00:00:02
so this this was an unusual case did it ever occur to you or anyone else that maybe Kim HCK wasn't telling the truth
00:00:11
well of course it did I mean it always does I don't accept what everyone tells me at face
00:00:18
value that's former assistant State Attorney Chris White he was one of two prosecutors who tried Crosley green for
00:00:26
the murder of Chip Flynn back in 1990 [Music] back in 2015 I asked him why Kim hoc was never
00:00:36
investigated as a possible suspect what do you mean I mean what no GSR taken of her hands why not I don't
00:00:46
know if there was or wasn't at this point wasn't why weren't her clothes collected um again why W pictures taken
00:00:56
they weren't why weren't pictures taken of of her hands her arms to see if she had any injuries well those are all
00:01:03
interesting questions but I'm not really quite sure that you ought to ignore all
00:01:08
the things that uh that were done and and do exist but what I've been told is that it's just standard practice that
00:01:16
you investigate the person who's calling 911 one of the last people to see chip Flynn alive that you would investigator
00:01:24
but your own investigator said she was never ever investigat as a suspect and I wasn't the only one who wondered why
00:01:32
beginning in 1999 the private investigators forensic experts the media and the state re-examined and question
00:01:42
the validity of crosley's conviction after four state Witnesses recanted and said they lied at
00:01:50
trial I'm 48 Hours correspondent Ain morard this is murder in the Orange Grove the troubl case against C Green
00:02:01
episode 5 life or death row 48 hours we take you there on September 5th 1990 an all-white
00:02:18
jury eight women and four men convicted Crosley green of kidnapping robbery and first-degree murder the judge then
00:02:26
sentenced him to death since then Crosley green has been on death row 9 years waiting to die after 48 Hours
00:02:35
aired impossible mission on November 1st 1999 other news outlets picked up the story about the four Witnesses who had
00:02:44
recanted their testimonies we got letters from viewers who were outraged and wanted to know more several
00:02:52
different attorneys stepped up and offered to represent Crosley and even before our report aired crosley's case
00:03:00
had already grabbed so much attention that Florida State Attorney Norm wolfinger requested the Florida
00:03:06
Department of Law Enforcement also known as the FDLE to review the case you must
00:03:13
have been concerned about some of these questions that the detectives have raised for you to call in the Florida
00:03:19
Department of Law Enforcement you know this is an investigation we have somebody on death row so we want to do a
00:03:24
fair independent review and that's what we're going to do in 1999 I met with wolfinger to discuss Crosley Green's
00:03:32
case and I asked him if he's ever had four Witnesses in one trial recant a decade later have you ever had that I
00:03:42
don't know that we've ever had that accusation uh made of four P persons recanning I asked the same question of
00:03:50
prosecutor Chris White you know I never have I I never have that doesn't trouble
00:03:56
you not coming from those people with those ties to the Green family and the Green family being what it is no it
00:04:06
doesn't trouble me a great deal and I think virtually every one of those folks had prior criminal history th those
00:04:14
people are not law-abiding honest people that you can trust to tell the truth about something like that and that's the
00:04:21
way I took it I'm sorry but that's the way I took it those people that white now called unreliable and dishonor
00:04:30
were the same ones that he used to build his case of trial and told the jury to trust why did you use people that you
00:04:40
say have no credibility and you offer them deals help them out if they would say that crosly green confessed you say
00:04:50
you used people that had no credibility mhm I was pretty much convinced that if they had watched this happen they would
00:05:01
have never told us about it unless they found themselves in a situation where it
00:05:06
was of benefit to them to actually tell us what I consider would be the truth and State Attorney wolfinger's response
00:05:14
to the recantations is that a concern that's why FDLE is looking at it the Florida Department of Law
00:05:23
Enforcement or the FDLE was set up to support state agencies in preventing investigating and solving crimes in the
00:05:31
State of Florida for crosley's case inspectors were asked to review the crime scene details again reinw
00:05:39
Witnesses collect all available forensic evidence and then break down Point by Point their
00:05:46
investigation I have all the confidence in the world they're going to do a good job and we'll go from there if they find
00:05:51
