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#337 Maggie Freleng with Amelia Bird · Wrongful Conviction

0:00
Speaker 1: A note for listeners, this episode contains discussion of suicide.
0:04
Speaker 1: Please listen with caution and care. For Amelia Bird, her
0:16
Speaker 1: world never felt safe from a young age. She was mentally, physically,
0:21
Speaker 1: and sexually abused by family members. She tried to get
0:24
Speaker 1: help from anyone she could.
0:28
Speaker 2: I went to my school counselor and begged them to
0:32
Speaker 2: call DFS, call whoever to come get me, because I
0:35
Speaker 2: could not live in that house any longer.
0:40
Speaker 1: The counselor referred her to a mental health facility.
0:44
Speaker 2: I told them I was suicidal. They I would die
0:47
Speaker 2: before I ever went back in that house. I can't
0:49
Speaker 2: do it no more.
0:53
Speaker 1: When adults in Amelia's life continued to fail her, she
0:56
Speaker 1: turned to drugs, alcohol, and older men for comfort. But
0:59
Speaker 1: these avid news would lead not to escape, but to
1:02
Speaker 1: her biggest downfall.
1:06
Speaker 2: I remember waking up big in It was storming, really bad,
1:11
Speaker 2: nothing you've seen like actually seeing the lightning. My window
1:17
Speaker 2: was open so I could hear the rain hit in
1:19
Speaker 2: the tin roof. And then I remember going to the
1:23
Speaker 2: bathroom and that's when I seen blood and I heard
1:27
Speaker 2: the words, I can't believe you shot me. My name
1:32
Speaker 2: is familiar Bird. I've been in prison, said Jay Ary thirteen,
1:37
Speaker 2: two thousand and six. And I am innocent.
1:44
Speaker 1: From lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:47
Speaker 1: Freeling today.
1:49
Speaker 3: Amelia Bird.
2:04
Speaker 1: Amelia Bird was born on April nineteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
2:08
Speaker 1: to William and Christina Bird in Summersville, Missouri. Amelia was
2:13
Speaker 1: the baby in the family. Her brother, Justin, is five
2:16
Speaker 1: years older.
2:17
Speaker 2: I grew up on a farm fish. We did have
2:21
Speaker 2: horses there at the inn. We were getting cattle and stuff.
2:26
Speaker 1: And life both in and out of school, kept Amelia busy.
2:29
Speaker 2: I worked a school program and worked until sometimes seven
2:33
Speaker 2: eight o'clock at night training horses, and I loved it.
2:36
Speaker 2: I loved working with horses.
2:39
Speaker 1: At first, Amelia was pretty close with her dad.
2:42
Speaker 2: I thought like he was the best guy in the world,
2:46
Speaker 2: like I was Daddy's little girl. From the outside looking in,
2:49
Speaker 2: it was like picture perfect. Just like everything, every home
2:53
Speaker 2: has its secret.
2:55
Speaker 1: And the secrets in the Bird home were dark ones.
3:02
Speaker 2: I always thought that, you know, my mom was cheating
3:04
Speaker 2: on my dad, because that's what I would overhear the
3:05
Speaker 2: adults saying.
3:07
Speaker 1: But as she got older, Amelia started realizing her father
3:11
Speaker 1: was the problem. One day, she found her mom cowering
3:14
Speaker 1: in fear from her dad.
3:17
Speaker 2: I don't know what happened. It just remember it was
3:20
Speaker 2: on Mother's Day when he had my mom trapped against
3:25
Speaker 2: the wall, down on the floor, and the whole bedroom
3:28
Speaker 2: is destroyed toward to pieces, and my grandmother had to come,
3:31
Speaker 2: my aunt had to come. And that's like my eyes
3:36
Speaker 2: started seeing that my mom wasn't necessarily the bad person
3:39
Speaker 2: that it was more my dad. My father has a
3:44
Speaker 2: temper on him. He does not know when to stop
3:49
Speaker 2: when he gets angry, whether he verbally or physically abuses.
3:54
Speaker 2: You can almot see it like in his eyes changing.
3:58
Speaker 1: And Amelia's mother was not the old only target of
4:00
Speaker 1: his reach.
4:02
Speaker 2: One time, my mom had told me to do something.
4:06
Speaker 2: I didn't do it right away, so he gave me
4:09
Speaker 2: a whapon and it started outside, then went inside and
4:13
Speaker 2: he continued to a point like I was black and
4:15
Speaker 2: blue from my lower back almost to the back of
4:18
Speaker 2: my knees.
4:20
Speaker 1: Amelia started to notice that her mom never stood up
4:24
Speaker 1: for her or for herself.
4:27
Speaker 2: My mom was very like quiet and meek, and no
4:30
Speaker 2: matter what happened to her, like she would just take
4:32
Speaker 2: it and keep going. I knew she was scared of
4:36
Speaker 2: him because she had left him twice the time Mother's
4:40
Speaker 2: Day and then another time she had left him again,
4:43
Speaker 2: and we actually moved into a whole nother house, took
4:46
Speaker 2: the horses, everything like we packed up and everything.
