i'm soledad o'brien reporting from what was once jonestown in guyana, south america. on this episode of "death row stories" a triple murder of unimaginable brutality. >> this is the one case that screamed out for the death penalty. >> an accused soldier who can't even convince his own attorney. >> i thought that tim was guilty of all get out. until the prosecution's case falls apart. >> i felt like i was sending an innocent man to prison. >> and then the state's case takes a shocking turn. >> he said, take to a seat, i have something to tell you. >> there is a body underwater. >> he was butchered and murdered. >> many people proclaim their innocence. >> in this case, there are a number of things that stink.

>> this man is remorseless. >> he needs to pay for it with his life. >> the electric chair flashed in front of my life. >> get a conviction at all costs, and let the truth fall where it may. ♪ mother's day 1985, a beautiful morning in fayetteville, north carolina. >> the dogwoods were blooming, and the people all know each other this, and it is within a mile of the fort bragg base, itself. >> but there was something amiss at the home of the eastburn family. >> the neighbors noticed that the newspapers in the drive way were piling up, and they knew that the husband was out of town. so that naturally raised curiosity. they went and peeked in the window and a heard the baby crying, and then he called the

authorities. >> i received the call from the dispatch of a homicide on the somerville road. when i got there, there was one deputy who had been in the building. his eyes teared up and he had his hat down and shaking his head and he said, i don't understand this. >> the baby was taken to safety, and detective bittle and his partner entered the house. >> as we went down the hallway, we looked this the bedroom to the left-hand side, and the daughter who was in the first grade was still in bed and had a "star wars" blanket pulled up around her head. she was stabbed ten times. you could see the stab wounds through the blanket. we went further to the master bedroom, and the youngest child was laying there on her back. her throat had been cut. almost decapitated, and on the right-hand side, facing the bed was the mother.

the bra was up around her neck. her panties had been cut off of her, and she had 14 stab wounds. >> the victims were katy eastburn, age 32, kara, age 5, and erin age 3. >> after that homicide, at night, i could close my eyes and see the children. >> and her husband gary was an air force captain. he rushed back from training in alabama. >> it is hard to explain. you just stop. the world stops. >> when you looked into his eyes, there was a void there. it tears your heart out. but you have to gather yourself, because you have a job to do. we're going to find out who did this. >> there was evidence all over that house.

they found head hair in ms. eastburn's bed. they found a head hair on cara's chest. and they found a pubic hair at the scene of the rape. they found fingerprints a all over the house. they had bloody footprints. they had a semen sample. they were certain that physical evidence would lead them to whoever killed this family. >> after walking through the house, gary eastburn also provided a tantalizing lead. they were going to move to england when he finished train ing in alabama. the family had decided to sell the dog, so they put an ad out in the local fort bragg bee and katy eastburn wrote a letter to her husband saying that a nice man came out to get the dog. >> we didn't know who it was, but anybody who had been out to that house, we wanted to talk to. >> outside of the crime scene someone approached investigators with critical information from the night of the murders. >> there was a young male named

patrick cone who said that he saw a big white dude walking down the driveway. he had blond hair about 6'2" or 6'3" and he had on a members only jack jacket and a stocking cap and a mustache. >> they passed on the road and the person said that he he was getting an early start that morning and got into the white chevette and drove off. >> i said this man has a black man's nose and a droopy eye. >> he said, that is what i saw. >> and six days after the murders, the police put out a call for the man who adopted the eastburn's dog. army sergeant, home for lunch with his wife, daughter and new dog, heard it on the news. >> tim's wife angela said, hey,

buddy, that's you. so they immediately packed up and went to the sheriff's department. >> as i walk in to the office, hen nis is sitting there. i stopped right in my tracks. i look at him and i looked at this composite and i said oh, my goodness. >> they put together a photo lineup, and settled on number two, and that is tim hennis. he said, are you sure? and he said, yes, i am sure. and he picked out the white chevette, and he said, yes, that is the car. hennis was still in the sheriff's department. he was being cooperative and they wanted samples of the hair and the blood and the saliva which he gave and midway through, he realized that he was the suspect, and he was getting madder and madder and madder. >> get that thing out of my face. >> he is the most arrogant human being i ever saw in my life. he just felt like, you can't touch me. well, yes, we will touch you.

