#232 Jason Flom with Dennis and Lee Horton

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Brothers, Dennis and Lee Horton, were having a pleasant Memorial Day in 1993 until they decided to visit their father in North Philadelphia and ran into a childhood friend, Robert Leaf. Unbeknownst to the Hortons, Robert Leaf had committed an armed robbery turned homicide earlier that day. Shortly after Robert joined the brothers in their car, police pulled them over. All three were arrested and tried for second degree murder. Robert Leaf's attorney used confusion among the witnesses about the identity of the shooter to win Leaf a lesser sentence, while the Hortons received life without the possibility of parole. After all appeals were denied on procedural grounds, they applied for commutation. With the support of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Dennis and Lee were finally freed in February 2021. To learn more and get involved, go to: https://lavaforgood.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On May 31, 1993, Dennis Horton went to his brother Lee's home for a memorial day we
0:08.9	can't cook out.
0:10.4	Later in the day they visited their father in North Philadelphia, as well as their childhood
0:14.7	friend Robert Leefe.
0:16.5	Unbeknownst to the Horton's, Robert Leefe had committed an armed robbery earlier that
0:21.0	day in which two women were injured and one man was fatally shot.
0:25.7	The Horton's pulled up to their friend Robert Leefe on the street and made plans to watch
0:29.6	a basketball game back at Lee's.
0:32.0	Robert asked the brothers to meet him one block up where he got into their car with a gun.
0:37.7	Police had been following Robert and immediately pulled them over where all three men were arrested.
0:44.0	The two injured women who initially had said that there were only two armed robbers gave
0:48.5	a shaky idea of all three men sending them to trial together.
0:52.8	Robert Leefe's attorney used confusion amongst the witnesses over the identities of the three
0:57.0	men to change the narrative from Robert Leefe as the shooter to Dennis delivering a later
1:02.6	sentence to the actual culprit while the Horton's were sentenced to life without parole.
1:08.7	Years later, a statement by Robert Leefe admitting his role and excluding the Horton brothers
1:13.3	was unearthed, along with the fact that police had identified Robert Leefe as the shooter
1:18.5	from the very start.
1:20.1	However, with this new evidence being ruled inadmissible on purely procedural grounds, it
1:25.4	took the tireless advocacy of Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman to win a
1:30.3	commutation and release for the brothers after nearly three long decades in prison.
1:37.4	This is wrongful conviction.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lava for Good Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lava for Good Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.