Speaker 1: In early two thousand, Tammy Vance checked herself into drug
Speaker 1: rehabit Columbus, Mississippi. There, she met Lee Stubbs, and the
Speaker 1: two became close. As they neared the end of the program,
Speaker 1: Excited for the future, they decided to leave and drive
Speaker 1: back home together along with their friend Kim. They headed out,
Speaker 1: stopping for the night at a motel, but when they
Speaker 1: awoke the next morning, something was terribly wrong with Kim.
Speaker 2: She was snoring really loud, and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: it stopped, and I freaked out and I told thee
Speaker 2: she's not breathing. She's not breathing. They got on the
Speaker 2: phone with nine one one and I administered CPR intil
Speaker 2: the ambulance got there.
Speaker 1: At the hospital, doctors found injuries that led them to
Speaker 1: believe Kim had experienced a violent sexual assault, and despite
Speaker 1: their efforts to help Kim, the police concluded that Tammy
Speaker 1: and Lee were actually responsible for what had happened to her.
Speaker 1: You were a suspect very quickly, So do you remember
Speaker 1: feeling that way? Do you remember thinking like something was
Speaker 1: off and what they were asking you.
Speaker 2: I remember thinking they were crazy because that was our friend,
Speaker 2: and we tried to Savor. My name is Tammy Vance,
Speaker 2: and I was wrongfully convicted for thirteen years.
Speaker 3: From Lava for good.
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Tammy Vance.
Speaker 1: Tammy Vance was born in San Antonio, Texas, on November fourteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, to Sandy and Billy Vance. She has
Speaker 1: one younger brother, Billy Junior, who goes by the nickname Bubba.
Speaker 2: Growing up as a child, it was great. I had
Speaker 2: a lot of family, a lot of loving family.
Speaker 4: She was very close to her dad and her brother
Speaker 4: and myself.
Speaker 3: This is Tammy's mom, Sandy Rabelais.
Speaker 4: We were very close knit family, and a.
Speaker 1: Traditional Southern family at that with strong Christian values. When
Speaker 1: Tammy was about three or four, her family left San
Speaker 1: Antonio for Mississippi. For Tammy, it was a whole different world.
Speaker 2: Moving from Texas, where there's nothing but tumbleweeds and small trees.
Speaker 2: I remember thinking when we pulled into Mississippi that it
Speaker 2: was the land of the Giants because of the trees
Speaker 2: and other trees were like so big.
Speaker 1: Once they adjusted to the new landscape, Sandy saw her
Speaker 1: daughter enjoying Mississippi.
Speaker 4: She was a very fun, loving child. She was always
Speaker 4: very outgoing. I always had lots and lots of friends
Speaker 4: around her.
Speaker 1: But at home, life had gotten difficult for Tammy.
Speaker 2: My father was an alcoholic, my mother she worked two jobs,
Speaker 2: and basically I raised my younger brother.
Speaker 1: The situation was tough, but Tammy was a natural caretaker.
Speaker 5: She has a huge heart and she would just do
Speaker 5: anything for anybody that's having a hard time.
Speaker 1: Like one family Sandy recalls who lived down the street
Speaker 1: from them when Tammy was around eleven or twelve.
Speaker 4: The mother was an alcoholic. She was never there, the
Speaker 4: dad was struggling to work.
Speaker 5: There was for those kids, and.
Speaker 4: She became best friends with them.
Speaker 5: She brought them home for Yeah, it's like, Mom, you
Speaker 5: know they're coming home tonight.
Speaker 4: I want you to make sure you're cooking up supper form.
Speaker 4: And she's the one that brought them into the family,
Speaker 4: and she's the one that, you know, wanted to make
Speaker 4: sure they were fed and clothed.
Speaker 1: Eventually, Tammy's father got clean and went into recovery for
Speaker 1: about eight years.
Speaker 2: And it was like the best eight years of my
Speaker 2: life growing up. I actually had my father, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I actually had my father at home,
Speaker 2: and it was greaty. We had a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: We would go four wheeling on the rivers and yeah,
Speaker 2: just sports stuff, go to the drag races and he
Speaker 2: would take us places.
