There's an expression that everyone is the hero of their own story.

But what if someone started telling a story about you and you had no power to change it?

In 1998, the state of Oregon began forming a story about a man

named Jesse Johnson. He was homeless, addicted to drugs, drifting from place to place when he ended up in the state capital of Salem.

And a chance encounter there changed the entire course of his life.

I was convicted of murder and aggravated robbery.

Went to death row for 17 years.

When the state of Oregon put Jesse Johnson on death row, they told people he was a drug addict who would do anything, anything, to get his next fix.

But that was far from the whole story.

He just said, I'm innocent.

And he stuck with that for 25 years.

How long was he his sonny's house?

Until after the screaming stop,

he offed her. He offed her.

He's darker and darker and darker.

I'm investigative journalist Leah Sotilly,

and I've spent years looking into why the state of Oregon did everything in its power to kill

Jesse Johnson. When I first started this I thought oh justice is blind here in Oregon

oh no it's not and the answer has a lot to do with the real story of Oregon.

The progressive state it says it is,

versus what it actually is.

Too many people lean forward and listen to me and go,

...