REEL SOUTH

- What happened that night?

I don't know if we'll ever know.

(suspenseful music) This case is such a tangle.

Times have changed on racism and homophobia.

That jury was acting as if he was a throwaway person because he was gay and Native American.

I will not do that.

(suspenseful music) (tense music) (keys rattling) (drawer squeaks and clatters) - Let's see.

(groaning) This one here.

Oh yeah, that right here.

This is some newspaper stories about my case.

Reporters became interested in my case over the years, and this was one story from the El Paso Newspaper.

I didn't have salt and pepper hair.

(chuckles) My case has been in the news quite a bit over the years because of who the victim was: a Catholic priest.

I believe that the state of Texas does not want to come out and admit they made a mistake.

I'm gonna continue to fight until I clear my name, because the evidence proves, I mean, 110% proves that I'm innocent.

(ominous music) (dispatch chattering) - Politics, injustice, homosexuality, alcohol abuse, murder.

That only begins to tell the story of James Harry Reyos.

(screen swooshes) (suspenseful music) (feet clacking) - It is called actual innocence, which means that the state declares that they made a mistake and the state would then give him money for it.

But speaking frankly, only a tiny fraction of cases, like less than 1% will ever win at that level.

We have the clinic here at Tech.

I have four students.

That's it.

Normally we run between 40 and 50 cases.

And they're not little cases.

All of the cases are really big, really complex, really difficult cases.

So, yeah, a caseload of 50 is incredible.

We're getting in hundreds of requests for help a month.

You just do the best you can.

- [Staff Member] Let's redo it.

- This is on the new case, so you can tell, like, this man was attacked, like, right here and right here, and this is kind of how everything went down.

But I think that there's a lot that those crime scene photos can tell us.

- And it's like the eeriest thing that I've ever had to look at.

- Actually, Lynn, so this murder board is beautiful.

- Thank you so much.

- You did such a good job on it.

- Thank you.

- Do you wanna start?

- Murder boards are like scrapbooking, but interesting.

(Allison laughs) - My understanding is that it's kind of an infamous case down in Odessa because everybody knows there's no way that this man could've done this.

There's just no way.

People in the District Attorney's Office had always kind of looked at the case, wondered about the case, looked at it again and again, but they never really have been able to go anywhere with it because all of the evidence was destroyed.

Anytime we're looking for actual innocence.

So James would've been- You really have to show the court and show the public, okay, if James didn't do this, who did?

Should that have to be our burden?

No, legally speaking, are you ever going to find a court that will come out and say, "I need to know who really did this?"

No, but is that our reality?

Absolutely.

I wanna say, wasn't it around.

It's an impossibly difficult thing that we have to do here.

This case is, everything is just such a tangle, a factual tangle.

(suspenseful music) The victim himself, he's just shrouded in mystery.

What really happens in that room, in Father Ryan's room, what happened that night?

I don't know if we'll ever know.

(screen booms) (ominous music) (metal creaks) (coyote howls) (tail rattling) (ominous music continues) - West Texas is a really big place.

It's very flat, it's very dusty, it's very dry, and right in the middle of is the Permian Basin.

This giant patch of land under which there is a lot of oil.

(ominous music) (fire crackling) The center of it is Midland-Odessa.

(ominous music) Odessa in 1981 was a rough and wild place.

Oil booms, they're rough and rowdy.

And they're wild.

And there's a lot of drinking and there's a lot of prostitution, and there's a lot of fighting.

And for decades now, there've been man camps that are built up around the oil and gas industry.

It's roughnecks.

They're called roughnecks.

The guys who work out in the fields.

(ominous music) (metal clattering) And it's very macho.

I mean, Odessa is where Friday Night Lights was written and turned into a movie and a TV show.

- And make no mistake about it, gentlemen, we are in the business of protecting this town.

We're in the business of winning.

- Odessa, it's sort of like a country you've never seen before.

Some people say, "Oh God, this is barren, this is ugly."

I found it kind of raw and beautiful in its own way.

I mean, you know, you wanna find a place that's out there, go out there.

Some people will feel a tremendous sense of isolation and loneliness, but I was kind of enchanted by it.

