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Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Laura. I'm here with some breaking news.

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Speaker 1: In the season two of Wrongful Conviction and False Confessions,

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Speaker 1: Steve and I brought you the story of a Virginia

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Speaker 1: fisherman named Emerson Stevens. Emerson spent more than thirty years

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Speaker 1: behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. Remember this

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Speaker 1: is that crazy case where prosecutors tried to get an

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Speaker 1: expert to say that the victim's way down body floated

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Speaker 1: up the river against the current for miles before we're

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Speaker 1: landing near emerson stock. The expert ended up telling the

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Speaker 1: prosecutors their case was eyewash. That's Virginia slang for bullshit.

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Speaker 1: But Emerson was wrongly convicted anyway. We told his story

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Speaker 1: and we asked you to tell the governor of Virginia

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Speaker 1: that he should grant Emerson's request for a pardon. So

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Speaker 1: here's the breaking news. After more than three decades of waiting,

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Speaker 1: Emerson finally got justice. On August sixteen, Virginia Governor Ralph

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Speaker 1: Northam granted Emerson a pardon based on actual innocence. That

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Speaker 1: means that Emerson is now eligible for compensation from the state,

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Speaker 1: and it means his innocence has been publicly recognized once

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Speaker 1: and for all. Thank you to all our listeners who

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Speaker 1: supported Emerson. Congratulations to Emerson's longtime lawyers at the University

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Speaker 1: of Virginia Law Innocence Project and Emerson. This news is

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Speaker 1: the best hope you celebrate in style. We're re releasing

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Speaker 1: your episode in honor of you. Welcome to Wrongful Conviction,

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Speaker 1: False Confessions. I'm Laura and I writer and I'm Steve Drison.

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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, oh, you can help him finally clear

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Speaker 1: his name. Today's episode is based on interviews with Emerson

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

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Speaker 1: we're going to break them old. We're going to break

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Speaker 1: them all. This is not a case that involves a

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Speaker 1: false confession. This is a case that involves a false

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Speaker 1: inculpatory statement. Sometimes detectives can't get a confession, but they'll

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Speaker 1: settle for a false inculpatory statement. Right. That's lawyer talk

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Speaker 1: for something you say that makes you look really bad.

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Speaker 1: That's exactly right, and it's false. So it's a lie.

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Speaker 1: And the same tactics that are used to get false

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Speaker 1: confessions are often used to get these false inculpatory statements,

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Speaker 1: and they can have the same devastating consequences. So when

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Speaker 1: I think about this case, I think about it in

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Speaker 1: terms of a puzzle. You know, and my family goes

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Speaker 1: on vacation, we often buy a puzzle and we spend

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Speaker 1: a lot of time putting that puzzle together. And anyone

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Speaker 1: who puts puzzles together knows that there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of times where the piece that you think will finish

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Speaker 1: a part of the puzzle doesn't quite fit. It looks

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Speaker 1: like it should fit, but just a little bit off.

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Speaker 1: And that's what happened with a lot of the evidence

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Speaker 1: in Emerson Stevens case. They manipulated the evidence to make

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Speaker 1: it seem like it fit the police theory. That's what

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Speaker 1: happens in runful 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. It was only after the

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Speaker 1: fact that you could see that the pieces never really

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Speaker 1: fit in the first place. Today's story takes place in

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Speaker 1: Lancaster County, Virginia, a rural community instled between the Chesapeake

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Speaker 1: Bay and the Rappahannock River. It's a place that'smells like

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Speaker 1: ocean salt, an honest sweat. Generations there have made a

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Speaker 1: living with their hands, hauling fish out of the bay

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Speaker 1: and crabs and oysters out of the river. In this

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

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Speaker 1: and through. Petite and blue eyed, Mary was homecoming queen

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Speaker 1: at Lancaster High before she and her high school sweetheart

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Speaker 1: tied the knot. By age twenty four, Mary was working

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Speaker 1: as a bookkeeper at the local bank while her husband

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Speaker 1: was a fisherman. They had two young kids and a

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Speaker 1: modest ranch home located just across the street from the cemetery.

