#306 Guest Host Beth Shelburne with Jeffrey Holemon

journalists and writers who regularly cover these stories. In March of a young woman was assaulted by a masked man while she walked back to her apartment in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The man raped her, then forced her to give him the location of her car and her bank access code. He took her bank card and car keys. She never got to see his face. This horrifying attack sent shock waves through Tuscaloosa and through the University of Alabama, where she was a student. There was allowed public outcry for

the attacker to be caught and punished. A few days after the attack, a man named Jeffrey Holman was arrested for burglary and writing bad checks while he awaited trial, he was asked to take part in a police line up. Only later with Jeffrey learn what that lineup was for and that a witness had picked him out as the masked man who attacked a young woman. Jeffrey admitted to writing bad checks and attempting to steal a stereo, but he denied having any part in the rape of the

college student. With only the witness to rely on and no physical evidence, Jeffrey was convicted of the rape and sentenced to life in prison. This is Wrongful Conviction. My name is Beth Shelburne and I am thrilled to be guest hosting this episode of Wrongful Conviction. I'm an investigative reporter and writer based in Birmingham, Alabama. I've spent many years focused on criminal justice and mass incarceration, and through my work, I've learned a lot about the prison system

in the way people are often mistreated. There's a tendency among journalists to focus on the most dramatic stories, gruesome murders and wrongful convictions that result in decades behind bars, but it is far more common for low level offenses to land people in prison, often with a sentence that is disproportionate to the crime. I came across Jeffrey's case and was struck by how little had been written about it. It was only by searching through newspaper archives that I

was able to find more information. It's a quieter story, but one that illuminates the way low level offenses can often ensnare people. Once they're in the criminal justice system, it's that much easier for them to end up wrongfully convicted. Jeffrey's story is a reminder of how even a simple bad choice can put anyone at risk of life imprisonment in this punishment oriented nation of ours. I recently had the pleasure of talking to Jeffrey about his story in

his home near Tuscaloosa. My name is jeff Holman, and I was wrong and convicted and spent twelve years in prison, and I am son to celebrate my twenty four year out. That's a happy mile marker. Yes, indeed. So before we get into all the details about the crime that you were accused and convicted of wrongfully and everything that happened afterwards, I want to kind of go back to the beginning your childhood. I know that you're from this area. What

was life like for you growing up in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Well, I had a normal childhood and as in Tuscalusa, you're raised to be an Alabama fan. And I did like most young boys, played baseball, by fished, hunted, just did all the things that young boys do. And then of course in high school, I, you know, experimenta with marijuana, and so I feel like I could have done better in sports had I, you know, I stayed on straightened era.

I graduated from high school and I gotta job of the city, and during the next two or three years I held construction jobs. And I don't know at what point where I decided that writing bad Chicks and Forgery was a good idea, but that was probably my beginning of a bad choice career. I'll just explain a little bit of the facts of the case and then we can talk about it from your perspective. But it happened in March of n and this was a female student

at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She was returning from classes on campus to an off campus apartment and says that she was ambushed by a masked man who forced her into the apartment and then raped her. The victim told police that the attacker forced her to tell him her bank access code and where her car was located, and he says he took her car keys, he took

the bank card and then left after the assault. And he never took off his mask, so the victim could not provide an accurate facial description of the perpetrator, which is really important in cases that are predicated on an eyewitness. Can you tell me about the burglary that had landed you in jail to begin with, and the check forgery. You ultimately pleaded guilty in that case, right and in the following year April, before this rape case went to trial,

So tell me what was going on with those cases. Well, with the burglary, I saw a bright stereo with lights and everything in a window, and at that time I'm thinking, gosh, that would that would be not so I was gonna steal the stereo. Well, when I went checked the window, the wind was logged then, but the door was open, so I went in. I was gonna get the stereo, and somebody came out of the bed. I didn't know anybody was home, so somebody came out of the room.