we reached out and touched him. >> at 1:00 a.m., the sheriff's arrested timothy hennis and charged him with rape and capital murder. he was charged with capital murder and he will face the death penalty. the arrest sent shock waves through the nation. >> people bill this as the most patriotic city in the country. if someone is murder out of the blue, that stirs the blood in fayetteville. >> do you have an idea who would do this? >> she was getting strange phone calls. >> don't be giving no ideas of who did something. >> i ain't giving no ideas. >> got outraged. justice must be done. >> to defend their son, tim hennis' parents hired two young lawyers. >> i thought he was guilty as all get out.

i didn't particularly care for tim but the law school i went to stressed the importance of taking unpopular cases. >> days immediately afterwards the news got worse for tim hennis he had no alibi. angela was out of town all weekend. on saturday morning, the dragged a barrel out in the middle of the backyard and started burning stuff. something his neighbors had never seen him do before. >> i don't know what it was but it was with something he burned. >> the lady who owns the cleaners called us and said the man you have arrested brought his black members only jacket in my cleaners on friday. >> katie's stolen bank card had been used twice. found tim hennis was late on his rent. >> we really thought he was guilty.

as all get-out, so i didn't particularly care for tim. but the law school i went to >> physical fs had not matched tim hennis none of it had. >> inconclusive or negative. there wasn't a shred of physical evidence that was linking tim to the crime. >> someone other than my client committed this crime. >> from that point on, i was totally convinced he was innocent. >> but even without physical evidence linking him to the crime, tim hennis was about to go on trial for his life.

♪ while you're watching this, i'm hacking your company. grabbing your data. stealing your customers' secrets. there's an army of us. relentlessly unpicking your patchwork of security. think you'll spot us? ♪ you haven't so far. the next wave of the internet requires the next wave of security. we're ready. are you? plaque psoriasis. moderate to severe isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.

some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your doctor about otezla today. otezla. show more of you. verizon say neversettle. t-mobile agrees. never settle for verizon's overpriced gimmicks.

try the un-carrier risk-free for 14 days you'll love it, or we'll pay for you to go back. ♪ in the nation, we know how you feel about your car. so when coverage really counts, you can count on nationwide. ♪ love because what's precious to you is precious to us. ♪ love is strange just another way we put members first. join the nation. ♪ baby... ♪ nationwide is on your side

may of 1985, sergeant tim hennis had a steady job in the military and a growing daughter he was devoted to. then hennis was arrested for the brutal murder of katie and her two girls, aged 5 and 3. hennis' lawyer had come to believe in his innocence. >> i was totally convinced, watching him interact because they have a beautiful marriage and watching him with his daughter. tim is extremely good with children. i remember with my children how good he was. >> of the fingerprints, blood

and semen found at the crime scene, none of it linked to hennis. >> down here, we didn't have the equipment and the facilities they have up north. we had no dna down here when this crime occurred. i would like to have had a fingerprint. left a shoe or something we could tie him to it. but i thought we had enough to justify the case and the trial. ♪ >> the trial egan on may 27th, 1986. >> everybody wanted in that courtroom. the bailiffs a couple of times had to break up fist fights. the prosecutors called it "the show." they wanted to emphasize how gruesome the murder was. so they built a screen that took up the whole wall and they took slides of cara and erin eastburn on an autopsy table, displayed out with no clothes. >> tim is sitting there going, what do i do if he acts like it

is not bothering him, he looks like he's a cold-blooded killer. and if he gets emotionally upset it looks like he is expressing guilt. what can he do? >> this went on two days. slide after slide after slide. >> i felt i was in a slam dunk competition with michael jordan. >> prosecutor william van story told the jury hennis' motive had been sex. >> his wife was out of town, had a new baby. he decided to make a pass at the married mother of three from whom he had gotten the dog and that didn't go well. >> hennis thinks he is a player. so miss eastman said no, you read this wrong. i'm just a friendly person and with that temper of his he lost it. [ crying ] >> billy richardson emphasized the lack of physical evidence to the jury but prosecutors argued

the absence of blood on hennis' members only jacket was evidence of his guilt. >> they kept saying there was no blood because he took his jacket to the dry cleaners. >> the jacket was a damming piece of evidence. >> reporter: richardson undercut an eyewitness who i.d. hennis leaving the eastburn home. he was videotaped at the crime scene. >> when you listen to his story he is all over the place. >> bought my girlfriend some roses. >> bought roses on sunday. >> that wasn't roses that was candy, no, it was roses. >> no, no, no. i can't say that. >> on the witness stand, they cast aside any doubts. >> said these lawyers have been tricking and pressuring me. i know i picked out the right guy. >> finally prosecutors presented a surprise witness. a woman who said that two days after the murder she had seen the killer using katie

