Tell Me Your Story | EP 4 | Season 2

Summary

Burden of Guilt: Season 2, Episode 4 – “Tell Me Your Story” (March 5, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In “Tell Me Your Story,” host Nancy Glass guides listeners through the unraveling of Bobby Gumpright’s two-decade web of addiction, deception, and guilt, centering on his perjured testimony that sent Jermaine Hudson to prison for a crime that never happened. The episode explores Bobby’s tormented journey toward redemption, highlighting the immense obstacles he faced in confessing his lie, and the slow, painful process to achieve justice for Jermaine. Through raw narration and Bobby’s candid storytelling, the episode examines the interplay between addiction, the burden of guilt, and the complex realities of making amends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap of the Crime and Its Fallout (02:50)

• Nancy recaps how, in 2000, Bobby lied on the stand—motivated by his addiction and a need to conceal it from family:

  “Bobby was desperate to hide his drug addiction from his parents, so he used the armed robbery story… The lies kept the addiction alive, and the addiction kept him insulated from consequences.” (02:50)

• Jermaine, painted as a "dangerous career criminal," was sentenced to 99 years at Angola prison, while Bobby fled the source of his shame.

2. Bobby’s Years on the Run from Himself (04:31–10:44)

• Relocation & Attempts at a New Life: Bobby moves to D.C. with his father, lands jobs as a DJ, then follows his wife to Alaska—submerging himself deeper into drug culture:

  “Get to Alaska and immediately get a job at a bar... That's when I started doing heroin. Still doing cocaine. Crack comes into it. Just a little bit of everything.” (06:08, Bobby)

• Marital Breakdown: His marriage collapses after nearly a decade, as substance abuse prevails:

  “I was still so selfish. I was just looking for somebody to take care of me.” (06:31, Bobby)

• Pattern of Self-Sabotage and Manipulation: Bobby describes conning employers, friends, and even drug dealers:

  “I’d always pay and always have money... then I’d get a big amount from him, and I'd say, oh, I gotcha, and I'd leave.” (08:22, Bobby)

3. Hitting Bottom & Family Discovery (10:11–13:04)

• Brush with Death: After being attacked and nearly killed over a drug debt while working on a tugboat, Bobby’s addiction continues regardless.
• Overdose & Withdrawal at Home: After moving back in with his parents, Bobby’s addiction is finally exposed during a withdrawal episode:

  Nurse: “Well, maybe it has something to do with the track marks on his arm.” (12:23, recounted by Bobby)

• Parent’s Disbelief and Despair:

  “His whole body just slumped. I don’t think he knew how to react. He immediately went into fix it mode.” (16:27, Bobby)

4. The Role of Recovery and AA (17:18–19:08)

• Start of Sobriety, Learning About Amends:

  “When you're in AA, you start hearing about dealing with the wreckage of your past. And then Jermaine came into my mind again... that’s the one thing in my past I just can’t ever shake.” (17:42, Bobby)

• Barriers to Telling the Truth: Both friends and lawyers discourage confession due to legal risk and cost:

  “He said, I think I can help you. It'll just be $5,000 for a retainer. $5,000 might as well have been a million dollars to me.” (18:54, Bobby)

5. Continued Relapse and Rock Bottom (19:52–22:19)

• Failure to Stay Sober; Losing Jobs & Support Systems: Despite brief periods of progress, Bobby relapses—losing jobs and severing family ties.

  “I was drinking a bottle of Fireball a day and taking 150–200mg of oxycodone a day.” (19:52, Bobby)

• Spiritual Crisis in Eunice, LA: In an abandoned house, Bobby contemplates suicide—then experiences what he describes as a spiritual awakening:

  “All I heard was, ‘Son, why are you so angry?’ I said, ‘20 years ago, I told a lie that sent a man to prison for life. I don't know what to do.’” (22:20, Bobby)

6. Symbolic Moment and Turnaround (24:13–28:23)

• True Life Baptist Church Confrontation: The pastor’s name, Jermaine—same as the man he wronged—strikes Bobby as a sign.

