1 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:18,120 It's something that I've never intended to do, 2 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:20,800 I wish I didn't do. 3 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:25,520 If there was anything I could do to change it, I would. 4 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:30,880 But there's obviously not. 5 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:08,840 I was kind of happy to be on death row. 6 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,640 Because I was treated better than I was at home. 7 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,880 But I wish it wouldn't have took a victim to get me sent there. 8 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:23,720 I pray to her every day 9 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,720 and ask God to watch over her soul and to take care of her. 10 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,080 And I know that she's watching over and seeing me as well. 11 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:43,400 This is a true story. 12 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:47,160 I'll start it off like that. 13 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,480 I just wanted to rebel. I wanted to cause chaos. 14 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,240 I looked over at him. "We'll see who kills who, huh?" 15 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:54,680 I made the choice. 16 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:56,720 I took his life. 17 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,360 It's something that I've never intended to do, 18 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:02,640 I wish I didn't do. 19 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:09,680 I knew I was gonna get out of that car and murder those two men. 20 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,480 As he kneeled in front of me, all I remember is pulling the trigger. 21 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,280 I'd killed them both. 22 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:20,840 I'd stabbed them to death. 23 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,400 Hi, Joe. Do you think you could just drop this down your shirt? 24 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:05,600 Just this front shirt. 25 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:23,720 My name is Joseph Murphy. 26 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:26,560 Number 199042. 27 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,400 I am incarcerated in Ohio correctional facility. 28 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,280 Our home in Clay County, West Virginia, was a tar-paper shack. 29 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:49,480 All it was was tar paper wrapped around two-by-fours. 30 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:51,040 And that's where we lived at. 31 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:57,600 We had three rooms, which was a living room, kitchen and one bedroom 32 00:03:57,680 --> 00:03:58,920 for a family of eight. 33 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,880 My mother, she come from a family of 17 siblings 34 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,920 and she wanted out of the house that she was in, 35 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,320 so she got pregnant at an early age 36 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,040 and married my father, Jerry Murphy. 37 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,160 And they just kept having kids. 38 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:22,600 They never had no income or no plans. 39 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:30,120 We had no water, no electricity. No gas, no phone. 40 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:34,640 We would get water from the creek. 41 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:37,560 And to use the bathroom, 42 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:43,560 we would urinate and drop feces in gallon jugs 43 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:45,480 or gallon cans 44 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,160 and they would be laid throughout the home. 45 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:53,960 The sort of person my father was 46 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,800 was, if I didn't see him drunk... 47 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,480 if I'd ever seen him sober, I would think something was wrong with him, 48 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,840 because I've always known him to be under the influence of alcohol 49 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,880 and he was abusive when he was drunk. 50 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:08,960 He didn't care. 51 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:20,360 My parents always said I was retarded, but I didn't know what it meant. 52 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:25,720 I just thought that it was something to do with the way I was. 53 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,800 My mother was receiving a social security check 54 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:31,880 for mental retardation. 55 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:36,800 I was never allowed to play with the other siblings. 56 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,160 My mother told them that I was sick 57 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:42,800 and, if they played with me or talked to me, they would end up sick too. 58 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,560 So she wouldn't let them talk to me or play with me, 59 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:47,480 so I was always alone. 60 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:52,120 But sometimes, my sister would... 61 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:55,600 steal a can of apple sauce from the kitchen 62 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,760 and take it up on the hill and bust it open on a rock and feed it to me, 63 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:02,120 just because my mother wouldn't feed me. 64 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:08,000 She would always try to make sure that I didn't die of starvation or something. 65 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,680 The place where I would normally sleep was at the foot of my mother's bed 66 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:17,560 and tied down to the bed. 67 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:20,240 I always thought that that was normal. 68 00:06:22,280 --> 00:06:26,400 At one point, my social worker bought me a bunch of clothes. 69 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:29,280 And she bought a big trunk to keep them in. 70 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:33,120 And we went home and my mother did what she always does. 71 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,800 She got everything and gave it away to the other kids 72 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:37,880 so they would look nice going to school. 