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Speaker 1: On Friday, August, that modest home became the scene of

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Speaker 1: a terrible discovery. On weekdays, Mary had a routine before work,

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Speaker 1: she'd drop off her one year old at the home

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Speaker 1: of her husband's grandmother, Virginia Walker. But that Friday morning,

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Speaker 1: Mary didn't show up. Virginia was worried, so she drove

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Speaker 1: over to Mary's house. Virginia was greeted at the door

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Speaker 1: by Mary's four year old son, who told here that

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Speaker 1: he couldn't find his mom. The TV and lights were

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Speaker 1: on throughout the house. Some unrinsed comet was left in

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Speaker 1: the bathroom sink, and the little boy's chicken dinner from

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Speaker 1: the night before was still sitting on the table. Don't worry,

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Speaker 1: the four year old assured his great grandma. In his

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Speaker 1: mother's absence, he was taking care of the baby. Virginia

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Speaker 1: knew there's no way Mary would abandon her children. There's

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Speaker 1: only one explanation for her disappearance. Mary must have been taken.

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Speaker 1: Virginia calls the police, and soon a state police detective

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Speaker 1: by the name of David Riley arrives at the house.

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Speaker 1: He finds cat litter scattered on the ground outside the

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Speaker 1: back door, along with one of Mary's white sandals, but

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Speaker 1: there's no sign of Mary. Pretty soon, word spreads and

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Speaker 1: the whole community starts searching through the woods and along

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Speaker 1: the shore, but they find nothing. Nothing that is until

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Speaker 1: four days later. That's when a woman's body is found

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Speaker 1: in the shallows of the Rappahannock River. The body is unclothed,

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Speaker 1: badly decomposed, and hard to identify, but it's clear something

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Speaker 1: horrific has happened. The woman's back is covered with deep,

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Speaker 1: evenly spaced slashes. There's a rope tied around her neck

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Speaker 1: with a huge cinder block attached to the other end.

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Speaker 1: A heavy chain is wrapped around the woman's right leg.

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Speaker 1: Soon enough, the medical examiner confirms this is Mary Harding.

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Speaker 1: She's been strangled to death. Now here's the thing. The

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Speaker 1: rope and chain were the same kind that you can

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Speaker 1: find on most fisherman's boats in Lancaster. So suddenly this

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Speaker 1: close knit community was being torn apart by suspicion. Everyone

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Speaker 1: was wondering who would have done this to the homecoming queen.

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Speaker 1: Before long, the authorities settled on a suspect, thirty two

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Speaker 1: year old Emerson Stevens. Like so many other Lancaster men,

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Speaker 1: Emerson had worked on the water since he was a teenager.

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Speaker 1: Emerson was a crabber and an oysterman who hauled his

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Speaker 1: catch in on a boat named after his wife. He'd

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Speaker 1: spent his life by the shore, the kind of guy

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Speaker 1: who has salt water in his veins. It was Mary's

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Speaker 1: husband who pointed police to Emerson Steven's. Emerson had gone

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Speaker 1: to Mary's funeral, and Mary's husband thought Emerson seemed nervous there.

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Speaker 1: Mary's husband also remembered that he had once heard Emerson

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Speaker 1: make a crude joke about female anatomy. This wasn't much

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Speaker 1: to go on, but days later, a couple of people

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Speaker 1: told police they had seen a light colored pickup truck

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

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Speaker 1: Steven's happened to drive a white Dodge pickup, so he

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: parked in front of this house the night Mary vanished.