eastburn's stolen bank card. >> all of a sudden the state introduced lucille cook, little old lady, used the card on saturday morning after the kirl did. >> she told us she couldn't remember. she said, i didn't tell you the truth first time. there was a big, tall white man, mustache, blond headed guy and got in a tiny white car. >> that's the man that used the car right before i did. and she is pointing at tim hennis and the jury is sitting there looking at him. after she testified i went to the bathroom and threw up. >> the jury deliberated for three days. >> it was quarter to 5:00 on friday afternoon and the jury knocked. he was guilty on three counts. he would get the death penalty times three. tim hennis could hear his father sobbing in the courtroom. he had never heard that before.

>> when that jury said he's guilty, you still had faith he was telling the truth? >> always. never once. >> not a doubt in your mind? >> no, never. >> that time i felt like we got our man and felt good. this is the one case that truly screamed out for the death penalty. ♪ >> tim hennis had spent his entire career serving the military. now he was serving time on death row. not long after his arrival, hennis received a mysterious letter. said mr. hennis, i did the crime. you are doing the time. mr. x. >> the letter provided no concrete leads, only adding to hennis' torment. >> he got visits from his family

and his daughter is now 2 1/2 years old. he would bang her hands on the plexiglass and say "open it, daddy, open it. why won't it open?" >> billy richardson felt responsibility for his client's predicament. >> we didn't do as good of a job as we could have. i made a decision i was going to become the best lawyer i could be and i went to work. >> richardson and his partner filed an appeal to the north carolina supreme court. they had to decide what to emphasize from mislanding evidence to possible perjury. >> they quickly settled on the photographs. that presentation was thought to have riled up the jury. it was pointed at him over and over. you see this picture, he did it. see this picture, he did it. >> our state supreme court didn't just read the appeal briefs. they got a slide projector and

saw the show for themselves. within 22 days they said let's give him another trial. >> it broke our hearts. because he had to go through this one more time. >> billy richardson reverdicted every aspect of the case. >> we were so much better prepared for the second trial. when i started digging, we found how many thing s we didn't know at the first trial. >> richardson began with hennis' alibi for the night after the murder when someone used katie eastburn's bank card. >> tim hennis had 24-hour duty at ft. bragg with his unit. he couldn't leave. the people in his division remember him gluing shingles on a doll house for his infant daughter. >> but army paperwork to confirm his whereabouts had gone missing. >> the army has paperwork for paperwork. we looked for that thing and there was a checkout sheet for every day but that day. so the prosecutor had a field

day. >> but before the second trial, richardson discovered why the paperwork had gone missing. >> the reason they couldn't find it is because the prosecutors had it. they didn't make a copy of it and leave it. they just took it. and so this piece of evidence that probably would have exonerated him in 1986 was kept in the prosecutor's custody all of that time. >> richards had uncovered other information. >> he was arrested using a stolen bank card. on another occasion he was drinking and disruptive and the state dropped the case. he was known to tell people that state couldn't touch him because he was a prime witness. pat is not a strong willed person. nice guy. don't misunderstand me but head a little trouble but minor things. >> still richardson wasn't sure he could convince the jury that cohen had lied about seeing

hennis until a new piece of evidence was found. literally lying on the sidewalk. towards the promise of a better existence. but these birds are suffering. because this better place turned out to have an unreliable cell phone network, and the videos on their little bird phones kept buffering. birds hate that. so they came back home. because they get $300 for switching back to verizon. and so can you! verizon, come home to the best network.

[sfx: bell] [burke] the more you learn about the more gaps you may find. [burke] like how you may be covered for this... [burke] but not for something like this... [burke] talk to farmers and see what gaps could be hiding in your coverage. [sfx: yeti noise] ♪ we are farmers bum - pa - dum, bum - bum - bum - bum ♪

my name is jamir dixon and i'm a locafor pg&e.rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment, and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california.

