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#346 Maggie Freleng with Amanda Busse · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: When Amanda Bussy was seventeen, her home life was spinning
0:06
Speaker 1: out of control. Her father was abusive to her and
0:09
Speaker 1: her siblings, and her mother had just died in a
0:11
Speaker 1: car wreck. So when Larry Declue asked her to run
0:15
Speaker 1: away with him, she jumped at the chance, even though
0:18
Speaker 1: he was nearly twice her age.
0:21
Speaker 2: In my mind, he was kind of like a superhero,
0:25
Speaker 2: you know. He took me away from all the abuse
0:27
Speaker 2: and stuff.
0:29
Speaker 1: But soon after she moved in with Larry, she started
0:31
Speaker 1: to notice suspicious behavior. One night, after they went to bed.
0:36
Speaker 2: I remember being woke up by someone banging on a
0:40
Speaker 2: window and they wanted Larry to go hunting with them. Okay,
0:45
Speaker 2: so it didn't make no damn sense to me. He
0:48
Speaker 2: didn't come back until eleven o'clock that morning.
0:55
Speaker 1: Not long after that, she and Larry were out driving
0:57
Speaker 1: with Larry's niece, Melissa.
1:00
Speaker 2: Melissa starts jumping up and down. This is where it happened.
1:03
Speaker 2: This is where it happened. Unc Larry, I'm like, what
1:05
Speaker 2: the heck, what are you talking about? What's the matter?
1:08
Speaker 2: You know, I wanted didn't know what the heck was
1:11
Speaker 2: going on. That's when I realized something happened.
1:15
Speaker 1: Amanda didn't put the pieces together until a few years later, when,
1:19
Speaker 1: to her surprise, she was arrested for the brutal murder
1:23
Speaker 1: of a local woman.
1:26
Speaker 2: My name is Amanda Bussy. I was convicted of a
1:29
Speaker 2: second degree murder. I've been incarcerated for almost twenty years.
1:36
Speaker 1: From Lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:40
Speaker 1: Freeling today, Amanda Bussy. Amanda Bussy was born February twelfth,
1:56
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty in Sullivan, Missouri, to Lisa and Kenny. She's
2:01
Speaker 1: the oldest of their five kids. Although they grew up
2:04
Speaker 1: poor in rural Missouri, Amanda remembers there were some good times.
2:09
Speaker 2: Like on Christmas. You know, my dad would take us
2:13
Speaker 2: out and you'd throw us in the snow. We'd all
2:16
Speaker 2: just laugh, you know. He put us on the sled
2:19
Speaker 2: and push us down the hill, or he'd go down
2:21
Speaker 2: with us whenever he was younger.
2:25
Speaker 3: We were very close during our adolescence.
2:30
Speaker 1: This is Amanda's aunt Mary Paint. She's Amanda's mom's sister
2:34
Speaker 1: and actually two years younger than Amanda. The two of
2:37
Speaker 1: them grew up more like siblings than aunt Nice.
2:41
Speaker 3: We would go to church together on Sundays, we would
2:44
Speaker 3: walk home together after school. Or my dad had a
2:47
Speaker 3: furniture store, so her mother, my sister worked in the
2:50
Speaker 3: store with my dad sometimes, so we would walk to
2:54
Speaker 3: the furniture store and there was a back room so
2:56
Speaker 3: we would choreograph dances and perform them for our family.
3:04
Speaker 3: We always would go on adventures in the woods, making treehouses,
3:09
Speaker 3: creating time capsules. We were both heavily involved in music,
3:13
Speaker 3: so we were inquired together a lot. She loved to
3:15
Speaker 3: get up in church and sing. She really connected to
3:18
Speaker 3: music and used that as an outlet. I believe.
3:23
Speaker 1: That is an outlet for what was happening in Amanda's
3:26
Speaker 1: home life, which was challenging for a young girl.
3:30
Speaker 2: It was. It was a pretty hard life. You know.
3:33
Speaker 2: My mom was sick grown up. She had congest of
3:36
Speaker 2: heart failure and thyroid problems, and she just kept gaining
3:41
Speaker 2: weight gaining weight, you know, and eventually she just wasn't
3:45
Speaker 2: able to get around and do much with herself. She
3:49
Speaker 2: couldn't do things like cutting her toe nows and shaving
3:52
Speaker 2: her legs and you know, stuff like that.
3:56
Speaker 1: Her mother eventually had to stop working at the furniture
3:59
Speaker 1: store because of her condition and Amanda stepped into the
4:02
Speaker 1: role of a parent.
4:04
Speaker 2: It was like trying to help mom do everything for
4:07
Speaker 2: her and then happened to do for the other kids,
4:10
Speaker 2: getting them ready for school, cooking dinner.
