Harry Connick Sr. Dead at 97
Retired New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick Sr.
Harry Connick Sr. has died. He was 97 years old.
Connick died peacefully at his home in New Orleans with his wife, Londa, and children—Suzanna and musician and actor Harry Connick Jr.—at his side, according to an obituary Harry Connick Jr.'s publicist shared with The Associated Press.
A cause of death has not yet been provided.
Connick was born on March 27, 1926, in Mobile, Alabama, and moved to New Orleans with his family as an infant. He went on to graduate from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and later served in the navy during World War II, according to New Orleans' Times-Picayune. By the 1970s, he built a powerful name for himself in the local political scene.
In 1973, while working as a prosecutor, Connick ran against the city's three-term incumbent district attorney, Jim Garrison. After dethroning Garrison, he was re-elected four times. He eventually retired in 2003.
Years later, however, Connick found himself dodging questions about whether or not his office withheld information that would have helped the defense. The controversy was first brought to the attention of the public in a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a lawsuit filed by John Thompson, who was exonerated after 14 years on Louisiana’s death row for a killing he didn’t commit. Thompson's $14 million case was overturned with a 5-4 vote, as the high court ruled that the New Orleans district attorney’s office shouldn’t be punished for not specifically training prosecutors on their obligations to share evidence that could prove a defendant’s innocence when there was only one violation.
Then, three years later, the issue was retried when a murder conviction against Reginald Adams, who had been imprisoned for 34 years, was reversed. Attorneys for the Innocence Project New Orleans presented evidence that detectives and prosecutors in the case had withheld critical information before Adams’ 1990 conviction. Adams later received $1.25 million in a court settlement.
Though Connick declined to comment on the cases at the time they were ongoing, he did defend his actions in a 2012 interview with The Times-Picayune.
“My reputation is based on something other than a case, or two cases or five cases, or one interception or 20 interceptions. Look at the rest of my record. I have more yards than anybody,” Connick told the newspaper.
He added: “I have to look at myself and say this is who I am. This is what I’ve done. Perfect? No. But I’ve done nothing to go to confession about in that office. At all.”
In a statement provided to reporters, current New Orleans district attorney Jason Williams expressed his sympathies to the Connick family.
“Mr. Connick remains the longest-tenured District Attorney, serving from 1973-2003. Such a longstanding public servant gives an enormous amount of themselves to their community — as do their families. Our thoughts are with the Connick family during this difficult time,” he wrote.
Connick is survived by his wife, and two children from his first marriage to Anita Frances Livingston, who passed in 1981. Information regarding memorial services has not been released.
