Murder With Friends: Kirk Bloodsworth

In Membership, Murder With Friends - On Demand by Gigi Manukyan17 Comments

Grace Baldridge is joined by Daron Dean to talk Kirk Bloodsworth, the first American sentenced to death to be exonerated post-conviction by DNA testing.

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  2. I was a child witness twice, and I can attest that the authorities handled it all wrong back in the 80s, and I still see cases where children’s witness statements and identification of perpetrators is handled all wrong.

    The first case was the one that was most mishandled. I’m not going into details, but the neighbor girl—younger than I was by about a year, and I was 8— and I witnessed a young man doing something wrong. While they did interview us separately, we gave completely different descriptions of the suspect. One morning, a few months later, my friend said she saw the man again. Cops were called. They caught him. The thing is that the guy she pointed out looked more like MY description, and NOTHING like her own description.

    We were both put into a squad car, and told we were to tell them if the guy we saw in the back of another cop car was the right guy. The way it was worded indicated to me that they had done their work, and they were adults AND cops, so of course I thought they knew all kinds of things that I didn’t know. And everyone looks guilty sitting in the back of a squad car. My friend and I were also in the back of a squad car, without our parents, so it felt like we would be in trouble if we didn’t help the cops. My friend said it was the guy. I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to help. I wanted to not get in trouble. So I agreed. I have no idea if it was him. I could barely see him, and had no sense of how tall he was sitting in the squad car, no sense of his body type either, and that’s what I saw that day. I only glimpsed his face.

    Thankfully, he was 17 when the crime occurred, so they only gave him mandatory counseling. If he had done time, I would never have been able to live with myself.

  3. No death penalty. Way past time to leave that feudalistic remnant to history.

    So what could’ve gone wrong in the DNA testing done on the shawl in the attempt to find the identity of Jack the Ripper? Still having a hard time believing those tests weren’t accurate.

  4. Was kinda hoping she would briefly note that red blood cells and hair do not personally have DNA, when you have a blood sample you’re counting on extracting the DNA from the white blood cells and hair has cells sticking to it but the hair itself is protein, very good explanation for the process though!

  5. I totally agree with Daron about not liking or agreeing with the death penalty I remember once after watching a documentary about the death penalty with my dad he ask me if someone killed me, your mom and your little brother would you want them to get the death penalty. I was 10 years at the time and I told him no because killing that person wouldn’t change a thing cause killing that person would not bring you all back you’ll still be dead and gone. Now me personally I don’t agree with the death penalty and I’ve had a family member who was murdered my cousin was brutally shot several times and killed in an ally and the guy who murdered him is spending the rest of his life in prison for it. Now this happen in California where there is no death penalty but if it happen in a state that did we would not want that because we feel life in prison is enough justice .

  6. The figures on how many innocent people given the death penalty are iffy, but at least a few people that have been put to death have later been found to be innocent and this is without really looking into it. Many speculate with as few resources as we have and given the numbers that we would have that a staggering number of people either sentenced to death or put to death. The average seems to be roughly 8% of people on death row are innocent. Also, that is just death row… That is simply too many

  7. I’ve got the same instincts. Murderers and child abusers deserve suffering. I don’t believe most of them can be rehabilitated. I’d like to punch them to death, but who are we to deal out death? You murdered someone and we’re gonna let everyone know that they shouldn’t murder people by murdering you.
    Also, I’d personally take the death penalty over life in prison. Death is merciful. Life in prison is a one way ticket on the crazy train.

  8. Regarding the death penalty… emotionally I am for it, but logically and philosophically I am against it.

    One day a thought occurred to me which caused me to question many of my knee-jerk responses. “Did you so admire this person’s action that you feel compelled to imitate it?”

    Someone kills another human. Even if the victim is innocent, as surely children are, do I want to kill in return? When I think of it that way, what I come up with is, “put him/her out of society, and keep them out, but don’t deign to take after them yourself.” It isn’t easy to maintain, but I hold onto that basic philosophy for dear life.

    I believe underlining the difference between a killer and a law-abiding person has more value in spite of the natural emotional response.

    1. “Regarding the death penalty… emotionally I am for it”

      Which is why it should not be up to people. Emotionally I think most people are for it, but emotionally a lot of people would be for a lot of questionable things. Emotionally I am also for the death penalty which is why emotion should not be a factor. It is wrong. There will always be cases that challenge that for those that believe it’s wrong but that’s part of why it’s wrong. If we decide who dies based on emotions that is unfair by its nature. The state should not kill people full stop that is the fairest way. Anything else brings in emotion and thus muddies the waters

  9. So… there’s a thing about DNA. It’s not nearly as reliable as people think. Check out “Inside The Cell” by Erin E. Murphy. It’s been brought up on other True Crime podcasts, so I’m surprised it didn’t get a mention.

    1. Inside the Cell is rarely accepted by most from my findings

      While DNA is not perfect (and no one that has any credibility claims it is) the book is written from the perspective that DNA evidence is bad and then goes from there. The same as a book that says that DNA evidence is flawless and then sets out to prove it is wrong. Both present a bias which makes them inherently flawed

      DNA is not perfect however DNA is not something to be dismissed. It is one of the most solid things we have and while it can be wrong on a rare occurrence to outright dismiss it is crazy. However we have had cased in our criminal system *cough OJ* where it was argued as wrong. So if the DNA evidence could be seen as flawed it would be argued that it is not so. It’s evidence like any other.

      1. One should never rely on one piece of evidence. There will always be a risk of error. Only by corroborating several pieces of evidence can a case be solved.

  11. I think this is so interesting. My brother just got out of prison after only three years for drug offences and it’s changed him significantly. I couldn’t imagine nine years for someone who is innocent. To Daron’s point about the death penalty it’s really hard. I have always subscribed to the belief that majority of crimes don’t meet the standard to kill someone but in cases of children I differ. If it can be proved with DNA testing and is beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed in the killing and/or sexual abuse of a child then yeah I think they should die. I have a three year old and I would scorch the earth if someone did something to her. Murdering an adult is different as children are innocent, have no way of defending themselves and are so trusting I mean we teach our kids not to talk to or take candy from strangers but leave them with teachers and get them to sit on Santa’s knee and take chocolate from the Easter bunny. They trust adults to make decisions for them and to see them preyed upon by adults sickens me. But it’s hard to make the determination of where the line should be drawn and each country has its own ideas on what actions require the death penalty. Just my opinion, I live in Australia and we don’t have it, but you hear some cases and think maybe we should bring it back. With the right protocols and protections put in place, but your right there is no perfect system

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