Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #164 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Tyra Patterson

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#164 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Tyra Patterson · Wrongful Conviction

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions.
0:04
Speaker 2: I'm Laura and I writer and I'm Steve Drissen.
0:07
Speaker 1: In today's episode, will take you to Dayton, Ohio to
0:09
Speaker 1: tell you about Tyra Patterson. Nineteen year old Tira falsely
0:13
Speaker 1: confessed to stealing a necklace, but an obscure law turned
0:17
Speaker 1: her false confession to robbery into something far worse.
0:33
Speaker 2: I was sitting in my office one day in the
0:36
Speaker 2: phone rank and on the other end of the call
0:39
Speaker 2: was David Singleton, the director of a group called the
0:42
Speaker 2: Ohio Justice and Policy Center. David was looking for somebody
0:47
Speaker 2: who could assist him in a case that involved a
0:52
Speaker 2: false confession. It was Tyra Patterson's case. We've told a
0:58
Speaker 2: lot of stories about people who false confessed to murders
1:01
Speaker 2: last season, but the crazy thing is, this is a
1:04
Speaker 2: case where a false confession to robbery is converted into
1:08
Speaker 2: a false conviction for murder, and it's all because of
1:13
Speaker 2: an obscure, archaic rule called the felony murder doctrine. The
1:18
Speaker 2: felony murder leads to people going down for murders who
1:22
Speaker 2: never killed anyone.
1:24
Speaker 1: When most people think about people in prison who they've
1:27
Speaker 1: been convicted of murder. They think of truly bad people,
1:31
Speaker 1: you know, scary folks. But there are a lot of
1:33
Speaker 1: people in prison for murder who never touched a gun
1:38
Speaker 1: or a murder weapon at all.
1:40
Speaker 2: The prisons are filled with people convicted of felony murder,
1:45
Speaker 2: people like Tyer Patterson.
1:50
Speaker 1: Today's story starts in Dayton, Ohio. It was a manufacturing
1:54
Speaker 1: town back in the day, but those jobs left in
1:56
Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties and never came back. Eyton's claim
2:00
Speaker 1: to fame is that the guys who invented the airplane
2:03
Speaker 1: used to live there, Wilbur and Orville Wright. In fact,
2:06
Speaker 1: our story starts in a part of town named after
2:09
Speaker 1: the Wright brothers, a lower income, mixed race neighborhood called
2:13
Speaker 1: Right View. It was just after midnight on a Tuesday
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Speaker 1: in Right View, September twentieth, nineteen ninety four. Tyra Patterson
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Speaker 1: was awake and bored. Tyra was nineteen and smart as
2:25
Speaker 1: hell with a sunny personality. She was full of promise,
2:28
Speaker 1: but there weren't many open doors in front of her.
2:31
Speaker 1: Tyra's home life was really tough. Her dad was an
2:34
Speaker 1: alcoholic who hit her mom when he'd been drinking. He
2:37
Speaker 1: left when Tyra was just a kid, and they got
2:39
Speaker 1: evicted when her mom couldn't pay the bills. Tyra dropped
2:43
Speaker 1: out of school in sixth grade. She was tired of
2:45
Speaker 1: the other kids bullying her about being poor. She got
2:48
Speaker 1: a job at a fast food restaurant and they put
2:50
Speaker 1: her at the register because she was so friendly. But
2:53
Speaker 1: Tyra hadn't learned enough math to make change. She was
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Speaker 1: humiliated every time someone handed her at twenty and quit
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Speaker 1: the job. By the time Tyra reached her late teens,
3:02
Speaker 1: the family had found an apartment to live in again,
3:05
Speaker 1: but Tyra had lost her way. She smoked a lot
3:07
Speaker 1: of weed and tried not to think about how her
3:10
Speaker 1: life could have been different. It was around two am
3:13
Speaker 1: on September twentieth when Tyra's boring night started getting a
3:16
Speaker 1: little too interesting. Tyra and her friend Rebecca were hanging
3:20
Speaker 1: out at Tyra's place, and they decided to go for
3:22
Speaker 1: a walk outside. They ran into five other young people
3:26
Speaker 1: from right view. Tyra barely knew most of them, but
3:29
Speaker 1: she and Rebecca stuck around anyway. The group was mixed
3:32
Speaker 1: gender and mixed race. Five were black, including Tyra, and
3:36
Speaker 1: two were white, including Rebecca. To keep things clear, in
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Speaker 1: our story. We're going to call all of them the
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Speaker 1: Right View Group. Sometime after two am, a gray Chevrolet
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Speaker 1: rolled into an alley near where the group was hanging out.