4:14
Speaker 1: Amanda's father, Kenny, worked various jobs, but she doesn't remember
4:17
Speaker 1: any of them lasting long.
4:19
Speaker 2: My dad, he just he quit working and then he
4:22
Speaker 2: just start selling his drugs. He'd go from this place
4:26
Speaker 2: to that place, and eventually he just whenever he was home,
4:30
Speaker 2: they'd be all we'd have house full of people, you know.
4:37
Speaker 1: The Bussy home became a revolving door of people buying
4:41
Speaker 1: and selling drugs, particularly meth. It was rumored that Kenny
4:45
Speaker 1: controlled the local drug trade and ruled with violence and intimidation.
4:51
Speaker 2: We started realizing, hey, you know, Dad's not who we
4:55
Speaker 2: thought he was, you know, and whenever he'd start coming
4:58
Speaker 2: down off of drugs, you know, he start hitting us
5:02
Speaker 2: and stuff.
5:05
Speaker 3: It took me a while to figure out that things
5:10
Speaker 3: at her house weren't very good.
5:13
Speaker 1: This is Mary again.
5:16
Speaker 3: When I was there, I would notice there were sometimes
5:19
Speaker 3: strange people there. My nieces would tell me, you know,
5:26
Speaker 3: about their dad being abusive toward them. It just wasn't
5:30
Speaker 3: a good environment.
5:32
Speaker 1: Which is why Mary's parents wouldn't allow her to stay
5:35
Speaker 1: at Amanda's often.
5:37
Speaker 3: My parents knew that her father was selling drugs, and
5:43
Speaker 3: they tried to be a good influence on my sister
5:48
Speaker 3: and her husband. They tried to minimize anything that they
5:53
Speaker 3: were aware of. They tried to correct, but a lot
5:56
Speaker 3: was hidden from them.
6:00
Speaker 1: At one point, Amanda's sisters were so distraught they tried
6:04
Speaker 1: to run away, but that only made their situation worse.
6:09
Speaker 3: Their dad figured out where they were and he beat
6:14
Speaker 3: them so horribly. Whenever he found them, he punched one
6:18
Speaker 3: of them in the face and broke their nose. I
6:23
Speaker 3: don't understand how someone could do that to their child.
6:25
Speaker 3: I think that that person has to be completely void
6:28
Speaker 3: of soul or you know, I just don't understand. That's
6:32
Speaker 3: I can't comprehend it.
6:40
Speaker 1: But Kenny's abuse towards his family, particularly Amanda, went far
6:44
Speaker 1: beyond a punch in the face. When Amanda was around thirteen,
6:48
Speaker 1: her father started sexually abusing her, and so did his
6:52
Speaker 1: friends who would often come by to buy drugs.
6:56
Speaker 2: You know, someone would end up stay in there, or
6:58
Speaker 2: they'd sneak into the room, end up having sex. You know,
7:02
Speaker 2: it just it's we shouldn't have been taking an advantage
7:07
Speaker 2: like that.
7:09
Speaker 3: Were any of your other siblings being abused, I.
7:13
Speaker 2: Can't say for sure.
7:14
Speaker 4: For sure, I would see little little things like Dad
7:19
Speaker 4: paying them more attention or something, and then I tried
7:23
Speaker 4: to like take away that attention.
7:27
Speaker 2: I kind of went out of my way from my
7:29
Speaker 2: brothers and sisters a lot because I didn't want them.
7:32
Speaker 2: I didn't want my dad getting to them like that.
7:36
Speaker 1: You know, even though Mary was also a child when
7:40
Speaker 1: all of this was happening, she tried her best to
7:42
Speaker 1: stand up for her family.
7:45
Speaker 3: About fifth grade, I started going to my school counselor
7:50
Speaker 3: and telling them, somebody needs to do something because my
7:56
Speaker 3: nieces are being sexually abused, they're being physically abused, and
8:00
Speaker 3: you know, in fifth grader words, right. I was worried
8:05
Speaker 3: about backlash from their parents, but my parents protected me
8:09
Speaker 3: very well, and I had a wonderful home life, and
8:12
Speaker 3: I just couldn't even understand or fathom really what was
8:17
Speaker 3: happening to them. I don't think she's ever even told
8:23
Speaker 3: me half of the stuff that actually happened, but I've
8:26
Speaker 3: heard from her sisters things that have happened to them
8:29
Speaker 3: as well, So I just know that the sexual and
8:32
Speaker 3: physical abuse was rampant.
8:36
Speaker 1: Amanda felt utterly alone and helpless.
