the police department, they have no idea. young girl, brutally murdered. >> more than three decades later, another life is on the line. >> tonight, a man who swears he's innocent is on death row. did you know, were you aware that she was murdered? >> no. no. you guys got the wrong guy. >> and the clock is ticking. ♪ long hard days >> james daily's death warrant could be signed by the florida governor at any minute and his lawyers are working desperately to prove his innocence and keep him alive. >> there was no evidence at all.

the evidence that they had was the word of a fraud. >> they said james daily had said, she wouldn't die, she wouldn't die, she wouldn't shut up. do we believe that? >> attorneys say he's on death row because of this man, an infamous jailhouse snitch who claimed james daily confessed to him. >> not only are they taking the word of a con man you're taking the word of a child molester and yet you put him on the stand. >> were you scared of him? >> very. i was terrified. >> hold on. let me put you on speaker. >> he says you're the reason he's on death row. he says the reason he's on death row is because you lied. i've never been here because i'm so scared of it.

it was over here? this is where she went to heaven. and the reason i came down is because i feel like everybody's sitting in purgatory, waiting for this to get justice. i believe that. and that's why i brought holy water down to put in the water. are you guys going to be offended if i goat on my knees? >> not at all. >> okay, because this is how i feel about it. i hope she feels free now. >> how could somebody kill a little girl and just leave them in the water? what drives somebody to do that? the devil. an evil, evil person.

>> she put up a fight to end all fights. >> fighting them off her as hard as she could. >> she had over 30 stab wounds. many, many defensive wounds. >> her hands were up like this, probably saying stop, stop, stop. he's coming in with the knife, and it goes right through. >> it was just her. and she fought back. that's why she was stabbed so many times. >> she was trying to live. >> and you just think about that girl all alone. >> i think about this a lot. what was she feeling? how scared was she? she was screaming. >> she was probably wanting her dad. she was probably wanting to go home. she was probably thinking, this cannot be happening to me. >> they didn't stop until it was over.

they didn't stop. they didn't care. >> she was dragged into the water, and she was held down until she drowned. >> she was in the water all night long. by herself. dead. indian rocks beach, it's a very small, little community, right on the intercoastal waterways, not heavily populated. sleepy town. lovely area, i might say. lovely area. >> it was everything that you would think florida should be.

we had the palm trees. we had the sun. beautiful weather all year round, and the beaches were phenomenal. white, sandy beaches. >> a lot of tourists. and a lot of transplants. people just looking for a change in life. running away from something or running to something. i mean, that's florida. >> well, a bridge tender actually discovered the body in the water. there's a bridge-tender house on the bridge. and there's a bridge tender that sits up there all the time to open the drawbridge when boats want to pass through the intercostal waterway. >> so what happened was the bridge tender reported to duty, and he got up to the top of the bridge. >> he looked over the side of the bridge and saw something in the water. >> down by the shoreline.

but he wasn't quite sure what it was. >> and went down and investigated, and sure enough, it was a body. >> he was so upset because it was a young body. >> she was found floating naked. >> this is a secluded area, a beachy area where i guess people go parking and that kind of thing. you know, like a lover's lane kind of thing. >> it's right near the bridge and there's nothing else there. and that's how it was discovered. and he called the police. >> the police department, they have no idea. young girl, brutally murdered. >> i've covered a lot of murder. and generally, police and prosecutors are really happy to talk about the cases they've solved. but not this one. but one of the few people who is willing to talk with us about this case is a former prosecutor named robert heyman. this murder happens. how big of a deal was it here in pinellas county? >> you know in my career, i

handled dozens of first-degree murders. this was probably really without a doubt the most brutal one that i had seen and handled personally. >> a murder these days is kind of commonplace. i mean, it doesn't get a lot of attention. but back then, murders weren't all that common in pinellas county. it received a lot of publicity and a lot of interest. both from the press and the public. >> that type of viciousness, that type of brutality would keep any detective, any police prosecutor up at night. >> she had no i.d. so they didn't know who this girl was. >> here are some of the newspaper clippings. >> it says, police are still seeking identity of murdered woman. another one from the "tampa bay times" -- the murdered woman floating nude in the intercostal waterway monday morning still has not been identified. she was in her late teens or early 20s. >> 5'7", weighed about

120 pounds, and had 00 >> brown hair and green eyes. she was wearing a small silver ring. >> a small silver ring with a turquoise stone. >> turquoise stone in the shape of an eagle. >> in the shape of an eagle. >> this case begins with a mystery -- who is this young woman in the water? that is soon going to be solved, but the next question is, who did it? now some people say we still don't have the right answer to that even now, 35 years later. and at this moment, another life is on the line.

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see results at botoxcosmetic.com they had no idea who this body belonged to. could have been anybody. could have come from anywhere. >> there are few clues as to who she is or who killed her.

now, the medical examiner does determine her time of death somewhere between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m. early that morning. it takes nearly 48 hours but the victim is eventually identified. >> the naked girl stabbed, strangled and drowned in the intercoastal waterway finally has a name. >> her name is shelly boggio. she's just 14 years old. >> she was identified by a turquoise ring and a scar on her belly. >> and i just remember thinking, this is, like, the last ring that she will have. she will never have that special ring from a boyfriend or, you know, a wedding band. >> and my mother called me and said that i had to get home right away, that there'd been a murder in the family. and i just remember shaking. that's it. shaking. >> the boggio family is your average midwestern family.

frank boggio and sherry boggio, they were both beauticians in battle creek. and they divorced. the husband brings the three daughters down to florida. >> frank moved the three girls and himself to pinellas county, ironically for, quote/unquote, a better life. >> shelly was very kind, very sweet. she was actually very soft spoken. shelly could also make everybody in a room laugh, and that was a problem in school sometimes. >> shelly was a 14-year-old clearly going on 30 in many ways. >> now, this is the most beautiful time of year in florida, and as sunday turns to night on may 5, 1985, shelly boggio has no way of knowing that this is going to be her last florida sunset. she's about to come across two

men, jack pearcy and his friend, who you're about to meet. his name is james dailey, and back then he was known as jim or jimmy d. >> let me fix your shot here. >> okay. roll any way. thanks for coming to see me. >> yeah, sure. >> it's a long walk down that hallway, huh? >> about a quarter of a mile. >> i meet james dailey 35 years later on florida's death row. he's there for the murder of shelly boggio. do you get many visitors? >> mary kay, my ex-wife. she tries to make it up every week. >> dailey is in pretty good shape for his age. he turned 74 in 2020, and if he is executed, he would be the oldest man the state of florida has ever executed. >> when i first met james dailey, he was remorseful about sort of the way he was living his life back then.

