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Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions.

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Speaker 2: I'm Laura and I writer and I'm Steve Drisen.

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Speaker 1: Today we'll tell you the story of Emerson Stevens, a

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Speaker 1: fisherman from Virginia's Chesapeake Bay. When a young mother was

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Speaker 1: found murdered. It seemed all the evidence pointed to Emerson

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Speaker 1: until the case fell apart. Emerson survived thirty one years

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Speaker 1: in prison with the help of an ally from across

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Speaker 1: the bay. Now you can help him finally clear his name.

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Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on interviews with Emerson Stevens and

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Speaker 1: his lawyers, along with legal filings and court opinions. So, Steve,

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Speaker 1: today we're going to break the mold.

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Speaker 2: We're going to break them mold. This is not a

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Speaker 2: case that involves a false confession. This is a case

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Speaker 2: that involves a false inculpatory statement. Sometimes detectives can't get

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Speaker 2: a confession, but they'll settle for a fall and culpatory statement. Right.

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Speaker 1: That's lawyer talk for something you say that makes you

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Speaker 1: look really bad.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right, and it's false. So it's a lie.

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Speaker 2: And the same tactics that are used to get false

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Speaker 2: confessions are often used to get these false inculplatory statements,

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Speaker 2: and they.

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Speaker 1: Can have the same devastating consequences.

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Speaker 2: So when I think about this case, I think about

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Speaker 2: it in terms of a puzzle. You know, when my

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Speaker 2: family goes on vacation, we often buy a puzzle and

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Speaker 2: we spend a lot of time putting that puzzle together.

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Speaker 2: And anyone who puts puzzles together knows that there are

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Speaker 2: a lot of times where the piece that you think

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Speaker 2: will finish a part of the puzzle doesn't quite fit.

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Speaker 2: It looks like it should fit, but just a little

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Speaker 2: bit off. And that's what happened with a lot of

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Speaker 2: the evidence in Emerson Stephen's case. They manipulated the evidence

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Speaker 2: to make it seem like it fit. The police theory what.

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Speaker 1: Happens in runfuel conviction cases right tunnel vision makes police

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Speaker 1: officers force these puzzle pieces together when in reality they

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Speaker 1: might not fit at all.

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Speaker 2: It was only after the fact that you could see

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Speaker 2: that the pieces never really fit in the first place.

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Speaker 1: Today's story takes place in Lancaster County, Virginia, a rural

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Speaker 1: community nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock River.

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Speaker 1: It's a place that smells like ocean salt an honest

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Speaker 1: sweat generations there have made a living with their hands,

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Speaker 1: hauling fish out of the bay and crabs and oysters

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Speaker 1: out of the river. In nineteen eighty five, this county

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Speaker 1: was home to Mary Harding, who was Lancaster through and through.

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Speaker 1: Petite and blue eyed, Mary was homecoming queen at Lancaster

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Speaker 1: High before she and her high school sweetheart tied the knot.

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Speaker 1: By age twenty four, Mary was working as a bookkeeper

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Speaker 1: at the local bank while her husband was a fisherman.

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Speaker 1: They had two young kids and a modest ranch home

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Speaker 1: located just across the street from the cemetery. On Friday,

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Speaker 1: August twenty third, nineteen eighty five, that modest home became

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Speaker 1: the scene of a terrible discovery. On weekdays, Mary had

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Speaker 1: a routine before work, she'd drop off her one year

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Speaker 1: old at the home of her husband's grandmother, Virginia Walker,

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Speaker 1: But that Friday morning, Mary didn't show up. Virginia was worried,

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Speaker 1: so she drove over to Mary's house. Virginia was greeted

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Speaker 1: at the door by Mary's four year old son, who

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Speaker 1: told her that he couldn't find his mom. The TV

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Speaker 1: and lights were on throughout the house, Some unrensed comet

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Speaker 1: was left in the bathroom sink, and the little boy's

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Speaker 1: chicken dinner from the night before was still sitting on

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Speaker 1: the table. Don't worry, the four year old assured his

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Speaker 1: great grandma. In his mother's absence, he was taking care

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Speaker 1: of the baby. Virginia knew there was no way Mary

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Speaker 1: would abandon her children. There's only one explanation for her disappearance.

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Speaker 1: Mary must have been taken. Virginia calls the police, and

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Speaker 1: soon a state police detective by the name of David

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Speaker 1: Riley arrives at the house. He finds cat litter scattered

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Speaker 1: on the ground outside the back door, along with one

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Speaker 1: of Mary's white sandals, but there's no sign of Mary.

