Jacinda Davis (59:31)
So where does this leave the cold case defendants, the ones who may also be innocent? Only a few of them currently have attorneys, though. Scott's attorney, Olivia Vigiletti, with the Michigan Innocence Clinic, is becoming very familiar with the Kalamazoo cold case convictions. In such a small community, I would not have expected to hear about so many shady convictions as I have. I don't think it's a coincidence that 10% of my caseload right now is investigating the Kalamazoo cold case team. I do statewide work. You know, I don't think they were just magically so much better at solving murder. One of Olivia's current Kalamazoo clients is Polderman defendant Joe Biden Williams. She, along with attorneys for Andrew Miller at the Exoneration Project in Chicago, are hoping new DNA testing may finally bring answers to what happened to the Poldermans. And our investigation into the Polderman case has uncovered significant issues, even beyond what happened with Richard Vendeville, that we believe may help those still serving time in the Polderman case. Though, sadly, it all comes too late for Angela McConnell, who took her own life in 2023. But frankly, there are not enough innocence attorneys out there to address a problem like Kalamazoo. Take the Polderman case, for example. Ben Platt, the third Polderman defendant, who is still in prison today, has no attorney, not because his case is any less worthy, but because there just isn't anyone available to take it on. So for the other Kalamazoo cold case defendants, their best hope is for there to be public recognition that something went horribly wrong here. Yes, I mean, I think attention on this cold case team would be enormous. I'll say. Say, I think public perception tends to catch on quicker than the courts. So if the public can kind of start to see these issues and start to demand transparency around these issues, I have to hope the courts will follow. It's hard to get people to believe wrongful convictions happen. We all want to believe the system works, that by the time a case reaches a jury, the checks and balances have worked, that a guilty verdict is the just verdict, and nobody wants to risk releasing a person a jury has found guilty of a heinous crime. But consider this. Mistakes get made in all areas of our lives. On the news, we constantly hear stories of corrupt politicians or incompetent teachers. The fact is, all areas of our lives have certain individuals occupying a job that for various reasons, they probably shouldn't have. What if a group of doctors had killed or harmed the people convicted by the Kalamazoo cold case team? Would people have such a hard time then believing they should see justice? Because the fact is, ending up being charged with a crime is no different than ending up in a hospital. The expectation is that you should have faith in the system. How is that different than what happened to these cold case defendants? Society's expectation is the same, that you can trust the people in charge, the people who have been sworn under oath to protect and serve, to behave ethically and make extraordinary efforts to render justice. Something went terribly wrong with the Kalamazoo cold case team. They used aggressive tactics aimed more at closing cases than finding the truth and questioned witnesses in ways that seem almost designed to change their statements, to lead them in a way that investigators wanted to go. All of that is already cause for concern, but it's made so much worse when combined with detectives and prosecutors who are willing to take things further, to hide evidence, to conspire to keep witnesses from coming forward or from telling everything they knew. In this season, you've heard about some of the other cases we have serious concerns about, but they are far from the only Kalamazoo cold cases that we believe warrant reconsideration. And we hope to be back in future episodes to tell you more about those cases.