodeaux spent 15 years on death row. 

He was exonerated by a court in 2012 after the review of DNA and other evidence.

The day of his death, he told David Thibodeaux, “Bro, I’m ready to get out of here and come home.” Later that night he died.

Despite having been wrongfully incarcerated for years, Damon Thibodeaux was never resentful, according to his brother.

“He had no grudges, and should have been angry at the world, but he wasn’t angry at anyone,” David Thibodeaux told CNN.

David Thibodeaux added, “I’ve never met anyone who persevered so eloquently.”

“He took advantage of every moment of it. He really explored himself and the world around him, and he accomplished a lot in these nine years. He was a remarkable man.”