8:39
Speaker 5: People getting worse and worse.
8:41
Speaker 2: And of course, you know, I don't remember stuff like
8:44
Speaker 2: that when I'm a kid, had am I supposed to know?
8:46
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
8:47
Speaker 2: Like, I don't know the truth about a lot in
8:50
Speaker 2: my life. You know, I questioned all my life that,
8:56
Speaker 2: you know, why mom let us, why mom will didn't
9:00
Speaker 2: do anything up. My mom knew something was going on.
9:06
Speaker 2: She did ask me one time, and I was honest
9:10
Speaker 2: with her about it, and she kicked my dad out,
9:13
Speaker 2: but it didn't last. It was like for two weeks,
9:17
Speaker 2: and then I found out that my mom was just
9:19
Speaker 2: as scared of my dad as I was. There's a
9:24
Speaker 2: lot of stuff that I didn't know until I got older.
9:28
Speaker 1: You know, see, your mom was being abused by your
9:31
Speaker 1: dad too.
9:32
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
9:34
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
9:41
Speaker 1: The abuse that Amanda and her siblings were suffering was
9:43
Speaker 1: reported to the Department of Family Services by their schools,
9:47
Speaker 1: but it wasn't much help.
9:49
Speaker 2: There was a point in time in my life where
9:50
Speaker 2: where we had to go see the shrinks and stuff,
9:54
Speaker 2: and they like made us play with dolls, tell us
9:57
Speaker 2: where we was touched and stuff. That I remember growing up.
10:02
Speaker 2: I remember Family Services being called a few times by Knie.
10:09
Speaker 2: I don't know what for when I was too young,
10:12
Speaker 2: but we knew better not to say nothing like drugs
10:16
Speaker 2: and nothing about the drugs in the house. We knew
10:19
Speaker 2: better than that. You know, there was consequences if we
10:23
Speaker 2: was said anything like that, Like my mom was like,
10:26
Speaker 2: do you want to go to DFS? You know, stuff
10:29
Speaker 2: like that.
10:31
Speaker 3: The counselors could only do so much because once they
10:33
Speaker 3: were in the counselor's office, they would not tell them
10:35
Speaker 3: what was going on. It was just me saying it.
10:38
Speaker 3: You know. They felt scared, they were afraid. They were
10:42
Speaker 3: too afraid.
10:44
Speaker 2: We had to grow up fast, you know. It just
10:47
Speaker 2: took a toll on us a lot.
10:52
Speaker 1: By ninth grade, Amanda had dropped out of school, and
10:54
Speaker 1: then when she was seventeen, her mother died suddenly in
10:58
Speaker 1: a car wreck.
11:01
Speaker 2: After my mom passed away, ninety seven is when everything
11:05
Speaker 2: went downhill. It's just one thing after another. This is
11:10
Speaker 2: a really really bad year.
11:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, So tell me about that. After your mom passes,
11:17
Speaker 1: you know, everything goes to how I know this is
11:19
Speaker 1: when Larry came into your life. So tell me a
11:22
Speaker 1: bit about.
11:22
Speaker 2: That so to me. I mean, at first, like I
11:29
Speaker 2: I thought I had a good relationship. Larry was he
11:32
Speaker 2: was nice to me.
11:36
Speaker 1: Larry Declue was thirty two, fifteen years older than Amanda
11:40
Speaker 1: and a drug associate of her father's. He was at
11:43
Speaker 1: the house one time when he saw Kenny physically assaulting her.
11:47
Speaker 2: You know, I was in my dad's room and my
11:51
Speaker 2: dad started, you know, pressing all against me and had
11:56
Speaker 2: me against the door, and Larry walks past when and
12:00
Speaker 2: he's seeing me push some dad off of me.
12:03
Speaker 1: Larry and Kenny then went outside and had a talk.
12:06
Speaker 2: Larry come back and he had asked me if I
12:09
Speaker 2: just if I wanted to run away with him, if
12:12
Speaker 2: I just wanted to leave with him, and I was
12:15
Speaker 2: all for it, you know, I was. I was just
12:17
Speaker 2: ready to go at that point. I was ready to
12:20
Speaker 2: get out of the house and just tired of everything.
12:22
Speaker 2: And I ended up leaving with him. In my mind,
12:28
Speaker 2: he was kind of like a superhero, you know. He
12:32
Speaker 2: took me away from all the.
12:33
Speaker 5: Abuse and stuff.
12:34
Speaker 2: So I thought I loved him. I didn't know any.
12:40
Speaker 1: Better, you know, But Mary saw Larry de Clue very
12:47
Speaker 1: differently to me.
