WEBVTT - #344 Maggie Freleng with Tami Vance 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.720 In early two thousand, Tammy Vance checked herself into drug 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.920 rehabit Columbus, Mississippi. There, she met Lee Stubbs, and the 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:17.280 two became close. As they neared the end of the program, 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.520 Excited for the future, they decided to leave and drive 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:24.520 back home together along with their friend Kim. They headed out, 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.120 stopping for the night at a motel, but when they 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.560 awoke the next morning, something was terribly wrong with Kim. 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.960 She was snoring really loud, and all of a sudden 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.640 it stopped, and I freaked out and I told thee 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.879 she's not breathing. She's not breathing. They got on the 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.400 phone with nine one one and I administered CPR intil 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:49.440 the ambulance got there. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.360 At the hospital, doctors found injuries that led them to 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.800 believe Kim had experienced a violent sexual assault, and despite 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.320 their efforts to help Kim, the police concluded that Tammy 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:08.640 and Lee were actually responsible for what had happened to her. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.360 You were a suspect very quickly, So do you remember 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.080 feeling that way? Do you remember thinking like something was 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:17.480 off and what they were asking you. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:23.760 I remember thinking they were crazy because that was our friend, 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:29.000 and we tried to Savor. My name is Tammy Vance, 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.680 and I was wrongfully convicted for thirteen years. 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:35.840 From Lava for good. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:40.480 This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Tammy Vance. 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.880 Tammy Vance was born in San Antonio, Texas, on November fourteenth, 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.880 nineteen sixty eight, to Sandy and Billy Vance. She has 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:06.640 one younger brother, Billy Junior, who goes by the nickname Bubba. 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.200 Growing up as a child, it was great. I had 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.640 a lot of family, a lot of loving family. 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.480 She was very close to her dad and her brother 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:20.400 and myself. 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.120 This is Tammy's mom, Sandy Rabelais. 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.919 We were very close knit family, and a. 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:32.040 Traditional Southern family at that with strong Christian values. When 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:34.680 Tammy was about three or four, her family left San 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:40.120 Antonio for Mississippi. For Tammy, it was a whole different world. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.240 Moving from Texas, where there's nothing but tumbleweeds and small trees. 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:51.480 I remember thinking when we pulled into Mississippi that it 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.079 was the land of the Giants because of the trees 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.200 and other trees were like so big. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.000 Once they adjusted to the new landscape, Sandy saw her 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:04.720 daughter enjoying Mississippi. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:09.239 She was a very fun, loving child. She was always 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.520 very outgoing. I always had lots and lots of friends 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:12.960 around her. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.560 But at home, life had gotten difficult for Tammy. 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.760 My father was an alcoholic, my mother she worked two jobs, 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.640 and basically I raised my younger brother. 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.760 The situation was tough, but Tammy was a natural caretaker. 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.480 She has a huge heart and she would just do 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:40.040 anything for anybody that's having a hard time. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.160 Like one family Sandy recalls who lived down the street 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.000 from them when Tammy was around eleven or twelve. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.560 The mother was an alcoholic. She was never there, the 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:53.720 dad was struggling to work. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.160 There was for those kids, and. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:58.960 She became best friends with them. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.720 She brought them home for Yeah, it's like, Mom, you 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:02.880 know they're coming home tonight. 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.120 I want you to make sure you're cooking up supper form. 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.400 And she's the one that brought them into the family, 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.760 and she's the one that, you know, wanted to make 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:13.160 sure they were fed and clothed. 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.880 Eventually, Tammy's father got clean and went into recovery for 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:20.960 about eight years. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.400 And it was like the best eight years of my 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:28.280 life growing up. I actually had my father, you know 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.760 what I mean. I actually had my father at home, 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:37.120 and it was greaty. We had a lot of fun. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.479 We would go four wheeling on the rivers and yeah, 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.120 just sports stuff, go to the drag races and he 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:47.640 would take us places. 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.040 But Tammy couldn't always participate in certain activities because of 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:54.640 a disability she has. 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.120 Tammy's legally blind, so that didn't have a lot of 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.640 limitations on what she could and couldn't be involved with. 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.760 So Tammy made up for her visual limitations by embracing 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:06.839 another strength. 