on this episode of "death row stories" -- >> what's going on, ma'am? >> he just stabbed me in my throat. >> a mother's throat is slashed, and her two young sons are murdered. >> it was a bloodbath. and when a crime like this happens, someone in the house did this. >> you were involved in the murder. >> no, i was not. >> no motive, no explanation. >> by god, somebody is going to pay for these two boys being murdered. >> materialistic, a temptress. >> there was a body on the water. >> he was butchered and murdered. >> many people proclaim their

innocence. >> in this case, there are a number of things that stink. >> he needs to pay for it with his life. >> the electric chair flashed in front of my eyes. >> getting a conviction at all cost. let the truth fall where it may. >> going to florida in two days. i can't wait! >> are you going to take the camera with you? >> yeah, i'll take the camera with me. >> darlie lynn and darin routier were high school sweethearts from lubbock, texas. they were the proud parents of three boys. >> what's your name? >> devon. >> do something special. do a cartwheel. >> whoa, way to go, devon. >> say hi, damon. >> hi. >> damon, can you do a flip? >> no. >> the family moved to an upscale neighborhood in dallas after darin routier's computer business took off.

by all accounts, they were living the charmed life. but that would all change on june 6th, 1996. >> it was an average day. it was an ordinary day. you know, i remember going to sleep. >> that night, darlie fell asleep in front of the tv with her two older sons, devon and damon. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> somebody came in and -- >> ma'am? >> they stabbed me and my children. >> who did? >> my little boy. >> darin was upstairs asleep with their infant. he heard darlie yell for him and heard a glass break, and that's when he came downstairs to find a bloodbath. >> there was blood all over.

>> 6-year-old devon routier had two devastating wounds to his chest. they went completely through his body. he was impaled by a large knife. >> darin tried to perform cpr. >> when i blew into his mouth, the first thing that happened was air came out of his chest and blood sprayed all over me. >> ma'am, is there anybody in the house besides you and your children? >> my husband. he just ran downstairs. he's helping me but they're dying. >> darlie routier had also been stabbed to the neck and arms. >> she's telling darin that some men came in here and did this. >> all right. listen, ma'am. you need to let the officers in the front door, okay? >> the first two officers who

arrived, i think, essentially were just shocked. one of the boys was dead, but the other was alive. damon was found near a wall, and he'd been stabbed multiple times in the back. he was barely alive, and he put down a bloody palm print to help himself up. >> when paramedics arrived, 6-year-old devon was already dead. as they tried to revive 5-year-old damon, he gasped his final breath. >> i got a phone call at 3:00 in the morning. devon and damon are dead, and darlie lynn might be dying. and i just started screaming. >> darlie was rushed to baylor university medical in dallas and immediately taken into surgery. the necklace darlie had been wearing at the time of the attack was so deeply imbedded in her throat it had to be surgery removed.

but it also saved her life, stopping the knife less than two millimeters from her carotid artery. >> the surgeon who treated darlie, he took my hand and said she was lucky to survive this. >> when darlie awoke from anesthesia, two detectives from the rowlett police department were waiting to interview her. >> the story was an assailant was in there. she woke up and a man was over her that she started fighting with. and she really wouldn't give any type of description because she said she couldn't remember. couldn't remember his face and couldn't remember anything about it. >> at the crime scene, detectives tried to gather pieces to a murky puzzle. >> i think the rowlett police department was entirely overwhelmed, and they didn't know what to do. the way they were handling evidence, the way they were trying to take pictures. they have a camera guy going through there while others were picking up evidence. and anyway, it was just absolute chaos.

