AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In 1988, Benjamine Spencer was sentenced to life in prison for a brutal robbery and murder he has always insisted he did not commit. Spencer spent the next 34 years in prison, dashing off letters almost every day to his wife, his friends, lawyers, to anyone who would listen, claiming his innocence. He finally did walk out of prison in March of 2021, and he may finally be exonerated in the coming days. My former NPR colleague Barbara Bradley Hagerty spent years reinvestigating Spencer's case.
BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY: What drew me to Ben's story is that it showcased it's so easy to convict an innocent person, and it's nearly impossible to undo the mistake.
CHANG: Especially for a Black man in America. Hagerty writes about this in her new book, "Bringing Ben Home."
I mean, what was so interesting is you showed that, you know, it was a confluence of failures in the justice system that convicted Ben Spencer - witnesses lying for money, a jailhouse informant lying for early release, mistakes by police and by prosecutors, implicit bias at so many points in the case. And you show how, after all of those failures, winning one's freedom in this system depends on sheer luck in so many aspects. Talk more about that.
HAGERTY: Yeah, it's so true. That was kind of one of the most disturbing things. I mean, this is a really happy story, and it's a really tragic story as well. So ultimately, the only way to undo all of those errors that you just mentioned is to get lucky. Like, Ben Spencer was lucky. He was the luckiest of the unlucky. He attracted the attention of a group called Centurion Ministries, which is a nonprofit that reinvestigates dubious convictions. He persuaded a judge that he was innocent. The media wrote up his story.
And yet none of that worked until serendipity struck in 2018 - 30 years after Ben's conviction. That was when a new district attorney, John Creuzot, was elected, and he assigned a prosecutor to kind of reinvestigate Ben's case. And they found even more exculpatory evidence and argued that Ben didn't get a fair trial and that he - you know, he should be freed. And he did walk out of prison after 34 years.
But here's the thing. How many innocent prisoners get that kind of luck - that kind of legal and media firepower?
CHANG: Right.
HAGERTY: And it just raises the question - you know, in America, should a person's freedom really depend on luck? Because it does.
CHANG: Well, one of the hardest things about Ben Spencer's case specifically is that there was no physical evidence tying him to the murder. He didn't have the magical DNA card. And you, personally, Barbara - you, 30 years after the crime took place - you decided to reinvestigate his case yourself, alongside a private detective named Daryl Parker. What compelled you to jump in and do this on your own - reinvestigate a 30-year-old crime?
HAGERTY: (Laughter) Well, you'll understand this. It was, like, a riveting story - right? - great characters, legal complexities. You know, and even though it was pretty clear that Ben was innocent, there was virtually no way out. I mean, that is an amazing story. And I have to tell you, I had the time of my life working with Daryl Parker, you know, knocking on doors and finding witnesses. It was just - it was really, really a blast.
CHANG: (Laughter).
HAGERTY: But here - it really was. I mean, it really was. But here's what surprised me. We dug up evidence 30 years after the crime.
CHANG: Yeah.
HAGERTY: I mean, you just show up, and people talk to you. And so, you know, even though...
CHANG: You reminded me just showing up on somebody's doorstep is sometimes the best way to get them...
HAGERTY: Right.
CHANG: ...To talk to you. Don't call for permission (laughter).
HAGERTY: You don't call ahead. No, don't call ahead. Just show up, and they're like, oh, hi. Oh, come on in.
CHANG: Right.
HAGERTY: You know, even though evidence was lost, or some of the witnesses were hard to find, it turns out that the passage of time actually can help expose truth. Like, relationships change, or old loyalties dissolve, or people don't have any reason to lie anymore. So basically, you know, two of the four state witnesses who put Ben in prison for life recanted on tape.
CHANG: Yes.
HAGERTY: And we found a new alibi witness, and several other witnesses...
CHANG: Yeah.
HAGERTY: ...Gave us new information. So this was three decades after the crime. All we had to do was show up and ask.
CHANG: Right. Thirty years later, people's motivations had changed. What was it like to go through Ben's letters over more than three decades - letters to Debra, his wife, then ex-wife, then wife again - like, decades of handwritten letters about his total unwillingness to grow bitter and his unshakable faith that the truth would come out.
HAGERTY: You know, what's interesting when you read through these 2,500 pages of handwritten letters is that these are kind of contemporaneous snapshots of his state of mind, right?
CHANG: Yeah.
HAGERTY: So what kept him going, as you mentioned, is, like, his firm belief in God and that the truth would eventually come out. For example, he was about to come up for parole in 2006. It was 20 years after he was convicted. And he wrote Debra this letter. And he said, Deb, you need to really temper your hopes because, to get parole, you have to express remorse for your crime, and I'm never going to do that. And here's what he wrote - I've never forgotten this line - truth has always meant more to me than my freedom. So he never got parole because he never admitted that he did this thing.
And one time he wrote to her that, I don't want you or - his son - B.J. to, quote, "be consumed with hate or bitterness." And this is what he wrote, - quote, "bitterness and hatred are like a cancer. They will eat away at you until they destroy. Be at peace because it is far more rewarding." And you read these things, and you go, well, I sure wouldn't have written that after 20 years, 30 years in prison.
CHANG: I know. I think my spirit would have completely disintegrated. I was just in awe of the tremendous faith he had in the truth.
HAGERTY: Yeah.
CHANG: Well, Barb, you have painted a portrait of a criminal justice system that places greater value on finality rather than on truth. And I'm wondering, after years of examining all the flaws inside the system that deliver wrongful convictions and take people's lives away from them, were you left with more hope or less hope that this system can change?
HAGERTY: Oh, absolutely. I'm an optimist - more hope.
CHANG: OK.
HAGERTY: Truly. I mean, look at how far we've come in 40 years. You know, people back then just assumed that, if you were arrested and tried, you were guilty. And, you know, thanks to DNA, we know absolutely that witnesses misidentify people, and informants make things up, you know, police coerce confessions - that kind of thing. But what you're seeing across the country is that courts and legislatures are putting in guardrails. And guess who is at the forefront of this reform?
CHANG: Texas.
HAGERTY: Texas. It's done more than any other state to prevent wrongful convictions. You know, prosecutors can't hide evidence. They have to hand over all their files to the defense. They can't use jailhouse informants unless they can corroborate their accounts. Police interrogations are recorded, so there's less chance of manipulation or false confession. So Texas has done more than anyone else to fix the system, but others are following, and I'm optimistic about that. Things are better - not perfect - but they are better.
CHANG: Barbara Bradley Hagerty's new book is called "Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, And The Fight To Redeem American Justice." Thank you so much for this tremendous book, Barb, and for this conversation.
HAGERTY: Oh, thank you, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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