Speaker 1: But Tammy couldn't always participate in certain activities because of
Speaker 1: a disability she has.
Speaker 4: Tammy's legally blind, so that didn't have a lot of
Speaker 4: limitations on what she could and couldn't be involved with.
Speaker 1: So Tammy made up for her visual limitations by embracing
Speaker 1: another strength.
Speaker 4: She was very, very music inclined. She loved to go
Speaker 4: to concerts to listen to all different types of music
Speaker 4: and to share that with her friends.
Speaker 3: Do you remember any specific ones that.
Speaker 4: She liked, ac DC, Orio Wagon.
Speaker 3: What did you think of her liking ac DC?
Speaker 4: Well, I wasn't too crazy about the music myself. It
Speaker 4: wasn't my choice of music, but it was certainly our
Speaker 4: wasn't her friend's choice of music. That was probably her
Speaker 4: biggest interest was different musical bands, and.
Speaker 1: Tammy started looking the part of a rocker too.
Speaker 3: Do you have a mullet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, nineteen nineties, I'm gonna awas know havy and cool.
Speaker 2: You know, peace love and rock and roll or peace
Speaker 2: love and music.
Speaker 1: But along with this love of music came a bad
Speaker 1: habit using drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 4: I guess Tammy was about thirteen or fourteen when we
Speaker 4: started dealing with the drugs with her. They continue to
Speaker 4: get worse and we finally put her in a treatment center.
Speaker 4: When she came out of the treatment center, that oh,
Speaker 4: she told me she was getting married to.
Speaker 1: A boy named Ralph, whom she started dating in high school.
Speaker 1: Ralph was a couple of years older than Tammy. At
Speaker 1: age sixteen, Tammy dropped out of school to marry him, and.
Speaker 4: I felt like they were just way too young. I'm
Speaker 4: going to be starting off on that journey. So I
Speaker 4: did it when I was young, and I knew it
Speaker 4: was just not the answer to a good life. You know.
Speaker 4: I did not want my children to follow in those footsteps,
Speaker 4: but she seemed pretty determined to do it.
Speaker 1: For Tammy, things with Ralph were good for a while,
Speaker 1: but then about two years after they got married, she
Speaker 1: was sitting on the porch drinking a beer with one
Speaker 1: of her female friends when she had a wake up call.
Speaker 2: They just hit me like a ton of brakes, Like
Speaker 2: what is going on here? Why am I more attracted
Speaker 2: to my friend than my husband? That sent me into
Speaker 2: a tail spin.
Speaker 1: Tammy started realizing she was actually more interested in women
Speaker 1: than men. But Tammy was living in what she describes
Speaker 1: as a redneck county in the eighties, being gay was
Speaker 1: not accepted.
Speaker 2: I freaked out.
Speaker 3: What did freaking out look like?
Speaker 2: Freaking out looks like filing for a divorce, leaving everything
Speaker 2: I had behind? Hitting New Orleans and I lived homeless
Speaker 2: for a little while. I left everything behind and I ran.
Speaker 2: I felt like a freak.
Speaker 1: Once in New Orleans, Tammy lived on the streets of
Speaker 1: the city for about six months. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: when you got into drug use.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, I unfortunately got a date with the heroin.
Speaker 1: Tammy had hit bottom trying to run away from who
Speaker 1: she was, and drugs were a source of consolation.
Speaker 2: It was when back when the all that black tar
Speaker 2: heroin hit New Orleans, and I hung out with the
Speaker 2: homeless people, and they were either alcoholics or addicts, and
Speaker 2: the black tar heroin was so pure. These people were
Speaker 2: used to there their heroin being stepped on so many
Speaker 2: times that the people were falling over dead left and right,
Speaker 2: and it scared me and I came home.
Speaker 1: When she got back home, Tammy decided to be completely
Speaker 1: honest with her mom about her sexuality.
