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#344 Maggie Freleng with Tami Vance · Wrongful Conviction

0:05
Speaker 1: In early two thousand, Tammy Vance checked herself into drug
0:08
Speaker 1: rehabit Columbus, Mississippi. There, she met Lee Stubbs, and the
0:12
Speaker 1: two became close. As they neared the end of the program,
0:17
Speaker 1: Excited for the future, they decided to leave and drive
0:20
Speaker 1: back home together along with their friend Kim. They headed out,
0:24
Speaker 1: stopping for the night at a motel, but when they
0:27
Speaker 1: awoke the next morning, something was terribly wrong with Kim.
0:33
Speaker 2: She was snoring really loud, and all of a sudden
0:36
Speaker 2: it stopped, and I freaked out and I told thee
0:40
Speaker 2: she's not breathing. She's not breathing. They got on the
0:45
Speaker 2: phone with nine one one and I administered CPR intil
0:48
Speaker 2: the ambulance got there.
0:52
Speaker 1: At the hospital, doctors found injuries that led them to
0:55
Speaker 1: believe Kim had experienced a violent sexual assault, and despite
0:59
Speaker 1: their efforts to help Kim, the police concluded that Tammy
1:03
Speaker 1: and Lee were actually responsible for what had happened to her.
1:09
Speaker 1: You were a suspect very quickly, So do you remember
1:12
Speaker 1: feeling that way? Do you remember thinking like something was
1:16
Speaker 1: off and what they were asking you.
1:19
Speaker 2: I remember thinking they were crazy because that was our friend,
1:24
Speaker 2: and we tried to Savor. My name is Tammy Vance,
1:29
Speaker 2: and I was wrongfully convicted for thirteen years.
1:34
Speaker 3: From Lava for good.
1:36
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Tammy Vance.
1:55
Speaker 1: Tammy Vance was born in San Antonio, Texas, on November fourteenth,
1:59
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, to Sandy and Billy Vance. She has
2:02
Speaker 1: one younger brother, Billy Junior, who goes by the nickname Bubba.
2:08
Speaker 2: Growing up as a child, it was great. I had
2:12
Speaker 2: a lot of family, a lot of loving family.
2:16
Speaker 4: She was very close to her dad and her brother
2:19
Speaker 4: and myself.
2:21
Speaker 3: This is Tammy's mom, Sandy Rabelais.
2:23
Speaker 4: We were very close knit family, and a.
2:26
Speaker 1: Traditional Southern family at that with strong Christian values. When
2:32
Speaker 1: Tammy was about three or four, her family left San
2:34
Speaker 1: Antonio for Mississippi. For Tammy, it was a whole different world.
2:41
Speaker 2: Moving from Texas, where there's nothing but tumbleweeds and small trees.
2:47
Speaker 2: I remember thinking when we pulled into Mississippi that it
2:51
Speaker 2: was the land of the Giants because of the trees
2:55
Speaker 2: and other trees were like so big.
3:00
Speaker 1: Once they adjusted to the new landscape, Sandy saw her
3:03
Speaker 1: daughter enjoying Mississippi.
3:06
Speaker 4: She was a very fun, loving child. She was always
3:09
Speaker 4: very outgoing. I always had lots and lots of friends
3:11
Speaker 4: around her.
3:13
Speaker 1: But at home, life had gotten difficult for Tammy.
3:18
Speaker 2: My father was an alcoholic, my mother she worked two jobs,
3:22
Speaker 2: and basically I raised my younger brother.
3:27
Speaker 1: The situation was tough, but Tammy was a natural caretaker.
3:31
Speaker 5: She has a huge heart and she would just do
3:35
Speaker 5: anything for anybody that's having a hard time.
3:40
Speaker 1: Like one family Sandy recalls who lived down the street
3:43
Speaker 1: from them when Tammy was around eleven or twelve.
3:49
Speaker 4: The mother was an alcoholic. She was never there, the
3:51
Speaker 4: dad was struggling to work.
3:54
Speaker 5: There was for those kids, and.
3:57
Speaker 4: She became best friends with them.
3:59
Speaker 5: She brought them home for Yeah, it's like, Mom, you
4:01
Speaker 5: know they're coming home tonight.
4:02
Speaker 4: I want you to make sure you're cooking up supper form.
4:05
Speaker 4: And she's the one that brought them into the family,
4:08
Speaker 4: and she's the one that, you know, wanted to make
4:11
Speaker 4: sure they were fed and clothed.
4:15
Speaker 1: Eventually, Tammy's father got clean and went into recovery for
4:18
Speaker 1: about eight years.
4:21
Speaker 2: And it was like the best eight years of my
4:24
Speaker 2: life growing up. I actually had my father, you know
4:28
Speaker 2: what I mean. I actually had my father at home,
4:31
Speaker 2: and it was greaty. We had a lot of fun.
