All language subtitles for True.Crime.Story.It.Couldnt.Happen.Here.S01E10.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb_Eng_sdh

[soft dramatic music]

When I got that call
that Doc's house was on fire,

I mean, it was like
you was dreaming.

♪ ♪

But I watched all of it.

He didn't have a chance.

My world ripped away from me.

My heart was just broken.

And then they said
somebody killed Doc.

It just didn't make no sense.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[soft banjo music]

♪ ♪

That's beautiful.

This is
the Appalachian Riviera.

You know, it's like Italy
or Greece in a way,

just built into the hillside.

We are in McDowell County,
West Virginia.

It's the heart
of coal mining country,

and there was a period in time

where this was
a really thriving community.

Coal was king,
and they had all these

historic downtown areas
that were bustling.

Iaeger, the town we're going to
in McDowell County,

in 2019, was clocked in
with a population of 264,

so this is hands-down

the smallest town
we've been to.

♪ ♪

My family always
has been raised here

in the town of Iaeger.

A lot of the families
grow up here and stay here,

because whether you're
blood-related or not,

we consider everybody family.

In McDowell County,
no matter where you go,

people will just come up
and say, "Hey, how are you?"

"Who are you?"
if they don't know you,

and pretty much become
your friend right there.

We work hard.
We take care of each other.

We are fighters.

Just because
they took the coal away

does not mean we're done
and we're finished.

We are fighting hard
to come back,

uh, with even better things.

♪ ♪

Hot dog,
it's like a time capsule.

You can tell
exactly when the industry

and the businesses
and the livelihood

of this town dried up.

Montgomery Ward
is a relic from my childhood,

and it's just sitting here like
they closed up shop one day

and never came back.

[train horn blaring]

In 2005,
there was a tragic housefire

here in Iaeger, West Virginia,

that would leave
this community fighting

and looking for justice
for years.

[tense music]

[line trilling]

Dr. Whitley's clinic was
right next door to his house.

Clinic staff,
they went rushing over there

and saw that there was a fire.

The firefighters
went in the house

and saw that there was a fire
in the living room.

[projector clicks]

Couch was on fire,

and there was burning debris
coming from the ceiling,

and there was
a tremendous amount

of smoke and heat.

They ran up the steps
and found Dr. Whitley

there in the bedroom.

♪ ♪

When I got that call
Tuesday morning

that Doc's house was on fire,

my first thought was,
"Doc was smoking in bed

and caught the bed on fire."

I get over there,
and the only thing I know

is to get in the house
and get Doc.

Well, I got to the top
of the landing

and seen him laying there.

The fire chief tell me,

"There's nothing more
you can do.

Doc has passed."

♪ ♪

And when they
brought him out...

gosh, it hurt so bad watchin'.

[sniffles]

♪ ♪

When I first met Doc,
I was probably four or five.

He was my doctor all my life,

and he had really inspired me
to be a nurse.

He seen the potential in me.

I was Doctor's nurse
for 25 years.

To lose him was just like
losing my daddy or my mom.

♪ ♪

Our two fire investigators
in the fire marshal's office

were Robbie Bailey,
a very young fella,

and Tony Domingo.

They began their investigation
that day.

[camera shutter clicking]

The bedroom scene
was suspicious

because Dr. Whitley
could not walk

very well on his own.

He had had a fall
several years earlier

and had to have help
getting around

through a motorized chair.

They noticed
that the motorized chair

had been pushed several feet
away from the bed.

Dr. Whitley is on the floor.

It appeared
he had been attempting

to crawl out of the bedroom
to escape the fire.

[camera shutter clicks]

There had been
an intense fire.

The bed had been destroyed.

There was a hole
on the bedroom floor

through which you can see
the living room.

The fire had burned
completely through

this hardwood bedroom floor.

The fire investigators believe
that someone had set the fire,

pouring a flammable liquid
or accelerant

onto the bedroom floor.

They collected
multiple samples

to send to the State Police
Forensic Laboratory.

You have a fire
in the bedroom floor upstairs,

and then downstairs
in the living room,

you have a couch on fire,

so it did appear
that there were

two separate fires

with separate causes
of ignition.

