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As chief
prosecutor of New York's Kings County, which encompasses the New
York City borough of Brooklyn, Thompson launched a high-profile
initiative to review questionable murder convictions, some of
them decades old.
It resulted in 21 people having their convictions overturned or
dismissed over the past three years, the office said in a
statement.
Before he was sworn in as District Attorney in 2014, Thompson
served as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New
York. Among the cases he prosecuted was against former New York
City Police Officer Justin Volpe over the 1997 beating and
torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima.
"A lifelong New Yorker, Ken was known as an effective,
aggressive civil rights leader - and a national voice for
criminal justice reform," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in
a statement.
Thompson was born in New York City. He is survived by his wife
of 17 years, Lu-Shawn Thompson, his two children, Kennedy and
Kenny, and his mother, father, brother and sister, his office
said.
(Reporting By Frank McGurty in New York and Eric M. Johnson in
Seattle; Editing by Diane Craft and Alistair Bell)
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