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Gloria killian had been languishing in prison for eight years when an investigator found evidence discrediting kit cleland and his star witness gary masse. he found a letter to masse s sentencing judge that asked for leniency in the sentence. it was concrete proof that there was a deal being made before gary got to testify in gloria s trial. with new evidence emerging, gloria became less reluctant to accept help. i said, is it all right if i hire a lawyer? and she said, it would be all right. the thought of getting out was in her dreams again. joyce brought the letter to bill genego, a top appeal lawyer. it was a quid pro quo from ....
Then they waited. on march 10th, 2000, gloria was busy advising other inmates. she had been behind bars for 14 years. somebody came running over and said, you re still here. i said, what are you talking about? she handed me the article from the l.a. times. and that s how i knew. gloria, you re going home. that was the only time i cried. i was just glad to hear it finally. what i had known for a long time. finally the 9th circuit looks at what happens and says, this is one of the most egregious cases i have ever seen. judge hawkins overruled the district court. masse s perjury wasn t harmless. ....
Unable to identify gloria as the woman who came to the door. and i think she finally said, well, it could be. despite these struggles, cleland did not call joanne masse to implicate gloria. joann was now suspected of committing similar robberies with her husband. so the case came down to cleland s star witness, gary masse. gloria is almost relieved. they re not going to take the word of a career criminal over me. that would make no sense. the jurors are instructed, they don t have to believe gary masse. and they listened and they found him to be credible. masse testified that he met gloria at niva snyder s house and she recruited him to rob the davies. gary masse says, we went here, we went there, and i did it with gloria killian. and masse was hard to cross-examine. because it was a conspiracy case, they didn t have to prove anything, gloria actually did ....
I was just amazed. but the star witness was gary masse. this time, he would testify for gloria. gary masse was very upset at the prosecution. because he felt as if he had been misled. gary masse said, they promised me no more than 12 years and it would be in a federal prison and i would get drug treatment. i got none of that stuff. now, gary masse was ready to come clean about perjuring himself at gloria s trial. i read passages of his testimony at the trial and i said, was that the truth or was that a lie? he said, that was a lie. that s exactly what i wanted to get from him. all of the sudden, the judge decides to question gary masse himself. that s almost a challenge the way masse saw it. is everything you said on the witness stand a lie? what s your response going to be? no, not everything. masse told the judge a whole new story. gloria was involved, but only as a pawn of the real master minds and eventually masse cut her out ....
It seemed like gary was being nudged into things. but in order to get a new trial for gloria, carlson would need clear evidence that cleland had struck a deal and he deceived the jury. it took a long time. they were closing doors and he had to make enemies in the sacramento courts before that letter showed up. what carlson found was a letter that had been sealed from the public, a letter to masse s sentencing judge. when i saw that, my jaw dropped. ....