Latest / DA CREW Podcast / HALF WAY MARK_ SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST _ EPISODE _88_ HOST SHANETTE FILL-IN FOR LATONYA M LITTLEJOHN

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HALF WAY MARK_ SEASON 2 DA CREW PODCAST _ EPISODE _88_ HOST SHANETTE FILL-IN FOR LATONYA M LITTLEJOHN · DA CREW Podcast

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Hey, Hoya, and welcome to another episode of the Group I can.
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you on the path to writing your book Let's talk about it. What's your
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host? Snett Johnson join me every first and third Monday of the month at
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eight and pm Eastern standards. It's him and let's talk about it. Will
2:05
you wedod evening and welcome to another episode of Let's Talk About It. On
2:49
tonight, I will be joined by Miss Coleman. MSS Coleman husband is currently
2:54
incarcerated in the state of Alabama. I hope everybody is ready. Get you,
3:04
get your water, get comfortable, and let's join mss Coleman. Hey,
3:08
Mss Coleman, I thank you for how are you doing on this evening?
3:15
Doing great? You know, just another regular day in the life of
3:21
an advocate like as you already know, worked earlier today and now doing the
3:25
podcast. Yeah, that's what we do. We got we gotta stay using
3:30
our voice so we can't get make the end, just make it right.
3:37
So let's go ahead and talk about your husband case. Let's get get into
3:42
it absolutely so. Do you want me to give an overview of the factors
3:50
in his uncle or do you have any burning questions for me? We will
3:54
just just put it out there, put give us what you want us to
3:59
know. Let's ore from the beginning and and let's talk, Okay, let's
4:05
roll. I always tell people, you know, when I try to get
4:11
contacts to bring more awareness, whether you know, I plead with people to
4:14
put his case out in the media and things like that. I tell people
4:17
Leonard is the absolute poster child for someone that you would want to help,
4:23
right. And we can talk about this later on that as we get into
4:26
advocating, we find out a lot of people. Most people are in it
4:29
for the ratings and you know, whether they can get name right. But
4:33
I tell people like, there's no reason someone would not want to help Leonard.
4:39
He was a single father to two of his children, so two of
4:42
his children resided with him. He was a homeowner and family person working things
4:48
like that. And he also had passed a background check with the Transportation Security
4:55
Administration to get a TWIT card, so he had to pass a national background
5:00
check successfully prior to all of this happening now. Also, as Leonard will
5:06
tell whenever he has his chance to tell his side of the story, one
5:11
of the investigating officers, Charles Bagsby, who subsequently was on the first forty
5:16
eight so some people might have seen him on TV, actually used to date
5:19
the victim, so from the beginning there was a little bit of funny business.
5:26
Allegedly, if that is the truth, as Leonard says that he did
5:30
indeed date the victim, he should not have been investigating Leonard's case statements and
5:34
interrogating him, And Leonard remembers, you know, because I think in wrongful
5:39
convictions only one side of the story gets told, and so I'm here over
5:44
the past three years, I've been here to tell Leonard's side, right,
5:47
And he remembers this officer allegedly, according to Leonard, saying that he would
5:53
make sure that Leonard became another black statistic and that the charges would stick.
5:58
But this is also a black lie offer, So why you would try to
6:01
do this to another fellow black man. I'm not sure what the vendetta was
6:06
there, But during Leonard's interrogation in twenty ten, he did tell officers Bagsby
6:13
and Officer Quinnie of the Mobile Metro PD exactly who he thought could have done
6:18
this. Since he has held fast since twenty ten that this is not him.
6:25
In fact, he even risked being in this situation he's in now by
6:29
continuing to plead not guilty instead of taking a plea deal. So from the
6:32
very beginning he's maintained his innocence and said, I think it could be this
6:36
person. Officer Quinny got on the stand at his trial in twenty twelve and
6:43
said no other suspects were ever investigated because they believed that they had their person.
6:48
So it was very tunnel vision. As I have a qu question,
6:55
why wouldn't so Why did they feel that they couldn't investigate anyone else? Why
7:08
did Why wasn't nobody else looked at? I have a personal belief that Charles
7:16
Bagsby wanted to stay true to his promise about making Leonard another black statistic and
7:21
making sure that the charge is stuck. And I think also you and I
7:26
have talked about this that many times, and I'm sure people who are listening,
7:30
you know, who are in this situation can also chime in and agree.
