Original subtitles

- Hello, Miss Deborah. - Hi!

Good to see you!

Hi Joshua!

- You knew we were coming, didn't you?

- My name is Deborah Peagler, and I was convicted of

first degree murder, sentenced to 25 years to life.

- We have bad news and we have good news.

Nadia Costa and I began representing Deborah Peagler

shortly after California became the first state in the

nation to adopt a law, specifically designed to

help incarcerated survivors of

domestic violence win their freedom.

It's a huge problem, a national problem, probably an

international problem and this law is just the first step.

Debbie was connected to the murder of the man that abused

her, but the evidence of that abuse was

never presented to the court.

And if she had been charged appropriately she would have

served a maximum of six years in prison.

Instead by the time we took her case, she had

already been in for 20 years and been denied

release by the parole board twice.

- This isn't a case where Debbie Peagler didn't have

anything to do with the crime, but when you look at all the

facts and circumstances surrounding what occurred,

any reasonable court, any reasonable parole board

and any reasonable person, would conclude that she has

served enough time and she should be released from prison.

♪ Jesus can work it out ♪

♪ If you let him ♪

♪ Jesus can work it out ♪

♪ That habit that I had I had ♪

♪ I just couldn't seem to break. ♪

♪ To break ♪

♪ I prayed and I prayed I prayed ♪

♪ Lord don't let it be too late. ♪

♪ Too late ♪

♪ Then I turned it over to Jesus ♪

♪ Jesus ♪

♪ And I stopped worryin' about it ♪

♪ About it ♪

♪ I stopped worryin' about it ♪

♪ About it ♪

♪ I stopped worryin' about it ♪

♪ About it ♪

♪ I gave it over to the Lord and He worked it out ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

Debbie Peagler was fifteen when she first met Oliver Wilson.

In fact, her mother introduced her to Oliver.

And y'know at first he came across as

very charismatic and quite charming.

- My mother met Oliver at an ABC market where she used to

do her grocery shopping.

I guess they interacted there.

And she began to really like him.

- He seemed to know that, the way to

my heart is through my children.

And that's how he won me over, by being good to

Debbie at the very beginning,

and accepting my granddaughter like she was his child.

- The day I came home from school,

and he was there playing with my daughter.

And I thought, "He's kinda cute!"

- My brother was one of the most charismatic people ever

to walk this earth, but Oliver was the type of

person, if you said "Tell me something about yourself,"

'bout an hour and a half later you would say to him,

"Hold that thought, I'll be right back," because he would

still be talking about himself.

He used to model clothes because he was tall and slender.

And I don't think he ever knew when

he was not on the walkway.

- As we spent time around each other and talked to each

other, he was easy to talk to, and I saw that he really

took to my daughter, that was a big thing with me.

- He used to buy me a lot of things, designer clothes,

toys, anything a little kid could wish for, I had.

- His mother would cook big, big meals.

And I would go over and help her prepare the meals

and interact with her and I began to

adopt his family as mine, because mine was so dysfunctional.

If she was being abused or battered, it was a secret.

Because at that point in time,

I was being abused, and it was a secret.

I was molested as a child, by my father and my uncle.

What if that wasn't the example of manhood that he had?

What if he didn't think that was acceptable behavior?

- We'd go out to eat, or he'd take me to the mall,

shopping, and just buy me anything I wanted.

Money was like never an object, never a problem with him.

It never dawned on me that he is not making this money

from working at ABC Market, but I was young and kinda naive

and didn't know anything about it.

Until.

Until one night.

He said I wanna take you somewhere, somewhere special.

I was like "Okay."

I'm thinking it's gonna be a really nice restaurant, or

another concert, because he's taken me to a concert before.

- He was always tryin' to be like me.

I tried pimping.

And I found out that I wasn't made out for pimping.

Because, pimping, you can pimp your momma,

you can pimp your sister, you can pimp your daughter,

you can't have no sympathy towards anybody.

- On the way there he was telling me that he had came

into some financial problems

and he was about to lose his car, and he was having some

money problems and he needed me to help him.

And I was like, "Okay, sure, no problem."

And that was like the end of that conversation.

Who knew, I'm thinking, "Okay, he's gonna

"take me to a job interview and get me a normal job,"

and I can help him like that.

But no, he took me to that place on Prairie and Century,

I'll never forget.

Because there was a donut shop on that corner.

And he introduced me to the two women, and then he left.

And then they told me where to go, what room to take men to,

how long to be in there, what to let the man do and what

not to let him do and how much to charge him, and all

this stuff and I am like freaking out.

"What do you mean?

"I am not going to have sex with that man,

"I don't know that man."

And they said, "Baby, yes you are.

"Yes you are.

"You're gonna make your man some money."

And then he's getting undressed and I'm like on the

bed cryin' like, "I cannot do this.

"I don't wanna do this,

"I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna do this,

"and I can't do this and no."

And the man's like

"Don't you know what is going to

"happen if you don't do this?"

"Nothing's gonna happen."

"No your pimp is going to beat you.

"He's gonna do this."

and he's describing all this horrendous stuff.

And I'm like "No, Oliver would never do that to me.

"No."

Little did I know, yes he would.

And yes he did, because I didn't go through with it.

And when he came back to get me he was like,

"How much money did you make?"

And I was like, "None."

"What do you mean none?"

I said, "I'm not gonna do that.

"I don't wanna do that.

"No, no."

"Okay," like nothing was wrong.

And we went to his mother's house.

Next thing I knew, he hauled off

and slapped the crap outta me.

I just balled up on a floor in a ball.

I'll never forget he was

just kicking me and kicking me and kicking me.

And I was like, "Okay, okay, I promise, I promise, I'll do

"it, I promise, I'll do it next time, I promise, I

"promise, just don't, please please don't hit me no more,

"please don't hit me no more.

"Please just stop hitting me, stop hitting me."

- Oliver continued to abuse and force Debbie

to prostitute herself throughout her

sophomore, junior and senior years of high school.

- And it's amazing that throughout all that I still

maintained my good grades, I still was an honor roll

still was an honor roll student, still loved school.

- She was acting different, you know she wasn't laughing or

being the same Debbie that we'd always known her to be.

Whenever he came around, or she even heard his voice,

she just totally changed.

- Not only was his abuse significant and severe, but

he constrained every other aspect of her life, he

controlled who she saw, who she spoke with,

she couldn't have friends.

- It had got to the point where he had stopped hitting me

with his fists, he would make me lay on the floor or the

couch or whatever, beat me with a bullwhip.

And so I'd have whips all on my body.

He would never, never hit me on my face.

He didn't want to mess up the face because I had to be his

perfect hostess for his friends, but I could easily

where long sleeves or whatever to cover up the bruises.

- Debbie tried to escape Oliver on numerous occasions,

but he kept bringing her back by force or by death threats.

And eventually Debbie ended up

having a daughter with Oliver.

And he eased up on the abuse when he saw that she was

pregnant with his kid, and there was sort of a honeymoon

period that followed, and part of that was he purchased

life insurance, to tell Debbie "If anything happens

"to me, you will still be able to raise my daughter."

But that was short lived.

And Oliver began dealing drugs in

a big way and began using the drugs and Oliver became more

abusive than ever before.

- I know how my child felt, cause I lived in it.

So until you've experienced it you don't know,

until you've walked in my shoes, you don't know.

Until you've walked in her shoes, you don't know.

Until you've gone through the abuse and the humiliation

that they made us feel, you don't know how we feel.

And my heart hurts for my child because I love her.

And I didn't want her to go through

the things I went through with.

And I know how she felt.

