Justice Delayed (Innocent Prisoners Project)

by Marti Green

  Tommy heard Cannon sigh. “I’ll visit him. One visit. If something seems fishy, I’ll put a detective on it. If not, then it ends.”

  “That’s all I’m asking for.”

  CHAPTER

  25

  Judge Beiles was true to her word. One week after the hearing ended, her decision arrived at HIPP’s office over the fax. Dani held her breath as she began to read. She skimmed through the preliminary discussion of the facts, then read:

  Defendant claims that the recantation by Lisa Hicks Montague and the scientific studies that now place into question the reliability of bite-mark analysis constitute new evidence which, if presented to the original jury, would likely change the outcome of the verdict. I have to agree. Although in most cases, a witness recantation would require affirmative proof that the witness lied at the original trial, that standard should not be applied to the testimony of a young child. Where, as in this case, the child provided a reasonable explanation for her incorrect trial testimony, she should be permitted to recant it. With respect to the bite-mark evidence, although the certifying association of forensic odontologists still stands by the reliability of that evidence, this court cannot ignore the scientific studies, unavailable at defendant’s trial, which prove otherwise. Given the paucity of other evidence at defendant’s trial that ties him to the murder, I hereby grant defendant’s motion for a new trial, which shall begin five weeks from this date. Bail is set at one million dollars.

  Relief washed over Dani, the same feeling she always got when she’d taken a step closer to stopping the executioner’s hand. It was so much preferable to the dread that enshrouded her when death had taken a step closer. She rushed out of her office to Tommy’s desk. “We won the motion! Osgood will get a new trial.”

  Tommy broke out in a big smile. “That’s great, Dani. So, what now? The state still doesn’t have anything more tying Osgood to the murder. Should I stop looking into Bonetti? Or even Johnson?”

  Dani thought a moment. “No, keep looking. I don’t want to be caught flat-footed if they come up with something. Besides, I always feel better when we don’t just free our client, but put behind bars the person who really deserves to be there.”

  “Okay. I’ll keep going.”

  As soon as Dani returned to her office, she picked up her phone and dialed the GDCP. She doubted that Osgood had the resources to raise bail, but she needed to let him know of the judge’s decision. When the prison answered, she asked for the social worker assigned to death-row inmates. A minute later, she was connected with Jesse Symons.

  “How can I help you?” Symons asked when he answered the call.

  Dani told him of the court’s ruling and asked him to let Osgood know. “I don’t suppose you know of any relatives Osgood might have?”

  “I’ve only worked here for the past five years, and I don’t think anyone’s visited him during that time. Hold on, let me look up his file.” A minute later, he was back. “I know he has no siblings, and his mother is deceased. His father abandoned the family when he was ten. I don’t see anything in the record of any other relatives.”

  “I’ve been wondering about something. Osgood mentioned once that his favorite snack is peanut M&M’s. I’m certain the prison doesn’t hand that candy out to inmates, so can you check and see whether he has any funds on account with the prison commissary?”

  “Sure. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m just wondering if anyone has deposited money in it for him. If yes, then maybe it could lead to a relative.”

  “I’ll get back to you on it.”

  Dani thanked him and hung up. Twenty minutes later, Symons called back. “I found something interesting,” he said. “Osgood had been getting regular monthly deposits of fifty dollars until his mother died eight years ago. Then, seven months later, five thousand dollars was deposited into his account, and nothing since then.”

  “Do you know who made the deposit?”

  “I do. Someone named Harry Osgood. He must be a relative. Do you know who he is?”

  “No. But I’m going to find out.”

  As soon as she hung up, Dani buzzed Tommy and gave him this new assignment, then turned to the files on her desk. She would prep the witnesses for Osgood’s trial the week before it began. In the meantime, there were new inmates seeking her help.

  She leafed through the letters, looking for one she hoped could be resolved with DNA testing. When she reached the last one in her folder, she immediately knew she’d found her next client.

  To whom it may concern,

  My name is Luther Manning, and I’ve been in Riverbend prison in Nashville coming up on thirty-two years. I was twenty-three years old when they said I raped and killed a woman. I never did such a thing. Her boy, he was four years old back then, described someone who looked like me to the police, but it wasn’t me, I promise. I’ve been real sick for some years now. Started as lung cancer, and now it’s in my brain. I don’t want to die in prison. I want to die at home, with my mama and papa. They know I’m innocent, but I want their friends to know their son is innocent, so they won’t look down on my parents. Can you help me? I don’t think I have much time left.

  Dani turned to LexisNexis and looked up his case. Like Manning wrote, he’d been imprisoned in Tennessee after his conviction for the rape and murder of a woman in her home. The only witness was her four-year-old son. The child had described only one man raping and killing his mother, yet eventually the police arrested three, including Manning. The two others, Evander Houseman and Al Williams, eventually confessed and implicated Manning and were sentenced to life. At Manning’s trial, Houseman recanted and claimed he’d only confessed and pointed to Manning because he’d been threatened with a death sentence. It didn’t matter. Manning was convicted, although the jury couldn’t agree on the death penalty, and so he received a life sentence.