7:34
The romantic partner. We even see this with you know, Scott Peterson's
7:39
cases back in court now and was picked up by an innocence project. What's
7:43
going to develop with that now? But many times the romantic partner is the
7:47
one that's targeted, right, and then it becomes like confirmation bias. Okay,
7:51
we're gonna eliminate information that could point to something different, because we want
7:57
to look only for the information that will point to this one per person.
8:07
Wow. And so when he said that, you know, just listen to
8:15
what you just said. That the officer said that he was going to make
8:20
sure that he was another black statistic. You know a lot of people would
8:26
think that, you know, that's racist, a racist comment, but that's
8:31
also coming from another black man saying that which is which is unbelievable. That's
8:37
crazy. Why would you tell another person, I don't care what color you
8:41
are. Why would you say that you're going to make them a statistic?
8:46
You know, that's that's that's that's crazy, and it's really I guess this
8:52
is the time that we're limit living in. You know, it's just crazy.
8:58
So was there any DNA covered or you know, because we talked and
9:07
you know, you were saying that it wasn't nothing, that they didn't find
9:11
anything. Absolutely in his particular case, there's no DNA that applies. But
9:18
an expert did get on the stand at trial and say that there were no
9:24
ballistics matches for any of his collection that he had at home. Another expert
9:30
got on the stand that there were no fingerprint matches for him. So,
9:35
you know, like you and I talked about a couple of days ago,
9:37
he was actually convicted on the out of court statements of a four year old
9:43
child who had been diagnosed with echolalia, which means he could mostly just repeat
9:50
what other people said and also red flags for autism. And a speech pathologist
9:56
from the University of Alabama actually attests to this at trial. So did they
10:05
did they allow his child to get on a stand? Did they put his
10:13
child on a stand? So I actually have a quote here from district Attorney
10:18
Ashley Rich, who prosecuted his case, and she's been written about about her
10:24
misconduct at USA Today filter magazine, so this would not surprise anyone who knows
10:28
her reputation. But she made sure to submit emotion that allowed the child to
10:35
not testify at trial. So this is what Ashley Rich said. I'm taking
10:39
this directly from the trial transcript. We attempted to solicit testimony from him at
10:46
the grand jury, but were unable to lay the proper predicate as to whether
10:50
or not he understood the difference between right and wrong due to his young,
10:56
tender years. So the judge agreed with her and granted her motion so that
11:01
the child did not have to testify in court. So Leonard was convicted on
11:07
out of court statements of the officer saying what he heard the child say.
11:11
And so Leonard's sixth Amendment rights were violated. And so there wasn't no witnesses,
11:20
no, no cameras, no, no nothing other than the four year
11:28
old who was at home that morning and who knows may have been you know,
11:33
in a different room, we don't know, and no cameras. The
11:37
neighbor next door neighbor of Leonard, did testify at trial on the stand that
11:43
they had a conversation for a few hours that morning during the supposed time frame
11:48
that all of this took place. Now, Leonard even was very honest.
11:52
He didn't feel like he had anything to hide. He didn't want to be
11:56
deceptive because he knew he was innocent. So he did tell officers Bagsby and
12:01
Quinny during his interrogation, I saw her, but I saw her alive.
12:05
So that morning they had talked about who was going to take this child to
12:09
the doctor because he wasn't feeling well. And according to Leonard, this is
12:13
what he told, you know, officers during his interrogation, she said,
12:16
no, it's okay, I'll go by myself. You know, you need
12:18
to clean up your yard and things like that. And so he had intended
12:22
he'll go check, you know, after in the afternoon and see how the
12:26
appointment went. So he even said I saw her, but I saw I
12:30
left her alive, and then he went home. And his neighbor testified,
12:33
Yeah, you know, we were talking for for hours that morning. So
12:39
did the child call nine one one? How did you know? How was
12:46
her remains discovered? How how was she you know? Who found there?
