WEBVTT - #264 Maggie Freleng with Devonia Inman 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.760 Jason, I've been thinking a lot about post incarceration, and 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:10.920 I'm wondering if you have thought about people getting released 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:15.920 from prison, particularly people who were wrongfully convicted, and how 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.439 they adapt once they're out. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.560 You Know, My thing, Maggie, is that I think that 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.040 the overwhelming majority of people coming out of prison, innocent 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.200 or guilty, all they need is a chance, right, and 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.080 if you open that door a crack, they're going to 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.040 go marching through it and they're going to, you know, 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:40.080 do the best they can do with the time they have. 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.400 It's a lot more to it and just being free, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:53.840 because the prison part it was hard, but it's not 0:00:54.400 --> 0:01:00.840 harder than being thrown back into a big old ocean 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.039 and you don't know what's in it or what's there. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:05.640 No more. 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.639 From Lava for Good. This is wrongful Conviction with Maggie 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:28.039 Freeling today Davonna Inman. In the early morning of September nineteenth, 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.479 nineteen ninety eight, Donna Brown closed up a taco bell 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.200 in adel Georgia. She was walking through the parking lot 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.880 to her car carrying cash she needed to deposit for 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:43.080 work when she was robbed and shot dead almost immediately. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.160 Twenty year old Davanna Inman became a suspect when his 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.320 girlfriend's sister told police Davonna had come over that night 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:54.240 with a whole lot of money. Davgna had an alibi, 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.680 though he was with his family, including his grandmother and girlfriend, 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.520 at the time of the murder, but soon when other 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.160 people came forward implicating Davanna, and he was arrested and 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.640 charged with the murder of Donna Brown. He faced the 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:12.520 death penalty. After a flimsy trial at best, Davonna was 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:20.040 convicted of murder. Years later, DNA evidence would exonerate him 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.160 and identify the true killer, but that was only after 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.160 a decade of legal battles with the Attorney General, who 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:30.240 sought to uphold his conviction. Still, Davonna is forgiving of 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.720 him and of others who sought the death penalty. 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:41.799 I forget him too, because everybody deserves mercy, even the 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.960 people that you think are bad. You know, they had 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:51.760 to forgive people for things that they do. My name 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:57.200 is Devona Tarone Emmon, and I was incarcerated for twenty 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.440 three years for something that I didn't do. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.280 The oldest of four kids, Davanna Inman, was born on 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.320 his grandparents couch in Adel, Georgia on August twentieth, nineteen 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.000 seventy eight. Adel is a small town of about five 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.680 thousand people in rural Georgia close to the Panhandle of 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.720 Florida and Tallahassee. 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:32.600 Devgna was a happy kid, uh, silly kid. You know, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.680 love showing off, love dressing up. 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:37.640 This is Davagna's mom, Dinah. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.040 He was a loving Karen person who you know. He 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.840 would do anything for just about anybody. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.800 When Davanne was a toddler, his parents divorced and he 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:52.160 moved with his mom to Sacramento, California. His mom, Dinah, 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.880 remarried a military man named David Ray, who raised Davongna 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.920 like his own son. Here's David. 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.520 I'm remembering the most about the birthday parties. He always, 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.080 no matter what, he wanted to be the center attention, 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.520 even if it wasn't his birthday. But we just love 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.160 having fun and just open up gifts and. 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:15.480 Eating cake. 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.440 Little Divanna dreamed of being in the military, just like 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.679 his stepdad, who was stationed in the Army. 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:27.400 I liked to dress up and play army all the time. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.760 Yes, he was putting on my big clothing. Yes, and 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.560 we used to just like go out and play with 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:34.560 war and he really liked that. 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.000 I can picture him just like as a little boy, 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.480 dressing up in military clothes. Were you proud of him? 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:41.640 Did you want him to go into the military? 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:44.760 Yes, I was fine with it. I ain't gonna say 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.280 I wanted him to, but he wanted to. 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.320 Davagna also dreamt of doing some kind of computer technician 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.120 or mechanic work. His mom would see him putting his 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.880 mechanical mind to work on his dirt bikes. He liked 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.240 to ride them around and have fun and. 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.120 Take him apart and see how they come apart and 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.960 try to put them back together. Sometimes it works, sometimes 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:13.719 it didn't. He put them back together sometimes sometimes he did. 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.840 Devonna would still travel back and forth to Adell on occasion, 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.560 and in nineteen ninety seven had a son with a 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:27.040 woman from Adell. He named him Travensky. As Divonna got older, 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.520 he started running with the wrong crowd and getting into 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.840 trouble in Sacramento, petty crimes like car theft. Eventually, Dinah 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.560 had enough and send him back to adel to live 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.039 with his grandmother. But Davonna's time with his grandmother was 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.120 short lived. It was only a month and a half 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.279 after he got back to Adell that he would be 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:57.680 arrested for murder. In the early morning of September nineteenth, 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.000 nineteen ninety eight, Donna Brown was closing up a Taco 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.520 bell in Ado. Donna was forty years old, a single 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.120 mother with a seven year old son. It was only 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.359 her second day as the new manager. Around two am, 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.680 Donna was walking through the parking lot to her car. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.359 She was carrying over seventeen hundred dollars in cash she 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.560 was going to deposit at a bank when she was 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.360 robbed at gunpoint. She was fatally shot. The killer took 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.679 off with her money and her car. Davanna at the time, 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:30.480 he was with his family, including his grandmother and his girlfriend, Christie. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.120 Since Adell was a small town with limited resources, the 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:38.919 police department was ill equipped to deal with the homicide, 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.000 so they called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation the 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.480 GBI for help. Two days later, Davanna was picked up 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.719 for questioning in Donna Brown's murder, and he was held 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.880 on an unrelated charge. Investigators eventually found Donna's car abandoned 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:56.920 in a pizza Hut parking lot. Inside the car was 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.440 crucial evidence that police initially did not collect, but we'll 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:02.159 get to that later. 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.279 Both the GBI and local law enforcement sort of sweep 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.400 the town and start asking a whole bunch of questions. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.920 This is attorney Jessica Sino. She's not Devonya's attorney, but 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.640 she's his friend and advocate. She came across Davanna's case 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.840 in twenty fifteen while visiting the offices of the Georgia 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:24.680 Innocence Project. Needing fresh eyes on the case, Jessica gathered 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.360 her students from Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.840 and they dove in. After looking it over, Jessica was 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:34.880 convinced that Davonna was innocent. 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:40.920 To me, the case represented this perfect storm of everything 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.600 that could possibly go wrong in a case. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.280 Jessica says that right after Donna Brown's murder, the police 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.880 and GBI canvassed the town and started asking questions. They 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:56.680 eventually wound up talking to what Jessica calls a quote 0:07:56.800 --> 0:07:58.160 frequent flyer. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.400 Meaning authorities know her very well well. She's probably served 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:05.040 as a confidential informant on different individuals. At a certain point, 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.600 and she tells them, you know, you need to talk 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:08.680 to Devanna Inman. 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.680 This woman's name was Marquetta Thomas, the sister of Davanna's girlfriend, Christy. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.880 Marquetta told police that Davgna came to her home with 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:22.360 an unusually large amount of cash the night of the homicide. 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.040 So that right there sort of seals Devanna's faith. 