In 1981, a man named Phillip Workman robbed a local Wendy's restaurant at gunpoint while hot as he was trying to escape. However, police officers soon caught up to him and gunshots ensued. When the smoke finally cleared, an officer had been killed. Despite Phillips claims that he had never even sought a bullet in that officer's vicinity with all of the other officers testifying against him, he was soon sentenced to death for murder.

But over the following months and years, more and more new evidence began to come to light, suggesting that Philip had actually been telling the truth. It seemed like he really hadn't killed that officer. So what really happened? And was it all a police cover up? Let's find out. Welcome back, guys. My name is Andy Chang, and this is Hidden Stories.

Growing up, Phillip Ray Workman had a very rough childhood. He had never known his mom. And his dad was a very cruel man who never showed much love to him. As a result, Phillip ran away from home multiple times as a kid, and he was eventually sent to the Gatesville State School for Boys, a reform school for troubled teenagers in Texas.

Instead of being reformed the Gatesville, however, Phillip only continued to suffer. The teachers at the school would constantly, physically and emotionally abuse him and the other teenagers there. This abuse was so bad that Gatesville eventually had to be shut down for how students were being treated. But unfortunately, this didn't happen until more than a decade after Phillip had already been released from there in 1970 at age 17.

So when Phillip joined the U.S. Army soon after his release, he was extremely traumatized and vulnerable and quickly became addicted to hard drugs. Of course, this severe drug addiction stayed with him after he was discharged from the Army. Three years later, in 1973, almost immediately after his discharge, Phillip was sentenced to five years in prison in Georgia for burglary and drug possession.

He was simply trying to do anything he could to get his hands on the money he needed to satisfy his drug cravings. Luckily for him, though, he ended up getting off pretty lately, only serving just two years before being released. But unfortunately, he didn't learn his lesson. A couple of years later, on the night of August 5th, 1981, Phillip Workman entered a local Wendy's in Memphis, Tennessee.

He was armed with his 45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which is a detail that would become important later. Despite the fact that Phillip was married by this point and even had an eight year old daughter. He was high on the last bits of his cocaine supply and he desperately needed more. So after ordering a burger and then hanging out in the restaurant for almost an hour right before closing time, Phillip pulled out his gun and demanded that the remaining employees give him all the money in the cash register.

They quickly obliged and handed over around $1,170 in bills and coins before being instructed by Phillip to all sit down in the manager's office. Since Phillip didn't realize that he had no way to realistically escape without getting cut, he also took one of the employee's car keys. He was actually strangely considerate about this and even spent a few minutes struggling to get that employee's house key off of their keychain so that they would still be able to enter their home later that night.

But unfortunately for him, his choice to do this ended up destroying whatever chance that he had of being a free man ever again. While Phillip was struggling with the kitchen. One of the Wendy's employees suddenly had an idea. She told him that she had a cramp in her leg from sitting down and asked whether it was okay if she stood up for a bit.

Phillip said that was fine, but little did he know as that employee began to pace around a bit. She discreetly triggered the restaurant's silent alert, summoning police officers to the scene. And as Phillip was finally leaving the Wendy's, figuring that he still had some time left before the employees called the cops. And the cops arrived to the scene.

He was shocked to find them already outside. Three officers from the Memphis Police Department, Lieutenant Oliver, Officer Stoddard and Officer Parker were there to investigate the silent alarm that had been triggered. When Phillip saw these officers, he quickly tried to run away, but somehow a firefight soon broke out. In the end, Lieutenant Oliver was fatally wounded and killed.

And Officer Stoddard was shot in the arm. Phillip himself suffered some minor injuries to his backside from the pellets of an officer's sucker before finally being captured and arrested in an ordinary burglary case. That's where the story usually ends. But this was no ordinary case. In the coming weeks and months, it soon became apparent that Philip's account of what had happened and the two remaining police officers accounts were completely different.

From Philip's perspective, as he was trying to run away from the officers. He accidentally tripped on a curb and fell to the ground when he heard the pounding of the officer's footsteps getting closer and closer to him. He realized that it was hopeless to still try to escape. So he decided to surrender. According to him, he had kneeled on the ground and then yelled out, I can vote before taking his gun out of his pocket to hand it over.

But before Phillip knew what was happening, one of the officers suddenly slammed him over the head with their flashlight, causing Phillip's trigger finger to tighten and shoot his gun straight into the air. The minute this first gunshot went off, Philip disoriented and in a daze from the blow to his head, suddenly heard the officers begin to start shooting at him with their guns.

So we just took off running again, desperately fearing for his life. And apparently while Philip was running, he suddenly tripped again and accidentally fired a second gunshot, which was the bullet that ended up in Officer Stoddard's arm. However, Philip was adamant that those were the only two shots that he had fired and that he first sure hadn't ever fired his gun, even anywhere near Lieutenant Oliver, who had passed away.

The two remaining police officers, though, Officer Stoddard and Officer Parker insisted that Philip was lying. They claimed that not only had Philip actually fired a total of five shots, including the one that had killed Lieutenant Oliver. They also maintained that neither of them had ever fired their guns at all during the entire encounter. Lieutenant Oliver was the only one who had discharged his weapon, according to the two officers.

What did really happened was right when they had caught up to Philip in a drop him trying to put him in handcuffs. Philip suddenly took out his gun and intentionally fired it at officers, started hitting him in the arm as Officer Stoddard was ducking for cover. Dazed and trying to stop himself from losing too much blood. He had heard several more shots being fired, and by the time he finally put his head out to see what was happening, Lieutenant Oliver was already gravely wounded on the ground, firing his gun in Philip's direction.

But Philip was already gone. Well, this had all been unfolding. Officer Parker had apparently been on the other side of the restaurant trying to block Philip's escape route. By the time he had finally come rushing over after hearing gunshots, he had already missed everything that had happened. Although neither Officer Stoddard nor Officer Parker had actually witnessed Phillips shooting Lieutenant Oliver.

They insisted that he was the only one who could have killed it since they claimed that neither of them had ever fired their weapons. However, the initial collection of evidence from the crime scene seemed to actually support Philip's story over the two officers. Only two spent cartridges were ever found matching Philip's pistol, not five. Like the officers had stated.

Furthermore, after being arrested, Philip had been hospitalized to treat some sucking pellet wounds on his backside. Since Lieutenant Oliver hadn't been carrying a shotgun. This proved that the two officers hadn't been telling the complete truth and that at least one of them had fired their weapon that night. But despite these facts, when Philip Workman's case went to trial in 1982, a jury still found him guilty of the murder of Lieutenant Oliver, and he was sentenced to death.

This was pretty much entirely because of the testimony of a key witness named Harold Davis. Harold claimed that on the night of Lieutenant Oliver's murder, he had been sitting inside his car in the parking lot of that Wendy's when Philip had been running away from the cops. Harold stated that he had been just ten feet away and that he'd witnessed with his very own eyes, Philip deliberately aiming.

It's gone at Lieutenant Oliver before shooting and killing him, despite the fact that there was zero physical evidence corroborating this testimony since Harold insisted that he had remembered wrong and that he had clearly seen what had happened, the jury took what he was saying as the truth. Shockingly, no one had even thought to investigate Harold to see whether he was a credible witness or not to begin with, even though they had used his words to literally sentence a man to death.

No one ever took a minute to really question whether Harold was actually telling the truth or not. Everyone probably figured that no one would ever be sick enough to make this kind of testimony up and well, everyone was wrong. As it turns out, Harold Davis had never been mentioned and the police's initial search of the crime scene, nor had his car appeared in any photos and his name had never shown up on any witness list from the case either.

In fact, not a single person who had actually been at that Wendy's that night reported seeing Harold there. Not only that, a friend of Harold himself came out and admitted that on the night of Lieutenant Oliver's murder, Harold had been with her and that he had been lying about having witnessed the crime. It would later be revealed that Harold Davis actually had a history of scanning through news reports for crimes, and then coming forward to claim that he was a witness before simply telling the police what he knew they wanted to hear.

By doing this, he could collect the reward money for having any information related to the case, which he used to buy drugs for himself and his drug addiction. So basically, Harold Davis, his testimony, the only reason why the jury had even decided to find Philip guilty of murder in the first place had been a complete lie. He had made it up.

He hadn't even been there. Unfortunately, however, it wasn't until 1999 that Harold finally decided to admit this publicly. By then, Philip had already been on death row for more than 17 years. Apparently, Harold simply couldn't take the guilt anymore. During Philip's first trial back in 1982, midway through, Hayward had apparently realized that he would be responsible for ending another man's life for his own personal gain and wanted to back out of testifying.

According to Harold, however, right when he began to have these second thoughts, a large man had apparently showed up to his house, threatening both him and his family if he refused to continue lying about his witness statement. As a result, back then held, it felt that he had to continue testifying against Philip. But now, 17 years later, he finally wanted to admit the truth and help Philip get exonerated.

Now, by this point, Philip had already spent the past two decades trying to go through the frustratingly slow, borderline impossible process of appealing his death sentence. He had tried to sue the public defenders that he had been assigned in court, arguing that they had been against him from the start but had been unsuccessful. Similarly, he had also been unsuccessful in trying to receive a second trial to reopen his case and to take into consideration other evidence that may have been missed.

But when Harold finally came out and admitted that his testimony against Philip had been a complete lie, this changed everything. Before long, it was revealed that several other eyewitnesses from that fateful night had also come out and corroborated this, claiming that they'd never even seen Harold at the crime scene. Steve Craig, a man who would actually directly witness the shootout between the officers and Philip but couldn't testify at the 1982 trial since he was sick, also came out and signed a statement saying that he had had a clear view of the parking lot but had not seen Harold or his car there.

What Steve had seen, however, was one of the officers firing the shotgun, which was further evidence that the two officers may not have been entirely truthful about what had happened that night. When news began to spread about how Philip truly may not have been guilty of killing Lieutenant Oliver, he was soon able to find himself new lawyers to represent him in court.