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Speaker 1: The Chevy was filled with five teenagers, all white girls
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Speaker 1: from another part of town. They'd driven to Right View
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Speaker 1: to steal stuff from people's garages. In the alley. Two
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Speaker 1: of these would be thieves got out of the Chevy
4:01
Speaker 1: to steal a radio. They were gone about ten minutes
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Speaker 1: before they returned to the car in a hurry. Following
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Speaker 1: them on foot were three members of the Right View group, Lashawna, Angie,
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Speaker 1: and Joe, and on a leash. Joe had a pitbull.
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Speaker 1: Before the girls in the Chevy can drive away, another
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Speaker 1: car pulls up in front of them, blocking the alley's exit.
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Speaker 1: It's the other four members of the Right View Group,
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Speaker 1: and crammed into a corner of that car. Wondering what
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Speaker 1: she's gotten herself into is Tira Patterson. Tyra's friend Rebecca
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Speaker 1: gets out of the car and heads for the Chevy
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Speaker 1: along with the other Right View people. Not knowing what
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Speaker 1: else to do, Tyra gets out too, but she's not
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Speaker 1: prepared for what happens next. There's a confrontation. Everyone starts yelling.
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Speaker 1: One of the right View girls, not Tyra, calls the
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Speaker 1: girls in the Chevy white bitches. Two other right View
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Speaker 1: girls join in, still not Tyra, and start telling the
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Speaker 1: girls in the Chevy to check it in. That means
4:56
Speaker 1: throw your money and jewelry on the ground. The girls
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Speaker 1: in the Chevy don't immediately comply, and that's when things
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Speaker 1: really escalate. Tyra hangs back, but three of the right
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Speaker 1: View girls open the car doors and start landing punches.
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Speaker 1: Joe lets his pit bull into the car and orders
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Speaker 1: it to attack. Now it's a melee. Some of the
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Speaker 1: girls in the Chevy do check it in, throwing their
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Speaker 1: jewelry onto the ground. Tyra's not used to this kind
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Speaker 1: of stuff. She doesn't have a record, and she has
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Speaker 1: no interest in violence. She tries to calm the situation down,
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Speaker 1: but no one listens. As the punch is intensify, Tyra
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Speaker 1: and her friend Rebecca starts slipping away. They want no
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Speaker 1: part of this, but as they leave, Tyra spots a
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Speaker 1: necklace on the ground costume jewelry, a cheap gold cross.
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Speaker 1: She's never owned that kind of jewelry and it seems
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Speaker 1: valuable to her. Tyra picks up the necklace, puts it
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Speaker 1: in her pocket, and keeps walking away.
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Speaker 2: When Tyra picked up that necklace, at worst it was
5:56
Speaker 2: a theft. It might not even have been a cry.
5:59
Speaker 2: Picking up a necklace off the ground is not something
6:03
Speaker 2: that prosecutors are interested in. It's not something that people
6:06
Speaker 2: go to prison for, and it's certainly not murder.
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Speaker 1: Right as Tyra's walking away, she hears words being yelled,
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Speaker 1: yelled maybe to her by one of the girls in
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Speaker 1: the chevy, eighteen year old Holly Lay, Please make them stop.
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Speaker 1: Holly calls, we don't have anything. Before Tyra can respond,
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Speaker 1: a gunshot rings out. Lashawna Keeney, part of the Right
6:29
Speaker 1: View group, had pulled out a gun and fired into
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Speaker 1: the car. The bullet went straight into the temple of
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Speaker 1: Michelle Lay, Holly's fifteen year old sister. Michelle died instantly.