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Speaker 1: Pretty soon, word spreads and the whole community starts surging

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Speaker 1: through the woods and along the shore. But they find nothing.

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Speaker 1: Nothing that is until four days later. That's when a

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Speaker 1: woman's body is found in the shallows of the Rappahannock River.

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Speaker 1: The body is unclothed, badly decomposed, and hard to identify,

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Speaker 1: but it's clear something horrific has happened. The woman's back

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Speaker 1: is covered with deep, evenly spaced slashes. There's a rope

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Speaker 1: tied around her neck with a huge cinder block attached

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Speaker 1: to the other end. A heavy chain is wrapped around

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Speaker 1: the woman's right leg. Soon enough, the medical examiner confirms

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Speaker 1: this is Mary Harding. She's been strangled to death. Now

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Speaker 1: here's the thing. The rope and chain were the same

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Speaker 1: kind that you can find on most fishermen's boats in Lancaster.

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Speaker 1: So suddenly this close knit community was being torn apart

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Speaker 1: by suspicion. Everyone was wondering who would have done this

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Speaker 1: to the homecoming queen. Before long, the authorities settled on

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Speaker 1: a suspect, thirty two year old Emerson Stevens. Like so

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Speaker 1: many other Lancaster men, Emerson had worked on the water

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Speaker 1: since he was a teenager. Emerson was a crabber and

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Speaker 1: an oysterman who hauled his catch in on a boat

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Speaker 1: named after his wife. He'd spent his life by the shore,

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Speaker 1: the kind of guy who has salt water in his veins.

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Speaker 1: It was Mary's husband who pointed police to Emerson Stephens.

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Speaker 1: Emerson had gone to Mary's funeral, and Mary's husband thought

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Speaker 1: Emerson seemed nervous there. Mary's husband also remembered that he'd

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Speaker 1: once heard Emerson make a crude joke about female anatomy.

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Speaker 1: This wasn't much to go on, but days later, a

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Speaker 1: couple of people told police they had seen a light

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Speaker 1: colored pickup truck outside Mary's home on the night she disappeared. Now,

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Speaker 1: Emerson Stevens happened to drive a white Dodge pickup, so

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Speaker 1: he quickly became the police's number one suspect. Detective Riley

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Speaker 1: asks Emerson to meet him at Mary Harding's house and

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Speaker 1: the two men sit down on the front porch. According

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Speaker 1: to Emerson, Riley gestures to the street and asks, why

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Speaker 1: were you parked in front of this house the night

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Speaker 1: Mary vanished.

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Speaker 2: If you question somebody on the porch, you're creating a

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Speaker 2: context that is different from your standard police interrogation. You

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Speaker 2: can tap into all of the emotions of This is

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Speaker 2: where this woman lived, this is where she had her children,

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Speaker 2: this is where she was last seen. This is not

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Speaker 2: a police interrogation room.

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Speaker 1: It feels like the kind of place where you'd have

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Speaker 1: a heart to heart conversation. And there's another thing that

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Speaker 1: makes this porch interrogation even more emotional.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, not only was this the front porch of Mary's house,

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Speaker 2: it was right across the street from the burial ground

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Speaker 2: where her headstone was.

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Speaker 1: As the two men look out at the cemetery, he

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Speaker 1: presses Emerson for information, but Emerson is stunned he hadn't

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Speaker 1: been at Mary's house. He says he'd been at home,

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Speaker 1: then he'd taken his kids over to the neighbors to

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Speaker 1: watch TV and eat crab. They'd returned home together at

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Speaker 1: about nine thirty PM, and Emerson's wife had gotten home

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Speaker 1: from work shortly after. He tells Riley to talk to

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Speaker 1: his neighbor and confirm the alibi, but Riley doesn't buy

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Speaker 1: Emerson's story. Instead, he orders a search of Emerson's pickup truck.

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Speaker 1: After digging through the truck for hours, police discover a

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Speaker 1: single strand of hair. They send the hair off to

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Speaker 1: the state crime lab for forensic analysis. The next week,

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Speaker 1: Riley asks Emerson to come to a nearby Virginia police

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Speaker 1: station for a polygraph. As soon as the polygraph's completed,

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Speaker 1: Riley tells Emerson he failed. According to Emerson, Riley says

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Speaker 1: he must either have killed Mary Harding or done something

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Speaker 1: else related to her murder. Those are two pretty bad options,

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Speaker 1: and Emerson is terrified. But then Riley offers Emerson a

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Speaker 1: fat third choice that seems a lot better. Maybe you

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Speaker 1: were at Mary's house that night doing something innocent. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you were driving by and you stopped on the side

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Speaker 1: of the road to take a leak. The fisherman takes

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Speaker 1: the bait. He's desperate to please Riley and changes his

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Speaker 1: story to exactly what Riley suggested.

