The Discovery Channel’s ‘MythBusters’ Helped John Galvan who a Wrongly Convicted of 35 Years Behind Bars

John Galvan with Innocence Project staff attorney Tara Thompson, one of his attorneys, after his exoneration on July 21, 2022. (Image: Ray Abercrombie/Innocence Project)

John Galvan was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit

A man was 21 years into a life sentence when he caught a life-changing episode of the Discovery Channel’s MythBusters on prison TV. As it turns out, in that particular episode, show-makers were attempting to disprove whether or not a lit cigarette could ignite a pool of gasoline – the very thing John Galvan was behind bars for.

In his cell, a 39-year-old John watched as the hosts of MythBusters struggled repeatedly to ignite a pool of gasoline with a lit cigarette, despite fervent attempts. Based on the ignition temperature of gasoline and the temperature range of a lit cigarette, the show’s hosts had initially hypothesized that a lit cigarette might be able to ignite spilled gasoline as they had seen on TV and in movies. But after several failed attempts to start a fire, including rolling a lit cigarette directly into a pool of gasoline, the team determined it was highly unlikely that dropping a cigarette into gasoline could cause a fire.

“There it was,” John recalled thinking. “Once I saw it, I couldn’t wait to tell Tara,” he said, referring to his attorney Tara Thompson, who, at the time, had just taken on John’s case at the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School. She continued to represent John when she joined the Innocence Project in 2021.

“I remember I was excited; I was extremely happy because that just added to the other things that were coming together at that time. I felt like finally this is starting to all come out,” John recalled. At the time John caught the re-run, he had been working on his third post-conviction petition.

Serendipitously, Ms. Thompson had caught the same re-run.

“It was honestly shocking to me … I feel like all of us have seen movies — like Payback is a famous one — where they light the gasoline in the street with a cigarette and a car explodes, and I really had never given much thought to whether or not that might be real,” she said. “When I watched this Mythbusters episode, as a lawyer, it made me realize that there are things you have to look deeper into — you can’t assume that you understand the science until you’ve looked into it.”

After talking to John, Ms. Thompson realized that they needed to investigate the arson science aspect of his case further.

The show’s findings were confirmed in 2007, by experiments conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which made more than 2,000 attempts to ignite gasoline with a cigarette under various conditions. The bureau’s experiments even included a vacuum that increased the cigarette’s temperature to the level it would typically reach when being sucked and spraying a mist of gasoline directly onto the lit cigarette. All of the attempts failed.

In 2017, when John finally had his evidentiary hearing on his post-conviction claims, Ms. Thompson and his legal team presented multiple alibi witnesses, in addition to seven witnesses who testified to being tortured by the same officers who had coerced his confession, documents showing that police had fabricated probable cause to arrest him, and an arson expert who testified that John’s false confession was scientifically impossible.

“Even then, they really did not want to accept that this was not possible,” Ms. Thompson recalled. “I feel like that is the battle that we’re still fighting about science [in the courtroom]. Even though this is not really a disputed issue in arson science anymore, the prosecutor really wanted there to be a possibility that this could happen,” despite the expert’s testimony to the contrary.

“I find that very talking about the state of science and the law … that these things that we probably should accept as true in the legal space, the system does not always want to accept,” she added.

Sciences are always evolving, but, unfortunately, laws do not always keep pace with innovations and discoveries. However, states can pass change-in-science laws to create mechanisms that allow people convicted based on now-debunked or discredited forensic methods to have their cases reviewed.

“Mr. Galvan’s case speaks to the critical importance of establishing such mechanisms for people to get back into court when science changes or evolves, or when experts repudiate past testimony,” said Rebecca Brown, Innocence Project director of policy. “Without these mechanisms in many instances, innocent people are prevented from presenting forensic evidence of their innocence after their wrongful conviction.”

Two decades of fire research have debunked methods that were used to convict people of arson in the past — including the kind of faulty arson science used in John’s case. In 1992, the National Fire Protection Association released a consensus report that noted that many of the physical “signs” and characteristics previously thought to occur only in intentional fires could actually occur in accidental fires as well. The scientific community only began to widely accept this standard in the early 2000s.

“A ‘change-in-science’ statute here would have allowed for a presentation reflecting those changes in arson science and could have likely expedited Mr. Galvan’s exoneration,” said Ms. Brown.

After 35 years, two men were released from prison with sentences vacated in 1986 for arson, murder

Finally, in 2022, after new appeals, John had his conviction vacated and was granted a new trial that prosecutors later decided not to pursue. On July 21, John was exonerated when the Office of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed his case.

For the last two months, John has been adjusting to freedom and life as an adult outside prison walls. While he is glad to be free, he didn’t sugarcoat the difficulties that have come with the massive changes to which he’s been adapting. During his 35 years of wrongful incarceration, the world moved at a rapid pace. John lost touch with friends and family members, some of whom passed away while he was in prison. And technology has dramatically evolved over the past three decades.

“It’s been hard, I feel out of place, there’s a lot to learn and I don’t know where I’m supposed to be … I don’t know what to do,” he said.

But bit by bit, John’s been finding his footing. He’s most looking forward to having his own space to call home and getting back to drawing and painting.

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