  “I ran across the street and… just asked if I could come in. I sat there and cried. I didn’t hear a word of the service.” (24:33, Bobby)

• Pastor’s Cautious Compassion: Pastor Jermaine Tezeno, suspicious but moved, feeds Bobby and offers help, but Bobby leaves the next morning, hitchhiking to New Orleans.

7. Attempting to Confess & Institutional Obstacles (28:14–31:49)

• Direct Approach at the Courthouse: Bobby tries to confess his perjury at the District Attorney’s office, only to be told:

  “‘I can’t talk to you about that. You need to get yourself a lawyer.’ Okay? Shuts the door and goes back upstairs.’” (31:41, Bobby)

• Bobby’s Frustration: Recanting is immensely more complex than lying initially.

8. Institutional Change & Serendipity (32:31–38:12)

• District Attorney’s Reform Brings Hope: With Jason Williams’ election and the Civil Rights Division under Emily Ma, the system begins to review cases like Jermaine’s.
• Entry to Rehabilitation: In a faith-based rehab, Bobby’s full story pours out to Jeremy Smith:

  “His first question was, ‘So tell me your story.’ And as soon as he said that, I just said, you want to know my story? I'll tell you my story. So I told him everything.” (33:47, Bobby)

• Verification and Immediate Action:

  “I googled... immediately I found four documents... The ages checked out, and the years checked out, and his story checked out.” (34:36, Jeremy Smith)

• A Fortuitous Connection: Jeremy’s mother’s friend leads directly to Emily Ma, the Civil Rights Division director:

  “‘This is so crazy. His case file is on my desk right now.’” (37:28, Emily Ma via Jeremy Smith)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I had a job before I even got [to DC].” (05:05, Bobby)
• “I was still so selfish. I was just looking for somebody to take care of me.” (06:31, Bobby)
• “He took the beer bottle and he smashed it over the back of my head and he stabbed me four times in the neck with it.” (09:19, Bobby; describing the attack over an unpaid drug debt)
• “That was about half an inch away from my carotid.” (10:49, Bobby, on the result of the stabbing)
• “When you're in AA, you start hearing about dealing with the wreckage of your past. And then Jermaine came into my mind again...” (17:42, Bobby)
• “All I heard was, ‘Son, why are you so angry?’ I said, ‘20 years ago, I told a lie...’” (22:20, Bobby, on his spiritual awakening)
• “Pastor Germain. Germain, the pastor had the same name as the man whose life he destroyed.” (24:13, Nancy)
• Pastor Jermaine Tezeno: “You are Caucasian in a majority African American church. Like, what's your intentions?” (25:37)
• “I said, I committed perjury and I'd like to talk to somebody about it... I can't talk to you about that. You need to get yourself a lawyer.” (31:34 & 31:41, Bobby)
• “I googled... and immediately I found four documents... I’d never dealt with anything like that.” (34:36, Jeremy Smith)
• “This is so crazy. His case file is on my desk right now.” (37:28, Emily Ma via Jeremy Smith)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:50 — Recap of Bobby’s lie and its wide-reaching consequences.
• 04:31–06:08 — Relocating, new beginnings, deepening addiction.
• 09:19 — Near-fatal attack over drug debt.
• 11:30–13:04 — Overdose, family learning the truth, intervention at hospital.
• 17:42 — Bobby discusses the AA principle of making amends and the impact on his conscience.
• 19:52–20:15 — Relapses, loss, and self-destruction.
• 22:19–24:33 — Spiritual crisis, encounter at True Life Baptist Church.
• 28:14–31:41 — Failed attempt to confess perjury to authorities.
• 33:47–37:28 — Full confession at rehab, Jeremy Smith’s verification, connection to DA’s Civil Rights Division.

