Speaker 1: In seven, Tim Howard and his best friend Brian Day
Speaker 1: were avid drug users in the small town of Ashdown, Arkansas.
Speaker 1: Brian dealt drugs to support his habit, and it was
Speaker 1: no secret that he was in debt to some major players.
Speaker 1: On December thirteenth, seven, an anonymous caller notified police that
Speaker 1: a U haul parked on property owned by Tim Howard's
Speaker 1: family was dripping blood. When police cracked the padlock, they
Speaker 1: found Brian Day, severely beaten and shot with a thirty
Speaker 1: eight caliber bullet. When police want to tell Brian's wife,
Speaker 1: Shannon the bad news, they found her lifeless body in
Speaker 1: a closet under a mattress. The couple's seven month old boy, Trevor,
Speaker 1: was zipped into a duffel bag with an electrical cord
Speaker 1: wrapped around his neck, miraculously still alive. Tim knew about
Speaker 1: the drug deal Brian had coordinated that must have gone bad,
Speaker 1: so he understandably fled town, as did ten other people
Speaker 1: in Ashdown's underworld. Despite many obvious leads for the investigation,
Speaker 1: including aggressive characters seen making threats against Brian and Shannon.
Speaker 1: Just days before the murders, police heared in on their
Speaker 1: only black friend Tim Howard and his flighty behavior. With
Speaker 1: no physical evidence whatsoever connecting Tim to the crime that
Speaker 1: couldn't be explained away by his close friendship with the days,
Speaker 1: the state conjured up a motive completely based in fantasy,
Speaker 1: stirring up a visceral response from the jury that, along
Speaker 1: with a clear Brady violation, would send Tim Howard to
Speaker 1: death row. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam. That's me. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, and today I'm extremely excited to have to amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing guests, both heroes of mine, John Harden, who is
Speaker 1: private investigator and the co founder and director of Proclaim
Speaker 1: just As, an organization on whose board I proudly serve,
Speaker 1: and he is as a background in public affairs and
Speaker 1: political consulting, and he was a tremendous advocate for the
Speaker 1: West Memphis Three. So John, Welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Thanks Jason,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. And today the star of our
Speaker 1: show is Tim Howard. Tim was wrongfully convicted in not
Speaker 1: exonerated but parole on December two thousand seventeen. As I
Speaker 1: always say, I'm sorry you're here, but I'm happy you're here,
Speaker 1: so welcome to wrongful conviction and thanks for sharing your story.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. Yeah, and Tim, this case
Speaker 1: came with instructions, none of the signs pointed to you,
Speaker 1: and yet you ended up serving twenty years. So um,
Speaker 1: getting right into it. So this is December. An anonymous
Speaker 1: caller notified the Little River County Sheriff's office that blood
Speaker 1: was dripping from a U haul rental truck parked on
Speaker 1: property owned by the family of Tim Howard on a
Speaker 1: farm in southwest Arkansas and a little town called Ogden,
Speaker 1: population one s right. And when deputies arrived on the
Speaker 1: scene and they cracked the tracks padlock, they found Brian
Speaker 1: Day's body inside. He had been severely beaten and shot
Speaker 1: with a thirty eight caliber bullet. When they went to
Speaker 1: the Day's home to give his wife, Shannon the bad news,
Speaker 1: things got a lot worse. Her lifeless body was found
Speaker 1: slumped in a closet under a mattress, and the couple's
Speaker 1: seven month old child, the baby, Trevor Day, was found
Speaker 1: And this is I can't it's hard to even say.
Speaker 1: This was found in a zip duffel bag with an
Speaker 1: electrical cord tied around his neck, but by some miracle,
Speaker 1: he was alive. And then things get really weird because
Speaker 1: four days later, Timothy Leamont Howard, who's right here on
Speaker 1: the show with us now, was arrested and charged with
Speaker 1: the murders of the days as well as the attempted
Speaker 1: murder of their son Trevor. And this is where I
Speaker 1: gotta start scratching my head and go Tim, I mean,
Speaker 1: or John whoever wants to take this. What evidence did
Speaker 1: they have to connect you to these murders? What was
Speaker 1: starting out? Nothing? I mean, uh, they said it was
Speaker 1: my behavior, but I guess I did the same thing
Speaker 1: other people don't. When we find out what had happened,
Speaker 1: we all kind of fled and waited for the dust
Speaker 1: to settle, because you know, we were all in illegal
Speaker 1: activities and our little circle so to speak. Now, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I understand why they considered me a
Speaker 1: suspect because me and Brown were close with best friends,
Speaker 1: and we were getting that night on and all. But
Speaker 1: when it got down to evidence gathering, it was just
Speaker 1: all circumstantial and they just reigned with it. They quit looking.
Speaker 1: And you guys were involved with drugs, but did you
Speaker 1: have a violent history or past. No, no, no, I've
Speaker 1: been in the jail for speed and taking my whole life.
