this is "nightline." tonight, death row mom. >> i swear, i did not murder my children. i swear. >> the texas housewife maintaining her innocence, claiming an intruder killed her two children. >> he stabbed me and my little boys! >> now decades later speaking out. >> i miss my babies. >> the evidence that could now change everything. plus, catch them all. ryan reynolds like you've never seen or heard him before. >> the only f-bomb i drop is fuzzy. >> swearing off his foul-mouthed characters for cute and cuddly. >> you're adorable. >> a peek at pikachu and his other great expectations.

and dear mom. >> words cannot describe how thankful i am to be able to call you my mother. >> one of the nfl's biggest stars paying tribute to one of his biggest supporters. but first, the "nightline" five. alwould you like a desk chair, weekends off, or the bathroom code? yes, please! which one? it's time to get more. lower fares. better service. sweeter rewards. alaska airlines.

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thanks for joining us. tonight a texas mom sitting on death row speaking out and maintaining her innocence. her two young children viciously stabbed at home. the crime scene evidence now sparking questions in a case that continues to haunt the nation more than two decades later. ♪ >> what's your name? >> devon. >> the routiers were a typical family. darly was known as a doting mother. >> hi. i'm here. >> the routiers seemed to have everything until one night in june in 1996. >> when i went to sleep, everything was perfect. when i woke up, it's been a nightmare ever since. >> what woke you up? >> my little boy, damon. he was pressing on my shoulder, and he was saying "mommy."

>> darly has always maintained that there was a man in the house that night. >> darly says that strange man attacked her. >> i could see like the outline of a man that was going through the end of the living area into the kitchen. there was a sound of glass breaking. i stood up, and i started to walk to the kitchen. and there was a knife laying down on the ground. right outside the utility room. i picked it up. it was just like an instinct. and at that time, i could see devon laying face up, and i flipped on the lights, rememb remember screaming and screaming for darren. >> she was trying to dell tell me he was hurt.

devon, devon, devon. the look on her face was just startling. >> ma'am? >> somebody stabbed me and my children. >> what? >> he just stabbed me and my little boys. >> who did! >> police spent much of the day meticulously investigating the crime scene. >> when the police were there, they saw a cut screen in the garage. which seems to indicate that someone cut the screen from the outside, stitchepped through th screen and headed through the main part of the house. and they found bloody footprints on the kitchen fleur. broken glass. bloody fingerprints and blood everywhere. >> she said that she fought off the attack. the only description of the attacker was a white male wearing dark clothing. >> about a week after the murders, on june 14th, the routiers hold a birthday party

at the cemetery for devon who would have turned 7 that day. and a local television station went out and caught it. >> happy birthday to you. >> they sprayed silly string, which took maybe 20 seconds. they sang "happy birthday", and you hear darly and darren both saying -- >> i love you devon and damon. >> even though we're sad because devon and damon aren't here, we try to hang on to what we can to get us through these times. >> and i recall how shocked i was at the seitz ight of that. and i wasn't the only one who was shocked. >> as a parent, i found it disgusting. >> so a couple days after the birthday party we get a phone call, you got to come up to the station. we hopped in the car. we ran up there. and we were excited that they were getting close to catching who did this. >> at approximately 10:20 p.m. this evening, investigators from

the arrested darly routier. we believe that the white male suspect that was described never existed. we also believe that the wounds present on darly routier were self-inflicted. >> i swear i did not murder my children. i swear. >> darly routier was charged with two counts of capital murder. if convicted, she could face the death penalty. >> one thing that investigators found very suspicious was a very odd comment that darly made on the 911 tape regarding fingerprints. >> i picked it up. >> it's okay. >> she's got two children dying in front of her. boy, that thing that comes to her mind is finger prints. >> common sense tells me no

mother would ever make a statement like that. the only inference we could draw was she was setting up why you're not going to find an intruder's finger print on there. >> when she said don't touch anything it clicked in my head, you know, oh, my gosh,dee. >> they left the knife. >> there's a knife, don't touch anything. >> i already touched it and picked it up. >> the strongest evidence of innocence are the photographs of darly. >> in all the murder cases i've tried, i've never seen a self-inflicted wound in the neck like that. i mean, just a fraction of a millimeter more, she would have bled to death. >> everyone agrees that darly had wounds. but the prosecution and defense see them very differently. prosecutors believe she wanted to make it look like she'd been attacked.