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Flow and Takeaways

Throughout this episode, Nancy Glass and Bobby Gumpright lay bare the tangled reality of addiction, guilt, and the Herculean struggle to right a devastating wrong. By honestly recounting each failed attempt at sobriety, every act of desperation, and each step toward confession, the episode illustrates how the burden of guilt is both ever-present and, eventually, a motivator for redemption.

While Bobby’s journey is marked by setbacks and institutional barriers, the episode ends on a promise—a new, reform-minded DA and the convergence of fate and advocacy suggesting, at last, a path to justice for Jermaine and absolution for Bobby.

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Next episode preview: Bobby prepares for the ultimate reckoning—publicly admitting to his lie, no matter the personal consequences, as legal and emotional mechanisms finally set into motion Jermaine’s possible release.

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For more, follow @glasspodcasts on Instagram or contact the team at [e-mail].

Transcript

[Nancy Glass]

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[Bobby Gumpright]

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[Bobby Gumpright]

We go into the emergency room and the lady starts asking what's going on? And my dad's like, yeah, we just don't know what's going on. And she goes, well, maybe it has something to do with the track marks on his arm. And my dad's like, what are you talking about?

[Nancy Glass]

I'm nancy glass this is season two, a burden of guilt. Episode four, tell me youe story. In March of 2000, Bobby Gumpright falsely testified that Jermaine Hudson robbed him at gunpoint. And as you heard in the last episode, the crime never happened. Bobby was desperate to hide his drug addiction from his parents, so he used the armed robbery story to explain the reason he had no money from his bartending job. For Bobby, addiction and deception fed each other in a continuous loop. The lies kept the addiction alive, and the addiction kept him insulated from consequences. Back in 2000, Bobby convinced himself he was helping police out by testifying against Jermaine. At trial, they described Tremaine as a dangerous career criminal. But as Bobby got older, the full weight of what he had masterminded became impossible to live with. It would be a long, winding route to get the truth out there. Bobby spent years trying to outrun himself, reinventing his life, starting over again and again, all while Jermaine was stuck in Angola prison with no hope of ever living as a free man. Soon after Jermaine's conviction, Bobby made his first move away from the city he associated with his shame, New Orleans.

[Bobby Gumpright]

My dad had just gotten orders to D.C. and he didn't think I should stay in New Orleans. I wasn't anywhere in a position to support myself. So he said, why don't you go with us? Just go to D.C. and figure it out.

[Nancy Glass]

Just a few weeks before the move to DC, he met a group of guys in their 20s vacationing in New Orleans. And that chance encounter turned into a valuable connection.

[Bobby Gumpright]

They were DJs for this company in DC. And I was like, I'm about to move to DC. And they said, hey, got a good personality. You ever thought about being a dj? And I was like, no, but that sounds awesome. I had a job before I even got there.

[Nancy Glass]

So Bobby started working as a mobile DJ for bars, weddings, and private parties. Those occasions provided a place where he could get away with continuing to drink and use drugs. He was 20 years old. He had a job, a cover for his behavior, and pretty soon he met a woman at one of his wedding

[Bobby Gumpright]

gigs, started dating, and then we ended up getting married. She was in the Air Force, and maybe a year later she got orders to Alaska. And we ended up going to Alaska.

[Nancy Glass]

It might have been a chance for a fresh start and stability, but Bobby kept chasing the high.

[Bobby Gumpright]

Get to Alaska and immediately get a job at a bar and hook into the people there. And that's where I started doing heroin. Still doing cocaine. Crack comes into it like Just a little bit of everything.

[Nancy Glass]

When Bobby reflects on that marriage now, he admits he was in it for one reason.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I was still so selfish. I was just looking for somebody to take care of me.

[Nancy Glass]

Bobby was really good at hiding his addiction. At first, his new wife didn't know he had a problem, but she caught on.

[Bobby Gumpright]

It came to a point where I had to admit it.

