during his years serving is regina's chief executioner jerry would hear inmates swear they were innocent. when you hear a person going to his death be sticking out and he was innocent the last survey is going to his body he's taken out that he was innocent on his last words as last. and give me something that bank about as executioner and it place some doubt. 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 pay no attention.

in one nine hundred eighty three was arrested in culpepper virginia and brought in for questioning he thought it was for a burglary he had committed. by different. loser. and they than no i want to cook up month old skulk up mom. was going to dump and. after intense questioning police officers extracted a confession from her for the brutal rape and stabbing murder of a nineteen 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 a 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 couldn't read he couldn't write i walked in to the cell and canadian thing mangled dog honestly which was that was earl the whole time he was on the road he was. scared to have it . out as they were for me my mom did again see the promise when serie. a movie was that they had to see the mom would had me. 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 walk him out. literally drugging him out and me everybody's banging on the door here that the cost of the guards. joe reached out to his caseworker marie deans to see if anything could be done. i called marie in a panic and said i was. out of this god or not but i don't think you did i'll break this god knows what's going on when early arrived at the death house he was handed over to jerry i received earl from mecum bear and when he came in i gave a good training to 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 hurt you know you had led to his own and through to your home

you have a deeper hole we got with the he said he was getting really from. in the daytime whether willow want me to go out go or 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 made me know that this was a what we would call a coerced confession whether of course psychologically or some other way that you kill that woman knows. 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 going. accused of a murder. he 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 for junior 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 a memorial 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 said a prayer. a week later karen and ron united with survivors at the two thousand and fourteen boston marathon. i

they cheered their friend celeste and the 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 fall 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 would there been

a series of assaults started taking place in fort collins colorado they put out a report to police agencies all across the united states. so they sent the from sharon's case to court called. 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 dozen 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 large number around the country. 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 if someone was going to want to 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 schieber said the death penalty was the appropriate sentence for their daughter's murder. why would they not want. for vicki in cill 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 still 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 to twenty executions at that girl who was released from death row

that i found out that he was he was innocent as it were out that's as close calling you know he came within days in how to execute an innocent person. 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 don't make sense i don't want to be consider

a person deaths committed all messiah but that's what every. apple. sixty two executions and only kilobit achatz 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.

but. we have no idea what so if he's doing on the vacation but she will be back on it in september. and what politicians do. to put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to. have to go right to be close it's like the before last three of them or can't be good. interested falls in the waters of our. 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 court room 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 zone cars are naive 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 ron has changed and 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 hearth and i have 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 it i want to know why i want to stand what he did why was this going forward like that what was going on where was his background with to talk to his mother i wanted to understand who he was vicki located troy graves mother and gave her a call were you were on the phone together for many many hours in tears just tear a sobbing with each other i said but i wanted 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 to a terrible time to wash yourself you know and she says oh this is she or i. was mother blamed herself for her son's actions and i said i don't think and when he when he said she said it got more and more violent and i. and my kids would come to me and it say please money lets go of this is a bad danny's best 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. vickie began meeting with inmates on death row. she discovered a system of victims on all sides we could just hear she and say mom and dad now that you know about the system the terrible flaws in the bias the racial the geographic bias of caught cos issues they don't get their lawyers just all the ago

not you know what you can 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 loose chop or you guys. are and. so you have to you have to learn to live with this hole in your heart. either we can continue to do well on it and john of well up the misery and sustain that misery. that we incurred because of what was going on or 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 it's a tragedy on imaginable proportions this all happened for 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 victims' family members. in an ongoing tribute to the memory of their daughter vicki and still continue their efforts to end the death penalty. in boston nearly three weeks had passed since our nail 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. a minute suddenly a text from a clerk inside alerted her that the jury was close to a decision. they'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 the fair thing the right thing. is awful if that is. i think it's the just thing that's what i hope. 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 thing know that there is still

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 holding your breath at once and heard a king and like now we can start here no point. in knaves fate sealed karin 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 that'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 say the men that carry out execution orders for this data but ginia was found guilty once i was out i mean i'm exposed so i gotta come forward i got a camel why is this in the truth about this fair. why me know all because i didn't know you and i want you to have to go through what happened go to. jerry 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 napa earl's case you know a place down 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 but 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 after that take your life you know at that i pad biden that's it. i'm glad i didn't get it tested so i apologize to the name thank in a way i thought she was guilty. jerry decided to visit her 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 that's why in one day i was mad and i was in a fight. i want to ritual follow soaring through ok that's what it led to

yeah you know i won the world we're going to you know went through your mind not doing it he was innocent oh mama he did the whole war she was what did raise your blood get me through to you just. this is a good thing that i didn't give it you know because. 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 and to meet him and how that is it is a bit of. a myth. you don't know because you're much too.

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when lawmakers manufactured and sentenced him to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the financial

merry go round the sun in the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. room dream real news is real. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics small business i'm show business i'll see you there. know finally in the film and also the vehicles that have landed now cause a little bit on donkey the front. line and you feel you'd be would it be that easy

to find a friend that i had and you know me. plus is that going to see the city live people. getting. killed but i thought it might upon my little bit of a wonderful i'm about out of it that i'd shut out of money could be no doubt much of the way for the mob not to go to jail but it. exists in london just supply these lists least some borders of the. city. to see. if indeed no problem. that i. was. coming to.

those who don't. need to know that there will always be a serious price to pay if red lines were crossed the british foreign secretary urges more sanctions against russia during a visit to washington as the us treasury hints at tougher measures for moscow's quote maligned activity. we can bring even more economic pain to bear and we will not hesitate to. so if its conduct does not demonstrably and significantly change. also this hour as the syrian army gears up to retake the militant held. western media outlets warn of a civilian massacre the same failed to mention the area under the control of jihad this groups accused of more problems.