Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #222 Jason Flom with Jarrett Adams and Dmitri Henley
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: On September sixth, nineteen ninety eight, three teenagers from Chicago,
- 0:06Speaker 1: Jared Adams, Dmitri Henley, and Rovon Hill, took a trip
- 0:09Speaker 1: to the University of Wisconsin Whitewater for a party. While
- 0:13Speaker 1: trying to meet up with their friends, a student named
- 0:15Speaker 1: Sean Demain invited the guys into his dorm room to
- 0:17Speaker 1: use his phone, where they ended up hanging out with
- 0:20Speaker 1: the man's friends and meeting two girls who will refer
- 0:23Speaker 1: to as the accuser and her roommate. After some flirting,
- 0:27Speaker 1: the two young white women invited the three young black
- 0:29Speaker 1: men back to their own dorm room, and the group
- 0:32Speaker 1: slowly trickled up to the room. When the roommate finally arrived,
- 0:36Speaker 1: the accuser was performing oral sex on one of the
- 0:38Speaker 1: young men on the roommate's bed. Enraged, the roommate called
- 0:42Speaker 1: the accuser a slut and ran out of the room.
- 0:45Speaker 1: The accuser ran after her roommate, who went into a
- 0:48Speaker 1: friend's room and locked the door. When her apology was rebuffed,
- 0:51Speaker 1: the accuser returned to the room and continued the sexual encounter.
- 0:55Speaker 1: Later on, the group all went outside to the smoking area,
- 0:58Speaker 1: where they reconnected with John Demaine joked around and went home.
- 1:02Speaker 1: It all seemed like a consensual coming of age experience
- 1:06Speaker 1: until it wasn't. Three months later, the criminal legal system
- 1:10Speaker 1: and the racism that has always plagued our country came
- 1:13Speaker 1: to claim three more victims, and in typical fashion, money
- 1:17Speaker 1: and arbitrary procedural bars made for three radically different outcomes
- 1:22Speaker 1: for these three young men, two of whom spent nearly
- 1:25Speaker 1: a decade each behind bars. This is Wrongful Conviction with
- 1:30Speaker 1: Jason Flaum. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
- 1:51Speaker 2: That's me.
- 1:52Speaker 1: I'm your host, and I am particularly excited today, even
- 1:56Speaker 1: honored because we have such an incredible group of guests.
- 2:00Speaker 1: First of all, Keith Finley is on the show, and
- 2:03Speaker 1: Keith is all. I'm just going to say it like
- 2:05Speaker 1: it is. He's a legend in the innocence community, a
- 2:08Speaker 1: professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, former president
- 2:12Speaker 1: of the Innocence Network, which is an affiliation of early
- 2:15Speaker 1: seventy innocence organizations throughout the world, co founder of the
- 2:18Speaker 1: Wisconsin Innocence Project. You may know him from Making a
- 2:22Speaker 1: Murderer as well. Keith, all I could say is I'm
- 2:24Speaker 1: really honored that you're here.
- 2:26Speaker 2: Thanks so much.
- 2:27Speaker 3: I'm really glad to be with you here.
- 2:28Speaker 1: And so with us today are two guys I'm proud
- 2:31Speaker 1: to call my friends, both of whom are roughly convicted
- 2:34Speaker 1: of a crime that never happened. So, first of all,
- 2:37Speaker 1: Jared Adams, your journey post exoneration has been nothing short
- 2:41Speaker 1: of remarkable. Jared has been an attorney with the Innocence Project,
- 2:45Speaker 1: He's now in private practice, he's an author, He's been
- 2:48Speaker 1: on TV a bunch of times. Jared, I'm so sorry
- 2:52Speaker 1: for what you went through, but I'm glad you're here.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Thank you. Jason. I appreciate you having beyond.
- 2:56Speaker 1: And with him is Dmitri Henley. Dmitri was convicted of
- 3:00Speaker 1: the same crime that Jarrett was convicted of, again as
- 3:03Speaker 1: a crime that didn't happen, and Dmitri still has not
- 3:07Speaker 1: gotten justice, and we're going to get into that. So
- 3:09Speaker 1: I appreciate you being here, Dmitri.
- 3:11Speaker 4: All right, thanks for having me.
- 3:13Speaker 1: So before we get into the store, Jarrett and Dmitri,
- 3:16Speaker 1: where did you grow up and how was your life
- 3:20Speaker 1: in a nutshell before this this insane saga began.
- 3:25Speaker 5: So we grew up South side of Chicago and attended
- 3:28Speaker 5: the same high school a little bit outside of Chicago
- 3:32Speaker 5: in the suburbs, and you know, we met through passing,
- 3:37Speaker 5: but we knew with each other and he and working
- 3:39Speaker 5: at the same summer job and started to hang out together.
- 3:42Speaker 1: So Jared, take us back to the day in question.
- 3:45Speaker 1: Its September sixth, nineteen ninety eight. You and Dmitria a
- 3:48Speaker 1: third friend, Rovon Hill. You guys headed up to the
- 3:51Speaker 1: University of Wisconsin, Whitewater to go to a party, you know,
- 3:54Speaker 1: just doing like normal stuff that kids all over the
- 3:56Speaker 1: country are doing basically every day, right, Yeah, So.
- 4:00Speaker 5: I mean, that's just it. The neighborhoods in which we
- 4:02Speaker 5: and Dmitria grew up in are extremely rough, and you know,
- 4:06Speaker 5: we weren't in gangs doing drive by shooting each other.
