Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #266 Maggie Freleng with Faye Jacobs

Transcript

#266 Maggie Freleng with Faye Jacobs · Wrongful Conviction

0:00
Speaker 1: Like I've been thinking a lot about, you know, the
0:04
Speaker 1: difficult decision of having to decide if you want to
0:08
Speaker 1: take an out Ford plea, if you want to take
0:09
Speaker 1: any kind of plea.
0:11
Speaker 2: I mean, if I was put in that situation, would.
0:14
Speaker 1: I stay in prison to fight for my innocence knowing
0:20
Speaker 1: I might never get out or take a deal get
0:24
Speaker 1: out and then you can't fight for your innocence after that.
0:27
Speaker 3: It's a literal Sophie's choice, Maggie, right. I mean, you
0:31
Speaker 3: have this intense pressure. You know that they have the
0:35
Speaker 3: ability to say, hey, we're going to leave you sitting
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Speaker 3: in jail at prison for a year or two years
0:40
Speaker 3: or more while you await your retrial. Many, many strong
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Speaker 3: willed and brave and brilliant people have taken the plea
0:50
Speaker 3: because there's really no way out and they just want
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Speaker 3: to go home.
0:53
Speaker 2: Want to get out.
0:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, they have to go home.
0:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
0:58
Speaker 4: I didn't comprehend that I was going to prison for
1:01
Speaker 4: the rest of my life. I'm thinking to myself, are
1:04
Speaker 4: you saying that I can never be with my parents again.
1:08
Speaker 4: I can never go back to my bed, you know,
1:10
Speaker 4: my home. So I'm losing on my friends. I mean,
1:12
Speaker 4: all this is going to be taken. Are you kidding me.
1:18
Speaker 5: From lava for good? This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:21
Speaker 5: Freeling today. Lakwanda Fay Jacobs. On the evening of February ninth,
1:37
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety two, Kevin Gaddy and Tony Davis were walking
1:40
Speaker 5: down the street when a car pulled up. A man
1:43
Speaker 5: and a woman got out and held them at gunpoint.
1:46
Speaker 5: They demanded the jacket Kevin Gaddy was wearing. It was
1:48
Speaker 5: a Chicago Bulls starter jacket. In the nineteen nineties, these
1:52
Speaker 5: satin jackets were a status symbol. As Kevin was handing
1:57
Speaker 5: his jacket over, a struggle ensued was shot in the chest.
2:04
Speaker 5: Around the same time, Lakwanda Fay Jacobs and her mother
2:07
Speaker 5: were on their way to church when they saw police
2:09
Speaker 5: commotion near Fay's house.
2:11
Speaker 2: They stopped to see what was going on.
2:14
Speaker 5: As Faye got out of the car, an officer approached
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Speaker 5: her and asked her who she was. Fay was instantly
2:20
Speaker 5: arrested and taken down to the police station for questioning,
2:23
Speaker 5: but she had an alibi, and the woman they should
2:26
Speaker 5: have been looking for was at least fifteen years older
2:30
Speaker 5: than Fay. But it didn't matter. Fay was eventually charged
2:35
Speaker 5: and convicted of the murder of Kevin Gaddy.
2:39
Speaker 4: They knew all alone that I was innocent, but just
2:42
Speaker 4: wanted to use me as an example to other young juveniles. Therefore,
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Speaker 4: I was railroaded into the system. I am Lakwanda Fae
2:56
Speaker 4: Jacobs nineteen ninety two, arrested for capital fellowy murder of
3:04
Speaker 4: a friend of mine.
3:15
Speaker 5: Mkwanda Fay Jacobs was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on
3:18
Speaker 5: February twenty second, nineteen seventy five. She was the baby
3:22
Speaker 5: of a big family, six boys and six girls.
3:26
Speaker 4: I was always picked on by my older siblings, but
3:32
Speaker 4: I consider myself stronger than my other siblings, even though
3:35
Speaker 4: I was a baby. I come from a great family.
3:41
Speaker 4: I was raising the church. My dad was started off
3:44
Speaker 4: as a deacon in the church and ended up becoming
3:46
Speaker 4: an assistant pastor. And I was deeply involved at the
3:50
Speaker 4: age of four years old.
