Page 97 - State Prison News Today

From his girlfriend. and then one night in 1993, six years after the incident, he told kevin zieleniewski. and it was one telling detail in john story that kevin never forgot. the people who jumped over the fence, they werent white kids. they were black. >> you had no idea that two men went to prison for this? >> no, not till kevin called me 2009. >> did you even know the highers brothers? >> never saw them in my life. >> total strangers. >> total strangers. i said this isnt right. it involved a...

Before. he was sure of it. in connection with a murder case. way back in the late eighties. and that memory lit up another one. clear as day. the indelible memory of a bizarre story of college roommate told him one night in 1993, or so. he could hardly believe it then. but now when he saw marys post, no, it couldnt be. were those old stories somehow connected? maybe mary couldnt tell it. >> i sent back to her, they wouldnt happen to be in prison for killing old man bob? and she got back and said...

Dissolves quickly. instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with alka-seltzer plus. now available for fast sinus relief. >> something serendipitous was in the wind in detroit. the summer turned to fall 2009. a womans simple facebook post about old friends now in prison for life was read by a detroit native turned d. c. lawyer who got curious and looked at their pictures and -- >> i couldnt sleep really at

Wouldnt have done it? >> never, i never believed it for one minute. >> the family stuck by tommy and ray as the man watched their twenties and then their thirties come and go, in prison. and now, where they were in their mid forties. still telling anybody and everybody, including us, that they did not kill old man bob. >> i just walked with the fate. you know, like this is not the end. >> the brothers had turned down any and all plea deals, determined instead, to clear their names. they joined e...

For their biggest fight yet. for exoneration and they hope permanent freedom. >> we will fight, we will face whatever has to come. >> here they told us their version of what happened the night old man bob was killed. >> we got involved in things we shouldve been. drugs, that was the main thing. >> that night, june 26 1987, the brothers did indeed go over to bobs house, they said. saw the police were there, and assumed -- >> we figured he was being raided. >> thats exactly what we thought. that h...

What happened? all i said it was one sentence. just one sentence. >> so, she did. and 500 miles away in the suburbs of washington d. c., -- >> what were you doing on facebook? >> just wasting time. like a lot of people. do [laughs] >> kevin zieleniewski grew up in detroit, to. but was now an international trade attorney in d. c.. he and mary didnt know each other. were even facebook friends for that matter. but both belonged to that northeast detroit group. which is why that very same summer day...

>> it was just a matter of mistaken identity? >> absolutely. just proves everything weve said and believed for the last 25 years. >> johns story, which had disappeared forever, had it not been for mayors facebook posts and kevins steel truck memory, now give aunt jan and all those who loved and believed in tommy unruly, new determination. the family brought in a whole new legal team. with one goal. nail down the evidence. get the brothers out of prison. attorneys jan knabb and valerie newman. >>...

We were there to back them up. and we just wanted to be there for them. >> all crowded their whole courtroom of judge lawrence talon, who will decide if the new evidence merited a new trial. >> all right, want to bring them up? >> finally, tommy and re-highers filed into court. the brothers who from day one insisted they were innocent, whose family never stopped believing in them, looking like just what they were. survivors of a quarter century in prison. >> it was pins and needles. i mean, it w...

Pictures of tommy and ray highers and confirm they were in prison. doing life without parole for the murder of old man bob. it was then it hit him like a brick in the face. something about those pictures was very, very wrong. only one thing to do. kevin picked up the phone and called that old college roommate. a man he hadnt seen for at least a decade. this man, john hielscher. >> he said it was about old man bob. i just started freaking out. like, im not doing it. im not doing any of this. >> h...

Minute. never. >> did someone have it all wrong. were innocent men in prison for a murder they did not commit? a 22 year mystery until facebook helped old friends find each other and justice. >> did you ever imagine you would actually call such a thing? >> not in 1 million years. >> together they uncovered an almost unbelievable truth -- >> it all need since. none of us knew what happened that nice night. this all meade sent. >> somebody seen it. somebody knew. >> all rice. >> now, they just had...