12:52
So the story gets interesting, and I'll try to make it as less confusing
12:56
as possible. But family members of the child, I can't remember if it
13:01
was his sister or grandmother, but one of them testified because I would have
13:05
to pull out the transcript pages, one of them got on the stand up
13:09
trial and testified that he did not know how to dial phone numbers by himself.
13:15
But this makes sense. You know, I have two children at that
13:18
age. I don't think they would know how to dial, you know,
13:20
specific set of phone numbers. So the fact that he was even wrongfully convicted,
13:28
you know, how would the child even be able to dial the phone
13:30
by himself. Why weren't we asking these questions in twenty twelve. So,
13:35
as I told you, and as anyone who follows my page knows, in
13:39
twenty twenty, there's two men that put their testimonies on file with a license
13:46
investigator. They were willing to go to court and testify in Leonard's favor that
13:50
they heard a full confession from the person who actually did this. And this
13:54
is the exact same name that Leonard tried to give officers during his interrogation.
14:01
So according to these new testimonies from this these best friends of the perpetrator,
14:07
he actually picked up the phone, hit redial and told the child to say
14:13
that Leonard did it. Wow, Wow did that person in the victim?
14:24
Were they in a relationship or anybody know why he would be at her house.
14:33
Leonard and the victim had an on and off relationship for five years.
14:39
But I mean during that time, he, as I've told you, and
14:43
I have no problem putting it out there, you know, he had a
14:45
child with someone else during that time. They were, at least on his
14:48
part, he dated other people. So there was no type of like engagement
14:52
or marriage or anything like that. You know, when you're young and in
14:54
your twenties. So but this person, the perpetrator, had a vendetta against
15:01
Leonard because they had gotten into an altar at a gas station where, according
15:07
to Leonard, the perpetrator had stolen twenty dollars from him that he was going
15:11
to use to put gas in his car, and you know, they tussled
15:15
over that. And so since that time, like he pulled a gun on
15:20
Leonard things like that. He had even told people in the neighborhood that he
15:24
didn't like Leonard and he was going to kill him. Like he had made
15:28
threats like that, right, and this is what Leonard tried to tell officers
15:31
during his interrogation, but they did not investigate this person. They really,
15:35
Okay, it's Leonard, We're just going to build a case around him.
15:37
So anyway, he had made threats in front of other people in the neighborhood
15:43
saying he was going to outright kill Leonard. He had no qualms about saying
15:46
that they had tussled at a gas station after he stole twenty dollars from Leonard
15:50
to you know that Leonard was using to put gasoline. And so after that
15:56
fight, he was very upset and kind of like vowed to get revenge against
16:03
Leonard. And the victim was there, so of course, you know,
16:06
she's defending him, speaking up for him. Why wouldn't she, you know,
16:08
that's the father of her child. And so he threatened to kill both
16:12
of them, and he made a promise, you know that just sitting here
16:23
having this conversation, and you said that the officer, that the head officer
16:32
that and that was the investigating officer, had a relationship with the victim.
16:37
So now I can see the to me, I want to say, conspiracy
16:44
or something, you know, like I can see them see the framing because
16:51
I see I read where Leonard felt that he was being framed. And as
16:56
you explain it to me, now, they don't have no no DNA,
17:03
they don't have no ballistics, they don't have anything. But I can see
17:08
where, you know, maybe the officer really was in love with this,
17:14
you know, with the victim, you know, and wanted letter out the
17:19
picture, you know, and then maybe they had to fight. You know.
17:23
It's so many things around that that's like really racing through my head.
17:30
Like it's like a like a crime movie. You know, you're trying to
17:34
you you putting these cases together when when you get them, like wow,
17:40
you reading their their court papers and stuff, and it's just like wow,
17:47
this is is this some real stuff? But I have a question right here.
17:51
Someone want to know how was the time frame? Explain? How did
17:56
they explain the time frame? So it have go back and look for specific
18:02
numbers in the trial transcript, but generally speaking, Leonard needed to take his
18:07
two children to school, so he talked to the victim before that. So
18:11
somewhere around like seven ish in the morning is the way that he explained it
18:15
to me. And she was supposed to make it to a doctor's appointment with
18:19
the four year old in question by around nine ish. By that time,
18:25
Leonard was already placed as talking to his neighbor until around eleven in the morning.
