WEBVTT - #256 Maggie Freleng with Patty Prewitt 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.200 So as as you and I both know, Jason, the 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:08.640 majority of the people we talk to are men wrongfully incarcerated. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:13.160 But when we do talk to women, I actually haven't 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.320 talked to many women who were mothers. They were locked 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.200 up before being mothers. Have you experienced a lot of 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.840 women you've talked to trying to navigate motherhood through prison. 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.280 Yeah, I mean, that's that's a rough one. I can't 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:31.600 even begin to imagine severing that bond between mother and 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:37.680 child and taking that caregiver away from the child that 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.680 they love, that they birth, that they have a primal 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.640 need to care for. I honestly don't know how any 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.520 mother goes through that and doesn't lose her mind. 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:52.800 Yeah. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.040 I cut from the same class as over and over. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.360 That'sul the drink and that sleep. All I could think 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:05.360 about is who has the kids? Where are they? What's 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:07.480 going on with them? 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.280 From love of for Good, I'm Maggie Freeling and this 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:24.760 is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today, Patti Prewit. In 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.199 the early hours of February eighteenth, nineteen eighty four, Patty 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.560 prewe It was awakened by a loud noise. Someone then 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.080 pulled her hair to drag her out of bed, and 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:40.240 she was raped in the dark. After the intruder left, 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.160 she heard her husband, Bill, making gurgling noises as if 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.120 he were struggling to breathe. She was unable to turn 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.120 on the lights in the house, so she grabbed her 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.040 kids and ran to a neighbors to call nine one one. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.040 She would later learn Bill had been shot in the 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.120 head and died. When the police arrived at their home, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.800 they over looked critical evidence from the scene. Instead, the 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.400 police paid attention to Patty's collection of murder mystery novels 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.919 and Bill's life insurance policy. Patty, not wanting to draw 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.680 attention to herself in the face of her husband's death, 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:20.040 never mentioned she was raped. By nine am that morning, 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.919 neighbors were already getting calls about Bill's murder, and word 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:32.440 was his wife, Patty had killed him. Police found out 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.320 that she was the beneficiary of Bill's life insurance policy 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.320 and that years earlier she had some sexual relationships outside 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.760 of her marriage. These discoveries became the motive for the 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:47.640 police and prosecution, and Patty was arrested, charged and convicted 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:53.040 of capital murder, But key evidence about Patty's innocence never 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:56.960 came out during the trial, and decades later, Patty, who 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.000 was now a great grandmother, feels her chance at ft 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:01.880 ereadom is quickly dwindling. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:09.120 I'm an old lady, seventy two. I've been in prison 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.760 way too long. I'm the oldest of my siblings, and 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.760 I'm the only one alive. I was just looking out 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.080 the window. There's a buzzard out there circling, and I 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:23.880 was wondering if he's circling because I'm getting ready to die. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:30.720 I'm Patty Putt, and geez, I'm a prisoner in Missouri 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.800 and have been for nearly thirty six years. I did 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.120 not till my husband. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.560 Patricia Prewitt was born on July third, nineteen forty nine, 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.880 to Frank and Anne Slaughter. She grew up on a 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.000 six hundred and forty acre farm in Lone Jack, Missouri, 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:59.320 thirty miles from Kansas City. 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:05.000 It was like a cattle ranch. All we had horses. 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:12.040 It was multi generational, my grandparents, our family, my uncle 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:18.640 and his kids. And it was wonderful. It was absolutely wonderful. 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:20.480 And how about your parents. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.719 They were so in love. Daddy saw my mama when 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.400 she was in eighth grade, and he saw her somewhere 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.919 downtown in this little town, and he told his brother that, 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.960 when that girl grows up, I'm going to marry her. 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.120 Patty and Bill met when they were in middle school, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.760 but at that time they were polar opposites. 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.880 He was one of the jocks and cool kids, and 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.520 my best friend Nancy and I were complete nerves. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:52.880 She says. It wasn't until senior year of high school, 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.680 when they had a class together that they became close and. 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.840 Hit it off and never looked back. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.599 Tell me what it was about him that you loved. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.520 He was so sweet, just very great, quickie is handsome, 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:15.159 that's always a plus, and time and smart as a whip, 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:18.520 and came from good people, as my mom and dad 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:22.640 would say. That was always a prerequisite in our family, and. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.760 So her family accepted him, she says, and Bill loved 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.040 coming out to the country to visit despite. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.479 What would happen, and we were evil to laim. We 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.440 put him on the workforce we had, and we did 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.200 all kinds of ruble things, but he still stuck it out. 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:43.120 So in nineteen sixty eight, at just nineteen, Patty and 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.080 Bill got married. It was the height of the Vietnam War, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.440 and the draft was active. Although the special exemption for 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:51.960 married men was no longer in place at the time, 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.760 Patty says she and Bill got married in hopes that 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:56.920 it could still keep him from going off to war. 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.440 They tried to use every exemption that existed so he 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:06.560 could stay, including college and kids. After they married, Patty's 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.800 father gave them a small house on three acres of 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.480 land in Lone Jack, Missouri, and they opened a lumberyard business. 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.760 In nineteen sixty nine, they welcomed their first child, Jane. 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:20.200 Life with my parents was great, you know, her and 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:25.479 dad were both very involved parents, both of them. I 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.719 remember that they were really hard working but really quick 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.080 to laugh. That they were both really funny people, and 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:36.200 that they loved music, they loved dancing. Like we just 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.880 had a lot of fun together all the time. 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:39.640 You know. 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.280 You remember things as a kid like that my dad 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.440 would pat my mom on the bottom when she'd be 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:45.160 cooking dinner. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.400 You could say they were living the American dream. That 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.200 is until nineteen seventy four. That's when Patty was raped 0:06:55.320 --> 0:07:00.080 for the first time, a decade before Bill's murder. But 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:01.920 he says she was walking to the park and was 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:04.960 grabbed by three men. They dragged her behind some bushes, 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.720 where they all raped her. When a woman walked by, 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.239 the men quickly ran away. Patty and the woman agreed 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.040 not to call the police because of the stigma in. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.600 Those days, nobody had counseling and nobody told stuff. You 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:25.400 kept it to yourself. This did not tell because not 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:27.960 only sit there, I think it's just awful. Who wants 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:32.320 to talk about a horrible thing, you know? So he 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.080 just decided not to talk about it. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.120 But Patty did tell Bill. She says he was helpful 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.520 and sweet at first, but then things changed. Bill became 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:44.360 standoff fish. 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:49.000 I think from Bill's point of view, he was supposed 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.800 to protect propect jas and media and the kids, and 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:57.600 to have something horrible happen like that, he's guilt. Guilt. 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.440 I felt guilt because that would I went on a 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.840 little sun dress. It's a horrible thing that you don't 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:06.800 want to talk about it. Nobody wants to talk about 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.040 what happened. And then you just get farther and farther 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.000 and farther away from each other, and then it gets 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.680 work and work, and then how do you reach back? 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:22.400 Their happy marriage crumbled under the weight of what had happened, 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.760 and so Patty and Bill decided to separate. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.800 And so it was kind of convenient as far as 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.079 not having to tell the family what was going on, 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.680 for us to be separated, because they. 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.320 Had just bought a new farm, Patty says, so now 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:40.240 they had two places to live. 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:45.440 And Bill lived at the original place and the kids 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:50.000 and I moved to the new place. And everybody thought 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.240 he was just working on the house, but we were 0:08:53.280 --> 0:09:00.000 actually separated and kind of discussing maybe divorced. 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.680 During this time. By mutual consent, they were both seeing 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:06.320 other people. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.080 When you're living apart and when you're not part of 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:13.600 each other's lives, it just seems like this natural thing. 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:15.760 You're not sleeping together. 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:17.840 So you guys agreed. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.240 You know, we're separated, we're living apart, we can see 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:21.880 other people. 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:22.880 Right. 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:28.880 In nineteen seventy seven, Patty became pregnant with another man's 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.520 childs Breaking this news to Bill shattered her. 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.680 It was horrible, I mean really horrible. That really wasn't 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:44.040 part of our agreement. But he God, he always sposed 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.600 to be. He loved children, and we certainly were not 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:53.400 going to not have the baby and I told him, 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.560 but it's up to you whether I do this a 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:02.160 single or we do this together. So how do we 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.400 want to do this? And I think it was kind 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:09.960 of like the breaking point as far as we did 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.520 love each other and we did want to have our 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:17.200 family together. That was when we just kind of came 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:23.360 to the agreement that we would come back together as 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.520 a family and work this out. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.839 And they did. Later that year June nineteen seventy seven, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:32.479 baby Morgan. 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:37.760 Was born, and Bill didn't treat him like he was 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:39.400 anything but his own child. 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.320 By now, Patty and Bill were raising five kids. Having 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:49.360 their family back together made Patty feel like everything was 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:50.520 right in the world. 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:57.760 But I look back, I think we were so lively fine. 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:02.720 I mean, we ball kings. We were coaching the kids, 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:08.079 our business was doing good. All our kids were smart, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:17.840 good looking, and everything was good. Our problems were small problems, 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:22.440 you know, nothing serious, nothing can through. 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.000 Patty and Bill had no idea what was about to 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.640 come crashing down on their family. 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.240 We were all could, our kids were growing up with 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:38.400 Dylan the and yeah, then boom, it's all over. It's 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:39.200 all over. 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.679 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company, 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:54.040 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.120 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.000 in the communities where we work and live. In life 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.680 night of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.720 and in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:12.280 justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:26.480 services and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. On 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.319 February eighteenth, nineteen eighty four, Bill and Patty went out 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.920 to a barbecue at their friend's house, and then they 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:34.840 all went out to a bar for a little while, 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.800 and Patty and Bill got home around two am. Their 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.360 oldest daughter, Jane, was at a friend's house, and the 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.920 rest of the kids were fast asleep in bed. Patty 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.480 tidied up some dishes the kids had left in the sink, 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.960 and then she joined Bill, who had already climbed into bed. 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.640 Shortly after, Patty was awakened by what she thought was thunder. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:56.880 She says she was then pulled out of bed by 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.240 her hair and raped, but it was dark and she 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.480 couldn't see the man. After the intruder left, she heard 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:08.280 Bill making gurgling noises, struggling to breathe, but the lights 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.240 wouldn't turn on, and the phone wasn't working. She couldn't 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.199 see Bill, and she couldn't call the police. She quickly 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.040 woke the kids up and ran with them to a 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:20.000 neighbor's house to call nine one one. Specifically, she headed 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:24.000 for the home of Cliff Gustin, a former police officer. 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:29.360 When was that to the neighbor's house. One in the bathroom, 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.199 and I put on one of her century napkins because 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:34.480 I was bleeding. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.160 But after that, Patty says, she quickly forgot about her 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.720 attack and focused on Bill and her children. 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:48.160 The kids were diff rot. Everybody's going crazy, and it 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.240 seemed like not a time for me to even say 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:57.840 anything about me. And I never even never even thought 0:13:57.880 --> 0:13:59.640 about me anymore. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.360 Well, I imagine you were, you know, as a mother 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:07.040 to five kids, you were probably in survival mode. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:13.240 Oh, definitely, definitely. I was certainly secondary. When you have mama, 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.920 you're pretty much secondary. Twice for seven I can't even 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:22.080 explain how my brain didn't even work. It was like 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.880 there was a buzzing in my head and nothing made 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:32.920 an expense except at say, the kids. That was the 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.479 only thing that made any sense whatsoever. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.760 When the police arrived, they found that the breaker panel 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.120 to the entire house's power had been switched off. They 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.680 turned the power back on. However, police records show they 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:50.760 did not take any fingerprints from the breaker panel, nor 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.880 did they take any other fingerprint evidence from the home 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.240 or ask Patty if she had been hurt. They instead 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.920 took note of Patty's collection of murder mystery novels and 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:04.440 Bill's life insurance policy. They did find a box of 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.720 twenty two caliber rounds in the house, the same kind 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.040 of bullets used to kill Bill, and Patty told police 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.840 that Bill actually had two guns in the house, but 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.920 the police could only find one. Eventually, the second gun 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.120 by twenty two, what they presumed was the murder weapon, 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.160 would be recovered in a shallow pond on the prove 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:29.240 It property. Later that night, Patty was interrogated at the 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:34.880 police station by Detective Kevin Hughes, the lead investigator, and. 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.880 When he said he wanted to swap my hands for 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:45.200 a night break, you see if you fired firearms up 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.640 gun and I was like, oh yeah. But as he's 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.120 swabbing my hands, I'm thinking, well, why would he want 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.240 to swap my hands, and that was kind of when 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.880 I went in my head. I was like, oh my god, 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:04.640 he's not even listening to me about Phill's murder. He's 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:06.760 not an anting to me at all. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.800 The gun residue test came back negative. By this time, 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:17.760 standard procedure would dictate that Patty should have had a 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.280 rape kit because she did tell the police the man 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.480 in the house who presumably killed Bill had pulled down 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.960 her pants and was struggling with his belts. But remember 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:33.360 she never said she was actually raped. Detectives did, however, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.280 collect her pajamas she was wearing, started. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.360 Asking me about the insurance and things like that. Then 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:46.080 I was like, oh my god, this is nobody paying 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.480 any attention to me. For not pay attention to what 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.880 I have to say. So went on and on and on. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.920 It becomes to a point, well, you don't even know 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.640 what you're saying. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:08.400 Detective Hughes and who investigators immediately started digging into Patty's 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.600 life after they found out about what they called her 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.679 quote affairs and quote infidelity. They seemed set with this 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.400 aspect of her personal life as a motive. After less 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.240 than a day of investigating, Detective Hughes announced that Patti 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:27.360 Pruett was the lead suspect in her husband Bill's murder. 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.760 Two days later, on February twentieth, Patty was again questioned, 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:38.159 this time for about sixteen hours. Only fifteen minutes of 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.360 the interview was actually recorded. 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:48.119 It was like some kind of culture thing that's a 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.480 to drink, no sleep. All I could think about is 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:57.639 who has the kids? Where are they? What's going on 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:04.439 with them asking me the same stupid questions. And I 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.840 kept answering the same questions over and over, and then 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.600 they would play places and they would scream at me, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.120 and then they come in and go the nice you know, well, 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:15.919 we can make this okay. All I have to do 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.040 is some staff and they'll all go away. We'll understand. 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.199 Did you know that you could ask for a lawyer? 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.639 No, No, I had no idea. What was nobody This 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.640 may sound crazy, Nobody in my family had ever been 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:37.119 so much as pulled over, arrested or anything. Ever. 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.199 Patty was arrested that day and charged with capital murder. 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.840 She was released on bond awaiting trial, and as she 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:49.440 and the children struggled to adjust to the loss of 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:54.240 their husband and father, things only got worse, Patty was 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.399 harassed with anonymous phone calls, threats, and robberies. She noticed 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.119 strange people wandering on her property, and she even found 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:07.159 three of her dogs dead on a nearby farm, apparently poisoned. 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.639 When she got a new dog, he was hung by 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.600 his collar. Patty was virtually branded with a scarlet letter 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:18.440 by the community, Considered both an adulteress and a murderer. 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:30.960 Patty was offered a plea deal that would reduce her 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.119 charges to six or seven years, but she refused it, 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.640 saying she didn't want to be taken from her children. 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:43.160 She insisted she was innocent. The trial started on April sixteenth, 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:48.040 nineteen eighty five. Patty's family, children and friends, as well 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:52.720 as Bill's relatives all attended. Tom Williams was the prosecutor, 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.560 and due to the lack of evidence against Patty, he 0:19:55.720 --> 0:20:00.000 instead emphasized that she was an adulteress and used sexist 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.119 tropes and gender biases to paint Patty out to be 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:06.640 a horrible woman and mother who would kill her husband. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.480 The cornerstone of the case, the opening statement of the prosecution, 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.920 is you know this was a woman motivated by lost 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:16.440 and greed. 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.320 This is Patty's attorney, Brian reichardt he first came across 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.800 Patty's case in twenty ten when he was in law school, 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:25.280 and it stuck with him. 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.080 You know, when I first read the trial transcript, I 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.359 was disturbed and I thought, you know, there very well 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.240 could be a wrongful conviction here. But over the years, 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.880 as I've learned more about the case, as I've been 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.160 able to study the investigators records, as I've been able 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.960 to read accounts from the prosecutor who prosecuted this case, 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:50.320 I've become convinced that this is indeed a wrongful conviction 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:52.840 and something that needs to be addressed. 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.000 Bryan says one of the key facts to pay attention 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:59.879 to in this case is that Patty's sixteen hour inn 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.680 with Detective Hughes was not recorded again, only the first 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:09.199 fifteen minutes were, and he says this freed Hughes to 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.240 be able to put forth his version of what Patty 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:14.600 supposedly told him. 