One Minute Remaining - Stories from the inmates

Susan Brown was thirty weeks pregnant when her estranged husband attacked her. She says he beat her, raped her, and stabbed her in the stomach. She fought back. She woke in a hospital bed with a baby born devastatingly premature, and learned her ex-husband was dead. Susan was charged with first degree murder. The law that now protects Michigan women defending themselves during a sexual assault did...

A child takes the stand. They describe what they saw in vivid detail. They are consistent, they are convincing, and the jury believes them. But how much of what they are saying actually happened -- and how much of it was shaped by the questions they were asked, the adults they trusted, and a memory that was never as fixed as anyone assumed? In this episode, we sit down with Dr Ben Francis Cotteril...

We just wrapped up the story of Kara Garvin, sentenced to life without parole for a crime she says she didn't commit, we have heard her version of events and explored the case against her but now it's time to get the opinion of the man they call 'The Voice of Reason' a man with over 30 years experience as a criminal defence attorney from Chicago Illinois, it is Michael Leonard. Kara Garvin grew up...

Kara Garvin grew up in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, a small, tight-knit community nestled along the Ohio River, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and where the OxyContin crisis of the early 2000s didn't just make the news, it moved in next door. Like so many in her community, Kara's life became entangled with addiction. And like so many, that entanglement would come to define how the w...

Kara Garvin grew up in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, a small, tight-knit community nestled along the Ohio River, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and where the OxyContin crisis of the early 2000s didn't just make the news, it moved in next door. Like so many in her community, Kara's life became entangled with addiction. And like so many, that entanglement would come to define how the w...

Kara Garvin grew up in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, a small, tight-knit community nestled along the Ohio River, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and where the OxyContin crisis of the early 2000s didn't just make the news, it moved in next door. Like so many in her community, Kara's life became entangled with addiction. And like so many, that entanglement would come to define how the w...

Kara Garvin grew up in Franklin Furnace, Ohio — a small, tight-knit community nestled along the Ohio River, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and where the OxyContin crisis of the early 2000s didn't just make the news, it moved in next door. Like so many in her community, Kara's life became entangled with addiction. And like so many, that entanglement would come to define how the...

Kara Garvin grew up in Franklin Furnace, Ohio — a small, tight-knit community nestled along the Ohio River, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody, and where the OxyContin crisis of the early 2000s didn't just make the news, it moved in next door. Like so many in her community, Kara's life became entangled with addiction. And like so many, that entanglement would come to define how the...

I first met Dustin in August 2025. He talked me through his life — his intense training to become a coveted Navy SEAL, through to the night his life would change forever, and his subsequent 30-year battle to clear his name. When we first spoke, Dustin's options for returning home were pretty limited. After exhausting most avenues for release, all he had left was placing his freedom in the hands of...

The words "Don't you die on me" came back to haunt me recently, as I got a message to say John Spirko may have had a suspected heart attack just minutes after we hung up the phone and I uttered those words. It would turn out it wasn't a heart attack and after some time in hospital John was returned to prison in time to get some better news. ---------------------------------------------------------...

After twenty-three years, a last-minute act of clemency from a departing New Jersey governor changed everything for Tariq MaQbool. 150 years became 45, Maximum security became lower. However inside the order that finally gave him hope was language that raises serious questions and when his paperwork arrived, something was on it that had never been there before. As always with these situations with...

We just wrapped up the story of John Spirko, a man who's spent over 40 years in prison for a murder that put him on death row, a murder he's always maintained he's innocent of, even though he was the one who put himself in the firing line of detectives. So as always when we finish these cases, it's time to find out what the man they call 'The Voice of Reason' thinks, does he believe John has a cas...

In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered. Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably...

In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered. Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably...

In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered. Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably...

In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered. Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably...

In 1982, postmistress Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from her one-room post office in Elgin, Ohio — a town of fifty people and murdered. Six weeks later, John Spirko, a career criminal with a talent for spinning stories, decided to trade invented information about her death for a deal that would keep his girlfriend out of prison. It didn't work. Instead, his web of lies contradictory, provably...

What I Survived explores the extraordinary true stories of people who survived the unthinkable. Each story takes you back to who these people were  before  everything changed, then inside the moment their lives were pushed to the edge, shipwrecked at sea for weeks, held captive by terrorists, falling 15,000 feet from a plane after a parachute failure, and other extreme, life-or-death sit...

Today I catch up with Tariq Maqbool, a man serving 150 years in prison for a double homicide he has always maintained he did not commit, a sentence that would see him die behind bars. That was until now. Tariq recently petitioned the Governor of New Jersey for clemency, his only real last hope of making it home to his family and he's just received some very welcome news. EARLY AND AD FREE ACCESS:...

Anthony Duke, or Tony, is, it's fair to say, a favourite amongst those of us who have gone through this crazy journey over the last almost four years. A man of strong values, strong faith, and the strong silent type. Tony isn't a man to ask for help. He's not one to say if he needs something, he is the one who provides, for himself and others. He is not someone who shares news too often, I believe...

The story of Nosakhare Onumonu is nothing short of incredible. As a young man, Nosa’s sister was brutally attacked by her partner—violence that ended when he set her home on fire and left her for dead. That man was arrested and sentenced to prison for his crimes, but the trauma left Nosa riddled with guilt. Why wasn’t he there to protect her? In his mind, he had failed his sister, his niece, and t...

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On Aug. 23, 1984, Mary Flynn had been visiting her brother Martin Flynn and his wife, Kate, looking for houses for sale in their neighborhood. That night, around 10 p.m., a neighbor saw Flynn walking from her Toyota Tercel to the back door of her home after her visit to her brother and his wife. Hours later, she was dead. The next day, concerned that Mary hadn’t shown up for work and unable to rea...

On Aug. 23, 1984, Mary Flynn had been visiting her brother Martin Flynn and his wife, Kate, looking for houses for sale in their neighborhood. That night, around 10 p.m., a neighbor saw Flynn walking from her Toyota Tercel to the back door of her home after her visit to her brother and his wife. Hours later, she was dead. The next day, concerned that Mary hadn’t shown up for work and unable to rea...

On Aug. 23, 1984, Mary Flynn had been visiting her brother Martin Flynn and his wife, Kate, looking for houses for sale in their neighborhood. That night, around 10 p.m., a neighbor saw Flynn walking from her Toyota Tercel to the back door of her home after her visit to her brother and his wife. Hours later, she was dead. The next day, concerned that Mary hadn’t shown up for work and unable to rea...