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Walking Free

44m 17s

Walking Free

The case involves David Camm, who was accused of murdering his wife and two children in 2000. Despite an alibi placing him at a basketball game with 11 witnesses, he was convicted twice based on questionable blood evidence and prosecutorial tactics that included introducing unproven claims of child molestation. The discovery of DNA and a palm print on a sweatshirt at the crime scene eventually implicated Charles Boney, a violent ex-convict. Investigations revealed that prosecutors had initially overlooked this evidence. Both of Camm's convictions were overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct and insufficient evidence. After a third trial in 2013, which focused more on Boney's role, Camm was acquitted, highlighting significant failures in the justice system. Boney was separately convicted for the murders, while Camm's ordeal exposed issues with rushed investigations and ethical breaches in the legal process.

Transcription

5923 Words, 31240 Characters

English
(upbeat music) - What does freedom feel like? It's amazing, it's hard not to find me with a smile on my face. It's just an overwhelming happiness that I can't and don't want to ever lose. (upbeat music) - Eight weeks' worth of testimony does ends of witnesses. This jury deliberated roughly 10 hours. We can only imagine the emotion. That must've been one, one, three. - David Cam immediately erupted into tears when that verdict came down. The verdict they have waited 13 years for it. - Stay back. - Stay back, please. - Down the grass or not the grass? - David Cam, not guilty on all three counts of murder in this case. (whistle blows) - Come on! (whistle blows) - Come on, man. - Very good, very good, thank you. - Yeah, have a good one. (dramatic music) - In some aspects, it's like I was never gone. - I heard me. - With the exception of the fact that Nises and nephew using cousins are all grown. - It's all than I thought you were. You were really tall. - Seeing people hadn't seen it a long time. Giving them hugs and kisses and, you know, it's just a real joy. (clock ticking) - I want my family back. I want my babies back. I want my wife. (sniffing) - You saw a body on the floor of the garage? - Yeah. And I get down in the face. And I'm yelling, I can't, can't, can't. In her eyes, I could tell she was gone. And it just hit me. Where are the kids? Where are the kids? - We're not gonna get David Cam to every tell the truth. This guy's a murderer. He killed his wife. He killed his two beautiful children. - My name is Charles Bonay. And I'm linked to David Cam. Because I'm the individual that sold him the weapon that he used to kill his family. - Did you know Charles Bonay? Did you ever met him? - No. - Never laid eyes on him? - No. - So you think the prosecutor helped Charles Bonay come up with the story? - I know that the investigators helped Charles Bonay to create a story. - The government hit evidence, lied to me about the evidence. - The time the crime was wrong, elements of the crime scene were incorrectly portrayed. And David Cam gets arrested. How just was that? - Justice is a very hard thing to define. And justice is a very hard thing to do. - It took three trials, two convictions overturned by the court of appeals before the truth finally came out and established David as totally innocent of the murder of his family. - Charles Bonay is the person to kill my family. - He thinks he's won by being free. But really, we have unfinished business. - He's a psychopath. He's a liar. - My assessment of the justice system, specifically in Southern Indiana, is that, at the trial court level, it's a disaster. These people that represent the state are incapable of doing the right thing. - Oh, no. - I have earned the right to have that opinion, Richard. I've earned that right. - It's good to see you, Richard Clessinger. - David Cam, nice to meet you. - For 12 years, David Cam has been talking to 48 hours about the one night when his life was forever changed. (dramatic music) - Get everybody out here, come on, now! - Okay, all right. - I want to get my kids to dead. Get everybody out. - The way David Cam tells it, on September 28th, 2000, he returned home from playing basketball and discovered a scene that is still hard to imagine let alone look at. His wife, Kim, was on the floor of the garage. Her pants had been removed. His five-year-old daughter, Jill, and his seven-year-old son, Bradley, were slumped inside the SUV. They had been shot dead with one bullet each, like an execution. Months earlier, Cam had quit the Indiana State Police to work at his family's business. But within three days of the murders, his former colleagues, his buddies, concluded he was the killer and charged him with three counts of homicide. And from our first interview in 2002, as he was in jail awaiting trial, he has insisted he is innocent. - What about Cam and Bradley, Jill? And what about the son of a bitch that's out there that did this? And what about the fact that I'm sitting in this jail? What about those questions? I want some answers. But Frank and Janice Ren, Kim's parents, Brad and Jill's grandparents, have all the answers they need. They know who killed their family. - There's no way he's going to bring the kids back and my daughter back. No matter what