12:51
Speaker 3: He is the most frightening person I've ever met in
12:53
Speaker 3: my life. I was young, and I just could just
12:58
Speaker 3: looking at him just as eyes. He had crazy eyes,
13:01
Speaker 3: and he had this aura around him that was frightening.
13:06
Speaker 3: And I think that when he came into the picture,
13:11
Speaker 3: I think that things took a horrible turn.
13:21
Speaker 1: About a year after they met, Amanda and Larry got
13:23
Speaker 1: married and had their first child, Larry Jr. After this,
13:27
Speaker 1: Larry became abusive.
13:31
Speaker 2: It was so bad, like I couldn't even go in
13:33
Speaker 2: Walmart to get divers without him accusing me of going
13:39
Speaker 2: inside to meet somebody to do something with them, and
13:44
Speaker 2: then I would risk, you know, getting beat on and
13:48
Speaker 2: stuff like that, you know.
13:50
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Amanda. Larry was abusing.
13:54
Speaker 2: I remember there was a time after I had had
13:56
Speaker 2: little Larry, when he was a baby. Larry was holding
14:01
Speaker 2: the baby, and you know, the baby he wouldn't stop crying.
14:05
Speaker 2: He wouldn't stop crying. And I turned the corner coming
14:08
Speaker 2: into the living room and I seen Larry like kind
14:12
Speaker 2: of throw him hard on the couch, and that's when
14:16
Speaker 2: I freaked out real bad, and I'm like, oh my god,
14:20
Speaker 2: what are you doing? And then he grabs me by
14:23
Speaker 2: the hair, and he bashes my head into the ground
14:26
Speaker 2: and he said, you stupid being. I went to Grandma's
14:31
Speaker 2: a few times that he came right behind me and
14:34
Speaker 2: there was no leaving. You know, he was going to
14:37
Speaker 2: make sure of that.
14:40
Speaker 1: Amanda was stuck back in a familiar pattern with no escape.
14:44
Speaker 3: He threatened to bury her. He threatened at one point
14:48
Speaker 3: to kill her and bury her and cement and build
14:53
Speaker 3: a house on top of it so no one would
14:55
Speaker 3: ever find her body.
15:12
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
15:16
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
15:21
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
15:23
Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
15:26
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
15:29
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
15:34
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
15:38
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. In November of
15:52
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, Diane Coleman went out for the day
15:55
Speaker 1: as she usually did. The thirty two year old suffered
15:58
Speaker 1: from schizophrenia and lived at a care facility near Sullivan,
16:02
Speaker 1: where Amanda's family lived. Diane was allowed to come and
16:06
Speaker 1: go from the facility as she pleased, and she usually
16:08
Speaker 1: left in the morning and returned at night. But on
16:11
Speaker 1: November eleventh, nineteen ninety seven, Diane never returned to the
16:16
Speaker 1: care center. Days later, her body was found floating in
16:23
Speaker 1: the nearby Merrimec River. An autopsy revealed that she had
16:27
Speaker 1: been brutally beaten to death by different blunt objects. Investigators
16:32
Speaker 1: ruled her death a homicide. This evening would later become
16:38
Speaker 1: significant to Amanda, but she only remembers it because of
16:41
Speaker 1: what happened at home that night.
16:44
Speaker 2: I remember being woke up by someone banging on a window,
16:50
Speaker 2: and they wanted Larry to go hunting with them.
16:54
Speaker 1: Larry left and ended up staying out all night. He
16:57
Speaker 1: didn't come home until eleven the next morning. Amanda thought
17:00
Speaker 1: that was strange. They usually went everywhere together.
17:04
Speaker 2: So it just didn't make no damn sense to me,
17:06
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know, there's just certain things that
17:10
Speaker 2: wasn't adding up.
17:18
Speaker 1: Ten days later, seventeen year old Jeremy Payne was brought
17:22
Speaker 1: into the police station and questioned about his knowledge of
17:25
Speaker 1: Diane's murder. Jeremy knew Diane through his father, who was
17:28
Speaker 1: in a relationship with her. In a taped confession, Jeremy
17:32
Speaker 1: said that he, Amanda's father, Kenny, and two young women
17:36
Speaker 1: named Angela Cody and Melissa O'Brien were all complicit in
17:40
Speaker 1: Diane's murder. According to Jeremy, they were all riding in
17:45
Speaker 1: a van when they accidentally hit a woman on the
17:47
Speaker 1: side of the road. They got out to see what happened.
17:50
Speaker 1: Then the group beat her, raped her, and left her
17:53
Speaker 1: in the woods. Amanda knew both Melissa and Angela, Melissa
18:00
Speaker 1: was Larry's niece. Once she heard the news of Jeremy's confession,
18:04
Speaker 1: Amanda recalled something that happened not too long after Diane's
18:08
Speaker 1: body was found. She and Melissa were all out driving together.
