Mindy Montford

And so any trial in America that had taken place where you put a co-defendant's confession against the other co-defendant without putting the co-defendant on the stand, that was remanded to have a new trial.

And that's what happened here.

So again, it's chipping away.

Bit by bit, they just kept getting this more bad news to the families, right?

Right.

courts.

They're sitting there thinking, you know, where's the justice in this?

Now we have to go through another set of trials.

And it was at that point that the prosecution decided we didn't have DNA back when we had the first trials.

Maybe with new technology, as you mentioned, we might be able to get something.

I think, you know, I've spent so much time on this case now, and I know the evidence against Robert Brashears.

And I do not find any evidence at this point that Robert Brashears had any contact with the original individuals who were charged.

And so therefore, I felt it was the right thing to do.

I still can't understand it, Deborah.

That is the one thing that I, it just causes me pause all the time because I'm thinking, why would you implicate yourself?

Why would you do this?

But we know it happens because now we do have DNA and we've seen so many cases that have been cleared and individuals have been exonerated.

Thank God for DNA or because other people come forward and provide new evidence or maybe someone confesses a jailhouse confession, but we know it happens.

I can't take credit for that, but I have been struggling with this idea of false confessions.

And I ended up talking to Vern Pearson, who is an elected district attorney out in California, and he's actually become quite the expert on false confessions.