The True Story of How a Series of Lies Sent an Innocent Man to Prison
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Søren Kierkegaard One of Hanna’s comments in Aggravated continues to resurface for me periodically. In her May 2006 interview with Tom Swearingen, less than two months before the first trial began, …
My Investigation Begins While I was researching Steve’s trial, I was, of course, doing regular “real life” things (helping my wife care for her elderly parents, working at Rice University until late-2009 and then retiring, writing novels, etc.), but Steve’s situation, was always in the back of my mind. I felt like there should be …
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. This is the fifth post of five questions/items that were part of a chapter in Aggravated. In that chapter I answered and/or explained all five in just a few paragraphs, so these are just more detailed breakdowns of the reasoning behind those answers. If you’ve already read …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. This is the fourth post of five questions/items that were part of a chapter in Aggravated. In that chapter I answered and/or explained all five in just a few paragraphs, so these are just more detailed breakdowns of the reasoning behind those answers. If you’ve already read …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. This is the second post of five questions/items that were part of a chapter in Aggravated. In that chapter I answered and/or explained all five in just a few paragraphs, so these are just more detailed breakdowns of the reasoning behind those answers. If you’ve already read …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. This one and the four posts that follow it were part of a chapter in Aggravated, called The Night of the Rodeo. In that chapter I answered and/or explained the first five questions and items (out of thirteen) in just a few paragraphs. The other eight required …
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 …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. What Was Missing From the Summary After I had gathered most of the documentation related to Steve’s trial, I began making notes, comparing one set of documents with another. One of the first things I noticed was that much of what Hanna originally claimed in her affidavit …
Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. Overview of the Summary In September 2004, Steve’s original attorney, Roland Mathis, filed a motion requesting records from any medical or psychiatric reports that the DA’s office might have. Hanna’s medical records and Ada Dixon’s session notes were the two primary things Mathis was looking for. It …