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The Dr. Phil Podcast

Patty Prewitt: 40 Years Lost, Finally Free

The Dr. Phil Podcast

Dr. Phil McGraw

Education, Society & Culture

4.313.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After 40 years in prison for her husband's murder, Patty Prewitt walks free. Dr. Phil dives into her fight for justice, family reunions, and the flaws in the system.

After serving 40 years behind bars for a crime she has always claimed she didn't commit, Patty Prewitt is finally free—and she's ready to share her story. In this powerful episode, Dr. Phil sits down with Patty, her daughter Jane Prewitt, and Loni Coombs, to uncover the emotional journey from conviction to release.

Patty opens up about the night that changed her life, her decades long battle to prove her innocence, and the personal toll of spending four decades behind bars. Dr. Phil, who has closely followed the case, offers his insight into the controversial conviction and what it reveals about deep systemic flaws in the criminal justice system. From her emotional reunion with family to her hopes for the future, this is a rare and intimate conversation with a woman whose fight for freedom became a national story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Patty is the longest serving female inmate in Missouri prison history, if I'm correct.

0:09.1

Lonnie, is that right?

0:10.0

That's right.

0:10.6

And Patty was convicted of murdering her husband and has served 38 and a half years, almost 40 years.

0:18.1

I think wrongfully convicted, frankly.

0:20.6

I don't think she ever had a fair trial.

0:22.3

I think it was very biased. But she has now received clemency and is at home with her family.

0:28.1

And Patty, we are so excited about that. I know you are. And you've had to make some adjustments.

0:36.1

But what's it been like to spend time with your family and to get to just relax, kickback,

0:43.5

not be in a hurry, and bond with them again?

0:47.6

In prison, you get one brief hug at the beginning of a prison and one brief hug.

0:53.3

And I'm talking brief like one second.

0:56.7

We're hugging foolsenem. We're absolutely hugging all the time. I can't, I can't get

1:02.9

enough hugs from my grandkids, my kids. It's, I would hug people in the grocery store,

1:10.0

but I try to refrain.

1:12.3

I'm a hugging fool.

1:14.8

I'll bet so.

1:16.5

Lottie, you had a million questions for Patty.

1:18.6

Yeah, I am sure, Patty, with that physical contact, it's supposed to be so wonderful.

1:23.5

I've all these years of having that denied, right?

1:26.5

I also think of all the things that have changed

1:28.4

since you went into prison. I mean, Ronald Reagan was president when you went into prison. I think

...

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