Speaker 1: A quick note, this episode contains mention of suicide. Please
Speaker 1: listen with caution and care. On the night of February
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, a mother and her two
Speaker 1: children were asleep in their home outside of Midland, Texas.
Speaker 1: While they slept, a fire broke out in the house.
Speaker 1: Driving home from work, Butch Martin saw the flames from
Speaker 1: the road as they approached. We get up on the
Speaker 1: top of the heel, last see the black cloud of smokes.
Speaker 1: That's man. That looks like my house man. And then
Speaker 1: when we got closer, I saw it my house. Butcher's girlfriend,
Speaker 1: Marsha Pool, and their two children, Brady and Kristen, died
Speaker 1: in the fire, and the subsequent investigation led an innocent
Speaker 1: man to be condemned to prison for life. You know,
Speaker 1: part of me says, I don't care what nobody thinks,
Speaker 1: but I new care. You know, olin is the truth
Speaker 1: to be know the truth. I am Ruth Martin. I've
Speaker 1: been in cars for him since August ninety nine. From
Speaker 1: Love of for Good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
Speaker 1: Freeling today. Butch Martin Garland Leon Martin, who goes by Butch,
Speaker 1: was born in Odessa, Texas, on September fifteenth, nineteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: to Buddy and Nancy Martin. Butch was one of five children.
Speaker 1: When he was young, the family moved to nearby Midland, Texas,
Speaker 1: where he and his siblings were raised. It's right Willard
Speaker 1: out on farm, out of sight every top animal you
Speaker 1: can think of, you know, peas, goats, sheep, turkeys, peacock. Right,
Speaker 1: Butch rode horses and motorcycles and loved to drag race.
Speaker 1: He's the wildest stuff a bunch, that's for sure. This
Speaker 1: is Butcher's little sister, Heather. Everybody loved him, everybody. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was very outgoing. He was the type to give
Speaker 1: his shirt office back for anybody. He would help anybody
Speaker 1: in need. And not only that, he's funny. He's hilarious, definitely.
Speaker 1: I mean he has his moments and he can be serious,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, he's pretty funny and he
Speaker 1: likes to make people laugh. In fact, his offbeat sense
Speaker 1: of humor is the source of one of Heather's favorite
Speaker 1: memories of Butch. He was in a MOTORCYCWA accident and
Speaker 1: he broke both of his legs. So he was in
Speaker 1: a wheelchair for a while. So his thing was, you know,
Speaker 1: he was going to learn to ride wheelies in his wheelchair. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, he's cruising along showing off, you know, doing
Speaker 1: his little wheelies and stuff. He handed up tipping over backwards,
Speaker 1: and he couldn't get up because his legs were broke.
Speaker 1: And I was laughing at him because he was trying
Speaker 1: to show off, And then we both started laughing, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't get him up because we're both laughing so hard.
Speaker 1: He makes he makes light of every situation. After Butch
Speaker 1: graduated high school, he took a job in the oil field.
Speaker 1: He had taken vocational welding classes in school and made
Speaker 1: a good living as a welder. But then the oil
Speaker 1: industry lost traction. I took off and a friend of
Speaker 1: mine I had a recovery company that he repossessed vehicles
Speaker 1: and everything, everything from cannon, copiers, a baby grand piano.
Speaker 1: We reported everything. Butch was mobile, traveling all over Texas
Speaker 1: doing the repossession work and making good money on it.
Speaker 1: He says he was living the life. It was during
Speaker 1: this time that Butch also got married and had a son,
Speaker 1: Parker Chase. We were all married like three years. I
Speaker 1: really didn't even want to marry. I told my hallway
Speaker 1: the way, you know, we need to just keep driving,
Speaker 1: you know, and he's going on stupid, you're going back.
Speaker 1: Needless to say, that marriage didn't work out. Butch continued
Speaker 1: working and he would also go out partying. He says
Speaker 1: he was a ladies man and eventually he met the one.
Speaker 1: So how did you meet Marcia? Well, actually, my but
Speaker 1: he took me to a derby where, you know, five
Speaker 1: gangcocks roosters, and it was a little get together. There
Speaker 1: After it got dark and she was sitting on a
Speaker 1: stool kitchen. Marcia Pool was twenty years old. She had
Speaker 1: just had her son, Brady, who was with her at
Speaker 1: the gathering, and I saw that she was drinking tequila.