these things in fact happen that's going to be embarrassing for this office isn't
00:05:55
it it's not embarrassing if somebody lies on the stand you can't control people lying on the stand but if it
00:06:02
involved some questionable tactics by the prosecution's office well those are matters that that obviously F Lee will
00:06:08
look at and you know and we'll have them resolved Crosley and his team of private
00:06:14
investigators knew that this could be a turning point in his case so crosy was not concerned when the FDL indicated as
00:06:23
part of the investigation that two human hairs would be submitted for DNA testing that evidence never used at
00:06:33
trial came from a vacuum collection of Chip Flynn's truck Crosley was willing to submit a blood
00:06:41
sample why weren't those tests done earlier well at the time of the murder the use of forensic DNA technology to
00:06:49
test evidence like human hairs was still very new but by 1999 in the 10 years since Chip's murder the forensic
00:06:59
technology had Advanced it would take over 11 months for the FDLE investigators to compile
00:07:08
their findings and on July 25th 2000 they released their report in the more than 80 page report
00:07:19
investigators admitted that no evidence was found in either holder park or the Orange Grove to implicate Crosley green
00:07:28
but they also conclude uded that the prosecution did not pressure Sheila green Lonnie Hillary or Alan Jerome
00:07:35
Murray to testify against Crosley although all three Witnesses recanted their testimonies investigators said
00:07:43
their credibility was questionable but the most significant finding of the report came at the end
00:07:51
investigators determined that the testing of the two human hairs that they identified as quote negroid body hair
00:08:00
found in the vacuum collection of Chip's truck connected Crosley green to the victim's vehicle and that meant
00:08:08
according to the report that the DNA results corroborated Kim's identification of
00:08:16
Crosley the report was devastating newspaper headlines read drive to free death row inmate
00:08:26
backfires and DNA test puts convict at murder scene Norm wolfinger told the press and I quote the DNA match puts
00:08:35
Crosley Green in that truck obviously we don't have an innocent man on death row
00:08:41
we have the right man but crosley's investigators called the state's DNA testing bad science and the media's
00:08:49
coverage shameful for acting on a press release that was quote untruthful and misleading I know I haven't been in a
00:08:59
truck it's not mine that's not my hair I can't explain it to you other than tell you that I was
00:09:08
nowhere around at the time that crime was committed and I never been in that truck I I myself PR agree never been in
00:09:16
that truck I still remember reading the FDLE report for the first time and that sinking feeling I had and yet I knew
00:09:27
enough about DNA testing to realize that there was something wrong with the report's conclusion it said quote lab
00:09:37
core test found that the negroid hairs were consistent with the hair samples as originating from Crosley Alexander green
00:09:46
or a maternally related individual no other maternal relation of greens has been identified as a suspect in this
00:09:56
case in the early days of DNA analysis when when juries were presented with this evidence I think they were given
00:10:02
the impression that it was a lot more definitive than it really was this is Nathan Lance a biology professor and a
00:10:09
forensic scientist at John J College in New York City we spoke earlier this year
00:10:15
and he agreed to help me understand how DNA testing has evolved since the time of the FDLE
00:10:23
report mitochondrial DNA can eliminate someone but it can't confirm identity it it it does it doesn't really implicate
00:10:31
someone mitochondrial DNA unlike nuclear DNA only contains genes from your mother's side which means it's not as
00:10:41
precise and that can complicate identifying someone because anyone who has the same mother any two individuals
00:10:50
with the same mother will also have the same mitochondrial DNA and then of course their mother as well so you can
00:10:56
extend that out to first cousins second cousins third cousins if you can imagine
00:11:00
a family tree going back looking only at mothers and you will find that the number of relatives you have you know
00:11:09
expands exponentially every generation are you saying then just so I understand millions of people could share the exact
00:11:16
same mitochondrial DNA exact same yes you could go back to the Middle Ages nuclear DNA is better at identifying
00:11:25
specific individuals because it's a mixture of genes from both parents but in this case the FDL commissioner said
00:11:34
that the two hairs from the truck were just so small that they wouldn't contain enough nuclear DNA for forensic testing
