#250 Jason Flom with Rodney Lincoln

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early morning hours of April 27, 1982, 35 year old JoAnn Tate was stabbed in the chest and sexually assaulted while in her apartment in St. Louis, MO. Her 7 year old daughter, Melissa, was stabbed several times, and her 4 year old daughter, Renee, had her throat cut. The girls survived the attack, but their mother did not. For a while, Melissa had said that a man named Bill was the attacker, and she gave details of his car and house. Eventually, police showed Melissa a picture of Rodney Lincoln who had a previous murder conviction from a decade's old bar fight and who also had dated her mother. Soon after, she was shown a highly suggestive four-person live lineup, resulting in Lincoln's arrest, charges, and conviction. She had maintained that identification through trial and nearly 4 decades until she saw photos of an admitted serial killer whose MO matched the attack on her family. To learn more and get involved, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/9d49b-rodney-lincoln-free-after-36-years https://www.gofundme.com/f/2nu2f-help-melissa-find-housing https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-real-killer/id1596167670 https://investigatinginnocence.org/bill-clutter https://lavaforgood.com/with-jason-flom/ Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the early 70s Rodney Lincoln served two years in prison for accidentally killing a man
0:08.0	at a bar fight.
0:09.6	About 10 years later he briefly dated a woman named Joanne Tate and about a year after
0:14.1	that in the early morning hours of April 27, 1982, Joanne was brutally stabbed to death
0:20.3	and sexually assaulted in her St. Louis apartment.
0:23.5	Her two young daughters, 7-year-old Melissa and 4-year-old Renee miraculously survived
0:28.8	the attack.
0:29.8	Joanne's brother thought her ex-boyfriend Rodney Lincoln resembled a composite sketch.
0:35.3	Investigators presented the older girl Melissa with a very suggestive lineup and had the
0:40.0	desired effect.
0:41.5	Without DNA testing available, this misidentification, along with Rodney's past conviction, sealed
0:47.8	his fate, the first trial ended in a hung jury.
0:51.2	However, in the second, the state leaned heavily on dubious hair microscopy evidence and
0:56.4	Melissa's testimony.
0:57.9	Unfortunately for Rodney pointing out the inconsistencies between Melissa's initial statements
1:02.6	and trial testimony could not overcome the power of a then-nine-year-old girl describing
1:07.7	an unspeakable attack.
1:10.2	Twenty-seven years later, DNA testing excluded Rodney, but Melissa's testimony still loomed.
1:15.6	Finally, when a serial killer named Tommy Lynn Cells had confessed to scores of eerily
1:20.8	similar crimes, Melissa immediately recognized him for photos as the actual attacker.
1:26.3	However, her recantation was still somehow not enough to immediately said Rodney free.
1:32.8	This is wrongful conviction.
	...

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