Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #264 Maggie Freleng with Devonia Inman

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#264 Maggie Freleng with Devonia Inman · Wrongful Conviction

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Speaker 1: Jason, I've been thinking a lot about post incarceration, and
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Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you have thought about people getting released
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Speaker 1: from prison, particularly people who were wrongfully convicted, and how
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Speaker 1: they adapt once they're out.
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Speaker 2: You Know, My thing, Maggie, is that I think that
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Speaker 2: the overwhelming majority of people coming out of prison, innocent
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Speaker 2: or guilty, all they need is a chance, right, and
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Speaker 2: if you open that door a crack, they're going to
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Speaker 2: go marching through it and they're going to, you know,
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Speaker 2: do the best they can do with the time they have.
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Speaker 3: It's a lot more to it and just being free,
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Speaker 3: because the prison part it was hard, but it's not
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Speaker 3: harder than being thrown back into a big old ocean
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Speaker 3: and you don't know what's in it or what's there.
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Speaker 3: No more.
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Speaker 4: From Lava for Good. This is wrongful Conviction with Maggie
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Speaker 4: Freeling today Davonna Inman. In the early morning of September nineteenth,
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Speaker 4: nineteen ninety eight, Donna Brown closed up a taco bell
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Speaker 4: in adel Georgia. She was walking through the parking lot
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Speaker 4: to her car carrying cash she needed to deposit for
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Speaker 4: work when she was robbed and shot dead almost immediately.
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Speaker 4: Twenty year old Davanna Inman became a suspect when his
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Speaker 4: girlfriend's sister told police Davonna had come over that night
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Speaker 4: with a whole lot of money. Davgna had an alibi,
1:54
Speaker 4: though he was with his family, including his grandmother and girlfriend,
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Speaker 4: at the time of the murder, but soon when other
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Speaker 4: people came forward implicating Davanna, and he was arrested and
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Speaker 4: charged with the murder of Donna Brown. He faced the
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Speaker 4: death penalty. After a flimsy trial at best, Davonna was
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Speaker 4: convicted of murder. Years later, DNA evidence would exonerate him
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Speaker 4: and identify the true killer, but that was only after
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Speaker 4: a decade of legal battles with the Attorney General, who
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Speaker 4: sought to uphold his conviction. Still, Davonna is forgiving of
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Speaker 4: him and of others who sought the death penalty.
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Speaker 3: I forget him too, because everybody deserves mercy, even the
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Speaker 3: people that you think are bad. You know, they had
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Speaker 3: to forgive people for things that they do. My name
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Speaker 3: is Devona Tarone Emmon, and I was incarcerated for twenty
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Speaker 3: three years for something that I didn't do.
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Speaker 4: The oldest of four kids, Davanna Inman, was born on
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Speaker 4: his grandparents couch in Adel, Georgia on August twentieth, nineteen
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Speaker 4: seventy eight. Adel is a small town of about five
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Speaker 4: thousand people in rural Georgia close to the Panhandle of
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Speaker 4: Florida and Tallahassee.
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Speaker 5: Devgna was a happy kid, uh, silly kid. You know,
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Speaker 5: love showing off, love dressing up.
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Speaker 4: This is Davagna's mom, Dinah.
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Speaker 5: He was a loving Karen person who you know. He
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Speaker 5: would do anything for just about anybody.
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Speaker 4: When Davanne was a toddler, his parents divorced and he
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Speaker 4: moved with his mom to Sacramento, California. His mom, Dinah,
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Speaker 4: remarried a military man named David Ray, who raised Davongna
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Speaker 4: like his own son. Here's David.
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Speaker 6: I'm remembering the most about the birthday parties. He always,
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Speaker 6: no matter what, he wanted to be the center attention,
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Speaker 6: even if it wasn't his birthday. But we just love
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Speaker 6: having fun and just open up gifts and.
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Speaker 3: Eating cake.
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Speaker 4: Little Divanna dreamed of being in the military, just like
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Speaker 4: his stepdad, who was stationed in the Army.
