The True Story of How a Series of Lies Sent an Innocent Man to Prison
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. During Trial #2, Hanna tried to slip some extra information into one of her answers, but it didn’t work. Here’s how that happened. Elmer Ross had just finished questioning her about some incidents that she claimed happened after Beau’s 21st birthday party. She described several things, two …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. Analysis of the Lie This is the fourth of four posts about a lie I believe Hanna told in court. If you haven’t read the first three posts yet, you should probably do that before reading this one. Start with Part 1, The Background. Why did Hanna …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. The Background This post and the three that follow it comprise an expanded early version of a chapter in Aggravated. I trimmed this material down considerably for the book, so if you’ve read the book you don’t need to read these unless you want to. They will …
Ronelle Wilcox and the Voir Dire After lunch, Elmer Ross still had the floor. His first question was answered by Juror #2, Ronelle Wilcox. My focus will be on her for the rest of the voir dire. [By the way, I need to remind you that this exploration of Ms. Wilcox’s role in the voir …
A Conversation About Steve’s Appeals Steve usually calls me every Saturday, and we talk for a half hour or so. Recently, we spent much of our conversation talking about the two posts before this one (read Part 1 here and Part 2 here). Here is an abridged version of part of our conversation. I’ll pepper …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. What the Court Got Wrong Much of the following is directly quoted from court records (with names changed, of course). Just to recap, Argument 2 concerned Steve’s marijuana conviction. Steve thought it shouldn’t have been admitted because of its age (24 years before). Argument 3 charged that …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. Two Arguments the Court Got Wrong In Steve’s first appeal (to the 19th Court of Appeals, in Keegan, Texas), he made four arguments, all of which the court ruled against. I’m only going to deal with Arguments 2 and 3 in this post, but here’s a quick …
A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that Steve’s first attorney, Roland Mathis, within his first six or seven months, had been paid $7,500 by Newbold and Vanderhoop (N&V), our mother’s lawyers, and that money was borrowed against Steve’s eventual inheritance. Within nine months that amount had risen to $27,928. Steve and Robin paid N&V …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. Influence on Hanna As you saw in a previous post, I believe that Ada Dixon’s book is clearly much more a Christian-centered religious text than a self-help book for victims of abuse. My biggest concern, though, is that large parts of it could also have been a …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. Gender Bias In the previous post I looked at the overly religious nature of Ada Dixon’s book, Overcoming and Dealing With a World of Abuse, which I believe make the chance of it being used as a psychological self-help book extremely remote. Another thing I noticed about …