00:11:42
mitochondrial DNA was their only option and it's worth restating here what Professor lent pointed out as the
00:11:50
weakness of mitochondrial DNA testing mitochondrial DNA can eliminate someone but it can't confirm identity it it it
00:12:00
doesn't it doesn't really implicate someone so the two hairs don't definitively Place Crosley in the truck
00:12:07
could they belong to someone else like his brother well it turns out you know Conor had been in that truck
00:12:17
probably maybe a half a dozen times prior to me ever selling the chip remember Tim Curtis he's the guy who
00:12:26
owned a local body shop and he sold chip Flynn his pickup truck he was also one of the four Witnesses at trial who
00:12:34
recanted Tim had been friends with crosley's little brother ok' Conor growing up here's what OK Conor green had to say
00:12:44
I know the truck well because I used to drive the truck I used to take the truck
00:12:49
to lunch sometime and come back and sometime I used to ride with Tim Curtis in the truck and come back to the shop
00:13:00
cuz I used to be up to a dead body shop all the time if Crosley green cannot be excluded
00:13:08
and his brother can't be excluded how many more people can't be excluded if you're talking about the area of that
00:13:14
region in Florida I would bet dollars to Donuts you're talking about dozens of people in his you know within a 100
00:13:21
miles we'll say and here's something else to consider in the vacuum collection investigators found several other types
00:13:33
of hair along with what they called quote negroid body hairs that they link to Crosley but the forensic lab was only
00:13:44
asked to check for the presence of negroid hairs I asked Lance why they didn't test all the hairs and whether he
00:13:52
thought that implicit bias might have played a part in this investigation you can't tell the the
00:13:59
racial or ethnic background by looking at a hair either you of course there are textures and colors that are more common
00:14:05
in some groups than others uh calling it a negroid hair we just don't do that anymore I mean that that was also the
00:14:10
language that was used at that time uh but we don't you we don't say that anymore because it's suggestive and
00:14:16
that's why subjective determinations you know really aren't allowed in court or shouldn't be allowed in court and and
00:14:21
frankly it seemed pretty clear that they were on the lookout for a negroid hair what tells you that I mean that's called
00:14:28
bias right and there's a an expression you only find what you look for and so if
00:14:34
you're not if you're looking for a particular kind of hair to implicate a particular type of person and you're
00:14:40
vacuuming a truck you're going to find that or potentially and how many other hairs did they just sift through because
00:14:47
they weren't looking for that kind of hair so when the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says this testing has
00:14:54
placed Crosley Alexander green inside the V victim's vehicle agree with that I don't think that that's a defensible
00:15:02
statement I really don't and I think that um I think that Crosley deserves uh much he deserves a new trial at the
00:15:11
least this case to me looks like they were trying to find evidence that aligned with what they thought happened
00:15:18
and pointing at Crosley green mhm the mitochondrial DNA test result was a major setback for Crosley and
00:15:28
what's worse the hairs were destroyed during the test because forensics used 100% of the hair evidence collected for
00:15:37
the investigation so even if Crosley had dreamed of doing another DNA test another time when DNA technology evolved
00:15:47
to give a more definitive answer he couldn't [Music] the fd's findings may not have
00:16:06
exonerated Crosley green but they did confirm the inconsistencies in Kim H's story about the night that chip Flyn was
00:16:15
murdered like how the bullet recovered from Chip's body may have been fired from his own 22 caliber revolver not a
00:16:24
semi-automatic weapon like Kim described or how although Kim said the suspect's gun accidentally went off at
00:16:32
holder park there were no shell casings found there and casings that were found at the Orange Grove were old and had
00:16:41
been there long before the murder and there was this that the main shoe prints in the park which the prosecution said
00:16:49
belonged to the suspect actually showed someone coming in and out of the area not disappearing where the truck had
00:16:57
been parked which contradicts the prosecution's diagram that was shown at trial to bolster Kim's story that the
00:17:06
suspect drove off with her in chip these were serious inconsistencies that I never saw
00:17:13
mentioned in the Press coverage about the FDLE report the series of events as she described them do
