117. Smells Like A Farce - The Bigoted Conviction Of Joe Bryan

Season 3 open with the story of Joe Bryan, a high school principal who lived with the love of his life - his wife Mickey, an elementary school teacher - in (seemingly) idyllic Clifton Texas.  The Bryans were known not only as pillars of their community, but truly good people who cared about their young charges and even spent their own money to buy clothing and lunches for those most in need.  Everyone in town knew them to be God-fearing and deeply in love with each other.  And then the unthinkable happened.  Over and over again.  It started in 1985 when Mickey was shot to death in the master bedroom of the Bryant home while Joe was away on a business trip 120 miles away.  It got worse when Joe became a suspect in Mickey's murder and was arrested.  And it got unbearably awful when the reasoning was revealed for the Texas Rangers' and other law enforcement officials' suspicions - reasoning beyond belief even in the mid-1980s.  Join Melissa as she unfolds this sad and anger-inducing tale of a murder conviction based on completely flimsy circumstantial evidence and a whole lot of bigoted assumptions.