they do at David's. But he'll have to suffer. When he dies someday, if it's soon, or it's about a year or so now, he's a guy after the God. - Except Cam has what could be an airtight alibi. At the time of the murders, he said he was here. A few minutes away in a church gymnasium, playing basketball with 11 other people. How sure are you that David Cam was here for the entire two hours and change that you were here? - 100% sure because I saw him walking on the side. I saw him sitting down. At his trial in 2002, prosecutors laid out their theory. The basketball players were focused on their game. Cam somehow slipped out of the gym, went home, killed his family and came back unnoticed. To counter those 11 eyewitnesses, the prosecutors have these eight tiny specks of blood on Cam's t-shirt. - Well, what I'm going to do is to demonstrate. - The prosecution's blood expert, Rod Engler called it, high velocity, impact spatter. - This is blood that has been hit by something going very fast like a bullet. - Right. This is so unique and so separate from other stains that one can say with confidence that this is from high velocity myths that the person that got this on him would be in close proximity within four feet of the shots when they were fired. - Cam says those tiny blood stains were transferred to his shirt when he reached inside the car to pull out his son. His lawyers say 11 eyewitnesses can't be wrong. The DA says eight blood spots can't be wrong. And say the prosecutors, besides the blood evidence, Cam had a strong motive to kill his family. Prosecutors found more than a dozen women who say they'd had a fares with Cam or at least had been propositioned. - It is sure stupidity on my part. I allowed myself to get caught in something that never should have happened. And I take full responsibility for that. - It shows motive. Exactly. - Stan Faith was the lead prosecutor. - From a legal standpoint, we're showing what was going on in this man's mind prior, considerably prior to the murders. And how long it was developing and growing up into the hateful fruit that we saw in September 28th. And I think that's utterly ridiculous. - When the medical examiner, Dr. Tracy Cory thought she found signs that Jill had been molested within 24 hours of her death. Prosecutors suggested that might have been a motive. - The jury may believe that, yeah. I said, what are you talking about? So this is my five year old daughter. And I did not molest her. And I did not kill her. - David Cam had never been accused of molesting Jill and he was never charged with it in this case. - He's done fine in that. - Cam's family led by his uncle, Sam Lockhart, who was also one of those basketball players, never once doubted his innocence. - He was arrested three days after the murders. How thorough of an investigation can you do in three days? I think once they got beyond the path of no turning back, now their egos become involved and their political aspirations become involved. - And as a Cam jury spends another night in the motel in the building. - I didn't say the jury's liberation was actually in there because there's so much more that we're just sitting there. - But the jury convicted Cam after deliberating for three days. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - Cam was sentenced to 195 years for the murder of his family. 11 witnesses said he was at the basketball game. - Guilty, guilty. - But while this was the end of the trial, it was far from the end of this case. - This is just a delay. We're not quitting. I want to find out who killed those kids and Cam. I want to find that out, Richard. And we're not going to quit until we do or we die. - One key to this case was in front of everyone's eyes. Right there, next to Bradley's body, a sweatshirt. Prosecutors knew in 2002 that there was some mystery DNA on it along with a cryptic name inside the collar. Backbone. But they never investigated. - The killer left the calling card there. That's the biggest clue in the case. We need to find out who's wearing that shirt. - What if it comes back, David Cam? - It's not David Cam's sweatshirt. - It took five years to find out, but David Cam was right. The sweatshirt belonged to this man, Charles Bonet, an ex-con with a nickname. Backbone. He is the person that killed my family. He's a psychopath, he's a liar. He is the guy that has hurt waves and waves and waves of people. People that I love and care about. - Who is that? - Charles Bonet. - Okay, so after-- - Charles Bonet is the man who turned this case upside down. He is to be charitable, a man whose honesty can honestly be questioned. - Never ever encountered Mr. David Cam. - That's what he said when he was first interviewed about this case. And this is what he said to us a few years later. - I lied about not knowing David Cam in the very beginning. I lied about not being at the crime scene. I gave Pinocchio a run for the Oscar. - You told a lot of lies. - I had to. - Nobody knew anything about Bonet until an appeals court threw out David Cam's convictions, saying the prosecutors should never have introduced all those women Cam had affairs with. It was 2004. There was a newly elected prosecutor, Keith Henderson, who defeated Stan Faith. - The court of appeals didn't say he was innocent. Henderson decided to try Cam again, and he was forced by a court order to test