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Speaker 3: I liked to dress up and play army all the time.
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Speaker 6: Yes, he was putting on my big clothing. Yes, and
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Speaker 6: we used to just like go out and play with
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Speaker 6: war and he really liked that.
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Speaker 4: I can picture him just like as a little boy,
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Speaker 4: dressing up in military clothes. Were you proud of him?
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Speaker 4: Did you want him to go into the military?
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Speaker 6: Yes, I was fine with it. I ain't gonna say
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Speaker 6: I wanted him to, but he wanted to.
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Speaker 4: Davagna also dreamt of doing some kind of computer technician
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Speaker 4: or mechanic work. His mom would see him putting his
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Speaker 4: mechanical mind to work on his dirt bikes. He liked
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Speaker 4: to ride them around and have fun and.
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Speaker 5: Take him apart and see how they come apart and
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Speaker 5: try to put them back together. Sometimes it works, sometimes
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Speaker 5: it didn't. He put them back together sometimes sometimes he did.
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Speaker 4: Devonna would still travel back and forth to Adell on occasion,
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Speaker 4: and in nineteen ninety seven had a son with a
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Speaker 4: woman from Adell. He named him Travensky. As Divonna got older,
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Speaker 4: he started running with the wrong crowd and getting into
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Speaker 4: trouble in Sacramento, petty crimes like car theft. Eventually, Dinah
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Speaker 4: had enough and send him back to adel to live
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Speaker 4: with his grandmother. But Davonna's time with his grandmother was
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Speaker 4: short lived. It was only a month and a half
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Speaker 4: after he got back to Adell that he would be
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Speaker 4: arrested for murder. In the early morning of September nineteenth,
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Speaker 4: nineteen ninety eight, Donna Brown was closing up a Taco
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Speaker 4: bell in Ado. Donna was forty years old, a single
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Speaker 4: mother with a seven year old son. It was only
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Speaker 4: her second day as the new manager. Around two am,
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Speaker 4: Donna was walking through the parking lot to her car.
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Speaker 4: She was carrying over seventeen hundred dollars in cash she
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Speaker 4: was going to deposit at a bank when she was
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Speaker 4: robbed at gunpoint. She was fatally shot. The killer took
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Speaker 4: off with her money and her car. Davanna at the time,
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Speaker 4: he was with his family, including his grandmother and his girlfriend, Christie.
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Speaker 4: Since Adell was a small town with limited resources, the
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Speaker 4: police department was ill equipped to deal with the homicide,
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Speaker 4: so they called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation the
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Speaker 4: GBI for help. Two days later, Davanna was picked up
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Speaker 4: for questioning in Donna Brown's murder, and he was held
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Speaker 4: on an unrelated charge. Investigators eventually found Donna's car abandoned
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Speaker 4: in a pizza Hut parking lot. Inside the car was
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Speaker 4: crucial evidence that police initially did not collect, but we'll
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Speaker 4: get to that later.
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Speaker 7: Both the GBI and local law enforcement sort of sweep
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Speaker 7: the town and start asking a whole bunch of questions.
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Speaker 4: This is attorney Jessica Sino. She's not Devonya's attorney, but
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Speaker 4: she's his friend and advocate. She came across Davanna's case
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Speaker 4: in twenty fifteen while visiting the offices of the Georgia
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Speaker 4: Innocence Project. Needing fresh eyes on the case, Jessica gathered
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Speaker 4: her students from Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta,
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Speaker 4: and they dove in. After looking it over, Jessica was
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Speaker 4: convinced that Davonna was innocent.
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Speaker 7: To me, the case represented this perfect storm of everything
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Speaker 7: that could possibly go wrong in a case.
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Speaker 4: Jessica says that right after Donna Brown's murder, the police
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Speaker 4: and GBI canvassed the town and started asking questions. They
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Speaker 4: eventually wound up talking to what Jessica calls a quote
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Speaker 4: frequent flyer.
