05x06 - Memories

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Diana green was just twenty years old

and pregnant when she was brutally r*ped

and beaten in her apartment the as*ault

caused the death of her unborn baby

when Diana came out of a coma three

weeks later she told police she knew the

identity of her attacker but was her

memory accurate

[Music]

in 1979 Dianna green was in the first

year of marriage to Kevin Green a 21

year old Marine stationed at the El Toro

military base in Tustin California on

September 30th 1979 diana was nine

months pregnant and the baby was due any

day come on what's the matter with you

that night neighbors said they heard the

couple engaged in a heated argument just

one of many in what was described as a

volatile relationship

at 1:30 in the morning Kevin green left

the apartment for a hamburger at a

fast-food restaurant

when he returned a half-hour later Kevin

said his wife was bleeding from a gaping

head wound and he phoned police I didn't

see anything obvious to me that was used

to cause that type of an injury that's

at the time I honestly believed that

she'd been shot that's how how the

injury looked to me and that's even this

many years later with the experience I

have that's what I would have presumed

even today Dianna Green had been r*ped

and her head wound was not caused by a

g*nsh*t but by a severe blow to the head

which exposed her brain I stood there

holding her hand just swelling in her

head it started to get kind of bad she

was in pretty bad conscience and I was

trying to watch both heart-lung it was

the one for her and the one for the baby

despite their efforts doctors could not

save the baby a girl who was later named

Chantal Marie

dianna fell into a coma and for the next

three weeks doctors were not optimistic

her daughter had died and now she was

possibly gonna be taken to it just was a

lot to try to handle her family had

called in a priest you know we were

prepared for the worst of preparing for

it

Dianna greens attack bore striking

similarities to five other unsolved r*pe

murders in the area all of the women had

been beaten in the same way and m*rder*d

the local press had dubbed the attacker

the bedroom basher the person who was

committing those crimes was breaking

into those dwellings raping the woman

and had beaten several of those people

with us the name of bedroom basher and

caught these various females in their

bedroom at the time that he committed

the crime so there was a series of

crimes that were going on in this county

at that time when police looked into

Kevin greens background they discovered

he had a criminal record and a history

of alcohol and substance abuse and

witnesses said Kevin green acted

suspiciously after Diana's as*ault he

made certain comments that seemed highly

inappropriate

he was even concerned that his wife was

going to say it was him after three

weeks in a coma and brain surgery Dianna

green regained consciousness

they start before this is a police

videotape of Diana discussing the attack

since her brain injury had affected her

memory and ability to speak

there was little she could tell police

about the as*ault police thought they

had hit a dead end in their search for

the bedroom basher that is until

something sparked Diana's memory

after the brutal r*pe and as*ault of

Diana green in her apartment police were

immediately suspicious of her husband

Kevin Green neighbors told police they

had heard the couple arguing the night

of the as*ault he had a history of

assaulting her he also had I don't want

to kick President raúl 'm but you know

he was he was using dr*gs back then

which of course she had dr*gs to a

temper and you can end up with problems

and I think that's what was going on

previously I had struck out at her

previously in losing an argument yes and

in not knowing how to handle the

slamming doors and the things that are

thrown in the the words that hurt I

lashed out and slapped her and left

bruises you know doing that Kevin Green

denied hitting his wife that night and

said he had an alibi for the time of the

as*ault Green said he left for

hamburgers around 1:30 in the morning

but said he did not stop that the

nearest jack-in-the-box restaurant

because it was crowded driving instead

to another that was 15 minutes away

there were other fast-food restaurants

that he could have stopped at so

according to his alibi he had this long

period of time a relatively long period

of time that he went to go to the shack

of the box burn and police were also

suspicious since there was no evidence

of a break-in at the greens apartment

and no evidence of robbery Diana's

recovery was slow she had suffered a

serious brain injury she developed what

is called aphasia an inability to form

words she also suffered from retrograde

amnesia

when a person receives a severe blow to

the head

it can disrupt the chemical sequences

that form memory the condition can be

temporary or permanent Dianna couldn't

remember the attack or anything that

happened immediately preceding the

attack the doctors had mortis don't tell

her don't fill in those gaps she's got

to have the process of recovering this

memory on her own

if you fill it in then that's gonna be

her memory after weeks in the hospital

and still with great difficulty speaking

Dianna was allowed to return home with

her husband Kevin but three months after