>> as defense attorney billy richardson prepared for the retrial of hennis -- >> the deputy picked up the wallet noted it had a letter in it. we kept hearing the letter said tim didn't do it. you keep hearing rumors like that. >> billy goes to the sheriff's department and has to pretend he se investigating another case. if he let on he was

investigating this case it would have set off bells and wis withals. >> sure enough it belonged to a fella named sean buckner mr. he was a close friend of pat cohen, the prosecutor's star witness. the letter in his lost wallet called cohen's testimony in to question. >> that letter talks about pat's doubts. pat cohen had told sean buckner and his pea fiance about his daughters to the point where they wrote a letter about it. >> buckner was in training with the air force but when he got there, buckner closed the door in his face. >> he didn't want to get involved. sean buckner had the dilemma whether to betray his friends and free someone who maybe wrongly accused of triple murder. that was a tough one. sean buckner had no reason to help tim hennis. >> richardson came home empty handed hoping buckner would

eventually change his mind. the retrial began on february 27th, 1989, almost four years after the brutal murders. >> state went in to it thinking it would be a replay of trial one. the defense had a different case. >> this time we drilled him and let him watch it. >> did you kill these three people. >> no, i did not kill them. i have a daughter of my own and couldn't hurt anyone at all. >> we felt if he showed rage or emotion. we thought it would be see, he can get to that point how does this make you feel. >> upset and angry. >> the prosecutor said you lost your cool. went in and tried to have sex with her and when she refused

you snapped and killed her. >> they were trying to provoke him on the stand and he had to calmly say no, i did. no he said i never had sex with that woman. it never happened. they had not gotten the reaction they wanted to. to see him in the different light made the difference. >> at the first trial the absence of blood on his jacket had helped convict him as the state's expert insisted dry cleaning had removed any blood stains, but richardson saw it differently. >> i talked to the dry cleaner and he said you have to use a special chemical to remove blood. i said, well, did you use it in this case, he said no. i used ordinary dry cleaning. >> reporter: when the prosecution challenged the dry cleaner's knowledge, richardson was ready with his own expert. >> they got a members only jacket, put blood on it and sent

it to the dry cleaner. the blood was there. >> hennis' jacket had no signs of blood. richardson had turned the prosecution's evidence against them. richardson was prepared for lucille cook, who swore she saw hennis at an atm two days after the murder. >> lucille cook had made dozens and dozens of atm transactions around the time of this one. they asked her, could she remember those and of course she could not. >> bank logs showed a 3 1/2 minute gap between the victim's card being used and lucille cook's transaction. >> that doesn't seem like a lot of time until you sit there and time it. we had the jury sit there to see how long it was. >> it was the longest three and a half minutes. >> why would the killer wait three and a half minutes? one of the jurors said they got

in the jury room and laughed at her. >> now it was time for richardson to go after the state's star witness, pat cohen. after some soul searching, sean buckner agreed to testify against his old friend. >> he testified that pat koem cohen was extremely drunk that night. he had doubts about what he saw. >> patrick had told sean buckner, i feel like i'm sending an innocent man to prison. >> but richardson knew he had to answer one last question -- >> in the back of their mind, the jury is saying the kids saw something. if it wasn't your client, who was it? >> so richardson called his next witness. >> the back doors burst open and nempb the courtroom turned and looked around and the prosecutor said who's that? >> that was as close to a perry mason moment as i have ever had in the lead detective goes we're in trouble. when you're not confident your company's data is secure, the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about.

that's where at&t can help. at at&t we monitor our network traffic so we can see things others can't. mitigating risks across your business. leaving you free to focus on what matters most. one day a rider made a decision. the decision to ride on and save money. he decided to save money by switching his motorcycle insurance to geico. there's no shame in saving money. ride on, ride proud. geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides.

that i can use at any type of hotel with no blackout dates. which is why most of this legal copy is just instructions on how to win a free trip! instructions actually written in this legal copy. use your dvr to read them. this is the pre-recorded voice of captain obvious. i am not a ventriloquist.

defense attorney bill rily richardson had always wond wither ed if it wasn't tim nen hennis who did pat cohen see the night of the murders? >> billy was going door to door interviewing every neighbor and found one couple and said why don't you talk to the kid that walks the street. he said he walks the neighborhood all the time. >> didn't know who he was.

