PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "A 2020 Dallas Morning News investigation examined the use of investigative hypnosis in Texas, and reported that since the 1980s, the Texas Department of Public Safety used investigative hypnosis in criminal investigations at least 1,700 times, leading to prison sentences for dozens of people and death sentences for others. Experts identified for The News four concerns with the use of hypnosis by Texas law enforcement in criminal investigations: suggestibility affects subjects, critical-thinking abilities may diminish, “confabulation” occurs when subjects fill memory gaps with fictional events, and fabricated memories can solidify through “memory cementation” over time."
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "On the heels of this reporting, Texas Rangers (law enforcement) ceased using hypnosis in investigations and lawmakers passed legislation in 2023 that ultimately bans the use of hypnosis-based testimony in criminal proceedings. Mr. Flores did not obtain relief under this new law, as it does not apply retroactively, despite state leaders’ acknowledgement of the unreliability of the technique as evidence."
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STORY: "Football, Death Row, and Hypnotized Witness Testimony: The Case of Charles Flores by Communications Associate Hayley Bedard, published by The Death Penalty Information Center, on February 9, 2026.
Among the more than 100 million Americans watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, Charles Flores (pictured) watched from a 9‑by-12-foot cell in Livingston, Texas, marking his 27th Super Bowl on death row for a crime he has maintained he did not commit.
In a podcast interview with Pablo Torre, a journalist and sportswriter, Mr. Flores sat down at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to discuss his love of the Dallas Cowboys, watching the Super Bowl on death row, the intricacies of his fight to prove his innocence, and how his conviction hinges on the use of a hypnotized witness.
In conversation with Mr. Torre, Mr. Flores described what it means to follow football from solitary confinement, where he spends 23 hours a day in a cell.
On game days, he stacks legal documents from his decades-long case to create a makeshift stool, positioning himself close enough to see through the wire cutouts to a communal television mounted 30 feet down the hall. “When it’s third and 10 or whatever, I get up,” Mr. Flores said. “I have to get as close as I can get.”
Mr. Flores received access to his first television in 2023, after 24 years without one. The first game he watched was the Super Bowl between Kansas City and Philadelphia.
He described this experience as “amazing” and spoke to Mr. Torre about how football serves a specific purpose beyond entertainment for prisoners on death row: “When you’re sent to prison, you’re taken away from your people, your clan, from everything you know and love,” he said. “Being a fan — me being a Cowboy fan or the brothers back there being super hype about the Houston Texans — that’s their connection to the free world. It’s not just them. It’s mom at home. It’s dad at home.”
Mr. Flores was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the 1998 robbery and murder of Elizabeth “Betty” Black in her Texas home.
He was convicted based on the testimony of Jill Barganier, one of Ms. Black’s neighbors, who only identified Mr. Flores after being hypnotized by police — 13 months after the crime occurred. No DNA or physical evidence ties Mr. Flores to the crime.
The jury did not know that immediately following the crime, Ms. Barganier described two individuals who came out of Ms. Black’s home who did not look like Mr. Flores, and she failed to identify him in a photo line-up at that time.
The first time she identified Mr. Flores was during trial, after she had gone through the investigative hypnosis and had been exposed to Mr. Flores’ photo on multiple occasions.
At the time of the crime, Ms. Barganier told the police she recognized one of the two men she saw as Richard Childs, whom she knew.
She was unable to identify the second individual, even after being shown images of Mr. Flores.
Under hypnosis by a police-employed hypnotist, she repeated her identification of the second man, characterizing both individuals as white men with similar builds and long hair.
Mr. Flores did not match her description — he is Hispanic and wore his hair shaved short — contradicting each of the identifying factors brought to law enforcement’s attention.
Following the hypnosis session, Ms. Barganier again failed to identify Mr. Flores in a photo-lineup of only Hispanic males, none of whom matched the description she provided of the second individual.
Mr. Childs confessed to shooting Ms. Black, pled guilty and was sentenced to a term of 35 years with parole eligibility after 17 years.
He was released on parole in April 2016.
Mr. Flores at the time admitted to his involvement in the drug trade but maintained he was not involved in Ms. Black’s death.
Under Texas’ law of parties, a person can be charged with capital murder and sentenced to death if they participated in a felony that resulted in a murder, even if they did not kill anyone themselves.
The law holds accomplices equally responsible as the person who committed the killing. Mr. Flores was convicted under this statute as a knowing participant in the robbery and murder.
In 2016, Mr. Flores came within five days of execution before his date was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) to allow him to litigate a claim that prosecutors unconstitutionally obtained his conviction through the use of unreliable hypnotically refreshed testimony.
According to an affidavit Mr. Flores submitted to the court from psychology professor Steven Lynn, research has linked “hypnotic refreshment” with the creation of false memories. “Clearly, the techniques that were used to refresh [the witness’s] memory would be eschewed today by anyone at all familiar with extant research on hypnosis and memory,” Prof. Lynn wrote.
Mr. Flores learned about his stay of execution while listening to the same radio that he had listened to football games on and told Mr. Torre that “it was surreal.” Despite the evidence discrediting hypnotic refreshment, the state court rejected Mr. Flores’ appeal in 2017, and in 2020, the TCCA upheld the ruling.
A 2020 Dallas Morning News investigation examined the use of investigative hypnosis in Texas, and reported that since the 1980s, the Texas Department of Public Safety used investigative hypnosis in criminal investigations at least 1,700 times, leading to prison sentences for dozens of people and death sentences for others.
Experts identified for The News four concerns with the use of hypnosis by Texas law enforcement in criminal investigations: suggestibility affects subjects, critical-thinking abilities may diminish, “confabulation” occurs when subjects fill memory gaps with fictional events, and fabricated memories can solidify through “memory cementation” over time.
On the heels of this reporting, Texas Rangers (law enforcement) ceased using hypnosis in investigations and lawmakers passed legislation in 2023 that ultimately bans the use of hypnosis-based testimony in criminal proceedings.
Mr. Flores did not obtain relief under this new law, as it does not apply retroactively, despite state leaders acknowledgment of the unreliability of the technique as evidence.
In June 2025, counsel for Mr. Flores filed a motion arguing he should be granted a new trial because of changes in the understanding of witness testimony and changes in law regarding the use of hypnotized witnesses since 1999.
Among the filings were new expert declarations that cast even further doubt on the integrity of Mr. Flores’ conviction. In October 2025, the petition was dismissed because the court considered it procedurally barred. The merits of Mr. Flores’ claims have still not been addressed.
Mr. Flores has exhausted all his appeals. He told Mr. Torre, “I just want a fair review. I just want a fair shot.” Mr. Flores noted that the Dallas District Attorney’s Office has a Conviction Integrity Unit and hopes that the unit will consider reviewing his case and actual innocence claim.
, despite state leaders’ acknowledgement of the unreliability of the technique as evidence.
In June 2025, counsel for Mr. Flores filed a motion arguing he should be granted a new trial because of changes in the understanding of witness testimony and changes in law regarding the use of hypnotized witnesses since 1999.
Among the filings were new expert declarations that cast even further doubt on the integrity of Mr. Flores’ conviction. In October 2025, the petition was dismissed because the court considered it procedurally barred. The merits of Mr. Flores’ claims have still not been addressed.
Mr. Flores has exhausted all his appeals. He told Mr. Torre, “I just want a fair review. I just want a fair shot.” Mr. Flores noted that the Dallas District Attorney’s Office has a Conviction Integrity Unit andhopes that the unit will consider reviewing his case and actual innocence claim."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AMFINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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