WEBVTT - #125 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Billy Wayne Cope 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:05.160 Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I writer. 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:06.280 And I'm Steve Drisen. 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:09.879 Today we bring you the story of Billy Wayne Cope, 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.720 a father and husband, a man of faith, and one 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:18.120 of many innocents wrongfully convicted of murder. Even after DNA 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.599 evidence pointed to the real killer, the police refused to 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:26.520 pursue other leads. Instead, Billy was railroaded into falsely confessing 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.560 to an unimaginable crime. This case will stay with you. 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:33.000 It's certainly left a mark on Steve. 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.280 I think about Billy Cope all the time. I think 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.480 about how the justice system failed him, and I think 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:54.920 about how we failed him. This is the most disappointing 0:00:55.560 --> 0:01:00.480 loss in my career, one of them. At least rest 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.559 a little bit knowing that we had an incredible team 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.920 of lawyers that fought his case with every ounce of 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:09.399 strength that we had. 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.479 Well, look, I've watched you throw yourself, heart and soul 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.000 into the fight for Billy Wayne Cope. And what I 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.640 have seen is not failure at all. What I see 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.160 as a real heroism when I look at what you've 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:21.520 done in this case, and. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.600 As trial lawyers were heroes too, you know they fought 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:30.600 and fought. This was a group effort, but it didn't 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:31.880 succeed in the end. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.120 There's something to being a lawyer where you're literally asked 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:39.480 to hold someone else's life and future and reputation and 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.600 story in your own hands and to fight for that story. 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:45.280 And it can be devastating when you're not able to 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.960 deliver the justice that so clearly is deserved in a case. 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.520 And Billy Wayne Cope's is one of the stories that 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:57.800 doesn't have a happy ending. Billy Wayne Cope's story starts 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.880 in rock Hill, South Carolina, thriving city with lots of 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.720 jobs and colleges and respectable people. But there are some 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.920 parts of rock Hill on the outskirts that are different, 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.560 run down. The people who live there maybe didn't finish school, 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.280 maybe don't have great jobs. They're people who are too 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:21.840 easy to forget. Our story starts in a shabby house 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.839 on Rich Street, where thirty eight year old Billy lived 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.160 with his wife and three daughters in late two thousand 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.079 and one. Billy had a job delivering fast food chicken 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.519 and his wife, Mary Sue, was a cleaning lady who 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.720 worked nights. They were deeply religious. Billy was a born 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.280 again Christian, the kind of guy who thinks the rapture 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.239 is around every corner. Now, the Copes had their challenges. 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.680 For one thing, they didn't keep a clean house. Dirty 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.840 dishes would pile up and attract roaches. Years earlier, someone 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.000 had called social services because the family's mobile home was 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.359 so dirty, and their kids were put in foster care 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.720 for a little while. But that was a long time ago. 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:04.440 In two thousand and one, things were looking up for 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.240 the Copes. They'd moved out of the mobile home and 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.720 onto rich Street. Billy had even gotten a degree in 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:15.440 computer electronics. Neighbors remember the family as loving and close, 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.760 even if they didn't have money or social cachet. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.680 And Amanda in particular, she was the shining star of 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:23.240 the family. 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:27.040 Amanda was the oldest daughter, twelve years old. She was 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.760 a straight A student who belonged to their church's Bible 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.480 quiz team, which Billy coached. The family thought of her 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:35.280 as their hope for the future. 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.280 She was a kind of big sister who would help 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.280 her little sisters. She would help them with their homework. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:45.440 Billy called her his special child, but Amanda's bright future 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:51.160 would never materialize. It was Thursday November twenty ninth, Billy's 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.320 alarm goes off at six am. His wife is still 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.480 at work, so it's his job to get the kids 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.320 ready for school. The night before, Billy and Amanda had 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.520 stayed up late helping one of the younger girls with 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:07.160 her homework. Now, Billy had sleep apnea because he was overweight, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.720 so he used a seapap machine every night to help 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.720 him breathe. But the machine made noise. It hissed, it thumped, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.000 it drowned out pretty much anything quieter than the alarm clock. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.320 When Billy goes to wake his daughters, he doesn't hear 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.080 from Amanda. Billy walks into her room to find Amanda 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.000 on the bed, partially clothed, with a strip of her 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.760 favorite green blanket wrapped tightly around her neck. Billy unwraps 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:39.239 the blanket for a minute he holds her. Amanda's body 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.839 is cold to the touch. Billy calls nine one one. 