- 4:09Speaker 5: That's just not what we were into. Each one of
- 4:11Speaker 5: us came from backgrounds and families where our families were
- 4:14Speaker 5: active in our lives. You know, where you're going, what
- 4:17Speaker 5: you're doing. So how we got there was this. We
- 4:20Speaker 5: each told our parents we were spending the night over
- 4:24Speaker 5: each other's house, and we all three went to go
- 4:26Speaker 5: to this party and puol what is known as.
- 4:29Speaker 2: Like an all nighter.
- 4:30Speaker 5: We would go up to the party, party all night,
- 4:32Speaker 5: and then afterwards we would hit a waffle house and
- 4:36Speaker 5: be back home at about seven eight, you know in
- 4:38Speaker 5: the morning. Right, we had done it before, no issues,
- 4:41Speaker 5: no problems at all. And so we go to this
- 4:45Speaker 5: party and we're looking, you know for the main central
- 4:49Speaker 5: party room. But when we got to this campus, it
- 4:52Speaker 5: was parties in every dorm room. You could go to
- 4:56Speaker 5: this dorm room, beer pong, this dorm room, people smoking
- 4:59Speaker 5: weed and and so we just were kids escaping the
- 5:03Speaker 5: violence in Chicago going to a party on a college
- 5:07Speaker 5: campus like so many other kids do each and every
- 5:10Speaker 5: day in America.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Yes, I mean I think a lot of people are
- 5:13Speaker 1: listening now and going, hey, that reminds me. One time
- 5:16Speaker 1: I went out, I told my parents da da dah,
- 5:17Speaker 1: and then I stuck in. And you know, so who
- 5:19Speaker 1: is Sean Demain Because you ended up going to his
- 5:22Speaker 1: room to use the phone? Right, how does that play
- 5:25Speaker 1: into any of this?
- 5:26Speaker 5: So Shandamain actually saved our life. It's who he is
- 5:29Speaker 5: because he was the person who you know, unbiased and
- 5:32Speaker 5: supported you know, our version.
- 5:33Speaker 2: Of events, the truth.
- 5:34Speaker 5: And so when we go to this college campus again,
- 5:37Speaker 5: there's parties everywhere, but we're looking for a specific party.
- 5:40Speaker 5: So we talked to Shan Domain who was outside in
- 5:44Speaker 5: like a smoking area. And just so the listeners are understanding,
- 5:47Speaker 5: this is nineteen ninety eight, so this is before everyone
- 5:50Speaker 5: had cell phones. People usually had pages, so we went
- 5:53Speaker 5: to use his phone. But when we were doing it,
- 5:55Speaker 5: it was like his room was like party central checking.
- 5:59Speaker 5: So it was everal people who would come in, Hey,
- 6:01Speaker 5: got what you guys doing. Hey, we're getting ready to
- 6:03Speaker 5: go here. Hey you got a beer? You know, Hey,
- 6:05Speaker 5: we'll be back downstairs a little bit later. We were
- 6:08Speaker 5: all playing video games in there, so when we're playing
- 6:11Speaker 5: a video games, it's when these two young ladies come
- 6:14Speaker 5: into the dorm room and we're flirting, we're talking, we're laughing,
- 6:19Speaker 5: everybody's drinking, and eventually we all make our way upstairs
- 6:24Speaker 5: to our accusers dorm room, and we did it like staggered. First,
- 6:28Speaker 5: Dmitri and Rovan went up and I came up a
- 6:32Speaker 5: few minutes later, and we were there. We were in
- 6:34Speaker 5: a room and we had a consensual encounter and this
- 6:37Speaker 5: young lady's roommate walked in on it, and that's when
- 6:41Speaker 5: the wheels of a false accusation started to turn.
- 6:44Speaker 1: So the roommate walks in on you in the midst
- 6:46Speaker 1: of this sexual encounter and calls the accuser a slut
- 6:48Speaker 1: and then runs down the hall to a friend's storm room. Now,
- 6:51Speaker 1: at this point, your accuser gets up, goes after the roommate,
- 6:55Speaker 1: but doesn't say anything at all about being raped or
- 6:58Speaker 1: assault or anything like that, but simply not on the door,
- 7:00Speaker 1: and says, are you mad at me? The roommate wouldn't
- 7:03Speaker 1: open the door, and according to a sworn statement I
- 7:05Speaker 1: have right here, the roommate said, and this is a
- 7:08Speaker 1: direct quote, I told her to go back to doing
- 7:11Speaker 1: whatever she was doing, but not on my bed. So
- 7:14Speaker 1: it's probably fair to say that that might have been
- 7:17Speaker 1: what made her mad. So the accuser went back to
- 7:20Speaker 1: the room they shared and continued the sexual encounter. So
- 7:25Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think I'm alone here in being confused,
- 7:29Speaker 1: because if an actual assault was taking place, as was alleged,
- 7:34Speaker 1: why does her roommate call her a slut instead of
- 7:37Speaker 1: trying to do something to save her or summon help.
- 7:41Speaker 1: And after chasing her roommate down the hall, why did
- 7:45Speaker 1: she go back to her room instead of trying to
- 7:48Speaker 1: escape or again trying to cry out to get someone
- 7:51Speaker 1: to help her. It doesn't add up.
