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The Lab is F'd Up Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

The Lab Is F'd Up
Recap
Written by Brandi Abbott.

This week’s episode starts with a quick reminder of where Priya, Jess and Keith left off last week. Duane Deaver had just revealed that he hadn’t reported tests confirming that the spot on Greg Taylor’s truck was not blood. Deaver said that the systems that were in place told him to write his reports the way he did and he was just following protocol. We’re reminded that in the NC SBI Crime Lab there was a practice in place wherein analysts could and would withhold secondary tests that confirmed a substance initially believed to be blood… was not blood. The Attorney General at that time, Roy Cooper, ordered an audit of the lab but that would take months to complete. During that time investigative journalists for the News & Observer had begun looking into the lab and published a 4 part series called “Agent’s Secrets”. The SBI director was quoted as saying, “if any questions are raised, at the time the SBI goes backs and checks. Our goal is to be accurate and find the truth. There is no hidden agenda.” She stated this in response to three other convictions in 2005 where the SBI Crime Lab had bungled evidence - five years before Greg Taylor was released from prison.

At this time, lawyers filed a complaint accusing the SBI of royally F’ing these three cases up. One of the lawyers who was a defense lawyer in one of the three capital cases, Diane Savage was the chairman of the Forensic Science Task Force in the criminal defense section of NC Academy of Trial Lawyers. She hoped that there would be a full investigation and that they would shut down the lab until they came up with better quality control.

One of the three aforementioned capital cases was a woman named Leslie Lincoln who lived in North Carolina and moved back in with her mother, Arlene, after she went through divorce. In 2002, she had finally started getting her life back on track. She had a job and a new place and everything was really looking up. On March 17th of 2002, Leslie went to do some errands and her mom and brother, Duffy, were at Arlene’s home watching basketball. Duffy left around 4:30. After her errands, Leslie stopped back in to see her mom. She left around 7:30 and stopped at Walmart for dog food on the way home, which was confirmed by several surveillance cameras.

The next night Duffy went to his mother’s house where he found the door unlocked and poor Arlene Lincoln’s body in her bedroom on the floor. She had been stabbed over 30 times.

At this point we know that the SBI is not unbiased. Priya gives us some background into the establishment of the SBI lab and tells us that the lab’s link to law enforcement plays heavily into all of the cases F’d Up will cover, but especially into the case of Leslie Lincoln.

Arlene led a pretty active life. When her neighbors noticed she hadn’t been in her yard, they thought it was weird and called Duffy. Duffy went to check on her, discovered her body and called 911. There were three footprints in the blood by her body and quite a bit of evidence left behind. The police took several things from her home for evidence. They later learned that her credit card was missing. They discovered there had been no forced entry and the killer had had an intense fight with Arlene, one of the stab wounds to her neck was fatal. The police didn’t check Leslie and Duffy for wounds until later that week but they fond none. Duffy’s wife, Sharla said she can remember the day when Leslie realized she was the prime suspect. Initially there had been an inexperienced investigator on the case but within a few days he was replaced by Detective Ricky Best. He had a reputation as a detective who saw the big picture. For some reason, he locked onto Leslie as a viable suspect and about six months after Arlene’s death, the Greenville PD arrested her. She thought she was going in for questioning - then the police chained her to a wall and told her she was under arrest. Soon after the DA filed notice that he would be seeking the death penalty. Leslie was jailed under no bond. She said that for the first three days, they put you in isolation to make sure you don’t hurt yourself and she cried for three days straight. Those three days turned into three years.

Priya takes over to tell us about how she and Jess have spoken with a few former SBI agents from the lab. One of the agents told her that he had been in law enforcement for over thirty years and “insinuated things would happen to her if she wasn’t on the up and up”. Jess mentions that it’s telling that he considers himself a law enforcement agent instead of a lab technician. Jess also remembers him saying that “he’s the one who wears the white hat”. This isn’t comforting as he’s supposed to be the guy looking at the evidence and pulling out facts objectively. In 2009, the National Academy of Science issued a report with recommendations, one of which was that forensic labs shouldn’t be under the control of prosecution or law enforcement. The paper series mentioned earlier, “Agents Secrets” tells us that the job of analysts should be to look at the evidence and only state the facts. We learn that analysts are given all evidence from a crime scene but are often asked to check out specifics by the police - which can create bias. If the results of tests aren’t clear it’s possible that if the analyst is looking for a good review or some other incentive, they could find results that favor law enforcement’s theories on a case. The analysts were encouraged to call law enforcement to dig a bit and see where they are on a case. They were supposed to log these calls but that didn’t always happen.