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Speaker 2: If detectives can't get a full confession, they'll settle for

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Speaker 2: a false inculpatory statement. All the detective can get from

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Speaker 2: Emerson is a statement that he pulled over on the

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Speaker 2: side of the road a short distance away from Mary's

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Speaker 2: house to relieve himself at the approximate time of death.

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Speaker 2: That's the admission. I was in the vicinity of her

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Speaker 2: home near the time where the medical examiner believes she

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Speaker 2: was killed.

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Speaker 1: That was all Emerson said. He did not confess, but

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Speaker 1: he'd said enough to get himself in real trouble. He

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Speaker 1: just placed himself at the crime scene. Detective was on

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Speaker 1: high alert, but the case against Emerson was pretty damn

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Speaker 1: thin until test results came back from the state crime

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Speaker 1: lab on that hair from Emerson's truck. The lab had

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Speaker 1: put the hair under a microscope and compared it to

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Speaker 1: Mary Harding's hair, and the lab said it was an

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Speaker 1: exact match. The police's thin case suddenly seemed rock solid,

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Speaker 1: and in late October nineteen eighty five, Emerson Stephens was

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Speaker 1: arrested for the abduction and murder of Mary Harding. The

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Speaker 1: trial of Emerson Stephens was one of the most dramatic

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Speaker 1: events Lancaster County had ever seen. To a packed courtroom,

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Speaker 1: prosecutors described how they thought the crime unfolded. Emerson kidnapped Mary,

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Speaker 1: they said, then strangled her and threw her body into

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Speaker 1: the river. They even suggested that Emerson slashed Mary's back

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Speaker 1: with his fishing knife in order to attract so there

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be anything left of her body.

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Speaker 2: The worst imaginable kind of crime. It's like throwing chum

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Speaker 2: over the side of a boat to entice sharks.

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Speaker 1: But there were problems with the prosecution's theory. They claimed

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Speaker 1: that Emerson had thrown Mary's body into the river off

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Speaker 1: the end of his own dock, but her body was

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Speaker 1: actually found a full ten miles upstream.

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Speaker 2: How does a body that is weighed down with a

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Speaker 2: cinder block travel ten miles upstream? Upstream means against the current.

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Speaker 1: That's the thing I mean to swim those ten miles

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Speaker 1: upstream would have been crazy, let alone somehow to float

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Speaker 1: a weighted down body that distance. It makes no sense

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Speaker 1: at all. It's absurd, But prosecutors found a witness to

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Speaker 1: bolster this theory insane, though it seemed. A marine scientist

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Speaker 1: testified that it was possible for Mary's body to float

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Speaker 1: against the current cinderblock and all for ten miles from

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Speaker 1: Emerson's dock to where it was found, and there were

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Speaker 1: other witnesses too. Detective Riley told the jury that Emerson

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Speaker 1: claimed to have been near Mary's house on the night

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Speaker 1: she disappeared, and the prosecution called two people to corroborate

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Speaker 1: Emerson's statement, Clyde Dunaway and Anne Dick. They both claimed

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Speaker 1: they'd seen a pickup truck resembling Emerson's near the victim's

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Speaker 1: house that night, and finally, the prosecution called a witness

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Speaker 1: from the crime lab to testify that the hare and

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Speaker 1: Emerson's truck seemed to match Mary's.

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Speaker 2: So it seemed at this point as though all the

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Speaker 2: puzzle pieces fit together, and they painted a compelling portrait

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Speaker 2: of Emerson's guilt. But this is not the end of

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Speaker 2: the story, not by a long shot.

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Speaker 1: When the defense's turn came, Emerson's lawyers put on a

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Speaker 1: strong case of their own, no fewer than four alibi witnesses.

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Speaker 1: In the end, the jury hung unable to reach a verdict.

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Speaker 1: The prosecution was quick to retry Emerson, and on July eighth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six, the second trial began. This time, the

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Speaker 1: prosecution's case seemed, if anything, weaker. The marine scientist was

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Speaker 1: a no show, so the prosecutor read the jury his

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Speaker 1: testimony from the previous trial. Only one witness, Clyde Dunaway,

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Speaker 1: testified about seeing Emerson's pickup near Mary's house, but the

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Speaker 1: crime lab technician repeated his previous testimony about the hair

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Speaker 1: in the truck, and Detective Riley testified again about Emerson's statements.