the way he explained to me was maybe i shouldn't have ever been hanging around guys like jack pearcy, maybe i shouldn't have ever have been in florida, but i didn't kill that girl. >> any day now, florida's governor, ron desantis could sign james daily's death warrant. now, after about 35 years behind bars he's had a lot of time to consider where his life went wrong, because once upon a time things were looking pretty good for james dailey. >> before death row, before winding up in florida in 1985, james dailey was a family man, married with two children. >> jim and i met in manhattan, kansas, in 1962. it was the summer before our junior year in high school. we dated for four years before we got married. >> and then james dailey goes to

war. >> he went to vietnam three times. >> oh, it was horrible. i got there right after tet started in 1968. after every rocket attack, i'd have to go out and look for body parts, and i just wasn't made for that. it affected me horribly. >> i could tell when he'd come back from vietnam, that he was changing. >> the daileys divorce. and at this point james dailey is 38 years old. he's down, he's out, he does not have a job, but he is drinking and drinking a lot. >> in 1985, mr. dailey is what i call a drifter. and he met jack pearcy randomly, i believe at a bar, and the two of them just kind of hit it off. >> so you were drinking buddies. >> yeah, and we got to know each other pretty well, i thought. boy, was i mistaken.

and we ended up, in the end, coming to florida. >> pearcy and dailey are now living in a two-bedroom rented house in st. petersburg, florida along with pearcy's pregnant girlfriend, whose name is gayle bailey, and a friend from back in kansas, his name is oza dwain shaw. he's crashing on the couch. it's now sunday, may 5, 1985, jack pearcy, james dailey, and jack's friend oza shaw are driving around st. petersburg, florida, drinking and partying, when they run into stacy and shelly boggio. >> jack saw shelly and her sister, stacy, and this other girl on the side of the road. >> and they picked them up. >> this wasn't just a random pickup. the boggio twins knew james

dailey and jack pearcy, and even though the girls were only 14 years old, they had hung out and partied with these guys before. they were not strangers. >> and we drove back to our place and smoked some dope and drank some beer. >> this interview is with respect to case number 85-44387, which is a homicide case. >> in our reporting, we've come across some of the recordings and interviews that the police, in their initial investigation of the crime, did with some of the last people who saw shelly boggio alive that night. one of these police interviews is jack pearcy's then girlfriend, pregnant girlfriend, gayle bailey. >> they finally came home. they brought with them shelly, her sister, and another blonde. >> they got drunk, they smoked marijuana, they spent time together. >> they were 14.

they wanted to be grownups. >> now, here's a detail you just can't make up. one of those girls tells detectives they were watching an alfred hitchcock murder mystery on tv that night. >> and then they decide to go back out. >> me and shelly and the girls and jack and jim, we dropped the sister and the other blonde off at some apartment. >> 14-year-old shelly boggio, she's just in 7th grade, is on her own with the grownups. the party moves to a nightclub, jerry's rock-n-roll. >> jerries! >> wow, spring break is here again. our favorite time of year at jerry's. >> the four of us went to jerry's, and we were sitting there and we all had three drinks a piece. >> this night is not going to end well. >> what are you thinking?

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if you can't afford your medicine, who'sgovernor gavin newsom. the governor says prop 15 is, "fair, phased-in, and long overdue reform", that "will exempt small businesses and residential property owners." join governor newsom. vote yes on 15. it's the night of may 5, 1985. after a night of drinking and smoking, 14-year-old shelly boggio, is at a night club with two older men. jack pearcy and james dailey. >> both of these guys are paying attention to shelly, but shelly is only interested in jack pearcy. ♪ >> james dailey says he remembers the deejay may have been playing a lynyrd skynyrd song, "gimme three steps."

♪ gimme three steps mister and you'll never see me no more ♪ >> i asked shelly if she wanted to dance. she said no. >> but dailey says, when a slow song came on, shelly was out on the dance floor with jack pearcy. pearcy's girlfriend, gayle bailey, is with them at the bar, getting angrier and angrier by the minute because of all the attention that jack is paying to this 14-year-old girl. >> well, next thing i knew, they were on the other side of the bar dancing. well, i'd seen this and this did upset me. >> then we all went back home. this was about midnight. >> now remember, the medical examiner would later determine that shelly was murdered sometime between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m., so what's important to keep track of here is, who is with shelly as the night unfolds? >> it's just after midnight, and the group goes back to the house. and here's who's there -- it's shelly, james dailey, jack pearcy, jack pearcy's girlfriend, who's pregnant,

gayle. and right around this time, jack pearcy says he's going to take shelly home. >> gayle went into the bathroom, and jack and shelly were leaving. >> there's another guest at this party and he's an important player. his name is oza dwain shaw. he's jack pearcy's buddy from back in kansas. and when jack says he's leaving to take shelly home, oza shaw asks them for a ride to the pay phone. >> i asked him to give me a ride to the phone, because i need to call my girlfriend. >> no one knows this yet, but shelly has just hours left to live, and she's just gotten into the car with jack pearcy and oza dwain shaw. this is critical. dailey says he and gayle stayed back in the house. >> dailey says, and this is really important, when jack and shelly left with shaw, he went to his bedroom. dailey insists he did not go with them.

>> i went in my bedroom and went to sleep. >> so sure enough, jack pearcy and shelly have now stopped at that pay phone so oza can make his call. >> oza dwain shaw, when he's on the pay phone to his girlfriend back in kansas, he says that in the car, jack and shelly get impatient and honk the horn at him. >> got impatient and was honking, and i told him to leave me. >> oza dwain shaw's at that pay phone talking to his girlfriend betty, who confirms that she heard that car horn. >> in the background i could hear a horn. and i said, who's that? and he said, jack and some girl. >> and we have the telephone records to confirm this call was placed. we know it was placed at 1:15 a.m. >> why is this so important? because the most reliable witness in this case is the clock. the clock, and what the clock suggests about who was with shelly when she died and who was not with her.

>> where was jimmy this time you came back from making your phone call? >> he wasn't in the living room or i think he was in bed, in the bedroom. i'm not sure. >> oza dwain shaw is one of the last people to see shelly boggio alive. and who does he say she's with? not james dailey. jack pearcy. just jack. >> oza dwain shaw tells detectives that it's hours later when jack pearcy returns to the house alone. >> mr. pearcy doesn't return to the house, according to oza shaw, until at least 4:00 a.m. and if shelly died sometime between 1:30 and 3:30 a.m., then mr. dailey couldn't have been there. >> he couldn't have been there because, his lawyers say, because he was back at the house. >> oza shaw has been consistent from day one that the only people that went to that pay phone were oza shaw, jack pearcy, and shelly boggio, and that james dailey stayed back at the house. period.

