1
00:00:06,397 --> 00:00:09,313
Up next, he's young,
he's healthy.

2
00:00:09,357 --> 00:00:11,402
And soon he's fighting
for his life.

3
00:00:11,446 --> 00:00:18,366
I called 911, and it just kind
of all snowballed from there.

4
00:00:18,409 --> 00:00:20,411
Family, friends
and the law

5
00:00:20,455 --> 00:00:22,065
want an explanation.

6
00:00:22,109 --> 00:00:24,372
O'Brien: It's not something
that happens every day.

7
00:00:24,415 --> 00:00:26,548
We think somebody
must be to blame.

8
00:00:26,591 --> 00:00:30,030
And the blame
comes down with devastating consequences.

9
00:00:30,073 --> 00:00:33,555
The problem wasn't
the evidence in this case.

10
00:00:33,598 --> 00:00:36,601
The forensic evidence
in this case was solid.

11
00:00:58,145 --> 00:01:00,930
Todd Sommer had long
wanted to serve his country,

12
00:01:00,973 --> 00:01:04,107
so straight out of high school
he signed up with the Marines.

13
00:01:04,151 --> 00:01:07,806
There was four guys in his
graduating class

14
00:01:07,850 --> 00:01:09,373
that joined the military.

15
00:01:09,417 --> 00:01:11,419
There was a couple of them
that didn't make it

16
00:01:11,462 --> 00:01:12,942
through boot camp.

17
00:01:12,985 --> 00:01:15,553
And there was a couple that did.

18
00:01:15,597 --> 00:01:17,381
He was one of them.

19
00:01:17,425 --> 00:01:19,644
Todd's first posting
was at Camp Lejeune,

20
00:01:19,688 --> 00:01:21,385
in North Carolina.

21
00:01:21,429 --> 00:01:24,388
While there the 23 year-old
met Cindy Peace,

22
00:01:24,432 --> 00:01:27,913
the 28-year-old divorced mother
of three young children.

23
00:01:27,957 --> 00:01:30,829
What followed was
a whirlwind romance.

24
00:01:30,873 --> 00:01:34,006
It was love at first
sight when we first met.

25
00:01:34,050 --> 00:01:37,314
We met and six months later
we decided to get married.

26
00:01:37,358 --> 00:01:39,621
Soon Cindy was
pregnant, and Todd

27
00:01:39,664 --> 00:01:43,451
was re-assigned to a Marine
air base outside of San Diego.

28
00:01:45,801 --> 00:01:47,933
In February of 2002,

29
00:01:47,977 --> 00:01:49,848
Todd returned home
from a routine

30
00:01:49,892 --> 00:01:52,024
training mission
with what looked like

31
00:01:52,068 --> 00:01:54,114
a run-of-the-mill
stomach bug.

32
00:01:54,157 --> 00:01:58,335
They diagnosed him with likely
food poisoning,

33
00:01:58,379 --> 00:02:00,859
sent him home,
told him to rest.

34
00:02:00,903 --> 00:02:03,601
He felt better, a little bit
better in a few days,

35
00:02:03,645 --> 00:02:05,777
until his symptoms recurred.

36
00:02:05,821 --> 00:02:07,997
And they recurred
with a vengeance.

37
00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,174
On the night of February 17th
Todd went to bed,

38
00:02:11,218 --> 00:02:13,437
and it was clear
he wasn't well.

39
00:02:13,481 --> 00:02:14,960
He sat down in the bed,
he said his heart

40
00:02:15,004 --> 00:02:16,005
was fluttering.

41
00:02:16,048 --> 00:02:18,703
It felt different.

42
00:02:18,747 --> 00:02:20,618
Something wasn't right.

43
00:02:20,662 --> 00:02:23,273
And I asked him if he wanted
to go to the hospital.

44
00:02:23,317 --> 00:02:26,189
He said, "No."
He said, "I'll be okay."

45
00:02:26,233 --> 00:02:28,887
According to Cindy,
she awoke a short time later

46
00:02:28,931 --> 00:02:31,847
to find Todd staggering
to the bathroom

47
00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:34,023
where he soon keeled over.

48
00:02:34,066 --> 00:02:36,547
I didn't know what to do.
I looked for a phone.

49
00:02:44,860 --> 00:02:47,167
Minutes later
paramedics arrived

50
00:02:47,210 --> 00:02:49,647
and rushed Todd
to a nearby hospital.

