Harry Connick Sr., longtime New Orleans district attorney and singer’s dad, dies at 97

NEW ORLEANS– Harry Connick Sr., who served as New Orleans’ district attorney for three decades before facing allegations that his staff sometimes withheld evidence, died Thursday at the age of 97.

Connick died peacefully at his home in New Orleans with his wife Londa and children – Suzanna and musician and actor Harry Connick Jr. – by his side, according to an obituary distributed by Harry Connick Jr.’s publicist. A cause of death was not provided.

Connick unseated the incumbent prosecutor, Jim Garrison, in the 1973 election. He won re-election four times, a white politician who successfully built biracial support as the city’s political power base shifted to African Americans.

Connick remained undefeated, but when he retired he was dogged by questions about whether his office withheld evidence that favored the suspects. The issue came to the fore with a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a lawsuit brought by John Thompson, who was acquitted after 14 years on death row in Louisiana for a murder he did not commit.