A fascinating podcast about watching the Cowboys on death row.
Podcasts don’t come much better than Pablo Torre Finds Out, in which the eponymous host explores topics ranging from athlete-branded weed to the science of tearing down a goalpost to the Prince documentary Netflix doesn’t want you to see. It’s great, but me being a busy dude and all, I’ll cop to falling behind on episodes. That’s how, 14 days later, I belatedly came across what Torre calls “what might be the best episode of my show, to date.”
It’s about a man named Charles Flores, who in 1999 was convicted for his role in the murder of 64-year-old Betty Black during an attempted burglary in her Farmers Branch home. A different man pleaded guilty to shooting Black. But Flores, as an alleged accomplice in the murder, faced the same capital murder charge because of a Texas statute called the law of parties. He was sentenced to death. Flores maintained his innocence and real questions remain about whether he was even present. Without getting into particulars before the show can, his execution was halted in May 2016. Four years later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied his appeal to contest the original conviction, leaving him on death row. He awaits a new execution date from a cell inside the supermax prison in Livingston.
The episode is a compelling listen for the criminal justice elements alone. But what pulled me in is how it examined the world of football culture in solitary confinement, where Flores spends 23 hours every day. That doesn’t stop him from watching his Dallas Cowboys or cooking game day meals and playing fantasy football with other inmates, not all of whom will live to see next football season. Think you’re a dedicated fan of America’s Team? You may not measure up to a guy who watches each game by sitting on stacks of legal correspondence and peering through holes in the grated door of his cell to watch the Cowboys on the prison’s 35-inch community TV.