51
00:02:49,691 --> 00:02:51,867
He died a short time later.

52
00:02:51,910 --> 00:02:54,217
I didn't know why.
I didn't know how.

53
00:02:54,261 --> 00:02:59,875
I just didn't know what to do.

54
00:02:59,918 --> 00:03:03,748
There's nothing that can
prepare you for that.

55
00:03:03,792 --> 00:03:06,229
Even doctors
were at a loss.

56
00:03:06,273 --> 00:03:09,580
As a marine, his health
was regularly monitored.

57
00:03:09,624 --> 00:03:12,844
His last physical showed
a young man in perfect health.

58
00:03:12,888 --> 00:03:15,717
So why was his body
in the morgue

59
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:17,893
The official cause
of death was acute

60
00:03:17,936 --> 00:03:20,765
cardiac arrhythmia,
not unknown for a man

61
00:03:20,809 --> 00:03:24,726
in his early 20
but not exactly common either.

62
00:03:24,769 --> 00:03:27,946
I didn't know what
a cardiac arrhythmia was.

63
00:03:27,990 --> 00:03:32,429
I didn't know that perfectly
healthy people

64
00:03:32,473 --> 00:03:36,781
sometimes just die.

65
00:03:36,825 --> 00:03:38,348
Cindy Sommer
found herself

66
00:03:38,392 --> 00:03:41,438
a suddenly widowed-mother
of four young children.

67
00:03:41,482 --> 00:03:44,354
It was hard to imagine things
getting worse.

68
00:03:44,398 --> 00:03:46,095
Until they did.

69
00:03:46,138 --> 00:03:49,751
They had arrested me
in at my work.

70
00:03:49,794 --> 00:03:54,451
And told me that I was arrested
for homicide, for killing Todd.

71
00:04:10,772 --> 00:04:12,991
Cindy Sommer's life
and the lives of her

72
00:04:13,035 --> 00:04:15,951
four young children
were turned upside down

73
00:04:15,994 --> 00:04:18,649
by the sudden and
the shockingly unexpected

74
00:04:18,693 --> 00:04:23,915
death of her husband,
23 year-old marine Todd Sommer.

75
00:04:23,959 --> 00:04:27,658
When Todd had passed,
my whole world ended.

76
00:04:27,702 --> 00:04:30,444
Everything that I knew,
everything that I lived,

77
00:04:30,487 --> 00:04:33,185
everything that I breathed

78
00:04:33,229 --> 00:04:36,450
and woke up to every day
was going to be gone.

79
00:04:36,493 --> 00:04:41,629
Everything had changed
in literally a heartbeat.

80
00:04:41,672 --> 00:04:43,979
A grieving Cindy got
a death payment

81
00:04:44,022 --> 00:04:48,418
of $250,000, standard
operating procedure

82
00:04:48,462 --> 00:04:50,420
for the military,
and she attempted

83
00:04:50,464 --> 00:04:52,117
to move on with her life.

84
00:04:52,161 --> 00:04:54,294
Our family
was just shattered.

85
00:04:54,337 --> 00:04:57,645
And I had to suck it up.

86
00:04:57,688 --> 00:05:02,345
I had to just...

87
00:05:02,389 --> 00:05:04,347
I had to go on for the kids,

88
00:05:04,391 --> 00:05:07,785
I had to still make breakfast
and lunch and dinner.

89
00:05:07,829 --> 00:05:09,352
They still had to go to school.

90
00:05:09,396 --> 00:05:12,442
We had to still try to maintain.

91
00:05:12,486 --> 00:05:16,707
And it took everything
that I had to do that.

92
00:05:16,751 --> 00:05:22,017
And to be brutally honest,
I failed.

93
00:05:25,542 --> 00:05:27,370
Two months after
Todd's death

94
00:05:27,414 --> 00:05:29,851
Cindy got breast
augmentation surgery,

95
00:05:29,894 --> 00:05:31,809
something she claimed
she and Todd

96
00:05:31,853 --> 00:05:33,811
had planned before his death.

97
00:05:33,855 --> 00:05:36,553
It cost $6,000.

98
00:05:36,597 --> 00:05:40,818
The cost, to say nothing of
the timing, raised questions.

99
00:05:40,862 --> 00:05:44,648
Before Todd died, the Sommer
family was practically broke.