You know, what goes on beneath the ground and what happens behind closed doors.

(suspenseful music) Being in this modern, wild west oil town, there's not a lot to do.

When you have too much time, one thing leads to another, led people to kill.

I mean, I don't know else to put it.

For the size of the place, I think it led the nation and the murder rate.

And that said a lot about Odessa in the '80s, it's like the Wild West.

(suspenseful music) (screen swooshes) I would not wanna be gay in that town.

I certainly would not be openly gay.

- There was a level of violence all over the country.

I certainly remember in the '80s and '80s constantly hearing about homicide against gay men.

It's hard for people to imagine what it was like back then.

You were considered pathological.

You were considered a perverse person.

(suspenseful music) (pensive music) - [Allison] James was a young outsider.

He was a Native American, very shy, very, very sweet.

And here he found himself working in the oil fields of West Texas.

(wind swooshing) (pensive music) James was living alone and he had lost his job because of his drinking.

He met Father Ryan when he was hitchhiking.

When he picked him up, Father Ryan told him a fake name.

He told him his name was Father John, which is a really strange thing to lie about.

- He was very talkative, very interested in getting to know me, getting to know my family life, where I was from, what I did.

- [Allison] Father Ryan was Irish.

He was twice James's age.

Very big guy, big build.

And he was gay.

Physically, Father Ryan towered over James.

- I've always known from the very beginning that I was gay, and that was something that I could not disclose to my family.

- On the night of December 20th, 1981, Father Ryan and James are in Father Ryan's rectory drinking.

They were supposed to be, you know, sharing tales about their childhood.

James was showing him pictures from his life on the reservation growing up.

- I had family photo album and he was interested in looking at it.

I was getting a little intoxicated at the time.

He grabbed me by the shirt collar and pulled me toward where he was sitting.

He had me perform an oral sex act on him.

Tried to push him away.

And I did.

I walked all the way back to my apartment thinking to myself that that did not happen.

And I just kept on telling myself, "No, that could not, that could not have happened."

- The morning of December 21st, James needs a ride over to Hobbs, New Mexico to pick up his truck from his bail bondsman.

So he goes back over to Father Ryan's house that morning and, you know, he knocks on the door and Father Ryan opens the door and he apologizes.

He says, "I'm sorry about last night."

And James says, "Don't worry about it.

Can you please just give me a ride?"

Father Ryan drops James off.

James goes into the bail bondsman's office and as he is waiting, he looks out the window and he sees Father Ryan driving off.

And that was the last time that James ever saw Father Ryan.

(dramatic music) - A Roman Catholic priest was found dead in a motel room in Odessa.

(dramatic music) - [Commentator] Brother beaten to death.

Hey, never imagined it in my life.

Why would somebody beat him to death?

- On December 21st, which is the day of the murder, we have a really good idea of what James' timeline is.

We know that James was in his truck in Hobbs driving around.

He drove around.

He met up with a friend.

He went and he got a gas cap for his truck.

We have the receipt.

This entire time James is drinking, he is probably intoxicated.

He gets pulled over for speeding.

It wasn't long after that that James, who had been drinking all day, gets arrested.

Essentially, he was thrown in the sober tank.

So we have pretty much the entire timeline of James's day of December 21st and December 22nd of 1981.

(pensive music) (vehicles humming) It's been almost a year since the priest's murder.

They don't have any suspects or any leads in the case.

- Still had a lot of internal feelings that I couldn't quite deal with.

I was with Father Ryan on the day that he was murdered.

One day I became intoxicated and high on drugs, called up the Albuquerque Police, and made a confession to the crime.

(pensive music) - [Allison] So while he's at the police station, he sobers up, and he recants again and again and again.

Doesn't matter, they bring him back in to Odessa where they charge him and take him to trial.

(ominous music) - There's no way in that trial to talk about who James really was, to talk about the real lives of gay people.

He was asked on the stand, "Are you a homosexual?"

And he said this weird thing.

He said, "I neither deny it or affirm it."

Which is just a very weird thing to say.

James was just so repressed.

"Are you an alcoholic?"

"I don't think so.

No, I'm not."

Clearly he was an alcoholic.

He could not admit that either.