18:30
So Leonard couldn't possibly, you understand, like he saw her at seven
18:34
went to drop his kids to school, and the neighbor said, like,
18:40
I was talking to him until like eleven in the morning, So you have
18:45
to ask yourself. And here's another thing. After he went to he went
18:51
to pick his kids up from school in the afternoon, and he hadn't heard
18:56
from the victim. He's calling, he's calling, He's calling. He wants
18:59
to know, like how the doctor's appointment go, can't reach her, so
19:03
go speak up the kids from school. He sees police cars going in the
19:07
direction of her house and turns from going to the school and goes to her
19:11
house instead. And that's how they actually found him to do the interrogation,
19:15
because he went to her house knowing that there were police cars going in that
19:18
direction. So we have to ask ourselves that this on my page. Why
19:23
would a guilty person actually go in the direction of police cars? Right,
19:29
So he's genuinely wondering what's going on. And on top of that, and
19:33
this is kind of like related but unrelated. The victim had a chance to
19:36
move closer to her family farther away from him, right before all this happened,
19:41
and chose to move five minutes away from him. So ask yourself,
19:45
is that a person that's afraid of Leonard? No? I wouldn't. I
19:51
wouldn't think so, I wouldn't I think they. You know, from what
19:56
I'm just hearing is that it it was just like co parenting, and like
20:03
you know, it's so many you you had a detective that had a less
20:07
vendetta vendetta, you had the guy that he got into it at the gas
20:14
station over the twenty dollars. They had a vandetta. So you know why
20:19
why couldn't them to be and investigated the officer, the head detective isn't even
20:29
being on the case if she, if he was involved with her, Why
20:33
are you investigating this case? That's right there? And that's how a lot
20:41
of them get away with it is because they know that they're not going to
20:44
be prosecuted and they don't have the chance, you know, of ending up
20:48
in prison. Right, there's all this immunity. But it is exactly as
20:52
you said. I mean, it was pretty much a very healthy co parenting
20:56
relationship. I'm trying to look for the quote in one of the affiday.
21:00
It's of his innocence. Okay, So this is from one of the people
21:03
that actually went in front of Judge Yorke at the Mobile County Circuit Court last
21:08
February and testified in Leonard's favor that they heard a confession from the perpetrator.
21:14
He said they were always together and Leonard was always doing stuff for his kids.
21:18
I'm reading this verbatim. I think SO and so felt bad that he
21:22
put a father in prison. For something that he had done. And he
21:27
said that the victim and Leonard were like Bonnie and Clyde, always doing stuff
21:32
together for the kids. So it's it's like you said, it was a
21:33
co parenting relationship. But a lot of times that's the person that gets nailed
21:37
because it's the easiest open and shutcase, right, and they just figured and
21:44
then they gone off. The four year old were that you know, daddy,
21:49
daddy did this? You know? Was there any recording of the child
21:59
investment together on? Was that played at his trial? No, there was
22:04
no recording. Well, there was a recording played for the grand jury.