4:37
Speaker 2: We would go four wheeling on the rivers and yeah,
4:41
Speaker 2: just sports stuff, go to the drag races and he
4:46
Speaker 2: would take us places.
4:49
Speaker 1: But Tammy couldn't always participate in certain activities because of
4:53
Speaker 1: a disability she has.
4:55
Speaker 4: Tammy's legally blind, so that didn't have a lot of
4:58
Speaker 4: limitations on what she could and couldn't be involved with.
5:02
Speaker 1: So Tammy made up for her visual limitations by embracing
5:05
Speaker 1: another strength.
5:07
Speaker 4: She was very, very music inclined. She loved to go
5:10
Speaker 4: to concerts to listen to all different types of music
5:13
Speaker 4: and to share that with her friends.
5:16
Speaker 3: Do you remember any specific ones that.
5:18
Speaker 4: She liked, ac DC, Orio Wagon.
5:23
Speaker 3: What did you think of her liking ac DC?
5:26
Speaker 4: Well, I wasn't too crazy about the music myself. It
5:29
Speaker 4: wasn't my choice of music, but it was certainly our
5:30
Speaker 4: wasn't her friend's choice of music. That was probably her
5:33
Speaker 4: biggest interest was different musical bands, and.
5:37
Speaker 1: Tammy started looking the part of a rocker too.
5:40
Speaker 3: Do you have a mullet?
5:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, nineteen nineties, I'm gonna awas know havy and cool.
5:47
Speaker 2: You know, peace love and rock and roll or peace
5:51
Speaker 2: love and music.
5:56
Speaker 1: But along with this love of music came a bad
5:59
Speaker 1: habit using drugs and alcohol.
6:02
Speaker 4: I guess Tammy was about thirteen or fourteen when we
6:05
Speaker 4: started dealing with the drugs with her. They continue to
6:08
Speaker 4: get worse and we finally put her in a treatment center.
6:12
Speaker 4: When she came out of the treatment center, that oh,
6:15
Speaker 4: she told me she was getting married to.
6:17
Speaker 1: A boy named Ralph, whom she started dating in high school.
6:21
Speaker 1: Ralph was a couple of years older than Tammy. At
6:23
Speaker 1: age sixteen, Tammy dropped out of school to marry him, and.
6:27
Speaker 4: I felt like they were just way too young. I'm
6:29
Speaker 4: going to be starting off on that journey. So I
6:32
Speaker 4: did it when I was young, and I knew it
6:33
Speaker 4: was just not the answer to a good life. You know.
6:37
Speaker 4: I did not want my children to follow in those footsteps,
6:39
Speaker 4: but she seemed pretty determined to do it.
6:43
Speaker 1: For Tammy, things with Ralph were good for a while,
6:46
Speaker 1: but then about two years after they got married, she
6:49
Speaker 1: was sitting on the porch drinking a beer with one
6:51
Speaker 1: of her female friends when she had a wake up call.
6:56
Speaker 2: They just hit me like a ton of brakes, Like
7:01
Speaker 2: what is going on here? Why am I more attracted
7:10
Speaker 2: to my friend than my husband? That sent me into
7:16
Speaker 2: a tail spin.
7:19
Speaker 1: Tammy started realizing she was actually more interested in women
7:23
Speaker 1: than men. But Tammy was living in what she describes
7:26
Speaker 1: as a redneck county in the eighties, being gay was
7:30
Speaker 1: not accepted.
7:32
Speaker 2: I freaked out.
7:34
Speaker 3: What did freaking out look like?
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Speaker 2: Freaking out looks like filing for a divorce, leaving everything
7:42
Speaker 2: I had behind? Hitting New Orleans and I lived homeless
7:46
Speaker 2: for a little while. I left everything behind and I ran.
7:49
Speaker 2: I felt like a freak.
7:53
Speaker 1: Once in New Orleans, Tammy lived on the streets of
7:55
Speaker 1: the city for about six months. And that's kind of
7:58
Speaker 1: when you got into drug use.
8:00
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, I unfortunately got a date with the heroin.
8:07
Speaker 1: Tammy had hit bottom trying to run away from who
8:09
Speaker 1: she was, and drugs were a source of consolation.
8:14
Speaker 2: It was when back when the all that black tar
8:19
Speaker 2: heroin hit New Orleans, and I hung out with the
8:24
Speaker 2: homeless people, and they were either alcoholics or addicts, and
8:29
Speaker 2: the black tar heroin was so pure. These people were
8:33
Speaker 2: used to there their heroin being stepped on so many
8:37
Speaker 2: times that the people were falling over dead left and right,
8:41
Speaker 2: and it scared me and I came home.
