Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #371 Guest Host Earlonne Woods with Joaquin Ciria
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: On the night of March twenty fourth, nineteen ninety, Felix
- 0:04Speaker 1: Costo Rico was walking down an alley in San Francisco's
- 0:08Speaker 1: Mission District. Witnesses saw a man get out of a
- 0:10Speaker 1: white money Carlo and confront Felix, and the two started arguing. Suddenly,
- 0:16Speaker 1: a shot rang out and.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Felix fell to the ground dead.
- 0:20Speaker 1: The shooter jumped back into the car and sped away
- 0:22Speaker 1: with another man at the wheel. By the next morning,
- 0:26Speaker 1: rumors were flying around the streets that the shooter was
- 0:28Speaker 1: a lifelong friend of Felix's, Joaquin Syria. They had grown
- 0:32Speaker 1: up together in Cuba. Word was that the two were
- 0:35Speaker 1: in a dispute over money. Joaquin had been out earlier
- 0:38Speaker 1: that evening with a friend who drove a white money Carlo,
- 0:41Speaker 1: but he claimed to be home with his wife and
- 0:43Speaker 1: baby son for the night by the time the crime
- 0:45Speaker 1: was committed. After viewing several lineups that included Joaquin's picture,
- 0:50Speaker 1: two eyewitnesses id'd him as the man they seen. One
- 0:54Speaker 1: witness claimed that she was eighty percent certain and that
- 0:58Speaker 1: was close enough for the jury. But this is wrongful conviction.
- 1:16Speaker 1: Welcome back to wrongful conviction. I'm Mariline Woods, co creator
- 1:19Speaker 1: and co host of the Ear Hustle podcast, guest hosting
- 1:22Speaker 1: for Jason Flummerday, and I gotta tell you I served
- 1:26Speaker 1: over twenty seven years in prison, and I used to
- 1:28Speaker 1: always think about the people who were in here that
- 1:31Speaker 1: were actually innocent, you know, dealing with the day to
- 1:34Speaker 1: day grinding rigor of prison life. And that brings us
- 1:38Speaker 1: to our guest today, Joaquin Sarah, Joaquin, welcome to Wrongful Conviction.
- 1:42Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, cool cool. And here to help
- 1:46Speaker 1: tell Joaquin's story is Paige Knap. She's the supervising attorney
- 1:50Speaker 1: at the Northern California Innocent Project. Paige, thanks for being here.
- 1:55Speaker 3: Yeah, I am super excited to meet you, Arline, and
- 1:58Speaker 3: super happy to be with you Morningquin.
- 2:01Speaker 1: Joaquin, can you tell me, like, since you're from Cuba,
- 2:05Speaker 1: what was your life like growing up.
- 2:07Speaker 2: Growing now in Quwa. It was beautiful?
- 2:10Speaker 4: It was beautiful, you know for me to be a
- 2:13Speaker 4: child growing now in my country. You know, so rein
- 2:16Speaker 4: them my family frame and kill what you do a
- 2:20Speaker 4: lot of teams you know that you're not able to
- 2:23Speaker 4: do in this country. You know, I remember you know
- 2:26Speaker 4: that in kill what we to play? You know, in
- 2:28Speaker 4: the three to one o'cloud two okline the morning, and
- 2:32Speaker 4: it was no danger. Everybody know everybody, you know, because
- 2:36Speaker 4: it's an island. I had a royal beautiful Shaoho.
- 2:41Speaker 1: Got you, got you, got you. So when you were
- 2:43Speaker 1: a youngster, the US and Cuba was beefing. You know,
- 2:46Speaker 1: they have a pretty fraud history. The Missile Crisis, the
- 2:50Speaker 1: Commonist Revolt, and bargoes. Not really a free flowing dialogue.
- 2:55Speaker 1: So I'm just curious, like, what were your impressions of
- 2:58Speaker 1: the United States back?
- 3:00Speaker 2: Well, let me let me tell you this, man, everybody
- 3:02Speaker 2: c the majority.
- 3:04Speaker 4: We grow out believing everything that we're watching the TV
- 3:08Speaker 4: about the United States. We really believe that Superman really exists.
- 3:14Speaker 4: Anything that you go out from United we really believe that. Brother,
- 3:19Speaker 4: you know, you know in we watch so brainwatched, you
- 3:23Speaker 4: know that when we're watching movie A Superman won the Woman.
- 3:28Speaker 2: We really believe that these type of people exist in
- 3:33Speaker 2: the United States.
- 3:35Speaker 1: You know, unbelievable.
- 3:37Speaker 2: So this see how I grow out.
- 3:39Speaker 1: And and and and Joaquin, you knew the victim in
- 3:43Speaker 1: this case, Phyllis bastar Rica. When you were a kid
- 3:46Speaker 1: back in Cuba.
- 3:47Speaker 4: You know a Phyllis we all call hi calitles. He
- 3:51Speaker 4: was close to my neighborhood, so mini mini minie time.
- 3:56Speaker 4: We who to skate from the school to go swimming
- 3:59Speaker 4: in the ocean, you know, go go ib some mango
- 4:02Speaker 4: sugar cane. Everybody liked to be around Phillis. You know,
- 4:07Speaker 4: if you go into a party, you want him to
- 4:09Speaker 4: be there. He was only laughing all the time, making
- 4:14Speaker 4: a lot of joke. Definitely, he was a good friend, right.
- 4:19Speaker 1: And I'm just curious. Did you come from like a
- 4:23Speaker 1: political family over in Cuba.
- 4:25Speaker 4: My father he was a revolutionary, you know, he was
- 4:28Speaker 4: a Commonist. He fight with the Gostro you see, with
- 4:34Speaker 4: the cast got the power way. My father was a
- 4:37Speaker 4: part of that. Yeah, the majority of my family they
- 4:40Speaker 4: really believed, you know, in the Commonies. And it was
- 4:44Speaker 4: probably in the house, you know, because we all got
- 4:46Speaker 4: different views. Since my ely age, I got really really
- 4:50Speaker 4: big trouble to fit in the Commonist party. I got
- 4:54Speaker 4: trouble with that. So you know, at the age of eighteen,
- 4:58Speaker 4: I was called to be in the army. I was
- 5:01Speaker 4: in high school at that time, but they don't care.
- 5:03Speaker 4: That was a man that told it called. You know,
- 5:06Speaker 4: a lot of young people escape because we don't want
- 5:09Speaker 4: to do that, you know, to go fight to some
- 5:12Speaker 4: other country, like a lot of joints in Cuba, they
- 5:16Speaker 4: were saying to Angola to fight a lot of all
- 5:19Speaker 4: these young people got killed, you know.
