It’s a mad justice system that, on one hand, should acquit an accused if during their trial they can introduce a decent alternate hypothesis…how an alternative set of events might have led to the injury they’re accused of perpetrating. On the other, Bone Valley sadly illustrates that a finding of guilt may not be overturned despite evidence coming to light after a person’s conviction which not only introduces a reasonable doubt to whether they did it, but virtually confirms their innocence.
2022’s Bone Valley is one of the most incredible podcasts ever produced about an equally mad and maddening justice system. It also explores human resilience, faith and redemption in the most unlikely circumstances.
The setting is Polk County, Florida. The convicted man is Leo Schofield. The crime is the mysterious stabbing murder of his wife, Michelle Schofield. The exonerating evidence primarily centers around investigations into and ultimately detailed admissions made by a career criminal, Jeremy Scott. A man serving life behind bars for another heinous murder.
And the host, Gilbert King, is a man who got the story idea from a now Florida judge who had worked on the case earlier in his legal career, and believed in Schofield’s innocence so emphatically that he was willing to risk his own career to continue to advocate for Leo’s justice.
King (supported by Kelsey Decker) is a diligent researcher and beautiful storyteller, exemplified by his remarkable recounting of the rock concert that Leo and his band played for their fellow inmates at the Hardee Correctional Institutional in 2021. (Gilbert couldn’t gain permission to record any audio of the concert.)
In telling this story, an obviously invested Gilbert becomes an emotional wreck as he imagines a young Leo, with his good looks and long black hair, playing in bands in small Polk County venues for free beer, his wife Michelle in the crowd, dreaming of someday playing at the Civic Center. But the universe had other plans: not only was his wife, who he claims to have adored, to be brutally killed but a local justice system laced with bias and incompetence was about to convict and incarcerate him in a way totally incongruent with basic, legally ingrained principles of fairness.
It’s an incredible story taking unexpected turns that are both shocking and magical. It captures the complexity of the human condition, the often-profound influence of a higher power on people facing adversity, and the damning cycles of disadvantage. And it manages to find stunning beauty in a seemingly grim and hopeless situation.
By the final episode, get ready for the following line read by King to hit you like a truck: “Jeremy Scott and Leo Schofield have settled on the truth of what happened on that February night in 1987.”
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the iHeartRadio app and on other streaming platforms.