- So after Oliver's drug abuse really took off in a big way,

Debbie and Oliver got an eviction notice.

- That was my way out.

And I convinced him, for him to go

to his mother's house and for me to go to my mother's

house, until we could get back on our feet and, be okay.

And then I was, at that point I'm like,

"I am so outta here, I am so not going back."

Because the violence was, it was horrendous at that time.

- Debbie had finally left Oliver and moved her and the

children into her mother's home.

- Oliver shows up with a couple of friends, they're all

heavily armed with shotguns and pistols.

- We were all in the house and you hear the adults screaming

for all the kids to "Get down, get in the closets, lay

"on the floor, don't get up until we come and get you."

You know and finding out, y'know, that it was him and

two of his friends outside of our house with guns

y'know, threatening to kill whoever was in the house.

- And the only reason that didn't happen is cause

someone called the Sheriff's.

- The police did arrest Oliver

and he spent the night in jail, but right after

that he was released and out on the streets.

So she knew that the police were not going to help

her, were not going to protect her family, and that

Oliver was furious because the police had been called.

- Most people of color do not trust law enforcement.

Having her perpetrator arrested, having the perpetrator

released the next day, this was common for many women.

- It seemed as though the police looked at it like,

"It's another black woman getting her ass whupped, by

"her boyfriend, so be it."

It was almost like it was a

waste of their time, I guess you could say.

- Even though I left him, and I was gone, there was no

escaping him, there was no getting away from him.

- I called the law with him and he has a gun,

and they still let him out!

So what was she to think, how was she to

live, but fear for her life?

- Debbie's mother suggested to Debbie she let Ramone Sibley

and Little Timmy Lively make Oliver leave her alone.

- Sibley and Lively were Crips gang members that controlled

the area where Debbie's mom lived, it was their turf.

And when Oliver showed up with a group of

armed guys, threatening to kill everyone in their

neighborhood, that was the last straw.

That wasn't gonna happen on their watch.

- And my mother was like "Why don't you just let, let

"Ramone, Timmy and Ramone, you guys can take care of him.

"Why don't you just take care of him, why don't you make

"him leave her alone, I know you guys could."

- Remain seated at all times.

- The extreme I used to see him go to,

grabbing her, choking her, socking her.

He used to beat on her like she was a guy.

You know?

So two or three times I had to beat on

him like he was a guy.

You know, and just to, one,

to try to protect her, and two, just to show dude that,

this is what you're doing to her.

He thought he was above ghetto law, street law.

That these things you don't do.

And I guess, you know, he thought since

the Constitution say you can do what you want in the

United States he figured he could do whatever the

fuck he wanted and there was no consequences.

- But I didn't want nobody to kill him, but I wanted

somebody to beat the hell out of him.

And I thought maybe if he got his behind whipped he'd go on

about his business and leave my child alone.

- And I was like, "You guys can make him leave me alone?

"Can you make him leave me alone?"

And it was like "Yeah, let us handle it,

"we'll take care of it.

"We'll take care of it."

"Okay."

- So this is the Sheriff's Office Report.

Oliver Wilson was listed as John Doe number 191.

There was dried blood around and coming from the victim's

nose, mouth, and right ear.

They were from the point of view of where

the camera's shooting from now, and they scaled this

fence and they came down, and they crawled down here,

and they attacked Oliver.

And the moment that happened, Debbie left.

And Sibley and Lively continued to strangle Oliver.

There was some discrepancies

from their statements to the police of who did what.

I don't know, obviously, and no one will know

exactly what happened, but what we do know

at that time that Debbie was not here.

She had left, although she did bring Oliver

here and we know that and she has expressed remorse

about that, and has paid her dues for that act.

- And even though I hated him and I was mad at him,

I still didn't want him dead.

I just wanted him to leave me alone.

And that's all I keep saying, 20 years later.

If only he woulda just left me alone.

- After Oliver Wilson was killed, Debbie did receive

about $17,000 in life insurance proceeds,

most of which went to Oliver's mother and to pay

for a very elaborate funeral for Oliver.

And the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office

took this evidence of life insurance as proof that this

was a conspiracy and that Debbie had Oliver

killed for financial gain.

So Debbie was swept up into this prosecution and she was

prosecuted by a group known as Operation Hard Core, which

was this hard core gang task force because there were

Crips gang members involved.

This group had a hundred percent conviction rate

Debbie was charged with first-degree murder by the

District Attorney's Office, and they sought the death

penalty against her.

- They basically came to Debbie and said that

"Unless you plead guilty, we will pursue

"and get the death penalty against you."

And they said the same to Ramone Sibley.

But for Lively, he was a minor at the time.

- Lively was sort of offered a deal, that if he testified

against Debbie and against Ramone, he would be given a

short sentence, if the case ever went to trial, which of

course it didn't go to trial, and Lively in fact went in

and out very quickly and went on to kill other people.

But Debbie and Ramone Sibley took a plea deal

to save their lives ended up going to prison for life.

- And now I sit in prison, wondering was there a better way?

Was there a different way?

Like today I know there is, there's shelters, and people

out there available now.

Where were those people back then?

- In 1983 when Debbie Peagler went to prison, the battered

women's movement was still in its infancy.

There were just starting to be battered women's shelters.

It was the very beginning of having restraining orders.

- Over time with committed activists, they started

bringing victims out of the shadows to share their

stories, and police became educated, and the general

public became educated about this issue.

- After being sentenced and going to prison.

Five years pass, 10 years passed, people started

talking about the Battered Women's Syndrome.

They even started a domestic violence program at

the prison and group therapy.

- They're always talking about the victim

that died in our case but we're a victim too.

- He used to beat me in front of his friends.

Beat me until I was black and blue, and this was

the only way I could ever get away from him.

- And it took me being in prison almost, 15,

17 years before I even realized that I was a battered woman.

And it's so funny that somebody else had to tell me I was.

- When Debbie Peagler was sent to prison, the number of

incarcerated women nationwide was less than 20,000

In the years since, that number has just plain

skyrocketed, so that today there has been a more than

sixfold increase in the number of women in prison,

in less than 30 years.

Many of these women, especially those who are

serving life sentences like Debbie, are incarcerated for

a crime that is directly related to that abuse.

- We need to put ourselves in the position

of that individual, under those circumstances,

faced with the choices they had.

- After decades of advocacy, battered women in prison and

their supporters on the outside were finally

successful in getting this habeas law passed in California.

It's the first law in the nation that allows

domestic violence survivors to present their evidence,

have their stories be heard, and finally have a real

chance at winning their freedom.

- I think it's astounding that California is

the only state that is actually allowing cases

to be reopened, because there are thousands

and thousands of Debbies across the United States.

- Even in California, the state is not providing these women

with attorneys, and so the Habeas Project formed to

connect women with attorneys who

could take on these cases for free.

That's how we found Nadia and Joshua for Debbie

and they have been amazing.

- Y'know, we're volunteer attorneys

in Debbie's case, and besides that, I'm a Dad.

I'm an Orthodox Jew.

And I'm an attorney.

That's my order of preference.

Although, in reality I'm probably an

attorney first and everything else second.

- I'm a mom, of a little boy named Cole, and I was

pregnant with him when I would go to prison to see

Debbie or to see other witnesses like Ramone.

But being a mom is the best thing I'll ever do.

Before I was a lawyer I was a social worker for

children's protective services and basically worked

with families dealing with the kind of violence that

Debbie and her girls suffered.

I'm also a runner.

I'm not fast but I like to go far.

Usually with distances longer than a marathon, what

they call ultra-runs or ultra-marathons.

- Y'know, I've never run a marathon, I don't really

believe in running unless there's like a group of

people chasing me.