The law enforcement officers
felt like those circumstances

indicated there had been
some foul play,

so it wasn't
just an accidental fire.

Under our felony murder rule,

if someone dies during
a deliberately set fire,

it's first-degree murder.

Who would kill Doctor?

I couldn't think of anybody
that would want Doc dead.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Everybody in this county
knew who Doc Whitley was.

He took care of people

whether they had any money
to pay him or not.

He took care of 'em.

Doc Whitley was really,
really something special.

Doc and Kathy Lively,
his nurse,

took care of me
and my family really well.

When I got a phone call
that Doc had passed

and burnt up in a fire,

I was just sho--shocked.

♪ ♪

We are going
to meet Sid Bell,

and he was the prosecutor
for McDowell County

in 2005 when the fire
at Doc Whitley's house

took place.

This is new for me

because we have reached out
to prosecutors' offices

in pretty much all
of our cases,

and they usually do not want
to talk with us,

but Sid agreed.

♪ ♪

Mr. Bell?
- Yes.

Hi. How are you?

Thank you so much
for your time.

Okay.

Obviously, in a small town,

when something
traumatic happens,

everybody knows about it
pretty quickly.

In this case,
the victim, Doc Whitley,

was that someone that you knew?
- Yes.

So when you heard
about his passing,

how did that impact you
personally?

Well, I was shocked,
of course,

because they told me
that they suspected arson.

I don't know of anybody
who ever physically threatened

or did anything
to harm Dr. Whitley,

but he had political enemies
in the county.

He was involved in politics.

He was in
the House of Delegates.

At one time, he was president

of the McDowell
County Commission.

Doc had power
in McDowell County,

in the state.

He ran it.

If you wanted to run
for any office

in the state of West Virginia,
you came to Doc.

If you didn't get
Doc's approval

'fore you ran,
you wouldn't win.

♪ ♪

His idea of campaigning

would be to first talk
to his patients

who came in and out
by the dozens every day.

They would say, "Doc,
who do you want us to vote for?

Whose signs should we put up?"

That's the way he ran
his political influence.

When you're involved
in politics,

you're gonna make enemies.

There's some would probably
like to see him dead,

but after his injury where he
was in the wheelchair,

Doc had lost a lot
of his political powers.

He didn't go to a lot
of meetings like he used to.

♪ ♪

They voted him out
of being president

of the committee.

It's kind of hard
on Doc's ego.

♪ ♪

So were any of his political
affiliations explored?

Did anybody dig into that part
of his background?

I'm sure
they considered that.

There was a lot of talk
about his enemies,

but I think the fact that he
had been out of the picture

for almost a decade
eliminated those

from my standpoint.

I thought it probably
would have been someone

who was mad at him
over some personal matter,

rather than a political matter.
- Mm-hmm.

Well, what was going on
with his personal life?

We found out in the course
of the investigation

that Dr. Whitley,
in recent years,

had been living at his
Coon Branch Mountain home,

which was several miles away,
with his wife, Sue Whitley.

They didn't live
in downtown Iaeger?

No, no one was living
in his two-story house

down beside the clinic.

It was just sitting there, vacant.

So when Dr. Whitley
was with his wife

on Coon Branch Mountain,
his son Jack came in

and believed that she was
not taking care of his dad.

His bowels were impacted...
- Oh, no.

And his health
was being neglected,

so Dr. Whitley decided to move
to Kathy Lively's house

so he would be
better taken care of.

♪

Is Kathy someone
that you are familiar with?

I'd known Kathy a long time.

We all liked Kathy,
and she was really

highly thought of as a nurse.

And Doc Whitley
trusted her enough to move

from his wife's house
into her home.

Right, but when his sons
came in to check on him

at Kathy's house,
they saw a bunch

of possessions there
that they thought

were too expensive
for the nurse

to be able to afford.

They got the idea that she
was taking financial advantage

of Dr. Whitley.
- Oh.

His children said
I was taking advantage

over his accounts.

They said I--my home
looked like a mansion.

I worked all my life
for what I had,

and my home was just like
a regular, you know,

anybody else's house.

Nothing fancy.

♪ ♪

There were suspicions
that Dr. Whitley

was no longer running
the clinic,

and that Kathy, as an LPN,

was issuing prescriptions
for narcotics.