At the crime scene of Arlene Lincoln’s murder, a bloody handprint was found on the bedding. Detective Best kept this evidence for months and after Leslie’s arrest took it to the SBI lab to have it tested for DNA. Keith asks why he would have kept this evidence for that long and Priya tells us that she spoke with Leslie’s lawyer and he doesn’t know. No one knows. The
DNA test from this bloodstain on the bed and one from the couch matched Leslie’s DNA. Leslie’s attorney, Buddy Conner, who was a family friend, didn’t believe the test results. He pointed out that she was checked for wounds and had none that would have caused her to bleed to create the stain and that she had passed the polygraph. Conner called the analyst who did the testing, Brenda Bissette, and asked her to recheck her work. Despite talking to both her and her supervisor for over an hour, he was informed that they would not rerun the tests unless a judge or prosecutor demanded it. He took the matter to court to ask the judge to demand a retest at an independent lab. The DA, Clark Everett, didn’t object and actually asked the SBI to retest the evidence. In March of 2004, Bissette called Everett to let him know she made a mistake in her testing.

Law enforcement and prosecutors view the defense as their enemy and don’t want to disclose things to outsiders. Lab analysts are not considered outsiders. In 2007 (and still in use in 2010) there was a training manual for SBI analysts. The manual stated that a good reputation and calm demeanor also enhances an analysts conviction rate. The manual warned analysts that defense attorneys would often put words in an analyst’s mouth and stated that if there were any weaknesses in the case, the DA should be informed ahead of time to minimize the weaknesses impact. The SBI director, Robin Pendergraft claimed to have never seen the manual but when asked about these directions for analysts she said she found it “interesting”. Analysts were discouraged from speaking to defense attorneys about a case before trial and now are encouraged to speak with defense attorneys only after notifying the prosecutor so that they may choose whether or not to be present for the conversation. At this point the defense hire their own experts to double check evidence and so they can understand things but this has been met with resistance by the SBI. They have also resisted turning over material that the defense say is crucial to helping their clients. Included in the training manual is a memo for prosecutors by a district attorney, Michael Parker. In the memo, he warns against “defense whores.” Yes, that’s a quote. He goes on to promise that the SBI will vet the defense experts, finding background info on them for prosecutors. At this time a lawyer at the NC Department of Justice named John Waters who represented the SBI fought requests for information that weren’t specifically listed in the discovery law that ensures defense attorneys have access to investigative reports and resisted them being able to watch tests done in the SBI lab. In 2009, a policy was put into place banning any observers in the lab. This policy includes instances where every single bit of evidence is used in the test, which Priya tells us happened in one of the other three cases mentioned earlier. In May of 2009, Waters argued that the defense’s scientists could contaminate the lab and insisted that the lab isn’t equipped to have outside scientists observing their casework.

There was evidence that Arlene viciously fought her attacker. In her home there were three dollar bills on the couch which indicates that someone wasn’t there to rob her. There was a drawer placed on the floor near her dresser. Though the police took her purse they didn’t process it as evidence or check fingerprints before giving it back to Duffy. The bed next to Arlene’s body was covered in a bed sheet that contained significant amounts of blood. The footprints left in the blood were never measured by police. At 3:15 in the morning on March 18th, 2002 Arlene’s credit card was used at a gas station. Video was recovered from the store but the police either lost or destroyed the video. There was no evidence linked to Leslie except for the DNA test, which was wrong. At this point Leslie has been in jail about three years without bond, though Bissette had called the DA after a year and a half to inform him she had made a mistake. Bissette had mislabeled Leslie’s DNA and the blood found at the crime scene was Arlene’s. Priya tells us that “Agent’s Secrets” revealed that DNA is an exact science because everyone’s DNA belongs to only them but perfect samples can be hard to find at crime scenes. The evidence is often degraded or mixed with another persons and it’s hard for scientists to get a good look at all 16 unique identifiers that make up someone’s DNA profile. Crime labs have their own protocol for what construes a match between a suspect or mixed or partial sample. At the SBI’s lab, there are no minimum standards on how many of the identifiers are enough. According to an administrative order, seeing just one of these identifiers is enough. These standards are lower than other lab’s and it’s irresponsible to make conclusions with this little evidence. Most labs won’t consider anything a viable match unless three or four identifiers match between the suspects DNA profile and the sample from the crime scene. According to the SBI, it’s up to prosecutors to decide how much weight to give to the DNA evidence. Priya, Jess, and Keith joke that they’re scientists now, and honestly, I’m sure they’d do a much better job than these SBI analysts. The SBI removed Brenda Bissette from her lab duties and she retired in May of 2005. There’s a very good chance this was just human error and the SBI said they would review all 50 cases that Bissette had worked on since 2002 but wouldn’t redo the work unless requested by the prosecution or defense. However, they didn’t send out any notice to lawyers about this.