Speaker 1: I don't have any ask for any kind of balance
Speaker 1: that I was a happy, god looking kind of guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, at best you could say I was a
Speaker 1: drug user, womanizer and that type thing. But no violence
Speaker 1: in my history at all. Right, And this is a
Speaker 1: brutally violent crime. I mean, this is not something that
Speaker 1: somebody just flies off the handle and goes and murders
Speaker 1: the whole family. It is a miracle that the little
Speaker 1: boy was alive. And John, I mean I want to
Speaker 1: turn to you for a second, because the victim himself,
Speaker 1: he was involved in some really shady stuff. There were
Speaker 1: reasons for people to want to kill him. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about that. Yeah, So Brian was involved in drug dealing,
Speaker 1: and we were able to uncover a lot of things
Speaker 1: in our investigation that really suggested that he owed a
Speaker 1: lot of money, big money to maybe some not good characters.
Speaker 1: And that is a much more likely scenario given the
Speaker 1: nature of the crime, that it was something related to
Speaker 1: him owing money to sort of hire in drug dealers.
Speaker 1: And there's a couple of possibilities as to you know,
Speaker 1: who actually did the crime well, And let's talk about this, right,
Speaker 1: because two weeks before the murders, Brian was arrested alongside
Speaker 1: another dealer's name was Mike May, and it was rumored
Speaker 1: that Brian may have avoided jail time by snitching. Right,
Speaker 1: we know how people react to that. In the underworld.
Speaker 1: There were also witnesses who had witnessed violent and quote
Speaker 1: unquote unpleasant individuals arguing with the Days about money in
Speaker 1: the week leading up to the murders, and just days
Speaker 1: before the murders, Shannon Day was heard saying that if
Speaker 1: anything happened to her or Brian, of course Shanton was
Speaker 1: his wife, it would be Kenny chicken Fields, who was
Speaker 1: one of Brian's main suppliers, who would be responsible. But
Speaker 1: authorities somehow managed to overlook all of these potential suspects
Speaker 1: and they zeroed in on the Day's only black friend,
Speaker 1: Tim Howard. Now you know, it's hard not to say
Speaker 1: that there may have been some inherent bias towards him
Speaker 1: because he is a person of color in a place
Speaker 1: that was not very racially diverse. But what's interesting is, Tim,
Speaker 1: you were so close to them, and they made a
Speaker 1: big deal out of this. Because of course, some of
Speaker 1: your biological evidence was in their house because he was
Speaker 1: your best friend, right. And when I say he was
Speaker 1: your best friend to the extent that you actually accompanied
Speaker 1: his wife to the hospital when she went to labor, right,
Speaker 1: and he was out scoring meth and you took her
Speaker 1: to the hospital, I mean that that's a pretty close friend.
Speaker 1: I don't know who you know who would do a
Speaker 1: thing like that other than somebody's best friend. So, Tim,
Speaker 1: they had what they considered to be evidence, um, which
Speaker 1: was your fingerprints on a mountain dew bottle found inside
Speaker 1: the home of the victims, and also your fingerprints in
Speaker 1: or on the truck. But that's easily understandable and easily
Speaker 1: explained by the fact that you were literally best friends,
Speaker 1: and you were in and out of the house all
Speaker 1: the time. Yes, I mean we we at one point
Speaker 1: we actually right across the street from each other. I Mean.
Speaker 1: The thing about it was when they said biological evidence
Speaker 1: in the house, head, they look, I have clothes in
Speaker 1: the closet, shoes, you know, because I'm eating and out.
Speaker 1: He's the same thing at my house. He had closed
Speaker 1: at my house. I mean, so naturally it would have
Speaker 1: been odd not to find my fingerprints, do anythink else
Speaker 1: around the house. And meanwhile, your defense argued, which would
Speaker 1: seem to be a good argument, basically what we had
Speaker 1: said before, which was that Brian was heavily in debt
Speaker 1: and was killed by drug dealers who were tired of
Speaker 1: his Shenanigan's right. I mean, that's you know, that would
Speaker 1: seem to be a valid theory. But meanwhile, the prosecution
Speaker 1: they theorized, and they advanced the theory. Actually, I should say,
Speaker 1: they accused you of killing them in a quote unquote
Speaker 1: meth induced rage, right, because they said you wanted money.
Speaker 1: And then this is where it gets to be ridiculous, right,
Speaker 1: is that their theory was that you had been upset
Speaker 1: after hearing that Shannon might have been pregnant with your baby.