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Speaker 1: During the second trial, Emerson's lawyer put on his alibi

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Speaker 1: witnesses again, and Emerson himself took the stand. He tried

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Speaker 1: to explain that he was innocent, that he hadn't actually

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Speaker 1: pulled over near Mary's house that night. He'd only said

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Speaker 1: that to satisfy his interrogator. Prosecutors pounced, you admit to

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Speaker 1: us you lied, They asked, yes, I told that, Emerson

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Speaker 1: answered Later he quietly added, I'm not a smart person.

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Speaker 1: The case wasn't any stronger than at the first trial,

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Speaker 1: But this time the jury reached a verdict and Emerson

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Speaker 1: Stevens was sentenced to a prison term of one hundred

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Speaker 1: and sixty four years. Fast forward to two thousand and two.

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Speaker 1: During those sixteen years behind bars, Emerson earned his ged.

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Speaker 1: He worked in the dusty prison wood shop, building furniture

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Speaker 1: for state institutions. He wrote letters constantly to his family

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Speaker 1: and to lawyers, begging for help with his case. When

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Speaker 1: he wasn't working or writing, Emerson would dream about the

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Speaker 1: smell of the shore. He wondered if he'd ever be

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Speaker 1: on the water again. In April two thousand and two,

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Speaker 1: Emerson's attention was caught by a news story about a

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Speaker 1: genteel Virginia lady named Beverly Monroe. Beverly was a professional

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Speaker 1: chemist whose upper middle class background seemed worlds away from Emerson,

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Speaker 1: at least at first you see. Ten years earlier, fifty

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Speaker 1: five year old Beverly had been dating a wealthy real

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Speaker 1: estate mogul named Roger de la Bird. Roger lived on

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Speaker 1: a massive estate in Virginia Horse Country. He claimed to

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Speaker 1: be an art dealer who was descended from European nobility.

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Speaker 1: But when Roger turned up dead one morning from a

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Speaker 1: gunshot wound, police suspected Beverly of murder, even though she'd

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Speaker 1: never had so much as a traffic ticket. The case

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Speaker 1: against Beverly was absurd from day one. Beverly had a

239
00:14:21,560 --> 00:14:24,800
Speaker 1: grocery store receipt proving she hadn't been at Roger's estate

240
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Speaker 1: at the time he died, and Roger's death had been

241
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Speaker 1: ruled a suicide. Turns out his life was falling apart.

242
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Speaker 1: The FBI was investigating him for art fraud, and his

243
00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:38,040
Speaker 1: claims of nobility were also being exposed as phony. But

244
00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,440
Speaker 1: Beverly ended up being wrongly convicted of Roger's murder anyway.

245
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Speaker 1: Why because in part of Detective David Riley, the same

246
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Speaker 1: officer who'd built the case against Emerson Stevens. When Detective

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Speaker 1: Riley interrogated Beverly, she refused to admit to something she

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Speaker 1: didn't do, but Riley administered a polygraph and told Beverly

249
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Speaker 1: she failed it, and then he suggested that she must

250
00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:04,080
Speaker 1: have been present when Roger shot himself. Detective Riley seems

251
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Speaker 1: to have manipulated Beverly into placing herself at the scene

252
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Speaker 1: of the crime, just like he seems to have done

253
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Speaker 1: with Emerson. The similarities are unmistakable.

254
00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:20,280
Speaker 2: Beverly Monroe was wrongfully convicted based on inculpatory statements that

255
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Speaker 2: placed her at the crime scene, and Riley then built

256
00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:30,520
Speaker 2: his case around that statement to make it look like

257
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Speaker 2: this wasn't a suicide at all, that this was a murder.

258
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Speaker 1: It's amazing, just like Emerson, Beverly never confessed to anything.

259
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Speaker 2: Same detective using the same modus operandi in order to

260
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Speaker 2: get not a false confession, but a false inculpatory statement

261
00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:50,160
Speaker 2: that was used to convict them and send them away

262
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Speaker 2: for crimes they did not commit.

263
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Speaker 1: A federal judge later called Riley's interrogation of Beverly Monroe

264
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Speaker 1: deceitful and manipulative. Even so, Beverly ended up serving ten

265
00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:03,840
Speaker 1: years in prison before her conviction was thrown out and

266
00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:06,800
Speaker 1: she was released in April two thousand and two. That

267
00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,360
Speaker 1: news story Emerson saw on TV from behind bars was

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Speaker 1: about Beverly's first moments of freedom. Emerson didn't waste a minute.

