Life or Death Row | "Murder in the Orange Grove" | "48 Hours" Podcast (Episode 5) | Forensic Files

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

After four witnesses said they lied at Crosley Green's murder trial, their recantations drew the attention of the county's State's Attorney, who requested an investigation into Crosley's case. Eventually, key evidence would emerge that would change the course of Crosley’s life.

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Brief Summary

Crosley Green's wrongful conviction for murder raises questions about witness credibility and DNA evidence in a racially charged case.

Key points

Recantation of Witnesses. In 1999, four state witnesses recanted their testimonies, raising doubts about the conviction.
Crosley Green's Conviction. Crosley Green was convicted of murder in 1990, sentenced to death, and has been on death row for years.
DNA Testing Controversy. DNA testing linked Crosley to the crime scene, but experts questioned the validity of the evidence.
Inconsistencies in Kim's Story. Investigators found serious inconsistencies in Kim's account of the murder night.
Prosecutor's Concealed Evidence. Prosecutor Chris White failed to disclose critical evidence that could have aided the defense.
Crosley's Fight for Justice. Crosley Green's legal battle spans decades as he fights against wrongful conviction.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Those are all interesting questions but I'm not really quite sure.

1:03WatchOct 16, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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