>> it was a supervision wound. it just cut the skin. you look at the injuries to the boys, deep stab wounds that went through their entire chest and back area. >> because we don't have a live witness to contradict the story, what we're going to have to rely upon is the physical evidence at the crime scene to do that for us. >> an adult athletic sock was found with a small bloodstain from both boys in the alley a few doors away. >> the sock down the alley is probably the most important piece of evidence in this case. >> the investigators were coming up with all kinds of conclusions about what happened inside the house. and then one officer found a sock. and the blood belonged to both devon and damon. how did that sock get down there? >> it's always been our belief that darly routier placed that in the alley. >> if she had done this crime, why wouldn't she throw it in the

back yard or the end of the driveway where it could clearly be found immediately by the police? >> this case is going to trial. >> reached a verdict at 3:50. we're waiting to get in the courtroom. >> the jury deliberated for seven hours before it was announced that there was a verdict. so everyone came rushing back to the courtroom. the verdict was guilty. >> darly, do you have any woulde to say? >> i didn't murder my children. >> very quickly after darly was handed the death sentence, she arrived at women's death row. she's been there ever since. >> coming in postconviction, my focus is on new things. what are the things we can find out now that couldn't be done then? >> a crucial piece of evidence in this case is a bloody finger print found near the scene. and identifying who that print belongs to is absolutely

critical to whether there's another suspect involved in this crime. >> the state has always taken the position that it didn't have sufficient points of comparison they call it to run it through the fbi's database. it could well be the print of the person who actually did this. so we filed a motion for discovery. asked for a dna testing on a number of materials, including the sock. the federal court judge, judge ferguson actually granted us the ability to run the 85-j fingerprint through the database. but the state of texas was opposed to doing that. we've been waiting on that for about nine years now. that could be the piece that makes the whole case crumble. >> even if my name is cleared and i'm exonerated, there's no winning for me. because nobody can give me devon and damon back. >> we should note, there's still no execution date set for

routier because of additional court-granted dna testing. up next, ryan reynolds is trading in his red anti-hero suit for something yellow and fuzzy. ♪ man 1: proof of less joint pain and clearer skin. man 2: proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis... woman 2: ...with humira. woman 3: humira targets and blocks a specific source of inflammation that contributes to both joint and skin symptoms. it's proven to help relieve pain, stop further irreversible joint damage and clear skin in many adults. humira is the number one prescribed biologic for psoriatic arthritis. announcer: humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb,

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ryan reynolds is shaking things up. swapping the anti-ro image for super hero cuteness. voicing a pikachu character based on the popular pokemon

franchise. here's aid rdrian bankert. >> i can assure all the parents out there, the only f-bomb i drop is fuzzy. >> reporter: he is voicing detective pikachu. >> i know you can't understand me. but put down the stapler or i will electrocute you! ♪ i want to be the very best >> reporter: first, a video game, pokemon is the highest-grossing franchise of all time. the multi-billion dollar poke-craze is beloved in comics, the game pokemon go and now a live-action film. and it all started here in japan. >> i mean, if you buy a ticket to see detective pikachu in japan, it's actually, it qualifies as a tax-deductible religious contribution. >> reporter: you are so crazy.