73 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:44,440 And she put the trunk at the foot of her bed and put me in it. 74 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,360 That way, she knew I couldn't get out at night time 75 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:48,960 and run around or do anything. 76 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:51,040 Little did she know, 77 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,720 that was more comfortable than sleeping on the floor. 78 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:08,000 My social worker would come to the house regularly 79 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:09,680 to make sure that I was okay. 80 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:12,720 And, one day, my mom beat me really bad 81 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:17,040 and I had blood marks on my back and my back of my legs 82 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,040 and she told my father, she said, "You have to fix this, 83 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:22,840 'cause she's gonna be here tomorrow, she's gonna see it 84 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,400 and she's gonna take Joey away and we won't get his check this month." 85 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:32,600 So my dad said he would take care of it and he took me out back. 86 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,120 And he tied me down to a set of box springs. 87 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:42,000 And after he'd had me tied down, 88 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:44,680 he put gasoline on my back and set me on fire. 89 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:52,600 And I was screaming bloody murder, because it burnt so bad. 90 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:20,440 Growing up, I was in 17 different institutions 91 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:22,080 in four different states. 92 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:31,040 I was sexually abused whenever I went to the institutions that I was in. 93 00:08:32,680 --> 00:08:37,160 I thought it was something that everyone deals with and puts up with. 94 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:43,360 I was happy to be in the institutions that I was in, 95 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:45,960 because they fed me, they clothed me 96 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,600 and I wasn't getting beat every day and I was able to eat. 97 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:53,680 They would have me stay there for a while. 98 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:58,320 And the judge would release me back to my mother and father. 99 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:26,880 My family would never keep in contact with me in any of the facilities I was in. 100 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:32,480 And they moved without telling me that they had ever moved. 101 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:49,600 When we moved to Marion, Ohio... 102 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:54,040 our house had a bathroom in it for the very first time. 103 00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:58,720 It was a nice city. 104 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:03,600 And a lot of times, at night time, I would just walk the streets 105 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:07,200 just to get a peace of mind, to escape the abuse. 106 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:14,560 One time, my mother said that she was going to whup me 107 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:19,200 and I accidentally set a stack of clothes on fire. 108 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:22,040 And it set the kitchen on fire, 109 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:25,680 which engulfed and caught the wall on fire. 110 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:31,800 And here comes a bunch of fire trucks and police. 111 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:34,840 The sirens was going and the lights was flashing. 112 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:38,560 We had to go stay somewhere else 113 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,560 and I realized that my mother had forgot to beat me. 114 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:46,480 So I learned from an early age, if I set a fire, 115 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:48,520 I'm not gonna get beat. 116 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:57,280 After that, I believe I was sent to a institution 117 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:01,800 and they was running tests on me and said that I was a pyromaniac. 118 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:04,320 But that wasn't the case at all. 119 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,720 No one really knew why I always set the fires. 120 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:48,760 My brother-in-law told me, 121 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:52,560 if we can get her to the Columbus Hospital, 122 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:55,960 then she could make it, 'cause they would take better care of her. 123 00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:00,800 So he said that we needed to go somewhere and do a crash and grab. 124 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:03,240 Just grab something and then run out. 125 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:09,080 And he came up with the, um, item as being a VCR. 126 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:13,000 And I told him, I said, "I know someone that has one. I believe she has one." 127 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:15,760 And he said, "Who?" And I said, "Ruth Predmore." 128 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:19,200 The lady that we had done odd jobs for before. 129 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:29,080 So we went down to the house. 130 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:34,000 And he was trying the back door and I was trying the front door. 131 00:12:35,680 --> 00:12:38,520 I was thinking, "If she's in there, she's gonna hear us. 132 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:39,960 She might call the police." 133 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,720 So I took a knife out of my pocket 134 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:48,280 and went beside the house to cut the phone line. 135 00:12:50,680 --> 00:12:53,240 But when I went back onto the porch, to the door, 136 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:57,680 Ruth Predmore was there and she said, "What are you doing? Get away from here!" 137 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:01,920 And it startled me and I was scared, so I just swung the knife and I ran. 138 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:16,840 About two hours later, I went back to the house. 