that DNA on the sweatshirt. - I did not know what we were going to find. - They quickly found Charles Bonet. The DNA was entered into a database of known criminals, and it was an easy match. They also matched a palm print found on the family's SUV to Bonet. My initial presumption was we've got the guy, it's over. It was five years after the murders, and now there was a new suspect, and a new question. Why didn't Stan Faith, the first prosecutor, find Bonet? - You did know that the unknown male DNA existed. - I knew that existed. The laboratory knew it existed, and I asked the state police officer, the lead investigator, to check that out, and he told me he checked it out and there wasn't anything that they had. - But Bonet's DNA was in the database all along. Faith now says there must have been some misunderstanding on the part of the state police about what he wanted. - You asked the state police to run it. - How has that misunderstood? - I don't know. - In 2002, Faith told Cam's first defense attorney, Mike McDaniel, that there was no match. After all these years, McDaniel still thinks Faith never even tried to match the DNA. - I think I was lied to you, I mean, that's me. - I did not tell him a lie. I certainly did not do that. I told him the truth as I was told the information about the state police, period. It turns out there was plenty of evidence implicating Bonet from day one of the investigation. Not just the DNA and the POM print, but that nickname, backbone, that Bonet used when he was in prison. - You had all of these signposts pointing you towards Bonet kind of staring you in the face. - 20 to 20 on the hindsight, says it. - That's not 20. I'm sorry, sir. - It isn't. You know, here, we've known each other a long time, I don't mean any disrespect by this, but we were asking questions about that sweatshirt 10 years ago, 11 years ago. - We asked questions about the sweatshirt, too. We looked at that and I cannot tell you why the name Bonet did not come up. I wish it had come up. - What must that have done to you when you learned all of this stuff that you could have had in your trial, in your case? - I spoke harshly to Mr. Faith. - Harshly? - Yes, sir. - Would you say to Mr. Faith? - I cursed him like a wet dog. - Bonet could have been the answer to the prayers of Cam's first attorney, Mike McDaniel. Bonet grew up around New Albany and he soon started getting into trouble. His record includes armed robbery and a history of attacking women. - He was just waving the gun at us, hollering. - He terrorized Donna Ennis and her two roommates in 1992. - Do you think that Charles Bonet was going to kill you that time? - Yes. - You thought you were going to die right there? - Well, yeah, that night. - That night? - Yes. - And there is one other intriguing aspect of Bonet's criminal background. - You know, quite honestly, for anyone who doesn't know the story, I have a foot fetish. In fact, at one point, he was known to the police as the shoe bandit. He would make off with the shoes of his victims. - There's thousands of men that have foot fetishes or whatever. There's nothing unusual about that. - But in this case, Kim Cam was barefoot and her shoes were placed neatly on top of her SUV in the midst of a messy crime scene. And that has always perplexed investigators. Is it logical to make a connection between someone with, you know, with your interest in feet and shoes to this crime where strange things happen to feet and shoes? - That would be a logical conclusion or a situation, yes. But it didn't happen that way. - So what did happen? Bonet is now trying to sell the story that all he did was sell David Cam a gun. Bonet swears that's the truth. - I've learned you don't let the highs get too high, otherwise, and you're going to fall off a cliff. If you go too far in allowing yourself to presume that you're going to be victorious. In 2005, things were looking up for David Cam. His convictions had been thrown out. He was out on bond and Charles Bonet had been tracked down. And then came word, all charges against Cam had been dropped. - David, how's it feel to be out from my bar? - Cam was technically a free man. It seemed too good to be true, and it was. I'm looking at the file as we speak. - Prosecutor Keith Henderson had to drop the old charges to file new charges against Cam and Bonet. - I didn't want David Cam to flee. I got a guy that's convicted and sentenced to 195 years, a natural life sentence. - So a little more than an hour after the charges were dropped, the police showed up to re-arrest David Cam. They informed me that I was being recharged with the three counts of murder. This sick and my stomach sick and my gut heart broken. - In January 2006, Cam and Bonet went on trial separately and simultaneously, but on opposite sides of the state for murder and conspiracy. - After discovering Charles Bonet, my belief now is that this was planned well in advance. - But one of Cam's lawyers, Kitty Lyle, believed Bonet would make all the difference in trial number two. - We can answer the question to the jury if Dave Cam didn't do it, who did. Although a defendant never has the burden of proof, never has to prove they're innocent. The fact of the matter is, jurors or human beings, they have natural questions and they want that question answered. - Cam says he never heard of Bonet, but Bonet