Our exciting news is that Daniel Holtzclaw’s case is featured on the famous podcast series, “Wrongful Conviction,” created by Jason Flom, a music industry executive, entrepreneur, social justice activist, philanthropist, children's book author, and the founding board member of the Innocence Project!
You can listen to Jason Flom’s entire podcast episode, “Daniel Holtzclaw and The Court of Public Opinion,” released on Nov. 27, 2019, for Thanksgiving at the “Wrongful Conviction” podcast website:
Daniel’s trial overlapped with Thanksgiving in 2015 and culminated in his wrongful conviction on his birthday, December 10th.
Please help spread awareness of Daniel’s case and the podcast by sharing this Petition Update on your Facebook page! You can also help Daniel by commenting on the “Wrongful Conviction” podcast Facebook page about the episode:
https://www.facebook.com/WrongfulConvictionPodcast/videos/495271651078012/
During the podcast, you will hear Jason Flom interviewing Daniel, who calls in from an undisclosed prison; sister Jenny Holtzclaw, advocating tirelessly to raise awareness of Daniel’s innocence; and Erica Fuchs, a biologist who helped discover DNA analysis errors that contributed heavily to Daniel’s wrongful conviction.
“At 2 AM, on June 18th, 2014, Daniel Holtzclaw finished up his shift as an Oklahoma City police officer and made his way home in his all black cruiser. He saw a car swerving and pulled over 57-year-old daycare provider Jannie Ligons. About 3 hours later, Ms. Ligons would claim that Officer Holtzclaw forced her to perform oral sodomy through the fly of his uniform pants from the back seat of his squad car. Her mouth swab would come up empty for Daniel’s DNA, as would a search of his uniform for hers, but nonetheless, an investigation would be launched into Daniel Holtzclaw’s field contacts with at risk African American women, soliciting stories of sexual impropriety. 21 accusers made allegations, and a media circus ensued, bolstering a grim and growing narrative of law enforcement officers abusing their authority. 8 of those 21 claims were immediately dismissed by investigators, and they still moved forward with the 13 other questionable or otherwise ill-fitting claims. Through the misconstruing of DNA evidence, 8 of the remaining 13 allegations resulted in 18 convictions. Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw is currently serving a 263 year sentence in an undisclosed correctional facility under an assumed name for crimes he did not commit.”
Below is an overview of the episode:
JASON FLOM: “Daniel became a rallying cry for everyone who doesn’t want to see any cop abusing their power or sexually assaulting women. It all seemed to fit a grim and growing narrative, and a media circus ensued. At first -- and I’m embarrassed to admit this – I jumped right on board, thinking, ‘Good, they got him!’ But upon the persistent urging of his sister Jennifer, and, admittedly, through my own reluctant closer look, we now have a case that turns that abusive cop narrative right on its head.
“Today’s episode is going to mess up your perceptions of everything, just as it did to me. It is a tragic miscarriage of justice, but also an insane journey through a very different lens than we’ve ever covered before. And today we’re going to be talking about the case of Daniel Holtzclaw, wrongfully convicted, a former police officer from Oklahoma City.”
DANIEL HOLTZCLAW: "I appreciate you having me on and my loved ones and letting me be able to have the opportunity to definitely speak my side and express my innocence."
You can then hear audio of detectives as they solicited allegations from at-risk African-American women with criminal histories whom detectives targeted for questioning by using Daniel’s police records of the people he had stopped. Det. Davis falsely tells a woman, “I received a tip that you may have been sexually assaulted by a police officer.” Det. Rocky Gregory explains, “I’ve had to go to a lot of women. They didn’t come forward. I’ve had to go find them.”
JENNY HOLTZCLAW: “That’s what infuriates me. Why did they only question one race? If they were really wanting to figure out if he’s a serial rapist, […] why did they only question one?”
ERICA FUCHS: “People presumed Daniel was guilty of racism when in fact it was the detectives who were targeting at-risk African-American women, encouraging them to make allegations against Daniel, as they [the detectives] were railroading Daniel."
You will hear audio about the admitted lie told by one of eight accusers whose allegations were determined to be false immediately and never went to trial. She confesses to the detective that she made up her allegation against Daniel because, “I just felt bad for her [Jannie Ligons] and I just wanted her to know like she wasn’t the only victim, because she was so old.”
You can also hear audio of some of the five women whose allegations led to acquittals. One denied seven times that any officer had been inappropriate before disclosing that a black police officer had exposed himself to her several years back. Another woman, who friended Daniel on Facebook following her PCP overdose, then later accused him of orally raping her in the hospital, said this to the detective in a recorded interview: “So this is good evidence? I think so, because even if like, even if he didn’t like even rape nobody or nothing, he’s still getting … he’s been in contact with people that he’s arrested.”
The podcast features clips of detective interviews with accusers whose allegations led to guilty verdicts. One woman says of her assailant, “He’s black,” with skin darker than her own. The mother of another accuser, a 17-year-old who months later accused Daniel of raping her, describes what her daughter said that evening, which would have been right after the alleged assault: “She said, ‘I met this really hot cop. He said I had a couple of warrants, but he said, don’t worry about it. He gave me his number and we’re going to go out on dates. And he was really nice and he was sexy, and he’s going to call on me.’ I just looked at her like she’s crazy.”
Another topic discussed in the podcast is the DNA evidence from the fly of Daniel’s uniform pants. The evidence was a DNA mixture from at least three people. It contained an unknown female’s DNA profile, leading detectives to seek additional accusers, ultimately matching the DNA to the 17-year-old teenager whom Daniel had stopped just hours before Jannie Ligons. The DNA mixture also contained DNA from at least one unknown male that was not disclosed to the jury.
