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The Case of False Confessions - Eric Weakley and Michael Hash
📻 Episode #364
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Jun 05, 2023
About This Episode
Michael was serving a life sentence until one person came to his rescue: his mom.
The Case
Michael was serving a life sentence until one person came to his rescue: his mom.
Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us to Culpeper County, Virginia, to tell the story of teenage buddies Eric Weakley and Michael Hash. Local police solved a murder case by coercing Eric into falsely confessing and into falsely implicating his friend Michael as an accomplice. For years, lawyers couldn’t get justice for either of them -- until Michael’s mom found evidence that blew this case wide open.
We are updating this episode with the great news that, with your support, in 2022, Governor Ralph Northam pardoned Eric, and Eric and Michael are finally both officially exonerated, and justice has been served.
https://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/
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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.
00:04:24“Speaker 1: Thelma told her friend that she had to go. Someone Speaker 1: was knocking at the door. The friend called back fifteen Speaker 1: minutes later, but got no answer. She tried again the Speaker 1: next morning, still no answer. When Thelma didn't show up Speaker 1: at church that Sunday morning, her friends really started worrying.”
00:16:09“Speaker 1: that Jason had participated in the murder, but Jason's defense Speaker 1: lawyers had an ace in the hole, an alibi. They Speaker 1: brought in several witnesses who testified that Jason had been Speaker 1: visiting his dad in Pennsylvania at the time of Thelma's murder. Speaker 1: It took the jury less than two hours to find”
00:27:55“Speaker 3: we won something. Speaker 1: Two weeks later, Michael was released from prison. He'd been Speaker 1: behind bars for nearly twelve years. Speaker 3: It was an absolute perfect day. I hugged him and Speaker 3: all I could think to tell him was no more Speaker 3: chained Mike, no more change. After he came home, I”
Listen to the Episode
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← #363 Daryl "Lee" Clark #365 Clarence Jones →
Also on the podcast: #9 Michael Morton · #66 Jason Flom and Michael Rubin with Meek Mill · #115 False Confessions - Origin Story