- 5:21Speaker 2: So me and might say, oh, I don't want to
- 5:24Speaker 2: do that.
- 5:26Speaker 4: So when I was called to be in the army,
- 5:29Speaker 4: I remember that I was there maybe for about sismon
- 5:34Speaker 4: and I escape. A lot of Johns say do that.
- 5:37Speaker 4: After I escape, I go to my family house and
- 5:41Speaker 4: I spend some time with my family. Into my father
- 5:45Speaker 4: come and told me, and he said, you know what,
- 5:47Speaker 4: walking I don't want no trouble with the government.
- 5:50Speaker 2: You have to give it, you say, do the right thing,
- 5:53Speaker 2: you know.
- 5:53Speaker 4: And and I respect my family, you know, I love
- 5:56Speaker 4: my father so more.
- 5:57Speaker 2: This is how I aim.
- 5:58Speaker 4: Then, you know, in prison, you know in Cuba, it's
- 6:02Speaker 4: not like right here, you know, right here out waiting
- 6:05Speaker 4: something hoppy to your wyoka crying right in two or
- 6:08Speaker 4: three days they take.
- 6:10Speaker 1: You to court your due process.
- 6:11Speaker 4: Yeah, in gil White Diffity in Cilbai, they directed you,
- 6:15Speaker 4: Yeah you can be I THEO for one through three four. Yeah,
- 6:18Speaker 4: I do never go to court. Yeah, they see how
- 6:22Speaker 4: it is in Kuwa Damn.
- 6:25Speaker 1: So in May of nineteen eighty, after spending some time
- 6:30Speaker 1: in prison, you fled Cuba as a part of the
- 6:33Speaker 1: Mario Boat left, which from my understanding was a mass
- 6:37Speaker 1: migration of around one hundred and twenty five thousand Cubans
- 6:41Speaker 1: that was sanctioned by both Jimmy Carter and Fidale Castro.
- 6:45Speaker 1: You were still a teenager at that time, right, yeah,
- 6:47Speaker 1: And I want to ask you what do you remember
- 6:49Speaker 1: about the boat ride from Cuba to Florida because I
- 6:52Speaker 1: used to always see it on the news, you know,
- 6:54Speaker 1: individuals on floats and stuff like that coming from Cuba.
- 6:57Speaker 1: What what do you remember about that boat ride?
- 7:00Speaker 4: Well, Frosseto, to be honest with you, bro, I see
- 7:04Speaker 4: a lot of ball when I was in the ocean,
- 7:07Speaker 4: you know, and we're talking about a ball that you
- 7:10Speaker 4: might can pull twenty or thirty people in that ball.
- 7:14Speaker 4: So what the Cuba government was doing need instead or
- 7:18Speaker 4: pull twenty or toty people?
- 7:21Speaker 2: They who to put too home? Three people in the bowl.
- 7:25Speaker 4: So imagining and let me tell you, Mane, I see
- 7:29Speaker 4: with my own eyes how a lot of boat this appeal, you.
- 7:34Speaker 2: Know, in the ocean.
- 7:36Speaker 4: One minute that was next to US, and when I look,
- 7:39Speaker 4: it's not a te anomal, it is like it's gone.
- 7:43Speaker 4: So it was really, really really it was really ugly,
- 7:48Speaker 4: you know, right.
- 7:50Speaker 1: So fortunately for you you got here safely and you
- 7:55Speaker 1: landed in Key West, Florida. Can you tell me what
- 7:58Speaker 1: your feelings were when you first read the United States?
- 8:01Speaker 4: At that moment, I feel, you know, I watched Hoppy, Yeah, yes,
- 8:05Speaker 4: I wa Hoppy completely.
- 8:07Speaker 2: You know that I fleck. I watched Hoppy. You know that.
- 8:10Speaker 4: I mean you not a state that I don't have
- 8:12Speaker 4: to live it a field no more, I don't have
- 8:14Speaker 4: to water.
- 8:14Speaker 2: You know about that? I going and they killed bid
- 8:18Speaker 2: they govin main't on Sonky like that. I know. I
- 8:22Speaker 2: wasched in the most power with fo komtri in the war.
- 8:26Speaker 4: So at that moment, anything that they told me will
- 8:31Speaker 4: believe it.
- 8:32Speaker 1: So over the next few years, you kind of skipped
- 8:34Speaker 1: around to a few different cities and you finally ended
- 8:38Speaker 1: up in San Francisco living with a woman named Nellie Hernandez.
- 8:42Speaker 1: Nelly was a little older than you, and she had
- 8:44Speaker 1: six kids. And back then you were hanging out with
- 8:48Speaker 1: a couple of your partners from Cuba. Your childhood friend
- 8:51Speaker 1: Felix Costa Rica who had also made it to the US.
- 8:54Speaker 1: And a guy named Robert Socorro. And there was another
- 8:58Speaker 1: cat from Cuba that was a hustling name in Candido
- 9:00Speaker 1: ds What did you know about him?
- 9:03Speaker 2: You know, Candido Dias, What I know about him? You
- 9:07Speaker 2: know that he's a cute one.
- 9:08Speaker 4: You know, he was living in San Francisco in the
- 9:12Speaker 4: Star Hotel, you know, in nineteen ninety. And I never think,
- 9:17Speaker 4: you know, he had any typeo or bad feeling about me,
- 9:23Speaker 4: a fat that I know. You know, we're talking sometimes
- 9:26Speaker 4: and you know when you got the feeling that you
- 9:30Speaker 4: don't click with the person, you know, that's the way
- 9:32Speaker 4: I feel, that's the way he feel. But we never
- 9:35Speaker 4: let it, you know, pass to the level or having
- 9:40Speaker 4: any type of problem with him.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Okay, And when you was in San Francisco and me
- 9:45Speaker 1: asked us, what was the San Francisco Police Department?
- 9:49Speaker 4: Like? So in nineteen ninety in San Francisco Police Department,
- 9:59Speaker 4: it was really really really I could root department. I
- 10:05Speaker 4: already you know, listening in the three what they were doing,
- 10:09Speaker 4: how they brand drag on people car you know, and
- 10:14Speaker 4: and all that type of stuff. You know, of course,
- 10:18Speaker 4: not everybody not every police is doing you know, some
- 10:22Speaker 4: really Torigan, they really got some a lot of bad apple,
- 10:28Speaker 4: you know in the San Francis Complete department, h.
- 10:52Speaker 2: My twenty four, nineteen ninety.
- 10:54Speaker 4: You know, my personal life at that time it was changing,
- 10:58Speaker 4: you know for the betro You know, I my baby's mama.