Speaker 1: Even though and I know this might be a sensitive topic,
Speaker 1: but even though you were sterile, right, it was known
Speaker 1: that you were sterile because you had found out a
Speaker 1: couple of years earlier. I knew for several years before
Speaker 1: that that I couldn't have kids, and my wife at
Speaker 1: the time had ride, so we went to a doctor
Speaker 1: to found out why. End up. The sad part about
Speaker 1: it is, but when they put that theory forward to
Speaker 1: the jury. They knew it wasn't true because it was
Speaker 1: in the notes when the medical examiner called him and said, look,
Speaker 1: she just finished her minstrel um. You know that she
Speaker 1: was absolutely not pregnant. But they still advanced that three
Speaker 1: because it did inflame the jury. But as far as
Speaker 1: other drug dealers there in Ashdown that he owed money too.
Speaker 1: Like the Kenny chicken Fields. The town was so small
Speaker 1: to where everybody grew up together and they went to
Speaker 1: school together, and you know they their friends have been
Speaker 1: around there forever. And uh, when you get locked up
Speaker 1: in a place like them, they have a capital trial,
Speaker 1: they give you two lawyers. You gotta take a local
Speaker 1: council and they give you one out a little rock.
Speaker 1: My attorney out a little rock was Matt Carter at
Speaker 1: the time, great attorney, you know, just Overwham with this case,
Speaker 1: and he had a ton of educations at the same time.
Speaker 1: But my local council, when Mac brought up the name
Speaker 1: Kenny chicken Fields, the first thing my local attorney says, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know he wouldn't do anything like this, and this
Speaker 1: is a out is supposed to be on my side,
Speaker 1: you know. So at that particular time, I had thought,
Speaker 1: you know, he's telling this other side everything that we're
Speaker 1: doing now. I mean, if he you're gonna defend somebody
Speaker 1: that you don't even investigated it because you grew up
Speaker 1: with him, I mean, I don't stand a chance here.
Speaker 1: But then there's another thing which is actually kind of weird,
Speaker 1: which is this whole thing with the work boots that
Speaker 1: were found like two miles from the crime scene. Can
Speaker 1: one of you guys explain that whole aspect of this.
Speaker 1: I can explain it to a point. Okay. When when
Speaker 1: we went to get this U haul truck, I was
Speaker 1: to take it to my house, so I use it
Speaker 1: like a vehicle. I had boots sitting in the floor
Speaker 1: along with a bag and several other objects as I
Speaker 1: drove around town and left it in there because the
Speaker 1: truck was going to be with Brian Um. When they
Speaker 1: found these boots there down at the bottom of a
Speaker 1: ravine a couple of miles from the crime scene, there's
Speaker 1: blood on these boots, so they tested them. They found
Speaker 1: what they called at the time Michael conjugal DNA that
Speaker 1: said that it was mine. But there were also other
Speaker 1: hairs in this boot to match nobody. It didn't match me,
Speaker 1: it didn't match Brian or any of the girls that
Speaker 1: were with me at the time, and that they had
Speaker 1: no idea who it was. But the prosecutor's idea was,
Speaker 1: I drove by this ravine in such a panic and
Speaker 1: I just throw them out the window, and you know
Speaker 1: it's two or three d feet down to this place.
Speaker 1: They said I was trying to hit the water. There's
Speaker 1: alluded it that this is where the murder weapon is,
Speaker 1: which they never found. But the way they're explained, there
Speaker 1: are actual feet print leading from the boots. Somebody put
Speaker 1: them there. Why we don't know. At best, you can
Speaker 1: say somebody used them to do the murder in or
Speaker 1: put them on after two, do whatever so they wouldn't
Speaker 1: get bled on their shoes. But they put my ex
Speaker 1: wife off there testifying yes, I bought him these boots
Speaker 1: back during this time, and we offered him all my
Speaker 1: clothes that I was wearing that night. They wouldn't take.
Speaker 1: They never took because they said the person should have
Speaker 1: been a bloody mess. You also had this ridiculous forensic
Speaker 1: quote unquote scientists. This would be laughable if it wasn't
Speaker 1: so serious. But and this really didn't come up till later, right,
Speaker 1: because in two thousand and eleven, and I want to
Speaker 1: get back to the trial, but when the handwritten notes
Speaker 1: came out from the DNA technician who had testified to
Speaker 1: your trial. The notes printed on the lab reports, which
Speaker 1: were over of course of three months back when you're
Speaker 1: on trial, contained phrases such as CAP had flipped open
Speaker 1: while spinning source of the problem, GEL did not run properly,
Speaker 1: inadvertently erased, and of course random spurious contaminants. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And the real kicker is, you know, the prosecution had
Speaker 1: those notes from the lab technician and they withheld them
Speaker 1: from time's defense teams. So that's ultimately how we got
Speaker 1: his conviction overturned was discovering that that Brady violation, that
Speaker 1: was evidence that the state should have disclosed and turned over,
Speaker 1: and they did not, and and we had to go
Speaker 1: back in and find that, find those notes, and that's
Speaker 1: really what led to the conviction being overturned. Listening to
Speaker 1: this story, it has now occurred to me that they
Speaker 1: used the DNA testing to prove that those were your boots,
Speaker 1: then they find and ignore another contributor of the boots
Speaker 1: that is not you, Brian or anyone in your immediate circle,
Speaker 1: but likely the actual killer's DNA. I mean, they had
Speaker 1: the freakently that they needed to get the real killer.