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Speaker 1: He immediately wrote to Beverly's lawyer, who agreed to take

270
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:21,640
Speaker 1: his case and When Beverly herself heard about Emerson, she

271
00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:22,720
Speaker 1: got involved too.

272
00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:26,200
Speaker 3: She went to the lawyers that had just exonerated her

273
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Speaker 3: and said, now you need to do it again for

274
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Speaker 3: this other guy, which, you know, to their credit, they did.

275
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Speaker 3: They tried to reinvestigate as much as they could, and

276
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Speaker 3: then when it became clear that they were sort of

277
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,080
Speaker 3: losing steam, Beverly turned her sights to me.

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Speaker 1: That's Deirdre Enwright, the director of the University of Virginia's

279
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Speaker 1: Innocence Project Clinic. She's one of the lawyers Beverly enlisted

280
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Speaker 1: to join Emerson's legal team.

281
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Speaker 3: Emerson, you know, he had been trying for years, writing

282
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Speaker 3: to people about his case and begging for help. And

283
00:16:57,480 --> 00:16:59,480
Speaker 3: if you ever meet or speak to Beverly, you will

284
00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:02,040
Speaker 3: learn that you will do anything that Beverly says to do,

285
00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:07,040
Speaker 3: because she's absolutely charming but also absolutely compelling.

286
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:09,240
Speaker 4: Beverly made it something of.

287
00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:13,280
Speaker 3: A mission to help other people who were convicted by

288
00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:15,200
Speaker 3: the evidence collected by the same detective.

289
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Speaker 1: With Beverly's help, Emerson now had a top notch legal team.

290
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,880
Speaker 1: And while the lawyers got to work, Beverly and Emerson

291
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:23,040
Speaker 1: began corresponding.

292
00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:27,280
Speaker 3: Beverly is not only college educated, but she's a chemist

293
00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,680
Speaker 3: and she lived a very extravagant life with her partner

294
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:35,840
Speaker 3: before this all happened. And Emerson is this waterman who

295
00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:39,800
Speaker 3: grew up with his nine siblings in Lancaster. I mean,

296
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:42,480
Speaker 3: this is the classic thing that happens in these wrongful

297
00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:45,560
Speaker 3: conviction cases, is that people who would never in a

298
00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:49,280
Speaker 3: lifetime be near each other or connect do.

299
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,679
Speaker 1: Beverly and Emerson became friends. Beverly sendsed how much this

300
00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:57,240
Speaker 1: fisherman longed for the water, and started sending him photographs

301
00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:00,159
Speaker 1: of the place he missed most, the Chesapeake Bay.

302
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,359
Speaker 3: She was hyper aware of taking care of him while

303
00:18:03,359 --> 00:18:06,959
Speaker 3: he was incarcerated so he didn't feel abandoned, writing and

304
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,920
Speaker 3: calling and making sure he had money in his commissary

305
00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:14,800
Speaker 3: and holidays and birthdays. And I remember thinking, she knows

306
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,920
Speaker 3: what he's feeling better than any of us. I think

307
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:22,000
Speaker 3: that Emerson, once he had Beverly, he knew that there

308
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:26,000
Speaker 3: was another person out there who was advocating for him ferociously.

309
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Speaker 4: I mean, most people who.

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00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:30,960
Speaker 3: Are incarcerated don't have that person. And because she was

311
00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:33,360
Speaker 3: so smart and because she had been through it, she

312
00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:35,520
Speaker 3: wasn't going to hear that it couldn't be done.

313
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Speaker 1: While Beverly was keeping Emerson's hope alive, his legal team

314
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:42,840
Speaker 1: was systematically unwinding the case against him, and, as it

315
00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,160
Speaker 1: turned out, one piece of faulty evidence after another seemed

316
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,560
Speaker 1: to lead back to Detective Riley. First up was the

317
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,199
Speaker 1: claim that witnesses had seen a white pickup truck like

318
00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,879
Speaker 1: Emerson's near Mary's house. A woman named Anne Dick had

319
00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:58,560
Speaker 1: testified to that effect at the first trial, but her

320
00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,240
Speaker 1: story had changed by the time of the second trial.

