WEBVTT - #364 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Eric Weakley and Michael Hash 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.360 Hey, it's Laura and I writer. This week on False Confessions, 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:10.920 we have some great news to share with you. Back 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.040 in twenty twenty, we brought you the story of Eric 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:17.160 Weekly and Michael Hash, childhood friends from Culpepper, Virginia who 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.040 were dragged into a decades long fight for their innocence. Now, 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.000 when we last checked in with Eric, he was out 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:25.439 of prison, but he still had a felony on his record. 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.880 It was something he'd have to disclose to every hiring manager, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.320 every landlord, even though he never committed this murder. We 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.960 asked you to sign a petition to convince the Governor 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:40.479 of Virginia to pardon Eric, and guess what, with your support, 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:44.320 it worked. In twenty twenty two, Governor Ralph Northam hardened 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.639 Eric Weekly on the basis of actual innocence. Now he 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.239 too is exonerated. Eric and Michael, we are overjoyed that 0:00:53.320 --> 0:01:03.920 at last justice has been served. Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.440 False Confessions. I'm Laura and I Writer, and I'm Steve Drissing. 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.320 Today we'll bring you to Culpepper County, Virginia to tell 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.319 you the story of teenage buddies Eric Weekly and Michael Hash. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.680 Local police solved a murder case by coercing Eric into 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.080 falsely confessing and into falsely implicating his friend Michael as 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.960 an accomplice. For years, lawyers couldn't get justice for either 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.399 of them until Michael's mom found evidence that blew this 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:47.400 case wide open. Michael Hash and Eric Weekly were childhood friends, 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.040 longtime friends, and to see the way the systems split 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:53.360 them apart in this case, it's terrible. 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:58.840 It's not uncommon for one co defendant to turn on 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.800 another co defense, especially in a state where the death 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:04.960 penalty is on the table, and it's. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.200 Really understandable how that could have destroyed Eric's relationship with 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.360 Mike and Mike's whole family. But that's not what happened. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.119 One of the most incredible things about wrongful convictions work 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.760 is that you encounter these pockets of grace in the 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.720 most unexpected places. Some of the most unbelievable humans you'll 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.239 ever meet are people like Pam Hash, whose son Mike 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.160 was falsely implicated by his one time childhood friend. You know, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:32.919 that's a situation that could have led to a lot 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:34.959 of rage and a lot of anger and a lot 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:35.400 of blame. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:43.400 Yeah, I mean vengeance, anger, hatred they can keep somebody stuck. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:48.400 But Pam realized very early on that that was wasted 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.480 energy and that she needed to spend all her time 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.320 learning about the case, finding the right lawyers, doing your 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:01.080 own digging, and pushing the authorities to to the right solution. 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.400 She turned all of that into forgiveness. That's pretty incredible. 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:14.160 Today's story starts in Culpeper County, Virginia, about ninety minutes 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.600 west of the Washington d C Beltway. Culpeper is a 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.760 popular weekend getaway spot for the d C crowd. It's 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.640 got bed and breakfasts, art boutiques, and plenty of fancy cafes. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:30.280 Architectural Digest even named Culpeper the prettiest area in Virginia. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.360 But for all its beauty, Culpeper is also home to 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.280 an unremedied injustice, one that stains the county to this day. 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.200 That injustice began back in nineteen ninety six in Lignum, 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:47.600 an unincorporated part of Culpeper that hadn't quite caught up 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.000 to the rest of the county's growing prosperity. Lignam was 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.119 where seventy four year old Thelma Scroggins had lived her 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.600 whole life in the same two story frame house where 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.120 she'd been born. Thelma was a petite, curly haired lady 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.400 who had retired from her work as a mail carrier. 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.080 She'd been widowed years earlier, and since then she lived alone. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.320 But Thelma's life was still full and active. She had 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.840 plenty of friends and liked to spend time playing the 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.359 organ at the Baptist church across the street. It was 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.960 the evening of Saturday, July thirteenth, and Thelma was on 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.120 the phone with one of her girlfriends. At about nine pm. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.040 Thelma told her friend that she had to go. Someone 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.280 was knocking at the door. The friend called back fifteen 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.680 minutes later, but got no answer. She tried again the 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:37.680 next morning, still no answer. When Thelma didn't show up 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.719 at church that Sunday morning, her friends really started worrying. 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.039 One of them, Richard Hicks, went over to Thelma's house. 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.159 As he pulled up outside, he could hear Thelma's TV 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:51.479 blasting at top volume. Richard let himself inside. The front 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:55.800 door wasn't locked, and found pink hair curlers scattered across 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.080 the living room floor. He went in further and saw 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.480 Thelma slump over in front of her bedroom door. She'd 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.800 been shot in the head four times. It seemed the 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.440 TV had been turned up to mask the sound of 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:13.240 the gunshots. Police arrived and quickly canvassed the scene. They 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:16.039 found that Thelma's jewelry was still sitting on her dresser, 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.200 but her purse was missing, along with her green Ford 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.920 pickup truck. A month later, a deer hunter found the 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.080 truck abandoned in a wooded area about a mile and 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.240 a half away from Thelma's home. Her purse was there too, 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.160 with its contents scattered on the ground nearby. But despite 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.280 this discovery, police couldn't develop any viable suspects or leads. 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:42.919 A few months later, the case went cold. Three years later, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.400 in November nineteen ninety nine, a new DA was elected 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.280 in Culpeper on a promise to solve cold cases. Shortly 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.680 after he took office, new detectives were assigned to investigate 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.719 Thelma Scroggin's murder. They started off by visiting a local 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.960 prison to interview a young woman named Alicia Shelton. Alicia 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.080 had just been convicted of shooting a man in the 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:08.200 head six times. The cops figured her crime was similar 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.880 enough to what happened to Thelma to make Alisha worth questioning. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.480 On audiotape, Alicia told the investigators that she didn't know 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.839 anything about Thelma's murder. But then one detective offered what 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.480 he called a little foundation. He suggested that Alicia might 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.840 get a reduced sentence if she provided information about her 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:33.440 teenage cousin, Michael Hash Then silence. The tape was shut off, 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.000 supposedly for a cigarette break. When the recorder got turned 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.880 back on, Alicia was suddenly full of ideas. She said 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.120 she'd overheard her cousin Michael, discussing his involvement in Thelma's murder. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.839 She said Michael did it along with his buddies Eric 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.599 Weekley and Jason Chlobe. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.600 Alicia Shelton was looking at a lot of time and 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.560 desperate for a way to get out from underneath the 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:01.200 weight of a heavy sentence. So what happened when the 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.320 camera was off? But there had to be some powerful 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:10.080 inducement to get her to change her story from I 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.200 don't know what you're talking about two fingering her own 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.520 cousin and his friends for this crime. 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.600 In nineteen ninety six, when Thelma was killed, Michael was fifteen, 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.880 Eric was sixteen and Jason was eighteen. They'd grown up together, 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.400 writing go karts as kids and crushing on girls as teenagers. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.520 Michael and his parents, Jeff and Pam Hash lived within 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.680 a mile of Thelma's house. In fact, Thelma had been 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.320 the Hash family's mail carrier, delivering birthday cards and letters 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.840 to the home with her typical friendly wave. Michael was 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.920 a good kid. There was no reason whatsoever to suspect 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.400 him and his friends of killing Thelma Scroggins. It's true 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.000 that Michael used to frequent a campsite near the wooded 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.840 area where Thelma's truck had been found, but that was 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.680 a pretty thin connection. Somehow, though, Michael Hash, Jason Chlobe, 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.000 and Eric Weekley found themselves at the center of a 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:07.680 cold case murder investigation in April two thousand. Police decide 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.680 to interrogate, but they don't start with Michael Hash or 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.680 Jason Chlobe. They start with Eric Weekly. By this time, 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.000 Eric was nineteen years old with a reputation as a follower, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.440 someone who could be easily intimidated. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.720 Eric Weekly was a weak link. He had a little 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.840 daughter that he cared very much about. He had a 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:34.040 prior record which gave interrogators leverage. They started with him 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.720 because they felt that he was the most likely to 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:39.480 break and it worked. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.520 Eric's at his factory job when two detectives approach him 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.760 and start asking about Thelma's murder. Eric is shocked he 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.559 had nothing to do with it. He tells the detectives 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.200 they're crazy and says he has to get back to work. 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:58.360 The cops leave, but not for long. They follow Eric everywhere, 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.200 the gas station, the grocery store. They show up at 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:03.000 Eric's job over and over. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:09.000 These detectives would not leave him alone. They hounded him, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.640 they stalked him, They kept coming to his workplace trying 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.080 to question him. It got to the point where his 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.360 employer just was fed up and he fired Eric. And 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.720 Eric got worried that he would never be able to 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.880 get another job because everywhere he would go, these cops 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.200 would just show up at his work again. So he 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.440 gave up and he agreed finally to go to the 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.040 police station and answer their questions. 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.720 Over the next several weeks, Eric and Door is not one, 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.280 not two, but a whole chain of interrogations as the 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.319 police keep insisting he come back again and again. Some 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:51.440 of these interrogations last longer than twelve hours. Only a 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.559 few are recorded, but what did get caught on tape 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:59.000 is enough to make anyone skeptical. During the first few interrogations, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.400 Eric protests his innocence over and over. He doesn't have 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.160 the mind or the heart to kill somebody, he tells police. 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.800 And I'm sitting here telling me no, and you're still 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.640 not believe I'm sitting here telling you. 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.840 No, I did not shoot this one. 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.480 The police won't listen to Eric. They insist he's guilty, 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.800 and they chip away at him slowly and steadily over 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:21.800 the course of weeks. 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.840 You saw that woman too, too, You saw the blood. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:28.880 Why do you sit here and try to lie to 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:29.920 me about that today? 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.960 Then the police tell Eric that if he cooperates, he 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.800 can go home. If he just repeats the details they 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.000 feed him, the police can work with him, even help him. 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:43.120 But if you saw blood come from behavior, that helps Eric. 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.040 But if Eric holds back, if he refuses to say 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.080 he was involved, they say that'll hurt him. If he 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.040 doesn't confess, he might not get to see his daughter anymore. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.400 These interrogations continue off and on for weeks, but Eric 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.640 still won't confess. So the cops pull out a tried 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:01.600 and true tactic. 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.720 Finally they say, okay, Eric, if you have nothing to 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.280 do with this, would you at least come down and 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.240 take a polygraph exam? And Eric did. He took that 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.920 exam to get these police officers off his back, and 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.320 then they told him he failed the exam, which got 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:20.120 him talking. 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.840 The polygraph finally does it. Eric weekly realizes he'll never 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:26.880 be able to get the police to believe him, and 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.400 he breaks. He agrees to tell the cops a story. 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.640 Eric says that he, Michael, and Jason chopped Thelma's body 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.800 up with an axe. Their motive, he said, was robbery. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.320 They stole diamond rings, vases, and necklaces from her home, 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.520 a king's ransom in treasure. This was a confessional, right, 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.400 but none of it came close to what actually happened. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.360 Thelma wasn't attacked with an axe, and what little jewelry 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.680 she owned was found sitting on her dresser. So police 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:56.880 accused Eric of lying. 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:57.480 Again. 