>> the rowlett police department had only handled only one other multiple homicide in its history. so they called help for help from a retired dallas police detective. within minutes, they developed a theory that ruled out an intruder. >> there were numerous items, watches and rings, all laid out on the island in the kitchen, and nothing was taken. darlie routier said that the assailant dropped the knife and she picked it up in the utility room which led to the garage. the knife was covered with blood. they found evidence where it was laid on the carpet and on the counter in the kitchen, but they didn't find any evidence of it being dropped in the utility room. that's where she said she picked it up, which didn't correlate with the evidence. darin hears glass break. the troubling thing about that, there was a broken wine glass there and it was on top of her bloody footprints, which proves it was placed there after she'd been walking around down there. the red flags were so startling.

this ain't making sense. when a crime like that happens in the home, an experienced detective goes, it's someone in the house that did this. >> as word of the murders spread, news crews descended on the routier home. >> she was bleeding all over and said they killed my babies. >> one neighbor said her son michael had just spent the night tuesday. >> i'm just so glad he wasn't there last night. >> after darlie was released from the hospital, she and darin were driven directly to the rowlett police department where they were questioned separately. according to police, in this critical moment, darlie's story shifted. instead of waking to face an intruder, darlie now claimed her son damon had woken her calling, mommy, mommy. she then saw a man with a knife

and followed him into the utility room. >> i do not think that those two stories are mutually exclusive. darlie could have been awoken by a burglar and momentarily have a memory lapse or blackout or whatever, and then also have some perception that she was woken by the baby. >> all i was thinking about was trying to save the babies. i mean, darin and i tried to save the babies, but it was too late, and the babies are gone. but we tried. we tried. and we have to live with that forever. >> 12 days after the murders, darin and darlie return to the rowlett police department for more questioning. they walked in voluntarily, but only one of them would walk out. >> at approximately 10:20 p.m. this evening, investigators from the rowlett police department arrested darlie routier. as for the father, darin, at this point, we do not believe he was involved in the murders. we believe that the white male

suspect described by darlie routier as the man who attacked her and murdered her children never existed. >> i watched it on the 10:00 news, my daughter being arrested. had no clue. had no idea. i looked up, and there's darlie in handcuffs, crying. >> darlie was charged with capital murder and taken to the dallas county jail. >> it just didn't seem real. like it just couldn't be happening. i was just in a place of deep hurt trying to survive. still in the shock that my babies were gone. every month? by your wirelel additional fees. tacked on taxes. come on! with t-mobile one, taxes and fees are now included! get 4 lines of unlimited lte data for 40 bucks each. that's right - all unlimited. all in! and now, for a limited time save

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before being arrested for the murder of two of her sons, darlie routier was a 26-year-old mother of three boys. she was known as a doting mother who baked cookies for her boys and their neighborhood friends. >> it's terrible to think a mother would do something like that, but it's good to know they caught the murderer. >> darlie's arrest came less than two years after susan smith claimed an assailant had taken her two boys before smith herself confessed to driving

them into a lake in south carolina. >> as with susan smith, there were two young boys involved. pretty quickly, darlie was called dallas' susan smith. >> she is not a susan smith, and we're going to prove this. >> concerned that darlie might be released on bail, child protective services came to take her son drake away from darlie's mother. >> i said, you're not taking drake. we haven't done anything wrong. and she said, well, you think darlie's innocent, so we can't be assured that you will protect him. and i said, my daughter is innocent until proven guilty, or has it changed now? >> drake was temporarily placed in a foster home, and with darlie's trial approaching the media spotlight own intensified. >> sources say the routiers may have been in financial trouble and had recently taken out large insurance policies on the boys. >> the routiers tried to fight back. >> there were two $5,000 insurance policies. that was not enough to even bury the boys.

>> i stand behind darlie 150%. i know she didn't do it. i know all the millions of little pieces of this puzzle that will come out in the trial. >> after their radio interview, darlie's mother and darin were handed subpoenas after violating orders not to talk about the case. >> they hired douglas mulder who also agreed to take on darlie's case. >> it's an interesting case, and i'm going to look forward to trying it. >> i'm very happy. he's the best. >> mulder's fee was $250,000. and the routiers scrambled to raise all the money they could. >> we started selling everything in the house. all our family members started taking their children's college funds. we sold everything. >> greg davis was the lead prosecutor assigned to the case. >> the only real announcement we made today was that the state will be seeking the death penalty in this case.

