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[Music] this is definitely a life and death struggle I don't think the stakes get
00:00:17
any higher than what's at stake here this is a man's life who's on the line the thing about this case it's hard
00:00:29
to deal with is those little babies in this fire gutted house firefighters found six bodies it was a shock to
00:00:36
everybody it was probably the most brutal crime that ever happened in that part of the state you're talking about
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four little babies asleep in their bed a 16-year-old asleep in her bed and their
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grandmother who's also killed at the age of 45 when she took that last breath I guarantee you her last thought was how
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am I going to protect those babies now whoever committed the crime was in a frenzy there were 66 stab
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wounds 66 66 minimum of 66 by the way those are the ones that they counted those were
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living people those are my daughters that was my niece and my nephew who can do that that's what's so
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horrible there's a lot of pressure to find this person or these people that have done
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this 4 days after after the crime law enforcement had their suspect they got their man and that's the end of the
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story they did not do their job tunnel vision total tunnel vision Anthony Graves was convicted of being an accomp
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I'm absolutely convinced that he's innocent I'm a professor I'm not paid to be a lawyer I do it because I believe in
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it Nicole and her students played a really pivotal role in this what did you see yourself as being up against we're
00:02:00
we like to execute people how many people have you put up on death row a lot there's nothing wrong with winning
00:02:07
when you're convicting people who are guilty we want to get him out we think he is truly an innocent
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person I've written crime stories for Texas monthly for 13 years what I wanted to do was to try to get to the bottom of
00:02:20
what had happened in this case there is an innocent person who is going to death row if I don't do my
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job does this man get to live does this man get to die grave in Justice tonight's 48 Hours
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mystery [Music] this was such a horrific event in that town and continues to be an event that
00:03:22
really haunts the people of Somerville this used to be where the Davis family lived before the early morning hours of
00:03:31
August 18th 1992 in the midst of the rubble the police found those six bodies all
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members of the same family this was a family that almost everyone in town knew liked
00:03:47
respected the victims a grandmother her daughter and four grandchildren who were
00:03:54
staying with them reporter Pam Koloff is still moved by the fact that the family never had a chance there
00:04:03
was Bobby Davis the grandmother to the four children who was bludgeoned and then stabbed to death there was
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16-year-old Nicole her daughter who was a high school student an athlete who was
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bludgeon and shot and then there were the four grandchildren they were 9-year-old denitra 6-year-old Britney
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5-year-old learon and four-year-old Jason my daughter's were exotically beautiful Glenda rutage was Lee Aon and
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Britney's mother they were my legacy and I was so looking forward to the chance to get it
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right to raise strong sure confident successful women you know I wanted to do that so
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bad Glenda's ex-husband Keith Davis lost almost his entire family that night these were little babies and and my
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mother who I you know who we adored who was the center of our life he was convinced it was a random crime I just
00:05:14
couldn't imagine someone from that area harming anyone in my family cuz we had never we didn't have any enemies we
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hadn't been in any trouble Roy Ritter lived and worked not far from the murders 5 days after the
00:05:31
crimes he remembers hearing there was a break in the case I could hear the radio
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and the News would always come on and it was early in the morning and and they came up and they said you know arrest
00:05:44
have been made and they said uh Anthony Charles Graves age 27 Anthony Graves was one of Ritter's
00:05:54
best friends Graves had worked for him for a while at his machine shop and the two became came so close that Graves had
00:06:01
even been in Ritter's wedding party it just freaked me out but my immediate thing was yeah right no way and what you
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know what what could possibly be going on here you know you didn't believe it well of course not absolutely not Ritter
00:06:16
knew Anthony Graves as a gentleman a father of three and he now is hearing his friend was a murderer of women and
