Murder Conviction Based on
Impossible Prosecution Theory - The Timothy Thompson Story
By Timothy Thompson
Edited by Clara Boggs, JD
Editor-in-Chief
Justice:Denied
magazine,
Issue 27, Winter 2005, page 4
I am writing this story with the hope that someone may read it and
could possibly help me in proving my innocence.
I was convicted of the second degree murder of a Mr. Cygan and the
second degree assault on my wife in 1975. I have not been free for over
30 years.
My situation started after I came back from Viet Nam in 1969. I came
back using drugs and not thinking quite right. I was, and still am,
nonviolent, and I was sick of the military and the war. After my return
stateside, I jumped straight into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I got
married and tried to forget about the war. I became a hippie in every
sense of the word. As per the hippie lifestyle, my ex-wife and I lived
with groups of people.
In 1974 a friend of ours needed a place to stay so he moved into my
house to live with my wife and me. The prosecuting attorney said I had
a motive in the murder charge against me as our friend was having
sexual relations with my wife. The assault charge was for an assault I
was supposed to have committed against my wife at that time for having
an affair. I am innocent of both the murder and the assault. I knew
that my friend and wife were having a sexual relationship; I simply
didn't care. She had sexual relations with anyone she wanted to and I
didn't ask or care because that was our lifestyle. Since I just didn't
care, there was no motive.
My wife had no evidence of an assault on her; there were no marks, no
photos, and no doctor's report. When asked about the assault, everyone
who took the stand at my trial said that she looked fine and that there
were no marks on her. Police are trained observers, and they were at
the house within three days of the alleged assault, yet they saw no
evidence it had occurred.
They were at our house to investigate the disappearance of the murder
victim. There were no witnesses to the murder or the alleged assault.
There is a third party -- the actual killer -- who was also a friend
who turned state's evidence and was given immunity in return for his
testimony. His testimony about the events that happened while he was at
my house prior to the murder are inconsistent with the testimony of my
ex-wife. There are many discrepancies in how events unfolded, what took
place, who was where, and what was done. For example, my wife (now
ex-wife) testi-fied that I left our house with the victim at 2:00 a.m.
and returned at 7:00 a.m. Yet a friend, Rick Seward, said that I was at
his house visiting with him in his living room from 2:00 a.m. to 7:00
a.m., which made it impossible for me to commit the murder.
To top everything off, at that time I was shooting (injecting
intravenously) speed -- a very large amount of speed, for an extended
period of time. According to the testimony, I at-tacked my friend,
dragged him to a back bedroom, tied him to a set of bedsprings and
tortured him for part of the night. It was said that I beat him
repeatedly with a rubber hose. Later in the night I was supposed to
have put the murder victim in a sleeping bag, picked him up -- even
though I was strung out on speed and the victim outweighed me by 40
pounds -- carried him out to the garage, put him in the trunk of the
car and took him out and buried him alive. The fact is, there was no
evidence of abuse found on the body, hence, no torture.
My case is in the books, State v Thompson, 88 WN.2d 518. The trial
transcripts show it would take ten minutes to drive to Seward's house
from my house. The body was found by a river that was approximately
five miles from my house. Based on the prosecution’s
timeline, I would have had to have put the person in the car, driven to
the river through town in the early morning hours, dug a hole, buried
the victim and driven back to Seward's house (a ten minute drive) - all
within twenty minutes. To top this off, I wasn't even driving. I was
coming down off a speed run. I had been awake for a week. It would have
been impossible for me to drive in the condition I was in.
There are three different versions of what happened that night. I
proclaim my innocence. My ex-wife and Seward can't agree on what
happened, who was where, or what was done. My ex-wife said that we went
to Seward's house in the victim's car. Seward and his two kids were at
the house. Seward said he drove my ex-wife and me to his house in his
car and there was a baby-sitter at the house. Seward is the one who
took the cops to the body. A police report says:
“Richard
Frank Seward, witness to Thompson's at-tack on Cygan on August 6, 1974,
was placed in the Tacoma City Jail on a parole hold charging him with
withholding knowledge of a felony involving vio-lence. On October 9,
1974 Seward said that he learned from an unidentified person that
Thompson had buried Cygan on the east bank of the Puyallup River in the
vicinity of the sawdust pile and the Burlington Northern and
Seattle-Tacoma Bridge. Seward would not divulge his source of
information, nor would he accompany the officers to the site at the
time. Seward then met with his attorney, Gary We-ber, and Weber emerged
from this meeting with his client saying that Seward would cooperate if
granted immunity from prosecution. Weber then met with Deputy
Prosecuting Attorney Ellsworth Connelly and M. A. Steward, parole
officer, regarding immu-nity for Seward in return for his cooperation.
Mr. Steward and DPA Connelly agreed and Seward led investigating
officers to Cygan’s burial site. The autopsy performed on
Cygan by Dr. Apa of Puget Sound Hospital found no apparent cause of
death, but there was a good possibility that death was caused by
suffocation due to being buried alive.”
During the testimony of Dr. Wood, a pathologist who had done
pathological work for NASA, he said there was no trauma to the body. I
could not have beat Cygan as testified to by my ex-wife and Seward. Dr.
Wood testified that if Cygan had been beat with a rubber hose as
described by my ex-wife and Seward, the bruises would have been readily
apparent had they been there before death.
As of my last parole board hearing, I was given the rest of my time
which means I'll do another eight years and four months.
I have tried to fight my case and I have run up against the procedural
roadblocks of time bars, etc. At this time I have a motion for
production in the trial court that has been there for quite some time
and the transcripts I managed to get my hands on were incomplete or
altered; some parts of the transcript that should have been there were
left out. [JD Note: It is not uncommon for portions of trial
transcripts to be in the condition described by Mr. Thompson.]
As of this writing, I know of fourteen constitutional violations in my
conviction. These violations include issues with my lawyers, a
prosecuting attorney who knowingly used perjured testimony, no search
warrant, and tainted evidence. According to testimony at my trial, I
was in two different places at the time I was allegedly killing my
friend. So I think that the prosecution knows that I was framed and
will do anything to keep me from being able to prove that I did not
commit the crimes that I was convicted of.
I would be grateful for any help a person can provide me with. I am
willing to share any settlement I receive for my wrongful conviction
with the person(s) who helps me prove that I did not do the crimes I
was framed for. I am willing to answer any and all questions from any
interested parties. I have all of the pertinent paperwork with the
exception of all the police reports. I am in the process of petitioning
to obtain them. If anyone would like to help me I can be contacted at:
Timothy A Thompson 235088WSR A-1-01
PO Box 777
Monroe, WA 98272-0777