says the two met on a basketball court a few weeks before the murders. - He asked me if I had access or knew of a way in order to gain access to specifically a handgun. - Bonet says he delivered a gun to Cam's house the night of the murders. - I transported it inside of my sweatshirt, the infamous backbone sweatshirt. - And that's how that sweatshirt came to be in that garage? - That's correct. - Bonet says when Cam came home a few minutes later, things started happening quickly. - And then along comes this black SUV. - He says Cam drove into the garage and Cam followed her. - I heard him talking a little more loudly and then all of a sudden, I don't know where I hear a pop and then I hear another pop but then the third pop, they were the gunshot deaths of his family. - And then according to Bonet, Cam came after him. - When he came out of the garage, he pointed that weapon at me and he pulled it and there was nothing, nothing discharged. - To hear Bonet tell it, he had a close brush with death. But he says, right after the gun fell to fire, he chased Cam back into the garage. - Who goes running after somebody who's just tried to kill him? - Why not run after him? There's no bullets in the weapon. - I did go in after him and if someone doesn't believe that, that's fine. - I'm sure it was his hope and belief that he could create a story that would enable him to continue to get away with killing my family. - We have breaking news in the Charles Bonet triple murder trial, the jury just reached a verdict. - Guilty on all counts. With Bonet convicted, Cam was feeling better about his second trial, especially because the judge threw out the conspiracy charge. But he had to worry when he heard prosecutor Keith Henderson tell the jury about those unproven suspicions that Jill was molested. - What's it like to hear those allegations? - Now that makes my blood boil. That's the one thing that really infuriates me more than a lot of things. - Because it's not true and because it is so inflammatory. - It would have been Jill's 11th birthday. - And now David Cam's fate is once again in the hands of 12 jurors. - It's been a lot of time on my knees printing and believing. - It didn't work. Cam was found guilty again. - This time, David Cam was sentenced to life in prison without parole. - So how do you convince people now from this place that you're an innocent man? You've had two trials, two convictions? - Well, I mean, at this point Richard, people have formulated an opinion and they either believe in me or they don't. - There's one group of individuals that I'm concerned with right now and that is the Indiana Supreme Court. - Cam's lawyers filed an appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court and in 2009, the justices overturned his second conviction. The court ruled, among other things, the jury was unfairly influenced by the unproven theory that Cam abused his daughter. Saying, quote, "missing from this record is any competent evidence of the premise that the defendant molested the child." - And I turned on the TV and there it was. - And? - Tears, people yelling, congratulations, just an overwhelming happiness and the possibility of another shot. - And were you ready to go through this again? - Absolutely. - He would have to wait three years in maximum security for trial number three. - What's up little psychos? I'm investigator Slater, host of the Psychopedia podcast. Psychopedia is a true crime podcast delivering raw, real and absolutely gripping episodes every single week. - I dig deep to uncover fascinating details of heinous true crime cases while exploring criminology and psychology theories. I take you into the absolute darkest corners of the human psyche, my favorite territory, and present cases like you've never heard them before. Follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts. - The third trial was based upon fact and evidence and that's what trials are supposed to be about. That's what the courtroom is supposed to be about. - For David Cam's third trial, he has a third new lawyer, Rick Kamen, who is convinced he's innocent. What kind of pressure does that put on you as a defense lawyer? - Kamen is joining Stacey Ulyana, who helped defend Kamen in his second trial and argued his second appeal. - I wanted to make sure I was the person who stayed on the case who got that opportunity to correct it. - We're putting on the evidence as best we can. - This time the defense will be up against a special prosecutor, Stan Levko, who had to familiarize himself with a 13 year long investigation. - How does this rate with the number of boxes I guess that you have on a normal case? - Oh, I personally never tried a case with this much. - It was a familiar scene but a different courthouse on August 22nd, 2013, this time just outside Indianapolis. Frank and Janice Ren, who lost their daughter and their grandchildren, have been in court for almost every day of every trial. - Your mind's spinning a lot and my stomach turns sometimes on certain things and I guess I just wonder why this was happening. - David Kam's sister, Julie, came with their uncle, Sam Lockhart. They've been at Kam's side since day one. - Emotionally, financially, physically. All those things just taking a toll, not only on me, but on our family. - Once again, the jury would hear about the 11 basketball players and