321
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:04,119
Speaker 1: There she swore that the person she saw driving the

322
00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:07,520
Speaker 1: truck was not Emerson. Stevens when asked why she didn't

323
00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:10,639
Speaker 1: say that to the first jury, and answered because Detective

324
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,200
Speaker 1: Riley told me not to. The other pickup truck witness,

325
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,879
Speaker 1: Clyde Dunaway Well, turns out he came forward only after

326
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:22,080
Speaker 1: police offered a twenty thousand dollars reward for information. He

327
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,760
Speaker 1: asked Detective Riley about the money during their very first conversation,

328
00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:29,800
Speaker 1: but at Emerson's second trial, Dunaway swore he never asked

329
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,560
Speaker 1: anyone about the reward. Now Detective Riley was sitting in

330
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Speaker 1: the courtroom listening to this, he must have known Dunaway

331
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:40,440
Speaker 1: was lying, but the detective never said a word. Eventually,

332
00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 1: Dunaway paid a price for his false testimony in Emerson

333
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,520
Speaker 1: Stephens case. He ended up pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.

334
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:52,239
Speaker 3: Once you dangle reward money, especially in a place like

335
00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:56,120
Speaker 3: Lancaster where there's a lot of people living very much

336
00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:00,400
Speaker 3: on a margin, the fact that Clyde Dunaway bit on that.

337
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:01,800
Speaker 4: Is hardly surprising.

338
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,840
Speaker 3: He repeatedly inquired about when am I going to get

339
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:07,920
Speaker 3: that money, and the detective would say, only after you testify.

340
00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:11,480
Speaker 3: The upshot of the investigation is that Clyde Dunaway got

341
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,119
Speaker 3: in trouble and our dirty detective, who sat on that

342
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 3: information during both trials, walked away unscathed.

343
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:20,760
Speaker 4: The little guy got it as usual.

344
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,399
Speaker 1: Next up was the bizarre claim that Mary's bodies cinder

345
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:29,440
Speaker 1: block and all floated upstream ten miles. That marine scientist

346
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,840
Speaker 1: who testified at the first trial, remember he was mia

347
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,000
Speaker 1: at the second trial. Prosecutors had to read the jury

348
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:39,320
Speaker 1: a transcript of his previous testimony. Why didn't he show

349
00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:42,440
Speaker 1: up the second time? Well, Emerson's lawyers found a letter

350
00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:45,399
Speaker 1: from the scientist to the prosecutor that provided a pretty

351
00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,680
Speaker 1: clear explanation. After the first trial, the scientist wrote, Lieutenant

352
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:53,199
Speaker 1: Riley applied what maybe the correct term to my testimony

353
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:57,760
Speaker 1: in this case. He called it eyewash. Eyewash is Virginia

354
00:20:57,840 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 1: slang for bullshit.

355
00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:04,720
Speaker 2: Ugh God, the marine scientist, it's clear that the science

356
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,480
Speaker 2: that he put forth at this trial wasn't real. Even

357
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:13,280
Speaker 2: Detective Riley called this theory eyewash.

358
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,440
Speaker 3: Why a marine biologist went along with that the first time,

359
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:19,240
Speaker 3: I have no idea, But by the second time he

360
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:21,120
Speaker 3: clearly did not want.

361
00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:22,400
Speaker 4: To do it and thought it was dirty.

362
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:22,920
Speaker 5: Right.

363
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:25,639
Speaker 3: That's what his letter suggested, is you're asking me to

364
00:21:25,680 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 3: do something that's nonsensical.

365
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,919
Speaker 1: Suddenly there was reason to believe that Detective Riley had

366
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,679
Speaker 1: jinned up some of the evidence against Emerson, and it

367
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:37,119
Speaker 1: seems that Riley tried to take it even further. The

368
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,679
Speaker 1: owner of a Lancaster convenience store gave Emerson's lawyers a

369
00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:44,919
Speaker 1: sworn statement that reads as follows. Detective Riley tried to

370
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:47,400
Speaker 1: get me to say that Emerson Stevens woke me up

371
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:49,639
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night that Mary Harding disappeared

372
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,360
Speaker 1: so that he could buy five gallons of gas. Detective

373
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 1: Riley was extremely aggressive and pushy insisting that I agree

374
00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:00,280
Speaker 1: with his story even though it was not true. Was

375
00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:02,080
Speaker 1: never woken up in the middle of the night by

376
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 1: Emerson Stevens. Ever, for any.

377
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:08,680
Speaker 2: Reason, none of these pieces are the puzzle actually fit together.

378
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,160
Speaker 2: They were all manipulated by this detective so that they

379
00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:16,160
Speaker 2: fit his theory that Emerson was guilty of this crime.

380
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 2: Now that's the eyewash.

381
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,760
Speaker 1: The rest of the case crumbled too. Remember the theory

382
00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,439
Speaker 1: that Emerson used his knife to slash Mary's back. A

383
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,760
Speaker 1: new assessment by the medical examiner showed that those evenly

384
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,480
Speaker 1: spaced gashes were probably made by a boat propeller, not

385
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,800
Speaker 1: by a human with a knife. And finally, what about

386
00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:38,640
Speaker 1: the hair from Emerson's truck. Back in nineteen eighty five,

387
00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,400
Speaker 1: the crime lab had put that hair under a microscope

388
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,240
Speaker 1: and claimed that it was an exact match to Mary.