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.520 The police rushed to the scene, and right away they 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.960 suspect Billy. He's willing himself to stay calm for the 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.320 sake of his two other daughters, but the police misread 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.320 this as coldness. They ask him what he thinks happened 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.240 Billy's in a day. All he can come up with 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:04.839 is that Amanda might have tossed and turned in the 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:09.800 night and strangled herself with the green blanket. This guest 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:15.160 is light years off the mark. Amanda had been sexually assaulted, beaten, 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.719 and strangled, not with the blanket but with someone's hands. 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:25.880 Police gather forensic evidence seamen on her pants and saliva 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.760 from a bitemark on her chest, and later that evening, 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.640 at about ten o'clock, police bring Billy Waynecope to the 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:40.839 station for questioning. Police start this interrogation by accusing Billy 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:45.640 of Amanda's murder, but he vehemently denies it. Six hundred 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.880 and fifty times, Billy insists he never harmed his daughter. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:54.920 Never. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.560 Police ask what he'll say if the seaman turns out 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.960 to be his, but Billy's ready for it. It won't 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.680 match because I have not ever done any very much. 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:10.760 You can check every part of my body, you can 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:15.560 do a lead forensic study of everything anything. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:17.440 You won't find. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.360 Any evidence, only because I did not do it. 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:25.360 Now, Billy had faith in polygraph exams. He taken them 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.360 in the past for jobs like working behind the counter 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:30.760 at a gas station, so he asks the police for 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.000 a polygraph to prove his innocence. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.360 I'm just telling you, you get a polygraph here, and 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.839 I will be willing to take anything you want to 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.599 do with me, and you won't see I didn't want 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:47.440 any one single thing. Can never come under I tell 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.640 any physical work. Never. 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.080 For the time being, police avoid his request. They keep 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.640 questioning Billy for four hours until he finally gets a 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.000 break at two point thirty in the morning. He's brought 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.600 to a jail cell, where he struggles to get a 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:11.800 few hours of sleep. Now let's stop for a moment. 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.800 Police are focused on Billy like a laser, but by 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.120 letting tunnel vision take over, they're ignoring other leads. Billy's 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.600 wife's pocketbook was found next to Amanda's body on our bed. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.400 What was it doing there? This was powerful evidence that 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.560 a burglar was involved in this crime. And you know 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.840 what else they found. They found a flashlight in the home. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:37.000 And of course this is a flashlight that didn't belong 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:37.840 to the Koch family. 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.880 Not a single member of the family could identify ever 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:42.480 having seen that flashlight. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.360 But they're ignoring the pocketbook, They ignore the flashlight. They're 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:51.400 focused on Billy. At nine point fifteen the next morning, 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.360 after almost no sleep, Billy's brought to a polygrapher. 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:00.320 He takes the polygraph and he's told that he failedailed. 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:03.680 You know, this is reminiscent of so many other cases. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.800 It's one of the most powerful steps in the pathway 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:09.200 to a false confession. 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.679 And of course we know the polygraph, the lie detector 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.200 test is notoriously unreliable, but it's being presented to Billy 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.320 as this infallible arbiter of truth. Billy, you failed it. 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.360 That means you're lying. And when they tell him this, 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.160 it shakes Billy to his core. Billy begins to doubt 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.800 himself and he starts asking himself, could I have somehow 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.640 done this and not remembered it. Billy described the rest 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.880 of the interrogation as an exercise in which the polygraph 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.319 examiner was pulling images out of his head, images that 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.959 Billy couldn't come up with until the polygrapher suggested them, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.560 one after another after another. 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.200 I've seen a lot of false confessions and wrongful convictions 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.880 in my life, and the Billy Wayne Cope case has 0:08:57.920 --> 0:08:59.760 haunted me for years. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.760 Casin, one of the leading experts on the psychology of 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:03.679 false confessions. 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.520 At every step of the way, it was clear that 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:11.040 Billy Wayne Cope's innocence didn't matter, and in fact, it 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.120 mattered less and less as the process moved forward. Police 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.160 formed a very strong impression of Billy Wayne Cope's guilt 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.760 immediately without evidence and for no good reason. And even 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.720 when evidence came in that contradicted that presumption of guilt, 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:33.520 they didn't stop in their tracks and reassess. And that 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:35.360 is true the whole way through. 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.640 According to that confession story that Billy eventually signed, he'd 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:41.800 gotten up at three am to go to the bathroom. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.080 He started to masturbate, and when he heard Amanda laugh 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.960 at him, he attacked her, choking her with his hands 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.840 and eventually violating her. He even agreed that he'd abused 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:53.680 his other kids on other occasions too. 