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Notes -
It's a decades old case, there are a lot of contradictory things floating around on the internet. The governor's statement may be correct, but according to this article the ex girlfriend's testimony is a bit muddier:
Maybe she forgot about getting the reward because she was a crackhead sex worker, but she didn't exactly come forward voluntarily either.
While we're on the topic, what's the counter-claim exactly? That this crackhead just randomly decided to frame her ex-boyfriend for a murder that some other guy who was cellmates with him had also decided to frame by complete coincidence for a financial reward?
I suppose if we are maximally conspiratorial, the explanation is the (obviously racist) police were embarrassed with an unsolved murder of a white woman, marked some black dirtbag in prison for it, and fed testimony to two people and then planted the evidence. But if we're that conspiratorial about the police why do we believe any evidence one way or another about DNA? Everything is manufactured. Conflict theorists unite!
You don’t have to go that far.
The witnesses could, in theory, have coordinated. Especially if one of them did it.
But if there was a credible alternate theory, maybe one of the many trials would have found this guy innocent.
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