Wrongfully convicted woman exonerated 35 years after being accused of niece's death — Transcript

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1. 0:00we've got a remarkable story today and
2. 0:01remarkable is a word here of
3. 0:03perseverance in the face of great
4. 0:05injustice
5. 0:06joyce watkins spent decades in prison
6. 0:09for a crime she did not commit because
7. 0:11of bad science a former boyfriend also
8. 0:14wrongly convicted died in prison
9. 0:16according to the innocence project false
10. 0:18or misleading forensic evidence is a
11. 0:20factor in nearly a quarter of all
12. 0:22wrongful convictions in this country
13. 0:25aaron moriarty is here with this
14. 0:26particular story erin this is just
15. 0:28heartbreaking on many levels but it was
16. 0:30an honor to meet joyce what happened to
17. 0:33joyce watkins and her boyfriend charlie
18. 0:35dunn is scary because it could happen to
19. 0:38anyone hundreds of people have been
20. 0:40convicted because of so-called forensic
21. 0:42sciences that are later discredited and
22. 0:45as you will see in this case it's an
23. 0:47error that can take years or even a
24. 0:49lifetime to correct
25. 0:52my family is my life my niece is my
26. 0:54nephew that's my life
27. 0:56late on the night of june 26 1987
28. 0:59joyce watkins drove from her home in
29. 1:01tennessee to pick up her great niece who
30. 1:04had been staying with a relative in
31. 1:06kentucky for two months
32. 1:08almost immediately watkins could tell
33. 1:11something was wrong
34. 1:12and took the child in the morning to the
35. 1:14emergency room the four-year-old seen
36. 1:17here as she was transferred to
37. 1:19vanderbilt medical center in nashville
38. 1:21was suffering from head and vaginal
39. 1:24injuries and died a day later
40. 1:27joyce did it ever occur to you at that
41. 1:29moment that you would be
42. 1:31accused of her death
43. 1:33no
44. 1:34but they questioned you yes
45. 1:36they asked me what happened to her i
46. 1:38told him i didn't know
47. 1:40i couldn't tell them something that i
48. 1:42didn't know because i don't know
49. 1:44despite evidence that the child had been
50. 1:46injured while in kentucky watkins and
51. 1:49her boyfriend charlie dunn became
52. 1:51suspects after an assistant medical
53. 1:53examiner visually observing the child's
54. 1:56bruises mistakenly determined that she
55. 1:59had been injured during the nine hours
56. 2:01she was with the couple everybody just
57. 2:03got laser focused on joyce and charlie
58. 2:06jason gitchner is a senior attorney with
59. 2:08the tennessee innocence project it
60. 2:11didn't matter that
61. 2:12they cooperated with the investigation
62. 2:14that they kept meeting with the police
63. 2:15over and over again without a lawyer and
64. 2:17saying we didn't do this come take
65. 2:19whatever evidence you want watkins and
66. 2:21dunn were both convicted and sent to
67. 2:23prison for life it took everything away
68. 2:26from us
69. 2:27it took us from our families
70. 2:30him from his kids
71. 2:32took us from
72. 2:33everything we worked for
73. 2:35over the years they tried and failed to
74. 2:38get their convictions overturned in 2015
75. 2:42while still incarcerated charlie dunn
76. 2:44died of throw cancer later that year
77. 2:47after 27 years in prison watkins was
78. 2:51released on parole what was your mission
79. 2:54at that point
80. 2:55to prove our innocence last summer the
81. 2:58conviction review unit of the davidson
82. 3:00county district attorney's office
83. 3:02released a report finding that the
84. 3:05methods used by the medical examiner
85. 3:08have been largely discredited and
86. 3:10determined that joyce watkins and
87. 3:12charlie dunn are actually innocent when
88. 3:16you
89. 3:16heard at the hearing last december just
90. 3:20how wrong her medical evidence was in
91. 3:231987 and that it was
92. 3:27the main evidence against you and
93. 3:28charlie how did you feel about that
94. 3:31broken real heartbroken
95. 3:34because it's something that should have
96. 3:36never happened
97. 3:37that was when i was incarcerated it took
98. 3:4035 years and the unwavering faith of
99. 3:44joyce watkins now 74 years old but in
100. 3:48january of this year the court finally
101. 3:51got it right
102. 3:52miss watkins this
103. 3:54charge against you is dismissed
104. 3:57and to the family of
105. 3:59charlie dunn the charge against charlie
106. 4:02dunn is dismissed it was a happy day
107. 4:06it was a happy day
108. 4:08but bittersweet too
109. 4:10you never got to grieve either you never
110. 4:11had time to grieve the loss of brandy no
111. 4:14i haven't
112. 4:17but
113. 4:22i'm going to go and visit her grave
114. 4:26in a few months
115. 4:30both joyce watkins and charlie dunn lost
116. 4:32everything they had under tennessee law
117. 4:35joyce has to first apply for and then
118. 4:37get a pardon from the governor to be
119. 4:39eligible for any compensation and
120. 4:42there's likely nothing for the family of
121. 4:44charlie dunn i think the real takeaway
122. 4:47on this story is the fact that there was
123. 4:49too much weight put on one witness that
124. 4:51assistant medical examiner because they
125. 4:54ignored all the evidence that this child
126. 4:57had had problems in kentucky before
127. 4:59joyce and charlie ever pick them up but
128. 5:02i'm looking at joyce who lost such a big
129. 5:04chunk of her life charlie who is no
130. 5:06longer with us will they reopen the
131. 5:08investigation because somebody did
132. 5:10something to this little girl and it
133. 5:11wasn't them i think there is a demand
134. 5:14for that but it has been 35 years and so
135. 5:17you know witnesses are gone um i think
136. 5:20it could be very very difficult
137. 5:22um you told us just before we went on
138. 5:25there she was in the process of adopting
139. 5:27a child herself i think so she lost many
140. 5:29things she did you know she owned her
141. 5:31own home and she had savings but i think
142. 5:32what hurts her the most is the fact that
143. 5:34she was in the process of adopting a
144. 5:36child she's all about family and i think
145. 5:39that's what weighs on her the most the
146. 5:40biggest loss and that can't be
147. 5:42compensated for what was she like uh
148. 5:45aaron well i have to i'm in awe of her i
149. 5:48the word grace comes to mind every time
150. 5:51when you everyone says that when they
151. 5:53meet her she doesn't appear to have
152. 5:55anger um she is just determined and and
153. 5:59here's what i loved about her the most
154. 6:00that it wasn't enough for her to be
155. 6:02exonerated even though charlie had gone
156. 6:05she insisted he'd be exonerated as well
157. 6:08wow and and you pointed out yesterday
158. 6:10aaron the killer killers still at large
159. 6:13abs well have never been if someone
160. 6:15killed her and they don't think these
161. 6:17injuries are accidental that person has
162. 6:19never been brought to justice no
163. 6:21question uh tough story aaron
164. 6:23compensation here though erin that's
165. 6:25that's that strikes me too no
166. 6:27compensation no well under the law she
167. 6:29has to get a pardon first she has to get
168. 6:31a pardon first and then it's limited to
169. 6:33a million which may sound like a lot but
170. 6:36it's not considering all that she lost
171. 6:38yeah it's not erin thank you very much