- 11:01Speaker 4: You know, Johanna pays about almost about a jayago before
- 11:05Speaker 4: my son was born. I was a happy man, you
- 11:08Speaker 4: know at that time. I'm oh, my friend, Oh, my friend.
- 11:11Speaker 4: What's happy with me too?
- 11:13Speaker 2: You know? Roveto socorro he.
- 11:14Speaker 4: Was happy if Philidy Jhuto coming to my house. It
- 11:18Speaker 4: was a happy time for me, right, you know at that.
- 11:22Speaker 1: Time until, of course, your good friend Felix Basto Rico
- 11:26Speaker 1: was killed, which happened on the night of March twenty fourth,
- 11:29Speaker 1: nineteen ninety. So Paige, can you can you walk us
- 11:33Speaker 1: through what transpired that night?
- 11:35Speaker 3: Yeah, So what we know is that Felix Pasta Rica
- 11:38Speaker 3: was walking down the street with a plastic bag. We've
- 11:42Speaker 3: since learned from Roberto SoCoRo that Roberto was in hiding.
- 11:45Speaker 3: He had just killed someone and had asked Felix to
- 11:48Speaker 3: bring him some clothes and toilet trees and stuff. So
- 11:51Speaker 3: he's walking over to the bay Bridge Motel where Roberto is,
- 11:55Speaker 3: And in Clara Alley, which is sort of perpendicular to
- 12:00Speaker 3: the Baybridge Motel, there are people. There's a guy in
- 12:03Speaker 3: a car, Kenneth Duff, and there's a woman up in
- 12:05Speaker 3: the window, Kathleen Guovara, and they both hear this loud altercation,
- 12:10Speaker 3: this loud argument in the alleyway, and describe these two
- 12:14Speaker 3: people kind of walking back and forth interacting with each other.
- 12:18Speaker 3: There's a white Monte Carlo that the guy with the
- 12:19Speaker 3: gun gets out of and he shoots Felix Pastrica in
- 12:23Speaker 3: the street and jumps back in the white Monte Carlo
- 12:26Speaker 3: and drives off right.
- 12:29Speaker 1: And that even in Joaquin, you were spending time with
- 12:32Speaker 1: another friend, eighteen year old George Varilla, who was actually
- 12:36Speaker 1: the son of your former girlfriend Nellie Hernandez.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
- 12:40Speaker 4: And Joe Barrela, we who to be real close where
- 12:44Speaker 4: he wasched, you know around a nine. Yeah, oh, we
- 12:47Speaker 4: who to go to the video a keda all the
- 12:49Speaker 4: time we watched Aditta to play video. I'm to be honesty,
- 12:55Speaker 4: I feel, you know, even when I watch young I
- 12:58Speaker 4: feel like he was my son. Right he God to
- 13:01Speaker 4: come to my house almost every two three days.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Okay, so can you tell us like what you and
- 13:09Speaker 1: you know George got into on the evening of March
- 13:11Speaker 1: twenty fourth, before y'all have parted ways.
- 13:15Speaker 4: I remembered that nine that wasn't home with my family.
- 13:19Speaker 4: You know, I expaid that, you know, to stay home.
- 13:21Speaker 4: I was in May and I received a phone call
- 13:24Speaker 4: from your So when I got the phone your he
- 13:28Speaker 4: started told me and he said, hey, man, what you doing?
- 13:31Speaker 2: I said, man, I'm right here. You know, I spent
- 13:32Speaker 2: some time with Johanna and with my son. Man. I
- 13:36Speaker 2: bol why we don't go to play video?
- 13:38Speaker 4: So he conveys me and I go out the way
- 13:41Speaker 4: here and he come out to peep me out.
- 13:44Speaker 2: It is white Monte Carlo.
- 13:46Speaker 1: Oh, George Forriala drove a white money Carlo.
- 13:48Speaker 4: He got a white Monte Carlo. He peeped me out.
- 13:51Speaker 4: Almost around seven o'clock, we go to that CAA to
- 13:55Speaker 4: play video. I remember that we got there almost around
- 13:59Speaker 4: seven saving Tody.
- 14:01Speaker 2: We what play video? Buado the Blue.
- 14:03Speaker 4: He come out and told me and said, hey, what
- 14:05Speaker 4: can't I have to go back to my house because
- 14:07Speaker 4: my girlfriend she come out from Richmond.
- 14:09Speaker 2: So to make this toy show.
- 14:11Speaker 1: We leave, and when you left, you didn't go straight home.
- 14:13Speaker 1: You enjoyed stopped by Gallon's Bar first, where a lot
- 14:16Speaker 1: of Cubans and Puerto Ricans ain't got at to see
- 14:19Speaker 1: if you might meet up with a friend of yours there,
- 14:22Speaker 1: But instead you ran into another guy, Roberto Hernandez, who
- 14:27Speaker 1: was not exactly a friend.
- 14:29Speaker 4: We don't get along, you know me and he got
- 14:31Speaker 4: a fire side. After I see my friend Manolo, I
- 14:34Speaker 4: talking with Manolo for a little while.
- 14:36Speaker 2: I got to defight Joe Barrella. Take me home.
- 14:40Speaker 4: I got to my house around a twenty five h
- 14:43Speaker 4: eight toty Navid, I leave.
- 14:46Speaker 1: My how a game and did you know what you
- 14:47Speaker 1: was wearing at night?
- 14:48Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 14:49Speaker 4: Yeah, that's something that I never go and forget that, Navid,
- 14:52Speaker 4: because at that time, I don't know if you remain
- 14:55Speaker 4: me that a lot of young people Epecio, black people
- 14:58Speaker 4: like me, we who to with that type post Jackie
- 15:01Speaker 4: letter JACKI you know that it was all colorful letter.
- 15:05Speaker 4: Jaki Song said, command the squad, so Wan said, how
- 15:10Speaker 4: roly so say Cobra got I don't think that I
- 15:15Speaker 4: think that I even can sleep with that Jackey.
- 15:19Speaker 2: D. C. How to much I know, Michael Mama squad.
- 15:22Speaker 4: Yeah, and they see how I get out out of
- 15:24Speaker 4: my house when yo body piped me out.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Okay, cool. So George dropped you off at around a
- 15:30Speaker 1: thirty and you spent the rest of the evening at
- 15:32Speaker 1: home with Johanna and your son. But by the next
- 15:35Speaker 1: day there was already a rumor going around that it
- 15:38Speaker 1: was you that killed Costa Rica, as you found out
- 15:41Speaker 1: from your friend Manolo when you went to Gallon's bar
- 15:44Speaker 1: the next day.
- 15:45Speaker 2: Manolo and some other people watch outside the bottom.
- 15:49Speaker 4: When Manolo see me, Manolo approaching me, you know how
- 15:52Speaker 4: he said, hey, Waki, how you doing?