00:17:23
not align with the evidence that's on the scene mark is now retired from The Bard County
00:17:31
Sheriff's Office it wasn't easy to get him to talk initially but I've interviewed him since many times over
00:17:39
the years covering this case he was one of the first two responders on the scene
00:17:44
of Chip's murder I asked him what he thought when he heard Kim's account of the events the night of the murder I
00:17:51
thought it was totally Preposterous totally this truck is high off the ground for someone whose hands
00:17:59
are tied behind his back to get a hold of a gun jump out of this jacked up truck and start shooting from behind his
00:18:06
back does not seem credible to me whatsoever you have tons of circumstantial evidence against Kim one
00:18:16
thing against Crosley 20 things against Kim you know I don't see how how it could have gone the way it did there's a
00:18:24
lot rexie says he still doesn't understand about that night like why it took him so long to call 911 why she
00:18:33
gave the police the wrong directions multiple times and why the tire tracks from the truck showed no signs of
00:18:43
hurry on the way out of the Orange Grove I followed the same path that uh the truck left the orchard in and I
00:18:55
noticed that the tire prints were perfectly detailed if you leave a Sandy area or a
00:19:03
dirt area in a hurry you're going to have some Tire spin there's not going to be perfectly detailed tire tracks and
00:19:12
these were perfectly detailed and what did that say to you at that moment nothing cuz I didn't know the the story
00:19:20
of what supposedly happened there but later on that morning after we were released from the crime scene it seemed
00:19:29
extremely unusual because she was supposedly leaving that area in a in a big hurry you know and there's the
00:19:37
evidence didn't support that former Bard County Patrol Sergeant Diane Clark was also on the midnight Patrol shift the
00:19:44
night of the murder she was working with rexie to locate chip and secure the crime scene Clark had her own
00:19:52
suspicions if the shooter had but she said was a small flat weapon flat black would have been a
00:20:05
most likely a pistol versus a revolver they would have had been shell casings because a revolver the casings stay in
00:20:13
the weapon with the semi-automatic they discharge when the slide comes back the casing pops out the side and they never
00:20:21
found any casings out there what does that say to you tells me that there wasn't a semi-automatic and in the in as
00:20:27
dark as it was unless he took the time to scour the area and pick up the casings or casing
00:20:35
or whatever and I highly doubt that happened then where were they was there ever a
00:20:45
semi-automatic out there I don't see that that makes a case that Kim committed this murder I brought
00:20:52
up Clark's and rx's theory about Kim's story to prosecutor Chris White I'm not I'm not saying that I'm well yes you are
00:21:01
and you know that's the only reason I'm here because I think it's an atrocity that this woman was put through being
00:21:07
accused of this at trial and it was tried let me tell you I I was there and the only thing that happened in the
00:21:13
course of all of that was that a jury got to listen to All of the evidence live from the mouths of the witnesses
00:21:20
and they got to see all of the exhibits and they made a determination as to what
00:21:25
they believed happened and I trust a little bit okay when you're I know you're offended that anyone rais the
00:21:32
possibility that Kim HCK might have had something to do with this so let's talk about based on evidence I'm
00:21:37
offended now rexie told me something else I believe that she accidentally shot him I actually I believe they were
00:21:45
sitting at holder Park got into an argument she pulled the Glen out of the glove box and shot him accidentally I
00:21:51
don't believe she intentionally wanted to kill him or shoot him panicked they both panicked concocted this story
00:21:59
and drove him out there and dropped him off and said I'll you know we'll come back to protect her so she wouldn't go
00:22:05
to jail once he died then the stakes were raised tremendously and she could never go back on her story because then
00:22:12
she'd be even in more trouble so you actually believe chip came up with this story along with her absolutely there's
00:22:18
no he have to he' have to because he it was it was apparent when I got there that he
00:22:25
did not want to tell us who did it he there's no way and if it was some stranger who abducted him and shot him I
00:22:32
think the first words out of his mouth would be he went that way it was a black man he went that way you know but he
00:22:38
would never say it was always just get me out of here get me out of here get me out of here that's all he would ever say
00:22:45