Leslie Lincoln, with no evidence, murder weapon, or witnesses is offered a deal by the prosecution that says that if she pleads guilty to manslaughter, she can walk out of jail. Leslie said she couldn’t do it and she didn’t kill her mother. She was released on a $500,000 bond and placed on house arrest because she was still the primary suspect in Best’s eyes. Leslie, having found out about the lab’s mistake, asked for the report on the tests and was provided with a 700 page report of additional discovery. This discovery didn’t include any information involving the incorrect DNA test or law enforcement procedures that led to it. In short, there’s no paper trail of the mistake made by the SBI. The prosecutor took the death penalty off of the table and the evidence was retested and the results showed no evidence linking Leslie to her mother’s murder. Detective Best, magically produced three jailhouse informants, however. Leslie remained under house arrest for two more years, making it five years since the whole ordeal began. In 2007, the case went to trial and Leslie was found not guilty. This doesn’t mean hard times were over, however. Her house was foreclosed upon and her brother had had to sell her horses. She was homeless for two years before she was able to find a job, was diagnosed with PTSD and still struggles to this day. Jess says that this is exactly her and Priya’s issue with all of this, that the systems are fucked up, yes, but more importantly how people’s lives are destroyed by it on an individual level. Priya says the SBI should have made a statement, saying that the mistake happened and how they would prevent it going forward.

In 2005, the Journal Newspaper requested public records about lab errors and the SBI did not disclose the error. When asked about it the SBI director, Robin Pendergraft said it must have been an oversight. Leslie says that even though she was acquitted, there is still someone out there who knows what happened and they need to come forward. She hired a private investigator who turned up a suspect for her mother’s murder but Greenville Police stopped investigating and maintain that they arrested the right person for the crime.

Next week on F’d Up we’re going to get a look at the progress of the audit, more info on the SBI lab, and another case.

The System is F'd Up - Part Two Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

The System is F'd Up Part 2 - Recap
Written by Brandi Abbott

This week on F’d Up, the story of how Greg Taylor was wrongfully convicted continues. Priya begins by telling us that in the late 1990s North Carolina had two student ran “Innocence Projects,” these were the University of North Carolina Innocence Project and the Duke Innocence Project. The projects were receiving a lot of the same letters so some people had the idea to start The Center on Actual Innocence to coordinate the work done by each innocence project. In 2000, it was incorporated as “The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence or the NCCAI. Keith asked if they only deal with death penalty cases to which Priya and Jess say no.

Jess begins telling us about Chris Mumma. When Chris was younger she was a juror on a death penalty case and had never really given much thought to the death penalty before then. After she had her three kids, she decided to go to law school to study corporate law. However, a death penalty case really stuck with her so she interviewed her fellow jurors and wrote a paper on it. After law school, she clerked at the North Carolina Supreme Court, during which, she became friends with Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. While there, Chris saw a lot of cases come through, and was concerned about whether some people were actually guilty. She tried bringing it up with one of the Justices and a few clerks but it became clear that after the case is over, the idea of guilt or innocence is off the table. One case in particular stood out to her, she was concerned about how someone could be in jail for 30 years for a crime they didn’t commit. With her background in finance and efficiency, she was surprised at how chaotic the justice system is and the major lack of checks and balances. In 2001, she found out that the two universities were starting the NCCAI and she ended up running the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence – and still does.

The NCCAI receives about 650 applications per year - either from inmates or from the family of inmates. When Chris receives all of the materials, she goes over them and decides whether they’ll be taking the case into “Further Review” which would involve obtaining all court files from the case. Once those are reviewed if it’s still looking like the convicted person is innocent it goes into “Investigation”. This stage is about more hands on work like going out interviewing people, tracking down anything that may help them understand all aspects of the case – and whether they may encounter any issues if they choose to pursue it further.

