Featured Image Credit: YouTube/innocenceproject
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, True crime, US News, Science, Chicago
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Crime, Film and TV, True crime, US News, Science, Chicago
A re-run of an episode of MythBusters helped prove the innocence of a man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
In September 1986, Julio Martinez and Guadalupe Martinez died in a fire at an apartment on the southwest side of Chicago. John Galvan was one of three people arrested and later wrongfully convicted on charges of aggravated arson and murder, sentenced to life in prison. After 35 years in prison, his innocence would finally end up being proven, aided by a re-run of Discovery Channel's MythBusters.
The Innocence Project states the three men's wrongful conviction was 'based on three key factors,' one of the 'most important' reasons then-18-year-old Galvan giving 'a confession'.
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Galvin initially asserted his innocence and explained he'd been asleep at his grandma's on the night of the fire - with no evidence linking him to the scene, however, the Innocence Project reports a detective called Switski 'beat him' - multiple others having since come forward to testify as being subjected to such behavior at the hands of the same detective.
Detective Switski is also reported as having threatened Galvan with the death penalty and by that point, the young adult 'couldn't take it anymore and agreed to give a confession that was completely fabricated by the detectives' in a bid 'to end the abuse'.
The confession stated that the Galvin and the two others 'had started the fire by throwing a bottle filled with gasoline at the building and then tossing a cigarette into the pool of gasoline on the porch to ignite it'.
But how did a re-run of an episode of MythBusters help get the convictions overturned?
Well, after 35 years behind bars, Galvin was sat watching an episode of MythBusters - titled 'Hollywood on Trial' which originally aired in 2005 - when he struck gold.
The episode sees the show's hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage attempt to reproduce scenes from famous Hollywood movies and expose whether they're actually really scientifically possible.
And as luck should have it, on that re-run of the episode being watched by Galvin, the duo were testing out whether a lit cigarette can really 'ignite' a puddle of gasoline - which Galvin's alleged confession said was how the fire was started.
The episode revealed that despite many thinking a lit cigarette could ignite a pool of gasoline, it actually isn't possible.
The show's hosts made numerous attempts to see if the cigarette could light the gasoline, 'including rolling a lit cigarette directly into a pool of gasoline'. However, they resolved 'it was highly unlikely that dropping a cigarette into gasoline could cause a fire'.
At the time of watching the episode, information about other people who had been abused by Detective Switski had already come to light and Galvin was working on his third post-conviction petition, but this was the cherry on the cake.
John said: "I remember I was excited, I was extremely happy because that just added to the other things that were coming together at that time. I felt like finally this is starting to all come out."
His attorney, Tara Thompson, added: "It was honestly shocking to me. I feel like all of us have seen movies - like Payback is a famous one - where they light the gasoline in the street with a cigarette and a car explodes, and I really had never given much thought to whether or not that might be real.
"When I watched this Mythbusters episode, as a lawyer, it made me realize that there are things you have to look deeper into - you can’t assume that you understand the science until you’ve looked into it."
While the cigarette may've not ignited the gasoline, the MythBusters episode added further fuel to the fire of Galvin's petition and ultimately aided in proving his innocence and getting him freed.
A GoFundMe has since been set up to help support Galvan as he tries to rebuild his life after spending 35 years in prison for crimes he did not commit.