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Speaker 1: Later on, another one of the Right View girls, Angie,
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Speaker 1: expressed bewilderment that it all happened so fast. We just
6:48
Speaker 1: meant to punk them out, she said within minutes, though,
6:51
Speaker 1: punking out turned into murder. The moment the shots rang out,
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Speaker 1: everyone scattered. Most members of the Right View group fled
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Speaker 1: to a nearby motel, but Tyra ran to her apartment
7:06
Speaker 1: only a few hundred feet away, where she panicked and
7:09
Speaker 1: flushed the necklace down the toilet. She was afraid it
7:12
Speaker 1: would connect her to a shooting she didn't commit. For
7:15
Speaker 1: her part, Holly Lay got out of the Chevy and
7:18
Speaker 1: started banging on doors, pleading desperately for someone, anyone to
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Speaker 1: call an ambulance help her sister. Eventually, someone did call
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Speaker 1: nine one one. It was Tyra. Police only needed about
7:39
Speaker 1: twelve hours to figure out who'd been there when Michelle
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Speaker 1: Lay was shot. The girls from the Chevy gave some
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Speaker 1: pretty good descriptions of both their assailants and the pit bull.
7:49
Speaker 1: Police found the dog sitting outside its owner's house, and
7:52
Speaker 1: when the owner matched the girl's descriptions of Joe, police
7:55
Speaker 1: knew they'd found one of the Right View group. Pretty soon,
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Speaker 1: several people had been rounded up and the police were
8:01
Speaker 1: knocking at Tyrastoor too. Before long, Tyra Patterson found herself
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Speaker 1: in an interrogation room.
8:17
Speaker 3: This episode is sponsored by AIG, a leading global insurance company,
8:21
Speaker 3: and Paul Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison, a leading international
8:25
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8:28
Speaker 3: services and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals
8:33
Speaker 3: most in need, and recently they announced that working to
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Speaker 3: reform the criminal justice system will become a key pillar
8:39
Speaker 3: of the program's mission. Paul Weiss has long had an
8:43
Speaker 3: unwavering commitment to providing impactful, pro bono legal assistance to
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Speaker 3: the most vulnerable members of our society and in support
8:50
Speaker 3: of the public interest, including extensive work in the criminal
8:54
Speaker 3: justice area.
8:59
Speaker 1: The police were angry. The shooting was tragic, and they
9:02
Speaker 1: wanted to nail as many people as possible for murder,
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Speaker 1: not just Lashana who pulled the trigger, but the others too.
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Speaker 1: But how do you get someone who didn't kill anyone
9:12
Speaker 1: to go down for murder. Well, one tool that police
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Speaker 1: and prosecutors have is that felony murder rule. We mentioned earlier.
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Speaker 1: This little known law can be the source of enormous injustice.
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Speaker 2: In its purest form, the felony murder rule is felony
9:30
Speaker 2: plus death equals first degree murder. So if you commit
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Speaker 2: a felony and during the course of that felony someone dies,
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Speaker 2: you are convicted of first degree murder, even though you
9:43
Speaker 2: never intended to kill somebody, Even though you couldn't have
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Speaker 2: foreseen that somebody would have died. It is the intent
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Speaker 2: to commit that felony that substitutes for the intent to kill.
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Speaker 2: They didn't coerce Tyra into confessing to murder because they
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Speaker 2: knew who before the interrogation who the murderer was. It
10:03
Speaker 2: was Lashawnakiny. All they needed to do was get Tyra
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Speaker 2: to say that she grabbed a necklace by force from
10:10
Speaker 2: one of the girls in the car. That's a robbery.
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Speaker 2: They could get her for the same murder that Lashawna
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Speaker 2: Kinney committed.
