WEBVTT - #188 Jason Flom with Paul Hildwin 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.200 On the morning of September ninth, nineteen eighty five, Paul Hildwin, 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.480 low on money and out of gas, was hitchhiking along 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:14.280 US nineteen when a squabbling couple, Fronzetti Cox and William Haveerty, 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.680 picked him up. As their argument reached a fever pitch, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:19.840 the couple pulled over and got out of the car. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.040 Paul used this opportunity to take a few things for 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.640 the car, including miss Cox's checkbook, before leaving the couple 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:30.720 in their roadside scuffle. Four days later, on September thirteenth, 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.600 mis Cox's nude body was found stuffed in the trunk 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.560 of her car, tucked into some woods. Initially, Haveberty became 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.839 the obvious suspect, until the investigation led to one of 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.559 her checks having been cashed by Paul Hildwin, and a 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.199 search of his house turned up the stolen items from 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.640 the car. Paul's trial council was woefully inadequate, and was 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.320 further handicapped by a team of prosecutors who buried witness 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.240 statements that claimed miss Cox had been alive up to 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:01.320 forty eight hours after Paul had seen her, Among many 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:05.839 other pieces of misleading testimony, junk science and outright lies. 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.440 An FBI zerology expert falsely stated that fluids bounded the 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.000 scene matched Paul, which led to a thirty four year 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.680 fight to free him from death row. This is Wrongful 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:37.920 Conviction with Jason Blamm. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.880 Jason Flamm. That's me, of course, I'm your host, and 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.120 today I'm really excited because we have a woman who 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:49.280 is in our wrongful conviction community considered a legal legend. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:54.000 Her name is Leanne Goudie, a renowned defense attorney who 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.160 has done phenomenal work on this case. So Leanne, welcome 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:02.320 to Wrongful Conviction. And with her is her client, Paul Hildewin. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.280 Paul served thirty five years on death row in Florida 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.840 for a crime everyone should have known from the outset 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.040 he didn't commit. They may have known he didn't commit it, 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.399 but one way or another, he survived thirty five years 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.880 on death row. He survived cancer, he survived, and he's 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:18.880 here today to share his. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.200 Story with us. So Paul, welcome to rafel Conviction. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.880 Thank you, Jason. I'm glad to be here. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.640 And Paul just informed us that he's sitting on his porch, 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.360 breathing some fresh air and looking at some green grass 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.000 and stuff. So I'm glad to hear that you're living 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.480 your best life to whatever extent is possible. So let's 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.080 go back. Where did you grow up and what was 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.760 your upbringing like? And if you can bring us right 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.080 up to the time that this whole tragedy occurred. 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.840 Now, I was born in a small town called Poughkeepsie, 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.200 New York. I never really got to know my mother. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:50.799 She passed away when I was two years old. When 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.800 I turned five, my father just decided he didn't want me, 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:59.240 so he would put me wherever he could. And there 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.280 was some good place that I was at, and there 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.440 was some bad places. Into my teen years, you know, 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:11.560 like all most teenagers, you know, you experiment with drinking, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.320 and it was all it's all kind of a haze, 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.880 you know. I was drunk so much. But when I 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.840 turned eighteen, you know, I got in a little trouble, 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.520 ended up doing a little prison time in New York. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.960 And when I got out, it was nineteen eighty four. 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.359 I was twenty four years old, and I come down 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.040 here to Florida to live with my father. One of 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.280 the families that I lived with. Always taught me it 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.800 doesn't matter what a parent does, you always have that 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:48.120 respect because they are your parent. And I always respected 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.280 my father. I didn't really love him, but I respected 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.760 him because he was my dad. So September twenty first, 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.600 nineteen eighty five is when I was arrested for the 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.640 crime that put me on death row for a crime 0:03:58.680 --> 0:03:59.960 that I did not commit. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.520 And Leanne, can you walk us through this awful crime 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.640 and how they managed to go off of the who 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.560 would have seemed to be the obvious aspect in target Paul? 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:16.800 Sure. So the victim allegedly went missing on September ninth 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.839 of nineteen eighty five, which would have been a Monday. 