100
00:05:44,692 --> 00:05:47,085
They were living paycheck
to paycheck.

101
00:05:47,129 --> 00:05:49,523
Lot of folks are,
lot of folks were then,

102
00:05:49,566 --> 00:05:52,743
lot of folks in the military
are, and were.

103
00:05:52,787 --> 00:05:56,486
Military bases are
essentially very small towns.

104
00:05:56,530 --> 00:05:59,707
Everyone ends up knowing
everyone else's business.

105
00:05:59,750 --> 00:06:01,665
And Cindy made some decisions

106
00:06:01,709 --> 00:06:04,102
that got a lot
of tongues wagging.

107
00:06:04,146 --> 00:06:07,584
O'Brien: They found that she was
engaging in a lot of partying,

108
00:06:07,628 --> 00:06:10,021
that she was going out
with friends,

109
00:06:10,065 --> 00:06:11,545
hanging out
with other marines

110
00:06:11,588 --> 00:06:13,851
that she had known
through her husband,

111
00:06:13,895 --> 00:06:18,029
and this didn't fit
their mold of how

112
00:06:18,073 --> 00:06:20,423
she should have been
behaving at that time.

113
00:06:22,730 --> 00:06:25,385
It turned out that
on the night of Todd's funeral

114
00:06:25,428 --> 00:06:28,213
Cindy and some fellow
military wives went

115
00:06:28,257 --> 00:06:30,259
to a local strip club.

116
00:06:30,302 --> 00:06:32,261
Over the course
of the next few weeks

117
00:06:32,304 --> 00:06:34,306
she had brief sexual encounters

118
00:06:34,350 --> 00:06:36,874
with three of Todd's
marine buddies.

119
00:06:36,918 --> 00:06:39,921
She's in tears and shared
a bottle of wine

120
00:06:39,964 --> 00:06:43,533
and one bottle turns into two
and then before you know it,

121
00:06:43,577 --> 00:06:45,317
they're kissing her
and they're on the couch

122
00:06:45,361 --> 00:06:49,409
and they're having relations and
they end up having sex together.

123
00:06:49,452 --> 00:06:53,282
Now that doesn't fit
what the novelist would call

124
00:06:53,325 --> 00:06:56,328
the standard way of grieving,
I completely agree.

125
00:06:56,372 --> 00:06:59,114
I don't know how to
explain that other than there was...

126
00:06:59,157 --> 00:07:02,944
Anything that I could do
to make me forget

127
00:07:02,987 --> 00:07:07,905
what was happening in my life
was enticing for me.

128
00:07:07,949 --> 00:07:10,995
Cindy's behavior drew
the attention of investigators

129
00:07:11,039 --> 00:07:15,739
from the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service or NCIS,

130
00:07:15,783 --> 00:07:18,133
who now took a closer look
at Cindy's life

131
00:07:18,176 --> 00:07:20,918
before and after Todd's death.

132
00:07:20,962 --> 00:07:22,920
They found she pushed
to get Todd's death

133
00:07:22,964 --> 00:07:25,488
payout as quickly as possible.

134
00:07:25,532 --> 00:07:28,317
I was going
from having my rent paid

135
00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,582
in a huge four-bedroom house
and not paying any utilities,

136
00:07:32,626 --> 00:07:34,628
to now I have four kids

137
00:07:34,671 --> 00:07:40,329
on an income
of a part-time Subway worker.

138
00:07:45,726 --> 00:07:48,337
I-I...

139
00:07:48,380 --> 00:07:49,991
I did think about money,

140
00:07:50,034 --> 00:07:52,820
I did think about how I was
going to raise my kids.

141
00:07:52,863 --> 00:07:54,778
That seemed reasonable.

142
00:07:54,822 --> 00:07:58,129
But to investigators,
the push for the money,

143
00:07:58,173 --> 00:08:01,002
using some of it to pay
for breast augmentation

144
00:08:01,045 --> 00:08:04,788
and the sexual liaisons
soon after Todd's death

145
00:08:04,832 --> 00:08:07,617
added up to a potential motive:
for murder.

146
00:08:07,661 --> 00:08:09,010
The first thing
that you always do

147
00:08:09,053 --> 00:08:12,013
when you're a cop
doing an investigation,

148
00:08:12,056 --> 00:08:15,495
you look at money,
you look at sex,

149
00:08:15,538 --> 00:08:17,409
those are kind of the two areas

150
00:08:17,453 --> 00:08:20,195
that you always start with
to take a look at the motive.