did you tell anyone your suspicions oh absolutely that that morning I told everybody I talked to you know all of
00:22:52
them I said I said she did it Mark believes that he knows what chip told her out there when he wasn't there
00:23:00
huh but I think we ought to stick with the facts all right this was not the first time White
00:23:07
had heard about rxy and Clark's doubts about what happened that night he knew about it long before Crosley green ever
00:23:15
went on trial it turns out the white never disclosed to the defense a critical piece of evidence he had notes
00:23:24
that he had taken at a meeting with rexie and Clark who went to his office office in August of 1989 over 4 months
00:23:33
after the murder but a year before the trial this is what your own you know what this is this is yeah those are the
00:23:41
notes that I took when I was speaking uh to them in the notes that white took during that meeting he wrote that rxy
00:23:48
and Clark suspected the girl did it and that she changed her story a couple of times and he also wrote quote didn't see
00:23:57
any footprint didn't see any casings she wouldn't go down there to the scene why
00:24:03
wouldn't the guy say who shot him just said I want to go home I asked Chris White if Clark and
00:24:10
rxy disclosed then that they believe that Kim HCK was involved in the shooting they
00:24:18
did and why didn't you then take their words seriously and investigate to see if in fact they were correct I reviewed
00:24:27
all the evidence that we had with that hypothesis in mind okay um I'm not sure what investigation you think uh could
00:24:37
have been accomplished at that point in time when they told me that by the early 2000s Crossley was
00:24:44
being represented by attorneys from a Florida state agency that represents people on death row after getting wind
00:24:52
of the withheld evidence his new attorneys filed a motion and fought to get Chris White's file but the
00:24:59
prosecution pushed back refusing to hand it over claiming attorney client privilege why weren't these notes handed
00:25:08
over to the defense your notes they're my personal work notes there's a reason why crosley's lawyers wanted those notes
00:25:14
so badly and that reason goes back to a decades old US Supreme Court case known as Brady versus Maryland that case
00:25:25
requires prosecutors to disclose to the defense all material evidence all of it regardless of whether that evidence
00:25:34
supports the defendant's guilt or innocence withholding that evidence is now known as a Brady violation and can
00:25:43
lead to a conviction being thrown out and that's when Crosley began his yearslong battle to prove that
00:25:51
withholding those notes denied him a fair trial the problem he had to convince the court that those notes were
00:25:59
in fact material or crucial to the defense wouldn't this have been helpful for the defense to be able to ask more
00:26:10
questions about what they saw and heard at the scene well my recollection is that they have presented this argument
00:26:17
that this is exculpatory evidence that the defense was denied and that it would have made a difference the judge found
00:26:23
no it wouldn't and that's exactly what happened crosley's appeal was denied by a judge who ruled quote the purported
00:26:32
opinion of deputies rxy and Clark would not have been admissible at trial rxy and Clark's opinion were not considered
00:26:41
material under Brady and now an answer to something that might be troubling you it certainly bothered me why didn't mark
00:26:50
rxy or Diane Clark on their own go to the original defense lawyers and share their
00:26:56
thoughts well unless you're involved in a complete investigation you really have to kind of
00:27:04
stay out of it and once we did our job and turned it over to the investigators we're kind of pushed aside
00:27:12
once we talked to him and and gave him everything we could give him you know was kind of like
00:27:19
okay you can go now kind of thing and you know unless they call you and ask you to come in you really kind of keep
00:27:27
you you keep your nose out of it because they don't even bothered prosecutors didn't just withhold information from
00:27:34
crosley's defense I asked prosecutor white about misstated evidence in the trial like the dog tracking evidence you
00:27:43
have been to the scene where the crime started and you have seen the shoe impressions of that person who came to
00:27:51
the truck who robbed them who abducted them who took them to that Grove and who shot chip you've seen those shoe
00:27:57
Impressions if wasn't just her and chip out there Mr White those shoe Impressions have never been connected to
00:28:04
Crosley green the defendant in this case ever remember Crosley admitted that he walked through the Orange Grove in
00:28:11
holder Park the night of the murder but holder Park was a well-traveled area and
00:28:16
there was a baseball game that night and yet the FDLE report found nothing at holder park or the Orange Grove that
00:28:25
implicated Crosley including the those shoe prints in the hours after the murder in
00:28:32
1989 officials brought in a can9 dog named Zar to track the scent that led along the shoe prints left in the sand
00:28:40
of the park if this was a trailing dog that was trained for specific scent and they had uh Crosley
00:28:48
green clothing and the Dog trail to the murder site that would be potentially a compelling piece of evidence but
00:28:55
following just fresh scent from one location to another I would say has very limited um
00:29:02
forensic uh value admittedly I knew close to nothing about dog tracking and police cases so as part of our
00:29:11
investigation for this podcast I wanted to talk to an expert Professor Kenneth Fon is the executive director of the
00:29:19
global forensic and Justice Center at Florida International University Professor Fon is an expert in
00:29:27
what is known as K9 old faction old faction meaning sense of smell he told me in an investigation like this canines
00:29:37
can either track or Trail ascent and there's a difference the the tracking piece is really
00:29:46
following um any uh person's scent so it's just following human scent and it's typically the k9's train to follow the
00:29:54
freshest uh set now Trail is often more often used for specific human scent so dogs can be trained to follow a scent
00:30:04
article and so then if you have a article like a missing person or you have an article from a suspect you
00:30:10
present that to the dog and say uh was that person here and that's a separate trailing component because there was no
00:30:18
scent article available for Zar to Trail a specific scent the police dog handler
00:30:25
just had Zar track the freshest scent available they saw Footprints they followed them working towards the the
00:30:34
tip of the toe to the heel so they call it like backtracking following whether the assuming that person walked that way
00:30:41
well the dog follow the scent and the dog picked up as scent and followed it um and on soft ground it's pretty easy
00:30:49
to follow the scent and then it went on to harder surfaces on concrete which becomes more difficult Zar was shown the
00:30:56
shoe prints and started tracking them South out of holder Park he followed the chuprin from a dune area in the park to
00:31:04
the edge of the pave road but the shoeprints ended there so Zar continued to follow that scent until it led him to
00:31:13
the front of crosley's sister Tina's house where Crosley often stayed it was one of the most damaging pieces of
00:31:21
evidence presented at crosley's case during the 1990 murder trial the defense pointed out that the dog handler
00:31:30
stopped Zar because there were two dogs in Tina's front yard and that Zar never finished tracking the scent the dog
00:31:38
handler admitted that they stopped Zars tracking to prevent a conflict with the two dogs I asked Professor Fon if it was
00:31:46
proper procedure to stop tracking because of the presence of two dogs yeah I believe so it is appropriate
00:31:54
to stop because you don't want to get into an engagement with a a well-trained police dog fighting with two other dogs
00:32:02
even if the even if Zar is not aggressive you don't know if those dogs are aggressive so I would have stopped
00:32:09
my dog at that point as well so we have no clue if Zar might have kept going if Tina's dogs weren't in the front yard
00:32:18
and not only that it's not clear what scent Zar was tracking yeah I mean he tracked asent the dog tracked asent but
00:32:27
it's not uh it's not decent after Zar track holder Park he was taken to the Orange Grove
00:32:33
the side of the murder and where the main struggle took place but Zar was unable to pick up the holder Park scent
00:32:41
in the dog Handler's report they said quote the Orange Grove in the area was checked and nobody had walked in the
00:32:49
Grove in the last couple of days what if I tell you Dr fton that they were never able to no matter how
00:32:58
hard they tried to connect the suspect the defendant to those particular shoeprints that they were
00:33:06
following does that concern you yeah that would because the canines are a great tool to connect other pieces of
00:33:14
evidence but not as the primary evidence that fresh scent could be anything right
00:33:19
correct the canine wasn't following the scent of Crosley green they were following the scent of
00:33:26
somebody who could have been Crosley green or another person it wasn't um they're they're you know the
00:33:33
canines are not used as a identification tool in that [Music] role what is it going to take for people
00:33:49
to understand that I didn't kill this young man what is it going to take for me to
00:33:54
get a fair hearing in lower course while crosley's attorneys were fighting to get him a new trial the days
00:34:04
stretch into weeks weeks evolved into months and months turned into years Crosley had been on death row since he
00:34:14
was 33 years old now at the age of 49 he had been living with a very real possibility of death by either lethal
00:34:24
injection or the electric chair for for 16 years life outside was moving on without him Crosley had long dreamed
00:34:35
about the day he'd be reunited with his two sons who are now grown men there's a
00:34:42
lot of things I want to do but the first thing I want to do is to get my sons take off and go somewhere just
00:34:54
where we'll be together no one else when we went and seen him he was on death row that's schuma Stokes crosley's
00:35:04
son and it just like you know just like it wasn't enough time in the day you know me and him my brother Gaston Gap
00:35:15
and my aunt Tina we went and seen him and it just like when we got ready to leave it just was like you know sad you
00:35:23
know I ain't want to leave schuma was 16 and his brother Gaston who they call Gap
00:35:29
was six when their father was sent away I just ain't want to see him in that position did you worry that your dad
00:35:37
might be executed I mean yeah Y and it's like wow this actually happening we hear
00:35:50
these stories every day and we like oh man ain't worri about but until it happened to yours then that's when you
00:35:57
take notice and that's when you know it's for real and then you find out there's really being some injustice
00:36:02
being done and that's how it was you know I was like I went off on the deep end for a while and what about his
00:36:10
brother Gaston my brother took it he took it to heart cuz he was he he was young he was
00:36:17
real young and for him to uh what he had to go through going through school being
00:36:23
picked at and not only him my cousins they went through it the downstream or collateral consequences of one person's
00:36:33
incarceration on his immediate and extended families on communities and even on society cannot be
00:36:43
understated it just it was rough for us to go through that you know cuz you got people calling your parent a murderer he
00:36:52
should die mhm I mean kill him I mean man we went through some sh we went through some
00:36:58
stuff and my brother man he man that messed him up yeah I mean that messed him up pretty bad even
00:37:11
as an adult schuma says he struggles to control his emotions alternating between
00:37:17
anger loss and despair by the mid 2000s crosy Green's legal battle had spanned nearly two two
00:37:27
decades he was running out of options but his luck was about to change crosley's attorney went before the
00:37:36
Florida Supreme Court determined to get Crosley off death row in the hearing his
00:37:42
attorney told the court that during crosley's sentencing phase in 1991 the prosecution while seeking the
00:37:49
death penalty wrongfully used a prior conviction for robbery that conviction when Crosley was 18 had actually been
00:37:58
vacated but Chris White still presented that prior felony to the jury and Crosley was sentenced to
00:38:06
death now crosley's attorney argued that the conviction should have remained sealed because the judge ruled him a
00:38:13
juvenile since he was younger than 19 and had erased the charge from his record after years of appeals the
00:38:21
Florida Supreme Court finally issued a ruling in 2007 upholding his conviction but agreeing that there was an error in
00:38:31
sentencing and that Crosley should be resentenced Crosley was now entitled to a new hearing on sentencing but if he
00:38:40
was going to get off death row he needed the best of the best the first moment I
00:38:46
met Crosley you know I met him and he came out in a orange jumpsuit Shackled hand ankle and around the waist meet
00:38:56
defense attorney Keith Harrison and we got we went into a little room that was it was probably
00:39:04
about 4 feet by 8T and I told him that we would do everything we could to get him out of
00:39:13
prison I didn't know it at the time but our 48 Hours report had caught the eye of officials at the American Bar
00:39:21
Association in 2008 the aba's death penalty project Santa copy of our report to Attorneys at crol and Morin an
00:39:31
international law firm renowned for its diversity among its lawyers their mission to get Crosley green off death
00:39:39
row on the case was Jean Thomas and Keith Harrison both Partners at croll and Morin in Washington
00:39:47
DC we looked at the record um and as a lawyer it it just made me so angry and we were just so offended that you know
00:39:56
such a gross Justice had been done that we really wanted to really wanted to work on it Thomas has had a long history
00:40:03
of litigating postconviction death penalty cases Keith Harrison a former New York prosecutor focuses on complex
00:40:12
trials arbitration and investigations it's worth noting that Harrison is a black man and possibly the
00:40:21
only black lawyer to Ever represent Crosley green it was pretty clear clear to the lawyers on our team that this
00:40:30
wasn't just a case about the death penalty this was a case about actual innocence um so first we pursued what's
00:40:37
called habus relief in State Court postconviction relief in State Court where you challenge the
00:40:45
constitutionality of the the trial uh and and the sentencing then on August 31st 2009 after 19 years facing
00:40:55
execution Crosley greens attorneys won a major victory Florida's 18th Judicial Circuit Court resentenced Crosley to
00:41:05
life in prison when we got him off death row you know was was really a big high because
00:41:12
that's what we that was our number one goal when we took on the case most of us don't know how we're
00:41:21
going to die but we also don't have to live with death hanging over us at any time after Years of Living inside a 6t
00:41:30
wide 9t long cell on death row crosy green finally could begin thinking about a future how did he feel about
00:41:41
that for number one I feel relieved I felt relieved when I say I felt relieved I felt relieved for the fact that I do
00:41:51
not have to worry now about them signing my warant my warrant and I have to March
00:41:55
over there and be on Death Watch so I felt real good at that time that that was over with but I know
00:42:07
I have another 100 yards to go how optimistic are you now that you will ever get out of
00:42:16
here how of this I am I've spent M quite a few years on death row so my best answer to that is
00:42:32
that I still got hope that one day I'm going to go free and I know I'm going to go free in
00:42:41
the past Crosley told me that his state-appointed lawyers rarely talk to him but over the course of fighting for
00:42:48
his release from Death Row Harrison and Thomas really got to know Crosley the man not just the inmate first time I met
00:42:57
Cy on death row yeah I told him you know what we were trying to do and that we were going to try to you know um get him
00:43:03
off death row and introduced myself um and uh he said I'm just excited to see you and I'm I'm so glad you're here and
00:43:13
and I was like well you know he's had other postconviction lawyers and stuff I wasn't sure what he was talking about
00:43:19
and he said you know look you know I've I've been praying for God to send me you know some somebody
00:43:28
that's going to you know help me I I prayed to God Send Me an Angel and I know you're that
00:43:36
angel um and when somebody says something like that to you you know it's a it sets you back a little bit which is
00:43:46
why they all stayed on crosley's case even after getting him off death row and are now working on it pro
00:43:55
bono this is uh the only case I pray about and I pray about it almost every day I look at this case as not a wait
00:44:06
but an opportunity an opportunity to do justice to do the right thing for someone who really really deserves you
00:44:14
know everything I can and my firm can give him so um I just look at it as an opportunity and I'm just going to keep
00:44:22
trying to press every button pull every lever and do everything I can to um you know to win his
00:44:31
freedom Keith Harrison thinks and has told the court that we're witnessing a case of what is known as a racial hoax a
00:44:40
racist narrative as old as time this is not just a simple case of mistaken identity that the wrong person got
00:44:48
picked out of a lineup on the next episode of Murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green
00:44:57
all of the evidence points to the fact that there was no third person at the scene of the crime there was an accident
00:45:05
it would be fair to conclude and she made up a story after the fact it's unfortunately a classic case of what is
00:45:15
often referred to as a racial hoax which is a black guy did it something went wrong a witness said oh a black guy did
00:45:24
it and the prosecution pursued that theory of the case murder in the Orange Grove was
00:45:41
reported by me Aron morard alongside producers Alan Pang Annie Cronenberg and Allison Bailey Kiara orbits is our
00:45:50
cordinating producer and Florence burough Adams is our story editor additional prod C support from Dylan
00:45:58
Gordon Marlon polycarp Caroline Casey and Christine Driscoll Judy Tigard is the executive producer of 48 Hours Gail
00:46:08
Zimmerman asena basac Mark goom Charlotte Fuller Judy Ryback and Steven McCain produced the original 48 Hours
00:46:17
episodes associate producers were Michael Loftus and Shaheen Toki Patty aronowski was a senior
00:46:25
producer special thanks to Megan Marcus Jamie Benson Nick poser and Gail spru [Music]
00:46:38
[Music]