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Speaker 1: So getting Tyra to say she snatched the necklace instead
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Speaker 1: of picking it up is what this interrogation is all about. Now,
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Speaker 1: like all interrogations that aren't fully recorded, there are two
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Speaker 1: stories about what happened in the room. There is the
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Speaker 1: official story told in police reports, and then there's the
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Speaker 1: story told by the defendant. They almost always diverge. In
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Speaker 1: Tyra's case, the police story goes like this. Tyra admitted
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Speaker 1: to being there, but she denied being involved in the robbery,
10:48
Speaker 1: assault or shooting. But as she was being booked, Tyra
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Speaker 1: spontaneously announced that she wanted to tell the truth and
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Speaker 1: admitted reaching into the car. And grabbing the necklace off
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Speaker 1: one of the girls that when police captured her confession
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Speaker 1: on videotape, no coercion, no drama. But according to Tyra
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Speaker 1: and her lawyer, she confessed after a very different sequence
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Speaker 1: of events. Here's David Singleton, that lawyer who called Steve
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Speaker 1: about this case. David has represented Tyra for the past
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Speaker 1: eight years.
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Speaker 4: Tyra recalls very clearly the detective screaming at her, saying
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Speaker 4: she's a murderer, that she's going to be locked up
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Speaker 4: for the rest of her life, cursing at her, telling
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Speaker 4: her she's an effing liar, because Tyra was saying, I
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Speaker 4: didn't rob anybody, I didn't shoot anybody. Eventually, the detective
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Speaker 4: takes Tyra out of the interrogation room and walks her
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Speaker 4: past where Tyra could see Rebecca sitting in a police
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Speaker 4: car about to go home. And Tyra's like, well, you
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Speaker 4: know Rebecca's going home. Why am I not going home.
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Speaker 4: The detective said, well, she gave us a videotape statement,
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Speaker 4: and Tyra said, well, I'll give you a videotape statement.
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Speaker 4: The detective said, well, you don't have anything to tell us,
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Speaker 4: and Tyra said, well, I picked up a necklace from
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Speaker 4: the ground, and the sector smiled and took her back
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Speaker 4: in to try and charge her.
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Speaker 1: The police tell Tyra she just needs to change one
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Speaker 1: thing in her story about the necklace. She didn't pick
12:19
Speaker 1: it up off the ground. Instead, she robbed it from
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Speaker 1: the girls. After all, they say, wouldn't it be better
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Speaker 1: to go down for a robbery than for murder? Getting
12:29
Speaker 1: caught up in a murder is what Tyra's been terrified
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Speaker 1: of all along, so this is what breaks her. She
12:35
Speaker 1: falsely admits to snatching the necklace off one of the
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Speaker 1: girls in the chevy. Now she's confessed to robbery and
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Speaker 1: the cops have their felony. It's only at this point
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Speaker 1: that the video camera gets turned on.
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Speaker 4: Describe the necklace.
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Speaker 2: Is a necklace, thank big goal.
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Speaker 3: I wouldn't live.
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Speaker 1: I don't know why I grab it?
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Speaker 5: And from which girl in the back sheet?
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Speaker 2: Did you take that?
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Speaker 5: Next?
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Speaker 3: The driver?
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Speaker 5: Okay, from the person behind the driver?
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Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah.
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Speaker 4: What struck me about Tyra's appearance in that video is
13:18
Speaker 4: she did look tired. She also looks scared. At one
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Speaker 4: point you hear somebody screaming in another room and she's
13:26
Speaker 4: just terrified. And another point, I recall very vividly. She's
13:33
Speaker 4: looking to the detective for an answer. I mean, she
13:37
Speaker 4: was trying to satisfy what he wanted because she thought
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Speaker 4: that was her ticket to go back home and continue
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Speaker 4: on with her life. And the minute that she finished
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Speaker 4: the video and the camera was turned off, she said,
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Speaker 4: do I get to go home now? And he said no,
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Speaker 4: I'm booking you for murder. That's when the nightmare truly began.
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Speaker 1: How is Tyra to know that one little change in
14:01
Speaker 1: her story was enough to charge her not just with robbery,
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Speaker 1: but with felony murder. That one little change made Tira
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Speaker 1: as liable for Michelle Lay's death as the murderer herself.
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Speaker 2: You know, there's a huge irony in this case. They
14:17
Speaker 2: needed Tyra to confess to a robbery, not a theft,
14:21
Speaker 2: and the way they did it was they told her
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Speaker 2: it's better to go down for a robbery than it
14:27
Speaker 2: is for a murder, and she accepted that explanation.
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Speaker 1: She believed that premise.
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Speaker 2: Everybody believes that, of course, because they don't understand the
14:37
Speaker 2: felony murder rule. We've seen police officers lie before, but
14:41
Speaker 2: this is a particularly dangerous lie because it sets somebody
14:46
Speaker 2: up for murder charges.
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Speaker 1: There's actually a second irony in this case too, because
14:51
Speaker 1: here you have the felony murder rule being applied to
14:54
Speaker 1: Tyra Patterson. She didn't have a weapon with her that night.
14:57
Speaker 1: She didn't know the people who did come to that
15:00
Speaker 1: scene with weapons. She tried to intervene and stop the fight.
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Speaker 1: She tried to de escalate as things were getting more
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Speaker 1: serious and more violent, and when she couldn't stop the fight,
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Speaker 1: she walked away. After the gunshot. She called nine to
15:12
Speaker 1: one to one. Tyra's a hero here. She's not a murderer.
15:15
Speaker 1: She's the one, though, who ends up going down. Tyra
15:22
Speaker 1: Patterson's only crime, if it even was a crime, was
15:25
Speaker 1: picking up a necklace from the ground, But suddenly, somehow
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Speaker 1: she was on trial for murder and facing life in prison.
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Speaker 1: And like too many murder trials, Tyra's was a shit show.
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Speaker 4: So Tyra was represented by attorneys in the local public
15:42
Speaker 4: defender office. The problem was that they were overwhelmed and
15:48
Speaker 4: didn't have the resources to defend Tyra appropriately.
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Speaker 1: The primary evidence against Tyra was her confession, but her
15:58
Speaker 1: attorneys never argued that it was false or coerced. In fact,
16:02
Speaker 1: no one, not the judge or the jury ever heard
16:05
Speaker 1: Tyra's account of her interrogation. Her attorneys actually advised her
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Speaker 1: not to testify in her own defense, not to tell
16:12
Speaker 1: her side of the story, and why not.
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Speaker 4: They said that she was too unsophisticated and talked too
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Speaker 4: much like she was from the ghetto, that she'd be
16:27
Speaker 4: eaten alive by the prosecutors, and I think that Tyra
16:30
Speaker 4: got ridden off in that way.
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Speaker 1: The jury did hear, though, from Holly Lay, who testified
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Speaker 1: that she'd seen Tyra reaching into the car. A few
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Speaker 1: other girls from the Chevy testified the same way. Their
16:42
Speaker 1: stories went unchallenged by Tyra's lawyers, even though they could
16:46
Speaker 1: have called Rebecca to testify that Tyra never snatched the
16:49
Speaker 1: necklace off anyone. The lawyers didn't even play Tyra's nine
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Speaker 1: to one one call, which would have showed that she
16:54
Speaker 1: was trying to help.
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Speaker 4: We were able to find out by talking to the
16:59
Speaker 4: jurors years later that that nine one one call would
17:03
Speaker 4: have made a difference had they heard it. When I
17:04
Speaker 4: played it for them, they were like, we never would
17:06
Speaker 4: have convicted her had we known that she had called
17:08
Speaker 4: nine one one. But the defense gave the jurors nothing
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Speaker 4: to work with nothing.
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Speaker 1: And that's how Tira Patterson, the woman who never touched
17:20
Speaker 1: a gun or robbed anyone, was convicted of one kind
17:24
Speaker 1: of aggravated murder and four counts of aggravated robbery. When
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Speaker 1: the jury announced its verdict, she stood up and shouted
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Speaker 1: in disbelief. But I didn't do it. It didn't matter.
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Speaker 1: She was sentenced to forty three years to life. That's
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Speaker 1: thirteen more years than Lashana who actually pulled the trigger.
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Speaker 1: And in December nineteen ninety five, Tira Patterson became Ohio
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Speaker 1: Department of Correction's inmate number three seven seven three seven.
18:07
Speaker 1: Fast forward to twenty eleven, Tira Patterson had been in
18:10
Speaker 1: prison for just over sixteen years, not even halfway through
18:13
Speaker 1: her sentence. When she got her first break. Ohio Governor
18:17
Speaker 1: Ted Strickland learned about her case. He thought it was
18:20
Speaker 1: unfair that her sentence was more severe than the shooters,
18:23
Speaker 1: so he issued what's called a commutation.
18:26
Speaker 2: Tyra tried to stop this from happening. She walked away
18:30
Speaker 2: before the shots were fired. All she did was pick
18:35
Speaker 2: up a necklace off of the ground. LASHAWNA Keeney brought
18:39
Speaker 2: the gun to this event, and she pulled the trigger
18:42
Speaker 2: that led to Michelle Lay's death. It is grossly unfair
18:47
Speaker 2: for Lashawna to be sentenced to thirty years and for
18:50
Speaker 2: Tyra to be sentenced to forty three years, and that's
18:54
Speaker 2: why the governor commuted tyra sentence to sixteen years to life,
18:59
Speaker 2: which made her immediately eligible for parole.
19:03
Speaker 1: But Tyra's hopes of freedom were dashed a few months later.
19:06
Speaker 1: The Ohio Parole Board denied her request for parole, and
19:10
Speaker 1: they said she had to wait up to seven years
19:12
Speaker 1: before asking again. They said her crime was too severe.
19:17
Speaker 1: That's when David Singleton got involved. He'd heard about her
19:20
Speaker 1: case from a friend and he decided to go meet
19:23
Speaker 1: Tira Patterson. When David met Tyra in prison, she was
19:27
Speaker 1: different from that nineteen year old girl whose future looked
19:30
Speaker 1: like a broken promise behind bars. Tyra had redeemed her
19:33
Speaker 1: own promise. She had gained skills in prison, working as
19:36
Speaker 1: a porter, a food service worker, a maintenance person. She'd
19:40
Speaker 1: gone from an illiterate sixth grade dropout to someone who
19:43
Speaker 1: earned her ged. She'd participated in more than two hundred
19:47
Speaker 1: self improvement programs, and most importantly, she was becoming an
19:51
Speaker 1: incredible advocate for herself and for justice. When she told
19:55
Speaker 1: David she was innocent, he believed her and he set
19:58
Speaker 1: out to prove it, listing Steve Drisson's help in the process.
20:02
Speaker 2: There's no DNA miracle for people like Tyra and for
20:07
Speaker 2: most of the people who are locked up in prison.
20:09
Speaker 2: I mean, DNA is only present in maybe ten percent
20:13
Speaker 2: of all cases.
20:15
Speaker 1: Well, that's the thing. Even if the shooter had left
20:17
Speaker 1: DNA on the gun, everybody already knew that Leashana Kini
20:20
Speaker 1: was the one who pulled the trigger. This is not
20:22
Speaker 1: a case where DNA testing is going to exonerate Tyra Patterson.
20:25
Speaker 2: What she needed here was a reinvestigation, an advocacy.
20:30
Speaker 1: As David and Steve dove into the case against Tyra,
20:33
Speaker 1: they found some major cracks. First, David discovered that the
20:37
Speaker 1: victim's sister, Holly Lay, had testified at the trial of
20:40
Speaker 1: another one of the Right View girls a year before
20:43
Speaker 1: Tyra's trial. Back then, Holly had testified that Tyra wasn't
20:47
Speaker 1: the one who reached into the car and snatched the necklace.
20:49
Speaker 1: It had actually been someone else. Second, David uncovered the
20:53
Speaker 1: very first statements the girls in the Chevy gave to
20:56
Speaker 1: police right after Michelle Lay was shot. And when he
21:00
Speaker 1: and Steve reviewed those early statements, well, it was revealing.
21:04
Speaker 2: Remember some of these were given within an hour or
21:06
Speaker 2: two of the crime, so the memories were fresh for
21:11
Speaker 2: their witnesses, and Tyra was like a ghost. The two
21:15
Speaker 2: people who were mentioned far less than everybody else in
21:21
Speaker 2: all of these accounts were Tyra and Becca, and so
21:25
Speaker 2: that's squared with Tyra's story.