- 7:54Speaker 3: Number One, The roommate walks into her room and sees
- 7:58Speaker 3: the accuser on her bed engaging in what her looks
- 8:03Speaker 3: like consensual sexual activity. That's why she calls her a
- 8:06Speaker 3: slot and runs down the hall. Second point, if it's
- 8:09Speaker 3: a rape, are these guys going to let the victim
- 8:12Speaker 3: get up and leave at on her own free will?
- 8:14Speaker 3: Yet that's exactly what she did. Then, if it's a rape,
- 8:17Speaker 3: is the victim going to say, are you mad at me?
- 8:20Speaker 3: Or is she going to say, hell me, I'm being raped?
- 8:22Speaker 3: But no, she says, are you mad at me? Now?
- 8:24Speaker 3: The question you asked is what's the explanation as to
- 8:26Speaker 3: why she walked back.
- 8:27Speaker 2: To the room.
- 8:28Speaker 3: The closest they came to an explanation was that she
- 8:31Speaker 3: was going to leave, and she was walking towards the stairs,
- 8:34Speaker 3: which took her past the bedroom, but there was a
- 8:36Speaker 3: stairwell at the other end of the hall.
- 8:37Speaker 2: She didn't go that way.
- 8:39Speaker 3: She walked back towards her room, and in the process
- 8:42Speaker 3: she walked past the room of the ra who lived
- 8:46Speaker 3: on the hall, and didn't knock on that door ask
- 8:49Speaker 3: for help. During the course of the encounter, she got
- 8:51Speaker 3: a phone call from somebody and she chatted on the
- 8:54Speaker 3: phone and giggled, never said anything about I'm being raped.
- 8:57Speaker 3: I mean, it's just a head scratcher. How anyone could
- 9:00Speaker 3: have thought this was a sexual assault.
- 9:03Speaker 6: And not only that, I actually accompanied her walking down
- 9:06Speaker 6: to the room that the roommate went into, and I
- 9:09Speaker 6: was there with her while she was standing there trying
- 9:11Speaker 6: to talk to her through the door, and when she
- 9:12Speaker 6: could not even gain any access and went back to
- 9:15Speaker 6: the room, I stayed there because I tried to talk
- 9:18Speaker 6: her roommate out of the room, because we talked a
- 9:20Speaker 6: little bit when we was in Sean de Maine's room,
- 9:22Speaker 6: so I can actually hear them in the room, the
- 9:24Speaker 6: roommate and the residents of that room having a conversation.
- 9:27Speaker 6: But they decided not to come out, so I went
- 9:29Speaker 6: back to the room. We engaged in the sexual acts,
- 9:32Speaker 6: and then we actually went downstairs to the smoking area.
- 9:35Speaker 5: And I thank god that we all did, because when
- 9:38Speaker 5: we went downstairs in the smoking area, Sean Demaine was
- 9:42Speaker 5: outside and he was the one who created the timeline
- 9:46Speaker 5: of corroborating our innocence. It was so so crazy, because
- 9:50Speaker 5: this thing was out of embarrassment. You know, this girl
- 9:54Speaker 5: didn't go to the police or anything. She went to
- 9:58Speaker 5: a friend and said, my roommates making these accusations about
- 10:03Speaker 5: me being a slut, saying that I was sleeping with
- 10:05Speaker 5: these black guys. That didn't happen. So before you hear it,
- 10:09Speaker 5: I was actually rape. It was that friend who went
- 10:12Speaker 5: to another friend, and that's how the rumor started to
- 10:15Speaker 5: circulate and the investigation started. This young lady, through the
- 10:18Speaker 5: help of the police, said that she walked up to
- 10:22Speaker 5: her dorm room and was opening the door, and before
- 10:25Speaker 5: she knew it, two to three black guys that she
- 10:27Speaker 5: didn't know was behind her, and we just walked our
- 10:29Speaker 5: way into her room, cut the lights out, and played
- 10:31Speaker 5: the music. The accusation wasn't that she knew us or
- 10:35Speaker 5: that she met us. We knew we had been invited up.
- 10:38Speaker 5: We knew that after the roommate had walked into the room,
- 10:41Speaker 5: we had all went down in the smoking area where
- 10:43Speaker 5: we were with Sean Demain again. And so if you're
- 10:46Speaker 5: asking the questions about how on earth could an incomplete
- 10:49Speaker 5: and crazy story like this make its way to a
- 10:52Speaker 5: conviction and result in twenty eight and twenty years. It's
- 10:55Speaker 5: because we were try as black men raping a white girl,
- 11:01Speaker 5: and it did not matter if it made sense because
- 11:04Speaker 5: of the historical depiction of black men and white accuses.
- 11:10Speaker 1: And we know how that can go.
- 11:12Speaker 3: Three young black men from Chicago visiting UW Whitewater. It's
- 11:16Speaker 3: a fairly rural community that's very white, and a lot
- 11:19Speaker 3: of these sexual assault cases are difficult because he said,
- 11:23Speaker 3: she said, But this one, in so many respects, wasn't
- 11:26Speaker 3: even he said, she said. The accuser's own version of
- 11:30Speaker 3: events was actually, in many respects, in many important respects,
- 11:34Speaker 3: the same as Dimitri and Jared's version, in that she
- 11:39Speaker 3: candidly admitted on the stand that no one used force
- 11:42Speaker 3: against her, no one raised their voice, no one threatened her.
- 11:46Speaker 3: And so when I read the transcripts of this, I
- 11:48Speaker 3: was scratching my head and said, well, where's the sexual assault?