so billy did a vigil and became a quest for this mythical figure of the walker? can't win the case sitting in your office. i sat out there for six weeks. >> richardson hoped he might find the real perpetrator but came up empty handed. then before the second trial, richard ason hired an investigator to review the search and finally they found their mystery man. no murderer, but a high school senior who worked at the local supermarket. >> kid by the name of john lived down the street from the eastburn's. he was an easy sleeper and had a habit of walking the neighborhood at 3:00 in the morning. he was a big blond kid with a blond mustache. >> it fit. it fit like a glove. >> during the retrial, richardson kept his discovery from the prosecution, timing the mystery walker's entrance for maximum impact. >> the back doors burst open.

defense called john and at 3:30 in the morning you couldn't help but think could that have been who patrick saw on the road. in here's another tall white guy, blond, walking down the street. looks like -- it was a magical moment in the courtroom. the walker gave that jury a reason to have reasonable doubt. gave them a reason to say it wasn't tim. >> when the walker took the stand, richardson asked what the wore on his nightly walks down summer hill road. >> he often wore with a beanie hat and member s only jacket. black members only jacket. >> after the walkers testimony the defense moved to have the case thrown out. >> the defense accused the prosecution of outright cheating because it turned out the prosecutors knew exactly who john was. >> the state had found the guy and it bade r basically hid him from us. >> reporter: as the jury began to deliberate, richardson told

the judge what he had discovered about the prosecution's conduct. >> the deputy sheriff went to john and brought him in and had him bring his jacket and hat. they took it from him and put it in the trunk of one of the detective's cars and returned it to john after tim hennis -- that is the evidence that could have tilted it the other way. >> we got plain mad at that point. get slapped enough where you say i have had enough of it. >> it became incredible to watch this thing unfold. i went from thinking he's guilty to i'm not sure a jury is going to be able to find him guilty to he didn't do it and they have to let him go. then the jury knocked. >> after deliberating less than three hours the jury announced its verdict. not guilty on all counts.

>> i just broke down and started crying because i knew what they had been through. next to marrying my wife, next to the birth of my children, that was probably the happiest day of my life. >> we live with the family and felt what they have been thro h through. it's a tremendous, tremendous load taken off of our shoulders. >> the jurors came out and hugged tim hennis. they were adamant they need to reinvestigate this case and quit picking on this guy. >> somebody said, why are they bothering this poor man? has he not suffered enough? man killed two children and a woman, how much, the rest of his life. ♪ >> whether you like it or not,

tim is our client. if he dice we live with it. >> the case became a text book example of wrongful prosecution. scott spoke about the case, was even adapted to a tv movie. >> the case put people on notice that not everybody in prison is guilty. north carolina now has a commission that actually has released a number of innocent people. >> despite the attention to hennis' acquittal the eastburn murders would go unsolved for another 16 years until 2005 when scott spoke about the case at a criminology seminar. fayetteville detective larry trotter was in the audience. >> the premise is there are other unknowns out there. people that potentially may not have been interviewed. >> if he's innocent than who's guilty? the state of north carolina didn't pursue this for 17 years. why isn't someone trying to find who's guilty. >> someone was stalking that

woman for weeks. miss eastburn was writing her husband saying there is a fool out there following me. i don't like it. what do i do about it? why isn't it being looked at? who does it lead to. >> the detective approached him privately. he said, i want you to know the way they investigated this case 20 years ago, we're not like that anymore. i said, somebody should reinvestigate this case. i think it can be solved now. technology has improved. that's how we left it. >> in fact, trotter had been assigned by the sheriffs office to review cold cases. >> we had well over 100 unsolved cases at that time. as i went through the docket, i realized they had a vaginal swab that was taken from miss eastburn during the autopsy. it had never been sent for testing. when the murder happened dna was in the infancy. the obvious thing to do was send it for testing. >> for over two decades, gary

eastburn had lived without closure for the devastating murder of his wife and two daughters. >> we had done a great injustice to this man. how he stood up or with stood, i don't know. you want to do something for him. you want to make sure you get this. >> in may of 2006, the state crime lab contacted the sheriffs department. they had found a positive match for the dna. detective called gary eastburn to tell him the news. >> i said are you sitting down, he said, yeah. why? i said take a deep seat. i have something to tell you. business will ever face. i'r your size, your reputation mean nothing. because tomorrow, i'll be your competitor. and i was born to disrupt everything you think your business is about. see you soon. the next wave of the internet

is bringing the next wave of competition. we're ready. are you? plaque psoriasis. moderate to severe isn't it time to let the real you shine through? introducing otezla, apremilast. otezla is not an injection, or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. some people who took otezla saw 75% clearer skin after 4 months. and otezla's prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. otezla may increase the risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ask your doctor about otezla today.

