Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / 'Please Don't Tell' - True Crime Documentary

Transcript

'Please Don't Tell' - True Crime Documentary · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I have lived forty four years with his face etched
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: in my brain. It was everything that you pray to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: God never happens to anyone. For me, it's really tough.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I'm struggling. I'm struggling to do the interview at all.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: We were at our grandparents' house and Keith, our first cousin,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: came over asked us if we would come to his
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: house to help him clean. So we went to his
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: house and when we were done, he needed gas. We
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: stopped at seven eleven and as we pulled up, there
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: was a man standing there. He said, well, can you
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: give me a ride? Instantly we knew something wasn't right,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: but Keith told him he would give him a ride.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I think we just cut off circulation in each other's hands.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: We were squeezing our hands so tight because you just
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: have a gut feeling that this is not good. He
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: was telling us the directions on where to go, which
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: took us to the little California Road. He told us
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to get out of the car. He opens the trunk
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and he puts Keith in the trunk. At that point,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: he tells us to take off our clothes.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Did you plan to tell anybody what happened.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: No, why because we were afraid he would come back
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: and kill us.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: When did the twins actually go to the police.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: I think it was about two weeks later, A little
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: bit more than two weeks.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: You said the man was black. Yes, Did they ever
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: give you a ride?
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: No?
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Did you ever meet them at a gas station? No?
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: Never. I didn't rape Karen and Sharon's sadness, I don't
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: know these people.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: When I saw him in that lineup, I didn't have
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: to think twice. When I looked at him, I knew him.
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: He got convicted and received two fifty year consecutive sentences.
• 2:52
  Speaker 7: That's insane, It's horrible.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: It disgusted me. There's no hairs, no fibers, no blood,
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: no sweat, no seatman, there's nothing. Vincent Simmons is an
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: innocent man who was railroaded by a racist system.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Is it possible that you picked the wrong man?
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: No? No. When I close my eyes, there's no other
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: face that I see.
• 3:21
  Speaker 7: Stop it, Stop it. What are we gonna talk about
• 3:25
  Speaker 7: the facts?
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Why did we pick him? Why it was mister Simmons,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Because it was mister Simmons. Every time I talk about
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: it makes me feel like I'm fourteen, again.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Four identical twins, Karen and Sharon Sanders. Life is broken
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: into two parts. Before May nineteen seventy seven and after,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: They say, what happened one night that may changed everything.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: The limitations it put on our life, like with anxiety, depression,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: panic attacks, scrippling. Really, it's taken a lot from us.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Back in nineteen seventy seven, the fourteen year old twins
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: were living with their grandparents in the quiet small town
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: of Marksville, Louisiana, and for the most part, they say,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: they were happy there, staying busy and enjoying the little
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: things in life.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I it was all about makeup and perfume and being prissy,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and Karen was more outside playing in the dirt. This
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: is true.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Life was simple until it wasn't. What makes it so
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: difficult for you, Karen, forty four years later to even talk.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: About, Well, it's a lot happened that night.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: The twins they it all began May ninth, nineteen seventy seven,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: when their cousin, Keith Leboard, picked them up so that
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: they could help him clean his house. By the time
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: they finished cleaning, it was just beginning to get dark.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Keith was driving them home and that's when they say
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: he stopped at that gas station and encountered a black man.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: He walked up to the car and told Keith that
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: he almost hit him, and Keith, you know, did not
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and Keith was told him he didn't want to fight,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and he said, I don't fight, I shoot. The man
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: said this, yes, man said it instantly. Karen went inside
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to pay for the gas and me and Keith were
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: talking to this man and we exchanged names, and he
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: said his name was Simmons.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: The twins say any tension between Keith and the man
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: soon lifted, and that's why they say Keith agreed to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: give the man a ride.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: We were like, Keith, you know, dalk and he's like,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: it'll be okay, It'll be okay.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: But they say they knew it wasn't okay when the
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: man directed them to that desolate area of Little California
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Road and threatened them.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: He told us that before we could get a gun,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: he would shoot us, which we did not have a gun,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: so we knew he had a gun.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: They say the man ordered them out of the vehicle
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: and forced Keith into the trunk. Keith's hold eighteen, so
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: he got in the.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Trunk yeah, I did. He tells us to take off
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: our clothes. Karen started to run at that point and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I yelled and she stopped. He said, this one's going
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to give me trouble. And so he opened the trunk
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and he put me in the trunk with Keith and
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: he had Sharon. I took off my clothes. He told
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: me to get in the back seat and I did,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: and he told me how to lay and I did.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I can hear Sharon crying, and of course I can't
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: take it. So I'm banging on the trunk and I'm
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: banging and I'm screaming, take me, take me, leave her alone,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: take me, take me. Karen was back there making all
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: cons of commotion, and things didn't work out for him
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: with me, and he was very frustrated. You could see
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: it and fill it. And he got very aggravated and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: told me to put my clothes back on.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And when you say things didn't work out for him,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: what do you mean?