22:10
But that's when Ashley Rich submitted that motion for him to not go to trial
22:15
because supposedly they couldn't lay the proper predicate that he knew right from wrong,
22:21
you know, due to his young tender years, and so that grand jury
22:25
testimony wasn't quite adding up. I don't think so that's why. I think
22:30
that's why she submitted that motion that he didn't have to go to court and
22:33
testify. Wow, that's I mean, did did his any of his other
22:44
children testify his character? You know? Did they I mean, did they
22:48
put his ask you know, about his demeanor that day. You know,
22:52
did they what did How did his defense attorney represent him, you know for
23:00
him to get convicted? How was he represented? Not very well? Because
23:06
as I read through the eleven hundred pages of his transcript three years ago to
23:10
decide if I even was interested in advocating for him, I didn't see any
23:15
mention of this person that Leonard named as a suspect and any questioning of why
23:21
the mobile PDI didn't investigate him. So as far as he got on the
23:25
stand, I know that she has now passed away. But the mother of
23:29
his older children did get on the stand and testify, you know, in
23:33
favor of his character. His children were too young at the time. Is
23:37
remember like now thirteen years have passed since all of this, so were too
23:41
little at the time. But yes, absolutely he had never had any incidents
23:48
with any of his Now did his partners? Yeah, because you stated that
23:56
he passed the background check that you know, basically his record was clean until
24:03
this situation. Yes, I actually ran a background check on him. When
24:08
I was deliberating whether I wanted to have a friendship or anything with him,
24:14
I ran a background check on him just to make sure that he was telling
24:18
me the truth, and he really did have a clean record and he wasn't
24:21
some repeat offender. I paid for it myself. I did it for them,
24:26
and it was clear nothing else shows up. And did his defense attorney
24:32
bring that up, that, look, hey, you have a man right
24:36
here. He have a clean background, never been in trouble, you know,
24:41
not even a bump on a te or a slap on the wrist,
24:45
you know, and all of a sudden, if he's not getting in trouble,
24:51
now, all of a sudden, he's going to commit this violent crime,
24:53
you know, the one you even though I didn't see in the transcript
25:03
where he talked about the clean background, but he what his He tried to
25:07
build this case around I think quicksand I think it was very weak, because
25:11
the way that I advocate for Leonard is stronger with more facts and evidence,
25:17
even than his own attorney did. But he built this case around, well,
25:21
Leonard was like a ladies man, and he was not trying to hold
25:25
so and so into a relationship because look, he even had a child with
25:27
someone else during the timeframe that they were dating. Like he was out there
25:30
doing his thing. He wasn't trying to hold anybody in a relationship, so
25:34
why would it be him? And then he had, you know, one
25:37
of Leonard's previous partners get on the stand and say like, no, we
25:41
never had any issues. So you know, that's how he tried to paint
25:44
the picture for Leonard, but not with enough like facts and evidence that we're
25:48
talking about today. Well, and you know, and I think that's and
25:57
most of their defense they don't the defense attorney. They do just a little.
26:03
They don't go, they don't push the line. They just once they
26:07
get to that line, they like they scared to go to continue, they
26:12
just stop. They just stop. And you know, if you representing somebody,
26:19
you want to represent that person whole heartedly. No push, push,
26:27
push it if it's gonna step on somebody toes or make somebody mad and stuff.
26:33
But and you believe in your client that your client is innocent, you
26:37
gonna push that line, not get to the line and just like oh it's
26:42
the water too hot. I don't want to go go over there, go
26:47
on over there, go on over there. And I think that's what youngful
26:52
convictions. You know, they just have like counsel that's incompetent or inappropriate,
26:57
and they just kind of watch the case, and you know, when we
27:00
look at all these factors that go into a wrongful conviction, what do we
27:03
always hear that they're like top five witnesses that perjure themselves, police misconduct,
27:11
attorneys that were ineffective, so ineffective, counsel right, and all of those,
27:15
all of those play into exactly what happened with him. And we're so
27:18
fortunate that with this new discovery evidence of you know, these people coming forward
27:23
and saying like we heard a confession from the person who actually did it,
27:26
then we file those in court. So the attorney who's representing him now with
27:30
all of that new evidence, like, is the type of attorney that would
27:34
have won his case at trial, that's fights for him the way that you're
27:37
talking about. So the jury, because I know I hear a lot of
27:45
them say that they don't have a jury of their peers. How his jury
27:51
and did they pull the jury once once the sentence came down. I don't
27:56
know about pulling the jury once the sentence came down. I actually live in
28:00
a completely different state, so everything I do is like, you know,
28:03
not local. But the jury was eleven out of twelve white drawers and you
28:11
know, anyone who follows this case knows that Leonard is a black man,
28:15
so he definitely did not have a jury of his own peers. And as
28:19
you and I were talking about earlier in the Deep South, in the state
28:22
of Alabama, that is very significant because when we think about in the nineteen
28:26
seventies, Alabama was still doing medical experiments on black men, arts to syphilist
28:33
treatments. Right, the people that are now das and judges and you know,
28:41
things like that, these are the people that were interacting with Leonard's case.