>> jack came back and woke me and said, i've got a couple of joints. let's go smoke them. and grabbed a six pack of beer out of the fridge. so i got up. he said he needed to talk to me about something. >> jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to go drink beer and smoke pot with your friend may odd to you and me, but dailey says this was the life they were leading. they were up at all hours. they didn't have steady jobs. no responsibilities. >> we drove out to belle air causeway. and and jack said, the reason i gotta talk to you is gayle wants you to leave. she wants to turn the bedroom into a nursery. and i told him, that's no problem. i said, i'm ready to move on anyway. >> but now, here comes the moment that spells the first sign of trouble for james dailey, and it seems incriminating. after that early morning trip he took with jack pearcy, he arrives back at the house, and

his pants are wet. he had on we butt down to his ankles. >> wet pants in a murder where the victim was found drowned in the water. it's damning unless there is an innocent explanation. >> we were throwing a frisbee around and it went out in the lagoon. well, the lagoon's only about two feet deep, so i waded out there and got it, and my pants were wet. i've never denied ever that my pants were wet. i'm smart enough that if i was going to make up a story i'd make up a better story than that. but i -- that's the truth. that's exactly what happened. >> the next morning, the bridge tender finds shelly's body mutilated and -- and she's naked and she's dead. >> as police swarm the crime scene, just five miles away at jack pearcy's house, it's a busy morning. everybody there says that jack has suddenly decided to take a road trip. i think people found it strange,

that the very next day you headed down to miami. >> well -- >> with jack. >> we got up next morning, jack says, i want to go to miami. now, i wanted to see miami. i have never seen miami. you know, you see it on t.v. what was that show with don jolgz? johnson? >> miami vice. >> miami vice, yeah. you know, you see all the colors and everything. and i just wanted to see it. >> oza shaw and james dailey share a hotel room. they both check in using their real name, and then jack pearcy checks in under an alias. >> but for all his interest in "miami vice," james dailey doesn't do much sight seeing. just 24 hours later, he's gone. >> jack drove me to the bus station. i bought my ticket, got on a bus. i didn't think anything about it, you know? i was ready to move on. >> james dailey got his stuff and went out to california.

>> jack pearcy drove to kansas by way of colorado, and that's where he was ultimately picked up. >> mr. pearcy was arrested first, and he at that time gave statements, made admissions, and for the most part was putting the onus on james dailey as the main actor in this crime. >> every time you lie, them baby blues turn two shades green. our time... ...for more time... ...has come. living longer is possible- and proven in postmenopausal women taking kisqali plus fulvestrant. in a clinical trial, kisqali plus fulvestrant helped women live longer with hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer. and it significantly delayed disease progression. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death.

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the first few stories were basically they were looking for

two men who had been seen with this girl at one of the bars. >> identifying shelly boggio leads detectives to her twin sister stacy, who tells them the last time she saw shelly alive she was with jack pearcy and james dailey. >> that's how the investigation really started. who she was with, who these guys were. so then the sheriff's office, you know, mounted a search for these guys. >> florida defense know james dailey and jack pearcy are from kansas, so they ask police there to keep an eye out. sure enough, two weeks after the murder one of them, jack pearcy, shows up in his hometown and is arrested. >> i'm going to advise you of your rights. number one, you have the right to remain silent. two, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. >> the detectives in kansas were

very familiar with him. they knew him. they knew him by name. >> one of the olathe, kansas, detectives you see questioning jack pearcy is joe pruett. he's retired now, but we reached out to him by phone. >> we knew him in olathe as what we call a frequent flyer. he'd been arrested numerous times. >> mr. pearcy had been arrested for batteries, assaults. i believe there was a terroristic threat against his girlfriend at the time. >> he had been arrested by me at the request of the sheriff's department for a sexual assault that they were investigating. that charge was later dismissed. >> jack pearcy had been involved in a prior murder in missouri. >> he had actually been solicited to commit a murder. >> five years before shelly boggio's murder, jack pearcy was hired to kill an elderly doctor. he was ready to do it with a hunting knife, but he backed out, and someone else committed the murder.

>> he had a pretty lengthy criminal history, at least as far as charges. >> made him comfortable, gave him the opportunity to smoke, and then he started talking and we started asking questions. >> now, when we talked earlier this morning, you told me that you didn't kill that girl. is that right? >> that's right. >> but they are going to want to know what your involvement is. at the very least, you're a witness. >> you better be shooting straight because when they catch you in a lie, jack, you're going to get banged. >> jack pearcy in the interrogation room, just two weeks after the murder, seems so relaxed. he's blowing smoke rings, he's fiddling with his pocketknife, and you have to wonder, what's going through his mind? >> i really can't comment on mr. pearcy other than, you know, his social gyro was off the gimbals, let me tell you.

he was a different cat. >> jimmy drove for a while and i passed out. and then the next time i know is when he was pushing on me waking me up, telling me to drive. >> he starts pointing the finger at james dailey. >> jack pearcy took every opportunity to throw mr. dailey under the bus. >> pearcy says he's in the car. he's drunk, passed out, but he's awake to hear screaming, and he sees jimmy dailey coming back. his pants are wet. >> when he heard some commotion, pearcy got out. >> and he knows at that point what happened. and he knew that jimmy dailey had stabbed this girl. he tried to put it all on dailey. you know, he was in the vehicle when it occurred. i don't buy it.

>> you told me he did it. all right, convince me. >> i'm pretty damn sure he did. well, i didn't watch him do it. but yeah, i'm pretty damn sure he did. >> did you hear her yell? >> i told you i thought i heard them arguing or something. but i just -- i was half conscious or whatever, you know? i'd been drinking all day long. i'm not trying to cover for him. i wouldn't be sitting here saying what i'm saying if i was trying to cover for him. but if i didn't see him do something, if i had seen somebody doing something like that, i'd imagine i would have done something. that's why. >> why do you think jimmy killed her? >> i don't know. >> did he rape her? >> i don't know if he did or not. >> how many times did he stab her? >> i don't know. >> what's the motive, you know? here's this little girl that sounds like -- >> guess he's just sick. i can't tell you the reason. >> it just freaked me out, you know? i guess i really didn't even want to know what happened. i was just scared. it's why i just wanted to get out of the area. i went back home and i packed my suitcase and hit the road. >> well, if i believe you, and i think i can believe you, why didn't you pick up the phone and call 911 and tell them about it?