Speaker 3: How did you feel about that when she first told you.
Speaker 4: Very conflicted, wasn't sure if it was a phase or
Speaker 4: if it was a true thing. It was a surprise,
Speaker 4: especially after the fact that she had been married and
Speaker 4: she had dated several different guys. So yes, it did
Speaker 4: come as a surprise to me. I started studying up
Speaker 4: on it and reading on it, and you know, just
Speaker 4: trying to figure out different aspects from it. Of course,
Speaker 4: as a Christian, I'm you know, I'm conflicted very much
Speaker 4: about it, but she is my daughter and I have
Speaker 4: accepted that that is her lifestyle.
Speaker 2: Well, Mom, you know she's home. She's a Christian man.
Speaker 2: She has that unconditional love and she loves me anyway.
Speaker 3: So she said to you, she's going to love you
Speaker 3: no matter what.
Speaker 2: Basically, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1: Opening up to her mom was the first step. Timmy
Speaker 1: finally fell like she was finding herself.
Speaker 2: It was like a ten thousand pounds was lifted off
Speaker 2: for me to know who I was. But I still
Speaker 2: felt like a freak, like I couldn't tell anyone except
Speaker 2: my mom.
Speaker 1: So Tammy continued to live a fairly closeted life in
Speaker 1: the South. She went to rehab for her heroin addiction,
Speaker 1: started narcotics anonymous, and got clean, and for years she
Speaker 1: just worked a job in.
Speaker 3: Construction and lived a low key life.
Speaker 1: She went to gay bars to be around others she
Speaker 1: could relate to, but publicly she kept her sexuality to herself.
Speaker 3: So you've never seen her with a girlfriend or anything
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: I have seen her with a girlfriend. I haven't seen
Speaker 4: her display affection with a girlfriend, gotcha, other than just
Speaker 4: you know, hey, this is my buddy. You know, I
Speaker 4: know that she's been with them, but just not in
Speaker 4: front of me.
Speaker 1: At the age of thirty one, over a decade after
Speaker 1: she got clean from heroin, Tammy relapsed. In January two thousand,
Speaker 1: she checked herself into the Katie Hill Drug Recovery Center
Speaker 1: in Columbus, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: Basically, I knew I didn't want to go back where
Speaker 2: I had come from, and I had to say something
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 3: What do you mean back where you came from heroin?
Speaker 1: At Katie Hill, Tammy was again in a twelve step
Speaker 1: recovery program, and while there she met twenty year old
Speaker 1: Lee Stubbs. Lee had recently broken up with her boyfriend
Speaker 1: and like Tammy a decade before, had spiraled into drug addiction.
Speaker 3: So tell me about meeting Lee. What was Lee like?
Speaker 4: She was cool?
Speaker 2: She just had that personality, that trade, that distinct distinction
Speaker 2: about it on the inside. Just with conversations and the
Speaker 2: way we play and the way we worked well together
Speaker 2: and things like that, we would get very good friends.
Speaker 2: And then it turned into more than that.
Speaker 3: Was that a conversation you guys had that you were
Speaker 3: both gay?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 3: How did that come about? That? You guys?
Speaker 5: Ah?
Speaker 2: Gaydar? I'm sorry, but you know you can kind of tell.
Speaker 1: By March of two thousand, both Tammy and Lee were
Speaker 1: nearing the end of the program and were allowed certain
Speaker 1: privileges like weekend passes to leave and see family. The
Speaker 1: first time they were romantic was on a weekend trip home.
Speaker 1: It turned out their destinations were just an hour away
Speaker 1: from each other.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll see, her mom was in Collins and my
Speaker 2: mom was in Bayroom. So she went to her mom's.
Speaker 2: I went to my mom's and the next morning we
Speaker 2: hooked back up. She came to Bayroom and we went
Speaker 2: and rode the swinging bridge.
Speaker 3: What's a swinging bridge? I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2: It's an old timmy bridge that sways when you like
Speaker 2: drive across it. We would like get to going really
Speaker 2: fast and then just slam on the brakes in the
Speaker 2: middle of it and it would just sway us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was really cool. We spent the whole weekend together.
