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Ray Krone was a postman in Phoenix. Arizona.
On New Year's Eve in 1991,
he was arrested for the brutal ***
and *** of a waitress
from the bar where he regularly played darts.
Although he had an alibi
and evidence from the crime scene suggested his innocence
the prosecution based their case
on the testimony of an expert witness.
This bite mark expert swore that the wounds on the victim
could only have been made by Ray's teeth.
After a three and a half day trial
he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Ten years later, DNA evidence from the victims underwear
finally proved Ray was innocent
and that a serial sex offender who lived near the bar
was guilty of the ***.
The key evidence was the bite mark.
They had a bite mark expert
The prosecution led up to the importance of this bite mark
What this man was gonna to testify to his background, his experience
You know, certainly they had to sit there and listen
Because really until then, there wasn't much other evidence
they found footprints that weren't really my size footprints
fingerprints and palmprints didn't match me
I mean, they had hair that didn't match me
So this was, the prosecution built it up for this bite mark expert
The jury was certainly waiting for it, wanting to hear what he said
And he put on a great show.
Persuasive, professional, convincing
and also we later found very well paid
I think, it was something in the lines of $50,000.
He was paid by the prosecution.
Ten times what I got to defend myself.
They're classified experts, so they can state an opinion to a jury
to be believed.
And each side has an expert
And those two experts are 180 degrees opposite opinions of it.
How can you be an expert, you know, with two obviously different opinions.
How you're supposed to decide if he's right or wrong?
So I think a lot of jurors eventually just get mesmerized
And just nod to what is said, so whoever sounds the best
whoever looks the best, whoever made the best presentation
He must be right.
When the jury came back in
and announced the guilty verdict
It's not what almost, you know,
destroyed me, I mean
what hurt the most, what ripped my heart out
was when they said, "Guilty"
And I heard this most horrible scream, this wail
this moan from my mom, my sister, not 5 feet behind me
to turn around and see that horror in your eyes
I'd say, "Mom, it will be okay, don't worry, it'll be alright mom".
You know, to see that
they weren't just doing it to me
they were doing it to my family.
Death row in Arizona was
about the size of most people bathroom
Was a 6x8 cinder-block cell
The front part was all (borraged)
And the metal door, that slid it had a square hole
A rectangle hole in the middle that they fed you through
There was a cement slab on the floor that was your bed.
I got a pad, it was about an inch and a half thick.
the one on top of, the mattress, I got one sheet, one blanket
One towel, I wrapped my tennis shoes and my towel for my pillow.
I got out of that cell about three times a week
Just Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 hours
that's all I ever left that cell.
And you lived in that little hole.
It's been 10 years now
since my release
But you don't forget where you've been.
And that's how I continue to speak about what happened
Why I'm involved in the movement
Because somebody raised their right hand in the courtroom
doesn't mean they are telling the truth.
Just because it's called science and their name is labeled an expert
doesn't mean they're right.
Being on death row, seeing what happens
seeing the inability of our system to get it right
to really get to the truth
and to have a punishment that you can't reverse
when you find out you made a mistake
It's just unacceptable.
Expert witness testimony has been responsible for the wrongful conviction of 13 of the 140 death row exonerees.