139 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:18,920 And I was walking... 140 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:23,520 really slow and scared, not knowing what to expect. 141 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,400 And when I went to the front door, I opened it real slow 142 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,520 and I could see her body was laying on the floor. 143 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:33,280 I was scared. 144 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:39,440 But I still was in need of helping my sister, 145 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:42,360 so that's why I proceeded to go through the house 146 00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,800 and get what I thought was of value and then exit out the back door. 147 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:26,320 Miss Predmore should have never died at my hands. 148 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:31,280 She was a very sweet, caring, generous, giving person 149 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,480 and I'm very remorseful for what I had done. 150 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:37,760 And it should have never happened. 151 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:50,720 During the trial, we had caseworkers and social workers come to trial 152 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:52,040 to give testimony. 153 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:57,120 And that's when I realized that, "Okay, what I went through, that's not normal. 154 00:14:57,200 --> 00:14:59,200 It's not right and... 155 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:02,440 now I'm gonna be sentenced to death, 156 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,200 not even knowing what a real family is like." 157 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,040 They call it "The Little Chicago," 158 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:41,720 because Chicago is full of drugs and gangs and stuff. 159 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:42,800 Now, Marion... 160 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:44,880 it's ended up that way, too. 161 00:15:51,240 --> 00:15:54,640 This is the bar I got my teeth knocked out at. 162 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:04,720 And Miss Predmore, the lady he killed, lived right here. 163 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:07,720 The little house right there. 164 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:23,320 I'm Michael Murphy. I'm Joey Murphy's brother. 165 00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:26,760 I'm... I'm the youngest out of the six kids. 166 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,720 When we moved from West Virginia to Marion, we... we changed worlds. 167 00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:37,040 Down in West Virginia, you had a bunch of hillbillies. 168 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:41,080 Up here, you had a bunch of different types of people. 169 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,160 People you don't run into in West Virginia. 170 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,960 And everybody always picked on us because we had a hillbilly accent 171 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:52,240 or we never had no good shoes, no good clothes, no nothing. 172 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:56,560 My dad was an alcoholic. 173 00:16:56,640 --> 00:17:00,320 When he couldn't get no alcohol, he would literally go to the bathroom 174 00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:04,200 and get a bottle of rubbing alcohol and take a couple swigs of it 175 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,080 and get sick, but keep drinking it. 176 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:14,000 We could spend $100 for a microwave and, the next day, it would be missing 177 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:16,160 for a $2 bottle of wine. 178 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,560 Joey was a troubled kid, really. I mean... 179 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:26,640 he would get in trouble. 180 00:17:27,280 --> 00:17:29,040 Stealing or whatever. 181 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:33,440 And he'd get sent away. Six months at a time, a year at a time. 182 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,400 I just wanted him to stay home, but he never did. 183 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,520 He would catch a fire or... 184 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:41,880 He killed a dog. 185 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:45,320 He killed my dog, Snoopy, when we lived in West Virginia. 186 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,200 Um... Threw it out in front of a truck. 187 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:50,320 Another time, I walked up on the mountain 188 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:52,640 and he had another dog sitting there hanging. 189 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:55,440 And he'd get whippings for it. 190 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:58,200 And that didn't do nothing to Joey. He didn't cry. 191 00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:00,760 He'd look at her and say, "I'm still gonna do it." 192 00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,200 There were multiple fires going on in Marion. 193 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,920 A whole bunch of just buildings getting... burnt down. 194 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,520 And it was all over the newspapers about an arsonist being in Marion 195 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:21,320 and it turned out it was him. 196 00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:24,120 From what was told to me, it was... 197 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:27,040 I liked candy when I was a kid. 198 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:29,440 He liked fire. 199 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,760 Joey asked me, "If you was gonna try to rob somebody, what would you do?" 200 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:44,720 I said, "I wouldn't do it. I'd put a note on their door saying, 201 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,280 'Give me all your money and leave it in a brown paper bag.'" 202 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,720 That's what he did. He left her a note saying, 203 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:54,520 "Leave all your money. Leave it in a brown paper bag." 204 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:57,480 And she didn't, and then he went in and killed her. 205 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:04,920 I can't see an action of surprise 206 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:07,000 to slice somebody's throat. 