Speaker 1: Tammy and Lee had a sweet time together visiting Tammy's
Speaker 1: hometown and then they headed back to Katie Hill. But
Speaker 1: when they arrived they found the place in an uproar.
Speaker 2: There is this discriminational thing going on because someone had
Speaker 2: hung a black doll on a door knob, and it
Speaker 2: was a really racial thing, and it was a lot
Speaker 2: of drama, and you know, we had just gotten and
Speaker 2: it was all that's going on.
Speaker 1: To avoid the chaos, Tammy and Lee decided to leave
Speaker 1: again in a hurry, stuffing their clothes and belongings into
Speaker 1: garbage bags and throwing them in the back of Lee's truck.
Speaker 1: As they were about to go, they saw their friend
Speaker 1: Kim Williams, who was also packing to leave kill masked.
Speaker 2: Could she have a ride? She wanted to ride to
Speaker 2: her boyfriends, so we said sure we Taiki.
Speaker 1: The three women drove through Mississippi stopping along the way
Speaker 1: to buy liquor.
Speaker 2: Hume and I were drinking. Lee was not. She was driving,
Speaker 2: and we might it all the way to Canton, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: We stopped and got another fit of the liquor. Might
Speaker 2: it to Jackson, Mississippi.
Speaker 1: Finally they made it to Kim's boyfriend's house, but as
Speaker 1: they were dropping Kim off, she and her boyfriend got
Speaker 1: in a fight. Unlike Tammy and Lee, Kim hadn't actually
Speaker 1: finished rehab and her boyfriend was mad she hadn't stayed
Speaker 1: in treatment.
Speaker 2: So anyway, she comes and gets in our truck and
Speaker 2: ask us to take her to our uncle's house. Okay,
Speaker 2: so we say sure. So we get down the road
Speaker 2: and she pulls out all these pills x an X, soma, oxycotton,
Speaker 2: a lot of narcotics.
Speaker 1: It turns out Kim had stolen the pills from her boyfriend,
Speaker 1: who had been prescribed them for his back.
Speaker 2: I had been drinking. She had been drinking. We both
Speaker 2: took a handful.
Speaker 3: You just left rehab. Why were you using.
Speaker 2: I just I was a follower and not the leader
Speaker 2: I should have been. I couldn't find what I needed,
Speaker 2: which was some weed, and so I just started drinking.
Speaker 2: That's what happened, all right.
Speaker 3: So you guys took the drugs and then what passed out?
Speaker 2: We passed out, and Lee didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2: She was in the middle of nowhere. She pulled into
Speaker 2: a motel. She actually told the lady at the front desk,
Speaker 2: you know, if these two in the drug looked dead,
Speaker 2: they're not drunk. And so we pulled in and basically
Speaker 2: she grabbed us both under our arms into the damn
Speaker 2: motel room, into the motel room, I'm sorry, and laid
Speaker 2: us on the bed. When I woke up, she was
Speaker 2: awake watching Scooby Dooe. I was very sick, puking, sick
Speaker 2: and dehydrated to death, the thirstiest I've ever been in
Speaker 2: my life. And so I asked her, would she please
Speaker 2: please go give me some drink? And so she ran
Speaker 2: down to the cold machine, and while she was gone,
Speaker 2: I was literally drowning in my home puke. She comes
Speaker 2: back in with the drinks and pulls my head upbout
Speaker 2: the water.
Speaker 3: And what was Kim doing at this point?
Speaker 2: She was still passed out on the other bed, fully dressed,
Speaker 2: shoes and awe and snoring like she was in like
Speaker 2: a deep sleep.
Speaker 1: By then, it was the next day, March sixth, around
Speaker 1: four pm, and Kim was still asleep. Tammy says Kim
Speaker 1: was snoring so loudly that when she stopped, it was noticeable,
Speaker 1: and Tammy could hear that something was wrong, and.