Then I had to start having conversation. The next thing I know, I grabbed the person and I pushed her down and I run. You know, I was probably as scared as as she was, but I had no idea anybody was home. Did you end up getting the stereo? No? Soy. They still charged you with first degree burglary, but you technically didn't steal anything because somebody was home. Gotcha? Okay? And then what about the check forgeries? Well, I forged one check, and I closed a bank account and went

on check righting spree, and uh, another bad choice. It's always interesting to me to talk to people about these kinds of crimes because a lot of times they're really on the line between felony and misdemeanor. You know, really, I think depends on the amount that was taken. Do you have any idea what the financial impact was of the forgery cases? It was like, I want to say a few hundred dollars, so this was not a million dollar high got you? So you ended up getting arrested?

And then when did they come to you and say we want to put you in a lineup for this other case? My best recollection. I had been in jail for a couple of weeks. Maybe it's hard to say that because it's been so long, but I didn't have any problem being in the lineup, so so I voluntarily went and I went to the lineup. Did you know at that point that they were investigating a rate? Had no idea? So what did you think when they told you that you'd been picked out? I couldn't believe it.

I mean, I knew I never raped anybody, So I got thinking, have I slept with somebody that I passed all forgot somebody got mad at me or something. But I knew I've never raped anybody, so I couldn't figure it out. And then they start giving me more pieces of the puzzle and they tell me where this crime happened, and I didn't even know. I didn't even know where

those apartments were at. Police eventually located the victims abandoned car, and when they did, there was a student at the university who told police he saw a man get out of the car sometime earlier. And then on March one, shortly after the student was raped. Jeff, you were arrested by Tuscaloosa police on charges of check forgery and burglary.

While you were in jail. You mentioned you were placed in that lineup, and that male student who told police he saw someone emerge from the victims car was the one that selected you from the lineup. We talked a little bit about, you know what that felt like when they told you were chosen out of the lineup. What was the next step then? Did they just send you back to your cell and you're thinking, oh my god,

what are they putting on me? I had nothing to do with this exactly, And of course I I had no idea what you know, what they were actually, what all was involved or what you know. But it just kept uh blowing my mind just to think that I was being accused of something that I hadn't done. That's why I went and I admitted to the stuff I did because I did it, and then they're gonna throw something on me that I didn't know and I just

never been in that situation before. Was it hard for you to admit to the things that you did do? What caused you to be so transparent with them? I didn't because I I just that's the way I am. You know, if I did something, I'm going to own up to it. Whatever the repercussions and pay the price. But I end up paying a lot bigger price. I didn't go to trial until fifteen months later, I said,

in jail. Fifteen months waiting and waiting to go to trial. Yeah, that that time pre trial, when you're held in jail. It seems like other people I've talked to that have had a similar experience. You're in this weird limbo where you don't know what's going to happen with your case. You don't know if your lawyer is gonna work out, you don't know if you're going to get charged with something else. I mean, it really does sound like hell. And what was the Tuscaloosa County jail like back in?

It wasn't the High at Hilton, but it was. I mean, it was overcrowded. You you might have three or four people on a sale where I was designed for two. You might have put a mattress on the floor. It was. It had a lot to be desired. I know that there there was some choreography with you pleading guilty to the burglary but then deciding to take the rape case to trial because you you didn't do it. The media reported that case went to trial in the summer of

so had you already pleaded guilty to the burglary? Okay, and you had already been sentenced, and that I did what they call an open ended guilty plea. So I played guilty opening and open end means I might get less, I might get more, but I end up getting twenty five years for the burglary. So let's talk about the trial. I have here the student witness that we mentioned, the man that saw the alleged perpetrator get out of the

victim's car, testified against you. I also read in some media reports that there were some security photos at the bank a t M where the attacker withdrew money, but they were of such poor quality that they couldn't really exonerate you or implicate you exactly. So that wasn't helpful. Who was your attorney at trial? And was this someone you retained or were they appointed? Her name was and went A Miller, and she was appointed. You know, I know appointing lawyers aren't paid a whole lot, so I

