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The Case of Garland Leon “Butch” Martin
📻 Episode #339
🎙️ Hosted by Maggie Freleng
📅 Mar 06, 2023
About This Episode
On February 25, 1998, while Garland Leon “Butch” Martin was out on a fencing job, his home burned down. His wife, Marcia, and their two small children, Michael and Kristen, were killed in the fire. Fire investigators and forensic anthropologists quickly decided that the fire was not an accident. Rather, they said it was set…
The Case
On February 25, 1998, while Garland Leon “Butch” Martin was out on a fencing job, his home burned down. His wife, Marcia, and their two small children, Michael and Kristen, were killed in the fire. Fire investigators and forensic anthropologists quickly decided that the fire was not an accident. Rather, they said it was set intentionally, and that Butch was responsible. Butch’s trial was rife with so-called arson evidence that is now widely understood to be junk science. The result was three concurrent life sentences. Maggie speaks to Garland Leon “Butch” Martin, Butch’s sister, Heather Davis, and Butch’s attorney, Allison Clayton.
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/149-wrongful-conviction-junk-science-arson-evidence/
https://innocencetexas.org/take-action/advocate/
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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.
00:04:00“Speaker 2: I took off and a friend of mine had a Speaker 2: recovery company that he repossessed vehicles and everything, everything from canning, copiers, Speaker 2: a baby grand piano, We reported everything. Speaker 1: Butch was mobile, traveling all over Texas doing the repossession Speaker 1: work and making good money on it. He says he”
00:16:21“Speaker 1: Butch went to trial on April fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine. Speaker 1: District Attorney Al Shari was the prosecutor. His theory was Speaker 1: that Butch knocked out Marcia and Brady, put Kristin in Speaker 1: her crib, and then set the fire before leaving with Speaker 1: his friend for the evening. He said Butch was angry”
00:26:37“Speaker 5: They are in carpet, they're in building adhesive, they're in Speaker 5: receipt paper, they're in some clothing, we'll have it on them. Speaker 1: They are just everywhere. And also, of course the poor patterns. Speaker 5: And I knew that poor pattern science had been entirely discredited,”
Listen to the Episode
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Also on the podcast: #162 False Confessions - Henry McCollum and Leon Brown · #194 Alexis Ke'Erica Martin · #374 False Confessions - Henry McCollum and Leon Brown