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Speaker 1: If you question somebody on the porch, you're creating a

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Speaker 1: context that is different from your standard police interrogation. You

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Speaker 1: can tap into all of the emotions of This is

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Speaker 1: where this woman lived, this is where she had her children,

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Speaker 1: this is where she was last seen. This is not

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Speaker 1: a police interrogation room. It feels like the kind of

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Speaker 1: place where you'd have a heart to heart conversation. And

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Speaker 1: there's another thing that makes this porch interrogation even more emotional. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: not only was this the front porch at Mary's house,

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Speaker 1: it was right across the street from the burial ground

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Speaker 1: where her headstone was. As the two men look out

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Speaker 1: at the cemetery, Riley presses Emerson for information, but Emerson

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Speaker 1: is stunned he hadn't been at Mary's house. He says

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Speaker 1: he'd been at home. Then he'd taken his kids over

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Speaker 1: to the neighbors to watch TV and eat crab. They'd

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Speaker 1: returned home together at about nine pm, and Emerson's wife

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Speaker 1: had gotten home from work shortly after. He tells Riley

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Speaker 1: to talk to his neighbor and confirm the alibi, but

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Speaker 1: Riley doesn't buy Emerson's story. Instead, he orders a search

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Speaker 1: of Erson's pickup truck. After digging through the truck for hours,

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Speaker 1: police discover a single strand of hair. They send the

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Speaker 1: hair off to the state crime lab for forensic analysis.

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Speaker 1: The next week, Riley asks Emerson to come to a

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Speaker 1: nearby Virginia police station for a polygraph as soon as

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Speaker 1: the polygraphs completed, Riley tells Emerson he failed. According to Emerson,

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Speaker 1: Riley says he must either have killed Mary Harding or

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Speaker 1: done something else related to her murder. Those are two

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Speaker 1: pretty bad options, and Emerson is terrified. But then Riley

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Speaker 1: offers Emerson a third choice that seems a lot better.

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: his story to exactly what Riley suggested. If detectives can't

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Speaker 1: get a full confession, they'll settle for a false inculpatory statement.

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Speaker 1: All the detective can get from Emerson is a statement

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Speaker 1: that he pulled over on the side of the road

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Speaker 1: a short distance away from Mary's house to relieve himself

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Speaker 1: at the approximate time of death. That's the admission I

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Speaker 1: was in the vicinity of her home near the time

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Speaker 1: where the medical examiner believed she was killed. That was

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Speaker 1: all Emerson said. He did not confess, but he'd said

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Speaker 1: enough to get himself in real trouble. He just placed

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Speaker 1: himself at the crime scene. Detective Riley was on high alert,

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Speaker 1: but the case against Emerson was pretty damn thin until

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Speaker 1: test results came back from the State crime Lab on

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

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Speaker 1: hair under a microscope and compared it to Mary Harding's hair,

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Speaker 1: and the lab said it was an exact match. The

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Speaker 1: police's thin case suddenly seemed rock solid, and in late October,

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Speaker 1: Emerson Stevens was a rested for the abduction and murder

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Speaker 1: of Mary Harding. The trial of Emerson Stevens was one

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Speaker 1: of the most dramatic events Lancaster County had ever seen.

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Speaker 1: To a packed courtroom, prosecutors described how they thought the

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Speaker 1: crime unfolded. Emerson kidnapped Mary, they said, then strangled her

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Speaker 1: and threw her body into the river. They even suggested

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Speaker 1: that Emerson slashed Mary's back with his fishing knife in

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Speaker 1: order to attract crabs so there wouldn't be anything left

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Speaker 1: of her body. The worst imaginable kind of cry. It's

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Speaker 1: like throwing chum over the side of a boat to

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Speaker 1: entice sharks. But there were problems with the prosecution's theory.

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Speaker 1: They claimed that Emerson had thrown Mary's body into the

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Speaker 1: river off the end of his own dock, but her

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Speaker 1: body was actually found a full ten miles upstream. How

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Speaker 1: does a body that is waged down with a cinder

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Speaker 1: block travel ten miles upstream upstreams against the current. That's

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Speaker 1: the thing. I mean. To swim those ten miles upstream

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

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

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Speaker 1: It's absurd, But prosecutors found a witness to bolster this

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Speaker 1: theory insane though it seemed. A marine scientist testified that

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Speaker 1: it was possible for Mary's body to float against the

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Speaker 1: current cinder block and all for ten miles from Emerson's

