Speaker 1: I've never been to trouble of my life. I didn't
Speaker 1: even have a parking ticket, and you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I was brought up like cops are the good guys.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what was going to happen, but I
Speaker 1: do know that everything was stacked against me. Everything like
Speaker 1: everything this isn't supposed to happen this way. I'm innocent.
Speaker 1: I know I'm innocent. I know I had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with this. How is this possible? I grew up
Speaker 1: trusting the systems. I grew up believing that every human
Speaker 1: thing should do the right thing. And that's why, even
Speaker 1: though I was dealing with corrop people, I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to brave anyone to get me out of prison because
Speaker 1: I wouldn't live with the fact that I braved my
Speaker 1: way out of my wife's death. I'm not innocent to
Speaker 1: proven guilty. I'm guilty until I proved my innocence. And
Speaker 1: that's absolutely what happened to me. Our system. Since I've
Speaker 1: been out ten years, it's come a little ways, but
Speaker 1: it's still broken, a totally little trust in humanity after
Speaker 1: what happened to me. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to wrongful conviction with Jason Falm that's me. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: and today I have an absolutely unbelievable story and an
Speaker 1: incredible person to share that story with you. Susan King
Speaker 1: is here. Susan, Welcome to wrongful conviction. Thank you, good
Speaker 1: to be here. And like I always say, I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're here, but I'm sorry you're here. So, Susan, Ever
Speaker 1: since I read your story, which must be a year
Speaker 1: and a half ago, I was transfixed because even having
Speaker 1: been in this movement for five years now and having
Speaker 1: recorded seventy episodes of the podcast, your story sticks out
Speaker 1: in many ways because it's so absolutely insane that I
Speaker 1: find myself telling the story to other people and going
Speaker 1: that can't be true, but I know it is and
Speaker 1: you and you actually had to live it well. She
Speaker 1: served six years behind the bars after a Kentucky State
Speaker 1: Police investigator said she killed a man. Then someone else
Speaker 1: confessed to the crime, and now two years later, the
Speaker 1: case against Susan Gene King is finally dismissed. King spent
Speaker 1: years in prison for what they call raisen missconduct by
Speaker 1: Kentucky State Police. It comes after King served six and
Speaker 1: a half years in prison for the death of Kyle
Speaker 1: Deanie Breeden of Shelbyville, The Kentucky Innocence Project told the court.
Speaker 1: When the Kentucky State Police case went cold after a
Speaker 1: few years, Trooper Todd Harwood picked it up. Eighteen days later.
Speaker 1: He said he broke the case, naming King as the killer.
Speaker 1: He said King threw Breeden's body into the Kentucky River
Speaker 1: after a domestic speut. The only problem King has one
Speaker 1: leg and weighed less than one hundred pounds at the time.
Speaker 1: So let's go back to the beginning. Um, you grew
Speaker 1: up in Were you born in Kentucky? Yes, it was
Speaker 1: back in nine was a long time ago. We're almost
Speaker 1: the same age. Um. What what part of Kentucky were
Speaker 1: you born in? I was born in shelby THEO. But
Speaker 1: all happen from And how was your childhood? Oh? I
Speaker 1: was rased to go country girls, so I spent my
Speaker 1: timetation and playing with chaos all that, STU. So it
Speaker 1: sounds like this hearing the tone of your voice, you
Speaker 1: had to you had a happy childhood. Yeah, and um,
Speaker 1: and then ultimately you where did you grow up? Where
Speaker 1: did did you go to when you go to school?
Speaker 1: Where'd you end up? Living before all this insanity came
Speaker 1: to pass. Well, before all this, I had my own
Speaker 1: beauty shop. I was a thousantologist. I had my own home,
Speaker 1: and how the six and High Fakers was barn, and
Speaker 1: all my animals and my dogs and horses. Everything was
Speaker 1: enjoying life. And and suddenly one day Todd Hardwood appeared
Speaker 1: and ruined it all. Oh, he certainly did. And the
Speaker 1: way that he did it is beyond I think people
Speaker 1: are going to be Anyone who's listening now, fasten your seatbelt,
Speaker 1: because when you hear the level of evil, of pure evil,
Speaker 1: that this individual was capable of, it is absolutely shocking,
Speaker 1: even even to people that are loyal listeners of the podcast.
Speaker 1: You're going to be Um, you're in for a crazy ride.
Speaker 1: Um so, But Susan, you had you had a tragedy
Speaker 1: upon a tragedy because back in your life took a
Speaker 1: terrible turn. Yeah, that's in a corre accident and that
Speaker 1: and that, and that turns out to be an important
Speaker 1: part of the story. And how you're wrong conviction when
Speaker 1: you only have one leg and you can't go around
Speaker 1: listen people to under ponds and stuff like that. Say right,
Speaker 1: and we're going to get to that, because that's one
Speaker 1: of the things about the story that is just I mean,
Speaker 1: even if you had two legs, the story never would
Speaker 1: have made any sense. But that particular aspect of it
Speaker 1: makes it go from the ridiculous to the sun to
Speaker 1: the impossible, right to the surreal, impossible, whatever word you
Speaker 1: want to whatever word you wouldn't describe, so fast forward
Speaker 1: to right. And you had been in a relationship, if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, right with a guy made Kyle Breeden.