In 2002, Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr., Chris’ friend from the North Carolina Supreme Court established The Criminal Justice Study Commission after some highly publicized exonerations. Jess says he realized some shit was going down. This study commission reviewed police and prosecution procedures for factors that contributed to wrongful convictions in an effort to see why these wrongful convictions were happening.

Within a few years they decided that what they needed was to establish an independent state innocence inquiry commission. Priya jokes that they really needed to establish another acronym. They established the Innocence Inquiry Commission, the purpose of which is to review credible post conviction cases wherein the convicted person claims wrongful conviction.

Jess takes us back to Greg Taylor and reminds us that where they left off in the last episode is with Ed Taylor having gone to visit his son in prison and he’d told him they were out of resources and options – and it was likely Greg would not be getting out of prison. Around this time in 2006, Ed went to the general assembly hearing that was determining if the Independent State Innocence Inquiry Commission would be created. It passed and was created, officially going into operation in 2007. Because everything is connected in North Carolina, the NCCAI sends their cases to the Independent State Innocence Inquiry Commission. Priya tells us that according to the website the Commission is separate from the appeals section of the justice system and that when a person is declared innocent through it they can not be re-tried at any point for the same crime.

When the commission was established Ed Taylor managed to get a written document into the hands of someone having dinner with Chris Mumma. Chris started reading Greg’s story and was blown away, she realized he had applied to the NCCAI but because they had such a large stack of applications, they just hadn’t gotten to his yet. When she reviewed his case she noticed all of the red flags from the way his case was processed. It was clear to her that though Greg and Johnny were just together by chance, law enforcement had actually been after Johnny Beck, but were trying to get to him through Greg. Keith asks if it was because Johnny was a big time drug dealer and Priya and Jess answer that they didn’t think he was “big time”, that he was just a drug dealer. When Chris was going through Greg’s file, she found out about all of the plea offers he had received that said he could go home if he just told them Johnny killed Jacquetta Thomas. Jess points out that if Greg was guilty he probably would have definitely said Johnny did it, and that even as an innocent person it had to be extremely tempting. She says that Greg just remained consistent the entire time. He knew that he had been with Johnny the entire night, from 10 PM to 6 the following morning, that the victim was last seen at 1 AM in her apartment, they saw the body around 3:30 AM, and that Johnny was just as innocent as Greg was. Greg turned down a plea before his trial, during his trial, and five years after his sentence. Chris thought that if he had been involved there was no way he would have passed up those opportunities. Keith says that he could understand before the trial and during because you would be hoping to not be convicted but after you’ve been in prison for five years it would take real conviction to not take the deal and he doesn’t know if he would have been able to do the same.

Chris said whoever attacked Jacquetta Thomas, it wasn’t like they were just trying to stop her or like they were just trying to have control for sexual reasons, which is what was presented at the trial. The way Chris interprets the scene is that it was personal. There was no evidence transferred to either Greg or Johnny, even if the blood on the truck was hers, there were other explanations for how it could have gotten there, but if happened during the attack especially as violent and bloody as the scene was, there was no way it would have been just one spot. Priya points out that Barbara picked them up and says that she wouldn’t pick up someone at three in the morning who was covered in blood. Keith agrees and says if you look like a Jackson Pollock he’s going to keep on driving. Jess says Chris felt like this case had enough red flags to take on and the NCCAI officially agreed to review Greg’s case in February of 2006. The NCCAI gathered all of the necessary info on the case and, in July of 2007, referred it to the Innocence Inquiry Commission.

Priya says that the IIC’s process is more in-depth than a pre-trial investigation and they take a no stone unturned approach. Priya says it’s still a very slow process. So two years later, August of 2009, Greg got a visit from them saying there had been a major revelation in his case. The IIC discovered that a man named Craig Taylor, yes CRAIG Taylor, confessed to selling drugs to Johnny the night of Jacquetta’s murder, but not just that, he confessed to killing her. Keith asked if the confession had been there the whole time, and Jess said no, that it had just came about. In September of 2009, the IIC’s eight-person panel unanimously voted to send Greg’s case to a three-judge panel to decide if he’s innocent. In October of 2009, Chris teams up with two other attorneys Mike Klinkosum and Joe Cheshire and everyone knows this is Greg’s last chance at freedom.