3:54
Speaker 5: Facing in the church choir, and was an outgoing child
3:56
Speaker 5: and teenager.
3:58
Speaker 4: And I'm just a people person. That's just the type
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Speaker 4: of personality I've always had. I was a friends with
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Speaker 4: everybody from church people. I even had friends that were
4:09
Speaker 4: gang members, you know, just a typical teenager. I had fights,
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Speaker 4: I had boyfriends, I did a lot. You know, That's
4:22
Speaker 4: who Fey.
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Speaker 5: Was, And like many kids, she had lots of different
4:26
Speaker 5: visions for her future.
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Speaker 4: I wanted to be a nurse. At one time, I
4:30
Speaker 4: wanted to be a beautician because I loved doing my
4:33
Speaker 4: doll's hair, you know, so of course I was like,
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Speaker 4: I'm going to be a beautician. My grandfather was a
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Speaker 4: barbara and my grandmother was a beautician. I even dreamed
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Speaker 4: of being in the army one day. But then later on,
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Speaker 4: as I got older in my teenage, I was like, nah,
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Speaker 4: I don't want to go do that. You know.
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Speaker 5: In high school, she played on the junior varsity volleyball team,
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Speaker 5: and she says she was incredibly popular and other students
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Speaker 5: looked up to her.
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Speaker 4: I dreamed of graduating, going to the prom, going to dance,
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Speaker 4: and you know, I could have possibly been the queen
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Speaker 4: because I was so popular. But you know, those are
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Speaker 4: things that will rob from me, that opportunity.
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Speaker 5: On the morning of February ninth, nineteen ninety two, sixteen
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Speaker 5: year old Fay got up and went to church to
5:29
Speaker 5: attend service. It was Sunday and she had planned to
5:32
Speaker 5: sing at two services that day. Afterward, her mother picked
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Speaker 5: her up from the house Fay rented with her brother.
5:39
Speaker 5: They got back to Fay's mom's apartment at two pm.
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Speaker 5: Fay's friend picked her up shortly after that, and they
5:45
Speaker 5: ran some errands, including to the laundromat and back to.
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Speaker 2: Her friend's house.
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Speaker 5: He dropped Fay back at her mom's place at around
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Speaker 5: five point thirty. Her Sunday was pretty packed.
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Speaker 4: I had another service to attend that night. My mom
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Speaker 4: and I were going to singing at another church.
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Speaker 5: Fay's MoMA wrapped home shortly after and found Fay relaxing
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Speaker 5: on the couch. Fay was still in her white church clothes,
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Speaker 5: but at the same time, over a mile away, a
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Speaker 5: situation was unfolding that would change Fay's life forever. Seventeen
6:20
Speaker 5: year old Kevin Gaddy and his friend Tony Davis, who
6:22
Speaker 5: was fourteen, were walking down the street when a gray
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Speaker 5: car pulled up. A man and a woman got out.
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Speaker 5: The woman had a gun and they demanded the jacket.
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Speaker 5: Kevin Gaddy was wearing a Chicago Bulls starter jacket. As
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Speaker 5: Kevin was handing it over, he put his hand in
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Speaker 5: his coat pocket to get his brush. That's when things
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Speaker 5: got messy and the woman shot Kevin in the chest.
6:42
Speaker 5: On their way to their second church event of the day,
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Speaker 5: Fay and her mom passed the crime scene right outside
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Speaker 5: Fay's house, so they stopped to see what was going on.
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Speaker 5: As Fay got out of the car, a police officer
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Speaker 5: grabbed her.
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Speaker 4: And I was instantly through on the car put in handcuffs.
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Speaker 4: At this time, I didn't know that a shooting had occurred.
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Speaker 4: I was already hancussed. Once I said who I was
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Speaker 4: and that I lived there too as well, at the
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Speaker 4: house that they were at. I was put in the
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Speaker 4: back seat of the car and taken to the Little
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Speaker 4: Rock police apartment. Not knowing what is going.
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Speaker 2: On at the precinct.
7:21
Speaker 5: The police asked Faye if they could do a gun
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Speaker 5: shot residue test on.
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Speaker 4: Her, and so after my gun residue was negative, they
7:29
Speaker 4: was like, well, we're gonna let her go home, you know.
