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The Case of False Confessions - Emerson Stevens
📻 Episode #220
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Sep 01, 2021
About This Episode
Sometimes when detectives can't get a confession they'll settle for a something else
The Case
Sometimes when detectives can't get a confession they'll settle for a something else
Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin explore the story of Emerson Stevens, a fisherman from Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. When a young mother was found murdered, it seemed all the evidence pointed to Emerson, until the case fell apart when a key witness was convicted of lying about the case and a forensic test technique was debunked and discredited.
Since the initial release of this episode, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam heard our voices, reviewed the case, and issued a pardon based on actual innocence. Emerson Stevens is finally free.
A portion of this podcast series’ proceeds will be donated to the Center on Wrongful Convictions. To donate, learn more, or get involved, go to http://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
00:03:57“Speaker 1: Bay and the Rappahannock River. It's a place that'smells like Speaker 1: ocean salt, an honest sweat. Generations there have made a Speaker 1: living with their hands, hauling fish out of the bay Speaker 1: and crabs and oysters out of the river. In this Speaker 1: county was home to Mary Harding, who was Lancaster through”
00:15:27“Speaker 1: fifty five year old Beverly had been dating a wealthy Speaker 1: real estate mogul named Roger de la Byrd. Roger lived Speaker 1: on a massive estate in Virginia Horse Country. He claimed Speaker 1: to be an art dealer who was descended from European nobility. Speaker 1: But when Roger turned up dead one morning from a”
00:26:14“Speaker 1: And I don't argue with anyone who wants that like Speaker 1: a tide that might never come back in Emerson. Stephen's Speaker 1: life ebbed for thirty one years as he sat behind bars. Speaker 1: Now his life is flowing again. You know, he's done Speaker 1: such a great job of getting out and just sort”
Listen to the Episode
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← #219 Patrick Pursley #221 Anthony Sims →
Also on the podcast: #115 False Confessions - Origin Story · #116 False Confessions - Robert Davis · #117 False Confessions - Dixmoor 5