and thinks it's minute clinic. during his years serving is regina's chief executioner gerry wood here in the swear they were innocent. when you hear a person going to his death may stick it out and it was innocent to the last syringe go into his body he's taken out that he was innocent on his last words as less. and give me something to think about as execution and it place some doubt there there was one young man in particular washington jr. he was five tell society back then that he was innocent to get no one really paid

no attention. in one thousand nine hundred three earl was arrested in cope upper virginia and brought in for questioning he thought it was for a burglary he had committed. a question by different. and we'll use it at our data. and they then know i want to call up mt amount which call couple. was going to dump and. after intense questioning police officers extracted a confession from her for the brutal rape and stabbing murder of a one thousand year old mother of three. at his trial experts testified that earle had an i.q. of only sixty nine and was extremely suggestible casting doubt on his confession. despite inconclusive evidence the jury found guilty and the judge sentenced him to

death. he was taken to mecklenburg supermax prison in virginia. he was scared to death he was tempted he didn't want to come out of so. he's mentally retarded he can read you can write i walk in to the cell and canadian thing mangled door come see what you want that was earl the whole time he was on the road he was. scared to have it. all as they were for me my mom did it means that the problems with mr. moti was a need to see the mom would have needed. two weeks before earl's date of execution the guards came to transport him to the death house in richmond. a charity mob put him in

a way saying handcuffs shackles and they walked him out. literally drug him out and everybody's banging on the door to hear that the cost of the guards. joe reached out to his caseworker marie deans to see if anything could be done. i called her in a panic and said i was. out of this god or not but i don't think he did i'll bet this god knows what's going on when early arrived at the death house he was handed over to jerry i received earl for mecum bear and when he came in i gave him a good trade into the infirmary he was given a complete physical. at that time we only had. death by electrocution chair so he didn't have a choice you could her you know you had led to as i went through to your home and

have a date with all we got was the he said he was getting really from. dental . in the daytime of the world allowing me to go out go oh yeah if you know nothing or no way. working day and night joe and marie secured a rare stay of execution marie was convinced that earl had been pressured into falsely confessing my work was mentally retarded defendants many know that this was a what we would call a coerced confession whether of course psychologically or when some of us did you kill that woman no sir but you told the police that you did. it why did you tell the police that you did. our no no no no you understand then that you were being. accused of a murder. they didn't understand most. new d.n.a.

tests proved earl was not the murderer he was moved off death row but he remained in prison virginia law at the time did not allow the introduction of new evidence. gerry heard little about what happened to earl his focus was on preparing for the next execution. one year after the boston marathon bombing and the morial service brought everyone together for the first time. when we walked. down the road to the site. ron and i and christie stopped at each site and the prayer. a week later karen and ron united with survivors at the two thousand and fourteen boston marathon.

they cheered their friend celeste in a symbolic run across the finish line. i am angry at what he did and when i see my friends and they struggle and i see other survivors. i don't want my decision to be based on how angry i get in those instances. that paul judge will tool announced the trial would be held in boston. and we have two choices we can either let him stay alive and have his interaction and have his joys. or put him to die. and have that be the end of it. they don't get to see their little boy playing baseball

anymore or reading him a story at night and in this young man is in jail and he's reading stories that he likes he's got books available to him that he enjoys or he meets with his sisters and gets to see pictures of their children growing up and i just don't think it's fair that they have had their their joys taken away from them and he still is able to experience that. karen decided to attend the trial. i want to be there to see. justice. in philadelphia nearly four years after vicki instils daughter shannon was murdered the police got a lead. in two thousand and would there been a series of assaults started to your place in fort collins colorado they put out

a report to police agencies all across the united states. so they sent the from shannon's case to fort collins. the d.n.a. was a match. the suspect was married and employed at an air force base. about eight o'clock that night twenty third day of april. two thousand and two this fellow and his wife walked into the police station and by midnight that night they had a full confession for the different cases. the man they arrested was twenty nine year old troy graves philadelphia's elusive center city rapist. graves was accused of multiple counts of sexual assault and one count of murder in the death of shannon schieber. the prosecutor was district attorney lynn abraham.

