POTOSI, MO—Almost two decades after Michael Hollings was put on death row for the murders of 76 men, women, and children across Missouri, evidence uncovered by an exclusive Onion investigation has exonerated him of three of the brutal slayings, restoring his dignity when he thought all had been lost.
“I’m so happy to finally have my good name back,” Hollings told reporters Wednesday from his cell at Potosi Correctional Center. “I always told people I could never, ever kill more than 73 people, but when you’re locked in a cage all day, ain’t no one going to hear you out.”
“I wish Mama could have seen this,” added a tearful Hollings, in reference to his mother and fourth victim, Barbara Watts-Hollings. “She’d be real proud of her boy today.”
Frustrated by the incompetence of his public defender but determined to prove he was innocent of a negligible percentage of the horrific crimes for which he received a death sentence, Hollings wrote to reporters from this newspaper last year, confident they would work tirelessly to see justice done.
The Onion’s painstaking investigation, conducted by more than 50 dedicated journalists, revealed that prosecutors suppressed key evidence supporting Hollings’ claim that on the same night he supposedly killed three 7-year-old girls at a slumber party in Blue Springs, he was in fact tearing out the organs of a jogger in the Columbia area.
In addition, a DNA test released to reporters by an anonymous law enforcement source demonstrated conclusively that the semen taken from the three girls did not match the semen deposited by Hollings in the mouths, rectums, and eye sockets of his other victims.
“It’s hard when everyone thinks you did something terrible that you know you didn’t do,” said Hollings, adding that it made him sick to think of preying upon anyone under the age of 10. “But I’m glad at least you reporter guys believed in me when no one else would. Now I can walk around with my head held higher than it’s been in a long time.”
“A lot higher,” added Hollings, cracking a smile.
Source: Investigation Finds Man Wrongfully Imprisoned For 3 Of 76 Murders.
Tags: eye sockets, missouri, potosi mo, dignity, boy today, potosi, three
You must be a licensed attorney to represent someone else, but you can always represent yourself.
Contrary to what some believe, a public defender is not free. Fees are based on your income and assets. However, if you represented yourself, you could have easily been hit with a much larger fine.
Death row the waiting time seems like cruel and unusual punishment.
But I am for the death sentence. Off them now, not later.
Please stop comparing Beyonce and Kelly…the girls disbanded and all embark on 3 different paths sonic, imagery and artistry-wise. It’s pretty much been like that from the start: Kelly went R&B/alternative; Beyonce went more so pop route; Michelle went gospel/Broadway. All three girls have bestow themselves equally and individually in the aforementioned areas. But, I guess there will always be some comparisons since they all were in a group together/have family ties etc but there is no need to pin one against the other especially since all are on total different levels. Nonetheless congrats to Kelly for an amazing performance and a bit of a homage to Janet and Beyonce for her performance and achievement of being the first black woman to play there as well.
I think that if a couple has been in a stable, long term marriage and have been faithful to each other, then it's a complete insult to do that. It's like the man is saying to the wife "I don't trust you, and I think you're a whore."
It's like the women who hire private detectives to follow their husbands, or snoop through his things looking for 'evidence' that they've been cheating.
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This reminds me of that movie of Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married." There's one couple in the movie where the woman was very career oriented laywer who didn't want more children, but yet the husband did want more kids. In fact, she got her tubes tied without telling him.
Anyway, it came out that after their one child was born, the husband had a DNA test secretly done on the kid because he suspected the child wasn't his because the wife had been refusing him sex. She was pretty offended about it that he thought she had cheated on him...and she let him have it big time!
first of all, i don't believe in the death penalty. giving the inmates a choice to die as Christ did, some would say, is blasphemy. the institution of the death penalty, takes human rights away, so why give them any options. if they had options, they wouldn't be on death row, or in prison at all. it is ludicrous to tell these murderers that they don't have the choice to live in prison (which by the way, costs less than execution) without possibility of parole, but they do have the choice to die by any means they choose. in the u.s. only the poor get executed, so they may actually go for the crucifixion, or any other form of death that brings humility, but it is something i would never support. now, castration for sex offengers...
By trying to hide the fact that within the umbrella of sharia is a definitely anti-woman attitude is the same as calling a piranha a pacu or a pitbull a Staffordshire terrier. You can change the name from honor killing to domestic violence but that doesn’t separate the act from the license to kill offered under some aspects of Islam. The Muslim community may not like it due to bad PR, but they are also silent when fellow Muslims act in truly heinous ways. You cannot have it both ways. Either the reason for these brutal slayings are based in religous dogma gone wrong or they are cultural phenomena permitted because the people involved are viewed as “foreign”. Frankly, I am disgusted.
Yes. Heard that the other day Goffa. However. What you have to bear in mind is that the PF does not make the law. They just choose who to prosecute, supposedly in the Public Interest, but we all know it depends what side of the bed they get out and remove the Orange from their gob. The Common law crime of Breach Of The Peace still stands. It has been held that a Constable in Scotland is a “Liege” regardless of any political interfering by the PF the crime is still there. So I would be recording the matter in yer notebook with a view to building up a record of abuse you are instructed to suffer and have no recourse to avoid. Just in case it affects your judgement later and you snap and go off sick on stress if you know what I mean.
I posted a pic on fb of one of our traditions. Usually the night we decorate the tree, the kids get to have a slumber party next to the lit tree. They get their warm jammies on and sleeping bags and giggle the whole time. It always seems magical, beautiful and joyful.
This year we put up the tree on a school night, so they had to wait for the weekend. But they still loved it!!
Ugh another law crime investigation after this one on tvb...