and I don't know her a caseload. I just know that she seemed ill prepared when we got to trial. I really felt like then that uh I had made a mistake on well that was that was all I can forward at the time, So I didn't I didn't have a lot of choice. But I don't think she gave it the best that she had. I'll say it like that. I just remember her statement, Uh it's sentencing when they when they handed down sent her exact words were,

don't worry, it's just life. And and I'm thinking, you're going home to your girlfriend tonight and I'm going to prison, and don't worry. It's just it's just life. And then I get to prison and I get a letter from her, and she tells me, in essence, she she had researched and uh, she filed what they called Ander's brief, and

that she couldn't find anything wrong in the transcript. Of course, she wouldn't be filing an appeal on ineffective assistance of counsel because that would basically be calling her own work into question. And what was the general attitude in the courtroom from your recollection, this was a pretty high profile case,

a college student being raped in an apartment. The general attitude was that we need to find this man guilty because this is a this is a university student, And it was already the way the the tenses of the verbs, you know, the way they talked. It was like I was before I was even the jury made their decision. It was like I was already a sand guilty. That presumption of guilt that's there. So you didn't take the stand, right, she advised me because of my past, and you know,

not that I didn't need to take the stand. They would tear me up art And then how much, if at all, do you feel like the state used your guilty plea in the burglary case to argue, you know, that you were guilty in this other case, even though the burglary of the house with the stereo had nothing to do with this college student being raped. I mean, you see these kinds of suggestions made all the time in court. I feel like it was a dred by till they because it's like they looked at it like, well,

if he did that, he could have done lias. And that's that's the way I felt the whole time. Do you remember kind of what it felt like to sit there? I mean, it's one thing to be in court being tried for something that you potentially had a part in, or even that you admitted to committing, like the burglary, but this was something that you didn't even know the location. You weren't sure where the address was. You had nothing

to do with it. And to sit there and have to sit through days of testimony where they're accusing you in a violent rape, I can't imagine how excruciating that experience must have been. Um, did you have family and supporters there in court with you? My whole family was there, my father, my stepmother, my grandmother. It was I mean,

they they stood, Michael Owner. And the hardest part for me was it when when we had to all go in the back room and everybody was crying, and I'm I'm knew my best to try to hold everybody together because my grandmother and my stepmother, everybody was just hysterical, you know, and I just I felt helpless, and you probably had to say goodbye to them at that point, right. Yeah.

That that's something you know, most people will never experience, but the people who do that is a really dark moment in the human existence, you know, going to prison, but going to prison for something that you did not do. You told me a little bit about the sentencing and what your attorney said that it's just life. Trying to get in her head, she was probably meaning it's not

life without parole. There's some ambiguity in the way Alabama sentences people to life because we have indeterminate sentencing, so most sentences are eligible for parole and a life sentence typically in Alabama. Now you serve fifteen years and you're eligible for parole. I think back then it was ten. I was given a ten year set up on life. Yeah. And there were actually five different counts that you were convicted of in the rape case, right, correct? Yeah? Do

you remember what they were? First degree? Right? First gree burglary, stealing a vehicle, stealing a bank card and using the bank card. So that's a lot of time when you got to kill me. Where you put in an area with folks that had a lot of time? Or is everybody just sort of thrown in together with all different sentence links every everybody's put together and uh and one, you know you're all wearing white, You're you're now property

to state. You shower when they tell you to shower, you go to eight when they tell you to aid and when you first get there, they go through all your things you know, it's just that sort of thing you know that you've never experienced before. Because I've never been in prison, I don't know how it was gonna play out. I know what to expect. Jail is totally different. Like I said it was, it was a long toilve years. I mentioned that I've done a lot of reporting on

the Alabama prison system. It's currently being sued by the Department of Justice because of the unconstitutional conditions. It's incredibly violent and understaffed, and there's a huge problem with contraband drugs. When you first went into the system in eight and then you were eventually released in ninety nine, so you were there late eighties all through the nineties. What was the Alabama prison system like? Then? Walk me through, Like

what a typical day would have been. A typical day, you get up in the eight breakfast at four five in the morning. By six or six thirty, you have your bed made, now, your area cleaned up, and you just wait to go to your job. Or when I first got to Draper, I actually went out on the farm. That's when they used to send guys out on the farm to work. What did you do? You basically walked three or four miles carrying a hoe or a heavy tool. And you don't actually do a whole lot of work.