>> because i was scared because -- >> now, what i want to know is this -- did you have sex with that little girl that day? >> no. >> it's always good to be the first person in the door at the police station and certainly at the prosecutor's office. you're going to get a better deal. you're going to be able to sort of set the stage as to what happened. >> november 6, 1985, six months to the day after the murder, james dailey is arrested in california. >> i wonder, did james dailey do it? i think that's the first thing in my mind. where's the evidence that really puts him at the scene? >> then a new witness comes forward with a devastating story. >> he stabbed her. he continued to stab her.

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six months after the murder of shelly boggio, james dailey is arrested far away in monterrey, california. >> james dailey says after leaving florida he had first gone to arizona where he met a guy who offered him a job in california. >> he was looking for somebody to go to california with him to help him remodel this restaurant. and i'd done a lot of cabinet work and stuff, so i said, hey, i'm looking for a job. he said, well, you want to go to california? i said, heck yeah. >> but detectives in florida track him down in california some 2,800 miles away. >> when you were first arrested and you felt those cuffs binding your wrists, what was that like? >> i just said, man, you guys got the wrong guy. >> could you see how it seems

suspicious that so shortly after the murder, first you go to miami and then you go clear across the country to california? >> yeah, but if i was going to hide, don't you think i would use a different name? i'm not hiding from anybody. i didn't know i was supposed to be hiding anybody. >> they had to extradite him back to florida. >> james dailey and jack pearcy, who had been arrested months earlier, are now both locked up in the pinellas county jail to await trial. >> in the end, jack pearcy fails to convince prosecutors that he's an innocent bystander and that james dailey is the sole killer of shelly boggio. >> they are both indicted. pearcy is tried first. >> jack pearcy went to trial in november of 1986, right before thanksgiving. >> our defense of mr. pearcy was the other guy did it. pearcy was along for the ride and dailey was the guy that -- that did everything.

>> but that defense strategy does not work and pearcy is convicted. >> the jury convicts pearcy quickly but then takes mercy on him, recommending life in prison instead of a death sentence. the following summer, it's james dailey's turn to stand trial. >> he didn't have a history of violence against women. he didn't have a motive. there was no eyewitnesses placing him at the scene. there was just no evidence. >> the state's theory was, that jack, jim dailey, and shelly left and that they drove around. then they went to the waterside. >> and that was when they -- they -- excuse me. it was at that point where,

evidently, i guess they thought they had enough of shelly and they stabbed her she was put underwater. she was drowned. dead. >> the jury never heard dailey's explanation for having those wet pants, that he'd been playing frisbee and chased the disc into the water. >> james dailey never took the witness stand. he sat there looking like a lawyer for the entire week and said nothing. no emotion. no outburst of, "i didn't do that." >> i don't know why my attorney at that trial said that he didn't want me to testify, because he couldn't believe that we played frisbee. >> your attorney advised you not to testify. >> yeah. i wanted to testify. i wanted to get up and tell what really happened. >> i think he should have taken the stand. i would have loved to hear what he had to say.

>> as prosecutors wrap up their case, among their last witnesses are a trio of jailhouse informants. now, we've all seen this movie before, right? dramatic testimony from a jailhouse witness claiming he heard a confession. >> jailhouse snitches, they've been used since the beginning of time. detectives can place a defendant in the same jail cell with a snitch. it's legal. it's fine. they become friends. and people really do talk. >> in dailey's case, two snitches testify he made incriminating statements, but then the third inmate takes the stand, and he's a show-stopper. his name is paul skalnik, and james dailey's lawyers say his testimony sealed dailey's fate. >> skalnik testifies that dailey confessed to him in jail. he says that dailey told him he stabbed shelly and she was

staring up at him and that she was screaming and would not die. >> he stabbed her, he continued to stab her, she wouldn't die, was, i think, the quote. >> what was your reaction when you heard skalnik on the stand testifying against you? >> well, other than disbelief, other than trying to tell my attorney that never happened, it was just sickening. >> you never confessed to him, you say. >> oh, absolutely not. absolutely not. >> that was actually the only information that we ever got that supposedly came from james dailey, because he never took the witness stand. so everything -- if we were to believe what the snitches were saying, that was the only way we could hear james dailey's voice. so it was very interesting listening to the snitches. >> powerful stuff, if it's believed. and the jury obviously decided to believe.

>> james dailey is convicted, and he's sentenced to die in the electric chair. >> you could hear kind of cheering in the back. i don't know how anybody could cheer at a death sentence. >> did you murder shelly boggio? >> no, i did not. i had nothing to do with her death whatsoever. have i felt guilt from it? absolutely. >> why would you feel guilt if you didn't -- >> i wished i could have done something to stop it. i didn't know pear cy's record. i thought he was take her home. >> james dailey's word against paul skalnik. who to believe? >> i wouldn't believe him as far as i could throw him. >> turns out there was something the jury didn't know about that jailhouse snitch, paul skalnik. >> i'm pretty familiar with paul skalnik. i asked him how many times he'd

actually been listed as a witness by the state, and he told me 28 times. >> we thought that it would help to know more about skalnik, maybe even talk to him. i just left the prison here, the florida state prison, interviewing jim dailey. he says the reason he's on death row is because you lied. so, the story with depression... it's multiple symptoms that hold you back and you wish the socks would sort themselves. enough. then your doctor tells you about trintellix, a prescription medicine for adults with depression. so you're feeling this overall relief. and trintellix had no significant impact on weight in clinical trials. you got this! tell your doctor right away if you have worsening depression, unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. do not take with maois. tell you doctor about your medications, including migraine, psychiatric, and depression medications, to avoid a potentially life-threatening condition. increased risk of bleeding and bruising may occur, especially if taken with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners. manic episodes or vision problems

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it has been more than three decades since a teenager was brutally murdered in florida. >> now he may finally be executed. >> hey, man, you guys got to wrong guy. >> the evidence was the word after a fraud and a con man. >> it's terrible we're willing to put someone to death based on the world of paul skalniy. >> he was a master ma nil later. >> he told her he was ceo of american airlines. >> this is the guy who's a professional con man at this point, and you knew it. and you knew it. >> the horrible things he did

still live in my nightmares. >> not only are you taking the word of a con man, you're taking the word of a child molester. >> the clock is ticking very loudly for james dailey. >> paul skalnik testify in the 24 cases. 24. >> and this is the man you used to put dailey behind bars. we believe one of the key factors in mr. dailey getting the death penalty was the testimony of paul skalnik. >> i say to you there could be no conviction without paul skalnik. >> what was your reaction when they did decide to put you to death? >> well, i went out, sat down on a bench, and there was a mental health guy there. and i just started crying. he says, what's the matter?