- 11:51Speaker 3: All we see here is that she says they engaged
- 11:54Speaker 3: in sex, And what made it a sexual assault in
- 11:56Speaker 3: the prosecution's eyes and in this community's eyes, was that
- 11:59Speaker 3: she claim that, despite the absence of any physical force,
- 12:03Speaker 3: despite the absence of any threats, she went along with
- 12:07Speaker 3: the sexual acts because she was frightened of these men. Well,
- 12:12Speaker 3: think about it. Why in the world would she be
- 12:14Speaker 3: frightened of them if they were all at a college
- 12:16Speaker 3: party together and they'd been flirting, and she invited them
- 12:18Speaker 3: up to her room. You know, nobody was doing anything
- 12:21Speaker 3: by onderarth writing. The only thing that I can conjure
- 12:24Speaker 3: up in my mind that explains this potential fright is
- 12:27Speaker 3: that they were black men.
- 12:28Speaker 2: You know.
- 12:28Speaker 1: I was struck also as I was reviewing aspects of
- 12:32Speaker 1: this horrible story that there was a number of months
- 12:35Speaker 1: went by before you were arrested. And of course I'm
- 12:37Speaker 1: talking about December one, nineteen ninety eight. But why was
- 12:41Speaker 1: that the lapsed time in there? This must have been
- 12:43Speaker 1: all in just distant memory at this point, right.
- 12:47Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I really can't answer what took so long,
- 12:50Speaker 3: other than to suggest that, I mean, clearly, if it
- 12:52Speaker 3: had been an open and shutcase from the beginning, it
- 12:55Speaker 3: wouldn't have taken so long. Clearly, the police and prosecutors
- 12:58Speaker 3: recognized that there were problems with this story, and they
- 13:02Speaker 3: took some time to build the best case they could.
- 13:05Speaker 5: So, unbeknownst to us, Sean Demain wrote a three page
- 13:10Speaker 5: handwritten statement saying everything that we're saying right now on
- 13:13Speaker 5: this podcast. So the police had already had that statement
- 13:17Speaker 5: and they couldn't explain it. And then they went and
- 13:20Speaker 5: did a check on the phone records, and during the
- 13:23Speaker 5: time that we were up there in this young lady's room,
- 13:26Speaker 5: the phone was ringing. She was on the phone talking
- 13:29Speaker 5: to friends. So the authorities, instead of allowing the evidence
- 13:32Speaker 5: to tell them the truth, they decided that they were
- 13:34Speaker 5: going to make a case and base it off of race.
- 13:37Speaker 2: And nothing was going to keep them from doing that.
- 13:39Speaker 6: So leading up to the arrest, you know, I'm working
- 13:42Speaker 6: as an assistant manager at this grocery store and my
- 13:45Speaker 6: dad comes by the job and says, hey, you know,
- 13:48Speaker 6: the police came by the house. They want you to
- 13:50Speaker 6: come down to police station to grew you out as
- 13:52Speaker 6: a suspect and an armed robbery.
- 13:54Speaker 4: I said, Dad, this is absolutely nuts.
- 13:56Speaker 6: That said, I'm not going down there, man, because I
- 13:59Speaker 6: don't know what they're doing to me.
- 14:00Speaker 4: I heard stories.
- 14:01Speaker 6: I didn't think it was gonna be a good idea,
- 14:02Speaker 6: but my dad was like, no, I think you should go.
- 14:04Speaker 6: So make a long story short, after work, I went
- 14:07Speaker 6: down there. My dad went along with me. He was
- 14:09Speaker 6: sitting down in the lobby. So I'm talking to one
- 14:11Speaker 6: of the texts at the time. You know, we just
- 14:14Speaker 6: want to rule you out, you know, we don't want
- 14:15Speaker 6: you to get in trouble. When we get done asking
- 14:17Speaker 6: a few questions, maybe we'll take you downstairs to take
- 14:20Speaker 6: some pictures.
- 14:20Speaker 4: So I said, okay, fine, no problem. So that's what.
- 14:23Speaker 2: Happened, same thing they did to me.
- 14:25Speaker 5: I come home one day and there's a card in
- 14:28Speaker 5: my door and it's from the police and it says
- 14:30Speaker 5: robbery homicide. I'm like, nah, I know they got the
- 14:33Speaker 5: wrong God like, let me let me call in before
- 14:36Speaker 5: my crazy father see this in this door and just
- 14:38Speaker 5: go nuts, right.
- 14:39Speaker 2: So I called.
- 14:41Speaker 5: And the guy was like, hey, you know this is
- 14:43Speaker 5: a textive so and so, and you know, we just
- 14:45Speaker 5: want you to come down and take a picture so
- 14:47Speaker 5: we can, you know, rule you out of this accusation
- 14:49Speaker 5: because you know, we know you've never been in trouble
- 14:51Speaker 5: and we don't have you know, a booking photo or
- 14:54Speaker 5: anything like that. You know, just come rule yourself out.
- 14:56Speaker 5: I'm like, man, I'm on my way. So when I
- 14:58Speaker 5: go down there and they have an investigator from Wisconsin
- 15:01Speaker 5: there and the investigator is asking me all these questions
- 15:04Speaker 5: about you know, us going to the party, and did
- 15:07Speaker 5: you go to the party, did you have sex at
- 15:09Speaker 5: this party? And I'm answering the question straight forward, like
- 15:12Speaker 5: like I'm doing now. Yeah, you know, we had a
- 15:14Speaker 5: crazy incident with this girl and her roommate were arguing.