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children in my heart my convictions were that's impossible because Anthony would
00:06:29
never do that Anthony would never hurt or raise a hand to a woman and especially not a child especially the
00:06:36
way he loved his children and when Graves was arrested he seemed equally stunned you're charged
00:06:44
with the offense of Cal murder who capital murder me Roy was so sure of his best friend's
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innocence that he even put up $10,000 of his own money to hire a top lawyer for his upcoming hearing convinced it would
00:07:03
all soon be over there's no way they have they have anything they don't have anything but police did have the words
00:07:11
of this man Robert Carter was the father of the youngest victim 4-year-old Jason
00:07:18
and investigators had grown suspicious when they noticed Carter had injuries that were hard to explain at the funeral
00:07:26
for the victims Robert Carter showed up heavily bandaged on the left side of his
00:07:31
face and his left hand and the bandages were covering up severe burns Carter claimed he burned himself after his
00:07:38
lawnmower blew up the Texas Rangers obviously noticed Mr Carter at the funeral he was difficult to not notice
00:07:47
and they visited him at his house after the funeral and took him in for questioning Carter insisted he had
00:07:54
nothing to do with the murders but the Rangers had learned that he had a motive Carter was married but he had recently
00:08:01
been served with a demand for child support from another woman the mother of his son Jason and investigators believe
00:08:09
Carter went there to kill Jason he very clearly wanted his four-year-old Son dead after the murders investigators
00:08:18
believe Carter set the fire to cover his tracks but from the beginning they believed he must have had help there
00:08:25
were so many victims and so many weapons there was a gun there was a knife and there was a hammer and
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investigators found it difficult to believe that one person could have wielded three different objects in
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killing six different people the Rangers interrogated Carter for hours and he finally gave them a name during his
00:08:50
interrogation Robert Carter placed himself at the crime scene but he said that he had not taken part in the
00:08:55
murders himself that the person who had committed the murders was a man named Anthony Graves who is his wife's first
00:09:03
cousin within hours Anthony Graves had been arrested and taken to the police station he took a lie detector test and
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failed man this this a big mistake Capal murder I never even shot a gun in my life
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God and my dream in the wood man at first there was little more than Carter's word to tie and Anthony to the
00:09:29
case but investigators would soon get help from the last place anyone would expect Anthony's best friend and then
00:09:39
they asked me if I'd ever known him to carry a knife I said I gave Anthony a knife one
00:09:47
[Music] [Music] time in Somerville Texas nothing moves very swiftly except for the occasional
00:10:01
freight train and sometimes the desire for justice emotions were running so high in
00:10:09
Somerville leading up to these trials that the mayor at the time said that people in the community didn't even want
00:10:15
to bother that they wanted to quot bring back the Hanging Tree but events would unravel a little
00:10:23
more conventionally Robert Carter stood trial and was quickly convicted and then
00:10:28
it was time for Anthony Graves the man whom Carter had named as his accomplice things you see in a horror movie they
00:10:36
said I did it and did you no would never do anything like that I'm not a violent
00:10:44
person at all it was just crazy grav said he knew Robert Carter only in passing and didn't know the victims at
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all in fact there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime I'm like whatever's going on is going to be
00:11:00
cleared up cuz I haven't done anything wrong but authorities only focused more on graves he had said he never owned a
00:11:08
knife but investigators learned he once did and that it was given to him by his good friend Roy rter and I said I gave
00:11:17
Anthony a knife one time around his birthday and I have one that's exactly like it and they asked me if I still had
00:11:25
that knife and I said yep the actual murder weapons were never found but investigators wanted Ritter's knife the
00:11:33
one he said was identical to the knife he gave Graves and they said would you mind if we examined it and I said no I
00:11:41
wouldn't mind at all Ritter thought the knives were too flimsy to inflict any serious wounds and some of the victims
00:11:49
had knife wounds that went through their skulls so Ritter was stunned when those
00:11:54
test results came back the blade fit inside the skull cap perfectly so all of these folks from the DA's office told
00:12:02
you that your knife which was identical to the one you gave Anthony fit perfectly into the holes in those baby
00:12:10
skulls yes sir what did you make of that I I didn't want to believe it because if that was true my friend was a
00:12:23
murderer right and his friend Anthony graves's murder trial began in October 1994 District Attorney Charles sesa's
00:12:33
star witness was Robert Carter I would have hated to have had to gone to the jury without Carter's testimony but
00:12:41
Carter was a problem witness he was a liar he had changed his story several times sometimes implicating Graves
00:12:50
sometimes not and so when he got on the stand were you worried about what he would say no why because I told my
