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foreign [Music] Moriarty 48 hours and this is married to death I promised you a startling end to this
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case and you're going to get it this is the Sixth and final episode of married to death the case of reynella Leith
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an ending that no one except maybe the judge it's all coming uh my name is Michael persicano and I'm
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a professional coffee roaster my name is Jesse Capps and I'm a contract floor technician my name is William McMichael
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and I'm in sales in the Powersports industry and what brought the three of you together
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jury duty whenever I cover a trial I always want to interview members of the jury their
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perspective is just so different from anyone else in that courtroom but I'm not sure I've ever wanted to hear from a
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jury more than during this trial and lucky for us three of the jurors agreed to sit down and talk
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what about raynella Lee the first time you saw her how much did you watch her during the trial a lot quite a bit I
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studied her I wanted to get a feel for how she reacted when that physical evidence was presented
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I don't think anything you've heard in the first five parts will prepare you for what you're about to hear in part
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six but before we get to the verdict I first want you to try and put yourself in the position of those jurors because
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they walked into that courtroom on May 1st 2017 with a completely clean slate had any of you heard of raynella Leith
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before you sat on that jury no not a word these jurors were never told how raynella's first husband Ed Dawson died
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or that she was once charged with his murder and that those charges were dropped and they never heard Stephen
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Walker tell his extraordinary story of surviving a barrage of bullets from raynella's Gone
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all they knew was what was presented in this case in this trial in the death of David Lee
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so I ask you if you were one of those jurors what would you do could you say Beyond a
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reasonable doubt that David Leith was murdered and if you believe he was murdered did prosecutors do enough to
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prove that reynella Lee was the one who pulled the trigger those are the questions in this case now
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let's get some answers we are inside courtroom number two my producer Josh Gainer and I were seated
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in the back row Cindy Wilkerson David Lee's daughter and her family took their usual seats in the
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front sitting to our left raynella of course was at the defense table her two daughters Maggie and Katie
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and all of raynella's supporters packed the rose behind her to our right before the jurors get the case
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elector record reflected all parties are present in the courtroom including the defendant
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and both councils there's just one more piece of business a routine defense motion called a rule
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29. in Tennessee it's a request to the judge to throw out a case for lack of evidence it's filed in nearly every
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trial defense attorneys do it just in case their client gets convicted then they can use that motion later on appeal
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only two words are required either motion granted or motion denied senior judge Paul Summers the state is
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not established established a time of death Beyond a general time on the morning of March 13 2003.
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Ms Leith has accounted for her whereabouts for virtually all of that time that morning prior to the
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initiation of the 9-1-1 call her clothing tested negative for blood and gunshot residue
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I look at my producer Josh Gainer and I'm thinking what's happening so I look at a court official who looks
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right back at me her eyes wide her face puzzled and then like so many times in the story
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of raynella leave the unexpected happens in short the state has failed to meet their
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burden in the opinion of this court even by a mere preponderance of the evidence
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let alone Beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms Leith killed her husband the court finds that the state has failed to meet
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the required element of identity of reynella Leith as a person who committed the crime charge the defendant's motion
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for Judgment of acquittal is granted Ray never Leith is not guilty the case against reynella Leith is dismissed it
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is so ordered this tenth day of May 2017. that gasp you heard that came from raynella Leith
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everyone in the courtroom seems shocked after a week-long trial and before the jury can even deliberate judge Summers
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on his own dismisses the case and because he did it before the jury had a chance at a verdict
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the decision cannot be appealed raynella's attorney Rebecca Legrand she walked in that courtroom presumed
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innocent and the state did nothing to overcome that presumptuous they don't get to try this again this is done
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they've tried they got their chance to put on all the evidence they had they didn't have enough evidence that any
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reasonable juror could find her guilty everyone in the courtroom looked confused
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after days of testimony closing arguments the judge had taken the decision away from the jurors and
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dismissed the case against the defendant Attorney General Stephen Crum still can't quite believe it when we talked to
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him Weeks Later I don't understand it I don't have an explanation I just never expected it and
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and still to this day can't explain it three jurors we interviewed there's no other way to put it let us do let's do
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what we're here for instance they are angry we were just used I mean I just used us as set pieces pretty much I feel
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like if judge Summers was so convinced that he was right about the evidence why not let us deliberate it and how do
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you explain that I can't only judge Summers can so we asked judge Summers now retired to
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make his case to 48 hours and he agreed and strictly based on the evidence that I heard on both sides
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but particularly on the state side if I'd have been the district attorney general
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I would not have brought the case to trial did you choose to do this to end this case to finally end this case yes
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you did I did at the point in time when I realized that rule 29 had been met when the when the evidence was legally
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insufficient I decided to end this case by doing my job and granting the motion for Judgment
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of acquittal knowing Summers believes the prosecutors didn't present enough evidence for the jury to
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decide a homicide may have occurred but he's convinced they didn't meet their burden to prove Beyond a reasonable
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doubt that reynella leaves was the one who committed it there was nothing to link her to the weapon
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there was nothing to link her to any of the blood there was no gunshot residue found on her clothes or around her she
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had an alibi that the state could not prove the time of death the evidence was clearly insufficient to
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show that she was the perpetrator of the crime and finally the the there was no evidence to show that she was even the
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last person ever to see David Leith alive if you were so sure that there wasn't enough evidence for the jury to
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convict her Beyond A Reasonable Doubt wouldn't the jury have come to the same conclusion
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I was simply doing my job not trying to pass the buck to the jury judges sometimes make these
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extraordinary decisions when they fear the jurors might be swayed by emotion and not evidence and while we'll never
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know for sure what the whole jury would have done we did get a clue after talking to the three jurors Michael
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persicano Jesse Katz and William McMichael but if you had gotten to vote how would you
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have voted guilty guilty guilty do you feel right now Elise got away with murder I absolutely feel she got away
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with murder to these three jurors the gun pointed only to one person exactly and that was raynella Leith for me I
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think so much time was spent on other things like was was he depressed did he have Alzheimer's did he have dementia to
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me that was totally secondary What mattered was the physical evidence and the physical evidence to me clearly
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pointed to a murder there's no way David Lee fired that third shot and you don't
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believe the defense witness who said well you can have this spasm after death that pulled the trigger the third time
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that's fantasy what most convinced you Jesse that this wasn't just a murder but that reynella Leith was the one who
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killed her husband Joshua Hedrick was sitting on that bed and he was twirling that cylinder on that gun well a burden
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to my family crowd man doesn't want to be a burden it was just so corny to me it was fake he was trying so hard after
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that I was like all right it's just they're trying so hard that it's so obvious now
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why it's just so obvious was it past it possible to any of your minds that maybe someone else came into the house
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and shot him she was the last person there and there was no other evidence of anyone else in there at all I'm just not
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okay with the way that it ended it's a feeling David Lee's cousin Beth Roberts shares
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he stole that verdict from the family from the prosecution from the jury it was a theft it wasn't just the three
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jurors we interviewed shortly after the judge's decision a majority of the jurors gathered near the
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courthouse and they also said they would have voted guilty we shared that information with judge Summers
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we interviewed some of the jurors and they told us that after the trial a number of them met up
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and they said that to a person they would have voted guilty what's your reaction to that nothing
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nothing at all I have I have been through hundreds of Trials I've seen situations where Gerards would go back
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into the jury room and the the original vote would be eleven and one one way or the other
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and then it comes back eight hours later five hours later or the next day completely opposite
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I don't I don't I don't have any comment or any feeling whatsoever for those kind
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of comics I I simply took an oath to do my job to do what's right to follow the rules to the best of my knowledge and
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ability I followed the rules made a decision and felt comfortable and went to bed
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that night feeling comfortable about my decision what this case did for me was just
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remind me that while we're all looking for truth we always want truth at the end of the trial we want to know what
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really happened all we get is some form of Justice we get what is considered Justice a judge reached a
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verdict reynella Leith goes home no one is convicted of David Lee's murder it may not have been a murder or may have
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been a suicide but there's still questions and that's that's what this verdict reminded me of is that we don't
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necessarily find out the truth we are all hoping to finally know what happened to be able to close that chapter and say
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okay either David Lee committed suicide or he was murdered and we're left really
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where we were before the trial and so that's how reynella Elise third and last trial ended with the judge
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dismissing the case but even without a guilty verdict there is still the court of public opinion and
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there are some in Knoxville who will always call her a black widow but none of that matters to her now
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because as she leaves the Knox County Courthouse how are you doing right Nella you guys weren't worried about her
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before so leave her alone now her daughter's Maggie and Katie by her side reynella and her daughters have endured
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years of Whispers suspicions accusations but she is now a free woman did it cross
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your mind you might be letting a killer Go free you know there's a difference between
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being not guilty and being innocent if the state does not prove its case they are found not guilty
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it doesn't say that they're innocent so you're not saying that raynell Elite is innocent you're saying not guilty
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there are two entities [Music] of which I'm aware that know the answer to that question
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one is the good Lord above and the other one is the defendant right now a lathe but I do know that she's not guilty
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so we're at the end of reynella Lee's story or are we it's over for reynell Leith as far as
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David Leith is concerned she can never be tried for that case again she's been found not guilty it's over
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I'm Aaron Moriarty 48 hours and that's married to death this podcast series Married to death is
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developed by 48 hours in partnership with CBS News Radio Judy Tigard is executive producer Nancy Kramer is our
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executive story editor Mike valet and Alan Pang are the series producer editors this episode was produced by Josh Gainer
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Lisa freed and Luis Geraldo and edited by Mike McHugh Dwayne Tolleson Jamie Benson and Meghan Marcus
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things to composer Richard fioka for his original scores Gabriella de mergian and Morgan Canty
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are our associate producers Kayla cadell is our production associate thank you to Craig swagler the vice
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president and general manager of CBS News Radio and finally a shout out to all of you
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our fans we owe it to all of you the millions of fans of 48 hours in the U.S and around the world don't forget to
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join me online I am at EF Moriarty on Twitter and we are at 48 Hours on Twitter Facebook and Instagram see you
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soon [Music]