Speaker 1: May of their folks. It is Wednesday, April twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: and this week a man is scheduled to die by
Speaker 1: lethal injection for a crime he committed in nineteen seventy six. Yes,
Speaker 1: this man has been on death row for fifty years,
Speaker 1: and with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: We're used to hearing twenty even thirty years. Every once
Speaker 1: in a while you throw in a forty here and there.
Speaker 1: Fifty is mind boggling.
Speaker 2: It is mind boggling when you think that James Ernest
Speaker 2: Hitchcock was twenty years old when he committed the act,
Speaker 2: and he was convicted a year later for raping and
Speaker 2: murdering his thirteen year old step niece. This is a
Speaker 2: horrific story. So yes, he is now seventy years old,
Speaker 2: and it's pretty remarkable. Little Cynthia Driggers, she went by Cindy,
Speaker 2: Cindy Drigger's mom. She's still alive, she's eighty one. Because
Speaker 2: she was taken at such a young age, her mom
Speaker 2: has lived to see the day that she actually can
Speaker 2: find peace, and she wants this to happen.
Speaker 3: She wants justice for her daughter, and.
Speaker 1: This James Ernest Hitchcock execution is going to be taking
Speaker 1: place in Florida, going to be taking place tomorrow, scheduled
Speaker 1: for six o'clock Eastern time there in Florida, bi lethal
Speaker 1: injection ropes. It's one of two that we'll have on
Speaker 1: that night in the United States. The other in Texas.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that one in another episode, but we'll
Speaker 1: stay focused on this one. En rolls a big part
Speaker 1: of this. We'll get into the crime, but a big
Speaker 1: part of this is why in God's name has a
Speaker 1: family been waiting for fifty years for what the government
Speaker 1: told them is the justice is deserved for their family member.
Speaker 2: Would you believe it if I told you that James
Speaker 2: Ernest Hitchcock has been sentenced to death four times day
Speaker 2: penalty sentencing was overturned three times. So he was initially
Speaker 2: sentenced in nineteen seventy seven, the majority of the jury
Speaker 2: voted for death and I can go through But year
Speaker 2: after year after year, there were different reasons that sentencing
Speaker 2: would be overturned. They'd have to go through another hearing,
Speaker 2: and then it would stick for a while, then there'd
Speaker 2: be another appeal, they'd go through another hearing.
Speaker 3: It was under this poor.
Speaker 2: Family went through years and years, decades of court hearings
Speaker 2: and wondering whether or not that whether or not they
Speaker 2: were going to actually see the day where he went
Speaker 2: to death row.
Speaker 1: He is finally and how many years do you have
Speaker 1: on this last one? When was the last time he
Speaker 1: was re sentenced to death?
Speaker 2: He was re sentenced to death for the final time
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety six. They voted ten to to vote
Speaker 2: for the death penalty. But this one really got me.
Speaker 2: Listen to this one. He came close. He came in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, a federal judge issue to stay on
Speaker 2: the night before his execution. He was supposed to go
Speaker 2: to the electric chair in nineteen eighty three, and the
Speaker 2: day before a federal judge issue to stay. That's I mean,
Speaker 2: he has been think about the I mean, obviously he's
Speaker 2: had a yo yo back and forth.
Speaker 3: Not knowing what was going to happen.
Speaker 2: But that poor family just never knowing, and just when
Speaker 2: they think it's about to end, boom.
Speaker 3: Something else happened. For year was that you said it
Speaker 3: was nineteen eighty three, So.
Speaker 1: In eighty three this family came a night away from peace.
Speaker 1: Correct in eighty three? Do that math for me forty
Speaker 1: years ago.
Speaker 3: Yes, forty three years ago, this.
Speaker 1: Family came that close, and now they've they've been didding.
Speaker 1: That's that's even worse rope. So this back and forth
Speaker 1: is back and forth. It has continued. Now is he
Speaker 1: out of appeals? Now?
Speaker 2: Yes, he is out of appeals and last week the
Speaker 2: Florida is Supreme Court denied, yes, that final appeal for him.
Speaker 2: He was asking for a stay of execution. Once again
Speaker 2: that was denied.
Speaker 1: Obviously we know DeSantis is not going to save him
Speaker 1: down there, so this does look like this is it now?
Speaker 1: Finally after fifty years for this family.
Speaker 3: Correct DeSantis signed his death warrant.
Speaker 2: I believe it was April second, so this month he
Speaker 2: carefully reviewed the case and signed the execution. So he
Speaker 2: is not going to be calling at the eleventh hour
Speaker 2: to stop this execution from happening.
Speaker 1: This puts Florida at what for the year six?
Speaker 3: Is this their sixth This was the seventh warrant that
Speaker 3: was signed.
Speaker 2: But we know that the other execution, duck it Ja,
Speaker 2: was staged, so that didn't go through. So I believe
Speaker 2: he will be the sixth person executed. He was the
Speaker 2: seventh death warrant that DeSantis signed of the year.