00:12:58
attorney I wanted him to testify I said because there's no way this man can look
00:13:02
me in my face and lie on me I was just trying to have faith in the fact that this guy would be honest you know
00:13:09
because this is my life this is my life so what did he say when he got up on the
00:13:14
stand he lied he lied he said I did a crime with him Carter took the stand and said it
00:13:24
was Graves who stabbed several victims to death and Roy Ritter had to testify about the knife he gave Graves I mean it
00:13:34
was a very bad position to be put in it was I was very torn you know conflict conflicted about
00:13:42
it but they said it fit perfectly how did his testimony feel to you as opposed to the other testimony
00:13:53
night betrayal night betrayal because he knows me this man knew me knew my family knew my kids and
00:14:05
there were more damaging Witnesses waiting to testify against Graves sesta said he had found five people at the
00:14:12
jail where Graves and Carter were held who told him they heard them talking about the murders when you have five
00:14:19
people who overhear conversations very damning conversations between Carter and Graves on what what they did and what
00:14:30
they've got to do that in itself that's significant that's very admissible I probably could have done with one or two
00:14:38
in a capital murder case you want as much as you can we had five sester may have had corroborating
00:14:45
Witnesses but Anthony had Alibi Witnesses where were you that night I was in my mother's apartment with my
00:14:51
brother a lady friend and my sister Anthony's brother Arthur Curry testified for him and has never changed
00:15:00
his story My Brother never left the house that night never he never ever left and
00:15:07
never is never he never left the house that night Anthony's girlfriend another Alibi
00:15:14
witness was set to take the stand as well but when the day came she unexpectedly
00:15:22
refused the man who lost most of his family Keith Davis had heard more than enough
00:15:29
I've seen this guy hundreds of times in court when you looked at Anthony Graves what did you see a murderer it was
00:15:36
though he had uh horns like a devil he looked like a evil person to me at the time and the jury agreed Anthony Graves
00:15:44
was convicted of six counts of capital murder the sentence death this is crazy I go from my home where I supposed to be
00:15:54
safe feel safe and I'm going a death rope was something I didn't even do but as it turns out the jury might
00:16:04
not have heard everything they did not know that there was a critical piece of evidence
00:16:10
[Music] [Music] missing [Music] I'm not a violent person I'm not a bad person I respect people I carry myself
00:16:42
in a dignified manner why me out of all the people in the world why me by 2002 Anthony Graves had spent 8
00:16:54
years on death row one more inmate who swore he was innocent as the state of Texas moved ever closer to executing
00:17:05
him were you thinking about your death no never thought about my death thought about my
00:17:12
life my children my mom I just need to hold on to something a good memory Anthony's optimism may have kept
00:17:24
him going on death row but for his family as the years passed it was getting harder to keep hope
00:17:33
alive I couldn't see a light at the end of the tunnel and just to even fathom him being put to death that would be the
00:17:42
ultimate nail in all of our casets if they killed him for nothing Robert Carter was executed and
00:17:53
Graves kept losing his appeals he was running out of chances when his case caught the attention of the Innocence
00:18:00
Network which sent the case to Nicole ceres's journalism class at Houston's University of St
00:18:07
Thomas we weren't out to prove anyone innocent that was not our goal our goal was just to find out the truth did you
00:18:15
have any faith in them I mean did you think they could help you yeah yeah because being exonerated by the public
00:18:24
meant just as much to me as being exonerated by the courts I want people to know that my mother didn't raise a
00:18:29
murderer my mother raised a good son that meant something to me it didn't take long for the students
00:18:38
and their Professor to realize the case against Anthony Graves had serious problems beginning with the star witness
00:18:48
I think one of the first things that we noticed was that Robert Carter had recanted his testimony against Anthony
00:18:54
right before he was executed and that's very un usual in May of 2000 while strapped to
00:19:02
the gurnie in the Texas death chamber Robert Carter took sole responsibility for the murders it was me and me alone
00:19:11
he said Anthony Graves had nothing to do with it I lied on him in court and I think it's really important
00:19:20
to listen to someone's essentially dying words if there's ever a time when someone might be telling the truth I
00:19:26
would think that might be it in fact for years before his execution Robert Carter
00:19:31
said to anyone who would listen that Anthony had nothing to do with the crimes he even said the only reason he
00:19:38
named Graves as his accomplice was because he saw him on the street before he was
00:19:44
arrested Anthony Graves did not have any part in the murderers and was not present before during or after I
00:19:53
committed the multiple murders at the Davis home this is Robert Carter in a 1997 s statement in it he says he told
00:20:00
sester the same thing in fact he swears he said that to sester just hours before
00:20:07
he took the stand in graves's trial I told the district attorney investigator that Graves is innocent had nothing to
00:20:14
do with his murder but sesta didn't believe him Carter went on to testify against Graves anyway because he said he