He talked about what Father Ryan had done to him, and that made the claim that Father Ryan was also gay.

And so I think that everyone involved with this had to choose whether they wanted to sacrifice the reputation of a priest, a beloved priest.

(tense music) Or do you sacrifice this kid from New Mexico who is a Native American?

And I think that in order to maintain this priest's reputation, James had to be sacrificed as the gay monster.

James was sacrificed for the reputation of the Catholic Church.

(suspenseful music) (suspenseful music continues) - From the moment that James Reyos is convicted, there's already this very heavy, almost accepted idea that we've convicted an innocent man.

And then you start seeing it get traction about every 10 years or so.

(gave thuds) - [Reporter] In 1991, a former prosecutor on the case sent a letter to Governor Ann Richards saying it was physically impossible for Mr.

Reyos to have committed the crime.

- I found none of his fingerprints, no hairs, no forensic evidence of any kind to link him to it.

- Dennis Cadra saying, "This man was wrongly convicted out of my office.

On letterhead from Ector County, I mean, in his official capacity.

Then not long after that, you have media picking up on the case.

- [Reporter] For a crime that even a man who helped keep him there says he could not have committed based on the evidence.

(door thuds) (dramatic music) - This is a portrait of the tremendous power of the simple words, "I confess."

- On top of that, something which I didn't even know could happen.

You have an entire legislature, the New Mexico legislature, passes a resolution pleading with the governor of the state of Texas to get this man out on parole.

And that is absolutely unheard of.

So I don't know why this man has never been able to get relief despite these insane efforts that, you know, by every reasonable construct, he should've been free of this conviction.

(mellow music) - There is someone that is responsible for this crime that is still walking the streets free after 23 years.

An innocent man in prison that doesn't belong here.

I will not harden that I'm innocent.

(pensive music) (wind swooshing) (vehicle whirring) (birds chirping) I'll be 67 this May, May 25th, you know?

Yeah, this, yeah, this is my little portfolio.

You know, I just, I talk to him, all the people that wrote.

- (indistinct) Wrote some.

Son of the earth The soul of life Children of the - [James] My tribe is Jicarilla Apache Tribe in Northern New Mexico.

Sisters of sunlight - It was a really nice time for me growing up there on the reservation.

My mom, she had a ranch there and she had some cattle.

I still remember those cattle drives.

Big herd, it was about like 125 head of cattle, somewhere in there.

And the cowboys, they would, you know, herd the cows down the highway.

My dad and I were close, you know.

He was a very loving and caring father.

I remember one time when we came in from the ranch, we was looking at "Bonanza," that TV show.

And the actor, Lorne Greene had long white sideburns.

And my dad, his sideburns were white too.

I said, "Dad, you think you can grow one like that?"

As days went by, he did let his hair grow long whiskers, pure white just like Lorne Greene.

Said, "This is for you, son."

(chuckles) - [Narrator] Apaches on the southwest frontier in the 1880s.

The most ferocious Indian warriors in North America.

And of all their noted war chiefs, none was more fared by white soldiers and settlers alike than the fierce and cunning Geronimo.

- I felt that they are portraying what a man is supposed to be.

Also an Indian man, you know, brave, the leader of the group.

(dramatic music) And I felt that I did not live up to that role.

It brought a lot of guilt within me.

I felt, you know, afraid to come out and reveal my true identity.

And I kept it a secret, not wanting anybody to know, because of that fear of rejection by friends or family.

And especially my dad, that was the most fearful.

It's hard to hide something knowing that it's a part of you, that is you.

I remember watching TV, Perry Mason, and the story had something to do with a false confession.

Well, I was drinking alcohol and beer and I just went over to the telephone, called the police and said I was responsible for the crime, even though I was not.

But, yeah, I just had that inner guilt feeling because of my homosexuality and also the fact that Father Ryan had assaulted me.

(pensive music) I was in trial.

My attorney asked me, "James, are you gay?"

I was under oath and I had to tell the truth, and I couldn't quite answer that question, knowing that my dad is sitting in the audience listening to everything that I say.

I broke down on the witness stand and, you know, we had to recess for a while.

And I got back on the witness stand and told the truth, "Yes."