151
00:08:20,238 --> 00:08:24,547
But if Cindy killed
her husband, how did she do it?

152
00:08:24,591 --> 00:08:27,507
Todd was cremated
shortly after his death.

153
00:08:27,550 --> 00:08:31,032
As part of standard protocol
in such an unusual case,

154
00:08:31,075 --> 00:08:34,557
tissue samples from his body
were saved and stored.

155
00:08:34,601 --> 00:08:40,520
The pathologist took multiple
samples of tissues in the body

156
00:08:40,563 --> 00:08:43,914
just in case it needed to be
evaluated at some later time.

157
00:08:43,958 --> 00:08:47,875
These precautions were taken
even after an autopsy determined

158
00:08:47,918 --> 00:08:50,530
that Todd died
of natural causes.

159
00:08:50,573 --> 00:08:54,055
Apparently the determination
that he died of natural causes

160
00:08:54,098 --> 00:08:57,188
just didn't sit right
with some of the investigators,

161
00:08:57,232 --> 00:09:00,540
they just felt that
there was more to the story.

162
00:09:00,583 --> 00:09:04,674
To investigators these tissues
were a potential smoking gun

163
00:09:04,718 --> 00:09:06,589
just waiting to be tested.

164
00:09:21,430 --> 00:09:24,607
NCIS investigators
were convinced Todd Sommer

165
00:09:24,651 --> 00:09:27,697
had been poisoned
to death by his wife, Cindy.

166
00:09:27,741 --> 00:09:31,571
Toxicology tests on tissues
saved after Todd's autopsy

167
00:09:31,614 --> 00:09:34,269
turned up extraordinarily
high concentrations

168
00:09:34,312 --> 00:09:37,794
in tissues from his liver
and kidneys of arsenic,

169
00:09:37,838 --> 00:09:39,753
a powerful poison.

170
00:09:39,796 --> 00:09:42,059
Arsenic is tasteless,
it's colorless,

171
00:09:42,103 --> 00:09:43,887
it doesn't have an odor.

172
00:09:43,931 --> 00:09:45,889
And somebody could easily
put it

173
00:09:45,933 --> 00:09:51,460
into somebody's food or drink
unbeknownst to them.

174
00:09:51,503 --> 00:09:53,810
Nearly four years
after Todd's death,

175
00:09:53,854 --> 00:09:56,117
Cindy Sommer was arrested
and charged

176
00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:59,337
with using a massive dose
of arsenic to kill him.

177
00:09:59,381 --> 00:10:04,778
And I had no idea what they
were talking about or why,

178
00:10:04,821 --> 00:10:08,608
or how, or anything.

179
00:10:08,651 --> 00:10:10,305
I didn't have a clue.

180
00:10:10,348 --> 00:10:13,743
I didn't know
what arsenic even was.

181
00:10:13,787 --> 00:10:16,485
I didn't-- I wouldn't
know how to get it.

182
00:10:16,528 --> 00:10:21,185
It was a mess.
Nothing made sense at all to me.

183
00:10:21,229 --> 00:10:24,101
Prosecutors contended
that Cindy acted alone.

184
00:10:24,145 --> 00:10:27,148
No one else was implicated
in the crime.

185
00:10:27,191 --> 00:10:30,151
At Cindy's trial
in January of 2007,

186
00:10:30,194 --> 00:10:32,675
the jury heard a lot
about her behavior

187
00:10:32,719 --> 00:10:35,765
in the immediate aftermath
of her husband's death.

188
00:10:35,809 --> 00:10:37,680
O'Brien:
From the outside, right,

189
00:10:37,724 --> 00:10:41,641
drinking, having sex
with different men,

190
00:10:41,684 --> 00:10:44,121
looks like this person
is celebrating.

191
00:10:44,165 --> 00:10:47,385
In reality, they might very well
be just desperately

192
00:10:47,429 --> 00:10:49,692
trying to feel something
other than the grief

193
00:10:49,736 --> 00:10:52,347
that they're experiencing.

194
00:10:52,390 --> 00:10:53,696
I honestly
don't see what it has

195
00:10:53,740 --> 00:10:56,307
to do with this case at all.

196
00:10:56,351 --> 00:10:59,354
It's just her behavior
during her way of grieving.