- 15:54Speaker 2: My friend you know ween Brace and he said, man
- 15:57Speaker 2: why you don't leave the CD? And I look at here.
- 15:59Speaker 2: I say, leady, CD, what are you talking about? Manolo?
- 16:03Speaker 2: He said, Maine Alito, last night? You know I'm the
- 16:06Speaker 2: rue noise that you beat it. And I say, hey,
- 16:10Speaker 2: A stop playing like tom mate, do you show? What
- 16:11Speaker 2: are you talking about? He said yeah.
- 16:13Speaker 4: So when he told me now the Frost team that
- 16:16Speaker 4: is coming, you know, in my mind, I just say, oh, man,
- 16:20Speaker 4: something Roman, and I just started to be afraid.
- 16:23Speaker 1: And it came out later that Condido DZ was the
- 16:26Speaker 1: likely instigator of that rumor, but however it got started.
- 16:29Speaker 1: The two homicide detectives work in the case, Arc Gearns
- 16:33Speaker 1: and James Crowley ran with that.
- 16:35Speaker 3: Rumor, so Joaquin's name comes up really fast in the investigation,
- 16:39Speaker 3: and from as soon as they get his name, he
- 16:42Speaker 3: is the only person they ever look into. And so
- 16:46Speaker 3: essentially what you can see in the police reports is
- 16:48Speaker 3: the two homicide inspectors who have Joaquin as their one
- 16:52Speaker 3: and only suspect, start showing his picture to the two eyewitnesses,
- 16:56Speaker 3: neither of whom identify him. They ask her, well, who
- 16:59Speaker 3: looks most like the shooter, and she says, well, she
- 17:03Speaker 3: points to Joaquin's photo and says he looks most like
- 17:05Speaker 3: the shooter, but she doesn't say it's him, and the
- 17:08Speaker 3: guy in the car says he doesn't pick anybody out,
- 17:10Speaker 3: but they still keep their focus entirely on Joaquin.
- 17:14Speaker 1: But Joaquin didn't even match the descriptions that the two
- 17:16Speaker 1: witnesses gave, right, No.
- 17:17Speaker 3: Yeah, so the police did get descriptions from the eyewitnesses
- 17:21Speaker 3: of the shooter and the things they describe because they
- 17:24Speaker 3: both sort of say they see him from a distance,
- 17:26Speaker 3: kind of the silhouette. They say he's got an afro,
- 17:29Speaker 3: and that he's wearing this long trench coat. And we
- 17:32Speaker 3: know from independent witnesses, including the guy Joaquin got in
- 17:35Speaker 3: a fight with, who you know, didn't like him and
- 17:37Speaker 3: had no reason to lie for him, that Joaquin's hair
- 17:40Speaker 3: is in a long Jerry curl, not in an afro,
- 17:42Speaker 3: and he's wearing this short, short leather jacket and not
- 17:45Speaker 3: a long trench coat. And in fact, no one had
- 17:48Speaker 3: ever seen Joaquin ever in a trench coat, and he
- 17:51Speaker 3: didn't even own a trench coat.
- 17:53Speaker 4: You know, thank God that I just stop at the
- 17:55Speaker 4: Gottam Bottle because you'll see everybody see me how I
- 17:59Speaker 4: want the race. Everybody, the people they said, they DeFi.
- 18:04Speaker 4: They've remained me how I watched the race. They've remained
- 18:07Speaker 4: me that I got a Jedi krail.
- 18:09Speaker 3: I mean, even when they search the house, they're never
- 18:11Speaker 3: able to find anything to connect Joaquin, and and so
- 18:15Speaker 3: you know, it doesn't match. He doesn't match the descriptions,
- 18:18Speaker 3: and he's got an alibi. His his girlfriend and their
- 18:21Speaker 3: roommate tell the police from the very beginning that he's
- 18:24Speaker 3: home that night by eight thirty.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Nevertheless, Garan's and Crowley stay focused on Joaquin as a suspect.
- 18:31Speaker 1: And so at that point, Joaquin, you went to the
- 18:34Speaker 1: police station on your own, correct.
- 18:36Speaker 4: I cannot take a no moment. I cannot take a
- 18:38Speaker 4: no more. You watch some more rumo that I said, Man,
- 18:40Speaker 4: I have to go talk to with the homo side.
- 18:42Speaker 4: I have to go talk to with the homo side. Bolutality.
- 18:46Speaker 4: I go with my Loyo to speak to the homo side.
- 18:49Speaker 3: About two and a half weeks after the shooting, and
- 18:53Speaker 3: he tells them that he was with George Ferrella in
- 18:55Speaker 3: the white Monte Carlo, and he tells them how to
- 18:58Speaker 3: find George says, I, you know, I dated it his mother,
- 19:00Speaker 3: Nellie Hernandez. They live at this address. Here's what he
- 19:04Speaker 3: looks like. Here's the car he drives. I mean, basically
- 19:06Speaker 3: everything they need and they pull in George Verilla and
- 19:11Speaker 3: George is initially saying, well, I can tell you what
- 19:13Speaker 3: happened up until the time Joaquin and I split up,
- 19:15Speaker 3: and then he says he went home after and he says, well,
- 19:17Speaker 3: I probably I probably went somewhere after though, and they
- 19:20Speaker 3: never ask him where did you go? Instead, what they
- 19:23Speaker 3: say is we know Joaquin was the shooter. You're going
- 19:26Speaker 3: to go down for this murder. He's you know, George
- 19:28Speaker 3: is eighteen. They tell him, you're going to go down
- 19:30Speaker 3: for this murder unless you stop lying and covering up
- 19:33Speaker 3: for Joaquin, and they essentially tell him like, he's just
- 19:36Speaker 3: got to say that Joaquin is the guy in the
- 19:38Speaker 3: car with him at the time of the shooting, and
- 19:40Speaker 3: that Joaquin is the shooter. And George Verilla literally says, Okay,
- 19:44Speaker 3: whatever you said, and then he repeats the story that
- 19:48Speaker 3: they have now fed to him, and that's it.
- 19:52Speaker 1: So I guess subsequently later you end up getting arrested. Joaquin, Yes,
- 19:57Speaker 1: and you end up getting arrested based on a confession from.
- 20:00Speaker 3: George, or at least from George saying exactly what the
- 20:04Speaker 3: police told them to say.
- 20:05Speaker 1: Okay, so he was he fabricated her from the offices
- 20:08Speaker 1: Garin's and Crowley.