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:59.040 Sometimes when police used certain highly suggestive and misleading tactics 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.760 lead somebody not only to confess to a crime they 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.880 didn't commit, they can cause that person to create a 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.120 belief in their own guilt, to get confused about their innocence, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.920 and then to actually confabulate false memories of the thing 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:18.079 they didn't do. These are called internalized false confessions. He 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.480 used words like I had a feeling like I assume, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.480 well you told me so, I guess this is the 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.720 way it must have been. Those are not the words 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.920 of a confession. Those are words of somebody trying to 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.840 put pieces together of an event they have no direct 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:34.360 memory of. 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.480 Billy would go on to give something like four or 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.880 five different variations of this confession, and by the end 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.440 he was so broken down that he was agreeing to 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.760 anything that was suggested to him. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.080 He said, first he woke up and he assaulted and 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.760 killed his daughter, and then he went back to sleep 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:55.840 and didn't remember it, and then he woke up again 0:10:56.240 --> 0:11:00.320 and remembered it, but then forgot it again. Well, that's 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.560 just psychologically impossible. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.600 This fabricated story was so horrifying to Billy that when 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.640 the police threatened him with the death penalty, he welcomed it. 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.480 People with authority were telling him that he had done 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.760 terrible things, even if he didn't remember doing them. He 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:32.559 still thought he deserved to die. So Billy is charged 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.920 with the murder of his daughter, and of course this 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.760 is a big news story. It's everywhere, and the narrative 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.720 that's being painted in the media and in the prosecution 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.280 is that Billy is garbage. He's just not worth as 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:48.200 much as others. He's one of those throwaway people. There's 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.760 a problem though, with a case against Billy Wayne Cope. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:56.000 After he's arrested, DNA testing proves that the saliva and 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.920 seamen left on Amanda did not come from him. Instead, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.760 they were left by some other man. The police collect 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.400 DNA samples from everyone who knew the Cope family, even 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.520 their preacher, but they can't find a match. It takes 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.160 them seven months to figure out that the DNA left 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:19.880 on Amanda Cope's body belonged to a man named James Sanders. 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.960 James Sanders is a career burglar, a serial rapist, and 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:31.120 a drug addict from North Carolina. He'd recently been released 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.280 from prison and moved to South Carolina, to Rock Hill 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:38.080 in particular. In fact, as of the date of Amanda's death, 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.760 James Sanders lived two blocks away from the Cope family, 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.000 and while Billy Wayne Cope sat in prison for Amanda's death, 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.400 James Sanders was out on the streets and he was 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.840 horribly busy. Between December twelfth, two thousand and one and 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.559 January twelfth, two thousand and two. In that one month period, 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:02.000 James Sanders was implicated in four burglaries and multiple sexual 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.520 assault in rock Hill, three of them within a mile 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.880 of the Cope home. On December twelfth, he robbed and 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:13.000 raped an elderly disabled woman. On December sixteenth and December nineteenth, 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.160 there were two more attempted rapes, and on both occasions, 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.160 the victims identified James Sanders. This guy is on a 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.920 literal crime spree, breaking into homes and assaulting females in 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.200 Amandicope's neighborhood within weeks of Amandicpe's death. 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.480 He was brazen. He would go into these homes to 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.360 try to find money, but if there was a woman 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.400 in the home, he would attack her. He even assaulted 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.240 some of these women while other people were sleeping in 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:39.720 the home. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.640 Now, James Sanders also had a signature m. He would 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.040 target homes after dark. He would break in without leaving 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.560 any signs of forest entry. That was his specialty, and 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:56.600 in each case James Sanders acted alone. Sanders was arrested 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.480 for one of these other rapes. It was only at 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.120 that point that prosecutors discovered that his DNA matched the 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:04.320 Cope crime scene too. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:10.360 Now that renders Billy Wayne Cope's confessions false because he 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.200 doesn't indicate the presence of a James Sanders in his scenarios, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:21.120 so his confessions were simply factually wrong. Somebody else raped 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:25.360 his daughter. That same DNA that excluded Billy Wayne Cope 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:27.200 identified the assailant. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.200 At this point, the whole case against Billy Wayne Cope 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.840 should have been reevaluated from top to bottom. Instead, prosecutors 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:41.160 theorized that Billy and Sanders attacked Amanda together, even though 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.080 Billy's confession doesn't mention an accomplice, and even though only 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.320 sanders DNA is left of the scene. 