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Speaker 4: And he's like, if you hear anything about a shooting,
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Speaker 4: let us know, And I was like, who shot? What
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Speaker 4: is going on?
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Speaker 5: It wasn't until days later that Fay learned it was
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Speaker 5: her friend Kevin, who was shot and killed outside of
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Speaker 5: her house.
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Speaker 4: Kevin and I were both the same age, but he
7:49
Speaker 4: was a few months older than me, and he was
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Speaker 4: real known for his scooter and his skills with basketball.
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Speaker 4: I always, even as a kid, I used to say,
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Speaker 4: you're gonna go big, Kevin, you know, because he was
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Speaker 4: so good at basketball, you know. But like I said,
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Speaker 4: from kindergarten to seventh grade, him and I went to
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Speaker 4: school together.
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Speaker 2: Kevin was pronounced dead less than an hour after he
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Speaker 2: was shot.
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Speaker 4: And it was so unbelievable because I knew he was
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Speaker 4: such a good kid, He was a good friend, and
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Speaker 4: it was just very devastating to learn that he had
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Speaker 4: been shot.
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Speaker 5: During their investigation into Kevin's murder, police found at least
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Speaker 5: eight eyewitnesses who saw the shooting. The descriptions of the
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Speaker 5: woman who fired the gun varied, but most agreed she
8:40
Speaker 5: was in her thirties with scars under her eyes, and
8:43
Speaker 5: that she was wearing dark clothing, including a black hat.
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Speaker 5: Tony Davis was the eyewitness closest to the shooting, and
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Speaker 5: on that very day described the woman as quote black,
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Speaker 5: mid thirties, approximately five foot eight, heavy build, medium complex,
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Speaker 5: wearing a dark ski cap and bluish gray jacket and pants.
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Speaker 2: With frizzy hair. Yet Fay, a young teenager.
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Speaker 5: Wearing entirely different clothing, had already been to the police
9:12
Speaker 5: station and been questioned. So investigators had her photo and
9:16
Speaker 5: showed it to witnesses. Five of them said Faye was
9:19
Speaker 5: not the shooter. Tony Davis was shown a picture of
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Speaker 5: Fay and two times, once on the day of the
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Speaker 5: crime and again four days later. He was unable to
9:28
Speaker 5: make an identification. But then nine days after the shooting,
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Speaker 5: the police brought him back in and again they showed
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Speaker 5: him a photo lineup, and this time he identified Fay
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Speaker 5: as the shooter. They had absolutely no idea what was
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Speaker 5: going on.
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Speaker 4: I was going to school and this day I wasn't
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Speaker 4: feeling will and I was at my sister's house and
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Speaker 4: my mom called my sister and said, the police has
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Speaker 4: come to my job looking for for murder. And I
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Speaker 4: was like, murder. I haven't killed anybody. And so my
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Speaker 4: mom came to my sister house. We called my dad,
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Speaker 4: we called my pastor, and we went to the police
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Speaker 4: station just to clear my name, you know, to tell
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Speaker 4: them I haven't did anything, you know, I mean when
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Speaker 4: I tell you, I had no clue that I was
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Speaker 4: even a suspect, and you know, and that could be what.
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Speaker 4: I was so young, but I didn't commit the crime,
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Speaker 4: so why would I even think that I'm a suspect.
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Speaker 4: I had no knowledge of it. And so we went
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Speaker 4: to the jail to clear my name, and at that
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Speaker 4: time they arrested me. They did not allow me to
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Speaker 4: clear my name. They arrested me and charged me with
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Speaker 4: capital felity murder and set my bun at one million dollars. Okay,
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Speaker 4: I'm sixteen, and I'm like, I had never been to
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Speaker 4: jail before in my life, and so I am scared.
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Speaker 4: I'm very scared.
11:12
Speaker 5: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
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Speaker 5: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
11:21
Speaker 5: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
11:24
Speaker 5: in the communities where we work and live. In light
11:27
Speaker 5: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
11:31
Speaker 5: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
11:36
Speaker 5: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
11:40
Speaker 5: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Before trial, Fay
11:53
Speaker 5: was appointed public defender James Kluet to represent her. At
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Speaker 5: the time of his appointment, Kluever's representing a client by
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Speaker 5: the name of Sean Riggins. As it happens, Riggins and
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Speaker 5: his brother had been among the witnesses on the street
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Speaker 5: when Kevin was murdered. Two weeks later, Riggins was arrested
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Speaker 5: for an unrelated crime. At that time, he ended up
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Speaker 5: telling police that he'd seen the shooter and that she
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Speaker 5: was actually younger than thirty, closer to fifteen or sixteen.