Speaker 2: I told ly, she's not breathing. She's not breathing. They
Speaker 2: got on the phone with nine one one and I
Speaker 2: administered CPR intil the ambulance got there.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
Speaker 1: in the communit unities where they work and live. In
Speaker 1: light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
Speaker 1: and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social
Speaker 1: justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal
Speaker 1: services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Kim
Speaker 1: had overdosed. When the paramedics arrived, Tammy and Lee tried
Speaker 1: to be as helpful as possible.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, we even gave them the
Speaker 2: drugs she took from her boyfriend and tot them where
Speaker 2: she took them from We gave them to the people
Speaker 2: in the ambulance so that they would know what she
Speaker 2: was on, so they would know what to do.
Speaker 1: The paramedics gave Kim narkan to try and reverse the
Speaker 1: drug's effects. She was rushed to the hospital in a
Speaker 1: coma and respiratory arrest. Once at the hospital, Kim was
Speaker 1: diagnosed as having suffered an overdose, but a nurse also
Speaker 1: noted that Kim had injuries that didn't seem to be
Speaker 1: related to the overdose. Allegedly, her breasts were swollen, her
Speaker 1: vagina was bruised and swollen, and there were bite marks
Speaker 1: on her body and marks on her butt that looked
Speaker 1: like they could have come from a beating with a
Speaker 1: stick or a belt. A doctor described it as looking
Speaker 1: like a quote brutal sexual assault. The doctor informed police
Speaker 1: that Kim had been sexually assaulted. Police immediately questioned Tammy
Speaker 1: and Lee.
Speaker 2: They wanted to know what happened, and we told them.
Speaker 1: But officers didn't believe them that it was solely an overdose.
Speaker 1: They continued to push the belief that Kim had been assaulted.
Speaker 2: I remember thinking they were crazy because that was our
Speaker 2: friend and we tried to save We were trying to
Speaker 2: save her, and they promised us, actually if we would
Speaker 2: take a lot to take her test with the highway patrol,
Speaker 2: that it with the question and one be with. We
Speaker 2: both prayed, we both passed, and the question that never stopped.
Speaker 3: Fortunately, Kim survived.
Speaker 1: She woke up twelve days later with no memory of
Speaker 1: what had happened whatsoever, which meant that she could not
Speaker 1: definitively report whether or not she was assaulted. Six months
Speaker 1: after the incident, on September twentieth, two thousand, Tammy and
Speaker 1: Lee were arrested and charged with taking and possessing Kim's
Speaker 1: boyfriend's oxy cotton and the aggravated assault of Kim Williams.
Speaker 1: The following year, in June of two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: Tammy and Lee went to trial. The prosecutors were District
Speaker 1: Attorneys dun Lampton and Jerry Russia. Their case was that
Speaker 1: Tammy and Lee had conspired with Kim to steal her
Speaker 1: boyfriend's oxy cotton pills. The state alleged that once Kim
Speaker 1: passed out, Tammy and Lee violently sexually assaulted her.
Speaker 6: And that that violent sexual assault involves very severe bitemarks
Speaker 6: involves biting off part of Kim's labia, and that this
Speaker 6: behavior is indicative of a homosexual assault of a lesbian assault.
Speaker 1: This is Billina Beattie, an attorney formerly with the Mississippi
Speaker 1: Innocence Project, which ultimately took on Tammy and Lee's case.
Speaker 1: Vellina says the crux of the state's case was that
Speaker 1: lesbians are sexual deviance.
Speaker 6: So the fact that Kim was with her too lesbian
Speaker 6: friends Tammy and Lee right before she overdosed and was
Speaker 6: brought to the hospital leads the police and the prosecutor
Speaker 6: in a direct line to the two of them as
Speaker 6: having assaulted her.
Speaker 1: Vealina also says the prosecutors knew the jury pool they
Speaker 1: would have in bok Cavn, Mississippi, and targeted their case accordingly.