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.079 Eric's response, I'm just telling you what you want to hear, 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.400 so I can go the hell home. The police don't 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:06.600 let him go the hell home. They've got to clean 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.160 up Eric's story and it takes hours. They cut him 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.920 short when he begins to describe the jewelry because none 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.840 of it had actually been taken. They show him photos 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.520 of the crime scene so that he can see Thelma's 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.720 body wasn't mutilated with an axe. In fact, they end 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.880 up straight out telling Eric that Thelma had been shot, 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.640 and all these details provided by the police are what 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:33.120 end up in Eric's confession. Eric's story becomes final on 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:38.560 May sixteenth, two thousand. He's arrested. Immediately that same night, 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.160 police come for Jason Chlobe and Michael Hash. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.160 The night that he was arrested, it was it was 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:47.040 a total shock. 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.360 That's Pam Hash, she's Michael Hash's mom. 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.960 It was about one o'clock in the morning. Everybody had 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.920 gone to bed, and all of a sudden, there's barking dogs, 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:04.120 people hanging on the door yelling. My husband got up, 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.800 went to the door, and they pretty much just barged 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.240 into the home. They were wanting Michael. She had, of course, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.640 his boxers on nothing else, and I begged them to 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.880 let him have at least a shirt and shoes. They 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.600 let him take it with him, and in a matter 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.000 of minutes he was loaded into the car, and all 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.360 these cars left, and we got dressed and followed them. 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.079 It was all so quick, it felt like it was 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.600 in a movie. It was just a nightmare. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.720 Pam's nightmare had just begun. She would soon find out 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.640 her son, Michael, along with his buddies Eric and Jason, 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:58.960 had been charged with capital murder. Culpeper County Commonwealth Attorney 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.800 Gary Close prosecuted each of the three boys, starting with 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.040 Jason Chlobe, but the prosecution had a problem. There was 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:11.440 no evidence against Jason except for Eric's statement, and prosecutors 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.800 could only use Eric's statement against Jason if Eric agreed 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.160 to testify in person against him. 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.720 It's not enough to simply play Eric's confession during the 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:27.400 trial of Michael and Jason, because lawyers can't cross examine 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.480 a confession. They need to be able to cross examine 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:35.760 Eric about what he says on that tape. It's part 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:40.200 of a constitutional right of criminal defendants to confront witnesses, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.280 the right of cross examination. 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.640 The prosecution needed Eric Weekly to get up on the 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.200 witness stand and testify. To get him there, they offered 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.640 him a deal if Eric agreed to testify against both 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.760 Jason and Michael the state would reduce Eric's charges to 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.760 second degree murder. That charge carried at most twenty years 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.840 behind bars, sometimes much less. If Eric didn't take the deal. 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.440 On the other hand, he was facing life in prison 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.840 if convicted. Eric was in despair. He felt cornered by 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.760 the confession that detectives had wrung out of him. Like 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.000 so many people before him, Eric felt that he had 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.240 no real choice. He took the deal and agreed to 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:22.720 testify against his friends. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.760 Once you confess, the pressure to plead guilty on these 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:31.160 suspects is even greater. Of all the exonerations in the 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:37.840 DNA database, twelve percent involve people who pledged guilty to 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.080 crimes they didn't commit, and each one of those pleas 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:45.800 involved someone who was represented by counsel and who weighed 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.800 the options and decided it was in their best interests 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:50.920 to give up all of their rights, to give up 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:54.840 their right to testify, their right to appeal, their right 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.160 to prove their innocence, in order to plead guilty. 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.240 Eric was now a lock for the prosecution. In November 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:05.920 two thousand, it was time to try Jason Klobe, as 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.000 he'd agreed to do. Eric took the stand and testified 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.480 that Jason had participated in the murder, but Jason's defense 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.920 lawyers had an ace in the hole, an alibi. They 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.800 brought in several witnesses who testified that Jason had been 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.240 visiting his dad in Pennsylvania at the time of Thelma's murder. 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.240 It took the jury less than two hours to find 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.000 Jason Klobe not guilty. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:33.880 If Jason wasn't present during this crime, then that undermines 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:39.400 Eric's entire confession because he has Jason right there being 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:43.040 a major actor along with Michael in the murder of 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:48.880 Thelmas Kroggins. Once these detectives learned that Jason had an alibi, 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.800 they should have walked away from this case. 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.680 But detectives didn't walk away. Instead, they plowed ahead with 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:58.040 the trial of Michael. 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.680 Hash after Chlobe was a that I kept telling Mike, 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.280 You're next. They know the truth from Chloe's cage. You're next, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:07.600 You'll be next. You're coming home now. 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.840 Michael didn't have a strong alibi like Jason did. When 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.080 Thelma died. Michael had been right there in Culpeper County 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.520 hanging out with some buddies. But even though Michael's defense 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:21.280 was weaker. The prosecutors decided to leave nothing to chance. 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:25.800 They knew that Eric Weekly's testimony alone wasn't going to 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.919 be enough to get a conviction against Michael, So what 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:32.879 did they do? They manufactured more evidence. They went to 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:39.159 a seasoned serial snitch, a jailhouse informant who had worked 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.480 with them in the past and testified in other cases, 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:43.919 Paul Carter. 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.080 About a week after Michael had been arrested, he met 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.199 Paul Carter in jail. At the time, it seemed like 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.080 a random encounter. Later, at Michael's trial, Carter testified that 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:58.320 when they met, Michael had admitted to killing Thelma. During 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.080 cross examination, Eric's defense attorney suggested Carter was getting some 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.920 benefit in exchange for fabricating testimony against Michael, but Carter 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.600 denied it. He said he wasn't receiving anything for his cooperation. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.240 He was a pretty career criminal and he knew what 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.240 he was doing, even though he's up there telling the 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.240 jury that he is only there because this was somebody's 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.520 mother or grandmother. You know, he's looking for something and 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:25.240 I thought the jury would see right through that. 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:29.320 The prosecutor backed up his witnesses claim, telling the jury that, 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.000 of course, the state hadn't made any deal with Carter. 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.119 After testimony concluded, the jury deliberated for six and a 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.080 half hours. As the clocks neared midnight on February ninth, 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.720 two thousand and one, they returned a verdict guilty. 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:48.399 It's a sound that I think I'll hear for the 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.399 rest of my life. When they came back and said 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:57.880 that they found him guilty, it's almost like you hear guilty, guilty, guilty, 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:03.320 just echoing. Quite frankly, I don't remember a whole lot 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:07.240 after that. I know that I broke down and they 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.720 took Mike immediately out of the courtroom. I remember my 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:13.399 husband putting me in the backseat of the car, and 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:16.879 don't really remember a whole lot after that Until the 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:17.600 next morning. 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.439 At sentencing, Michael told the judge, you've convicted an innocent person, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:26.119 but it was too late. Michael Hash was sentenced to 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.160 life without the possibility of parole. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:33.320 A lot of defendants in Michael's situation might have pled. 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.760 Guilty and accepted a much shorter sentence. 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:40.520 But Michael didn't confess. That's important. It's never wrong to 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:41.720 assert your innocence. 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.320 For his part, Eric Weekly had finally satisfied the state 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:47.959 he'd lived up to his end of the bargain and 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.080 testified against his friends. In exchange, the state reduced Eric's 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.600 charges to second degree murder, to which Eric formerly pled 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.680 guilty on June thirteenth, two thousand and one. He would 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.159 go on to serve six years and eight months in prison. 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:08.040 Eric implicating Michael and Jason and even himself. It angered me, 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.200 but I would always go back to I know he's 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:17.880 not doing this, and just knowing Eric, somebody is making 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:22.119 him say these things. They're threatening him. He had a 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.960 child by then, a young child, and I knew that 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:28.480 that was probably his main focus was I've got to 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.080 do whatever to get back to my child. And I 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.520 can't be mad at that because I'm a mom. 