>> davis would only try darlie for damon's death, since victims under age 6 qualify for the death penalty. >> the reason the state tries for only one murder is, if she's found innocent, they can try her for the secondne. that's a way for the state to load up a double-barrel shotgun. >> given the media circus in dallas, the trial was moved to the small conservative town of kerrville, texas. >> why that was agreed to is really unfathomable to me. >> richard mosty, second chair on darlie's defense, was raised in kerrville. >> doug mulder always says to me, mosty, if i ever get murdered, i want you to promise that my murderer will get tried in kerr county. >> on january 6th, 1997, darlie's trial began. her family who had all been called as witnesses were banned from the court. but darin's aunt sandy slipped under the radar.

>> darlie lynn had asked me, please, would you come to the trial? i had never been to a trial in my life. all i'd seen was perry mason. i didn't know what to expect. >> everyone is behind darlie 100%. she had nobody in that courtroom other than me that she could turn and look to. >> true crime novelist barbara davis who would later publish a book about the case was also in the courtroom. >> greg davis is an extremely dynamic prosecutor. he had a way of making you believe what he said was the god's truth. he began painting darlie as materialistic. a buxom blond, worried about her own self and how she looked. a temptress, so to speak. greg davis constantly portrayed her as a psychopath. >> on the stand, retired lieutenant james krom laid out his case for a staged crime scene. jewelry left on the kitchen counter. the murder weapon suspiciously moved and a slashed window

screen in the garage. >> burglars, intruders don't usually cut a screen because they know you can pry a screen off very easily. i think it's just a part of staging. >> next, the dallas county medical examiner described darlie's wounds as superficial and potentially self-inflicted. >> it was a straight slice across. but if there really was a killer in there, he would have stabbed darlie routier multiple times right through the chest like he did those boys, and she'd be dead. >> the state also focused on blood spatter from the two boys, found on the back of darlie's night shirt. >> our blood expert demonstrated how that happens if you're kneeling over someone and stabbing. he showed you come up and when it comes up is when the cast-off happens. but, obviously, that's the manner they had to be stabbed. >> and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, and that remained in that jury's mind. >> for darlie's defense, doug

mulder called two doctors. one who said she was suffering from traumatic amnesia, and another who thought darlie's wounds had not been self-inflicted. they also focused on the 911 call from the night of the murders. >> they just stabbed me. >> the 911 tape, when i heard it, i was very convinced that she was a hysterical mother. but all of a sudden, darlie was worried about touching a knife. >> there's a knife? don't touch anything. >> i already touched it. >> it's okay. it's all right. >> what grieving mother would even think of that. she went from being a victim in their eyes to a murderer of two little children. >> finally, prosecutors showed the jury a news report shot eight days after the slayings. ♪ happy birthday to you

>> for some, this may seem a strange thing to do and an odd place and time. ♪ happy birthday dear devon >> singing "happy birthday" in a cemetery to a son who was brutally stabbed to death just over a week ago. >> love you devon and damon. >> it was one of the strangest things i'd ever seen. not how you'd expect a mother whose boys had been brutally murdered to act, to grin and smack gum and shoot silly string. >> my gut reaction was what the general public was. how could a woman whose boys were just murdered do something like that? and the cameras were there to capture it. i think that sealed her doom. >> during deliberations, the jury asked to see the silly string videotape nine times. and after only eight hours, they returned with their unanimous verdict -- guilty.

night had fallen when darlie arrived at the texas department of corrections. considered a suicide risk, darlie was dressed in a white paper gown for her walk to death row. >> it just didn't seem real. like it just couldn't be happening. it seemed like a nightmare. >> do you have anything to say? do you have any comment? is there anything you'd like to say? >> i didn't murder my children. oh, did i say there's only one special edition? because, actually there's 5. aaaahh!! ooohh!! uh! holy mackerel. wow. nice. strength and style. which one's your favorite? come home with me! it's truck month! find your tag for an average total value over $11,000 on chevy silverado all star editions when you finance through gm financial.