28:45
So having eleven out of twelve white drawers is a big deal when it
28:48
comes to a black man being tried in Alabama. Wow. Yes, it
28:53
is the Deep South. Yes, And you were saying, and we talked
29:00
about, you said it was harp is going to be harp for him to
29:06
get parole once he come up, or because he was sentenced to life with
29:11
the possibility of parole, right, Yeah, So he was sentenced to life
29:15
with the possibility of parole in twenty twenty six, and so anyone who reads
29:21
up on the state of parole in Alabama. The ACLU did a parole Watch
29:25
report last year in twenty twenty three where they attended I believe like ten weeks
29:30
of hearings, like a certain amount of hearings and kind of like studied the
29:33
trends and basically parole in the state of Alabama all time low last year.
29:38
So basically more than ninety percent of people do not get paroled in Alabama.
29:45
And so there was one person on the board last year who kind of helped
29:49
raise that a little bit where more people were getting paroled, and kiv the
29:53
governor, made sure that that person did not get to repeat their term on
29:59
the board. So I believe, in my personal opinion that when Kivy is
30:04
no longer in office, and if someone progressive replaces her, there may be
30:08
some hope for fairness on who sits on the board. But basically it's a
30:12
known issue in Albama right now that people are not getting parolled, even the
30:18
people who have been deemed safe enough to go to work, release and interact
30:23
with the general public. And the ACLU says that in their report as well,
30:30
Wow, have you reached out to anyone else to get Leonard's story out?
30:36
So this might be the eighth like small podcasts that I've done. And
30:40
then you know for anyone listening. I also have a platform for him on
30:45
Instagram, so you know, I always hope that people will kind of find
30:48
us there. I have interacted with people I have spoken. I want to
30:53
be careful about naming names because I'm not trying to make anyone look bad on
30:56
this podcast and have any backlash against me league, But I've spoken to people
31:02
that have produced documentaries on Peacock. I have spoken to someone who's connected with
31:08
Kim Kardashian's podcast. I've spoken with people that could really put his story out
31:14
there, and you know, it hasn't gotten picked up yet. I did
31:18
speak to someone who's not as well known, but he has connections with like
31:22
We TV, and his response to me, this was just a couple of
31:26
months ago, was that they need a national story that will bring in the
31:32
ratings, and then it's easier to get coverage for a woman's story. So
31:36
there's always some reason, you know why, I have, after doing this
31:41
for three years, a personal belief that people only want to pick up the
31:44
story when it'll get them ratings and it'll get their face out there like they're
31:48
doing something and and get them money. Yes, yes, you know,
32:00
my husband and I was just talking about that that you know, they mainly
32:06
look out for the women, you know that's incarcerated. You know, it's
32:10
nothing wrong with that because they do need to be home with their children,
32:15
raising their children, you know. So, but we also have to look
32:22
at the men that's been wrongfully convicted in there that as well. We have
32:27
to look at both sides, just not favor give favoritism to one side.
32:31
Well, we're gonna let ten out ten women to want one men over here
32:37
every twenty years or something like that. So but you know, it's just
32:44
maybe we need to get together and do a documentary. You know, we
32:49
can do our own documentary. I did say that to him maybe a month
32:52
ago. I said, after doing this for three years with no success,
32:55
I said, I'm to the point where I'm just gonna fund it and do
32:58
it myself. Well, you know, yeah, it's a good idea.
33:02
Yeah, maybe, I mean we need to get together because they're these stories
33:07
need to get out there, you know. Personally with with me, it's
33:13
my belief that you know, they're only looking at the the cases that's being
33:22
televised that's coming forth now. Yes, then once they get you know,
33:29
through with them, you know they they back waiting okay, during a waiting
33:34
time. I just it's just a suggestion. Look at the men and the
33:38
women that's still incarcerated on wrong for convictions. Look at them. They're fighting,
33:47
you know, they're actually fighting to get out. You have some men
33:52
that's they're innocent, and the courts have clothes to them. They don't.
34:00
They they don't shout him down with everything, you know, and they giving
34:05
them back. They law oh, oh you know your your your lawyers should
34:12
have brung that up and direct the pill right, and they shut down these
34:16
courts. They shut him down. So now you have men that's in there
34:22
that's getting discouraged. Yes, because all the courts is closed. My family
34:28
doesn't have the money to you know, hihire a lawyer. So you know,
34:34
they sitting in prison and they like they growing old, they're getting older.
