Whole Foods closes flagship San Francisco store over employee safety concerns

Whole Foods closes flagship San Francisco store over employee safety concerns
Whole Foods closes flagship San Francisco store over employee safety concerns
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

(SAN FRANCISCO) — Whole Foods is temporarily closing a large store in downtown San Francisco due to concerns over employee safety, the company said on Wednesday.

The closure arrives roughly a week after the high-profile killing of Cash App Founder Bob Lee in San Francisco, which sparked crime fears among some city residents.

Overall, crime in San Francisco is down nearly 10% this year compared to last year, but homicides are up 20% and robberies are up more than 13%, San Francisco crime data shows.

The Whole Foods store, which spans nearly 65,000 square feet, opened last year at Trinity Place in the city’s Mid Market neighborhood.

A company press release announcing the store’s opening in March 2022 referred to the location as a “flagship store.”

Whole Foods opted to close the location to “ensure worker safety,” the company said, noting that all of the employees would be transferred to nearby locations.

“We have made the difficult decision to close the Trinity store for the time being,” the company said in a statement.

Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, said it would assess a reopening of the store if it feels it can protect employees at the location.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Matt Dorsey said he was “incredibly disappointed but sadly unsurprised” with the decision.

“Our neighborhood waited a long time for this supermarket, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them,” he added.

The store cut its operating hours last year due to theft and hostility among its customers, the San Francisco Standard reported.

Whole Foods operates eight other locations in the San Francisco area.

In California, violent crime increased by 6% last year but remained well below a peak experienced in the early 1990s, according to a report from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released in October.

The Whole Foods announcement stoked criticism from some prominent Republican figures over the threat of crime in major U.S. cities, which are typically run by Democratic mayors.

Violent crime in U.S. urban areas increased by 4.4% over the year ending in June 2022, a study from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found. However, instances of homicide and rape fell over that period, the study showed.

After the murder of Lee on April 4, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said in a statement that the city does not tolerate violent crime.

“There is no place for this kind of violent crime against anyone in our city,” Scott said.

“I want to assure everyone that our investigators are working tirelessly to make an arrest and bring justice to Mr. Lee and his loved ones, just as we try to do on every homicide that occurs in our city.”

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed reporting.

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Manhattan DA receives new suspicious white powder envelope: Police sources

Manhattan DA receives new suspicious white powder envelope: Police sources
Manhattan DA receives new suspicious white powder envelope: Police sources
Kena Betancur/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The New York City Police Department is responding to a new threatening letter sent to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, according to police sources.

The sources told ABC News the letter contained a white powder and was discovered just after 3 p.m. in the basement mailroom at 80 Centre Street.

There are no reports of injuries or sickness.

The NYPD, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Office of Emergency Management are all responding, authorities said.

This is at least the second time Bragg has received a letter containing a suspicious white powder since former President Donald Trump started writing on social media about his impending indictment.

Bragg has been receiving additional security protection.

His lawsuit against House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said the office has received more than a thousand threatening or harassing calls and emails. Bragg himself has received “multiple” death threats since Trump’s indictment, police sources told ABC News.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Music notes: Post Malone, Taylor Swift and more

Music notes: Post Malone, Taylor Swift and more
Music notes: Post Malone, Taylor Swift and more

The music video for Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Psycho” just surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. The 2018 song is Posty’s fifth entry in the Billion Views Clubs and Ty Dolla’s third.

After Millie Bobby Brown seemingly announced her engagement to Jake Bongiovi using a Taylor Swift “Lover” lyric, Taylor gave her stamp of approval by liking the post. In the post, Millie is seen embracing Jake while showing off a diamond ring on her left finger. “I’ve loved you three summers now, honey, I want ’em all,” she wrote, quoting Taylor.

The Jonas Brothers have been added to the lineup of Pharrell WilliamsSomething in the Water festival. The three-day fest takes place Friday, April 28, to Sunday, April 30, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Weeknd is teasing what to expect from The Idol‘s soundtrack. In a social media post Wednesday, he shared a clip of himself and producer Mike Dean in the studio watching an orchestra play a sweeping instrumental arrangement. “THE IDOL VOL. 1,” he captioned the clip along with a CD emoji. “coming soon (double fantasy & jealous guy just a taste).” It’s rumored that The Weeknd will premiere HBO’s The Idol at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Music notes: Taylor Swift, Neil Diamond and more

Music notes: Taylor Swift, Neil Diamond and more
Music notes: Taylor Swift, Neil Diamond and more

After Millie Bobby Brown seemingly announced her engagement to Jake Bongiovi using a Taylor Swift “Lover” lyric, Taylor gave her stamp of approval by liking the post. In the post, Millie is seen embracing Jake while showing off a diamond ring on her left finger. “I’ve loved you three summers now, honey, I want ’em all,” she wrote, quoting Taylor.