the prosecutor in the city of philadelphia who is known as a pretty deadly d.a. in other words she put more people on death row then any other prosecutor in pennsylvania and probably any a large number around the country. troy graves was found guilty and the district attorney wanted the death penalty but the she bers did not. it meant they would have to fight for the life of their daughter's killer we had said to each other and consulted with our very large families that what we do if they ever caught a ball we would stick to our present and off someone was going to want him put to death we were going to argue for a life without the possibility of parole. the district attorney voiced her disagreement and outrage. the district attorney there became very very upset she became very public with her and with her opinion and she said i don't care what the hubris said the death penalty was the appropriate sentence for their

daughter's murder. why were they not one. for vicki in sil the answer was clear. we just can't let this anger this natural human anger and pain overwhelm us and make us so then full and hateful because it would just over time destroy us and we know that. vicki and sil received piles of hate mail the cues in them of not loving their daughter. you know if you can't stand by your principles when it's difficult they're not your principles. several years past before jerry learned that washington was not guilty. it had to be like fifteen or twenty executions at that girl was it leads from death row that

i found out that he was he was innocent as it were out as that's as close calling you know he came of in days in how to execute as a person. out criminal justice system supposed to be the best in the world. make those mistakes and yet when you see a person like earl washington. something happened there. in the aftermath of the oklahoma city bombing in one thousand nine hundred five congress passed legislation to escalate death sentences the result was a dramatic increase in executions by one thousand nine hundred nine jerry was putting to death more than one person a month. and a death certificate reads. death by almost i. you know i don't make sense i don't want to be consider

a person deaths committed almost but that's what it really. at the. sixty two executions and the only kilobit that could see was myself and i refused to look into the mirror. he nearly took the life of her washington and couldn't help but wonder if there were others. research now shows that for every nine executions there is one inmate found innocent and exonerated. one out of ten who might have been mistakenly put to death. in the heart of the swiss alps this is a place probably more secretive than the pentagon more mysterious than the cia and better guarded than ford and all costs ellis was customs i hear the phone in place

and all the science is controlled by them and they impose the opening times so if you up was it it was a do it just for me is all plus the procedures in place of the strictest in all europe must to pieces by artists like pecans oh and modigliani i can't boards unsold inside this warehouse that's where the report comes in if it covers up deals which are naturally discrete commercially discrete step but also discrete because they concern fraud. some of those paintings are linked to dark secrets nobody knows how many of these secrets a kept inside the geneva freeport such a place like china you'll never obtain an inventory of all the works in the freeport who knows how many there are three hundred three thousand three hundred thousand is it a matter of confidentiality only is it the world's black box of the odd business. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the law and they get accepted

or rejected. so when you want to be president. more some a lot of us. have to go right to the press the slightly before us freedom or can't be good for. i'm interested always in the waters and last. question. nearly two years after the bombing the trial was about to begin. karen left her home in new hampshire early to arrive for the opening statements. it was the first time she had scenes are naiads since the arraignment. inside the courtroom karin and the other survivors were seated just twenty feet away he refused to look at them. the defense team would make the case that zacarias are najaf was unduly influenced by his older brother. the prosecutors would argue that

he was fully responsible for his actions. many victims shared their experiences including the father of eight year old martin who described having to choose between comforting his dying son and saving his daughter. over the next four weeks karen and other survivors relive the horror of the bombing they reached out to each other for support. coming to court it was amazing how quickly and how close we all got it with where like a family but her husband ron stayed away. since the bombing run has changed it's a hard thing to watch the man that you. struggle so desperately and be so angry he's just not the same as he was before the federal jury convicted the

hearthstone i have and all thirty counts he was facing for the boston marathon bombing just eleven hours the jury found our native guilty of all charges now they would decide if he should be put to death. the survivors were divided. karen's friend celeste was for a death sentence. the richards not wanting to go through years of appeals but decided against it. it's a long tough process to really examine. why you feel what you feel. you really have to look at yourself. pretty hard to decide. as soon as vicki and sil learned the identity of the man who raped and murdered their daughter vicki wanted to know more. i want to i want to know why i wonder stand what he did why was this going forward like that what was going on where was

his background with that you have to talk to his mother and i can understand who he was vickie located troy graves mother and gave her a call we're on the phone together for many many hours in tears just tear sobbing with each other i said but just to understand what you were going there i want to share with what i'm going through and maybe we can help each other and learn from each other and just come to some kind of peace with all this because god you must be going through a terrible time to wash your son and you know and she says oh this is schieber i murdered your daughter. graves mother blamed herself for her son's actions. and i said i don't think what when he said she said it got more and more violent. and my kids would come to me and it's say please money let's go out of this is a bad danny's bet i was telling them i can't i don't have

a job i don't have you know education i can't support you oh my god how can i be angry. vicki began meeting with inmates on death row. she discovered a system of victims on all sides we can just hear she and say mom and dad now that you know about the system the terrible flaws the bias the racial the geographic bias of cost cost issues they don't get the lawyers just all the ago not you know what you can to do upon. they began advocating across the country and quickly found that many people thought all victims wanted the death penalty. they say that the reason we have to keep the death penalty here is because that's what murder victims' families want that's going to give them peace that's going to give them justice and we come in and say. not quite and we've been through this and this isn't the way you lose chopper you guys hole in heart and.