8:52
Speaker 1: When she got back home, Tammy decided to be completely
8:55
Speaker 1: honest with her mom about her sexuality.
8:58
Speaker 3: How did you feel about that when she first told you.
9:01
Speaker 4: Very conflicted, wasn't sure if it was a phase or
9:07
Speaker 4: if it was a true thing. It was a surprise,
9:13
Speaker 4: especially after the fact that she had been married and
9:15
Speaker 4: she had dated several different guys. So yes, it did
9:19
Speaker 4: come as a surprise to me. I started studying up
9:23
Speaker 4: on it and reading on it, and you know, just
9:26
Speaker 4: trying to figure out different aspects from it. Of course,
9:29
Speaker 4: as a Christian, I'm you know, I'm conflicted very much
9:32
Speaker 4: about it, but she is my daughter and I have
9:35
Speaker 4: accepted that that is her lifestyle.
9:37
Speaker 2: Well, Mom, you know she's home. She's a Christian man.
9:42
Speaker 2: She has that unconditional love and she loves me anyway.
9:46
Speaker 3: So she said to you, she's going to love you
9:47
Speaker 3: no matter what.
9:49
Speaker 2: Basically, yes, ma'am.
9:56
Speaker 1: Opening up to her mom was the first step. Timmy
9:59
Speaker 1: finally fell like she was finding herself.
10:02
Speaker 2: It was like a ten thousand pounds was lifted off
10:06
Speaker 2: for me to know who I was. But I still
10:12
Speaker 2: felt like a freak, like I couldn't tell anyone except
10:17
Speaker 2: my mom.
10:19
Speaker 1: So Tammy continued to live a fairly closeted life in
10:23
Speaker 1: the South. She went to rehab for her heroin addiction,
10:26
Speaker 1: started narcotics anonymous, and got clean, and for years she
10:31
Speaker 1: just worked a job in.
10:32
Speaker 3: Construction and lived a low key life.
10:35
Speaker 1: She went to gay bars to be around others she
10:37
Speaker 1: could relate to, but publicly she kept her sexuality to herself.
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Speaker 3: So you've never seen her with a girlfriend or anything
10:45
Speaker 3: like that.
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Speaker 4: I have seen her with a girlfriend. I haven't seen
10:48
Speaker 4: her display affection with a girlfriend, gotcha, other than just
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Speaker 4: you know, hey, this is my buddy. You know, I
10:56
Speaker 4: know that she's been with them, but just not in
10:58
Speaker 4: front of me.
11:06
Speaker 1: At the age of thirty one, over a decade after
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Speaker 1: she got clean from heroin, Tammy relapsed. In January two thousand,
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Speaker 1: she checked herself into the Katie Hill Drug Recovery Center
11:17
Speaker 1: in Columbus, Mississippi.
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Speaker 2: Basically, I knew I didn't want to go back where
11:21
Speaker 2: I had come from, and I had to say something
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Speaker 2: about it.
11:25
Speaker 3: What do you mean back where you came from heroin?
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Speaker 1: At Katie Hill, Tammy was again in a twelve step
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Speaker 1: recovery program, and while there she met twenty year old
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Speaker 1: Lee Stubbs. Lee had recently broken up with her boyfriend
11:41
Speaker 1: and like Tammy a decade before, had spiraled into drug addiction.
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Speaker 3: So tell me about meeting Lee. What was Lee like?
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Speaker 4: She was cool?
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Speaker 2: She just had that personality, that trade, that distinct distinction
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Speaker 2: about it on the inside. Just with conversations and the
12:03
Speaker 2: way we play and the way we worked well together
12:08
Speaker 2: and things like that, we would get very good friends.
12:15
Speaker 2: And then it turned into more than that.
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Speaker 3: Was that a conversation you guys had that you were
12:20
Speaker 3: both gay?
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Speaker 5: Like?
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Speaker 3: How did that come about? That? You guys?
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Speaker 5: Ah?
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Speaker 2: Gaydar? I'm sorry, but you know you can kind of tell.
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Speaker 1: By March of two thousand, both Tammy and Lee were
12:40
Speaker 1: nearing the end of the program and were allowed certain
12:43
Speaker 1: privileges like weekend passes to leave and see family. The
12:47
Speaker 1: first time they were romantic was on a weekend trip home.
12:50
Speaker 1: It turned out their destinations were just an hour away
12:53
Speaker 1: from each other.
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Speaker 2: Well, I'll see, her mom was in Collins and my
12:57
Speaker 2: mom was in Bayroom. So she went to her mom's.
13:02
Speaker 2: I went to my mom's and the next morning we
13:05
Speaker 2: hooked back up. She came to Bayroom and we went
13:08
Speaker 2: and rode the swinging bridge.
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Speaker 3: What's a swinging bridge? I don't know what that is.