the eight drops of blood. But this time, David Kam's lawyers had a different strategy and different experts. - What the defense hoped would be, a major turning point in this case, came from here, a most unlikely spot, 10,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains at this DNA lab. - So this is where you tested some of the evidence? - Yes. - Scientists, Richard and Selma Eiklinboom are originally from the Netherlands. - In Holland, we do truth finding. We work for the courts. - As they showed us in this demonstration, their specialty is locating what's called touch DNA using a very sensitive technique to find skin cells. And this time, they found DNA that would change everything. - So you found Bonet's DNA on all the victims? - Correct. - All over that crime scene. - Correct. - What does that tell you? - That he was active on this crime scene. - But Bonet says if his DNA is spread over the crime scene, David Kam put it there. - David Kam and I shook hands, for example. - Your DNA ended up all over that scene because you shook hands with David Kam. - Once again, my DNA is not all over the scene. - But the Eiklinboom say their tests show Bonet's DNA on Jill's shirt, Bradley's shirt, Kim's shirt, and her underwear. And they say they also found Bonet's DNA under Kim's fingernails. What's more, they insist the state police lab could have found it years ago if the technicians had looked more closely. And according to the Eiklinboom's, that DNA is proof that Kim fought with Bonet. - If I single you before you select, we do this one. - Yeah. - But this is a very logical reaction. I do this. - Exactly. - That's what you think happened. That's how my DNA got under her fingernails. There actually was DNA that they found of yours under her fingernails. And that really raises the question, how did that happen? - Well, I heard opposite. I heard that there was not any DNA under the fingernail. - No, there was DNA under the fingernail. - Why I heard that there was not? - I'm telling you that there was. And so, I mean, that's, doesn't that raise a question? If you were me, wouldn't you think that that was pretty damning evidence? - It does raise a question. - The touch DNA could be devastating to the prosecution, but Levko argues the touch DNA tests are unreliable because some of the evidence was previously contaminated. - We had a DNA expert that said that these are the most unreliable results she's seen in 25 years. - Your results were reviewed? Yeah. And the interesting part was that they were not able to find one mistake or something wrong with the whole camcase. - This is the first time any jury in the camcase will consider this kind of evidence. And there will be another first, Charles Bonet, who has already been convicted of these murders, will testify for the prosecution. This jury would hear and see Charles Bonet, and so would David Cam. - We locked eyes and he went, he started going, "It's looking at me." Checking his head like that. I took that to mean something very specific. I took that as him saying, "That's right. I killed your wife. I killed your kids." And now I'm getting ready to take you down. - Well, I honestly don't remember all of my exact thoughts, but I can assure you they weren't good. - Sitting there in the courtroom, I want to hurt him. Did you want to hurt him or did you want to kill him? - 13 years ago, I had taken him out. I stayed seated. I was spinning inside, but I stayed seated. - Bonet was smooth, calm, and confident on the stand, as he told the jury all he did was provide David Cam with the gun. - But the jury was not allowed to hear details about Bonet's violent criminal past about his foot fetish, or that he was known as the shoe bandit. - It just blew my mind when we weren't able to show the other side, where he got to pick and choose what felonies he wanted to talk about. - With his record of attacking women and his foot fetish, the defense has long argued that Bonet, targeted Kim, followed her home, assaulted her, then murdered the family to conceal his crime. - One of our goals from the very beginning was to try and explain to the jury how events unfolded in the garage. - But the prosecutors were fighting to focus the jury on the blood because they argue nothing else really matters, that the only way those stains could have ended up on Cam's shirt is if he was the shooter. - Prosecution detective Roger Drew. - If you're standing where the shooter is now, Jill is in the backseat, the shooter fires, and how does the blood end up? - This area right here would have been exposed. - The defense brought in crime reconstructionist Eugene Lissio, who prepared a 3D demonstration to show how that is not possible. - If Jill's here, what's stopping the blood? - The actual vehicle itself. I believe those blood stains came from transfer. - It was a lot for the jury to consider. Eight weeks of experts battling experts and witnesses contradicting each other, they deliberated 10 hours. And then they delivered the words David Cam had waited 13 years to hear, not guilty. - The beginning of not with the end, that was extraordinary. - The truth is going to prevail, but I had to hear three knots. - You know, the first knot wasn't in and of itself sufficient. - I will, I cried, I bent over, I stood up, I may have praised God. - God, I'd think the jury over and over and over