NBC News · Texas banned hypnosis in criminal cases but a man on death row says it helped convict him

1. 1. Charles Flores, currently on death row in Texas, maintains his innocence, claiming his conviction stemmed from an eyewitness identification influenced by police hypnosis.
2. 2. The murder of Betty Black, where $30,000 in cash was left untouched, led detectives to suspect a drug-related motive and Rick Childs, a meth dealer, as a key figure.
3. 3. Investigators focused on Charles Flores, despite his physical description—Hispanic, 5'10", nearly 300 lbs, with short, dark hair—contradicting the eyewitness's initial account of a second white man with long hair.
4. 4. The detective who hypnotized Bargainer suggested she might recall more details later, and 13 months afterward, she identified Flores in court for the first time.
5. 5. The National Academy of Sciences concluded in 2014 that eyewitness identification is often flawed and memory can be distorted by hypnosis, leading Texas to ban hypnotically-induced statements in 2023.
6. 6. Rick Childs, who pleaded guilty to Betty Black's murder, named Charles Flores as his accomplice in a police interview, but this crucial recording was never presented to Flores's jury.
7. 7. Flores admits to burning the getaway car and fleeing to Mexico, but insists these actions were driven by intense fear of being framed as an 'outlaw,' not by guilt for murder.