4:51
Speaker 1: But her mom always went back and in comparison to
4:56
Speaker 1: how they treated her, Amelia's parents often spoiled and favored
5:00
Speaker 1: her brother.
5:01
Speaker 2: Justin anything he said was right, something would happen and
5:05
Speaker 2: they'd always be like, why can't you be like your brother?
5:08
Speaker 2: Why do you have to misbehave so much? Why can't
5:11
Speaker 2: you a great to be better? It was like one
5:14
Speaker 2: thing on top of another, and they always compared me
5:16
Speaker 2: to him.
5:20
Speaker 1: This was painful enough for Amelia, but worse than that,
5:23
Speaker 1: she says, was that her brother took advantage of her.
5:28
Speaker 2: My brother had sexually abused me, and I knew no
5:33
Speaker 2: matter what was said, they would always take his side
5:36
Speaker 2: of her mind and tell me that I'm just making
5:38
Speaker 2: it up to get attention.
5:44
Speaker 1: Amelia says her cousin sexually abused her too. By the
5:48
Speaker 1: time she was ten, To deal with the emotional and
5:50
Speaker 1: physical pain of the ongoing abuse, Amelia began to self medicate.
5:56
Speaker 2: The first thing that I got introduced to was just
5:59
Speaker 2: filled and they were like yellow jackets and like worriots.
6:04
Speaker 2: There were stuff upper to try to keep me awake,
6:06
Speaker 2: because I had a whole fear and phobia of going
6:08
Speaker 2: to sleep because that's when it seems that everything bad
6:12
Speaker 2: always happened. So like I didn't like to go to sleep.
6:15
Speaker 2: If I did, I wanted somebody there, whether it was
6:19
Speaker 2: my dog Fred or whether it was somebody else like
6:23
Speaker 2: one of my exes.
6:26
Speaker 1: The pills soon led to alcohol, and.
6:29
Speaker 2: That was that I don't even remember who. It was
6:33
Speaker 2: at a friend's house that she told me, she's like,
6:36
Speaker 2: this will help, and we started drinking and it started
6:44
Speaker 2: off with just like sour apple Tucker sn It led
6:48
Speaker 2: to vodka and hard liquor, and then one time she
6:51
Speaker 2: had moonshine. Then I started hanging out with this other
6:55
Speaker 2: girl and we partied all the time. She introduced me
6:59
Speaker 2: to we mushrooms and more pills. I can't tell you
7:05
Speaker 2: what all those were because we would put them all
7:08
Speaker 2: in a bowl and just grab them and take them
7:10
Speaker 2: and take a shot. I felt so much shame. I
7:16
Speaker 2: felt like it was my fault for a very long
7:18
Speaker 2: time over it, because I didn't understand why it had happened.
7:27
Speaker 1: So Amelia began looking for a way out for herself.
7:31
Speaker 2: I found a college that was like a rodeo school
7:34
Speaker 2: to where I could barrel race on the side but
7:36
Speaker 2: also get an education, and I really wanted to do that.
7:40
Speaker 2: I loved barrel racing. My biggest dream was I wanted
7:43
Speaker 2: to ride my horse through every state. I had mapped
7:47
Speaker 2: it out when I was ten years old.
7:49
Speaker 1: But these dreams were crushed by her father.
7:52
Speaker 2: He's told me that I'm too stupid to do anything,
7:55
Speaker 2: never going to mount to nothing in life, that I
7:57
Speaker 2: need to give up all my dreams.
8:00
Speaker 1: Amelia felt trapped. Starting from age eleven, she confided in
8:03
Speaker 1: adults about what was going on at home. However, Amelia
8:07
Speaker 1: says the adults she turned to always betrayed her. By
8:11
Speaker 1: the time she was fourteen, she was desperate.
8:14
Speaker 2: I went to my school counselor and begged them to
8:18
Speaker 2: call DFS, call whoever to come get me because I
8:22
Speaker 2: could not live in that house any longer. And they
8:27
Speaker 2: brought in a juvenile offster that scared me. He told
8:32
Speaker 2: me we had to talk to my parents. I said,
8:34
Speaker 2: you might as well give it up. I don't want
8:36
Speaker 2: to talk. Then if you're going to talk to my parents.
8:39
Speaker 2: They ended up he did end up getting to hold
8:40
Speaker 2: my parents and we all sit down, and then they
8:43
Speaker 2: made me go home and they had my dad drive
8:46
Speaker 2: me to the next down over to meet some people
8:50
Speaker 2: to pick me up to drive me to the hospital.
8:54
Speaker 1: Once she got to the mental health facility, I told.
