Steven Ross Johnson

I'd already graduated from law school.

I'd taken the bar exam, but I was waiting on the bar results.

This case is one that was with me from the outset of my career as a lawyer.

I remember that meeting with Daryl and Tim and Casey, and they were telling us how much they loved her, how much they cared about her, and how much they believed in her and believed that she did not commit this murder that she'd been convicted of.

The entirety of the prosecution's case at her trial was that they were saying she had shot Kilman Robbins Sr.

And so really us coming into the case, we knew it was our job to try to prove her story.

There's a process when you're coming into one of these old cases and you're trying to investigate if the person is innocent and can you reverse the conviction.

You know the story that convicted them.

You know the story of guilt.

And so you have to come in and say, was that the accurate story?

Or is there a different story?

Bob Ritchie and I drove over to Nashville and we spent several days with Tanya at the Tennessee Prison for Women.

She was in an orange jumpsuit and I can remember talking to her about

the surreal experience of escaping 32 years prior, and here she is back again.

She was very open to tell us her entire story and everything that had happened and was very grateful for us to look into this.

And she was also very consistent in that she didn't do this.

She didn't shoot anyone.

She described really how deranged and evil Glenn Nash was and how he abused her and took advantage of her and controlled her and manipulated her and how she tried to get away from him.

It's a gut-wrenching story to have heard.

Just getting the trial transcripts, we had to file a motion with the appellate court to have them dig up and then us withdraw the archived record, which was a very cumbersome process.