otezla. show more of you. you're not at all concerned? about what now?ly? oh, i don't know. the apocalypse? we're fine. i bundled renter's with my car insurance through progressive for just six bucks more a month.

word. there's looters running wild out there. covered for theft. okay. that's a tidal wave of fire. covered for fire. what, what? all right. fine. i'm gonna get something to eat. the boy's kind of a drama queen. just wait. where's my burrito? [ chuckles ] worst apocalypse ever. protecting you till the end. now, that's progressive. then some time for first tthe two of you.eck-in whether setting out for the evening or settling down for breakfast we make sure every weekend is one to remember. doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything.

after tim hennis was freed in 1989, he didn't know where to turn. >> you feel very diminished. very worn out, dragged out. don't have the self confidence and reliability you once had. >> his lawyers told him, get out of the army. it's just a bad place to be. but he had been on death row. there weren't a lot of employers who would take that on. the army had to take him back. so he stayed in.

>> after readjusting to army life, tim hennis built a successful 25-year career in the military. >> tim hennis served in somalia, desert storm, honorably, his supervisor colonel told him he was without a doubt the best nco he had worked with. >> retired in 2004 with, good at being a husband and father. he and angela had a son they would have never had if they haven't gotten his life back. >> in 2006, a 21-year-old rape kit yielded new dna results. detective robert bitle called the victim's husband and father gary eastburn to give him the news. >> i said they got a hit on the dna. and he said, who is it and i said hennis. >> you could have knocked me over with a feather.

hit with this wave of emotion. i don't believe it. >> i was so happy. i was walking on cloud nine. >> defense lawyer billy richardson was driving through mississippi when he heard the news. >> i said stop the car. it was just like somebody had taken a two by four and hit me up side the head with it. >> i was convinced in anyone had run an actual dna on that they would find someone other than tim hennis. i believed that with every fiber of my being. >> the shocking dna results led to a pragmatic question. >> what the heck do you do now? timothy hennis had been adjudicated not guilty. therefore the state of north carolina wouldn't try him again. >> we fought a revolutionary war because the king of england could try somebody over and other for the same ofinance. our founders put in the constitution that there will be

no double jeopardy in this country. >> i understand that. but i think there might be cases like this, got this dna now that says he was a man who raped this woman and killed her. i think you should be able to. i think somehow the judicial system will have to work around that. >> that was the d.a. iefs to decide to see if the army would try him for the murders. >> a team of lawyers from the ranks helped evaluate the case for the army. >> my personal opinion about why this is important to the military is the military sent gary eastburn for duty in alabama and his family was left behind and they were murdered. i'm sure there was debate in the military. it is high profile. it's controversial but you had an enlisted person killing an officer's wife. how do you let that go? >> two years after he retired, timothy hennis was recalled to

active duty. as soon as he returned to forth brag he was charged with three counts of murder. >> tim hennis is the only person in the united states history who has been tried for his life three times after a guilty and not guilty verdicts. >> i can't comment as to why it has not happened before. however, legal analysis of it actually was pretty simple. >> it is well settled law. nothing the state does affects what the federal government can do. >> they can claim it is under a different jurisdiction all they want. this is the state of north carolina using the army to get what they wanted to do, plain and simple. >> with billry richardson on the sidelines, the court-martial of timothy hennis commenced on march 17th, 2010. the prosecutor's case hinged on the dna results. >> the sperm found in the vagina is the person who raped and slaughtered her and her children

and that is timothy hennis'. >> when the scandal erupted at the state lab, the dna evidence would be thrown in to question. >> they were mixing up dna samples and almost put innocent guy in prison. e. t-mobile agrees. never settle for verizon's overpriced gimmicks. try the un-carrier risk-free for 14 days you'll love it, or we'll pay for you to go back. no articolors,flavors, sweeteners, preservatives, and no artificial smiles. because clean dressings, taste better. panera. food as it should be.

so i'm always looking kito get more fore. my money. that's why i switched from u-verse to xfinity. they have the most free on demand tv shows and movies on all my devices. it's perfect for me because my kids are costing me a fortune.

i'm going to cabo! [ music plays ] don't settle for u-verse. xfinity is perfect for people who want more entertainment for their money.