- 15:17Speaker 6: So they come and arrest me for a first degree
- 15:20Speaker 6: sexual assault and I'm like sexual assault, Like when did
- 15:24Speaker 6: this happen?
- 15:25Speaker 4: I wasn't disbelieve. I couldn't believe it.
- 15:27Speaker 6: And being a kid at that time, I'm thinking that
- 15:30Speaker 6: they're going to arrest me. I'm finna go right out
- 15:32Speaker 6: here to prove my innoc's nabby, right back to my life.
- 15:36Speaker 6: Of course, she didn't happen that way.
- 15:54Speaker 5: I was gonna be charged, along with Dimitri and Rovan
- 15:58Speaker 5: with five counts of first to resexual assault. I think
- 16:01Speaker 5: I was turning eighteen, like a couple months later, and
- 16:04Speaker 5: Dimitri had already turned eighteen and Rovan was eighteen, so
- 16:08Speaker 5: we were all kids, Like I remember being so quiet,
- 16:12Speaker 5: you know, on that intake getting off the bus going
- 16:15Speaker 5: through intake.
- 16:16Speaker 2: We wasn't in Kansas anymore, you know.
- 16:20Speaker 1: So all three of you guys were arrested on December
- 16:23Speaker 1: first of nineteen ninety eight. I'm talking about Ravan of course,
- 16:26Speaker 1: as the third person arrested, but we haven't really talked
- 16:29Speaker 1: about him. Keith, if you could explain how these.
- 16:31Speaker 7: Paths diverged at this point, right, because the three guys
- 16:35Speaker 7: were all accused of the same exact thing, in the
- 16:37Speaker 7: same exact circumstance, but all three ended up with completely
- 16:41Speaker 7: different outcomes.
- 16:43Speaker 3: Yeah, it was exact same conduct, the exact same incident,
- 16:45Speaker 3: the exact same time, place, circumstance, exact same evidence. Everything
- 16:50Speaker 3: was identical. But you're exactly right, three very different outcomes,
- 16:54Speaker 3: which is part of what we've been trying to get
- 16:56Speaker 3: the legal system to pay attention to. And how did
- 16:59Speaker 3: that happen, Well, the three of them were charged together.
- 17:01Speaker 3: They were tried together initially, but the first trial ended
- 17:06Speaker 3: in a mistrial. The prosecution was apparently expecting a strong
- 17:10Speaker 3: statement from the accuser coming in about how she was
- 17:13Speaker 3: forced and all that, and yet when she got up
- 17:16Speaker 3: on the stand, she acknowledged that there was no force used,
- 17:20Speaker 3: that no one threatened her.
- 17:21Speaker 2: Et cetera.
- 17:22Speaker 3: And so the prosecutor recognized that there was a fatal
- 17:25Speaker 3: flaw in the case as originally charged, and so the
- 17:29Speaker 3: prosecutor moved to amend the charges to fit the evidence
- 17:33Speaker 3: as it had come in from the accuser. And at
- 17:36Speaker 3: that point Gerald Boyle, defense attorney for Ravan Hill, just
- 17:40Speaker 3: went nuts objected, and the court agreed that it was
- 17:44Speaker 3: unfair to amend the charges mid trial like that, after
- 17:47Speaker 3: the case had been partly presented, after strategies had been
- 17:50Speaker 3: locked in and whatnot, and so the prosecutor declared a mistrial.
- 17:54Speaker 3: A mistrial simply means that this trial ends and we're going.
- 17:58Speaker 1: To do it again.
- 17:59Speaker 3: But there are some circles instances in which a mistrial
- 18:01Speaker 3: ends the case for good. And Ravon Hill's lawyer thought
- 18:05Speaker 3: that this mistrial was caused by the prosecution's own mistakes
- 18:09Speaker 3: and therefore a retrial should be barred. And so as
- 18:13Speaker 3: the prosecution set to retry all three of them, Ravon
- 18:16Speaker 3: Hill and his attorney sought leave to appeal and to
- 18:20Speaker 3: stop the retrial from occurring. The prosecution, not wanting to
- 18:24Speaker 3: wait for that appeal to be concluded, then just pulled
- 18:27Speaker 3: Dmitri in Garrett's cases away from Ravan's and initiated the
- 18:31Speaker 3: retrial for them without Ravan Why Jarrett and Dmitri's lawyers
- 18:36Speaker 3: didn't join in that appeal. I have no idea, but
- 18:39Speaker 3: they didn't didn't stop the appeal, so Dmitri and Jarrett
- 18:42Speaker 3: were tried together without ravon at a second trial.
- 18:46Speaker 1: What's particularly sickening to me is the fact that your
- 18:49Speaker 1: attorneys called no witnesses at the trial. No freaking witnesses here.
- 18:54Speaker 1: It is your life is at stake. They didn't even
- 18:57Speaker 1: make an effort on your behalf.
- 19:00Speaker 5: Tell them about the no defense theory, Kief.
