Michelle Murphy

The Crime

At about 6 a.m. on Sept. 12, 1994, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were summoned to the townhouse of 17-year-old Michelle Murphy who said she had awakened and found her 15-week-old son, Travis, on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood.

The baby had a puncture wound in his chest and a deep laceration of his neck that resulted in a near decapitation. 

Earlier in the year, Ms. Murphy had separated from her husband, Harold Wood, but she still lived with him, along with Travis and her two-year-old daughter, also named Michelle and called “Little Michelle.”

The Investigation

Although Oklahoma law prohibited police from questioning minors without a parent or guardian present, Ms. Murphy, who was barefoot and clad only in shorts and a T-shirt, was interrogated alone for eight hours. Her interrogator, Detective Mike Cook, had a tape recorder throughout the entire interrogation but recorded only the last 20 minutes. 

By 2 p.m., Detective Cook said Ms. Murphy had confessed and gave a statement in which she said that she had a dream in which she was holding a knife and quarreling with another woman. She said she leaned over Travis and “accidentally fell,” causing Travis to be stabbed. No knife, however, was ever linked to the crime. Her statement did not explain the severity of the wound, and she had no blood on her or her clothing.

Soon after, Detective Cook discovered a 911 call had been placed at about 3:00 a.m. The caller said that Ms. Murphy and her husband were quarreling in the townhouse and that the caller had heard what sounded like a knife being thrown against the wall.

In response to that call, police had gone to the townhouse. They found the front door partially opened — about six inches wide — and a chair pushed against a screen door that prevented entry. The officers shined a flashlight through the opening and saw Ms. Murphy sleeping on a couch with a two-year-old child sleeping at her feet, propped up in the corner of the couch. They did not see an infant. The officers knocked and when Ms. Murphy did not awaken, the officers left.

A neighborhood resident who had walked near Ms. Murphy’s house shortly after 3 a.m. reported seeing 14-year-old William Lee run past wearing only a pair of dark shorts. Mr. Lee told police he had made the 911 call.

On September 14, Mr. Lee was questioned by Detective Cook. Mr. Lee said that he was walking the neighborhood because he could not sleep and heard Ms. Murphy and Mr. Wood arguing. Mr. Lee said he called 911 and went home, but left his apartment again at about 4:30 a.m. and again walked by Ms. Murphy’s townhouse.

Mr. Lee said that this time, as he peered through the window of the townhouse, he saw Ms. Murphy carry Travis, who was alive, from the living room into the kitchen. Mr. Lee said that although the blinds on the kitchen window were shut, he was able to see through holes in the blinds that the baby was on the floor in a pool of blood and Ms. Murphy had blood spots on her arms. Mr. Lee said he then went home and did not call the police.

Mr. Lee’s account was filled with erroneous information. He said Ms. Murphy had been punched and her eye was puffy. Ms. Murphy’s mug shot showed that was false. Mr. Lee said he had hidden behind some bushes, but there were no bushes by the apartment. The blinds, according to crime scene photos, were open, not shut. Mr. Lee claimed he heard Ms. Murphy turn the water in the kitchen sink on and off to wash blood off her hands. However, the sink trap did not reveal any trace of blood.

Based on her confession, Ms. Murphy was charged with first-degree murder. Little Michelle was placed with a foster family.

The Trial

By the time Ms. Murphy went on trial in Tulsa County District Court in November 1995, Mr. Lee was dead. Consequently, the tape recording of his testimony at a preliminary hearing, although problematic, was played for the jury.

At the hearing, Mr. Lee had testified that Detective Cook had provided him with some information about the crime scene. Mr. Lee also testified that he knew how to kill someone without getting blood on himself. The prosecution also presented Ms. Murphy’s confession, testimony from a crime scene analyst, and testimony from Detective Cook.

Detective Cook admitted during his testimony that he touched Ms. Murphy during the interrogation, claiming he was “examining” her for evidence that she had been molested or attacked. He admitted he touched her head and examined her thighs.

Detective Cook testified that his entire investigation — after obtaining the statement from Ms. Murphy — consisted of his interrogation of Mr. Lee, an interview with one of Ms. Murphy’s neighbors, a visit to the townhouse to look at the blinds that Mr. Lee said he looked through, and going back to Ms. Murphy’s vacant townhouse six months after the murder. Detective  Cook told the jury no suspect had ever falsely confessed to him, a claim later shown to be false.

Serology tests had been performed on numerous blood samples collected from the crime scene. The prosecution had informed the defense that all the blood samples collected were determined to be from Travis. However, at the trial, a crime lab analyst falsely testified that Travis’ blood type could not be determined because he was too young, that all the blood around the baby was the same blood type, and that blood type AB had been found as well. The analyst said Ms. Murphy could not be ruled out as the source of the type AB blood.

In fact, the analyst had determined that Travis had type O blood and Ms. Murphy had type A blood, which excluded both of them as the source of the AB blood. That information was not disclosed to Ms. Murphy’s defense attorney. The lab’s analysis of all the blood samples from the scene failed to find any of Ms. Murphy’s type A blood.

The defense called Ms. Murphy’s estranged husband, Harold Wood, who testified that he was not in the townhouse that night. He said he was with other friends. Several of those friends testified that Mr. Wood was with them that night. The defense argued that Mr. Lee was the killer.

Ms. Murphy testified and denied killing Travis. She asserted that someone had to have committed the crime as she slept. Ms. Murphy said her confession was false. She said she made the admission because Detective Cook was pressuring her and she wanted the questioning to end.

In rebuttal, Assistant District Attorney Harris called Scott Richie to the witness stand. Mr. Richie testified that about a month after the murder, Mr. Wood told him that he had been at the townhouse on the night of the killing and that he and Ms. Murphy had quarreled because Mr. Wood suspected that he was not Travis’ father. According to Mr. Richie, Mr. Wood said that he told Ms. Murphy that if she got rid of the child, he would move back in with her.

Although Assistant District Attorney Harris had printed out records showing that Mr. Richie had numerous prior convictions and at least three hospitalizations in a mental institution, those records were not disclosed to the defense. Consequently, Ms. Murphy’s lawyer did not question Mr. Richie about his mental health issues. He also failed to question Mr. Richie about his past convictions. Mr. Richie was the last witness the jury heard.

During closing arguments, despite having lab reports that showed that none of Ms. Murphy’s blood was found at the scene, Assistant District Attorney Harris suggested to the jury that Ms. Murphy’s blood was present and that it was proof that she killed Travis.

On Nov. 19, 1995, the jury convicted Ms. Murphy of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Her daughter was placed for adoption.

In 1997, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed her conviction and sentence.

The Exoneration

At the time of the murder, Ms. Murphy had been studying to obtain a high school equivalency credential. One of her instructors, Susan Jones, believed Ms. Murphy was innocent. For more than 15 years after the conviction, Ms. Jones attempted to get legal help for Ms. Murphy. In 2011, she persuaded Tulsa lawyers Richard and Sharisse O’Carroll to begin re-investigating the case.

The lawyers discovered that the prosecution knew that the type AB blood that was found at the scene could not have come from either Ms. Murphy or Travis.

They also discovered that Detective Cook — who testified that he never had a person falsely confess — had in fact obtained a false confession from an 18-year-old in 1989. 

In January 2014, Innocence Project lawyers Barry Scheck and Karen Thompson joined Ms. Murphy’s defense team and filed a motion for DNA testing. 

On May 29, 2014, after DNA testing on the bloodstains revealed the DNA profile of an unknown male, which was not that of William Lee, Mr. Harris, who by then was the elected district attorney for Tulsa County, filed a motion to vacate Ms. Murphy’s conviction. Ms. Murphy was released on bond on May 30, 2014.

On Sept. 12, 2014, the charges were dismissed. Tulsa County District Court Judge William Kellough declared Ms. Murphy innocent. 

In 2015, Ms. Murphy received $175,000 in compensation from the state of Oklahoma.