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Speaker 1: dock to where it was found, and there were other

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Speaker 1: witnesses to Detective Riley told the jury that Emerson claimed

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Speaker 1: to have been near Mary's house on the night she disappeared,

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Speaker 1: and the prosecution called two people to corroborate Emerson's statement,

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Speaker 1: Clyde Dunaway and and Dick. They both claimed they had

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

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

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Speaker 1: the crime lab to testify that the hair and emer'sons

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Speaker 1: truck seemed to match Mary's. So it seemed at this

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Speaker 1: point as though all the puzzle pieces fit together, and

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Speaker 1: they painted a compelling portrait of Emerson's guilt. But this

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Speaker 1: is not the end of the story, not by a

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Speaker 1: long shot. When the defense's turn came, Emerson's lawyers put

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Speaker 1: on a strong case of their own, no fewer than

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Speaker 1: four alibi witnesses. In the end, the jury hung unable

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Speaker 1: to reach a verdict. The prosecution was quick to retry Emerson,

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Speaker 1: and on July 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

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Speaker 1: statements to ring the second trial, Emerson's lawyer put on

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Speaker 1: his alibi witnesses again, and Emerson himself took the stand.

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Speaker 1: He tried to explain that he was innocent, that he

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Speaker 1: hadn't actually pulled over near Mary's house that night. He'd

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

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Speaker 1: admit to us You lied, They asked, yes, I told that,

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Speaker 1: Emerson 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 guilty, and

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: e d. He worked in the dusty prison wood shop,

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Speaker 1: building furniture for state institutions. He wrote letters constantly to

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: be on the water again. In April two thousand 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 of Virginia lady named Beverly Monroe. Beverly was a

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Speaker 1: professional chemist whose upper middle class background seemed worlds away

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Speaker 1: from Emerson. At least at first you see. Ten years earlier,

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

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Speaker 1: real estate mogul named Roger de la Byrd. Roger lived

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

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Speaker 1: to 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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00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:52,000
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

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Speaker 1: grocery store received proving she hadn't been at Roger's estate

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

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

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

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00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:12,040
Speaker 1: claims of nobility were also being exposed as phony. But

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Speaker 1: Beverly ended up being wrongly convicted of Roger's murder anyway.

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

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Speaker 1: officer who had built the case against Emerson Stevens. When

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

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

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

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00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:37,720
Speaker 1: must have been present when Roger shot himself. Detective Riley

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00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:41,200
Speaker 1: seems to have manipulated Beverly into placing herself at the

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

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Speaker 1: done with Emerson. The similarities are unmistakable. Beverly Monroe was

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Speaker 1: wrongfully convicted based on inculpatory statements that placed her at

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Speaker 1: the crime scene, and Riley then built his case around

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Speaker 1: that statement to make it look like this wasn't a

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Speaker 1: suicide at all, that this was a murder. It's amazing,

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Speaker 1: just like Emerson, Beverly never confessed to anything. Same detective

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Speaker 1: using the same modus operandi in order to get not

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Speaker 1: a false confession, but a false inculpatory statement that was

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Speaker 1: used to convict them and send them away for crimes

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00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:28,600
Speaker 1: they did not commit. A federal judge later called Riley's

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00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:33,479
Speaker 1: interrogation of Beverly Monroe deceitful and manipulative. Even so, Beverly

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00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:36,960
Speaker 1: ended up serving ten years in prison before her conviction

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00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,480
Speaker 1: was thrown out and she was released in April two

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Speaker 1: thousand two. That news story Emerson saw on TV from

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Speaker 1: behind Bars was about Beverly's first moments of freedom. Emerson

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00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,960
Speaker 1: didn't waste a minute. He immediately wrote to Beverly's lawyer,

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Speaker 1: who agreed to take his case. And when Beverly herself

283
00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:57,760
Speaker 1: heard about Emerson, she got involved too. She went to

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Speaker 1: the lawyers that had just exonerated her her and said,

285
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Speaker 1: now you need to do it again for this other guy,

286
00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:08,320
Speaker 1: which you know, to their credit, they did. They tried

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00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:11,600
Speaker 1: to reinvestigate as much as they could, and then when

288
00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:14,680
Speaker 1: it became clear that they were sort of losing steam,

289
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,480
Speaker 1: Beverly turned her sides to me. That's dear to end Right,

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00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,719
Speaker 1: the director of the University of Virginia's Innocence Project Clinic.