Speaker 6: It would have been a very Christian town, and at
Speaker 6: the time, if we looked at studies that were done
Speaker 6: on jurors and homophobia, we did see a connection between
Speaker 6: people who were particularly religious and heightened homophobia among jurors.
Speaker 6: So just looking at that information from juries, we could
Speaker 6: see how a jury in Mississippi at that time, you know,
Speaker 6: it might be more likely to see Lee and Tammy
Speaker 6: as not just deviant because of their sexual orientation, but
Speaker 6: violent because of their sexual orientation.
Speaker 1: The state star witness was doctor Michael West, who was
Speaker 1: at the time a renowned forensic odontologist.
Speaker 6: So bite mark evidence or forensic odontology.
Speaker 7: Is the belief that by looking at a mark on skin,
Speaker 7: we're able to tell whether a certain person created that
Speaker 7: mark with their teeth.
Speaker 1: Doctor West was an expert in bitemark evidence. He testified
Speaker 1: for prosecution offices in nine different states. At Tammy's trial,
Speaker 1: doctor West testified that there appeared to be a bitemark
Speaker 1: on Kim's hip and said it was likely from Lee.
Speaker 1: West went on to say, quote, and it's more than
Speaker 1: just a possibility to me, I would see it as
Speaker 1: a probability, But is it a probability of actual one
Speaker 1: hundred percent?
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: Prosecutors then asked doctor West his opinion on whether he
Speaker 1: would expect to find bitemarks in a homosexual rape case.
Speaker 1: He said that would not be unusual. In fact, it
Speaker 1: could almost be expected.
Speaker 6: And that's with this history in the United States of
Speaker 6: seeing queerness as dangerous, as depraved, as devian, and as violent.
Speaker 6: So all of that meshes together against this person who
Speaker 6: is kind and innocent, but is perceived a different way
Speaker 6: because of her open sexual orientation.
Speaker 1: In addition to the bitemarks, doctor West extended his so
Speaker 1: called expertise to other aspects of the case. He also
Speaker 1: analyzed the surveillance footage from the night the three women
Speaker 1: stayed at the motel. The footage appears to show someone
Speaker 1: taking something from the toolbox in Lee's truck and carrying
Speaker 1: it into the motel room.
Speaker 6: What West is telling the jury it is is that
Speaker 6: Lee is picking up Kim's body that they have put
Speaker 6: into the toolbox, picking up Kim's body and carrying her
Speaker 6: into the hotel room. When you have an expert like
Speaker 6: doctor West who's on the stand and is showing that
Speaker 6: video again and again and again and again and each
Speaker 6: time telling the jury this is a body, there are
Speaker 6: the legs, there's the long hair, this is Kim, the
Speaker 6: jury then starts to believe it.
Speaker 1: The defense did refute this, however. Tammy's defense attorney was
Speaker 1: Ken McNeese and Lee's was Bill Barnett. Both were private attorneys.
Speaker 1: They presented evidence that hair was found in the toolbox
Speaker 1: and that it was not Kim's. They also called doctor
Speaker 1: Rodrigo Galvez a forensic pathologist who said that Kim could
Speaker 1: not have physically fit in the toolbox.
Speaker 8: I mean, and this idea that they could put her
Speaker 8: in a toolbox and then that Lee could whisk her
Speaker 8: out of this toolbox in a matter of seconds, you know,
Speaker 8: like lift up her friend, who weighs the same weight
Speaker 8: that she does, and.
Speaker 6: Jump off the back of the truck with.
Speaker 8: Her is incredible, fanciful.
Speaker 1: Doctor Galvez also said there were many other objects that
Speaker 1: could have possibly made the alleged bite marks. However, upon
Speaker 1: cross examination, doctor Galvez dealt an unexpected blow to the
Speaker 1: defense by admitting he would expect to find biting in
Speaker 1: a situation involving a lesbian rape.
Speaker 9: And then he gives this really shocking testimony about how
Speaker 9: lesbians and homosexuals are more likely to commit violent assaults,
Speaker 9: that the most violent assaults he's ever seen have been
Speaker 9: homosexual assaults.