00:20:22
felt pressured by the da without Robert Carter's testimony the state didn't have a case except defense
00:20:30
lawyers say seesta never told them that Carter had just recanted as sesta was required to do by law imagine that
00:20:40
you're Anthony's attorney and you are facing Robert Carter on cross- examination how meaningful would it have
00:20:46
been for you to be able to say Mr Carter isn't it true that just five minutes ago
00:20:51
you said Anthony Graves had nothing to do with this what would Robert Carter have said would he have cracked would
00:20:58
have he have have taken back his testimony we'll never know sesta has long insisted he told the defense what
00:21:05
Carter said his response was that uh what is that his eighth or ninth story but graves's attorney denies that while
00:21:15
the lawyers spent years arguing before appet courts about what seesta did or did not tell the defense the students
00:21:23
were gathering new evidence on the off chance that Graves might get a a new trial we did weekend trips and we would
00:21:32
take two cars and uh we would have a list of people and places that we were going to go and the amateur
00:21:39
investigators were uncovering troubling evidence especially about those jailhouse Witnesses who sesta said
00:21:47
overheard incriminating statements from graves from nearby cells and over the intercom it was Texas summer so there
00:21:57
were large fans running one of the intercoms was actually ripped out of the wall and it was just wires Megan Bingham
00:22:03
is one of the students that maybe this intercom system wasn't all that fantastic you know what could you hear
00:22:09
was it actually working they were working some of the intercoms and some of the celles were not working I don't
00:22:17
know which ones but I do know that at least one of those intercoms on one and two or whatever sales they were was
00:22:24
working how do you know that because I was told this by law enforcement Nicole and the students also tracked
00:22:32
down and met with graves's former girlfriend the one who could have provided him an alibi if she had taken
00:22:39
the stand she said she was very sorry that she hadn't testified at Anthony's original trial so why didn't the
00:22:49
girlfriend testify right before she was supposed to take the stand da Charles seesta said in open court that she was
00:22:58
was a suspect in the case and might be indicted even though investigators had nothing on her sir couldn't that be read
00:23:05
though as sort of a koi Ploy if you will to scare away a woman who could very well Alibi your your defendant had
00:23:14
absolutely nothing to do with that she fled in fear and in tears she said they put him in jail on
00:23:23
nothing what's to stop them from putting me in jail on nothing after a 4-year investigation talking to
00:23:32
more than 100 Witnesses Nicole cazarez in her students turned over their findings to Graves lawyers to help with
00:23:40
his appeals Anthony Graves is innocent Anthony Graves is innocent Anthony Graves is an innocent
00:23:47
[Music] man but Anthony Graves remained behind bars on death row until March 2006 about
00:23:56
12 years after he was found guilty and then he got his first big break a federal appeals court one of the
00:24:04
toughest in the country tossed out his conviction I cried and I pumped my fist and I was
00:24:11
like yes God is good yes I knew it is my case was overturned somebody seen the truth District Attorney's Office the
00:24:21
court skewer Charles seesta called his behavior egregious for among other things intent Ally withholding evidence
00:24:29
that could have helped Graves most notably that Carter had recanted right before he testified Anthony gra did not
00:24:39
have any part in the Mur and was not prison but even after the Court's decision Anthony was not a free man
00:24:45
sesta had retired but the new DA said he would try Graves again so Anthony walked
00:24:52
out of death row and into the county jail where he sat waiting for his his next trial for 4 years and you can't
00:25:01
believe that it could actually happen in real life but it did this time around Graves has a season defense team
00:25:09
appointed by the judge Katherine Scardino and Jimmy Phillips assisted by Nicole cazarez we don't know what we' do
00:25:18
without her I mean she's like our in our Graves encyclopedia the lawyers will have to be on their toes because this is
00:25:27
their opponent like you're mad like you're a friend like you can't can't stop Kelly seagler widely regarded as
00:25:34
the toughest prosecutor in Texas what does that say about David Tim has been appointed to handle the graves case have
00:25:41
you ever lost a capital case a death penalty case yeah [Music] no I would say this is one of the worst
00:26:00
capital murder cases that anyone could ever talk about or deal with Kelly seagler should know she sent 19 men to
00:26:09
death row you will hear from the evidence in this case so in February 2010 she was ready willing and eager to
00:26:18
make it an even 20 when she was appointed to retry Anthony Graves did that scare you that she was coming after
00:26:27
you no why not I was standing up for what was right so it didn't make no difference who was on the case the fact
00:26:34
that I was innocent wasn't going to change by the fall of 2010 Pam koloff's investigation of the case had produced
00:26:42
one of the longest articles in the history of Texas monthly magazine there were so many things about this case that
00:26:49
fascinated me beginning with how weak the evidence was I wanted to understand how someone could be sent to death row
00:26:56
on so little evidence of course making graves's case in print is a lot easier than making it in court
00:27:04
with the trial date approaching and Kelly seagler circling defense attorneys Katherine Scardino and Jimmy Phillips
