So how did a 19 year old German
academic scholarship winner survive so many years in prison?
Because you would think he's not exactly the prison type.
Take a look.
(dramatic music)
Prison is just about as bad as you think it's going to be.
One of the first things I saw in prison
is that I watched somebody else get raped.
I was very nearly raped myself.
I was a small white guy in a prison system
that is full of experienced criminals
who are a lot bigger than me.
So I was like a natural victim.
What could I do to protect myself?
I talked to two big black guys
who were running a small scale loansharking operation,
which is called running a store box in prison,
which basically involves loaning out cigarettes and food.
You loan out two items and you get three back.
So I told them about checking
your customer's credit worthiness, cartel formation.
We should work together and not against each other.
The Pareto principle, you make 80% of your profits
from 20% of your customers.
So let's focus on the best 20% of our customers
and not the 80% who are not going to pay us back.
And then the key thing was customer relations.
They ran their loansharking operations, their store box,
on the principle that they
just threatened people and frightened them.
And I told them, that's not the way to run a business.
You've got to have good customer relations,
be nice to the guys.
And it worked.
I had achieved some kind of status in the prison hierarchy,
and because these economic and business principles work,
we ended up making money together.
So it was successful on every level.
Well, Jens had a team of people
helping him become a free man,
including Jason Flom, a music executive best known
for working with the Rolling Stones and Katy Perry.
Now Jason also dedicated his life
to advocating for people like Jens.
Another advocate is Sheriff Chip Harding,
who spent over 600 hours on Jens' case,
trying to prove his innocence.
So thank both of you for being here.
I really appreciate it.
(audience applauding)
Before we go on, let me let both of you
say hello to Jens as a free man.
Jens, (laughs) how are you?
(laughs) Jason, Chip, hi there.
It's so good to see you, it's so good to see you.
Hey, thank you guys.
Thank you so much.
I would still be sitting in prison without you,
so you're just the best.
Thank you, thank you.
(audience applauding)
At what point in the process
did you make up your mind that he in fact was innocent.
Everything I saw on the news, he confessed to it.
His girlfriend said he did it.
And I think he said something about
they had footprints and blood that belonged to him.
So I said, "Give me everything you've got."
And I took it home, and over the weekend
spread it out over my dining room table.
And I said, "Oh my gosh."
And that's when I got involved in it.
And 200 hours later, I wrote a 19 page letter
to the governor, and I felt like it all tended
to support his innocence, not his guilt.
Well, you said in your confession that you were there
for 45 minutes before you kill them.
And apparently a lot would have had to happen
in that 45 minutes because you said
that you had several drinks with Derek and Nancy,
Nancy prepared dinner, then you all ate dinner,
and then you kill them.
So this had to be like a speed date before the killing,
because in 45 minutes a lot had to take place
if in fact that was the timeframe.
What you just mentioned is a really key thing.
It is clear from the crime scene
that the killer spent a lot of time there.
And if somebody spends a lot of time,
they're gonna leave physical evidence.
And there is a lot of physical evidence
at the crime scene, but none of it's mine.
Yeah, it wasn't his DNA.
His blood was not there.
His fingerprints were not there.
Right.
That's because he wasn't there.
So I think any layperson can look at this and say,
"It doesn't make any damn sense."