In January of 2010, Chris was going through boxes of evidence, specifically the lab notes that SBI analyst Duane Deaver had taken of the blood evidence found on Greg’s truck. She found something in his notes that completely changed the case, but Jess won’t tell us what that is yet. Keith yells that that’s bullshit and she placates him by saying that what we can know now was that Deaver’s reports had never been shared with the defense.

We’re reminded that the blood evidence was the only thing that linked Greg to Jacquetta Thomas’ brutal murder - and that this “evidence” was mentioned 17 times in Tom Ford’s closing arguments. Priya points out that if you’ve seen “The Staircase”, you’ve definitely seen this before (though not in the detail they’ve gone into) and you just may not remember it. In February of 2010, the evidentiary hearing started and Greg testified, still maintaining his innocence. The DA Colin Willoughby claimed that Craig Taylor’s confession was falsified. Keith says that this all just sounds like shady bullshit - and it really does. The DA had investigated a confession of Craig’s on another murder. Keith asks how many murders this guy confessed to and Priya tells us that it had been a bunch and this was apparently his thing. She also tells us that the DA did not like the IIC, and he knew that a lot of their case hinged on this confession and he wanted to bring it up in court maybe to set them up or afterwards to use it as an example of how the process didn’t work.

A police search and rescue dog trainer, testified on Sadie’s (the adorable bloodhound from episode one) behavior. Sadie was not trained to do what the police had her doing. The handler specifically told the Raleigh PD that Sadie was not trained to do the things that were asking and the officers instructed the handler to try anyway. Barbara, the woman who picked up Greg and Johnny, testified. She said that they didn’t have a weapon or any blood on them, despite the fact that she picked them up so close to the crime scene. She said they were acting perfectly normal. Priya does want to ask her, though, how normal folks act at three AM after smoking crack all night. Keith points out there’s no way if they bludgeoned someone to death, that they would have no blood on them, especially since they were so high and wouldn’t have had the forethought to bring a change of clothes. Johnny Beck, himself, also testified. Jess says this was huge because Johnny had been out of jail for a long time and there was a risk someone could flip something around on him. He says that Greg did not kill Jacquetta Thomas. Ernest Andrews, the jailhouse informant who said Greg had confessed to him, came forward and admitted he lied.

At this point, the state called Duane Deaver to the stand. Priya stops Jess to say the IIC hear testimonies from witnesses and various other people to really get a sense of what’s going on with everything during their investigation process. This is relevant because they had talked to Duane Deaver and he said that his testing was all accurate and true and he did things correctly. On the stand during the hearing when Deaver was questioned about his tests and results, he revealed that they hadn’t stopped at the preliminary tests. What Chris has found in those boxes was evidence of the fact that Deaver had conducted secondary tests on the sample and the results were negative. The spot/substance they found was not human blood. Jess says that when you do these tests, you do several tests – that’s science. Priya tells us that preliminary tests establish the possibility that specific bodily fluids are present. There is the possibly of a false positive, but these tests help determine which tests to do next. The next tests are confirmatory tests.

When doing the first test, in this case, luminol and phenolphthalein, they got a positive reaction, which can happen when blood is present. However, Priya tells us you can get a positive reaction for many other things including cauliflower and broccoli. Keith asks if that means there’s blood in broccoli and Priya says no, it means that it can detect a number of things which is why confirmatory tests are done. Deaver performed confirmatory tests on the spot found on Greg’s truck, using the Takayama test. This test did not deliver the results that indicate human blood.

At the hearing, a woman named Megan Clement a forensic technician for Lab Corp testified that she did her own testing of the DNA and got a 0.00% chance of it being blood. At this point Deaver admits that in the lab, reporting on the results of confirmatory tests is not required and that the decisions on procedure were made by people higher up than him - he claimed it wasn’t on him to question it and he was following protocol.

Chris confirmed to Jess and Priya that the state lab had a policy that they only had to report the positive tests. If they received a negative, they were not required to report it. Keith remarks that they’re not just cheating, it’s in their handbook to cheat. On February 17th, 2010, Greg Taylor is finally free. Tom Ford, the DA, apologized to Greg Taylor. Jess says he shook his hand like it was a soccer match and not 17 years of his life ruined. Priya rants that it’s not a fucking game and she’s right. Tom Ford was quoted saying that if he thought he’d put an innocent person in jail it would tear him up, but he hadn’t lost a minute of sleep over it. Jess tells us that that was nine years ago and they still haven’t caught the person who murdered Jacquetta Thomas. Chris gave them suggestions on some people to look into but they’re so convinced Greg and Johnny did it that they haven’t tried.