[Nancy Glass]

The marriage limped along for nearly a decade before collapsing for good, and eventually the couple divorced. In 2010, Bobby moved back to Washington, D.C. bouncing between friends, couches, and DJ gigs while he looked for something more lucrative to do.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I met a guy at one of my DJ gigs, and he worked for a tugboat company. And so because I was in the Coast Guard, he was like, oh, you could probably get on with our tugboat company. I said, well, that'd be good money. So he got me a job with this company, and we were doing dredge work on the Potomac river, but I was still working with drug addicts. We had connected through drugs, so I continued smoking crack with him once I got the job.

[Nancy Glass]

Even when he was high, Bobby had a way of winning people over. He was personable and funny. He still had his charisma. Plenty of people were charmed by him. But not everyone fell for the facade. When our team contacted one of Bobby's former employers, the bitterness was unmistakable. He described Bobby as a con artist and a liar. Bobby doesn't push back on that characterization. He admits to ripping people off, even his drug dealers.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I would get a guy into confidence. I'd be working a job. I'd buy a bunch of drugs, and I'd always pay and always have money. And then finally, I would get to the point where I'd be like, hey, man, just float me. Just float me for a week. And then he'd float me, and I'd pay him, and we'd kind of build a relationship. And then I'd get a big amount from him, and I'd say, oh, I gotcha, and I'd leave.

[Nancy Glass]

But when he worked on the tugboat, he didn't leave fast enough. Here's what happened. Bobby bought a $40 bag of weed. He couldn't pay at the time, but he had built rapport with the dealer and asked to be floated for a few days. The dealer agreed. Even after the dealer gave him more time, Bobby still didn't come up with the money. The dealer was no longer interested in any excuses.

[Bobby Gumpright]

Him and his nephew came on board the boat one night. I was sleeping and smacked me on the leg and woke me up and where's my money? And I says, I don't have your money. And he says, well, you're supposed to pay me. And I says, I know, but I'll pay you. But I just. I don't have it right now. And at this point, I had sat up and I'm talking to him, and I didn't even see that he had a bottle in his right hand. He took the beer bottle and he smashed it over the back of my head and he stabbed me four times in the neck with it. So I'm just sitting there and I'm bleeding. You better have my money is what he said. And his nephew lifts up his shirt and he had a gun underneath his belt.

[Nancy Glass]

Bobby was afraid to get off the boat after seeing the gun. So instead, covered in blood and badly injured, Bobby snuck away and boarded a smaller tugboat to get help. A good Samaritan saw Bobby bleeding and on the verge of passing out and called 911.

[Bobby Gumpright]

Took me to the hospital and went into the ER and all I remember is being on a table where they were pulling the glass out. And I had like six or seven doctors around me.

[Nancy Glass]

Those doctors told him how close he had come to dying.

[Bobby Gumpright]

He was about half an inch away from my carotid.

[Nancy Glass]

It's a shocking example of how much power Bobby's addiction had over him, because even a near death experience wouldn't scare Bobby straight or motivate him to seek help. After the attack on the boat, he moved back in with his parents. They were still completely in the dark about his addiction, but they were about to find out.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I was doing heroin at the time. And I remember one day I was in there and I shot up. I think it was one of the times when I overdosed. And I just remember coming to hours later, needle still hanging in my arm, and I'm sitting there going, man, if my dad had walked in the room,

[Nancy Glass]

you know, Bobby was out of money and out of drugs. He spiraled into withdrawal.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I got real sick because heroin withdrawals can be real bad. So I just laid in bed, and for three days I just laid there sweating, puking.

[Nancy Glass]

Bobby's dad was in denial about what was going on with his son until it finally hit a breaking point.

[Bobby Gumpright]

My dad kept coming up, you know, what's going on? I'm like, oh, I'm just sick. I got the flu or whatever, you know. And three days later, he looks at me and goes, this is something worse than the flu.