and i said, well, i was just sentenced to death for a crime i didn't commit. >> there was no evidence at all. the evidence that they had was the word of a fraud and a con man, this guy paul skalnik. >> dailey insists that it was impossible for him to be in position to give skalnik a confession, physically impossible. >> james dailey says just weeks before his trial, he was moved to the same wing of the pinellas county jail as paul skalnik. >> right before mr. dailey's trial in may, paul skalnik is in an isolated cell, because he's having to be protected, because other inmates know he's a snitch. >> we were on "g" wing. he was in a single cell. i was in a pod of about 16 guys. >> and according to paul skalnik, as he's walking down the hallway, dailey shouts at him through this double layer of bars -- oh, hey, let me talk to you. and so according to skalnik,

they talk. mr. dailey says, you know, he killed her. and i held her under and she just wouldn't die. she kept screaming and looking at me. >> so basically, you would have to have shouted -- >> i would have had to yelled my confession to him. >> this case even drew the ire of renowned columnist and crime novelist carl hiaasen. >> he's just gonna call somebody over to his, passing by his cell, and say, hey, let me tell you a story about this homicide. >> as a journalist someone who has written a lot about death row cases and about a lot about homicides, no. >> doesn't make any sense. particularly if you know skalnik is a snitch. >> everybody in jail knew he was the world's biggest snitch. i mean, even the officers in the county jail told us not to talk to him, you know? if you talk to him he's going to go to court against you.

>> prosecutors assured the jury and skalnik swore to this, he wasn't promised anything and there was no deal in return for his blockbuster testimony. even though he was facing up to 20 years for grand theft, if convicted. >> he said, oh, i'm not getting any benefit out of this." >> after mr. dailey's trial, paul skalnik is released on his own recognizance, which means he doesn't have to put up bail. >> he was released five days after james dailey got the death sentence. >> they let him walk out. they insist that there's no correlation. but there's no other explanation for it. i mean, you'd have to be an idiot not to figure that out. >> it happens too many times when you use jailhouse snitches. they say, "have you made any deal with the state --" "oh, no, sir, i have not." and then the case is over and quietly cases are dismissed or he's let out of jail. >> during trial, jurors were told skalnik had been a police officer and were assured he was quote "honest" and "reliable." >> but the most important information about skalnik that was not shared were some of the darkest parts of his past.

>> i knew paul skalnik for about the last 60 years, i guess, because he was on my little league team. i think he could have been anything he wanted to be because he was a really, really intelligent guy. >> paul sklanik was born in 1949. was adopted, raised in league city, texas. >> he started out on the right track it seemed. yearbook photos show him in the student council. he did the key club. he was even voted president of the future business leaders of america. >> after high school, went to the new mexico military institute for a short stint. then went on to become a police officer. >> he was a police officer about five minutes in austin, texas. >> and sometime after that, his life took a drastic turn. >> he was charged with theft. it was a bunch of hot checks. >> officer skalnik allowed to resign from the force, slips

into a new career, as seen in this 1973 newspaper ad, as trusty insurance agent. he does this as he secretly pursues a life of grifting and crime. >> by age 30 skalnik had already been divorced twice. and his third wife was penny rogers. now according to penny's daughter, skalnik was a master manipulator who at first swept penny right off her feet. >> i thought my mother had found the most wonderful guy. he told me i was his princess and that i could call him dad, but i never did. >> i was 15 years old, it was in 1977 when paul skalnik came into our lives. he had met my mother at the funeral home where she worked. i believe somebody in his family had passed away, extended family. he just swept her off her feet. he told her that he was ceo of southwest airlines.

he would get dressed in a three-piece suit, all his gold and diamonds. >> we would always go to the cowboys games. we'd stay at the hotel, the suites, have a good time. we had cheesecake. there was champagne. come checkout time though, he carried a big old thing of credit cards. they wouldn't take his card, he wrote a check. but what got me he was always stealing the robes and the towels. >> he would bring her home roses. he gave her the big $649 microwave. a couple months later they got married. >> he claimed to be working for the cia, an informant for the fbi. and it was just these grandiose ideas of who he was, and none of it was true. >> he got to be very abusive.

he would lock my brother up in a room, beat him. my mom, he would beat her. he was -- started touching me inappropriately. i was like, what did i do? what did i do to make him do that? >> unfortunately skalnik was just getting started. once in florida, this guy had more cruel acts up his sleeve. >> when he got in trouble, the first thing he did is start snitching, and he became a valuable informant. >> he testified in 35 cases for the pinellas county state attorney's office, which is an exorbitantly high number in my opinion. >> but the question is, why? why does he seem to be their go-to witness? and was he getting something in return? . what was that?

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by the early '80s, paul skalnik has left behind four wives and a trail of victims in florida and texas. but at this point his crimes are catching up with him, and he lands in the pinellas county jail in florida, where he begins a new role as a jailhouse snitch. >> he claims that a fellow inmate, a guy by the name of kenneth gardner, has confessed to him for the murder of a hardware store owner in clearwater, florida. >> skalnik was claiming at that

time that mr. gardner had made a statement to him to the effect of, i killed him, but no one will be able to prove it. >> gardner is convicted, and skalnik is later paroled after serving only half of a five-year sentence for grand theft. >> but skalnik can't stay out of jail. and he also can't get murderers to stop confessing to him. >> prosecutors used him an awful lot. i had a case in the mid-'80s, and it was a triple homicide. three gentlemen were murdered execution style. and skalnik was a witness in that case. and i remember taking his deposition. and asking him, how many times have you testified before? he said, 28. >> was skalnik benefitting from his testimony? well, in one case, a handwritten note found in the state's

attorney's file says that if skalnik's assistance in previous cases is substantial, quote, the state will be seeking to mitigate and, quote, that probation was discussed. now, this is not to say that skalnik gave up his own criminal career. it seemed that whenever skalnik got out of jail, he found a new victim, and more than once, it was a young girl. >> we lived in a cul-de-sac. all the families had kids. and we'd go outside in the evening after school, ride our bikes together, and play at each other's houses. always going to the beach. >> how old were you when you met paul skalnik? >> i think i was -- just turned 12. >> do you remember how you met him? >> i remember he showed up out of the blue. an acquaintance of our neighbors who were my mom and dad's best friends. had a very magnetic personality,

so kind of drew you in. >> did it seem abnormal that a 32-year-old, good looking, wealthy-looking man would want to spend so much time with a 12-year-old? >> i knew it wasn't right. >> can you tell me about that july day when you all went to go fishing? >> we made plans with the neighbors to go to a friend of our neighbor's house. they had a pond, and we were all going to go fishing, have a picnic, and he was invited. i think initially, i got out of the car with everybody and we went in. he stayed in the car. and then he summoned me back out to the car. and i went back out. >> i know this is obviously very hard for you, but can you tell me what happened then? >> it was dark. his windows were tinted. i remember the car was dark. and he pulled me in and started kissing me on the mouth, like an

adult would kiss another adult. and he grabbed my hand and put it in his pants. >> he begins sexually assaulting her. keep in mind that karen parker is just a 7th grader at this time, 12 years old. and she's sitting with skalnik, in this car. >> i couldn't believe it was happening. i felt like, where's all the adults? and i felt like i didn't really have a choice to do what he wanted me to do. >> the evidence was pretty strong, pretty graphic. >> skalnik was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct on a child, and he faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. >> now, karen parker passed a polygraph. there were witnesses who say they saw this. and in a strange bit of irony, skalnik allegedly told someone in jail that he did this. still, the charge was dropped.