207 00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:10,480 And the lady was nice to me. 208 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:13,600 I would go down and mow her yard every week, 209 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:15,240 shovel her sidewalk every week. 210 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,000 She'd pay me, I'd walk her groceries back from the store. She... 211 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:21,480 You know, she's like a grandma to me and... 212 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:25,200 when that happened, I was just... I didn't know how to act. 213 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:28,000 You know, I loved the woman and my brother did it. 214 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:29,760 So... 215 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:32,240 it's kind of hard... 216 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:38,480 ...to deal with your brother and somebody you considered like a grandma. 217 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:06,080 My name's Wayne Creasap. 218 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,360 I'm a retired police officer for the City of Marion. 219 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,880 Once we determined what was taken from the residence... 220 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,920 and, uh, then canvassing the neighborhood... 221 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:26,120 the name came up real quick. 222 00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:30,280 Joe Murphy was very well known 223 00:20:30,360 --> 00:20:33,040 to the law enforcement community in Marion County. 224 00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:38,640 A lot of the officers, uh, referred to Joe Murphy as "Pyro Joe". 225 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,000 In his younger days, he liked to play with fire. 226 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:46,080 He was known to set small animals on fire. 227 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:48,560 A small-time thief. 228 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:51,120 Just liked to get in trouble. 229 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,840 Joseph Murphy resided just a few houses down from Mrs. Predmore 230 00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:05,320 and it was determined that he had written a note to Mrs. Predmore 231 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,720 the day before her body was discovered. 232 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,280 And, uh, the note basically said, 233 00:21:13,360 --> 00:21:17,200 "You are to leave your money out or I will kill you." 234 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:28,440 When the money wasn't put out there, then he followed through with his threat. 235 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,480 It's been a long time since I've seen these. 236 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:46,640 I still see her, uh... 237 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:48,800 lying there on the floor like that, uh... 238 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:50,400 in my mind. 239 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:52,600 It sticks there like a photograph forever. 240 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,920 This was a very, very horrific crime. 241 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:04,360 I don't feel that it was a case where he accidentally tried to harm her... 242 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:06,760 in an act of surprise. 243 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:10,840 Uh, it's apparent that he stood behind her. 244 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,440 The cut on her throat was so deep 245 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:17,400 it darn near took her head off. 246 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,080 It was just hanging on by a thread. 247 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:22,640 So, you know, there was a lot of force. 248 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,520 You know, standing behind someone and pulling that knife in 249 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:28,920 and spinning her around and cutting her throat. 250 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:58,640 I can't say I had any sympathy for Joe. 251 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:02,160 People had tried to work with him over the years, 252 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:05,240 through children's services, trying to get him turned around, 253 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:08,880 trying to get him away from doing, you know, criminal activity, 254 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,240 trying to help him, trying to help the family. 255 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,560 You can only be helped if you want to be helped. 256 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:56,280 My name is Linda Richter 257 00:23:56,360 --> 00:24:00,880 and I am a mitigation specialist here in the state of Ohio. 258 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,760 My job is explaining how someone's background 259 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,760 can mitigate against a horrible crime. 260 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,280 Uh, to let the jury see that these people have been victimized themselves 261 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:15,600 long before they victimized anyone else. 262 00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:23,720 I think that Joey's was probably one of the most impoverished 263 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:28,880 and emotionally-sterile backgrounds I had come across. 264 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,680 The cleanliness of the house was awful. 265 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,200 Roaches, animals. 266 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:36,440 Animal feces. 267 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:37,920 It smelled. 268 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,160 This was all in Marion. I mean, this was a step up from where they had come. 269 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:46,480 Um, because we knew this family had been rooted 270 00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,480 historically in south central West Virginia 271 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:51,360 with a very high poverty level. 272 00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:57,320 And we took these pictures because I wanted people to understand 273 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:01,880 that this really was no more than a tar-paper shack. 274 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:04,400 I mean, we're talking a poverty 275 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:07,880 that I had never experienced or seen in my lifetime. 