197
00:10:59,397 --> 00:11:03,140
It seems irrelevant to me
in terms of a murder trial.

198
00:11:03,184 --> 00:11:06,317
Even worse,
Cindy's original defense team

199
00:11:06,361 --> 00:11:10,495
came up with a novel
and deeply flawed strategy.

200
00:11:10,539 --> 00:11:12,802
They chose not to challenge
the science

201
00:11:12,846 --> 00:11:14,978
that, according to prosecutors,

202
00:11:15,022 --> 00:11:17,981
proved Cindy
poisoned her husband.

203
00:11:18,025 --> 00:11:20,201
The defense attorney
did not contest

204
00:11:20,244 --> 00:11:23,857
the actual finding of the cause
of death by arsenic,

205
00:11:23,900 --> 00:11:26,424
anywhere near as much
as he should have.

206
00:11:26,468 --> 00:11:30,515
He simply jumped over the fact
that scientific evidence

207
00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:34,258
showing Todd died from arsenic
was enormously faulty,

208
00:11:34,302 --> 00:11:36,565
went straight to the fact
that Cindy's a good person,

209
00:11:36,608 --> 00:11:38,001
loved her husband,

210
00:11:38,045 --> 00:11:39,742
never would've done
this type of thing.

211
00:11:39,786 --> 00:11:41,526
And by the way,
where can you point to the fact

212
00:11:41,570 --> 00:11:43,615
that she had
any link to arsenic?

213
00:11:43,659 --> 00:11:47,010
So that concession,
in a tactical way,

214
00:11:47,054 --> 00:11:48,316
was a monster blunder.

215
00:11:49,796 --> 00:11:51,711
Cindy,
convinced no jury

216
00:11:51,754 --> 00:11:54,365
would ever convict her
if they heard her story,

217
00:11:54,409 --> 00:11:57,020
testified in her own defense.

218
00:11:57,064 --> 00:11:58,587
It didn't go well.

219
00:11:58,630 --> 00:12:00,850
She'd been in jail
since her arrest.

220
00:12:00,894 --> 00:12:02,722
As she prepared
for her testimony,

221
00:12:02,765 --> 00:12:04,854
her fellow prisoners
tried to make sure

222
00:12:04,898 --> 00:12:07,596
she'd make a good impression
on the jury.

223
00:12:07,639 --> 00:12:11,208
The other women
helped her put mascara on.

224
00:12:11,252 --> 00:12:14,037
You're not allowed to have
mascara when you're in jail.

225
00:12:14,081 --> 00:12:17,214
They took shoe polish
and other types of crayon

226
00:12:17,258 --> 00:12:19,042
and used that as a mascara.

227
00:12:19,086 --> 00:12:21,915
By the time Cindy
had finished testifying,

228
00:12:21,958 --> 00:12:24,439
her tears
had dripped this down.

229
00:12:24,482 --> 00:12:30,053
So it was kind of, she looked
really bad, I thought.

230
00:12:30,097 --> 00:12:34,057
It just was a bad look,
not a sympathetic look.

231
00:12:34,101 --> 00:12:35,450
The jury didn't buy Cindy's

232
00:12:35,493 --> 00:12:37,931
testimony or her defense.

233
00:12:37,974 --> 00:12:40,455
We the jury
in the above-empanelled cause,

234
00:12:40,498 --> 00:12:42,500
find the defendant,
Cynthia A. Sommer,

235
00:12:42,544 --> 00:12:47,331
guilty of the crime of murder,
of Todd Sommer, a human being,

236
00:12:47,375 --> 00:12:52,336
in violation of
penal code section 187A.

237
00:12:52,380 --> 00:12:54,295
I don't feel like the jury

238
00:12:54,338 --> 00:12:59,126
even looked at
the science of my case.

239
00:12:59,169 --> 00:13:02,259
They looked at my behavior

240
00:13:02,303 --> 00:13:06,263
and all of these
other circumstantial things

241
00:13:06,307 --> 00:13:09,789
that the prosecution said
that I did

242
00:13:09,832 --> 00:13:13,183
and didn't look at anything
having to do with the science.

243
00:13:13,227 --> 00:13:14,924
Cindy wasn't the only person

244
00:13:14,968 --> 00:13:17,927
who thought they'd witnessed
a miscarriage of justice.

245
00:13:17,971 --> 00:13:20,930
My girlfriend was watching
a news program about this case

246
00:13:20,974 --> 00:13:23,280
and said,
"You have to get involved.