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Speaker 5: He was the only person to say that, and when
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Speaker 5: investigator showed him a photo spread of suspects, he identified
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Speaker 5: Faye as the shooter. Now this part gets a little confusing,
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Speaker 5: so follow carefully. Not only as Faye's attorney James Cluett
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Speaker 5: representing two clients involved in the same case, a clear
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Speaker 5: conflict of interest, but he also asked Faye to lie
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Speaker 5: for Shawn Riggins. Faye was in jail with a woman
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Speaker 5: named Bertie Walker, one of Riggins's co defendants in another case.
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Speaker 5: Cluette approached Fay with an offer. He asked her to
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Speaker 5: say that Bertie had told her she committed the crime alone.
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Speaker 5: In exchange, he said Riggins would not testify against Faye
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Speaker 5: about Kevin's murder, but favor rejected the offer, She refused
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Speaker 5: to lie and asked for a new lawyer. She was
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Speaker 5: appointed attorney Bill MacArthur. James Kluette was eventually disbarred for
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Speaker 5: separate issues. Fay's trial started a year later in April
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Speaker 5: nineteen ninety three. A man named Clifton Thomas was originally
13:26
Speaker 5: charged with Faye as her alleged accomplice, but the charges
13:29
Speaker 5: against him were eventually dropped.
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Speaker 4: So I'm going to court and I'm like, are you serious?
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Speaker 4: I can't believe this. Why are they doing this to me?
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Speaker 4: And the judge keeps my bond at a million and
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Speaker 4: he states we're charging her as an adult. I couldn't
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Speaker 4: believe that this was happening.
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Speaker 5: Prosecutors Howard Coopman and John Miller presented no forensic evidence
13:53
Speaker 5: linking Faye to the crime. They relied heavily on the
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Speaker 5: eyewitness statements of Tony Davis, who was with Kevin that evening,
14:00
Speaker 5: and Sean Riggins. When fegoes to court, news media is everywhere.
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Speaker 5: She says the case was high profile because of a
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Speaker 5: slew of killings of young people in Arkansas at the time.
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Speaker 4: Arkansas was on the rise of gang violence. Back in
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Speaker 4: the late eighties early nineties, and so of course law
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Speaker 4: enforcements was forced to do something about those crimes. So
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Speaker 4: they had a thing called Banging in Arkansas. It was
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Speaker 4: like the Arkansas was like a small Los Angeles with
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Speaker 4: the crips and the bloods, and they had videos and
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Speaker 4: they still had these videos. You can pull them up
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Speaker 4: on YouTube called Banging in Arkansas.
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Speaker 5: So I did this is the county corner for Little Rock,
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Speaker 5: Arkansas on one of the films.
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Speaker 6: Several years ago, when I saw the death rate was increasing,
14:49
Speaker 6: but the victims were becoming much younger and younger, and
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Speaker 6: began to see tattoos and brands on the victims, and
14:55
Speaker 6: began to notice that the violence just was increasing, and
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Speaker 6: drive by shooting and random shootings and retaliation killings, and
15:02
Speaker 6: it just went on and on. Until nineteen ninety two,
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Speaker 6: we had a record rate of homicides in Little Rock,
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Speaker 6: and it looks we've broken the record in nineteen ninety three,
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Speaker 6: and it's just gone on and on and on.
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Speaker 5: In fact, a half hour earlier and a few blocks
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Speaker 5: away from Kevin Gaddy's murder, there was another potentially related
15:24
Speaker 5: crime Around five pm. Little Rock Police Department responded to
15:28
Speaker 5: an aggravated assault where eyewitnesses told police there was a
15:31
Speaker 5: female perpetrator, a male accomplice, and guess what a gray car.
15:36
Speaker 5: It's unclear what happened with that case and something else
15:43
Speaker 5: related to this crime. To help you understand, starting in
15:46
Speaker 5: the late eighties, sports starter jackets were a hot commodity.