276 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:16,600 The psychologists that worked with us on this case 277 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,920 thought that, because of the amount of rage that Joey was exhibiting 278 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,040 in setting fires and killing animals, 279 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:26,080 that he most likely had been sexually abused. 280 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:30,680 And that was the fuel for a lot of the rage that spills out 281 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,240 in these kind of impulsive, not well-thought-out murders. 282 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,560 I was devastated when the jury returned a death verdict. 283 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,720 I just did not feel that Joey was the worst of the worst. 284 00:25:57,320 --> 00:25:59,320 I thought Joey needed to be in prison. 285 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,320 But I did not see that taking Joey's life 286 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,160 was doing anything but victimizing him one more time. 287 00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,880 Even though he committed a horrendous crime. 288 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,240 The first time I remember being sexually abused, 289 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,280 it was a black man in Clay County. 290 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:27,800 He made alcohol for the residents around. 291 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:29,440 He was called a moonshiner. 292 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,600 And my dad loved going there, getting drunk, 293 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,080 and, one day, he took me with him. 294 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:42,120 And we went to a bus that was abandoned beside the road, 295 00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:46,200 and that's where, um, Al lived at, who made the moonshine. 296 00:26:46,760 --> 00:26:50,480 And my dad took me in the bus and said he wanted some alcohol 297 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:52,640 and Al said he don't have none. 298 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,800 And my dad said, "Well, I've got my son here 299 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,320 and you can have your way with him. 300 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:00,240 Just give me a jug of alcohol." 301 00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:01,760 So... 302 00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:06,080 Al took me to the back of the bus where they had a mattress 303 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:07,880 and he undressed me. 304 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,120 And I wasn't thinking anything of it 305 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,120 and then he got undressed and laid me on the mattress 306 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:15,600 and got on top of me and... 307 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:17,560 raped me anally. 308 00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:19,720 And I was screaming for my dad, 309 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,160 "Please help me, Dad. He's hurting me, help me." 310 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:23,640 And he just sat in a chair, 311 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:26,800 drinking his alcohol and acting like he couldn't even hear me. 312 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:27,920 And then... 313 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,640 after he grunted like a pig and got off of me, 314 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,840 I ran out of the bus and ran home butt naked. 315 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,840 And it was about a half a mile away. 316 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:40,520 And when I got home, I was yelling, "Mom, help me, help me!" 317 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,760 And then, whenever I got to the house, she come out on the porch 318 00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,200 and she said, "What's wrong?" And I said, "He hurt me, he hurt me." 319 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:49,680 And then Mom took me in the house and whupped me, 320 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,240 because she thought I was playing in the creek and took my clothes off 321 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,680 and got cut by glass that was in the creek 322 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,040 and that's why I had blood on my buttocks and the back of my legs. 323 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,560 At this time when this happened, I was six years old. 324 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:16,840 I've heard that story before. 325 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:20,960 And it just makes me as sad as it did the first time. 326 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:23,480 I can't imagine... 327 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:25,920 feeling... 328 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,880 so betrayed and so helpless by the one person in your life 329 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,600 who's supposed to be there to protect you and love you and keep you safe. 330 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:36,080 Um... 331 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:39,280 All for some moonshine. 332 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,720 I mean, when you're traumatized like that as a child... 333 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:47,480 your sense of safety, 334 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:52,120 your sense of security, your sense of any humanity... 335 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:53,920 is shattered. 336 00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:56,520 I don't know how anyone... 337 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,880 at that young age goes through that kind of a... 338 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:04,520 violent act perpetrated on them... 339 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:07,960 and then relates to the world normally. 340 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:10,880 Because now the world isn't normal anymore. 341 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:13,760 It's a hostile and mean and scary place. 342 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:47,880 I'm Kathryn Sandford. 343 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:49,640 I am a public defender 344 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:51,600 in the death penalty department 345 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,680 and I do capital appeals for my clients. 