and ray highers had been fighting to clear their names for 25 years. and now, judge lawrence tallon had heard all the new evidence, this was the moment. this is the court s decision on the motion from relief from judgment. but with all the history, the legal ease, the new evidence the witnesses the prosecution was meticulous in pointing out in consistencies and differences between testimonies. it took the judge two full hours to explain the basis for his decision. the reasons, he said, he had no choice but to rule the particular way. all my nerves were shaken. as tommy and ray, their courtroom full of family and friends agonized. some felt almost ill. sitting through the ruling almost killed me. i m thinking, oh my god, we re losing. oh my god, were winning, oh my god for losing.
eyewitness. a stranger named john hielscher had come for to insist he saw the real killers. but could one man s claim be enough to overturn a conviction? for tommy and ray s team it was time to go about the task of proving it. once again, here is keith morrison with graduation night . private eye julianne and the others, who joined her efforts for the highers brothers, believe the newly discovered witness john hielscher was telling the truth. now, if they could only find those 4 high school friends hielscher claimed were with him the night when he and they took the trip to buy marijuana from the neighborhood dealer known as old man bob back in 1987. a trip that ended in gunfire. first, bad news. julianne discovered the driver of the car died. but his family confirmed he drove a white plymouth horizon.
made this man. my morals, my integrity s. in a way, a positive experience but one you wouldn t wish on yours enemy. exactly. you still hold on to the light, and you just push forward every day. what s on the agenda today, guys? after their release they moved in with their aunt jan, and wart tethers to monitor their whereabouts. getting into the real world, learning to use cellphones. getting their drivers licenses. i waited to get that all my life. first when i ever had. and getting up in the morning and going to work. ray, at an industrial company, tommy, at a maintenance at an apartment complex. and at the very same time, the wayne county prosecutor s office was preparing its case against them, to put them back into prison for life. preparing it as we sat here talking. so, as the brothers told us here, the da has put an offer on the table they can keep their freedom if they agree to
we had a prosecutors office that was very uncooperative in the face of overwhelming evidence of innocence. did that surprise you? no. it s an amazing ability to blind yourself to everything except what you want to look at. all rise. of course, that was a defense attorney s point of view. and so, here they were in court to fight it out. just getting this hearing took a year of their efforts and persuading all those witnesses to testify about a moment in time so long ago, was no less difficult. knowing that, tommy and ray s family became a sort of cheering section in court. we filled up the room and we wanted to show everybody that we were there to back them up. and we just wanted to be there for them. all crowded the courtroom of judge lawrence talon, who will decide if the new evidence merited a new trial. all right, want to bring them up?
jurassic world dominion, available now on xfinity. the home hall of justice was rule your home security with xfinity home. waiting again. for tommy and ray highers. the very police said they were sent away in the first place. i hate going to the courtroom. i hate going to the courthouse. i hate pulling in the parking