15:50
Speaker 5: An article in The New York Times from February of
15:52
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety discusses the phenomenon, calling it quote an increasingly
15:57
Speaker 5: pervasive kind of urban crime by young people willing to
16:01
Speaker 5: kill for clothes end quote. They cite that at the
16:04
Speaker 5: time these jackets went from ninety to two hundred dollars,
16:08
Speaker 5: which today would be about two hundred to four hundred dollars,
16:12
Speaker 5: So Kevin Gaddy becoming a target for his jacket that
16:14
Speaker 5: night was not necessarily unusual at the time. However, Fay's
16:19
Speaker 5: attorney failed at making a case that Fay was caught
16:22
Speaker 5: in the wrong place at the wrong time and that
16:25
Speaker 5: she did not commit the crime. Faye was able to
16:29
Speaker 5: testify on her own behalf, however, and she tried to
16:32
Speaker 5: make the case for herself that she did not kill
16:34
Speaker 5: her friend.
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Speaker 4: In my little mind, I'm thinking that you know, as
16:38
Speaker 4: soon as I go to court, I can just tell
16:40
Speaker 4: the judge that I didn't do this, and you see,
16:42
Speaker 4: and I'll go home. But the reality, that's not how
16:47
Speaker 4: it works, you know. But I didn't know that. I
16:50
Speaker 4: really believe that I was going to get out of there.
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Speaker 5: On April twenty first, nineteen ninety three, Faye was convicted
16:59
Speaker 5: of capital murder and sentenced to life without parole.
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Speaker 2: She was just sixteen years old.
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Speaker 4: I didn't I didn't comprehend that I was going to
17:12
Speaker 4: prison for the rest of my life. You know. It
17:16
Speaker 4: was until I got back to the jail that the
17:18
Speaker 4: jailer told me, you know, you're not going to ever
17:20
Speaker 4: get out. You know, you're going to jail, you know.
17:23
Speaker 4: And so I was broken inside, you know, had been
17:27
Speaker 4: ripped apart. You know. Are you telling me? I'm thinking
17:30
Speaker 4: to myself, are you saying that I can never be
17:33
Speaker 4: with my parents again. I can never go back to
17:36
Speaker 4: my bed, you know, my home. So I'm losing all
17:38
Speaker 4: my friends. I mean, all this is going to be taken.
17:40
Speaker 4: Are you kidding me?
17:43
Speaker 5: Fay's world had turned completely upside down.
17:47
Speaker 4: I had many days of crying. So when I was
17:52
Speaker 4: first put in, I was put in a cell all
17:54
Speaker 4: by myself because I was sixteen. But days later I
17:58
Speaker 4: was sent to an adult place because I was charged
18:01
Speaker 4: as an adult, and so of course I had adults
18:04
Speaker 4: tunt me and bothered me. I had even got jumped
18:08
Speaker 4: on it in the county jail, you know, because of
18:11
Speaker 4: this high profile. And that's the juvenile that killed the
18:16
Speaker 4: guy for his jacket, you know, that's how it was labeled.
18:20
Speaker 4: And so I would go to my room, I would cry.
18:23
Speaker 4: I wouldn't let people see me cry because if they
18:26
Speaker 4: saw that, that a show a sign a weakness, and
18:30
Speaker 4: they would really take advantage of you and do things.
18:34
Speaker 4: But yeah, I was very scared.
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Speaker 5: Eventually, Face settled into the prison environment, and just like
18:47
Speaker 5: in high school, her outgoing personality and love of people
18:51
Speaker 5: got her through. By the time she had been there
18:53
Speaker 5: for several years, she had started making a name for
18:56
Speaker 5: herself as a generous person to those coming into the system.
19:00
Speaker 4: And so a lot of ladies come in there and
19:03
Speaker 4: they don't have the headphones and things like that, so
19:05
Speaker 4: I always had extra so I can share with the
19:08
Speaker 4: other ladies, you know.
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Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, Tiffany Woods came to prison.