Word spread around North Carolina really quickly and people were understandably upset, thinking if it happened to Greg, it could happen to them. Because of this, Attorney General Roy Cooper called for a complete audit of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab, bringing in two former FBI agents to complete the audit.

Next week on F’d Up, Priya and Jess are gonna get into some more of the F’d Up stories that they discovered.

The System is F'd Up - Part One Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

Recap of The System Is F'd Up - Part One
Written by Brandi Abbott

The episode starts off with how Priya, Jess, and Keith became F’d up. We get a nice taste of Priya, Jess, and Keith’s chemistry together as well as a bit of backstory. They all worked together in Reality TV production, and clicked instantly. Priya and Jess knew they wanted to keep working together and more than that, they wanted to make their own shows and maybe change the world a little bit.

The idea for the podcast came to Priya when she was watching "The Staircase," a true crime documentary series about the trial of Michael Peterson. Particularly, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Crime Lab bloodstain pattern analyst, Duane Deaver piqued her interested as he seemed more interested in theatrics than forensic science. If you watched “The Staircase”, you know it eventually turns out that Deaver is full of shit, and Priya wanted to know how often something like this happens. She began researching the SBI Crime Lab, and it quickly became obvious that Duane Deaver was just the tip of the corruption iceberg - that there was a much larger issue with the entire system. “The Staircase” sort of touched on this when they quickly covered another man affected by Duane Deaver’s shoddy forensic science. The more Priya researched, the more she realized how much bigger the story was and how many people’s lives could have been (and were) affected.

Priya went to Jess and told her she had found their show. Jess was completely shocked at the extent of the corruption and they immediately tried pitching it as a television docuseries, but they realized that because of everything they wanted to do (expose corruption, and highlight issues with the SBI Crime Lab to hopefully enact change), F’d Up might be better suited as a podcast.

Plus, in doing a podcast they realized they could invite their friend Keith over and tell him everything they learned. In this way, Keith will be hearing everything for the first time on the podcast and will be learning and gasping along with listeners.

Another man “The Staircase” quickly covered was Greg Taylor, a regular guy from the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Priya tells us that Greg liked to “party” by which she meant, he used to partake in drugs. One night in September of 1991, Greg left a friend's house to procure drugs - on his way, he ran into an acquaintance named Johnny Beck who wanted to get high as well. At some point that night, they ended up parked in an industrial complex near a cul-de-sac. While Johnny was getting high, Greg became worried a cop may see them so he drove off-road and the truck accidentally ended up stuck in the mud. Greg and Johnny were forced to abandon the truck and decided to walk back - that’s when they saw something weird in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Greg thought it might be a mannequin, but Johnny thought it might be a body. Johnny was right as it turned out to be the body of a young woman named Jacquetta Thomas. Greg, a white guy, wanted to call the cops, whereas Johnny Beck, being a black man with a lifetime of racial profiling just wanted to get out of there. They ended up catching a ride from a woman, who happened to be driving by, and continued partying with her until early morning. Greg needed to get home and get cleaned up before going to work, so he called his wife to come pick him up.

Greg and his wife planned to get his truck back from where it was stuck, but when they arrive at the cul-de-sac, they found that the area was swarming with police - it appeared to be a crime scene at that point. They decided to just get Greg to work and go back for the truck later. At work, Greg mentioned this to his boss and his boss wanted to check it out. Greg’s boss, Greg, and his wife headed over to the crime scene. At the crime scene, Greg approached the cops and told them he needed to get his truck. A detective told Greg to meet him at the station so they could talk, but didn’t let Greg take the truck. Later at the station, Detective Johnny Howard was questioning Greg and the questions seemed a bit more serious than the standard “what did you see?” type questions one would reasonably expect if caught in this situation. However, Priya tells us that because Greg was innocent and his entire knowledge of police was from cop TV shows, he was happy to help and it never occurred to him that he could be a suspect. He trusted the system and believed it was in place to help the good guys like him. She goes on to tell us that the police asked Greg if Johnny was black or white. Jess tells us the detective was creating the narrative he wanted and that Greg was getting really confused - as anyone would be. Keith asks why Greg hadn’t asked for a lawyer and Jess and Priya explain that he attempted to contact an attorney, but that when Greg couldn’t get in contact with him, he didn’t try anything else because he was still so confident in the police and his innocence. Jess says that Greg did notice a “shift” in the detectives eyes when he answered the detective that Johnny Beck was black. Greg said he could start to see where everything was going but still was sure he that just needed to cooperate to clear everything up. He agreed to take a polygraph test (this was never done) and gave them the keys to his truck and full permission to check it out.