Speaker 10: And it's all of.
Speaker 6: This magical thinking to create this story and this narrative
Speaker 6: where Lee and Tammy are violent and violent against Kim,
Speaker 6: which they're not.
Speaker 4: I never believed it for a moment. I'm never, for
Speaker 4: one fraction of a second believed that here are Lee
Speaker 4: physically hurts.
Speaker 1: Someone even though you're sitting there at trial and the
Speaker 1: prosecutor is saying gay people are deviants and this is
Speaker 1: what they do.
Speaker 3: You still didn't believe it.
Speaker 4: No, ma'am, and they were willed.
Speaker 1: On June thirtieth, two thousand and one, the jury convicted
Speaker 1: both Tammy and Lee of all charges. They were ordered
Speaker 1: to pay one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars in fines
Speaker 1: and costs, as well as half of Kim's medical bills,
Speaker 1: and they were each sentenced to forty four years in prison.
Speaker 1: After their conviction, Tammy and Lee were both sent to
Speaker 1: the same prison, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, Mississippi.
Speaker 3: Did you continue a relationship when you were in prison?
Speaker 2: Things had really changed with all of this. We remained
Speaker 2: friends and we have a bond that cannot be broken.
Speaker 3: But romantically it wasn't. It wasn't there anymore.
Speaker 2: No, ma'am. It kind of ended right there, but our
Speaker 2: friendship became stronger. Me and Lee we made on that
Speaker 2: yard alone and we would.
Speaker 3: Discuss our case, like how you were going to prove
Speaker 3: your innocence?
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, what was the plan? We were researching cases
Speaker 2: law library, we were reaching out with family attorneys, innocent projects,
Speaker 2: writing letters, helping inmates, doing all we could survive.
Speaker 1: While Tammy and Lee were busy fighting for their innocence
Speaker 1: from prison, their families were also helping on the outside.
Speaker 1: Lee's father filed a Freedom of Information Act petition requesting
Speaker 1: documents relating to any analysis performed on the surveillance video
Speaker 1: from the motel, and what he got back was shocking.
Speaker 8: They found out that someone at the FBI had been.
Speaker 6: Asked pre trial to examine the surveillance video and had
Speaker 6: done a complete report on it, saying, Okay, there's only
Speaker 6: one person in the video, there's not two, and that
Speaker 6: one person is taking a unidentified dark object out of
Speaker 6: the toolbox that they don't think it's a body.
Speaker 1: These FBI analysis results were never disclosed to the defense
Speaker 1: or the jury.
Speaker 6: What we are actually seeing is a blurry image because
Speaker 6: it's a surveillance video of Lee getting up into the
Speaker 6: flatbed of the truck, opening up the toolbox that is
Speaker 6: in the back of the flatbed, and taking out these
Speaker 6: garbage bags that are filled with her clothes from the
Speaker 6: rehab facility. And then she's jumping down and taking the
Speaker 6: bags with her. That's what we're seeing.
Speaker 1: Armed with this new evidence, the Mississippi Innocence Project took
Speaker 1: on the case.
Speaker 2: When an innocent project fill into place is when Hope
Speaker 2: said it, because finally, somebody else at this world, this
Speaker 2: whole wide world, believe in us.
Speaker 1: Finally, in twenty eleven, Velina and the Mississippi Innocence Project
Speaker 1: filed a petition claiming that doctor West presented false evidence
Speaker 1: and that the prosecution had failed to disclose the results
Speaker 1: of the FBI analysis of the surveillance video. By this time,
Speaker 1: doctor West had also been completely discredited. As early as
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, his credibility was being questioned. News outlets
Speaker 1: like sixty Minutes profiled him and the dubious science of
Speaker 1: bitemark evidence. West was eventually suspended by the American Board
Speaker 1: of Forensic Odontology. Bitemark evidence is now considered junk science.