Dr. Whitley decided
to take the keys

to the clinic
away from Ms. Lively,

stop her access
to bank accounts...

- Wow.
- Basically cut her off...

Yeah.

From any involvement
with the medical clinic,

and she became very angry
about that.

At his home,
the evening before the fire,

they argued,

and Kathy Lively
made the statement

to Dr. Whitley,
"I will kill you."

♪ ♪

The night before the fire,

there was a patient
that needed a prescription.

Well, that was
the wrong milligram

that she was taking,
so I took the patient's file

over to Doc's house,
and I was telling Doc,

"You're not giving her
the right milligram."

And we started arguing,
and I said,

"One day, I'm gonna kill you."

♪

We argued all the time.

That was natural between us.

I wasn't threaten' Doctor.

People gets mad and just says,
"I'm gonna kill you."

I didn't know Doctor

was gonna be dead
the next morning.

[soft guitar music]

♪ ♪

How quickly
would you say investigators

really focused on Kathy?

I would say
within the first few days.

Mm-hmm.

We find out
that Kathy Lively

said, "I will kill you"
to Dr. Whitley.

Everything was pointing
towards Kathy.

They brought me up
to the sheriff's office.

They questioned me.

They thought
I had killed Doctor

because he fired me,
and I'm like,

"Am I really hearing this?"

I hadn't been fired.
No truth in none of that.

And then they said that
I was writing prescriptions

for controlled substance,
but that was wrong.

Doctor agreed to everything

that I called in or wrote.

He signed off
on everything I did.

Can you walk us through what
their theory of the case was?

Law enforcement's theory
was that Jason Lively,

Kathy Lively's son,
had gone into the house

to intimidate or terrorize
or try to convince

Doctor Whitley to change
the decisions he had made

to cut Kathy off completely
from the operation

of the clinic,
and that Jason Lively

had started that fire,
and the fire

caused Dr. Whitley's death.

[soft dramatic music]

They accused me
of writing prescriptions

for me and Jason.

They said,
"Jason killed Doctor

"because he was using
prescription drugs

or selling 'em."

But if Doc was dead,

nobody can write
a prescription.

It just didn't make no sense,
none of it.

♪

I started working for Doc

when Jason was 15 months old.

Jason was around Doc
his whole life

as a doctor, friend.

Because Jason
excelled in sports,

in wrestling, weightlifting,

Doc would tell him what to eat
and give him advice,

tell him
when he was messing up.

Doctor and Jason was close.

♪ ♪

Can you tell me a little bit
about what Jason's reputation

in this small town was?

He had a reputation
for being very bold,

and that he was involved
with drug use.

♪ ♪

After his wrestling injury,

he started taking pills.

That was kind of hard on me
to get him straightened out

and back on track,

but at the time
of Doctor's death,

he got a job in the coal mines,

a steady job,
and that was hard to come by

in McDowell County
at that time.

♪

A local person,
Brian Salyers, said that

early the morning of the fire,
he had picked up Jason Lively

and his friend Tommy Owens,

and they wanted
to be dropped off

at Dr. Whitley's house,

and then they learned
that Jason Lively

went up to Sue Whitley's home
on the mountain

the day of the fire
to tell her

that Dr. Whitley
was found dead,

and while there, he stole
Dr. Whitley's laptop computer

and went out
trying to sell it that day.

- Sounds really bad.
- Yes.

♪

♪ ♪

Jason Lively and Tommy Owens
wanted separate trials,

which was granted.

Jason Lively was tried first.

♪

And so what is the narrative
that you presented at trial?

We decided to use evidence
about the argument

with Kathy the night before,

and then Jason Lively
stealing the computer.

We also have
what Brian Salyers told us

about dropping him off
at Dr. Whitley's house

that morning, put together
with the state fire marshal's

opinion and report
added up to felony murder.

And so when you started
calling witnesses,

Brian Salyers is someone
that you called in?

Yes, but Brian Salyers said
that his statement was false,

that he was coerced
into making this statement

about dropping Jason Lively
and Tommy Owens off

at Dr. Whitley's house
that morning.

He said that didn't happen.