You do a lot of walking. Did this it's just something to get you out of the camp. And did you get paid for that work? No, you do not get paid. You you get three meals a day and and some of those are marginal. Wow. So that was like old school hard labor days. I would say similar. Yeah, I know that time was before the Supreme Court had told Alabama that they couldn't put people on chain gangs along the sides of the road. You didn't have any

experience with that, did you? The chain gang? I wasn't on the chain gangs, but I do remember some before they fashed law, they when the guys so what were they would change them to a change them to a post hitch im post. Right. That was a separate case. And that was like a disciplinary action, right that the officers would take um for if they felt like somebody

was misbehaving or being noncompliant. Did you ever witness that while you were in oh I saw a lot of guys changed to a change to a post and in ninety degree weather, and it was just it was just so inhumane. What were the people like um that you connected with in prison? And you had never ever been to prison before, You've never been in trouble before. Did this change any of your thinking about the people that

we send to prison or people in general? It made me choose people that had had liked values like mine, people who were straight up, who were honest. There was a group that used to come in called Cairo's. It was a group of UH men from different denominations. And what they do is they come in and they share the Word of God with you, and their objective is

to build Christian community within the prison walls. And I still today I have relationships with some of these men, and I have actually been back inside the prisons and UH because once I walk inside and and I give a talk, I'm in my element. I you know, I can talk to these guys and they actually listened to me because they know that I I know, I know what they're going through every day when they when they leave this religious service or whatever. I know what they're

going back to when they go back behind the gate. Yeah, you've walked that walk, and I just I feel like that, you know, when I do that, I feel like God's using me at that moment. And just in the reporting that I do here in Alabama, and I talked to a lot of people in the system, Cairos comes up

all the time because it's meant so much too. UM people and the men's and women's prisons, they have these wonderful relationships with people on the outside that otherwise many of them don't have anybody, and so they're they're cairos friends are really they become their community and their family. I've seen CAIROS volunteers go testify at parole hearings on behalf of people and be their support system when they

get out. So UM, they do really great work. So let's talk about the um post conviction UM that that ultimately got you out. So you became eligible for parole in and Alabama passed a law in ninety four where convicted sex offenders had to give a DNA sample to database statewide database. UM, that was part of state law. So you filed a rule thirty two requesting that the evidence from the rape case be compared to your DNA sample that you had to give under law. UM, how

did you get the idea to do that? I thought, well, I don't have anything to lose. I need to pursue any possibility of finding out the truth that I can. I had friends who knew more about the law that I did, and I had a particular friend file some rule thirty two for me to go back to court on new evidence. He was actually eager to help me, and he wrote it up and he charged me a little twenty five dollars maybe to do do it, and it got the ball rolling. What was the process of

working with this jailhouse attorney? How did you guys do this work together? Well, of course we talked about it, you know, and the privacy of our dorm. And then you go to law and go to the law library and talk about it some more. And it's just somebody that you're you're comfortable, you know, they're they're not in it to try to take all your money there and

try to help you. And I know these law libraries are not like normal legal libraries in the free world, and you know, they still have typewriters, they do not have computers in the law libraries, and and often don't have the latest legal books for people. So it's a it's an ongoing issue in of prisons so where was the evidence stored from the actual incident that you were convicted in the rape? Well, it was supposed to be stored in Tuscaloosa somewhere where I don't know where the

Tuslers County Jail or wherever they do it. But they had said they lost the rape kit, there was nothing to test, and then all these years later, all of a sudden, it appears so they actually had something to test, and they took I remember that took blood at the prison. And I remember a week or so later, I was called the warden's office and she was on the phone with somebody at the pro board, and I could hear her in the conversation it's like, you know, yeah, yeah.