And after the trial was over, my dad walked up to me and said, "Son, no matter what you are, I still love you."

And felt like a tremendous weight was lifted off of me that I no longer had to hide.

(pensive music) (suspenseful music) - [Reporter] Last week, we got information from Odessa Police.

They will be reopening a case where a priest was murdered.

- [Reporter] Authorities arrested and charged a man named James Harry Reyos.

However, throughout the years, people began questioning whether Reyos was guilty, pleading to Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke to reopen the case after 40 years.

(suspenseful music) - The fall of '21, my daughter-in-law came to me and said, "Hey, we were listening to some podcasts, some true crime podcasts about the Father Patrick Ryan homicide here.

- [Podcaster] Hi, Crime Junkies.

Today's story is one I kinda happened on, and it's one of those cases that seems kind of open and shut, but it turns out it is anything but.

- And I told them, "Look, you know, I've heard stories about it.

I've never really seen the case.

So I had my captain, "Hey, pull this case for me.

Let's look at it."

And as I read through it, I got to the end and I went, "Where's the rest of it?"

And he said, "There is no rest of it, that's it."

When you look at this, can you look at the case in its entirety?

You go, "No, this doesn't fit."

There's always that push on homicide cases, "Hey, we need to make an arrest.

We need to make closure."

His race and his sexual orientation had something to do with that.

I think there's a possibility that some people looked at him as a throw-down person and he didn't matter.

And that's why we looked at it and said, "Let's go over this with a fine-tooth comb, and if we find a way to prove innocence here, then we'll approach the DA's office and see what they can do to help us out."

- The chief had come in and asked for a copy of a case, and it was the James Harry Reyos case.

I was in the robbery homicide unit and I asked if I could look at it.

And I started flipping through pages and looking, and I saw a fingerprint.

I thought, "What is that?"

(eerie music) And went through and saw some more.

(eerie music) So at that point, It's like, "Hmm, 1981, they didn't have the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, AFIS, so I called our crime scene unit.

And she says, "Yeah, lemme see what I can do."

She found the original fingerprint cards.

- It was just copies of latent print cards on yellow paper.

The quality is just not good enough.

He's like, "Well, the bad news is is all the evidence was destroyed."

(sighs) Okay, well, I mean, I can't do anything with that.

And I had spoke to my supervisor at the time and told her what was going on, and she's like, "Well, I think we have some photographs on the PD server of latent prints.

(eerie music) Lo and behold, there was tons of latent prints.

Gosh, coming across the original latent print cards that everybody thought were destroyed just gave the case new hope.

(lens clicks) - We were able to identify two people through AFIS that were never mentioned whatsoever.

One person in particular, Bobby Gene Collins, Jr.

We can put his fingerprints in the room, plus on the victim's credit cards that were dumped in a trash can.

Back in the '80s if you had a suspect, you could compare prints.

Other than that, it was just a shot in the dark trying to figure out who it was, who it wasn't.

He was never even thought of, mentioned, interviewed, nothing, during that case.

We got two people identified.

The second one was Chad Burkhart.

Stacey found a fingerprint on the plastic cup.

We went through all the motel receipts from that day, and we came up with a Gary Ehrman.

Gary Ehrman had been mentioned in the report.

He checked in one hour after the victim did.

I was able to get a copy of his fingerprints and we had a match.

(lens clicking) (ominous music) - Times have changed on racism and homophobia.

That's, I mean, the key in all kinds of implicit biases and explicit biases is naming them, addressing them, and saying, "That's not gonna be me."

And that's what Chief Gerke did.

Very expressly, he said, "That jury was acting as if he was a throwaway person because he was gay and Native American.

I will not do that."

Well, we always go back to, what are the cold, hard facts without any kind of biases?

And that's what has gotten us to this point is, you know, a white man in a tiny, little conservative West Texas town rising above all of that.

(vehicles humming) (phone chiming) I've talked to the apartment or the halfway house manager.

He has a conference room cleaned up and ready for us to go.

- Okay.

- Everyone processes things like this differently, so.

- [Scottie] Yeah, well, and especially since he's been led on and shined on for so many years, that, you know, there's a light at the end of the tunnel now, and I think he's probably gonna be overwhelmed with it.