>> he was given a grand theft conviction instead. i don't know how you get from molesting a child to grand theft. that's quite a leap in plea bargaining, but he pulled it off. >> skalnik's plea deal kept him out of prison, leaving him in the pinellas county jail where he would be useful to authorities. >> when he got in trouble, the first thing he did was start snitching, and he became a valuable informant in pinellas county. he was always there, and he was always conveniently in the right spot to hear a unsolicited confession from someone who barely knew him. >> he testified in 35 cases for the pinellas county sheriff's office, which is an exorbitantly high number in my opinion. >> suddenly skalnik became known as the state attorney's go-to witness. >> and he wasn't just a witness for the state's attorneys office, but there was one pinellas county detective, john halliday, who thought so highly of paul skalnik, that he actually went to bat for him with the parole board. >> detective halliday writes to the parole board in 1984 and

says, paul skalnik has essentially benefited the state. he's helped with information on dozens of inmates. put several people behind bars and on death row. and asks the parole board to give him parole basically. that he deserves to be out in the streets for his service. sure enough, his letter works. they let him out. >> the coziness of using the same informant over and over and over again, and helping him get off and re-offend, that is improper practice. >> stephen thompson, a spokesperson for the 6th circuit prosecutor's office, did respond to our request for an interview or comment, writing, we don't typically comment on any cases, and he wrote, the judges' decisions in court speak for themselves. we reached out to detective halliday, but he declined an interview with "20/20."

paul skalnik is out on parole, but not for very long. because just two years later, he's back in the pinellas county jail, just in time to help detective halliday and the state attorney's office win yet another conviction -- this one, james dailey's. >> even though prosecutors said that paul skalnik was not getting rewarded for his testimony in the james dailey case, this document that we have obtained shows that he was released from prison five days after dailey was sentenced to death. and i quote, due to his cooperation in the first-degree murder trial where he was a witness. >> skalnik spends the next several years in a revolving door of the system, committing crimes, getting caught, and quickly released. but he's about to meet his match. two women who take him down. >> transcription is rolling now. >> i don't know what made me so special.

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okay. >> rolling too? >> yep. transcription is rolling now. just need a hand clap. >> there we go. paul skalnik, five days after james dailey is sentenced to death, the guy's facing

20 years in jail, ta ta, they let him walk out of jail. and he's skipped bond, and went to texas and sexually molested a teenager. >> the horrible things he did still live in my nightmares. >> in 1991, my parents had divorced, and i was a typical teenage girl. worried about the boy i liked, what everybody was wearing. i was normal. >> how did your mom first meet paul skalnik? >> they were in high school together, and i am not certain how they were reintroduced, but he came in like a knight in shining armor and swept her right off her feet. there was roses. he made her feel beautiful, and for a woman whose been through divorce before, i can tell you that that's very wonderful to experience. he presented himself as being an independently wealthy man that was formerly cia agent. >> what kind of ring does he propose to your mom with? >> it was a seven carat pear-shaped diamond ring, huge. it was not a real diamond. it was a cz. >> cubic zirconia.

so your mom thought it was a real diamond. >> she did. >> now, misty has a visceral immediate dislike for paul skalnik. and she says he didn't seem to like her either. >> i felt like something's not right here, and he knew that. >> and he accuses her of stealing that big fake diamond ring, and things get worse for misty after that. >> that was how he started separating me out from everybody else. i'm getting in trouble more often. i'm having to do extra chores around the house. i'm spending a lot of time in my bedroom, not able to go out. >> he's forcing you to stay in your bedroom. >> yes, all day. and then my life changed. he came upstairs. he said, i think i have a way that we can work this out. and he asked me to meet him down in the spa afterwards. >> and was it in the spa where he touched you? >> yeah.

oh, he touched me in more places. in the spa, in the house, in my room. this went on for a month. and i couldn't tell anybody, or i didn't feel like i could, because who was gonna believe me? i felt trapped. i wanted it to stop. >> so, eventually, you did find a way out. >> i did. i told my mother. and my mother, in that moment, became my hero, because she immediately sprang into action. she called the cops. and they came over, and i interviewed with them, and they took him away. >> i was an assistant criminal district attorney. this was a sexual assault of a child. he had really groomed this little girl. of course, he denied it. and he had an alias. that was a red flag. his alias was jason paul bourne, b-o-u-r-n-e. >> you know, special agent, from the "bourne identity series." >> jason!

>> we were going to trial, but at the last minute, he pled. he pled no contest, and he was sentenced to ten years in the texas department of criminal justice. >> skalnik was ultimately punished for what he did to misty, which may have surprised him. >> remember, paul sklanik had been charged with the sexual assault of 12-year-old karen parker. those charges were dropped, so just imagine how karen parker must have felt when she heard about misty. >> it broke my heart. i felt bad for her. i feel like that could have been avoided. >> he had committed so many crimes and he had abused so many people, but you and the crime he committed against you is the one that he actually served. the full sentence for. >> yes, i was the one that was able to get him to stay behind bars. >> skalnik pleaded guilty, did his time and got out.

