#456 Lauren Bright Pacheco with Frank Benitez

Murder in Illinois

iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Society & Culture

3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On April 28th, 1989, 18-year-old Francisco Benitez was having a normal day. He picked up his paycheck, got a haircut, then went to his friend’s house to watch Beetlejuice on HBO. That same night two teenage boys were shot and killed. An eyewitness said as the shooter ran from the scene, she noticed that he had a fresh haircut. Despite no other similarities between Frank and her description of the shooter, not to mention no physical evidence, Frank was ultimately convicted of the crimes and sentenced to life without parole.

The prison environment was violent and dangerous, Frank says he often wondered “is this the day that I’m going to die in prison?” But his mother Betty was steadfast in her love and her belief in Frank’s innocence. She told him over and over to never give up, even after 34 years, to keep believing that a brighter day is coming.

To learn more and get involved, visit:

Francisco Benitez Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/innocent-man-exonerated-after-34-years

University of Chicago Law School Exoneration Project: https://www.law.uchicago.edu/clinics/exoneration

Loevy & Loevy Civil Rights Law Firm: https://www.loevy.com/

Wrongful Conviction with Lauren Bright Pacheco is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I'm Simone Boyce.
0:02.0	I'm Danielle Robe.
0:03.0	And we're the host of The Bright Side,
0:06.0	the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day.
0:10.0	Like our recent episode with Jacqueline Novak,
0:12.0	host of your other favorite podcast,
0:14.3	Pugh. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? That sounds simple, but if you actually go wait,
0:21.5	if I knew I couldn't fail, you might think of something that you just
0:24.6	have not allowed yourself to think of before because you just are so sure that you
0:28.8	would bail at it that you've never even considered it that was kind of how I
0:32.1	started doing stand-up.
0:33.0	Listen to the Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
0:37.2	Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A new season of Bridgerton is here and with it. A new season of Bridgerton the official
0:51.7	podcast. I'm your host Gabby Collins and this
0:54.7	season we are bringing fans even deeper into the ton. Watch season three of the
0:59.3	Shandaland series on Netflix Then fall in love all over again
1:03.8	by listening to Bridger Tim the official podcast
1:06.8	on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
1:09.4	or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:11.2	Subscribe to catch a new episode every Thursday.
1:14.0	Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, host of the hit podcast Family Secrets.
1:18.0	Imagine this.
	...

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