- And I think also there's gonna be a part of him that wants to guard himself and keep him from getting his hopes too high, just because he's been there so many times before.

(vehicle whirring) (pensive music) We're 30 minutes away from meeting James.

Are you nervous?

- I'm so stoked, dude.

Like- - I'm getting nervous.

- I'm so stoked.

(suspenseful music) (suspenseful music continues) (group chattering) (suspenseful music continues) (walker clattering) - Thank you.

- James, how are you doing?

So good to see you.

How have you been?

- Good.

- Yeah.

You all right?

You feeling okay?

(chair screeching) (people chattering) - The prosecutor wanted to be here, but couldn't be here, so I'm FaceTiming him.

Hey, brother, where you at?

- Hey, Carmen.

- Hey, Carmen.

How's it going?

Everyone's here.

Say hi.

Here's... all right, hold on.

Let's do that.

(phone clatters) Wow.

I'm sorry.

I can't do anything with these nails.

You good?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

- Just shaky, it's all.

- Yeah, it's okay.

You can be shaky.

It's fine.

I'm kinda shaky too.

(James and Allison laughs) So here's the deal.

We had always thought that all of the evidence in your case had been destroyed, but there was actually some evidence still around.

- Okay.

- That we could get tested.

And Scottie's gonna tell you about all of that.

Here, lemme get out of the way, so, Scottie, you can come around.

- Mr.

Reyos, it is nice to meet you, Sir.

- Same here.

Hmm.

- You know, like she said, I'm a sergeant with the Odessa Police Department.

I was recently over the robbery homicide unit.

We found some the latent fingerprint cards from the crime scene.

We presented it to the District Attorney's Office and we're working to try and help you.

- Thank you.

- [Scottie] And... - So here's where we're at.

So we think we know who really did it.

Okay?

(James sobbing) - Are you okay?

- Yeah, we're good.

Yeah, he's good.

- Knew all along I was innocent.

I knew that from Jump Street from the beginning, I did not kill Father Ryan.

I knew that in my heart from the beginning.

- I believe 100% you didn't do it.

- [James] Thank you.

- Mr.

Reyos?

- Yes?

- Ector County District Attorney's Office believes you're innocent.

And I'm working with Allison and her team, and we're wanting to move forward with that.

I wish we could go back in time and change things.

We really don't know how you got convicted, but we believe you.

- Thank you.

(sobbing) Long overdue, but thank you.

- We have a little bit more work that we still have to do to make it kind of airtight.

We don't know what the Court of Criminal Appeals will do, but we're gonna run at 'em with everything we got.

And this time we're gonna have the state behind us and we're gonna have the police department behind us.

- I'm glad that I'm not alone in this fight.

- You are not alone.

- [Attorney] Just know that the light at the end of this tunnel is coming.

- Yeah, I can see it, bright and shiny.

When you know in your heart you're innocent, you keep fighting on for justice to prevail.

I'm glad that y'all are doing that right now, and with your involvement, I greatly appreciate that.

God bless you.

- Thank you.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Thank you for all your effort.

I appreciate that.

(James chuckling) (Allison chuckles) (birds chirping) - We're talking about Scottie's testimony.

Let's figure out which exhibits we want to, or which crime scene photos we wanna use as exhibits.

- Okay.

- And then if you can go through and see if we can print these out on like big size, you know.

Okay, Sand & Sage Motel, do we want... I don't think we need- - I don't think so either.

- Pictures of the Sand & Sage.

Ugh, I sorta kinda hate not including a picture of Patrick Ryan, but we can include it, and we just don't really talk about it.

- Okay.

Yeah.

- Because, I mean, at the end of the day, it's still about his murder.

- Yeah.

- The court's giving us a hearing, but he is only giving us a hearing for one day, at least as of right now, we have one day.

And we already have so much to pack into that one day, so we have to be very selective.

We're going to make sure everything that we need to put in gets in.

Do we wanna include this one?

Like it has Father Ryan's body in it, but it also has the AC unit.

(sighs) The sock is weird.

- They never tested the sock for any DNA?