389
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,679
Speaker 1: This technique, known as hair microscopy, has since been debunked.

390
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,400
Speaker 1: There's no way you can match hairs with that level

391
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,240
Speaker 1: of certainty just by looking through a microscope. In fact,

392
00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:57,719
Speaker 1: more than seventy people have been exonerated after Bogus's hair

393
00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 1: evidence was used to convict them.

394
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:04,840
Speaker 3: There's just nothing to the science that you can microscopically

395
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:09,040
Speaker 3: compare hairs and identify anybody. We've had cases where people

396
00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:11,200
Speaker 3: say that this is a human hair belonging to this victim,

397
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,720
Speaker 3: and it belongs to a dog. Even according to the FBI,

398
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:17,520
Speaker 3: hair microscopy is junk science.

399
00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:22,119
Speaker 1: Decades later, Emerson's lawyers sought DNA testing, but it turned

400
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,879
Speaker 1: out the hair was too old to test. In other words,

401
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 1: there's no way to know who it belonged to. It

402
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 1: could have been Mary's, or Emerson's, or Emerson's wife's, it

403
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:44,040
Speaker 1: could have been anybody's. Armed with this new information, Emerson's

404
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 1: lawyers filed a post conviction petition in twenty sixteen asking

405
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,159
Speaker 1: for his conviction to be thrown out, but it hasn't

406
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: been yet. This is where Emerson's legal case has stalled.

407
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: Despite skilled lawyers and compelling evidence of innocence, The courts

408
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: have denied histition at every turn. But there has been

409
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 1: one important victory. On May nineteenth, twenty seventeen, Emerson Stevens

410
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:12,400
Speaker 1: was paroled from prison. He'd spent thirty one years behind bars.

411
00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:17,200
Speaker 3: His family filled the lobby of the correctional center, which

412
00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 3: is almost always absolutely empty, and then we came with students.

413
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,880
Speaker 3: And people who had been working on this case for years.

414
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 3: We all hopped into cars and we asked Emerson where

415
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:29,880
Speaker 3: he would like to have his first free meal.

416
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: So what was the fisherman craving after more than three

417
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:34,280
Speaker 1: decades of prison food.

418
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:36,919
Speaker 3: Emerson very quickly told us that he wanted to go

419
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:38,359
Speaker 3: to Cracker Barrel and he wanted the.

420
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,919
Speaker 6: Seafood platter at Cracker Barrel. And I don't argue with

421
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:42,199
Speaker 6: anyone who wants that.

422
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 1: Like a tide that might never come back in Emerson.

423
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: Stephen's life ebbed for thirty one years as he sat

424
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,399
Speaker 1: behind bars. Now his life is flowing again.

425
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,159
Speaker 6: You know, he's done such a great job of getting

426
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,880
Speaker 6: out and just sort of sliding back in to his life,

427
00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:06,480
Speaker 6: moving back in, seeing family, going back to work immediately

428
00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:10,600
Speaker 6: being a great worker. So in that part of his life,

429
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:12,720
Speaker 6: he's done a really wonderful job.

430
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:16,000
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, he's still a convicted murderer,

431
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: and that burden weighs on him every day.

432
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:23,160
Speaker 6: I think he feels that until he is cleared and

433
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,240
Speaker 6: other people are exposed, his life is.

434
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,919
Speaker 1: On hold until that happens. At least Emerson gets to

435
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 1: see his kids and his grandkids he's back out on

436
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,200
Speaker 1: the water and his small aluminum boat, feeling the breeze

437
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: on his face.

438
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 3: I just said to him, the only thing you owe

439
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,040
Speaker 3: me is a trip to go oystering, and he will

440
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 3: be good for that.

441
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:43,160
Speaker 4: I know it.

442
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 3: I've been to a Stephen's cookout, and you know what

443
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 3: they do is go crab and fish and come back

444
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 3: and cook it all up in the yard and have

445
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 3: huge tables of food and it's delicious.

446
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 1: The case against Emerson Stephens has taken years to unwind.

447
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,439
Speaker 1: Sometimes fighting cases this thin can be rangely hard, almost

448
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:02,959
Speaker 1: like you're shadow boxing a ghost.

449
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 2: Emerson should be pardoned, and Emerson's innocence needs to be

450
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 2: recognized by the governor of the state of Virginia.