But this case is starting to feel like

a marathon, and it's all uphill.

But you know, Debbie keeps us going.

You know, in Judaism we have this prayer, matir ha asurim,

to free those who are bound.

It's one of our core principals that if someone is

wrongfully imprisoned, we have an obligation to fight

to free them, to liberate them.

- When I met Nadia, and we began discussing the violence

I'd been subjected to, and I remember telling her some of

the details of the beatings, and I remember thinking,

"She's looking at me like I'm a human being,

"like she understands.

"She isn't, looking at me in judgment."

And then on one of her visits,

Nadia brought another attorney with her, Joshua.

And she introduced us.

I looked at him and I was thinking to myself,

"Okay, he's Jewish.

This shall be interesting."

Being that I'm a Christian.

But then we sat down and started talking.

At first I was apprehensive, not because of anything else

besides the fact that he was a male.

And to talk about the things that Oliver did to me,

in front of a man was difficult.

But then I watched him and he made eye contact

with me, and his eyes told me that, "It's okay."

- Whenever I talk to Debbie, or I'm getting into Debbie's

mind about why she reacted the way she did to Oliver,

and the way that she would become around him, it's so

familiar, it's so personal to me.

And that's obviously because of my mother's

experience and my experience.

When I was about nine, she met a refugee who was on the run.

My Mom fell for him, and I remember they got

into an argument and they were arguing,

and I was upstairs in my little room.

And I could just feel the anger and intensity

in the room increasing below me until suddenly,

there were bottles being smashed

and he was just beating the hell out of my Mom.

And I remember being this kid and wanting so desperately

to go down and help my Mom, and at the same

time being so afraid that I was gonna be killed.

And then feeling guilty that my fear

for my own safety was trumping helping my mother.

And just feeling the shame and of course total panic and

fear that my mother was gonna be killed.

I feel in a certain sense, in those moments that she and my

mother kind of metaphorically connect.

Debbie's experience is in some way is an

extension of what could have or would have happened,

had my mother and I not escaped.

- Like Joshua I also have experience with abuse.

Unlike Joshua, I have not wanted to speak about this

publicly and I still don't want to share details with it

because of, it being a very private experience for me.

However, it's been important for me to summon

the courage to discuss what I can as part of this film

in order to let people know that abuse doesn't just

happen in South Central LA to young black women.

It happens everywhere.

It happened to me as a child and also as a young adult,

all the time while I was living in affluent communities,

and it was never stopped.

It's one of the reasons that I became involved in Debbie's

case and why we work for her freedom today.

- They don't have to do it.

They're not getting a dime.

And they don't know me.

I was a stranger.

And they're spending so much of their

time and money and efforts to get me out of here.

- Okay, so this is Debbie free.

Where she wants to be, where we want her to be.

And when she gets out of prison she wants to hear the sound

of the Pacific Ocean and that's where we want her to be.

Sadly, she's still here.

She's in prison.

You go to the parole board and you say,

"Hey, I may have done some bad things,

"but I've been a great prisoner since I've been on the

"inside, I'm rehabilitated, I'm ready to rejoin society."

Parole board typically says, "No you're not."

And the D.A.'s Office, the prosecutors who put you in

in the first place, usually chime in and says

"No, they're not, send 'em back."

But even if the parole board finds you suitable, it then

goes to the governor, and the governor nine times outta ten

says "No, send her back to prison."

The other route which is also remote is to go back to

court, the court that sent Debbie to prison in the first

place and say we want to file a habeas petition,

a petition for writ of habeas corpus which says,

something about the way Debbie was put in prison in the

first place wasn't right and she should be released.

So we would file this habeas petition to the court.

Nine time out of ten the court just sends it back and

says, "Nope, you're not getting out."

The D.A. usually chimes in and says "Nope, send 'em back."

So, it's a pretty bleak process to be able to, to get out.

It's pretty impossible

Now, fortunately for Debbie, and for untold number of

women like her, there's a new law that says,

"Hey, if you can provide evidence of

"abuse, of battering, and you can show that that evidence

"of battering is related to the reason you were put in

"prison in the first place, you should be able to present

"that to the court, and the court, for the first time,

"should take you seriously."

The other thing that the new law says is, if you present

that evidence to the parole board, the parole board has

to consider that evidence, side by side with what

they're supposed to be looking at, which is

has Debbie been a model inmate?

And I'm hopeful that through what we've been able to

document, that we should be able to show that she is

suitable for release and that's certainly going to

be bolstered by the footage that you obtained.

- So, here we go, a six person film crew, four cameras,

eight lights, all of this has been

approved to come into the prison.

There's a reason why you don't hear about stories

like Debbie's, the Department of Corrections

in this state and in many states does not allow the

media to film the stories of specific inmates.

Fortunately, Joshua and Nadia have decided that it's

in Debbie's legal interest for her story to be documented,

and so I've been brought in as her legal videographer.

But that's not what's happening today.

Today, we're making a separate documentary

about inmates who rehabilitate themselves

through various programs at the prison, so there's a arts

and crafts program, there's a firefighter training program,

we've even filmed the first ever behind bars bat-mitzvah.

If it happens that Debbie Peagler is involved in some

of the activities we film, so be it.

♪ Some say he is the great one the prophets spoke of ♪

♪ Some even say that he's the man who was the son of God ♪

♪ He the stranger, stranger, stranger from Galilee ♪

♪ Hey the man from Galilee ♪

- As she's there, since she's been there, she's taking a

negative situation and made it into a positive situation.

- She works in an electronics manufacturing company, she's

one of the highest paid employees in the prison system.

- I'm in charge of everything that they build here,

including the PC boards, those kits, all the harnesses,

transformers, everything that they build in here, it's my

job to identify those parts, make sure they're accurate,

they're correct, and that it ships out on its date.

- I met Deborah in prison, I was a heroin addict, in my

addiction, really in it, that's all I knew.

And she used to talk to me and talk to me and talk to me.

She seen something in me, she told me I

would overcome that addiction.

- Dear heavenly father we just come together on this morning

thanking you first of all, waking us up.

Clothing our right mind, Lord.

Father God, we thank you that we have the

activities of our limbs, Father God, that we can use

our hands and our feet.

And we just continue to give you the honor, the glory!

And the praise!

- Today, I'm a drug and alcohol counselor, and I'm about to

get my bachelor's degree, and I owe that to Deborah.

- She's been a church leader for 15 years, she's taken

sign language and actually interprets for the deaf

inmates at the church services.

- Receiving her Associate's Degree, Deborah Peagler.

- I'm very proud of myself, my tenacity, my resilience.

I try to be everyday an example, a mentor.

I am a tutor of a few of the ladies that are getting

ready to take their GEDs, and have taken their GEDs.

So it's one of the things I really enjoy

is helping someone else learn.

- She has a lot of wisdom, not from God only, but I told her

"I wanna to go to school, I can't read and write."

And she's very intelligent,

she is a very smart person, Deborah Peagler is.

- I was able to help her learn to read and write.

Eventually even acquire her GED.

- She told me to go to school, and they'll take care of me.

She told me that God has a plan for my life.

- One more time, "Anointing."

- Another thing Debbie has going for her at least in theory,

for the parole board, are the

sentiments of Oliver Wilson's family.

- I don't believe I'm supposed to identify with her,

somewhere in me, I'm not supposed to accept what has

been done and I'm caught in the catch-22

because maybe I shouldn't even be able to identify with

it, maybe I shouldn't be able to understand it, but I do.

And that's a terrible thing I think, for me to say.