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Speaker 2: It's an old timmy bridge that sways when you like
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Speaker 2: drive across it. We would like get to going really
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Speaker 2: fast and then just slam on the brakes in the
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Speaker 2: middle of it and it would just sway us. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: it was really cool. We spent the whole weekend together.
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Speaker 1: Tammy and Lee had a sweet time together visiting Tammy's
13:34
Speaker 1: hometown and then they headed back to Katie Hill. But
13:37
Speaker 1: when they arrived they found the place in an uproar.
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Speaker 2: There is this discriminational thing going on because someone had
13:48
Speaker 2: hung a black doll on a door knob, and it
13:52
Speaker 2: was a really racial thing, and it was a lot
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Speaker 2: of drama, and you know, we had just gotten and
14:01
Speaker 2: it was all that's going on.
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Speaker 1: To avoid the chaos, Tammy and Lee decided to leave
14:07
Speaker 1: again in a hurry, stuffing their clothes and belongings into
14:10
Speaker 1: garbage bags and throwing them in the back of Lee's truck.
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Speaker 1: As they were about to go, they saw their friend
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Speaker 1: Kim Williams, who was also packing to leave kill masked.
14:20
Speaker 2: Could she have a ride? She wanted to ride to
14:22
Speaker 2: her boyfriends, so we said sure we Taiki.
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Speaker 1: The three women drove through Mississippi stopping along the way
14:32
Speaker 1: to buy liquor.
14:33
Speaker 2: Hume and I were drinking. Lee was not. She was driving,
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Speaker 2: and we might it all the way to Canton, Mississippi.
14:41
Speaker 2: We stopped and got another fit of the liquor. Might
14:44
Speaker 2: it to Jackson, Mississippi.
14:47
Speaker 1: Finally they made it to Kim's boyfriend's house, but as
14:50
Speaker 1: they were dropping Kim off, she and her boyfriend got
14:53
Speaker 1: in a fight. Unlike Tammy and Lee, Kim hadn't actually
14:57
Speaker 1: finished rehab and her boyfriend was mad she hadn't stayed
14:59
Speaker 1: in treatment.
15:01
Speaker 2: So anyway, she comes and gets in our truck and
15:05
Speaker 2: ask us to take her to our uncle's house. Okay,
15:08
Speaker 2: so we say sure. So we get down the road
15:13
Speaker 2: and she pulls out all these pills x an X, soma, oxycotton,
15:19
Speaker 2: a lot of narcotics.
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Speaker 1: It turns out Kim had stolen the pills from her boyfriend,
15:24
Speaker 1: who had been prescribed them for his back.
15:27
Speaker 2: I had been drinking. She had been drinking. We both
15:31
Speaker 2: took a handful.
15:32
Speaker 3: You just left rehab. Why were you using.
15:37
Speaker 2: I just I was a follower and not the leader
15:40
Speaker 2: I should have been. I couldn't find what I needed,
15:44
Speaker 2: which was some weed, and so I just started drinking.
15:49
Speaker 2: That's what happened, all right.
15:51
Speaker 3: So you guys took the drugs and then what passed out?
15:56
Speaker 2: We passed out, and Lee didn't know what to do.
16:01
Speaker 2: She was in the middle of nowhere. She pulled into
16:03
Speaker 2: a motel. She actually told the lady at the front desk,
16:08
Speaker 2: you know, if these two in the drug looked dead,
16:11
Speaker 2: they're not drunk. And so we pulled in and basically
16:15
Speaker 2: she grabbed us both under our arms into the damn
16:19
Speaker 2: motel room, into the motel room, I'm sorry, and laid
16:24
Speaker 2: us on the bed. When I woke up, she was
16:29
Speaker 2: awake watching Scooby Dooe. I was very sick, puking, sick
16:36
Speaker 2: and dehydrated to death, the thirstiest I've ever been in
16:39
Speaker 2: my life. And so I asked her, would she please
16:44
Speaker 2: please go give me some drink? And so she ran
16:47
Speaker 2: down to the cold machine, and while she was gone,
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Speaker 2: I was literally drowning in my home puke. She comes
16:55
Speaker 2: back in with the drinks and pulls my head upbout
16:58
Speaker 2: the water.
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Speaker 3: And what was Kim doing at this point?
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Speaker 2: She was still passed out on the other bed, fully dressed,
17:07
Speaker 2: shoes and awe and snoring like she was in like
17:11
Speaker 2: a deep sleep.
17:13
Speaker 1: By then, it was the next day, March sixth, around
17:16
Speaker 1: four pm, and Kim was still asleep. Tammy says Kim
17:20
Speaker 1: was snoring so loudly that when she stopped, it was noticeable,
17:24
Speaker 1: and Tammy could hear that something was wrong, and.