346 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,440 These are five boxes of, I think, 15 probably that we have. 347 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:13,560 This is just for Joey. 348 00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,000 I had not read or seen a background as horrible as his. 349 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:21,520 All that he went through and... 350 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,280 just what a horrible situation it was. 351 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,400 There was no doubt that Joey had committed the murder. 352 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:33,440 So we were not trying to get him a new trial. 353 00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:35,600 We were trying to get him a new sentence. 354 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,000 I do believe that someone with that background 355 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:41,960 cannot be judged at the same standard 356 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:44,080 as someone who does not have that background, 357 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:46,200 that there is a difference there. 358 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,600 We started working on his clemency case 359 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,200 roughly eight to ten months prior to the execution date. 360 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:16,200 I do remember thinking that... 361 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,480 if he was executed that I didn't know if I would be able 362 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:20,960 to continue doing this work. 363 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,600 Because I thought there really is no justice then. 364 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,040 There's me with my glasses. 365 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,160 Buddy with his checkered pants. 366 00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:57,520 Jerry is his real name. 367 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,520 Drema, Darris, 368 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:02,680 David, Mom and Joey. 369 00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,480 Mom would whip you with a belt or a switch. 370 00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:14,040 Back in the seventies, 371 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,680 that's how everybody was punished, I guess. 372 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:20,960 You've got to learn your lesson. 373 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:23,280 A lot of kids... 374 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:29,480 don't get punished and you can see the big difference in the way they act 375 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:32,960 compared to somebody that gets punished and the way they act. 376 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,560 But him, I don't know. It's... 377 00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:40,760 It's like I remember him telling stories. 378 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:44,040 Majority of the time, they're not true, 379 00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,480 but there's some truth-ness to it. 380 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,800 My dad said he'll take care of it and he took me out back. 381 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,840 And he tied me down to a set of box springs 382 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:03,400 and, after he'd had me tied down, 383 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,440 he put gasoline on my back and set me on fire. 384 00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,520 And I was screaming bloody murder because it burnt so bad. 385 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:13,880 Now, I remember the fire on him. 386 00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:16,280 Everybody was in the living room. 387 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:17,720 He was in the bedroom. 388 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:19,160 Nobody tied him down. 389 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:21,160 He caught himself on fire. 390 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,280 Nobody else was even in the room. He, uh... 391 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:26,760 He scared everybody. 392 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:28,840 Mom took him to the emergency room. 393 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:31,360 But I recall, plain as day. 394 00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:35,040 He's been saying that since the trial. 395 00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:38,040 That was his defense... 396 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:40,120 to get off of death row. 397 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,560 My dad took me in the bus and said he wanted some alcohol 398 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:48,800 and Al said he don't have none 399 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:54,680 and my dad said, "Well, I got my son here and you can have your way with him. 400 00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:56,440 Just give me a jug of alcohol." 401 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,680 The truth, wasn't nothing to do with him. 402 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:08,280 My dad did take Darris to Charleston. Not to Al's. 403 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,040 And sold him to a whorehouse. 404 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,560 Left him there. 405 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:15,680 Went home. 406 00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,840 But Joey confused... 407 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,560 Dad trading Darris for wine or whiskey for him. 408 00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:27,000 You see what I'm saying? He's taking two stories 409 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:30,560 and combining them together to make it look like... him. 410 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:33,200 But Darris has... Dad did sell him for some whiskey. 411 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:39,720 If some of this stuff was true... 412 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,440 it makes me feel even sorrier for him. 413 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:48,760 It saddens me. I mean, he's my brother. I love him. 414 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:52,960 I wouldn't have been able to deal with it. 415 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:55,760 I would have ended up hurting somebody myself. 416 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,680 My name is Michael Gelbort. I'm a clinical neuropsychologist. 