21:28
Speaker 1: Third, David talked to some of the other Right View girls,
21:31
Speaker 1: the ones who were born involved in what went down
21:33
Speaker 1: that night. Three of them signed affid David supporting Tyra's innocence,
21:38
Speaker 1: including Lashawna Keeney. Lashawna confirmed that far from participating, Tyra
21:43
Speaker 1: had actually tried to stop the confrontation from escalating. Before long,
21:48
Speaker 1: Tyra's case was attracting attention among some pretty influential people.
21:52
Speaker 1: Ohio State Senator Peggy Lanner visited Tyra in prison, and
21:56
Speaker 1: she was so compelled by Tyra's story that she got
21:59
Speaker 1: four other states senators to back Tyra's efforts for release.
22:03
Speaker 1: Celebrities and advocates also began getting involved, everyone from actor
22:07
Speaker 1: Elfrey Woodard to Mad Men creator Matthew Weener. They began
22:11
Speaker 1: tweeting and posting in support of Tyra, using the hashtag
22:15
Speaker 1: I Am Tyra Patterson.
22:17
Speaker 4: This I Am Tyra Patterson campaign the hashtag. What it
22:20
Speaker 4: meant was they were in solidarity with her. People were
22:25
Speaker 4: saying We're there for you, we see you, we hear you,
22:31
Speaker 4: and that was a powerful message.
22:35
Speaker 1: You know, I think the first time I heard the
22:36
Speaker 1: name Tira Patterson was when I opened up my Twitter
22:40
Speaker 1: feed one day and there I see a video of
22:42
Speaker 1: Steve giving a speech and holding a poster that says,
22:46
Speaker 1: in big black letters, I am Tira Patterson.
22:50
Speaker 2: That was take five of that video, because the first
22:54
Speaker 2: take went along what I thought was really well, and
22:58
Speaker 2: then I picked up the sign I am holding it
23:01
Speaker 2: upside down.
23:02
Speaker 4: Great.
23:02
Speaker 2: Great. The point of the campaign was to demonstrate that
23:07
Speaker 2: anybody could falsely confess if pressured by the police, and
23:12
Speaker 2: I am Tyra Patterson to me, was making that message
23:17
Speaker 2: loud and clear.
23:18
Speaker 1: I could have been Tyra Patterson.
23:20
Speaker 2: Now, my child could have been Tyra Patterson.
23:22
Speaker 4: That's how Tyra became, in my view, her best advocate.
23:26
Speaker 4: It was exposing people to her so that they could
23:31
Speaker 4: see her as a living, breathing daughter, sister, and person
23:38
Speaker 4: who was going to shine in the community if we
23:41
Speaker 4: could get her free.
23:42
Speaker 1: One person this message reached was the victim's sister.
23:46
Speaker 4: Twenty sixteen is when Holly Lay got in touch with me,
23:50
Speaker 4: and her husband said, Holly wants to meet you at
23:53
Speaker 4: Michelle's grave on Michelle's birthday. So I showed up. I
23:58
Speaker 4: didn't think they were going to come. I was like,
23:59
Speaker 4: this not be happening. Holly said, you know, Tyra didn't
24:04
Speaker 4: do this. And in fact, that night, Tyra walked by
24:08
Speaker 4: as we were talking to the police, and the police
24:11
Speaker 4: officer looked and said, is that one of the ones
24:14
Speaker 4: who was involved? And we all said no.
24:16
Speaker 1: On the night of the crime, Holly had seen one
24:19
Speaker 1: of the other girls snatch the necklace, not Tyra. But
24:22
Speaker 1: when she heard about Tyra's confession, Holly figured she must
24:25
Speaker 1: have been mistaken. After all, who would confess to a
24:28
Speaker 1: crime they didn't commit. Years later, Holly learned about false
24:32
Speaker 1: confessions and she realized Tyra must have given one. Holly's
24:37
Speaker 1: memory had been right all along. Tyra was innocent, and
24:40
Speaker 1: Holly agreed to support Tyra's release. In twenty seventeen, Tyra
24:48
Speaker 1: Patterson was granted parole after twenty one years behind bars.