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Speaker 7: Meaning authorities know her very well well. She's probably served
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Speaker 7: as a confidential informant on different individuals. At a certain point,
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Speaker 7: and she tells them, you know, you need to talk
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Speaker 7: to Devanna Inman.
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Speaker 4: This woman's name was Marquetta Thomas, the sister of Davanna's girlfriend, Christy.
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Speaker 4: Marquetta told police that Davgna came to her home with
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Speaker 4: an unusually large amount of cash the night of the homicide.
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Speaker 7: So that right there sort of seals Devanna's faith.
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Speaker 4: Police also interviewed employees at the Taco Bell where Donna worked,
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Speaker 4: including a woman named Larsia Chapman. Larsia left work early
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Speaker 4: that night and claimed not to have seen anything, but
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Speaker 4: a month later her story changed. Larissa now told police
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Speaker 4: that she had seen someone hiding in the bushes outside
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Speaker 4: of the restaurant and that she recognized that person as Devonna.
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Speaker 7: So now you know, you've got Marquetta Thomas, who puts Devanna,
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Speaker 7: you know, having the money from the robbery and you know,
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Speaker 7: essentially confessing to to the crime to her at least
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Speaker 7: intimating that he did the Taco Bell thing. And then
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Speaker 7: you have Luritia Chapman, who puts him at the scene
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Speaker 7: of the crime. So Devanna is swiftly arrested.
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Speaker 4: After his arrest, months passed without any indictment, but then
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Speaker 4: two other key witnesses came forward.
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Speaker 7: One is a woman named Virginia Tatum, and she is
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Speaker 7: a newspaper delivery person. She gives a statement to the police,
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Speaker 7: later testifying to the same in court that on the
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Speaker 7: night of the crime, she saw somebody driving Donna Brown's
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Speaker 7: car across that inner state from the Taco Bell to
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Speaker 7: the Pizza Hut, and it whips around the corner at
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Speaker 7: high speed at like two in the morning. But she
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Speaker 7: can state with absolute, absolute certainty that the driver of
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Speaker 7: the car is Devanna Emmon. She could see down to
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Speaker 7: the detail of the earring in his ear, a necklace
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Speaker 7: around his neck.
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Speaker 4: Jessica leaves Virginia was motivated to come forward by a
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Speaker 4: newspaper ad offering a five thousand dollars reward for information
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Speaker 4: leading to the arrest. Her story places Davonna in the
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Speaker 4: victim's car, transporting it from Taco Bell to Pizza Hut. Last,
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Speaker 4: but not Lease, someone who had been incarcerated alongside Davonna
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Speaker 4: comes forward.
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Speaker 7: Ben says that Devonna confessed to him. So now we've
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Speaker 7: got a jailhouse snitch.
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Speaker 4: That man's name was Kwame Spalding.
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Speaker 7: So you've got Marquetta Thomas Laritia Chapman. The jailhouse snitch
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Speaker 7: and You've got Virginia Tatum all linking Davona to the crime.
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Speaker 4: On January eleventh, nineteen ninety nine, almost exactly four months
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Speaker 4: after Donna Brown was killed, Devonia Inman is indicted for
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Speaker 4: armed robbery, theft, illegal possession of a firearm, and capital murder.
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Speaker 4: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
11:04
Speaker 4: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
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Speaker 4: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
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Speaker 4: in the communities where we work and live. In light
11:14
Speaker 4: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
11:18
Speaker 4: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
11:23
Speaker 4: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
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Speaker 4: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. On June eleventh,
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Speaker 4: two thousand and one, over two years since he was arrested,
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Speaker 4: Davanna's trial began. The prosecutor was da bob Ellis, who
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Speaker 4: sought the death penalty against Davonna.
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Speaker 7: Interestingly enough, this sounds like an AIRTI case for the prosecution.
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Speaker 7: The problem is that once the case actually starts to
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Speaker 7: get going, it falls into pieces like it's in shambles.