19:13
Speaker 7: I was incarcerated for Dwis. So they had moved me
19:19
Speaker 7: in the barracks with f A. And in order to
19:23
Speaker 7: watch TV, you have to have a radio. Well, I
19:28
Speaker 7: didn't have any family outside, you know, to actually send
19:31
Speaker 7: me any money to buy me a radio. So I've
19:34
Speaker 7: seen Faye just all bubbly playing games and stuff, and
19:38
Speaker 7: I was like, excuse me, ma'am, can I borrow your radio?
19:43
Speaker 7: And so she was like, yeah, it's over there on
19:45
Speaker 7: my bed. So that started our friendship.
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Speaker 5: Faye and Tiffany hit it off, and when Tiffany got out,
19:54
Speaker 5: she promised Fae she would write her.
19:56
Speaker 4: You know, being in prison, you meet people and people
19:59
Speaker 4: tell I'm going to write you. I'm going to support you,
20:03
Speaker 4: you know, all the way, and so you hear that
20:06
Speaker 4: all the time, and I have been let down so
20:08
Speaker 4: many times. Well with Tiffany, Tiffany left and she wrote
20:13
Speaker 4: me and I was like, oh my god, this girl
20:15
Speaker 4: really wrote me. And then she sent me a phone
20:17
Speaker 4: number and said I could call her. And I could
20:20
Speaker 4: not believe it because that was something that had never
20:22
Speaker 4: happened throughout my whole incoserration to be able to have
20:26
Speaker 4: contact with another resident that had once been there.
20:32
Speaker 7: A small loyalty.
20:34
Speaker 2: If I tell you I'm going to do something, I'm going.
20:35
Speaker 4: To do it.
20:42
Speaker 5: Tiffany and Fey maintained their friendship over the years, all
20:45
Speaker 5: the while Fay fought for her innocence. She filed appeal
20:48
Speaker 5: after appeal after appeal for reasons including in effective assistance
20:53
Speaker 5: of counsel face As her second attorney, Bill MacArthur, failed
20:57
Speaker 5: to meet with her before trial and failed to file
20:59
Speaker 5: any discover for emotions or conduct an investigation. He failed
21:03
Speaker 5: to show why Fay could not have committed this crime,
21:05
Speaker 5: starting with the description of the shooter. The shooter, according
21:09
Speaker 5: to Tony Davis's testimony at the trial, was a black
21:12
Speaker 5: woman with scars under her eyes and light brownish red
21:16
Speaker 5: curly hair peeking out of a black hat, and she
21:19
Speaker 5: was wearing a big winter coat and pants. This description
21:23
Speaker 5: does not fit Fait at all. She had no scars
21:26
Speaker 5: under her eyes, was wearing white church clothes, and her
21:30
Speaker 5: hair was in a top knot.
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Speaker 8: For folks who were very familiar with black hair African
21:34
Speaker 8: American hair, she couldn't have gotten her hair up into
21:37
Speaker 8: this very smooth, beautiful top knot if it had been
21:40
Speaker 8: a red curly dew under a cap just hours earlier.
21:44
Speaker 5: Right, this is Trisha Bushnell. She's the executive director of
21:47
Speaker 5: the Midwest Innocence Project known as the MIP.
21:51
Speaker 8: But none of those things ever come out, none of
21:52
Speaker 8: those things are ever investigated or brought to the jury's attention.
21:57
Speaker 8: You know, when you look at face case and you
21:58
Speaker 8: look at the evidence, you can really just think there's
22:01
Speaker 8: really no good evidence here, right, You can look at
22:03
Speaker 8: it and say, there's no good evidence. So how does
22:05
Speaker 8: she get convicted? Well, part of it is it's just racism,
22:08
Speaker 8: pir and simple, right, But you have a system that
22:10
Speaker 8: has a young black girl up there and the state
22:13
Speaker 8: is saying she did it, and what does that read
22:14
Speaker 8: like to jurors?
22:16
Speaker 5: The bias appears to have started with the cops who
22:18
Speaker 5: arrested Fay on the spot, and Fay feels strongly that
22:22
Speaker 5: there was racial profiling involved. Trisha is currently Phase attorney.
22:27
Speaker 5: The MIP took Phase case in twenty fourteen when they
22:30
Speaker 5: reviewed it and realized it's stunk of a wrongful conviction.
22:34
Speaker 8: So there's actually were a lot of witnesses to this crime.