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:51.560 Their first act was to go to his wife and 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.000 to tell her that that DNA in the seamen was 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:59.200 Billy Wayne Cope's. They lied to his wife and then 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.680 wired her up to try and get him to give 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:06.800 a better, more accurate confession because his prior confessions were 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.400 factually incorrect. Why would you send his wife in to 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.200 get a fifth confession unless you realized that the other 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:19.160 four were worthless. She died shortly thereafter as a result 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.280 of complications and surgery, and they never corrected the record 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:27.560 for her. She died believing that Billy Wayne Cope's DNA 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:29.760 had been found inside of their daughter. 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.040 The prosecution searched for any connection between Billy and Sanders, 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.160 and they found nothing. 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.280 There was zero evidence he and Cope had ever met 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.000 that alone joined forces. 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.760 The DNA contradicted the prosecution of Billy Winko, and instead 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.840 of moving in that direction, they concocted a theory that 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.800 essentially had he and the rapist involved together, and they 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:54.640 just made it up. 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.480 Four weeks before the start of this trial, Sanders wrote 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.800 a letter to the prosecute in this case, and in 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.720 that letter he complained about his own defense attorney, and 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.720 one of the complaints he had was, He's not even 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.160 talking to me about this other man. I'm going to 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.240 trial with someone I'm not even acquainted with. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:20.000 But even Sanders letter didn't deter prosecutors. They told the 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.640 jury that Billy Wayne Cope had pimped out his daughter 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.560 to James, that Billy must have led James into the 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.240 home in order to attack Amanda, and so the two 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.680 of them went on trial together. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:36.160 I couldn't believe that Billy Wayne Cope had to sit 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.760 in court with his daughter's rapist and murderer. The individual 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.040 whose seamen was found inside his daughter. 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.760 Now, Billy Wayne Cope's case was gaining the attention of 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.080 national experts in false confessions, as well as some of 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.480 the leading lawyers in South Carolina, and Billy's lawyers were 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.720 committed to fighting back at trial. Billy's legal team tried 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.920 to tell the jury about James Sanders crime, but the 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.920 judge refused to let them, saying that Sanders' other crimes 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.560 weren't relevant because they hadn't involved a twelve year old girl. 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.520 Billy's lawyers also tried to introduce that letter Sanders had 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.720 written saying he didn't know Billy, but the judge rejected 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.720 that too. Billy's defense is hamstrung. 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.199 The jury saw James Sanders there, but they were not 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.000 permitted to know that James Sanders was about to stand 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.320 trial for another crime he committed in almost exactly the 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.400 same way and in the same neighborhood. In their minds, 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.639 James Sanders and Billy Wayne Coope came together for this 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.280 one time only novel crime, when in fact, James Sanders 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:41.360 was a serial offender. 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:45.160 And meanwhile, the trial that Billy has to endure, it's 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:50.720 hellish every time the prosecutors mentioned Billy's name, James Sanders 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:56.399 starts laughing. Finally, Billy could bear no more. He takes 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.399 the witness stand in his own defense and he explodes 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.560 at James Sanders, you. 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.920 Hate you for what you did. Bible says, love your 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.480 enemies and do good to so help me, God, I've tried. 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:13.600 I hate him. 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:16.920 I hate him so bad I can't stand. 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.480 In the end, it wasn't enough. The jury deliberated only 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.399 five or five and a half hours. Billy Wayne Cope 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.560 was convicted. Both he and Sanders went down for this crime, 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.920 and they were both sentenced to life in prison. That's 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.679 when I got involved. I had been following the case 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:49.280 and I was stunned that Billy Wayne Cope had been convicted. 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.680 I decided to see if Billy Wayne Cope's defense team 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:54.800 could use some help. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.600 Steve joined Billy's appeal team, which also included legendary lawyers 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.639 David Brooke and Alison Flohm, and at first Billy's appeal 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.239 seemed like it'd be successful. The appellate court ruled that 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.080 there wasn't enough evidence that Billy and James Sanders had 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.560 worked together, but the prosecution appealed. 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:18.159 That ruling, and I was optimistic. I thought we have 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.879 checks and balances in our system, and the Supreme Court 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.840 of South Carolina is not going to let this conviction stand. 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:27.800 But I was wrong. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:31.399 The South Carolina Supreme Court declined to throw out Billy's 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.240 conviction by a single vote, and the US Supreme Court 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:36.960 refused to intervene. 