247
00:13:23,324 --> 00:13:26,283
You can't let that woman
be convicted."

248
00:13:26,327 --> 00:13:30,505
There's lots of folks who
have sadly died from conditions

249
00:13:30,548 --> 00:13:32,333
where they seem
completely healthy

250
00:13:32,376 --> 00:13:39,122
without any precedent symptom
of any kind and then they die.

251
00:13:39,166 --> 00:13:42,996
Now I'm looking at life
in prison.

252
00:13:43,039 --> 00:13:45,955
Is it going to take me
20 years to fight to get out?

253
00:13:45,999 --> 00:13:48,828
What do we do? Where do we go?
Do I appeal?

254
00:13:48,871 --> 00:13:51,831
Like how, what do we do?

255
00:13:51,874 --> 00:13:55,747
What mistakes did independent
observers see in the trial?

256
00:13:55,791 --> 00:14:00,491
For one, Todd Sommer was sick
for 10 days before he died.

257
00:14:00,535 --> 00:14:03,016
The amounts of arsenic
that were found

258
00:14:03,059 --> 00:14:08,673
in Todd Sommer's liver
and kidney would've required him

259
00:14:08,717 --> 00:14:12,547
to ingest such a large
amount of arsenic

260
00:14:12,590 --> 00:14:15,898
that he would've been dead
in a matter of hours.

261
00:14:15,942 --> 00:14:19,032
He would not have lived 10 days.

262
00:14:19,075 --> 00:14:22,339
Also, arsenic attacks
the entire body.

263
00:14:22,383 --> 00:14:25,212
It didn't make sense that lethal
concentrations were found

264
00:14:25,255 --> 00:14:28,215
in just some of Todd's
tissue samples.

265
00:14:28,258 --> 00:14:31,174
If you have an acute dose
of arsenic inside of you,

266
00:14:31,218 --> 00:14:33,263
you would expect to see it
in the blood.

267
00:14:33,307 --> 00:14:35,004
And there was nothing
in the blood.

268
00:14:35,048 --> 00:14:39,791
And it causes cell leakage,
it just tears you up inside.

269
00:14:39,835 --> 00:14:45,232
So, you would expect to see
that damage done on autopsy

270
00:14:45,275 --> 00:14:48,713
and Todd Sommer
didn't have any of that.

271
00:14:48,757 --> 00:14:50,933
As for Cindy's
questionable behavior

272
00:14:50,977 --> 00:14:53,196
in the wake
of her husband's death?

273
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,808
Experts on grieving say
it's not all that unusual.

274
00:14:56,852 --> 00:15:00,247
We look at the ways people
get through situations,

275
00:15:00,290 --> 00:15:03,554
and we found that there's some
things that people have

276
00:15:03,598 --> 00:15:07,254
traditionally thought as bad,
maladaptive, unhealthy coping,

277
00:15:07,297 --> 00:15:09,734
There is no right way
to get through the pain we have.

278
00:15:09,778 --> 00:15:13,042
And if we define something
that works in that moment,

279
00:15:13,086 --> 00:15:15,218
it has done its job.

280
00:15:15,262 --> 00:15:17,133
It's ugly, but it works.

281
00:15:17,177 --> 00:15:19,614
O'Brien: I do believe that sexism
played a huge role in this.

282
00:15:19,657 --> 00:15:24,967
Part of the motivation was that
she wasn't mourning

283
00:15:25,011 --> 00:15:27,491
the way a woman should mourn.
Right?

284
00:15:27,535 --> 00:15:31,452
That she was not doing
the things

285
00:15:31,495 --> 00:15:36,239
that we expect a woman to do
when her husband dies.

286
00:15:36,283 --> 00:15:39,112
Legal experts said
there were legitimate questions

287
00:15:39,155 --> 00:15:40,765
about Cindy's conviction.

288
00:15:40,809 --> 00:15:43,855
But even they had to admit:
it's a lot easier to put

289
00:15:43,899 --> 00:15:46,946
someone behind bars
then it is to get them out

290
00:15:46,989 --> 00:15:48,643
once they're there.

291
00:16:00,916 --> 00:16:03,179
By 2007,
Todd Sommer had been

292
00:16:03,223 --> 00:16:05,268
dead for nearly five years

293
00:16:05,312 --> 00:16:08,010
and his wife Cindy had spent
more than a year in jail

294
00:16:08,054 --> 00:16:09,664
for his murder.

