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Speaker 1: Ye, man, this cross will tell you what appeared to

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Speaker 1: be a Jefferson County police officer shot in the back

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Speaker 1: of our building. He end that movie, It is one

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Speaker 1: of us. They have got one down and they just

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Speaker 1: look bad. It looks bad you.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety five, Detective Tony Richardson was trying to

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Speaker 2: figure out who killed a fellow officer, Deputy Bill Hardy.

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Speaker 3: Had it been my decision the day we caught the

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Speaker 3: people that did it, Let's let's put them on death.

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Speaker 2: Throat Without solid evidence, the case comes down to who

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Speaker 2: is believed and who is ignored.

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Speaker 4: Evidence wise, we had versually no evidence. We had the

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Speaker 4: word of a fifteen year old who told lies, a

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Speaker 4: lot of lies.

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Speaker 5: She said she was there and I was there. That's

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Speaker 5: a life, a life, that's a shame.

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Speaker 2: When the deputy was shot at the hotel, to Forest

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Speaker 2: Johnson was four miles away, but now he's on death row.

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Speaker 6: This case is all about alternative worlds that are in

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Speaker 6: conflict with each other and in conflict with truth and

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Speaker 6: in conflict with what our justice system stands for.

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Speaker 4: We had a weak case based on testimony in one witness.

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Speaker 5: The only evidence supposedly they had against was this ear

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Speaker 5: witness who had never heard him speak before, who had

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Speaker 5: no idea who he was.

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Speaker 7: And I just started sobbing, like uncontrollable because I was like, oh,

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Speaker 7: my goodness, we did connect to an innocent man and

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Speaker 7: he's been on death row all these years and I

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Speaker 7: didn't know it.

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Speaker 2: I'm Beth Shelburne from Lava for Good Podcasts. This is

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Speaker 2: ear Witness.

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Speaker 8: The best thing that a person probably can do for

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Speaker 8: themselves that's suspected of a crime is do not talk to.

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Speaker 4: The bout these period.

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Speaker 2: Now that's really interesting coming from a retired detective, but

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Speaker 2: that's the truth. Listen to Earwitness starting on September nineteenth

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Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get

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Speaker 2: your podcasts, and to hear episodes one week early with

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Speaker 2: no ads, Subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple

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Speaker 2: Podcasts