[Nancy Glass]

Captain Gumpright took action.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I went and got him and made him get up and took him to the hospital emergency room. We go into the emergency room and the lady starts asking what's going on? And my dad's like, yeah, we just don't know what's going on. And she goes, well, maybe it has something to do with the track marks on his arm. And my dad's like, what are you talking about?

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[Nancy Glass]

For more than a decade, Bobby had managed to keep his addiction a secret from his parents. But when he ran out of money and drugs, his withdrawal symptoms prompted his father to rush him to an emergency room. An observant nurse figured it out immediately.

[Bobby Gumpright]

She goes, well, maybe it has something to do with the track marks on his arm. And my dad's like, what are you talking about? So right then and there, I had to admit to him that I was using heroin. And I remember just his whole body just slumped. I don't think he knew how to react. He immediately went into fix it mode. What can we do? What do we do here? What's the next thing to do to fix this? I had a nurse come in and she said, I was your nurse when you were a baby in this hospital. And she said, I just hate to see you like this. Do you want help? Do you want to live different? And I was like, yeah, I do.

[Nancy Glass]

With the nurse's guidance, Bobby found a recovery program in Massachusetts.

[Bobby Gumpright]

After that, I think I was clean for about eight months.

[Nancy Glass]

He attended AA meetings and learned that recovery requires making amends. His sobriety would be inseparable from freeing Jermaine from his wrongful imprisonment.

[Bobby Gumpright]

When you're in aa, you start hearing about dealing with the wreckage of your past. And then Jermaine came into my mind again. And I thought, with getting my life back on track, I gotta do something about my past. And that's the one thing in my past that I just can't ever shake.

[Nancy Glass]

Every so often, Bobby checked Louisiana's online inmate listings to see if Jermaine was still in prison.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I was like, well, I wonder if he's still there. Or I wonder, maybe he got out. You know, maybe they let him out.

[Nancy Glass]

Call it lying to himself, call it wishful thinking. But the truth was, every time he checked, Jermaine was still at Angola. All because of his lie. Bobby became fixated on coming clean, telling the truth. He sought guidance from two people he trusted in aa. Both encouraged him to stay quiet, let sleeping dogs lie. But given how central amends are to recovery, we were surprised to hear that Bobby contacted a local attorney. This was another attempt to come clean.

[Bobby Gumpright]

He said, I think I can help you. It'll just be $5,000 for a retainer. $5,000 might have well been a million dollars to me.

[Nancy Glass]

Maybe telling a family member would be different. One day, when he was talking with his stepmother, Sharon, there was an opening.

[Bobby Gumpright]

One night, we got into a conversation. She asked me some questions about, well, what else have you lied about? I started to just be brutally honest, and I told her I don't think she grasped what I said. All I know is, oh, Bobby. That's all I heard and then wasn't talked about after that.

[Nancy Glass]

Maybe she didn't believe him or didn't understand, but for Bobby, it felt like nobody wanted to touch this or even hear about what he had done.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I just kept moving, you know, and I kept relapsing after that. I was drinking a bottle of Fireball a day and taking 150 to 200mg of oxycodone A day.

[Nancy Glass]

After each relapse, he'd get back up and generate new momentum. Bobby always managed to find another opportunity.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I'm a really good interviewer. I would do everything I could to get the job, but then I'd stop showing up or start slacking whatever.

[Nancy Glass]

In 2019, Bobby found a job he really liked.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I'd gotten a job with UPS as a driver. I enjoyed it. That was always a good job and made good money.

[Nancy Glass]

But once again, he was using during the workday, and people started to notice I was drinking.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I was smoking crack in the back of the truck, like it was just out of control. Finally, one day, I think I went in, and they were. They were like, hey, manager wants to see you. And I went in there, and he was like, bro, everybody can tell we got to take you in for a drug screen. So he took me over, did the drug screen, and as soon as they got the results, they said, you're fired.