Speaker 1: And the irony of the whole situation is that if
Speaker 1: they weren't so damn incompetent and shady in their attempt
Speaker 1: to get a conviction, you would be dead right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did you know at the time you were facing I
Speaker 1: possible death sentence. I had no idea that it was
Speaker 1: gonna go as far as it did, And even when
Speaker 1: they formally arrested me, still I thought, Okay, I'll get
Speaker 1: out on bun and we'll figure it out up until
Speaker 1: I met Matt Carter and he told me, is hey,
Speaker 1: you're facing the death penalty. I mean, I was just
Speaker 1: I was floored. As the trial unwound, you had this
Speaker 1: one attorney who was basically, uh, not only not doing
Speaker 1: a great job for you, but was almost serving as
Speaker 1: an adjunct prosecutor, and you had evidence being withheld. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of dirty tricks going on. You knew
Speaker 1: you were innocent, but when the jury went out, how
Speaker 1: long did they deliberate for? It was a very long
Speaker 1: but one of the things about that is. Don't don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I wasn't angels start with. I was,
Speaker 1: like I said, a womanager, a thief, and a drug usual,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't a killer. But as far as a trial,
Speaker 1: it the only lasted like three days. So while they
Speaker 1: were out deliberating, the sheriff and his deputies came up
Speaker 1: and said, Okay, here's what we're gonna do. When they
Speaker 1: give the verdict. We're gonna take you and your family
Speaker 1: through this tunnel and we're gonna put you all in
Speaker 1: the car so nobody has to see. Y'll, we're gonna leave.
Speaker 1: Even he didn't think I was getting convicted, they were
Speaker 1: making an escape plan. Then now Jerry came back and
Speaker 1: said guilty. One of the deputies that when I first
Speaker 1: got locked up, that made him couldn't stand it. You
Speaker 1: we had become the best of friends. He broke down
Speaker 1: the start crying. He just couldn't believe it. I was
Speaker 1: in shock because I just like they proved nothing with
Speaker 1: all that they went through. As far as how you feel,
Speaker 1: you just kind of numb because it all goes so quickly.
Speaker 1: Because after the verdict, they give the verdict, they whisk
Speaker 1: you out. That night and take you straight to death,
Speaker 1: throw you know, the very next morning. Well, well, I
Speaker 1: just want to go back for a second, because we
Speaker 1: can't skim over a gloss over the thing about the sheriff.
Speaker 1: So the sheriff was an adversary of yours, if I
Speaker 1: understand you correctly, when you first went in there, and
Speaker 1: by the time the trial came around, he was so
Speaker 1: convinced of your innocence. He was preparing to put you
Speaker 1: through the back tunnel with your family, and he was active.
Speaker 1: He actually, I mean you're saying, he cried when the
Speaker 1: verdict was read. Yes, when I first got locked up,
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, when Danny Russell became sure
Speaker 1: if I was his first call out, I was at
Speaker 1: a motel with a particular young lady. Her sister, who
Speaker 1: I was leaving at the time, came down and set
Speaker 1: my clothes on fire outside of the hotel room. And
Speaker 1: Danny came down on the first call and he said, man,
Speaker 1: what did you do? And he talked to me and
Speaker 1: talked written we kind of you know, laughed about it,
Speaker 1: and went on. He he arrested her, but he said
Speaker 1: I'll let it go if you call him mom to
Speaker 1: come get her. But when he arrested me for this
Speaker 1: years later, this girl was my girlfriend at the time
Speaker 1: still and we got married in his jail. But he
Speaker 1: got to know me the first three months and jailed.
Speaker 1: You know how phone calls and gets expensive in there.
Speaker 1: He allowed my family to buy a phone card while
Speaker 1: could coming up every night and called my children, and
Speaker 1: the guard who I told you I couldn't stand at
Speaker 1: the time, his name was, was Mike. We became the
Speaker 1: best friend. He would get stuff with my daughter for
Speaker 1: the prom I mean, pay for her dress itself. When
Speaker 1: my kids coming to business, he made a special deal
Speaker 1: when they could come back there and see me in
Speaker 1: their office. I mean, so, I guess I'm sent it
Speaker 1: to say this. Yes, I had a tough ordeal in
Speaker 1: the jail, but as I got to know the people
Speaker 1: stay there all that time, it was it's hard not
Speaker 1: to get attached to each other when they see who
Speaker 1: you really are. I guess what you could say, Well,
Speaker 1: that speaks to your character as well. But it's interesting
Speaker 1: to know that that type of friendship developed, and moreover,
Speaker 1: that the sheriff himself became so convinced of your innocence. John.
Speaker 1: In this case, how could the jury have gotten it's
Speaker 1: so wrong that even the sheriff, who you know, went
Speaker 1: into this obviously with a preconceived notion that Tim was guilty.
Speaker 1: How could they have gotten this so wrong? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think there's a few things that play here. And
Speaker 1: you know, me being a Native arkans and um, I
Speaker 1: can speak to some of the racial components in the
Speaker 1: whole state and Little River County ashdown Agen. Listen, the
Speaker 1: game was rigged to start with um. At Tim's first
Speaker 1: trial and his second trial these years later, it was
Speaker 1: still a thing of you know, Tim being a black
Speaker 1: man dates white women, dresses more, you know, like a
Speaker 1: cowboy boots hat, you know, cowboy hat, the whole nine yards.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was the juries of both trials were
Speaker 1: picked and designed to have that prejudice, and I think
Speaker 1: that went a long ways to convicting Tim. It was
Speaker 1: heavy on emotions. I mean, when you got you know,
Speaker 1: husband and wife who who are brutally killed, but then
Speaker 1: you've got you know, a seven month old child. It
Speaker 1: was just a very emotional trial, both of them. Well,
Speaker 1: and you got the prosecutor who in his closing arguments
Speaker 1: saying stuff like the last thing, this mother's scene was
Speaker 1: him stand there and her baby hanging by a cord,
Speaker 1: her last I mean, who would not be in rage? Right,
Speaker 1: So it was it was so heavy on the emotional
Speaker 1: side rather than the evidence side. Then we did have
Speaker 1: this racial component that went with it. And you know Jasons,
Speaker 1: as you know, I mean, jury is just sometimes they
Speaker 1: can't sniff it all out. And this is one of
Speaker 1: those times where I think they were so emotional about
Speaker 1: the tragedy, particularly for for Trevor, that they couldn't see
Speaker 1: beyond it. So, Tim, you're convicted taking to death row
Speaker 1: the next day, and can you explain what death row
Speaker 1: was like? It is a lot of people say, well,
Speaker 1: go in your bathroom and ship to do it and
Speaker 1: you find out what it's like. You can in a sense.
Speaker 1: But the difference is you won't get the feeling of
Speaker 1: death row because you can open your bathroom do it anytime.
Speaker 1: There are people down there who were there when I
Speaker 1: first got there. There are not the same people now
Speaker 1: before I left. They've lost their mind. It's crazy to
Speaker 1: me that everybody doesn't lose their mind in that scenario,
Speaker 1: and including you. I mean, it's it's it's remarkable the
Speaker 1: human spirit. And I hear it in your voice. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's unbelievable. But I want to make one thing
Speaker 1: perfectly clear. I didn't do this by myself. I had
Speaker 1: a great support team. I mean, you get letters when
Speaker 1: you go to death Row all the time from different people,
Speaker 1: and of course most of the curiosity seekres so they
Speaker 1: don't last very long. But I got a letter from
Speaker 1: a lady name in the Basett who is now married
Speaker 1: to Morrow Leverett. But I now called this woman my mother.
Speaker 1: She sent me a letter and she says, here's twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars. She was running the thing called a court
Speaker 1: bullet from at the time. If you want to write back,
Speaker 1: here's some money for stamps. Uh. If you don't, here's
Speaker 1: a money for commissary or whatever. Just know somebody's at
Speaker 1: here thinking about you. I started writing to her and
Speaker 1: we started a penpow relationship type thing then. And she's
Speaker 1: a great teacher and a great person to talk to.
Speaker 1: But she never wrote a person in her life. The
Speaker 1: only reason I feel like I'm saying now is because
Speaker 1: of the people who stepped in once I got there,
Speaker 1: when they heard what we're going on. And I got
Speaker 1: that the first four to three decisions on my direct
Speaker 1: appeal that ever happened. So, Tim, can you take us
Speaker 1: through how the appeals process work? Okay, when you first
Speaker 1: get the death row, you have what you call a
Speaker 1: direct appeal, and it happens within the first year that
Speaker 1: you're there, and usually it is rubber stamp and it's
Speaker 1: usually seven zero six to one or something like that.
Speaker 1: My first attorn under's name was Janice Vom. She was
Speaker 1: a civil attorney retired now. Unbeknowns Shim at the time,
Speaker 1: that was the best thing that would happened to me
Speaker 1: because this woman is meticulous with her research. She's the
Speaker 1: first one that found these notes and put them in
Speaker 1: my direct appeal. She put it everything in the kitchen sink,
Speaker 1: and it comes back with its four three decision. Morow
Speaker 1: lebrit came in, she wrote an article and people start
Speaker 1: paying attention because of there's never been a four three
Speaker 1: decision in the death row case ever. My whole process
Speaker 1: takes off from there, and John and Proclaimed got involved,
Speaker 1: and it was just I can't tell you all things
Speaker 1: they did because I wasn't there, but I know they
Speaker 1: worked a lot of hours going here and going there
Speaker 1: and interviewing this with inter of your net witness, and
Speaker 1: it was it takes more than two people, it takes
Speaker 1: more than three people. I mean, it's a whole village
Speaker 1: that's gotta do this. So, you know, we got involved
Speaker 1: early on through Mara uh Mara and her wife Linda
Speaker 1: that Tim was referring to. She Maura called me and said, John, listen,
Speaker 1: you and Jason are just starting this organization and this
Speaker 1: is the first case out of the gate. And so
Speaker 1: we immediately started reviewing. When when Maura Leverett asked me
Speaker 1: to review something, I reviewed something, you know, and Tim's right.
Speaker 1: We we did a lot of investigation. So, John, what
Speaker 1: was the key that led to Tim being granted the
Speaker 1: second trial that ultimately turned out to be so consequential. Yeah,
Speaker 1: The biggest thing that we turned up that really led
Speaker 1: to this new trial was it was a direct Brady
Speaker 1: violation from the state. We had these handwritten notes from
Speaker 1: the DNA technician where she put in there that the
Speaker 1: samples were contaminated and that was not disclosed to Tim's
Speaker 1: defense team. So one we discovered that that was really
Speaker 1: the smoking guns, so to speak, that that led to
Speaker 1: the new trial. Genesis Telli me, this whole time, Tim
Speaker 1: you're eventually gonna get a new trial. You just gotta
Speaker 1: we just gotta find you the write lawyer. So that
Speaker 1: was around two thousand and eleven when you found out
Speaker 1: about the Brady violation and found a petition with the
Speaker 1: Arkansas Supreme Court. Then sometime around two thousand thirteen, Patrick Banker,
Speaker 1: I started representing Tim. If you're gonna have one lawyer
Speaker 1: in Arkansas, in the whole state that you want on
Speaker 1: a case like this, is Patrick Banker Tomorrow. And I
Speaker 1: talked to Patrick, and he took the case and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we were able to help him investigate the
Speaker 1: case and and give a lot of support. You know,
Speaker 1: Patrick Banker at the time did a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot of work. And um sitting in the court. We
Speaker 1: came for him, and there's nobody in the courtroom but
Speaker 1: the prosecutor, me and my lawyers and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a few family members. The judge at the time. He's
Speaker 1: sitting and he's reading off this stuff about this article,
Speaker 1: about these cal something about that, and he says as
Speaker 1: much as it pains me, and and I look up
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what's he fixing to say? And he
Speaker 1: kind of goes along those lines, and he's fixing to
Speaker 1: do something he really don't want to do. And he says, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to give us to how the new
Speaker 1: trial and I about fell over. I did not believe
Speaker 1: what he had just said. And it went from there
Speaker 1: and my second trial, like I said, and it was
Speaker 1: a whole lot different from the first. It was like
Speaker 1: watching a lawyer on TV. I mean, he was extremely thorough.
Speaker 1: If there was a blood expert up there, you thought
Speaker 1: he was a blood expert. If there was a gun
Speaker 1: expert there, you thought Patrick was a gun expert. And
Speaker 1: he wasn't the only one there. There was elated from
Speaker 1: the public, Findish commnstion Nam, Kate Street, excellent job, and
Speaker 1: they went through each witness against me one by one
Speaker 1: and discredited him. At his second trial, he was charged
Speaker 1: with three capital crimes, three first degree crimes, three second
Speaker 1: degree crimes. And after a two and a half week trial,
Speaker 1: the jury got the case the friday night of Mother's
Speaker 1: Day weekend or Father mother Day, Other's Day weekend, the
Speaker 1: friday night of Mother's Day weekend, and we had some
Speaker 1: indication from jury questions that there's probably going to be
Speaker 1: a compromised verdict. And sure enough, that's what happened. So
Speaker 1: about midnight on Friday night, after a two and a
Speaker 1: half week trial, Uh, they came down and acquitted him
Speaker 1: of all the first degree charges, acquitted him of all
Speaker 1: the capital charges, convicted him of second degree charges, with
Speaker 1: the idea that his sentence would amount to time served.
Speaker 1: And so that was the compromise that the jury had
Speaker 1: reached after this long ordeal on this holiday weekend. And
Speaker 1: we've confirmed that with jurors you know who. We're supportive
Speaker 1: of Tim after that verdict, who was sending him money
Speaker 1: in all kinds of things. So Tim is actually not exonerated.
Speaker 1: It's one of these imperfect situations, Jason, that we know
Speaker 1: so much about, where he's off a death throw. He's
Speaker 1: a free man. He's sitting here with us right now.