  Dani prepared a letter to send back to Manning, then another to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, asking them to investigate whether any DNA evidence remained in the case file. If there were, it could be the magic bullet that hadn’t existed thirty-two years ago, holding the potential to exonerate Luther Manning and bring him the peace he sought as his death grew near.

  By the time Dani arrived home, the temperature had dropped, and with snow in the forecast, the air felt damp. The chill seemed to go straight through to her bones, and she looked forward to starting a fire in the living-room fireplace and filling Doug in on her good news.

  Ruth ran into her arms as soon as Dani came through the front door and buried her face in Dani’s chest. Doug wasn’t home yet, but Katie had prepared a casserole that could be quickly heated up when he arrived. He’d left a message at home that he needed to finish some work before he could leave. The children had already eaten, and Katie had given Ruth a bath. Dani nuzzled the top of Ruth’s head and breathed in the smell of her baby shampoo. At times, she couldn’t understand why she was so lucky, when so many others weren’t. It was luck that her children were safe. She had no doubt that the Bradens were careful parents, that they’d done all they could to keep their daughter from harm. But they had been unlucky, and their lives had changed irrevocably because their daughter had crossed the path of the wrong person.

  Was that person Jack Osgood? Dani felt certain it wasn’t. Over the years, she’d gotten good at recognizing when a client was holding back. Osgood didn’t seem to have deception in him. Greg Johnson? Maybe. More likely Axel Bonetti, she thought. Or someone they didn’t even have on their radar. The mission of HIPP was to free the wrongly convicted, not to identify the true perpetrators. Still, Dani had learned over the years that even when DNA proved an inmate’s innocence, a stigma remained attached to the person when no one else was charged with the crime. Perhaps it was because of the need of the victim’s family for closure. All Dani knew was that she felt an added layer of satisfaction when she and Tommy handed over to the authorities the man or woman who deserved to be imprisoned.

 
By the time Doug returned home, the children were already asleep. Dani popped the casserole into the microwave, then poured Doug a glass of wine. “What kept you so late?” she asked.

  “I needed to finish up the article I’d committed to for the Law Journal.”

  “I thought that wasn’t due until the end of the week?”

  “I got a call from Stanford. They’d like me to come out there again. They’ve narrowed it down to me and one other. I’m leaving after work tomorrow.”

  Dani realized Doug was on a runaway train, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Although it was now “honeymoon hour,” she suddenly felt exhausted. “I’m tired, Doug. I’m going to turn in early.”

  “You okay?”

  Dani nodded, even though she wasn’t okay. She was miserable.

  CHAPTER

  26

  The phone had already rung four times. Pick up. Pick up.

  “Hi.”

  “It’s me.”

  “I know. I saw the caller ID. What’s up?”

  “It’s going to be in tomorrow’s papers. Judge Beiles just ruled—Jack Osgood’s going to get a new trial.”

  There was silence on the other end of the phone. When he spoke, his voice was tight. “Why are you telling me?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut and whispered, “I thought you’d want to know. “

  “You thought wrong.”

  She hung up the phone. Was she mistaken to call him? They’d never spoken about it. Maybe the fear she’d harbored about her brother all these years was just foolish thinking. Maybe working for the court had made her jaded, made her think the worst of everyone. Maybe she was wrong about her brother. That would be good. Yes, very good.

  CHAPTER

  27

  He’d kept his urge in check for so many years, but now, it kept bubbling up to the surface. It was that damn investigator, reminding him of that first girl, what it felt like, the rush of excitement. He’d breathed easy when Osgood was convicted for his crime. It had been a wake-up call for him, forcing him to acknowledge how he himself could have been facing the death penalty. It had convinced him to stop, hard as it was. He’d slipped only once since then. Still, there had been three others, three murders that no one had ever been charged with. He’d gotten away with it then, and probably could again. If he were careful. The risk was taking a girl from her home. But he’d learned that it was that very risk that added to his excitement.

  He took out his map and decided first which state, then which town. He preferred small towns, not big cities. People seemed so much more distrustful in big cities, so much more careful. It was easy for him to get away. He was always on the road. He’d find just the right girl, then follow her. This time, he’d choose someone who lived in a one-story house. He was older now, not as strong as he once was. Maybe someone without siblings. That, too, was safer. Less likely to wake up others. Maybe one with just a mother, the father gone. He could find out a lot by observing his target for a few days. If the first one he picked wasn’t just right, he’d choose another.

  He shook his head. I can’t do this again. I’m married. A father. I know it’s sick. He told himself over and over that it was in his past. He’d gotten it under control. But he knew the truth.

  CHAPTER

  28

  It took a week for the Nashville police to get back to Dani, but it was worth the wait. Semen had been left on the victim’s body, and it was still in the evidence kit. Dani now represented not only Manning, one of three men convicted of the rape and murder of a woman while her four-year-old son watched, but his alleged accomplice, Houseman, as well. Sadly, Williams, the third man, had already died in prison. Dani had just gotten off the phone with ADA Chuck Davies, who had agreed to DNA testing, when Tommy walked in her office.

  “What’s up?” Dani asked.

  “I just located Harry Osgood. He’s living in Atlanta.”