And she got off the phone and she said they got back all the results from the DNA test and they were all negative. And I can I can remember to this day actually feeling a week in the knees. I don't ever remember being weak in the knees before, but I was weak in the knees. And when she said that, but she said, but she also wanted to remind me that you do have the other year Senate. So I have from the media reports that it was that the d a's office located the rape kit that

had been lost for twelve years. The DNA tests were carried out, they excluded Jeff as the source, excluded you in the rape case, and then Judge England said, I see no reason to spend one minute longer on this case. Do you remember hearing those words I do? What was

that like in court? And it's completely understandable that you would be emotional because this is, um we're talking like the most dramatic things a human being can go through, is you know, being accused of something they didn't do, being convicted, serving over a decade, and then finally seeing the truth come out. It was pretty emotional, I to say the least, to know that my prayers have been

answered that I was I was getting my life back. Yeah, and we're twenty four years since then, and it's still affects you clearly, probably always will. Yeah, you get that moment in court and I believe you were released the following day. You still had that twenty five years sentence. So were you released on parole? What? What was the actual mechanism that got you out of I was given time served on that and released on parole. What was the release from prison like before you got out the

community that you had been in. Um, what was the reaction from the folks that were doing time with you? They were ecstatic for me, they were so happy. I remember walking out the door looking back one time and uh, because I left some some good friends. And when I walked out the door, it was it was like a feeling I'd never felt before, you know, I had. I had never walked out the front door of a prison. It was always through the back gate. I didn't know what it felt like to walk out the front door.

And I was nervous. And here I got I gotta give a bunch of TV people interviews. You know, you barely know what to say, and you know, I just said I. You know they want to are you better? No? I just I thank God that I'm free. Yeah. I mean a lot of people imagining what it would be like, feel like they would be so angry and hurt by this wrongdoing that had happened to them that it's it's hard to imagine being positive or how you wouldn't succumb to being bitter. How did you come out with such

a positive attitude. Well, in the beginning, I wasn't so positive, you know, and it took years and because I knew I was innocent, and finally, during the last year and a half, you know, I did some some soul searching and I had a relationship closer relationship with God. And and that's that's the only way that I could. I could forgive and not be hateful. I think once my heart change, my circumstances started changing. Was there anything when

you got out that surprised you? I always loved hearing the stories about, you know, the first things bull did or they ate, or you know, something that had changed that they weren't really prepared for. You got out in ninety nine, what was the most different from seven when you went in? So many things had changed. I remember the very first thing something we left the prison. We stopped to get something to eat, and my dad gave me a twenty dollar bill to go go in Taco

Bell and get some food. I'm looking at a twenty dollar bill and it looked like play. I thought that would play money. So the actual dollar bill had changed the twenty dollar bill, haad, And you had Taco Bell for your first five What did you eat? Do you remember? I do not remember all I remember is that I knew I had a state marinading at home. But after I've been out three days and I got my driver's license, so I go to the gas pump and the lady tells me you could have swiped it at the palmp.

I had no idea what she meant, you can swipe it at the palm. That was That was beyond my comprehension. That was a new language that had developed while you were locked up. I love that your taco bell was like a snack to get you to the steak that was marinating. And how long were you on parole? I was on parole about three years. But the funny thing is when they first released me on parole, I was treated as a sex offender. I had to be home

at eleven o'clock at night. I had to call and check in twice a week let him know I was home. So even though I made prole, I was still being treated as a sex offender. So it was like, even though that conviction was vacated, that word didn't make it to the parole board bureaucracy, and they still thought that you had that conviction on you. I don't know if they thought but they knew the conviction had been you know, every everybody knew that, but I was still treated like

a sex offender. I had to get permission if I needed to cross the state line for anything. I had to have written permission, tag number where was going to every whole nine yards if I needed to cross the state line for any reason. Tell me about the work that you um ended up doing once you got out. A lot of people don't want to have anything to do with prison or people in prison. They want to like turn over a new leaf and do something completely different,

but you kind of did the opposite. You started a ministry to help people coming out of prison. And it's so funny you should ask that. Before I got out, that was I used to be fine to saying I don't ever want to see another prison. I don't ever want to see anything another prisoner. And we volunteered at a halfway house soon after I got out. We were we're ex convicts were starting their life over, and I felt God telling me, then, this is this is what