If it were not my brother, if it was

some man that didn't have a face, that didn't really have

a name, but I knew that he was doing these terrible things,

then I would say, put me at the head of the fan club.

I'd fight for you.

I'd do what I could do to get you out.

- Debbie has been up for parole.

That hearing is very biased in favor of the prosecution.

- I went before parole board,

and here I sat, as Oliver's sister.

And in my mind, the closest one to him,

by way of age and growing up together.

I poured my heart out to these people.

And after pouring my heart out, they still said no,

and refused to let Debbie go.

- It seems to me they should have taken the family's

opinion into consideration.

Enough is enough.

She's served a life.

She doesn't have to suffer anymore, as far as I'm concerned.

- She has been denied three separate times.

- I've met parole board battered women's investigators,

and why they can't find out the things that we

find out so easily is a mystery to me.

They have all the powers to go do that and yet they seem to

not see some of the obvious things.

It feels like they're trying to find reasons to

deny it rather than trying to find reasons to

support information that may be readily available.

- So until the parole board acknowledges that she was a

battered woman, she was abused, she's never gonna get out.

- She winds up leaving that parole hearing just in

disbelief, and not knowing where to turn.

- If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you

cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it.

Kindly put it in the something for God to do box, amen.

- Initially, it was always, you know "I hope my Mom is

"doing okay, and I wish she could come home and be with me."

And then, you know, as I got older, it was like well,

"Thank you Jesus that I have her to talk to on the phone."

At least she's there for me in some other way, y'know.

- Despite being behind bars, Debbie has really done

everything in her power to be a good mother to both of her

daughters, her oldest daughter Tikisha, who's currently

serving in the Air Force in the Iraq War, and her

younger daughter Natasha, whose father was Oliver Wilson.

- My relationship with my Mom is very, very, very good.

I think that due to the circumstances,

it's the best that it can be.

- Lord prepare.

♪ Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary ♪

- Pure and holy.

♪ Pure and holy ♪

- Tried and true.

♪ Tried and true ♪

- With thanksgiving.

♪ With thanksgiving ♪

- I'll be a living.

♪ I'll be a living. ♪

- Sanctuary.

♪ Sanctuary for you ♪

- It's hard, because I try to have such

a strong relationship with her.

But you can't.

If I had to compare my Mom's and my Dad's loss,

to figure out which one is harder, it's my Mom.

Because it's a everyday pain you're dealing with.

It's a everyday thing.

It's constant.

It's not something that, "He died.

"Let's grieve, and move on."

It's a grieving process that never ends.

♪ Seek me, and ye shall find ♪

♪ They gonna give you a hard time ♪

♪ Been waiting my whole life ♪

♪ For someone to make it right ♪

- Debbie's case has been almost a full time job

in addition to our regular legal practice.

This is a private law office,

this is not what we normally do.

We do land use and real-estate, development law,

you know, if you come to me I can get you zoned

to be an airport if that's what you want.

But I don't represent inmates, people charged with crimes,

criminals, this is a whole new experience for us.

- Joshua and I were almost paralyzed

at the beginning of this case.

How do you go about finding hospital records,

police records, witnesses from 25 years ago?

But then I realized that Debbie is in fact the key to this

case, because as soon as you meet Debbie you want to

help her and you want to be involved in getting

her out of prison, and that's how we got Bobby.

- It's Bobby Buechler, Debbie Peagler's

investigator, and we spoke a few days ago.

I'm in LA.

We're all really different people

Nadia she's this long distance runner,

Joshua's this Orthodox Jew,

and I'm the old man of the group I would say.

I've been an investigator for approximately 25 years.

Also I've worked as a journalist for New York Times,

Vanity Fair, CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes,

but primarily I'm a private investigator.

- Before we hired Bobby we had a couple of other

investigators on the case who were unable to find anything.

We got Bobby, within 24 hours, documents started

flowing in, and from those documents we began to get a

sense of the real deficiencies in the D.A.'s case.

- You know, we had heard from Debbie for a long time that

Tikisha may have been molested by Oliver.

But we were shocked when we learned that there was actual

evidence of this in the police report that had been ignored.

For so long this killing had been framed as simply about

life insurance proceeds and to learn

that the police knew also that he may have

molested her was obviously very disturbing to us.

- We knew that we had to talk to Tikisha

about the alleged abuse, so when was rotated back to the

United States between tours of duty, we went to see her.

- I sat with Tikisha and asked her the very difficult

question of whether she recalled Oliver ever molesting her.

And she just looked off into the distance

and tears welled up in her eyes, and then she shared

with me very vivid recollections of what Oliver

had done in terms of abuse to her as a young child.

- The hearing transcript from Deborah's preliminary hearing

in 1983 shows that the prosecution had only had one witness.

- The judge characterized this witness' testimony

as "pretty poor" and "extremely ambiguous."

- What was fishy about this guy who called in

Oliver Wilson's murder to the police was

that he was initially only identified as "Deadman,"

which is a pretty weird name.

We subsequently found out this was a nickname because

used to drive dead bodies for the county coroner.

- He was a drug customer of Oliver's,

he was a friend of Oliver's.

- But he waited many months to contact the

police to tell them what he claimed he knew

about the murder of Oliver Wilson.

So when Bobby tracked him down he was in and out of

the hospital with a life threatening illness

and we thought, y'know, what better time to confront

him and say, "What's the truth?"

- I have cancer now.

I don't know how much time I have left.

So I just want the truth to be known.

Debbie deserves to be free,

she deserves the truth to be known

I never volunteered that she was being beat up.

Y'know, where he had whupping her with that bullwhip.

Y'know, didn't let her answer the door,

wouldn't open the door for nobody.

Y'know, so it was rough for her, so.

And I know, if that was rough for her in there,

for 20-some years, her whole life is destroyed, man.

- The other thing that we began to get from Tony was an

explanation as to why he waited so long to contact the

police, and apparently, for all the years that Debbie

and Oliver were together, Tony had been deeply

and secretly in love with Debbie.

- Deborah was a beautiful, beautiful girl.

I really loved her.

I fell for her like Kennedy fell for Marilyn Monroe.

- I didn't think he even liked me like that.

Because I knew he had a wife, he had a wife and children.

- Tony was trying to court Debbie, he wanted to be with

her, but now that she was free of Oliver,

Debbie went back to Tikisha's father.

- I got jealous, and I told everything.

Ripped my heart apart, so I'd rip her heart apart.

I called Sheriff's.

Homicide.

I told 'em every thing that I knew,

and I mighta added something to it.

I tell you, whatever I told them,

it worked because they had her within two days.

- As bad as it was, what Tony did, what was even worse was

for the D.A. to know that he was lying,

and to put him on the stand anyway.

- When he heard that they were gonna prosecute

Debbie for the death penalty, he tried to back

out but the D.A. wouldn't let him.

In fact, he was arrested, and he was told that

unless he testified against Debbie Peagler,

they would vigorously prosecute him for an old

felony charge that had basically been dormant.

- They kept pushing, wanted me to say, that Deborah told me,

after Oliver was killed, that she had pre-planned

for him to be killed, that it was a murder

for hire, and, no it wasn't.

The regret is mostly that I didn't think about her

being beat up or held hostage, being a ho.

I didn't look at all that, for what she was going through.

But I did it and I have to live with it.

- I believe a tremendous injustice has occurred.

- David Guthman is a recently retired prosecutor from the

L.A. D.A.'s Office, and while he didn't have anything to do

with Debbie's prosecution, he has significant experience in

prosecuting death penalty cases in that office.

So we gathered our materials up showed

them to him and we asked him.

- Was Deborah's level of culpability truly reflected

with a conviction of 1st degree murder?