- Well, no, that was before DNA was a thing and then they destroyed everything in like the '90s.

Just all kinds of other details.

The stuff just around the crime scene itself: what really happened that night?

How did those men come to be in that room?

In Father Ryan's room?

Was he there for a party?

Was he there for something else?

Was he called there?

Was he lured there?

Or was it just kind of a spur of the moment thing?

Did he proposition somebody and then they ended up... How did that play out?

I don't think we'll ever know that.

Jeez, Louis.

Why the air conditioner?

What did the air conditioner ever do to you?

It's just exhausting.

It's just all kinds of mystery in Father Ryan.

When he checked in, why did he check in using an alias?

I mean, it's just there's so much stuff with him.

It's just a lot of weird.

Wow, it's just some things I don't think we'll ever know in this case.

(paper rustling) - There was a real problem with criminologists always focusing on offenders because that's who the bad guy is.

We wanna figure out who that person is and why they did this, and so on.

And they forgot to kinda look at the victim separately.

In Father Ryan's case, there were, you know, several telltale signs that overkill was involved in this particular crime.

Overkill is more injury than what's necessary to cause the death of the victim in this situation, it's unnecessary.

- Why am I a homosexual?

And the question is not quite that simple.

There are a great number of reasons and what they are, I couldn't even begin to tell you.

- Lars Larson is a member of the most despised minority group in the United States, but he is not typical of the estimated two and a half million homosexuals in this country, for few of them are willing to admit it publicly.

The fear of being ostracized by family and friends, of losing a job, even the fear of imprisonment forces most homosexuals to camouflage their identities.

Homosexuality is an enigma.

Even in this era of bold sexual morass, it remains a subject that people find disturbing, embarrassing.

We discovered that Americans consider homosexuality more harmful to society than adultery, abortion, or prostitution.

- [Commentator] If we look back to like the 1980s and even into the 1990s, journalists find that they're in a very tough situation where if a journalist published in a newspaper that someone was gay, a family member might sue them for that.

- Whenever you're digging into victimology, you have to see the person for who they are.

And that's kind of a difficult thing to do whenever the person you are looking at is supposed to be unassailable.

You can't really do a deep dive into the private life of a priest if that deep dive shows you that he's actually going around and having sex and not with just one partner, with a bunch of different partners, but also people of the same sex.

I think that actually kind of hurt Father Ryan and him getting justice.

(tense music) - James, come in.

- Come in.

- What do you think about this guy?

- Oh, he's one of the best persons around here.

Carlos, he's a very good person.

I love him as an individual, you know?

Sure, there's nothing between us but friendship.

- Yeah.

- And that's what I like.

It's that friendship, you know, he's able to accept me for who I am and vice versa, you know?

- [Interviewer] When you were in high school, were those your early gay memories for you?

Like in high school or before?

- It's probably well before.

- Yeah.

- But I was, I lived in the closet because of fear of rejection.

- Yeah.

- You know?

It's more accepted nowadays than it was back when I was growing up and I feared of coming out.

I didn't wanna get beat up or, you know, something like that, you know?

But nowadays it's more open.

People are more open about- - [Interviewer] Did you have those fears too of coming out or were you out early?

- No, 15 years old.

When I'm 15 years old, you know?

Yeah.

I'm, you know, very tired.

And I said, you know what, you know?

- In my case, look at Father Ryan.

He was living in the closet, you know, and his parishioners didn't know about him, his secret life, you know?

I still feel that he would be still alive today, you know, if someone didn't have that prejudice against him or anybody that is gay, you know?

- We're gonna tell 'em that we're still on for the 24th.

I kinda wonder if we shouldn't keep James with us.

I'm just kind of protective of him, you know?

- Where is he planning to stay right now?

- Right now we have him booked for Holiday Inn.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So what I'm gonna do is I'll call Carlos.

Our guy, Carlos.

I have got to get that guy some flowers or something.

Hey, Carlos, it's Allison.

- Hey, how are you?

- I'm pretty good, thanks.

How are you doing?

- Yeah, good, good.

- Good, hey, is James around today?

Do you know?

- [Carlos] Hey, listen, you know, he's in the hospital.

- (gasps) What happened?