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after darlie routier was sent to death row, her family quickly ran out of money to pay her attorney douglas mulder. >> we had to sign a paper even after she was convicted that for two years, if we did any movies or books or whatever, we owed him the balance. >> the courts appointed jay stephen cooper to lead darlie's appeals. >> as an appellate lawyer, you get the transcript of the trial and work from the transcript. it's strictly from what's on the page. in this case, what's on the page was erroneous in large parts, and we had a lot of issues in reconstructing the trial

transcript. >> the trial transcript had over 30,000 mistakes. >> it was very serious the difference between yes and no. the difference between up and down. and i'd never seen that before in 25 years of practicing law. >> when sandra halsey, the court reporter for darlie's trial was questioned, she pled the fifth amendment. cooper felt competent the flawed transcript could earn a new trial for darlie, preferably in a courtroom away from kerrville. this drew concern from prosecutors. >> when all this came to light, the state offered her a life sentence, and all she would have to do is basically admit that she had killed her children. >> and what did she say? >> no. >> and what does that tell you about darlie. >> she's strong. she's brave, and she's innocent. >> but just hours before the scheduled hearing, the judge denied darlie's motion. >> these demonstrators protested a state district judge's decision to cancel the hearing

in routier's case originally scheduled for today. >> we're the voice for darlie routier. >> the issue with the court reporter literally changed the court reporting industry. and there are many people to this day who are astounded that that trial record did not result in a new trial for darlie routier. >> darlie's defense now faced the uphill battle of appeals. but as cooper dug through evidence, he came across a second videotape which never was shown to the jury. it cast the silly string incident in a very different light. >> the silly string incident was a major factor in her conviction from the jurors' own mouth. but what was not shown to the jury was this two-hour memorial video that took place before the silly string incident. >> the second video was secretly filmed by police attempting to capture any guilty comments made

at the boys' memorial. >> the preacher was there. the family was there. prayers, crying. emotion you would expect, all appropriate behavior. >> i have silly string. >> her sister brought the silly string. it wasn't darlie's idea. >> this was my son's birthday, devon's birthday, and my sister and her boyfriend went and got silly string. he loved silly string. we did for them what devon didn't get to have and what we knew that he would want and enjoy. they took that, and they twisted it, and they turned something that was supposed to be beautiful and tried to make it into something very ugly. >> when doug mulder brought up the tape during the trial, the detectives who were asked about it pled the fifth. >> we had a lady on death row in

texas who in the course of litigation, the only three people who took the fifth amendment were the two lead detectives and the court reporter. >> the question for cooper was, why hadn't mulder shown this second videotape to the jury? >> i don't know why they didn't show the tape. greg davis said, put it in if you want, but they never did put that portion in. >> i think it was a huge mistake not to show the jury this memorial service. i think it would have effectively nullified any impact the silly string video had. >> as he continued to build darlie's appeal, cooper was confronted with another question. why had mulder never raised darlie's husband darin as a possible suspect? >> let's be practical about this. there are two adults in this house and two dead children. and darlie is sliced and cut and beat severely.

well, the most logical culprit of that, if it's not an intruder, would be the husband or darin. >> in addition to defending darlie, doug mulder had represented darin in his gag order case. >> we've alleged in several appellate pleadings that mr. mulder was suffering from a conflict of interest. at the time that doug mulder represented darlie, he had a continuing duty to protect darin. >> i was in the room when mulder and darin had that conversation. darin had said, you know, well, i don't want them going after me because i didn't do anything. and mulder said, well, you didn't do anything. i don't see any reason to go after you. and that was that. >> be very difficult to point a finger at darin when the person on trial said my husband's not involved. >> at that time, that was just absurd to me.

it was -- i didn't even want to hear anything like that. >> what you didn't really hear about at the time was the life insurance on darlie, of which darin was the beneficiary. it was $250,000. >> this insurance policy raised questions, even with one of darin's own family members. >> this is my nephew. i don't know if darin was involved. i know that that is a big question. everybody has their answer to that. in my heart, i say no. in my head, i have a few questions. >> to answer those questions, sandy contacted multi-millionaire brian pardo. something of an arm chair detective, pardo supports the death penalty but funds investigations for inmates he thinks are innocent. >> i felt it was extremely important to exclude darin. and the only way he was going to be eliminated as a suspect was

to pass a polygraph, what police like to do. >> can you name the person that stabbed your son? >> no. >> the results of pardo's investigation were about to uncover dark secrets that darin had kept hidden for years. once upon a time a girl with golden locks broke into a house owned by three bears. she ate some porridge, broke the baby bear's chair, and stole some jewelry, a flat-screen tv, and a laptop. luckily the geico insurance agency had helped the bears with homeowners insurance. they were able to replace all their items... ...including a new chair from crate and barrel. call geico and see how easy it is to switch and save on homeowners insurance. how to brush his teeth. (woman vo) in march, my husband didn't recognize our grandson. (woman 2 vo) that's when moderate alzheimer's made me a caregiver. (avo) if their alzheimer's is getting worse, ask about once-a-day namzaric.