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: He tried to penetrate and was unsuccessful. But at the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: time I was fourteen, I did not know he was unsuccessful.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I really thought you had lost your virginia. I had
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: lost my virginity. I had no clue.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Afterwards, Sharon says she was put in the t with
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Karen and Keith and then the man started driving.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: We just found each other's hands and began to pray,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: and then the car stopped and he said you out
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and pointed at you.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Karen.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, he told me to lay in the back seat.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: H he write me.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Then, with Sharon and Keith still in the trunk, Karen says,
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: the man just wanted to talk.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: It's like nothing had happened, that we were like best friends,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that we were just hanging.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Out and you went along with it, just talking.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Absolutely to keep him calm.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: And how long did this go on for?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: To me a lifetime. He told me he came from
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: a large family, about where he had lived and all this,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and he had just gotten back from Texas. She says.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: When they stopped talking, the man raped her again multiple times.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I remember like laying in that back seat in his chest,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I mean his heaviness on my chest and the sweat
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and it was just disgusting.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: She says. He then drove them to a local cemetery
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: where he got out of the car.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: He opens the drunk and he lets them out. He's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: gonna let us go and he tells us, if you
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: tell anyone, I know where y'all live. I've got friends,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: he said, and I will come back. And we all
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: swore to each other that we would not tell a.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Soul, they say. Just the fear of what might happen
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: if they told kept them silent for two weeks until
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Karen says she couldn't keep it in anymore. She says
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: she can fight it in Keith's sister and.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I said, but please, please don't tell any one. Please
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: don't tell anyone, She said, I'm not going to tell
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: any more. And it just unraveled from there.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: The next day, Keith's parents found out, and soon Karen, Sharon,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and Keith all ended up at the sheriff's office. Karen
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and Sharon each gave statements reporting that they had been raped,
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: and less than twenty four hours later, on the morning
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: of May twenty third, nineteen seventy seven, twenty five year
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: old Vincent Simmons was taken into custody as he was
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: walking down the street. Did you know Karen and Sharon Sanders.
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: Never seen him before in my life.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: It was May twenty, nineteen seventy seven, when Vincent Simmons
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: was brought to the sheriff's office, which used to be
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: here on the second floor of the Avoyle's Paris Courthouse
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: in Marksville.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: And they took me in, putting me in a line up.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Karen, Sharon, and Keith were all there to see if
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: they could identify a suspect.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: We're all three in the room, but we're not all
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: walking up to the window at the same time. Keith
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: goes first. Keith writes the number down on a pad.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I'll walk up, I look at him, and I go
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to the pad. I write his number down, and then
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Sharon goes up to the window, looks out and writes
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: on a number down.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: What number did you all write? Four?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Four? And then they said remember that, Oh my gosh. Yeah.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Then they said to us, y'allivall picked the same man.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: That man they identified was twenty five year old Vincent Simmons.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: He was from a big family in the next town
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: over from Marxville, and this wasn't the first time he
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: found himself in the sheriff's office.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: I didn't have a daddy, you know, so basically I
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: grew up on my own looking out for my little sisters.
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: I was doing wrong. I was going in the store
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: just to get food to feed them.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Vincent was convicted of a home burglary at the age
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: of eighteen. While incarcerated, he escaped from the jail in Marxville.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: He lived on the run in Texas for nearly six
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: years until he came back to town shortly before that lineup.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And when I walked up to the window and I looked,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I had no second doubt. I know exactly who.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Right that night, after Sharon, Karen and Keith ided Vincent,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: he says he was brought upstairs to the jail where
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: he waited while an officer was writing something down.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: I'm sitting on a chair and a handcuff. When he
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: gets too he said, I want you to sign, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: I said, what is that? He said, this is a confesson,
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: saying that you committed this crime. And said, what crime?