00:27:12
were feeling the pressure you make a mistake in a death penalty case and it's over they chose to hire a good
00:27:20
prosecutor we're going to have to work hard and be doubly triply prepared Kelly is a formidable opponent seagler has
00:27:28
beaten most of the best lawyers in Texas and now she asked for a meeting with the
00:27:33
graves team why did she wanted to meet with us was she trying to get information from us was she trying to
00:27:39
learn what our trial strategy was I didn't really know what to make of it seagler met with the graves lawyers
00:27:46
around this table and she asked a lot of questions but the defense team could not
00:27:51
have imagined why the prosecutor with her 19-0 record on death penalty cases was having serious problems with the
00:28:00
case against Anthony Graves I read every page of every document in 25 boxes and at some point it switched from getting
00:28:08
ready to go to trial to can we go to trial to oh my God what happened here seagler and her investigator OT hanik
00:28:18
soon realized Nicole and her students were right on target every single time we would reinvestigate or ret talk to a
00:28:26
witness that they had talked to we would find that they were right one by one the
00:28:31
pillars of the prosecution's case crumbled we tried to find paperwork people anything that we could especially
00:28:39
a motive to say Anthony Graves committed the capital murder with Robert Carter and we found nothing otoh hanik tried to
00:28:47
confirm the testimony from sesa's jailhouse Witnesses we can't find anybody that can positively say in court
00:28:55
or in this room that I heard heard Anthony Graves say this I heard Robert Carter say this he looked into Roy
00:29:03
Ritter's knife the blade is flimsy and according to hanik a knife this flimsy could not have caused the kind of wounds
00:29:11
to the skulls that were found on some victims I personally do not believe that that blade is strong enough nor is this
00:29:19
knife made well enough to go through human skulls it's a switchblade knife they're made pretty sturdy da Charles
00:29:28
sesta had argued graves's identical knife had inflicted 66 stab wounds the night of the murder there's no doubt
00:29:36
that that knife could have survived that we had Texas Ranger testimony that that
00:29:40
it could have done it but hanik who is a former Texas Ranger himself believes the
00:29:46
knife would have left its mark on the killer when you get down to the 10th 11th 12th Stab Wound the knife becomes
00:29:55
very slippery becomes very bloody the person that inflicted those wounds is also going to have an injury themselves
00:30:04
and did Anthony Graves have any injuries on his hands not at all did Robert Carter have any injuries on his hands no
00:30:11
what does that tell you that tells me that this is not the knife that caused those injuries seagler thought any new
00:30:19
case against Graves would have to be built almost solely on Robert Carter's testimony but that was before she found
00:30:26
out how Charles seesta got that testimony from his star witness he made a deal with Mr Carter
00:30:34
and what a deal he made sebesta had a powerful card to play Carter's wife Teresa shortly after the killings
00:30:42
sebesta had also indicted her for capital murder she had given conflicting statements about his Burns there were a
00:30:50
number of things that she did the deal sesta made he would not question Carter about his wife on the stand if he
00:30:58
testified against Graves how does a prosecutor I should say how does an ethical prosecutor put a witness on the
00:31:06
stand your your main piece of evidence in a death penalty case and say okay you get up there and talk about what you did
00:31:14
and what grav did but I'm not going to ask you about your wife you can't do that why in the world would you agree
00:31:21
not to ask him about her well I needed his testimony and points out the deal was
00:31:28
approved by a judge and the defense never questioned it I put on the record I did put on the record the indictment
00:31:36
against Carter's wife was later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and seagler never bought into sesa's theory
00:31:44
that there had to be multiple Killers we appreciated the fact that you didn't have to have three killers because five
00:31:52
of the people killed were children some little babies asleep in their bed how hard is it for a grown man to stab
00:32:01
little babies asleep in their bed and all the evidence seagler says points to Robert Carter not Anthony Graves there
00:32:11
must have been a moment when you concluded gee W this guy's innocent not just not guilty but innocent it wasn't
00:32:17
even a difficult decision it was pretty clear and by innocent you mean he wasn't
00:32:22
there he had nothing to do with it nothing he had never even been in town no motive no reason no connection
00:32:29
nothing never in a million years would I have predicted that this would be the outcome of this case particularly with
00:32:35
Kelly seagler as prosecutor oh my God what happened in Anthony Graves trial on an Autumn afternoon in the
00:32:52
burles County Texas jail Anthony Graves was summoned un expectedly out of his cell I'm sitting and writing a letter
00:33:02
they come get me and say put your shirt on and walk me up to the front of the jail Nicole cazarez and Jimmy Phillips
00:33:10
members of his legal team were there to see him with a message he'd waited to hear for 18 years the murder charges had
00:33:21
been [Music] dropped both of us could barely talk was so emotional and she says Anthony God is
00:33:33
great and he knew and she just say you're free man you can walk you can leave right now it's over
00:33:43
Anthony thing and on October 27th 2010 The Man known as inmate number 99127 got his his good name back Anthony