34:38
I had one man. I didn't get a chance to talk to him.
34:45
But when I would go visit my husband at Denver, he will always
34:49
come out and his sisters would be there. He gave up. He passed
34:54
away last month. He just gave up. He started taking his medicine.
34:59
He just figured he said, hey, the course is closed and this is
35:01
where this is where I'm one. My life is gonna in you know,
35:07
And he just wave and that's their reality, Leonard tells me, like,
35:14
you know, how you get up and you have your morning routine. Like
35:16
for me, I wake up, I have my coffee, I sit down,
35:19
I work like that's my routine. His routine. It's normal. As
35:22
I'll get out to him, it doesn't even phaze him is to see bodies
35:27
being carried outside his window, or bodies being carried outside his dorm because they
35:30
overdosed on drugs. Because in there, it's a hopeless situation. And I've
35:35
talked about this another podcasts, you know, and I'm sure any of us
35:37
in the space are well aware of it. Prison is not made to be
35:43
rehabilitative. And then we wonder why these guys are maybe even women. I
35:46
have more experience with Leonard's case. I don't know too much about, you
35:49
know, the women's population, but we wonder why they go back into society.
35:53
And then we have such a high rate of recidivism in this country,
35:58
right, so these rudditions in every single day, So imagine how much harder
36:02
it is. And I'm not saying it's like you know, you know,
36:06
Leonard suffers more or anything like that, But imagine how much harder it is
36:09
for someone knowing that they shouldn't even be there, right and having society judge
36:15
them and family members judge them. So, yeah, it's slavery. Yeah,
36:20
I see someone putting there in the comments. Yeah, yeah it is
36:24
is so yes jinks somebody just said it. Yeah, that's that's our producer
36:31
in the back. That's Angela. She works with the Free Texas campaign.
36:37
She also applicates for the men in Texas and she also some women over there
36:44
too, because right now Texas, the men in Texas don't have no air
36:52
conditioner. They're locked down for twenty fo They're locked down for twenty four hours.
36:59
That's common. Are you not going to these man air they're in the
37:02
sale because you're cooking them? To me, you're you're basically cooking a man
37:07
and without knowing air because I'm in Florida and and I'm in right now in
37:15
one hundred degree weather, right, But that's common. It happens in Leonard's
37:19
prison as well in Alabama where yeah, I mean, they'll gravitate to one
37:23
area of the prison that has air conditioning, whether it's the TV room or
37:27
whatnot. And I'll always you know, around this time of year, Okay,
37:30
get some ice, put it in a towel, put it around your
37:31
neck, and I try to make sure you people cool and staying hydrated.
37:36
Absolutely, the conditions are completely inhumane, which is why you and I were
37:40
talking about. I think over the weekend, the State of Alveta Apartment of
37:45
Corruptions is being sued by the federal government because the conditions are so inhumane in
37:50
Alabama prisons, and I think that lawsuit is supposed to go to court five.
37:55
I believe so wow, Yes, yep, Texas. You know I
38:04
was. I talked to the man in Denver, but I haven't been able
38:07
to have them come back on a podcast and share their story out because they
38:15
shut it down. They was like, nope, you guys cannot talk to
38:17
nobody. Only persons that they're able to talk to is like probably their lawyer
38:24
or the police, you know, officers like that. But as far as
38:29
doing podcasting, they're not able to get their story out. So you know,
38:40
I'm their voice. When I talked to them, I get it out
38:44
out there to you know, let the world know that we have men that
38:50
are fighting for their life. They don't have a voice. People are you
38:53
know people, you know, I'm just I'm lost that word because I'm so
39:02
passionate about this. You know, these are men. I don't care if
39:07
they're they're black, they're white, they're Hispanics, they're Asians. They're fighting
39:16
for their life for things that they've been acute that things that they didn't do,
39:23
for something they didn't do, and now they have to fight for their
39:27
life to get out. And then while they're fighting, the courts close on
39:34
they're clothes. Oh we got you for life, we got you for life.