295
00:16:09,707 --> 00:16:12,275
It was all so surreal,
the whole thing.

296
00:16:12,319 --> 00:16:14,930
I just...

297
00:16:17,759 --> 00:16:19,108
It was crazy.

298
00:16:19,152 --> 00:16:24,853
It was unfathomable that
this could be happening.

299
00:16:24,896 --> 00:16:27,203
As they prepared for a
possible re-trial,

300
00:16:27,247 --> 00:16:29,727
Cindy's new defense team
found documents

301
00:16:29,771 --> 00:16:32,121
indicating that one set
of Todd's tissues

302
00:16:32,165 --> 00:16:36,299
was in storage and was
apparently suitable for testing.

303
00:16:36,343 --> 00:16:38,823
But when the prosecution
was asked to bring this evidence

304
00:16:38,867 --> 00:16:41,696
forward, they said
they couldn't find it.

305
00:16:41,739 --> 00:16:44,133
This was enough in itself

306
00:16:44,177 --> 00:16:47,006
for Cindy's conviction
to be thrown out.

307
00:16:47,049 --> 00:16:49,660
if the failure to preserve
these tissues

308
00:16:49,704 --> 00:16:51,706
was the mistake of the police,

309
00:16:51,749 --> 00:16:53,664
NCIS, or the prosecution.

310
00:16:53,708 --> 00:16:58,017
Then Cindy could be found
not guilty.

311
00:16:58,060 --> 00:17:01,368
A search was on for
the remaining set of Todd's tissues.

312
00:17:01,411 --> 00:17:05,328
And it was found at the hospital
where Todd was autopsied.

313
00:17:05,372 --> 00:17:09,028
They're found exactly where
the tissues had been left

314
00:17:09,071 --> 00:17:10,594
five years before.

315
00:17:10,638 --> 00:17:13,554
And it's almost as if
the caretaker of those

316
00:17:13,597 --> 00:17:16,035
was basically saying,

317
00:17:16,078 --> 00:17:18,080
"You know, I was wondering
when you guys

318
00:17:18,124 --> 00:17:20,387
were going to get around
to asking for these things.

319
00:17:20,430 --> 00:17:22,258
Where have you been?"

320
00:17:22,302 --> 00:17:25,740
Did prosecutors know
this evidence still existed?

321
00:17:25,783 --> 00:17:27,872
No one knows for sure.

322
00:17:27,916 --> 00:17:30,527
Todd's tissues were tested
for arsenic,

323
00:17:30,571 --> 00:17:33,356
and in direct contradiction
of the evidence

324
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:37,273
that put Cindy Sommer in jail,
came back negative.

325
00:17:37,317 --> 00:17:39,058
He had not been poisoned.

326
00:17:41,103 --> 00:17:42,452
How did this happen?

327
00:17:42,496 --> 00:17:45,064
The answer
was alarmingly simple:

328
00:17:45,107 --> 00:17:48,371
the lab that did the
testing, a military lab,

329
00:17:48,415 --> 00:17:52,114
didn't normally test samples
from human beings.

330
00:17:52,158 --> 00:17:54,986
O'Brien: This was a lab that
typically did soil samples

331
00:17:55,030 --> 00:17:57,076
and things like that,
it wasn't something

332
00:17:57,119 --> 00:17:59,774
that was really set up
to examine tissue,

333
00:17:59,817 --> 00:18:01,384
human tissue samples.

334
00:18:01,428 --> 00:18:03,125
Because
in small amounts,

335
00:18:03,169 --> 00:18:06,215
arsenic is ever-present
in the environment.

336
00:18:06,259 --> 00:18:11,612
This lab did test regularly for
arsenic in non-human samples.

337
00:18:11,655 --> 00:18:14,658
Arsenic is an element.

338
00:18:14,702 --> 00:18:17,618
It's in soil,
it's in groundwater,

339
00:18:17,661 --> 00:18:21,578
it's even in some
of the foods that we eat.

340
00:18:21,622 --> 00:18:22,927
And now investigators,

341
00:18:22,971 --> 00:18:25,016
on both sides of the case,

342
00:18:25,060 --> 00:18:28,237
had an explanation
for why only Todd's liver

343
00:18:28,281 --> 00:18:31,980
and kidney samples instead
of all his samples

344
00:18:32,023 --> 00:18:34,156
tested positive for arsenic:

345
00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:36,767
they'd been stored next
to non-human samples

346
00:18:36,811 --> 00:18:39,944
that likely did
contain arsenic.