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darlie routier had been on death row for 15 months when

brian pardo began raising questions about her husband darin. darin adamantly denied any involvement in the murders of his sons, and to prove it, he submitted to a polygraph test. >> the polygraph examiner worked with the police department. he came around the other side of the table and sat down. and he said, darin, you have utterly failed this examination. it looks to me like you perpetrated this crime. >> you were involved in the murder. >> i was not. >> you were. >> in what way? >> in what way? you helped plan. you were aware of what happened and you helped carry it out. and you stabbed your wife. >> no, i did not. >> i find it fascinating that you can accuse your wife. >> when brian pardo came back and pointed a finger at darin, the whole family went ballistic, and how dare aunt sandy brought

him into this. i have to admit i wrote back and said, you're the one on death row. you need to think about what you're doing. >> the polygraph wasn't the only revelation about darin. pardo also hired a private investigator who discovered that before the murders, darin suggested hiring someone to rob his house so he can collect insurance money. >> he had come up with a screwball scheme. he already had one insurance scam with a car and got the money for the car. >> in a signed affidavit, darin admitted to the car scam and the plot for a home robbery. >> i've known darin since he was 15 years old. possibly you could get me to believe that he set it up for a robbery because he talked about that. he would never hurt his children

or hurt darlie, never. i will never believe that. >> but the results of pardo's investigation differed. >> darlie had no motive at all. and darin had $250,000 worth of motive. i met with darlie and told her that we were very persuaded that darin was a participant in this act. >> when darlie was told some of the facts regarding darin, she totally lost it for the first time in her mind, she thought maybe darin was involved in it. >> i felt betrayed. here's the person that i had been with since high school. that i had three children with. and a good marriage, so i thought. and whether or not that had anything to do with this or not, to know that that had been plotted behind my back hurt.

it hurts. >> did it make you think that maybe he could have been behind this? >> this made me have a lot of questions. >> while any case against darin would have been purely circumstantial, that didn't explain why doug mulder hadn't fended off some of the circumstantial evidence against darlie who was facing death row. >> really the biggest failure was the failure to use any forensic testing to advance the defense on darlie's behalf. >> the primary evidence, i think, was probably the strongest forensic evidence that the state had. >> the state contended that fibers found on a bread knife in the routiers' kitchen matched the slashed window screen. >> they didn't do any testing to exclude other sources for that particular fiber or even to pin

it down, really, to the screen and only the screen. >> the bread knife had been dusted for fingerprints with a brush that raised qutions for cooper. >> my experts tested seven random fingerprint brushes, and four of them had the same chemical consistency in appearance as this one fiber that was found on the bread knife. >> it's typical in a criminal case that the defense is not satisfied with the state's case. if there was any dispute, certainly you would have heard from that evidence. >> if the defense had any experts, who are they? where are they? why aren't they speaking out? >> the d.a. in final arguments said, ladies and gentlemen, the defense hasn't brought any witnesses to contradict, so the only evidence before you is what our experts. >> cooper's team also learned about three fingerprints at the crime scene that police had

marked as unidentified. but to match these to a potential intruder they first had to rule out the family, and police had failed to get prints from devon and damon's bodies. that left darlie and her family with only one very emotional choice. >> we had to have them exhumed and have a specialist come in to take their fingerprints because they footprinted them, but they didn't fingerprint them. >> i just couldn't believe this nightmare had gotten to that point. >> darlie hoped the boys' prints would soon provide evidence of what she claimed all along, concrete proof of an intruder. additional fees. tacked on taxes. come on! with t-mobile one, taxes and fees are now included! get 4 lines of unlimited lte data for 40 bucks each. that's right - all unlimited. all in! and now, for a limited time save more than you pay in taxes on all smartphones.

