The opinions expressed in the following episode do not necessarily reflect those of the minds of madness podcast.

The listener discretion is advised.

There's just some things in life you can never be truly prepared for. Like the unlikely

chance of being wrongfully convicted of murdering someone, let alone a loved one.

In the case of Russ Faria, his lack of planning for such an unforeseen moment because no one does unless you're a murderer,

despite being completely innocent, would be a weakness the justice system would ultimately use against him in a tunnel vision pursuit.

Whether they had the right man or in this case, woman, join me now for the conclusion of our two-part series on the false conviction of Russ Faria.

You'll learn how Pam's greed eventually opened the door for the justice system to right-or-wrong that should have never happened in the first place,

and Russ's mission to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone ever again.

In December 2013, Russ Faria was officially sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.

It had been 727 days since he walked into his home and discovered his wife Betsy murdered,

727 days of being the only suspect ever seriously considered by police.

There was an ominous irony to the date of a sentencing itself, December 23rd. It was exactly two years to the date, Betsy's life insurance policy was amended, making Pam hopp the sole beneficiary of $150,000.

Betsy would have known, and this came out actually in a civil trial, but she would have known that she could make a change on her insurance if she was transferring somebody that this money is to be used for this purpose. That wasn't on their side.

To this day, I'm not sure exactly what happened and how her signature got on that paperwork and how she was coerced into doing so.

The librarian and the library where they went to get the document notarized, did testify that Pam did most of the talking and Betsy seemed very nervous.

So I don't know what was said or done to make that happen.

The fact that Pam had become Betsy's insurance beneficiary just four days before murder had been completely suppressed from the jury at Russ's trial.

And if you think that sounds ludicrous, what truly boggles the mind is that police and prosecutors never seem suspicious of the alarming detail.

Disturbingly as seemed, there was every reason to believe that the moment Betsy signed Pam as her beneficiary was the moment she unknowingly signed her own death warrant.

But what Russ and his lawyer, in least of all, Pam herself could have ever guessed was that it was what Pam did with $150,000.

Or rather, what she didn't do with it would ultimately open the door for Russ to walk out of prison a free man.

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