Pablo Torre Finds Out
Watching the Dallas Cowboys on Death Row (PTFO Peabody Award Finalist)
Tue, 13 May 2025
This episode was recently honored as a unanimous finalist for the prestigious Peabody Awards. But it's been 26 years since he was sentenced to death, and Charles Flores still maintains his innocence — while talking trash, playing fantasy football and making enchiladas on game day. Last fall, correspondent David Fleming visited Inmate No. 999299 at a notorious supermax prison in Texas, to learn about life when there isn't always next year. • Learn more about the case of Charles Flores https://www.freecharlesflores.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the story of Charles Flores?
Und ich denke, wir müssen das klar machen, weil er in der Supermax-Prison in der Seltenheit ist, hat es jetzt schon eine Vierteljahre gedauert, aber er war ein Angehöriger eines Mörders, nicht der echte Mörder, wie wir sagen.
Er war nicht der Mörder und wurde nie verurteilt, dass er der Mörder war. Es gibt kein DNA-Evidenz, das ihn zu dem Verbrechen bezieht. Charles hat immer seine Unwissenheit behauptet und er hat tatsächlich einen Alibi gegeben. for the night of the burglary and the murder. But that's not even the craziest part of this whole story. The craziest part is that the actual gunman, Richard Childs,
He pled guilty immediately. He served 17 years of a 35-year sentence. And as we speak right now, he is free and out of prison. He's a free man. He was actually released in 2016, right about the same time that Charles got his execution date from the state of Texas.
Charles Flores hat diese Exekution-Date, weil etwas in Texas, das ich hier kurz erklären möchte, nämlich das Gesetz der Parteien. Das heißt, wenn du ein Verurteilter eines Mörders bist, wirst du verhaftet, behandelt, als ob du auch ein Mörder bist.
Richtig. Wenn du Teil eines Verbrechens bist, ist es so, als ob jeder den Trigger gedrängt hat.
So, this is where a show that otherwise enjoys diving deep into the worlds of, say, athlete-branded weed or celebrity family feud, for instance, should probably explain the bizarre details of why Charles Flores was not executed as scheduled on June 2nd, 2016. and why the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals finally granted him that stay of execution just six days before that date.
Because all of this has to do with the eyewitness testimony that led to the capital murder conviction of Charles Flores in the first place. You see, the eyewitness in question was the victim's neighbor. And what she reported seeing on the night of the burglary was a car with two men driving up to the house across the street.
Der Fahrer, den sie leicht identifizierte, war der vorhin erwähnte und schließlich anerkannte Anwalt Richard Childs. Ein weißer Junge mit langen, dunklen Haaren. Für den Passagier, was dieser Nachbar erinnerte, war, dass er auch weiß war. Mit langen, dunklen Haaren.
Was erinnerst du dich an über den Angriff, den er gemacht hat? Aufhand, was erinnerst du dich an?
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Chapter 2: Why is Charles Flores on death row?
Evidence has shown that police hypnosis often distorts witness memories and leads to false convictions, and 27 other states, at last count, have banned the practice for this reason. And yet, while Charles Flores did get granted that stay of execution, as well as a new evidentiary hearing in 2018, relief still was ultimately denied. So, from a purely legal perspective...
This is where the story of Charles Flores stops. But for us, of course, it's where our story begins.
He was into some bad stuff and he admits that. What we're saying is, it's very clear that at the very least, he doesn't deserve to be on death row or in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for a quarter century.
All of which is to say that the case of Charles Flores is this case that is a larger window onto capital punishment as an institution in the United States still today. But I also recognize that it wasn't exactly the easiest assignment for a reporter to receive.
Yeah, I had to go to the Polonsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, which is a notorious prison, always ranked as one of the most dangerous, worst prisons in the world. There are all kinds of hoops that you have to go through, right? You have to submit to a background check. You have to agree to all these restrictions. You are allowed exactly one hour of rolling cameras.
You have to submit a list of every piece of equipment down to pen and paper. So, I was kind of freaking the f*** out and wondering why I couldn't go to the Family Feud or smoke celebrity weed. Like, How did I get this assignment?
So the Polonsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, where you're visiting Charles Flores.
How does one get into prison?
Where this really got real for me was when, right before we arrived, they reminded us, nobody can wear white. And that's because that's what the death row inmates wear. They're required to wear white. And so you step in, and the first thing that happens in this guard shack, you get a big boy search.
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