- 20:10Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, they tell him he's got to say
- 20:12Speaker 3: it's Joaquin. That's like then they keep going back to
- 20:14Speaker 3: the eyewitnesses. Basically, the witnesses make positive IDAs only after
- 20:18Speaker 3: they're repeatedly shown Joaquin, and for one of them, she
- 20:21Speaker 3: doesn't even make a first positive IDA until the preliminary
- 20:24Speaker 3: hearing when he's literally sitting in a red jumpsuit at
- 20:26Speaker 3: the defense table, and then she's like, oh, I'm sure
- 20:29Speaker 3: that's the guy, and she says it's based on his
- 20:32Speaker 3: attitude that she can see is how she's identifying. I mean,
- 20:36Speaker 3: there's a lot of racism all through this trial, Like
- 20:39Speaker 3: she even says, I think they were speaking African.
- 20:42Speaker 1: So on April nineteen, nineteen ninety, Joaquin, you were arrested
- 20:47Speaker 1: in charged with first degree murder. Bro what was going
- 20:50Speaker 1: through your head? I mean, did you even think this
- 20:53Speaker 1: shit was real?
- 20:54Speaker 2: Do you know what?
- 20:56Speaker 4: Let me tell you, these whoop not even going like
- 20:59Speaker 4: washing my you, I really believe that everything worth real.
- 21:03Speaker 4: I was thinking that I was in a can't the
- 21:05Speaker 4: camera show looking all these people coming and pointed me
- 21:10Speaker 4: with a finger, Yeah, that the main And in my
- 21:14Speaker 4: mind I said, main, I know, I know the camera
- 21:17Speaker 4: is going come out and they go and say a
- 21:19Speaker 4: smile you in camera, you know, because that was a
- 21:23Speaker 4: famite show at the time. I go to watch that
- 21:26Speaker 4: show tomorrow, you know, and I and I say, you
- 21:31Speaker 4: know what, I mean, what happened to me? I cannot
- 21:34Speaker 4: believe it? You you cannot being innocing believe that what
- 21:40Speaker 4: is happening to you is real. You you cannot you know,
- 21:45Speaker 4: and that's what happened to me. And you know, to
- 21:49Speaker 4: respond to your question, no, you know, I steel, don't
- 21:52Speaker 4: get it, I steal. You don't even get it. Main
- 21:57Speaker 4: you're being charged with flost the good morning.
- 22:01Speaker 2: I just deal them getting So.
- 22:03Speaker 3: George had actually kind of disappeared, George Urella, he'd not
- 22:06Speaker 3: shown up for the prelim, he was missing leading up
- 22:10Speaker 3: to the trial. I honestly believe Jaquin's attorney just didn't
- 22:13Speaker 3: think he was even going to have to deal with George.
- 22:16Speaker 3: It was just going to be this eyewitness I D case.
- 22:19Speaker 3: And so he did, I think, a fairly good job,
- 22:22Speaker 3: you know, showing all these discrepancies between the descriptions and
- 22:25Speaker 3: what Joaquin actually looked like, their own inconsistent statements and
- 22:30Speaker 3: kind of the evolution of their IDs. He did a
- 22:33Speaker 3: nice job of showing that George Verrella's timeline didn't make
- 22:36Speaker 3: any sense, that there was this like big gap in
- 22:38Speaker 3: between the way he says what they did that night
- 22:41Speaker 3: and how he drove Joaquin home. His timelines that lines
- 22:44Speaker 3: up with joaquines that Joaquin is home long before the
- 22:47Speaker 3: murder happens, but what he missed, what he didn't manage
- 22:51Speaker 3: to do. And one of the things I really respect
- 22:54Speaker 3: about him is that he actually gave us a declaration
- 22:56Speaker 3: saying he was ineffective because he didn't present to the jury.
- 22:59Speaker 3: The jury never heard that Joaquin's name came from the
- 23:03Speaker 3: homicide inspectors first, and that they told Verrella essentially that
- 23:06Speaker 3: he had to identify Joaquin, So the jury just never
- 23:09Speaker 3: heard that. What they heard instead was this guy who
- 23:11Speaker 3: knows Joaquin, who'd grown up with him around is saying
- 23:15Speaker 3: he's the guy who was with me in my car
- 23:17Speaker 3: and who got out and shot him. And then he
- 23:19Speaker 3: hears that corroborated by these two independent eyewitnesses, and Joaquin's
- 23:25Speaker 3: attorney presented witnesses who describe what Joaquin looked like that night,
- 23:29Speaker 3: how he had Jerry Curl in the short jacket, but
- 23:32Speaker 3: he never presented the alibi witnesses. So they also didn't
- 23:35Speaker 3: hear that Joaquin was at home with his one month
- 23:38Speaker 3: old son and that they had a good reason to
- 23:40Speaker 3: remember that night because they were going to celebrate the
- 23:42Speaker 3: one month anniversary of his birth the next day, So
- 23:46Speaker 3: you know, they knew that George Verrella was incentivized. They
- 23:49Speaker 3: knew he got immunity, they knew he was in and
- 23:51Speaker 3: out of trouble, So it wasn't a super strong case
- 23:54Speaker 3: even with what they heard. But what they never heard
- 23:56Speaker 3: was anything else about someone else actually did it, or
- 24:00Speaker 3: that Joaquin had this really credible alibi, and so they
- 24:03Speaker 3: end up convicting him.
- 24:09Speaker 4: It don't matter if I'm trying to explain to you
- 24:11Speaker 4: a thousand times, I cannot even feeling close to really
- 24:20Speaker 4: really tell you how I feel when they come out
- 24:25Speaker 4: with the guilty verity. You know, everything inside me stopped, everything,
- 24:33Speaker 4: I stop reading, my heart stop.
- 24:38Speaker 2: It is a feeling that you can never You can
- 24:45Speaker 2: never explain how it is that they find you guilty.
- 24:54Speaker 4: Espece you find me guilty or the moory of my
- 24:58Speaker 4: bed frameming that's all I really killed me? How can
- 25:03Speaker 4: I be doing time for the money of my baby
- 25:06Speaker 4: friend made somebody that I love.
- 25:10Speaker 2: Even to today.
- 25:31Speaker 4: I ended almost opened Pellican Bey prism in what the
- 25:34Speaker 4: more taught prisum in the California system.
- 25:37Speaker 2: At the time.
- 25:39Speaker 4: I see people when they told these people you go
- 25:42Speaker 4: into Pelican Bay, I see grown Maine crumbled in the
- 25:46Speaker 4: floor and crying when I was in some queen, you know,
- 25:51Speaker 4: and I ask the people. I say, hey, Main, why
- 25:54Speaker 4: he crying? I said, Man, you don't know where we're going.