- [Carlos] I don't know what happened.

You know?

You know, somebody told me, you know, the last night, the ambulance, you know, come and take him to the hospital.

Can you call to the hospital?

(phone ringing) - [Kelly] St.

David's South Austin, Kelly speaking.

How can I help you?

- Hi there.

my name is Allison Clayton.

One of my friends is there in the emergency room.

I'm not there in Austin, and I just now found out this morning that he was taken there.

It's my understanding there's not a phone in his room, but I'm calling to check on him to see how he is doing.

- [Kelly] I can find out where he is, if you'll just hold on a minute.

- Exhausted.

This is stressful.

- [Kelly] All right, I just talked to him and, yes, he said it all right to talk to you.

Yeah, so he came in here earlier for altered mental status.

He was highly intoxicated, um, 3.4.

He's basically with us sobering up.

(phone beeping) (Allison sighs) - Oh geez.

(Allison sighs) I talked to James on Friday and this happened, this would've happened on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

And he was good.

He was so good.

He was, you know, really happy, really excited.

He was wanting to, on that phone call, he's wanting to nail down the details of, "Okay, like, when is someone going to come pick me up on that day?"

And then just, you know, a few days later, to have an episode like that.

(birds chirping) Because Carlos did not think his drinking was that bad until this week, apparently.

I don't think he was being that open about how much he had potentially been drinking.

- [Staff Member] Do you want this half of this burrito?

- Yeah.

- As soon- (speakers drowning out one another) - That's fine.

That sounds great.

- Carlos is calling.

- Oh.

Hey, there.

- [Carlos] Hey, he's here.

- Oh, wonderful.

- [Carlos] Okay.

Maybe you can catch up.

- Okay, thank you.

- Allison?

- Hey, Allison?

- Yeah?

- It's James.

- Hey, James, how's it going?

- I had my stroke, but I'm feeling okay.

- We were trying to get ahold of you yesterday.

I heard that you were in the hospital.

- [James] Yes, I, like I said, stroke.

- It was from the stroke?

- Had my stroke.

- Yeah?

- [James] So how's everything going?

- Well, everything with the hearing is going pretty good.

We're putting the exhibit binders together right now.

We're making, you know, we're in the final push of getting everything together.

So it's going pretty well.

- That's cool, I mean... - (phone beeps) Should I confront him?

- Yes, (indistinct).

- Mm.

- Fine.

- James, I'm a little bit worried about you.

I'm a lot worried about you.

- Well, like I told you before, I can make it to Odessa, yeah.

- No, I mean, we'll get you to Odessa.

That's not what I'm concerned about, James.

I'm worried about your health.

I'm worried that you've been drinking, and I'm worried that you're not going to survive long enough for me to have a hearing for you.

- [James] I will survive till the end.

No, I mean, I still reflect back upon that incident.

I mean, it's like it happened yesterday.

I will never forget, but I forgive him, Father Ryan.

Every morning I wake up, I think about it.

I forgive him for what he did.

- I believe you, that you forgive him, but you're still dealing with this, you know?

I know you've forgiven him, but he still has power over you because you wake up every morning and you think about him.

- Yes.

- We have to... We have to help you, James.

- [James] I'm okay, I'm doing okay.

- James, it doesn't sound like you're doing okay.

I mean, you were in the hospital and you weren't in until super late last night.

I don't think you're doing okay.

I'm worried that you're spiraling.

- [James] I'm spiraling up.

Not down.

(somber music) I'll be okay.

(somber music continues) - This is a problem, you know, I talked to him, you know, "They working for long time for your case and you wanna lose it, you know, for drinking?"

And he say, "No," you know, and... - To what degree does what happened to him contribute to what's going on now in his life?

And now it's coming out in behavior that's destructive, unfortunately, but maybe not, but understandable, I guess, is what I'm saying.

You know, what kind of a psychological effect would this have on your lifetime?

- Also, you know, parole, they're looking for him right now and they not finding him, you know, for... - Parole is looking for him?

- Parole, they're looking for him, you know?

(somber music continues) - Sorry, it's really sad.

You know, because he knows that we're there for him and he knows that there's so many people who are fighting for him and he's still self-sabotaging.

