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#138 Jason Flom with Tim Howard · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety seven. Tim Howard and his best friend
0:05
Speaker 1: Brian Day were avid drug users in the small town
0:08
Speaker 1: of Ashdown, Arkansas. Brian dealt drugs to support his habit,
0:12
Speaker 1: and it was no secret that he was in debt
0:14
Speaker 1: to some major players. On December thirteenth, nineteen ninety seven,
0:19
Speaker 1: an anonymous caller notified police that a U haul parked
0:22
Speaker 1: on property owned by Tim Howard's family was dripping blood.
0:26
Speaker 1: When police cracked the padlock, they found Brian Day severely
0:30
Speaker 1: beaten and shot with a thirty eight caliber bullet. When
0:34
Speaker 1: police went to tell Brian's wife, Shan in the bad news,
0:37
Speaker 1: they found her lifeless body in a closet under a mattress.
0:41
Speaker 1: The couple's seven month old boy, Trevor, was zipped into
0:44
Speaker 1: a duffel bag with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck,
0:47
Speaker 1: miraculously still alive. Tim knew about the drug deal Brian
0:52
Speaker 1: had coordinated that must have gone bad, so he understandably
0:55
Speaker 1: fled town, as did ten other people in Ashdown's underworld,
1:00
Speaker 1: Despite many obvious leads for the investigation, including aggressive characters
1:05
Speaker 1: seen making threats against Brian and Shannon just days before
1:09
Speaker 1: the murders, police zered in on their only black friend,
1:13
Speaker 1: Tim Howard and his flighty behavior. With no physical evidence
1:17
Speaker 1: whatsoever connecting Tim to the crime that couldn't be explained
1:20
Speaker 1: away by his close friendship with the Days, the state
1:24
Speaker 1: conjured up a motive completely based in fantasy, stirring up
1:27
Speaker 1: a visceral response from the jury that, along with a
1:31
Speaker 1: clear Brady violation, would send Tim Howard to death row.
1:37
Speaker 1: This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flammer. Welcome back to
1:51
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason flamm that's me. I'm your host,
1:55
Speaker 1: and today I'm extremely excited to have two amazing, amazing guests,
2:02
Speaker 1: both heroes of mine. John Harden, who is a private
2:06
Speaker 1: investigator and the co founder and director of Proclaimed just As,
2:10
Speaker 1: an organization on whose board I proudly serve. And he
2:15
Speaker 1: is as a background in public affairs and political consulting,
2:19
Speaker 1: and he was a tremendous advocate for the West Memphis Three.
2:23
Speaker 1: So John, Welcome to Ronful Conviction.
2:26
Speaker 2: Thanks Jason, thanks for having me.
2:28
Speaker 1: And today the star of our show is Tim Howard.
2:31
Speaker 1: Tim was wrongfully convicted in not exonerated, but paroled on
2:36
Speaker 1: December thirteenth of twenty seventeen. As I always say, I'm
2:40
Speaker 1: sorry you're here, but I'm happy you're here. So welcome
2:44
Speaker 1: to wronful conviction. Thanks for sharing your story.
2:46
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.
2:47
Speaker 1: Jason, Yeah, and Tim, this case came with instructions, none
2:52
Speaker 1: of the signs pointed to you, and yet you ended
2:54
Speaker 1: up serving twenty years. So getting right into it. So
2:59
Speaker 1: this is December thirteenth of nineteen ninety seven. An anonymous
3:04
Speaker 1: caller notified the Little River County Sheriff's office that blood
3:07
Speaker 1: was dripping from a U haul rental truck parked on
3:10
Speaker 1: property owned by the family of Tim Howard on a
3:14
Speaker 1: farm in southwest Arkansas in a little town called Ogden,
3:17
Speaker 1: population one twenty six right And when deputies arrived on
3:22
Speaker 1: the scene and they cracked the track's padlock, they found
3:25
Speaker 1: Brian Day's body inside. He had been severely beaten and
3:28
Speaker 1: shot with a thirty eight caliber bullet. When they went
3:32
Speaker 1: to the Day's home to give his wife, Shannon, the
3:34
Speaker 1: bad news, things got a lot worse. Her lifeless body
3:38
Speaker 1: was found slumped in a closet under a mattress, and
3:43
Speaker 1: the couple's seven month old child. That baby, Trevor Day,
3:46
Speaker 1: was found and this is I can't it's hard to
3:48
Speaker 1: even say. This was found in a zip duffel bag
3:50
Speaker 1: with an electrical cord tied around his neck, but by
3:53
Speaker 1: some miracle, he was alive. And then things get really
3:56
Speaker 1: weird because four days later, Timothy Lamont Howard, who's right
3:59
Speaker 1: here on the show with us now, was arrested and
4:02
Speaker 1: charged with the murders of the days as well as
4:04
Speaker 1: the attempted murder of their son Trevor. And this is
4:07
Speaker 1: where I got to start scratching my hat and go, Tim,
4:10
Speaker 1: I mean, or John whoever wants to take this. What
4:12
Speaker 1: evidence did they have to connect you to these murders?
4:17
Speaker 3: Well?
4:17
Speaker 4: Starting out nothing, I mean they said it was my behavior,
4:22
Speaker 4: but I guess I did the same thing other people don't.
4:25
Speaker 4: When we find out what had happened, we all kind
4:27
Speaker 4: of fled and waited for the dust to settle, because
4:30
Speaker 4: you know, we were all in illegal activities in our
4:33
Speaker 4: little circle so to speak. Now, don't get me wrong,
4:36
Speaker 4: I understand why they're considered me a suspect because me
4:39
Speaker 4: and Brown were close. We're best friends, and we were
4:41
Speaker 4: the getter that night on and off. But when it
4:45
Speaker 4: got down to evidence gathering, it was just all circumstantially
4:48
Speaker 4: and they just rain with it.