- 19:02Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's actually the basis upon which we ultimately
- 19:05Speaker 3: succeeded in getting Jared's conviction overturned, was claiming that defense
- 19:09Speaker 3: council was constitutionally deficient under the sixth Amendment. Both Dimitri
- 19:14Speaker 3: and Jareded's lawyers got together and talked about it and
- 19:16Speaker 3: decided they would present what they called a no defense defense,
- 19:20Speaker 3: which means they were just going to rest on the
- 19:23Speaker 3: prosecution's case and say, well, they didn't prove guilt beyond
- 19:26Speaker 3: a reasonable doubt, so we're not going to put on anything.
- 19:29Speaker 3: And what we argued in what the United States Court
- 19:31Speaker 3: of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit agreed was that made
- 19:34Speaker 3: absolutely no sense at all because they had a defense
- 19:37Speaker 3: this was entirely consensual, and the consensual nature of it
- 19:41Speaker 3: was in a very compelling way, corroborated established by the
- 19:45Speaker 3: testimony not only of the accuser's roommate, but also by
- 19:48Speaker 3: the testimony of Shan Domain And these lawyers never even
- 19:52Speaker 3: talked to Shan Demaine.
- 19:55Speaker 1: So let's just go to the moment that had to
- 19:58Speaker 1: be the worst moment of a lot worst moments, which is,
- 20:01Speaker 1: of course, when the jury came back.
- 20:03Speaker 6: I remember sitting out in the lobby talking to my dad,
- 20:07Speaker 6: and my dad the type of guy he was.
- 20:08Speaker 4: He was a very confident guy, you know.
- 20:11Speaker 6: For seeing my dad when he was reacting, and seeing
- 20:13Speaker 6: Jared Diad how he was reacting when we were talking
- 20:15Speaker 6: about really strong men, I mean, just out there, very nervous.
- 20:20Speaker 6: I couldn't help at that moment before we even heard
- 20:22Speaker 6: the verdict, just become very emotional.
- 20:25Speaker 5: Yeah, I remember both our dads, you know, had to
- 20:28Speaker 5: be escorted out of the courtroom.
- 20:29Speaker 2: You know, they just couldn't believe it.
- 20:31Speaker 5: And when we're found guilty, I just, man, I had
- 20:34Speaker 5: to say something. So I'm like, this is a lie,
- 20:36Speaker 5: you know, I'm apologizing to my parents. I'm like, but
- 20:39Speaker 5: I'm not about to apologize for a rape I didn't commit.
- 20:41Speaker 5: So they ended up giving me eight more years in
- 20:43Speaker 5: prison based on that, saying that I wasn't remorse for
- 20:46Speaker 5: and I had an outburst. So me and Dmitri were
- 20:49Speaker 5: split up based on that, I went to a maximum
- 20:53Speaker 5: slash super maximum. Dmitri because he had twenty years, he
- 20:57Speaker 5: was like on a track to go to meet prison
- 21:00Speaker 5: right away. Based on the time in Wisconsin, if you
- 21:03Speaker 5: get anything over twenty five years, you're basically going to
- 21:07Speaker 5: go do time with everybody who has twenty five to life.
- 21:10Speaker 5: And so after we were found guilty, Ravine hadn't went
- 21:14Speaker 5: to trial yet. I started to write letters to Raban's attorney.
- 21:19Speaker 5: That's when boiling them for the first time interview Sean Demain,
- 21:23Speaker 5: and when they interviewed Shondmain, they called them as a
- 21:25Speaker 5: witness and Demain was like, look, I wrote a three
- 21:28Speaker 5: page statement when the officer came and talked to me
- 21:31Speaker 5: the night after, so I don't know what else you
- 21:33Speaker 5: guys want. That's how we found out that the officer
- 21:36Speaker 5: never turned over that three paige statement. It was never
- 21:39Speaker 5: a part of the record when we were going to trial.
- 21:42Speaker 3: So they proceeded with a retrial against Ravne, and Ravne
- 21:47Speaker 3: having a better lawyer than had been assigned to Jared
- 21:50Speaker 3: and Dimitri. Ravane's lawyer saw the value of Sean Demain
- 21:55Speaker 3: as a neutral, independent witness who could both corroborate that
- 21:59Speaker 3: the girls had been flirting with the boys before and
- 22:02Speaker 3: had invited them up to their rooms, and even more importantly,
- 22:05Speaker 3: could establish that after the alleged sexual assault, he saw
- 22:10Speaker 3: Jarrett and Dimitri, along with the accuser and her roommate,
- 22:14Speaker 3: socializing and laughing together in the smoking area outside the
- 22:18Speaker 3: dorm rooms, which was entirely inconsistent with the accuser's version
- 22:22Speaker 3: of events and entirely inconsistent with what would have happened
- 22:26Speaker 3: had they just completed a sexual assault. And so, having
- 22:30Speaker 3: presented shond Mayne's testimony at his own trial, the jury deadlocked,
- 22:35Speaker 3: was unable to reach a verdict, and so another mistrial
- 22:38Speaker 3: was declared and all of the charges that were ultimately
- 22:41Speaker 3: dismissed against Ravane.
- 22:43Speaker 5: I want to say one of the roughest days where
- 22:46Speaker 5: I really just started to fall into a shale was
- 22:49Speaker 5: when I found out that they dismissed all the charges
- 22:53Speaker 5: against Rovin. When they found that statement that was with
- 22:57Speaker 5: Hale by the police, and then A decided not to
- 23:00Speaker 5: give me a Dmitri new Trials. That's when I really
- 23:04Speaker 5: was like, if it doesn't work, that evidence that supports
- 23:09Speaker 5: all of your innocence that wasn't presented and didn't make
- 23:12Speaker 5: his way in your trial, if it doesn't work by
- 23:15Speaker 5: way of truth, then how does the system ever work?