Jess tells us that the Raleigh police decided that what must have happened was Jacquetta Thomas’ murder was a “drugs for sex” deal gone wrong which the news outlets quickly picked up on - this story was completely untrue, however. Priya tells us that they spoke to Chris Mumma (who ultimately ended up representing Greg) and she said that the crime scene was extremely bloody and violent which is much more in line with a crime of passion - not a drug deal gone wrong.

In a ridiculous turn of events, despite there being zero evidence, Greg was arrested for first degree murder. While in jail Greg hired an internationally well-known lawyer named Jim Blackburn. Priya mentions that some of us listeners may remember him from the book “Fatal Vision” and says those that do, wouldn’t be wrong to think hiring Blackburn, a defense lawyer with a very public defeat on record, wasn’t the best idea. In 1993, while Greg was out on bond, he was informed that his lawyer had been embezzling money and surrendered his law license. Greg had to find a new lawyer stat, and this new attorney, Mike Dodd, realized very quickly that the case against Greg was weak - Dodd decided that the best defense was no defense. Keith vocalized what everyone listening is probably thinking “that seems like a mistake”. Keith wanted to know why Greg went along with it and Priya says that if it were her she would probably be skeptical but put her trust in Dodd since one would think he knew what he was doing. Evidently not.

In April of 1993, Greg’s trial began and Dodd stuck to his “do nothing” plan. During the trial, the prosecution’s entire case hinged on a forensic test done on a spot - a substance found on Greg's truck. The SBI Crime Lab determined the spot to be blood. Priya spoke with Marilyn T. Miller, an associate professor of forensic science at Virginia Commonwealth University to help with understanding the forensic science that comes into play throughout this season of F’d Up and, in this episode specifically, understanding luminol and the other chemicals discused. Priya says Marilyn explained that luminol is used to identify bloodstain patterns or any bodily fluids. She starts to use a hotel room as an example, because where better to find random fluids, but Keith is staying in one soon and doesn’t want to know anything about it. Priya goes on to say that to use luminol one would need to spray the luminol, use a black light to see the bloodstain patterns, and photograph them in about 8 seconds before they disappear. Jess jokes that you would need a pit crew and Priya decides that Luminol Pit Crew is going to be the name of her future death metal band. She tells us that SBI analysts used luminol initially to identify the spot on Greg’s truck. They then used phenolphthalein - the way phenolphthalein works, is one would be able to take a very small sample, add it to the mixture - and if it turns pink: it’s potentially blood. Jess tells us that this test determined that there was a tiny spot of blood under the fender wall of the truck. She also says they brought in a bloodhound named Sadie to the crime scene. Priya says that Sadie sniffed around the truck and determined that there was blood on, around, or in the truck. Priya reads directly from her notes to us “I’m sure Sadie is the best doggo, but that bitch was wrong”. Keith remarks that the Sadie part seems like a ridiculous subplot in a cozy British mystery to which Priya tells him that that isn’t the ridiculous subplot. The actual ridiculous subplot is that neither the prosecution or the defense brought in Barbara, the woman Greg Taylor and Johnny Beck got a ride from the night the truck got stuck and they saw Jacquetta’s body. The prosecution claimed they couldn’t find her and I guess even trying would be against the defense’s entire plan to do nothing.

Priya and Jess now tell us about a jailhouse informant named Ernest Andrews who claimed and then testified that Greg confessed the murder to him. Priya says she’s unclear if he Greg even knew Ernest Andrews. Jess mentions that Ernest used this false information to try and get time off his sentence. Still the defense lawyer, Dodd, did absolutely nothing. Priya, Jess, and Keith speculate what Dodd could have been doing instead of his job, such as maybe tending a garden...