Speaker 1: But it's an imperfect solution and I want it known
Speaker 1: to it. They gave me that. I didn't accept anything.
Speaker 1: I'm still telling everybody I'm innocent. It wasn't one of
Speaker 1: those things where Okay, we got this deal, here's what
Speaker 1: you gotta take. This is what they came up with,
Speaker 1: and they asked specific questions. They even signed a piece
Speaker 1: of paper saying we expect for him to go back
Speaker 1: to prison, to get in number and be let out
Speaker 1: within two weeks. This is what we agreed to, which,
Speaker 1: of course that didn't happen. I had to spend another
Speaker 1: two years in prison after autumn rigging role. After my conviction,
Speaker 1: I became friends with a few of the jurors and
Speaker 1: found out what it was like in that Drew room.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just the compromise was, Okay, we don't
Speaker 1: believe you did it, but we believe you know who did.
Speaker 1: It's not telling us, so you're not, you know, leaving
Speaker 1: here Scott free. Um. It was a compromise that if
Speaker 1: they hadn't made that, they had a hung jury. And
Speaker 1: the ones who were supporting me thought, if he has
Speaker 1: to come back, what if he gets another jury that
Speaker 1: convicts him again all together, you know, everybody against him,
Speaker 1: So they want to take that chance. And they also
Speaker 1: didn't want to stay Mother's Day weekend. Yeah it's you
Speaker 1: know that and that was exactly SI. So they want
Speaker 1: to go home to the kids. One girl even broke
Speaker 1: down crowning it, and she she was for me at first.
Speaker 1: She changed her mind because she said she was just
Speaker 1: tired of argument and she wanted to go home to
Speaker 1: her kids. She was willing to send me to prison
Speaker 1: because she was tired and real to go home to
Speaker 1: her kids, not because she believed because she was on
Speaker 1: my side at first. Yeah, it's just it's just different. Tim.
Speaker 1: Ultimately it took until over two years later, December of
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen, Tim Howard was finally granted parole,
Speaker 1: over twenty years after his wrongful conviction, and released from prison.
Speaker 1: Uh at home in time for Christmas. Um. With all
Speaker 1: the villains in this story and all the you know,
Speaker 1: all the people who either mistreated you, let you down, UM,
Speaker 1: who turned out to be either corrupt or incompetent or dishonest. Uh,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of heroes in this story too,
Speaker 1: and Patrick certainly one of them. John proclaimed justice people. UM.
Speaker 1: There are some jurors obviously who stuck by their guns
Speaker 1: and um, in spite of the pressure I'm sure they
Speaker 1: felt in the jury room. Uh. They it's clear from
Speaker 1: hearing exactly what happened that they knew you were innocent
Speaker 1: and they wanted to do the right thing. But they're
Speaker 1: probably a couple of people in there that just were
Speaker 1: refusing and UM, that's not excusable, but it's good to
Speaker 1: recognize the people who come out in this story. And
Speaker 1: even the woman who wrote to you gave you hope.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of good from this and
Speaker 1: you're here as a result of those people. So. Um,
Speaker 1: So that's actually a good reason to turn to John,
Speaker 1: because before we get to the the wrap up of
Speaker 1: the show, John, can you talk about proclaimed justice, because
Speaker 1: you guys have been doing amazing work. I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, batting above your weight or whatever that phrases. Right,
Speaker 1: um um, there have been quite a few exonerations that
Speaker 1: have come from the work that you and Jason and
Speaker 1: your team have done. I've enjoyed dealing with you, both
Speaker 1: as a member of the board and also as someone
Speaker 1: who's worked with you on cases. Talk about talk about
Speaker 1: proclaimed justice and and and if you could tell people
Speaker 1: how they can get involved, whether it's the simple as
Speaker 1: sending a check or going to a website, or or
Speaker 1: getting involved on a deeper level. Yeah. So, um, we
Speaker 1: were born out of the West Memphis three case. I
Speaker 1: was an activist in the West Memphis three case, and
Speaker 1: once we got those guys out, Jason Baldwin and I
Speaker 1: talked about starting we wanted to keep that network together
Speaker 1: of notable people of you know, folks all over the
Speaker 1: world who had supported that case, and we just had
Speaker 1: the idea to start this organization and try to keep
Speaker 1: that notework together to advocate for other victims of rumful convictions.
Speaker 1: So we started this after Jason and Damien and Jesse
Speaker 1: got out of prison, and uh, Tim was our first case,
Speaker 1: you know, right out of the gate. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: we are a small organization, but we do good work.
Speaker 1: I've got great people on my team, great investigators, lawyers
Speaker 1: in our network. You know. We try to run very
Speaker 1: efficiently for our clients, and we try purposefully not to
Speaker 1: take on too many because we're interested in their post
Speaker 1: release condition and and the whole thing. So maybe sometimes
Speaker 1: our resources are spent on making sure their lives are
Speaker 1: settled once they're out. How people can get involved is
Speaker 1: go to proclaim Justice dot org and you can read
Speaker 1: about some of our cases that we're currently working on
Speaker 1: and how to get involved. These cases are very expensive,
Speaker 1: they like a long time to work, you know, continued
Speaker 1: financial support you can donate from the side as well.
Speaker 1: Um that goes a long ways. So I would just
Speaker 1: encourage people to visit our site and and learn how
Speaker 1: to get involved from there. You know what, Tim can
Speaker 1: speak to this. A small thing that people can do
Speaker 1: that just goes so far is writing the people who
Speaker 1: are in prison for something they didn't do. Um so
Speaker 1: they can you know, right our clients. They can find
Speaker 1: the addresses and all that stuff on our website. And
Speaker 1: I think that a little bit of encouragement goes a
Speaker 1: long way, and it's something easy for people to do.
Speaker 1: So that's proclaimed justice dot Org. I would go a
Speaker 1: step further to say, even John said right into people
Speaker 1: who are innocent, I almost say right to people here
Speaker 1: because the guys it's on death row now, even the
Speaker 1: ones that are guilty, that they're not the same person
Speaker 1: that that they were when they got locked up. Some better,
Speaker 1: something worse. I find the personally, give them some kind
Speaker 1: of hope. I mean, because there's some really really good
Speaker 1: guys are who made a bad decision. I mean, and
Speaker 1: there's some there's don't got there who I really I
Speaker 1: consider friends. I mean, if they would get out tomorrow,
Speaker 1: they they're working with my home. Tim, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: said what you said, because I I'm going to quote
Speaker 1: the great Brian Stevenson who said, I believe everyone's better
Speaker 1: than the worst thing they've ever done. So that being said,
Speaker 1: this is a part of our show called Closing Arguments
Speaker 1: where I get to thank John and Tim for taking
Speaker 1: time out of their day and sharing their story and
Speaker 1: their wisdom and experience. And then I get to kick back,
Speaker 1: turn my microphone off and just listen and let each
Speaker 1: of you have the final word. John Europe First a
Speaker 1: Faraway Closing Arguments. One of the great honors of my
Speaker 1: life in this work is is sitting beside a guy
Speaker 1: like Tim Howard. Um. I tell people that, other than
Speaker 1: maybe my son being born, the best days of my
Speaker 1: life are when I get to sit beside somebody who
Speaker 1: we collectively have worked so hard to get out. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's the most rewarding thing, um. And it's important for
Speaker 1: people to know that this is just not uncommon unfortunately.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of Tim Howard's in the
Speaker 1: world that are still in there, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we're we're working hard for them. Uh, joined the fight
Speaker 1: with us. Every little bit helps and you can follow
Speaker 1: along with our endeavors. Have proclaimed justice on Twitter and
Speaker 1: on Instagram. There's always updates with what's going on with
Speaker 1: Tim and Daniel and other folks that we freed and
Speaker 1: and other folks that we're working to free. And now
Speaker 1: over to you Tim for closing arguments. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: people like proclaim, they don't just drop you when you
Speaker 1: get out. They still try to hip you along. I've
Speaker 1: had a few bumps in the road and they've been
Speaker 1: there for me, just like Uh and in the beset,
Speaker 1: my mom and Mara LeVert, Uh, Janice Van Patrick, Pinka,
Speaker 1: all these people who came into my life, they're still there.
Speaker 1: And I just want to say thank you to all
Speaker 1: of those people, everybody that's in my life now. The
Speaker 1: people at my job at to support innovations. I have
Speaker 1: two great bosses, Wade and Gena Racky, who believe in
Speaker 1: second chances and have been so gracious and when above
Speaker 1: board to support me as I go through what I'm
Speaker 1: going through now. Um just I just wanna say thanks
Speaker 1: and into even the people that I don't know who
Speaker 1: helped me in different spots in different times. Please just
Speaker 1: step in and do what you can when you can.
Speaker 1: And if I can hit me in someone let me know.
Speaker 1: As far as being on social media, I haven't got
Speaker 1: that down pat yet. I mean, I got a Facebook page,
Speaker 1: but I don't really post on it a lot. And
Speaker 1: because there's always pushed back on, I'll get pushed back
Speaker 1: for this interview in some way somehow. But that's cool too.
Speaker 1: I mean, you nobody's got to believe what I say,
Speaker 1: but just believe the situation. Don't forget to give us
Speaker 1: a fantastic review. Wherever you get your podcasts, it really helps.
Speaker 1: And I'm a proud donor to the Innocence Project and
Speaker 1: I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very
Speaker 1: important cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go
Speaker 1: to Innocence Project dot org to learn how to donate
Speaker 1: and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team,
Speaker 1: Connor Hall and Kevin Wardis. The music on the show
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Speaker 1: Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one