417 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:32,760 Joey Murphy is a case that I became involved in 418 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,400 because his attorney, Kathy Sandford, 419 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,400 was looking for an assessment of who this guy is, how he functions. 420 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,600 Joey will pass the test. He can look reasonably normal. 421 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:47,320 But in terms of understanding nuance or subtlety... 422 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,360 um, more complex issues... 423 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:55,000 if you took 100 people and lined them up from smartest to least intelligent, 424 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,080 he would be way at the back of the line. 425 00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:00,960 There were stories told, um... 426 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:02,680 about his father, 427 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:06,960 who was apparently a very significant alcoholic... 428 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,840 um, lending Joey to other people in exchange for alcohol. 429 00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,680 Everything that Joey said I'm not going to believe... 430 00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:17,520 hook, line and sinker. 431 00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:20,760 On the other hand, it was consistent enough, 432 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,080 and it also goes with his behavior 433 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:26,560 that I suspect, by and large, it's... it's accurate. 434 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:30,760 And I'm pretty comfortable saying that the history of abuse he relates 435 00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:32,360 is pretty much on target. 436 00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:38,680 It's actually very common 437 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:44,360 for family members to report a different history. 438 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,720 You know, it would be one thing if Joey's brother said, 439 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,760 "That never happened. My father would never do such a thing. 440 00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:52,600 That's not the kind of man he was." 441 00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:57,640 But the fact that his brother says it happened, it just wasn't to Joey, 442 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:00,760 it's like, okay, he's establishing that the father 443 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:03,280 is the sort of person who could do such a thing. 444 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,200 Who's to say it didn't happen to Joey, too? 445 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:07,360 Who's to say it didn't happen to Joey then? 446 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,840 But, at the very least, you know, the brother's confirming 447 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,080 that, "Yes, Father would do such a thing." 448 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:20,080 It's not about whether or not we feel sorry for the individual. 449 00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:25,880 But rather that maybe he didn't have the ability, based on his upbringing. 450 00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:27,760 Maybe he didn't have the capacity 451 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:29,600 to do better than he did. 452 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,760 I'm of the opinion we come into the world blank slates 453 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:38,280 and the training we have from those around us 454 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:42,200 is pretty important in determining which way we'll go. 455 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,560 This is not a psychopath. 456 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,000 This is not someone who is out to kill people. 457 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:55,440 This is someone who was a victim himself in many ways. 458 00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:59,080 And I know there are those who... "You know, sure, he was a victim, 459 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:00,960 but still he shouldn't go killing." 460 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,840 It's not that his background made him kill anyone. 461 00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:08,120 It's not that anyone who has this background 462 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:09,800 absolutely will kill someone. 463 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:12,560 But they're eminently more likely. 464 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:16,680 They have less opportunity to stay out of trouble 465 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,280 or to... to act in a socially appropriate way. 466 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:23,720 They're closer to the edge, if you will, and some of them fall over the edge. 467 00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:27,240 He fell over the edge. 468 00:38:50,720 --> 00:38:54,400 We had all this material ready to present at Joey's clemency hearing. 469 00:38:56,720 --> 00:39:00,640 But you never know what the board is going to recommend. 470 00:39:00,720 --> 00:39:03,520 You never know what the governor is going to actually do. 471 00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:09,640 But some years prior, I had read an article 472 00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:13,080 where the victim's niece said she had never heard from Joey. 473 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:14,760 She didn't know if he was sorry. 474 00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:18,680 So I thought, "We need to reach out to her." 475 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,720 And then she and Joey ended up meeting 476 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:27,320 for offender and, um, victim family dialogue. 477 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,160 If we could have a victim's family member 478 00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:37,080 say that he or she did not support execution of our client, 479 00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:38,880 that would... that would be huge. 480 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,000 So the federal public defender 481 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:45,280 had someone go and videotape Miss Kavanagh. 482 00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:49,880 And we received the video the night before the clemency hearing. 483 00:39:55,480 --> 00:40:01,080 When I first met him, I was looking to see a hard-nosed criminal. 