- 23:18Speaker 5: I mean, that's really how I felt.
- 23:19Speaker 2: I'm like, I thought, Okay, maybe.
- 23:22Speaker 5: Now that they have this statement, they know and they
- 23:25Speaker 5: all apologize and will come home. Never happened like that,
- 23:29Speaker 5: And I remember, you know, my salemate. I was locked
- 23:32Speaker 5: up old white guy. You know, he was the one
- 23:34Speaker 5: who encouraged me to pick up the pen and start
- 23:38Speaker 5: to write. And essentially it was if you gonna go down,
- 23:41Speaker 5: go down swinging. And I started to write everyone that
- 23:45Speaker 5: I could think of, and both me and Dmitri were
- 23:47Speaker 5: writing the Innocence Project and everybody we could trying to
- 23:51Speaker 5: figure out how could we get help.
- 23:54Speaker 3: I was at the time co directing the Wisconsin Innocence Project,
- 23:58Speaker 3: is a clinical program in which law students handle real
- 24:00Speaker 3: cases under faculty supervision. And we received these letters from
- 24:04Speaker 3: both Dimitri and Jarrett asking for help and describing what
- 24:08Speaker 3: had happened, and just by happenstance, we got to Dimitri's
- 24:13Speaker 3: letter first, and so I gave it to my students
- 24:15Speaker 3: to do an analysis of the case. And they came
- 24:18Speaker 3: back and they said, this case is outrageous, this guy
- 24:21Speaker 3: is innocent. We've got to do something about it. And
- 24:24Speaker 3: so we looked at it and we realized that he
- 24:27Speaker 3: had appealed through the state court system and had lost,
- 24:31Speaker 3: which meant that federal Habeas corpus review was the next
- 24:35Speaker 3: place to look. The problem is, we realized that under
- 24:39Speaker 3: President Bill Clinton, Congress passed and Clinton signed into laws
- 24:43Speaker 3: something known as the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
- 24:46Speaker 3: The acronym is called EDPAT, which made it much more
- 24:49Speaker 3: difficult to obtain federal Habeas corpus relief. And one of
- 24:52Speaker 3: the ways it made it much more difficult was that
- 24:54Speaker 3: it imposed a one year statute of limitations, and by
- 24:57Speaker 3: the time we were able to review Dmitri's case, his
- 25:00Speaker 3: one year had elapsed. He was procedurally barred from going
- 25:04Speaker 3: into federal habeas. But the student said, but you know,
- 25:06Speaker 3: his co defendant also wrote. Jared Adams also wrote, and
- 25:09Speaker 3: by pure happenstance, Jarrett and Dmitri's state court appeals had
- 25:14Speaker 3: been handled separately, and Jarrett's appeal had been decided a
- 25:18Speaker 3: short time later than Dmitri's, which means his one year
- 25:22Speaker 3: statue limitations was a little bit later. And by the
- 25:25Speaker 3: time we were able to review Jared's case, he still
- 25:28Speaker 3: had about a week left before his statue limitations expired.
- 25:33Speaker 3: And so my student said, look, we got to do something.
- 25:35Speaker 3: We've got to file this federal habeas. They drafted the habeas.
- 25:38Speaker 3: We filed it just before the expiration of the one
- 25:40Speaker 3: year deadline and just got it in under the window,
- 25:43Speaker 3: and we're able to then proceed with litigating that claim.
- 25:48Speaker 3: We were denied relief in the district court in Milwaukee.
- 25:51Speaker 3: We appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for
- 25:53Speaker 3: the Seventh Circuit, and the three judge panel unanimously agreed
- 25:57Speaker 3: that Jared's conviction was invalid. Vag the conviction in June
- 26:01Speaker 3: two thousand and six, and he was finally released from
- 26:04Speaker 3: custody in January of two thousand and seven. This is
- 26:08Speaker 3: how we wind up with three completely different outcomes. Ravine
- 26:11Speaker 3: Hill never convicted Jared's convicted and serves the better part
- 26:15Speaker 3: of a decade in prison, but then his conviction is vacated,
- 26:18Speaker 3: so he's exonerated. In Dmitri exact same case, exact same facts,
- 26:22Speaker 3: remains convicted of that crime to this day.
- 26:27Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it has to live his life with
- 26:30Speaker 1: that sort of scarlet letter or you know, that stigma
- 26:34Speaker 1: for no reason whatsoever.
- 26:36Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 26:36Speaker 3: I got to tell you is it is one of
- 26:38Speaker 3: the great sadnesses of my career that we have not
- 26:41Speaker 3: been able to correct this injustice for Dmitri.
- 26:45Speaker 6: I want to say, my dad actually passed six months
- 26:48Speaker 6: before I got out, and it was one of the
- 26:51Speaker 6: things I wanted him to disturb that moment.
- 26:53Speaker 4: And man, I told you someday I was going to
- 26:55Speaker 4: make it here.
- 26:57Speaker 6: I wanted him to at least be a part of
- 26:59Speaker 6: that moment, and he wasn't.