again. - So what I heard, not guilty, I am not God. I hear that right, what made this jury believe he's not guilty. - And that was the question everybody was asking. - I honestly believe that there wasn't one person that sat on that jury that won't remember this case for as long as we live. - You feel good about what you did? - Yes. - Yeah, we all did. - Good afternoon. - There's an Indiana DOC handbook. - In the weeks after David Cam was finally acquitted of killing his family. - Hey, would you agree, man? - He began exercising remnants of his 13 year nightmare by burning them, including his old prison uniform. His family taped it with our camera. - Did you watch them burn? - I did. - And you thought what? - Good riddance, it's over, it's gone, it was therapeutic. You're smiling a lot more than you ever have in the time that I've known you. - I told you Richard, it's hard not to smile. - It just really is, I'm just so thankful. - I'm so thankful. - I'm here, I'm here. - After three trials, 12 jurors finally saw things cams away. We spoke to one juror who asked that we not use her name. - It felt so badly for him. I mean, here's a man who has been persecuted for 13 years for a crime. I don't believe he committed any assaults. - So you said persecuted? - Persecuted. - Are you meant to say persecuted? - Yes, I'm meant to say persecuted. - In this juror's mind, the state's case fell apart almost as soon as it began. - I was put off by the third witness. - She's talking about the state police crime scene investigator. - He stated that this looked like a cam crime scene before he ever stepped foot into the garage. - He all felt that he definitely was looking for evidence to support the conclusion he'd already come to. And that's not the way you should investigate a case. - That's just what cams lawyers argue. They said all the state's investigators ignored evidence that showed cam is innocent, especially when Charles Bonet entered the picture. - Defense attorney Stacy Ulyana. - When they got him in that interrogation room, they didn't say, "For your violent convicted felon whose attacks women, you did this, tell us what happened." They said, "Well, it's better to be a witness than actually a defendant. Tell us what you saw. Give us David cam. Tell us the connection. We don't think you shot anyone. They're not searching for a murderer. They're searching for evidence that David did it. - Of course, Bonet is now the only man convicted in these murders, and he defends the state's case against David cam. - And here's the thing, Mr. Slesinger, in all fairness. 24 jurors found him guilty, Mr. cam guilty. They heard the same evidence, and they believed that it was possible. - But the jurors in those other two cases never heard from Charles Bonet. In this case, the jury came face to face with him. - It's a really smart liar all the time to get out of jail and be free. And to put Dave cam into jail in his place. - And Indiana jurors are allowed to ask questions of the witnesses. - One of the questions that I asked in court was what was Dave cam wearing the night that this happened? And he gave me the wrong answer. - What did he say? - Long pants and a T-shirt. He didn't have long pants on. He had basketball shorts on. - What did people say about Charles Bonet? - How scary he was. Very scary individual. - These jurors heard the same arguments the other two jurors did. - Did the 12 of you discuss those eight spots of blood a lot? - No. - She says the blood was not nearly as important as the basketball players. - You saw him who would swear that you saw him during that warm up time. - The main reason that we all came together to acquit him was because of the ball players. - Couldn't he have slipped out, undetected, gone and killed his family and come back? It's not that far. It doesn't take that long. It was five minutes either way and so there's ten minutes right there. The thing that we all agreed on was that you can't be in two places at one time and we believed he was playing basketball and did not leave. - Case closed. - Case closed. - And that is precisely what three teams of defense lawyers have spent 13 years trying to get across. - Very often have no idea of what you're doing is right, wrong and to have somebody say, "Yeah, you guys actually got it right." It's really quite touching. - You wiped away it here. - This really means something to you. - Throughout all three trials, the faces and the memories of three innocent victims, Kim, Brad and Jill Kam were on the minds of everyone. David Kam's family and Kim's parents, Frank and Janice Ren, who still believe to this day that David Kam is guilty. - I can't imagine what they'd be like today if they was alive. It'd barely be 20 and Jill'd be 18. I just remember it as, you know, five and seven-year-old kids. - Tell me some of your favorite memories of Kim and of Brad and Jill. Kim was the best thing that ever happened to me. She had extraordinary love for me. And I know Kim knew that I loved her. You must replay scenes in your mind of happy moments with these kids. Can you tell me some of those? - I respect your position and the fact that you would want to ask that question, but it's all like, and I don't really want to share. - You don't want to share the memories? - They're mine. They've taken everything else from me. And I'm holding those for myself.