On April 15th 1993, the state rested with their entire case built on Ernest’s testimony, the presumptive blood tests, and Sadie, the adorable bloodhound. Dodd presented no case. The next day, Friday the 16th, Dodd finally spoke and motioned for dismissal because of a lack of evidence. As Priya tells us, he wasn’t wrong. Greg’s wife called Dodd to discuss the case and completely in character for him, he told her he was tired of talking about the case (all of that nothing he did must have been exhausting) and he wanted to forget about the case for the weekend. Keith hopes Dodd ended up with a terrible garden. The following Monday in court, the prosecutor and defense made their closing arguments. The prosecutor, Tom Ford, mentioned the blood evidence seventeen times in his closing argument, hanging the entire case on it. According to Priya, Dodd did present an argument but there’s no record of it in the transcripts. This seems highly suspicious, but Priya tells us that this doesn’t come up later in the series, it’s just missing and they don’t know what was said.

A dog, a spot that may have been blood, and an unreliable witness seem like a very small amount of nothing to sentence a man to life in prison over, but after a very short deliberation by the jury, that’s exactly what happened. Greg Taylor and his lawyer planned to appeal and were optimistic about it. He thought he’d just have to spend 12 months in jail, then they’d appeal, and in his eyes, of course he’d get out because he’s innocent. Priya tells us that Greg is one of the most optimistic people on earth and that every time they’ve spoken, his optimism just shines through. Jess mentions that meanwhile, Johnny Beck spent two years and prison and then was released because there was no evidence at all against him at all. She tells us that Greg was approached numerous times and was asked to confess that Johnny Beck was the murderer. He was given multiple offers to get out of prison in exchange for his testimony, but Greg never agreed because Johnny didn’t commit the murder and neither did he!

In 1998, Greg appealed to have the charges dropped and cited ineffective council as the reason. His motion to appeal is denied. In 2000, his habeas corpus is also denied. In 2003, North Carolina Supreme Court refused to hear Greg’s request for DNA testing. Priya tells us at the point that Greg’s request for DNA sampling was denied, it had been 3,644 days since he’d been in prison, many attempted appeals, and his family and friends had done anything they could with every resource they could use.

Greg was aware of the fact that life was passing while he was in prison. When he went in, his daughter was 9. He missed his daughter growing up, her graduation, her wedding, over half of her life. His daughter told him she wouldn’t allow anyone to walk her down the aisle, because her father couldn’t do it. Greg also completely refused to meet her significant other, the entire time he was in prison because he didn’t want him to see him behind bars. Keith says that the truly fucked up part of this is how completely Greg’s life was destroyed as well as how everyone around him’s life was destroyed for something he didn’t do. Through all of this however, Jess says that Greg was still holding on to hope and that even when he speaks about it now, he’s calm.

Priya tells us that one day in 2003, about ten years after Greg went to prison, his father, Ed, came to see him and told him they were completely out of resources and options. Keith echoes everyone’s thoughts when he says “that’s fucked up” and Priya says only that there’s so much more fucked up shit to come next week when Greg’s story continues - but also throughout the entire F'd Up season.

This Preview Is F'd Up Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Effed Up Preview Recap
Written by Brandi Abbott

The beginning of this special preview episode is all about how Priya, Jess, and Keith became F’d up. We get a nice taste of Priya, Jess, and Keith’s chemistry together as well as a bit of backstory. They all worked together in Reality TV production, and clicked instantly. Priya and Jess knew they wanted to keep working together and more than that, they wanted to make their own shows and maybe change the world a little bit.

The idea for the podcast came to Priya when she was watching “The Staircase”, a true crime documentary series about the trial of Michael Peterson. Particularly, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Crime Lab bloodstain pattern analyst, Duane Deaver piqued her interested as he seemed more interested in theatrics than forensic science. If you watched “The Staircase”, you know it eventually turns out that Deaver is full of shit, and Priya wanted to know how often something like this happens. She began researching the SBI Crime Lab, and it quickly became obvious that Duane Deaver was just the tip of the corruption iceberg - that there was a much larger issue with the entire system. “The Staircase” sort of touched on this when they quickly covered another man affected by Duane Deaver’s shoddy forensic science. The more Priya researched, the more she realized how much bigger the story was and how many people’s lives could have been (and were) affected.

Plus, in doing a podcast they realized they could invite their friend Keith over and tell him eve-rything they learned. In this way, Keith will be hearing everything for the first time on the pod-cast and will be learning and gasping along with listeners.

Priya and Jess hint that there are a lot more F’d Up stories to come and we’re promised a sea-son of puns, true crime, cats, injustice, rosé and F’d Up forensic science.

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