4:49
Speaker 1: They quit looking. And you guys were involved with drugs,
4:52
Speaker 1: But did you have a violent history or past?
4:54
Speaker 4: No, no, no, I've been in a jail for a
4:57
Speaker 4: speeding ticket.
4:57
Speaker 3: In my whole life.
4:58
Speaker 4: I don't have any for any kind of vialus that
5:01
Speaker 4: I was a happy, gol lookie kind of guy. I mean,
5:03
Speaker 4: at best you could say I was a drug user,
5:06
Speaker 4: a womanizer and that type thing. But no violence in
5:09
Speaker 4: my history at all.
5:10
Speaker 1: Right, And this is a brutally violent crime. I mean,
5:13
Speaker 1: this is not something that somebody just flies off the
5:15
Speaker 1: handle and goes and murders a whole family. It is
5:18
Speaker 1: a miracle that the little boy was alive. And John,
5:21
Speaker 1: I mean, I want to turn to you for a second,
5:23
Speaker 1: because the victim himself, he was involved in some really
5:28
Speaker 1: shady stuff. There were reasons for people to want to
5:30
Speaker 1: kill him. Can you talk about that.
5:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, So Brian was involved in drug dealing, and we
5:36
Speaker 5: were able to uncover a lot of things in our
5:38
Speaker 5: investigation that really suggested that he owed a lot of money,
5:41
Speaker 5: big money to maybe some not good characters. And that
5:45
Speaker 5: is a much more likely scenario given the nature of
5:48
Speaker 5: the crime, that it was something related to him owing
5:51
Speaker 5: money to sort of hiring drug dealers. And there's a
5:54
Speaker 5: couple of possibilities as to, you know, who actually did
5:57
Speaker 5: the crime.
5:58
Speaker 1: Well, and let's talk about this, right, because two weeks
6:00
Speaker 1: before the murders, Brian was arrested alongside another dealer's name
6:04
Speaker 1: was Mike May, and it was rumored that Brian may
6:07
Speaker 1: have avoided jail time by snitching. Right, we know how
6:11
Speaker 1: people react to that. In the underworld. There were also
6:13
Speaker 1: witnesses who had witnessed violent and quote unquote unpleasant individuals
6:18
Speaker 1: arguing with the Days about money in the week leading
6:21
Speaker 1: up to the murders, and just days before the murders,
6:24
Speaker 1: Shannon Day was heard saying that if anything happened to
6:28
Speaker 1: her or Brian, because Shannon was his wife, it would
6:30
Speaker 1: be Kenny Chickenfields, who was one of Brian's main suppliers,
6:34
Speaker 1: who would be responsible. But authorities somehow managed to overlook
6:41
Speaker 1: all of these potential suspects and they zeroed in on
6:45
Speaker 1: the Day's only black friend, Tim Howard. Now, you know,
6:49
Speaker 1: it's hard not to say that there may have been
6:52
Speaker 1: some inherent bias towards Tim because he is a person
6:55
Speaker 1: of color in a place that was not very racially diverse.
6:59
Speaker 1: But what's in interesting is Tim, if you were so
7:02
Speaker 1: close to them, and they made a big deal out
7:03
Speaker 1: of this because of course some of your biological evidence
7:06
Speaker 1: was in their house because he was your best friend, right, Yeah.
7:08
Speaker 1: And when I say he was your best friend to
7:10
Speaker 1: the extent that you actually accompanied his wife to the
7:13
Speaker 1: hospital when she went into labor, right, and he was
7:16
Speaker 1: out scoring meth and you took her to the hospital.
7:19
Speaker 1: I mean that's a pretty close friend. I don't know
7:22
Speaker 1: who you know who would do a thing like that
7:24
Speaker 1: other than somebody's best friend. So, Tim, they had what
7:28
Speaker 1: they considered to be evidence, which was your fingerprints on
7:32
Speaker 1: a mountain dew bottle found inside the home of the victims,
7:37
Speaker 1: and also your fingerprints or on the truck. But that's
7:41
Speaker 1: easily understandable and easily explained by the fact that you
7:45
Speaker 1: were literally best friends and you were in and out
7:47
Speaker 1: of the house all the time.
7:48
Speaker 4: Yes, I mean, well we at one point we actually
7:50
Speaker 4: had right across the street from each other. I mean
7:52
Speaker 4: the thing about it was when they said biological evidence
7:55
Speaker 4: in the house, had they look, I have clothes in
7:57
Speaker 4: the closet, choose you know, because I'm in and out
8:00
Speaker 4: and he's the same thing at my house. He had
8:01
Speaker 4: closed at my house. I mean, so naturally it would
8:04
Speaker 4: have been odd not to find my fingerprinting anything else
8:06
Speaker 4: around the house.
8:07
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, your defense argued, which would seem to be
8:09
Speaker 1: a good argument, basically what we had said before, which
8:12
Speaker 1: was that Brian was heavily in debt and was killed
8:16
Speaker 1: by drug dealers who were tired of his uh shenanigans. Right,
8:19
Speaker 1: I mean, that's you know, that would seem to be
8:22
Speaker 1: a valid theory. But meanwhile, the prosecution they theorized, and
8:26
Speaker 1: they advanced the theory. Actually, I should say, they accused
8:29
Speaker 1: you of killing him in a quote unquote meth induced rage, right,
8:34
Speaker 1: because they said you wanted money. And then this is
8:37
Speaker 1: where it gets to be ridiculous, right, is that their
8:40
Speaker 1: theory was that you had been upset after hearing that
8:45
Speaker 1: Shannon might have been pregnant with your baby. Even though
8:48
Speaker 1: and I know this might be a sensitive topic, but
8:50
Speaker 1: even though you were sterile, right, it was known that
8:52
Speaker 1: you were sterile because you had found out a couple
8:54
Speaker 1: of years earlier.