Speaker 1: Man, this is Florida alone. We're talking about Yes, good
Speaker 1: night Florida. So they're on pace. So yes, when the
Speaker 1: year started, they didn't have a lot of executions on
Speaker 1: the schedule, and he signed these things as they put
Speaker 1: him in front. There's no telling how many they get in.
Speaker 2: Well, he's already signed more so yes, there's more coming,
Speaker 2: but this one that is happening tomorrow. James Ernest Hitchcock,
Speaker 2: We're going to go over the crime for you, because
Speaker 2: this is pretty brutal. And he has, by the way,
Speaker 2: maintained his innocence from the beginning, so for the past
Speaker 2: fifty years. He initially said he did it, but he
Speaker 2: said he was covering for his brother. Pretty quickly changed
Speaker 2: his story and has stayed with this story that he
Speaker 2: claims it was his brother who murdered the thirteen year old,
Speaker 2: not him.
Speaker 3: But here, yes, go ahead, but.
Speaker 1: No, no, that initial confession was pretty horrific and specific.
Speaker 3: Was it not correct? It was so he was.
Speaker 2: This was in nineteen seventy six, when James Hitchcock actually
Speaker 2: had just been released from an Arkansas prison at the
Speaker 2: age of twenty. His brother let him move in with
Speaker 2: him and his family.
Speaker 3: Two weeks after moving.
Speaker 2: In with his brother, after a night out of drinking
Speaker 2: and smoking weed, around two thirty in the morning, he
Speaker 2: says he came back and he crawled into the house
Speaker 2: through the window of his thirteen year old step niece
Speaker 2: and what he.
Speaker 3: Was convicted of.
Speaker 2: Cynthia began yelling and threatening he raped her, said she
Speaker 2: was going to tell her mom and what he was
Speaker 2: convicted of. The they said he took her outside, beat
Speaker 2: and strangled her to death and then left her body
Speaker 2: outside just in the bushes, went back inside, took a shower,
Speaker 2: and then went to bed. The entire next day, the
Speaker 2: whole family is looking for her. They cannot find little
Speaker 2: thirteen year old Cindy Driggers, and then they find her
Speaker 2: right outside the home in the bushes. And he was
Speaker 2: arrested pretty shortly thereafter.
Speaker 1: And he and then he confessed to a lot of
Speaker 1: this and rope some of this was disturbing to hear.
Speaker 1: How I mean, he goes through in robes and almost
Speaker 1: describes dialogue in a back and forth of him almost
Speaker 1: trying to convince her not to tell mom, and the
Speaker 1: girl insisted that she was going to tell. I mean
Speaker 1: it sounded like he didn't want but didn't plan to
Speaker 1: kill her initially, And this was his confession.
Speaker 2: Correct, and he just said he couldn't have because he
Speaker 2: didn't want to go back to prison. Oh, the irony,
Speaker 2: because he obviously knew she was thirteen and he was twenty.
Speaker 2: Now when he changed his story, he claimed that he'd yes,
Speaker 2: did have sex with this thirteen year old, but that
Speaker 2: it was consensual, not that it can be because she'd
Speaker 2: have to be eighteen, but he said she was a
Speaker 2: willing participant. And then right after they had sex, his brother,
Speaker 2: he claims, walked in on them and was so angry
Speaker 2: he took the thirteen year old outside, beat and strangled her.
Speaker 2: And then, because he claims he felt so bad about
Speaker 2: creating suchuation, he told his brother that he would take
Speaker 2: the fall for him. That was his changed story, one
Speaker 2: that a jury did not buy or believe, and one
Speaker 2: that he's been telling now for fifty years. But there's
Speaker 2: not really anyone who's buying what he's selling.
Speaker 1: And no judge has, no appellate court has the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court has not, the State Supreme Court has not. Jeff
Speaker 1: Desantas has not, and Robes he's out of options there
Speaker 1: is at this point, there is nothing. There is nothing
Speaker 1: out there that can save him. So Robes is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: This is and we were talking about this earlier. I asked,
Speaker 1: first thing I asked, is he the guy? Is he
Speaker 1: the longest on death row that we have in the country.
Speaker 1: Not quite, But it's just it's remarkable, Robes that we
Speaker 1: could keep somebody in prison for fifty years planning to
Speaker 1: execute them.
Speaker 2: He had a long runway more almost a dozen appeals
Speaker 2: that went through that this family has lived through for
Speaker 2: the past five fifty years.
Speaker 1: Again, we don't want to obviously, we never want to
Speaker 1: get it wrong. But I mean, what's the point of
Speaker 1: having it. He's fifty fifty, he's seventy. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've seen a picture or one had no kind
Speaker 1: of shape or health he's.
Speaker 3: In that It doesn't look great. Doesn't look great.
