Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present

Death penalty opponents are waiting to see if Texas will proceed with what they say would be an unconstitutional execution. Texas’ Attorney General has appealed to the nation’s highest court to lift a stay on Edward Busby’s scheduled execution for today. There are reports that Texas officials plan to move forward with the execution despite a federal appellate court ruling last week that put a temporary hold on it pending a Supreme Court decision on a separate case. The issue at hand, whether or not Edward Busby is intellectually disabled, which would make him ineligible for the death penalty. Busby was convicted in the 2004 robbery and murder of a retired Texas Christian University professor.

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28-year-old Dalton Eatherly who goes by “Chud the Builder” and livestreams himself saying racially derogatory statements to black people in public settings was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Police say Eatherly shot a man following an altercation outside a Tennessee courthouse, and accidentally shot himself in the arm in the process. Eatherly has been trying to get social media attention by taking video of himself using racial slurs against black people, challenging them to fight him.

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A Utah judge gave 35-year-old Kouri Richins the harshest sentence possible following an emotional day of victim impact statements. In court, we heard directly from Richins’ sons who each wrote statements to the court, asking the judge to make sure their mom never gets out of prison. Eric Richins’ sisters and father also addressed the court, all before Kouri herself took more than 40 minutes offering life advice to her sons and proclaiming her innocence. 

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In a unanimous decision, the South Carolina Supreme Court has overturned Alex Murdaugh’s 2023 convictions of murdering his wife and son and ordered a new trial. The justices wrote they had no choice but to make their ruling because the county clerk of court, Rebecca Hill improperly influenced the jury at trial, by suggesting they could not trust Murdaugh’s testimony. South Carolina’s attorney general has vowed to aggressively seek to retry Murdaugh as soon as possible. Murdaugh will not be getting out of prison in the meantime, as he is currently serving 40 years for state and federal financial crimes. 

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The grief author mom of three who was convicted of poisoning her husband with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl, will be sentenced later today in Utah. Prosecutors have given the judge statements from Kouri Richins’ three sons, all of whom pleaded with the judge to send their mom to life in prison.  In their sentencing memo, prosecutors also laid out some damning evidence of why they believe Richins should never be freed from jail, including a text message that threatens everyone from the judge, the Richins family to the prosecution and its investigators.

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New Yorker Melissa Samnath sent a final text to her family, one hour before her 37th birthday: “Call the cops.”  Samnath was celebrating in Jamaica with her new husband, who is now a suspect in her murder, and is on the run in his home country. Police are searching for Dane Watson, after he reportedly beat her and left her in a wheelchair in front of a hospital barely alive. Samnath later died from blunt force trauma to the head, and her family is demanding justice saying there is a dangerous man on the loose.

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An unthinkable and tragic end to a Michigan couple’s wedding: the groom fatally ran over his best man after an alcohol fueled fight turned deadly.  24-year-old James Shirah pleaded no contest to 2nd degree homicide for the death of groomsman 29-year-old Terry Taylor. Shirah said in court that he will “forever be sorry” still claiming it was an accident, but will spend at least the next 30 years behind bars for his crime.

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Emily and Shane are joined by Terrill Swift, who was just 17 years old when he confessed to a crime he did not commit, and Dave Thompson, an expert in police interrogations and false confessions.

Together, Terrill and Dave are discussing the complexities surrounding false confessions and false imprisonment. Terrill was in prison for 14 years as an innocent man… What did he experience? 

How can a jury decipher a false confession from a real confession? What happens psychologically for a false confession to occur? How are Dave, Terrill & The Innocence Center changing the system for the better?

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A Texas man who cut off his ankle monitor and fled weeks before his capital murder trial, was in an Italian courtroom today. 40-year-old Lee Gilley was apprehended while trying to enter Milan with a forged Belgian passport that allowed him to flee Texas. Now Gilley’s fate is in the hands of an Italian judge as he fights extradition. Gilley is seeking asylum and protection in Italy from the death penalty.

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The Coast Guard is ramping up its investigation into the disappearance of 55-year-old Lynette Hooker. Hooker’s husband Brian remains a person of interest after telling authorities his wife fell off their 8 foot dinghy in the Bahamas during rough seas. The U.S. Coastguard seized the Hooker’s sailboat over the weekend and moved it to Florida, while the agency has also been conducting interviews with possible witnesses.  Both Lynette’s daughter and mother are speaking out now about the agony of not knowing what happened.

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