22:37
Speaker 8: And when we went and talked to people, five other
22:39
Speaker 8: people who actually also knew Fay, So it was not her,
22:42
Speaker 8: including Shawn Riggins's brother who was standing with him at
22:45
Speaker 8: the car and said we couldn't see anything from where
22:48
Speaker 8: we were at the car.
22:50
Speaker 5: Shawn Riggins, remember, had told police that Faye was the shooter,
22:53
Speaker 5: but he ultimately did recant his identification.
22:58
Speaker 8: And that was the basis of few evidence that we
23:00
Speaker 8: used when we filed a federal habeas petition asking them
23:04
Speaker 8: to overturn face conviction.
23:05
Speaker 2: Filed that in twenty eighteen.
23:08
Speaker 5: The MIP also brought up in the appeal the four
23:10
Speaker 5: additional eyewitnesses who said the shooter was not Fay and
23:14
Speaker 5: who were never called to testify at trial. However, before
23:17
Speaker 5: a judge could respond to the petition, there was a
23:20
Speaker 5: new development. In twenty twelve, the United States Supreme Court
23:24
Speaker 5: ruled in Miller Verse, Alabama, that juveniles cannot be sentenced
23:28
Speaker 5: to mandatory life without parole like they was. Those who
23:32
Speaker 5: have received this sentence are entitled to a re sentencing hearing.
23:39
Speaker 5: But Fay had a difficult decision to make. If she
23:43
Speaker 5: was resentenced and released based on the time she had
23:45
Speaker 5: already served, she could not fight her innocence claim. And remember,
23:49
Speaker 5: there were two people involved in the crime, a man
23:52
Speaker 5: and a woman and a man was originally charged with Fay.
23:56
Speaker 8: And we know in the co defendants case, when his
23:59
Speaker 8: attorney asked for discovery, they dropped the charges. So we
24:02
Speaker 8: wanted to know what was it, specifically from the crime lab.
24:06
Speaker 8: And rather than giving us that, they gade an offer
24:10
Speaker 8: of time served. And that is when Fay then had
24:13
Speaker 8: to make a really difficult and horrific choice of you know,
24:16
Speaker 8: do I want to keep pursuing my innocence claim in
24:18
Speaker 8: this federal court.
24:20
Speaker 5: If she did, she could lose the deal to be
24:22
Speaker 5: released based on time served. So she had to choose
24:25
Speaker 5: accept this chance to be free, knowing she would remain
24:28
Speaker 5: a felon or stay in prison and continue the potentially
24:31
Speaker 5: never ending fight for her own exoneration. On July sixteenth,
24:41
Speaker 5: twenty eighteen, they accepted the time served offer and walked
24:45
Speaker 5: out of prison.
24:48
Speaker 4: To walk out of those gates. Oh, it was such
24:53
Speaker 4: a release that I was like, oh my god, I
24:56
Speaker 4: am out. Oh. Yet I had some emotions because I
25:03
Speaker 4: thought about the ones that I was leaving behind, and
25:07
Speaker 4: that was the life that I knew because I'd been
25:10
Speaker 4: there for over twenty summers. So you know, I had
25:14
Speaker 4: these mixed emotions. Yet I was so happy to be
25:18
Speaker 4: home with those that had been fighting to get me
25:21
Speaker 4: out and be around people other people.
25:26
Speaker 2: One of those people was Tiffany.
25:28
Speaker 4: She was gone ten years before I ever got out,
25:31
Speaker 4: But that whole ten years she was out, she constantly
25:33
Speaker 4: rode me, send me money, just was there for me faithfully,
25:37
Speaker 4: And that was something that I had never in my
25:39
Speaker 4: life experience. I had no one to be so genuine, authentic.
25:43
Speaker 4: It was just unbelievable. I was like, they don't make
25:46
Speaker 4: people like they make Tiffany anymore.
25:49
Speaker 5: Tiffany and Fay's relationship developed into a romantic one. These days,
25:53
Speaker 5: they traveled back and forth to see each other. Fay
25:56
Speaker 5: lives in Kansas City, Missouri, and Tiffany out in rural Huntsville, Arkansas.
26:01
Speaker 7: I am country. I would rather to be in the
26:04
Speaker 7: woods than the city.
26:05
Speaker 4: Do you bring her to the woods, Yes.