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. David Camm was convicted twice for the murder of his wife and two children, despite maintaining his innocence and having an alibi supported by 11 basketball teammates.
  2. The case shifted when DNA and a palm print from a sweatshirt at the crime scene were linked to Charles Boney, a convicted felon with a violent history, who became a new suspect.
  3. Prosecutorial misconduct, including withholding evidence and presenting unproven allegations of child molestation, led to both of Camm's convictions being overturned on appeal.
  4. After three trials spanning 13 years, Camm was finally acquitted in 2013 when the focus turned to Boney's involvement, revealing flaws in the initial investigation and legal process.

Summary:

The case involves David Camm, who was accused of murdering his wife and two children in 2000. Despite an alibi placing him at a basketball game with 11 witnesses, he was convicted twice based on questionable blood evidence and prosecutorial tactics that included introducing unproven claims of child molestation. The discovery of DNA and a palm print on a sweatshirt at the crime scene eventually implicated Charles Boney, a violent ex-convict.

Investigations revealed that prosecutors had initially overlooked this evidence. Both of Camm's convictions were overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct and insufficient evidence. After a third trial in 2013, which focused more on Boney's role, Camm was acquitted, highlighting significant failures in the justice system.

Boney was separately convicted for the murders, while Camm's ordeal exposed issues with rushed investigations and ethical breaches in the legal process.

FAQs

David Cam claimed he was playing basketball at a church gymnasium with 11 other people, providing multiple eyewitnesses who confirmed his presence.

A sweatshirt found at the scene contained Charles Bonet's DNA and his nickname 'Backbone,' along with a palm print on the family's SUV that matched him.

Appeals courts overturned the convictions due to prosecutorial misconduct, including introducing unproven affairs and an unsubstantiated molestation theory about his daughter.

Prosecutors suggested Cam had affairs and financial stress as motives, and later implied unproven molestation of his daughter, though he was never charged with it.

Critics argued the investigation was rushed, evidence like the sweatshirt DNA was ignored, and prosecutors withheld or misrepresented key information over years.

Bonet initially denied knowing Cam or being at the scene, but later claimed he sold Cam a gun and witnessed the murders, though his credibility was widely questioned.

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