Absolutely not.

- In evaluating Debbie's case, David Guthman went to speak

to the prosecutor at the LA D.A.'s office who is in

charge of the parole unit that has custody of Debbie's file.

He said "Come down and I'll let you look at the file."

When I actually met with the prosecutor, he said,

"I can't let you look at the file, but

"I can tell you what's in the file."

In the file there a memo, which typically is

referred to as, an alibi memo.

- An alibi memo is actually the prosecutor's own alibi as to

why they are not pursuing death penalty where they had

attempted to get the death penalty, and where they'd

gotten approval for the death penalty

from higher ups in the D.A.'s office.

So it was shocking to us to discover

that there was this alibi memo saying that the D.A.

couldn't and shouldn't seek the death penalty because the

D.A. did seek the death penalty.

They threatened Debbie with the death

penalty, and it was because of the death penalty threat

that she took a plea to life in prison.

- I'm sitting there hopefully with a poker face realizing

that that memo was dynamite.

And when I left that meeting I immediately called Deborah's

attorneys and told them what was contained in that memo.

- So according to David Guthman, this memo says, way

back in 1983, the D.A.'s office had concluded that

Oliver Wilson had molested Debbie's daughter, which is

something we'd suspected but have never been able to

prove, the D.A.'s office concluded that Debbie's

motivation wasn't financial gain, which was their whole

basis for prosecution back then, and the memo concludes

that they had "veracity concerns" with the witness or

witnesses required to prosecute Debbie.

So back in 1983, they didn't even have a

case against her, they had no evidence.

So going into this big meeting with Steve Cooley

and his top brass today, where we have all this

documentation that Debbie was battered,

I'm feeling really confident that this

is gonna move them to do the right thing.

- Getting the prosecutors to agree that Debbie should be

released did not happen overnight.

It took more than three years to get them,

to see the light and it was at time that we were able to

walk into that prison and give Debbie that letter.

- Hello, Ms. Deborah. - Hi!

Good to see you!

Hi Joshua!

- You knew we were coming, didn't you?

- Yeah.

- We have bad news and we have good news.

The bad news is that you have

apparently been incarcerated illegally.

The good news is, the D.A. has agreed that

your crime was voluntary manslaughter, which means

your maximum sentence would have been six years, under

the guideline, the penal code section which was in

effect at the time.

We're gonna work with you to explain what it means.

- My God.

- What the next steps are, and help you.

- So this is from the LA District Attorney's Office.

"You presented significant issues which were unknown or

"unavailable at the time of trial.

"Once the matter has been returned to the

"jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Superior Court, this

"office would be willing to offer a plea to one count of

"voluntary manslaughter, in violation of penal code

"section 1-92-A, with credit for the years of

"imprisonment served thus far.

"Such disposition satisfies our office policy of

"requiring a plea to the charge which most accurately

"describes the defendant's criminal conduct.

"In context, it also serves the interests of justice."

- My God!

This is really happening.

It's like, you knew it could happen,

but it's really happening.

- I remember reading it, y'know, tears coming in my

eyes, it was just this overwhelming sense of

relief, that we are finally

helping Debbie unlock that, unlock that gate.

- My goodness!

I still cannot, I am so ecstatically happy, but I'm

so trying to contain it,

cause I so just wanna scream and run around the building.

- When she told me that, y'know I was like, y'know,

"Finally God, you answered my prayers"

Y'know, this is what I really, really needed in my life.

And I know that's, y'know, that's what she's

been praying for and hoping for all these years.

So it was just a sigh of relief.

- It was just almost too much to take in at one time,

because it was just so unbelievable

that my sister is finally coming home.

- I had absolute faith that that letter meant the D.A.

would do the right thing, and that

we would see our client released very shortly.

I had no doubt that it would happen.

- We filed our habeas petition based on that deal,

and a few weeks after filing our habeas petition,

we received a letter from someone else in the

District Attorney's office who we never met before,

saying "The deal is hereby withdrawn."

- God, this just, it's so disheartening to have this letter,

and then someone else come along, and says,

"That letter means nothing."

And someone that really doesn't have the

authority or the power to say that.

I don't get how that happened.

- Our case has seriously called into question

the judgment of District Attorney Steve Cooley.

He broke a written plea agreement with us

in order to instead align himself with prosecutors

who have a well-established record of misconduct.

- And while we don't know exactly what

happened in the LA District Attorney's office,

we do have several indicators.

- One is, the D.A.'s office asked us to have Debbie waive

all her claims against LA County because they knew of all

the misconduct the D.A.'s Office had been involved in.

We declined to do that.

- And there's a woman named Lael Rubin who is the head of

the Appellate Division, and she apparently became quite

upset when we supposedly went quote "over her head" and

directly went to Steve Cooley instead, because she thought

it should go through her department.

- Lael Rubin is best know for her embarrassing witch hunt

of a trial called the McMartin Preschool

prosecution in which Rubin relied on all kinds of false

evidence and false testimony, and turned out to be one of

the largest failed prosecutions in history.

- All right, look, just because we are

having some trouble with some evidence that

doesn't make these people suddenly innocent.

- Lael Rubin's participation in that case led HBO to make a

made-for-TV movie called "Indictment."

The Lael Rubin character is played by

Mercedes Reuhl and she is clearly the villain.

- There is a smoking gun out there.

I know it, we just gotta find it!

- Meanwhile, the letter that we received from the D.A.'s

office purporting to withdraw the plea agreement that we

had with the District Attorney's office was sent by

a man named Curtis Hazel, the number three guy in the LA

County District Attorney's office, who is purported to be

an old fraternity buddy of District Attorney Steve Cooley.

And his claim to fame was that he slept with a

murder witness, who was a stripper, and the D.A.'s

office kept Hazell's affair secret.

The fact that Cooley has hand selected this group of

misfits is so dispiriting.

But we are going to fight it, we don't care how powerful

they are in the D.A.'s office.

We are not going to let them rip up our plea deal

and keep Debbie in prison forever.

- When we heard this news, and we began researching the

issue, I never felt that kind of pervasive sense of

hopelessness as I had before.

Not only are we right, and so we can feel confident in the

fact that "You guys know you did something wrong here,"

we have a case law that supports our position and I feel,

it's not kind of this, often times, y'know how lawyers are.

They don't have any kind of legal position at all,

but they think if they argue effectively

enough they can get around that.

That's often what we do.

- That's often what we do.

- But here we actually have case law that

says this is not acceptable.

Obviously, y'know, we never know what's gonna happen,

but what we will tell you is that we're here,

and we can work through the process with you,

and we have confidence in our abilities, and the fact that

this is the just result it'll ultimately come

to the fact that you will walk out of this prison.

I walk through the front door past our receptionist and she

stopped me and said, "I've been holding this for you."

- The judge denied our habeas petition.

The judge never heard from D.A.'s office,

and the judge didn't even really appear to understand the

new law that we filed it under or even read our papers.

- When I found out that the D.A. reneged on his offer and

that my sister would not be coming home,

to be honest with you I got physically ill.

Because how can you get someone's hopes up so high,

after serving 20-plus years in jail, and then to

say, "Okay, well no, we changed our mind."

It was one of the biggest let downs of my life.

- But then, that's like the story of my life.

I go to board, I come back, I go tell people I got denied

and they're like hysterical and I have to comfort them.

I never really get a chance to

"Okay, wait hey, this should be the other way around."

I am not a robot, I'm a human being with feelings

and just because I don't wear my problems on my sleeve

or tell everybody about everything I feel

and go through doesn't mean it's not real.

That I don't feel.

