On October 13th, 1997, Julie Ray woke to a sound from her 10-year-old boy Joel's bedroom.

When she looked, she did not see Joel and a man-in-a-skimasked lunge from the darkness.

Julie, a black belt and Taekwondo, struggled with the mask man, as he escaped to the backyard,

slamming her head on the ground before fleeing into the night.

Julie banged on her neighbor's door, asking for help and saying that Joel was gone.

When Sheriff Deputy Dennis York searched the house, he found Joel between the bed and the nearby wall.

His pajamas soaked in blood. He had been stabbed 12 times.

Despite her own injuries and the minuscule amount of Joel's blood found in her shirt,

authorities came up with a theory that there was no intruder and that Julie was responsible

for the death of her own son.

After a bumbling, tunnel vision investigation, searching only for evidence of Julie's guilt

and coming up empty, prosecution resorted to using blood-spatter analysis, a known

junk science. Their experts testified anyway employing no actual demonstration that the blood stains were consistent with Julie wielding the murder weapon.

Julie was sentenced to 65 years in prison and subjected to the abuse that he falls a person who murdered their own child.

Just two years later, a serial child murderer facing the death penalty for a nearly identical crime

and who was linked to many other similar crimes could best to being the mask man from Julie's version of events.

His confession was corroborated and she was acquitted at her retrial in 2006 and formally exonerated in 2010.

All of this was made possible with the help of the Center on R awful convictions at Northwestern University

and most notably, Staff Attorney Karen Daniel, to whom this episode is lovingly and respectfully dedicated.

Karen was a pioneer in the Innocence movement and a hero to many. She passed away on December 26, 2019.

This is wrongful conviction with Jason Plum.

Hi, this is Chelsea Handler and I'm Catherine Law. We are the hosts of the Dear Chelsea Podcast where we give advice to real life people.

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