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the worst capital murder cases >> i would say this is one of the worst capital murder cases that anyone could ever talk about or deal with. >> reporter: kelly siegler should know; she's sent 19 men to death row. >> you will hear from the evidence in this case. >> reporter: so, in february 2010, she was ready, willing and eager to make it an even 20 when she was appointed to retry anthony graves. did that scare you that she was coming after you? >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> i was standing up for what was right, so it didn't make no difference who was on the case. the fact that i was innocent was unchanged. >> reporter: by the fall of

2010, pam colloff's investigation of the case had produced one of the longest articles in the history of "texas monthly" magazine. >> there were so many things about this case that fascinated me, beginning with how weak the evidence was. i wanted to understand how someone could be sent to death row on so little evidence. >> reporter: of course, making graves' case in print is a lot easier than making it in court. with the trial date approaching and kelly siegler circling, defense attorneys kathryn scardino and jimmy phillips were feeling the pressure. >> you make a mistake in a death penalty case, and it's over. >> they chose to hire a good prosecutor. we're going to have to work hard and be doubly, triply prepared. kelly is a formidable opponent. >> reporter: siegler has beaten most of the best lawyers in texas, and now she asked for a meeting with the graves team. >> why did she want to meet with us? was she trying to get information from us? was she trying to learn what our

trial strategy was? i didn't really know what to make of it. >> reporter: siegler met with the graves' lawyers around this table, and she asked a lot of questions, but the defense team could not have imagined why. the prosecutor, with her 19-0 record on death penalty cases, was having serious problems with the case against anthony graves. >> i read every page of every document in 25 boxes, and at some point it switched from getting ready to go to trial to "can we go to trial," to, "oh, my god, what happened here?" >> reporter: siegler and her investigator, otto hanak, soon realized nicole and her students were right on target. >> every single time we would reinvestigate or re-talk to a witness that they had talked to, we would find that they were right. >> reporter: one by one, the pillars of the prosecution's case crumbled. >> we tried to find paperwork, people, anything that we could-- especially a motive-- to say

anthony graves committed the capital murder with robert carter, and we found nothing. >> reporter: otto hanak tried to confirm the testimony from sebesta's jailhouse witnesses. >> we can't find anybody that can positively say, in court or in this room, that "i heard anthony graves say this, i heard robert carter say this." >> reporter: he looked into roy reuter's knife. >> the blade is flimsy. >> reporter: and, according to hanak, a knife this flimsy could not have caused the kind of wounds to the skulls that were found on some victims. >> i personally do not believe that that blade is strong enough, nor is this knife made well enough to go through human skulls. >> it's a switchblade knife. they're made pretty sturdy. >> reporter: d.a. charles sebesta had argued graves' identical knife had inflicted 66 stab wounds the night of the murder. >> there's no doubt that that knife could have survived that. we had texas ranger testimony that it could have done it.

>> reporter: but hanak, who is a former texas ranger himself, believes the knife would have left its mark on the killer. >> when you get down to the 10th, 11th, 12th stab wound, the knife becomes very slippery, becomes very bloody. the person that inflicted those wounds is also going to have an injury themselves. >> reporter: and did anthony graves have any injuries on his hands? >> none at all. >> reporter: did robert carter have any injuries on his hands? >> no. >> reporter: what does that tell you? >> that tells me that this is not the knife that caused those injuries. >> reporter: siegler thought any new case against graves would have to be built almost solely on robert carter's testimony, but that was before she found out how charles sebesta got that testimony from his star witness. he made a deal with mr. carter. >> and what a deal he made. >> reporter: sebesta had a powerful card to play: carter's

wife, teresa. shortly after the killing, sebesta had also indicted her for capital murder. >> she had given conflicting statements about his burns. there were a number of things that she did. >> reporter: the deal sebesta made: he would not question carter about his wife on the stand if he testified against graves. >> how does a prosecutor... i should say, how does an ethical prosecutor put a witness on the stand, your main piece of evidence in a death penalty case, and say, "okay, you get up there and talk about what you did and what graves did, but i'm not going to ask you about your wife." you can't do that. >> reporter: why in the world would you agree not to ask him about her? >> well, i needed his testimony. >> reporter: and sebesta points out the deal was approved by a judge and the defense never questioned it. >> that put on the record, i did put on the record. >> reporter: the indictment