Speaker 1: Butch asked Marcia for a tequila shot, but instead she
Speaker 1: handed him her baby son to Holt, and Butch was smitten. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew right then I should love her. Man. She
Speaker 1: was cool, man, totally cool. After that, Butch and Marcia
Speaker 1: were inseparable, despite the fact that Butch was twelve years older.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter to them. They wanted to have a
Speaker 1: life together and they did. We didn't everything together way
Speaker 1: I took her to a bunch of concerts and she
Speaker 1: was liking a ruby, little hippie chick. We were so
Speaker 1: great together. Eventually, Butch and Marcia moved in together. Butch
Speaker 1: was over the moon happy when he found out they
Speaker 1: were going to have a kid. By that point, Butch
Speaker 1: was also a father figure to Marsha's son, Brady, whom
Speaker 1: he adored, and Brady worshiped him too bad. He would
Speaker 1: be on the front porch every day waiting on me.
Speaker 1: I want to go with you. I want to go
Speaker 1: and go and go, And if I wouldn't paying attention,
Speaker 1: he would try to climb the fence to get to me.
Speaker 1: You know, I looked out every one time and he
Speaker 1: was hanging upside down by his boots. Booty got caught
Speaker 1: and he's looking at me. But he ain't screaming or nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm like. In June of nineteen ninety six, Butch and
Speaker 1: Marsha's daughter, Kristen Ray was born, and Butch really wanted
Speaker 1: to make the family official with Marcia. I've kept begging
Speaker 1: under merriment. She said, no, I'm just running things. So
Speaker 1: we never got married. That was on my only love
Speaker 1: that I've ever been here I would loved him. Wasn't
Speaker 1: anything or ever every will again ever. On February twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, Butch and Marcia were at home when
Speaker 1: he got a call from his friend Stacy, who had
Speaker 1: a construction business. He said he knew a guy who
Speaker 1: wanted a fence put up and asked Butch to come
Speaker 1: along and help measure for it. And about twenty minutes
Speaker 1: there are hornon. He lived right down the street. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving. I'll be back in a couple hours. She said,
Speaker 1: I love you. I love you too. That's why I
Speaker 1: loved And we went and stopped bought beard. From there,
Speaker 1: they drove to the job site. Of course, we had
Speaker 1: some beard in the truck and everything. But we went
Speaker 1: in the backyard and measured it where he was putting fences.
Speaker 1: It was a normal relaxing evening. Butch out with a friend,
Speaker 1: and Marcia and the kids asleep at home. But as
Speaker 1: Butch and his friend were headed back to his house,
Speaker 1: he saw a highway patrol car pass them at top speed.
Speaker 1: It's lights flashing. We get up on the top of
Speaker 1: this hiel and I see it up black clouds of smoke,
Speaker 1: and you can tell that it's like plastic, like tires
Speaker 1: something like that. Mainly, you know, it's just so dark,
Speaker 1: your grass farc dark like that. That's man that looks
Speaker 1: like my house man. And then when we got closer,
Speaker 1: I saw that my house and the house was engulfed
Speaker 1: in flames. And before we got to the house, I
Speaker 1: felt and I jumped out of the drawer, and uh
Speaker 1: I started yelling, oh, Marshall, the kid. I ran right
Speaker 1: up in there, solid wall, smoked and tried to oh.
Speaker 1: I couldn't get the push push woods from the fucking door.
Speaker 1: Butch couldn't get in the house and he couldn't breathe,
Speaker 1: but he was desperate to save his family, so I
Speaker 1: ran back out of the the smoke and got some marron.
Speaker 1: I ran right back in, and uh I couldn't get
Speaker 1: the fuck out. You know, it was fully engulfed anyway,
Speaker 1: but you know, I ran the third time I came
Speaker 1: out and they tackled me, and I can't go back
Speaker 1: to it. Top cars. Butch was frantic and the police
Speaker 1: had handcuffed him to a car to keep him from
Speaker 1: running into the burning house to save his family. They
Speaker 1: eventually got him in a car and look him down
Speaker 1: the street to a friend's house to keep him out
Speaker 1: of danger, but determined to get to Marcia and the kids,
Speaker 1: which knocked his friend down and took off running two
Speaker 1: miles back to his house. And I ran the whole
Speaker 1: way back, and when I came around a corner there
Speaker 1: was people ever where my mom and Ever were. Oh,
Speaker 1: there was people Ever were. Man Butch was instantly tackled
Speaker 1: again by the sheriff so he wouldn't run into the fire.
