Bombshell Evidence Against Aileen Wuornos | Snapped | Felony Files — Transcript

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1. 0:00a bombshell drops three days into the
2. 0:03murder trial of Aileen Wuornos his first
3. 0:05victim the judge grants the
4. 0:07prosecution's request to allow evidence
5. 0:09from the other murders in court during
6. 0:14the trial one of the things I was trying
7. 0:16to do was I was trying to let the jury
8. 0:18understand the impact of what Aileen
9. 0:21Wuornos says actions had done not just
10. 0:23to her victims but to everyone around
11. 0:25her the prosecution did a great job of
12. 0:27making an emotional appeal to the jury
13. 0:29look at how many lives have been
14. 0:32impacted how many people had died this
15. 0:35is not evidence but the prosecution had
16. 0:38a star witness who was going to make
17. 0:40their case I believe the worst day and I
18. 0:45only Morris's life was the day that
19. 0:47Tyria took the witness stand against her
20. 0:51she was sitting at the defense table
21. 0:53shaking her head in disbelief she tried
22. 0:56to catch ties I type pointedly look the
23. 0:59other way testified March down and out
24. 1:03the courtroom without looking I mean
25. 1:05once Tyra Moore is never charged or
26. 1:08implicated in the homicides she
27. 1:10testifies against Aileen Wuornos
28. 1:12voluntarily it was devastating for a
29. 1:15lien when Tyria turned round and
30. 1:19testified against her she never thought
31. 1:20that was gonna happen that was the
32. 1:22culmination of the end fir'd for Aileen
33. 1:27on the witness stand ty really drove
34. 1:31home the fact that Ilene had come home
35. 1:34that night of the death of Richard
36. 1:36Mallory and had had none of the
37. 1:39after-effects that you would expect from
38. 1:41a brutal rape there was no evidence of
39. 1:44bruises bleeding distress the big
40. 1:49question you have to ask yourself is how
41. 1:51much do you trust Tyra statement and she
42. 1:56just come out and said I have something
43. 1:58to tell you and I asked for what and she
44. 2:02said that she had shot and killed a man
45. 2:03that day she knew about Mallory's murder
46. 2:06and said nothing
47. 2:09Tyria Moore was a more valuable witness
48. 2:12for the prosecution and she would have
49. 2:14been a co-defendant it would have been
50. 2:17very difficult for them to have indicted
51. 2:19her in any fashion and made the charges
52. 2:21stick the worst evidence against her
53. 2:24would have been driving around in
54. 2:25Peterson with his car for a month there
55. 2:28were some things she possibly could have
56. 2:30been charged with but at this stage it's
57. 2:33gonna be a prosecutors decision what
58. 2:34they're gonna do or what role she's
59. 2:36going to play whether she's gonna be a
60. 2:38co-defendant or a witness and the
61. 2:40decision was made that you'd be a better
62. 2:42witness
63. 2:44we've always believed that had time or
64. 2:46come forward earlier some of these men
65. 2:48might still be alive but that she
66. 2:50engaged in the actual homicides we never
67. 2:53developed any evidence that supported
68. 2:55that
69. 2:58[Music]
70. 3:01this trial was flawed in so many ways I
71. 3:05have always had a question mark over the
72. 3:07credibility of Thai then we had the fact
73. 3:10that the defense never brought up
74. 3:12Islands childhood the rape the abuse in
75. 3:14the house the child being kicked out
76. 3:16living in tents that all has to be
77. 3:19relevant when you look at her crimes
78. 3:21most defense attorneys will tell you
79. 3:23when you've got a capital case you're
80. 3:25gonna go back to their childhood you're
81. 3:27gonna find out anything that might in
82. 3:29any way be a mitigating factor that
83. 3:32could assist your client they certainly
84. 3:35could have brought up a background of
85. 3:37child abuse or neglect I don't know why
86. 3:40they didn't a lot of people asked why
87. 3:42they didn't you have the media you're
88. 3:44the state presenting a cartoonish vision
89. 3:47of this evil serial killer and this is a
90. 3:51person who has had a life of trauma and
91. 3:54the jury needs to understand how that
92. 3:57leads to these crimes in this case the
93. 4:01defense counsel's job is to humanize the
94. 4:04client to look into their background to
95. 4:06show that they are a person worthy of
96. 4:08mercy her defense attorneys did their
97. 4:12best but it was a huge project and a
98. 4:16huge trial
99. 4:20[Music]
100. 4:27what drew me to the Wuornos case
101. 4:30initially was I wanted to extend the
102. 4:34battered woman's defense argument they
103. 4:37helped Eileen I'm dr. Phyllis Chester
104. 4:40I'm a psychologist and I've interviewed
105. 4:43Aileen Wuornos I left phone calls from
106. 4:46the public defender and I said I'm a
107. 4:48professor I'm a researcher I'm an author
108. 4:51I would like to help you with this case
109. 4:54so I flew down to Eileen and then I
110. 4:57talked to her I asked her a bunch of
111. 4:59questions I said for example how many
112. 5:01times have you been raped after she got
113. 5:05to about 37 I said it's enough thank you
114. 5:09very much because I thought this is off
115. 5:12the charts
116. 5:13in terms of just post-traumatic stress
117. 5:16symptoms alone I couldn't even estimate
118. 5:20what that would do to a living being
119. 5:23there's no question that Eileen suffered
120. 5:26from serious mental health issues when
121. 5:28the psychiatrist interviewed her prior
122. 5:30to trial she diagnosed her with
123. 5:33delusional disorders why didn't the
124. 5:36defense ever bring this up a trial
125. 5:38Wuornos did not want to plead insanity
126. 5:40which in the state of Florida prohibits
127. 5:43her defense team from presenting mental
128. 5:45health arguments she complained that she
129. 5:47had been abused as a child
130. 5:49I know people today that had in
131. 5:51Retta bleep terrible childhoods and
132. 5:54they're gainfully employed and they're
133. 5:57good citizens this is a very complicated
134. 6:01case you have a mentally ill defendant
135. 6:05who's got a self-defense claim and those
136. 6:09to legally may not be related but they
137. 6:13are not mutually exclusive mentally ill
138. 6:15people certainly can defend themselves
139. 6:17Aileen was represented by three defense
140. 6:19attorneys that just didn't have the
141. 6:21experience and it's obvious they will
142. 6:24weigh in over their heads
143. 6:27[Music]