So one of your star witnesses
gets on the stand

and completely changes
their story?

Yes.

Does it make you,
as the prosecutor,

second-guess your case?

I didn't have a reason
to doubt this case

because of everything else
that supported

what Brian Salyers
had said initially.

♪ ♪

The law accused Jason
of going up on the mountain

the day Doc died
and said

Jason stole the laptop
from the Coon Branch house,

but Jason didn't steal it.

♪ ♪

While Doctor was staying
at my house,

he said to Jason,
"You can take that laptop."

Jason is not computer savvy,

so he was just gonna sell it.

I think maybe two
or three days before Doc died,

Jason asked somebody
did they want to buy it.

♪ ♪

After you've laid out
your case,

what did Jason's
defense lawyers

present to the court?

The defense argued
you really couldn't rule out

an accidental cause
of the fire

and that there's
a good possibility

Whitley could have
started the fire himself

because he smoked in bed.

The bed is heavily damaged
in the fire,

but the experts concluded
that could not have been caused

from a cigarette.

So the theory
of it being an accident

that Doc started himself
was ruled out?

Yes.

And I relied on
the state fire marshal's report

from Robbie Bailey
and Tony Domingo

that this was
a deliberately set fire.

♪ ♪

Robbie Bailey believed
there were two separate fires

that had been set,
which would not be consistent

with an accidental fire.
- Mm-hmm.

In addition,
the report indicated

that the sample
from the bedroom floor

showed the presence
of the chemical toluene,

an accelerant.

They said
this was commonly found

in charcoal lighter fluid
or gasoline.

♪ ♪

- It's very damning.
- It is.

♪ ♪

The night
before the verdict,

Jason said,
"Mom, if I get convicted,

don't cry."

And when they come back
with that verdict,

guilty, Jason turned around
and looked at me,

and I had to stand there
and do what he said.

♪ ♪

[sighs shakily]

My heart just ripped out.

Jason is convicted
of first-degree murder,

which means
it's a life sentence.

♪ ♪

So how did you feel
securing that victory?

I was very satisfied with it,
very relieved.

♪ ♪

This time, Robbie Bailey
and Tony Domingo

gave contradictory testimony.

Robbie Bailey testified

that there were
two separate fires...

Okay.

One of them in the bedroom,

and one in the living room.

Mr. Domingo said, "I believe
there was only one fire,

"that the fire
in the bedroom floor,

"the ceiling,
had caused burning debris

to fall down
and catch the couch on fire."

Is that a major contradiction

between your
fire investigators?

It was, because I was going
under the belief

that they both thought
there were two separate fires.

So Tommy's trial takes place

after you've already secured
a guilty verdict for Jason.

What does the jury
come back on with Tommy?

He was found not guilty.

Did that plant a seed
of doubt with you?

It worried me a lot.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I met Jason at high school.

Fast forward to 2005,
and Jason had been arrested

for Doc's murder.

What I knew was Jason
was convicted,

and Tommy wasn't.

I never knew why, you know,

one was guilty and one wasn't.

I just felt for Jason.

You know, I'm thinking,
"How is he doing?"

And I just wrote him.

He wrote right back.

He seemed so sweet and nice.

He started calling,
and then he started

sending me transcripts
of his trial,

and I'm seeing this evidence
in Jason's favor,

and I knew instantly then

there was no way
Jason did that.

There was no way.

♪ ♪

Jason is serving out
his prison sentence.

Do you just put this case
behind you at this point

and move on?
- Yes.

But the last thing
that a good prosecutor

should want is to have someone
wrongfully convicted.

I had heard
of the Todd Willingham case

in Texas.

He was convicted
of setting a fire

that caused the death
of his young children.

He said that he was innocent
all along,

and a group
of nationally recognized

fire investigation experts
all concluded

that there wasn't any evidence
that it was a set fire.

♪ ♪

That case caused me
to be really concerned

about what really happened
in the Jason Lively case,

about what really started
that fire,

so I decided to try to find
one of those experts.

♪ ♪

We have covered
a number of cases

where people have been
wrongfully convicted,

and the prosecutor's office refuses

to look deeper into the case.

Why did you feel comfortable
reexamining your own work?

Prosecutor's job
is not just to win a case

or get a conviction.