  “Great. He’s a relative, right?”

  “He’s Jack’s father.”

  His father. The man who walked away from his ten-year-old son and never looked back. Not the relation she was hoping for. “Did you talk to him?”

  “Not yet. But I’ve done a little digging. Turns out he and Jack’s mother were never divorced. When she died, he showed up and claimed the entire inheritance.”

  “Did she have much? Jack’s legal bills must have been large. It was a death-penalty case.”

  “There was no mortgage on her house, and it sold for four hundred seventy thousand dollars. Plus, she had a hundred seventy-five thousand dollars in IRAs, and a vested pension paid out six hundred thirty thousand dollars.”

  Dani’s jaw dropped. “Not what I expected at all. But didn’t her husband own the house with her?”

  “Nope. It was her family’s home. She inherited it from them. And I checked—the pension and the IRAs listed Jack as the beneficiary, with no alternate.”

  Dani turned to her computer and did a quick check online. “The most his father should have gotten was a year’s worth of maintenance. Everything else should have gone to Jack.”

  “Seems like his father took all of it. Less five thousand dollars he put in Jack’s prison account.”

  “I think we need to pay a visit to Mr. Osgood. Do a little arm-twisting. There should be enough to get Jack out on bail.”

  “Just what I was thinking.”

  Two days later, Dani and Tommy were back in Georgia. They drove up to the bungalow-style home in the Candler Park section of Atlanta. It was on a tree-lined street of one- and two-story homes, none of which looked the same. Four steps led up to the wide front porch, with three white pillars contrasting the painted gray brick of the house. A Lexus SUV sat in front of the separate garage.

  Tommy knocked on the door, and a few moments later, it was opened by a gray-haired woman with an apron tied around her waist and a warm smile on her face. “Hello, can I help you?”

  “We’re looking for Harry Osgood,” Dani said. “Does he live here?”

  The woman held out her hand. “I’m Maria Osgood, his wife.” She held the door open wider. “Please, come in.” She turned and called, “Harry, it’s for you.”

  A large man walked down the steps from the second story. Instantly, Dani recognized him as Jack’s father. They had the same build, the same droopy eyes, and the same square jaw.

  “How can I help you folks?” Osgood said when he neared them.

  Dani held out her card. “We represent your son, Jack.”

  There was silence in the room as Maria grabbed onto Harry’s arm and pulled herself close to him.

  Finally, Harry spoke. “He hasn’t been my son in a long time.”

  “He’s always been your son, Mr. Osgood.” Dani had tried to keep her anger in check, but she knew it had spilled over into her tone anyway.

  “You can’t put his violent behavior on me. I was gone from his life long before he killed that girl.”

  “No one is blaming you for Kelly Braden’s death. My colleagues and I aren’t even blaming Jack. We don’t believe he killed her.”

  Osgood’s mouth fell open, and he grabbed his wife’s arm. “Are you serious?”

  “Completely.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” He paused and shook his head. “Still don’t know what you’re doing here, though. There’s nothing I can do for him.”

  They still hadn’t moved from the front foyer. “Do you mind if we sit down and have a talk?”

  Maria looked up at her husband, and he nodded. She led them into the kitchen, where it looked like she’d been in the process of loading a dishwasher. The kitchen table was cleared, and they all took seats around it.

  “Would you like some coffee?” Maria offered. “Some water?”

  Dani and Tommy shook their heads.

  “Mr. Osgood—,” Dani began.

  “Call me Harry.”

  “We’ve been successful in getting a new trial for Jack.”

  “That’s good.”

  “But he
’s still in jail waiting for that trial.”

  “I suppose that makes sense.”

  “No. It doesn’t. He’s been on death row for more than twenty-two years, for a murder that he probably didn’t commit. He shouldn’t have to stay a day longer while he waits for the new trial.”

  “That’s up to the judge, isn’t it?”

  “No, Harry. It’s up to you.”

  Harry scratched his cheek as he frowned. “How so?”

  “It appears that you took all of the proceeds from his mother’s estate.”

  Harry blanched. “Now, I had every right to. I was her husband then. Never got divorced. I kept asking her to sign the papers, but she downright refused. She knew me and Maria wanted to make it legal, but that woman was stubborn as a mule. So, yes, I took the money. Wasn’t going to do Jack any good, with a death penalty hanging over him.”

  Dani sat back in her chair and stared at him, her dislike of the man deepening by the moment. “You knew your son was in prison. You knew his mother had died, yet you never once visited him.”

  “I told you before. I didn’t think of him as my son anymore. Not since it was clear he was a retard.”

  “He was still your son.”

  “Maybe some men can handle that. I couldn’t. He’d just keep getting under my skin, and I’d blow up at him. He was better off without me.”

  Dani wished she could be someplace else rather than listening to this sad excuse for a man. Everything about him made her skin crawl. Was it because of Jonah? No, she decided. She’d think him repulsive even if she didn’t have a son with special needs. She looked over at Maria, who sat very still, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes downcast.

  “You can justify your abandonment all you want, Harry,” Dani said, “but I don’t care about your excuses. The only thing I care about is raising one million dollars for Jack’s bail. And you have that money.”