I don't hurt.

Leave me alone!

Just let me be disappointed.

And I'm gonna be all right

I'll bounce back, don't I always?

- At most, Deborah should have been in, at most, for six

years, which was the maximum for manslaughter in 1983.

Having been in for 24, 25 years, most of her time,

she's been illegally incarcerated.

If anyone's breaking the law, the biggest lawbreaker has

been the D.A., the court system, the prison system.

It's really a crime after crime, that she's been

subjected to the bigger crime here, the bigger injustice in

this case is that to the extent that she was culpable

for anything at all, she served her time, decades ago,

and yet she's still in there, and it's just not right.

- All of this, the hundreds of thousands of dollars,

the three years of time, this will all be for

naught if we give up now.

- Yup. - That's it.

- Y'know?

I mean there is no other option at this point.

- I mean, the one thing I wanna say is,

we lost at the trial court, we get two more shots,

they get more and more remote.

We get one at the court of appeals, original jurisdiction,

boom, we lose there, we get one more

at the Supreme Court, boom, we lose there.

We possibly have some federal claim,

but forget it, there's no chance.

So, we only have two shots.

Because we're fighters, I think we have to fight,

I mean, assuming the D.A. tells us to screw ourselves,

there's nothing that says we can't go ahead and file some

suit against Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking specific

performance to force them to do their plea deal.

- The only way this is gonna work, is if we,

literally think of this as, at least in my own mind,

y'know, one step at a time, one step at a time.

I have to break it down, I just have to get distance,

away from this office and away from this case for a moment,

'cause otherwise I'll just lose it.

♪ Being double-crossed ain't nothing new ♪

♪ Look around, child that's how they do ♪

It's funny how running a marathon can really

teach you a lot of lessons, and help train

you for bigger things than a race.

Regardless of how painful, regardless of how much you

want to stop, as long as you keep moving, ultimately,

you're gonna get to that finish line, it's a fact.

And so that's kind of our strategy right now, is to

understand that this is a huge endeavor that we're

undertaking right now and.

No.

- You asked me, one of the last times you were

talking to me, about matir ha asurim,

this Hebrew prayer of releasing the prisoners.

And then I went up to services

two weeks ago and hit that line.

It totally brought this wave of emotion over me as I was

thinking about Deborah in that moment and what that meant.

And in my mind I always had it, like a cold rainy day at

Chowchilla with like Nadia and I and you with a camera,

and in this vision that popped into my head, my family

was there with me, and I was saying to my daughter

"This is what I do, this is my job."

And she would get it, she would see this,

woman coming out, probably crying and her family there.

She would understand, y'know, why I

spend the late nights doing this, and, and for me what it

means to be an attorney, cause she knows

intellectually, y'know, she knows that I'm an attorney

and that I help people.

She doesn't know that I usually help people get their

land entitled to build multi-family residential

units, but, y'know she would

be there to know that,

y'know that this what my job is, and this is, and

hopefully it'd be a memory that she'd take with her her

whole life to see this event.

So.

After I had that vision I kinda thought well

maybe, this portends what's to come.

- Hello?

Okay, that was Peter Hong from The LA Times.

They like the story.

- She was convicted of murder more than 20 years ago,

but tonight attorneys fighting for a battered

woman's freedom say there is a lot we haven't heard about

her story of abuse and desperation.

- In hand, we have a civil complaint that we're gonna

file, and it tells the whole story, and CBS News has a

two-minute slot on your story,

footage from Yoav is on the news.

- Tonight her attorneys charge that LA County prosecutors

went back on their word by backing out of a plea

agreement, and they have the correspondence to prove it.

It's right there in black and white.

The LA County District Attorney's Office told

Deborah Peagler's attorneys last summer, it's willing to

let her out of jail after 23 years.

The letter includes the name of

District Attorney Steve Cooley, and it's signed

by then Chief Deputy D.A. Curt Livesay.

- So, we're back to the drawing board.

The parole board has denied us.

The court, Superior Court has denied us.

The D.A. hates us.

- The prosecutors office refused comment

citing pending litigation,

that litigation filed today by Peagler's attorneys.

- We have asked parole board

to reconsider their last finding.

The D.A.'s Office, we're suing them to force

them to stick to their deal.

And we're appealing the Superior Court's denial, all

the way up to the Court of Appeal, in the hope that

they're gonna direct the court to do the right thing.

- Coming up here, we're going to meet two Bay Area attorneys

who decided to help out a domestic violence victim.

They thought it would just be a couple of months.

Five years later, they're still on the case.

- There's a reason that your case is going to draw

attention to this remedy.

- 25 years for a crime, unjustly put in prison

I want everybody who cares about something like this to

remember what I'm about to say right here.

W-W-W Free Debbie dot org.

For us, as outsiders coming in to help, coming in to help

bring awareness to the situation,

it inspires me to be dealing with people who, against all

odds, are pushing forward, against all odds are striving

to believe in miracles, striving to believe in truth.

- Nice to meet you, thank you so much for coming.

I'm so excited! - We are too!

- None of us are free.

While one of us are chained, none of us are free.

My case should matter to people outside of California

because my case isn't about me anymore.

It's about so many other people.

I represent the larger part of

the women's prison population.

♪ You better listen my sisters my brothers ♪

♪ Cause if you do, then you can hear ♪

♪ There are voices still calling across the years ♪

♪ And they're crying across the ocean ♪

♪ And they're cryin across the land ♪

♪ And they will till we all come to understand ♪

♪ Understand ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ If one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

- Y'know, you have to applaud Deborah for strength.

When you've been locked up for that many years,

and then you're promised to be free.

And then you get your mind set ready, you get your heart

ready, and you get excited about the new world you're

about to travel and then they renege on it.

And everything changes.

Not only could it break you, but it

could totally change your viewpoint about justice,

what is the word?

It could change your viewpoint about God,

who is he, what is he doing?

It could break most human beings.

- Because I went through all this, all this pain,

and all this stuff is not in vain.

It's gonna be great for someone else.

- Since California is the only state that has this habeas

petition law on its books, if other states look at

California and the attention this case has in the media,

and the legal attention that the case would get if it's

decided at that level, then hopefully other states will

look at these cases, pass legislation in their states,

and use California as a model.

- There's a new law in California that will allow

some domestic abuse evidence in court that would have not

been allowed before, correct?

- That's right, in.

- And so that's what you wanna do is get this.

- In 1983 it wasn't relevant whether you were battered, it

wasn't even legally admissible.

- This document is the 1983 memo

written by the District Attorney.

- So Bobby finally got his hands on the D.A.'s alibi

memo from 1983 and we were amazed.

- Bobby won't say how he got it.

As he always likes to say, part of being a private

investigator is being an investigator,

and part of it is being private.

But I will tell you that the memo is

shocking and the information in that memo itself

could probably exonerate Debbie.

- It says that Deadman perjured himself on the stand, he

lied, that's their word, he perjured himself on the stand.

- This is certainly the smoking gun that supports the

position that we've already alleged.

- There's an enormous difference between saying

"There are veracity concerns with the witness or witnesses"

and saying "Anthony Reedburg committed

"perjury at the preliminary hearing."

- These people, to give her a life-top sentence,

did it, lied to her, for a win.

How fucked that is?

- And the memo goes on to say that he's an informant.

It turns out Deadman has been a paid informant for law

enforcement in Los Angeles County for decades.

These were facts that the D.A. was obligated to disclose in

1983, an obligation disclosure that has continued everyday

for 25 years, and the D.A.'s Office has kept it secret.

- Ms. Lopez an you make a statement as to why

the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office withdrew its

own offer made in writing to free Deborah Peagler?