8:55
Speaker 4: I knew for several years before that that I couldn't
8:58
Speaker 4: have kids, me and my wife at the time hit
9:00
Speaker 4: so we went to a doctor to found out why.
9:02
Speaker 4: And the sad part about it is, but when they
9:05
Speaker 4: put that theory forward to the jury, they knew it
9:07
Speaker 4: wasn't true because it was in the notes when the
9:10
Speaker 4: medical examiner called him said, look, she just finished her minstrel.
9:14
Speaker 4: You know that she was absolutely not pregnant. But they
9:16
Speaker 4: still advanced that theory because it did inflame the jury.
9:19
Speaker 4: But as far as other drug dealers there in Ashdown
9:22
Speaker 4: that he owed money to, like the Kenny chicken Fields,
9:25
Speaker 4: the town was so small to where everybody grew up
9:27
Speaker 4: together and they went to school together, and you know,
9:30
Speaker 4: they their families has been around there forever. And when
9:33
Speaker 4: you get locked up in a place like that and
9:35
Speaker 4: to have a capital trial, they give you two lawyers.
9:37
Speaker 4: You got to take a local council and they give
9:39
Speaker 4: you one out of Little Rock. My attorney out of
9:42
Speaker 4: Little Rock was Matt Carter at the time, great attorney,
9:45
Speaker 4: you know, just overwhelm with this case and he had
9:47
Speaker 4: a ton of other cases at the same time. But
9:50
Speaker 4: my local council, when Mack brought up the name Kenny
9:53
Speaker 4: chicken Fields, the first thing my local attorneys says, Oh, well,
9:56
Speaker 4: you know, he wouldn't do anything like this, and this
9:59
Speaker 4: is the got it supposed to be on my side,
10:01
Speaker 4: you know, So at that particular time, I had thought,
10:04
Speaker 4: you know, he's telling the other side everything that we're doing.
10:07
Speaker 1: Now.
10:08
Speaker 4: I mean, if you're going to defend somebody that you
10:10
Speaker 4: ain't even investigated it because you grew up with him,
10:13
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't stand a chance here.
10:16
Speaker 1: But then there's another thing which is actually kind of weird,
10:19
Speaker 1: which is this whole thing with the work boots that
10:21
Speaker 1: were found like two miles from the crime scene. Can
10:23
Speaker 1: what have you guys explain that whole aspect of this.
10:27
Speaker 4: I can explain it to a point. Okay, When we
10:30
Speaker 4: went to get this U haul truck, I was to
10:33
Speaker 4: take it to my house, so I use it like
10:35
Speaker 4: a vehicle. I had boots sitting in the floor along
10:40
Speaker 4: with a bag and several other objects as I drove
10:43
Speaker 4: around town and left it in there because the truck
10:45
Speaker 4: was going to be with Brian. When they found these boots,
10:49
Speaker 4: they're down at the bottom of a ravine a couple
10:52
Speaker 4: of miles from the crime scene. There's blood on these boots,
10:55
Speaker 4: so they tested them. They found what they all at
10:59
Speaker 4: the time, Michael conjucal DNA that said that this was
11:03
Speaker 4: ninety nine percent mine, But there were also other hairs
11:06
Speaker 4: in this boots that matched nobody. It didn't match me,
11:09
Speaker 4: It didn't match Brian or any of the girls that
11:12
Speaker 4: were with me at the time, and that they had
11:14
Speaker 4: no idea who it was. But the prosecutor's idea was
11:17
Speaker 4: I drove by this ravine in such a panic and
11:22
Speaker 4: I just throw them out the window, and you know
11:25
Speaker 4: it's two or three hundred feet down to this place.
11:27
Speaker 4: They said I was trying to hit the water. They's
11:29
Speaker 4: alluded that this is where the murder weapon is, which
11:32
Speaker 4: they never found. And the way they explained, there are
11:35
Speaker 4: actual feet print leading from the boots. Somebody put them there.
11:41
Speaker 4: Why we don't know. At best, you can say somebody
11:45
Speaker 4: used them to do the murder in or put them
11:48
Speaker 4: on after to do whatever so they wouldn't get blot
11:52
Speaker 4: on their shoes. But they put my ex wife up
11:56
Speaker 4: there to testifying, yes, I bought him these boots back
11:59
Speaker 4: during this time, and we oft them all my clothes
12:02
Speaker 4: that I was wearing that night. They wouldn't take. They
12:04
Speaker 4: never took because they said the person should have been
12:06
Speaker 4: a bloody mess.
12:07
Speaker 1: You also had this ridiculous forensic quote unquote scientists. This
12:13
Speaker 1: would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. But and
12:16
Speaker 1: this really didn't come up till later, right because in
12:19
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, and I want to get back to the trial,
12:21
Speaker 1: but when the handwritten notes came out from the DNA
12:25
Speaker 1: technician who had testified to your trial. The notes printed
12:28
Speaker 1: on the lab reports, which was over course the three
12:31
Speaker 1: months in nineteen ninety nine, back when you're on trial,
12:33
Speaker 1: contained phrases such as CAP had flipped open while spinning,
12:39
Speaker 1: source of the problem, GEL did not run properly, inadvertently erased,
12:44
Speaker 1: and of course random spurious contaminant. It's ridiculous.
12:49
Speaker 5: And the real kicker is, you know, the prosecution had
12:52
Speaker 5: those notes from the lab technician and they withheld them
12:56
Speaker 5: from Tim's defense team. So that's ultimately how we got
12:58
Speaker 5: his conviction overturned was discovering that Brady violation. That was
13:03
Speaker 5: evidence that the state should have disclosed and turned over,
13:07
Speaker 5: and they did not, and we had to go back
13:09
Speaker 5: in and find that, find those notes, and that's really
13:12
Speaker 5: what led to the conviction being overturned.