451
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,120
Speaker 6: In cases like this, it's just never the slam dunk

452
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:18,399
Speaker 6: that it should be. We immediately applied for an absolute pardon,

453
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:22,360
Speaker 6: which would exonerate him totally, and he pretty quickly got

454
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:27,040
Speaker 6: a letter that said, thanks for your petition, we probably

455
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 6: won't be able to get to this for two years,

456
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:32,359
Speaker 6: and don't bother us. In the meantime. For Emerson to

457
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 6: be pardoned would mean that he gets an absolute clean slate,

458
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 6: and it's a gateway to maybe proving what people did

459
00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,440
Speaker 6: to get him convicted. For people like him, you need that,

460
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:46,639
Speaker 6: you need the real story to be told.

461
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: For her part, Beverly Monroe, now in her eighties, still

462
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 1: supports Emerson, still talks to him regularly by phone, still

463
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: is waiting for the day he'll be exonerated. We're waiting

464
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: to Emerson, and we stand with you all the way.

465
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 1: Hey is this Emerson? Yes, yes, Hey Emerson, It's Laura

466
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 1: Ny writer and Steve Drisson.

467
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 4: How are you?

468
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:16,920
Speaker 5: I'm doing good?

469
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 1: So tell me Emerson, what have you been doing these days?

470
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 1: How have you been keeping yourself busy?

471
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 5: Uh? Well, my oldest brother he asked me if I

472
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:27,439
Speaker 5: would take his boat and get all this craft pops up.

473
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 5: So I did that.

474
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:29,400
Speaker 1: You know, how was it?

475
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:29,920
Speaker 5: Oh?

476
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:30,680
Speaker 2: It felt great.

477
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,159
Speaker 5: It felt great being abaccoat on the water again. And

478
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 5: then he wants me to go yestring with him.

479
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:38,480
Speaker 2: You know, so I'm.

480
00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 5: Thinking about it. I want to buy purchase a boat

481
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 5: of my own, you know, like my brothers got, and

482
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 5: be able to work on the water again.

483
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,960
Speaker 1: You know, what would you name your boat, Emerson?

484
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 5: Well, these type of boats you don't really put names

485
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 5: on them. But I don't know, misfit or something.

486
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: I don't know. There's times that are enjoyable and wonderful,

487
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:05,120
Speaker 1: you're with your family, you're back out on the water.

488
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: And there's times that are hard too, I'm sure.

489
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah. I lost my oldest daughter when I

490
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 5: was in prison. She died at the age of forty,

491
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:16,879
Speaker 5: and that broke my heart. It's not a day that

492
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 5: don't go by that I don't think about her.

493
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 2: You know.

494
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: I'm really sorry, Emerson. Yeah, yeah, Well, she's looking down

495
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: from somewhere, I hope, and rooting for you, just like

496
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: the rest of us.

497
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 5: Are.

498
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: Are you still in touch with Beverly?

499
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 5: Oh? Beverly, She's been my number one fan. You know,

500
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,760
Speaker 5: She's always believed in me, and she's great. She's a

501
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,680
Speaker 5: great person. Every now and then I tetch her or

502
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 5: call and talk to them, but she loves to talk now.

503
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 5: She loves to.

504
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 1: Talk to support Emerson Stevens. You can write the Governor

505
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,959
Speaker 1: of Virginia and ask him to grant Emerson in absolute pardon.

506
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 1: You can find the address on my Instagram page at

507
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 1: Laura Nywriter. And that's the story of Emerson Stevens. Join

508
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 1: us next week when we tell you about a Philadelphia

509
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: man named Walter Ogrod. Walter spent decades on death row

510
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 1: until a new generation of prosecutors came to Philadelphia. They

511
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: brought reform to the city and hope to Walter. Wrongful Conviction,

512
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:33,360
Speaker 1: False Confessions is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts

513
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,520
Speaker 1: in association with Signal Company Number one Special thanks to

514
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wardis. Our production

515
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: team is headed by senior producer Ann Pope, along with

516
00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 1: producers Joshi Hammer and Jess Shane. Our show is mixed

517
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 1: by Genie Montalvo. John Colbert is our intrepid intern. Our

518
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: music was composed by Jay Ralph. You can follow me

519
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: on Instagram or Twitter at Laura and Nywriter, and you

520
00:29:59,160 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 1: can follow.

521
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,000
Speaker 2: Me on Twitter at Sdrizzen.

522
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:06,479
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrongfulconvictionpodcast dot com.

523
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,

524
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at

525
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction