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Chapter 1: Who was Mitzi Nalley and what happened to her?
She was very beautiful. She had the biggest, brownest eyes, and her heart was so good. This was the first newspaper article. This was the crucifix from her casket. In a handmade cedar chest in her Houston, Texas home. This was her little gawky stage. Paula Kurland keeps her memories of her daughter Mitzi under lock and key. I'm just extremely protective of the contents.
Well, you can see how old the papers are. It's the first time I've gone through them in 10 years. On most days, even opening the chest is just too painful. When Mitzi was murdered, I just died. But today, Paula has to look for one favorite photograph. I'm going to wear her picture right here on my chest. that she'll wear to one remarkable meeting.
The last pictures he saw of her was her laying on the floor with 28 stab wounds. That's the reason we're here. In just a few days, Paula Kurland will finally meet the man who murdered her daughter face to face. I can't bring Mitzi back, but I can make her memory a lot more pleasant than it is now. Will this do that?
Chapter 2: What details surround the brutal murder of Mitzi and her roommate?
That's what I'm working for. What could he possibly say to you that would make you feel any better? I don't think that he can say anything that would make me feel better. But I can say some things that'll make me feel better. Things she's been waiting to say ever since that terrible night in 1986, the night of Mitzi's 21st birthday.
Mitzi came home late to the house she shared in Austin, Texas, with her roommate, Kelly Farquhar.
These girls were asleep in their beds, minding their own business. Mitzi had been out celebrating her birthday.
Carla Connelly was an Austin prosecutor.
It was very, very brutal.
She says the horror began when an intruder broke in.
He jumped the fence of Mitzi and Kelly's home, went into the house through a back door.
When the girls started screaming, the intruder started stabbing. First, Kelly.
He slit her throat ear to ear, almost decapitating her.
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Chapter 3: How did Paula Kurland cope with the loss of her daughter?
Detective Dusty Hescue made the arrest. Not any doubt in my mind he'd have killed somebody else if we hadn't have caught him. He was there when Nobles gave this chilling confession. Was she screaming?
I believe so. Did you start to stab her?
could you feel the knife going into our body he just never never showed any remorse i mean it was kind of like he smiled all the way through the whole time in his confession nobles never said why he committed the crimes later he blamed the drugs he had a terrible terrible past mental illness not any of us have had a wonderful Perfect past. And his abusive childhood. But we didn't kill someone.
He did. Nobles offered the same reasons at his trial a year later, but the jury didn't buy it. The trial lasted more than a month, and when it was over, it took the jury of eight women and four men less than three hours to reach its decision. The verdict? Guilty. The sentence? Death. Then, before he was led away to death row, Jonathan Nobles did something nobody expected.
He spoke to Paula Curlin. His exact words to me were, I'm really very sorry. And if I could give my life right now to bring hers back, I would. And I said, that just isn't enough. More than a decade later, it still isn't enough. But now, Paula says, there is one thing that might finally bring her peace of mind. I sat in a courtroom with him for 13 months before he went to death row.
And I've been trying to see him ever since. That's right. Amazing as it sounds, ever since the trial, Paula Kurland has wanted to go to death row. He's sentenced to prison, but so are we. Look her daughter's killer in the eye. We've been imprisoned for 12 years, and it's time for us to be free. And tell him exactly what he's done to her.
It's going to help me close a chapter and hopefully get on with my life. But year after year, nobles refuse to meet with Paula. Until now, 12 years since the murders, less than two weeks before his execution, Jonathan Nobles is finally ready to talk.
The Second World War is the largest event in human history.
A 20-part series with Tom Hanks.
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Chapter 4: What led to the arrest of Jonathan Wayne Nobles?
but this year will be different for us. We will at long last see justice done for your death. And this year will be different. Soon, Paula will finally meet Jonathan Wayne Nobles, the man who murdered her daughter. And two weeks after that, he'll be executed. Why put yourself through this if he's going to die anyway? Because there are some things that I want him to take with him
that only I can give him. She's been trying to do that for more than a decade. But Paula's requests to meet Nobles in prison were always denied. It's been 12 years and it's time. Until she discovered a little-known state program with a very long name, Victim Offender Mediation Dialogue. Our purpose. The people who run it shot these videos of the program at work. This is real hard for me.
Victims who want to get on with their lives.
God knows I felt anger like I've never felt in my life.
Meeting the criminals who devastated their lives.
It's real important to me that I know about the last things he said.
Why would anyone want to do this? Well, each meeting happens only if both sides agree to it, and then only after months of preparation with a trained mediator.
David Derfler with Victim Services.
Like psychologist David Derfler.
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Chapter 5: What was Nobles' confession about the crime?
Well, thank you for that.
And that's why I'm here.
Do you realize you stabbed my daughter 28 times? No, ma'am, I didn't remember the number. It was 28 times. When you murdered Mitzi, you murdered me. My kids lost their mother. Can you give that back to me? Can you give that back to my kids? Oh, ma'am. I don't know what to do with you, Jonathan. I just don't know what to do with you. It's ripping me apart. It's just absolutely eating me alive.
I don't know what to do with you. It's just too much. Too much pain. Too many conflicting emotions. Excuse me, Johnny. Oh, God have mercy. As the sun sets over the barbed wire outside, Paula has to take a break, catch her breath, and try to make sense of it all. But there is so much more to say. Yeah, honey, I'm okay. I'm okay. It's just... She's just taking a break. I'm just taking a breather.