18:14
Speaker 1: They were on Highway N near the Merrimack River, and.
18:19
Speaker 2: Melissa starts jumping up and down. This is where it happened.
18:21
Speaker 2: This is where it happened. Uncle Larry. I'm like, what
18:24
Speaker 2: the heck, what are you talking about? What's the matter?
18:27
Speaker 2: You know? And we just keep on going and I
18:31
Speaker 2: want didn't know what the heck was going on. That's
18:33
Speaker 2: when I realized something happened. I didn't know what happened.
18:38
Speaker 2: Something happened.
18:42
Speaker 1: However, Larry wasn't part of Jeremy's story, and he was
18:45
Speaker 1: not arrested for the murder with the others. Jeremy Payne
18:49
Speaker 1: was convicted and sentenced to life without parole based on
18:52
Speaker 1: his confession. The charges against Amanda's father were dropped, and
18:56
Speaker 1: Melissa and Angela both took immunity deals. The following year,
19:03
Speaker 1: Amanda and Larry had another child, named Felicia. Amanda tried
19:07
Speaker 1: to be the best mom she could be despite her
19:10
Speaker 1: harrowing home life with Larry. By the end of nineteen
19:14
Speaker 1: ninety nine, Amanda's thirteen year old brother, Kenny Junior, also
19:18
Speaker 1: known as Buddy, moved in with her and Larry. He
19:20
Speaker 1: didn't want to live with her father anymore, and Amanda
19:23
Speaker 1: knew he had nowhere else to go. One day, Amanda
19:27
Speaker 1: returned home after running some errands. She had left Buddy
19:30
Speaker 1: to watch over the kids, including Larry's niece Adrian.
19:36
Speaker 2: I remember I picked up Adrian and she would be like, ow,
19:43
Speaker 2: you know, I could tell something was wrong, mind you.
19:46
Speaker 2: She's three years old at the time, Okay, So I'm like,
19:49
Speaker 2: what's the matter, baby? And then she'd kind of touch
19:53
Speaker 2: herself down there and she say it hurts, and so
19:58
Speaker 2: Amama was to pick her up, and I started to
20:01
Speaker 2: take her bridges off on the couch and then she
20:05
Speaker 2: just start crying. I'm like, what the heck man? I thought, Okay, well,
20:08
Speaker 2: maybe she fell and she hurt herself, you know, but
20:11
Speaker 2: she was rubbed roll down there and I looked looked
20:15
Speaker 2: at her. I'm like, honey, I said, what happened. She's
20:18
Speaker 2: telling Aunt Mandy what happened baby? And when she that
20:23
Speaker 2: Buddy Buddy, and I mean, right then and there, I knew.
20:31
Speaker 1: Buddy had sexually assaulted three year old Adrian. Amanda then
20:36
Speaker 1: realized my dad.
20:37
Speaker 2: Got to him too, you know, I didn't know. So
20:42
Speaker 2: I had to make one of the hardest decisions there
20:45
Speaker 2: in my life, you know, to kick my brother out,
20:47
Speaker 2: knowing he had nowhere to go.
20:50
Speaker 1: Amanda also reported Buddy to authorities, but that decision would
20:55
Speaker 1: lead to consequences she could never have imagined. In January
21:05
Speaker 1: of two thousand, Buddy was facing charges in juvenile court
21:08
Speaker 1: for the molestation of Larry's niece, and while police were
21:12
Speaker 1: questioning him about it, he dropped a bombshell, not about
21:16
Speaker 1: the molestation, but about the night of Diane Coleman's murder.
21:21
Speaker 6: He told the police that he would tell the police
21:23
Speaker 6: what really happened in the murder if they would essentially
21:27
Speaker 6: drop the charges or lesson the charges against him.
21:30
Speaker 1: This is Anne Garrety rathert. She's the director of the
21:33
Speaker 1: Willow Project, which focuses on the wrongful convictions of women
21:37
Speaker 1: and girls.
21:39
Speaker 6: And so, since he had been living with Amanda and
21:42
Speaker 6: Larry and they kicked him out when they learned this
21:45
Speaker 6: about the abuse and turned him over to the police,
21:48
Speaker 6: he said that they were the ones who had in
21:50
Speaker 6: fact committed the crime. So then the story he told
21:54
Speaker 6: was that he was a slate at his grandmother's house
21:58
Speaker 6: and that Amanda and the people who Jeremy had said
22:01
Speaker 6: were in the car came to pick him up to
22:04
Speaker 6: take him to like a birthday celebration late at night.