291
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Speaker 1: She's one of the lawyers Beverly enlisted to join Emerson's

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Speaker 1: legal team. Emerson, you know, he had been trying for years,

293
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Speaker 1: writing to people about his case and begging for help.

294
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Speaker 1: And if you ever meet or speak to Beverly, you

295
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:35,680
Speaker 1: will learn that you will do anything that Beverly says

296
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:41,040
Speaker 1: to do, because she's absolutely charming but also absolutely compelling.

297
00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:45,720
Speaker 1: Beverly made it something of a mission to help other

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Speaker 1: people who were convicted by the evidence collected by the

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00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:51,520
Speaker 1: same detective. With Beverly's help, Emerson now had a top

300
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,520
Speaker 1: notch legal team, and while the lawyers got to work,

301
00:18:54,760 --> 00:18:59,639
Speaker 1: Beverly and Emerson began corresponding. Beverly is not only college

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00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:02,640
Speaker 1: educ but she's a chemist, and she lived a very

303
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:06,560
Speaker 1: extravagant life with her partner before this all happened. And

304
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:10,879
Speaker 1: Emerson is this waterman who grew up, you know, with

305
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,199
Speaker 1: his nine siblings in Lancaster. I mean, this is the

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00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,720
Speaker 1: classic thing that happens in these wrongful conviction cases, is

307
00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,200
Speaker 1: that people who would never in a lifetime be near

308
00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,840
Speaker 1: each other or connect do. Beverly and Emerson became friends.

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00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,280
Speaker 1: Beverly sensed how much this fisherman longed for the water,

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Speaker 1: and started sending him photographs of the place he missed most,

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Speaker 1: the Chesapeake Bay. She was hyper aware of taking care

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00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,080
Speaker 1: of him while he was incarcerated so he didn't feel abandoned,

313
00:19:40,359 --> 00:19:42,879
Speaker 1: writing and calling and making sure he had money in

314
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:47,879
Speaker 1: his commissary and holidays and birthdays. And I remember thinking,

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00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,960
Speaker 1: she knows what he's feeling better than any of us.

316
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:55,199
Speaker 1: I think that Emerson, once he had Beverly, he knew

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00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,640
Speaker 1: that there was another person out there who was advocating

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00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:02,480
Speaker 1: for him ferociously. I mean, most people who are incarcerated

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00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,480
Speaker 1: don't have that person. And because she was so smart

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00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:07,760
Speaker 1: and because she had been through it, she wasn't going

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00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:10,480
Speaker 1: to hear that it couldn't be done. While Beverly was

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00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:15,040
Speaker 1: keeping Emerson's hope alive, his legal team was systematically unwinding

323
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,640
Speaker 1: the case against him, and, as it turned out, one

324
00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,880
Speaker 1: piece of faulty evidence after another seemed to lead back

325
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,440
Speaker 1: to Detective Riley. First up was the claim that witnesses

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Speaker 1: had seen a white pickup truck like Emerson's near Mary's house.

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Speaker 1: A woman named and Dick had testified to that effect

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00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,040
Speaker 1: at the first trial, but her story had changed by

329
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:36,679
Speaker 1: the time of the second trial. There she swore that

330
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Speaker 1: the person she saw driving the truck was not Emerson.

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Speaker 1: Stevens when asked why she didn't say that to the

332
00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:45,960
Speaker 1: first jury, and answered because Detective Riley told me not to.