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: You know? He said, wait for it. Those two white girls, said,
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't even know the white girl.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Vincent says when he refused to sign the confession, the
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: officer knocked him down, and as they struggled, another officer
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: shot him. Boom.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: I burned it through my chest, you know, and I
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: fell on the floor. When I woke up, him in
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: the hospital.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Now, the two officers involved tell a very different story.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: They say Vincent grabbed one officer's gun and was pointing
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: it at both of them when the second officer shot
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Vincent in the show in self defense. Whatever the truth,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Vincent was never prosecuted for that incident. Instead, less than
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: two months after he was shot, he was brought to
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: court to face Karen and Sharon. Less than sixty days
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: after he was arrested, Vincent went on trial. Is that
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: a pretty rapid time.
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: In nineteen seventy seven, I would say for major cases,
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: they went to court quickly.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Charles Riddle was not the district attorney back then, but
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: he is now, and he's very familiar with the details
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: of the case. What was the evidence against him?
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: The testimony of the witnesses, The.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Victims, Karen, Sharon and Keith all took the stand.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Walk into a court room, Your parents, everybody that loves
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: you is sitting there and seeing him for the very
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: first time. We have not seen him since the line
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: up and then seeing him face to face was really hard.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Of course. I had to put my hand on the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Bible and swear to tell the truth, nothing but the truth,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: which is all I had anyway.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: They all testified that on the night of the rape,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Vincent had told them his last name.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Believe it or not. All night long we called him Simmons.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: He told us to call him Simmons at.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Trial, and they all say Simmons, Simmons. The man told
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: us his name was Simmons. What'd you think?
• 16:31
  Speaker 7: Then?
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: I thought they were craze. I actulent. They thought they
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: were crazed. You mean to tell me I'm gonna do
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: something to y'all and let y'all know my name. I'm
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: gonna tell you who I am. No, it don't make.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Sense, man. The jury got to see Keith's car and
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: a photo that police had taken of Karen, Sharon and
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Keith re enacting how they fit in the trunk. When
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: it was the defense's turn, Vincent took the stand.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: I told a Julie that I was innocent. I didn't
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: live nobody.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Vincent's lawyers also called three alibi witnesses who claimed that
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Vincent was at a bar on the night of the
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: alleged crime. The bar owner said Vincent was there all night,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: he got into a fight and police were called, But
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: the prosecution called a police officer who said the bar
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: fight was on another night.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: After a two day trial, I don't think they had
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: much of a defense.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: The jury sided with Karen Sharon and Keith Vincent Simmons
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: was found guilty of two counts of attempted aggravated rape.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: I was shout guilty. I did none.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: When the verdict came back, guilty unanimously. How did that feel?
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Sav relife? We knew we were free.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Vincent was sentenced to two consecutive fifty years terms one
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: hundred years behind bars.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: With all would never have to face them again, but.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Vincent refused to give up.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Hope.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: Well, I wanted to prove that I'm innocent. Man, I
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: never know these people.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: More than four decades later, Justin Bonus, a newly minted
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, would become involved in Vincent's
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: defense and was immediately skeptical of the prosecution's case.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: I looked at the discovery, I was like, well, everything
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: they said at trials a lot.
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: It's all a lot.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: There's nothing that supports what they say.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Generations of men have labored in the fields at Louisiana
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: State Penitentiary. It is the country's largest maximum security prison,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: built on the site of a former slave plantation called Angola.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: You know, we had to work seven days a week
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: till the give dog as I ain't goola was.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Since the day that cell door closed behind him, Vincent
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Simmons has been working to overturn his conviction. In nineteen
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: ninety three, sixteen years after that guilty verdict, he finally
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: succeeded in getting a copy of the prosecution's case file.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: Mail man came and he gave me this big old envelope.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: When I owed up, I was a man.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I was a shock. Inside that envelope were items that
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Vincent had never seen before, including copies of the initial
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: statements that Karen, Keith, and Sharon gave to police. Remember
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: how all three testified at trial that they knew their
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: attacker's name.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: He told us to call him Simmons.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: But as it turns out, when they first spoke to
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: the investigators, they didn't say that. Defense attorney Justin Bonas
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: has since reviewed those statements. When the girls initially went
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: to police, they didn't say the name Simmons. No, what
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: name did they say? They didn't give a name, And
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Bonus noticed something else in those statements. Sharon used the
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: n word to refer to her attacker and said quote
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: all blacks look alike to me, which she does not deny, saying, so,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: what did you say when they asked you to identify
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the man?