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Speaker 4: On the stand. Two of the prosecution's witnesses recanted their stories.
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Speaker 4: Marquetta Thomas, the sister of Davanna's girlfriend, who said she'd
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Speaker 4: seen Davanna with a lot of cash the night of
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Speaker 4: the murder, and Lursia Chapman, who said she saw Devanna
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Speaker 4: in the bushes at Taco Bell. Marquetta admits that she
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Speaker 4: made up her story because she disapproved of the relationship
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Speaker 4: Divonna had with her sister, and Laricia says officers pressured her,
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Speaker 4: actually threatening to take her child away if she did
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Speaker 4: not implicate Devonna in the crime. So, with no physical
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Speaker 4: evidence against Divanya, the prosecution now had just the statement
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Speaker 4: of Virginia Tatum.
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Speaker 7: And apparently has you know, superheroes style eyesight to be
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Speaker 7: able to describe the level of detail of a car
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Speaker 7: going around a corner at like thirty five miles an.
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Speaker 4: Hour, and the testimony of Kwame Spaulding, the jailhouse informant
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Speaker 4: who said Davonnya had can Fest to him. Kwalme was
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Speaker 4: given a deal to testify a lighter sentence, and this
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Speaker 4: was not disclosed to the defense or the jury. Davagna's attorney,
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Speaker 4: Melinda Ryles, presented Davgna's alibi that he was with his
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Speaker 4: grandmother and girlfriend at the time of the murder, but
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Speaker 4: it wasn't enough. Davigna was swiftly convicted, but the jury
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Speaker 4: did not give him the death penalty.
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Speaker 7: They decide for life without opportunity for parole, which I've
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Speaker 7: spoken to a few of the jurors on the original
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Speaker 7: case and asked the exact question, which is, why didn't
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Speaker 7: you give him the death penalty, to which both of
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Speaker 7: them replied, well, we thought he might not be guilty,
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Speaker 7: so we didn't want to sentence him to death just
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Speaker 7: in case.
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Speaker 4: Which shows they had reasonable doubt. If the jury has doubt,
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Speaker 4: they are instructed not to convict. Yet despite that, and
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Speaker 4: despite Davangna pleading his innocence, they did.
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Speaker 3: Nobody would believe me. Whatcept close family, my mom, my dad,
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Speaker 3: my auntie, and that's about it. Everybody else either knew
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Speaker 3: the truth and was afraid to do something about it
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Speaker 3: or just didn't care.
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Speaker 4: How does that feel?
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Speaker 3: Depressing? Sad in a way because you could have stopped something,
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Speaker 3: you know, a long.
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Speaker 4: Time ago before you were arrested. Have you ever thought
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Speaker 4: about wrongful convictions?
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Speaker 3: Oh? Is you never think something like that would happen.
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Speaker 4: Davonna was twenty three years old when he was sentenced
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Speaker 4: to prison. He was the oldest of his siblings, but
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Speaker 4: still his mother's baby boy.
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Speaker 5: I felt like my life was destroyed. You know, you
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Speaker 5: took my child away from me, and I felt there
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Speaker 5: was nothing I could do, didn't know who to turn to.
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Speaker 5: I mean, the whole family was in disbelief. We couldn't
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Speaker 5: believe it.
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Speaker 4: During his first years in prison, Davagna passed his time
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Speaker 4: by appealing the conviction, but his appeals were unsuccessful.
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Speaker 7: Because the one thing we know about the criminal justice
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Speaker 7: system is that it is absolutely designed to keep you
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Speaker 7: in prison once you have been found guilty, right that
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Speaker 7: whole presumption of innocence is gone. So trying to overturn
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Speaker 7: a conviction is an incredibly high, if not impossible bar.
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Speaker 4: Davanna says he was prepared to die in prison. Even
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Speaker 4: watching TV, one of the only luxuries incarcerated people have,
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Speaker 4: reminded him of his bleak reality.