8:57
Speaker 2: Them I was suicidal, that I would die before I
9:00
Speaker 2: ever went back in that house. I can't do it
9:02
Speaker 2: no more. I can't do the argument, I can't do
9:05
Speaker 2: the abuse. Nobody wants to stand up for nobody, and
9:07
Speaker 2: I'm done.
9:09
Speaker 1: But even at the hospital, she still felt that no
9:11
Speaker 1: one believed her.
9:13
Speaker 2: I started thinking that I was delusional and that it
9:17
Speaker 2: really wasn't a big deal, and then I was the
9:19
Speaker 2: one in the wrong, Like I really started feeling like
9:24
Speaker 2: that there was some wrong with me.
9:34
Speaker 1: Amelia stayed in the hospital for about eleven days and
9:37
Speaker 1: then she was released back to her family and to
9:41
Speaker 1: the abuse. Her dad was the one who came to
9:44
Speaker 1: drive her home from the hospital, and the.
9:48
Speaker 2: Whole time he would not speak to me. That night,
9:51
Speaker 2: he just yelled at me. They made fun of me.
9:54
Speaker 2: They said, you'd better be careful what you say. She
9:56
Speaker 2: might become suicidal and make comments like, well, we'll just
10:00
Speaker 2: beat it out of her and then she'll be better.
10:02
Speaker 2: We don't need no hospital.
10:07
Speaker 1: When Amelia left the facility, doctors prescribed her prozac and trazadone,
10:11
Speaker 1: but when her dad said it was too expensive, that
10:14
Speaker 1: she was costing the family too much money, she stopped
10:17
Speaker 1: taking the medication. Still, Amelia and her mother grew closer.
10:22
Speaker 1: She especially cherishes one good memory of being with her mom, and.
10:26
Speaker 2: That was a float trip. It was just me and her,
10:32
Speaker 2: and it didn't start off very good and it didn't
10:35
Speaker 2: end good. That the middle part was amazing.
10:39
Speaker 1: Amelia and her mom were just bonding and having heart
10:41
Speaker 1: to hearts as they floated on the river together. But
10:44
Speaker 1: then a thunderstorm struck.
10:48
Speaker 2: Then we got trapped and it was like two in
10:51
Speaker 2: the morning when somebody finally found us on the river.
10:54
Speaker 2: It was my dad, and he was mad none at all,
10:57
Speaker 2: get out for even having to come looking for it.
11:01
Speaker 2: But the whole trip itself, like in the middle, just
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Speaker 2: being her out on the water was so much fun
11:07
Speaker 2: and amazing, and it's like one of my last memories
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Speaker 2: of her.
11:25
Speaker 1: In the fall of two thousand and five, the abuse
11:27
Speaker 1: was still rampant. In addition to self medicating, Amelia was
11:31
Speaker 1: also seeking out relationships with older men.
11:35
Speaker 2: I didn't really associate with a lot of people my age.
11:38
Speaker 2: They were just not mentally on the same level as me.
11:42
Speaker 2: Like I've grown up very fast. I never really had
11:44
Speaker 2: a childhood, So I always hung out with people that
11:47
Speaker 2: were way older than me, and I would meet them,
11:50
Speaker 2: like at horse shows, and they would not even know
11:54
Speaker 2: my age. They would just assume I was older.
11:58
Speaker 1: Amelia began and on again off again relationship with a
12:01
Speaker 1: guy named Maynard, who was about five years older than her.
12:05
Speaker 2: My family hated him. They blamed him for the drugs,
12:08
Speaker 2: the alcohol. They blamed him for me going to the hospital.
12:11
Speaker 2: They blamed him for so much.
12:13
Speaker 1: But Amelia says that Maynard always protected her. He would
12:17
Speaker 1: even sneak in and spend the night with her when
12:19
Speaker 1: she was too afraid to sleep, But her parents had
12:22
Speaker 1: no tolerance for him. Maynard and Amelia's dad even got
12:26
Speaker 1: into a physical fight once. Eventually, things with Maynard ended,
12:30
Speaker 1: and one day, Amelia, now sixteen, came home from work
12:34
Speaker 1: and met nineteen year old Chad Brantley. Chad was at
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Speaker 1: her family's house with a friend who was buying a
12:40
Speaker 1: truck from her dad.
12:41
Speaker 2: We just started hanging out in between my schedule and stuff.
12:46
Speaker 2: And then he didn't have no job, no education. He
12:49
Speaker 2: played music at a bar. He was a drummer. He
12:53
Speaker 2: told me he would start doing ged classes. He told
12:56
Speaker 2: me he would get a job everything.
12:59
Speaker 1: Amelia really liked Chad, even though he was somewhat adrift.
13:03
Speaker 1: She felt like he took care of her. She even
13:05
Speaker 1: confided in Chad about the abuse she was enduring at home.
13:09
Speaker 1: But quickly this relationship also turned volatile.