Now, these lawyers were far more competent than those court appointed public defenders had been. The suit managed to convince two leading forensic experts, Dr. Chris Berry and Dr. Cyril Wecht, to reexamine the facts of Philip's case. Both men had decades of experience in forensic analysis. Dr. Chris Perry was the chief medical examiner for the state of Georgia. Dr. Subtle Wecht was the president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and had previously worked on several high profile cases, including the assassination of U.S. President John F Kennedy.

When these two men, each on their own, took a look at all of the evidence that had been collected and reported in Phillips case, they both came to the same conclusion. Philip Wortman had almost certainly not been the one who had shot and killed Lieutenant Oliver that night. Philip had been using a 45 caliber gun with hollow point ammunition.

Since hollow point bullets expand on impact. If they hit someone, the almost always remained stuck inside that person. But in the rare case, that hollow point bullets do have an exit wound. This exit wound is almost always bigger than the entry wound. However, the bullet that had killed Lieutenant Oliver not only had and stayed inside him, it had also left an exit wound that was considerably smaller than the entry wound.

Dr. Cyril Wecht went on to testify in court. It is my professional opinion based on a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the gunshot wound to Lieutenant Oliver is not consistent with the type of ammunition used by Mr. Philip Workman. I do not believe that it was Mr. Workman's gun that fired the shot that fatally wounded Lieutenant Oliver.

Similarly, Dr. Chris Berry also went on to testify that Lieutenant Oliver's wounds are inconsistent with every wound I've seen created by a 45 caliber silver tip hollow point bullet. In fact, according to both Dr. Wecht and Dr. Sperry, the injuries that Lieutenant Oliver had sustained were much more consistent with a 38 rope, the exact round that had been used by Officer Stoddard and Officer Parker that night.

All of a sudden, theories quickly started emerging about this entire case being a police cover up. What if that night Lieutenant Oliver had accidentally been killed in a friendly fire incident in the chaos of trying to chase Philip and to hide this fact, Officer Stoddard and Parker had just been trying to pin the murder on Philip himself. A fellow cop from the Memphis Police Department would eventually come out and testify that this is exactly what had happened.

The officers that attempted to get Philip executed to cover up the true cause of Lieutenant Oliver's death. However, no formal investigation was ever launched into these accusations in the wake of all of this new evidence coming to light, though. Five of the jurors who had originally convicted Philip of murder back in 1982 came out and signed affidavits publicly renouncing their verdict.

These individuals claimed that had all of this new evidence been presented back then during the trial, they would have found Philip guilty like they had. In addition, the original prosecuting attorney also now spoke out in support of Philip. Two justices on the Tennessee Supreme Court called for a lighter sentence for him as well. And even Lieutenant Oliver's own daughter came out and called for clemency for him.

But despite all of these new developments in Phillip's case, for some insane reason, nothing was immediately done, and his execution date remained the exact seat it was until March 30, 2001. A mere 37 minutes before Philip was scheduled to die. But the Tennessee Supreme Court finally overruled a lower court's decision to deny his appeal and granted him a bit more time so that his case could be reevaluated.

A bunch of hearings were soon held to examine all of the new evidence in court. Once again, Philip's fate relied almost completely on the testimony of Harold Davis. A full admission of guilt from Harold would likely mean that Philip could get a new trial and would be saved from the death penalty. But of course, the moment he started getting questioned in courts about whether he had intentionally lied under oath during the first trial, he suddenly lost his nerve.

Despite having previously publicly stated that he had made everything up about seeing Philip suitably telling Oliver. During these hearings, he would simply stated that he hadn't actually lied in his testimony. He just hadn't remembered everything from that night as clearly as he thought he had. But unfortunately, this just wasn't enough. On January 7th, 2002, the same judge that had sentenced Philip to death back in 1982 ruled that the new evidence presented by Philip's lawyers was insufficient to warrant a new trial for him.

More specifically, the judge was unconvinced of Phillips innocence since Hale Davis had not fully recanted his original testimony. And also because Dr. Wecht and Dr. Sperry could not say without a shadow of a doubt that Philip had not killed Lieutenant Oliver as a result. Philip was given a new execution date of September 24, 2003. Over the next few years, this date was further delayed several more times as Philip and his lawyers continued to try and appeal his case in any way that they possibly could.

However, in May of 2007, these appeals finally ran out for his last meal request. Philip asked for a large vegetarian pizza instead of eating it himself, though he requested that it be given to a random homeless person in the local area wanting to do one last act of good before his death. But for some reason, his request was rejected by the prison officials.

So in protest, Philip refused to eat anything for his last meal instead. And on the night of May 9th, 27, he was executed at the age of 53 by method of lethal injection. His last words were, I prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ, not the charge of my death to any man. Following Philip's death, people all around the country were deeply touched by his last name.

You were blessed and furious with the Riverbend Maximum Security institution that he was being held at for not honoring this request. Over the next few days, people came together to donate hundreds of pizzas to various homeless shelters across Tennessee in Philip's name. To this day, Philip Workman story remains one of the most controversial and dubious death row executions in American history.

Of course, nothing is known for certain, but no one can deny that his case needed a whole lot more due process before coming to any conclusions. Take care, guys, and I'll see you all next week.