Murder in the Orange Grove: The Troubled Case Against Crosley Green

Since Crosley Green's temporary release from prison, he had created a beautiful life on the outside: he had found love, gotten a job, and was attending church regularly. But when the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided to reinstate his conviction, Crosley found himself returning to prison. Running out of options, his attorneys took his case to the highest court in the land: the U.S. Supreme Court.

Crosley Green won a major victory when his conviction was overturned in 2018. But two years later, he was still languishing in a Florida prison. How could that be? It would take a global pandemic and the tenacity of his legal team to give him a chance at freedom.

After Crosley Green's lawyers helped him get off death row, they went on to suggest he may have been the victim of a racially motivated hoax. New witnesses came forward to corroborate his whereabouts the night of Chip Flynn's murder, but would their accounts make a difference? Meanwhile, Erin uncovered a disturbing pattern of wrongful convictions in Brevard County while reporting on Crosley's case.

After four witnesses said they lied at Crosley Green's murder trial, their recantations drew the attention of the county's State's Attorney, who requested an investigation into Crosley's case. Eventually, key evidence would emerge that would change the course of Crosley’s life.

The first time 48 Hours Correspondent Erin Moriarty met Crosley Green, it was 1999 and he had been sitting on death row for nearly a decade. Moriarty had interviewed convicted killers before but soon discovered that no one was like Crosley Green. The more she looked into his case, the evidence didn't seem to add up. On a quest to find out the truth, Moriarty spoke to some of the prosecution witnesses who testified against Crosley. All these years later, they had very different stories to tell.