I always believed
I wouldn't go wrong

by doing the right thing,

and as soon
as I got the report,

I recognized it was favorable
to Jason Lively.

Can you walk me
through the report?

He debunked the notion

that there were two points
of origin.

He said the fire definitely
started inside the floor

between the bedroom floor
and the living room ceiling,

then spread up
to set the bed on fire.

The burning debris fell
to the lower floor,

set the couch on fire,

so he was strongly
of the opinion

that there was only one fire.

Only one point of origin
for this fire?

Yes.

♪ ♪

And it couldn't
have even been

someone pouring something
on the floor upstairs.

It had to start in-between
the ceiling and the floor.

In-between.

He believed
it was an accidental fire

caused by an electrical box
under the bedroom floor.

What made him think
it was electrical in nature?

The fire had smoldered
for several hours,

burning a wide area
of the subfloor

and wooden joists.

Those beams
are completely gone.

It all pointed
to the fire having started

where the electrical wiring
runs through.

♪ ♪

So the original
state fire marshal's report

says that
"this fire was willful

"and malicious in nature,
set in order

to burn the structure
and its contents."

And here you have an expert
that is nationally recognized

saying that it is electrical
in nature

and accidental and that there
was only one point of origin.

So if this report comes back
and says no arson,

what does that mean
for a murder conviction?

If this was not
a deliberately set fire,

then he's not guilty of murder.

I was no longer
the prosecuting attorney

at that point,
so I provided that report

to the defense attorneys
and said, you know,

"You need to look at this.
This is exculpatory evidence."

♪ ♪

The first time I read
Craig Beyler's report,

I'm seeing
all of this information

that's on his side

that nobody
had really talked about.

This man has degrees
from Harvard.

I think one of the people

that investigated
to begin with

had a few weeks' training,
and so I kind of thought,

"Okay, we're gonna break this
wide open,

and he's gonna get out soon."

♪ ♪

It sounded so good.

I was so happy,
I was calling family.

God has answered our prayers.
Jason's coming home.

♪ ♪

I was called as a witness
at the habeas corpus hearing.

I had not been prepared.

I didn't have a copy
of the report.

No one prepped you
before the hearing?

No one talked to me,
and I thought

they would have
Dr. Beyler there,

because I'm not an expert
in fire investigations,

but he wasn't there,
so I testified that,

from my recollection
at the time,

that it probably was
an electric fire,

but it could've been
something else.

My understanding was that

he didn't completely rule out arson.

Sid Bell didn't explain it
the right way.

He misinterpreted
what the report was saying.

♪ ♪

That was all
of his state appeals,

12 years,
thousands of dollars gone,

nobody left to turn to.

Things got ugly.
Things got dark.

Jason was very depressed.
I was very depressed.

Craig Beyler's report
didn't help him come home,

so now what?

[soft guitar music]

♪ ♪

I took a stand for Jason,

and I was kind of scared to
because Jason was a murderer

to everyone.

Everyone in our small town,
they listen to what they hear,

so it was arson,
it was murder.

And I thought,
"How can I get anyone

to believe in his innocence
and help me fight?"

So I went online,
shared a few transcripts,

and talked about his case

to try to get the public
to understand,

you know,
how wrong Jason was done.

The Craig Beyler report
had so much evidence

in Jason's favor.

I started to get feedback
from the public,

and some opinions
were turned around

with what I was posting.

Us working on that together--

Jason's charismatic.

Yeah, I fell in love with him
along the way.

♪ ♪

I did not know
the road ahead of me

and how hard that was gonna be,
but having feelings for him,

it was painful.

If I could've stopped it all,
I would've,

but...

it just happened.

♪

Jason's lawyer
said that this is as far

as he could take Jason's case

because now it's gonna go
into the federal court.

He said that we would have
to get another attorney,

which would be at least
another 50,000 to start.

♪

And we didn't have
any more money

for attorneys.

The other option
was the Innocence Project.

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Jason had been in prison
more than a decade.

What struck me
was just how adamant he was

that he didn't do this.

He was also grateful
that someone

was finally listening.

When we got
the original habeas report

and when we saw
the former prosecutor

Sid Bell's false testimony
about the Beyler report,

we knew something wrong
had happened here.