13:13
Speaker 2: He got to where he was demanding that I spend
13:16
Speaker 2: all this time with him. If I didn't, he would
13:18
Speaker 2: get angry with me. It would get loud. He liked
13:22
Speaker 2: to drink, and he done meth and other stuff. I
13:27
Speaker 2: don't even know what all he'd done, but I know
13:28
Speaker 2: he done meth and other stuff a lot more harder
13:31
Speaker 2: than what I done. I told him about my dreams,
13:35
Speaker 2: what I wanted to do. I wanted to show. I
13:37
Speaker 2: wanted to train. I wanted to do all that like
13:39
Speaker 2: that was my goal in mine, to be this amazing trainer.
13:43
Speaker 2: He wanted me to give up horses, and I never
13:45
Speaker 2: would give up the horses because that was my whole life.
13:52
Speaker 1: With Chad's violent and controlling behavior, their relationship didn't last long.
13:57
Speaker 2: We started fighting really bad because he was meaning too much,
14:00
Speaker 2: and I told him I needed time in space, that
14:03
Speaker 2: I'm still a kid.
14:06
Speaker 1: Then, on the afternoon of January thirteenth, two thousand and six,
14:10
Speaker 1: Amelia was leaving school when she spotted him. It wasn't
14:14
Speaker 1: an accident.
14:15
Speaker 2: Chad was sitting there waiting for me. I told him
14:19
Speaker 2: I did not want to talk to him right then,
14:21
Speaker 2: that we would talk later, that I had to go
14:23
Speaker 2: to work. I told him i'd call him when I could.
14:32
Speaker 1: That night, right before midnight, Amelia woke up to a thunderstorm.
14:37
Speaker 2: My window was open so I could hear the rain
14:39
Speaker 2: hit in the tin roof. And then I remember going
14:46
Speaker 2: to the bathroom, and.
14:48
Speaker 1: On her way to the bathroom, she passed her parents' bedroom.
14:52
Speaker 2: And that's when I see, like, my mom is laying there,
14:57
Speaker 2: my dad's standing there, and I heard with the words
15:00
Speaker 2: that can't believe you shot me.
15:03
Speaker 1: Amelia couldn't tell who was talking to whom or who
15:07
Speaker 1: they were talking to. She raced to call nine.
15:10
Speaker 2: One one, and then like from there everything got really confused.
15:16
Speaker 2: I remember called nine one one, but I don't remember
15:18
Speaker 2: called my brother. I don't remember done of that. I
15:21
Speaker 2: read the reports all the time and it was like,
15:23
Speaker 2: I don't remember half the stuff.
15:27
Speaker 3: It was all a blur.
15:29
Speaker 1: Before Amelia could even process what was happening, police showed up.
15:33
Speaker 1: They determined that her mother, Christina Bird, had died from
15:36
Speaker 1: gunshot wounds. Her father was taken to the er. Eventually
15:40
Speaker 1: he survived. This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading
15:58
Speaker 1: global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility
16:03
Speaker 1: and to making a positive difference in the lives of
16:06
Speaker 1: its employees and in the communities where they work and live.
16:09
Speaker 1: In light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
16:13
Speaker 1: and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social
16:17
Speaker 1: justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal
16:21
Speaker 1: services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Immediately
16:32
Speaker 1: before any investigation took place, Amelia was a suspect and
16:36
Speaker 1: was whisked off to the police station. She was questioned
16:39
Speaker 1: that night, and she says there was no adult present
16:42
Speaker 1: aside from the investigators. The conversation was not recorded or documented.
16:48
Speaker 2: They kept questioning me and talking to me about not
16:53
Speaker 2: really even the crimeate itself. They would talk to me
16:56
Speaker 2: about my mom's job. They talked to me about my boyfriends,
17:00
Speaker 2: or they would talk to me about my sexual relationships
17:04
Speaker 2: with men. They'd ask me about Maynard if I knew
17:07
Speaker 2: where Maynard was or if I had seen him, and
17:09
Speaker 2: I knew that that's why they were questioning about him.
17:12
Speaker 2: It's because him and my dad and my mom had
17:14
Speaker 2: that altercation. And I'm like, no, I haven't seen him
17:18
Speaker 2: in a long time, Like I don't know where he is.
17:22
Speaker 2: They asked me about what TV shows I watched, like
17:25
Speaker 2: it made no sense to me.
17:27
Speaker 1: To Amelia, the questions seemed suggestive, leading and confusing.
17:33
Speaker 2: I got mad because I'm like, why are you spending
17:35
Speaker 2: all this time asking me these questions? Why aren't you
17:37
Speaker 2: doing your job? Why are you not out there looking
17:40
Speaker 2: for whoever or checking the house for any kind of evidence?
17:45
Speaker 2: And I kept telling them, like nobody could physically enter
17:49
Speaker 2: our house without leaving some kind of evidence. Because it
17:53
Speaker 2: was raining and we've lived on a farm. It's muddy everywhere,
17:56
Speaker 2: like you can't even walk in the back door without
18:00
Speaker 2: and dust footprints on the stupid wrung that my mom
18:03
Speaker 2: in says on keeping down on the ground. They just
18:07
Speaker 2: wouldn't make any sense to me.