The Jonas Brothers have been added to the lineup of Pharrell WilliamsSomething in the Water festival. The three-day fest takes place Friday, April 28, to Sunday, April 30, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The producers of the Broadway show A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical have raised $500,000 for the Parkinson’s Foundation in honor of Diamond, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2018. To support the ongoing fundraising efforts, visit Parkinson.org/ABeautifulNoise.

Céline Dion‘s new rom-com, Love Again, will be hitting theaters earlier than anticipated. Deadline reports the film, also starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan, will premiere on May 5 instead of May 12. Céline plays herself in the film and contributes new songs to the soundtrack.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Jon M. Chu steering adaptation of musical ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ for Amazon Studios

Jon M. Chu steering adaptation of musical ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ for Amazon Studios
Jon M. Chu steering adaptation of musical ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ for Amazon Studios
Nick Argo/©Academy Museum Foundation

Call it the Amazon Technicolor Dreamcoat: Deadline reports Jon M. Chu, veteran of Crazy Rich Asians and the musical In The Heights, has inked a deal with Amazon Studios to bring Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to theaters. 

Chu is currently in London, calling the shots on the big-screen bow of another Broadway smash, Wicked, which will star Grammy winners Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, as well as newly minted Oscar winner and his former Crazy Rich Asians co-star Michelle Yeoh

The filmmaker said he’s been dreaming of directing a Joseph movie, according to the trade, which notes his In The Heights producer Scott Sanders will help bring the Old Testament musical to the big screen.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Bono’s illustrations inspire new take on ‘Peter & The Wolf’

Bono’s illustrations inspire new take on ‘Peter & The Wolf’
Bono’s illustrations inspire new take on ‘Peter & The Wolf’
Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Bono is lending his talent to a new animated short film based on the Sergei Prokofiev classic symphony Peter & The Wolf.

Deadline reports the project, which has been given the go-ahead by Max and Cartoon Network, will turn the story into a contemporary tale, with artwork inspired by Bono’s original illustrations, and music and narration by composer Gavin Friday. It is based on a 2003 project by the pair, which they did for the Irish Hospice Foundation. 

The story follows a 12-year-old Peter, who is dealing with the loss of a parent. He heads into the forest to search for a reported wolf on the loose and comes across creatures who help him on the search, as well as hunters trying to capture the wolf for a prize. 

“The messaging of vigilance, bravery, and resilience that were core to the original symphony are still echoed throughout our interpretation, but we spin a traditional fairy tale into a unique adaptation that also incorporates the topic of loss, redemption, and recovery,” Friday and Bono said. “It’s our hope that this Peter & the Wolf becomes a balm for any child dealing with loss, alongside exposing and captivating them into the wonderful and musical world of Prokofiev.”

Peter & The Wolf is expected to premiere later this year.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Fox News sanctioned by judge in Dominion defamation case over discovery delays

Fox News sanctioned by judge in Dominion defamation case over discovery delays
Fox News sanctioned by judge in Dominion defamation case over discovery delays
Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — A judge overseeing Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News on Wednesday imposed a sanction against the network after it made “misrepresentations” to the court and potentially withheld evidence.

Dominion’s lawsuit accuses Fox News of knowingly pushing false conspiracy theories that the voting machine company had somehow rigged the 2020 presidential election in Joe Biden’s favor, so the network could retain viewers.

The judge said during a pretrial hearing on Wednesday that Fox News would have to pay for any last-minute additional depositions that Dominion would need to do before the case is set to head to trial on Monday. Dominion did not immediately make clear if any such depositions were needed.

“If there is a deposition that needs to be done, it will be done,” Judge Eric Davis said. “Fox will do everything it needs to make the person available, and it will be at the cost of Fox.”

But potentially more significantly, the judge said he would “most likely” appoint a special master to “do an investigation” into whether representations by Fox made to the court as part of the case were “untrue or negligent” — including a certification it had made in December that it had essentially completed its discovery process in accordance with the case.

