WAS A FLORIDA MAN CONVICTED FOR MURDER AND SENTENCED TO DEATH SIMPLY BECAUSE HE WAS BLACK?

"48 Hours" Reveals New Evidence That Could Free a Man

"48 Hours: Last Chance for Freedom" - Saturday, May 30, 2015

Erin Moriarty and 48 HOURS reveal new evidence that suggests Crosley Green, a Florida man convicted of murder and who has spent 26 years in prison, is innocent, in "Last Chance for Freedom," to be broadcast Saturday, May 30 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

It's a case 48 HOURS has been covering for more than 16 years, and one that exposes flaws in the investigative process - and in the prosecution - that may have led to an innocent man being convicted of murder and put on death row. Indeed, two retired Brevard County Sheriff's Office deputies who worked on the case say there were critical errors made in the investigation of the crime.

In 1990, Green was convicted for the murder of Charles "Chip" Flynn in Titusville, Fla., and sentenced to death. He's been in prison ever since. Green was arrested after Flynn's former girlfriend, Kim Hallock, called the police and said she and Flynn's car was hijacked by a black man with a gun and driven to a remote orange grove. Flynn was shot. Hallock told police she was able to get back in the truck and drive off. Hallock later selected Green's picture from a photo lineup.

At the time, Green was a small-time drug dealer with a criminal record, but says he was two miles away when Flynn was shot. "I kidnapped no one. I killed no one. I did none of those things," Green tells Moriarty.

"They needed someone to put that murder on and Crosley Green fit the bill," says private investigator and 48 HOURS consultant Joe Moura. 48 HOURS started covering the case 16 years ago when Moura and a team of private investigators began examining the Green case.

Did investigators make mistakes the night Flynn was shot?

"The first rule of a homicide investigation is everybody who was at that scene is treated as a suspect until they're eliminated," says Mark Rixey, a retired deputy with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. "That's not the way this happened."

Rixey and retired Brevard County Sheriff Patrol Sergeant Diane Clarke speak out about the case for the first time, and detail key parts of the investigation that didn't make sense to them then or now. For instance, both question why Kim Hallock was never considered a suspect.

"Mark and I are standing out in the orange grove in the dark night, we're like, 'She's involved somehow,'" Clarke tells 48 HOURS. "And to this day I feel she's involved somehow."

Hallock declined to speak with 48 HOURS for this edition, but in a 1999 letter to the broadcast she wrote that "Crosley knows that he is right where he deserves to be."

Retired prosecutor Christopher White, who led the case against Green, says he has no doubts that Hallock told the truth.

"That still leaves you with the issue of whether or not it's Crosley," White tells 48 HOURS. "And you have arguments, pro and con, about that. But the one thing I'm sure of, based on the evidence in this case, it wasn't Kim Hallock, OK?"

Claiming one's innocence is easy - however, proving it for Green is another issue altogether. Prosecutors found three witnesses who claimed Green had confessed to them - the most damning being his sister, Sheila Green. A jury decided his fate in three hours. He's spent the last 26 years - along with help from multiple lawyers and private investigators - trying to prove he didn't kill Flynn. During that time, all three of the witnesses against him have recanted their testimony.

Now, Washington, D.C. attorneys Keith Harrison, Bob Rhoad and Jeane Thomas, who typically handle elite corporate clients, are working for free to get Green out of jail.

Green has exhausted all state appeals. His fate now rests in federal court.

"Crosley's case is special," Harrison says. "Because it cries out for justice."

Harrison adds: "The main focus of the case was there was a black guy who had done something, the old black guy did it."

Moriarty and 48 HOURS detail Green's case through interviews with Green, his attorneys, White, Rixey, Clarke, private investigator and 48 HOURS consultant Joe Moura and others. Moriarty also outlines three other wrongful convictions overturned in Brevard County and talks with attorneys who cite a pattern of problems with the legal system.

48 HOURS: "Last Chance for Freedom" is produced by Gail Abbott Zimmerman and Doug Longhini. Charlotte A Fuller is the field producer. Al Briganti is the executive editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

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