Who we help

Thomas Wayne Spindle and Clifford Bernard Hubbard were soldiers stationed in Hawaii in 1982.

Spindle was out sightseeing/exploring one morning and found the body of 14 year old Derek Kusumoto, the adopted son of an Army Lt. Colonel. Spindle went for help and notified authorities. He immediately became the prime suspect. He agreed to be interviewed and answered all questions asked of him and also volunteered to take a polygraph.

When asked who could verify his whereabouts the prior evening he gave names of other soldiers who could attest to where he was at various times during the evening. One of the soldiers was Clifford Hubbard and that is how he became involved in the case.

None of the physical evidence obtained from the crime scene was linked to Spindle or Hubbard. The fingerprints lifted from the boy’s body and the bunker did not match Spindle or Hubbard. The bite marks on the victims’s torso yielded saliva which was determined to be from someone with type-O blood. Neither Spindle nor Hubbard have type-O blood.

The only “evidence” presented was the testimony of a fellow soldier who gave 5 different sworn depositions with 5 different versions, the final version implicated Spindle and Hubbard. This same soldier went AWOL and made himself unavailable for the courts-martial of Spindle and Hubbard who were tried separately. His 5th sworn deposition was allowed into evidence and Spindle and Hubbard were both convicted and sentenced to Life.

Spindle and Hubbard have steadfastly maintained their innocence during the 42+  years of their confinement. They each served 13 years in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth before being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons where Spindle remains while Hubbard was transferred to the Florida State Prison system after 20 years in the feds.

These men would have been released at their “30 year Mandatory Release Date” if they had  accepted responsibility for their crime. They are eligible for parole and have been after serving 10 years of their sentence but they will never be paroled because they refuse to say they are guilty and accept responsibility for a crime they both insist they had nothing to do with.