Released from death row, but not exonerated

The account begged credibility — except that House and his mother were outsiders to Union County. Joyce House had recently married a local man and moved there from outside Knoxville. Her son had come only a few months before the killing, fresh from prison. Both were mistrusted by some locals — hard people born by hard country.

That same distrust may have figured in his easy conviction.

"He had long hair," Kissinger said. "He didn't work like everyone else did, he was living off his mom. Then he was kind of living off his girlfriend, too. He didn't fit with these people. And these people are very, very loyal to each other."

Why did some wait years before coming forward to testify that Hubert Muncey had confessed? "People heard that her blood was on his jeans and there was semen evidence," Kissinger said. "So why say anything?"

The blood on House's jeans was a big problem, but there was an explanation.

Dr. Cleland Blake, the assistant chief medical examiner for Tennessee, testified in 1999 that the blood on House's pants came from vials taken during Muncey's autopsy. House's lawyers provided two scenarios: either the tubes spilled on the way to the FBI testing laboratory, while House's jeans and Muncey's blood samples were placed in the same container, or someone tampered with the evidence.

There is no disagreement that a tube and a half of blood disappeared. Photos now part of the court file show blood on the outside of the emptied tubes and inside the Styrofoam storage container.

Living now with his mom
Paul House, now 46, sits in his mother's house about 100 miles east of Nashville, trembling and jerking from a disease gnawing his nervous system. He slurs because of the advanced stage of his disease, but his humor is sharp.

Asked how he was doing, he laughed. "I'm all right. I just had a big lunch."

House says he's not worried about the prosecutor or the future. "Paul Phillips is a fool," he said. "I really don't think there's going to be a trial. They pretty much don't have any evidence."

Phillips still considers House a menace.

"The fact that he has MS and is confined to a wheelchair does not protect the community," Phillips said. "He is a person who tricks others into positions of vulnerability."

Joyce House doesn't believe he will ever abandon the case against her son: "He just don't want to admit he's made a mistake."

The federal public defender says that is the reason Phillips won't let go.

"How can you live with yourself if you admit that you took away the last healthy years of a man's life?" Kissinger said. "That's a big burden."

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