I want you to do. So we started a process talking to people, speaking in churches to do whatever we could to open a halfway house, and we actually our daughter thought and thought the name of it, and it was house to hope. But to back up, when I got out of prison, I went to my sister's single Sunday school class and I actually Dady, my Sunday school teacher for six months and we got married. So that and then that's when we volunteered and started the ministry,

which we had the ministry for twelve years. And again that's my lucky number twelve twelve years in prison, twelve years in the ministry helping men coming out of prison, and but it also took a toll on my my life, my marriage, and we end up closing the ministry in that's really tough work, and I know a lot of people can burn out on it because it's so hard.

It's such a heavy lift. People have so many needs coming out of prison that often are not in the kind of situation you were in with family support and some resources. A lot of people have nobody and nothing. What were some of the challenges that you ran into and doing that work helping folks coming out of the system, Well, you gotta help them get a job. Before you ge get a job. You gotta get I das you gotta or even how to dentist to volunteer to do all

the guys teeth. He wanted to make them presentable for work. It's all about, you know, starting off about self esteem. But if you don't have anybody to help you, anybody to give you a place to stay or close, it's hard to hard to make it from on scratch. Since that's why so many guys go out there and go to the easy dollar. You know, they goes back to selling drugs and the whole bit vicious cycle starts again.

We have such high expectations for people, but when they need help, you know, a lot of folks are not ready to step up. So I'm glad that you did that work, UM for as long as you did. Wrongful Conviction with Jason FUM usually ends each episode with what they call closing arguments, So that's a chance for you to share, you know, any final thoughts, anything that I

didn't ask you. I will say, Jeff Holman, thank you so much for sharing your story and for your incredible attitude after going through such a horrific ordeal, and for the help that you've given other people. I would just say to anybody listening or anybody who has loved ones or relatives going through this sort of thing. Just stay true to yourself, don't don't bow under to the system. I knew I was innocent, and I projected innocence the

whole time. They wanted me to go through some school one time, admit guilt and get a certificate, go through and I said I wasn't gonna do it because I wasn't guilty. I'm not going through some kind of sex program to say I was guilty. And so you put on my record and I would not do it. And uh, I thank God today that I I just waited on God. The truth finally came out, and that's my family was so supportive of me and helped me through it. And I just I just thank God that I'm standing here today.

You know, I haven't. You know, even though I wasn't compensated for those twelve years, I have my life back and that means more than anything. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'm your guest host, Beth Shelburne. I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam and Kevin Wardis the senior producer for this episode is Jackie Polly and our producers are Lila Robinson and Jeff Clyburne. Our editor is Rook Sandra Guidi. The music in this production

is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms, you can find me on Twitter at b Shelburne. I also write a sub stack about criminal justice in Alabama.

It's called Moth to Flame, and I'm busy working on an investigative podcast for LAVA about the wrongful conviction of to Forrest Johnson, who has been on Alabama's death row for twenty five years. Make sure to look for that in early two thousand twenty three. Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal

Company Number one. Next week, on the guest hosted episodes of Wrongful Conviction, Amanda Knox will sit down with Heidi Goodwin to talk about hid these time incarcerated for a crime that never happened at all. During their conversation, Heidi and Amanda will discuss the junk science of shaking baby syndrome and the complications of relying on testimony from elementary school aged children. Amanda is family to me and she

is one of my favorite journalists. She's become really extraordinary podcaster and a fighter for justice who I have a huge amount of respect for. This is a must listen episode and you can find it next Monday in the Wrongful Conviction podcast feed