Dr. Beyler's report showed

it's not murder
because it wasn't arson.

Dr. Beyler hadn't spoken
with anybody

about this case since 2012,
and when we read him

what had been said
at the hearing,

he was horrified.

He said,
"I can't believe this.

There's a person
in prison right now?"

Trying to correct
this terrible mistake

began with us reaching out
to Sid Bell,

so we drove out
to West Virginia,

and Dr. Beyler met us there.

♪ ♪

This was incredibly awkward

because we had seen
the transcript

where Sid Bell had misstated
what Dr. Beyler had told him,

and we assumed that
that was intentional,

that Sid Bell was preserving
what he should have known

was a wrongful conviction.

We thought that he was
the villain of this story.

♪ ♪

So this big meeting happens.

Was that your first time
meeting Beyler in-person?

In-person, yes.

Dr. Beyler explained
that he is very strongly

of the opinion
that this was not arson

and that Lively's conviction
should be set aside

because it wasn't
a deliberately set fire

by a human being.
- Wasn't a murder.

So how did you feel finding out
that there was no murder,

that an innocent man
was in prison,

and that you were a part of it?

It's disturbing.

I mean, you stay awake at night

thinking about things
like that.

When they came to meet with me,

I'm sure they thought
I might have the attitude,

"This is my conviction,
and I want it upheld."

But I acknowledged
that we were wrong.

It was one of
the most incredible moments

of my career,
and he wrote an affidavit

that I don't think
I'll ever see again.

He admitted he had made
a terrible mistake.

♪ ♪

We provided
Sid Bell's affidavit

to the solicitor general's
office in West Virginia.

♪ ♪

Dr. Glen Jackson
agrees 100% with Dr. Beyler

that this was accidental.

He also adds
additional findings.

The finding about the toluene

had been a false assumption
all along.

The sample that was found
at the fire scene

could not have come
from gasoline,

and it could not have come
from charcoal starter fluid.

However, if you burn wood,
that creates toluene.

Sid Bell admitted
that that testimony

that he had put on
had been false.

♪

[soft music]

♪ ♪

We waited and waited
and waited.

There was no timeline.

It's very lonely,
very heartbreaking.

They kept him there
years and years.

It's like kidnapping,
and he had to defend himself

physically
on multiple occasions

from some truly vicious people.

The Aryan Brotherhood
had a hit out to kill him

because he refused to join.

They always wanted Jason
to have a tattoo,

to put their mark on him,
and he never would,

so they put a hit on him
to take his life,

and there had been

other prisoners in there murdered.

♪ ♪

And so Jason spent
the majority of his time

in prison
in solitary confinement.

♪ ♪

It's absolutely torture,
what he went through,

especially after the state
had developed evidence

showing he was innocent.

♪ ♪

"Dear Emily, the time to act
to stop this injustice is now.

"We have had knowledge of this

"compelling
exculpatory evidence

"for two years.

"Further delay
based on our failure to act

would be immoral
and unethical."

♪ ♪

And so the court
schedules a hearing.

The lead-up to that hearing
is excruciating.

It was very uncertain
what would happen.

♪ ♪

[soft dramatic music]

♪ ♪

I could've got out right then,

but I'd've had to walk out
and say that I did it.

After you do 14 years

and you're in
solitary confinement,

and somebody telling you
that you can leave right now

and be with your wife
and the ones

you been dying to be with
for years...

but you ain't gonna have
no future,

and you gon' have to admit
that you're wrong

and say that I was guilty
of murder.

All that time, all that
they took away from me

being for nothing.

I turned 'em down.

♪

[knock on door]

- Hey, hello.
- Hi, Jason!

How you doing?
Come on in.

How are you, boss?
Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you, ma'am.
- Hi, Billie.

- Hey, nice to meet you.
- I'm so happy to meet you.

Can you tell me about this?

This is my cell
in Mount Olive.

This is where I stayed in.

That right there,
that's 11 years right there.

You spent 11 years
in this room?

11 [bleep] years
in that right there.

♪ ♪

So September of 2020,
you have been in prison

since 2005?
- Yeah.

And you get called
into this hearing

with your lawyer Andrew George.