The special master was already involved in the case to oversee the discovery process, but the new investigation will determine “what sanctions could be implemented” against Fox, the judge said — a significant development on the eve of trial.

“This is very serious,” Judge Davis said of the issue.

The unexpected move came in response to concerns raised by Dominion that Fox News was still turning over evidence in the case, and that in some instances Dominion was still learning of evidence from the public domain. This included, for example, an internal recording they said they only recently obtained appearing to show former President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani privately expressing doubts over the claims regarding Dominion’s voting software.

The recordings, Dominion’s attorney said, were made by a Fox News producer, Abby Grossberg, on her phone during the pre-taping of an interview Giuliani gave on the network on November 8, 2020.

“What about this software, this Dominion software?” Fox News host Maria Bartiromo could be heard asking Giuliani on the recording, which was played out in court.

“That’s a little harder, it’s being analyzed right now,” Giuliani said.

Dominion’s attorney, Davida Brooks, said the interview “marched forward” even after Giuliani failed to give credence to the question. She said the recordings were “obviously relevant” and expressed concern over what else might exist that Fox has not turned over as evidence.

“What I don’t know is, are there more recordings?” Brooks asked the judge.

An attorney for Fox pushed back, claiming they had handed over all relevant documents and that they were not aware the recordings existed until recently.

“They are recordings of a Fox employee,” Davis responded. “How could Fox not know?”

Grossberg is engaged in separate litigation with the network, claiming in a lawsuit that that she was “coerced” by Fox’s attorneys as part of her deposition in the case.

In a statement issued after the hearing, Fox said, “As counsel explained to the Court, FOX produced the supplemental information from Ms. Grossberg when we first learned it.”

Also Wednesday, the judge questioned Fox attorneys over allegations from Dominion that the network had concealed the official role of Rupert Murdoch as an officer at Fox News. Although Murdoch is the chairman of the network’s parent company, Fox Corporation, Dominion said Fox News’ lack of disclosure regarding Murdoch’s position with Fox News had hindered, among other things, their ability to obtain evidence regarding him.

“We have been litigating based on this false premise that Rupert Murdoch wasn’t an officer of Fox News,” Dominion’s attorney, Justin Nelson, told the judge. Nelson also pointed out that Murdoch himself said during his deposition that he was not an officer of Fox News.

The judge appeared taken aback by the revelation, which first arose on Tuesday, saying Fox attorneys had been “evasive.”

“I need people to tell me the truth,” Davis said on Tuesday. “And by the way, omission is a lie.”

Davis said he was ordering Fox attorneys to preserve all communications related to the issue.

“I’m very uncomfortable right now,” Davis said. “I’m going to let you know — I’m very uncomfortable.”

Fox’s attorney, Dan Webb, said that Murdoch himself “did not know” that he was an executive of the network. An attorney for Fox on Tuesday had said it was an “honorific” title.

“I don’t think there’s any documents withheld related to Rupert Murdoch that are relevant to this case,” Webb said. “Nobody intentionally withheld information with them.”

In a statement on Tuesday night Fox pushed back on the idea that Murdoch’s status at Fox News had been concealed.

“Rupert Murdoch has been listed as executive chairman of FOX News in our SEC filings since 2019 and this filing was referenced by Dominion’s own attorney during his deposition,” Fox said in the statement.

“Now the question becomes, ‘What do I do with attorneys that aren’t straightforward with me?'” Judge Davis said. “That’s the next question.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Designs of the new Uvalde elementary school revealed

Designs of the new Uvalde elementary school revealed
Designs of the new Uvalde elementary school revealed
Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation

(UVALDE, Texas) — Eulalio “Lalo” Diaz Jr. reminded the small gathering in Uvalde, Texas, that their community “is known as the tree city,” as the Uvalde Moving Forward Foundation announced their new elementary plans and schematic design.

Diaz, a representative of the Uvalde CISD Community Advisory Committee, said Tuesday that when a new elementary school is built in the community, a prominent feature will be a tree with 21 branches – one branch for each of the people killed at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, in a mass shooting. Two branches will be larger than the rest and they will represent the teachers who were killed: Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles. Another 19 branches will memorialize each of the children who lost their lives in the adjoining fourth-grade classes that day last spring.

Diaz said that trees show “strength and stability.”