- 25:57Speaker 4: He said, we're going to Pennican be And I said,
- 26:00Speaker 4: what a body? I said, Cuba. Let me tell you man,
- 26:04Speaker 4: it is no joke. He said, may wait til you
- 26:08Speaker 4: get there.
- 26:10Speaker 2: You know it was true.
- 26:12Speaker 4: You know when I gotta tell you, Maine, every time
- 26:15Speaker 4: that you heal alarm sound in that prison, it was
- 26:21Speaker 4: not a first alarm.
- 26:23Speaker 2: It was somebody got killed, you know. And I said, man,
- 26:29Speaker 2: how did I ain't in there? Bo?
- 26:32Speaker 4: My mind is still? Do not stopping play some trick
- 26:36Speaker 4: on me? I remember, you know. I who to wag
- 26:39Speaker 4: into my said go to sleep. And I had to
- 26:42Speaker 4: cover my head with the blanket, real tie, and I
- 26:47Speaker 4: had to close my eyes royal tie, and I hold
- 26:50Speaker 4: to say, Main, when I open my eyes now, when
- 26:53Speaker 4: I open my eyes, now, I know this is a three.
- 26:57Speaker 2: This is a three. I go and being home, we
- 27:00Speaker 2: might sign with my babies. Mama, this is a three. Man,
- 27:04Speaker 2: this is a three. I went, I got Cobby might sell.
- 27:09Speaker 2: I need to sell, you know, I say, wow, man,
- 27:14Speaker 2: this is real.
- 27:19Speaker 1: Mmm, So I gotta ask you, man, like, how did
- 27:22Speaker 1: you hold on to hope so much for all those years?
- 27:25Speaker 1: Because I always always say, you know, for a person
- 27:27Speaker 1: that committed crime, it's hard, you know, to deal with
- 27:30Speaker 1: the time, But for an innocent person sitting there, it's
- 27:33Speaker 1: a whole different level because you're going through everything, whether
- 27:37Speaker 1: it's the violence in the prison, the abuse from the cops,
- 27:41Speaker 1: whatever it is, the CEOs, whatever it is. So how
- 27:44Speaker 1: did you hold on the hope that you would get out?
- 27:48Speaker 2: You know why in the beginning I watched completely ain't good.
- 27:54Speaker 4: We got everything that I got in my mayis how
- 27:58Speaker 4: did I go and prove that I don't do what
- 28:01Speaker 4: I can do?
- 28:03Speaker 2: You know?
- 28:03Speaker 4: And the good thing about it is and thank God,
- 28:07Speaker 4: you know, to all the emails, you know, in every
- 28:10Speaker 4: priest that I be, brother, in every priest that I be,
- 28:15Speaker 4: every email, believe on me. They can see through into
- 28:22Speaker 4: my heart. They can see through into the type of
- 28:25Speaker 4: man that I was. You know, this call it homies homeboy.
- 28:31Speaker 4: They're asking me working and why are you here for?
- 28:35Speaker 2: Man?
- 28:36Speaker 4: And I say, man, brother, they give me toty one
- 28:40Speaker 4: year to life or a model that I not come make.
- 28:43Speaker 4: I'm taking God. They say, hey, man, you know what
- 28:45Speaker 4: I mean. I believe you walking. I believe you, and
- 28:50Speaker 4: I say thank you man. And I received so much respect.
- 28:54Speaker 4: I receive the respect that the systems don't give it
- 28:58Speaker 4: to me. I got an ef all these emails that
- 29:03Speaker 4: deceased deny to me.
- 29:05Speaker 2: I got in it from all these people.
- 29:07Speaker 1: And page can you can you walk us through the
- 29:10Speaker 1: post conviction litigation? I mean didn't Evidently nothing worked for him.
- 29:15Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you got to give Joaquin credit, like
- 29:18Speaker 3: he litigated his case to the nines, like he got
- 29:24Speaker 3: himself into federal court. I know he had helped from
- 29:26Speaker 3: jail house lawyers. I have a lot of respect for
- 29:28Speaker 3: jailhouth lawyers. And I mean, unfortunately the courts just refused
- 29:32Speaker 3: to look at it and refuse to listen. But what
- 29:35Speaker 3: eventually happened was Joaquin had earned the respect not only
- 29:39Speaker 3: of other incarcerated folks, but also some of the free staff.
- 29:42Speaker 3: And we were contacted by this guy, Ray Leonardini, who
- 29:46Speaker 3: ran a meditation circle that Joaquin was a part of,
- 29:49Speaker 3: and also Ellen Egger's pro bono attorney who have partnered
- 29:53Speaker 3: with in a few cases, was helping another guy with
- 29:56Speaker 3: parole who told her you have to meet Joaquin, like
- 29:59Speaker 3: he's actually innocent and you need to help them. And
- 30:02Speaker 3: so Ellen went and met Joaquin. He told her everything.
- 30:06Speaker 3: She like everybody, found him very compelling and believable, and
- 30:11Speaker 3: so she The first thing asked her to do was
- 30:13Speaker 3: go talk to George Verilla's sister, Denise Courcier, and Allan
- 30:16Speaker 3: did that and Denise told her, my brother told me
- 30:20Speaker 3: that Joaquin is innocent, that it was another Cuban man,
- 30:24Speaker 3: and that the police really wanted Joaquin, and George was
- 30:27Speaker 3: scared of them, and so he went along with what
- 30:30Speaker 3: they wanted. But what really turned the case around was
- 30:33Speaker 3: when Roberto Sacoro got out of prison. He went to
- 30:36Speaker 3: Cuba and he tracked down Joaquin's family and told them
- 30:40Speaker 3: that he personally knew that Joaquin was innocent because he
- 30:43Speaker 3: had actually seen the whole thing from his motel room.
- 30:46Speaker 1: And listeners, remember, Roberto Cicoro was another friend of Joaquin's.
- 30:51Speaker 1: The day before all of this happened, Roberto had killed
- 30:54Speaker 1: this other guy named Ruben Alfonso, and he was hiding
- 30:57Speaker 1: out at the Bay Bridge motel waiting on Felix to
- 31:00Speaker 1: bring up some clothes when he heard Felix southside argon
- 31:03Speaker 1: with Candido Diaz.
