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The Case of False Confessions - Billy Wayne Cope
📻 Episode #125
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Apr 15, 2020
About This Episode
Could I have somehow done this and not remembered it?
The Case
Could I have somehow done this and not remembered it?
Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us the story of Billy Wayne Cope- a father and husband, a man of faith, and one of many railroaded into a false confession. The interrogation techniques were so potent that Billy even started questioning his own memory. Though DNA evidence pointed to the real killer, prosecutors refused to acknowledge Billy's innocence. This case will stay with you. It certainly left a mark on Steve.
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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.
00:02:48“Speaker 1: dishes would pile up and attract roaches. Years earlier, someone Speaker 1: had called social services because the family's mobile home was Speaker 1: so dirty, and their kids were put in foster care Speaker 1: for a little while. But that was a long time ago. Speaker 1: In two thousand and one, things were looking up for”
00:11:51“Speaker 1: After he's arrested, DNA testing proves that the saliva and Speaker 1: seamen left on Amanda did not come from him. Instead, Speaker 1: they were left by some other man. The police collect Speaker 1: DNA samples from everyone who knew the Cope family, even Speaker 1: their preacher, but they can't find a match. It takes”
00:20:26“Speaker 1: to continue the fight. On February ninth, twenty seventeen, Billy Speaker 1: Wayne Cope died in prison of what the prison said Speaker 1: were natural causes. Speaker 4: When I heard years later that Billy Wayne Cope had Speaker 4: died in prison, my heart just sunk. While this case”
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Also on the podcast: #115 False Confessions - Origin Story · #116 False Confessions - Robert Davis · #117 False Confessions - Dixmoor 5