Robb Elementary, closed since the shooting, will be torn down. The new school, yet to be named, is scheduled to be open by fall 2024.

“This [tree] will be the anchor to hold up the school,” said Diaz.

Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series focused on the Uvalde community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.

The committee worked alongside the Uvalde school district’s Moving Forward Foundation, a nonprofit tasked with collecting funds for the construction of a new elementary campus in the school district. The committee – composed of educators, parents and other community members – was set up to provide input and bring differing perspectives to the design and needs of a new $60 million elementary school.

Committee co-chair Natalie Arias was born and raised in Uvalde and said she has a unique perspective because she is an educator at Uvalde High School and a mother of four children.

“It was very hard,” Arias told ABC News. “I grew up going to school at Robb Elementary. I loved Robb. It was some of the best times of my life.”

Specifically, it was hard for Arias to come to terms with the new location because she worried there would be a gap of schools in the west side of the city, a neighborhood known to be underserved than others in Uvalde. But after weeks of discussion, the committee realized the final site selection would be beneficial because it borders Dalton Elementary and therefore, students can share facilities.

The proposed school will comprise three buildings: the academic wing with a library, dining hall and gymnasium. The committee drew inspiration not only from native oak trees that can be found throughout multiple neighborhoods in Uvalde, but other elements of Uvalde’s fabric including Texas sunsets, monarch butterflies that migrate through the city and honey production. Each of these elements will impact the color scheme throughout the school to be “whimsically, kid-friendly” according to the committee.

“One day I will have a discussion with my children [when they are older] and explain how their beautiful school came to be,” Arias told ABC News.

The committee will present the schematic design to the school district board for approval on Monday, April 17.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Bob Dylan covers Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’” at Japan show

Bob Dylan covers Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’” at Japan show
Bob Dylan covers Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’” at Japan show
Dave J Hogan/Getty Images for ABA

Bob Dylan is currently in Japan with his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, and he surprised fans at his recent show at the Tokyo Garden Theater with a Grateful Dead cover.

Rolling Stone reports that while Dylan doesn’t usually stray too far from the same set list each night on this tour, for his show Wednesday he added the Dead classic “Truckin’,” the first time he’s ever covered the song.  

“Truckin’,” written by Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Robert Hunter, appeared on the Grateful Dead’s 1970 album, American Beauty. It was one of the 66 songs Dylan wrote about in his book The Philosophy of Modern Song, which came out last year.

Dylan’s tour of Japan still has three more shows at the Tokyo Garden Theater, April 14-16. He then wraps the tour with three shows in Nagoya, April 18-20. Dylan returns to the road in June for a European tour that kicks off June 2 in Lisbon, Portugal. A complete list of dates can be found at bobdylan.com.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Man ordered back to prison 2 years after his murder conviction was set aside

Man ordered back to prison 2 years after his murder conviction was set aside
Man ordered back to prison 2 years after his murder conviction was set aside
Crowell & Moring law firm

(TITUSVILLE, Fla.) — When Crosley Green was released from a Florida prison in 2021 after serving 33 years for a murder he said he did not commit, he and family members who met him outside the penitentiary walls believed his long nightmare was over. As loved ones hugged Green and cried tears of joy, his lawyers said they were confident evidence discovered after his conviction would exonerate him.

Green, however, has been ordered back to prison next week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rejected his claim that his guilty verdict was obtained in violation of his constitutional rights. The appellate court described the evidence uncovered post-trial as “strictly circumscribed” and concluded it would not have changed the outcome of his 1990 conviction by an all-white Brevard County, Florida, jury.

“The most important thing is an innocent man has served 33 years in prison and is going back in for a crime he didn’t commit,” one of Green’s attorneys, Jeane Thomas, told ABC News.

Thomas said three key prosecution witnesses, including Green’s sister, recanted testimony that Green, who is Black, confessed to fatally shooting Charles “Chip” Flynn, a 21-year-old white man during a 1989 carjacking, alleging they were all coerced by prosecutors and investigators into lying on the witness stand.

Additionally, Green’s legal team said the prosecution never turned over to the defense evidence that the two sheriff’s deputies who initially responded to the shooting did not believe the sole eyewitness, Flynn’s ex-girlfriend, a white teenager, who claimed a “Black guy” committed the slaying.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in late February not to review Green’s case, exhausting his final appeal.