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.240 I can't tell you how many cases I've seen just 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:45.359 like this. An innocent person gives a confession. Subsequent to 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:50.400 the confession, DNA is found. The DNA identifies the perpetrator, 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:55.040 who has nothing to do with the individual who confessed, 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.320 and rather than redirect the investigation, admit the mistake and 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:04.800 move on, the prosecutor's office chooses instead to create some 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.200 new theory that brings together the rapist and the innocent confessor. 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:12.480 And I just find that shameful. It's a disgrace. 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:16.800 Well, the legal team was prepared to keep on fighting, right. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.119 We don't let losses in any court, whether it's the 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.720 trial court or the US Supreme Court, stop us from 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:26.159 fighting for justice. But in this case, we weren't able 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:31.399 to continue the fight. On February ninth, twenty seventeen, Billy 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.440 Wayne Cope died in prison of what the prison said 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:35.720 were natural causes. 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:39.240 When I heard years later that Billy Wayne Cope had 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:43.280 died in prison, my heart just sunk. While this case 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.000 haunted me, I harbor the hope that at some point 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.399 in time, at some level and in some way, an 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:50.840 appeal would be successful. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.800 He was only fifty three years old, and from a 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:58.000 legal perspective, that means that Billy Wayne Cope's case is over. 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:03.280 It's done. There are no options left to clear his name. Now, 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.720 we want to tell you uplifting stories of exoneration, of 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:11.119 justice that's delayed but not denied. We all like those stories. 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.160 They keep us fighting, but not every case turns out 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:14.560 that way. 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:20.200 In this podcast episode, it's our attempt to change Billy's legacy. 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:22.480 We're not here to tell you that Billy Wayne Cope 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:24.720 was an angel, but that's one of the dangers of 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.359 telling stories about wrongful conviction. There's always a temptation to 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.920 paint the defendant as a perfect human and Billy Wayne 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:35.000 wasn't perfect, not by a long shot. But our justice 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.920 system is supposed to make judgments based on evidence and logic, 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:42.960 not on character, assassinations, or whispers that someone might have 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:44.159 been white trash. 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.480 Billy deserves the truth as much as anyone else does. 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.199 Billy Wayne Cope did not sexually assault his daughter. He 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:54.240 did not rape his daughter. He did not murder his daughter. 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:59.000 His greatest indiscretion, if you will, was that he called 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.240 nine one one founder dead in the morning. 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.160 We want to tell you now a little bit about 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:10.800 the man Billy Wayne Copeman. You knew, right, Steve, I. 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:15.040 Did know him. You know, throughout this ordeal he remained upbeat, 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:19.760 even hopeful. He had dedicated himself to doing God's work 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:24.360 in prison. He taught Hebrew, he preached, He served as 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.440 a hospice minister to inmates that were dying or ill. 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:33.679 When he died, his legal team got together and we 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:40.520 wrote a statement about his death. And this is what 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:44.359 the statement said. In the years we represented Billy, he 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:48.840 was unfailingly polite. He was optimistic and full of faith, 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:52.760 and he maintained these qualities in the long years that 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:56.719 followed his conviction. Billy confessed to a dreadful crime he 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:00.399 did not commit. When DNA later proved the act actual 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:04.960 killer was a career burglar and serial rapist named James Sanders, 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.280 law enforcement should have faced up to the truth and 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:12.400 admitted they had obtained a false confession from the grieving 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:22.879 and psychologically vulnerable father of a murdered child. Billy, I 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:26.240 want you to know that even though we lost your case, 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:31.760 these cases of unrequited innocence, these are the ones that 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.320 give me the strength and energy to continue the fight 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:37.040 for other innocent people. 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:41.160 Billy, with your evangelical fervor, We sure hope you're somewhere 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:44.240 where you gonna hear us. Justice belongs to every man, 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:49.920 not just the rich, powerful, or respectable. This podcast episod's 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:52.680 for you and for everyone like you, in the name 0:23:52.720 --> 0:24:00.960 of justice. Join us next week when we bring you 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:03.719 to the Bronx in nineteen eighty nine to meet Hugh Burton, 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:06.520 a good kid who happened to live in the apartment 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:10.560 above a truly bad guy. Until then, thanks for listening 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:21.000 to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.439 a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:28.320 Signal Company Number One. Special thanks to our executive producer 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:31.520 Jason Flamm and the team at Signal Company Number One. 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:35.920 Executive producer Kevin wardis Senior producer and Pope and additional 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:39.720 production and editing by Connor Hall. Special thanks to Jogi 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:43.240 Hammer for additional script editing and for wrangling and writing 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:47.520 like a mad woman. Our music was composed by Jay Ralph. 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:50.920 You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura Nywriter, 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:51.560 and you. 0:24:51.480 --> 0:24:54.320 Can follow me on Twitter at s Drisen. 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:58.240