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The Case of Thomas Haynesworth
📻 Episode #236
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Dec 15, 2021
About This Episode
In just the first month of 1984, five women from the ages of 18 to 20 were sexually assaulted in East Richmond, Virginia. One victim saw an 18 year old named Thomas Haynesworth while he was walking to his local grocery store and called the police naming him as her attacker. Thomas was eventually convicted…
The Case
In just the first month of 1984, five women from the ages of 18 to 20 were sexually assaulted in East Richmond, Virginia. One victim saw an 18 year old named Thomas Haynesworth while he was walking to his local grocery store and called the police naming him as her attacker. Thomas was eventually convicted for three of the sexual assault incidents and sentenced to a total of 74 years in prison. Even though the assumed perpetrator was in custody, the rapes continued throughout East Richmond. Leon Davis, Thomas’s neighbor, was eventually arrested and convicted for a dozen incidents over the remainder of 1984. DNA testing ultimately confirmed that Leon was responsible for the crimes for which Thomas was convicted, and Thomas was finally exonerated in 2011 after spending 27 years in prison.
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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.
00:05:06“Speaker 3: fits precisely into the pattern. Some get interrupted. In this case, Speaker 3: the attacker was pretty easily scared away. This is part Speaker 3: of how he avoided being caught for so long. But Speaker 3: it's that same basic arc and these are terrifying crimes. Speaker 1: And the first case the one that said all of”
00:18:47“Speaker 4: of this corrupt system. I'm not gonna sit here that Speaker 4: accept your selve it for my family and my life. Speaker 4: You know, at the age of eighteen, I'm not gonna see, Speaker 4: you know, waste all my life and penitendence. So I Speaker 4: had to go there. I'm right to the end. I”
00:32:13“Speaker 5: I didn't have no problem with that. Speaker 4: You know, I'm gonna apply to the law, and I'm Speaker 4: gonna be obedient to the law what I got to Speaker 4: do to maintain my freedom. But when she told me Speaker 4: that if I choose to date somebody, I had to”
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← #235 Amanda Brumfield #237 Stefon Morant →
Also on the podcast: #118 False Confessions - Thomas Cogdell