[Nancy Glass]

By 2020, the last threads holding him near his family had unraveled. With no job and no relationship, he knew it was the right time to put all his effort into Jermaine's release. No one else was going to do it for him.

[Bobby Gumpright]

All of a sudden, I just knew I had to go to New Orleans.

[Nancy Glass]

He headed to Louisiana, but his desire to come clean couldn't compete with his addiction. He didn't make it all the way to New Orleans. Instead, he found refuge in a drug house a few hours away.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I'd been living at this house in. In unice for four or five months at that point, just doing methamphetamine, out of my mind. And one night I just had a spiritual experience. It's hard to describe, but

[Nancy Glass]

I remember

[Bobby Gumpright]

looking in the mirror and just asking to die. I just wanted to die. All I could think about was Tremaine. And I just wanted to die. Just please kill me. I didn't believe in God at the time, so I didn't know who I was talking to, but I just knew I wanted to die. And I just heard a voice, clear, audible. People can think that it was the drugs all they want, but I know what I experienced. All I heard was, son, why are you so angry? I said, 20 years ago, I told a lie that sent a man to prison for life. I don't know what to do. In the Bible, it says the prodigal son, when he's living in the pigpen, that he comes to himself. And that's what happened. It's like all of a sudden, I just came to myself, like what I was always meant to be and understand about myself. The next day I walked into town and it was a Sunday. And across the street was Greater True Life Baptist Church. And on the sign was the pastor's name. And his name was Jermaine Tezeno.

[Nancy Glass]

To anyone else, the sign looked like an old church marquee with a letterboard beneath it. But to Bobby, it was something else entirely. Pastor Germain. Germain, the pastor had the same name as the man whose life he destroyed.

[Bobby Gumpright]

And I just felt like it was God talking to me. So I ran across the street and I ran up to the door.

[Nancy Glass]

For Bobby, this wasn't just a sign. It was the sign that after 21 years, he was being led to finally coming clean.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I hadn't had a shower in a while. I was disheveled, stunk, you know, I just slept in an abandoned house the night before, so I wasn't much to look at. And I just went over and asked if I could come in. And they let me come in and let me sit down and just listen to the service. And I didn't hear a word that they said the whole service. I just sat there and cried. And I didn't know what. What I was doing or why I was there.

[Nancy Glass]

Pastor Jermaine Tezeno eyed him warily from the pulpit.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

I notice somebody in the congregation sitting, and in my mind I'm thinking, okay, who invited you?

[Nancy Glass]

You may remember this story from our first episode when we told you about Bobby walking into True Life Baptist Church. What Bobby didn't know then was that his race and his disheveled appearance put the congregation on edge.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

You are Caucasian in a majority African American church. Like, what's your intentions?

[Bobby Gumpright]

At the end of the service, the pastor and another man came over and asked me if they could talk to me in the back.

[Nancy Glass]

Even though the pastor had reservations, he invited Bobby into his office to talk. And that's where Bobby told the pastor what he had done to Jermaine and how it had destroyed him inside.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

I couldn't really tell him anything. I just. I really didn't respond too much because I was shocked. I just wanted to hear him, you know? So I listened to him and I said to myself, typical things that happen to black men from Emmett Till, and, you know, it happens.

[Nancy Glass]

Pastor Tezeno was disturbed, but at the same time, he realized Bobby was homeless and struggling. So the pastor and a church minister took Bobby for a hot meal and paid for a night at the Day's Inn. Bobby could have a night of rest and the pastor would have some time to think about what to do next. Did it occur to you what a generous thing this was? Here comes this guy who's crying and smells terrible and looks a little scary, and they believe you and they take care of you.

[Bobby Gumpright]

Yeah, it didn't make much sense to me. I had never been treated like that by strangers before. So it was. It was very strange. And especially because, you know, I was a white guy and I didn't see why they were being so nice. He even told me, he said, call me the next day. You know, call me in the morning, and I'm gonna have you come over to the church. And I don't. I don't know what he planned on doing from there, but I got up in the morning and I started hitchhiking to New Orleans.