Speaker 1: Execute a seventy year old guy for something he did
Speaker 1: fifty years ago. Lord knows, he's not the same person,
Speaker 1: and this is the punishment he's supposed to have that
Speaker 1: we've told for what he did. But man, those two
Speaker 1: individuals are I would guess different people. We're about to
Speaker 1: execute a seventy year old guy. I'm sorry, I didn't
Speaker 1: think to go with this. Well, I just think how separate,
Speaker 1: how separated those two individuals are, that twenty year old
Speaker 1: guy and that seventy year old guy we're about to
Speaker 1: execute tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: I know it doesn't make any sense if you're going
Speaker 2: to have the death penalty. Yes, you obviously have to
Speaker 2: have some appeals process, but what has happened and what
Speaker 2: has been happening in this country is just unfair to
Speaker 2: the family members who have an expectation that they'll finally
Speaker 2: be able to have some peace and put this behind them,
Speaker 2: not having to go to court trials and court hearings
Speaker 2: and wonder what's going to happen for five decades.
Speaker 3: So when we come back, we are going to tell you.
Speaker 2: What Cindy's family is saying now to finally, finally reaching
Speaker 2: execution day and the welcome back everyone to this episode of
Speaker 2: Amy and TJ, where we are talking about the long
Speaker 2: awaited execution of now seventy year old James Ernest Hitchcock.
Speaker 2: He was twenty years old when he committed this horrific
Speaker 2: act of raping and murdering his thirteen year old step niece,
Speaker 2: Cynthia Cindy Driggers, and now it's pretty remarkable. After being
Speaker 2: sentenced and re sentenced to death four separate times, nearly
Speaker 2: a dozen appeals, and five decades later, he will finally
Speaker 2: be executed tomorrow night by lethal ejection at six pm
Speaker 2: Eastern time in Florida. And even despite the fact that
Speaker 2: all those years have passed, more than a dozen of
Speaker 2: Cindy's relatives say they plan to witness his execution.
Speaker 1: Well because this has been their life. This is for
Speaker 1: so many of them rooms they were kid and her
Speaker 1: cousins we were talking about robes. This has been their
Speaker 1: entire life. This trauma of losing this child in their family,
Speaker 1: this has been with their whole life. They went, okay, trial,
Speaker 1: death sentence, here's the first death sentence date. Okay, that
Speaker 1: one didn't work out. It's been on and own. I
Speaker 1: bet you and I sometimes with the business we work in,
Speaker 1: we see our lives through contracts. Three years, two year deal,
Speaker 1: four year deal. They can see their entire many of
Speaker 1: them their adulthood by trial, first appeal, second sentence, like
Speaker 1: it's set up for their life.
Speaker 3: This is awful for them, it really is.
Speaker 1: This is their entire life.
Speaker 2: And she was the oldest of five kids, so she
Speaker 2: has brothers and sisters who she never really got to
Speaker 2: know or didn't have the opportunity to actually really grow
Speaker 2: up with them. And so it makes sense that that
Speaker 2: many family members are showing up to finally see this
Speaker 2: day arrive. Her mom, Helen I mentioned she's eighty one
Speaker 2: years old. Her quote, she was just interviewed by the
Speaker 2: local press there and she said, I'm not joyful, but
Speaker 2: I really really hope it does happen this time. But
Speaker 2: we've been down this road before. I hope and pray
Speaker 2: that now is the time. And then Cindy's cousin said this,
Speaker 2: and this speaks to what our justice system has done
Speaker 2: to these.
Speaker 3: Families by waiting all of this time.
Speaker 2: She said, my anger is about what this has done
Speaker 2: to my family and what this has put them through.
Speaker 2: When you go to the court time after time and
Speaker 2: you see a public defender put her arm around him
Speaker 2: in court, that will set your anger thermometer way up there.
Speaker 2: Like all those little interactions, any sympathy this man might
Speaker 2: have received by his attorneys, you don't even like. They're
Speaker 2: watching and they're looking and they're seething, and they've had
Speaker 2: to live through it over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: That's it. I find that incredible that they're all going
Speaker 1: to be there, that it's still important for them to
Speaker 1: show up. They have shown up for this little girl
Speaker 1: for fifty years and they keep showing up. That's that's incredible,
Speaker 1: and that many of them were after fifty years, they
Speaker 1: still it's important to do it. I applaud this family.
Speaker 2: It is going to be quite the scene there in Florida,
Speaker 2: and it was very clear that obviously his death doesn't
Speaker 2: bring Cindy back, and it doesn't bring them any joy
Speaker 2: as they expressed, but it does for this family and
Speaker 2: it will bring them peace, and that is the very
Speaker 2: least they deserve after everything have been through.
Speaker 3: We will, of course keep.
Speaker 2: Our eye on all that is going on in Florida
Speaker 2: and in Texas because yes, there is another execution set
Speaker 2: for April thirtieth in Texas, So keep checking out this
Speaker 2: feed because there will be another episode about.
Speaker 3: The second execution of the night.
Speaker 2: This year's already getting off to a heck of a
Speaker 2: start when it comes to execution, so we will stay
Speaker 2: on top of it all. We always appreciate you listening
Speaker 2: to us everyone. I'm Amy roboch alongside TJ.
Speaker 3: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.