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.560 She was very, very music inclined. She loved to go 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.880 to concerts to listen to all different types of music 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:15.680 and to share that with her friends. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.280 Do you remember any specific ones that. 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:21.400 She liked, ac DC, Orio Wagon. 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:25.160 What did you think of her liking ac DC? 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:28.880 Well, I wasn't too crazy about the music myself. It 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:30.920 wasn't my choice of music, but it was certainly our 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.440 wasn't her friend's choice of music. That was probably her 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.600 biggest interest was different musical bands, and. 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.600 Tammy started looking the part of a rocker too. 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:41.719 Do you have a mullet? 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:46.039 Yeah, nineteen nineties, I'm gonna awas know havy and cool. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.960 You know, peace love and rock and roll or peace 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:51.680 love and music. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.159 But along with this love of music came a bad 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.839 habit using drugs and alcohol. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.120 I guess Tammy was about thirteen or fourteen when we 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.240 started dealing with the drugs with her. They continue to 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.599 get worse and we finally put her in a treatment center. 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.080 When she came out of the treatment center, that oh, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.640 she told me she was getting married to. 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.599 A boy named Ralph, whom she started dating in high school. 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:23.640 Ralph was a couple of years older than Tammy. At 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.680 age sixteen, Tammy dropped out of school to marry him, and. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:29.240 I felt like they were just way too young. I'm 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.919 going to be starting off on that journey. So I 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:33.640 did it when I was young, and I knew it 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.680 was just not the answer to a good life. You know. 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.440 I did not want my children to follow in those footsteps, 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:41.840 but she seemed pretty determined to do it. 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.800 For Tammy, things with Ralph were good for a while, 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.000 but then about two years after they got married, she 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.080 was sitting on the porch drinking a beer with one 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.720 of her female friends when she had a wake up call. 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.320 They just hit me like a ton of brakes, Like 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:09.159 what is going on here? Why am I more attracted 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:16.800 to my friend than my husband? That sent me into 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:17.760 a tail spin. 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.920 Tammy started realizing she was actually more interested in women 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.400 than men. But Tammy was living in what she describes 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.280 as a redneck county in the eighties, being gay was 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:31.320 not accepted. 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:33.840 I freaked out. 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:35.280 What did freaking out look like? 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:42.000 Freaking out looks like filing for a divorce, leaving everything 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.320 I had behind? Hitting New Orleans and I lived homeless 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.160 for a little while. I left everything behind and I ran. 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:50.800 I felt like a freak. 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.120 Once in New Orleans, Tammy lived on the streets of 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.440 the city for about six months. And that's kind of 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.000 when you got into drug use. 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.480 Yes, ma'am, I unfortunately got a date with the heroin. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.840 Tammy had hit bottom trying to run away from who 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.280 she was, and drugs were a source of consolation. 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:19.160 It was when back when the all that black tar 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:24.640 heroin hit New Orleans, and I hung out with the 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.520 homeless people, and they were either alcoholics or addicts, and 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.560 the black tar heroin was so pure. These people were 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.080 used to there their heroin being stepped on so many 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.559 times that the people were falling over dead left and right, 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:43.680 and it scared me and I came home. 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.239 When she got back home, Tammy decided to be completely 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:57.880 honest with her mom about her sexuality. 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:00.880 How did you feel about that when she first told you. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:07.680 Very conflicted, wasn't sure if it was a phase or 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:13.040 if it was a true thing. It was a surprise, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.840 especially after the fact that she had been married and 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.640 she had dated several different guys. So yes, it did 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.720 come as a surprise to me. I started studying up 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.120 on it and reading on it, and you know, just 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.160 trying to figure out different aspects from it. Of course, 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.000 as a Christian, I'm you know, I'm conflicted very much 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.080 about it, but she is my daughter and I have 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.000 accepted that that is her lifestyle. 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.640 Well, Mom, you know she's home. She's a Christian man. 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.319 She has that unconditional love and she loves me anyway. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:47.760 So she said to you, she's going to love you 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:48.240 no matter what. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:56.200 Basically, yes, ma'am. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.040 Opening up to her mom was the first step. Timmy 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.400 finally fell like she was finding herself. 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.640 It was like a ten thousand pounds was lifted off 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:12.120 for me to know who I was. But I still 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:17.559 felt like a freak, like I couldn't tell anyone except 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:18.640 my mom. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.120 So Tammy continued to live a fairly closeted life in 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.160 the South. She went to rehab for her heroin addiction, 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:31.040 started narcotics anonymous, and got clean, and for years she 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:32.240 just worked a job in. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.640 Construction and lived a low key life. 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.280 She went to gay bars to be around others she 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.880 could relate to, but publicly she kept her sexuality to herself. 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.320 So you've never seen her with a girlfriend or anything 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:45.680 like that. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.120 I have seen her with a girlfriend. I haven't seen 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.520 her display affection with a girlfriend, gotcha, other than just 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.080 you know, hey, this is my buddy. You know, I 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.319 know that she's been with them, but just not in 0:10:58.360 --> 0:10:58.840 front of me. 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.000 At the age of thirty one, over a decade after 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:13.440 she got clean from heroin, Tammy relapsed. In January two thousand, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.920 she checked herself into the Katie Hill Drug Recovery Center 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:18.440 in Columbus, Mississippi. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.720 Basically, I knew I didn't want to go back where 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:23.840 I had come from, and I had to say something 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:24.400 about it. 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:28.720 What do you mean back where you came from heroin? 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.120 At Katie Hill, Tammy was again in a twelve step 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.800 recovery program, and while there she met twenty year old 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.760 Lee Stubbs. Lee had recently broken up with her boyfriend 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:45.400 and like Tammy a decade before, had spiraled into drug addiction. 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.560 So tell me about meeting Lee. What was Lee like? 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:50.000 She was cool? 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:58.080 She just had that personality, that trade, that distinct distinction 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.559 about it on the inside. Just with conversations and the 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.840 way we play and the way we worked well together 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:14.480 and things like that, we would get very good friends. 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:17.040 And then it turned into more than that. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.839 Was that a conversation you guys had that you were 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:21.480 both gay? 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:21.720 Like? 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.280 How did that come about? That? You guys? 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:25.720 Ah? 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:32.640 Gaydar? I'm sorry, but you know you can kind of tell. 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.640 By March of two thousand, both Tammy and Lee were 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.160 nearing the end of the program and were allowed certain 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.440 privileges like weekend passes to leave and see family. The 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:50.199 first time they were romantic was on a weekend trip home. 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.880 It turned out their destinations were just an hour away 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:54.520 from each other. 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.440 Well, I'll see, her mom was in Collins and my 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:02.800 mom was in Bayroom. So she went to her mom's. 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.240 I went to my mom's and the next morning we 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.840 hooked back up. She came to Bayroom and we went 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:10.439 and rode the swinging bridge. 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.839 What's a swinging bridge? I don't know what that is. 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:18.880 It's an old timmy bridge that sways when you like 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:22.760 drive across it. We would like get to going really 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.880 fast and then just slam on the brakes in the 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.840 middle of it and it would just sway us. Yeah, 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.360 it was really cool. We spent the whole weekend together. 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.480 Tammy and Lee had a sweet time together visiting Tammy's 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.480 hometown and then they headed back to Katie Hill. But 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.480 when they arrived they found the place in an uproar. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:48.000 There is this discriminational thing going on because someone had 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.360 hung a black doll on a door knob, and it 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.280 was a really racial thing, and it was a lot 0:13:54.320 --> 0:14:00.760 of drama, and you know, we had just gotten and 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:03.360 it was all that's going on. 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.319 To avoid the chaos, Tammy and Lee decided to leave 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.640 again in a hurry, stuffing their clothes and belongings into 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:13.480 garbage bags and throwing them in the back of Lee's truck. 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.080 As they were about to go, they saw their friend 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.120 Kim Williams, who was also packing to leave kill masked. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.840 Could she have a ride? She wanted to ride to 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.160 her boyfriends, so we said sure we Taiki. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.520 The three women drove through Mississippi stopping along the way 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:33.240 to buy liquor. 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.400 Hume and I were drinking. Lee was not. She was driving, 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.680 and we might it all the way to Canton, Mississippi. 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.320 We stopped and got another fit of the liquor. Might 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:45.960 it to Jackson, Mississippi. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.320 Finally they made it to Kim's boyfriend's house, but as 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.120 they were dropping Kim off, she and her boyfriend got 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:57.000 in a fight. Unlike Tammy and Lee, Kim hadn't actually 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.880 finished rehab and her boyfriend was mad she hadn't stayed 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:00.520 in treatment. 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.440 So anyway, she comes and gets in our truck and 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.720 ask us to take her to our uncle's house. Okay, 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.880 so we say sure. So we get down the road 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:19.000 and she pulls out all these pills x an X, soma, oxycotton, 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:20.280 a lot of narcotics. 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.360 It turns out Kim had stolen the pills from her boyfriend, 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:26.640 who had been prescribed them for his back. 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.240 I had been drinking. She had been drinking. We both 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:32.239 took a handful. 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.280 You just left rehab. Why were you using. 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:40.640 I just I was a follower and not the leader 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.400 I should have been. I couldn't find what I needed, 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.200 which was some weed, and so I just started drinking. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:51.520 That's what happened, all right. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.120 So you guys took the drugs and then what passed out? 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:01.160 We passed out, and Lee didn't know what to do. 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.880 She was in the middle of nowhere. She pulled into 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.840 a motel. She actually told the lady at the front desk, 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.040 you know, if these two in the drug looked dead, 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:15.760 they're not drunk. And so we pulled in and basically 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.000 she grabbed us both under our arms into the damn 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:24.680 motel room, into the motel room, I'm sorry, and laid 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:29.280 us on the bed. When I woke up, she was 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:34.920 awake watching Scooby Dooe. I was very sick, puking, sick 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.600 and dehydrated to death, the thirstiest I've ever been in 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:44.160 my life. And so I asked her, would she please 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.920 please go give me some drink? And so she ran 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.040 down to the cold machine, and while she was gone, 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.000 I was literally drowning in my home puke. She comes 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.920 back in with the drinks and pulls my head upbout 0:16:58.960 --> 0:16:59.280 the water. 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:01.840 And what was Kim doing at this point? 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.280 She was still passed out on the other bed, fully dressed, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.399 shoes and awe and snoring like she was in like 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:12.119 a deep sleep. 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.840 By then, it was the next day, March sixth, around 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.800 four pm, and Kim was still asleep. Tammy says Kim 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:24.280 was snoring so loudly that when she stopped, it was noticeable, 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.160 and Tammy could hear that something was wrong, and. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:33.320 I told ly, she's not breathing. She's not breathing. They 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:34.800 got on the phone with nine one one and I 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.200 administered CPR intil the ambulance got there. 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:52.359 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.800 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.480 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.320 in the communit unities where they work and live. In 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.040 light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.200 and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:13.520 justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:24.800 services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Kim 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.720 had overdosed. When the paramedics arrived, Tammy and Lee tried 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:30.520 to be as helpful as possible. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.520 As a matter of fact, we even gave them the 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.200 drugs she took from her boyfriend and tot them where 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.960 she took them from We gave them to the people 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:42.840 in the ambulance so that they would know what she 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:44.320 was on, so they would know what to do. 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.359 The paramedics gave Kim narkan to try and reverse the 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.359 drug's effects. She was rushed to the hospital in a 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:57.720 coma and respiratory arrest. Once at the hospital, Kim was 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.720 diagnosed as having suffered an overdose, but a nurse also 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.239 noted that Kim had injuries that didn't seem to be 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:09.919 related to the overdose. Allegedly, her breasts were swollen, her 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.320 vagina was bruised and swollen, and there were bite marks 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.240 on her body and marks on her butt that looked 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.520 like they could have come from a beating with a 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.879 stick or a belt. A doctor described it as looking 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.920 like a quote brutal sexual assault. The doctor informed police 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:32.479 that Kim had been sexually assaulted. Police immediately questioned Tammy 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:33.040 and Lee. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.040 They wanted to know what happened, and we told them. 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.679 But officers didn't believe them that it was solely an overdose. 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.359 They continued to push the belief that Kim had been assaulted. 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:49.000 I remember thinking they were crazy because that was our 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:51.800 friend and we tried to save We were trying to 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.800 save her, and they promised us, actually if we would 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.160 take a lot to take her test with the highway patrol, 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.639 that it with the question and one be with. We 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.800 both prayed, we both passed, and the question that never stopped. 