basement. joe and his lawyers believed that at the very least, the withheld evidence provided reasonable doubt the crime could have happened differently than the state presented at trial. in july 2004, joe s team went before judge o malley to obtain a new trial. we put up all our witnesses. the newly discovered people, the newly discovered evidence. by far the most powerful witness at the hearing was chris longenecker, stoney lewis s alleged rape victim who had been found living in florida. neil convinced chris his testimony could save joe s life. i wasn t able to do anything for tony because so i figured, if i could help someone else, then i ll do that. chris who is legally blind
so, there is no way that anthony klann could be running down a creek bed trying to plug two holes in his trachea so he can scream for his life. after visiting the crime scene, father neil had other suspicions about espinoza s testimony. joe supposedly grabs the knife and goes after anthony in the creek bed stabbing him. yet there were no tire tracks or anything on the side of the creek. so, i thought, whoa. something is not right here. neil believed espinoza had to be lying. but a witness who was lying did not necessarily mean joe was telling the truth. neil needed to know more about joe s background. joe s father died when he was 17 years old. joe is the only boy in the family. so his father s death was very
after his exoneration, joe went to work as a maintenance man at neil s parish, the church of st. clarence in north olmstead, ohio. they did nothing for me because i m an exonoree. they open the door, they kick you out, get out. everything that i fought for this country was taken from me. every last single right, for near 80% of my adult life. joe knows that he always owe freedom and his life it one man. if it wasn t for neil, i would have been murdered ten years ago, easily, and the state wouldn t have batted an eye. it was just a matter of, i
klann could be running down a creek bed trying to plug two holes in his trachea so he can scream for his life. after visiting the crime scene, father neil had other suspicions about espinoza s testimony. joe supposedly grabs the knife sxgs after anthony in the creek bed stabbing him. yet there were no tire tracks or anything on the side of the creek. so i thought, whoa! something is not right here. neil believed espinoza had to be lying. but a witness who was lying did not necessarily mean joe was telling the truth. neil needed to know more about joe s background. joe s father died when he was 17 years old. joe is the only boy in the family. so his father s death was very trauma for him. i had to become the bread
officer wourk let me talk with joe for just a few minutes so i can walk him through his mother s funeral. while joe was very appreciative of it, it was obvious that my goal for that meeting and his goal were not the same. a real human being i can talk to. i need help. nobody will help me. i didn t do this. i was very resistant to doing that. i knew these death row cases were immense cases. five, ten, 15 volumes long. no, it s one volume big. that s all it is will. one volume? that s where the attorney of him kicked in. i was just stunned that a man could be brought to trial for his life and be convicted in the amount of space it took to record that event was in one volume. s i thought, whoa! something is not right. in addition to being a priest