22:08
Speaker 1: Remember, Jeremy is the young man who first confessed to
22:11
Speaker 1: Diane's murder and was serving a life without parole sentence.
22:15
Speaker 1: In the story he told police Melissa O'Brien, Angela Cody, himself,
22:20
Speaker 1: and Kenny Bussey were all present that night. Jeremy never
22:24
Speaker 1: mentioned Buddy, Larry or Amanda, but now Buddy was telling
22:30
Speaker 1: police that he was actually in the car, that Larry
22:33
Speaker 1: and Amanda were there too, and that his dad, Kenny
22:37
Speaker 1: was not. He went on to say.
22:39
Speaker 6: That they gave him LSD and he fell asleep. That
22:43
Speaker 6: was his story. So then the next thing he said
22:46
Speaker 6: was that he woke up and no one else was
22:49
Speaker 6: in the van, and he got out of the van
22:51
Speaker 6: to see what was going on, and he saw a
22:53
Speaker 6: woman lying in the road, and he saw the rest
22:56
Speaker 6: of the people from the car standing around her and
22:59
Speaker 6: beating her with objects. He says that they told him
23:03
Speaker 6: to do the same, and he ran back to the
23:05
Speaker 6: van and did not, but he saw Amanda specifically hit
23:10
Speaker 6: the woman with multiple objects.
23:13
Speaker 1: Buddy also said he saw Larry hit the woman multiple times,
23:17
Speaker 1: and even though Jeremy Paine had pinpointed Kenny as a
23:20
Speaker 1: fellow perpetrator, Buddy claims his father was not involved.
23:25
Speaker 6: So this is where the situation comes in where he
23:28
Speaker 6: perhaps is trying to protect his father as well. That
23:31
Speaker 6: also probably had to do with his fear of his
23:35
Speaker 6: father having also been horrifically abused by his father. So,
23:39
Speaker 6: you know, all of these things are so convoluted by
23:41
Speaker 6: the threats and the intimidation and the violence going on.
23:49
Speaker 1: In the spring of two thousand, Larry de'clue was arrested
23:52
Speaker 1: and charged with first degree murder. Amanda was also arrested,
23:56
Speaker 1: but was released due to lack of evidence. Around this,
24:00
Speaker 1: Amanda also found out she was never actually married to Larry,
24:04
Speaker 1: he never finalized the papers. She also learned a shocking
24:08
Speaker 1: truth about the man she'd once seen as a superhero
24:12
Speaker 1: whisking her away from her abusive father.
24:15
Speaker 2: It wasn't until later and then I found out my
24:18
Speaker 2: dad had sold me to Larry for drugs.
24:24
Speaker 1: With Larry finally out of her life, Amanda tried to
24:27
Speaker 1: move forward. She entered into another relationship and had her
24:31
Speaker 1: third child, Katie. Meanwhile, the police still had Amanda in
24:37
Speaker 1: their sights. Soon after Buddy's conversation with police and Larry's arrest,
24:43
Speaker 1: Buddy recanted his statements, but police would not accept that,
24:47
Speaker 1: and he was then threatened with perjury.
24:51
Speaker 2: He did come forward and he said a sad, many
24:55
Speaker 2: lie and he wrote a statement saying, please tell my
24:59
Speaker 2: sister Mee and that I'm sorry for lying on her.
25:02
Speaker 2: I just tried to clear my dad's name.
25:04
Speaker 1: And in two thousand and three, based on her brother's
25:07
Speaker 1: initial statements alone, Amanda was arrested for the murder of
25:11
Speaker 1: Diane Coleman. What was that like for you?
25:17
Speaker 5: It was devastating.
25:19
Speaker 2: So that was my babye brother, and that I helped.
25:23
Speaker 4: You know.
25:25
Speaker 5: I didn't understand why he was lying, and I.
25:28
Speaker 2: Knew, and it just it was everything hit me at once.
25:33
Speaker 2: I'm like, why would he do that? You know, why
25:36
Speaker 2: why something happened to where he's saying something like that.
25:44
Speaker 2: But I love him, and I know that he was
25:47
Speaker 2: youngest and they scared him into saying whatever they wanted
25:54
Speaker 2: him to say. And I know that.
26:14
Speaker 1: From the beginning, Amanda has maintained her innocence and because
26:18
Speaker 1: of that, she opted to go to trial.
26:21
Speaker 2: You know, I knew God wasn't gonna let me go
26:24
Speaker 2: down for something that I didn't do. They couldn't. They
26:28
Speaker 2: couldn't possibly hang me up for something I didn't do.
26:32
Speaker 2: They had nothing on me, you know, And this is
26:36
Speaker 2: where my mind was set.