against carter's wife was later dismissed due to a lack of evidence. and siegler never bought into sebesta's theory that there had to be multiple killers. >> we appreciated the fact that you didn't have to have three killers because five of the people killed were children, some little babies, asleep in their bed. how hard is it for a grown man to stab little babies asleep in their bed? >> reporter: and all the evidence, siegler says, points to robert carter, not anthony graves. there must have been a moment when you concluded, "gee whiz, this guy is innocent." not just not guilty, but innocent. >> it wasn't even a difficult decision. it was pretty clear. >> reporter: and by "innocent," you mean he wasn't there, had nothing to do with it? >> nothing. no motive, no reason, no connection, nothing. >> never in a million years would i have predicted that this would be the outcome of this case, particularly with kelly siegler as prosecutor. >> oh, my god, what happened in anthony graves' trial?

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and that's like a... that's like a ton. just use poise, instead of your period pads. because your period pads are for your period, period. thanks. now get out there and find me a hot guy. poise liners work better than period liners. want to stay fresh and dry? give poise a try! >> reporter: on an autumn afternoon in the burleson county, texas, jail, anthony graves was summoned unexpectedly out of his cell. >> i'm sitting and writing a letter. they come get me and say, "put your shirt on." they walk me up to the front of the jail. >> reporter: nicole casarez and

jimmy phillips, members of his legal team, were there to see him with a message he'd waited to hear for 18 years: the murder charges had been dropped. >> both of us could barely talk, we were so emotional. and she says, "anthony, god is great." and he knew. >> she just said, "you're free. you can leave right now. it's over, anthony." >> reporter: and on october 27, 2010, the man known as inmate number 999127 got his good name back. anthony graves, carrying all of his belongings and looking a little dazed, walked out of jail and into the warm texas sun. >> unbelievable!

oh! >> reporter: probably the dumbest question i've ever asked, but i've got to ask you anyway: how do you feel? >> oh! well, i feel good. >> reporter: i'll bet you do, sir. >> i feel good. i feel good. 18 years is a long time. i think i've lost a lot, but today i gain my freedom. >> you want to talk to someone here. hold on. >> reporter: his first call as a free man is to his mother. >> say, what are you cooking tonight? >> reporter: his mother didn't know that her son was free. >> can you put something on? because i'm on my way. this is your son! ( laughs ) and just so you know, i did not escape. ( laughter ) ( cheers ) >> reporter: and his first stop

is home to his sons who had grown up without him and, at long last, to an embrace with his mother. ( cheers ) when was the last time you were able to put your arm around your mother? >> 18 years. >> 18 years ago. >> reporter: you haven't touched your son in 18 years? >> no. in 18 years. i had no idea. >> reporter: he is rejoining the world, picking up where he left off. >> okay, guys, here he is. >> reporter: and after all that time behind bars, he finally has places to go and people to see. ( cheers and applause ) at his lawyer's office, graves is able to thank the people who may well have saved his life: the students who got him off death row.

but there's someone else in the crowd. for the first time since graves' trial, he sees roy reuter... >> how's it going? >> reporter: ...his best friend... >> good to see you, man. >> reporter: ...whose testimony did so much to put him away. >> it happens to the best of us, but you know i love you, man. >> reporter: what does that mean to you? for him to take those... minute and a half and give me that assurance... you know, that's what life is really all about. >> reporter: was it hard to forgive him? >> no. no, it wasn't hard at all. he just became another pawn in their game of chess. >> in anthony graves' trial...

>> reporter: but kelly siegler is not nearly as forgiving. at a news conference, she lashed out at charles sebesta, who was once a fellow prosecutor. >> i think ultimately it's the prosecutor's responsibility. charles sebesta handled this case in a way that would be best described as a criminal justice system's nightmare. >> reporter: what are you saying about him? >> i'm saying that charles sebesta did everything he could-- manipulating witnesses, fabricating evidence, using people, misrepresenting things to the judges and the jury-- to make sure anthony graves got convicted of capital murder and put on death row. >> reporter: graves' attorneys had filed a complaint against sebesta, but the texas state bar dismissed it. and sebesta insists he did

nothing wrong, that siegler was just afraid of losing a big case. >> they didn't have any intention of trying this case. basically, they're looking for a way out. >> reporter: sebesta says you didn't want to take the risk of losing at trial. >> really? >> reporter: that's what he said. >> well, i would say that he's going to have a hard time finding any single other person that would agree that i'm afraid to go to trial on anything. >> reporter: but siegler says there was one thing she dreaded about this case: telling the victim's family that the man they believed was a murderer for so long is not. >> 18 years, they've believed that the two men responsible for killing their family-- their babies, their mom, their sister-- got what they deserved. >> it could have been different. >> reporter: glenda rutledge lost her two daughters that august night in 1992. >> some of them are never going to change their minds. they're always going to think anthony graves is guilty no matter what i say. how do you get upset with them? they're as much a victim of what

happened as anthony graves is. >> reporter: for his own troubles, anthony graves should have been paid $1.4 million when he was released. that's what the state of texas figures 18 years of wrongful imprisonment is worth. but there was a paperwork snafu; his release documents never used the words "actual innocence," so texas refused to pay. >> two words, two words. they're holding me hostage behind two words. >> reporter: finally, after nine months of public pressure, the legislature passed and the governor was quick to sign a special measure awarding him the money. graves credited "48 hours mystery" for drawing attention to what he was owed. but he had already won the biggest fight of his life, for his life and for his freedom. >> you could put your hands out and touch both walls where i was

living at, you know. >> reporter: he can come and go as he pleases as he tries to absorb how far he's come from a previous life he's still struggling to understand. >> they were trying to kill me. i still can't wrap my mind around how the hell did i go from home to death row for a crime that happened in another town to people i don't even know. it's crazy. and i gave 18 years of my life. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by

media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> refusing to go down. >> he was discovered with bloodstains on his neck and the back of his head. >> either arturo was murdered or arturo killed himself. >> i have nothing to do with my husband's death. >> i think she knows what happened. >> on television, online, on the go, and now on ipad-- cbs news.

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station. >> accused of murdering. new reaction from people who know him. good evening. i'm adam may. a plane carrying robert bahls lands in kansas. the eleven year veteran is accused of killing afghans last week. they are outraged as is afghanistan's president. >> reporter: crowds marched through the streets of jau streets to demand trial. they must be on trial according to our laws, this man says. staff sergeant robert bahls is being held in kansas, flown from kuwait on friday who will go a physical and psychological

exam. military officials say bahls killed 16. he was drinking before the attack. his neighbors are shocked. >> just a good guy, fun to be with. never thought something like this would happen to him. >> reporter: there's two children to the nearby base at the station. the family put their house up for sale. bahls used to watch her kids. >> i'm blown away. i'm waiting for something to come out where there's more involved. >> reporter: the court documents say he was arrested years ago for assaulting a girlfriend and had to attend anger management classes. he was deployed to iraq three times. the attorney said he suffered a head injury after the vehicle rolled over and lost part of

the foot. bahls was training to be an army recruiter when he was being sent to afghanistan. wjz eyewitness news. >> today, bahls' lawyer said his client was disappointed to find out he was going to afghanistan for a fourth tour. john was sentenced to five years in prison last year for assisting in mass murder as a death camp guard in poland who lived for decades in the u.s. and eventually extradited to germany. he died at 91 years old. baltimore city police are looking for a shooter after a man is gunned down in northeast baltimore. a man was shot multiple times in the 3500 block of west belvidere. he was rushed to the hospital and later died of injuries. homicide is asking anyone to with information to call. an apartment building on

fire forcing people out of their homes. the fire spilled on trap road. people may have been trapped inside that sent firefighters scrambling inside the building. everyone made it out okay except for a firefighter who had to be carried out. it's a dangerous prank that has people posting videos all over the internet. but now after a child was almost hit by a bottle bomb, our reporter monique said police are taking notice. >> reporter: explosives detonated right in the middle of the neighborhood. videos of people setting up homemade bombs of the latest pranks that take the internet by storm. >> we're finding that juveniles use plastic soda bottles to make bottle bombs. >> reporter: they have corrosive chemicals that when mix, can explode. >> we're being put in a

driveway. >> reporter: last week on thunder hill road in columbia, this practical joke turned very dangerous. >> i thought they were gunshots. >> reporter: behind joe and betty's home, a bomb went off and nearly hit the child. >> it didn't hit him, but it scared him. >> reporter: they believe teens or kids might have been hiding out in the woods waiting for it to explode. so far, there have been five cases of explosions and in february, police arrested three teens. the andrews say they want pranksters to stop joking. wjz eyewitness news. >> anyone caught setting off these bombs can face felony charges. they're saying if anyone sees anything suspicious, call 9-1- 1. a construction worker is run down working on a maryland

highway. that worker was installing pavement markings in the closed lane that happened at 12:15 this morning southbound near the kayton avenue exit. the driver who took off was in a gold or silver colored gm sedan or pontiac grant grand prix. call if you have any information. three cars collide injuring several people here in baltimore county. one of the cars was packed full of children. the impact flipped one of the other cars on the road. a total of six people were hurt and taken to the hospital for treatment. one person suffered serious injuries. the cause of this accident remains under investigation tonight. we got new video after seven people were hurt in a crash in maryland. check this out. that crashing sound you heard

there was in this video taken by a spectator. it seemed to lose control and slam into a light pole. two children and five adults were hurt. they were all rushed to the hospital. we don't have an update on their conditions tonight. protesters rally against the violence in syria. violence has swept syria since demonstrators called for the president, 27 people were killed in a series of explosions that rocked the country's capital of damascus. tv is blaming terrorists for the attacks. weijia jianging reports on

this landmark achievement. >> reporter: senator barbara mccorski is a trail blazer. not only celebrating her achievements, but thanking her. for more than 35 years, people have been represented by her in maryland. she's the longest serving woman in the history of congress. >> the line is a little different. >> reporter: when mccoski went then, there were only a few. now many cross party lines. >> let's have a glass of wine and keep the institution in america going. >> so it's fitting that one of the passions is the battle for women's help. she wrote the law requiring federal standards for mammograms and fought for

cervical cancers. >> reporter: she got her job as a social worker to help at-risk kids and educating seniors about medicare. >> i think she's been an asset to baltimore and i'm glad to know her and i'm glad to have voted for her. >> reporter: mckulaki is also a leader among leaders. a mentor to others when they first take office. >> i hope there's civility that will remain. >> reporter: senator mcculski is going to be honored. weijia jiang, wjz eyewitness news. >> a massachusetts republican was the longest until barbara broke the record. same-sex marriages might

have a precedent, but now same- sex divorce. she filed for divorce two years after getting married in california. the marriage at the time was not valid. the appeals court could set a statewide standard. st. patrick's day parade rolls right through the streets of dunnbock today. the classic fire truck there. the family came out to watch the parade with clouds, floats, and st. patrick himself. the name is actually gaelic. perfect weather out there to bring people out to celebrate. heard those celebrations continue well into the night tonight. i don't know; i've been stuck at work, but that's what i've heard. still to come on wjz eyewitness

news tonight: >> are you following us? >> we don't need you to do that. >> shot and killed by a neighborhood watch captain. was the self-defense or murder? a bizarre breakdown. the man behind the kony 2012 campaign loses it. we'll show you his really unusual public meltdown. and picture perfect. a tornado sends a portrait an entire state away. we'll show you how the picture made its way back home. >> reporter: cashing in on casino jobs. the state's newest casino. i'm gigi barnett. that story is next. >> the countdown is on. i'm in for bernadette woods. we'll have your forecast coming up in just a few moments.

complete coverage continues with adam may and meteorologist bernadette woods and sports with stan saunders, it's ,,,,,,,

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