Clark (right) was wrongfully convicted of murder and was jailed for nearly 25 years before being released in December 2022. (Image/flip from Georgia Innocence Project Twitter)
On October 18, 1996, Brian Bowling, a 15-year-old teenager from Georgia, USA, was talking on the phone with his girlfriend at home and revealed that he was playing “Russian roulette,” a deadly game of chance. Bowling was shot in the head and died Clark (Darrell Lee Clark) and Storey (Cain Joshua Storey), who were 17 at the time, were arrested later and sentenced to life in prison for murder and conspiracy to murder. However, thanks to the testimony of key witnesses in this case, the two who had been in prison for nearly 25 years were finally seen again.
According to “CNN” and “Daily Star” reports, a true crime podcast in the United States “Proof: A True Crime” (Proof: A True Crime) previously invited the murder of a 15-year-old boy in Georgia. During the interview, two key witnesses from the TV series accidentally revealed new undisclosed details, prompting authorities to restart their investigation.
The show will reportedly revisit the 26-year-old case in 2021. Hosts Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis interviewed one of their neighbors and revealed that police forced her to commit suicide, made false statements and threatened to take away her children if she didn’t comply.
The neighbor claimed at the time that the two suspects had confessed that they “planned” to kill Pauling because they knew too much about the previous burglaries they had committed. Another male witness said he told police he witnessed a similar shooting in 1976. Not only did he never identify Clark, he also didn’t see anyone in the yard, reversing police’s claim that there were male witnesses. Witnesses saw Clark fleeing the yard.
Jacinda and Susan didn’t have any expectations when they first came into contact with the case, but after interviewing multiple people, “they felt that everything didn’t make sense,” so they helped through the non-profit “Georgia Innocence Project.” profit (Georgia Innocence Project), organized by professional lawyers, fought for a new trial.
After reviewing the evidence by the Floyd County Superior Court judge and the District Attorney’s office, all of Clark’s convictions were overturned. As for Storey, who brought the gun to the deceased’s home, his sentence was commuted to manslaughter and reduced to 10 years in prison. After 25 years in prison, he finally “vomited his grievances.” Among them, the 43-year-old Clark said after his release on the 8th: “I’ve lived in corruption for so long, and it means a lot to me that someone admits to this mistake.” Storey said he didn’t dare sleep the first night after releasing him because he was afraid waking “was just a dream.”