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Speaker 1: The other pickup truck witness, Clyde Dunaway Well turns out

334
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,840
Speaker 1: he came forward only after police offered a twenty thousand

335
00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 1: dollar reward for information. He asked Detective Riley about the

336
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,680
Speaker 1: money during their very first conversation, but at Emerson's second trial,

337
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:06,240
Speaker 1: Dunaway swore he never asked anyone about the reward. Now,

338
00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 1: Detective Riley was sitting in the courtroom listening to this,

339
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 1: He must have known Dunaway was lying, but the detective

340
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,959
Speaker 1: never said a word. Eventually, Dunaway paid a price for

341
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,239
Speaker 1: his false testimony in Emerson Steven's case. He ended up

342
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 1: pleading guilty to obstruction of justice. Once you dangle reward money,

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00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:28,400
Speaker 1: especially in a place like Lancaster where there's a lot

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00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,640
Speaker 1: of people living very much on a margin, the fact

345
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 1: that Clyde Dunaway bit on that is hardly surprising. He

346
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:39,280
Speaker 1: repeatedly inquired about when am I going to get that money,

347
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,680
Speaker 1: and the detective would say, only after you testify. The

348
00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,000
Speaker 1: upshot of the investigation is that Clyde Dunaway got in trouble,

349
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,119
Speaker 1: and our dirty detective, who sat on that information during

350
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,000
Speaker 1: both trials, walked away unscathed. The little guy got it

351
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:57,960
Speaker 1: as usual. Next up was the bizarre claim that Mary's body,

352
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:02,280
Speaker 1: cinder block and all floated up stream ten miles that

353
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,000
Speaker 1: marine scientists who testified at the first trial, remember he

354
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 1: was m i A. At the second trial, prosecutors had

355
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 1: to read the jury a transcript of his previous testimony.

356
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,320
Speaker 1: Why didn't he show up the second time? Well, Emerson's

357
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:18,280
Speaker 1: lawyers found a letter from the scientist to the prosecutor

358
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,800
Speaker 1: that provided a pretty clear explanation. After the first trial,

359
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,840
Speaker 1: the scientist wrote, Lieutenant Riley applied what maybe the correct

360
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,919
Speaker 1: term to my testimony in this case. He called it

361
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 1: I wash. I wash is Virginia slang for bullshit. Oh god,

362
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:39,359
Speaker 1: the marine scientists. It's clear that the science that he

363
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 1: put forth at this trial wasn't real. Even Detective Riley

364
00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:49,320
Speaker 1: called this theory eye wash. Why a marine biologist went

365
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 1: along with that the first time I have no idea,

366
00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:54,880
Speaker 1: But by the second time he clearly did not want

367
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:57,240
Speaker 1: to do it and thought it was dirty. Right. That's

368
00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: what his letters suggested, is you're asking me to do

369
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: something that's nonsensical. Suddenly there was reason to believe that

370
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 1: Detective Riley had jinned up some of the evidence against Emerson,

371
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:10,439
Speaker 1: and it seems that Riley tried to take it even further.

372
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: The owner of a Lancaster convenience store gave Emerson's lawyers

373
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 1: a sworn statement that reads as follows. Detective Riley tried

374
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,159
Speaker 1: to get me to say that Emerson Stevens woke me

375
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:23,040
Speaker 1: up in the middle of the night, that Mary Harding

376
00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:26,159
Speaker 1: disappeared so that he could buy five gallons of gas.

377
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 1: Detective Riley was extremely aggressive and pushy, insisting that I

378
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 1: agree with his story even though it was not true.

379
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:35,679
Speaker 1: I was never woken up in the middle of the

380
00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: night by Emerson Stevens. Ever, for any reason, none of

381
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: these pieces of the puzzle actually fit together. They were

382
00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 1: all manipulated by this detective so that they fit his

383
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 1: theory that Emerson was guilty of this crime. Now that's

384
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 1: the eye wash. The rest of the case crumbled to

385
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,960
Speaker 1: remember the theory that Emerson used his knife to slash

386
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,800
Speaker 1: Mary's back. A new assess s meant by the medical

387
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 1: examiner showed that those evenly spaced gashes were probably made

388
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: by a boat propeller, not by a human with a knife.

