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The Case of Dennis and Lee Horton
📻 Episode #311
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Nov 24, 2022
About This Episode
Brothers, Dennis and Lee Horton, were having a pleasant Memorial Day in 1993 until they decided to visit their father in North Philadelphia and ran into a childhood friend, Robert Leaf. Unbeknownst to the Hortons, Robert Leaf had committed an armed robbery turned homicide earlier that day. Shortly after Robert joined the brothers in their…
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The Case
Brothers, Dennis and Lee Horton, were having a pleasant Memorial Day in 1993 until they decided to visit their father in North Philadelphia and ran into a childhood friend, Robert Leaf. Unbeknownst to the Hortons, Robert Leaf had committed an armed robbery turned homicide earlier that day. Shortly after Robert joined the brothers in their car, police pulled them over. All three were arrested and tried for second degree murder. Robert Leaf's attorney used confusion among the witnesses about the identity of the shooter to win Leaf a lesser sentence, while the Hortons received life without the possibility of parole. After all appeals were denied on procedural grounds, they applied for commutation with the support of an up and coming politician named John Fetterman who was recently elected to the United States Senate for the state of Pennsylvania.
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:57“Speaker 2: around twelve years old, my brother was at the time. Speaker 2: So the projects was a rough project. You know, you Speaker 2: had to prove the people up there that you was Speaker 2: willing to fight in order for you to be able Speaker 2: to stay, or they chased you out the projects. That's”
00:17:50“Speaker 2: enough about this case to be able to talk about it. Speaker 2: Where though we knew some of the facts that happened, Speaker 2: we had to find in the police file. They went Speaker 2: to court knowing that these witnesses was identifying my brother, Speaker 2: but they had determined that Leif was the shooter.”
00:30:53“Speaker 7: I am a Lieutenant Governor, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Speaker 7: I also chair of the Board of Partings and Commutations Speaker 7: here and I became acquainted with Dennis and Lee's case Speaker 7: during one of their reapplications for commutation, and when I Speaker 7: read through it, I was blown away that these men”
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← #310 Herman Williams #312 Davontae Sanford →
Also on the podcast: #15 Dennis Maher · #97 Jimmy Dennis · #232 Dennis and Lee Horton