Green, 65, is scheduled to report to the Florida Department of Corrections by Monday to resume his life sentence. But, he said he has not given up and hopes he will walk free again.

“It’s bad, but it ain’t enough to affect me any kind of way. It can’t make me feel down, out and stuff like that because I came too far,” Green said in a video statement released to ABC News by his lawyers. “There could be a lot more I’d like to do. But in reality, one day I’m going to get to do it. Right now, I’m going to abide by the rules about what was set forth and be returned back to prison.”

‘He did not kill that boy’

The 11th Circuit decision overturned a ruling made in 2018 by U.S. District Court Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. of the Middle District of Florida. Dalton set aside Green’s conviction, granted him a conditional release citing concerns over the COVID pandemic and sent the case back to the state to free Green or hold a new trial.

Dalton, according to his ruling, found that now retired Assistant State Attorney Chris White violated the so-called Brady rule constitutionally requiring prosecutors to disclose material evidence favorable to a defendant. He concluded White should have turned over to the defense notes of conversations with the first two sheriff’s deputies who responded to the Flynn shooting and told him they suspected Flynn might have been shot by his ex-girlfriend — the star prosecution witness.

“It is difficult to conceive of information more material to the defense… than the fact that the initial responding officers evaluated the totality of evidence as suggesting that the investigation should be directed toward someone other than (Green),” Dalton’s ruling reads.

Diane Clark, a retired Brevard County Sheriff’s Office major, was one of the two deputies who responded to the Flynn shooting. Clark told ABC News in a telephone interview this week she was “devastated” when she heard Green was ordered back to prison.

“He doesn’t belong there. He spent too many years there to start with. And to this day, I’ll say he did not kill that boy,” Clark said. “When I got the news that he was going back to prison, I just felt terrible about it.”

Regardless of the new evidence, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody appealed Dalton’s ruling, leading to the 11th Circuit decision.

“The Florida Attorney General’s Office is charged by statute to represent the State of Florida in upholding judgments and sentences sought by the State Attorney in each circuit and imposed by trial courts when they are appealed,” a spokesperson for Moody said in a statement to ABC News.

In the two years Green, the father of three sons, has been out of prison, he has lived a model life, said Thomas, who has worked on Green’s case for the past 15 years. As part of his conditional release, Green is required to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet and report regularly to a probation officer.

He’s allowed to leave his house only to go to his job as a skilled machinist at a manufacturing company and services at his church on Sundays.

Thomas, a partner in the Washington D.C. law firm Crowell & Moring, said Green has also gotten the chance to know his many grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

“They’re all going through this with him, sort of grieving him going back into prison. But he’s strong for all of them and he’s an example to all of them,” Thomas said.

April 4, 1989 homicide

Flynn’s slaying unfolded in the early morning hours of April 4, 1989. His ex-girlfriend, identified in court documents as Kim Hallock, claimed Flynn came to her house to discuss their relationship and they ended up going to a Little League baseball park in Titusville, Florida, where they smoked marijuana and talked. The then 19-year-old Hallock claimed a “Black guy” approached the pickup truck they were in and carjacked them at gunpoint, the court records state.

Hallock, who testified at Green’s trial, claimed the assailant tied Flynn’s hands behind his back with a shoestring, got into the driver’s seat of the pickup and drove them to a remote orange grove, according to the court documents. She claimed that while driving the vehicle, the assailant shifted the gear shift while pointing the gun at her, according to the court records.

While at the orange grove, Hallock alleged the armed perpetrator forced her from the vehicle, according to the court records. While they were outside the truck, Flynn managed to retrieve his handgun Hallock had surreptitiously placed on the seat under a pair of jeans and despite his hands still tied behind his back, managed to fire a shot at the assailant that missed, according to court documents.

Hallock maintained that after Flynn fired the gun, she broke free from the assailant, jumped in the pickup and fled, according to court documents. She claimed she heard several shots as she drove away. She told investigators she went to Flynn’s best friend’s house and called 911, according to court records.

Clark, who was a sheriff’s sergeant at the time, said that when she and another deputy, Mark Rixey, found Flynn, he was covered in blood, but was conscious. Flynn’s .22-caliber handgun was found about four or five feet away from him.

“When we found him and I asked him his name, he didn’t tell me. I asked who did this and all he would say is, ‘I’m hurt. Take me home,'” said Clark, adding she and Rixey performed CPR on Flynn.