Speaker 1: And this was was this an on again, off again
Speaker 1: type of thing? Uh well, yeah, yes, yeah, he lived
Speaker 1: life and I can handle put nicely. And one day
Speaker 1: he disappeared, right and just so it was gone. And
Speaker 1: then ten days later we know now his body was
Speaker 1: found by a fisherman in the Kentucky River, right, and
Speaker 1: he had been shot in the head twice, but twenty
Speaker 1: two caliber bullets which did not exit the skull, which
Speaker 1: is important because they were able to be found, very important, right,
Speaker 1: so that they were non exiting bullets, and his legs
Speaker 1: were bound with guitar amplifier cord, so he was um
Speaker 1: This is obviously a brutal crime. He was shot twice
Speaker 1: in the head, bound with the guitar ample fire cord
Speaker 1: like I said, and then lifted up the killer parked
Speaker 1: on the grats bridge and then hoisted him. And he
Speaker 1: wasn't a small guy, right pounds, so the killer hoisted
Speaker 1: him over the railing and threw him down or dropped
Speaker 1: him down into the Kentucky River where he was doing
Speaker 1: the Well, oh wow, so he was two h pounds
Speaker 1: plus the concrete blocks. Okay, wow, this guy went to
Speaker 1: some trouble to to do it. So we're going to
Speaker 1: get all of that. But what what has absolutely transfixed
Speaker 1: me about this case is the idea, and we don't
Speaker 1: and we'll get you know, I'm gonna jump ahead and
Speaker 1: we'll come back. But the idea that anybody on a
Speaker 1: grand jury or anywhere else in the system could have
Speaker 1: been made to believe that a woman who barely weighed
Speaker 1: a hundred pounds um, which is you could have which
Speaker 1: was this horrible detective theory right, that you would have
Speaker 1: shot him in the head in your kitchen, dragged him
Speaker 1: out down the driveway. Do you have a gravel driveway
Speaker 1: to read that somewhere? Right? So we are to believe
Speaker 1: that you a hundred pound woman, if you even weighed
Speaker 1: that much with one leg. Somehow or other, we're able
Speaker 1: to shoot this guy twice, dragged him through the kitchen,
Speaker 1: down the gravel driveway, hoist him into the car, drive
Speaker 1: to the bridge, tie blocks to him, bind him. Not
Speaker 1: to interrupt it. But I didn't even have a car.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I need a minute. I can't even pross.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I didn't have a car or tractor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the tractor, okay, so um wow? And then uh yeah,
Speaker 1: so you drove the invisible car, the imaginary car to
Speaker 1: the Grats bridge and then hoisted this after binding him
Speaker 1: with amphipichord and tying concrete blocks to him, you managed
Speaker 1: to hoist this entire um crazy like, I mean, this
Speaker 1: this person, with all these contraptions, there's two something pound object,
Speaker 1: which is now a dead body up over a railing.
Speaker 1: How high was the railing? By the way, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I had stayed away from that area for obvious reasons,
Speaker 1: and I really don't know how how that Well, it
Speaker 1: doesn't much matter because none of it makes any sense.
Speaker 1: So um so the whole thing is obviously just beyond ridiculous,
Speaker 1: is disgusting. It's um well, you think that you can
Speaker 1: trust the cop, and that's that's the round. You can't
Speaker 1: trust more anymore. You know, there are some good chops.
Speaker 1: I got a couple of good tops, but the boy,
Speaker 1: I tell you, look that one. Really it makes the
Speaker 1: whole department look bad. Um. I'm glad you said that, Susan,
Speaker 1: because I say that on the show often that I'm
Speaker 1: a person who does believe in a system of laws,
Speaker 1: and I believe that there are a lot of good cops,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of good prosecutors, but there's
Speaker 1: a lot of bad ones too, and the bad ones
Speaker 1: do a terrible amount of damage. Um. And in your case,
Speaker 1: it couldn't be more pronounced the because of the way
Speaker 1: in which this was done, you know, in this case,
Speaker 1: going back to the the time in UH, they originally
Speaker 1: tried to attain the search warrant and to search your
Speaker 1: premises and stuff like that, but they were unable to
Speaker 1: because there was no evidence that you it was what
Speaker 1: was painfully obviously everyone concerned that you could not have
Speaker 1: done this, so they everyone actually took a common sensical
Speaker 1: approach and said, okay, well let's keep looking for who did.
Speaker 1: And the trail went cold, right, Well, they didn't. They
Speaker 1: didn't search any farther than just me. I don't think
Speaker 1: they didn't try very hard anyway. Now, the first a
Speaker 1: good detective when Danny starting with How's body was first found. Um,
Speaker 1: they were pretty decent cops. They did their job. They
Speaker 1: were very thorough. They scared me death. So they did
Speaker 1: their job right, and they decided that I didn't have
Speaker 1: anything to do with it. Say my interview I did
Speaker 1: on the uh the channel investigation Discovery Town. No, I
Speaker 1: didn't even know about if I'm going to watch it
Speaker 1: for sure, will Yeah, they did a show on it,
Speaker 1: and they did a real good job. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm on TV right now. You are that show. You
Speaker 1: know it's one right now. That's amazing channel. It's all
Speaker 1: right now we speak, You're all over the place. You're
Speaker 1: on TV and the radio. Um, yeah, I'm excited to
Speaker 1: see that. Um. So you were saying that the the
Speaker 1: initial investigation you thought they were tell me about that.
Speaker 1: They came to see you. They intimidated you a little
Speaker 1: bit or how did that work? And they they agree
Speaker 1: open me real good. That put me through a lot.
Speaker 1: So that's what I say. They did their job. But
Speaker 1: they came to the correct conclusion at first, and they
Speaker 1: you know, who are somebody came to the right answer
Speaker 1: and said, you know, we're not going to grant the
Speaker 1: search wire. We're not going to indict her. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have to keep looking because she ain't the one. Um.
Speaker 1: And you went on with it being a cold case
Speaker 1: for years, right, And that's where stuff really gets crazy. Right.
Speaker 1: So now enters the villain in this story. And villain
Speaker 1: is too kind of a word actually, because we have
Speaker 1: to clean it up. Uh yeah, And you're allowed to
Speaker 1: curse on this show if you want to. There's no
Speaker 1: problem at all with that, um, And I wouldn't blame you,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to discuss this without it. You can
Speaker 1: do as you see fit. Um. So along comes this
Speaker 1: um sack of ship named Todd Harwood. And he's a
Speaker 1: real short guy. Was he's real short, Okay. So he
Speaker 1: comes into town. UM, and he's a state he's a
Speaker 1: state police officer. He's he's new on the job, right,
Speaker 1: just rolled into town, decided this this might be good
Speaker 1: for his seems to me. I don't know this, but
Speaker 1: it seems to me he might have thought this might
Speaker 1: be good for his career. Um. If after all, they
Speaker 1: had received a grant for cod cases. And that's what
Speaker 1: he's addicted. Was what he wanted to do it, and
Speaker 1: that's what he got. And was this sort of a
Speaker 1: high profile case in the area, very much so, I've
Speaker 1: been on the front page at the type of many
Speaker 1: many counts. Right. So his thing was, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go make my name. I'm speculating, but I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: he was thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea for
Speaker 1: him and his career if he could go and solve
Speaker 1: this case. So when did you first find out that
Speaker 1: this guy was around and that he was had his
Speaker 1: had you in the crosshairs. How did that come to?
Speaker 1: Because we're talking seven years later, you had had moved
Speaker 1: on and you know, trying to make the best out
Speaker 1: of your life. It's facing the difficulties that you already
Speaker 1: faced and having lost you know this. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: this must have been pretty traumatic too, um to lose
Speaker 1: someone that you had in a relationship with in such
Speaker 1: a violent manner. But but how did you come to
Speaker 1: find out that this guy was was coming after you? Well,
Speaker 1: at first I didn't know he was really coming and
Speaker 1: I asked you meanting like he did. I just thought
Speaker 1: he needed some information, you know, because I had understood
Speaker 1: that he UH was investigating the cold case, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was ware that they were, and I was willing
Speaker 1: to help him in anyway I could. But he turned
Speaker 1: on me like a snake and started running and all.