the as*ault something happened as Diana

and her mother were in the waiting room

of a doctor's office a series of

pictures in a baby magazine triggered

something she had forgotten frantically

she tried to communicate with her mother

she pointed to her stomach apparently to

indicate her pregnancy then she pointed

to her wedding ring

her mother asked Diana is it Kevin are

you trying to tell me that Kevin did

this to you Diana shook her head yes she

said it was her husband who had att*cked

her that they had an argument over

whether or not they would have sexual

relations that night that she declined

to have them and that he became enraged

and that he att*cked her and then he

r*ped her and that he beat her Kevin

Green was arrested and charged with

attempted m*rder r*pe and second-degree

m*rder in the death of his unborn child

the semen sample collected after Diana's

as*ault could not be tested for DNA

since DNA technology did not exist in



type O blood the same blood type as

Kevin Breen

what's more Diana Green said she and

Kevin did not have consensual sex on the

night of the attack Kevin Green said the

two had consensual sex before he left

the apartment for hamburgers he also

took a lie-detector test to corroborate

his story and passed but with Dianna

green willing to testify that her

husband was the perpetrator it would be

up to a jury to decide

in 1980 Kevin Green went on trial for

r*pe attempted m*rder and for

second-degree m*rder in the death of his

unborn child least you can do is have a

little bit of time Dianna Green

testified that she and Kevin had an

argument he wanted sex

she said no Dianna said Kevin hit her

then left the bedroom

[Music]

a few minutes later she said Kevin came

back into the bedroom

[Music]

then savagely beat and r*ped her she was

the chief witness against him and it's

not unusual in lots of types of criminal

cases to have there just be essentially

one witness for the prosecution because

of the nature of certain crimes and the

way they occur Kevin green told the jury

a different story he said they had

consensual sex and later when he went

out for hamburgers he saw a dark-skinned

man lingering near his apartment the man

got into a black Dodge van and drove

away but I pulled into that parking lot

I noticed him reaching for the door to

the van and kind of had his head hidden

behind his arm that way and I thought

that was kind of weird but still I you

know didn't have any clue as to why he

would be wanting to do that but it was

Dianna greens powerful courtroom

testimony that swayed the jury the

police believed her the judge believed

her the prosecutor believed and 12

jurors believe me and for us now to sit

here and look back and say who are you

guys where were you a bunch of lunatics

Wow No

Dianna green the wife was such a

convincing witness and she was so strong

in front of the jury and so adamant that

this was the man that att*cked her that

you had a very emotional very emotional

trial and a very convincing witness

Kevin Green was found guilty of

attempting to m*rder his wife and

k*lling his unborn baby he was sentenced

to 15 years to life in prison

at trial all they really needed her to

do was point the finger this is the

victim a pitiful injured her girl young

and beautiful and not as able anymore

and it's obvious and the jury sits there

with that picture in their mind of her

identifying her attacker she can't get

it wrong in their head because her she's

identifying her husband Kevin Green was

sent to Soledad prison a

maximum-security institution that is

home to the most violent offenders in

the state of California it is a mean

place to be and this was reality I could

not live in a fantasy of one day this

all get worked out and as I saw what

happened around me to other people to my

case to my family I got mad I got angry

I got thrown in the hole

because five guys wanted to k*ll me one

day because I was in prison for the

death of a baby Kevin Green was

convinced that the man he saw standing

outside his apartment on the night of

the attack had something to do with his

wife's as*ault

he had no idea who he was and absolutely

no way to prove his theory time passed

Kevin Green spent eight long years in

prison all of his appeals were exhausted

soon he became eligible for parole but

there was a catch

Kevin Green would have to admit that he

was guilty of the as*ault on his wife he

refused even though it meant staying in

prison part of their problem was I

wouldn't say I did it

I wouldn't fess up two years later I

went back to the parole board again and

again parole was denied the only thing I

knew I could do to feel better was to

die in Soledad prison Kevin Green made

an important decision rather than admit

to committing this crime he would commit

su1c1de for some reason I stopped and I

said to myself it's a god I can't do

this anymore I need help for me that was

me asking God for help and I got calm

head to my feet calm and all the little

lights started going on I started to

understand what was what my life was

what was happening to me in my life God

gave me this to deal with because I

could everybody around me was dealing

with it because they can and they need

to don't know why God's plan for me

included this but Kevin Green would

and sixteen years in prison for a crime

he says he didn't commit until finally

he got an answer to his prayers

[Music]