389
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,640
Speaker 1: And finally, what about the hair from Emerson's truck Back

390
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 1: in the crime lab had put that hair under a

391
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 1: microscope and claimed that it was an exact match to marry.

392
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,679
Speaker 1: This technique, known as hair microscopy, has since been debunked.

393
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:25,360
Speaker 1: There's no way you can match hairs with that level

394
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,200
Speaker 1: of certainty just by looking through a microscope. In fact,

395
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,719
Speaker 1: more than seventy people have been exonerated after bogus hair

396
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: evidence was used to convict them. There's just nothing to

397
00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: the science that you can microscopically compare hairs and identify anybody.

398
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: We've had cases where people say that this is a

399
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 1: human hair belonging to this victim, and it belongs to

400
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 1: a dog. Even according to the FBI, hair microscopy is

401
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: junk science. Decades later, Emerson's lawyers sought DNA testing, but

402
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,679
Speaker 1: it turned out the hair was too old to test.

403
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: In other words, there's no way to know who it

404
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 1: belonged to. It could have been Mary's or Emerson's, or

405
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 1: Emerson's wife's, it could have been anybody's. Armed with this

406
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: new information, Emerson's lawyers filed a post conviction petition in

407
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:24,679
Speaker 1: asking for his conviction to be thrown out, but it

408
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 1: hasn't been yet. This is where Emerson's legal case has stalled.

409
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 1: Despite skilled lawyers and compelling evidence of innocence, the courts

410
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: have denied his petitions at every turn. But there has

411
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: been one important victory. On May nineteenth, two thousand seventeen,

412
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 1: Emerson Stevens was paroled from prison. He'd spent thirty one

413
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: years behind bars. His family filled the lobby of the

414
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:54,240
Speaker 1: correctional center, which is almost always absolutely empty, and then

415
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: we came with students and people who have been working

416
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: on this case for years. We all hopped into cars

417
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 1: and we asked Emerson where he would like to have

418
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: his first free meal. So what was the fisherman craving

419
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,240
Speaker 1: after more than three decades of prison food. Emerson very

420
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: quickly told us that he wanted to go to Cracker

421
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:13,879
Speaker 1: Barrel and he wanted the seafood platter at Cracker Barrel.

422
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 1: And I don't argue with anyone who wants that like

423
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,640
Speaker 1: a tide that might never come back in Emerson. Stephen's

424
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,840
Speaker 1: life ebbed for thirty one years as he sat behind bars.

425
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: Now his life is flowing again. You know, he's done

426
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,920
Speaker 1: such a great job of getting out and just sort

427
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:37,919
Speaker 1: of sliding back into his life, moving back in, seeing family,

428
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:42,439
Speaker 1: going back to work immediately being a great worker. So

429
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,440
Speaker 1: in that part of his life, he's done a really

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00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: wonderful job. But on the other hand, he's still a

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00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: convicted murderer, and that burden weighs on him every day.

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00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: I think he feels that until he is cleared and

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00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: other people are exposed, his life is on hold until

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00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,639
Speaker 1: that happens. At least Emerson gets to see his kids

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00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,679
Speaker 1: and his grandkids. He's back out on the water and

436
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 1: his small aluminum boat, feeling the breeze on his face.

437
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: I just said to him, the only thing you owe

438
00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:15,960
Speaker 1: me is a trip to go Oystering, and he will

439
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: be good for that. I know it. I've been to

440
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: a Steven's cookout, and you know what they do is

441
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:23,439
Speaker 1: go crab and fish and come back and cook it

442
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: all up in the yard and have huge tables of

443
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: food and it's delicious. The case against Emerson Stevens has

444
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: taken years to unwind. Sometimes fighting cases this thin can

445
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: be strangely hard, almost like your shadow boxing a ghost.