Speaker 1: He scared me so bad, so many times, yelling and
Speaker 1: screaming and riding me around in his car like a
Speaker 1: crazy person going to the class and slamming on the brakes.
Speaker 1: He scared me death that day. I thought he was
Speaker 1: gonna kill me. Wow, I didn't even know that. Part
Speaker 1: of the story is gets crazier and crazier. It's not right.
Speaker 1: And he was wetting efusely and tasting back and forth
Speaker 1: and talking real fast, and he wasn't normal at all.
Speaker 1: I don't know what was making him act that way,
Speaker 1: but nothing was well. We can't know that, and we
Speaker 1: I never will. But the fact is that he was.
Speaker 1: He's obviously off his rocker. But whatever the reasons were
Speaker 1: for that, again, we don't know. One of the million
Speaker 1: crazy aspects of this thing is how he was able
Speaker 1: to convince the grand jury to indict you in the
Speaker 1: first place, and how he was even able to get
Speaker 1: a search warrant. And then the sheer volume of lies
Speaker 1: that he told is staggering lies that were demonstrably provably false. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, he lied about literally everything, but he didn't
Speaker 1: even tell the grand jury. I had only one leg
Speaker 1: heft that flora out. Yeah, and I think I don't
Speaker 1: believe I would have ever indicted me whatever dot search
Speaker 1: warrant if he had told. Well, of course not, because
Speaker 1: nobody's that dumb, right, nobody could believe. And this is
Speaker 1: why I've told your story many many times. It actually
Speaker 1: took me a while to find you, um, but I've
Speaker 1: told your story so many times ever since I first
Speaker 1: read about it in the Marshall Project. Actually was a
Speaker 1: wonderful newsletter that I read that focuses on all the
Speaker 1: most important stories in criminal justice. And you get it
Speaker 1: uh emailed to you for free every day if you
Speaker 1: want it. Um. It's called the Marshall Projects. Ever since
Speaker 1: I read that, I was I have to I have
Speaker 1: to interview Susan. I have to get inside of this
Speaker 1: and try to understand it, because it just doesn't make
Speaker 1: any damn sense. So somehow or other he manages to
Speaker 1: convince UH the the you know, the powers that be
Speaker 1: to grant a search warrant comes and searches your house,
Speaker 1: finds out there's a couple of old uh, bullet holes
Speaker 1: in the in the floor, something like that. Right, But
Speaker 1: none of that, Matt shouldn't have mattered because it didn't
Speaker 1: match the bullets that they recovered from the dead body. Um,
Speaker 1: but that didn't throw them off. Um. And you know,
Speaker 1: and then and then he and what happened from your perspective,
Speaker 1: what happened? When did you get the call? How did
Speaker 1: you find out that you were actually being indicted? And
Speaker 1: then how did you find this horrible lawyer that you
Speaker 1: ended up with? And I need to know everything. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was coming to arrest me. He
Speaker 1: threatened to several times at that point. And then then
Speaker 1: not to believe anything he said. He said he wasn't
Speaker 1: make sure I got the electric chair. Now, what's up?
Speaker 1: What's say that? I knew? If announce this guy just lying,
Speaker 1: he's crazy, So he's threatening with the electric chair. Um
Speaker 1: he told the I mean, among the other lies that
Speaker 1: he told, he said there were four bullet holes in
Speaker 1: the kitchen floor and drag marks on the linoleum. None
Speaker 1: of that was true. He told the grand jury that
Speaker 1: ballistics analysis showed the two bullets recovered from the floor
Speaker 1: SAT came from the same weapon that fired the bullets
Speaker 1: that killed breeding. That wasn't true, right. And he said
Speaker 1: that blood found on the floor was from breeding, where
Speaker 1: the DNA analysis proved that in fact it could. They
Speaker 1: had no idea who it was from. But he lied
Speaker 1: about all that animal vegetable or mayor and mineral. That's
Speaker 1: what they told me, animal vegetable and mental. That wasn't
Speaker 1: sure which And not only that, but the ballistics analysis
Speaker 1: actually showed the opposite of what he claimed, right, That
Speaker 1: the bullets did not match, and that the police knew
Speaker 1: that the water damage to the floor in your kitchen
Speaker 1: caused the markings that Hardwood said were drag marks. So Harwood,
Speaker 1: I had three of all that people that UH did
Speaker 1: all that retired to my house, set your flood, and
Speaker 1: I mean, now this happened to miss game forward. That
Speaker 1: wasn't And we're not done with the lies because you
Speaker 1: also claimed that you had used cleaning fluid to clean
Speaker 1: up the UH to clean up the evidence, when the
Speaker 1: investigation showed that there was there was no cleaning fluid
Speaker 1: or keen cleaning chemicals of any kind. And in fact,
Speaker 1: at some point, what I do know is that the
Speaker 1: grand jury investigations, or any grandy investigation, two different jurors
Speaker 1: asked him how you had been able to shoot, breathing
Speaker 1: and move his body despite only having one leg and
Speaker 1: waying as we said, nowty seven pounds, And he just
Speaker 1: didn't answer those questions. So had he, of course, that
Speaker 1: would have been the end of that. So okay, So
Speaker 1: now you end up having your home uh taken over
Speaker 1: various times for these uh searches to take place. Um,
Speaker 1: when did you get a lawyer? You know, I always
Speaker 1: leave them in and try to answer all the questions
Speaker 1: and help them in. And you, like a citizen would
Speaker 1: because you wanted to have this crime song. Nobody wants
Speaker 1: to have a killer around their neighborhood. And and and also
Speaker 1: any any person who's got any sort of conscience would
Speaker 1: want to help. Anybody would want to help the police.
Speaker 1: But I think it's important for people to know and
Speaker 1: listening to you, hopefully they'll they'll they'll understand what I
Speaker 1: try to drive home all the time, which is that
Speaker 1: if you're if they're telling you you're a suspect. You
Speaker 1: need to get a lawyer, and then stop talking and
Speaker 1: don't talk. Don't speak outside the presence of your lawyer
Speaker 1: because they'll trick you into all sorts of stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: but in your case, your lawyer didn't help at all,
Speaker 1: And let's talk about that. How did you find this lawyer? Um?
Speaker 1: Who was it in the phone? Her name is red
Speaker 1: Ricca Morrell? And where'd you Where did she come from?
Speaker 1: She is? Uh, he was a court appointed attorney from Shephardsville, Kentucky. Um,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of it, but that's who they appointed
Speaker 1: from my lawyer. And they may as well have appointed
Speaker 1: my dog to be my lawyer. It would have been better. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she talked. She came to jail a couple of times
Speaker 1: to talk to me, and she said, frankly, I don't
Speaker 1: believe he either. Season So I was danged. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's unimaginable. She that's got to be a violation of
Speaker 1: all sorts of Um. Yeah, I mean it's I mean,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, I've never heard of anything like this,
Speaker 1: but I happen to the judge and told the judge, Hey,
Speaker 1: don't believe that. You need to get her. Somebody account.
Speaker 1: She didn't do that. No, she she worked with she
Speaker 1: worked with the prosecutor, and she worked with the officers.
Speaker 1: And yeah, she literally sold you down the river. And
Speaker 1: and and it's similar to if anyone saw making a murderer,
Speaker 1: which a lot of people did that our listeners, UM,
Speaker 1: they've seen a similar situation in the case of Brendan Dacy,
Speaker 1: where his one of his team was literally just just
Speaker 1: an extension of the the prosecutors and the police. Was
Speaker 1: so disgusting and sad to why, um, And your situation
Speaker 1: is really not much different. So now here you are,
Speaker 1: you're in jail, everything's closing in on you. You're facing
Speaker 1: all this different hardship. Um in every way. UM. I
Speaker 1: mean I read what the what you said about your
Speaker 1: dog as well, and it broke my heart on top
Speaker 1: of everything else. UM, I mean, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know if you even want to go back there, but
Speaker 1: if you want to tell the story you can. Well
Speaker 1: it's really sad. I had done a dog named Key,
Speaker 1: big Australian shepherd lad and annex and keeps it a
Speaker 1: big speckled pub And then I had a little coffer
Speaker 1: staying puppy to His name was Charlie. And anybody knows
Speaker 1: me knows what the animal love I am. And I
Speaker 1: had ducks and chickens and geese and a horse and
Speaker 1: all that. And when I went to jail, I didn't
Speaker 1: have anybody to come take care of them for me.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a lot to ask ganky body types
Speaker 1: here of all that. And the home was found from
Speaker 1: my horse, and the home was found for my Papa Staniel.
Speaker 1: But nobody tell me get my dog. He's accused. She
Speaker 1: stayed there on that porch for but three months while
Speaker 1: I was in jail. She didn't know whether Mama was
Speaker 1: and why Mama left or anything. She ate it the
Speaker 1: next door neighbor's house, but she'd been doing that few
Speaker 1: years anyway, so she was getting fed. But the rest
Speaker 1: of the time she was waiting on a porch from
Speaker 1: me to come home. And ended up a friend and
Speaker 1: I went and daughter and kept her fruit as long
Speaker 1: as she could, and then had to have her put down.
Speaker 1: And she's a very sad situation. Um Todd Hardwood, he
Speaker 1: didn't just hurt maid. He hurts so many other people too.
Speaker 1: He hurt not only my animals, but he hurt cops.
Speaker 1: He hurt good cops. I mean he's really anything he
Speaker 1: has anything to do with the steer career. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's just it's just a shame because, like I said,
Speaker 1: I grew up like you and like I think anyone else,
Speaker 1: um pretty much, you know, thinking, man, I thought about
Speaker 1: wanting to become a cop. You know, like it's you.
Speaker 1: You you look up when you're a child to people
Speaker 1: in uniform and you want to be able to believe
Speaker 1: that they're there to do good and to and to
Speaker 1: help you. And that's that's where you thought you were
Speaker 1: sposed to help A copy of a cop. I ask
Speaker 1: your questions, you stop to answer truthfully and and help them.
Speaker 1: I know that's how they give was or information, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but I'm telling truth. And he just didn't care. He
Speaker 1: was determined he's gonna put me away, whether I did
Speaker 1: it or not. And he did, and he got his
Speaker 1: promotion and he got his pay raise. Yeah that's a
Speaker 1: that's another plan. It's another horrible aspect of the story.
Speaker 1: He ends up getting promoted to lieutenant or something like that,
Speaker 1: and you know it's it's just I don't understand how
Speaker 1: people sleep at No, I really don't. Um. But yeah, great,
Speaker 1: It's really great. Like I said, I don't know how
Speaker 1: and there's and there's a special no idea, there's a
Speaker 1: special place and help for people like that. But that's
Speaker 1: so um So back to the story. So there you
Speaker 1: are in jail, going through this literal nightmare that is
Speaker 1: unimaginable to anybody, including me, even you know, even being
Speaker 1: so steeped in the knowledge of these things, I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody could imagine what you went through that had
Speaker 1: been there. And uh and now you have this lawyer
Speaker 1: who's working against you. You had no chance, I mean,
Speaker 1: you had no help. And so at some point your
Speaker 1: only option you had these uh, these people telling you
Speaker 1: you were facing the death penalty or life in prison
Speaker 1: or whatever it was gonna be. And um hm, at
Speaker 1: some point you made a decision that's like it's almost
Speaker 1: like Sophie's choice, right, you had to You decided to
Speaker 1: take an Alfred plea. And can you explain how that
Speaker 1: came down? And what does that mean? Well, an alphad
Speaker 1: play means that you are the main um you know,
Speaker 1: remains confident that I didn't do it, and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna admit to do that because I didn't do it
Speaker 1: that the alpha play means that there's evidence that you
Speaker 1: thinks Mike lead a jury to think and you're guilty.
Speaker 1: And my lawyer told him nothing. She told me nothing
Speaker 1: about the alpha plea. I learned about the alpha plee
Speaker 1: from the girls in the sale with me, So you hadn't.
Speaker 1: Thank Dennis, I took the alphred play. Yeah, um, thank
Speaker 1: good is for that, because otherwise you would have ended
Speaker 1: up going to trial and get and most likely getting
Speaker 1: convicted in spite of the fact that there was an
Speaker 1: overwhelming evidence. If you're in the is, if no one
Speaker 1: was going to present it, you would have had a
Speaker 1: really tough road to go because you know, you would
Speaker 1: hope that a jury even still would take one look
Speaker 1: at you and go away a minute. This is impossible.
Speaker 1: But if I don't think anyone would want to take
Speaker 1: their chances in the situation that you were in. And
Speaker 1: now the story gets go ahead, go ahead, No, I
Speaker 1: was gonna saying, and then the story is about to
Speaker 1: get even weirder. But tell us what you're about to
Speaker 1: tell us anyway. Uh, sometimes I forget what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: The thing too, okay, so so we'll come back to it.
Speaker 1: But okay, so now, yeah, we'll cut that out. Okay,
Speaker 1: So now something really crazy happens, which is where we're
Speaker 1: not well, yeah, but let me let me start here.