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I said, all blacks look alike.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: But still Karen, Keith, and Sharon all pick Vincent out
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: of that lineup, and Bonas says he may know why
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: this photo that was in the file appears to show
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: the lineup. Look at Vincent. He's the only one in handcuffs.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: When you saw that line of photo, what'd you think?
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: What I said, this is crazy nuts, highly suggestive. When
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: you put the cuffs on him, you're telling him that's
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: what we want you to pick.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: But Charles Riddle, the current district attorney, says that photo
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: was taken after the twins.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: I'd Vincent, they called him the lineup.
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: It was a photo of the lineup after he was
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: identified and placed in cuffs.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: But how do you know it was after because the
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: girls told me that.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: So when you picked him out of the lineup, was
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: he wearing handcuffs?
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: He was not not at all.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: And Karen says they initially didn't tell police the name
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Simmons out of fear.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I mean we were scared of heal and see, I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: don't know why I didn't. I mean, I think I
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: was far We're afraid of helm.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: And there's another item in that file that Bonus says
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: is critical and was never seen at the trial. It's
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: this report from a doctor who also happened to be
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: the local corner. He examined the girls two weeks after
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: the reported rape, and he did not document any signs
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: of sexual assault. How big a deal do you think
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: the coroner's report plays in this story? Massive? And Bonus
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: says that report suggests Sharon was still a virgin. The
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: doctor wrote that her hymen was intact. But Charles Riddle
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: says the report does not prove that the twins were
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: not raped.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: Because the definition of rape is slightest penetration, and the
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: part about no sign of sexual assault after two weeks,
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: it's very probable that there would be no sign of
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: sexual assault.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Bonus thinks the jury should have had the chance to
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: consider all of that a trial. His attorneys they had nothing.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: They went in their fly and blind with their arms
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: tied behind their back in a boxing match.
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: That's literally what it was.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: So you're telling me the original statements that the girls
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: in Keith gave the police where they could not identify
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: this individual.
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: That was never heard by the jury. Absolutely not. And
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: the medical report from the coroner was never heard the jury. Right,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: And the lineup photo not seen by the jury.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: No.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: If the statements from the girls had been presented at trial,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: if the coroner's report had been known and presented at trial,
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: do you think Vincent still would have been found guilty. No,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: absolutely not. Back in nineteen ninety three, when Vincent first
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: got his hands on that evidence, he made it his
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: mission to get his case in front of a judge.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: He filed numerous bleedings over multiple years, but no court
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: ever ruled in his favor.
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: And not a single judge felt like there was enough evidence.
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: Not the appellate courts, federal courts, state courts, Supreme Court.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Vincent was hoping that the parole board at the prison
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: might have more sympathy, so in nineteen ninety seven, twenty
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: years into his one hundred year sentence, he had his
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: first hearing with them, and it was all filmed as
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: part of a documentary called The Farm, which profiled inmates
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: at Angolacent owed them the evidence that his defense did
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: not have a trial. We didn't have none of his evidence.
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: None of this evidence was presented before the jury.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: You were the only run handcuffed in the lineup.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I'm go on.
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: One, Okay, we'll step out.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Were to discuss the case. Vincent hoped the board would
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: rule in his favor. Sometimes oh yeah, he did, you know,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: but they would not.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: Mister Simmons, after listener's testimony, going over the reports, the
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: board is vote.
• 24:34
  Speaker 7: At this time she deniw your quest probe.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: I was hopeless that I know the truth, and no
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: matter how many times did knock it down, keep getting.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Un Almost twenty years later, Justin Bonus watched the farm documentary.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: With his wife and we were shocked and she told me,
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: you know, you should take this case. She basically said,
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: you need to write him. And it wasn't really a suggestion,
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: it was right.
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: And that's what I did.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: You're a Brooklyn guy, you go down to Marksville.
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: I felt like my cousin Vinnie.
• 25:39
  Speaker 7: I mean, it was like contrary, Okay.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: By early twenty twenty, Justin Bonus had become Vincent Simmons lawyer.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: He had just a year of experience under his belt
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: and was warned that the odds were against him.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: It's over, like he doesn't have any more appeals. I
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: was like, Nah, that's not true. It's never absolutely not.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Vincent had been fighting unsuccessfully for decades to overturn his conviction,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: all the while, Karen and Sharon remained firm about his guilt.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: We have no reason to lie. Why would we lie?
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Why would we let someone spend their life in prison
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: if we even had the slightest doubt that it wouldn't heal.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Not long after Vincent's ill fated parole hearing, documentary cameras
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: were rolling again in the late nineties when he and
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: the twins agreed to a reconciliation meeting. It's where victims
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: and offenders come together to try and heal.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: We came today not to free you from your prison,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: but to free us from our prison. Today, I am
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: closing the door to my pain. I'm letting go.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: When the time came for Vincent to speak, he had questions.
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: My questions will be directly based on your statement, dittion.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: No, we're not going there, And that's.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: When the meetings unraveled.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: What are you doing here? Then, since you're innocent, what
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: are you doing here?
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: We did now.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: A choice that you chose tonight.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Could you here?
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Okay? I think I think we've had enough. I think
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: it's kind of going so bens. Maybe one day you
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: can get out of your plane if you're measuring.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: They didn't let him speak because they don't view him
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: as a human being.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Bonus wanted to put a spotlight on the case and
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: really dig deeper, but he needed some help, so he
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: turned to Jason Flamm, a recording industry executive known for
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: launching the careers of Katy Perry, Matchbox twenty, and Lord,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: among others. Flomm is also a criminal justice advocate, and
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: he hosts a podcast called Wrongful Conviction, which has featured
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: big name guests like Kim Kardashian.
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: When I heard about Vincent's case, I was just like,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: this is another level.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I had to do something about it. Flom featured Vincent's
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: case on his podcast.
• 27:56
  Speaker 8: How could anyone get convicted on the basis to this?
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: This is a man whose life was thrown away from him,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: and he gave Justin Bonus money to go out and
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: hire a private investigator in Louisiana named Brian Andrews.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: Justin actually asked me to be the boots on the ground,
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: take statements, gather information.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Andrews track down Diane Prater, the loan surviving juror from
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Vincent's trial and the only African American on the jury.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Turns out, she says she never wanted to convict Vincent.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Prater was in her twenties at the time of trial
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: and says she still remembers her reaction to the twins testimony.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: When they told a story.
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: I'm like, ain't no way in the world that happened
• 28:42
  Speaker 8: like that put a black man in you'll call that time.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: You didn't believe it because at that period in history,
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: you just couldn't see white people giving a ride to
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: black people.
• 28:55
  Speaker 7: Correct.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Was there a lot of racism in Marxville, Yes.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: It was, It was in Wrgsville, it was everywhere.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: And she says the jury foreman told her her vote
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: wouldn't matter. In nineteen seventy seven, Louisiana jury's could convict
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: a defendant with only ten out of twelve voting guilty.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: So say myself, well, it ain't gonna do me no
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: good to say none. But I never, never, never believe
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Vincent was kilted.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: The private investigator also tried to talk to relatives of Karen,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Sharon and Keith. Wake me right now, I'm faking. He
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: ended up conducting a videotaped interview with Keith's cousin, Dana Brouyette,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: and she told him a shocking story. Dana said that
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: Keith told her in a bar long after the trial
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: that Vincent Simmons was never with them on Little California Road.
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: That night.
• 29:43
  Speaker 8: He came out and told him there was never a
• 29:48
  Speaker 8: black man instead.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: In a sworn affidavit, Dana says that Keith told her
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: he had consensual sex with one of the girls and
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: locked the other in the trunk.