347
00:18:39,988 --> 00:18:43,470
Once a sample is
contaminated, you can't take it away.

348
00:18:43,513 --> 00:18:46,255
Contamination does happen.

349
00:18:46,299 --> 00:18:49,650
It shouldn't happen,
but it does.

350
00:18:49,693 --> 00:18:52,522
It was not an arsenic death.

351
00:18:52,566 --> 00:18:54,872
O'Brien: There was some sort
of contamination in the lab.

352
00:18:54,916 --> 00:18:56,700
Without that mistake,
we wouldn't be here

353
00:18:56,744 --> 00:18:58,789
talking about this case.

354
00:18:58,833 --> 00:19:00,487
The mystery was solved.

355
00:19:00,530 --> 00:19:03,272
The original autopsy was right.

356
00:19:03,316 --> 00:19:05,361
Todd Sommer died from
a previously

357
00:19:05,405 --> 00:19:07,972
undiagnosed heart condition.

358
00:19:08,016 --> 00:19:10,149
Two weeks before
Cindy's second trial

359
00:19:10,192 --> 00:19:12,716
was set to start,
a corrections officer

360
00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:14,675
came to her prison cell.

361
00:19:14,718 --> 00:19:18,157
And he goes, "You should
probably go call your mom."

362
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:21,682
So he turned the phone on,
and I called my mom,

363
00:19:21,725 --> 00:19:24,380
and she answered the phone.

364
00:19:24,424 --> 00:19:29,211
I just remember saying, "Mom..."

365
00:19:35,435 --> 00:19:38,002
I said, "Is it true
that I'm getting out?"

366
00:19:38,046 --> 00:19:43,225
And she said, "Yes,"
that they dropped the charges.

367
00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:50,885
The case was dismissed
because after consulting with experts,

368
00:19:50,928 --> 00:19:54,671
we concluded that
there was reasonable doubt,

369
00:19:54,715 --> 00:19:57,674
and therefore the case
was dismissed.

370
00:19:57,718 --> 00:19:59,198
Would you expand on that?

371
00:19:59,241 --> 00:20:02,505
Tell us what the reasonable
doubt was [indistinct].

372
00:20:02,549 --> 00:20:06,901
Okay.
First, today justice was done.

373
00:20:06,944 --> 00:20:09,512
This is how the system
is supposed to work.

374
00:20:09,556 --> 00:20:11,601
I don't know how you can say
the system works

375
00:20:11,645 --> 00:20:16,345
or that justice was served when
I've spent 876 days in jail.

376
00:20:16,389 --> 00:20:18,869
For something that,
first of all,

377
00:20:18,913 --> 00:20:21,872
I didn't do, and second,
wasn't even a homicide.

378
00:20:21,916 --> 00:20:24,353
The case shows
the value of science,

379
00:20:24,397 --> 00:20:27,095
not only in putting
the guilty behind bars,

380
00:20:27,138 --> 00:20:29,402
but in freeing the innocent.

381
00:20:29,445 --> 00:20:32,448
It's an object lesson
in the power of forensics,

382
00:20:32,492 --> 00:20:37,410
for noble and sometimes
not-so-noble purposes.

383
00:20:37,453 --> 00:20:39,412
Justice was done in this case,

384
00:20:39,455 --> 00:20:42,545
but not because of the
prosecution, but despite it.

385
00:20:42,589 --> 00:20:45,722
The forensic evidence in this
case was enormously important.

386
00:20:45,766 --> 00:20:48,421
The evidence
in this case was sound.

387
00:20:48,464 --> 00:20:50,466
It was solid.

388
00:20:50,510 --> 00:20:52,729
I know this is the most
ridiculous thing to say,

389
00:20:52,773 --> 00:20:54,775
but I'm grateful
for my time in jail.

390
00:20:54,818 --> 00:20:58,300
I think it taught me a lot
about myself.

391
00:20:58,344 --> 00:20:59,910
It taught me a lot about life.

392
00:20:59,954 --> 00:21:02,783
I don't think I'd be the person
that I am today

393
00:21:02,826 --> 00:21:04,785
had I not gone through
all of those things.