james dailey has never seen a single day of freedom since paul skalnik's testimony helped put him in prison. >> my heart breaks for james dailey, because he very well could be innocent, and he's looking at death. because of what paul skalnik said. >> if paul skalnik were sitting here across from you, what would you say to him? >> i wouldn't say anything to him. he wouldn't hear. he's just so self-absorbed, so narcissistic, such a big con man, and he's a child rapist. >> as we were leaving the prison right after the interview with dailey and right outside the prison gates, i get on a phone call with someone i've been wanting to talk to. so, right now we're calling paul skalnik, who is in a nursing home in texas, and we have a reporter there with him

who is going to put him on the phone. >> my name is kat cosley. i'm a local television news anchor and reporter in the houston area. and in january of 2020, i was actually hired by abc news "20/20" to go to corsicana and visit paul skalnik. so, i had the phone, and matt dialed in on the phone. so i have matt. matt, can you hear? >> i can. hey paul, how are you? >> how are you? >> i'm alright, thanks for talking with us. >> there are lots of inmates all up and down florida who say that they're in prison because of you. you put them there by testifying against them in court. >> well, that's life. >> do you regret anything you've done? do you have any regrets? >> not to my knowledge. >> not to your knowledge. i just left the prison here, florida state prison,

interviewing jim d aailey, and he says that you are the reason that he's on death row. >> he's 100% correct. >> but he says the reason he's on death row is because you lied. >> there's a time and place to talk. >> okay. >> yes, you sound so serious. >> well, i am serious. this is a serious matter. there are people whose lives are on the line right now as we speak. >> mine, first. >> your life is on the line first? >> i consider it that way, yeah. >> well, there's a man on death row. i'm actually looking at the wing he's in, and i think he might say he's in line first. >> that's good then. >> do you want to see him be put to death? >> there are times and moments, yes. >> the looks that he gave me when matt was asking him questions, how could this guy ask me these things? you know? what does this guy think i am? >> paul, since we're still on the record, i wanted to ask you, why do you think you're so close to death? you sound okay. what leads you to believe you're in such bad shape?

>> well, two strokes, possible heart attack. yeah, that's enlightening, isn't it? >> yeah, that doesn't sound so good. no regrets from paul skalnik, but what about the prosecutors who put him on the stand? this is a guy who is a professional con man at this point, and you knew it, and you knew it. >> absolutely. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs

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it has been more than three decades since a battle creek teenager was brutally murdered in florida. now her killer may finally be executed. >> but new evidence in the case is sparking attornies to fight for exoneration. >> it's terrible that we're willing to put someone to death based on the word of paul skalnik. >> when i interviewed james dailey on death row, he told me he's been trying to prove that he didn't get a fair trial.

he says prosecutors improperly used a jailhouse snitch to convict him. robert heyman was one of those prosecutors. so did you feel that paul skalnik was credible? >> skalnik, you know, we vetted him. i mean, i know he's been under attack as a professional snitch. but yeah, we checked him out. >> this is a guy who is a professional con man at this point, and you knew it. and you knew it. >> absolutely. >> you also knew that in 1982 he was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 14. so not only are you taking the word of a con man, you're taking the word of a child molester, a predator. and this is the man who you used to put dailey behind bars for the rest of his life and possibly in the chair. >> let's back it up. yeah, we knew what his history was. we knew that he had a checkered past, let's face it. >> do you think that the jury would have found skalnik to be credible if they knew that he was a sex offender? >> his criminal record was talked about at the trial.

i'm not sure the sex offender part was brought up. >> in fact, robert heyman and his co-counsel never did tell james dailey's jury what paul skalnik had allegedly done to 12-year-old karen parker. but the thought does seem to have crossed their minds. because prosecutors' notes from the trial obtained by dailey's attorneys decades later, seem to show, and i've seen it myself, that someone scribbled "sex assault" and then struck it out twice. this is your handwriting, right? go ahead, you take it. you crossed out the word "sex offender." electing not to talk about it. >> i'm not sure that's why i crossed it out. i have no idea. this is 30-some-odd years old. obviously i knew about it. >> and yet you put him on the stand? >> absolutely. >> you crossed out abunch of his criminal history there. >> josh dubin is an innocence project advisor and renowned advocate for the wrongfully

convicted. he may not look like a typical lawyer, but he's got a track record. in 2018 he battled in court, freeing an innocent man from florida's death row. now he's on james dailey's case, with the same goal. i show him some of my interview with the former prosecutor. >> this is 30-some-odd years old. obviously i knew about it. >> i got to catch my breath after that one. i got to tell you. that's way worse than i thought. >> when paul skalnik was cross-examined about his crimes during dailey's 1987 trial he admitted to grand theft, but he denied even being charged with violent offenses. >> quote, grand theft counselor, not murder. not rape. no physical violence in my life, end quote. i mean the fact that the

prosecutor didn't correct him, just admitted to you that he knew full well what he had been charged with and kept that from the jury is not only astounding, it's disgusting. >> do you know how many times this has been reviewed by courts, both in the state and the federal levels? and they seem to have been satisfied so far. >> you're saying that they're infallible? >> i'm saying that i am comfortable with two things that lawyers should be comfortable with. one, trial by an impartial jury, and that's what dailey got. number two, appellate review to make sure that the trial was fair, that the jury was impartial, that the evidence was appropriate. >> so, would you be satisfied if you saw dailey put to death? >> i think that's an appropriate sentence under the law of the state of florida. >> all rise. circuit court is now back in session. honorable pat siracusa circuit court justice presiding. >> good morning, you can be seated. all right, so argument on 1-c and 2. >> in a february 2020 hearing about whether dailey will be allowed to present more evidence that his conviction should be overturned, dailey's attorneys

argue prosecutors allowed their witness paul skalnik to mislead james dailey's jury about the fact skalnik had been charged in a sex assault. >> it was a misrepresentation to that jury. at that time he had an affirmative obligation to correct that false testimony. >> state attorneys tell the judge that skalnik had never been convicted of what karen parker says he did to her because the case had been dropped. >> unfortunately, lewd and lascivious charges are always difficult to prove. they're difficult to take to trial and is often a he said/she said type of case. >> the state argues trial attorneys would have been barred from questioning skalnik about karen parker, whether they knew about it or not, because he had not been convicted of the charge, it was dropped. >> my understanding of the rules of evidence is that i'm not allowed to impeach a witness with the fact that they were arrested on a charge that was subsequently dismissed.

>> i don't know if james dailey is guilty or not, but i do believe that if any of his sentencing is based on the testimony of paul skalnik, that should be wiped away and start over because he's -- he's just -- he's a perfect liar. >> a perfect liar? >> yes. >> there was more evidence against paul skalnik in that child sexual assault case than there was against james dailey in the murder of shelley boggio. >> you're about to see why appeals so rarely succeed. >> i'm going to find that you are in fact still time barred and that heyman's acknowledgement that he's the actual author of the notes doesn't open it up to additional discovery or an additional claim, so i'll deny the claim. >> but the judge also has good news for dailey, deciding to grant another hearing.

>> so judge siracusa granted our requests for an evidentiary hearing. >> this one to present testimony from an astonishing source, james dailey's old buddy, his codefendant in this terrible crime, jack pearcy. >> we are about to witness an incredible scene. jack pearcy and james dailey together again. and this time, a stunning admission. after nearly 35 years, one of them has a confession to make. >> i brought you here so that you could tell your story. fbz fbz fbz. dropping my mcdonald's order. leggo! a big mac! no pickles please. there you go. medium fries. con ketchup. and an oreo mcflurry. of course!