484 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:02,240 Mm-hm. 485 00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:06,240 But then, after learning about Joey's past life... 486 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:09,800 and how abusive it was, 487 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:16,360 I came away from there feeling that our system has let him down terribly. 488 00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,360 As it also let my aunt down. 489 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:22,160 When Miss Kavanagh first met with Joey, 490 00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:25,160 she was of the view that he should be executed. 491 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:27,920 But during her meeting with him, 492 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:29,920 her mind changed. 493 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:33,480 Do you want Joey executed? 494 00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:35,600 -No. -Why not? 495 00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,480 I feel that he's very... I feel that he is remorseful. 496 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,920 And I do feel that he could be of use somewhere. 497 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:53,440 And I want the board to know how angry I am at the whole system itself. 498 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:57,160 And what it's done to my family. 499 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:00,960 What it's done to Joey and his family. 500 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:04,960 It wasn't just Joey being on death row these 25 years. 501 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,040 I sat on death row and so did my family. 502 00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:29,480 My visit with Peg Kavanagh, the victim's niece... 503 00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:33,320 was very emotional. 504 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:46,760 I just started crying and she started crying 505 00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:50,520 and she said, "Honey, your parents should be the ones locked up. Not you." 506 00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:53,160 And then we really embraced each other 507 00:41:53,240 --> 00:41:57,800 and it was a true, honest, love, forgiveness hug 508 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:00,880 and it made us both cry even more. 509 00:42:02,720 --> 00:42:03,680 And, um... 510 00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,200 she took part in getting me off of death row. 511 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,920 I was within my last 30 days of life. 512 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,000 So I was isolated from everyone. 513 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:36,080 And the warden came and he said, uh... "Murphy, we've got something for you." 514 00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:37,600 I said, "Okay. What's up?" 515 00:42:38,080 --> 00:42:40,880 He said, "The governor granted clemency." 516 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:43,480 And... 517 00:42:44,240 --> 00:42:47,960 I almost just wanted to fall down and start crying 518 00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:50,320 and he said, "Murphy, I don't want no hug." 519 00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:51,840 I said, "Okay." 520 00:42:56,200 --> 00:42:59,440 After that, he asked me... do I want to call my attorney 521 00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:01,080 and I said, "Yeah, I need to." 522 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:03,760 And from the sounds of it, 523 00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:07,360 there was a room full of people at the Ohio Public Defender's office. 524 00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:09,240 They was all in there celebrating. 525 00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:13,520 She said, "We did it. We finally did it. It was worth fighting for." 526 00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:17,480 And it was as tearful for her as it was for me, 527 00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,640 because she had worked really hard to get me off of death row. 528 00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:29,000 It was very emotional and overwhelming that finally people care. 529 00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:50,160 A lot of times, I would walk on the walkways in the prison yard 530 00:43:50,240 --> 00:43:53,000 and just look at the sky and walk through the grass 531 00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:56,600 and give thanks to God that I'm there and that I'm alive and... 532 00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:00,160 somehow is there a way that I can make a difference? 533 00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:04,480 Now I actually have a life. 534 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,360 So, given that chance, I'm doing everything that I can possibly do 535 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,200 to make that chance count for something 536 00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,000 and to do something constructive and meaningful. 537 00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:18,960 Making friends with inmates, understanding their problems 538 00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,480 and trying to help them. 539 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:27,160 Hi, Duf. 540 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:31,040 This is the dorm cat, Duf. 541 00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:36,840 Nicknamed for Andy Dufresne from the movie Shimshom Redemption. 542 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:38,560 -And he's our dorm cat. 543 00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,240 We rescued him when he was four days old, almost frozen to the ground. 544 00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,520 And he likes to stay around the shoulders. 545 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:51,720 A lot of people relieve stress and anger from playing with him 546 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:53,360 and interacting with him and... 547 00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:57,560 it's just comforting to go up and play with a cat 548 00:44:57,640 --> 00:44:58,800 or watch him outside... 549 00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:02,640 playing around in the grass or chasing birds. 550 00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,080 If I was to ever leave prison, it would be God's will 551 00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:15,480 and it would be something that he wanted. 552 00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:17,280 But, for myself, 553 00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:21,440 I am content just living a life in prison, 554 00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:24,120 because I've adapted to prison. 555 00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:28,520 I accept this punishment. 556 00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:31,280 And I'm okay with it.