so you have to you have to kind of learn to live with this hole in your heart. either we can continue to do well on it and kind of well up the misery and sustain that misery that the. that we incurred because of what was going on are we can we can try and force things to change to the extent we can they countered their grief by sharing their story and providing testimony that would influence death penalty legislation. losing a loved one to murder is a tragedy on imaginable proportions this all happened to her testimony helped maryland become the eighteenth state to repeal capital punishment i've told my daughter story now twenty two different states and i have seen the tremendous effect of this whole system on murder victim's family members. in an ongoing tribute to the memory of their daughter vicki in still continue their efforts to

end the death penalty. in boston nearly three weeks had passed since our nails was found guilty but the federal jury had yet to make a decision about whether he should be put to death. karen went to the courthouse nearly every day. over the course of the trial she had become one of the main spokespersons in media contacts for the survivors. but for now there was nothing to do but wait. wait. a minute suddenly a text from a clerk inside alerted her that the jury was close to a decision. we're going to be coming out of it starting any time now i would prefer it be you know and the death penalty just because i think that's

a fair thing the right thing. is awful if that is. i think it's that the just thing that's what i'm hoping. and we are coming on the air because the jury deciding the fate of boston marathon bombers are hard and i have has reached a verdict. they have sentenced him to death. news of the verdict traveled fast that you know that there's a long road ahead but right now it feels like we can take a breath and thank you. actually breathe again you know without even realizing it and all the crap. once the bird came and it's like now we can start here no point. knaves fate sealed karen began the long drive home. i don't think it evens the score i don't think that it teaches anybody anything. i don't

believe that it's going to be a deterrent to the next young man who has anger but i just think that there's nothing no other choice in my mind that is fair. after seventeen years and sixty two executions jerry's time as executioner came to an abrupt end. in the midst of preparing for another execution he was subpoenaed by a grand jury and accused of money laundering gerry claimed he was innocent but the court found him guilty. the sunday after his sentencing gerry's long held secret about his role as executioner became public. they printed in the paper they said

a man to carry out execution orders for the state of virginia was found guilty once i was out i mean i'm exposed so i gotta come forward i got them all why is this in the truth about. care. why i didn't know all because i didn't know you and i want you to have to go through what happened go through. while gerry served his time he learned that earl washington received a full pardon and after seventeen years was finally released from prison about four percent of the guys that have executed and they stuck out that they were innocent so in an apple or earl's case you know placed doubt here to find out that innocent people were there on death row. after serving his time jerry worked hard to rebuild his life. he began speaking out against the death penalty one of the few executioners to do

so we need to do that we need to change and i didn't enjoy killing people so what can we do to prevent these things from happening. gerry thought often about her washington if i ever get to see him i want to say oh you know i'm sorry i'm glad that things didn't go in a way there was plan to go and i'm glad to see you on a side because i can apologize to you at that take your life you know after i had biden that's it. i'm glad i didn't get a chance to hit so i apologize to the name thanking the way i thought she was guilty. jerry decided to visit europe to talk with him face to face.

though it had been many years jerry and earl swapped stories and quickly we discovered a shared custody. lyneham one day i was mad and i was in a fire. i'm going to ritual follow swing through ok that's what it looked at you yeah you know i wonder with we're going to you know went through your mind not doing it he was innocent oh mama he did all we're here you have what it raise your blood get me through which are just. this is a good thing that i didn't give it you know because i'll bring it to wed he didn't do anything wrong. and also isn't something that i would have to face. but to see him crossing that bridge in to meet him and i'll do this is a bit of. a myth. you don't know because you want

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i'm not using these village is it safe to go. are you sure there is no actual music ters there and they are all going to be sure that the baby doesn't cause he. is that. going to say we're going to go we thought. is it dead as part of the deficit given. that was what i was. previously yes and no they are being false form in a very misleading member of the society. like yeah that was.

you know world of big partisan movie lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. and i gotta. let me give them. a. good idea i did that i made earlier and now i'm not.

i'm not. i generally safe face and restore confidence of a place in the next round of the world. to watch. so the big focus now the forthcoming england. piece is. six. of the big stories of the last seven.