>> just for everyone at home. if you are in japan, write that off on your taxes. >> reporter: ryan and i met at sushi mafia in tokyo. oh. wrong hand. already. >> come on. get it together or get out! hey! >> reporter: see? >> i am like a bottomless pit for approval. thank you so much. >> reporter: where we learned how to make sushi from a master. >> that's literally all i can see, there's a blowtorch around. i'm a child. i want to play with the blowtorch. >> reporter: would you say you and pikachu have anything in common? >> we have the same sized hands, which is weird. and we share a voice, that's for sure. >> reporter: where did you get the sense of humor that you have? >> i don't know. i'm just compensating. >> reporter: for what? >> for horrifying things. >> reporter: well, some of the roles you've taken on are a bit horrifying. those included the foul-mouthed

super hero wade wilson in "deadpool." >> [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. >> language, please! >> reporter: known for his deadly swordplay. but pikachu is cute and cuddly. ryan's facial expressions were translated to pikachu with motion-capture technology. >> i didn't need to go full daniel day lewis for this role. i didn't need to lose 180 pounds and dye my hair canary yellow. >> reporter: i'm sure she would appreciate the canary yellow hair color. >> she would. >> reporter: blake as in blake lively. former star of "gossip girl", and his wife of almost seven years. they have two daughters, and she was glowing at the premiere of detective pikachu, pregnant with

their fourth child. >> my daughter was obsessed with it, i don't think she knows i'm the voice of pikachu. she just thinks i'm the voice of everything. it's going to be a hard-fought lesson at some point. >> reporter: the film brings the animated universe of pokemon to life with humans and pokemon living together and teaming up to solve crimes. >> oh, my clues! >> it's the first live-action pokemon film. so if you're a fan of pokemon or not, it's a new world. a new magical place we get to explore, and it's what it would be like if you had a pokemon in real life. >> reporter: justin smith plays the partner. along with kathryn newton, they try to stay true to the original spirit. >> this is how i wanted toee ers represented. if you're playing on the playground, imagining having battles with your friends. >> reporter: based on the fictional city.

>> we shot it as a live action movie, and we got all the performances, and these guys did an amazing job. justin and kathryn acting to nothing sometimes. >> thank you. >> that was probably the hardest part. >> you took that the wrong way. >> hi, i acted with nothing. every single day, every single second. >> reporter: back at sushi mafia, ryan finally gets his hands on that blowtorch with that trademark mischievous gleam in his eye. i bet you didn't know when you took on the role of pikachu you didn't know were you going to be making nogiri. >> i'm having the time of my life. this is amazing. >> reporter: for "nightline," adrian bankert in tokyo. >> our thanks to adrian. you can catch pokemon, detective po pokemon now. honoring mom this weekend,

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and finally tonight, we're celebrating mothers.

our partner, espn asked some superstar athletes, including baker mayfield, to write a letter to their moms, but it also included a big surprise. >> dear mom, words cannot describe how thankful i am to be able to call you my mother. being the younger brother and seeing how you raised matt so well and then also using different approaches on me, there's no handbook on parenting, but if there was, you would be the author. the way you've showed unconditional love through every up and down, and a few self-inflicted mistakes along the way. you have never stopped believing in me, pushing me to do more and then always having a big picture mind-set to push through add vertsity. speaking of adversity, one of my favorite memories is when we made the journey in 2014, when actually everything was not going our way, between the car wreck, the rental car and the awful weather. looking back on it, you never flinched. were you going to make sure your son was going to get to where he wanted to go to school.

that's the type of love i'm so thankful for. that's the type of love that makes you so unique and special. always putting everybody before yourself. you're a perfect role model, and i'm happy to be your son. happy mother's day, mom. hi, mom! >> surprise! >> what are you doing here? >> oh, that was so sweet. >> love you. could you hear it? through the doors? >> yes, i heard everything. >> oh, what? an you guys are. say on this letter, but i love you, and i'm thankful for you. f you.ve you, too. >> what a softy. can you check out more letters from athletes to their moms this weekend on espn sports center. we thank all moms for everything they do. that's "nightline."

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