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‘Bone Valley’ Podcast Subject Is Granted Parole 37 Years After Wife’s Murder

**Bone Valley** podcast subject, Leo Schofield Jr., has been granted parole after serving 35 years of a life sentence for the murder of his wife, Michelle Schofield. He maintained his innocence throughout and will soon be released, as reported by the New York Times.

Quick Facts

• Leo Schofield Jr. served 35 years of a life sentence for his wife’s murder, despite maintaining his innocence.
• Another man confessed to the killing years ago, and the case was the subject of the “Bone Valley” podcast.
• Mr. Schofield was granted parole by a board in Tallahassee, Fla., and will be released on April 30.

For more than three decades, Leo Schofield Jr. maintained his innocence as he served 35 years of a life sentence in the murder of his wife, Michelle Schofield. He has been denied parole four times, even after another man confessed to the killing years ago.

Since he was put in prison, he has remarried, earned a theology degree, and led Bible and guitar classes. He had grandchildren and became the subject of a podcast that tried to prove his innocence.

On April 30, Mr. Schofield, 58, will be a free man.

A parole board in Tallahassee, Fla., on Wednesday granted Mr. Schofield parole, nearly 35 years to the day since he was incarcerated. The same board extended his incarceration for a year last May and voted to transfer him to the Everglades Correctional Institution, west of Miami, where he has been in a transitional program for long-term inmates.

Mr. Schofield’s story has been documented in “Bone Valley,” a nine-part podcast hosted by Gilbert King, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and Kelsey Decker. The podcast was released in September 2022 and painted a picture of a prosecution and conviction so riddled with errors, including a lack of evidence connecting Mr. Schofield to the crime and an ineffective trial lawyer, that a Florida circuit judge, Scott Cupp, quit his job to try to help exonerate Mr. Schofield.

“While we are grateful for the commission’s action, Mr. Schofield is by no means free,” Mr. Cupp said in a statement. “We will continue to fight for his exoneration — the only way we can correct this grave injustice.”

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