Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishWhen Leo Schofield finally tasted freedom after spending 36 years in prison for a murder he insists he didn’t commit, one everyday aspect of the modern world jarred him above all else. ‘Everyone is staring down at their phones,’ he recalled thinking to himself, in a moment that almost made him nostalgic for the inside. ‘People have really grown cold,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘In prison you live around each other 24/7 and it’s a much more social environment, out here its harder for people to connect on a personal level. ‘They might be connected electronically through their phone. But they’re not connected through their hearts… the love for one another isn’t there anymore.’ He had been languishing in prison for almost four decades after his wife Michelle was found dead by a highway in 1987 after being stabbed almost 30 times, despite no physical evidence ever tying him to the slaying. Schofield was finally granted parole last year after his pleas of innocence were detailed in the podcast Bone Valley. But he remains a convicted killer in the eyes of the state, even as his wife’s alleged murderer, Jeremy Scott, has confessed to the crime numerous times. As he was released under parole, Schofield said the modern world was a mystery to him, and he came to realize his identity had been stripped by the years in a cell. He recalled that before his conviction he was a keen mechanic, but soon found he no longer knew his way around a vehicle because he ‘had never worked on anything post-1987.’ He said he didn’t last long in his first post-prison job at a Tampa Bay garage because of the changes, and recalled that when he took a look at his wife Michelle’s car, he told her: ‘I know what’s wrong with this car – some idiot put the engine in sideways.’ Leo Schofield spent 36 years in prison for the wrongful conviction over his wife Michelle’s murder, who was stabbed to death in 1987. He was finally paroled last year, and revealed the harrowing experience of re-emerging back into the world after missing almost four decades Schofield, pictured with his family following his release, said he was stunned by how people in the modern world have ‘grown cold’, which he blamed on people’s inability to look up from their phones Besides some car manufacturers flipping their engines 90 degrees in the almost-four-decades Schofield spent in prison, he said he emerged to find a world entirely different to one he had known. He was just 21-years-old when he was charged in June 1988, when the biggest song in America was ‘Faith’ by George Michael, and Ronald Reagan was ending his eight years in the White House. It should be no surprise then that Schofield was stunned by the ubiquity of phones, given that his wrongful arrest for the murder of his wife came exactly 20 years before the invention of the iPhone. The ever-present Ford Escort was the most popular car on America’s roads, and while Schofield may have thought of himself as a decent engineer at the time, he recalls emerging from prison without a clue. ‘My exclusion (in prison) was decades, so you know, there was a lot that was different,’ Schofield recalled. When Schofield was arrested aged just 21 in June 1988, the world he knew was entirely different from todays, with Ronald Reagan preparing to leave the White House after eight years in power at the time The biggest song in America was ‘Faith’ by George Michael when Schofield was wrongfully accused, and he admitted this week that after the years he spent behind bars, he felt ‘excluded’ from the subsequent decades Schofield lamented how ‘cold’ the modern world has become, and sounded almost nostalgic for prison as he said being locked up is ‘a much more social environment… out here its harder for people to connect on a personal level’ As he contended with the modern world, Schofield said his first months on the outside were a ‘challenge’ as he was locked in the limbo of parole, and was bothered by the fact he was still a convicted killer in the eyes of the state. But he recalled how this weight was lifted when he got the unexpected opportunity to speak one-on-one with his wife’s confessed killer. Jeremy Scott, who is serving a life sentence for beating a man to death in an armed robbery in 1988, called Bone Valley podcast creator Gilbert King last year when he was with Schofield. ‘I wasn’t really prepared to speak to him,’ he recalled. Schofield said he forgave the killer ‘for myself’, as he was able to look past the decades he spent thinking of his wife’s killer. ‘Forgiveness is about me, not about what Jeremy did to me,’ he continued. ‘It’s really hard because Jeremy is singularly responsible for the murder of my wife, the disintegrating of family on both sides of my marriage, ultimately the 36 years I spent wrongfully convicted, and so that is a lot to overcome.’ Their conversation is the subject of the second season of Bone Valley, which King said was fueled by a desire to prove that ‘sometimes, the truth is found outside courtrooms.’ Jeremy Scott (pictured) has confessed to Schofield’s wife’s murder on several occasions, but prosecutors have never charged him with the crime, and he is currently serving a life sentence for beating a man to death in an armed robbery in 1988 Schofield revealed the moment he finally spoke one-on-one with Scott (seen in a mugshot), saying it was ‘really hard because Jeremy is singularly responsible for the murder of my wife (and) ultimately the 36 years I spent wrongfully convicted’ In his agonizing fight to clear his name, Schofield’s parole was denied four times over the years, even after Scott had come forward several times with his confession over the gruesome 1987 slaying. The murder came late at night on February 24, 1987, when Michelle Schofield, 18, was finishing a shift at a burger drive-thru in Lakeland, Florida. Recently married, she was getting ready to pick up her husband Leo, then-21, for them to go out to eat, but she never arrived. By midnight, Schofield had started a search for his wife and was frantically calling her parents, friends and colleagues to try and find her. For three days, Michelle’s loved ones printed flyers and held out hope until her orange Mazda hatchback was found by the side of Interstate 4. Her father soon found her body submerged under a piece of plywood in a canal near Interstate 44, around seven miles from her car, and witnesses were shocked at the horrific state of her remains. She had been stabbed a total of 26 times, and an autopsy found that none of the stab wounds were fatal as she bled slowly to death. Michelle Schofield was just 18 when she was fatally stabbed almost 30 times on February 24, 1987, in a vicious slaying that Scott ultimately confessed to Schofield said the horrific nature of his wife’s murder fuels his push for justice, as ‘she deserved to have us know what really happened to her.’ Leo quickly came under suspicion after his wife’s body was found, and was accused of being an abusive husband. But even as no physical evidence ever tied him to the scene, the prosecution still went ahead with charging Leo in June 1988, and brought forward 21 character witnesses testifying that he had a temper and was in a rocky, young marriage. Leo was eventually convicted based primarily upon a neighbor’s testimony claiming to have heard the couple get into an argument that night, and said she saw Leo leave his home with a large object in his car. Leo stressed that her story was not true as he insisted that he was with his wife’s father at the time of the alleged fight while his wife was at work, and the neighbor was later found to have suffered mental health issues. Nevertheless, Leo was found guilty based upon testimony of his violent temper, and as he was convicted, he told the jury: ‘I’m telling you, you’re making a mistake. I can prove it to you.’ Schofield, seen at his trial, insisted upon his innocence for almost four decades until he was finally paroled in April 2024, but he remains a convicted killer in the eyes of the state Schofield, seen in a hearing in 2017, said he felt a weight lift off him after speaking with Scott, as ‘forgiveness is about me, not about what Jeremy did to me’ While DNA never tied Schofield to the slaying, a key piece of evidence was later found to have been missed that could have proven Scott was the killer years before. A bloody fingerprint was found inside Michelle’s car that was not his, and in 2004 forensics matched it to Scott. But prosecutors have been reluctant to bring any new charges against Scott, who will never get out of prison and is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder and armed robbery for beating a man to death in 1988. A circuit judge denied Schofield a new trial after the bombshell fingerprint was analyzed, and an appeal was denied, leaving Schofield still searching to clear his name. The case that convicted Schofield was so weak that a Florida circuit judge, Scott Cupp, quit his job and left the bench to help exonerate him. For King, who has spent years of his life producing shows on Schofield’s innocence, he said the last hurdle to his case is convincing officials in Polk County. ‘There is this finality – the jury has spoken, the courts have spoken, and that’s the end of the story,’ he said of the attitude in the county. ‘Well, every single wrongful conviction in this country, and there have been hundreds of them, has had juries and courts rule against them until this evidence comes forward.’
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