They return to the meeting and find there is one thing they can agree on. I was a beast. I agree. You scared a lot of people. Yes, I did. Down the hall, Paula's friends wait and worry. Ronnie's here. He's really working very hard at this, too. One of those friends is Ron Ross, Mitzi's former boyfriend, the victim who survived. This is bringing up a lot of very painful things for him.
Ron's been offered the chance to meet with Nobles, too.
I just didn't feel like I could be in the same room and conduct myself in a sane manner.
But Ron doesn't even want to look at him. Back in the meeting, Paula and Nobles talk for hours with no end in sight about everything. I don't want you to die. From the upcoming execution. Just to die. I don't want that for anyone. To Mitzi's memory. It's not very satisfying going to a cemetery and saying I love you, Mitzi, to a piece of bronze.
To the one critical issue that might still mean a stay of execution for Jonathan Nobles, organ donation. You know that I started this organ donation issue a long time ago.
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Chapter 6: How did the trial of Jonathan Nobles unfold?
If I do do this, can I publicly state that I'm doing this in memory of my victims?
I'm going to have to give that some thought. Nobles tells Paula the story of his life, of a bright kid gone terribly bad. Growing up, his high school threw him out, the Navy kicked him out, and his own mother tossed him out when he was 17.
the last night i used was the night of the murders it was all he says because of drugs i started the 12-step program when i was in the county jail then as three hours turned to four and then to five i feel i've grown about 15 feet today something extraordinary begins to happen are you okay no me too paula's anger is slowly giving way to not sympathy exactly but understanding
I feel compassion for you, Jonathan.
I don't know that I deserve it.
No, you don't, but you have it. Thank you. You have anything else you want to say? Not this moment. Yeah, me too. They take another break. Let me go tell them I'm okay. I know they're worried. So Paula can reassure Ron it's all going okay. I'm proud of you. And I'm proud of you, too. I know how hard this is for you. But I think it's going to be okay, Ronald.
And then it's time to go back in one last time. David Durfler, the mediator, speaks first.
If I could be so bold to presume to use this time for your closing statements to one another.
You first.
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Chapter 7: What was Paula's motivation to confront her daughter's killer?
Um, it's never crossed my mind not to. That'll get me there and back. Number 16. The next day in Columbia. Timothy Gossett. Jimmy and Chandler are there. I'm ready to be a law-abiding citizen. The parole board has a full docket of cases to review.
Next case is number 41. Roy Brooks. We have opposition. Jimmy Leland, the victim's husband.
Roy Brooks' hearing is among 60 cases that will be heard today before the state parole board. He'll speak to the six-member panel first. Then the Leland family will have their turn. In South Carolina, in contrast to Texas, official policy always keeps perpetrators and victims far apart.
You do not see or hear the inmate, and the inmate does not see or hear you.
The parole hearings are conducted by closed circuit television. I've earned three degrees since I've been locked up in this. The board doesn't allow a direct face off.
I would like you to understand that until this happened for 37 years, I lived a pretty exemplary life.
During Brooke's presentation, Jimmy Chandler and their relatives are kept in a waiting room.
You remember when he was on the witness stand, he never said he was sorry.
where the discussion turns to questions of fairness and forgiveness. We thank you all for coming in. If you'll step outside. Thank you, sir. You all come in and have a seat, please. When the time comes to address the board... If I could make a brief statement, please. Jimmy Leland speaks for the family.
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Chapter 8: What happened during the meeting between Paula and Nobles?
Will you look at his face? Will you look at the surroundings? Will you hold someone's hand? Do you have any idea what you're going to do? Probably all of the above. While inside, guards walk Nobles from his cell. to the execution chamber. He's been basically in control of my life for 12 years, and today I'll be getting my life back.
It's now one minute till 6 o'clock, the hour Paula Kurland has been waiting for with mixed emotions for all these many years. If everything goes according to schedule, at 6 o'clock, Jonathan Wayne Nobles will be given the three injections that, when administered together, make up the lethal injection. The first one will put him to sleep. The second will stop his breathing.
The third one will stop his heart. it was a very difficult thing to witness. By 625, it's all over. Afterwards, Noble's body is taken to a church down the street for a memorial service led by a bishop who met Noble's on death row.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. When you went into the room, he was already on the gurney? Yes. Strapped in? Yeah. Lord, accept this sacrifice we offer for our brother Jonathan. He talked to you directly? Mm-hmm. What did he say? He just said, Paula, I love you, and I'm sorry. And then, just before he died, Nobles began singing, singing Silent Night. He just sang until he stopped singing. Until he stopped singing.
What was going through your mind when you watched him sing and then stop and then die? Well, it just kind of took my breath away. It was... Bottom line, did the punishment fit the crime? Yes. Yes. This was the way it had to be done? This was the way it had to be done. And now, for Paula, it's time to start working on the toughest part of all, getting on with her life. I feel light.
I just feel like something has just left my body. But first... David came up to me and he said, Jonathan has left something for you. I think that she would have been very pleased with the way everything went. And I think she would have been proud of me. For Paula Curlin, the last few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. From grief to anger and now, remarkably, to peace.
Jonathan isn't going to be a weight and a focal point in my life anymore. With Nobles dead, he can no longer haunt her. David came up to me and he said, Jonathan has left something for you. Or can he? I was really kind of shocked. Just one day after his execution, Jonathan Nobles gives Paula one more shock.
Oh.
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