I just, I don't know what to do.

I mean, I know what we have to do.

We keep on doing our job.

I think that's the best thing that we can do for James, because that's what we are to him.

We're his fighters.

We are his legal team.

And that's where we're gonna be.

(pensive music) (pensive music continues) (pensive music continues) (suspenseful music) (suspenseful music continues) (suspenseful music continues) (suspenseful music continues) (suspenseful music continues) So the last time you've been in that courthouse was when you were convicted?

- When the trial was going on.

- [Allison] Well, hopefully this is the last time you'll have to be here ever again.

(dramatic music) - James Reyos.

- Okay.

- I remember that.

That was just right before I went into law enforcement 100 years ago.

- You remember his case?

(officer chuckles) - You okay?

(suspenseful music) - How are y'all?

- Good.

- Good- - You guys are so cute.

(suspenseful music continues) - [Speaker] Me too.

- [Court Staff] On a good weekend, I'll cheat.

- Oh, I've gotta pay attention.

- [Scottie] My professional opinion in the case of Mr.

Reyos is he was wrongfully convicted, Mr.

Reyos was never placed at the scene of the crime with any physical evidence.

None of the subjects identified were ever interviewed by the police.

Two of 'em were never even mentioned in a report whatsoever.

- [Allison] Based upon your opinion and experience, would the fact that James Reyos left no prints behind, none of his prints are in that motel room, would that be typical in such a violent crime?

- [Stacy] It would be very unlikely.

- [John] How long it took to get to various places in New Mexico and then back to Odessa, Texas, we felt like there was no question that the jury would come back with a not guilty.

We were both very nervous about the case because it's, Ector county's a tough place to try criminal cases if you're a defense lawyer.

Today, we look at homosexuality a lot differently than we did in 1983 - [Allison] Given the setting at the time and your review now of the case, do you have any opinion on why James was convicted- - [Chief Gerke] I think his lifestyle was a large part of that.

- [Allison] And by that, we're talking about fact the fact that he was gay?

- Yes.

I believe that.

I believe his ethnicity had played a part of that.

- [Allison] Being that Mr.

Reyos is Apache Native American?

- [Chief Gerke] Absolutely.

I think that there was, at that point in time, less respect for persons of that sexual orientation and that ethnicity.

- Thank you.

Oh, it's recording.

- Okay.

- Okay.

All right.

Now let's... All right.

We got the ruling.

We got the ruling maybe and... (Allison snickering) Yes!

(laughs) Yes!

(laugh) (James sobbing sniffing) (melancholic music) - I just can't believe it.

I can't believe that it has actually happened.

I'm free as a bird.

- Yeah.

- If I had wings, I'd fly away.

(group laughing) - You're gonna go home, sweetie.

You're gonna go home.

- I can see the snow already.

- Oh.

- The mountains, the mountains of New Mexico.

My brothers and their families.

Nieces and nephews I've never seen Rose.

Yeah, I'll be so glad to see 'em.

They were born when I was in prison and... (indistinct) (sniffing) Thank you, God.

- Mm.

(Allison whimpers and laughs) (James sobbing) This shows that justice is real and can be finalized if you push it to the limit.

Don't give up like my dad told, "Never give up."

And I never gave up.

(suspenseful music) - People ask me a lot like, "How do you stay optimistic about these cases?"

And the answer is, I'm not.

There are some days that I wake up completely without any hope for any of it.

The better question I think is, how do you keep going?

And that's actually very simple.

That's love.

That's all it is.

You know, I believe in the power of love.

I hope that I love so fiercely that I attack organized systems of government violence.

You know, that's why I'm going to keep on attacking every conviction of all of my clients because I love them and because I hate what we do to them.

And it's like a love letter of my life.

So that's why.

It's not optimism, it's love.

(somber music) (speaking indistinctly) (snorts) It's the truth.

(somber music continues) (somber music continues) (feet clacking) (door clattering) (door thuds) (no audio) ("Son of the Sun" by Willie Dunn) Son of the son, son of the earth The could of life Children of the world Daughters of starlight and daughters of mirth Sisters of Sunlight Sisters of Earth Brothers of Nature (lively music)