in 2010, timothy hennis went on trial for a third time for the murders of katie eastburn and her daughters. but a scandal rocked the state lab that identified hennis' dna. the lab had been skewing results to help prosecutors. >> the woman who handled the sample back in the '80s got in trouble for mixing up some dna samples in another case. and almost put an innocent guy in prison. >> think didn't do a good job of preserving evidence. three people had been arrested for evidence tampering. >> hennis' lawyers asked for a postponement to investigate the lab. the judge refused. meanwhile, military prosecutors found a second smear from the rape kit. they sent it to a new lab and the results also pointed to hennis. >> the medical examiner's slide came back on every marker to the

defendant tested by army crime lab. you had two chains of custody. the defense could not attack the slide. >> for prosecutors the dna results swept away all previous doubts. >> i went back and replayed the first two trials. some of the old discredited instances. patrick cohen seeing sergeant hennis. fact hennis took a member's only jacket to the dry cleaners, numerous pieces of evidence that tied him though crime. >> for hennis' defenders the prosecution's had serious flaws and the top priority was getting their own evidence in front of the jury. >> a ton of evidence in the house they can't explain. they found a head hair in eastburn's bed. it's not tim hennis. there is a pubic hair where the rape took place. >> what is male dna doing under

mrs. eastburn's fingernails. that's not tim's. there's dna under the daughter's fingernail and it is not tim's. >> the prosecution and defense agreed on that. nothing else came fwook timothy hennis. under the fingernails is not timothy hennis but what is that vaginal swab. >> to me, male dna evidence under a fingernail of a woman raped is damaging evidence. who is it? >> the fingernail scrapings weren't enough for a full dna profile. so the defense asked to test all of the crime scene evidence that might point to a different perpetrator, including a blood-soaked towel. >> now whoever had sex with her didn't necessarily kill her but you can't argue that whoever cleaned up the blood didn't have something to do with it. let's find out what happened. >> in the military, if you need a test done, you have to ask a judge to have the army do it for you. >> the judge denied the

defense's request to test other items. >> i can't imagine judge in a civilian court not allowing that. you have the evidence. why not test it? >> without dna results pointing to a different suspect, hennis' lawyers decided to offer an alternate explanation for the incriminating sperm. >> at the very end, they threw out the theory that tim hennis had consensual sex with mrs. eastburn within a day or so of the homicides. >> when he said that, you could feel the -- in the room. everybody went i can't believe he said that. >> there are certain things you can do in front of the jury. there are certain things you can't. it would not have been how i would have done it. >> the 14 -person court-martial jury declared unanimously that timothy hennis was guilty of murdering katie eastburn and her children. the next task would be to decide

if he deserved he death penalty. >> when you have a man that for 25 years after this occurred did nothing but raise his family, serve in two with wars, honor rabably discharged and still married to the same woman, why are you just going to look and say that's the monster? >> he gives cookies to kids, leads prayer at church. doesn't make a difference. >> we're not there to say how or why he could do it but that he did it. >> the prosecution ended their presentation with another slide show. >> gary eastburn carried out the birthdays he's missed with his daughters, anniversaries, baptism, one of my trial partners asked gary, what do you miss the most? from his heart with tears in his eyes just said, i just miss

them. >> on april 15th, 2010, he jury sentenced timothy hennis to death. ♪ >> i feel vindicated for some things you heard when they got a not guilty. when the smiles and smirks from different people. i feel vindicated. >> tim hennis now sits in solitaire confinement at fort leavenworth, kansas. his appeals at the military and federal courts could take decades. >> i still think tim's innocent. but i'm not his lawyer now and it would be improper for me to sit down and say, 0 all right, tim, did or didn't you? i'm dying to have that conversation with him but how can you put a man to death based solely on one piece of evidence? our country was formed on the premise that one person wrongfully convicted is a grave

injustice. >> i don't know what the outcome of this is going to be but this is a good case. >> i knew we were right. i think it is a good system. i want him dead. >> you didn't take the time to think their life was -- >> important to somebody else. i didn't have no association with them. to me their life wasn't nothing. >> in 1993, nathan dunlap killed four people at a chuck e. cheese's restaurant just outside of denver, colorado. he was sentenced to death. >> he is remorseless, as he talks about his murderous decision-making. >> does it bother you that they're dead, nathan? >> no. >> he killed four people. he needs to pay for it with his life.