Speaker 1: Let me just introduce this by saying, so, now we're
Speaker 1: going to fast forward about four years to May two
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve, and what happened in May two thousand twelve.
Speaker 1: You're not even ready for them, whoever is listening. So
Speaker 1: in May two thousand and twelve, a Louisville Metro Police
Speaker 1: narcotics detective named Baron Morrigan was interrogating a serial killer
Speaker 1: named Richard Darrell Jr. About an attempted murder charge. He
Speaker 1: had fired a shotgun into the home of a confidential
Speaker 1: police informant, which is really something that's right out of
Speaker 1: a movie. And Darrell offered to provide information on unsolved
Speaker 1: crimes and return for leniency for his brother, who was
Speaker 1: facing federal jug charges drug charges in Arkansas and not
Speaker 1: just continued for a minute and then later invested interrogation,
Speaker 1: Darrell confessed the murdering Breeding as well as committing to
Speaker 1: other murders. Darrell said he killed breedon on the day
Speaker 1: Jarrell turned twenty one October, the same day that Breedon disappeared.
Speaker 1: He also told the police that Breedon had sold twenty
Speaker 1: dollars from him the day before and used it to
Speaker 1: buy crack cocaine. Darrell said, and I'm reading this part,
Speaker 1: that he went to Breeden's trailer and found him smoking cocaine,
Speaker 1: which was consistent with autopsy findings that Breedon had cocaine
Speaker 1: in his blood. So on the day Breeding disappeared, Darrell said,
Speaker 1: he picked up Breeding under the guys are driving to
Speaker 1: his father's to Darrell's father's home to celebrate Jarell's birthday,
Speaker 1: and it goes on and on. But he knew everything
Speaker 1: there was to know about where the body was, how
Speaker 1: it got there, what he had done during the day.
Speaker 1: He knew the amount of money he had taken out
Speaker 1: of the bank. He knew every possible detail. He couldn't
Speaker 1: have if he had produced a videotape of himself doing this,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't have been any more solid than what he
Speaker 1: provided to this detective. And this detective the detectives where
Speaker 1: he had thrown some of the murder weapons, some of
Speaker 1: the guns, and they went to the price that he
Speaker 1: tells them about, and they got drivers and went in
Speaker 1: and they found him. Okay, donkey, there you go. What
Speaker 1: do you know? So this guy, uh, he gave them
Speaker 1: an actual map and a thing and and all the
Speaker 1: information that they needed was right there. So this detective
Speaker 1: Baron Morgan and you talk about how they're good cops
Speaker 1: out there, and I talked about how the good cops
Speaker 1: and this guy's I mean, from everything we know about
Speaker 1: him as a damn good cop. And he did what
Speaker 1: he should have done, which is that he called Harwood
Speaker 1: and he said something. We don't know exactly what that
Speaker 1: conversation sounded like, but we know he called them and said, hey, buddy,
Speaker 1: I think he got the wrong uh answer, the wrong
Speaker 1: outcome because Susan King had nothing to do with this,
Speaker 1: because I got your guy right here, right. And at
Speaker 1: that point, one would think that this Harwood guy would go, ah, ship,
Speaker 1: the jig is up. Well, all right, I gotta admit it,
Speaker 1: but I already got my promotion and I'll probably all right.
Speaker 1: But that's not what he did. In fact, he decided
Speaker 1: that he would interview um Darrell himself off and he
Speaker 1: recorded Jarrell saying, oh this is this is where it
Speaker 1: gets really weird. Right, So he interviewed Darrell, after which
Speaker 1: Jarrell changed his story and recant did his confession, which
Speaker 1: it was too late to we can't because he knew
Speaker 1: all the details that would have been impossible for him
Speaker 1: to know. And mysteriously, Hartwood said, the tape of this,
Speaker 1: because he did tape record this interview, disappeared. He said,
Speaker 1: the tape disappeared, mysteriously amazing. Um, yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: just got to take a second to process that. You know.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a kid, it's kind of like magic. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So but meanwhile, there were tape recordings of the detailed
Speaker 1: description of of the confession and everything else, right, so
Speaker 1: that that must have helped. Um. And so what happens now, Um,
Speaker 1: you're not even aware of this at the time you're
Speaker 1: in prison. Ah. Yeah, that one day they called my
Speaker 1: name over the intertime and I thought, well, now was
Speaker 1: I done? You know? And they called me down there
Speaker 1: and it was the Instance Project projects that the Instance Projects,
Speaker 1: and they told me about the confession and I'll tell
Speaker 1: you it's about making somebody's day. You want to hear
Speaker 1: about that. Well, what was your reaction when they told
Speaker 1: you that? Oh? I just dropped the head down and cry.
Speaker 1: I remember I raised my head that best a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes. Such a nabe. Now they'll believe me? And
Speaker 1: who who from the Innocence Project to Kentucky. This is
Speaker 1: project came And I know people had a lot of
Speaker 1: different innocence projects, but I want to meet and shake
Speaker 1: the hands that people have did this for you, um
Speaker 1: and send them a check. Smith is one of them,
Speaker 1: Manda Smith one her. And then she had a couple
Speaker 1: of low students with her that day. Well, they were
Speaker 1: with her through the whole my whole thing. They were
Speaker 1: right there with me. So you got wonderful thing. So
Speaker 1: I'm picturing you now in that little room in the
Speaker 1: prison with your head down crying, and then you lift
Speaker 1: your head back up. And now what now, what happens? Well,
Speaker 1: I figured i'd be going home pretty soon, but they
Speaker 1: they looked confession meant nothing. They wouldn't. They didn't let
Speaker 1: me out early at all. They made me do my
Speaker 1: whole sentence and then after that I had to go
Speaker 1: back through the court system to prove that I was innocent,
Speaker 1: which I did, but they knew if I was in
Speaker 1: I did. I lost the year prison after the confession
Speaker 1: and after that confession. They should have let me out.
Speaker 1: They obviously should have let you up, but they didn't.
Speaker 1: They kept you in there. Anyway. I'm not really sure
Speaker 1: I even understand how that happened. But um, but and
Speaker 1: then the day you walked out, you still walked out
Speaker 1: under this cloud of having a conviction for uh it
Speaker 1: was a manslaughter murder. Yeah, murders still come out as
Speaker 1: a convicted murderer. Um, but you have the Kentucky Innessis
Speaker 1: Project on your side, and then things started to change,
Speaker 1: but they took us still a couple of twists and
Speaker 1: turns that are really worth looking at because after the project,
Speaker 1: lawyers presented the evidence that during the grand jury investigation,
Speaker 1: which we know now, two different grand jurors had asked
Speaker 1: Harwood how you know how he could have how this
Speaker 1: could have happened with a one legged woman? Uh? And
Speaker 1: we know that he evaded all the questions and all
Speaker 1: this other stuff. Right. But in two thousands and twelve,
Speaker 1: in October, the motion to vacate the guilty plea was
Speaker 1: denied by Circuit Court Judge Charles Hickman, and he said,
Speaker 1: and this is worth quoting, he said that while Darrell
Speaker 1: had presented knowledge of quote a startling level of details
Speaker 1: about Breedon's murderer. The law barred him from granting emotion
Speaker 1: for a new trial because King you Susan had played guilty,
Speaker 1: which is really like some double Jeopardy whackiness there too, right,
Speaker 1: So it's almost like he's saying, Okay, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: that you're innocent because we tricked you into pleading guilty.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, which is a wacky um. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm scratching my head. I'm sure a lot
Speaker 1: of other people are too. But you know I always
Speaker 1: had safe even though the cops was do any wrong,
Speaker 1: and I have getting trained always. Damn deep in my heart,
Speaker 1: I thought, well, the judge is not going to do
Speaker 1: this to me. The judge is going to seek all this.
Speaker 1: He didn't even look at me much. Let's see through
Speaker 1: you anything and h court appointed lawyer with Beta Morrell
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor and officer Hardwood, we're all standing there
Speaker 1: with their arms around each other, patting each other's back
Speaker 1: and life. And you know that wasn't funny. No, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're you're an incredibly strong woman. I mean, how you
Speaker 1: can even get out of bed in the morning, and
Speaker 1: you know, put a smile on your face, like time
Speaker 1: to time is good to hear you laughing. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just, uh, you got all my respect. That's all
Speaker 1: I could say about that. And it's awesome that you're here.
Speaker 1: And then I really appreciate it. So now things take, uh,
Speaker 1: finally a better turn in two thousand fourteen, because in
Speaker 1: July two thou fourteen, the Commonwealth of Kentucky Court of
Speaker 1: Appeals reverse the decision of the judge who wouldn't look
Speaker 1: at you, Judge Hickman, and they they vacated your guilty
Speaker 1: play in order to do trial. Um, because they said
Speaker 1: that based on the evidence of actual innocence, you were
Speaker 1: entitled to a new trial. Now that would seem like
Speaker 1: a third grader would be able to figure that out,
Speaker 1: But okay, they figured it out, and then in on
Speaker 1: October seventh, only a few months later, uh, they dismissed
Speaker 1: all the charges. And now we come to another phase
Speaker 1: of this, right, because there's two more things that really
Speaker 1: need everyone's attention, right, because in two thousand fifteen. A
Speaker 1: year later, October two fifteen, you file the federal civil
Speaker 1: rights lawsuit against Harwood and other police officers, which would
Speaker 1: seem like a no brainer. But it was dismissed in
Speaker 1: in two thousand and sixteen, and I was really disapp
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine, I mean, because there's never been
Speaker 1: in to my knowledge, Um, they may have been, but
Speaker 1: I don't know about it a clearer cut case of
Speaker 1: official misconduct. And that's really a nice way of saying it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the most like you said, it's
Speaker 1: the most magically terrible uh frame job that that anyone like,
Speaker 1: literally somebody put your stories. You realize this is someone
Speaker 1: put your story in a Hollywood script. Nobody would believe it.
Speaker 1: Like people would be like, no, no, you can't go
Speaker 1: back and rewrite that. I can picture somebody say we
Speaker 1: re write that. NOO's been bla. Don't just believe this.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous, but it's true. So I've got an excellent
Speaker 1: attorney right now, then it's like I have a excellent
Speaker 1: team of attorney. I've got the best in Kentucky. Who
Speaker 1: do you who? Who do you have? Let's give him
Speaker 1: a shout out? Oh well, I have Thomas Clay and
Speaker 1: David Ward, and then there's some of their associates and
Speaker 1: I don't know what their names, they're not dreamed team excellent, excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1: My going to be I'll be treated fairly well. And
Speaker 1: and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals we ought to
Speaker 1: this point because and in March shut thousand seventeen, the
Speaker 1: Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals UM reinstated the lawsuit, which
Speaker 1: is interesting too because that's a very conservative court. But
Speaker 1: but even they were able to say, hey, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is just not okay. And meanwhile, there's another aspect
Speaker 1: to this too. And I'm going to be following your
Speaker 1: case and UM and and rooting you right across the
Speaker 1: finish line, and I'll be here to help you anyway
Speaker 1: that I can. And I hope that will get a
Speaker 1: chance to meet and develop a friendship as I have
Speaker 1: with so many other extraordinary people Alex Honoree's over the years. UM.
Speaker 1: But there's also another aspect to this, which is another
Speaker 1: really sinister thing that I want to share with the audience,
Speaker 1: which goes back to the police officer was at Morgan, right,
Speaker 1: who actually tried to do the right thing, and and
Speaker 1: what happened with him was that he was demoted. Right,
Speaker 1: So this story is actually he's not the only one
Speaker 1: Oh really, I didn't know that, So tell me rich
Speaker 1: Rich Pearson he was demoted as well. Uh. And he
Speaker 1: was an excellent cops. He was a good persons, the
Speaker 1: Christian nante and shame so Detective Baron Morrigan who came forward. Uh.
Speaker 1: He didn't didn't have to, I guess right. He could
Speaker 1: have just gone on with his life. But he came
Speaker 1: forward and you know, did did what any good officer
Speaker 1: of law would do and share the information that he
Speaker 1: had discovered of who actually killed Eden and uh, and
Speaker 1: he was assigned to I think it was the night
Speaker 1: that the graveyard shift desk duty? Right? And why why
Speaker 1: did they do that, Susan? Well, because he told the
Speaker 1: trade and it was gonna make them all look like
Speaker 1: they were wrong, because they were wrong. And what about
Speaker 1: the other guy that you were just talking about, who
Speaker 1: also was demotive. What was his involvement because he hasn't
Speaker 1: come up in the story yet. He was I believe,
Speaker 1: if I'm correct, he was Baron Morgan's I think. So
Speaker 1: he stood by him, um right, un huh, and he
Speaker 1: talked with the Instance project to himsel okay, so they
Speaker 1: actually that's the two big tops I was tay about
Speaker 1: there is in this worm, right, So they weren't willing
Speaker 1: to to tow the line and just uh you know,
Speaker 1: hide and obscure the truth and do everything else that
Speaker 1: they would, um officers for doing the right thing. They
Speaker 1: really treating him badly, right, and so um, yeah, what
Speaker 1: happened that is that you know, I'm actually going back
Speaker 1: to my research and it says here that in connection
Speaker 1: with your case, Harwood, Superior UH Commissioner Rodney Brewer complained
Speaker 1: to the UH Louis Louisville p D Chief and longtime
Speaker 1: friend Steve Conrad, that Detective Morgan was meddling in a
Speaker 1: state police case. Police case, he was meddling in a
Speaker 1: case by identifying the actual killer. That's an interesting definition
Speaker 1: of meddling. And so Conrad then transferred Morgan too the
Speaker 1: graveyard shift as a patrol officer. Now the happy ending
Speaker 1: to that part of the story, if there could be
Speaker 1: such a thing, is that more ensued uh under the
Speaker 1: you know saying that the assignment change was punishment for
Speaker 1: bringing Gerald's confession to light. And he actually did finally
Speaker 1: receive a four fifty thousand dollars settlement. Um, so good
Speaker 1: for him, you know what, I hope he uh. I
Speaker 1: hope he is enjoying the money and that he's living
Speaker 1: a happy life whatever he's doing. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's still on the force or not, but I wish
Speaker 1: him well. I wish there were more people like him
Speaker 1: out there, and I know there are. That's chief police,
Speaker 1: all right. What's his name again? The chief was Steve Conrad. Conrad.
Speaker 1: That's why I could and thank you his name and nothing.
Speaker 1: Then I should have known what's my own? He went
Speaker 1: out of his way and make sure if none's covered
Speaker 1: us and the chief didn't get out, it's just as guilty.
Speaker 1: It's it's a it's an unbelievable conspiracy, and it's made
Speaker 1: to me um, even another layer of evil, the idea
Speaker 1: that they would do this to you, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: a woman of humble means who already is facing an
Speaker 1: uphill battle due to your injury, your your disability, and
Speaker 1: and that like the fact that they are totally fine with,
Speaker 1: you know, perpetrating this horrendous injustice on you. Meanwhile, not,
Speaker 1: of course, we all know that when you convict the
Speaker 1: wrong person, which they knew they were doing, you ignore
Speaker 1: the right person. And this guy you know, went out
Speaker 1: and killed other people they done. Had they done their job,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they would have caught him or not.
Speaker 1: At least they would have had a chance, and maybe
Speaker 1: they could have saved some other people's lives who didn't
Speaker 1: need to die in the first place. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: as you said, there's a lot of victims in this story,
Speaker 1: are a lot of victims in this story. And there's
Speaker 1: a lot of villains in this because what happened to
Speaker 1: make and happen to anybody. And that's I want and
Speaker 1: I want everyone to know that. And I also want
Speaker 1: to give another shout out to the Kentucky Innocence Project,
Speaker 1: and I hope that people will will donate, uh and
Speaker 1: get involved and go to the Kentucky Instance Project website
Speaker 1: and and help um because the great work that they
Speaker 1: did in Susan's case, I'm sure there are many many
Speaker 1: other examples, and I want to get to know more
Speaker 1: about their work. So, UM, So Susan, for you, now,
Speaker 1: do you have your lawsuit pending? Um? The courts have
Speaker 1: said that you can only sue Harwood, right, Um, they're
Speaker 1: not even letting you sue anybody else. Is that's still
Speaker 1: the state of affairs that we're in it still is.
Speaker 1: I don't understand that, but that's lady is. But at
Speaker 1: least you're shooing him and that will feel good to
Speaker 1: UH to win that, and I know you will because
Speaker 1: now you have the dream team on your side, like
Speaker 1: you said, um and you have overwhelming you have overwhelming evidence.
Speaker 1: So I'm very You know what would make me happy.
Speaker 1: I'd like would to be arrested and take him to
Speaker 1: the hospital and hand cuff to the bed with his
Speaker 1: feet in his arms and tortured all night lyle and
Speaker 1: thrown in county jail for nineteen months and then thrown
Speaker 1: in UH but stay prison for four more years, which
Speaker 1: would be a total of six and a half years.
Speaker 1: That's what I'd like to sit happen to him. He
Speaker 1: needs to be done just the way he had me done,
Speaker 1: and nothing less. It's gonna make me happy. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't um. I don't think anyone can fault you for
Speaker 1: feeling that way, and I'm certainly not going to um
Speaker 1: so for murther And you say you didn't do it,
Speaker 1: they're really hard on you. I mean I had I
Speaker 1: wasn't a bad looking girl when I got locked up.
Speaker 1: I had pretty smile on my pretty white teeth, and
Speaker 1: I was always proud of him, and that Dennis and
Speaker 1: all that NASA prison. They've run to my teeth. I've
Speaker 1: got five teeth left, and that's it. And that's just
Speaker 1: you have a teeth. It's just one thing. Stuff that
Speaker 1: happens to your body while you're in there, stuff that
Speaker 1: happens to your mind, and your emotional steak while you're
Speaker 1: in there, and your mental steak. It's it's overwhelming to
Speaker 1: wake up every day and you're still there and you
Speaker 1: didn't do it, and nobody believes you. And that's a
Speaker 1: long Six and a half years is a long time.
Speaker 1: It is a long time. And I have seen pictures
Speaker 1: of you and you were and you still are a
Speaker 1: beautiful woman. So um, they can't take that away from you. Um.
Speaker 1: So the um the two last points I want to cover. Um.
Speaker 1: One is what is your life like now? Um? I
Speaker 1: know this thing is pending. How are you living? How
Speaker 1: are you getting by? What can people do to help?
Speaker 1: That's what I'd like to know, including me. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't like to complain much. I'm thankful I'm alive,
Speaker 1: and I'm thankful I have everyth over in my head,
Speaker 1: mind you living at one they drink apartment in the
Speaker 1: housing projects. It's not my house and barn and BT
Speaker 1: shop and bake region, my yard and my animals and everything.
Speaker 1: It's nothing like that anymore. It's just me and my
Speaker 1: dog with two cats in the one day room apartment
Speaker 1: and we're trying to live on forty five dollars with
Speaker 1: the food stands a month. Have you, um, and and
Speaker 1: we're going to help you for sure, But have you
Speaker 1: set up any kind of go fund me or any
Speaker 1: kind of has anybody help you with that? Because we
Speaker 1: can do that as well and try to raise raise money.
Speaker 1: I don't have the Internet or a computer or one
Speaker 1: of those fancy telephones or anything like that, so I
Speaker 1: don't know anything about anything like that. Everything turned into
Speaker 1: sterized while I was in prison, and I got it out.
Speaker 1: Everything's going to computers and expensive phones and nobody will
Speaker 1: pump your gas anymore. Thing's really changed in that six
Speaker 1: and a half years. So um so susan um what
Speaker 1: I guess. The only thing I want to know now
Speaker 1: really is what else? Whatever else you want to say?
Speaker 1: I mean, i'd like to say at this point in
Speaker 1: the show, first of all, thank you, um for being here,
Speaker 1: I mean your your strength and your courage or just
Speaker 1: beyond the beyond. And um uh you know we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna do everything we can to help you get
Speaker 1: back on your feet, get back to just say better,
Speaker 1: whatever we can to help you get back some of
Speaker 1: what you've lost. Um, I get back to normal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we can't get we can't get you back your time.
Speaker 1: But UM, I don't remember what normal like. Well, let's
Speaker 1: see what we can figure out. And then UM, on
Speaker 1: top of that, this is a part of the show
Speaker 1: where as we wrap up. UM. I always say it's
Speaker 1: my favorite part of the show because it's part where
Speaker 1: I stopped talking and I just listen and UM, and
Speaker 1: I ask you what, um? What? What? What are your
Speaker 1: final thoughts? Is there anything else that you want to share?
Speaker 1: And you can talk about anything you want. UM, take
Speaker 1: the last few minutes and tell the audience it's probably
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand people going to hear your voice. What
Speaker 1: what would you like them to know? Well, whatever you
Speaker 1: do there, don't make me nervous about it. I'll takes
Speaker 1: people now, you know. I laugh because I have to.
Speaker 1: I gotta get through every day. And you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like all that prison time I did and aren't
Speaker 1: how badly I was treated in there and everything it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to talk about. I try to forget it.
Speaker 1: Uh often said I wish there was a peal I
Speaker 1: could take it and just make me forget about all that.
Speaker 1: But uh, I haven't forgot about it, chip, but I'm
Speaker 1: working on it. I finally put having nightmares about it.
Speaker 1: My church helps me a lot to say. When my
Speaker 1: Sunday school ladies pray for something, we get it done.
Speaker 1: And my church has uh stuck with me through it all,
Speaker 1: and I'm just so thankful to have that. And uh
Speaker 1: this a little community on living in even though it's
Speaker 1: um my little favorite poorhouse. But there's some few decent
Speaker 1: people here and I've made a couple of friends or so,
Speaker 1: and uh life starting to get better. Uh I don't
Speaker 1: think I'll I'll never be the same. There's things that
Speaker 1: that get to me that I'll never get over. Us, Tutor,
Speaker 1: I should get what I'm doing, what I'm saying, because
Speaker 1: they had me on a lot of uh psycho drugs.
Speaker 1: I call them with a lot of towards ing and
Speaker 1: real real strong step to help me get see that
Speaker 1: and they had me into the influence of that stuff
Speaker 1: so bad. I didn't even know who I was half
Speaker 1: the time, and it took its toe on my brain.
Speaker 1: Um to this day, you know, I still I eat
Speaker 1: real fast, like somebody's gonna take it away from me.
Speaker 1: And uh, watch them on my shoulder. I'm scared to death.
Speaker 1: Hard was gonna murder them me. But I don't trust
Speaker 1: him that all. And he's just that evil that he
Speaker 1: would sit out here in my apartment complex and wait
Speaker 1: for me to pass in front of my window, that
Speaker 1: little red dots on the wall, that light that's been
Speaker 1: gonna sit out Sometimes it just scares me to death.
Speaker 1: And uh, in the evenings wester gets dark. Uh turned
Speaker 1: everything off in my living room and the rest of
Speaker 1: my house and I go back to my bedroom. I
Speaker 1: just feel like I feel like I'm an open target
Speaker 1: for some reason when I'm in my living room and
Speaker 1: I don't feel safe until I get back there in
Speaker 1: my bedroom. And that's not normal either. I shouldn't feel
Speaker 1: that way. And the things that it bids my looks
Speaker 1: was horrible. Prisons really hard on on, you say, labeling
Speaker 1: when we even take care of that anymore. But all
Speaker 1: the time I missed with my family and my son
Speaker 1: and my father and my mom. I just missed so
Speaker 1: many years to sound and that can't be given back.
Speaker 1: That can't be replaced. There's just there ain't no getting
Speaker 1: that back. And I saw it, learned how to forgive
Speaker 1: Hardwood for doing this. But it ain't happen yet. But
Speaker 1: I'm not even asking God very hard to make me
Speaker 1: forgiving him. It's just not in my heart yet. But
Speaker 1: it's don't have to happen. I ain't getting into heaven.
Speaker 1: I can still go fishing. He didn't mess that up.
Speaker 1: Are you good at it? Yes? I am? Yes what
Speaker 1: I am? There you go? There you go, Um and
Speaker 1: you still have a great laugh, and you have a
Speaker 1: great attitude. Um and uh fishing you laughed too, I
Speaker 1: guarantee you. I'm from Manhattan. We don't know about fishing here,
Speaker 1: so I don't know. I wouldn't even know what the
Speaker 1: hell was going on. But that's beside the point. Um,
Speaker 1: So susan Um. All I can say is um, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm almost never at a loss for words, but I'm
Speaker 1: basically at a loss for words right now. I don't
Speaker 1: know what to say except to I just like to well,
Speaker 1: I can tell you what I'll say. All I can
Speaker 1: say is I'm gonna apologize to you for on behalf
Speaker 1: of America and the human race for what was done
Speaker 1: to you, because um, there's just no excuse for it.
Speaker 1: And uh and we're gonna do what we can to
Speaker 1: make it right. UM. And I want to thank Apple
Speaker 1: really knows. Um. Well, I want to thank you again
Speaker 1: for for taking your time and sharing your thoughts with us,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I want to wish you well
Speaker 1: and I want you to know that we'll be here
Speaker 1: to help you and support you and uh in any
Speaker 1: way we can. And uh and I just I wish
Speaker 1: you well and again, thank you, thank you for being here. Well.
Speaker 1: I hope with me having this topic today, but the
Speaker 1: people that are here and that maybe it will stop
Speaker 1: that happen and somebody you it will. You can be
Speaker 1: confident of that and UH. And now I want to
Speaker 1: thank the audience as well. You've been listening to an
Speaker 1: extra special, extraordinary edition of Wrongful Conviction with today's guest
Speaker 1: Susan King. Don't forget to give us a fantastic review.
Speaker 1: Wherever you get your podcasts, it really helps. And I'm
Speaker 1: a proud donor to the Innocence Project, and I really
Speaker 1: hope you'll join me in supporting this very important cause
Speaker 1: and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence
Speaker 1: Project dot over to learn how to donate and get involved.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and
Speaker 1: Kevin Wardis. The music on the show is by three
Speaker 1: time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
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Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam is a
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Speaker 1: Company Number one. The Wrong Time the Wind Was Wrong