Speaker 1: In fact, doctor West has now testified in at least
Speaker 1: five cases where the person was wrongfully convicted based on
Speaker 1: bitemark evidence and later exonerated. In a twenty eleven deposition,
Speaker 1: doctor West even testified that he no longer believed his
Speaker 1: own testimony about the bitemarks on Kim's body. He admitted
Speaker 1: that if he was asked to testify and Tammy and
Speaker 1: Lee's case again, he would say, quote, I don't believe
Speaker 1: it's a system that's reliable enough to be used in court.
Speaker 3: And so what did it all wind up being? Was
Speaker 3: it actually a bitemark?
Speaker 11: No?
Speaker 10: Oh gosh no, no, and half of her labia was
Speaker 10: not missing either, So no, none of that ended up
Speaker 10: being true or accurate at all.
Speaker 1: Velina says that the supposed bitemark evidence on Kim's hip
Speaker 1: was actually just a bruise, and while there was potentially
Speaker 1: evidence of a sexual encounter, there was no evidence of
Speaker 1: it being a non consensual assault. On June twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, over a decade after they were convicted, Lincoln
Speaker 1: County Circuit Court Judge Michael Taylor agreed that Tammy and
Speaker 1: Lee did not get a fair trial and granted them
Speaker 1: a new one. They were released on bond that same day.
Speaker 1: What was it like when you found out that your
Speaker 1: case was going to be overturned and you were going
Speaker 1: to get a new trial.
Speaker 4: I'll actually sat down and cried.
Speaker 2: Happy tears.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Did you ever think that would happen?
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, I really thought I was going to die
Speaker 2: alone in prison.
Speaker 1: Sandy remembers the day she picked up Tammy from prison.
Speaker 5: That day, it was just a joyful day to get
Speaker 5: her out. The newspeople were there, and Chris Felina and
Speaker 5: them were there, and it was it was just so
Speaker 5: awesome to get to hold her and take her to
Speaker 5: eat her favorite foods, things like macaroni and cheese and
Speaker 5: roast and creep potatoes.
Speaker 12: It was hard to eat those things when she was
Speaker 12: in there and knowing she couldn't. And we had bought
Speaker 12: her Christmas presents every year, so her bed was piled
Speaker 12: high with her Christmas presents from the years she'd been gone,
Speaker 12: So it was wonderful to bring her home.
Speaker 1: Tammy wounds up pleading no contest to a charge of
Speaker 1: possession of oxy cotton. The rest of the charges were
Speaker 1: eventually thrown out. Today, Tammy and Lee are still friends.
Speaker 1: Lee is a nurse and Tammy is busy trying to
Speaker 1: make up for the years she lost in prison.
Speaker 2: I'm very simple.
Speaker 13: I enjoy the cool stuff in life, because you know,
Speaker 13: I had enough time to choose that. What I had
Speaker 13: to go do was that innocent time. So I like
Speaker 13: to fly kites, I like to fade ducks. I like
Speaker 13: to type long rides in the country. I'm just here
Speaker 13: being cool.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to help support the Mississippi Innocence Project
Speaker 1: now known as the George C. Cochrane Innocence Project, go
Speaker 1: to Innocenceproject dot O, L E, M I, S. S.
Speaker 1: Dot edu. Velina also wrote a book about Tammy and
Speaker 1: Lee and the wrongful convictions of women called Manifesting Justice.
Speaker 1: The links to all of this will be in our bio.
Speaker 3: Next time.
Speaker 1: On Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, James Richardson, do.
Speaker 5: You think race had anything to do with us as
Speaker 5: far as me getting convicted?
Speaker 11: I do do an a lack of gag person Q
Speaker 11: two white individuals that they feel like, Okay, yeah, we
Speaker 11: got to show him, but I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links.
Speaker 3: In our bio to see how you can help. I'd
Speaker 3: like to.
Speaker 1: Thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis, as
Speaker 1: well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonia Paul. The show is edited and
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cleiburn
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
Speaker 1: well as at Lava for Good.
Speaker 3: On all three platforms, you can.
Speaker 1: Also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one