The evidence is explained by innocent DNA transfer via Daniel’s hands while using the restroom after he pat-searched the teenaged girl who months later accused him of raping her through the unzipped, buckled fly of those pants.
But even though no body fluids were observed or detected, you will hear how the prosecutor falsely told the jury that DNA on the fly of Daniel’s pants derived from vaginal fluid. The misrepresented DNA evidence misled the jurors and caused them to convict Daniel of multiple allegations when initially many were ready to acquit him because they did not believe the accusers. One juror explains, “Well, I mean, I’m not a DNA expert. They told us it was DNA from the vaginal fluid from a 17-year-old. The DNA people are pretty boring to be honest with you.”
Daniel discusses the trial and the damaging impact of one-sided media reports:
DANIEL HOLTZCLAW: “Trial was a long period of time and this happened during Thanksgiving break. The biggest thing I want to try address to the audience is how big of an impact media affects people’s perception and their opinions. So, when they used that national media to aid the DA’s office, I’m already presumed guilty before I stepped in that courtroom. When Judge Henderson asked the jury members or everyone in the courtroom, raise your right hand if you’ve seen this man or ever heard of the name Daniel Holtzclaw, I looked up: the whole courtroom raised their hand. So, imagine yourself being there fighting for your life, and the whole courtroom already knows who you are based off the opinions of the media. Again, media has such an effect on the outcome of cases because all it shows is highlights. They don’t show the facts. They can edit and they can crop whatever they want to fit what they want, and in the majority of cases it’s the wrong narrative, it’s false, it’s not the right facts. So, with that said, it was a huge burden to overcome, so you’re ‘guilty’ and then you got to prove yourself innocent.”
JASON FLOM: “So this is actually the perfect storm for a wrongful conviction, right? You have the media frenzy reporting inaccuracies left and right, making up a narrative that sells advertising time or newspapers. You have a jury pool that then is hopelessly tainted. You have bumbling, incompetent, and biased investigators throughout this process. You have a defense attorney who was – I don’t want to say incompetent – but was not up to the task. […] Then you have a prosecutor who lied, forensic people who lied, or were misstated, or inaccurate, whatever the word you want to choose, right? With all of that, the outcome was preordained. Did you have any hope that you would still be vindicated?”
DANIEL HOLTZCLAW: “Well, I always believed in the judicial system. That’s why I was a cop. And so, you know, I believed justice will be served. I believed that I would be exonerated. I remember vividly there was a jury member that…she was a female…that I would look and, you know, acknowledge. Every time I came into the courtroom or left the courtroom, she would look at me, she would smile. When the verdict was coming in, they walked in the courtroom…I saw even the males, the male jury members were teary eyed, and then I saw her crying hysterically. And I’m, this is when I’m really freaking out. I’m shaking, I’m nervous…you know, I’m…what’s going on? And I looked over to my lawyers, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ you know? And then when they read off the verdict and they said I was guilty, I mean, I was just in total shock. I don’t even remember what I did or what happened. I just remember I think I just dropped my head. All I know was I dropped my head. I believed in the justice system, and the justice system failed me.”
Jenny and Erica share their perspectives on Daniel’s conviction:
JENNY HOLTZCLAW: “The reason why I’m so passionate about it is because, when this first happened, I wanted to know everything. I wanted to read all the transcripts. I wanted to watch anything that I could get my hand on to see, could my brother have really have done this?? And everything that I’ve looked into, everything that I’ve read, and knowing Daniel…and not just because he’s my brother but just because of the facts of everything that I put my hands on or that I could touch…nothing pointed to Daniel’s guilt. And that’s what really got me. And I say this to this day: if there were anything that proved or showed anything, I would have backed out and said, ‘Daniel, you deserve every second being in prison for ever doing this to a woman.’ I haven’t found one single thing that pointed me to say that Daniel did any of the crimes that he has been convicted of. And so that is why I am very passionate about this and I will fight until the day I die to get my brother out.”
ERICA FUCHS: "I feel Daniel's case is a tragedy because our society's noblest desires to end racism and sexism and police brutality ended up convicting an innocent man. That is a tragedy where a good thing about our society...wanting to care about victims of sexual assault...led people down this path to torture an innocent man and send him to prison."
JASON FLOM: “Daniel, here you are, you’re stuck in a situation that would break, I think, most people. How do you do it day by day? How are you getting along on the inside?”
DANIEL HOLTZCLAW: “Being a Christian, I think there’s a plan for everything. And I used to hate hearing that as a cliché, […] ‘Things happen for a reason.’ I used to hate that. But I think there is a greater purpose in God and I think God has a plan for me. Deep down in my heart I know I’m going to be free. I know justice will be served. […] I believe it’s going to happen. With that said, I couldn’t be here without all my loved ones and supporters. Everyone that has come along the way, it’s a blessing, it’s just an act of God right there.
“I'm fighting. Never gave up. Never had a thought of giving up. I know I’m going to be free. I'm not going to let this change who I am. And that day when I'm free, you better bet your butt I'm going to fight for all the wrongful convicted people out there. If I have a platform, I'm going to fight for them. I've been on both ends. I was a cop and now I'm a convict. And so I'm definitely going to do my best to help everyone out there in the world that's in my position."
Listen to the entire episode, “Daniel Holtzclaw and The Court of Public Opinion,” on the Wrongful Conviction podcast with Jason Flom, available for free at: https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/podcast/s9e3-daniel-holtzclaw-and-the-court-of-public-opinion