- No, I think that all of the evidence

has been presented on that.

- Tracey, we've got a meeting to go to, excuse me.

- Excuse me.

- Ms. Rubin, do you have any comment as to why

the District Attorney withdrew the

offer for Deborah Peagler?

Do you have any comment as to why.

- I said we have a meeting to go to.

Why don't you try making an appointment

at a time that we can speak with you?

Thank you.

- I would love to do that.

Will you agree to an appointment?

It's almost as if they didn't want to talk to us.

- We need some ruling that the District Attorney is not a

party to argue on the other side of this, you know,

because they've withheld this information.

- They've got disqualifying interests all over this thing.

- Right.

It took us a year and a half,

but we finally won at the court of appeal.

They sent Debbie's case back down to lower court.

They ordered the court to give her her day in

court, and the first thing that we're doing is we're

moving to disqualify the entire L.A. D.A.'s office,

because of all the misconduct that they've been involved in,

going all the way back to 1983 and involving everyone all

the way up to the District Attorney, Steve Cooley himself.

These motions are very rarely granted, in

US history maybe a handful of times has a court thrown out

an entire D.A.'s office, in this case a thousand attorneys.

But we believe that the facts of misconduct

are so compelling that we've got a pretty good shot of

knocking the D.A.'s office out.

- So you want tell her the.

- We should probably start

with the best news first.

- The big news!

- In a 12-page written decision, Judge Ryan has

disqualified the entire District Attorney's Office,

all one thousand attorneys.

- Yay!

- And held that they're recused for

disqualifying conflicts of interest.

- Yay!

- And held that all of the senior D.A.s, including

Steve Cooley, Lael Rubin, John Spillane, Curtis Hazell,

Curt Livesay, they're all circling the wagons

to protect their professional reputations.

So that's, the big good news is that D.A. is off.

- Yay.

- Ryan's a great judge, the bad news is.

- Answered prayer.

- That the D.A. has an independent right

to appeal the decision, if they want.

- Which they probably will.

You think they will?

- A rational approach, for the D.A.'s perspective,

from the D.A.'s perspective is not to appeal because.

- But we're not dealing with rational people.

- Well, that's true.

- How are you?

- I'm okay.

About five months ago I started to feel ill,

like I had a cold or a flu.

And I went to the doctor, that was in November.

I went back in December, still

treated for cold, flu-like symptoms, nothing helped,

none of the medicine they gave me helped.

So I went back in January,

finally got a chest x-ray ordered.

Was diagnosed with pneumonia, and treated with antibiotics.

Still cough persisted, still didn't feel well.

See a doctor again, beginning of February, got

transferred out to the hospital, Madera Community Hospital,

series of tests ran, and, within, I'd say a

two-week period of time, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

- We don't know whether she got it from smoking cigarettes

20 years ago, or whether it's, as many of the inmates

believe, she was exposed to hazardous materials in prison.

Whatever the case, we probably never know, and it's

terminal, and we're in a race against time.

- I always worry that her last breath would be

inside those walls, instead of with us.

I feel like the least, there's no way I would have peace,

I can get peace outta this, if it happens that way.

- Everyone that we talk to are

praying for you, are supporting you.

We're getting phone calls from people we've never met,

who are calling and saying "what can we do," and.

- Wow.

- Your strength and perseverance in this is remarkable.

- I didn't really have a choice.

- Yeah.

I am privileged to work on your case.

Y'know it's maybe the most important thing I have ever done.

Every day I think about you and this case and what to do.

And I speak to Nadia and Joshua and Yoav and we are

constantly working and thinking.

All of a sudden this thing, you know this medical health

thing, this cancer sort of upped the ante enormously.

So now we are in like another gear and in some way we are

praying for some way that, you know, for that it works out.

- It's got to, I just do not want to die here.

I don't want to die here.

- The medical care that inmates receive in

California prisons is reprehensible.

And in fact a federal judge has determined

that it is actually unconstitutional.

So at this point in time we are driving down to get

Debbie's records but most importantly to be with Debbie

as she endures her first chemotherapy, which can be

horrifically painful even in the best hospital setting.

- It's kind of overwhelming sometimes cause here it is

y'know, we're attorney-client.

But we're really not attorney-client, we're like family.

They make me feel like they're my family, and

they don't make me feel like I'm a client.

And them being there with me during my first

chemo meant the world to me.

I don't know how I'm ever gonna repay them,

how I'm ever show them how much I appreciate them.

It's been horrible.

It's the worst thing anybody could possibly go through.

I still can't believe it.

Still.

But I'm just so weak.

I don't have any energy, and it drives me crazy.

Cause y'know I'm used to being busy

and having a life, and it's like now I don't have a life,

all I do is watch T.V. and sleep.

- Hey Natasha.

- Hi Joshua, how are you?

How you doin'?

- I want you to know that we're

not going to give up on your Mom.

I'm hopeful that, you know, we'll try to put together

the biggest and best package that we can on parole.

But also, as you know, she's been denied three times before

and they never really seem to give much of a reason.

So, it's kind of a shot in the dark.

- We appreciate the fight, the effort, the love,

we appreciate it all.

I know you'll fight as hard as we will,

if not harder to get us on board to get us

to where we want to be where she'll be home.

I think it'll be worth it, even if it's a day or a hour,

I think it will be worth it.

Lord, this is hard.

We've been fighting 27 years.

- What we need to do is to tell your story, and have faith

that in the end, you're gonna find peace no matter what.

You're gonna find peace no matter what because we're

telling a story that's accurate, and we're telling a

story that deserves to be heard.

- I feel like I'm suitable for parole because

I have a understanding of my crime, I know what I did.

I know what I did was horrible,

I can't take it back, I wish I could.

I know the impact that my actions have

had on not only my family, but his family.

I've made amends with the majority of his family.

I've reached out to them and

have received forgiveness and understanding.

I think because of that.

And the fact that my victim's family

does not oppose my release.

- The evidence before you shows that Ms. Peagler,

starting at the age of fifteen and continuing for years,

was subjected to horrific abuse

at the hands of Oliver Wilson.

And note that, that this evidence comes,

not primarily from Debbie Peagler, but from numerous

percipient witnesses who were present

and saw what she endured,

many of whom were Oliver Wilson's friends and family.

- For the record my name is Natasha Wilson.

I am the daughter of both the inmate as well as the victim.

I'm pleading and begging in the release of my Mom.

She's already given all that she can give.

She's done all that she can do to state

she's sorry, to right the wrong.

It's nothing else she can do or say.

It's hard sitting by the phone just

waiting for the answer, the solution.

This is the solution, it comes to this day.

I haven't had a relationship with my Mom that

I need to have because of her being in prison.

I just want one night with no limitations, one night where

I can do whatever, say whatever, hug her, talk to

her, just the basic, simplest stuff, eat dinner with her,

just, in my home, before she die.

Please don't let my Mom die inside this prison, I'm

just beggin' and pleadin' for just one day.

Please.

- Despite the negative circumstances, and like

we say, we've fully considered those

circumstances, and after weighing all the

considerations provided in Title Fifteen, the panel

finds you are suitable for parole because the positive

aspects of your case outweigh the other considerations.

Specifically, we find you suitable for parole,

based on the fact that you were were suffering from

intimate partner battering at the time.

We also have acknowledged your,

support in the community and in the institution.

- Well, in a bizarre narrative twist which is now typical of

this case, Debbie's fate rests in the hands of all

people, of a man who before he became governor, was best

known for portraying a merciless, robotic, killing

machine from the future.