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.880 Police also interviewed employees at the Taco Bell where Donna worked, 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.600 including a woman named Larsia Chapman. Larsia left work early 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.800 that night and claimed not to have seen anything, but 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.600 a month later her story changed. Larissa now told police 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.520 that she had seen someone hiding in the bushes outside 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.439 of the restaurant and that she recognized that person as Devonna. 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.679 So now you know, you've got Marquetta Thomas, who puts Devanna, 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:58.000 you know, having the money from the robbery and you know, 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.480 essentially confessing to to the crime to her at least 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.440 intimating that he did the Taco Bell thing. And then 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.480 you have Luritia Chapman, who puts him at the scene 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:11.400 of the crime. So Devanna is swiftly arrested. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.280 After his arrest, months passed without any indictment, but then 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.160 two other key witnesses came forward. 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.840 One is a woman named Virginia Tatum, and she is 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.520 a newspaper delivery person. She gives a statement to the police, 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.160 later testifying to the same in court that on the 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:37.720 night of the crime, she saw somebody driving Donna Brown's 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.520 car across that inner state from the Taco Bell to 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.200 the Pizza Hut, and it whips around the corner at 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.679 high speed at like two in the morning. But she 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:52.120 can state with absolute, absolute certainty that the driver of 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.440 the car is Devanna Emmon. She could see down to 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.240 the detail of the earring in his ear, a necklace 0:09:58.280 --> 0:09:59.000 around his neck. 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.480 Jessica leaves Virginia was motivated to come forward by a 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.480 newspaper ad offering a five thousand dollars reward for information 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.440 leading to the arrest. Her story places Davonna in the 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:14.120 victim's car, transporting it from Taco Bell to Pizza Hut. Last, 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.319 but not Lease, someone who had been incarcerated alongside Davonna 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:19.360 comes forward. 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.000 Ben says that Devonna confessed to him. So now we've 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:24.360 got a jailhouse snitch. 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.120 That man's name was Kwame Spalding. 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:33.400 So you've got Marquetta Thomas Laritia Chapman. The jailhouse snitch 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.840 and You've got Virginia Tatum all linking Davona to the crime. 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:44.000 On January eleventh, nineteen ninety nine, almost exactly four months 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.480 after Donna Brown was killed, Devonia Inman is indicted for 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:52.640 armed robbery, theft, illegal possession of a firearm, and capital murder. 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:04.199 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.560 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.640 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.680 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.440 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:23.120 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:27.560 the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:39.840 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. On June eleventh, 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.440 two thousand and one, over two years since he was arrested, 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:48.200 Davanna's trial began. The prosecutor was da bob Ellis, who 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.160 sought the death penalty against Davonna. 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:57.520 Interestingly enough, this sounds like an AIRTI case for the prosecution. 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:02.320 The problem is that once the case actually starts to 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:06.359 get going, it falls into pieces like it's in shambles. 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.679 On the stand. Two of the prosecution's witnesses recanted their stories. 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.160 Marquetta Thomas, the sister of Davanna's girlfriend, who said she'd 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.520 seen Davanna with a lot of cash the night of 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.040 the murder, and Lursia Chapman, who said she saw Devanna 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.200 in the bushes at Taco Bell. Marquetta admits that she 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.199 made up her story because she disapproved of the relationship 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.240 Divonna had with her sister, and Laricia says officers pressured her, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.480 actually threatening to take her child away if she did 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.559 not implicate Devonna in the crime. So, with no physical 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.640 evidence against Divanya, the prosecution now had just the statement 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:44.199 of Virginia Tatum. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:49.480 And apparently has you know, superheroes style eyesight to be 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:51.959 able to describe the level of detail of a car 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.240 going around a corner at like thirty five miles an. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.760 Hour, and the testimony of Kwame Spaulding, the jailhouse informant 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.880 who said Davonnya had can Fest to him. Kwalme was 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.160 given a deal to testify a lighter sentence, and this 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:11.920 was not disclosed to the defense or the jury. Davagna's attorney, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.280 Melinda Ryles, presented Davgna's alibi that he was with his 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.600 grandmother and girlfriend at the time of the murder, but 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:23.160 it wasn't enough. Davigna was swiftly convicted, but the jury 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.440 did not give him the death penalty. 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:30.320 They decide for life without opportunity for parole, which I've 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:32.600 spoken to a few of the jurors on the original 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:37.400 case and asked the exact question, which is, why didn't 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.640 you give him the death penalty, to which both of 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.840 them replied, well, we thought he might not be guilty, 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.000 so we didn't want to sentence him to death just 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:48.000 in case. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:52.080 Which shows they had reasonable doubt. If the jury has doubt, 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:56.320 they are instructed not to convict. Yet despite that, and 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.160 despite Davangna pleading his innocence, they did. 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:05.520 Nobody would believe me. Whatcept close family, my mom, my dad, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:10.560 my auntie, and that's about it. Everybody else either knew 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:15.200 the truth and was afraid to do something about it 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.880 or just didn't care. 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:19.120 How does that feel? 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:26.600 Depressing? Sad in a way because you could have stopped something, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:28.920 you know, a long. 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:33.840 Time ago before you were arrested. Have you ever thought 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.720 about wrongful convictions? 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:41.360 Oh? Is you never think something like that would happen. 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.040 Davonna was twenty three years old when he was sentenced 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.560 to prison. He was the oldest of his siblings, but 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.200 still his mother's baby boy. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.880 I felt like my life was destroyed. You know, you 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:03.160 took my child away from me, and I felt there 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:09.400 was nothing I could do, didn't know who to turn to. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.080 I mean, the whole family was in disbelief. We couldn't 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:16.600 believe it. 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:23.000 During his first years in prison, Davagna passed his time 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:27.880 by appealing the conviction, but his appeals were unsuccessful. 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:30.120 Because the one thing we know about the criminal justice 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.120 system is that it is absolutely designed to keep you 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.640 in prison once you have been found guilty, right that 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.640 whole presumption of innocence is gone. So trying to overturn 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.160 a conviction is an incredibly high, if not impossible bar. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.080 Davanna says he was prepared to die in prison. Even 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.400 watching TV, one of the only luxuries incarcerated people have, 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.040 reminded him of his bleak reality. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:54.800 When you have your life took in away, it's like 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.240 you can't do those things no more. So, it's like 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.560 you try to forget about, forget about a life that 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.640 you could have had versus the life that you have. 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:20.280 Focus your mind on what's surrounding you, because four walls 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.400 can drive you crazy. The only way he can drive 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:28.800 you crazy if you're thinking about what the world is doing. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.280 However, Devgna persisted. He continued to reach out to any 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.960 innocence organizations he could find for assistance. Eventually, nearly ten 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.040 years after his conviction, Divonna heard back from the Georgia 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.720 Innocence Project and they wanted to help. Now, innocence projects 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:59.960 usually have a fairly high bar for accepting cases. Often 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.360 that means being a case where DNA is able to 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.960 prove someone's innocence conclusively and at the same time possibly 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.800 find the true perpetrator. But there was no DNA used 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.240 to convict Davonna, So you might be wondering why did 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.159 the Georgia Innocence Project take it. Well, actually there was 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:23.280 DNA evidence, but it wasn't discovered until years after Devgna's conviction. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.720 When Donna Brown's car was found in the Pizza Hut 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.720 parking lot and returned to her family, they found something 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.000 inside a makeshift mask made from the leg of a 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.960 pair of sweatpants with two eye holes cut into it 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.919 that police never collected. The Georgia Innocence Project jumped on 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:51.040 this new evidence as a potential source of DNA. In 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.879 twenty ten, Devonnya's attorneys from the Georgia Innocence Project requested 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.840 DNA testing of the mask, and it was granted. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.560 The DNA came out. I already knew that it was 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.600 going to be mine. I wanted to see the faces 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.840 of the people who said it was me and what 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.520 they would look like. Would they look at me, you know, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.280 and look me in the eyes, you know, and you 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.600 don't really have to say anything. You could just look 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.840 me in the eyes in it and tell itself of 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.760 how you feel, you know. I mean, I gotta be 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.000 a hard thing to live with, you know, sending somebody 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:33.280 to prison for something they didn't do. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.600 The DNA actually came back with a match to a 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:45.240 man named Hercules Brown. In fact, at trial, Davanna's attorneys 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:49.520 fought and were denied the opportunity to present Hercules Brown 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.280 as an alternate suspect because Brown had already been on 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.679 the radar of Devanna's team even before trial that he 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.840 was the true killer of Donna Brown. And that's thanks 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:03.639 to to witness testimonies saying he was talking about the murder. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:09.800 You know, they uncover various statements from witnesses who say 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:14.200 that Hercules admitted to killing Donna Brown. And here's the thing. 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:18.600 He worked at Taco Bell with Donna Brown and was 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.679 an employee there. And one of the former employees of 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:24.480 Taco Bell wanted to. 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:29.360 Testify in Devanya's trial, and her statement basically was that, 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.280 you know, before the Taco Bell crime occurred, Hercules approached 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:37.000 her with a scheme to rob it, basically. 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.560 An inside job, and they would split the money. And 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:44.120 she said absolutely not, and she actually quit to avoid 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.840 dealing with Hercules. Her replacement is Donna Brown. 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.800 Now, ten years after Devanna's conviction, the DNA comes back 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:57.080 linking Hercules Brown to Donna Brown's murder. Devanya's mom, Dina, 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.879 remembers getting the news. She was at lunch with David, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:01.280 her husband, and. 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.040 We just started screaming and crying, you know, and we 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:05.560 just knew he was coming home. 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.119 But that didn't happen. Instead, motions had to be filed 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.639 for a new trial, which could take another few years. 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:18.720 In twenty fourteen, Devanna's request was denied, then another motion 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:20.960 was filed followed by another denial. 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:30.080 It was like one let down another let down. We 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.560 were just couldn't believe that he wasn't coming home. 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:41.359 What was that like to wait for so long when 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.359 we knew at that point for sure you didn't do 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:46.240 this by DNA. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.600 I guess it was like sad in a way, but 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:58.280 it was more anger because it's like you didn't take 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.920 long to put me here, but you want to take 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.560 long to let me free when I prove my innoses. 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.960 So I feel like it was it was wrong. 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.720 Meanwhile, the real killer was still free to commit crimes, 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.280 including the one that put Hercules Brown as a potential 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.840 perpetrator in the mind of Devagna's defense. 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:28.880 At the end of two thousand, there is a heinous 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:33.080 crime in this town and two beloved members who run 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:37.439 this convenience store in adel are brutally murdered and beaten 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:42.240 to death with baseball bats. Two people who perpetrate the 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.639 crime are seen fleeing the scene in broad daylight, and 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.840 they are quickly identified and arrested, and. 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:51.440 One of those individuals was Hercules Brown. 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:55.919 Had they arrested Hercules originally for the taco bell crime. 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.280 There are at least two people who would still be 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.280 alive today, like the most brutal murder that town had 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.640 ever seen would not have happened if they had originally 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:10.680 arrested the right person. And there's a third murder that 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.080 Hercules has been linked to that still remains unsolved today. 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:30.040 Devgna waited and waited for good news. By twenty eighteen, 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:33.359 he had been imprisoned for nearly two decades, and for 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.679 ten of those years, this new DNA evidence implicating another 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:39.240 person for the crime he had been convicted of was 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:43.880 being ignored. So Devanna remained trapped in prison because every 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.119 time his attorney's filed a motion for a new trial 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.840 based on the DNA evidence, Attorney General Chris Carr would 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:54.960 oppose and defend the conviction. But then, in a surprising move, 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:59.720 Presiding Justice David Namius and then Chief Justice Harald Melton 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:05.040 both wrote legal opinions urging Attorney General car to stop 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:09.960 defending Devannya's conviction. Namias wrote, quote, of the multitude of 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.160 cases in which a new trial has been denied, Inman's 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:15.520 case is the one that causes me the most concern 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.440 that an innocent person remains convicted and sentenced to serve 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:26.119 the rest of his life in prison. Finally, in twenty 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.560 twenty one, Davannia was granted an evidentiary hearing. A few 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:32.320 months later, his conviction was vacated and he was granted 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.480 a new trial. By this time, by the way, one 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.200 of the prosecutors in Devanna's case back in two thousand 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:41.520 and one, Bob Ellis, had been indicted and disbarred for 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:43.720 sleeping with a confidential informant. 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:50.080 The other prosecutor is indicted on federal drug charges eventually 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:54.280 and ends up moving to Alabama. And then one of 0:23:55.200 --> 0:24:00.520 the jurors had some sort of relationship where if one 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:05.400 of the witnesses, like he had hired her for exotic dancing, 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:08.879 and you know, still gets to stay on the jury. 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:12.159 Like you just can't. You can't write this in a 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:14.000 fiction book because it's unbelievable. 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:18.120 And a third witness, the jail house informant, Kwame Spalding, 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:23.440 had also recanted. The case against Avanya had completely fallen apart. 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:28.480 Attorney General Carr finally stopped upholding the conviction, and eventually 0:24:29.040 --> 0:24:33.120 Devanna's charges were dismissed. On December twentieth, twenty twenty one, 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:41.160 Davanna walked out of prison a free man. So when 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:45.080 he did come home and you got that news, did 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:46.480 you think it was going to be like this? 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:47.960 No? 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:49.920 I didn't. 0:24:50.080 --> 0:24:51.760 I thought, I don't know. 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:55.680 I was asking Davanya's mom about his sadness and depression. 0:24:56.160 --> 0:24:58.560 You can hear it in his voice. The happy, fun 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:02.160 center of attention kid is parents described is no more. 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:06.200 He's withdrawn, soft spoken, and looked like he had tears 0:25:06.240 --> 0:25:07.879 in his eyes the whole time we spoke. 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:16.640 I mean, I often wonder when he comes home, will 0:25:16.680 --> 0:25:21.200 his memories be of all the fun things we did 0:25:21.240 --> 0:25:25.960 as a family, or would they be of his prison life. 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:32.320 But I thought he would get home and it, you know, 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:36.320 we'd all get back to this big, happy family that 0:25:36.440 --> 0:25:38.520 couldn't be, that's always together. 0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:44.600 But Dinah's dreams of everything going back to normal wouldn't 0:25:44.640 --> 0:25:47.840 come true. Divagna came home a broken man. 0:25:49.040 --> 0:25:52.840 It's just everybody feels I'm just supposed to be happy 0:25:52.840 --> 0:25:59.040 because you're out of prison. Well that isn't a real 0:25:59.119 --> 0:26:05.760 scenario or real you know, feeling, Yeah, you're happy to 0:26:05.840 --> 0:26:08.720 be out, but you're not. But the things that you're 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:12.240 going through is even more saddered. 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:15.439 What has that done to you? 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:21.000 Sleepless I have to be really tired to go to sleep, 0:26:22.080 --> 0:26:25.719 So I might be up for two three days and 0:26:25.760 --> 0:26:30.480 then go to sleep, because it's just like you'll remember 0:26:32.000 --> 0:26:36.480 certain things that happen, or when somebody got stabbed, or 0:26:37.760 --> 0:26:43.159 you have like flashbacks of it seeing it and it 0:26:43.200 --> 0:26:47.400 wakes you up, or you know, are you talking your 0:26:47.440 --> 0:26:50.840 sleep or whatever, and. 0:26:50.920 --> 0:26:52.480 You're still doing that outside of prison. 0:26:54.560 --> 0:27:00.919 It's slow down now, But yeah, I just feel like 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:07.400 being in there for so long, it's like you're accustomed 0:27:07.480 --> 0:27:12.679 to one way. So when you come out here, people 0:27:12.840 --> 0:27:18.240 just misunderstand because they don't know what you've been through 0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:20.440