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Speaker 3: When you have your life took in away, it's like
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Speaker 3: you can't do those things no more. So, it's like
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Speaker 3: you try to forget about, forget about a life that
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Speaker 3: you could have had versus the life that you have.
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Speaker 3: Focus your mind on what's surrounding you, because four walls
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Speaker 3: can drive you crazy. The only way he can drive
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Speaker 3: you crazy if you're thinking about what the world is doing.
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Speaker 4: However, Devgna persisted. He continued to reach out to any
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Speaker 4: innocence organizations he could find for assistance. Eventually, nearly ten
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Speaker 4: years after his conviction, Divonna heard back from the Georgia
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Speaker 4: Innocence Project and they wanted to help. Now, innocence projects
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Speaker 4: usually have a fairly high bar for accepting cases. Often
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Speaker 4: that means being a case where DNA is able to
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Speaker 4: prove someone's innocence conclusively and at the same time possibly
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Speaker 4: find the true perpetrator. But there was no DNA used
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Speaker 4: to convict Davonna, So you might be wondering why did
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Speaker 4: the Georgia Innocence Project take it. Well, actually there was
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Speaker 4: DNA evidence, but it wasn't discovered until years after Devgna's conviction.
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Speaker 4: When Donna Brown's car was found in the Pizza Hut
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Speaker 4: parking lot and returned to her family, they found something
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Speaker 4: inside a makeshift mask made from the leg of a
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Speaker 4: pair of sweatpants with two eye holes cut into it
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Speaker 4: that police never collected. The Georgia Innocence Project jumped on
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Speaker 4: this new evidence as a potential source of DNA. In
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Speaker 4: twenty ten, Devonnya's attorneys from the Georgia Innocence Project requested
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Speaker 4: DNA testing of the mask, and it was granted.
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Speaker 3: The DNA came out. I already knew that it was
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Speaker 3: going to be mine. I wanted to see the faces
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Speaker 3: of the people who said it was me and what
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Speaker 3: they would look like. Would they look at me, you know,
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Speaker 3: and look me in the eyes, you know, and you
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Speaker 3: don't really have to say anything. You could just look
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Speaker 3: me in the eyes in it and tell itself of
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Speaker 3: how you feel, you know. I mean, I gotta be
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Speaker 3: a hard thing to live with, you know, sending somebody
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Speaker 3: to prison for something they didn't do.
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Speaker 4: The DNA actually came back with a match to a
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Speaker 4: man named Hercules Brown. In fact, at trial, Davanna's attorneys
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Speaker 4: fought and were denied the opportunity to present Hercules Brown
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Speaker 4: as an alternate suspect because Brown had already been on
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Speaker 4: the radar of Devanna's team even before trial that he
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Speaker 4: was the true killer of Donna Brown. And that's thanks
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Speaker 4: to to witness testimonies saying he was talking about the murder.
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Speaker 7: You know, they uncover various statements from witnesses who say
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Speaker 7: that Hercules admitted to killing Donna Brown. And here's the thing.
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Speaker 7: He worked at Taco Bell with Donna Brown and was
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Speaker 7: an employee there. And one of the former employees of
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Speaker 7: Taco Bell wanted to.
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Speaker 8: Testify in Devanya's trial, and her statement basically was that,
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Speaker 8: you know, before the Taco Bell crime occurred, Hercules approached
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Speaker 8: her with a scheme to rob it, basically.
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Speaker 7: An inside job, and they would split the money. And
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Speaker 7: she said absolutely not, and she actually quit to avoid
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Speaker 7: dealing with Hercules. Her replacement is Donna Brown.
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Speaker 4: Now, ten years after Devanna's conviction, the DNA comes back
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Speaker 4: linking Hercules Brown to Donna Brown's murder. Devanya's mom, Dina,
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Speaker 4: remembers getting the news. She was at lunch with David,
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Speaker 4: her husband, and.
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Speaker 5: We just started screaming and crying, you know, and we
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Speaker 5: just knew he was coming home.
