Indiana’s Kristine Bunch case — Transcript

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1. 0:00it happens so fast
2. 0:03in a matter of minutes christine bunch
3. 0:05lost
4. 0:06everything i ran out screaming for help
5. 0:09she lost her child her home
6. 0:15and then her own freedom
7. 0:20you don't think it's ever
8. 0:23going to happen you think those things
9. 0:25happen to other people
10. 0:26not you it was 1995 and christine was 21
11. 0:32years old
12. 0:35in the early morning hours a strange
13. 0:37smell
14. 0:39the home where she lived with her
15. 0:40three-year-old son tony was on fire
16. 0:44i woke up i was able to
17. 0:49try to piece together what was happening
18. 0:54it was foggy it didn't register
19. 0:58what it was by the time she realized the
20. 1:00room was filled with smoke
21. 1:03a wall of flames stood between her and
22. 1:05her child
23. 1:06i tried to get in the doorway i couldn't
24. 1:08i took a tricycle and broke out a window
25. 1:10and tried to climb in and get my
26. 1:12child despite her frantic cries
27. 1:15christine could not save him
28. 1:22every day since it happened i wake up
29. 1:28and ask why it wasn't me
30. 1:31why didn't he make it instead
31. 1:35she was left to cope with the unbearable
32. 1:37pain of losing her child
33. 1:41and just when she believed her life
34. 1:42could not get any worse
35. 1:44it became a living nightmare
36. 1:48christine was charged and convicted of
37. 1:51setting the fire that killed her son
38. 1:54when the judge read my sentencing i was
39. 1:57given
40. 1:5760 years for murder arson investigators
41. 2:01concluded
42. 2:01that on the day of the fire she had
43. 2:04spread accelerants
44. 2:05set several blazes and blocked the door
45. 2:07to her son's room
46. 2:09and i'm never making it out alive i'm
47. 2:12going to die in there
48. 2:14she was only 22 and suddenly facing a
49. 2:17lifetime behind bars
50. 2:20christine adamantly denied setting the
51. 2:22fire that killed her own son
52. 2:24i knew that i didn't start a fire
53. 2:28i knew that i didn't intentionally kill
54. 2:32my child
55. 2:34and so that spurred me on and allowed me
56. 2:37to move forward
57. 2:38and she refused to give up hope you're
58. 2:41stripped of everything
59. 2:43and there's absolutely nothing and you
60. 2:45get to the bottom
61. 2:47i think that's when you come into touch
62. 2:49with who you really are
63. 2:51and christine would find herself at the
64. 2:53very lowest of all depths
65. 2:55while awaiting trial for the tragic fire
66. 2:57but free on bond
67. 2:59christine had a brief relationship and
68. 3:01got pregnant
69. 3:03now she faced giving birth to her second
70. 3:05child
71. 3:06in prison i don't even think it really
72. 3:08sunk in
73. 3:09that i was gonna have another child
74. 3:12until i actually had him
75. 3:13because you're just broken
76. 3:18her second son trent was born three
77. 3:21months after she was locked up
78. 3:23christine woke up after a c-section with
79. 3:25her legs
80. 3:26chained to the hospital bed briefly held
81. 3:28her baby
82. 3:29and was sent back to her cell the next
83. 3:31day
84. 3:32i was ripped apart i mean i was
85. 3:37a young girl when i found out i was
86. 3:38pregnant with tony and that changed
87. 3:41everything for me and i worked and i
88. 3:43went to school and i was trying to do
89. 3:45things
90. 3:45better because i wanted it to be perfect
91. 3:48for him
92. 3:49and when all of that was wiped out
93. 3:53i essentially had nothing so
94. 3:57it didn't matter to me that i was there
95. 4:00until she became strong enough to think
96. 4:03about what else she was losing
97. 4:04i had trent and i realized i had
98. 4:07something else to fight for that i
99. 4:09didn't lose
100. 4:11absolutely everything christine's family
101. 4:14brought trent to visit his mother behind
102. 4:16bars
103. 4:17she earned a bachelor's degree while in
104. 4:19prison and tried to investigate the
105. 4:21legal rulings in her own conviction
106. 4:23after years of rejections she finally
107. 4:25found an attorney
108. 4:26who would appeal her case and that felt
109. 4:29like what