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.879 Eric weekly served his time and was freed in two 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.560 thousand and six, but Michael remained behind bars, serving a 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:44.080 life sentence, even as he pursued his appeals. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.440 You know, each year at Christmas time, I'd have that 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.480 faith he's going to be home this year, and I'd 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.640 buy him Christmas presents just like I did every year. 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:58.000 Before i'd wrap them, i'd have them under the tree. 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.760 I'd always after Christmas take them up and pack them 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:05.040 away in a box and add to it each Christmas. 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:06.280 City didn't come home. 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:14.000 When Michael's last appeal ended fruitlessly, Pam Hash drove to 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:17.240 the office of her son's lawyers and took his paperwork. 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.800 I didn't know anything about the legal system or law. 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.199 I worked as a floral designer. 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.200 But she was a mother and she was going to 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:26.920 help her son. 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:30.600 I went to the office and picked up what must 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.800 have been a dozen legal boxes, tens of thousands of papers, 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.520 just thrown in a box in no particular order. And 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.239 that's pretty much when I started searching the internet on 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:48.040 false confessions, asking questions, looking up people that I could call, 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.600 that I could beg for help. Steve Grison was one 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:54.840 of the first people that I contacted. I knew that 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.800 Eric had given a false confession, and I thought maybe 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:02.600 Steve could help me. I sent letters to him, I 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.119 made phone calls, and bless his heart, I think he 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:09.280 took my call just so that maybe I would shut up. 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.720 Pam Hash would call me, would send me information. She 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:19.040 sent me a VHS of Eric's interrogation. I reviewed those 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:23.639 transcripts and talked about the case with her. Pam was 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:29.679 a very forceful advocate for her son. She believed that 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:35.040 he was absolutely innocent and was willing to go to 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:36.919 the ends of the earth to prove it. 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.480 Steve put Pam in touch with several people in Virginia, 0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:44.639 everyone from lawyers to exoneries like Beverly Monroe, who we 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.919 talked about in Emerson Stephens story. In fact, it was 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.000 Beverly who told Pam hash to go to the federal 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:55.400 courthouse and pull the file on Paul Carter that jailhouse 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:57.800 snitch prosecutors had denied making a deal with. 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:00.679 I went to the federal court and I asked the 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:04.000 clerk of the court to look through his files. Her 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:07.040 exact remark to me was, and this is the clerk 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.840 of the federal court Paul Carter. She said, Oh, he 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:12.360 got the deal of the century. 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:15.760 Turns out Paul Carter had been serving a fifteen year 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.800 sentence on federal drug charges after he testified against Michael. 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:24.959 Though Carter was immediately released time served, he sure did 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:27.000 get the deal of the century, a get out of 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:30.720 jail free card. It also turned out that Michael had 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:33.720 been moved to a different jail for two nights for 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:36.520 no other reason than to put him together with Paul Carter. 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.200 None of this had been disclosed to Michael's defense or 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:45.600 to Eric Weakley's defense. Pam may have started out as 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:49.400 a floral designer, but her legal work was pretty kick ass. 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:53.159 She had single handedly demolished Carter's value as a witness 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:56.720 against her son. She had proven that the prosecutor lied 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.160 when he told the jury there was no deal with Carter. 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:03.439 The only evidence against Michael that remained was Eric Weekly. 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:16.480 A few years after Eric's release from prison, two lawyers 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:19.760 from the University of Virginia Innocence Project knocked on his door. 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:22.960 Eric was rebuilding his life as best he could, but 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:26.520 his friend, Michael Hash was still behind bars. Did Eric 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:29.280 want to tell them anything about his testimony against Michael? 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:35.120 Eric nearly broke down. His false testimony against Michael had 0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:37.920 sat for years on his shoulders like a lead weight. 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:41.359 He had been coerced into confessing by police and into 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:46.800