26:39
Speaker 1: Amanda's defense attorney was public defender David Bruns and Garretty
26:43
Speaker 1: rathert remembers reading the transcript of the.
26:46
Speaker 6: Trial, and to be honest, I was a little alarmed
26:51
Speaker 6: when I saw that the defense put on by the
26:54
Speaker 6: public defender lasted three minutes in length, which obviously seems
26:58
Speaker 6: grossly inadequate.
27:00
Speaker 1: But Anne dug deeper and saw that Bruns actually did
27:03
Speaker 1: the best job he could given the circumstances.
27:07
Speaker 6: There really isn't a defense that can be put on
27:11
Speaker 6: effectively when someone is completely, factually innocent and in fact
27:16
Speaker 6: wasn't even at the crime scene, nor knows anything about
27:21
Speaker 6: the crime scene. You know, since three years had passed
27:25
Speaker 6: at the time she was implicated, and almost six years
27:28
Speaker 6: by the time she went to trial, you know, who
27:30
Speaker 6: of us could remember on any given day what we
27:33
Speaker 6: were doing and who we were with six years prior
27:36
Speaker 6: to that moment, right, there are no witnesses who will
27:40
Speaker 6: say she wasn't there, So there really isn't a good
27:44
Speaker 6: defense that can even be put on.
27:47
Speaker 1: Bruns and Amanda were convinced the prosecution's case was extremely weak.
27:52
Speaker 1: Brunn said all the prosecution had was the testimony of Buddy,
27:56
Speaker 1: who by then was seventeen. But Buddy recanted again, this
28:00
Speaker 1: time on the witness stand under cross examination by the defense.
28:05
Speaker 6: So he did a good job of asking him questions
28:08
Speaker 6: that I believed poke holes in everything he said. The
28:11
Speaker 6: evidence was so poor and the public defender poked so
28:15
Speaker 6: many holes in the testimony of Buddy. It almost seemed
28:19
Speaker 6: like a foregone conclusion that she would be declared innocent.
28:24
Speaker 1: But that's not what happened. Do you know how long
28:27
Speaker 1: the jury deliberated.
28:28
Speaker 6: For less than two hours?
28:31
Speaker 3: Wow?
28:33
Speaker 1: Wow. On May twenty seventh, two thousand and four, Amanda
28:38
Speaker 1: was found guilty and convicted of second degree murder. She
28:41
Speaker 1: was sentenced to twenty five years in prison.
28:46
Speaker 2: I was devastated. I didn't know what, you know.
28:51
Speaker 5: I was mad at.
28:53
Speaker 2: Everybody around me, like what how could they do this?
29:07
Speaker 1: At the time of Amanda's conviction, she had three children,
29:10
Speaker 1: Larry Junior and Felicia went with Larry's family, but she
29:13
Speaker 1: made the difficult decision to put her youngest child, Katie,
29:17
Speaker 1: up for adoption. During the first years of her sentence,
29:23
Speaker 1: Amanda didn't communicate much with her family, But in twenty thirteen,
29:27
Speaker 1: when Amanda got her ged, her sisters and Mary traveled
29:31
Speaker 1: to the prison for the ceremony.
29:33
Speaker 2: And I was chosen to give the see the speaker
29:37
Speaker 2: for everybody, kind of like Valvictorian, And they kind of
29:43
Speaker 2: surprised me when they came up there after all these years,
29:47
Speaker 2: you know, And that's kind of like my whole life
29:52
Speaker 2: just classed before in my eyes, you know, because we
30:00
Speaker 2: all conspected.
30:05
Speaker 1: And then just a couple of years later, Amanda got
30:08
Speaker 1: some more good news the Willow Project was going to
30:12
Speaker 1: take on her case.
30:14
Speaker 2: Well, the very first thing I thought was that.
30:18
Speaker 5: Someone actually believed me, believed in me, and was there
30:24
Speaker 5: to help me.
30:28
Speaker 6: I thought that the case had all the same sort
30:32
Speaker 6: of issues as other cases that I had read about
30:35
Speaker 6: where people were wrongfully convicted, no forensic evidence, and the
30:40
Speaker 6: only evidence that was presented at trial was the testimony
30:44
Speaker 6: of an incentivized informant, and that was literally the only
30:48
Speaker 6: evidence against her several years after the murder, when no
30:52
Speaker 6: one had ever implicated her before or indicated any involvement
30:56
Speaker 6: on her part up to that point. So all of
30:59
Speaker 6: the those things led me to believe that her case
31:02
Speaker 6: was at least problematic, if not that she was literally innocent.