26:07
Speaker 7: As much as possible, But and then she takes me
26:11
Speaker 7: to the city, Like, we have a fishing trip planned
26:15
Speaker 7: here pretty soon, so I want to have to go
26:18
Speaker 7: get our tent.
26:20
Speaker 5: Wow, how's how's being in the woods house camping?
26:23
Speaker 8: I don't picture you as a camper.
26:25
Speaker 2: I am not.
26:26
Speaker 4: I am not. That's her and so where she lives, Huntsville,
26:32
Speaker 4: population seventy five. She's been there all her life. I
26:36
Speaker 4: don't think I would ever live in a country town like.
26:41
Speaker 5: I wish see your face right now.
26:44
Speaker 4: But uh yeah, hopefully in the future Tiffany and I could.
26:48
Speaker 4: We would live together and have our fur babies and
26:52
Speaker 4: the babies that you know that I desire to have it.
26:55
Speaker 4: We could be a big family.
27:03
Speaker 5: They and Tiffany hope to have a family someday. But
27:06
Speaker 5: since Dave was resentenced and released, her conviction still stands,
27:10
Speaker 5: so she's technically still a convicted felon.
27:14
Speaker 4: Because of this felony, I cannot adopt, which is heartbreaking.
27:20
Speaker 4: Yet I'm hoping to maybe possibly have a surrogate, so
27:27
Speaker 4: that's to go, and if not, my niece hopefully they
27:32
Speaker 4: can have babies for me something like that. And I
27:36
Speaker 4: also have three amazing babies. They are two Snauzers and
27:42
Speaker 4: one tiny teacup Chihuahua that are my babies.
27:48
Speaker 5: But as of adopting, life has been hard with the
27:50
Speaker 5: label convicted felon attached to her, even with the support
27:54
Speaker 5: of the MIP.
27:56
Speaker 4: When I do go for interviews or go to apply,
28:02
Speaker 4: I'm given a letter that you know, she's actually innocent
28:06
Speaker 4: of this crime, yet we're still fighting to clear her name,
28:09
Speaker 4: and so it helps in some aspects. But I've been
28:13
Speaker 4: denied Howsen in spite of the letter. So sometimes it
28:17
Speaker 4: does and sometimes it doesn't.
28:25
Speaker 5: Fay currently works as a receptionist for Chevrolet in Kansas City.
28:29
Speaker 5: She also advocates for other wrongfully incarcerated people and is
28:32
Speaker 5: on the board of an organization which helps formally incarcerated
28:36
Speaker 5: women returning to society. Fay's only shot at exoneration is
28:42
Speaker 5: now clemency, and her first clemency petition from Arkansas Governor
28:45
Speaker 5: Asa Hutchinson was denied. She cannot apply again for another
28:50
Speaker 5: eight years.
28:52
Speaker 4: You know, I'm just so happy to be free. Yet
28:55
Speaker 4: I'm physically free, but I'm not free.
29:01
Speaker 5: If you want to help Fay, go to change dot
29:03
Speaker 5: org and type in Faye Jacobs to ask Governor Asa
29:06
Speaker 5: Hutchinson to pardon Faye.
29:12
Speaker 2: Next time.
29:12
Speaker 5: On wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling Hank Skinner, I'm.
29:17
Speaker 8: Sitting there looking at that gurney and if you're fixing
29:19
Speaker 8: to put me on, and I could see it through
29:20
Speaker 8: the door, the handed door open, I could see the microphone.
29:24
Speaker 2: I could see the straps.
29:26
Speaker 6: Arm boards, and how was absolutely convinced that I was
29:29
Speaker 6: fixing it now.
29:34
Speaker 5: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
29:37
Speaker 5: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
29:41
Speaker 5: links in our bio to see how you can help.
29:43
Speaker 5: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and
29:46
Speaker 5: Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
29:50
Speaker 5: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
29:55
Speaker 5: by Jeff Cliburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
29:58
Speaker 5: production is by three the time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
30:03
Speaker 5: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
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Speaker 5: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
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Speaker 5: Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
30:13
Speaker 5: all three platforms, You can also follow me on both
30:16
Speaker 5: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
30:20
Speaker 5: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
30:23
Speaker 5: association with Signal Company Number one