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three years after darlie was sentenced to death, her sons' bodies were exhumed in an attempt to rule them out as the source of the unidentified fingerprints found at this crime scene. >> the boys were buried together holding hands. so where the hands were together, the vault had flooded. and that totally destroyed the fingerprints. >> the only other option to identify the fingerprints was dna. but cooper's request for testing was denied by the courts. >> dna would help, but there's other aspects of the case that i think are very helpful to us, so we're not just limited to the

dna. >> cooper felt the prosecution's timeline of events also had flaws. >> well, the timeline that's drawn by the state, it was remarkable that they were going to sell it to this jury because of the long time that she was on the telephone with 911. >> darlie's call to 911 lasted five minutes and 44 seconds. >> damon could only have lived for eight or nine minutes after those wounds were inflicted. this is according to courtroom testimony. so since she was on the phone with 911 for five minutes and 44 seconds, she had a lot to do real fast. >> the biggest wrench in the timeline was the discovery of a bloody sock found in an alley 75 yards away from the routier home. >> that sock is the most important piece of evidence. >> there's no way it fits into the timeline. one of the things that had to

happen was the blood on the sock. because both boys' blood was found on the sock. >> they hadn't figured out what to do with the sock. there isn't but a couple of minutes for her to stab and kill the children, cut the screen, get this sock and run it down the alley in the dark, through a gate that doesn't really work very well, come back. then the state claims that she stood at the kitchen sink and injured herself. staged the crime scene. it really defies common sense to believe that all of that could have been done in that time frame. >> but during closing arguments, greg davis asked the jury what loving mother sleeps through the murder of her two children. and then he told the jury the last thing each of these two children saw was their killer. >> everything pointed to darlie. nothing pointed to anyone else. and i had a hand in convincing a lot of people that she did this. sold over 200,000 books. >> barbara davis' book had only

been out for about a year when she received a call from a deep throat source within the district attorney's office and that source said to her, you need to meet with me. there's some things you need to see. >> and within about 20 minutes, i had tears running down my cheeks. i had written the book based on my reputation, my integrity saying this woman had killed her children. and i was staring at facts that she indeed had not. special edit. this is one gorgeous truck. oh, did i say there's only one special edition? because, actually there's 5. aaaahh!! ooohh!! uh! holy mackerel. wow. nice. strength and style. which one's your favorite? come home with me! it's truck month! find your tag for an average total value over $11,000 on chevy silverado all star editions when you finance through gm financial. find new roads at your local chevy dealer.

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after the publication of true crime writer barbara davis' scathing book, a secret source within the d.a.'s office showed her evidence that she'd never seen. >> when i saw the photographs, this was a small police department, never handled a murder case like this. and the pictures were taken out

of sequence. major evidence was picked up and moved around because i saw it here in one picture, and they were here in another, contradicting any, any testimony of staging. i learned an hour before the silly string happened that they had a video showing the prayer vigil before the celebration, but the jury never saw the solemn, appropriate celebration of the boys' lives. i began to see other photographs. her throat was cut where her dominant hand wouldn't do it. her left hand would have had to have done it. she had bruises up and down her arm. and a picture began to form in my mind, the horror of the injuries she had. if the jurors had seen it, it would have been a different outcome, but they didn't even look at the evidence. the last thing they did was play the silly string tape and turn to charlie samford who was going, i don't want to do this. i don't think she's guilty. and saying now do you think she's guilty, and the freezing,

tired worn out charlie samford said okay. >> charlie samford was a juror at darlie's trial. >> when do you something and it's right, after a while, you settle. this never would settle. it never would leave me alone. >> like barbara davis, charlie samford was shocked to learn about the surveillance tape and the photos of darlie's extensive wounds. >> there was a lot of evidence that we in the jury never did see. if i would have seen those pictures before, it would have made a lot of difference in what i thought. >> he says he wasn't shown all the evidence and the evidence he wasn't shown was actually evidence he was shown. >> when the prosecution gets on their high horse and said the pictures were right there, they sure were, with thousands of other things, and they made sure they were mixed in, and the jury was not going to sit through those pictures. >> have any of the other jurors had a change of heart? >> yes, but they don't want to -- they don't want to do this. they see me coming down the aisle at walmart, they run the other way. >> in june of 2008, steven cooper finally got the break he was looking for when the texas