110. 4:30for somebody to to believe in you too i
111. 4:33was walking tall
112. 4:34that day at one point christine was
113. 4:37tempted with a plea deal
114. 4:38all she had to do was confess and she
115. 4:41could reduce her sentence to just
116. 4:43six more years otherwise she faced
117. 4:46another
118. 4:4717 years until she would be eligible for
119. 4:50parole
120. 4:51that was the most agonizing decision
121. 4:54because i wanted out of that prison
122. 4:56more than anything in the world
123. 4:59but i wasn't going to say that i did
124. 5:01something that i didn't do
125. 5:03in order to get that christine turned
126. 5:06down the deal
127. 5:07and decided to keep fighting who i was
128. 5:11my word what was inside of me was the
129. 5:14only thing
130. 5:15that i could give or share with my child
131. 5:20and i didn't want him to think that it
132. 5:23was okay to lie
133. 5:24to get what you wanted and finally
134. 5:28a break an expert in forensic toxicology
135. 5:31agreed to look at the evidence against
136. 5:33her she was able to prove off of my
137. 5:35son's autopsy
138. 5:37that it wasn't an arson soon after the
139. 5:40center on wrongful convictions at
140. 5:42northwestern university
141. 5:43agreed to fight for her freedom judy
142. 5:46royal worked with christine's attorneys
143. 5:48we had an arson expert review the
144. 5:51records in the file
145. 5:53he found the evidence against her was
146. 5:55flawed and the original lab report
147. 5:57that sent christine to prison was wrong
148. 6:01the observable patterns had nothing to
149. 6:04do with
150. 6:05an ignitable liquid there was no
151. 6:07evidence of
152. 6:09an arson it was christine's moment of
153. 6:12truth
154. 6:12the investigation really went sideways
155. 6:15when they
156. 6:15declared that all of this complex burn
157. 6:18pattern
158. 6:19was the result of an ignitable liquid
159. 6:21being spread
160. 6:22throughout the room instead it could
161. 6:25have simply been traces of kerosene
162. 6:27used in home heaters that investigators
163. 6:29categorized as diesel fuel
164. 6:31used to set a fire i was
165. 6:34shocked very dismayed that they would
166. 6:37reach a conclusion that
167. 6:38this would have been an ignitable liquid
168. 6:40fire set in multiple locations
169. 6:43based on what they had then
170. 6:46even more disturbing a smoking gun
171. 6:49christine's lawyers found an altered
172. 6:51draft of a chemist document
173. 6:53the discovery meant hope but also
174. 6:56disbelief somebody either the
175. 7:00the chemist or
176. 7:03[Music]
177. 7:05the fire people who got it somebody
178. 7:08altered that somebody changed my fate
179. 7:13what did they do to you if you could
180. 7:14tell them
181. 7:17what they did there did to you
182. 7:22what you took everything you took every
183. 7:25dream i had
184. 7:26you took every hope i had you took every
185. 7:29moment
186. 7:31with my son every single one
187. 7:35i didn't get to take him to that first
188. 7:36day of school and i didn't get to go do
189. 7:38those things
190. 7:40you took it all the evidence seemed to
191. 7:43unravel the prosecution's theory
192. 7:45that christine had set the fire but she
193. 7:48still
194. 7:48faced an uphill battle to get a new
195. 7:51trial
196. 7:52problem is with criminal appeals is you
197. 7:54must go back
198. 7:55initially before the same court
199. 7:58incredibly christine lost the challenge
200. 8:00to her conviction
201. 8:02despite all the evidence in her favor
202. 8:04the judge ruled
203. 8:05the found documents did not disprove the
204. 8:08case against her
205. 8:10but her story doesn't end here she'd
206. 8:12only begun to fight the battle for her
207. 8:15life
208. 8:20christine now had evidence showing she'd
209. 8:23been framed for the fire
210. 8:24that killed her son but she still faced
211. 8:27decades behind bars
212. 8:29i really think there was a conspiracy
213. 8:32the mystery here is
214. 8:33that it's not known who actually added
215. 8:36those two very critical numbers
216. 8:38and that's where things really went
217. 8:40wrong
218. 8:42so christine and her attorneys focused