- 31:04Speaker 3: They had been fighting over over a gun and not
- 31:08Speaker 3: paying for the gun, and so he recognized their voices
- 31:10Speaker 3: and they start coming in and out of his view,
- 31:12Speaker 3: and you know, he hears the gunshot and he runs
- 31:14Speaker 3: out and he sees Candido get into the white Monte
- 31:17Speaker 3: Carlo and drive away, and he basically broke down and
- 31:21Speaker 3: apologized to Joaquin's family and explained that while he was
- 31:25Speaker 3: in he'd been a shot caller initially, and so he
- 31:29Speaker 3: felt like, you know, in addition to the normal amount
- 31:31Speaker 3: of trouble you can get in in prison for snitching,
- 31:34Speaker 3: that he, especially as someone who'd sort of enforced those rules,
- 31:37Speaker 3: would be even more in danger. And for a long
- 31:40Speaker 3: time he'd hope to be able to get his own revenge,
- 31:42Speaker 3: that at some point Candido would get locked up and
- 31:46Speaker 3: he would be able to avenge Felix's death, and in
- 31:51Speaker 3: some ways, fortunately that never happened, and instead he gets
- 31:54Speaker 3: out and tells the truth, and that really broke open
- 31:57Speaker 3: the case.
- 31:58Speaker 1: And Ellen also tracks a couple of people that George
- 32:01Speaker 1: Verilla had talked to and had told them Joaquin was innocent.
- 32:05Speaker 1: One was Joaquin's sister Denise, and the other was a
- 32:08Speaker 1: woman named Kadi Dad Gonzales.
- 32:10Speaker 3: She was friends with Nelli Hernandez, George's mother, and also
- 32:14Speaker 3: knew Joaquin through Nelly and through the Cuban community. George
- 32:19Speaker 3: tells her also, so it's very similar to what he
- 32:21Speaker 3: said to Denise, that he knows Joaquin is innocent and
- 32:24Speaker 3: didn't do this. And so we had these two statements
- 32:26Speaker 3: from George Verilla to two different people saying that Joaquin
- 32:29Speaker 3: was innocent and also saying that it was another Cuban man.
- 32:32Speaker 3: And so Candy ro Diez is not only Cuban but
- 32:35Speaker 3: also matches the original description. He was always had his
- 32:38Speaker 3: hair in an afro, He was known to wear long
- 32:41Speaker 3: trench coats. And it turns out he'd had this, you know,
- 32:44Speaker 3: ongoing and escalating feud with Felix Pasta Rica right before
- 32:48Speaker 3: the murder, and it all started over the weapon that
- 32:51Speaker 3: may actually have been used, a forty four, which was
- 32:53Speaker 3: actually the weapon they said was used to kill Felix
- 32:56Speaker 3: Basta Rica. So Ellen had done most of the investigation
- 33:00Speaker 3: by the time she came to me, and it was
- 33:01Speaker 3: only the Roberto piece that came afterwards. But we really
- 33:04Speaker 3: felt like that pushed it over the top. And then
- 33:08Speaker 3: the Innocence Commission also got an eyewitness I D expert
- 33:10Speaker 3: to look at the eyewitnesses and just really explain and
- 33:15Speaker 3: under the social science that we now know even more.
- 33:18Speaker 3: While all of those all the reasons eyewitness identifications are unreliable,
- 33:22Speaker 3: but we're especially so in this case.
- 33:24Speaker 1: Well not just unreliable. I believe one of the witnesses,
- 33:27Speaker 1: Kathleen Gavada, had another reason to identify Joaquin.
- 33:31Speaker 4: You know, the same warm I say from the Beginni
- 33:34Speaker 4: now that I hold the SHOLDI D demain, I only
- 33:37Speaker 4: atey poucing and Leo, you know, to give you defending
- 33:42Speaker 4: change and watch you see, well Chi.
- 33:44Speaker 1: Got so, Paige, after all this new information you put
- 33:49Speaker 1: in front of them, did the courts quickly agree that
- 33:52Speaker 1: Joaquin was innocent?
- 33:54Speaker 3: I mean we expected them to, especially because the DA's
- 33:57Speaker 3: office was on board, and that.
- 33:59Speaker 1: Was District Bernie chesso Bodin, who was repeatedly under fire
- 34:03Speaker 1: from the police union and adversaries. There were I think
- 34:06Speaker 1: like two recall elections, so his political foot and was
- 34:09Speaker 1: never secure and he was the one that was making
- 34:12Speaker 1: the recommendation based on the Innocence Commission findings.
- 34:15Speaker 3: They had this separate Innocence Commission. Right, that was supposed
- 34:18Speaker 3: to be this independent body. It had DA's public defenders, experts,
- 34:22Speaker 3: law professors, you know, like this whole commission of different
- 34:25Speaker 3: stakeholders who all agreed Joaquin is fully innocent. And in
- 34:28Speaker 3: my experience, usually when that happens, the courts are pretty
- 34:32Speaker 3: willing to go along pretty quickly, right. But unfortunately we
- 34:35Speaker 3: had the exact opposite experience here, and I can only
- 34:38Speaker 3: imagine some of that was the politics going on in
- 34:41Speaker 3: San Francisco. The court essentially just the first thing they
- 34:44Speaker 3: did was ask us to do another round of briefing,
- 34:47Speaker 3: and they invited the Attorney General's office in which you
- 34:50Speaker 3: know doesn't generally happen in superior court. But here's the
- 34:53Speaker 3: court saying, you know, District Attorney, I don't trust what
- 34:55Speaker 3: you have to say, and so Attorney General, I'm inviting
- 34:58Speaker 3: you in to tell me something different. Fortunately, the AG's
- 35:02Speaker 3: office also saw that this wasn't a case to oppose.
- 35:04Speaker 3: Everything pointed to Joaquin's innocence. There's no reliable evidence of
- 35:07Speaker 3: guilt anywhere. But even after you know, a second round
- 35:11Speaker 3: of briefing in the AG's office refusing to come in,
- 35:15Speaker 3: they still had us have an evident you're hearing. And
- 35:17Speaker 3: so here we are both sides arguing for the same thing.
- 35:21Speaker 3: So we're both presenting opening statements on Joaquin being innocent,
- 35:24Speaker 3: and then we're both doing closing arguments about how he's
- 35:27Speaker 3: entitled to relief and how we all believe he's innocent
- 35:29Speaker 3: and the judge should reverse his conviction. Luckily, by then
- 35:32Speaker 3: we'd been switched to a different judge, was a really good,
- 35:35Speaker 3: experienced judge and just saw all the problems with the case.
- 35:39Speaker 3: And then finally, on April eighteenth, the court reversed Jakin's
- 35:43Speaker 3: conviction and the district attorneys again announced he was innocent.
- 35:48Speaker 3: They dismissed all of the charges.
- 35:52Speaker 2: Man, I almost fail to be fluw.
- 35:55Speaker 4: YEO to go out to free the freedom that I
- 36:02Speaker 4: want deny for almost thirty two years, and I don't
- 36:05Speaker 4: even know how to make it all the way to
- 36:06Speaker 4: the door, you know, And I keep walking.