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.960 Because it was unrecorded, the lead investigator is able to 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.919 take the stand and characterize the interview, and so he 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.439 says things like, oh, you know, I asked her about 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.800 why she had these affairs, and she says Oh my, 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.280 my sexual engine is hotter than most. 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:33.600 Did you say that? 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:39.600 Nobody, no woman in the face of the earth ever 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:45.120 said that. I mean really, certainly, no woman who's being 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.919 interrogated for the murder of her husband ever said going 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:53.840 like that. The fact that he said that read romance 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:55.000 novels or something. 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.280 What that another thing? Detective Hughes alleges Patty said over 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:00.520 the course of the instigation. 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:04.719 Did you invite him to dinner before you went to prison? 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.800 Oh? My god, he was so mean to me. No, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.880 I did not. I mean good dinner. I just wanted 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:15.400 to get home to my kids. If I'd never saw 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:18.040 him again, I would have been more than having. 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.639 According to the trial transcripts, here are some of the 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.639 phrases used by prosecutor Williams during the trial to attack 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:30.159 Patty's character. Quote the defendant was motivated by sheer greed 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:34.480 and sexual lust and had been for years. Quote. She 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:39.200 disregarded her marital vows and the noticeable obligations of motherhood. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:45.240 Quote she pursued one sleazy affair after another, one two 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.399 at a time. Williams even called three of Patty's former 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.480 partners to testify against her. Two of them eventually said 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.720 that they were coerced by the police and prosecution to 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.280 do so, and these were partners she had while she 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:02.320 and Bill were scept and knew that the other person 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.840 was seeing other people and agreed to it. Partners she 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:09.119 had five years before Bill's murder. 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:12.240 I mean, if you just take a step back, the 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:16.159 state had to argue that a mother of five was 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:20.159 going to would kill her husband, and what kind of 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.720 person would do that? The states I did that the 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:25.320 way they were going to move the jury is to 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:28.640 paint this mother as a bad mother in an unfaithful life, 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:30.359 and so that was so much of their case. 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.480 Patty's daughter, Sarah, who was thirteen years old at the time, 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:38.240 testified that as she was leaving the house that night, 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.400 she saw a flashlight under the basement stairs and heard 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:44.520 someone moving around down there, but her testimony seemed to 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:48.320 hold little weight against Prosecutor Williams's case. He also called 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:52.560 pathologist James Bridgens to review the autopsy. Bridgins and his 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:57.440 testimonies would later become discredited on multiple occasions. For example, 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:00.399 in nineteen ninety when he had ruled a case that 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:03.639 a woman was stabbed to death. Well later, X Ray 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:12.320 showed that she was actually shot four times. Patty's attorneys, meanwhile, 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.760 never called their own expert to refute his findings. Any 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:19.760 potential evidence from Patty's pajamas was never brought up. The 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:23.960 defense also did not acknowledge that her alleged affairs were 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:27.400 in fact known and agreed to by Bill at the time. 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:31.800 Now you might be wondering why Patty never screamed from 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:35.080 the roof that this was all consensual. Well, it was 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:39.080 Patty's decision. She insisted to her attorneys that she did 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:43.240 not want Bill criticized in front of their kids, whether 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:46.280 it hurt her or not. She did not want them 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:49.760 to know that Bill also had affairs and that they 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:53.480 both knew about each other's relationships. She figured it was 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:57.120 bad enough the whole town was already gossiping about their mom. 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:00.520 I don't want to say to think badly or Badham. 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:06.720 I didn't want his family to feel badly Abadham. He 0:25:06.880 --> 0:25:12.560 wasn't there to extand his decision. I don't know. I 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:17.159 just didn't think it was anybody's dog on business. He 0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:20.880 was such a good guy. She hadn't deserved a heavy 0:25:21.119 --> 0:25:24.960 black marks, and. 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:28.280 Her own rape during the murder was also never mentioned 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:31.119 during the trial, because remember, she never told the police 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:33.800 about it. All she told them was that the intruder 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:36.800 held something to her throat, tried to unbuckle his pants 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:39.040 while her pants were down, but fled. 0:25:39.680 --> 0:25:42.280 One of the things they argued against, you know, Patty's 0:25:42.280 --> 0:25:45.080 account that she was attacked, and one of the arguments 0:25:45.080 --> 0:25:47.919 the prosecutor made, you know, in front of the jury was, 0:25:48.560 --> 0:25:50.440 this is a direct quote from the case, why would 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:53.880 you do this to enjoy Patty's often enjoyed sexual favors. 0:25:55.000 --> 0:25:57.439 Patty didn't tell the police about her rape the night 0:25:57.480 --> 0:26:00.719 of Bill's murder, but she did tell her toes about it. 0:26:01.080 --> 0:26:03.359 She also told them to keep it out of court 0:26:03.880 --> 0:26:08.000 and out of earshot from her kids. However, Patty's daughter 0:26:08.119 --> 0:26:11.800