13:15
Speaker 1: Listening to this story it has now occurred to me
13:18
Speaker 1: that they used the DNA testing to prove that those
13:22
Speaker 1: were your boots, then they find and ignore another contributor
13:26
Speaker 1: to the boots that is not you, Brian, or anyone
13:29
Speaker 1: in your immediate circle, but likely the actual killer's DNA.
13:33
Speaker 1: I mean, they had the frequent lead that they needed
13:36
Speaker 1: to get the real killer. And the irony of the
13:40
Speaker 1: whole situation is that if they weren't so damn incompetent
13:44
Speaker 1: and shady in their attempt to get a conviction, you
13:47
Speaker 1: would be dead right now. Yeah, yeah, did you know
14:02
Speaker 1: at the time you were facing it possible death sentence.
14:04
Speaker 4: I had no idea that it was going to go
14:07
Speaker 4: as far as it did, And even when they formally
14:09
Speaker 4: arrested me, still I thought, Okay, I'll get out on
14:12
Speaker 4: bond and we'll figure it out, up until I met
14:15
Speaker 4: Matt Carter and he told me, is, hey, you're facing
14:18
Speaker 4: a death penalty.
14:19
Speaker 3: I mean, I was just I was floored.
14:21
Speaker 1: As the trial unwound, you had this one attorney who
14:26
Speaker 1: was basically not only not doing a great job for you,
14:29
Speaker 1: but was almost serving as an adjunct prosecutor, and you
14:34
Speaker 1: had evidence being withheld. There was a lot of dirty
14:38
Speaker 1: tricks going on. You knew you were innocent. But when
14:41
Speaker 1: the jury went out, how long did they deliberate for?
14:46
Speaker 4: It wasn't very long. But one of the things about
14:49
Speaker 4: that is, don't get me wrong, I wasn't an angel
14:52
Speaker 4: to start with. I was, like I said, a woman, niager, thief,
14:55
Speaker 4: and a drug usual, but I wasn't a killer. But
14:58
Speaker 4: as far as the trial, it only lasted like three days.
15:01
Speaker 4: So while they were out deliberating, the sheriff and his
15:04
Speaker 4: deputies came up and said, Okay, here's what we're going
15:06
Speaker 4: to do. When they give the verdict. We're gonna take
15:08
Speaker 4: you and your family through this tunnel and we're gonna
15:11
Speaker 4: put y'all in the car so nobody has to see y'all.
15:13
Speaker 4: Were gonna leave. Even he didn't think I was getting convicted.
15:16
Speaker 4: They were making an escape plan. Then when Jerie came
15:18
Speaker 4: back and said it guilty, one of the deputies that
15:21
Speaker 4: when I first got locked up, that me and him
15:23
Speaker 4: couldn't stand it. Your we had become the best of friends.
15:25
Speaker 4: He broke down and started crying. He just couldn't believe it.
15:28
Speaker 4: I was in shock because I just like they proved
15:31
Speaker 4: nothing with all that they went through. As far as
15:34
Speaker 4: how you feel, you just kind of numb because it
15:36
Speaker 4: all goes so quickly. Because after the verdict, they give
15:38
Speaker 4: the verdict, they whisk you out that night and take
15:41
Speaker 4: you straight to death row, you know, the very next morning.
15:46
Speaker 1: Well, well, I just want to go back for a second,
15:48
Speaker 1: because we can't skim over a gloss over the thing
15:51
Speaker 1: about the sheriff. So the sheriff was an adversary of yours,
15:56
Speaker 1: if I'm understanding you correctly, when you first went in there,
15:58
Speaker 1: and by the time the trial came around, he was
16:00
Speaker 1: so convinced of your innocence. He was preparing to put
16:03
Speaker 1: you through the back tunnel with your family. And he
16:06
Speaker 1: was actual, he actually, I mean you're saying, he cried
16:08
Speaker 1: when the verdict was read.
16:10
Speaker 4: Yes, when I first got locked up. As a matter
16:12
Speaker 4: of fact, when Danny Russell became sheriff, I was his
16:15
Speaker 4: first call out. I was at a motel with a
16:18
Speaker 4: particular young lady. Her sister, who I was leaving at
16:21
Speaker 4: the time, came down and set my clothes on fire
16:24
Speaker 4: outside of the hotel room. And Danny came down on
16:28
Speaker 4: the first call and he said, man, what'd you do?
16:29
Speaker 4: And he talked to me and talked written and we
16:31
Speaker 4: kind of, you know, laughed about it and went on.
16:33
Speaker 4: He arrested her, but he said, I'll let her go
16:35
Speaker 4: if you call him, I'm to come get her. But
16:37
Speaker 4: when he arrested me for this years later, this girl
16:40
Speaker 4: was my girlfriend at the time still and we got
16:42
Speaker 4: married in his jail. But he got to know me
16:45
Speaker 4: the first three months and jail, you know how phone
16:49
Speaker 4: calls and gets expensive in there. He allowed my family
16:52
Speaker 4: to buy a phone call where I could come up
16:54
Speaker 4: every night and call my children. And the guard who
16:57
Speaker 4: I told you I couldn't stand at the time, his
16:59
Speaker 4: name was Mike. We became the best friend. He would
17:01
Speaker 4: to get stuff and my daughter for the prom, I mean,
17:04
Speaker 4: paid for her dress itself. When my kids coming to business,
17:07
Speaker 4: he made a special deal where they could come back
17:08
Speaker 4: there and see me in their office. I mean, so,
17:12
Speaker 4: I guess I'm senate to say this. Yes, I had
17:15
Speaker 4: a tough ordeal in the jail, but as I got
17:17
Speaker 4: to know the people stayed there all that time, it's
17:19
Speaker 4: hard not to get attached to each other when they
17:22
Speaker 4: see who you really are.
17:23
Speaker 3: I guess what you could say.