[Nancy Glass]

So you knew he was planning on seeing you the next day when. Why did you just leave?

[Bobby Gumpright]

I needed to get to New Orleans and deal with it. I got four rides. All of them had Bibles on their dash. God leads us to do things like that. The last car that picked me up, dropped me right in front of the courthouse. I walked into the courthouse and I said, who would deal with old cases? And they said, oh, you'd go to the DA's office for that.

[Nancy Glass]

So Bobby walked over to the DA's office again. He asked to speak to someone in charge of old cases.

[Bobby Gumpright]

This guy comes down and he opens the door and says, can I help you? I said, I was involved in a case 20 years ago and committed perjury and I'd like to talk to somebody about it.

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[Bobby Gumpright]

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[Bobby Gumpright]

Visit spinquest.com for more details.

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[Nancy Glass]

Bobby Gumpright was more determined than ever to tell the truth about what happened in 1999. Asking for help at the courthouse, he was directed to the district attorney's office. Once an employee came to speak with him, Bobby came right out with it.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I said, I committed perjury and I'd like to talk to somebody about it.

[Nancy Glass]

He was immediately shown the door.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I can't talk to you about that. You need to get yourself a lawyer. Okay? Shuts the door and goes back upstairs.

[Nancy Glass]

You see, they didn't have a procedure for this kind of situation. Clearly, recanting false testimony was going to be far more difficult than giving it. He was frustrated, dejected. For a while, he stayed in New Orleans, living a transient life, sometimes in different homeless shelters. Bobby was back on the street, but Jermaine hadn't gone anywhere. For the first time in 21 years, Germain had reason for hope. You see, New Orleans elected a new district attorney, Jason Williams, on a campaign rooted in criminal justice reform. This opened up an opportunity he hadn't had before.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I was actually going to plead guilty to that crime.

[Nancy Glass]

Because the laws hadn't changed. Jermaine had a deal on the table. He would finally get out of Angola. And all he had to do was. Was something he said he would never do. Admit to a crime we all know he didn't commit. Tremaine had always maintained his innocence. He never wanted that felony conviction on his record. But after 21 years in prison, he just didn't care anymore.

[Commercial Announcer]

I just want to get out of here. That was my ticket to get home, to go live life.

[Nancy Glass]

Earlier, Bobby explained how God spoke to him while he was living in Eunice. Even on the streets of New Orleans, he still felt that presence and renewed sense of purpose. And it was there where he met a stranger who shared his faith. After a conversation, the stranger offered to connect Bobby to a residential Cross Christian rehab called a place of restoration. Bobby accepted the help. He went that same day and met the director, Jeremy Smith.

[Bobby Gumpright]

So got to the program and sat down in a room with the director. His first question was, so tell me your story. And as soon as he said that, I just said, you want to know my story? I'll tell you my story. So I told him everything.

[Nancy Glass]

His unsettling teenage years. The lie Bobby drummed up at 18 committing perjury. The chaos and drugs he drowned himself in to numb his pain. The guilt of sending an innocent man to prison for 99 years. It all spilled out in that quiet room. Bobby felt incredible relief that finally someone was interested in the truth. Here's Jeremy Smith.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

He finished the rest of his story, and all I heard was alarm bells. I don't know that I heard anything that happened in his life. From 19 years old to 40, whenever he finished, all I could think is, what do I do with this? He could barely complete his sentences. He was crying, and it was like there was a real aggressive grieving happen right in front of me. But I'm kind of skeptical by nature, so, you know, I always feel like I have to check everything out. So when he finished telling me his story as quickly as I could, I said, okay, finish filling out your paperwork. I got some stuff to go do in my office. And I just went as fast as I could to my office, and I Googled, and immediately I found four documents of the State of Louisiana versus Jermaine Hudson. And I started reading, and his name was in it. And the ages checked out, and the years checked out, and his story checked out. And then I thought, wow, I'd never dealt with anything like that.

