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Radio Atlantic

Who Killed Jeffrey Young? (No Way Out, Part II)

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2018

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In part one of our three-part series "No Way Out," Barbara Bradley Hagerty told the story of how Benjamine Spencer was convicted for the murder of Jeffrey Young, and how much of the evidence that led to that conviction has fallen apart under scrutiny. But if Spencer did not kill him, who else could have? And if the evidence does point to another assailant, is that enough to free Spencer? In this episode, part two of three, Barbara explores an alternate theory of the crime. She talks with two friends of another man they say boasted about committing it. Their story, coupled with the shoddiness of the evidence that convicted Spencer, was enough to secure a recommendation that Spencer be given a new trial, "on the grounds of actual innocence." --- Key individuals mentioned in this story (listed in order of appearance): From Part I:Benjamine Spencer, the prisoner, convicted in October 1987, retried and convicted in March 1988, given life in prisonJeffrey Young, the victim, murdered in Dallas in March 1987Jay Young, Jeffrey’s son, the elder of twoCheryl Wattley, Spencer’s current attorneyTroy Johnson, a friend of Jeffrey Young’s, who tried calling him the night of his murderHarry Young, Jeffrey’s father, a senior executive in Ross Perot’s companyJesus “Jessie” Briseno, a detective for the Dallas Police Department, the lead investigator on the murder of Jeffrey YoungGladys Oliver, the prosecution’s star eyewitness in the trials of Benjamine SpencerRobert Mitchell, another man convicted a week after Spencer in a separate trial for the same crime, now deceasedFaith Johnson, the current district attorney in DallasFrank Jackson, Spencer’s defense attorney in the original trialAndy Beach, the prosecutor in the trial that sent Spencer to prisonAlan Ledbetter, the foreman of the jury that convicted SpencerDanny Edwards, the jailhouse informant who testified in Spencer’s original trials that Spencer had confessed to himDebra Spencer, Benjamine Spencer’s wife at the time of his convictionChristi Williams, the alibi witness who testified in Spencer’s defense at his trialsJim McCloskey, the founder of Centurion Ministries, the group that has aided Spencer's quest for exonerationDaryl Parker, a private investigator who has helped re-examine Spencer’s case and Young’s murderJimmie Cotton, one of three eyewitnesses for the prosecution in Spencer’s original trialsCharles Stewart, another of three eyewitnesses for the prosecution in Spencer’s trials, now deceasedSandra Brackens, a potential witness in Spencer’s defense who was not called to testify at his trialsNew to Part II:Michael Hubbard, an alternative suspect in Young's deathFerrell Scott, a childhood friend of Hubbard'sKelvin Johnson, a friend of Hubbard's who claims to have committed robberies with himCraig Watkins, a newly-elected District Attorney interested in reinvestigating claims of innocence Judge Rick Magnis, the judge of Texas' 283rd DistrictSubscribe to Radio Atlantic to hear part three in the “No Way Out” series when it's released. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

At the trial that sent him to prison for most of his life, four people provided the key testimony against Benjamin Spencer.

0:07.0

In part one of this series, we heard two of those four backtrack or recant their testimony on tape.

0:12.0

The foreman of the jury that found Spencer or recant their testimony on tape.

0:13.0

The foreman of the jury that found Spencer guilty now believes he's innocent.

0:17.4

But if that's true, it raises a question.

0:20.6

Who might have killed Jeffrey Young?

0:23.0

This is Radio Atlantic. Hi, I'm Matt Thompson, Executive Editor of The Atlantic, back with Part 2 of our series, No Way Out.

0:45.2

If you haven't listened to Part 1, I recommend you go back and do that before you proceed with

0:49.2

this series.

0:50.2

In that episode, we heard about the robbing and killing of a man named Jeffrey Young in

0:54.3

Dallas in 1987 and we heard about the trials that led to Benjamin Spencer spending

0:59.2

most of his life in prison for the crime. He's still there, but much of the evidence that got him there has

1:04.6

crumbled under scrutiny, owing in large part to work Spencer did on his own case while he's

1:09.2

been behind bars. Now you'll hear about an alternate theory of the crime that Spencer and his team were able to construct and how that theory came to convince a Texas judge that Spencer was innocent.

1:20.0

Here's Barbara Bradley Haggerty with more.

1:23.0

In the waning days of March 1987, the police were racing against time.

1:28.0

Remember, H. Ross Perrault, one of the most prominent men in Dallas,

1:32.0

had made clear to the Dallas Police

1:33.6

Department that he was invested in this case.

1:36.2

Whoever was responsible for the death of Jeffrey Young needed to be brought to

1:40.6

justice fast.

1:42.6

You can sense this when reading the investigator notes, which detail an all-out

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