446
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 1: Emerson should be pardoned, and Emerson's innocence needs to be

447
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,560
Speaker 1: recognized by the governor of the State of Virginia. In

448
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,199
Speaker 1: cases like this, it's just never the slam dunk that

449
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:52,280
Speaker 1: it should be. We immediately applied for an absolute pardon,

450
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: which would exonerate him totally, and he pretty quickly got

451
00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:00,959
Speaker 1: a letter that said thanks for your petition. We probably

452
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:02,719
Speaker 1: won't be able to get to this for two years,

453
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: and don't bother us in the meantime. For Emerson to

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00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: be pardoned would mean that he gets an absolute clean slate,

455
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 1: and it's a gateway to maybe proving what people did

456
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 1: to get him convicted. For people like him, you need that,

457
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 1: You need the real story to be told. For her part,

458
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:26,439
Speaker 1: Beverly Monroe, now in her eighties, still supports Emerson, still

459
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 1: talks to him regularly by phone, still is waiting for

460
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 1: the day he'll be exonerated. We're waiting to Emerson, and

461
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:45,560
Speaker 1: we stand with you all the way. Hey is this Emerson? Yes, yes,

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00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 1: Hey Emerson, It's Laura night Rider and Steve Drison. How

463
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: are you? I'm doing good? So tell me, Emerson, what

464
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: have you been doing these days? How have you been

465
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: keeping yourself busy? Ah? Well, my oldest brother he asked

466
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: me if I would take his boat and get all

467
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 1: this crap pipes up. So I did that, you know,

468
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 1: Oh it felt great. It felt great being backward on

469
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:09,600
Speaker 1: the water again. And then he wants me to build

470
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,120
Speaker 1: orsting with him, you know, So I'm thinking about it.

471
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 1: I want to buy purchase a boat of my own,

472
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: you know, like my brother's got and be able to

473
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,560
Speaker 1: work on the water again. You know, what would you

474
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: name you about, Emerson? Well, these type of boats, you

475
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 1: don't really put names on them. But I don't know,

476
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: misfit or something. I don't know. There's times that are

477
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,719
Speaker 1: enjoyable and wonderful. You're with your family, you're back out

478
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: on the water. And there's times that are heard too,

479
00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Oh yeah, yeah. I lost my oldest daughter

480
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,920
Speaker 1: when I was in prison. She died at the age

481
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:50,320
Speaker 1: of forty and that broke my heart. And it's not

482
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: a day that don't go by that I don't think

483
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 1: about them, you know, I'm really sorry, Emerson. Yeah, well,

484
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: she's looking down from some I hope, and rooting for you,

485
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,760
Speaker 1: just like the rest of us. Are. Are you still

486
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: in touch with Beverly? Oh, Beverly, she's been not my

487
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: number one fan, you know, She's always believed in me,

488
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 1: and she's great. She's a great person. Every now and

489
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: then I text Shaw call and talk to him, but

490
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: she loves to talk now, loves to talk to support

491
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,440
Speaker 1: Emerson Stevens. You can write the Governor of Virginia and

492
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: ask him to grant Emerson an Absolute pardon. You can

493
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:39,400
Speaker 1: find the address on my Instagram page at Laura and

494
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: I Writer. And that's the story of Emerson Stevens. Join

495
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: us next week when we tell you about a Philadelphia

496
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 1: man named Walter oh Grod. Walter spent decades on death

497
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: row until a new generation of prosecutors came to Philadelphia.

498
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 1: They brought reform to the city and hope to Walter.

499
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is a production of Lava for

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00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one Special

501
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: thanks to our executive producers Jason Slom and Kevin Wardis.

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00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: Our production team is headed by Senior producer and Pope,

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00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,920
Speaker 1: along with producers Josh Hammer and Jess Shane. Our show

504
00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,840
Speaker 1: is mixed by Jeanie Montalvo. John Colbert is our intrepid intern.

505
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: Our music was composed by j Ralph. You can follow

506
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura NI Writer, and

507
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: you can follow me on Twitter at s driven. For

508
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: more information on the show, visit Wrongful Conviction podcast dot com.

509
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow the show on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,

510
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at

511
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction