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The Case of Tony Wright
📻 Episode #18
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Apr 03, 2017
About This Episode
Tony Wright endured two trials and 25 years in prison before a jury found him not guilty for the rape, sodomy and murder of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old woman in Philadelphia. Tony, who was only 20 years old when he was arrested in 1993, signed a confession after being beaten and threatened by the interrogating…
The Case
Tony Wright endured two trials and 25 years in prison before a jury found him not guilty for the rape, sodomy and murder of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old woman in Philadelphia. Tony, who was only 20 years old when he was arrested in 1993, signed a confession after being beaten and threatened by the interrogating detectives. He was sentenced to life in prison—he narrowly escaped the death penalty after the jury voted against it 7 to 5. Later DNA testing of the rape kit not only excluded Tony as a suspect, but also identified Ronnie Byrd as the real assailant. On August 23, 2016, Tony Wright was exonerated, and he became the 344th DNA exoneree in the nation. He is joined by co-founder of the Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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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.
00:04:52“Speaker 1: And you had a very difficult childhood with I guess Speaker 1: it was your stepfather, right, who was very violent. Speaker 2: Yeah, very beautiful, I mean very It was more so Speaker 2: to my mother, but you know, you know I had Speaker 2: to endure that as well. You know, as a small”
00:18:02“Speaker 4: like an emergency room in an urban hospital, is you Speaker 4: deal with the most critical cases first. So obviously anyone Speaker 4: who sentenced to death goes to the top of the list, Speaker 4: and we'll look at those cases first. Otherwise, Tony's case Speaker 4: comes in and it goes online and when people get”
00:32:05“Speaker 4: Well it wasn't just that. What happened was when the Speaker 4: jury returned the verdict of not guilty, we explicitly on Speaker 4: the record, then asked the judge to set him free Speaker 4: so we could walk out of the courtroom into the Speaker 4: arms of his son and all his aunts and the”
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Also on the podcast: #77 Jason Flom and Lara Bazelon with Tony Wright