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:17.960 Fortunately, Kim survived. 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.280 She woke up twelve days later with no memory of 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.919 what had happened whatsoever, which meant that she could not 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:31.359 definitively report whether or not she was assaulted. Six months 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:35.199 after the incident, on September twentieth, two thousand, Tammy and 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:39.000 Lee were arrested and charged with taking and possessing Kim's 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:49.960 boyfriend's oxy cotton and the aggravated assault of Kim Williams. 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.480 The following year, in June of two thousand and one, 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.480 Tammy and Lee went to trial. The prosecutors were District 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.800 Attorneys dun Lampton and Jerry Russia. Their case was that 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.600 Tammy and Lee had conspired with Kim to steal her 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.040 boyfriend's oxy cotton pills. The state alleged that once Kim 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:12.280 passed out, Tammy and Lee violently sexually assaulted her. 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:18.360 And that that violent sexual assault involves very severe bitemarks 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:24.480 involves biting off part of Kim's labia, and that this 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:30.880 behavior is indicative of a homosexual assault of a lesbian assault. 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:35.439 This is Billina Beattie, an attorney formerly with the Mississippi 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.920 Innocence Project, which ultimately took on Tammy and Lee's case. 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.840 Vellina says the crux of the state's case was that 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.119 lesbians are sexual deviance. 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.800 So the fact that Kim was with her too lesbian 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:54.399 friends Tammy and Lee right before she overdosed and was 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.600 brought to the hospital leads the police and the prosecutor 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:02.240 in a direct line to the two of them as 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:03.400 having assaulted her. 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.199 Vealina also says the prosecutors knew the jury pool they 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.600 would have in bok Cavn, Mississippi, and targeted their case accordingly. 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:16.000 It would have been a very Christian town, and at 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:18.640 the time, if we looked at studies that were done 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.800 on jurors and homophobia, we did see a connection between 0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:29.760 people who were particularly religious and heightened homophobia among jurors. 0:22:30.560 --> 0:22:35.000 So just looking at that information from juries, we could 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.440 see how a jury in Mississippi at that time, you know, 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.960 it might be more likely to see Lee and Tammy 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:46.280 as not just deviant because of their sexual orientation, but 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:48.119 violent because of their sexual orientation. 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.679 The state star witness was doctor Michael West, who was 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.920 at the time a renowned forensic odontologist. 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.520 So bite mark evidence or forensic odontology. 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:04.560 Is the belief that by looking at a mark on skin, 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.920 we're able to tell whether a certain person created that 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:10.879 mark with their teeth. 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:16.040 Doctor West was an expert in bitemark evidence. He testified 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:20.760 for prosecution offices in nine different states. At Tammy's trial, 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.320 doctor West testified that there appeared to be a bitemark 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.440 on Kim's hip and said it was likely from Lee. 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:30.920 West went on to say, quote, and it's more than 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:33.560 just a possibility to me, I would see it as 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:36.879 a probability, But is it a probability of actual one 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:37.679 hundred percent? 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:38.520 No. 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.919 Prosecutors then asked doctor West his opinion on whether he 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.520 would expect to find bitemarks in a homosexual rape case. 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.199 He said that would not be unusual. In fact, it 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:52.280 could almost be expected. 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:56.600 And that's with this history in the United States of 0:23:56.640 --> 0:24:02.440 seeing queerness as dangerous, as depraved, as devian, and as violent. 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:08.000 So all of that meshes together against this person who 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:11.560 is kind and innocent, but is perceived a different way 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:14.119 because of her open sexual orientation. 0:24:20.160 --> 0:24:23.320 In addition to the bitemarks, doctor West extended his so 0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:28.000 called expertise to other aspects of the case. He also 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:30.960 analyzed the surveillance footage from the night the three women 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:34.200 stayed at the motel. The footage appears to show someone 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:37.760 taking something from the toolbox in Lee's truck and carrying 0:24:37.800 --> 0:24:41.560 it into the motel room. 0:24:41.760 --> 0:24:44.960 What West is telling the jury it is is that 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:50.320 Lee is picking up Kim's body that they have put 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:54.760 into the toolbox, picking up Kim's body and carrying her 0:24:54.880 --> 0:25:00.280 into the hotel room. When you have an expert like 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:02.520 doctor West who's on the stand and is showing that 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:06.000 video again and again and again and again and each 0:25:06.040 --> 0:25:09.000 time telling the jury this is a body, there are 0:25:09.000 --> 0:25:13.199 the legs, there's the long hair, this is Kim, the 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:15.800 jury then starts to believe it. 0:25:19.080 --> 0:25:22.919