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Speaker 4: But that didn't happen. Instead, motions had to be filed
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Speaker 4: for a new trial, which could take another few years.
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Speaker 4: In twenty fourteen, Devanna's request was denied, then another motion
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Speaker 4: was filed followed by another denial.
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Speaker 5: It was like one let down another let down. We
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Speaker 5: were just couldn't believe that he wasn't coming home.
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Speaker 4: What was that like to wait for so long when
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Speaker 4: we knew at that point for sure you didn't do
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Speaker 4: this by DNA.
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Speaker 3: I guess it was like sad in a way, but
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Speaker 3: it was more anger because it's like you didn't take
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Speaker 3: long to put me here, but you want to take
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Speaker 3: long to let me free when I prove my innoses.
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Speaker 3: So I feel like it was it was wrong.
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Speaker 4: Meanwhile, the real killer was still free to commit crimes,
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Speaker 4: including the one that put Hercules Brown as a potential
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Speaker 4: perpetrator in the mind of Devagna's defense.
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Speaker 7: At the end of two thousand, there is a heinous
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Speaker 7: crime in this town and two beloved members who run
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Speaker 7: this convenience store in adel are brutally murdered and beaten
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Speaker 7: to death with baseball bats. Two people who perpetrate the
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Speaker 7: crime are seen fleeing the scene in broad daylight, and
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Speaker 7: they are quickly identified and arrested, and.
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Speaker 4: One of those individuals was Hercules Brown.
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Speaker 7: Had they arrested Hercules originally for the taco bell crime.
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Speaker 7: There are at least two people who would still be
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Speaker 7: alive today, like the most brutal murder that town had
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Speaker 7: ever seen would not have happened if they had originally
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Speaker 7: arrested the right person. And there's a third murder that
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Speaker 7: Hercules has been linked to that still remains unsolved today.
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Speaker 4: Devgna waited and waited for good news. By twenty eighteen,
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Speaker 4: he had been imprisoned for nearly two decades, and for
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Speaker 4: ten of those years, this new DNA evidence implicating another
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Speaker 4: person for the crime he had been convicted of was
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Speaker 4: being ignored. So Devanna remained trapped in prison because every
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Speaker 4: time his attorney's filed a motion for a new trial
22:46
Speaker 4: based on the DNA evidence, Attorney General Chris Carr would
22:49
Speaker 4: oppose and defend the conviction. But then, in a surprising move,
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Speaker 4: Presiding Justice David Namius and then Chief Justice Harald Melton
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Speaker 4: both wrote legal opinions urging Attorney General car to stop
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Speaker 4: defending Devannya's conviction. Namias wrote, quote, of the multitude of
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Speaker 4: cases in which a new trial has been denied, Inman's
23:13
Speaker 4: case is the one that causes me the most concern
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Speaker 4: that an innocent person remains convicted and sentenced to serve
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Speaker 4: the rest of his life in prison. Finally, in twenty
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Speaker 4: twenty one, Davannia was granted an evidentiary hearing. A few
23:29
Speaker 4: months later, his conviction was vacated and he was granted
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Speaker 4: a new trial. By this time, by the way, one
23:35
Speaker 4: of the prosecutors in Devanna's case back in two thousand
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Speaker 4: and one, Bob Ellis, had been indicted and disbarred for
23:41
Speaker 4: sleeping with a confidential informant.
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Speaker 7: The other prosecutor is indicted on federal drug charges eventually
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Speaker 7: and ends up moving to Alabama. And then one of
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Speaker 7: the jurors had some sort of relationship where if one
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Speaker 7: of the witnesses, like he had hired her for exotic dancing,
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Speaker 7: and you know, still gets to stay on the jury.
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Speaker 7: Like you just can't. You can't write this in a
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Speaker 7: fiction book because it's unbelievable.
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Speaker 4: And a third witness, the jail house informant, Kwame Spalding,
24:18
Speaker 4: had also recanted. The case against Avanya had completely fallen apart.