39:39
And then while they're in there, I'm wrong for convicting. While they're
39:44
in there, they have family members that's passing away. I have one one,
39:52
mister Kemp that I talked to. All his brothers and sisters is past
39:59
our gone. It's just Tim left, just Tim left, you know,
40:06
and you know, my heart goes out to him. I talked to some
40:12
guy, a guy from Texas, Eugene. He told me that he has
40:19
he has no family. I always tell my husband that, you know,
40:23
and they're fighting to get out. Yeah, a lot of these guys have
40:28
nobody. I have a contact who was her son was also wrongfully convicted under
40:37
district Attorney Ashley Rich. Again, I feel like I have to keep saying
40:40
the word allegedly because I don't want any from anyone who listens to this,
40:45
but allegedly was wrongfully convicted by district Attorney Ashley Rich. And that's how we
40:51
connected because we both know Leonard's private investigator. So anyway, Yeah, and
40:57
she told me that it breaks her heart because she's my older than me,
41:00
she's in her seventies, late seventies. That he always tells her if something
41:06
happens to her, what's going to become of him. That's how he thinks
41:10
because the rest of the family has turned against him because they believe he actually
41:14
did it. Right. So, like a lot of these guys, either
41:17
their family dies off while they're in prison, or they have people that don't
41:22
support them because you know, they're embarrassed by it, or they believe they
41:24
actually did it. I always tell my husband, be grateful because you're you
41:29
have a very rare situation that your family rallies behind you. That's not normal
41:32
in this situation. No, it's not. And I've seen it, and
41:37
you know I've seen it, well, I really really thank you for coming
41:44
in and sharing Leonard's story, and I would like to give you this opportunity
41:52
to let us know where we can learn more about leonard case. If it's
42:00
a change dot org up that people can go out and participate, yes,
42:07
absolutely, that's a great place to start to learn more, way more than
42:10
I've talked about today. It would be at change dot org slash Free Leonard
42:16
Coleman. Right now, we're at nineteen thousand, two hundred and fifty four
42:21
signatures. I would love to get it to twenty thousand and beyond. Right
42:25
now, his case is about to be appealed with the Alabama Supreme Court level,
42:30
so public support means everything to us. Those signatures, especially those comments,
42:35
mean everything to us. In the past, I have actually printed those
42:38
comments on change dot org and sent them to the judge that was presiding over
42:44
his new Discovery evidence case. So sign leave a comment thank you so much
42:47
for doing that, and follow follow us at Justice for Leonard Coleman on Instagram.
42:53
Trying to get those followers up. We're just under thirteen hundred like comment,
42:59
you know, interact with the post to kind of you know, help
43:01
us in the Instagram algorithm and That's where I would usually if I do need
43:07
support in this new stage, like more letters of support. That's where I'll
43:10
usually reach out to people is on Instagram, And I always please anytime I
43:15
interact like on you know, Instagram or on these types of platforms. If
43:20
anyone's listening and you have access to a newspaper, a magazine, a news
43:25
outlet, please consider putting Leonard's story out there. He is the poster child
43:30
for someone that you would want to help. And the five factors, the
43:34
five main factors that go into his wrongful conviction I talk about on change dot
43:38
org. Well, you know we were gonna stay in touch because we definitely
43:44
gonna do a documentoring. We have to we have to brain. We have
43:49
to all come together, everyone that's using a voice to speak out on someone
43:53
that's been unlawful convicted. We need to all join the get and we need
44:00
to demand justice for our loved ones. Thank you once again, Ms Cohan.
44:06
I really appreciate you for coming on. Tell Lennard he got this in
44:10
to stay strong. Thank you listening audience for tuning in for another episode with
44:17
us. And last week I asked you guys, what are you using your
44:22
voice for this week, I'm still gonna ask you the same question. What
44:28
are you using your voice for? Are you speaking up? Are you just
44:34
sitting in the back being quiet? Also, I want to leave you with
44:37
this. It is not about finding your voice. It's about giving your self
44:43
permission to use your voice. Use your voice this week in a good way.
44:50
Not cussing nobody out, but in a good way. I love you,
44:53
guys, Be blessed and stay safe. All persinger singeing, All things
45:06
ain't what thing used to be known? Now? Where did all the Blue
45:12
Sky's bot boys? As the window blows from the Lord and something sp