17:24
Speaker 1: Well, that speaks to your character as well. Yeah, but
17:27
Speaker 1: it's interesting to know that that type of friendship developed,
17:30
Speaker 1: and moreover, that the sheriff himself became so convinced of
17:33
Speaker 1: your innocence. John, in this case, How could the jury
17:36
Speaker 1: have gotten it so wrong that even the sheriff, who
17:39
Speaker 1: you know, went into this obviously with a preconceived notion
17:42
Speaker 1: that Tim was guilty. How could they have gotten this
17:44
Speaker 1: so wrong?
17:45
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I think there's a few things at
17:47
Speaker 5: play here, and you know, me being a native Arkansas,
17:51
Speaker 5: I can speak to some of the racial components in
17:55
Speaker 5: the whole state and Little River County ashdown Ogden. Listen,
18:00
Speaker 5: the game was rigged to start with. At Tim's first
18:04
Speaker 5: trial and his second trial these years later, it was
18:07
Speaker 5: still a thing of you know, Tim being a black
18:09
Speaker 5: man dates white women, dresses more, you know, like a
18:14
Speaker 5: cowboy boots hat, you know, cowboy hat, the whole nine yards.
18:17
Speaker 5: I mean, it was the juries of both trials were
18:23
Speaker 5: picked and designed to have that prejudice, and I think
18:26
Speaker 5: that went a long ways to convicting Tim. It was
18:29
Speaker 5: heavy on emotions.
18:30
Speaker 2: I mean, when you got you know, the.
18:33
Speaker 5: Husband and wife her brutally killed. But then you've got
18:37
Speaker 5: you know, a seven month old child. It was just
18:40
Speaker 5: a very emotional trial, both of them.
18:43
Speaker 4: Well, and you got the prosecutor who in his closing
18:46
Speaker 4: arguments saying stuff like the last thing this mother seeing
18:50
Speaker 4: was him standing there and her baby hanging by a cord. Yes,
18:53
Speaker 4: her last I mean, who would not be enraged?
18:56
Speaker 2: Right?
18:56
Speaker 5: So it was it was so heavy on the emotional
19:00
Speaker 5: side rather than the evidence side. Then we did have
19:03
Speaker 5: this racial component that went with it. And you know, Jason,
19:07
Speaker 5: as you know, I mean, jury's just sometimes they can't
19:11
Speaker 5: sniff it all out, and this is one of those
19:13
Speaker 5: times where I think they were so emotional about the tragedy,
19:16
Speaker 5: particularly for Trevor, that they couldn't see beyond it.
19:20
Speaker 1: So, Tim, you're convicted, taking to death row the next day,
19:24
Speaker 1: and can you explain what death row was like?
19:30
Speaker 4: A lot of people say, well, go in your bathroom
19:31
Speaker 4: and shit to do it and you find out what
19:32
Speaker 4: it's like. You can in a sense, But the difference
19:36
Speaker 4: is you won't get the feeling of death row because
19:38
Speaker 4: you can open your bathroom do it anytime. There are
19:41
Speaker 4: people down there who were there when I first got there.
19:44
Speaker 4: They are not the same people now before I left.
19:46
Speaker 4: They'd lost their mind.
19:47
Speaker 1: It's crazy to me that everybody doesn't lose their mind
19:49
Speaker 1: in that scenario, and including you. I mean, it's remarkable
19:53
Speaker 1: the human spirit, and I hear it in your voice.
19:57
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable.
19:59
Speaker 4: But I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I
20:02
Speaker 4: didn't do this by myself. I had a great support team.
20:04
Speaker 4: I mean, you get letters when you go to death
20:07
Speaker 4: Row all the time from different people, and of course
20:09
Speaker 4: most of my curiosity seecret, so they don't last very long.
20:13
Speaker 4: But I got a letter from a lady named Mine Bassett,
20:15
Speaker 4: who is now married to Tomorrow Leverett. But I now
20:20
Speaker 4: call this woman my mother. She sent me a letter
20:22
Speaker 4: and she says, here's twenty five dollars. She was running
20:25
Speaker 4: a thing called a court bulleting at the time. If
20:27
Speaker 4: you want to write back, here's some money for stamps.
20:29
Speaker 4: If you don't, here's a money for commissary or whatever.
20:32
Speaker 4: Just no, somebody's out here thinking about you. I started
20:35
Speaker 4: writing to her and we started a pin pole relationship
20:38
Speaker 4: type thing. And she's a great teacher and a great
20:42
Speaker 4: person to talk to, but she never wrote up a
20:44
Speaker 4: person in her life. The only reason I feel like
20:47
Speaker 4: I'm saying out is because of the people who stepped
20:49
Speaker 4: in once I got there, when they heard what was
20:52
Speaker 4: going on, and I got the first four to three
20:54
Speaker 4: decision on my direct appillar ever happened.
20:57
Speaker 1: So, Tim, can you take us through how the appeals
21:00
Speaker 1: process worked.
21:01
Speaker 4: Okay, when you first get to death row, you have
21:03
Speaker 4: what you call in a direct appeal, and that happens
21:06
Speaker 4: within the first year that you're there, and usually it's
21:10
Speaker 4: rubber stamp and it's usually seven to zero six do
21:13
Speaker 4: on or something like that. My first atturn under his
21:15
Speaker 4: name was Janie Vaughn. She was a civil attorney retired. Now,
21:20
Speaker 4: unbeknownst to me at the time, that was the best
21:21
Speaker 4: thing ever happened to me, because this woman is meticulous
21:24
Speaker 4: with her research. She's the first one that found these
21:26
Speaker 4: notes and put them in my direct appeal. She put
21:29
Speaker 4: it everything up with the kitchen sink, and it comes
21:31
Speaker 4: back with this four to three decision. My relever came in,
21:34
Speaker 4: she wrote an article and people start paying attention because
21:37
Speaker 4: of there's never been a four to three decision in
21:39
Speaker 4: the death.
21:39
Speaker 3: Row case ever.
21:41
Speaker 4: My whole process takes off from there and John and
21:46
Speaker 4: Proclaim got involved and it was just I can't tell
21:49
Speaker 4: you all the things they did because I wasn't there.
21:51
Speaker 4: I know, they worked a lot of hours going here
21:53
Speaker 4: and going there, interviewing this withness, interview in netwitness, and
21:56
Speaker 4: it was it takes more than two people, it takes
22:00
Speaker 4: more than three people. I mean, it's a whole village
22:04
Speaker 4: that's got.
22:05
Speaker 3: To do this.
22:06
Speaker 5: So, you know, we got involved early on through Marra
22:10
Speaker 5: Mara and her wife Linda that Tim was referring to.
22:13
Speaker 5: Mara called me and said, John, listen, you and Jason
22:17
Speaker 5: are just starting this organization and this is the first
22:20
Speaker 5: case out of the gate. And so we immediately started reviewing.
22:23
Speaker 5: When Maria Leverett asked me to review something, I review something,
22:26
Speaker 5: you know, and Tim's right.
22:28
Speaker 2: We did a lot of investigation.
22:30
Speaker 1: So, John, what, Yeah, was the key that led to
22:34
Speaker 1: Tim being granted the second trial that ultimately turned out
22:37
Speaker 1: to be so consequential.
22:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:41
Speaker 5: The biggest thing that we turned up that really led
22:44
Speaker 5: to this new trial was it was a direct Brady
22:46
Speaker 5: violation from the state. We had these handwritten notes from
22:50
Speaker 5: the DNA technician where she put in there that the
22:55
Speaker 5: samples were contaminated and that was not disclosed to Tim's
22:59
Speaker 5: defense team. We discovered that that was really the smoking gun,
23:04
Speaker 5: so to speak, that led to the new trial.
23:06
Speaker 4: Jenisi is telling me this whole time, Tim, you're eventually
23:08
Speaker 4: going to get any trial you got. We just got
23:11
Speaker 4: to find you to write lawyers.
23:13
Speaker 1: So that was around twenty eleven when you find out
23:15
Speaker 1: about the Brady violation and filed the petition with the
23:18
Speaker 1: Arkansas Supreme Court. Then sometime around twenty thirteen, Patrick bank
23:22
Speaker 1: I started representing Tim.
23:24
Speaker 5: If you're going to have one lawyer in Arkansas, in
23:26
Speaker 5: the whole state that you want on a case like this,
23:29
Speaker 5: as Patrick Banker tomorrow and I talked to Patrick and
23:32
Speaker 5: he took the case, and you know, we were able
23:35
Speaker 5: to help him investigate the case and give a lot
23:38
Speaker 5: of support.
23:39
Speaker 4: You know, Patrick Banker at the time did a hell
23:42
Speaker 4: of a lot of work. And sitting in the court
23:45
Speaker 4: we came for hearing and there's nobody in the courtroom
23:49
Speaker 4: but the prosecutor, me and my lawyers and you know,
23:54
Speaker 4: a few family members. The judge at the time, he's
23:57
Speaker 4: sitting there and he's reading out this stuff about this article,
23:59
Speaker 4: about these cats, about that, and he says, as much
24:02
Speaker 4: as it pains me, and I look up and I'm
24:04
Speaker 4: like what's he fixing to say? And he kind of
24:07
Speaker 4: goes along those lines, and he's fixing to do something
24:09
Speaker 4: he really don't want to do. And he says, well,
24:11
Speaker 4: we're gonna have to give mister how a new trial,
24:13
Speaker 4: and I about fell over. I did not believe what
24:16
Speaker 4: he had just said. And it went from there and
24:19
Speaker 4: my second trial, like I said, and it was a
24:21
Speaker 4: whole lot different from the first. It was like watching
24:24
Speaker 4: a lawyer on TV. I mean, he was extremely thorough.
24:29
Speaker 4: If there was a blood expert up there, you thought
24:31
Speaker 4: he was a blood expert. If there was a gun
24:33
Speaker 4: expert there, you thought Patrick was a gun expert. And
24:35
Speaker 4: he wasn't the only one there. There was a lady
24:37
Speaker 4: from the public finish Dimnsion named Kate Street. Excellent job,
24:40
Speaker 4: and they went through each witness against me one by
24:43
Speaker 4: one and discrediting.
24:45
Speaker 5: At his second trial, he was charged with three capital crimes,
24:49
Speaker 5: three first degree crimes, three second degree crimes, and after
24:53
Speaker 5: a two and a half week trial, the jury got
24:56
Speaker 5: the case the Friday night of Mother's Day weekend or
24:59
Speaker 5: Fathers Mother's Day, Mother's Day weekend, the Friday night of
25:02
Speaker 5: Mother's Day weekend, and we had some indication from jury
25:06
Speaker 5: questions that there's probably going to be a compromise verdict,
25:10
Speaker 5: and sure enough, that's what happened. So about midnight on
25:13
Speaker 5: Friday night, after a two and a half week trial,
25:17
Speaker 5: they came down and acquitted him of all the first
25:20
Speaker 5: degree charges, acquitted him of all the capital charges, convicted
25:23
Speaker 5: him of second degree charges with the idea that his
25:27
Speaker 5: sentence would amount to time served. And so that was
25:30
Speaker 5: the compromise that the jury had reached after this long
25:34
Speaker 5: ordeal on this holiday weekend. And we've confirmed that with jurors,
25:38
Speaker 5: you know, who were supportive of Tim after that verdict,
25:42
Speaker 5: who were sending him money and all kinds of things.
25:44
Speaker 5: So Tim is actually not exonerated. It's one of these
25:48
Speaker 5: imperfect situations, Jason, that we know so much about, where
25:52
Speaker 5: he's off a death throw. He's a free man. He's
25:54
Speaker 5: sitting here with us right now. But it's an imperfect solution.
25:59
Speaker 4: And I want it known that they gave me that
26:02
Speaker 4: I didn't accept anything. I'm still telling everybody I'm innocent.
26:06
Speaker 4: It wasn't one of those things where okay, we got
26:09
Speaker 4: this deal, here's what you gotta take. This is what
26:11
Speaker 4: they came up with, and they asked specific questions. They
26:14
Speaker 4: even signed a piece of papers and we expect for
26:18
Speaker 4: him to go back to prison to get it number
26:20
Speaker 4: and be let out within two weeks. This is what
26:22
Speaker 4: we agreed to, which, of course that didn't happen. I
26:24
Speaker 4: had to spend another two years in prison. After Autumn
26:27
Speaker 4: Rigan Moroll, after my conviction, I became friends with a
26:31
Speaker 4: few of the jurs and find out what it was
26:33
Speaker 4: like in that jury ring. You know, it's just the
26:36
Speaker 4: compromise was, Okay, we don't believe you did it, but
26:39
Speaker 4: we believe you know who did. It's not telling them,
26:41
Speaker 4: so you're not, you know, leaving here Scott free. It
26:47
Speaker 4: was a compromise that if they hadn't made, they had
26:49
Speaker 4: a hung jury. And the ones who were supporting me thought,
26:53
Speaker 4: if he has to come back, what if he gets
26:55
Speaker 4: another jury that convicts him again all together, you know,
26:58
Speaker 4: everybody against him, So they want to take that chance.
27:01
Speaker 1: And they also didn't want to stay Mother's Day weekend.
27:04
Speaker 4: Yeah you know that, and that was exactly it. So
27:06
Speaker 4: they wanted to go home to their kids. One girl
27:08
Speaker 4: even broke down crowning it, and she was for me
27:11
Speaker 4: at first. She changed her mind because she said she
27:15
Speaker 4: was just tired of argument, and she wanted to go
27:16
Speaker 4: home to her kids. She was willing to send me
27:19
Speaker 4: to prison because she was tired and real to go
27:22
Speaker 4: home to her kids, not because she believed because she
27:25
Speaker 4: was on my side at first.
27:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just different, Tim.
27:41
Speaker 1: Ultimately it took until over two years later. December thirteenth
27:46
Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen, Tim Howard was finally granted parole, over
27:52
Speaker 1: twenty years after his wrongful conviction, and released from prison
27:57
Speaker 1: and home in time for Christmas. With all the villains
28:02
Speaker 1: in this story and all the you know, all the
28:06
Speaker 1: people who either mistreated you, let you down, who turned
28:12
Speaker 1: out to be either corrupt or incompetent or dishonest, there
28:17
Speaker 1: are a lot of heroes in this story too, and
28:20
Speaker 1: Patrick certainly one of them. John the proclaimed justice people.
28:24
Speaker 1: There are some jurors obviously who stuck by their guns
28:29
Speaker 1: and in spite of the pressure I'm sure they felt
28:32
Speaker 1: in the jury room. It's clear from hearing exactly what
28:39
Speaker 1: happened that they knew you were innocent and they wanted
28:43
Speaker 1: to do the right thing. But there are probably a
28:44
Speaker 1: couple of people in there that just were refusing, and
28:47
Speaker 1: that's not excusable, but it's good to recognize the people
28:50
Speaker 1: who come out in this story. Even the woman who
28:53
Speaker 1: wrote to you gave you hope. I mean, there's a
28:57
Speaker 1: lot of good from this and you're here as a
29:00
Speaker 1: result of those people. So that's actually a good reason
29:05
Speaker 1: to turn to John, Because before we get to the
29:10
Speaker 1: wrap up of the show, John, can you talk about
29:14
Speaker 1: proclaim justice, because you guys have been doing amazing work.
29:18
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, batting above your weight or
29:21
Speaker 1: whoever that phrase.
29:22
Speaker 3: Is, right.
29:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, there have been quite a few exonerations that have
29:26
Speaker 1: come from the work that you and Jason and your
29:28
Speaker 1: team have done. I've enjoyed dealing with you, both as
29:32
Speaker 1: a member of the board and also as someone who's
29:34
Speaker 1: worked with you on cases. Talk about talk about proclaimed
29:37
Speaker 1: justice and if you could tell people how they can
29:40
Speaker 1: get involved, whether it's as simple as sending a check
29:43
Speaker 1: or going to a website or getting involved on a
29:45
Speaker 1: deeper level.
29:46
Speaker 2: Yeah.
29:46
Speaker 5: So we were born out of the West Memphis three case.
29:50
Speaker 5: I was an activist in the West Memphis three case,
29:52
Speaker 5: and once we got those guys out, Jason Baldwin and
29:55
Speaker 5: I talked about starting We wanted to keep that network
29:59
Speaker 5: together of notable people of you know, folks all over
30:03
Speaker 5: the world who had supported that case, and we just
30:06
Speaker 5: had the idea to start this organization and try to
30:08
Speaker 5: keep that network together to advocate for other victims of
30:11
Speaker 5: wrongful conviction.
30:12
Speaker 2: So we started this after.
30:14
Speaker 5: Jason and Damien and Jesse got out of prison, and
30:18
Speaker 5: Tim was our first case, you know, right out of
30:21
Speaker 5: the gate. So yeah, we are a small organization, but
30:25
Speaker 5: we do good work. I've got great people on my team,
30:28
Speaker 5: great investigators, lawyers in our network. You know, we try
30:32
Speaker 5: to run very efficiently for our clients, and we try
30:36
Speaker 5: purposefully not to take on too many because we're interested
30:39
Speaker 5: in their post release condition and the whole thing. So
30:42
Speaker 5: maybe sometimes our resources are spent on making sure their
30:46
Speaker 5: lives are settled once they're out. How people can get
30:49
Speaker 5: involved is go to proclaimsice dot org and you can
30:53
Speaker 5: read about some of our cases that were currently working
30:56
Speaker 5: on and how to get involved. These cases are very expensive,
30:59
Speaker 5: they take a long time to work, you know, continued
31:02
Speaker 5: financial support you can donate from the site as well,
31:05
Speaker 5: that goes a long ways. So I would just encourage
31:08
Speaker 5: people to visit our site and learn how to get
31:11
Speaker 5: involved from there, you know, what him can speak to this.
31:14
Speaker 5: A small thing that people can do that just goes
31:18
Speaker 5: so far is writing the people who are in prison
31:24
Speaker 5: for something they didn't do, so they can, you know,
31:27
Speaker 5: write our clients. They can find the addresses and all
31:29
Speaker 5: that stuff on our website. And I think that little
31:32
Speaker 5: bit of encouragement goes a long way, and it's something
31:34
Speaker 5: easy for people to do.
31:37
Speaker 1: So that's proclaimed justice dot Orgon.
31:39
Speaker 4: I would go a step further to say, even John
31:42
Speaker 4: said with writing to people who are innocent, I'm gonna
31:46
Speaker 4: say right to people here because the guys it's on
31:48
Speaker 4: death row now, even the ones that are guilty, they're
31:51
Speaker 4: not the same person that they were when they got
31:53
Speaker 4: locked up. Some better, some are worse. Find the personally,
31:57
Speaker 4: give them some kind of hope. I mean, because there
31:59
Speaker 4: are some really really good guys there who made a
32:01
Speaker 4: bad decision. I mean, and there's some there's just some
32:04
Speaker 4: guy there who I really I consider friends. I mean,
32:07
Speaker 4: if they was get out tomorrow, they're working with my home.
32:09
Speaker 1: Tim. I'm glad you said what you said, because I'm
32:12
Speaker 1: going to quote the great Brian Stevenson who said, I
32:14
Speaker 1: believe everyone's better than the worst thing they've ever done.
32:17
Speaker 1: So that being said, this is a part of our
32:20
Speaker 1: show called Closing Arguments where I get to thank John
32:24
Speaker 1: and Tim for taking time out of their day and
32:26
Speaker 1: sharing their story and their wisdom and experience. And then
32:31
Speaker 1: I get to kick back, turn my microphone off and
32:36
Speaker 1: just listen and let each of you have the final word.
32:40
Speaker 1: John Eure up first, so fire away Closing Arguments go.
32:44
Speaker 5: One of the great honors of my life in this
32:47
Speaker 5: work is sitting beside a guy like Tim Howard. I
32:51
Speaker 5: tell people that, other than maybe my son being born,
32:54
Speaker 5: the best days of my life are when I get
32:57
Speaker 5: to sit beside somebody who we collectively have worked so
33:02
Speaker 5: hard to get out. It's the most rewarding thing. And
33:08
Speaker 5: it's important for people to know that this is just
33:10
Speaker 5: not uncommon unfortunately. I mean, there's a lot of Tim
33:13
Speaker 5: Howards in the world that are still in there, and
33:16
Speaker 5: you know we're working hard for them. Join the fight
33:19
Speaker 5: with us. Every little bit helps. You can follow along
33:23
Speaker 5: with our endeavors Aproclaim Justice on Twitter and on Instagram.
33:27
Speaker 5: There's always updates with what's going on with Tim and
33:29
Speaker 5: Daniel and other folks that we freed and other folks
33:32
Speaker 5: that we're working to.
33:33
Speaker 1: Free and now over to you Tim for closing arguments.
33:37
Speaker 4: All right, Well, people like proclaim they don't just drop
33:40
Speaker 4: you when you get out. They still try to help
33:42
Speaker 4: you along. I've had a few bumps in the road
33:43
Speaker 4: and they've been there for me, just like Linda Beset,
33:47
Speaker 4: my mom, and my relivered Janis Vaughn, Patrick Pinker, all
33:51
Speaker 4: these people who came into my life, they're still there
33:54
Speaker 4: and I just want to say thank you to all
33:56
Speaker 4: of those people. Everybody that's in my life now. The
33:58
Speaker 4: people at my job at le Support Innovations. I have
34:01
Speaker 4: two great bosses, Ray and Jan and RACKI who believe
34:04
Speaker 4: in second chances and have been so gracious and went
34:07
Speaker 4: above board to support me as I go through what
34:11
Speaker 4: I'm going through now. I just want to say thanks
34:15
Speaker 4: and into even the people that I don't know who
34:17
Speaker 4: helped me in different spots in different times. Please just
34:20
Speaker 4: step in and do what you can when you can,
34:23
Speaker 4: and if I can help you in some way, let
34:24
Speaker 4: me know. As far as being on social media, I
34:27
Speaker 4: haven't got that down path yet. I mean, I got
34:29
Speaker 4: a Facebook page, but I don't really post on it
34:32
Speaker 4: a lot because there's always push back on I'll get
34:36
Speaker 4: pushed back for this interview in some way somehow, But
34:38
Speaker 4: that's cool too. I mean, you, nobody's gotta believe what
34:41
Speaker 4: I say, but just believe the situation.
34:51
Speaker 1: Don't forget to give us a fantastic review Wherever you
34:54
Speaker 1: get your podcasts, it really helps. And I'm a proud
34:58
Speaker 1: donor to the NSIS project, and I I really hope
35:00
Speaker 1: you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and
35:03
Speaker 1: helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to innocensproject dot
35:07
Speaker 1: org to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd
35:11
Speaker 1: like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis.
35:14
Speaker 1: The music in the show is by three time OSCAR
35:16
Speaker 1: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on
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35:25
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Lava
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Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one