This is what kind of hearing?

For the judge to say if Jason
could come home or not.

- To get me out.
- To vacate the sentence?

To vacate my sentence, yeah.

And Andrew told me,
"I don't know

if Jason's coming home or not."
- Uh-huh.

We were asking a judge
to do something extraordinary

at this hearing,

which was to throw out
a conviction.

We didn't know whether or not
the judge would do that.

♪ ♪

I was told to pick Jason
some clothes out.

Had 'em packed in a bag,

and we had no idea
what to expect.

♪ ♪

Jason comes in
in his full prison outfit,

and the judge started
with the findings

that led to Jason's conviction.

It didn't look
so great for us.

♪

I was just trying
to stay focused,

and the whole time,
when he's talking,

I can't...

[sobs softly]

I can't make out
what he's saying,

and it's all going so fast.

Then the judge
went into the new findings

of Dr. Beyler
and the state expert.

He said that,
in light of this new evidence,

no jury
could have convicted you.

There was no arson here.

He affirmatively found
that Jason was innocent.

♪ ♪

And I asked him
if I could go home.

[sniffles]

♪ ♪

He told me I could.

♪ ♪

Hearing the judge
say all these things,

I couldn't process it,

and then I look
and see Jason standing up,

and they're taking
the cuffs off,

and that's when
it all came together.

Like, he's coming home.

♪

I just ran up here
and grabbed him,

and I gave him
the biggest hug and kiss.

That was the first time
I was able to really kiss him

in 15 years.

Oh, that was the best feeling
you could--

I could ever have.

♪

It's like the best feeling
you could ever imagine.

I mean, like, oh, my God,

I just exploded in
a million pieces of happiness.

It was something--
- Who all was there that day?

- Everybody.
- Everybody.

Everybody.
We have a big family.

Everyone showed up.

It's almost like a dream,
you know?

So what are your plans now?

- I'm, uh--today?
- Yes.

I'm gonna go
to, uh, my mom's house

and eat steak.

I thought, when Jason
got released that day,

he was gonna be the same Jason
went in,

but...

he still lives in torture.

You know,
you think being exonerated

and coming home and freedom
and then everything's

gonna be okay after that,
but it's not, you know?

Then you have these demons
pop up and PTSD.

- Yeah.
- I think I'm strong.

I know I am,
and that's why it's hard.

Just working every day
and trying--

♪ ♪

I mean, it's a struggle
just to get out of the house.

♪ ♪

You think you're gonna have
this happy ending,

and then that's where almost
the real work starts.

I have good doctors.

They're trying,
but we can't even afford them.

To have Jason
have a decent life

is to see doctors, counseling,
therapy, medications.

Yeah.

It's hard for us.

♪

The state
has a moral obligation

to make him whole
as best as it can.

Jason and Billie
have now gotten married,

and that's wonderful,

but they have to make
ends meet,

So we have petitioned
for Jason for compensation

under a West Virginia statute
that expressly provides

for paying damages to
wrongfully convicted people.

Unfortunately, the state
is moving to dismiss it,

but we're not gonna go away.

We're gonna take this
as far as we possibly can.

They have admitted
that they incarcerated

an innocent man.

What is the cost of 15 years
of a person's life?

There's not a number
you could put

on what they took from Jason
to pay him back

to fix what they did to him.

The state
ain't done nothing for me.

- Mm-hmm.
- You know what I mean?

Nothing.
- Yeah.

They haven't even said
I'm sorry,

and if it weren't
for my family and her...

Yeah.

Well, I couldn't
have made it.

♪ ♪

[dog barking]

[somber music]

♪

Oh, wow.

It's just like he left it
the night before he died.

♪ ♪

It's like the house is
a metaphor for the situation.

You know, this fire
happened in 2005,

and it is still sitting here,
a burnt out shell.

It's eerie because two people
lost their lives here.

Doc Whitley died
in this building,

but Jason Lively's life

was ruined by the fire
that happened here

because mistake after mistake
was made,

and when all these mistakes
add up,

what we're left with
are shambles.

Who's gonna fix it?

Who's gonna put this
back together?

Who's gonna make it right

for Jason Lively
and his family?

♪ ♪