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The Case of Joyce Watkins
📻 Episode #314
🎙️ Hosted by Guest Host Kemba Smith
📅 Dec 05, 2022
About This Episode
In the summer of 1987, Joyce Watkins received a call from her sister asking for help caring for their 4 year old great niece who lived in Georgia. Joyce agreed to come pick up the little girl and bring her to her home in Nashville, TN. Joyce noticed almost immediately that the girl was acting…
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The Case
In the summer of 1987, Joyce Watkins received a call from her sister asking for help caring for their 4 year old great niece who lived in Georgia. Joyce agreed to come pick up the little girl and bring her to her home in Nashville, TN. Joyce noticed almost immediately that the girl was acting strangely and suffering from abnormal vaginal bleeding.
Joyce took her to the hospital and learned that the little girl suffered from a vaginal injury and bleeding on the brain. She received emergency care but died the next day.
After an investigation that relied on an erroneous autopsy report and little else, Joyce was charged with the sexual abuse and death of the child. She was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Kemba Smith spent 6.5 years of a 24.5 year sentence in federal prison for her boyfriend’s criminal activity, until President Bill Clinton granted her clemency. Now, Kemba is a public speaker, writer, and educator on a variety of criminal justice issues, including mandatory drug sentencing, women and incarceration, and re-entry.
When Kemba read about Joyce’s story, she was reminded of her own, and knew they had to meet. Kemba was taken aback by what a model citizen Joyce was and the horrific injustice that befell her – an entirely innocent woman. Through this interview, Kemba has gained strength from witnessing Joyce’s resilience, and she is motivated to continue to highlight the need for justice.
https://www.tninnocence.org/watkins-dunn-exonerated
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.
00:04:35“Speaker 2: sentenced to life in prison. Speaker 4: Unfortunately, Joyce's story is consistent with what we see in Speaker 4: a lot of wrongful convictions. You know, this was really Speaker 4: a perfect storm of things that went wrong to make Speaker 4: this happen. You know, Joyce and Charlie. Charlie Dunn was”
00:16:10“Speaker 2: an arrest and to block somebody up. How do you Speaker 2: feel about that? Speaker 3: It was wrong what they did. You don't hate anybody Speaker 3: for anything, but you know that what they did was wrong, Speaker 3: and there were things that they could have done and”
00:27:34“Speaker 3: I think that's the happiest I ever been in my life. Speaker 3: You know, even if I'd have got a million dollars, Speaker 3: I wouldn't be that happy, you know, just because to me, Speaker 3: I would have said, well this money. But you know,”
Listen to the Episode
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