24:53
Speaker 1: On Christmas morning, she walked out of prison, bent down
24:57
Speaker 1: and kissed the winter snow. It wasn't exoneration, but at
25:00
Speaker 1: last she was free. To quote Shashank Redemption, Tira Patterson
25:07
Speaker 1: got busy living.
25:08
Speaker 4: She's my colleague now at the Ohio Justice and Policy Center.
25:12
Speaker 4: She's soaring in her job as our community relations expert.
25:16
Speaker 4: She speaks multiple times a week to different community groups,
25:20
Speaker 4: mentoring young people, not just in our community, but in
25:23
Speaker 4: places across the country. Tira basically run Cincinnati. Everybody knows her.
25:30
Speaker 4: She is the brains behind this social justice mural that
25:35
Speaker 4: is going up in downtown Cincinnati featuring women who have
25:40
Speaker 4: spent a long time in prison and have come home
25:43
Speaker 4: and are doing well. And her face is one of
25:45
Speaker 4: the ones up there. It's just sad that her life
25:48
Speaker 4: was interrupted for twenty three years, but now she's living
25:51
Speaker 4: and it's a beautiful thing to see.
26:00
Speaker 2: Tyra.
26:01
Speaker 5: Hey, Steve, how are.
26:02
Speaker 1: You, hey? Tyra? It's Laura.
26:05
Speaker 5: Hey, Laura, I'm great.
26:08
Speaker 2: Are you at home?
26:10
Speaker 5: I am so.
26:11
Speaker 2: Tyra was living in an apartment for a while and
26:13
Speaker 2: now she's a homeowner.
26:15
Speaker 1: Yes, what was it like to have your in place?
26:17
Speaker 1: After being in prison so long.
26:19
Speaker 5: Oh my god, the private sea. No yelling, no strimming,
26:23
Speaker 5: no arguing.
26:25
Speaker 2: It was beautiful.
26:26
Speaker 1: I slept like a baby.
26:28
Speaker 2: I felt alive.
26:30
Speaker 1: Man, if I were you, first thing I would have
26:31
Speaker 1: done is like stood in the shower for three hours.
26:34
Speaker 1: There's nothing like a long shower.
26:37
Speaker 5: No, Laura, I didn't even do that. I stayed in
26:39
Speaker 5: a bathtub for three hours. Yes, you know, in prison,
26:42
Speaker 5: we didn't get to take a bath. So all I
26:45
Speaker 5: ever wanted to do was just come home and take
26:47
Speaker 5: a bubble bath.
26:49
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go take a bubble bath in your honor
26:53
Speaker 1: to see if I love you. Tyra hasn't given up
27:03
Speaker 1: on exoneration. She and her legal team are still fighting
27:06
Speaker 1: to clear her name. If you want to follow Tyra's
27:09
Speaker 1: case and send her a message of support, look her
27:12
Speaker 1: up on Instagram at Tyra dot Imani dot seven seven seven.
27:17
Speaker 1: She inspires Steve and me every day. That's the story
27:24
Speaker 1: of Tira Patterson. Join us next week when we'll tell
27:27
Speaker 1: you about Ronald Kitchen, who was tortured by Chicago police
27:31
Speaker 1: into falsely confessing to murder, and it turns out he
27:34
Speaker 1: was far from the only one. We'll talk about how
27:37
Speaker 1: Ronald got his freedom, and how the city's police torture
27:40
Speaker 1: scandal got exposed. Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is a production
27:51
Speaker 1: of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
27:55
Speaker 1: Number one Special thanks to our executive producers Jason Flamm
27:59
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wardis. Our production team is headed by Senior
28:03
Speaker 1: producer and Pope, along with producers Joshi Hammer and Jess Shane.
28:07
Speaker 1: Our show is mixed by Genie Montalvo. John Colbert is
28:10
Speaker 1: our intrepid intern. Our music was composed by Jay Ralph.
28:15
Speaker 1: You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura
28:18
Speaker 1: and I Wrider, and you.
28:19
Speaker 2: Can follow me on Twitter at s Drizzen.
28:22
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrongfulconvictionpodcast dot com.
28:26
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
28:30
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
28:35
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction