Speaker 1: A warning for listeners. This episode contains discussion of suicide.
Speaker 1: Please listen with caution and care. In January of two
Speaker 1: thousand six, Janetta Carr was over at her best friend's
Speaker 1: house when there was a knock at the door. Police
Speaker 1: were investigating a violent murder that occurred in the area
Speaker 1: a few months earlier. Sixteen year old Janetta was handcuffed,
Speaker 1: taken down to the precinct, and questioned for nearly twelve hours.
Speaker 1: When I asked for my mom, he told me that
Speaker 1: it was not a girl Scouts meeting and that my
Speaker 1: mom was not allowed to come down there. It was
Speaker 1: a nightmare she couldn't wake up from. Janetta soon found
Speaker 1: herself locked up in juvenile detention, charged with the murder
Speaker 1: of the man who had been her boyfriend. Janetta had
Speaker 1: a solid alibi, but as the investigation closed in around her,
Speaker 1: she felt more and more hopeless, until finally she saw
Speaker 1: only one way out. I took all these pills one
Speaker 1: night that I had been saving that I wasn't taken,
Speaker 1: and uh, like two o'clock in the morning, I get
Speaker 1: a tap on my arm. This is lady stand in
Speaker 1: front of me. She got on all white nurses outfit.
Speaker 1: She just kept touching me, saying everything's gonna be okay,
Speaker 1: It's okay, sweetie. And I thought she was an angel.
Speaker 1: I feel like she honestly saved my life. My name
Speaker 1: is Johnetta Car and I'm thirty four years old. I'm
Speaker 1: from Willieville, Kentucky. From LoVa for good. This is wrongful
Speaker 1: conviction with Maggie Freeling today. Janetta Car. Janetta Carr was
Speaker 1: born on me in Louisville, Kentucky. She's the youngest of
Speaker 1: six kids and often spent time with her extended family.
Speaker 1: You know, the youngest child always were in things, so like,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of it was cool, you know, I was.
Speaker 1: I'm very, very spoiled by my siblings. I really didn't
Speaker 1: get in trouble as much by my great grandmother, my
Speaker 1: mom's mom's mom. When stuff would happen, we would all
Speaker 1: be at her house and my great grandmother was like,
Speaker 1: she's a baby. She didn't do that. You know, you
Speaker 1: had the baby privilege. Yeah, the baby privilege. Definitely the
Speaker 1: baby privilege until Jeanette's stepdad, Edward came into the picture.
Speaker 1: Jeanette's mom, Lorenda, raised all six kids on her own.
Speaker 1: She worked hard her whole life to take care of us.
Speaker 1: But you know, we had a lot of family support.
Speaker 1: So like my family has always been closed, and we
Speaker 1: would have dinners, you know, at my grandmother's house, who's
Speaker 1: my mom's mom. M very very close to my biological
Speaker 1: dad's mom, and my aunties and uncles on that side
Speaker 1: of the family, seven of us total, you know. So
Speaker 1: I was always with my brothers and sisters, my cousins.
Speaker 1: You know. When I became a teenager, I would hang
Speaker 1: with my friends in the neighborhood. We'd be at my
Speaker 1: mom's house and we wentn't in my mom's house. We'd
Speaker 1: be at one of my other two friends house. We'd
Speaker 1: be in the porch, you know. Lorenda kept a religious
Speaker 1: household and Janetta and her siblings went to church every Sunday.
Speaker 1: Janetta also kept busy performing in plays at her church
Speaker 1: and taking acting classes at the local theater camp. And
Speaker 1: we actually did the Mid Summer's Night Dream was one
Speaker 1: of the plays that we did, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be the witch, but I didn't get the witch part.
Speaker 1: I ended up being the unicorn. And I actually love
Speaker 1: unicorns today, so I got to be unicorn. At a point,
Speaker 1: she was just a typical teenager. You know, this is
Speaker 1: Janetta's mom, Lorenda Baker, doing what typical teena just do
Speaker 1: on the phone with her friends, with jama parties, movies, skating,
Speaker 1: hanging out into some on the front fORCH ice cream,
Speaker 1: you know that type of thing. Was she ever in
Speaker 1: any kind of trouble. No. Johnette is a lovely person.
Speaker 1: She's got a lovely personality on a wonderful spirit, and
Speaker 1: everyone around her felt that spirit. She loved to spend
Speaker 1: time with her friends and pamper them, Like when we
Speaker 1: would go, you know, do stuff to the mom, me
Speaker 1: and my friends. I would always be the last one
Speaker 1: to get ready because I was doing everybody else's her
Speaker 1: make this step, and they used to. Janetta was super
Speaker 1: smart and a driven young woman. She graduated high school
Speaker 1: early at just sixteen years old. Right after graduation, Janetta
Speaker 1: started school at Sullivan University, studying to be a paralegal.
Speaker 1: She had planned to work for the prosecutor's office. Around
Speaker 1: this time, she met Michael. I met him just in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood, like my best friend UM. Her and her
Speaker 1: mom had lived in these apartments and he Um lived
Speaker 1: in the apartments next to where they lived at Colonus.
Speaker 1: Michael Adolphin, who went by Michael, was from Haiti. He
Speaker 1: worked as a cab driver. He was nice. I mean
Speaker 1: he was cool. You know. Michael and Janetta started dating
Speaker 1: even though he was twenty years older than she was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I had already graduated high school. I really
Speaker 1: went into do with my age. And I know, I
Speaker 1: don't care about y'll jugimy America because let me tell
Speaker 1: y'all something right now, Okay, let's get this straight. Okay, yes,
Speaker 1: that is part of my story. I don't care what
Speaker 1: y'all think, how y'all feel about it, because every single
Speaker 1: teenager has something that they do to rebel against their parents. Okay,
Speaker 1: some teenagers still stuff, maybe some still cars, do whatever. Okay,
Speaker 1: I just like, oh the dudes. Despite their age difference,
Speaker 1: Janetta and Michael had a great relationship. They had fun together,
Speaker 1: and Janetta says that he was a kind and generous man.
Speaker 1: We was two individuals that connected and liked each other.
Speaker 1: On the night of October two thousand five, about two
Speaker 1: months into their relationship, Michael had friends over at his
Speaker 1: apartment to play dominoes. Janetta was spending the night at
Speaker 1: a friend's house for a sleepover party. What do you
Speaker 1: remember about that night? I just remember me and my
Speaker 1: friends were doing her We was doing you know, makeup.
Speaker 1: We was watching videos, you know, slapping, eating snacks. Just
Speaker 1: a normal night, yep. But the next morning would be
Speaker 1: anything but normal. Around nine am, a neighbor called the
Speaker 1: police to report that someone was collapsed in front of
Speaker 1: their apartment building. It was Michael. He had been strangled,
Speaker 1: apparently with an electrical cord from a fan that was
Speaker 1: wrapped around his neck. His feet were bound with duct tape.
Speaker 1: Michael's wallet and cell phone were missing, and in his
Speaker 1: pocket was a grow to restore receipt time stamped PM
Speaker 1: the night before. His cab was later found a few
Speaker 1: miles away, ransacked and abandoned, with the stereo missing. Sometime
Speaker 1: after Michael left the grocery store that night, he had
Speaker 1: been robbed and violently murdered. When did you find out
Speaker 1: that Michael was killed? I've seen it on the news.
Speaker 1: It was crazy and scary and horrible, um and like
Speaker 1: unbelievable about who could have done it because he didn't
Speaker 1: have you know, no like enemies that I knew of,
Speaker 1: because he was such a sweet parts and so I
Speaker 1: was like, why would somebody do this? Like? Who would
Speaker 1: do this? Janetta was heartbroken and things were about to
Speaker 1: get worse. Two and a half months later, Janetta was
Speaker 1: at her friend's house when investigators came looking for her.
Speaker 1: They shut up in my best friend's house, who I
Speaker 1: was sleeping next to the night that the crime happened.
Speaker 1: They showed up in her house and a detective Tony Finch,
Speaker 1: knocked on the door. Her mom was like, Janetta, detective
Speaker 1: her play you. Detective Tony Finch was the lead investigator
Speaker 1: on the case, and when Janetta came to the door,
Speaker 1: he took out his handcuffs and arrested her for the
Speaker 1: murder of plant as Michael Adolphe. Then he brought her
Speaker 1: down to the precinct. I was really confused. I didn't
Speaker 1: know why I was there, what was going on. I
Speaker 1: just thought that I was gonna get to go home
Speaker 1: because I didn't do nothing, So I was scared. I
Speaker 1: was everything any emotion you can think of. I was angry,
Speaker 1: you know. Was it like registering? Like were you processing? Like?
Speaker 1: Oh they think I did this? No, even though Kentucky
Speaker 1: lost his police must notify a my nurse parents before
Speaker 1: questioning them. Janetta was interrogated alone by Sergeant James Hellinger
Speaker 1: and lead Detective Tony Finch. She says Detective Finch was
Speaker 1: extremely harsh with her. When I asked for my mom,
Speaker 1: he told me that it was not a girl Scouts
Speaker 1: meeting and that my mom was not allowed to come
Speaker 1: down there. Janetta says he threatened her, calling her a murderer,
Speaker 1: a bitch, and a whore. He asked me if I
Speaker 1: was in a gang. He told me he hit people
Speaker 1: that placed me at the scene and that he knew
Speaker 1: that I was guilty. He told me that I was
Speaker 1: a dangerous threat to society, that he didn't want me
Speaker 1: on his f and streets, and that I was going
Speaker 1: to prison for f and y. The interrogation went on
Speaker 1: for over eleven hours. Janetta maintained her innocence the entire time.
Speaker 1: She was sure she would soon be released to go home,
Speaker 1: but that didn't happen. This episode is underwritten by A
Speaker 1: i G, a leading global insurance company. A i G
Speaker 1: is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making a
Speaker 1: positive difference in the lives of its employees and in
Speaker 1: the communities where they work and live. In light of
Speaker 1: the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance and in
Speaker 1: recognition of a i g s commitment to criminal and
Speaker 1: social justice reform, the ai G pro Bono Program provides
Speaker 1: free legal services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals.
Speaker 1: I went straight from the interrogation room. They took me
Speaker 1: in his hallway. They started taking pictures on me. Had
Speaker 1: and he held up his number and then they yeah.
Speaker 1: They sent me start to j C. The same night,
Speaker 1: I get both them to j C West. J C
Speaker 1: y C is the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center. Janetta's mother, Laurende,
Speaker 1: had no idea what had happened. How did you find out?
Speaker 1: My neighbor, Miss pet let me use her phone for
Speaker 1: any type of situation that I might have, And she
Speaker 1: came and knocked on my door and told me that
Speaker 1: j C y C wanted me on the phone. I
Speaker 1: had my pajama zone. It was about seven forty five
Speaker 1: eight o'clock in the morning. I read out the back doors.
Speaker 1: A matter of fact, I left the back door open.
Speaker 1: When I went to her house and got on the phone.
Speaker 1: The lady from j C YC told me that they
Speaker 1: were holding Johnetta on some conspiracy to murder and manslaughter
Speaker 1: and that she had to be in court that morning
Speaker 1: at eight thirty. So I just couldn't believe it, you know,
Speaker 1: because the Johnetta that I know, it's not capable of
Speaker 1: that type of thing, and I knew that she didn't
Speaker 1: do it. I knew she was innocent. Janetta had a
Speaker 1: rock solid alibi. Over half a dozen people had been
Speaker 1: at that sleepover, but detectives had their sights set on
Speaker 1: her for the first time. I couldn't tell her, this
Speaker 1: is it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be all right.
Speaker 1: You know, You're gonna be fine. We're gonna get through this,
Speaker 1: because I didn't know if we were going to get
Speaker 1: through this. I didn't know what was gonna happen, you know.
Speaker 1: And I could see her she was trying to be strong,
Speaker 1: because I guess she was trying to be strong for me,
Speaker 1: and I was trying to be strong for her. And
Speaker 1: I didn't want her to see me cry because I
Speaker 1: know if she had saw me cry, she would have
Speaker 1: been more upset than she already was. And I didn't
Speaker 1: want to inflict any more pain on her. What Janetta
Speaker 1: didn't know was that while she was left confused and
Speaker 1: alone in juvenile jail. Detectives were building an entire case
Speaker 1: against her. A few weeks before Janetta was arrested, detectives
Speaker 1: had interrogated a friend who was also at the sleepover.
Speaker 1: To protect the identities of these individuals, we'll call this
Speaker 1: friend Carry, Detective Finch had arrested nineteen year old Carry
Speaker 1: on a bench warrant for shoplifting. While in custody, he
Speaker 1: interrogated her about Michael Adolphin's murder. Carry said there was
Speaker 1: no way Janetta was involved. They were together all night.
Speaker 1: Carry said that she and a few other friends, including
Speaker 1: one we'll call Kyle, drove around that night. They stopped
Speaker 1: at White Castle for some food before going back to
Speaker 1: Kyle's house for a sleepover with a bigger group of people.
Speaker 1: Janetta never left the house by herself that night, but
Speaker 1: Finch ran with that and started implicating both Carrie and
Speaker 1: Kyle and the murder as well. Finch told Carry he'd
Speaker 1: help her with her shoplifting charges if she would repeat
Speaker 1: the story he wanted to hear. After about ten hours
Speaker 1: of interrogation, Carrie broke down and repeated Finch's false narrative
Speaker 1: that she Kyle and Janetta killed Michael quickly, though Carrie
Speaker 1: recanted and again maintained that she knew nothing about the murder,
Speaker 1: but it didn't matter. Finch arrested her anyway. Kyle was
Speaker 1: also interrogated by detectives about the murder, and he too
Speaker 1: was eventually arrested. Carrie and Kyle were nineteen years old,
Speaker 1: technically adults, but Janetta was only sixteen. She was initially
Speaker 1: charged as a juvenile, but she was later indicted as
Speaker 1: an adult. Among Janetta's charges first degree murder. The weight
Speaker 1: of everything that was happening was too much for Janetta
Speaker 1: to process, and while she was in the juvenile detention center,
Speaker 1: I'll try to kill myself. After her suicide attempt, Janetta
Speaker 1: was transferred to Our Lady of Peace Hospital. She was
Speaker 1: diagnosed with clinical depression and put on medication, so they
Speaker 1: started give me these peals we I was supposed to take,
Speaker 1: and I would have at the peels and machi because
Speaker 1: I still wanted to to kill myself, because I was
Speaker 1: that hopeless for for being in car sorady for a
Speaker 1: crime I didn't commit, having nothing to do with. So
Speaker 1: I took all these pills one night that I had
Speaker 1: been saving that I wasn't taken. And uh, like two
Speaker 1: o'clock in the more room, I get a tap on
Speaker 1: my arm. It's this lady stand in front of me.
Speaker 1: She got on all white nurses outfit. She had like
Speaker 1: caramel skin short her. She just kept touching me, seeing
Speaker 1: everything's gonna be okay. It's okay, sweetie. The next day
Speaker 1: I started asking the staff members you know who she was, like,
Speaker 1: because I wanted to thank her, you know, to feel
Speaker 1: like she honestly saved my life. And they was like,
Speaker 1: we don't know her. Nobody works here. The person you're
Speaker 1: describing doesn't work her, and I thought she was an angel.
Speaker 1: Soon after that experience, Janetta reached out to her mom
Speaker 1: and told her about taking the pills, and I went
Speaker 1: to the hospital and set with her and just he
Speaker 1: held her hand, you know, and told her, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry that this has happened to you. I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry that you're going through this, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're sitting in his jailous all day after day, minute
Speaker 1: at the minute, you know, and you see people going
Speaker 1: home and you're still sitting here for something that you
Speaker 1: didn't do. I probably would have took my life too,
Speaker 1: you know. But I know that God has a purpose
Speaker 1: for everybody's life, and I just felt like God had
Speaker 1: a lot for her to do down here, and he
Speaker 1: wasn't ready for her to go yet. Meanwhile, instead of
Speaker 1: probing other angles, like analyzing the evidence at the murder
Speaker 1: scene or pursuing other potential suspects, Detective Finch was hell
Speaker 1: bent on closing the case. He would do whatever he
Speaker 1: needed to do to get a conviction. This is Suzanne Huff,
Speaker 1: directing attorney of the Kentucky in a since project. They
Speaker 1: represented Janetta in her post conviction efforts. Final sort of
Speaker 1: nail on the coffin there is that there was a
Speaker 1: jail house informant that was used against Janetta. After Janetta
Speaker 1: turned eighteen, she was transferred from juvenile detention to an
Speaker 1: adult jail, and an informant who lived in the cell
Speaker 1: next door, Lorie Deckard, said that Janetta confessed to her.
Speaker 1: According to Laurie, Janetta told her she was mad at Michael,
Speaker 1: and so she, Carrie and Kyle went to his apartment
Speaker 1: and robbed and murdered him. Detectives got statements from other
Speaker 1: jailhouse informants implicating Kyle and Carrie as well, but they
Speaker 1: still had a problem the other people at the sleepover.
Speaker 1: Janetta had a solid alibi, so Detective Jim Lawson interrogated
Speaker 1: Janetta's best friend, whom we'll call Brittany. Brittany said she
Speaker 1: was with Janetta all night. They slept on the couch
Speaker 1: together and fell asleep under the same blanket. She's told
Speaker 1: him that Johnetta did not do this, she wasnaxing me
Speaker 1: sleep at night, but Lawson dismissed her account. Instead, he
Speaker 1: fabricated a report saying Brittany told him she was a
Speaker 1: heavy sleeper and couldn't say whether or not Janetta had
Speaker 1: left the house. Even with all their alleged evidence against Janetta, Carrie,
Speaker 1: and Kyle, detectives were still hell bent on getting one
Speaker 1: of the three to flip on the others. They were relentless.
Speaker 1: They just kept going after all three co defendants and
Speaker 1: repeatedly uh questioning them. What the police were doing was
Speaker 1: they were telling all three co defendants that if all
Speaker 1: of you don't um admit to this crime and enter
Speaker 1: into guilty please, and we're gonna try one of the
Speaker 1: adults under the death penalty. Remember, Kyle and Carrie were
Speaker 1: both nineteen that that was sort of like the ultimate,
Speaker 1: the end point where um, these three individuals were thinking
Speaker 1: about their friends and somebody facing the death penalty. With
Speaker 1: this life or death situation looming over the trio, the
Speaker 1: state offered them a plea bargain called an Alfred plea,
Speaker 1: and Alfred plea is a deal with the state or
Speaker 1: defendants plead guilty for a lesser sentence, but are allowed
Speaker 1: to maintain their innocence. Prosecutors told them they would only
Speaker 1: accept the plea deal if all three pled guilty, so
Speaker 1: they did. In April fourteenth, two thou eight. Janetta took
Speaker 1: the deal and pled guilty to evidence tampering, to conspiracy charges,
Speaker 1: and second degree manslaughter. She was sentenced to twenty years
Speaker 1: in prison. So how did it feel to take a
Speaker 1: plea saying, you know, I'm innocent, but I recognize all
Speaker 1: of this evidence because you know it's not real evidence.
Speaker 1: What did that feel like? I literally felt like I
Speaker 1: had no other choice because at that point I was
Speaker 1: just hopeless. Just know that I was not the Johnetta
Speaker 1: the end that I am now, you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: educated about the law and thinking they could arrest people
Speaker 1: for crimes they didn't commit. While in prison, Janetta tried
Speaker 1: to stay as productive as possible. That's what computer classes.
Speaker 1: And I went to church a lot, you know, so
Speaker 1: I'm in acquire a lot, wrote letters a lot, ate
Speaker 1: a lot too many noodles. I do not eat noodles.
Speaker 1: No more, y'all pay No, We're not gonna be a
Speaker 1: good And what was that like to be around adults
Speaker 1: as a as a kid? Um? Well, at first, it
Speaker 1: was kind of scary because I was thinking, oh my,
Speaker 1: getting these people of criminals, like what am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: But um, actually I met a bunch of beautiful women
Speaker 1: from all different walks of life, and um, they was
Speaker 1: really lights to me. You know. We gave each other
Speaker 1: hope because there was nothing else we could do. I
Speaker 1: think I went through every emotion that a prayer could
Speaker 1: go through. I got frustrated, I got angry, I got upset,
Speaker 1: I cried because you know, they were when the resources available,
Speaker 1: and it was just a horrible, horrible, horrible thing to
Speaker 1: go to go through for anybody. I think one of
Speaker 1: the hardest ports for me was having to explain to
Speaker 1: Johnette's nieces and nephews that we didn't know when she
Speaker 1: was going to come home, because Johnette is very close
Speaker 1: to them and they love her, you know. And then
Speaker 1: they're crying and I'm crying, and we're all trying to
Speaker 1: make some sense out of this, and we still can't
Speaker 1: make any sense out of it as it stands today.
Speaker 1: About a year or so after her conviction, and Janetta
Speaker 1: was called into the prison office. Surprised me because I
Speaker 1: didn't know why I was getting called in there, because
Speaker 1: I didn't get any trouble while I was, you know,
Speaker 1: incres rated, So I didn't know why I was getting
Speaker 1: called in there. When she walked in, Lorie Decker, the
Speaker 1: jail house snitch, was there, and she admitted that during
Speaker 1: the investigation the police told her to lie about Janetta
Speaker 1: and say she confessed. Because I'm like, okay, you're saying
Speaker 1: this now, why didn't you say that, you know, a
Speaker 1: long time ago, Like I'm basically, you're a part of this.
Speaker 1: You're a part of the fabricated evidence and part of
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm here. It is her fault because
Speaker 1: she didn't have to lie. But when you really think
Speaker 1: about the jail house snitches, the system actually puts them
Speaker 1: in situation. Do you know what I'm saying, So really,
Speaker 1: the detectives on my case is responsible for that. In
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, after serving four years of a twenty
Speaker 1: year sentence, Janetta was eligible for parole. She was granted
Speaker 1: time served for the time she spent in the juvenile
Speaker 1: detention facility and was released from prison. Uh. It was
Speaker 1: a joy and a blessing to see her after not
Speaker 1: being able to see her for so many years, and
Speaker 1: being able to see her was you know. I was
Speaker 1: in at MO where I didn't want to let it go.
Speaker 1: She used to tell me, I'll tell my mom would
Speaker 1: go Miss Beatus. I'd be like, no, I want you
Speaker 1: to stay in the house. I don't want you to
Speaker 1: go nowhere. You know, I think I kind of went
Speaker 1: in to a mother overload, but I think I kind
Speaker 1: of had a right to at everything that she had
Speaker 1: been through. I just wanted to keep her as close
Speaker 1: to me as I possibly could. Although she was home,
Speaker 1: Janetta's journey wasn't over. She was physically free, but people
Speaker 1: on parole are still under scrutinous state control. Janetta had
Speaker 1: to do random check ins and drug tests, and even
Speaker 1: had to pay a monthly twenty five dollar fee. She
Speaker 1: also had to maintain a job, which was an easy
Speaker 1: because of her record of incarceration. So I would go
Speaker 1: on jobs, you know, and they would be like, you know,
Speaker 1: you seem like a great person everything but your background,
Speaker 1: you know. And I went in like ten jobs a
Speaker 1: day sometimes, and I was living with my mom at
Speaker 1: the time, and I would just go home and I
Speaker 1: would just bow to her. Then I started doing research
Speaker 1: and found out that it's estimated Americ over ten thousand
Speaker 1: people get falsely convention with crimes they didn't commit each year.
Speaker 1: And my heart was just like, um, they're doing this
Speaker 1: to other people too. I know how this feels. And
Speaker 1: I had not heard nobody talking about it. And you know,
Speaker 1: I asked her one day. I said, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: so angry. And I asked, I said, I come, you're
Speaker 1: not mad. She said, my mom, don't. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be angry. I'm not gonna be mad. She said, what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do, I'm gonna fight. I'm gonna fight, she said,
Speaker 1: because I didn't do this. And on the innocent I
Speaker 1: started to go to the plasma Sin and donate plasma
Speaker 1: and it was a film we dollar right next to
Speaker 1: the plasma Center, and I would take the money from
Speaker 1: Plasma Gotta family dollar get post to border Margaret and
Speaker 1: I would make signs trying to write as awardess for
Speaker 1: wrongful Convictions, and I would just started walking around you know,
Speaker 1: my city hope. And at the same time, Janetta was
Speaker 1: also trying to get off parole and still working to
Speaker 1: prove her innocence. I would look up numbers, you know,
Speaker 1: for like innocent projects, people who helped innocent I would
Speaker 1: just google it, and I would you know, call and
Speaker 1: lead messages on different people's voicemails and stuff, still trying
Speaker 1: to find help. Finally, almost a decade after her release,
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Innocence Project agreed to help Janetta fight for
Speaker 1: her exoneration. So when we inherited the case in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, we started doing the record review and
Speaker 1: attempting to find individuals to interview. And then shortly after
Speaker 1: getting the case, we received news that we were getting
Speaker 1: a DNA testing grant um from the Department of Justice.
Speaker 1: Janetta would finally get a chance to test the evidence,
Speaker 1: specifically the duct tape and the electrical cord that were
Speaker 1: found on Michael Adolphin's body to see if there was
Speaker 1: a DNA match with the actual perpetrator. If we could
Speaker 1: get a hit on something in the national database and CODIS,
Speaker 1: it would then build a stronger case for Janetta. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we would have been able to locate who had actually
Speaker 1: um killed the victim. And during its investigation, the Kentucky
Speaker 1: Innocence Project discovered bombshell information that had never been disclosed
Speaker 1: to Janetta or her attorneys all those years ago. First off,
Speaker 1: it turns out that DNA testing had been conducted on
Speaker 1: the case back in two thousand and six. While it
Speaker 1: didn't point to someone else as the perpetrator, it did
Speaker 1: indicate that neither Janetta nor her co defendants could have
Speaker 1: committed the murder. Not only that, the Kentucky Innocence Project
Speaker 1: discovered that there were viable alternative suspects who were ever
Speaker 1: properly investigated. Who is Steve Lewis. He should have been
Speaker 1: a person of interest. I think the police should have
Speaker 1: pursued a very deep investigation into Mr. Lewis. Steve Lewis
Speaker 1: was an acquaintance of Michael's, and in the early days
Speaker 1: of the investigation, officers got a tip from a friend
Speaker 1: of Michael's who said he had seen Steve Lewis and
Speaker 1: Michael in a heated argument over a girl, and that
Speaker 1: during the fight, Steve threatened to kill Michael. When he
Speaker 1: was questioned by police, Steve denied involvement, but he was
Speaker 1: unable to provide an alibi for his whereabounts around the
Speaker 1: time of the murder. Yet, for whatever reason, the investigation
Speaker 1: into Steve ended. Finally, phone records showed that someone was
Speaker 1: using Michael's phone after his death. There were calls made
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles and to Florida, and again the police
Speaker 1: never followed up. Instead, they went after sixteen year old
Speaker 1: Janetta and her friends. I think the state offered her
Speaker 1: and Alfred Plee because they knew she would go to
Speaker 1: trial and they had questions about the strength of their case.
Speaker 1: I think the case had been pending long enough that
Speaker 1: the prosecutor wanted to get some closure on it. They
Speaker 1: knew that they had some problems with their case, that
Speaker 1: if they went to trial they might not get a conviction.
Speaker 1: Do you think if you went to trial you might
Speaker 1: have won um. Probably. So I can't think about it.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I can't think about it because
Speaker 1: it brings back so much pain. I'm trying to be
Speaker 1: a light in the world. So I can't think about
Speaker 1: these things. I just had to move with purpose and
Speaker 1: take the pain that I've been through and make it
Speaker 1: my per risk to make um legislation for the next
Speaker 1: generations so that people don't get wrongly convicted and so
Speaker 1: that my children don't have to go through what I
Speaker 1: went through. Johanetta doesn't want to be angry, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Johnetta doesn't want to be better. Johnetta
Speaker 1: doesn't want to be bad. And Johnette is not going
Speaker 1: to be the Commonwealth of Kentucky's victim because they already
Speaker 1: took too many years of my life. So I don't
Speaker 1: think about these things. I can't. The Kentucky Innocence Project
Speaker 1: also applied for a pardon for Janetta, and on December nine, nineteen,
Speaker 1: Kentucky Governor Matthew Bevan pardoned her based on her actual innocence.
Speaker 1: The Governor called me and he actually apologized. He said,
Speaker 1: I want to apologize to you what the Commonwealth did
Speaker 1: to you, and we actually um cry. However, the pardon
Speaker 1: left Janetta in a strange situation. The Kentucky State Statute
Speaker 1: for DNA Testing says that a person must be under
Speaker 1: state supervision to qualify for testing. So it's very unfortunate
Speaker 1: because we think that there is biological material on the
Speaker 1: evidence that was collected, the evidence still exists, we would
Speaker 1: like to test it. If that DNA isn't tested, Michael's
Speaker 1: true killer may never be known. If indeed there is
Speaker 1: a person out there that UM killed the victim, and
Speaker 1: that they're still out there, they may still be doing
Speaker 1: the same thing to other people. The public is certainly
Speaker 1: a greater risk to not have that DNA testing get done.
Speaker 1: Genetta is also not eligible for any kind of wrongful
Speaker 1: conviction compensation because Kentucky is one of the twelve states
Speaker 1: that do not have compensation laws for exonorees. But somebody
Speaker 1: needs has to start being held accountable when UM wrongful
Speaker 1: convictions happened. I'm so discussed it and appalled at the
Speaker 1: justice system in Kentucky and what they're using and spending
Speaker 1: our tax dollars on. And when you think about it,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like a slap in the face that
Speaker 1: money and those resources could be used for so many
Speaker 1: other things, like we have a homelessness problem in worl
Speaker 1: of Like there's literally veterans at her, who's happened to
Speaker 1: choose right beyond in between groceries and medicine, And they
Speaker 1: went to war and thought for this country. And we're
Speaker 1: spending tax money to pay for civil litigation calls and
Speaker 1: defenses to defend public offices and detectives who normally breach
Speaker 1: a duty to wrongfully convict people by fossifying evidence, coherts
Speaker 1: and testimony and had dna um. That's a big issue.
Speaker 1: Janetta is now represented by the Exoneration Project and the
Speaker 1: national civil rights firm Lovi and lov She's also a
Speaker 1: mother to two children, one year old Royalty and six
Speaker 1: year old Jakari, and she's again pursuing one of her
Speaker 1: early dreams. She's back in paralegal school, but this time
Speaker 1: she doesn't want to work in the prosecutor's office. She
Speaker 1: wants to help prevent and write wrongful convictions. I'm on
Speaker 1: a journey. I'm healing me being wrongfully convicted of something
Speaker 1: I will live with and it's going to impact my
Speaker 1: life for the rest of my life. However, I choose
Speaker 1: not to make that. Minds are life. I'm just really
Speaker 1: really focused on my purpose to write me on you know,
Speaker 1: and what I need to do in life as far
Speaker 1: as bringing change, you know, and raising my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: just trying to heal and become a better me every
Speaker 1: day as all evolved. If you'd like to help others
Speaker 1: who have been wrongfully convicted, Janetta recommends supporting the organizations
Speaker 1: I AM Resilience and the Chandler Project in Kentucky House
Speaker 1: Spill six. Janetta also has a go fund me to
Speaker 1: help raise travel expenses for exonorees attending the Innocence Conference.
Speaker 1: There will be links to all of this in our bio.
Speaker 1: Next time, Unwrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, Hope White, do
Speaker 1: you think there was police corruption in your case? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: There was lost of police corruption in that case. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please support
Speaker 1: your local innocence organizations and go to the links in
Speaker 1: our bio to see how you can help. I'd like
Speaker 1: to thank our executive producers Jason Flom and Kevin Wurtis,
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lila Robinson,
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cleburne
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 pod Cast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction,
Speaker 1: as well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
Speaker 1: you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter
Speaker 1: at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a
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