Flynn was taken to a hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead upon arrival, according to court records.

Clark said a big red flag was the story Hallock told sheriff’s investigators about what she did after fleeing the orange grove.

“This is something that has always kind of stuck in my throat for years: She went past houses, she went past a convenience store that’s open 24 hours a day. She passed another pay phone. She went past Parrish Medical Center, which is a hospital in that area, and went to his (Flynn’s) friend’s house to call 911,” Clark said. “My own belief is he might have survived had he had medical care sooner.”

In her initial tape-recorded interview with homicide detectives, Hallock could not describe the assailant, telling detectives, “I really didn’t get a good look at him. I was really scared,” according to the recording.

Hallock described the assailant in a subsequent meeting with a police sketch. Thomas said Hallock described the assailant as big and bulky, sporting a long jerry curl hairstyle.

“Crosley did not resemble that description in any way, shape or form,” Thomas told ABC News. “He’s slight of build, he’s always had a very close-cropped hairstyle.”

But at least two community residents, including an auxiliary police officer, told investigators the sketch resembled Green, who was seen at the park hours before the carjacking, according to court documents.

A photo of Green, who had just gotten out of prison after serving time for a drug conviction, was placed in a photo lineup detectives showed Hallock, who was told by the head of the sheriff’s homicide unit that one of the photos “may or may not (be) of the individual who had done these things,” according to the court documents.

“They put six photos for her to take a look at. They put Crosley in what we call the ‘bull’s eye position,’ which is the center of the top row. And his photo is much darker than the other individuals in this particular lineup,” Thomas said.

Hallock picked out Green’s photos and detectives told her she selected the right person, Thomas said.

About two months after Flynn’s slaying, Green was arrested and charged with murder.

Thomas said no physical evidence connected Green to the Flynn shooting, including any fingerprints found at the crime scene or inside Flynn’s pickup truck. No gunshot residue was found on Flynn’s hands to support his ex-girlfriend’s claim he fired his gun at the assailant, Thomas said. And, according to Thomas, investigators never examined Hallock’s hands for gunshot residue, nor considered her a suspect.

During the trial, Green’s defense attorney, John Parker, raised the possibility that Hallock killed Flynn, noting that at the time of the homicide Flynn was dating another woman.

The jury convicted Green of murder, kidnapping and armed robbery in 1990, deliberating three hours before reaching a verdict. Green was initially given a death sentence, but he was removed from death row in 2009 because a prior conviction in New York for armed robbery when he was 18 could not be used as an aggravating circumstance because he was sentenced as a youthful offender.

“With no physical evidence tying Green to the crime, before an all-white jury with the sole eyewitness claiming a ‘Black guy’ did it, [the girlfriend’s] credibility as well as the credibility of the police investigation was critical to the outcome of the trial. But the first two police officers on the scene knew the teenager’s claim that a ‘Black guy did it’ was nothing more than a hoax,” Green’s lawyers wrote in their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Efforts by ABC News to reach Hallock were unsuccessful.

In a statement to CBS’ “48 Hours” in 1999, Hallock said, “The fact is that there are only two surviving witnesses from that evening, myself and Crosley, and I’m sure deep down inside Crosley knows that he is right where he deserves to be.”

White, the prosecutor in the case, told ABC News in a statement that the 11th Circuit decision affirmed state court rulings that he did not violate Green’s right to a fair trial by failing to disclose notes he took of his conversations with the two deputies, Clark and Rixey, adding, “Those opinions would not have been admissible in evidence.”

“Crosley Green was not denied justice on procedural grounds but on the facts of law. Nor was he wrongfully accused and prosecuted because he was Black,” White said. “He was found guilty of the armed kidnapping of Kim and Chip, the armed robberies of them both, and the murder of Chip Flynn, and is now denied relief based on the facts of law.”

‘We’re not giving up’

Thomas told ABC News she and her defense team, “are out of legal options in court at this point.”

“We’re not giving up and we will never give up,” Thomas said.

She said the two possible avenues they are still exploring is getting the state of Florida to grant Green parole or to petition Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to grant clemency.

Green said he is putting his faith in God, saying, going back to prison “is just another part of what I’m going through now to get my freedom.”

“If it wasn’t for the Lord, I’d be down and out right now,” Green said in his video statement. “I’ve got God on my side. That’s what brought me through these 33 years, plus these two years I’ve been at home.”

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