31:08
Speaker 1: Amanda has run out of appeal opportunities, so Anne and
31:11
Speaker 1: the Willow Project are diligently working on finding new evidence
31:15
Speaker 1: to get her case back in court. In the meantime,
31:18
Speaker 1: Amanda is now nearing the end of her twenty five
31:20
Speaker 1: year prison sentence. She was granted parole and will be
31:24
Speaker 1: released in early twenty twenty five. Amanda plans to live
31:30
Speaker 1: with Mary, who is thrilled to have her best friend
31:33
Speaker 1: and niece back in her life.
31:37
Speaker 3: I want people to know that she is a good person.
31:45
Speaker 3: She wanted to be a good mother and be there
31:48
Speaker 3: for her children. I want them to know that she's
31:53
Speaker 3: innocent of this crime that she has given her life for,
31:57
Speaker 3: and she's a victim of evil and terrible circumstances.
32:03
Speaker 1: Amanda can't know for sure who killed Diane Coleman. She
32:07
Speaker 1: just knows that she didn't. And to this day, Mary
32:11
Speaker 1: blames everything Buddy did and everything that happened to Amanda
32:15
Speaker 1: on their father, Kenny.
32:17
Speaker 3: Who I also think is one of the most evil
32:19
Speaker 3: people I've ever met. I just can't stress enough how
32:25
Speaker 3: he ruined. He really ruined their lives. He stole their
32:29
Speaker 3: lives from them. I fully hold him accountable for that.
32:34
Speaker 1: Although her time in prison will be coming to an end,
32:37
Speaker 1: Amanda knows she has a long road of healing ahead
32:40
Speaker 1: of her. One thing that helps is putting her feelings
32:43
Speaker 1: down on paper.
32:45
Speaker 5: I have a poem that I wrote. Would it be
32:48
Speaker 5: okay if that I read it?
32:50
Speaker 3: Please?
32:51
Speaker 2: I wrote it in twenty twelve, called There's no life
32:56
Speaker 2: without hope. Imagine being said a teen, trying so hard
33:02
Speaker 2: not to be bad and putting your trust into that
33:05
Speaker 2: number one man that you loved so dear, that man
33:08
Speaker 2: you call Dad. Then one night everything went wrong. Scared
33:12
Speaker 2: and alone, trying your best just to hold on, getting
33:16
Speaker 2: locked up for first degree murder, asking him, Daddy, why
33:20
Speaker 2: did you hurt her? Telling myself I'm going to get
33:24
Speaker 2: out because in God, I had no doubt. How can
33:28
Speaker 2: they give me twenty five years? I couldn't see that far,
33:32
Speaker 2: my eyes filled with tears, begging my daddy please tell
33:36
Speaker 2: the truth.
33:38
Speaker 5: But he wouldn't and I had no proof.
33:45
Speaker 2: Imagine how hard it was to trust anyone else.
33:48
Speaker 5: All I could see is they were out for themselves.
33:52
Speaker 2: There. I was on my knees, asking God, how can
33:54
Speaker 2: this be?
33:56
Speaker 5: Where's the justice in his crime?
33:58
Speaker 2: My dad's out there, I'm doing his time.
34:02
Speaker 5: Finally I see it.
34:04
Speaker 2: My eyes are now open, and God said, child, you
34:07
Speaker 2: can't stop hoping.
34:09
Speaker 5: God put an angel into my life. She's helped heal
34:13
Speaker 5: the pain and get through the strife. You've helped me
34:16
Speaker 5: get past all the hurtful flinches and most of all
34:19
Speaker 5: you've taken away, these senses. You know who you are,
34:22
Speaker 5: and I thank you so much for the one person
34:25
Speaker 5: in this world I know I can trust.
34:37
Speaker 1: To find out more about the Willow Project and how
34:40
Speaker 1: to help support wrongfully convicted women like Amanda, go to
34:43
Speaker 1: Willow Project stl dot org. Next time, on Wrongful Conviction
34:51
Speaker 1: with Maggie Freeling, Tala Lalay Edwards.
34:55
Speaker 6: He's saying, now something happened. You shook the baby or something,
34:59
Speaker 6: And I'm like, shake the baby?
35:01
Speaker 4: What are you talking about here?
35:02
Speaker 2: Like TJ man bag you Like if I.
35:05
Speaker 6: Was a kid and you're over here like shaking me out,
35:07
Speaker 6: I'll be in the same position.
35:09
Speaker 2: Derek Sam, I'm like, what.
35:15
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
35:19
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
35:22
Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
35:24
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
35:28
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
35:32
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
35:35
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
35:39
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
35:42
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
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Speaker 1: at Maggie. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production
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Speaker 1: Number one