Episode 5: Injustice Anywhere
Texas law changed because of Charles' case. He's still on death row.
Hi Unforgotten listeners!
Episode 5 is here, and this one covers the nearly three decades of appeals that followed Charles Flores’s conviction — and how close he came to not being here anymore.
Listen to Episode 5: Injustice Anywhere wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
His lawyers have filed a lot of appeals to a lot of different courts, and so far, they haven’t really been successful, seeing as Charles is still on death row, but there have been some victories.
In 2015, right after Charles appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the state of Texas set an execution date: June 2nd, 2016. Two weeks before that date, his lawyers filed another appeal to the state on a few different grounds, and it worked. The Court of Criminal Appeals halted the execution to take a closer look at the role hypnosis played in his trial.
That led to a 2017 evidentiary hearing where both sides brought in experts to argue about hypnosis and memory. In 2020, the court denied relief anyway, without really explaining why.
In the meantime, something remarkable happened. In 2023, the Texas legislature passed a law making testimony based on investigative hypnosis inadmissible in court. Lawmakers actually cited Charles’ case as part of the reason the law was needed, but the law wasn’t retroactive, meaning that Charles can’t benefit from it.
Right now, there’s another appeal pending before the US Supreme Court, and Charles doesn’t currently have an execution date. While judges actually set the date, it’s up to the Dallas District Attorney to motion for one. The office has been held by progressive Democrat John Creuzot since 2018, and he’s so far declined to set one; however, he recently lost the Democratic primary to Amber Givens, and it’s unclear right now where she stands on this issue.
State leaders have also pushed for Charles’ execution. Last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office wrote letters requesting that execution dates be set for Charles and another death row inmate. To be clear, this was extremely unusual. It’s not a normal practice for the attorney general’s office to do this.
This episode also gets into the piece of chewing gum found at the crime scene. DNA found at the scene seems like it should answer something, but this gum ends up raising more questions than it resolves.
Michelle also takes a moment in this episode to reflect on what she does and doesn’t know after all of this reporting. It’s worth hearing in her own words.
Next episode, we’ll hear more about who Charles is today, beyond what he may or may not have done back in 1998. — Aislyn