• 30:00
  Speaker 8: He had gone down Little California Road and he locked
• 30:05
  Speaker 8: Sharon and Trump, and he said the sex between him
• 30:09
  Speaker 8: and Karen was consensual. He said, but the other one
• 30:13
  Speaker 8: was a little hellcat. That's the one that would scratches
• 30:16
  Speaker 8: on his nick.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: In the affidavit, Dana said that Keith had scratches on
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: his neck. She told the private investigator that she believes
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Keith and the twins made up the story about a
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: black man to explain away those scratches blew my mind.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: The things that she said. Had Dana ever told anyone that.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: To my knowledge, I don't think she had then should have.
• 30:41
  Speaker 8: Come forward a long time ago.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I really did think the man got.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Released and Dana's allegations didn't stop there. She also gave
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: the private investigator a copy of a Facebook message exchange
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: that she says she had with Karen in October twenty twenty.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Karen and Dana were talking about how Keith had allegedly
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: made second advances toward female relatives. We asked Karen about that.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: You said, I didn't realize how sick he was. I
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: thought it was only me.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I don't remember saying that.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because that's the message from you. So what did
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: you mean by that?
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, we need to cut right now? Cut this? Can
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: we cut? First?
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Second? Yeah? Right then. Karen said she was not ready
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: to talk about that exchange with Dana, but two weeks later,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: in a follow up interview with both her and Sharon,
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: she admitted that years before, she says they were attacked.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: When she was a child and Keith was a teenager,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: something happened. Did you have consensual sex with Keith theboard?
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's put it like this. We were kids, yes, ma'am.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: We experimented, so yes.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: How old were you when it happened, I.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Have, I cannot, honestly, I don't know. Nine to ten maybe, And.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Is this the first time you're saying this publicly?
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, it is. But that has nothing to do with
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: what Vincent did. That's two separate incidents. David, think about it.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: If me and Keith had had consensual sex way way before, now,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: why is he locking us in the trunk of a car.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Why is he taking us down a dirt road?
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: But Bonus believes they wanted to cover up what happened
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: that night.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: It gives motive for why they would lie. It shows
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: that Karen always was hiding something from day one. Keith
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: was eighteen, Karen was fourteen.
• 32:41
  Speaker 7: So what do they do?
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: They blame a black man.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: To be clear, was Keith the perpetrator that night?
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: No, he was a victim. Also, Keith, that's a victim.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: He was not. He was a victim. He stayed in
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: that trunk the whole time.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I went to Keith Leboart's house to speak with him
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: about all of this. No one answered the door, so
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: later I called.
• 33:09
  Speaker 9: Him, Hello, Keith, Hello, Keith, This is David Begno at
• 33:30
  Speaker 9: CBS News.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: When reached by phone, Keith now sixty three years old,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: denied ever having sex with his cousin Karen. He said
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: they had just quote played around like children, end quote,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: and he also insisted that whatever had happened between him
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: and Karen had nothing to do with what Vincent Simmons
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: did that night.
• 33:54
  Speaker 7: I don't care.
• 33:54
  Speaker 10: And yeah, he's a goddamn and you can put that
• 33:57
  Speaker 10: on TV.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I ain't scared of him.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Despite the allegations concerning Karen and Keith, District Attorney Charles
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Riddle says he believes the right man was convicted.
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: I'm firmly convinced that he's guilty. I don't believe that
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: the cousin was the one.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: But Bonus was more determined than ever to see Vincent
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: walk free, and in April twenty twenty one, the district
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: attorney made an offer that would allow for just that.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Riddle said he felt like Vincent had done enough time.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: Vincent could have walked right out the door, but there
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: was a catch. Vincent would have had to been a
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: sex offender, though Vincent turned that down and said, I'm
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: not a sex offender. I didn't do this, I am innocent.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I'm not a sex offender.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: What do you think when you hung up. I mean, Dadsy,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: We're going to war. Bonus kept fighting, and in February
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, he finally got a hearing where a
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: judge would decide Vincent's fate once and for all. The
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: day of the hearing is Karen and Sharon made their
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: way and the courthouse. They paused to pray missus zeal.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: When Vincent Simmons arrived in a prison van. He was
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: carrying a Bible. A group of supporters greeted him. They
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: were cheering, Vincent, how are you feeling today?
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Really helping at the.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom as Judge William
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Bennett delivered his decision. What did the judge decide?
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: He decided to give Vincent a new trial because of
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: the constitutional violation that he didn't receive a fair trial.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Benson's conviction was thrown out due to the evidence that
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: he himself had obtained almost thirty years earlier, and the
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: fact that his defense team didn't even have it back
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven. Judge Bennett made it clear though,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: that he did not place fault on anyone for that. Instead,
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: he that the speediness with which the case went to trial.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Made it likely that the original district attorney on the case,
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Eddie Nole, didn't even have all the evidence himself at
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: the time. So, just to be clear, you believe that
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven, the police didn't turn over key
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: evidence to the district attorney.
• 36:18
  Speaker 10: That's the only explanation feasible and logical after studying everything
• 36:23
  Speaker 10: that I did.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: That's it. Are you blaming the police?
• 36:26
  Speaker 10: I don't believe anybody intentionally hid anything. It's just the
• 36:30
  Speaker 10: way it happened because.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: It was fast. In a court affidavit, the original DA
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Eddie Nole said he did not hide or deny Simmons
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: any evidence, nor did he prosecute him because of bias.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: And he continues to believe that Vincent is guilty, and
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: he's not the only one that feels that way. Current
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: District Attorney Charles Riddle. Do you believe a man who
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: was convicted at a trial that was not fair should
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: have ever served a day in prison illegally legally?
• 37:02
  Speaker 6: Okay, legally no, but he did, yes, decided that Okay,
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: let him tell you he deserved to serve the forty
• 37:11
  Speaker 6: four years.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Why because he's guilty. Judge Bennett was careful to say
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: he has no opinion on the guilt or innocence of
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Vincent Simmons. With his decision, it was now up to
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: District Attorney Riddle to decide whether he wanted to retry
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: the case. You stood up and said.
• 37:31
  Speaker 6: What I said, that he served enough time and then
• 37:34
  Speaker 6: we're not going to prosecute him again.
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: In the eyes of the people and the constitution, he
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: has presumed innocent. And when Charles Riddle dismissed that case,
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: that presumption of innocence carries.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: You free.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: Free, You're done.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: So happy to see you, so happy to see you.
• 37:54
  Speaker 8: God.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: Vincent is a freeman. But for Karen and Sharon, and
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: nothing has changed.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: He went in guilty. He's guilty now and guess what,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: he will die guilty. So I'm happy I got forty
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: four years.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Let's go. The twins say they accept the judge's decision,
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: but they are still hurt by it.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: The legal system didn't just fail heal, it failed us
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: in many ways.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Also, while Vincent has his freedom, they say they still
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: don't have theirs.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: It's frustrating because no one sees our bars, they don't
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: see our prison. We still have our anxiety We still
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: have our depressions, we still have our fears. Our bars
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: are real, and if you look deep enough, you can
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: see them.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Judge Bennett is sympathetic towards the women, but he is
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: confident in his decision. The case holds extra meaning for
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: him because his father, now deceased, was one of the
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: many judges who denied motions filed by Vincent over the
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: past years, but that was before Vincent had gained access
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: to the prosecution's file.
• 39:18
  Speaker 10: He and I had talked about the Vincent Simmons case
• 39:20
  Speaker 10: years ago, and I know if he would be here
• 39:26
  Speaker 10: he today would have done what I did.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: What's on your heart because I can see the emotion.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: I did the right thing, the freedom.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Just hours after the judge delivered his decision, and right
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: before the sun set, Vincent Simmons walked out of Angola.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: He went in when he was just twenty five years
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: old and was released three days before his seventieth birthday.
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: I love you, man May.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Later that night, he shared a celebratory meal with his
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: family and friends.
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: Freedom.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: What's it like being out of prison?
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: Man, It's a joy, I get. It's unexplainable, really.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: But with that joy comes challenge.
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: It's gonna take me along on a phone.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Adjusting to life outside prison walls has proven to be difficult.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: So much has changed since nineteen seventy seven.
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: Man, new technology. I'm just like a little bib. You
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: got to learn.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: What are the simple things that you enjoy now?
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: Breathing it free, air walking outside. Basically it's freedom. Should
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: and jely the moment.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Forty eight hours.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: To miss it would be a crime, were you at
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: all prepare for what happened in this case.