18:09
Speaker 4: Who did you think that this?
18:10
Speaker 5: At the beginning, I didn't couldn't for the life of
18:15
Speaker 5: me figure it out, Like I didn't know who did it.
18:21
Speaker 5: I swear that I seen somebody, but then I questioned
18:25
Speaker 5: whether or not I even really seen that person, because
18:27
Speaker 5: the way they made it seem that.
18:29
Speaker 2: I didn't see anybody. To this day, I questioned whether
18:33
Speaker 2: or not I even seen anybody, Like there's so many
18:37
Speaker 2: things that I seek that I know that I've seen,
18:39
Speaker 2: but then there's so many things that I don't know
18:41
Speaker 2: if they're even real, or if it's something that has
18:44
Speaker 2: been twisted and hit in my head to make me
18:47
Speaker 2: think that I seen this person or didn't see this person.
19:00
Speaker 1: When talking to the police, Amelia briefly mentioned that her
19:03
Speaker 1: ex boyfriend Chad Brantley could have possibly been behind the
19:07
Speaker 1: grusome crime, but after police talked to Chad, they determined
19:11
Speaker 1: that his and Amelia's stories conflicted and that to them
19:15
Speaker 1: was suspicious. They arrested both Amelia and Chad on January fourteenth,
19:21
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, the day after the shooting. They
19:24
Speaker 1: were both threatened with the death penalty. Chad admitted to
19:29
Speaker 1: police that he was responsible for killing Amelia's mother and
19:32
Speaker 1: that he intended to kill both parents, but he also
19:35
Speaker 1: said that Amelia had put him up to the murder
19:38
Speaker 1: and that they planned the shooting together.
19:41
Speaker 4: Did you ever ask Chad to kill your parents?
19:45
Speaker 3: Oh.
19:46
Speaker 2: I might have said something like I wish they would
19:48
Speaker 2: get out of my life. Oh, I can't stand then
19:51
Speaker 2: leave me alone. But I've never blatantly went up to
19:54
Speaker 2: him and said, hey, will you do this? Not one time.
19:58
Speaker 4: Did you actually want them dead?
20:01
Speaker 2: No, I wanted him to leave me alone. I wanted
20:05
Speaker 2: my dad to leave my mom alone and me alone.
20:08
Speaker 2: That I didn't want him dead.
20:15
Speaker 1: To save himself from the death penalty, Chad wound up
20:18
Speaker 1: taking a plea deal. He admitted to shooting Amelia's parents
20:22
Speaker 1: and was sentenced to life in prison. At the age
20:27
Speaker 1: of sixteen, Amelia was charged as an adult two years later.
20:31
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight, she was assigned public defender
20:34
Speaker 1: Donna Holden. Terrified of the death penalty, Amelia took Holden's
20:39
Speaker 1: advice and accepted a plea. But here's the thing. As
20:44
Speaker 1: a minor at the time of the crime, Amelia was
20:46
Speaker 1: not legally eligible for the death penalty, yet her attorney,
20:50
Speaker 1: Donna Holden, never told her this.
20:54
Speaker 2: The way she made it seem is I would only
20:56
Speaker 2: serve ten years, So I figured, what's ten years. I
21:01
Speaker 2: get away from the family. At the end of the day,
21:03
Speaker 2: it's all taken care of. Everybody's left alone, and I'm
21:08
Speaker 2: done with whatever. And then I got to prison. They
21:14
Speaker 2: actually brought me in and told me that I had
21:17
Speaker 2: two life sinces running.
21:18
Speaker 1: Wild, in other words, two consecutive life sentences. Amelia immediately
21:25
Speaker 1: wrote to the Public Defender's office to question the sentencing,
21:29
Speaker 1: and one.
21:30
Speaker 2: Of the responses was something like, well, it's up to
21:35
Speaker 2: doc how much time you actually serve. I told you
21:39
Speaker 2: that in the beginning, which is not what she told me.
21:42
Speaker 2: And I'm so angry because I felt like I had
21:44
Speaker 2: been betrayed yet again. So I kept saying, is I
21:49
Speaker 2: want to go to trial because I didn't do nothing wrong,
21:53
Speaker 2: and I would have went to trial. I really wish
21:57
Speaker 2: I would have went to trial.
22:03
Speaker 1: Despite no hard evidence connecting her to the shooting of
22:05
Speaker 1: her parents and death of her mother, nineteen year old
22:08
Speaker 1: Amelia received the two life sentences to be served consecutively
22:14
Speaker 1: and because Amelia accepts it a plea deal. Her right
22:17
Speaker 1: to direct appeals was strictly limited to filing a claim
22:21
Speaker 1: of ineffective assistance of counsel, and Amelia believes that her
22:24
Speaker 1: public defender gave her bad advice by telling her to
22:28
Speaker 1: take the plea deal. Donna Holden never filed an ineffective
22:33
Speaker 1: assistance of counsel claim to argue this, nor did she
22:36
Speaker 1: pass the case on to someone else to file it
22:39
Speaker 1: on Amelia's behalf. Amelia missed all the deadlines and opportunities
22:43
Speaker 1: for relief, so she settled into life behind bars.
22:51
Speaker 2: When I first got here, I kind of said to myself,
22:54
Speaker 2: didn't really know what to do I do. I wanted
22:56
Speaker 2: to get my JD first off. That was like my
22:58
Speaker 2: first goal because they would let me school.
23:01
Speaker 1: She also had a small identity change.
23:04
Speaker 3: When did the nickname Milli come about?
23:06
Speaker 2: Well, when the first lady met me in prison, she
23:09
Speaker 2: was what we call old head, just now what they
23:12
Speaker 2: called me, so it's crazy, but she took me under
23:15
Speaker 2: her wing and was like, your new name's Milly. She
23:20
Speaker 2: was like, you're not a Millia and you're not burned,
23:21
Speaker 2: You're Milli. And it stuck.
23:25
Speaker 1: Milly earned her ged within a couple of months, but
23:28
Speaker 1: because of her life sentence, she can't take college classes.
23:32
Speaker 1: Many prisons in the US believe spending resources on people
23:35
Speaker 1: who will never leave prison is a waste of money.
23:39
Speaker 1: But Millie has kept busy with other prison activities such
23:42
Speaker 1: as theater, softball, and her prison factory job. And she's
23:46
Speaker 1: worked hard through therapy to improve her mental health and
23:49
Speaker 1: overcome the traumas that shaped her youth.
23:58
Speaker 3: But what has.
23:58
Speaker 1: Changed her life inside prison the most was joining the
24:02
Speaker 1: CHAMP Assistance Dog Program helping to train service dogs. Amelia
24:06
Speaker 1: started with CHAMP in two thousand and nine.
24:09
Speaker 2: And that became my whole life. I fell in love
24:16
Speaker 2: with it. The CHAMP program trained service dogs with them
24:19
Speaker 2: for ten years. That was my world. To hear when
24:24
Speaker 2: they get placed as a client. To know how much
24:26
Speaker 2: you change that person's life is amazing.
24:32
Speaker 4: She was from the beginning an excellent trainer and she
24:37
Speaker 4: became absolutely a vital part of our program. Up there.
24:42
Speaker 1: This is Nola Ewers. She's the director of CHAMP, which
24:45
Speaker 1: stands for Canine Helpers Allow More Possibilities. CHAMP operates in
24:50
Speaker 1: prisons throughout the country, and Nola says it's a fitting
24:53
Speaker 1: program for people who are incarcerated.
24:57
Speaker 4: There's a lot of learning about yourself when you're working dogs.
25:01
Speaker 4: In order to be a good trainer, you have to
25:03
Speaker 4: develop patients. You have to train yourself to look for
25:06
Speaker 4: positive things, and those are the things that you want
25:09
Speaker 4: to reward. Consistency, of course, never losing your temper. You've
25:14
Speaker 4: got to do everything you can to build up this
25:16
Speaker 4: trust and try to never do those things that are
25:19
Speaker 4: going to harm that bond. So there's I think there
25:22
Speaker 4: are a lot of things in there that are that
25:24
Speaker 4: are kind of relate to not just working with dogs.
25:32
Speaker 1: Nola saw firsthand how the program helped Millie come out
25:36
Speaker 1: of her shell.
25:37
Speaker 4: If I gave her something to do, she'd jump on it,
25:41
Speaker 4: tackle it, get it done. And I loved that because,
25:45
Speaker 4: quite honestly, not not all the trainers were like that,
25:47
Speaker 4: Not all of them were quite as dedicated. I needed
25:51
Speaker 4: her to be able to share those skills and to
25:55
Speaker 4: teach some of the other trainers how to be better trainers,
25:59
Speaker 4: and she did.
26:01
Speaker 2: It.
26:01
Speaker 4: Was not comfortable for her, I think, by any means,
26:05
Speaker 4: but she did it and really ended up being I
26:09
Speaker 4: think my primary trainer up there.
26:17
Speaker 1: While Millie was building a better life for herself than
26:19
Speaker 1: the dogs she works with. She was also trying to
26:22
Speaker 1: figure out ways to prove her innocence.
26:25
Speaker 4: So I want to ask about the Willow Project.
26:27
Speaker 1: How did you find out about them and why did
26:29
Speaker 1: you reach out?
26:30
Speaker 2: Well, I actually I watched Bigly Blonde and got the
26:36
Speaker 2: ideal to write Harvard a letter to see that they
26:38
Speaker 2: would help me fight may case. They wrote me back
26:41
Speaker 2: very nicely, told me I was in the wrong state.
26:44
Speaker 2: So I went to the library and I found the
26:47
Speaker 2: college book for everybody in Missouri that was in law school,
26:50
Speaker 2: and I wrote a letter to them, and the Willow
26:53
Speaker 2: Project reached back out to me, and we've been together.
26:59
Speaker 6: Willow actually stands for women initiate legal lifelines to other women.
27:04
Speaker 1: This is Anne Garrity Rothert, a professor of legal studies
27:07
Speaker 1: and gender and Sexuality Studies at Webster University in Saint Louis, Missouri.
27:12
Speaker 1: She's also the director of the Willow Project, a wrongful
27:14
Speaker 1: convictions project for women.
27:17
Speaker 6: There aren't very many, if any, other wrongful conviction programs
27:22
Speaker 6: that are devoted only to people who are in women's prisons,
27:25
Speaker 6: so it's sort of unique in that way.
27:27
Speaker 1: The Willow Project emerged from the case of a woman
27:30
Speaker 1: named Angel Stewart. Can you explain who Angel is?
27:35
Speaker 3: Yeah?
27:36
Speaker 6: So, Angel. After a childhood of horrific physical and sexual
27:41
Speaker 6: abuse by family members, she ran away from home at
27:44
Speaker 6: the age of twelve. She became a prostitute, but she
27:49
Speaker 6: has a very serious developmental disability. When she was about
27:54
Speaker 6: eighteen or nineteen years old, she became held against her
27:57
Speaker 6: will in the sex trafficking industry. Essentially, what happened was
28:02
Speaker 6: that she was held against her will horrifically abused.
28:07
Speaker 1: Her traffickers then dragged her along in a crime spree
28:10
Speaker 1: during which they kidnapped and killed two elderly women. Angel
28:14
Speaker 1: was charged with first degree murder and first degree kidnapping
28:18
Speaker 1: along with both men, and Angel took a plea deal
28:20
Speaker 1: to kidnapping rather than murder, receiving life sentences in both
28:24
Speaker 1: Missouri and Iowa. Angel is still in prison. The Willow
28:33
Speaker 1: Project was started to help women like Angel and Milly
28:36
Speaker 1: who do not have sufficient access to representation due to
28:39
Speaker 1: injustices like poverty, oppression, exploitation, and violence. When the Willow
28:51
Speaker 1: Project received Millie's letter, Anne instantly noticed red flags in
28:55
Speaker 1: her case.
28:57
Speaker 6: She was also horrifically physically and sexually abused throughout her life.
29:03
Speaker 6: And that's sort of where the parallels exists within the
29:08
Speaker 6: realm of the clients that we take on. So that
29:11
Speaker 6: was her situation. This went on for several years where
29:14
Speaker 6: she kept trying to get away or get someone to
29:17
Speaker 6: listen to her. Nobody would listen to her, and so
29:19
Speaker 6: at the age of sixteen, you know, as with many
29:22
Speaker 6: sixteen year olds, she hated her parents, and she pretty
29:25
Speaker 6: much told everybody that she hated them. I think it
29:28
Speaker 6: makes a lot of sense. A lot of sixteen year
29:30
Speaker 6: olds hate their parents with no real motivation, so hating
29:34
Speaker 6: your parents when they actually are abusing you is a
29:36
Speaker 6: logical thing. But she was very outspoken about it, you know,
29:40
Speaker 6: and I think that ultimately was what led to her
29:46
Speaker 6: being accused wrongfully.
29:48
Speaker 1: But Anne acknowledges that cases like Millie's may be more
29:51
Speaker 1: difficult to fight for.
29:53
Speaker 6: If there is no DNA. Those cases become far more
29:56
Speaker 6: complicated because it's often, you know, one personon's word against another.
30:02
Speaker 1: This is especially common when women are involved in wrongful convictions.
30:06
Speaker 6: So I think currently, out of the hundreds of people
30:10
Speaker 6: who have been exonerated based on DNA evidence. Only thirteen
30:14
Speaker 6: of them are women, and that's because a lot of
30:16
Speaker 6: the crimes of which women are charged and convicted don't
30:20
Speaker 6: involve DNA.
30:22
Speaker 1: What's more, only eight to nine percent of all exoneries
30:26
Speaker 1: are women.
30:28
Speaker 6: And part of that is because people tend to not
30:31
Speaker 6: believe women. We've seen this throughout the Me Too movement,
30:35
Speaker 6: and so somewhere along the line, I decided that if
30:40
Speaker 6: people were going to tell me they were innocent, I
30:43
Speaker 6: was at least going to entertain that to be true.
30:47
Speaker 1: Despite the lack of any possible exonerating physical or forensic evidence,
30:51
Speaker 1: or any means of appeal or relief, Ann believed Millie
30:55
Speaker 1: and dug into her case.
30:57
Speaker 6: I believe her because, you know, everything that could corroborate
31:03
Speaker 6: her story in terms of research does corroborator story.