[Nancy Glass]

Jeremy knew he had to do something.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

So I went back to him and I said, look, I should be honest. I went and checked out what you told me, and I don't think we can just leave a man sitting in prison, you know? And he said, I don't want to. I have to get this off my chest.

[Nancy Glass]

Years earlier, Bobby feared the consequences if he came forward to recant his testimony from 2000. But now he didn't care. He was just relieved. Jeremy Smith realized he needed to talk with the District Attorney's office in New Orleans.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

So at that point, I did what any responsible man would do, and I called my mom and I said, mom, this is what happened. What do I do?

[Nancy Glass]

Calling his mom was a smart decision. It turned out that Jeremy's mother had a friend who was a law professor of ethics at Tulane University Law School. What are the odds of that?

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

And then she says, you need to call Emily Ma, who's with the New Orleans District Attorney's office now.

[Nancy Glass]

Bobby was sitting across Jeremy Smith's desk telling the truth about what had happened. And in the meantime, Emily Ma had been installed as the director of a newly created civil rights division at the District Attorney's office. Emily's office was reviewing cases, contacting victims, and trying to negotiate post conviction relief, which meant letting people out of prison. They were up to their eyeballs digging into over 1000 cases that could qualify, cases where inmates were convicted by non unanimous juries or given excessive sentences.

[Pastor Jermaine Tezeno]

So I called the District Attorney's office and I asked for Emily Ma. And whoever answered the phone said she was busy. Can I take a message or call you back? And I said, can I just tell you in 10 seconds why I'm calling? And so as fast as I could, I explained the purpose for my call. And his tone changed and the sense of urgency changed and he said, hold on one second. And in less than a second she was on the phone. She proceeded to say, this is so crazy. His case file is on my desk right now.

[Nancy Glass]

Coming up on Burden of Guilt.

[Bobby Gumpright]

I just told him that I was going to tell the truth and you might see my picture on the front page of the New York Times as this horrible monster. And I'm sorry for embarrassing you, but I got to do this. He just told me he loves I just do what I had to do.

[Nancy Glass]

Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying Burden of Guilt, subscribe rate and review the series with five stars.

[Bobby Gumpright]

Yay.

[Nancy Glass]

It helps other people find our show. Check out our Instagram account at Glass Podcast, where we recap each episode with show notes that include people, places and court records. You can reach out to the Burden of guilt [e-mail] that's burdenofgiltpodmail.com Burden of Guilt is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iheartra Podcasts. The series is executive produced and hosted by me, Nancy Glass. This episode was written and produced by Carrie Hartman, also produced by Ben Federman and Andrea Gunning. Our story editor is Monique Laborde. Our associate producer is Jade Abdul Malik. Our production manager is Kristen Melchuri. Our iHeart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynczyk. Thank you to our voice actor, Rob Stoler. Audio editing by Zac Puteau. Scoring and sound design by Matt Del Vecchio. Mixed and mastered by Anna maclean. The Burden of Guilt theme is composed by Oliver Baines Music Library, provided by mib Music. And we want to give our special thanks to Jermaine Hudson and Bobby Gumpright. For more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts.

[Chelsea Handler]

This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea, after the Big Game like most people, I kept thinking about the commercials, and there was one that stayed with me. It was from the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, and it wasn't loud or flashy. It showed a Jewish kid being targeted at school and and another student who chose not to ignore it. As someone who was Jewish, that moment felt very real to me. Not dramatic, just familiar. And what struck me was how clearly it showed that hate doesn't always announce itself, but the impact is still huge. If you saw the Blue Square spot during the Big Game, it's worth thinking about. And if you wanna show support, sharing the Blue Square is one small way to do that.

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[Andrea Gunning]

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[Nancy Glass]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.