court of criminal appeals granted dna testing. >> it's good news. we've been fighting for it for five or six years. we're trying to get some proof of some male dna in the house that's connected to the crime scene. the infamous 85j is a fingerprint on that couch table, and that dna would certainly be one. >> if dna shows that there was in fact an intruder that night, how can darlie ever be repaid for all of the years of her life that have been spent in a 9 x 6 cell on death row? and how can she ever be repaid for the years she's lost with her sole surviving son? >> darlie's son drake is now 19 years old. he's never before given an

interview. >> i usually won't talk about it. a lot of people kind of knew that, yeah, drake's here. his mom's on death row. it's just part of my life. something i've had to live with for 19 years. >> he's been coming up here since he was, you know, pretty little. he was a little baby. so this is all he really remembers. >> drake lives with his father darin in lubbock, texas. darlie and darin were divorced in 2011. >> darin has done a good job of raising drake. he didn't get the hugs that a mom gives. >> i don't have contact, so i've never gotten to hold him or hug him since i've been in this place. >> there's just a glass in between us. i mean, can't do anything about it. >> in the summer of 2013, drake was forced to deliver devastating news to darlie. >> i was diagnosed with cancer, i mean, a year ago, june 26th. >> drake was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. >> i was handed a cell phone in the hospital bed and heard her

voice and i said, mom, i have cancer. i mean, that was probably one of the hardest things i've ever done in my life. >> you know, not being able to hold him. that was extremely hard. i didn't want to break apart for him. i wanted to be strong. >> drake's cancer still requires monthly chemotherapy, but his prospects for remission are positive. >> his body's healing. he helps keep me fighting for sure. >> darlie, will you ever admit to having killed the boys? >> i'm innocent. >> even today, i can't believe that i have a daughter who's innocent on death row. i mean, it just, it changes your whole life. that's what you think about when you wake up. that's what you think about when you go to bed. >> darlie's case is currently on hold pending dna testing.

cooper believes that the results, specifically those of the bloody fingerprint, will finally prove that there was an intruder in the home on the night of the murders. >> if we get it reversed by the appellate court has to try it or dismiss it. they're not go being to retry this case in my opinion. well-prepared attorneys with a good strategy will eat the prosecution alive. >> but time is not on darlie's side. >> in texas, if you've been sentenced to death, you have three appeals. darlie routier has lost her direct state appeal and lost the writ appeal from the state. if her federal appeals are denied, then the trial judge from that court will set a date of execution. >> i fully expect her to be put to death one day. and at that time we can finally say that justice was done in that case, and this case is now closed. >> this must be really hard for you.

what would you say to your mom? >> i mean, i love you. i always will. i hope you get out soon. that's it. >> darlie is unique in the fact that she's maintained her innocence from day one. and she was convicted in my mind partially because of susan smith and what happened there. it became apparent because of the publicity that mothers kill their children. >> it created a perfect storm, and that perfect storm swept up a 26-year-old housewife and mother with no prior criminal history and landed her on death row. >> i'm at peace. i'm at peace. i know i didn't do this. it gives me that peace inside. i can look people in the eye. i've done nothing but tell the truth. my innocent blood will be on their hands, and they will have

to answer for that one day. may not be here, but they'll have to answer for it. on this episode of "death row stories" -- a terrifying crime. >> the victim was so innocent. >> a condemned man fights for his life. >> no matter how much i begged, no one listens to a convicted murderer. >> until a passionate priest helps dig for the uth. >> my heart just dropped into the pit of my stomach, and i'm thinking, what else is here? it's the biggest smoke-screen i've ever seen in my life. >> there's a body in the water. >> he was butchered and murdered. >> many people proclaim their innocence.