Charles Flores has spent 26 years on death row after being convicted of the 1998 murder of Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Black in Texas. Despite his conviction, Flores has always claimed his innocence, and his case is one of the most unusual in recent history. The reason for this lies in the reliance on testimony from Betty Black’s neighbor, Jill Barganier, whose account changed significantly after undergoing forensic hypnosis.
Now, after exhausting all of his appeals, Flores has one last chance at freedom: a petition to the Supreme Court. In his first national TV interview with NBC News, Flores reiterated his claims that he had no involvement in the killing. Speaking with reporter Dan Slepian, Flores said, “I’m getting set up. I had nothing to do with the murder of Mrs Black.”
So, what led to this situation?
In January 1998, William Black returned home to find his property had been burgled and his wife, Betty, had been fatally shot. It was later revealed that the Blacks had been hiding drug money for their son, who was incarcerated at the time.
After the shooting, neighbors told police that they had seen two men get out of a Volkswagen Beetle with a distinctive print and enter the Blacks’ home. The following day, the Blacks’ next-door neighbor identified a man named Richard Childs as the driver. Childs later confessed to the murder and took a plea for 35 years in prison. After serving 17 years, Childs was released on parole in 2016.
Five days after Childs was arrested, neighbor Barganier was taken into the police station to create a composite sketch of the passenger. While she identified Childs as the driver, she didn’t identify Flores, who was shown in two lineups. Barganier was then hypnotized by a police officer. During the session, Barganier said the passenger was a white male with long hair and a medium build. This did not match the description of Flores, who was described as ‘Hispanic, short, stocky, with then shaved hair.’
Before the hypnosis ended, the officer told her that she would ‘be able to recall more of the events as time goes on.’
However, it was later reported that not all rules were followed when recording the session. Houston Public Media stated that a Texas law was broken during the process. At the time, the state did not allow officers involved in the case to be part of a hypnosis session.
Thirteen months later, Barganier made a statement during Flores’ trial, identifying him as the passenger in the Beetle and telling the court she was ‘100% sure.’ This bombshell comment immediately condemned Flores, even though no physical or DNA evidence tied him to the murder.
While we know Flores didn’t pull the trigger, he still received the death penalty under Texas law for being an accomplice and was convicted under the law of parties. This is despite him having an alibi — Flores maintains that he was making breakfast with his wife at the time of the murder — and not matching the initial description of the accomplice.
NBC reported the car used in the murder was hidden behind Flores’ home. He set it on fire two days later and fled to Mexico. When he returned, he became embroiled in a police chase and crashed his car. He was then taken to hospital, where he again tried to escape.
When Slepian questioned why he had fled if he was innocent, he said: “I’m here to tell you that you also run when you are afraid. I had that thought: ‘They’re going to kill me, they’re going to kill me.’ And you know what? I was right.”
Flores came within days of execution in 2016 but was issued a stay after he put forward evidence from psychology professor Steven Lynn, whose research linked the hypnosis method used with the creation of false memories.
An investigation in 2020 found that investigative hypnosis had been used in at least 1,700 cases in Texas since the 1980s, resulting in prison convictions and even death sentences. After experts raised concerns, the method was banned from criminal proceedings as the process was acknowledged to be unreliable. However, it did not apply retroactively, and Flores’ conviction stood.
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