sergeant Tom Copley of the Tustin

California Police Department was

assigned to investigate some unsolved

m*rder cases with the idea that new DNA

testing could help solve some of the

cases he reopened the files of the so

called bedroom basher

the cases of five women who had been

r*ped and m*rder*d by an unknown

assailant thar please research uncovered

the fact that one of the victims of the

bedroom basher Deborah Kennedy was r*ped

and m*rder*d in the same neighborhood in

the same week and with the same MO as

Dianna greens attack almost identical

victims identical locations there are

only seven or eight days apart it's hard

to you know it's hard to not think that

they're related so I looked into the

cases enough to where it bothered me

that I felt the two cases were related

first sergeant parlez needed to find out

whether all five cases were committed by

the same individual so Tarpley sent all

five semen samples for DNA testing

scientists confirmed that all five

unsolved r*pe murders had been committed

by the same individual since 1994 DNA

samples from all individuals convicted

of a sex offense in California were

entered into a computer database the

purpose of the databank is to actually

solve unsolved crimes therefore we want

to put people into the databank who have

committed some serious offense knowing

that there is some reasonable likelihood

that they have committed some other

offense as well in an unbelievable

stroke of luck

the DNA from the so called bedroom

basher matched an inmate already serving

time in a California prison his name was

Gerald Parker imprisoned for the r*pe of

a 14 year old girl when confronted with

the DNA evidence Gerald Parker confessed

to being the notorious bedroom basher

but sergeant our plea didn't stop there

during his interrogation Tarpley asked

Parker if the name Diana green rang a

bell and that's when I noticed a kind of

a change in his in his whole manner he

seemed to take an interest he knew a lot

about the green case which I thought was

very unusual he wasn't really talking

about the other cases but he said that

he had read about that case and he

followed it on the radio and he knew

that a marine had been convicted of that

case and that kind of stuck in the back

of my mind - I noticed that got a rise

out of him and that's I kept going after

him Gerald Parker had also been in the

Marines

after thinking a few minutes Parker told

sergeant

Tarpley that there was something he

needed to get off his chest

something that had been bothering him

for 16 years Parker said he was outside

the Green's apartment on September 30th



after Kevin green left four hamburgers

parker admitted that he entered the

green's apartment with a two-by-four

through an unlocked door and parker

explained the mystery of why

diana green identified her husband as

her attacker

when parker stood at the bedroom door

diana green sat up with a look of

recognition she assumed it was her

husband in the doorway and went back to

sleep

[Music]

Parker described how he struck Diana

green Gerald Parker was the man Kevin

Green saw outside his apartment on the

night of the as*ault I think what really

bothered him in it and it may sound

strange but Parker was a Marine Green

was a Marine

and there was that there was that little

Marine Corps bond sergeant Otley

personally delivered the news of

Parker's confession to Kevin green for a

moment I was just overwhelmed I mean I

actually slumped in my chair and and tom

has described it that I started crying I

don't remember that it's possible but at

the same time I'm in prison I'm in solid

ed prison I don't have time to let down

my guard to assume it's over to trust

the system

yet the semen sample from Diana Greene

had not been kept refrigerated in the 16

years since the trial but it was sent

for DNA testing anyway

scientists used a process called PCR

which can analyze tiny bits of DNA even

samples which are badly degraded the

semen recovered from Dianna green

matched Gerald Parker ironically

the DNA technology which exonerated

Kevin green had been available for 12 of

the last 16 years of his incarceration

just hours after the DNA test Kevin

green was released from prison after 16

long years

[Music]

today Gerald Parker sits on death row

Dianna green lives in California is

remarried but still has residual

neurological problems stemming from the

attack Kevin green is also remarried and

living in Missouri he has dedicated his

life to making sure inmates who claim

innocence have access to post-conviction

DNA testing what a series of events that

took the discover that Gerald Parker

you know actually committed this run

it's amazing what's very unique very

puzzling now if you look at the

situation and say well what do we do to

prevent that I don't know that you can a

system is gonna make mistakes it's going

to make mistakes innocent people do get

convicted we have a case here in the

state of California it's a California

Supreme Court case it's called People vs

West and in that case the California

Supreme Court recognizes and permits and

allows and blesses that an innocent man

complete guilty because the Supreme

Court said we understand why a man faced

with very serious charges or a woman

would not want to take the chance of

being convicted of a greater crime and

when offered a plea bargain or a chance

to plead guilty to a lesser crime even

though he or she is innocent we we can

see why a person does that and we

approve the process so the California

Supreme Court a long time ago

specifically recognized that the system

isn't perfect and of course Kevin green

that's the tragic example of that but I

think it's it's an awful miscarriage of

justice but I can see how it happened

I can see how it happened and nobody did

anything wrong I don't think Diana green

did anything wrong I think she testified

to what she believed was the truth and I

think to this day she believes that the

man who entered the silhouette she saw

was her husband and then she laid back

down and that's exactly what Parker said

she laid back down as if she thought it

was her husband but it wasn't it was me

and that's a rare situation that that

led to this this tragedy the bottom line

came down to eyewitness testimony the

victim eyewitness testimony isn't always

right and when you've got brain damage

on top of it that nobody seemed to want

to admit to they resulted in a

conviction it was 16 years and 3 months

before I was released and I'd still be

there today today innocent in prison if

the man who did the crime had not

confessed and DNA wasn't available to

corroborate his confession I'd still be

there

[Music]