#254 Jason Flom with Chris Ochoa

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1988, Chris Ochoa and his roommate Richard Danziger both worked at different Pizza Huts locations in Austin, Texas, when a robbery, rape, and murder occurred at another location on October 24th. With no sign of forced entry, police focused on other Pizza Hut employees. An aggressive interrogation complete with lies about evidence and polygraph results, as well as threats of prison rape and the death penalty made Chris Ochoa's acquiescence a foregone conclusion. He made false statements uncorroborated by the physical evidence, implicating Richard and himself. Eventually, modern DNA testing supported the confession of the actual killer, but not before both men spent 12 years in prison. To learn more and get involved: https://law.wisc.edu/fjr/clinicals/ip/support.html Sign the petition at: https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/stop-execution-of-innocent-melissa-lucio-texas/ If you live in Texas, call Cameron County DA Saenz to ask that Melissa's execution date be withdrawn: 956-300-3881 OR Call Governor Abbott to tell him that you support clemency for Melissa Lucio: 956-446-2866 Social Media Toolkit: https://innocenceproject.org/social-media-toolkit-stop-execution-melissa-lucio-texas/ 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 1988, roommates Chris Hojo and Richard Danziger worked at two different pizza hut locations
0:07.6	in Austin, Texas, when a robbery, rape, and murder occurred at another location in the
0:12.4	early morning hours of October 24.
0:15.5	Nancy DePris led an amend disguised as a repairman who would later admit to committing the crime
0:19.9	alone.
0:20.9	However, before this spontaneous admission of guilt, the lack of forced entry led police
0:25.9	to focus on other pizza hut employees.
0:29.3	The proposal were brought to notorious interrogator detective Hector Palanco, including Chris
0:34.1	Hojoa.
0:36.1	As we commonly see in pattern and practice from investigators all over the country, Palanco
0:40.4	lied about crime scene evidence, polygraph results, and made threats of the death penalty
0:45.2	and prison rape to coerce a statement from a frightened young man.
0:49.3	Chris gave ball statements implicating himself and Richard Danziger to avoid Palanco's threats
0:54.1	of a death sentence.
0:55.7	The prosecution passed off primitive and inconclusive DNA test results, as well as dubious hair microscopy
1:01.8	as evidence of guilt, but Chris's false confession was really all they needed to set both
1:06.4	of them away for life.
1:08.6	Both Chris and Richard languished in prison until the Wisconsin Innocence Project was finally
1:12.7	able to present modern DNA test results that only corroborated what the real rapist and
1:18.2	killer had been confessing to multiple authorities as early as 1996.
1:24.0	Chris is wrongful conviction.
1:33.5	My father was a flock star.
	...

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