- 36:09Speaker 2: I'm walking on imagin you know where when they open
- 36:13Speaker 2: the door to me and I see, you know, I see.
- 36:16Speaker 4: Pay ailing, my son and my baby's mama, I see everybody. Man,
- 36:23Speaker 4: it was too much for me, I say, my god,
- 36:27Speaker 4: it was a day unbelievable. This type of feeling, you
- 36:33Speaker 4: have to really go through that for you can really
- 36:37Speaker 4: have the thing what I'm talking about.
- 36:40Speaker 2: It is unbelievable. It is unbelievable.
- 36:44Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you on that. And of course we're
- 36:46Speaker 1: all super grateful to the Northern California Innocent Project and
- 36:50Speaker 1: the fantastic work that they do because it's through them
- 36:54Speaker 1: that people like Joaquin can you know, have a chance
- 36:57Speaker 1: to get back to this free world. So if anyone
- 37:00Speaker 1: want to show the Northern California Innocent Projects some love,
- 37:03Speaker 1: we'll have the link in the bios so you can
- 37:06Speaker 1: do that. So we've got to the point of the
- 37:10Speaker 1: show where we do this thing called closing arguments. And
- 37:13Speaker 1: first I want to thank y'all for being here, and
- 37:16Speaker 1: I also want to ask y'all to share your final
- 37:19Speaker 1: thoughts for the listeners, you know, anything that you want
- 37:22Speaker 1: to say, any takeaway you may have, and page I
- 37:27Speaker 1: want to first start with you and then we can
- 37:29Speaker 1: close with Joaquin.
- 37:32Speaker 3: So the thing that I think we haven't done a
- 37:35Speaker 3: great job of yet, especially in San Francisco, is like
- 37:37Speaker 3: we know, there was this era in which they were
- 37:40Speaker 3: treating especially young black men terribly and saw themselves as
- 37:45Speaker 3: like cleaning up the streets by somehow getting people involved
- 37:48Speaker 3: in homicides and throwing them away for life. And there
- 37:51Speaker 3: are six people who've been exonerated out of San Francisco.
- 37:53Speaker 3: All of them are black men, and five of them
- 37:56Speaker 3: are from this nineteen ninety era. They all have incredible story.
- 38:00Speaker 3: You should look into all of them. Joaquin, Maurice Caldwell,
- 38:04Speaker 3: Antoine Goff, John Tennyson, and Karen mad Conley, who I
- 38:07Speaker 3: know you've already interviewed. But what we haven't done is
- 38:10Speaker 3: look back at what else went wrong there. So it
- 38:12Speaker 3: shouldn't be luck of the draw, right whose cases get
- 38:14Speaker 3: looked at and who gets picked up? And so Headjoaquin
- 38:18Speaker 3: not you know, convinced other incarcerated folks that he was
- 38:21Speaker 3: innocent and then one of them meeting Ellen like you know,
- 38:24Speaker 3: this luck of the draw thing. It's not okay for
- 38:27Speaker 3: justice to be that arbitrary, what little justice exists in
- 38:31Speaker 3: our system. And so my hope and listeners, I'd love
- 38:35Speaker 3: for you to encourage this is that we actually look back.
- 38:38Speaker 3: There's four homicide investigators who were involved in all of
- 38:41Speaker 3: these cases. We could look at their cases, We could
- 38:43Speaker 3: look at all cases from this era. You know, cdcr's
- 38:47Speaker 3: budget for this year is over fourteen billion dollars. Just
- 38:51Speaker 3: imagine what would happen if we just spent a tiny
- 38:53Speaker 3: fraction of that on actually looking for where things went wrong,
- 38:57Speaker 3: starting with the places we already know things went Everybody
- 39:01Speaker 3: should have a chance to prove themselves no is as
- 39:03Speaker 3: bad as the worst thing they've ever done. And you know,
- 39:07Speaker 3: these guys who have done all this time like you
- 39:09Speaker 3: are Land, like Yuki, and who have come out and
- 39:11Speaker 3: shown like I mean, one of the things I just
- 39:13Speaker 3: love also about what you've been doing is just highlighting
- 39:16Speaker 3: the humanity of people right whether they're incarcerated or not.
- 39:19Speaker 3: We are all have this huge amount to offer and give,
- 39:23Speaker 3: and I just would love for us to stop leaving
- 39:26Speaker 3: so many people behind and really start focusing on using
- 39:30Speaker 3: our resources in better ways.
- 39:33Speaker 2: What I want to say, you know, to all be listening.
- 39:36Speaker 4: I want to lay everybody know that what happened to
- 39:39Speaker 4: me is continually happening right now, and the only way
- 39:45Speaker 4: it can be at top we all have to come
- 39:48Speaker 4: out together and do something about it. I always say,
- 39:52Speaker 4: if you were capable to go to the moon, we
- 39:57Speaker 4: have to be capable to prevent that anal same pace
- 40:00Speaker 4: go to prison, simple like that. How can you go
- 40:03Speaker 4: to the moon but you cannot premain one person to
- 40:07Speaker 4: go to prison. It domain saying I know, right now,
- 40:11Speaker 4: at this moment, in some part of the country, in
- 40:14Speaker 4: a court house, somebody's going to prison right now, being innocing.
- 40:20Speaker 4: It is no doubt in my mind. And he going
- 40:22Speaker 4: through for the same thing that I go through when
- 40:26Speaker 4: I was in that position. I know we can stop it.
- 40:30Speaker 4: I know we can do so anything about it because
- 40:33Speaker 4: I know Number one is we need to make the
- 40:36Speaker 4: dis ratony accountable for any wrong doing that they do.
- 40:44Speaker 4: And I said the every dish rat No, we got
- 40:47Speaker 4: some really good distro rattorney that they do their job,
- 40:51Speaker 4: They go by the law and they honest the people,
- 40:55Speaker 4: how walking people. But we got some other one that
- 40:59Speaker 4: they don't care, they don't get They want to wing
- 41:03Speaker 4: our cakes, our this space on the ego same people.
- 41:07Speaker 2: We have to stop.
- 41:08Speaker 4: Doc.
- 41:14Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'm your guest host
- 41:18Speaker 1: Erline Woods. I like to thank executive producers Jason Flumm
- 41:22Speaker 1: and Kevin Waters for inviting me to be here. Good
- 41:25Speaker 1: Looking Special Thanks to our wonderful production team. Connor Hall,
- 41:30Speaker 1: Annie Chelsea, Lila Robinson and Jeff Clyburn. The music in
- 41:34Speaker 1: this production comes from three times Oscar Numbernee Jay Rath.
- 41:38Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
- 41:42Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
- 41:46Speaker 1: Rome Conviction, as well as Lava for Good. On all
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