00:33:59
Graves carrying all of his belongings and looking a little dazed walked out of jail and into the warm Texas Sun
00:34:12
unbelievable this is probably the dumbest question I've ever asked but I got to ask you anyway ask away come on
00:34:18
uh how do you feel oh well I feel good yeah I'll bet you do sir I feel good I I feel good uh 18 years was
00:34:33
a long time I think I've lost a lot but today I gain my freedom you want to talk to someone here
00:34:44
hold on his first call as a free man is to his mother say what you cooking tonight his mother didn't know that her
00:34:52
son was free can can you put some on cuz I'm on my way this is your son and just so you know I did not
00:35:07
escape and his first stop is home to his sons who had grown up without [Music] him and at long last to an
00:35:22
Embrace with his mother when was the last time you were able to put your arm around your mother 18 years
00:35:32
ago years ago you haven't touched your son no in 18 years 18 years 18 years ago I had no
00:35:40
idea he is rejoining the world picking up where he left off okay guys here he is and after all that time Behind Bars
00:35:50
he finally has places to go and people to see at his lawyer's office Graves is able to
00:36:04
thank the people who may well have saved his life the students who got him off death row are you I'm but there's
00:36:12
someone else in the crowd for the first time since graves's trial he sees Roy rter damn you look C his best
00:36:22
friend whose testimony did so much to put him away it happens to the best of us but you know I love you
00:36:33
man oh my God what did that mean to you for him to take those minute minute and a
00:36:42
[Music] half and give me that [Music] Assurance you know that's what life is really all about was it hard to forgive
00:36:56
him no no it wasn't hard at all he just became another pun in their game of chest in Anthony Graves trial this Kelly
00:37:12
seagler is not nearly as forgiving at a news conference she lashed out at Charles sesta who was once a fellow
00:37:20
prosecutor I think ultimately it's the prosecutor's responsibility Charles sesta had handle
00:37:27
this case in a way that would be best described as a criminal justice systems nightmare what are you saying about him
00:37:34
I'm saying that Charles sesta did everything he could manipulating Witnesses fabricating evidence using
00:37:42
people misrepresenting things to the judge and to the jury to make sure Anthony Graves got convicted of capital
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murder and put on death row graves's attorneys had filed a complaint against seesta but the Texas State Bar dismissed
00:37:56
it and sesta insists he did nothing wrong that seagler was just afraid of losing a big case they didn't have an
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intention of trying this case basically they're looking for a way out sesta says
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you didn't want to take the risk of losing it at trial really that's what he said well I would say that he's going to
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have a hard time finding any single other person that would agree that I'm afraid to go to trial on anything but
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seagler says there was one thing she dreaded about this case telling the victim's family that the man they
00:38:36
believed was a murderer for so long is not 18 years they' believed that the two men responsible for killing their family
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their babies their mom their sister um got what they deserved it could have been
00:38:53
different Glenda rutage lost her two daughters that August Night in 1992 some of them are never going to
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change their minds they're always going to think Anthony grav is guilty no matter what I
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say how do you get upset with them they're as much a victim of what happened as Anthony Graves
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is for his own troubles Anthony Graves should have been paid 1.4 million when he was released that's what the state of
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Texas figures 18 years of wrong imprisonment is worth but there was a paperwork snafu his release documents
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never used the words actual innocence so Texas refused to pay two words two words
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they're holding me hostage behind two words finally after 9 months of public pressure the legislature passed and the
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governor was quick to sign a special measure awarding him the money Graves credited 48 Hours mystery
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for drawing attention to what he was owed but he had already won the biggest fight of his life for his life and for
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his freedom you could put your hands out and touch both walls while I was living it
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you know he can come and go as he pleases as he tries to absorb how far he's come from a previous life he's
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still struggling to understand they were trying to kill me I still can't wrap my mind around how
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the hell did I go from home to death row for a crime that happened in another town about to people I don't even
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know it's it's crazy and and and I gave 18 years of my life [Music] [Music] he