Speaker 1: He got on top met knee and my neck, you know,
Speaker 1: the typical police hold, and I couldn't breathe. And my
Speaker 1: dad came up and he's told me it's gonna be
Speaker 1: all right. I said, it's not gonna be right. I'll
Speaker 1: never fucking see her again. This episode is underwritten by AIG,
Speaker 1: a leading global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate
Speaker 1: social responsibility and to making a positive difference in the
Speaker 1: lives of its employees and in the communities where they
Speaker 1: work and live. In light of the compelling need for
Speaker 1: pro bono legal assistance, and in recognition of AIG's commitment
Speaker 1: to criminal and social justice reform, the AIG pro Bono
Speaker 1: Program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented
Speaker 1: communities and individuals. Buch was taken to a hospital in
Speaker 1: nearby San Angelo, his hands severely burned. By this point,
Speaker 1: it was clear his entire world, twenty four year old Marcia,
Speaker 1: three year old Brady, and eighteen month old Kristen, had
Speaker 1: died in the fire. He was the only one in
Speaker 1: their family left. Deeply depressed, Butch was transferred to a
Speaker 1: psychiatric hospital while he recovered from his burns. About a
Speaker 1: week into his stay, the police came to visit him.
Speaker 1: I had lost everything, well, they came. He took what
Speaker 1: I had. I had the clothes I had on what
Speaker 1: and I had watched him? Have you watched season? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What is wrong that? Butch didn't know why the police
Speaker 1: needed the clothes he had worn that day, but he
Speaker 1: gave them to the officers. Anyway, the last of everything
Speaker 1: Butch owned and loved was gone. Finally, when Butch was
Speaker 1: well enough, he was taken to the remains of his
Speaker 1: house to look for anything unusual. Sergeant Terry Lowe from
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's Department walked him through the wreckage. So we'll
Speaker 1: go through all the rooms, and I noticed there's some
Speaker 1: fluorescent orange spray paint by Christian's crib, and I asked him,
Speaker 1: is that where Christal was? That's where her crib was
Speaker 1: rut there in the corner out there. I said, that
Speaker 1: where you found her body? And he said is Marsha's
Speaker 1: body had been found lying against the door that which
Speaker 1: had been trying to get into that night. Little Brady
Speaker 1: was found on the floor nearby. And they say that
Speaker 1: Brady had got off the couch and went to the
Speaker 1: love seat to I guess probably as as my mom,
Speaker 1: and well she she she screwed up into a thermal
Speaker 1: layer or something like that and sends her lungs. They
Speaker 1: hate imagining how they're deaths played out was horrific for Butch.
Speaker 1: During the initial investigation, pathologist doctor David Hoblett said they
Speaker 1: died of smoke inhalation and that they were alive when
Speaker 1: the fire started. But then, in an unusual turn of events,
Speaker 1: the state, wanting to argue that this was actually a homicide,
Speaker 1: had all three bodies exhumed. Forensic anthropologist doctor Harold gil
Speaker 1: King examined them. Gil King came to a different conclusion
Speaker 1: than the pathologist had. He said that three year old
Speaker 1: Brady had blunt forced injuries to his head, and that
Speaker 1: the injuries were inflicted prior to his death, further bolstering
Speaker 1: the state's theory. The fire investigator also said he found
Speaker 1: evidence of intentionally poured accelerance, suggesting someone started the fire
Speaker 1: on purpose. Almost two months after the fire, Butch was
Speaker 1: arrested for arson and the murder of his family. He
Speaker 1: was indicted on April fifteenth, nineteen ninety eight. Not only
Speaker 1: was Butch devastated by the charges, but also by the
Speaker 1: fact that the sheriff who arrested him, Terry Lowe, was
Speaker 1: someone Butch had known for years. My sister played ball
Speaker 1: saw ball. It was his daughter. So everybody sup you know,
Speaker 1: and you'll have to have The town knows me and
Speaker 1: knows there's no way I would ever and other have
Speaker 1: to think I'm so crazy that I might have naturally.
Speaker 1: This put Butch in a dark place. While awaiting trial,
Speaker 1: he tried to kill himself. I took two bottles of
Speaker 1: the ambiance and sleeping pills and valumes. Roch took several
Speaker 1: bottles of pills and so any found me welcome stomach,
Speaker 1: I'll be there with him dead. Didn't Roger run in.
Speaker 1: Butch went to trial on April fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: District Attorney Alshery was the prosecutor. His theory was that
Speaker 1: Butch knocked out Marcia and Brady, put Kristen in her crib,
Speaker 1: and then set the fire before leaving with his friend
Speaker 1: for the evening. He said Butch was angry with Marcia
Speaker 1: because she was going to leave him with no life
Speaker 1: or homeowner's insurance. To claim this would have been Butch's
Speaker 1: only motive. Da Shory called Marsha's mother to testify in
Speaker 1: support of this theory. She told the court that Butch
Speaker 1: and Marcia had a tumultuous relationship, and Butch's friend Stacy,
Speaker 1: who was with him the night of the fire, also
Speaker 1: testified Butch had been acting suspiciously. Something Butch had said
Speaker 1: as the patrol car flew by them that night along
Speaker 1: the lines of I hope they're not going to my
Speaker 1: house was brought up and used as evidence of guilt.
Speaker 1: Shari said that meant that Butch already knew it was
Speaker 1: his house. The entire case is proof of how when
Speaker 1: you're looking to paint a bull's eye around somebody, you
Speaker 1: can do it right. If you think that this guy
Speaker 1: is guilty. Then something like I hope that firetruck's not
Speaker 1: going to my house suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.
Speaker 1: This is Alison Clayton. I am the deputy director of
Speaker 1: the Innocence Project of Texas and the adjunct professor of
Speaker 1: the Innocence Clinic at Texas Tech University School of Law.
Speaker 1: Alison says that when Shari called the original pathologist, doctor
Speaker 1: David Hobblett, to testify, the pathologist gets on the stand
Speaker 1: and he says, yeah, I found swelling in both the
Speaker 1: brains of marsh and of Brady. And to me, this
Speaker 1: swelling indicates blunt force trauma inflicted prior to the time
Speaker 1: of death. That was out of nowhere for the defense
Speaker 1: because that's not what the report said. Remember, in the
Speaker 1: original report, doctor Hoblett said that he believed they died
Speaker 1: from smoke inhalation, but now at trial he said something
Speaker 1: totally different. At some point in there, the pathologist changed
Speaker 1: his mind, he changed his opinion. His testimony changed to
Speaker 1: match what the anthropologist was going to say. The forensic anthropologist,
Speaker 1: doctor Gil King, testified to finding blunt force trauma after
Speaker 1: the exhumation. The anthropologist says, you know, this is the
Speaker 1: kind of trauma that you could expect to be inflicted
Speaker 1: from a closed fist at a full arm swing. I mean,
Speaker 1: just terrible testimony. And the state's fire experts Dale Little
Speaker 1: and John Korne testified that they believed the fire started
Speaker 1: in the bedroom from intentionally poured accelerant. This was based
Speaker 1: on samples from the home that came back positive for
Speaker 1: two chemicals, nor par and hydro paraffinated kerosene. These chemicals
Speaker 1: were believed at the time to only be present and
Speaker 1: accelerants used for setting fires. They also said they found
Speaker 1: what they called poor patterns where the accelerant would have
Speaker 1: theoretically been. I mean, back in the nineties and early
Speaker 1: two thousands, fire investigators would go through a crime scene
Speaker 1: and they would say, hey, it looks like there was
Speaker 1: something poured on this floor right here, and then everything
Speaker 1: burned down to the concrete. So they thought that they
Speaker 1: could go through and recognize these patterns and concrete of
Speaker 1: burned structures and say, ah, that's where they had poured accelerant.
Speaker 1: But Butch had hired private attorney as Clifford Hardwick and
Speaker 1: John Cook, and they put on a rigorous defense. Their
Speaker 1: fire experts refuted the findings of the prosecution. Forensic scientist
Speaker 1: Dug Byron said it wasn't surprising that those chemicals were
Speaker 1: found in the home because there common ingredients in numerous
Speaker 1: household products. Their presence does not mean a fire was
Speaker 1: intentionally set. Carter Roberts, a certified fire investigator, disputed the
Speaker 1: so called poor patterns. He maintained that the fire started
Speaker 1: on the back porch, not in the bedroom, and that
Speaker 1: a faulty extension cord might have been to blame. They
Speaker 1: had a deep freeze out on their back porch and
Speaker 1: they had plugged in this old time deep freezer with
Speaker 1: an indoor extension cord that they had run from the
Speaker 1: back porch, threw the back bedroom into the kitchen to
Speaker 1: plug in above the stove, and that was their theory
Speaker 1: is that that's probably a start of the fire. Robert
Speaker 1: said he believed states expert Dale Little was looking for
Speaker 1: evidence of arson and disregarded potential fire hazards like the
Speaker 1: extension cord. Butch's defense team also called witnesses who had
Speaker 1: been with Butch that night. They said they did not
Speaker 1: smell any usual odors like lighter fluid or accelerant on
Speaker 1: Butch or on his clothes, and finally they had forensic
Speaker 1: pathologists and medical examiner doctor Lloyd White review the autopsies
Speaker 1: and photographs. Doctor White testified that not only was there
Speaker 1: no indication of blunt force trauma, but that brain swelling
Speaker 1: was actually common for deaths associated with fire because of
Speaker 1: carbon monoxide poisoning. Despite all this, it was not enough
Speaker 1: to convince a jury of reasonable doubt. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you have got horrific pictures of
Speaker 1: burned babies and their mama laying right there at the
Speaker 1: front door. A terrible case, I mean just a terrible case.