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.640 And the reason why they zeroed in on that particular 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.599 day is because well, her sister and her would speak 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.200 practically every day. Well, the sister had gone two or 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:32.200 three days without hearing from the victim. So the sister 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.240 went over to the trailer where her sister had lived 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:39.400 with this boyfriend, William Haverty, the living boyfriend said, Hey, 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.640 she left on Mondays. She was going to go do 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.359 laundry at the coin laundry. She was going to deposit 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.640 her SSI check that had come in over the weekend 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.680 at the bank. The victim had a little bit of 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.560 a reputation for being somebody that would frequent bars and 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:59.240 might randomly go home with a guy, so at first 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.200 the sister won to see if maybe something like that 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:05.360 had happened. When she still hadn't heard from the victim 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.279 the next day, she went back to the trailer and 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.520 insisted that the boyfriend go with her to the police 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.839 department to report her missing. And so on Thursday, September twelfth, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.200 in the evening, they go to the Hernando County Sheriff's office. 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:24.720 They report the victim, whose name was ron Setti Cox, missing, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.480 and then the very next day, which was Friday, September thirteenth, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.800 a group of boys find a deserted car with a 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:38.920 really bad smell. Police respond and they find the victim nude, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.360 stuffed in the trunk of the car with a ligature 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.000 around her neck. The immediate suspect is the living boyfriend, 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:50.520 William Haveerty, who was about twenty years younger than the victim, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.719 and he just appeared kind of scurly to the police, 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.600 and so they focused in on him. What ended up 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.800 happening was they wanted to see when she had gone 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.520 to the bank to deposit the social Security check. And 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.440 so they discovered that the last check that came in 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:11.760 on the victim's bank account was cashed by an individual 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.159 named Paul Hildwin, and that he had come through the 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.440 drive through of the bank on September ninth at approximately 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.440 twelve thirty in the afternoon. At that point in time, 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:27.320 now law enforcement shifts their suspicion from the boyfriend, William Haverity, 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:33.040 over to Paul and basically become extremely myopic and focused 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.560 in with a tunnel vision only on Paul. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.440 Right, And there was a lot of circumstantial evidence right, 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.760 that was really just the result of an unfortunate coincidence, 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.640 which goes back to the night of September. 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.680 Eighth, myself and three friends went to a drive in 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.520 movie and I think it was a Clon Eastwood movie, 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:58.080 Pale Rider. We left there and I dropped the young 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.679 man that was I dropped him off at his house 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.760 and then I started heading home. The two girls that 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.240 were with me, they lived, you know, just down the 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.599 street from me, so I was taking them home as well, 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.640 and I ran out of gas, and I got like 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.800 a dollar or something worth of gas put it in 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.360 the car. I put a little bit in the car 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.000 bead to try to get a start, but the way 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.200 the car was setting it was on an angle, like 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.800 almost in a ditch, and the gas wasn't getting pulled 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:26.720 up into the engine. So I went to my house, 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.000 my father's house, and I had to get a battery 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.320 because I wore a battery down in the car trying 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.000 to start it. So I got the battery and I 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.880 got a ride back from a friend. Anyway, he got 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.960 back to the car still wouldn't start, so I wasn't 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.960 going to run that battery down, so we got in 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.080 the car and we ended up just falling asleep. 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.920 So when he's en route to take the girls home, 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.040 the car runs out of gas and stalls in front 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.520 of a bar called the Lone Star Bar. It's right 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.120 off of US nineteen. Paul wakes up somewhere between eight 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:02.040 thirty and nine am. Girls are still sleeping. He decides, 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.080 I'm going to walk home and see if I can 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.200 either borrow my dad's truck or get some money to 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.560 try to put some more gas in those cars. So 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:14.960 he's walking north on US nineteen and the victim and 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.720 her boyfriend William Haveerty are driving north on US nineteen. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:21.080 They pull over. 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:22.960 He tells them, Hey, I'm trying to get up to 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.680 my dad's house. He gets in the back seat. They're 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:29.080 driving to the dad's house. She and the boyfriend start 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.520 arguing about he's sick of her going out with other men. 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.440 She's basically telling him off. The fight is getting pretty 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.400 loud and hostile Paul sitting in the back seat. In 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.520 the back seat is the victim's purse. Within her purse 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:48.200 is like a separate checkbook holder, and the victim says, 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.320 I've had enough of you. She stops the car. She says, 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.760 get out. Boyfriend says I'm not getting out. Victim says 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.040 she's getting out. The two of them end up getting out. 