COLUMBUS, Ohio — When a judge threw out her murder conviction in October, Kim Hoover walked out of state prison with a clean slate and a heap of gratitude for her legal team.
"I owe my life to Joe (Bodenhamer) and Joanna (Sanchez) and their staff. They're amazing. I don't believe I'd be out if it weren't for them," Hoover said of the Ohio Public Defender's Wrongful Conviction Project.
Hoover spent 18 years behind bars for the death of Samaisha Benson, a 9-month-old whom she babysat. Sanchez and her team worked the case for 10 years, prying loose medical records and documentation and questioning the expert testimony used to convict Hoover.