219. 8:44on unraveling the mystery of the altered
220. 8:46evidence
221. 8:48if a jury had heard this evidence the
222. 8:50result would likely have been different
223. 8:52she would never have been convicted
224. 8:54she would never have lost 17 years of
225. 8:56her life if i allow myself to think
226. 8:58that somebody intentionally did that
227. 9:02it makes it 10 times worse that critical
228. 9:05clue proved
229. 9:06christine was innocent it still took
230. 9:09another two and a half years
231. 9:11before christine finally found justice
232. 9:14from a higher court
233. 9:15the court of appeals looked at her
234. 9:17evidence ruled in her favor
235. 9:20and just like that christine's
236. 9:21conviction was reversed
237. 9:23what was that day like when you knew you
238. 9:24were leaving
239. 9:28um it was surreal i didn't
240. 9:32i did not know that i was going to be
241. 9:33released
242. 9:35incredibly she wasn't christine was
243. 9:37transferred to the county jail for
244. 9:39another six
245. 9:39months waiting to find out if she'd have
246. 9:42to face a new trial
247. 9:43there were some days that i was so low i
248. 9:45couldn't even pray for myself
249. 9:47that's when you come into touch with who
250. 9:49you really are
251. 9:50and what's inside of you and what's
252. 9:52important and what your values are
253. 9:54and what you keep pushing yourself for
254. 9:58then 17 long years after she first heard
255. 10:02the prison door slammed shut
256. 10:04christine learned she'd finally be set
257. 10:06free
258. 10:07but in only one sense of the word even
259. 10:10now that i'm out and my conviction has
260. 10:13been reversed and i'm exonerated it
261. 10:15still
262. 10:15hurts it still affects me i still feel
263. 10:19like i carry it around like there's
264. 10:20some kind of mark on me that says hey
265. 10:23that's her
266. 10:24it's a different sort of prison i just
267. 10:26don't have bars on my windows
268. 10:28one of the first things you did when you
269. 10:30got out of prison was
270. 10:31visit tony's grave
271. 10:34what did you say to him
272. 10:36[Music]
273. 10:40i sat down and told him i missed him so
274. 10:44much
275. 10:46and then i just cried
276. 10:50and i wasn't there very long and i
277. 10:53looked up and noticed somebody taking
278. 10:55pictures
279. 10:55on their cell phone
280. 10:57[Music]
281. 10:59so i left
282. 11:03another stolen moment
283. 11:09it's kind of a that thing where i feel
284. 11:12like i'm still in prison
285. 11:14because that should have been my own
286. 11:17personal little piece and
287. 11:20somebody was able to come in and take
288. 11:23that too
289. 11:25after years of fighting for her freedom
290. 11:28christine now struggles
291. 11:29just to survive when i first got out
292. 11:33things they weren't what i thought they
293. 11:34were going to be
294. 11:36you don't realize the impact of walking
295. 11:38out and you've got nothing but your
296. 11:40prison uniform in a bag
297. 11:41you don't even have a toothbrush she now
298. 11:44has an apartment
299. 11:45a job and a lot of catching up to do
300. 11:49how has those 17 years affected your
301. 11:52relationship with trent
302. 11:57it's not it's not ever going to be
303. 12:02a true mother-son relationship
304. 12:06my mom was there for the day-to-day
305. 12:09when i got out all i did was create more
306. 12:12problems because then he had a struggle
307. 12:15of hurting my mom's feelings by being
308. 12:18with me
309. 12:19or hurting my feelings by being with her
310. 12:24christine has had all the hurt she can
311. 12:26handle
312. 12:27now at 41 years old she just needs a
313. 12:30fresh start
314. 12:32but if prison taught her one thing it's
315. 12:35how to focus on what she wants most from
316. 12:37the rest of her life
317. 12:39while still holding on to what she found
318. 12:41at the bottom
319. 12:45when you've had absolutely everything
320. 12:46taken away from you you realize
321. 12:49that the most important things are you
322. 12:52your family spending time with
323. 12:56your friends and for that
324. 12:59i'm immensely grateful