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.439 They slap each other around the lift little bit. All 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.960 of this is going on. At this Paul's not that 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.000 far from his house, so he grabs the checkbook thing 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.680 and leaves, and the last thing he sees is that 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.320 the boyfriend is on top of the victim and his 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.200 hands around her neck. He's like, I'm not getting in 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.520 the middle of this because the boyfriend has threatened him, 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.400 and he walks home. Once he gets home, his Dad's 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:30.240 not there, gets some leftover money, hitches a ride back 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.960 to where the girls are. He buys another two dollars 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.240 worth of gas. They level out the car, He puts 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.000 the gas in the car, drops the girls off at 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:41.800 home in his car. He then forges one of the 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:46.240 victims checks, goes to the bank, cashes the check, giving 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:48.960 his ID the checks for seventy five dollars. 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:49.480 Right. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.360 So, ultimately, because Paul, you know, foolishly, let's call it 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.680 what it is, took a few items from the car, 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.560 a radio, a ring, and of course the that we 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:05.360 talked about. When the attention of the authorities shifts to him, 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.959 they probably had some sort of eureka moment like, oh, 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:10.959 look at this, we got sort of, for lack of 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:13.280 a better word, the smoking gun. And at that point, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.280 like you said, the tunnel vision sets in. He really 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.400 needs a great lawyer. And that's not at all how 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:20.200 this played out. 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.040 Right, So on November twenty first, they get a grand 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.400 jury to indict him with first degree murder and they 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:31.320 announced that they're seeking death. So this particular attorney, Dan Lewin, 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.520 had just graduated from Florida State Law School. He had 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.120 never done a murder case. He had never done even 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.960 a serious robbery case. So on April twenty fourth of 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.800 nineteen eighty six, he gets appointed to this death penalty 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.120 case and they pick a jury four months later on 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:53.439 August twenty fifth. In between that time period, he conducted 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:59.120 absolutely no investigation. This defense lawyer took depositions, and the 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.360 significance of that is the lack of thoroughness. In addition 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.000 to that, it is also clear when you review those 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:10.120 depositions that the prosecution was not giving him all the 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.720 police reports. In addition to that, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.160 office decide, you know what, We're not going to use 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.079 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which was the state 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.160 agency that would do the lab work for the police 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:24.840 agencies in Florida. We're going to send this stuff to 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.800 the FBI. And it's at the FBI where they're doing 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:32.840 the so called roology, hair examination and tool mark examinations 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.000 on some chrome strips that they believe came off of 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.640 the alleged victims car. 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.600 You've just identified several of the key elements of junk 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.520 science that we talk about in our podcast Raflicviction Junk Science. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.080 But there's so much more to this. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.520 You have circumstantial evidence, you have tunnel vision, tons of 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:54.200 junk science, and then you have incumbent defense attorney, and 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:56.600 you also have experts that are willing to lie on 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.559 behalf of the prosecution. And we know that the prosecutor 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.840 at the present to the soroology report from an FBI's 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.560 forensics expert who falsely claimed that bodily fluids found on 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.640 two pieces of crime scene evidence, the underwear the woman's 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.720 underwear and a washcloth, both matched Paul Hildwin. The expert 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.160 also claimed that Paul was among only eleven percent of 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:20.560 the world's white male population who could have deposited the fluids, 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.160 and that the fluids could not have come from the 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:27.360 victim's a strange boyfriend. So this is a mountain of shit, 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:28.559 I mean. 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.800 Paul, shit is the appropriate word. 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.559 Thank you. I chose that carefully. 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.160 In defense of mister Lewan on this part. They sprung 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.960 on the soroology evidence that did not come out until 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:46.040 opening statements, and he immediately objected and when they approached 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.560 the bench, he said, this can't come in. I was 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.920 told that the zerology evidence was of no value, everything 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.400 was too degraded. They couldn't get anything of it, and 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.439 now they're telling the jury that it links my client 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.520 and they can't use that, and the prosecution and goes, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.480 you want to bet that's on the record, and the 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.400 judge says, yeah, no, this is opening. They can do it, 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.120 and we'll address it during the trial. And then when 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.000 they come to the point where he objects again during 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:18.000 the trial, it's the friday before Labor Day weekend, and 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.080 the judge says, well, you've got till Tuesday to be ready. 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.320 Three days. And remember what we had to work with 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.240 in nineteen eighty five. There wasn't internet research. When we 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:32.120 researched case law. We went the old fashioned way into 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.880 the law library, which took a lot of time. So 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.160 he basically gives us inexperience, unqualified lawyer three days to 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:44.640 familiarize himself with roology, evidence and secretor and nonsecretor. You 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.200 have got to be kidding me. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.920 So September fourth, nineteen eighty six, you were found guilty, 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.600 and September seventeenth, the jury, by a unanimous vote of 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.560 twelfth to nothing, sentence you to death. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.560 Even though the defense was what it was. I didn't 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.600 expect that when they sentenced me to death. I just 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.520 I don't know. I think my mind just shut down. 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.120 After that, what I call the real living hell started. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:14.880 You're basically in that cell twenty four hours a day. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.040 You get three shours a week. You get to go 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.720 to the yard twice a week, and it's a little 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.160 tiny yard. And if you don't go to the yard, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.760 you're just in that cell twenty four hours a day, 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.360 and you become desensitized. 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:30.800 Really. 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:36.000 After like the first four years, I just disconnected myself. 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.760 I didn't care about time, I didn't care about holidays. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.360 I didn't you know, none of that stuff mattered. What 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:48.040 was important to me was just surviving. After my dad 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.600 passed in nineteen ninety, I didn't have a visit until 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.840 two thousand and six. My life was in that cell. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.320 I did everything I ate in there. I washed all 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.960 my clothes and there. I mean, my whole life was 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.520 in that little box. In nineteen eighty eight eighty nine, 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.480 a very good friend of mine, Kenny Hardwick, he gave 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.760 up and he was in the cell next to me, 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.840 and I could see him. The windows were not in 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.480 the cell. They were like eight to ten feet away 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.680 from the front of the cell. The cell fronts were 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.200 all open. We could talk, we could pass things back 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:29.280 and forth. And I watched them hang himself. I couldn't 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.880 stop them. I couldn't help them. 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.040 You know. I went to screaming for the police. 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.640 They come and tell me to shut my fort mouth. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.800 This episode is underwritten by the AIG pro Bono Program. 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:55.560 AIG is a leading global insurance company, and for over 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.400 a decade, the AIG pro Bono Program has provided thousands 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.520 of hours of free legal services and other support to 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:07.120 nonprofit organizations and individuals most in need. More recently, the 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.840 program added criminal and social justice reform as a key 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:12.120 pillar of its mission. 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.440 This episode is brought to you by Stand Together. 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.560 Stand Together is a philanthropic community dedicated to helping people 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.880 improve their lives. For more than twenty years, Stand Together 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:25.920 and its partners have been on the front lines of 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.960 criminal justice reform. By empowering people to take action, supporting nonprofits, 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.760 and working with businesses, Stand Together tackles the root causes 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.640 of problems in our communities and empowers those closest to 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:42.120 the problems to drive solutions. Solutions like reducing unjust prison 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.040 sentences through the First Step Act, empowering community based programs 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.240 and help people re enter society and now working to 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.720 bridge divides in our communities. To learn how you may 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:56.360 get involved, visit Standtogether dot org slash conviction. 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.080 I believe it was either nineteen eighty nine or nineteen ninety. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.680 Governor Martinez signed Paul's death worn and Paul has the 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:14.480 fortuitous opportunity to have a terrific lawyer named Marty McClain, 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:19.560 and so Marty begins to investigate. And at that point, 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.400 the state attorney is different. And so when Marty McLain 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:27.399 issues the requests for Paul's file and all the police 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.600 reports and whatever, they actually turn it over, and that's 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:35.159 when he discovers all these things that either were not 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:39.800 disclosed to mister Lewin or that mister Lewin just didn't 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.720 bother to use, like the victim's nephew that says that 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.920 he was having drinks with the victim on Monday night, 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.960 September ninth until eleven fifteen pm. Meanwhile, according to the 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.960 state's theory at trial, Paul had allegedly killed her somewhere 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.800 between nine point fifteen and ten in the morning. But 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.840 yet the nephew is having drinks with her as the 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:06.080 boyfriend was mad and sulking in a corner well. That 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.280 never came out in trial. That nephew was never deposed 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:13.520 by mister Lewin. The boyfriend was allowed to represent this 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.560 really fabulous relationship with Throng. So Marty McLain discovers that 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:21.760 when law enforcement searched the victim and her boyfriend's house, 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.920 there was a note in the garbage can that said 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.080 if you don't like living here, you can fuck off 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.200 and die. That never came out during trial. I mean 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:31.879 it just went on and on and on. So he 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.920 discovered all this stuff. He found what's called the thirty 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.320 eight to fifty motion, which is a motion to find 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:42.399 the defense lawyer ineffective of counsel and that if Paul 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.639 had had effective assistance of counsel or had received this 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.560 Brady information and it had been used, it would have 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.040 changed the outcome of the trial. And the judge denies 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.360 both and says that Paul had effective assistance of counsel. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.280 It goes up on appeal to the Florida Supreme Court Court. 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.200 The Florida Supreme Court hangs her hat on the soroology 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.760 evidence to say, no, it wouldn't have affected the outcome 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.720 of the trial. In first phase. But we do find 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.560 that the penalty phase was ineffective, and they grant Paul 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:20.240 the opportunity to have a second penalty phase, and so 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.480 that happens in nineteen ninety seven and the jury comes 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.240 back eight to four for death. Remember at the time 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.600 in Florida, it only required a majority of jurors to 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:36.040 vote for death. So Paul gets death again and so CCRC, 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.600 the group that Marty McClain worked for, contacts the Innocence 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:44.600 Project they get involved in. During all that investigation, they 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.960 also discover another witness that said she had had a 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.359 conversation with the victim at three o'clock in the afternoon 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.439 on the Wednesday after she supposedly died. They also started 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.600 attacking the soerology and they seek for it to get 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:03.560 into they tested. When they do, at this point, DNA 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.760 is in existence. They discover that the DNA on the 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.320 panties and on the washrag, which is what was sold 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.320 to the jury in nineteen eighty six and what the 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:19.320 Supreme Court relied upon in sustaining his guilty verdict both 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.639 the first time and during the thirty eight to fifty hearing, 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:24.840 do not match Paul. 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.640 It was February of two thousand and three, we went 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.040 to the Circuit Court with the test results. 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.680 So that ends up happening that they discover, Okay, it's 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.240 not Paul's biological material on this, we want you to 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.080 run it through the CODA system, and they start getting 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:45.800 pushed back from the state and the Attorney General's office. 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:51.320 And this continues and continues to get litigated until two 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.359 thousand and eleven, where finally the Supreme Court says, put 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.359 it in the CODA system. When they run the DNA 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:04.600 into the CODA system, it matches William Haveerty, the victim's 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.280 living boyfriend, and at the time he was incarcerated for 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:13.200 sixteen counts of sexual battery for sexually molesting his stepdaughter. 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.080 And here we go again. I'm so sick of these 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.160 stories where the wrong person gets locked up the actual 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.720 perpetrator remains free and goes on to commit these unspeakable 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.760 acts against people who never should have been victimized in 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.680 the first place if the system had worked the way. 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.439 It should so then at that point Nina Morrison and 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:39.679 Morty maclain are pushing the Supreme Court to give Paul, 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.399 based on this newly discovered evidence, a new trial, with 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:45.960 the state giving pushback under the grounds, hey, this was 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:50.400 the sex crimes case. And finally, in June of twenty fourteen, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.800 the Florida Supreme Court grants Paul on new trial. 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.520 Okay, but now, how did this case, of all the 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:57.800 cases end up on your desk? 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.160 Nina Morrison called me and asked, could I fly down 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:03.159 to Tampa and meet with you and talk to you 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:07.040 about this case. Anybody that knows Nina Morrison, she's like, Sam, 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.240 I am, don't let her in your house because she's 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.639 going to convince you to do whatever she wants you 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.560 to do. And so she came into the office and 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.320 persuaded me to agree to do this case pro bono 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:23.560 beginning in August of twenty fourteen until it concluded on 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:26.359 March ninth of twenty twenty. 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:27.840 Two, thousand and three. 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.400 The DNA proves DNA we're talking about right, was produced 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.720 that proved that Paul didn't do it, or at a minimum, 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.639 that the state's case was completely wrong, and that the 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:41.320 main piece of evidence that they basedid I was proven false. 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.960 And yet it took seventeen more years to bring Paul home. 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.320 And then even that comes with an asterisk right. 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.640 You know, I get appointed to the case in twenty fourteen, 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.560 and so the stay they still stood on the position 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.879 that they felt that Paul was guilty, and so to them, 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:05.840 the quote fair end quote option was to let him 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.560 plead to second degree murder, get credit for time served, 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:14.280 and put him on lifetime probation. So Paul's big mandate 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:16.480 to me from the beginning was I would like to 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.760 feel grass underneath my feet before I die. And so 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.439 I would talk to him about these offers the state 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.919 was making and you know, explain to him why it 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:30.439 was basically a no brainer for us to say no 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:33.760 to that and continue forward. But we did talk about 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.720