24:23
Speaker 4: Attorney General Carr finally stopped upholding the conviction, and eventually
24:29
Speaker 4: Devanna's charges were dismissed. On December twentieth, twenty twenty one,
24:33
Speaker 4: Davanna walked out of prison a free man. So when
24:41
Speaker 4: he did come home and you got that news, did
24:45
Speaker 4: you think it was going to be like this?
24:47
Speaker 7: No?
24:49
Speaker 3: I didn't.
24:50
Speaker 5: I thought, I don't know.
24:52
Speaker 4: I was asking Davanya's mom about his sadness and depression.
24:56
Speaker 4: You can hear it in his voice. The happy, fun
24:58
Speaker 4: center of attention kid is parents described is no more.
25:02
Speaker 4: He's withdrawn, soft spoken, and looked like he had tears
25:06
Speaker 4: in his eyes the whole time we spoke.
25:09
Speaker 5: I mean, I often wonder when he comes home, will
25:16
Speaker 5: his memories be of all the fun things we did
25:21
Speaker 5: as a family, or would they be of his prison life.
25:27
Speaker 5: But I thought he would get home and it, you know,
25:32
Speaker 5: we'd all get back to this big, happy family that
25:36
Speaker 5: couldn't be, that's always together.
25:41
Speaker 4: But Dinah's dreams of everything going back to normal wouldn't
25:44
Speaker 4: come true. Divagna came home a broken man.
25:49
Speaker 3: It's just everybody feels I'm just supposed to be happy
25:52
Speaker 3: because you're out of prison. Well that isn't a real
25:59
Speaker 3: scenario or real you know, feeling, Yeah, you're happy to
26:05
Speaker 3: be out, but you're not. But the things that you're
26:08
Speaker 3: going through is even more saddered.
26:14
Speaker 4: What has that done to you?
26:17
Speaker 3: Sleepless I have to be really tired to go to sleep,
26:22
Speaker 3: So I might be up for two three days and
26:25
Speaker 3: then go to sleep, because it's just like you'll remember
26:32
Speaker 3: certain things that happen, or when somebody got stabbed, or
26:37
Speaker 3: you have like flashbacks of it seeing it and it
26:43
Speaker 3: wakes you up, or you know, are you talking your
26:47
Speaker 3: sleep or whatever, and.
26:50
Speaker 4: You're still doing that outside of prison.
26:54
Speaker 3: It's slow down now, But yeah, I just feel like
27:03
Speaker 3: being in there for so long, it's like you're accustomed
27:07
Speaker 3: to one way. So when you come out here, people
27:12
Speaker 3: just misunderstand because they don't know what you've been through
27:18
Speaker 3: or what you know, what I mean, So it kind
27:20
Speaker 3: of seems like they seem weird to you, and you
27:23
Speaker 3: seem weird to them.
27:35
Speaker 4: Jessica Casino believes that the years behind bars for a
27:38
Speaker 4: crime he didn't commit has taken a toll on Devanna's
27:41
Speaker 4: mental health.
27:42
Speaker 7: You know, you've spent twenty three years in a prison
27:45
Speaker 7: system where every piece of your life is scripted. You
27:49
Speaker 7: can't do anything without the permission of the guards. You know,
27:54
Speaker 7: you have to navigate other prisoners. I mean, it was
27:57
Speaker 7: a traumatic experience. He had a very difficult time in
28:03
Speaker 7: the prison system. He's coming out into a world that
28:06
Speaker 7: he doesn't know and to a family you know that
28:10
Speaker 7: will then support him to pieces, but at the same time,
28:14
Speaker 7: it's a family that has grown without him.
28:18
Speaker 4: At the moment, Devanya's focused more on picking up the
28:21
Speaker 4: pieces of his life. He works at FedEx now, but
28:24
Speaker 4: he says it's the interpersonal relationships that are the hardest
28:28
Speaker 4: to navigate. Given how people he knew, like his then
28:31
Speaker 4: girlfriend's sister Marquetta, had lied about him, it is understandable
28:36
Speaker 4: that he would struggle with trusting others, and Devagna has
28:39
Speaker 4: had a lot of relationships to navigate, especially the one
28:43
Speaker 4: with his son Trevensky.