31:08
Speaker 1: Ann also believes that Chad was solely responsible for these
31:11
Speaker 1: crimes and that his motive was manipulation.
31:15
Speaker 6: She had broken up with Chad, but he kept coming
31:18
Speaker 6: back into the picture and you know, trying to, you know,
31:22
Speaker 6: as he said it, win back her affection, but mostly
31:25
Speaker 6: it was just regain control. In my estimation of their relationship,
31:30
Speaker 6: and so I think, you know, that is the impetus
31:34
Speaker 6: for the whole set of crimes that he believed if
31:37
Speaker 6: he could get her away from that house, that he
31:42
Speaker 6: could have her for himself in whatever way, marry her,
31:45
Speaker 6: but essentially just have total control over her. His motivation,
31:51
Speaker 6: obviously was to as the actual shooter, to have his
31:57
Speaker 6: sentence reduced, and the only way he was going to
31:59
Speaker 6: be able to do that was to implicate her and
32:01
Speaker 6: to turn state's evidence against her what she did.
32:05
Speaker 1: The Willow Project has tried to argue this and defend
32:08
Speaker 1: Millie's innocence the best they can. With no legal options
32:12
Speaker 1: for relief, Anne has been filing clemency petitions while being
32:15
Speaker 1: legislators and arguing for parole. Through the dog training program,
32:22
Speaker 1: Nola has gotten to know Milli very well over the years.
32:26
Speaker 1: They even co parent a dog together named Dasia. So
32:29
Speaker 1: I asked her, you have written to the parole board
32:33
Speaker 1: on Millie's behalf. What did you say in the letter?
32:37
Speaker 4: What I said in my letter is that I was
32:39
Speaker 4: so happy to see how she had grown over the
32:41
Speaker 4: years that she'd been up there. She'd not only improved
32:44
Speaker 4: her training skills, it's a wonderfully specific skill set to
32:49
Speaker 4: learn how to train service dogs, but it impacts so much.
32:54
Speaker 4: I'd also say that I was really happy of how
32:57
Speaker 4: she had developed those skills were working with other people.
33:01
Speaker 4: She became an excellent role model for our other trainers
33:05
Speaker 4: and offenders.
33:07
Speaker 1: And she's offered a job when she gets out.
33:09
Speaker 4: Correct. We would love to have her. I mean seriously,
33:14
Speaker 4: she has all the service dog skills that we would
33:17
Speaker 4: love to see. Really, we'd welcome her.
33:23
Speaker 1: Millie looks forward to getting out of prison and taking
33:26
Speaker 1: that job, but for now, she spends a lot of
33:28
Speaker 1: time reflecting on her life and family. Milly grew closer
33:33
Speaker 1: to her mother before she died, so she's been grieving
33:35
Speaker 1: that loss over the years. She hasn't spoken to her
33:38
Speaker 1: brother since before the crime, and she no longer has
33:41
Speaker 1: a relationship with her father, but she's staying strong, moving
33:44
Speaker 1: forward and learning from her past. Is there anything you
33:49
Speaker 1: would say to younger you sixteen pre sixteen? Is there
33:54
Speaker 1: anything you'd want her to know or any other girls
33:57
Speaker 1: in that situation.
34:00
Speaker 2: I was just want them to know that you never
34:04
Speaker 2: doubt themselves even though people are pushing them down, and
34:08
Speaker 2: just stand up for themselves. Don't give up, don't ever
34:16
Speaker 2: give up. Let your voice be heard like even though
34:19
Speaker 2: people are telling you that you're the one in the wrong,
34:23
Speaker 2: just stand up for yourself. I'm not this bad person
34:29
Speaker 2: that I've been made out to be like. I'm really not,
34:32
Speaker 2: and i just hope one day to get my second
34:35
Speaker 2: chance to prove to everybody.
34:42
Speaker 1: To find out more about the Willow Project and how
34:44
Speaker 1: to help support wrongfully convicted women like Amelia and Angel,
34:47
Speaker 1: go to Willow Project stl dot org. You can also
34:51
Speaker 1: find links to Amelia's Facebook support page and to Champ Assistance.
34:55
Speaker 3: Dogs on our bio.
35:03
Speaker 1: Next time Unwrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Butch Martin, the.
35:09
Speaker 7: Fire marshal comes out and writes an opinion saying, you
35:13
Speaker 7: cannot say that this was an intentionally set fire. You
35:17
Speaker 7: could fill the shift in the court room when the
35:20
Speaker 7: judge and the prosecutor I think really started to realize,
35:23
Speaker 7: oh my goodness, we got an innocent man.
35:30
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
35:33
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
35:36
Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
35:39
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
35:42
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
35:46
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonia Paul. The show is edited and
35:50
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
35:53
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
35:57
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
36:00
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Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
36:08
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36:09
Speaker 3: On all three platforms, you.
36:11
Speaker 1: Can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter at
36:14
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production
36:18
Speaker 1: of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
36:21
Speaker 1: Number one