17:28
Speaker 2: I told ly, she's not breathing. She's not breathing. They
17:33
Speaker 2: got on the phone with nine one one and I
17:34
Speaker 2: administered CPR intil the ambulance got there.
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Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
17:52
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
17:56
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
17:59
Speaker 1: in the communit unities where they work and live. In
18:02
Speaker 1: light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
18:05
Speaker 1: and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social
18:09
Speaker 1: justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal
18:13
Speaker 1: services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Kim
18:24
Speaker 1: had overdosed. When the paramedics arrived, Tammy and Lee tried
18:28
Speaker 1: to be as helpful as possible.
18:31
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, we even gave them the
18:34
Speaker 2: drugs she took from her boyfriend and tot them where
18:37
Speaker 2: she took them from We gave them to the people
18:41
Speaker 2: in the ambulance so that they would know what she
18:42
Speaker 2: was on, so they would know what to do.
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Speaker 1: The paramedics gave Kim narkan to try and reverse the
18:49
Speaker 1: drug's effects. She was rushed to the hospital in a
18:52
Speaker 1: coma and respiratory arrest. Once at the hospital, Kim was
18:57
Speaker 1: diagnosed as having suffered an overdose, but a nurse also
19:01
Speaker 1: noted that Kim had injuries that didn't seem to be
19:05
Speaker 1: related to the overdose. Allegedly, her breasts were swollen, her
19:09
Speaker 1: vagina was bruised and swollen, and there were bite marks
19:13
Speaker 1: on her body and marks on her butt that looked
19:16
Speaker 1: like they could have come from a beating with a
19:18
Speaker 1: stick or a belt. A doctor described it as looking
19:22
Speaker 1: like a quote brutal sexual assault. The doctor informed police
19:27
Speaker 1: that Kim had been sexually assaulted. Police immediately questioned Tammy
19:32
Speaker 1: and Lee.
19:33
Speaker 2: They wanted to know what happened, and we told them.
19:36
Speaker 1: But officers didn't believe them that it was solely an overdose.
19:40
Speaker 1: They continued to push the belief that Kim had been assaulted.
19:45
Speaker 2: I remember thinking they were crazy because that was our
19:49
Speaker 2: friend and we tried to save We were trying to
19:51
Speaker 2: save her, and they promised us, actually if we would
19:55
Speaker 2: take a lot to take her test with the highway patrol,
19:59
Speaker 2: that it with the question and one be with. We
20:03
Speaker 2: both prayed, we both passed, and the question that never stopped.
20:16
Speaker 3: Fortunately, Kim survived.
20:18
Speaker 1: She woke up twelve days later with no memory of
20:21
Speaker 1: what had happened whatsoever, which meant that she could not
20:25
Speaker 1: definitively report whether or not she was assaulted. Six months
20:31
Speaker 1: after the incident, on September twentieth, two thousand, Tammy and
20:35
Speaker 1: Lee were arrested and charged with taking and possessing Kim's
20:39
Speaker 1: boyfriend's oxy cotton and the aggravated assault of Kim Williams.
20:51
Speaker 1: The following year, in June of two thousand and one,
20:53
Speaker 1: Tammy and Lee went to trial. The prosecutors were District
20:57
Speaker 1: Attorneys dun Lampton and Jerry Russia. Their case was that
21:01
Speaker 1: Tammy and Lee had conspired with Kim to steal her
21:04
Speaker 1: boyfriend's oxy cotton pills. The state alleged that once Kim
21:08
Speaker 1: passed out, Tammy and Lee violently sexually assaulted her.
21:12
Speaker 6: And that that violent sexual assault involves very severe bitemarks
21:18
Speaker 6: involves biting off part of Kim's labia, and that this
21:24
Speaker 6: behavior is indicative of a homosexual assault of a lesbian assault.
21:32
Speaker 1: This is Billina Beattie, an attorney formerly with the Mississippi
21:35
Speaker 1: Innocence Project, which ultimately took on Tammy and Lee's case.
21:39
Speaker 1: Vellina says the crux of the state's case was that
21:43
Speaker 1: lesbians are sexual deviance.
21:46
Speaker 6: So the fact that Kim was with her too lesbian
21:49
Speaker 6: friends Tammy and Lee right before she overdosed and was
21:54
Speaker 6: brought to the hospital leads the police and the prosecutor
21:58
Speaker 6: in a direct line to the two of them as
22:02
Speaker 6: having assaulted her.
22:04
Speaker 1: Vealina also says the prosecutors knew the jury pool they
22:07
Speaker 1: would have in bok Cavn, Mississippi, and targeted their case accordingly.
22:12
Speaker 6: It would have been a very Christian town, and at
22:16
Speaker 6: the time, if we looked at studies that were done
22:18
Speaker 6: on jurors and homophobia, we did see a connection between
22:22
Speaker 6: people who were particularly religious and heightened homophobia among jurors.
22:30
Speaker 6: So just looking at that information from juries, we could
22:35
Speaker 6: see how a jury in Mississippi at that time, you know,
22:38
Speaker 6: it might be more likely to see Lee and Tammy
22:42
Speaker 6: as not just deviant because of their sexual orientation, but
22:46
Speaker 6: violent because of their sexual orientation.
22:49
Speaker 1: The state star witness was doctor Michael West, who was
22:52
Speaker 1: at the time a renowned forensic odontologist.
22:56
Speaker 6: So bite mark evidence or forensic odontology.
23:00
Speaker 7: Is the belief that by looking at a mark on skin,
23:05
Speaker 7: we're able to tell whether a certain person created that
23:09
Speaker 7: mark with their teeth.
23:11
Speaker 1: Doctor West was an expert in bitemark evidence. He testified
23:16
Speaker 1: for prosecution offices in nine different states. At Tammy's trial,
23:20
Speaker 1: doctor West testified that there appeared to be a bitemark
23:24
Speaker 1: on Kim's hip and said it was likely from Lee.
23:28
Speaker 1: West went on to say, quote, and it's more than
23:31
Speaker 1: just a possibility to me, I would see it as
23:33
Speaker 1: a probability, But is it a probability of actual one
23:36
Speaker 1: hundred percent?
23:38
Speaker 4: No.
23:39
Speaker 1: Prosecutors then asked doctor West his opinion on whether he
23:42
Speaker 1: would expect to find bitemarks in a homosexual rape case.
23:47
Speaker 1: He said that would not be unusual. In fact, it
23:50
Speaker 1: could almost be expected.
23:53
Speaker 6: And that's with this history in the United States of
23:56
Speaker 6: seeing queerness as dangerous, as depraved, as devian, and as violent.
24:03
Speaker 6: So all of that meshes together against this person who
24:08
Speaker 6: is kind and innocent, but is perceived a different way
24:11
Speaker 6: because of her open sexual orientation.
24:20
Speaker 1: In addition to the bitemarks, doctor West extended his so
24:23
Speaker 1: called expertise to other aspects of the case. He also
24:28
Speaker 1: analyzed the surveillance footage from the night the three women
24:31
Speaker 1: stayed at the motel. The footage appears to show someone
24:34
Speaker 1: taking something from the toolbox in Lee's truck and carrying
24:37
Speaker 1: it into the motel room.
24:41
Speaker 6: What West is telling the jury it is is that
24:45
Speaker 6: Lee is picking up Kim's body that they have put
24:50
Speaker 6: into the toolbox, picking up Kim's body and carrying her
24:54
Speaker 6: into the hotel room. When you have an expert like
25:00
Speaker 6: doctor West who's on the stand and is showing that
25:02
Speaker 6: video again and again and again and again and each
25:06
Speaker 6: time telling the jury this is a body, there are
25:09
Speaker 6: the legs, there's the long hair, this is Kim, the
25:13
Speaker 6: jury then starts to believe it.
25:19
Speaker 1: The defense did refute this, however. Tammy's defense attorney was
25:23
Speaker 1: Ken McNeese and Lee's was Bill Barnett. Both were private attorneys.
25:27
Speaker 1: They presented evidence that hair was found in the toolbox
25:31
Speaker 1: and that it was not Kim's. They also called doctor
25:35
Speaker 1: Rodrigo Galvez a forensic pathologist who said that Kim could
25:39
Speaker 1: not have physically fit in the toolbox.
25:42
Speaker 8: I mean, and this idea that they could put her
25:45
Speaker 8: in a toolbox and then that Lee could whisk her
25:49
Speaker 8: out of this toolbox in a matter of seconds, you know,
25:52
Speaker 8: like lift up her friend, who weighs the same weight
25:55
Speaker 8: that she does, and.
25:56
Speaker 6: Jump off the back of the truck with.
25:58
Speaker 8: Her is incredible, fanciful.
26:02
Speaker 1: Doctor Galvez also said there were many other objects that
26:05
Speaker 1: could have possibly made the alleged bite marks. However, upon
26:09
Speaker 1: cross examination, doctor Galvez dealt an unexpected blow to the
26:13
Speaker 1: defense by admitting he would expect to find biting in
26:17
Speaker 1: a situation involving a lesbian rape.
26:22
Speaker 9: And then he gives this really shocking testimony about how
26:29
Speaker 9: lesbians and homosexuals are more likely to commit violent assaults,
26:35
Speaker 9: that the most violent assaults he's ever seen have been
26:39
Speaker 9: homosexual assaults.
26:42
Speaker 10: And it's all of.
26:43
Speaker 6: This magical thinking to create this story and this narrative
26:47
Speaker 6: where Lee and Tammy are violent and violent against Kim,
26:52
Speaker 6: which they're not.
26:56
Speaker 4: I never believed it for a moment. I'm never, for
26:59
Speaker 4: one fraction of a second believed that here are Lee
27:04
Speaker 4: physically hurts.
27:05
Speaker 1: Someone even though you're sitting there at trial and the
27:08
Speaker 1: prosecutor is saying gay people are deviants and this is
27:12
Speaker 1: what they do.
27:13
Speaker 3: You still didn't believe it.
27:14
Speaker 4: No, ma'am, and they were willed.
27:22
Speaker 1: On June thirtieth, two thousand and one, the jury convicted
27:25
Speaker 1: both Tammy and Lee of all charges. They were ordered
27:29
Speaker 1: to pay one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in fines
27:32
Speaker 1: and costs, as well as half of Kim's medical bills,
27:35
Speaker 1: and they were each sentenced to forty four years in prison.
27:56
Speaker 1: After their conviction, Tammy and Lee were both sent to
27:59
Speaker 1: the same prison, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, Mississippi.
28:04
Speaker 3: Did you continue a relationship when you were in prison?
28:08
Speaker 2: Things had really changed with all of this. We remained
28:12
Speaker 2: friends and we have a bond that cannot be broken.
28:16
Speaker 3: But romantically it wasn't. It wasn't there anymore.
28:20
Speaker 2: No, ma'am. It kind of ended right there, but our
28:24
Speaker 2: friendship became stronger. Me and Lee we made on that
28:28
Speaker 2: yard alone and we would.
28:31
Speaker 3: Discuss our case, like how you were going to prove
28:33
Speaker 3: your innocence?
28:35
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, what was the plan? We were researching cases
28:40
Speaker 2: law library, we were reaching out with family attorneys, innocent projects,
28:49
Speaker 2: writing letters, helping inmates, doing all we could survive.
28:58
Speaker 1: While Tammy and Lee were busy fighting for their innocence
29:00
Speaker 1: from prison, their families were also helping on the outside.
29:04
Speaker 1: Lee's father filed a Freedom of Information Act petition requesting
29:08
Speaker 1: documents relating to any analysis performed on the surveillance video
29:12
Speaker 1: from the motel, and what he got back was shocking.
29:18
Speaker 8: They found out that someone at the FBI had been.
29:22
Speaker 6: Asked pre trial to examine the surveillance video and had
29:28
Speaker 6: done a complete report on it, saying, Okay, there's only
29:32
Speaker 6: one person in the video, there's not two, and that
29:35
Speaker 6: one person is taking a unidentified dark object out of
29:41
Speaker 6: the toolbox that they don't think it's a body.
29:46
Speaker 1: These FBI analysis results were never disclosed to the defense
29:50
Speaker 1: or the jury.
29:52
Speaker 6: What we are actually seeing is a blurry image because
29:56
Speaker 6: it's a surveillance video of Lee getting up into the
30:00
Speaker 6: flatbed of the truck, opening up the toolbox that is
30:03
Speaker 6: in the back of the flatbed, and taking out these
30:06
Speaker 6: garbage bags that are filled with her clothes from the
30:08
Speaker 6: rehab facility. And then she's jumping down and taking the
30:11
Speaker 6: bags with her. That's what we're seeing.
30:16
Speaker 1: Armed with this new evidence, the Mississippi Innocence Project took
30:19
Speaker 1: on the case.
30:21
Speaker 2: When an innocent project fill into place is when Hope
30:26
Speaker 2: said it, because finally, somebody else at this world, this
30:32
Speaker 2: whole wide world, believe in us.
30:34
Speaker 1: Finally, in twenty eleven, Velina and the Mississippi Innocence Project
30:50
Speaker 1: filed a petition claiming that doctor West presented false evidence
30:54
Speaker 1: and that the prosecution had failed to disclose the results
30:58
Speaker 1: of the FBI analysis of the surveillance video. By this time,
31:03
Speaker 1: doctor West had also been completely discredited. As early as
31:08
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, his credibility was being questioned. News outlets
31:12
Speaker 1: like sixty Minutes profiled him and the dubious science of
31:15
Speaker 1: bitemark evidence. West was eventually suspended by the American Board
31:20
Speaker 1: of Forensic Odontology. Bitemark evidence is now considered junk science.
31:27
Speaker 1: In fact, doctor West has now testified in at least
31:30
Speaker 1: five cases where the person was wrongfully convicted based on
31:34
Speaker 1: bitemark evidence and later exonerated. In a twenty eleven deposition,
31:39
Speaker 1: doctor West even testified that he no longer believed his
31:43
Speaker 1: own testimony about the bitemarks on Kim's body. He admitted
31:47
Speaker 1: that if he was asked to testify and Tammy and
31:50
Speaker 1: Lee's case again, he would say, quote, I don't believe
31:54
Speaker 1: it's a system that's reliable enough to be used in court.
32:00
Speaker 3: And so what did it all wind up being? Was
32:03
Speaker 3: it actually a bitemark?
32:05
Speaker 11: No?
32:06
Speaker 10: Oh gosh no, no, and half of her labia was
32:09
Speaker 10: not missing either, So no, none of that ended up
32:14
Speaker 10: being true or accurate at all.
32:17
Speaker 1: Velina says that the supposed bitemark evidence on Kim's hip
32:20
Speaker 1: was actually just a bruise, and while there was potentially
32:24
Speaker 1: evidence of a sexual encounter, there was no evidence of
32:27
Speaker 1: it being a non consensual assault. On June twenty seventh,
32:35
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, over a decade after they were convicted, Lincoln
32:39
Speaker 1: County Circuit Court Judge Michael Taylor agreed that Tammy and
32:43
Speaker 1: Lee did not get a fair trial and granted them
32:46
Speaker 1: a new one. They were released on bond that same day.
32:52
Speaker 1: What was it like when you found out that your
32:57
Speaker 1: case was going to be overturned and you were going
32:59
Speaker 1: to get a new trial.
33:02
Speaker 4: I'll actually sat down and cried.
33:06
Speaker 2: Happy tears.
33:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
33:08
Speaker 3: Did you ever think that would happen?
33:10
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, I really thought I was going to die
33:13
Speaker 2: alone in prison.
33:18
Speaker 1: Sandy remembers the day she picked up Tammy from prison.
33:24
Speaker 5: That day, it was just a joyful day to get
33:27
Speaker 5: her out. The newspeople were there, and Chris Felina and
33:31
Speaker 5: them were there, and it was it was just so
33:33
Speaker 5: awesome to get to hold her and take her to
33:35
Speaker 5: eat her favorite foods, things like macaroni and cheese and
33:39
Speaker 5: roast and creep potatoes.
33:42
Speaker 12: It was hard to eat those things when she was
33:44
Speaker 12: in there and knowing she couldn't. And we had bought
33:47
Speaker 12: her Christmas presents every year, so her bed was piled
33:50
Speaker 12: high with her Christmas presents from the years she'd been gone,
33:56
Speaker 12: So it was wonderful to bring her home.
34:03
Speaker 1: Tammy wounds up pleading no contest to a charge of
34:06
Speaker 1: possession of oxy cotton. The rest of the charges were
34:09
Speaker 1: eventually thrown out. Today, Tammy and Lee are still friends.
34:16
Speaker 1: Lee is a nurse and Tammy is busy trying to
34:19
Speaker 1: make up for the years she lost in prison.
34:22
Speaker 2: I'm very simple.
34:24
Speaker 13: I enjoy the cool stuff in life, because you know,
34:30
Speaker 13: I had enough time to choose that. What I had
34:33
Speaker 13: to go do was that innocent time. So I like
34:37
Speaker 13: to fly kites, I like to fade ducks. I like
34:43
Speaker 13: to type long rides in the country. I'm just here
34:47
Speaker 13: being cool.
34:53
Speaker 1: If you'd like to help support the Mississippi Innocence Project
34:57
Speaker 1: now known as the George C. Cochrane Innocence Project, go
35:00
Speaker 1: to Innocenceproject dot O, L E, M I, S. S.
35:05
Speaker 1: Dot edu. Velina also wrote a book about Tammy and
35:08
Speaker 1: Lee and the wrongful convictions of women called Manifesting Justice.
35:12
Speaker 1: The links to all of this will be in our bio.
35:26
Speaker 3: Next time.
35:26
Speaker 1: On Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, James Richardson, do.
35:31
Speaker 5: You think race had anything to do with us as
35:34
Speaker 5: far as me getting convicted?
35:36
Speaker 11: I do do an a lack of gag person Q
35:41
Speaker 11: two white individuals that they feel like, Okay, yeah, we
35:44
Speaker 11: got to show him, but I didn't do it.
35:51
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
35:54
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links.
35:57
Speaker 3: In our bio to see how you can help. I'd
36:00
Speaker 3: like to.
36:00
Speaker 1: Thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis, as
36:04
Speaker 1: well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
36:07
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonia Paul. The show is edited and
36:11
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cleiburn
36:14
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
36:18
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
36:21
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at
36:25
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
36:29
Speaker 1: well as at Lava for Good.
36:30
Speaker 3: On all three platforms, you can.
36:32
Speaker 1: Also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling.
36:36
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava
36:39
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one