28:46
Speaker 1: So what's that like to now have this new responsibility
28:48
Speaker 1: of being a dad to a twenty something year old
28:51
Speaker 1: What are some of the what are some of the
28:52
Speaker 1: hardships you guys.
28:53
Speaker 3: Have me being occupied, you know, like with the daily
29:04
Speaker 3: stuff that I be wanting to do and having to
29:09
Speaker 3: you know, talk to him or whatever, because he'd be
29:14
Speaker 3: wanting to talk and stuff like that. But I'll be
29:18
Speaker 3: busy a lot. I go to work and you know,
29:22
Speaker 3: you can't really you really just don't want to get
29:26
Speaker 3: on the phone, Like who wants to just be on
29:28
Speaker 3: the phone all day.
29:30
Speaker 4: Davanna got his driver's license right after getting out of
29:33
Speaker 4: prison and says driving is his favorite thing to do
29:36
Speaker 4: right now, the freedom to just get out and explore
29:39
Speaker 4: wherever he wants without permission.
29:42
Speaker 3: I think the most goodest feeling is walking outside in
29:48
Speaker 3: the middle of the night and get in the car
29:50
Speaker 3: and just going somewhere.
29:53
Speaker 4: Davanna says he's been all over in just a few months,
29:56
Speaker 4: including to Richmond, San Francisco, and Reno. He says he'd
29:59
Speaker 4: like to get his someday, but is having difficulties signing
30:02
Speaker 4: up without proper documentation after twenty three years in prison.
30:07
Speaker 4: He'd also like to mend the relationship with his son
30:09
Speaker 4: once he settles down more now that he has his freedom.
30:13
Speaker 4: Davanna wants people to be aware of the shortcomings of
30:15
Speaker 4: our criminal justice system and of the needed reform to
30:19
Speaker 4: help individuals with their reentry.
30:23
Speaker 3: It's a lot more to it and just being free.
30:29
Speaker 3: It's a lot more to it than just helping someone
30:34
Speaker 3: get out prison for something that they didn't do. You
30:39
Speaker 3: can't just stop and Okay, now our job is done,
30:44
Speaker 3: because it's even bigger task than the prison. Thing. You know,
30:52
Speaker 3: is becoming you know, accepted back into a society on
30:58
Speaker 3: both parties. You know the world and you and people
31:04
Speaker 3: should pay more attention to that than the past or
31:12
Speaker 3: what you had to overcome, because the prison part it
31:19
Speaker 3: was hard, but it's not harder than being thrown back
31:24
Speaker 3: into a big old ocean and you don't know what's
31:30
Speaker 3: in it or what's there no more.
31:42
Speaker 4: If you want to help Davanna, please go to mightycause
31:45
Speaker 4: dot com and search Davonna Inman. Davanna is seeking funds
31:49
Speaker 4: to help get back on his feet next time. On
31:54
Speaker 4: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Faye Jacobs.
31:59
Speaker 9: They arrested me and charge me with capital felay murder
32:02
Speaker 9: and set my bun at one million dollars. Okay, I'm sixteen,
32:07
Speaker 9: and I'm like, I had never been to jail before
32:11
Speaker 9: in my life, and so I'm scared. I'm very scared.
32:20
Speaker 4: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
32:23
Speaker 4: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
32:26
Speaker 4: links in our bio to see how you can help.
32:29
Speaker 4: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and
32:32
Speaker 4: Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
32:35
Speaker 4: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
32:40
Speaker 4: by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
32:44
Speaker 4: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
32:48
Speaker 4: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
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Speaker 4: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
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Speaker 4: Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good on
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Speaker 4: all three platforms. Can also follow me on both Instagram
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Speaker 4: and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling
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Speaker 4: is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association
33:09
Speaker 4: with Signal Company Number one