Speaker 1: And you've got scientific evidence from a pathologist, from a
Speaker 1: forensic anthropologist, from arson scientists, and of course, you know,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to overcome that. On April thirtieth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine, thirty six year old Butch Martin was convicted
Speaker 1: of three counts of capital He was sentenced to three
Speaker 1: concurrent life sentences. The media made my brother to out
Speaker 1: to be a monster. Basically, you know, he's he's done
Speaker 1: a lot of dumb stuff in his life, but he's
Speaker 1: not a murderer. It's definitely one of the hardest things
Speaker 1: I've ever been through. My brother has missed everything, you know,
Speaker 1: my I mean everything, and it's just it's not fair.
Speaker 1: It is not fair. They didn't even give him the opportunity,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like it's like they they wanted him
Speaker 1: guilty right from the from the get go, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And then before I knew what he
Speaker 1: was gone. After his conviction, Butch was sent to a
Speaker 1: men's maximum security prison in Texas to spend the rest
Speaker 1: of his life. It was a tough place with tough prisoners.
Speaker 1: Butcher remembers the time he got in a bad fight
Speaker 1: with some guys. What I'm made a comment about, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you got ahead a little barbecue, right, and I must
Speaker 1: see him in the mountain. I didn't know at the
Speaker 1: time that he was there, his brother. I'm missing a
Speaker 1: bunch of tea, you know, and there weren't pools. It's
Speaker 1: hard for me to talk to him without crying. And
Speaker 1: the whole time he's going Heather stop, Heather stop. I
Speaker 1: can't cry. I can't cry, you know. And it's really sad,
Speaker 1: you know that he just has to put on this
Speaker 1: front and be a tough guy all the time. Twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven I'm just ready for him to be
Speaker 1: able to be himself again, you know, because that's not him,
Speaker 1: That is not him at all. He is a good,
Speaker 1: tender hearted man, and he deserves to be able to
Speaker 1: be that man. While in prison, Butch also lost access
Speaker 1: to his son, Parker Chase. His ex wife had him
Speaker 1: signed papers giving up his parental rights. You know, I
Speaker 1: haven't talked to him since he was a little kid.
Speaker 1: You don't have a relationship with him, No, I don't.
Speaker 1: I get pictures of him all the time. My sister
Speaker 1: has him more on Facebook. Butch has never stopped thinking
Speaker 1: about the life and family he lost in the fire.
Speaker 1: He says he has nightmares about it all the time.
Speaker 1: Every day. Every day when I wake up, I go
Speaker 1: rocky running in the house, trying to let me get
Speaker 1: the path you every day you want to wake up.
Speaker 1: For years, Butch filed appeal after appeal to try to
Speaker 1: overturn his conviction. As I would say, we'd play the
Speaker 1: waiting game. This is Butcher's sister, Heather again. We would
Speaker 1: wait and wait and wait, and then this would get
Speaker 1: denied or you know they wouldn't even you know, take
Speaker 1: years just to read something, just to shut him down,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was hard. You know, you get
Speaker 1: your hopes up just to get basically your feet kicked
Speaker 1: out from underneath you, especially especially for my brother of course,
Speaker 1: getting his hopes up thinking he's going to get to
Speaker 1: come home, and then you know, something else happens. Eventually,
Speaker 1: something else did happen, something Butch had been waiting for.
Speaker 1: Alison Clayton and the Innocence Project of Texas wound up
Speaker 1: taking on Butcher's case in twenty seventeen. Did anything out
Speaker 1: to you about the case immediately? The use of Arson's
Speaker 1: science in the fire debris analysis and the reliance on
Speaker 1: poor pattern science. I know from studies that were done
Speaker 1: in the early two thousands and mid two thousands that
Speaker 1: our understanding of analyzing fire debris has evolved. First, Allison
Speaker 1: says that updated fire science affirms with the defenses experts
Speaker 1: at at trial that the chemicals found in fire accelerants
Speaker 1: are also commonly found in homes. They are in carpet,
Speaker 1: they're in building adhesive, they're in receipt paper, they're in
Speaker 1: you know, some clothing will have it on them. They
Speaker 1: are just everywhere. And also, of course the poor patterns,
Speaker 1: and I knew that poor pattern science had been entirely discredited,
Speaker 1: especially for these big house fires, and that that anytime
Speaker 1: you see poor pattern, gigantic red flag. Alison points to
Speaker 1: the many examples in this case of so called evidence
Speaker 1: shape shifting to fit the state's narrative, including doctor Hoblett
Speaker 1: revising his original assessment from death by smoke inhalation to
Speaker 1: blunt force trauma. If you think that he's guilty, then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this fire to brie analysis intentionally
Speaker 1: looking for something like everything takes a different cast. Right
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and two, before Alison came on,
Speaker 1: Butch had another legal team working on his case. They
Speaker 1: had already brought it to the state fire Marshal and
Speaker 1: a scientific advisory committee for review. Forensic pathologist, fire experts,
Speaker 1: fire chemists, all these different people, and they look at
Speaker 1: the evidence in Butch's cases, and these people understand the
Speaker 1: advancements that have been made by that time. And the
Speaker 1: fire marshal comes out and writes an opinion saying that
Speaker 1: you cannot say that this was an intentionally set fire.
Speaker 1: He says that the cause of the fire is undetermined,
Speaker 1: which is a big, big deal. So when Alison came
Speaker 1: on the case. She already had this information to work with,
Speaker 1: and in May of twenty twenty two, she lined up
Speaker 1: her own experts for a new hearing on the case
Speaker 1: in front of Judge David g. Rogers. Not only that
Speaker 1: new information had come to light about the original pathologist,
Speaker 1: doctor Hoblett. He's doing all kinds of stuff that as
Speaker 1: a doctor, you're not supposed to be doing. He's running
Speaker 1: a pain pill mill, right, He's just like doing scripts
Speaker 1: for all kinds of things for people who don't need them.
Speaker 1: So then the Feds come in and the FEDS arrest him.
Speaker 1: All of that eventually ended up in him completely losing
Speaker 1: his license to practice medicine. One of the main witnesses
Speaker 1: to testify against him was now completely discredited. This was
Speaker 1: huge for Butch's case. In fact, every piece of evidence
Speaker 1: the state had used against him had been discredited. Allison
Speaker 1: says that when all the new evidence was presented, you
Speaker 1: could fill the shift in the courtroom when the judge
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor, I think really started to realize, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, we got an innocent man. Butch's father died
Speaker 1: while he was in prison, but his mom got to
Speaker 1: sit in the courtroom and hear all the evidence that
Speaker 1: will likely get her son out of prison. She died
Speaker 1: just a month later. In the meantime, Butch waits and
Speaker 1: thinks about what he'll do with his freedom if and
Speaker 1: when it comes. He says he'd liked to drag race
Speaker 1: again and build some rental homes. He's excited to finally
Speaker 1: bond with his nieces, nephews and now their kids. And
Speaker 1: there's a lot of them. Um, let's see, I have
Speaker 1: three daughters. My oldest daughter has three daughters, and my
Speaker 1: middle daughter has a son and a daughter. So he
Speaker 1: has one great nephew and four great nieces. What are
Speaker 1: you gonna do with them when you're out? I'm kidnap
Speaker 1: them and keep them. But most of all, Butch just
Speaker 1: wants justice for the family he lost. I'm missing, so
Speaker 1: you know, if there is ever a real I'm not
Speaker 1: get to watch the marsh keep the DA's ass's as
Speaker 1: she will. If you want to help Butch, go to
Speaker 1: Innocence Texas dot org and click on take action next time.
Speaker 1: On wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling Nancy Smith. They said
Speaker 1: that you didn't take her daughter to school. You took
Speaker 1: her daughter to a birthday party where you molested her
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what what are you talking about? Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please support
Speaker 1: your local innocence organizations and go to the links in
Speaker 1: our bio to see how you can help. I'd like
Speaker 1: to thank our executive producers Jason Flom and Kevin Wurdis,
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lila Robinson,
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonja Paul. The show is edited and
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsey, with additional production by Jeff Cleburne
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
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