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in january of 2020, i take a ride with attorney josh dubin. he has recently joined chelsea shirley and the team trying to exonerate james dailey and save him from execution for the 1985 murder of shelly boggio. >> people are just now discovering my case and what has been done to me. but i've had to live this 32 1/2 years of being innocent and being on death row. my biggest problem was i couldn't get anybody to listen to me. i got this new set of attorneys. and they took one look at my case, and, boy, they've gone to work for me. i'm sorry. >> you have a whole plan about going in there today. i mean, you're dressed in a t-shirt. you're very casual. >> dubin works for james dailey, but on this day he's going to

visit dailey's codefendant and former friend, jack pearcy, who is now serving a life sentence for shelly's murder. >> i don't want him to look at me as just some lawyer in a suit. >> he's got good reason to be hopeful, because three years earlier in 2017, pearcy signed an affidavit saying he alone murdered shelly boggio, and that james dailey was innocent. >> i went to see jack pearcy in april of 2017. and he ultimately ended up signing an affidavit. jack pearcy said in the very last line of the affidavit that "i killed shelly boggio and mr. dailey was not present when she was killed." >> despite signing that 2017 affidavit, when it came time for jack pearcy to testify in court, he said he lied in that affidavit. he refused to say in court that james dailey was innocent or much of anything else. >> he just kept pleading the fifth. he said, "i plead the fifth." the next question, "i plead the fifth."

next question, "i plead the fifth." >> here's what i don't understand, josh. the guy's already signed an affidavit, right, saying that he did it. why do you need anything else? >> because the last time he signed an affidavit and he was called in court to avow or stand by the affidavit, he pled the fifth. >> in late 2019, soon after joining the case, dubin got pearcy to once again sign a statement saying that he alone murdered shelly boggio, essentially exonerating james dailey. >> the operative paragraph is, i murdered shelley boggio on my own. james dailey had nothing to do with it. >> and so, here we go again. jack pearcy has again signed another confession, again clearing james dailey. >> but once again it's not enough. he has to come into the courtroom. he has to testify under oath and be cross-examined by prosecutors. that's the only way this helps james dailey. >> you just spent, i don't know, an hour and ten minutes in there.

what was it like? >> he's a bit of a tortured soul that is coming to terms with the fact that he needs to come clean about everything that he did. and, you know, i think that he's going to do that. >> do you think that that will help exonerate you? >> if jack comes in there and tells the truth. i mean, if we get the truth out of his mouth. >> james dailey is present and is here in custody. i've had him travel from death row for today's hearing. good morning, mr. dailey. >> good morning, sir. >> i thought they had implemented the death penalty. i thought he was dead. i thought james dailey was dead. >> we had an evidentiary hearing in march of 2020. >> okay, this is the second succession motion to vacate the judgment of conviction and sentence of death after the death warrant has been signed. >> we were hopeful that forcing jack pearcy to look mr. dailey

in the eye, forcing jack to look at the person that he's partly responsible for keeping in prison wrongfully for 33 years, would move him to tell the truth. >> if jack pearcy were sitting here right across from you today, what would you say to him? >> i'd say, do the right thing, jack. come on. it's been long enough. >> all right, let's bring him in and take him to the podium. >> mr. pearcy. good morning, sir. my name is pat siracusa. welcome back to pinellas county. i brought you here today to ask you, isn't today finally the day for you to tell the world your story from the witness stand as a witness? >> i can't help bring shelly back or the pain her family has already suffered. i don't want to testify any further. >> he said he would never come into court and tell that story as long as his mother was still alive. and of course his mother was sitting right there. >> even though pearcy says he's

not going to testify, he's called to the witness stand. >> why bother putting pearcy on the stand? because you never know. this is james dailey's last chance to get the truth that could set him free. all he has to do is just repeat what he said in that affidavit. >> do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> yes. >> yes, all right. have a seat. okay, well we'll see what serena: it's my 4:10, no-excuses-on-game-day migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose of ubrelvy works fast. it can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours, relieving pain and debilitating symptoms.

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you and i met for the first time on december 18, 2019 at the sumpter county correctional center, correct? he won't testify. he just stared at me. they tried to get him to testify. >> is there anything else i can talk to you about here before i get your next answer? >> no, sir, i've done 35 years for a crime i didn't commit and i don't plan on testifying against somebody else to help the state kill them, and that will be all my testimony could basically do, so i have nothing else to say. >> nothing i can do or say to change your mind? >> no. sir. >> all right, mr. pearcy can go. >> jack pearcy refused to testify, but someone else was eager to speak. kalli boggio is shelly boggio's

younger half sister. >> what would you like to tell me, ma'am? >> i would like to tell you that our family has been through enough. please get this to an end. >> throughout this whole thing, it's been the james dailey show, the jack pearcy show. no, this is about shelly boggio and her life. her life mattered, and it still matters, and it will always matter. and i guarantee you and i promise you -- i promise everybody that me and my family will never stop until we see justice and see that man go. >> what would you say to shelly boggio's family members who believe that the right person has been sentenced to death? >> well, what could i say to them? i mean, how many times has the state lied to them?

how many times has to state told them that for sure i was the one? i mean, there would be nothing i could say to them. >> mr. dailey, anything you want to tell me today? >> no, sir, just thank you very much for your time. >> almost three months after jack pearcy refuses to testify, the judge rules neither james dailey's conviction or death sentence will be vacated on the strength of the evidence. >> and then another blow. paul skalnik, that jailhouse snitch whose testimony that dailey confessed to him in jail helped put dailey on death row, he'll never be able to recant his testimony. he died almost two months to the day after our phone call. >> at any time, the governor of florida could sign a death warrant for james dailey. >> i'm not afraid to die. what i'm afraid of is spending the rest of my life in prison

for a crime i didn't commit, not being able to clear my name for my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids. >> i'm stubborn. i'm not giving up no matter what. we're just going to keep fighting. that's all i know, just to keep fighting. >> andrea boggio says she always dreaded florida. but she finally forced herself to come. 35 years after her cousin shelly's murder, her first visit to the crime scene, and now to the cemetery. a show of support for the family. >> poor shelly. i'm done. i can't do it. i left her a letter. >> would you mind telling me what you were trying to express

to her? >> that i will keep fighting, and i love her. and i'll never give up trying to fight for her. shelly boggio was alive. she was loved. and she deserves some justice. >> this fire broke out just

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