John Thompson

Photograph of John Thompson and his sister, Debra Matthews, courtesy of Debra Matthews via The Detroit Free Press.

John Thompson died on May 4, 2020, after a struggle with COVID-19. He was 64 years old. Two days before his death, his sister Debra Matthews called his Michigan hospital from her home in Indiana. John was unconscious and on life support, but Debra asked a nurse to hold the phone to his ear. Hundreds of miles away, she encouraged him to keep fighting.

John grew up in a loving family in Muskegon, Michigan. He and Debra were adopted, each from a different biological family. John was four years older than his sister, big and tall, with a big, infectious laugh. He was protective, and would stand up for her at school. “He was good to me as a kid,” Debra told the Detroit Free Press.

As her brother grew up, Debra believes that early traumas got the better of him. “I think that John was broken when my parents got him," she said. He suffered from an addiction, which led to actions he came to deeply regret. 

John Thompson portrait by Mourning Our Losses volunteer RLP

During his years in prison, she says, her brother repented to God and to those he had harmed, and was a changed man.

"He had taken ownership of his crimes. He was not that person anymore.”

She had hope that he would pull through his illness, and had spoken with his doctors about his treatment. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

Three weeks after John’s death, the Michigan Department of Corrections would report as many deaths among incarcerated people in their custody as were reported by the entire federal Bureau of Prisons, a system more than three times as large. Also by that time, at the prison where John lived, Lakeland Correctional Facility, twenty-one other incarcerated people had died of the virus.

John was known to be at risk. He suffered from diabetes and had a history of strokes. His sister suspects he also had pancreatic cancer. She feels that Lakeland did not do enough to protect her brother from the disease that took his life.

"It really hurts to think that ... nobody really cares about these people," she said. "They still are human beings."

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This memorial was written by MOL team member Kirsten Pickering, from reporting by Angie Jackson and Kristi Tanner of the Detroit Free Press, by Justin P. Hicks of MLive, and by the Marshall Project.

Messages and Memories

To to family and friends of John Thompson. May he rest in power.

- RLP