Governor Schwarzenegger has received thousands of letters

in support of Debbie's release and only one letter

in opposition from D.A. Steve Cooley,

and we don't know what he's gonna do.

- If after all of the evidence that we have been able to

produce, that proves the abuse that she suffered, and

all of the evidence we have been able to present that

proves the amount of misconduct that occurred in

this case, combine that with the fact that she now has

stage IV lung cancer, if we are not able to take all of

that information and get for her that one day of freedom,

then to me I think the criminal justice system is

not only broken but perhaps, beyond repair.

But on the other hand, if we are able to

secure her freedom and give her, even just that one day,

with her family outside of those prison gates, then

what it says to me, is that there is hope.

- A controversial and long running

case regains the spotlight today.

- She's only been given days or months to live.

Deborah Peagler has served 27 years of a 25-to-life

sentence in prison for killing a man even

authorities acknowledge brutalized her and her daughters.

♪ Am I gonna make the news tonight ♪

♪ Make an example of my life ♪

♪ Are you gonna leave me here to die ♪

♪ Or are you gonna save my life ♪

- Free Debbie now!

- The victim's family, the Wilson family has no

objection to her comin' home, they even went to every

parole hearing for the last probably six or seven years

pleading with you all to let her come home, so if they

have no objection to it, who are you to keep her in there?

I mean she can do no harm, so please Governor Schwarzenegger

please, allow my sister to come home and

spend her last days with her family, please.

- The District Attorney himself Steve Cooley said,

"Well that's right," and, had agreed to a deal to

let her out, so for him to renege on his deal

is the first thing that really stinks here.

♪ Am I gonna make the news tonight ♪

♪ Make an example of my life ♪

♪ Are you gonna leave me here to die ♪

♪ Or are you gonna save my life ♪

- Can you count to five for me?

- One, two, three, four, six.

- Steve Cooley, can you answer for me, why you changed

your stance on the case of Deborah Peagler?

- You know that, that matter's under civil litigation,

we're not gonna discuss that.

Tonight's my night for attorney general, and, after all

it was a, assassination killing for insurance purposes.

- I'm sorry to belabor the point, but there's one piece

of evidence your office held on to for

25 years in the Deborah Peagler case.

Can you explain why that was

never turned over to her attorneys?

- Quite frankly, I don't know what you're talking about.

And if that's your only issue

then this interview is probably over.

We did appropriately.

Thank you very much.

- And here's Natasha.

Hi! - Hi.

- How was your flight? - It was good.

- Okay, so we're gonna go down here.

- Carla and Nadia is calling me.

- We have a little bit of change of plans.

I have an email from Nadia that I wanted.

- Yeah, she's calling me and my aunt's called me.

- And she did?

And did you speak to them?

- No, I haven't spoken to anyone yet.

- Okay, so this is a note, from Nadia.

It says, "The governor is declining to review,

"she is getting out."

- My God.

- And then there's an attachment letter which I'm

gonna get on this funky phone and I'll read it to

you, but basically, sometime in the next day,

two, three, she will be out.

Out, she will walk out the door of the prison.

- Thank you so much. - I'm so happy for you.

- Thank you so so so much.

Thank you so much.

- It's Saturday night, after the Sabbath, and a

few days before Debbie is supposed to be released.

And I just, I'm coming back online after my sabbatical,

my 25 hour sabbatical, and I'm just wanna check in and see

what I've missed over the last twenty-five hours and see if

we can get a more precise read on when Debbie's getting out.

Well, I just wanted to check in with you, I've been

offline for about 24 hours, and wanted to see if

you heard anything from Debbie or from the prison.

Who there with you?

Wow, that's fantastic news.

Okay, no problem.

Hi, how ya doin?

I'm fantastic!

Did they tell you what they were doing or did they?

I can't believe that they snuck you out like that.

I know, the only thing is, the sooner the better, but

we certainly would have liked to have been there,

but how did it go for ya?

You came to freedom in a Denny's parking lot?

Man.

Y'know I, this is, well, God works in mysterious ways.

I guess I just didn't.

That's amazing.

It makes it all worth it.

- Lookie here, we did it!

- We did it. - We did it!

- Welcome home.

- Thank you so much.

A lot better yes.

Beautiful sunset, look at the clouds.

It's beautiful!

We went and walked on the beach.

What made the experience even more special

to me, was the fact that Joshua brought his daughter.

She was born, right when Joshua took my case.

I'll treasure that in my mind, forever.

I feel such amazement right now.

That's all I thought about was coming

to the ocean while I was in prison.

Woah, woah, woah!

Whoa, got me!

- Personally I would love for Debbie to

continue to sue Steve Cooley and the D.A.'s office

for all their misdeeds and for the false

imprisonment and the malicious prosecution.

But after all we have been through Debbie feels like she

is done with legal battles and she wants to devote the

rest of her days to being with family

and friends and helping others.

And Debbie believes that God will take care of Steve Cooley.

- This was Los Angeles District Attorney

Steve Cooley on election night, declaring victory

in the race for state Attorney General.

- Although my highly paid trusted advisors say it may

be a little too early, I am declaring victory.

- Oops, he should have listened to his advisors.

This morning Steve Cooley conceded the

Attorney General's race to Democrat Kamela Harris.

- Harris will become the first woman and the

first minority to serve as California Attorney General.

Experts are saying it is an important step to

restoring faith in the criminal justice system.

- They imprisoned her body, but they did not imprison her

mind, or her soul, Deborah Peagler.

- I take every opportunity I can to share my story in

hopes that no one, no one, would ever have to suffer and

go through the things I've been through.

Nothing is going to stop me, not even this cancer.

And even after I pass, this film will continue on.

Telling my story.

Telling the story of others.

The kindness of strangers, people who did not even know

me, for the pursuit of justice.

I'll never stop.

- Everybody say Deborah!

- Deborah!

- I'm home. I have so much to be thankful for.

Since my release from prison,

just amazing things have happened.

Things I can't call anything else but miracles.

Number one, my health.

I have more good days than bad days.

What are you doin'?

Yeah?

What else?

The second thing is forgiveness.

I've experienced forgiveness from Oliver's family,

I've had the opportunity to be embraced by his mother.

And spending time with her,

such a spirit of peace was upon me.

His sister Zabrina.

And I can't even tell you how that feels.

Woah!

- I get to sit down and watch

Granny play with her grandkids.

What a joy!

I know, it's wonderful.

It's a wonderful feeling to have her here.

It really is.

Everything about it, and everything about

her is a dream come true.

♪ There are people still in darkness ♪

♪ And they can't see the light see the light ♪

♪ If you don't stay its wrong that says it's right ♪

♪ We've got to try to feel for each other ♪

♪ Let our brothers know that we care ♪

♪ Got to get the message ♪

♪ Send it out loud and clear, loud and clear ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ If one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ It's the simple truth ♪

♪ We all need to just hear and to sing ♪

♪ None of us are free if one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ No no no ♪

♪ Now I swear this salvation isn't hard to find ♪

♪ None of us as can find it on our own, on our own ♪

♪ We've got to join together ♪

♪ In spirit, heart and mind ♪

♪ So that every soul that's suffering ♪

♪ Will known they're not alone ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free if one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free if one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ If you just look around you, look around ♪

♪ You're gonna see what I see ♪

♪ There's a world that's getting smaller each passing day ♪

♪ Passing day ♪

♪ Now it's time to start making changes, changes ♪

♪ And it's time for us all to realize ♪

♪ That the truth is shining bright ♪

♪ Right before our eyes, before our eyes ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free if one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us, none of us ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪

♪ None of us are free if one of us is chained ♪

♪ None of us are free ♪