#353 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Tommy Ward Pt. 1

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He thought the police would recognize this was just a dream, not reality.

Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin bring us a story from Ada, OK where a young woman went missing. A few months after her disappearance, a man named Tommy Ward told police that he’d had a bad dream about her murder. Incredibly, the police took that dream and turned it into a false confession... and into a prison sentence that continues to this day, 35 years later.

Since this episode's original release, in January 2021, a District Judge vacated Tommy's conviction, yet he remained in prison while the state appealed. The state won, reinstating the conviction, and Tommy and his team are still fighting for his freedom.

At the end of this episode, Laura says that Part 2 will be available next week. However, this is a re-issue, so Part 2 is available right now in your feed!

To learn more and get involved, visit:

http://www.centeronwrongfulconvictions.org/

https://www.facebook.com/tommywardslegalteam/

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sometimes the pop culture we love just teens hits differently in retrospect.
0:03.8	Maybe it's a tabloid story we couldn't get enough of or an illicit student-teacher relationship
0:08.6	on our favorite show. We're Suzy Banna-Karim and Jessica Bennett,
0:12.0	posts of the new podcast in retrospect, where each week we'll revisit a cultural moment from
0:17.1	the past that shaped us and probably you to try to understand what it taught us about the world
0:21.7	and our place in it. You're the first person that I've talked to about this for years and years.
0:25.7	Listen to In retrospect on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your favorite shows.
0:32.1	I'm Liz Flock. I want to tell you a story about how generations of trauma can lead to a point
0:37.8	of no return. In 2017 a black woman named Devon Gray killed her white boyfriend John Vance.
0:45.3	She says it was self-defense and he was incredibly abusive. But then she took a blind plea
0:50.3	for manslaughter and got 15 years. From lemon out of media, this is blind plea.
0:57.7	Available now wherever you get your podcasts. Sonora and iHeart's my culture podcast network
1:04.0	present, Princess of South Beach, Season 2. Did you miss me? The new season of lies,
1:09.7	scandals and skeletons in the closet. I am proud to take office as your first openly gay me.
1:18.4	This season it's all out in the open. Listen to Princess of South Beach on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts
1:27.5	or wherever you get your podcasts. Out of the shadows is a podcast on America's
1:34.3	immigration system told to the eyes of our Latino community. I didn't understand how difficult
1:40.8	life was going to be being a doctor and I mean we've seen a doctor in that page of 14. I'm Patty
1:46.8	and I'm Eric Galindo follow us as we tell the incredible true story of a group of young people
1:52.6	who took on the system and changed the course of history. Listen to out of the shadows dreamers
1:58.5	on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
2:02.9	Hey guys it's Laura Nyrider. In Season 2 of False Confessions we brought you the stunning story
	...

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