- 27:18Speaker 3: So after Jared was exonerated, we were still struggling with
- 27:22Speaker 3: what had happened to Dimitri and said this can't be justice,
- 27:26Speaker 3: and so we thought, well, what in the world can
- 27:28Speaker 3: we do? We said, you know, there is a longstanding
- 27:31Speaker 3: doctrine in Wisconsin law that says that circuit courts have
- 27:35Speaker 3: the inherent authority to grant a new trial in the
- 27:38Speaker 3: interest of justice. It's just a broad discretionary granted authority
- 27:42Speaker 3: and decided, well, if the interest of justice ever called
- 27:46Speaker 3: for a new trial, this is the case where it
- 27:48Speaker 3: calls for. So we filed a motion on behalf of Dimitri.
- 27:51Speaker 3: Then went back to the same judge who presided over
- 27:54Speaker 3: the conviction and said, look, this can't be justice in America.
- 27:57Speaker 3: To have these wildly disparate outcomes on the same facts
- 28:01Speaker 3: and a federal appellate ruling saying that these guys have
- 28:04Speaker 3: been denied their right to the effective assistance of counsel.
- 28:07Speaker 3: This can't be right. And the trial judge agreed and said,
- 28:11Speaker 3: in the interest of justice, I can't let this conviction stand,
- 28:13Speaker 3: and she reversed Dimitri's conviction, to my great dismay, for
- 28:18Speaker 3: reasons that I still can't fathom. The state chose to
- 28:22Speaker 3: appeal that decision, and I'm thinking to myself at the time,
- 28:25Speaker 3: on what basis this is a discretionary judgment. Discretionary judgments
- 28:30Speaker 3: are almost bulletproof on appeal because the very nature of
- 28:34Speaker 3: discretion is the judge can do it or cannot do it.
- 28:36Speaker 3: It's up to the judge. And what they actually just
- 28:39Speaker 3: chose to appeal on was to challenge whether the judge
- 28:42Speaker 3: even had the legal authority to grant a neutral and
- 28:45Speaker 3: the interest of justice at all. It went up to
- 28:48Speaker 3: the Supreme Court, and we have now an extremely conservative,
- 28:53Speaker 3: very pro prosecution Supreme Court, and they seized that opportunity,
- 28:57Speaker 3: and in Dmitri's case, they changed the law and ruled
- 29:01Speaker 3: that circuit courts do not have the authority to grant
- 29:05Speaker 3: a neutrial and the interest of justice. They took that
- 29:08Speaker 3: authority away and thereby reinstated Dmitri's conviction in what I
- 29:13Speaker 3: see as one of the really sad moments in Wisconsin history.
- 29:17Speaker 3: So we tried another tack, and we went back to
- 29:19Speaker 3: the same trial court judge again and said, all right,
- 29:22Speaker 3: you can't vacate the conviction, but you can modify the sentence,
- 29:26Speaker 3: and so please modify Dmitri's sentence to time served so
- 29:30Speaker 3: that at least he can get out of prison. And
- 29:32Speaker 3: to the judge's great credit, she did that, which is
- 29:35Speaker 3: why Dmitri was ultimately set free. But he remains convicted
- 29:39Speaker 3: of a sexual assault and must register as a sex
- 29:42Speaker 3: offender and bear all the burdens that go with being
- 29:45Speaker 3: a convicted felon and a convicted sex offender.
- 29:48Speaker 1: And ultimately he was freed after.
- 29:50Speaker 4: How much time, almost two years.
- 29:53Speaker 1: I must say also that in these two cases of
- 29:57Speaker 1: Jared and Dimitri, there are a lot of heroes at
- 29:59Speaker 1: the end of the right. I mean, let's not forget
- 30:02Speaker 1: the law student who managed to catch this before it
- 30:04Speaker 1: fell through the cracks. And of course you and your
- 30:07Speaker 1: whole team at the Wisconsin Innocence Project. We're gonna link
- 30:10Speaker 1: in the bio to Wisconsin Innocence Project.
- 30:12Speaker 2: Jarrett.
- 30:13Speaker 1: Of course there's you and Dimitri, who are you know,
- 30:16Speaker 1: just sort of pillars of strength and just courageous people
- 30:19Speaker 1: who I think so many of us are inspired by.
- 30:22Speaker 1: And anyone who's new to this cause wants to know
- 30:26Speaker 1: two things. One is, if a prosecutor framed somebody, do
- 30:29Speaker 1: they face any consequences? And we both know that the
- 30:31Speaker 1: answer is almost one hundred percent of the time, no, none, whatsoever.
- 30:34Speaker 1: And then they want to know people will tell me,
- 30:36Speaker 1: please tell me the person who went through this got compensation.
- 30:39Speaker 1: And in your case, neither one of you guys got compensation,
- 30:42Speaker 1: which is I mean, you know, it's nuts.
- 30:47Speaker 5: I mean, and Jason, listen, you know, so get compensation.
- 30:50Speaker 5: Dmitry still has it on his record. Right, I'm gonna
- 30:53Speaker 5: give you a quote Thurgood Marshall said that sometimes you
- 30:56Speaker 5: got to just do what is right and let the
- 30:59Speaker 5: law catch up. And that's exactly the reason why I
- 31:02Speaker 5: came home to get this degree to become an attorney,
- 31:05Speaker 5: because I felt like this couldn't just be Jared Adams,
- 31:09Speaker 5: DIMITRIENLEI wrongfully convicted, conviction reverse the end I needed to
- 31:14Speaker 5: carry on to be able to get to this point
- 31:17Speaker 5: where not only do I have the experience of going
- 31:20Speaker 5: through it, but now I'm gaining the experience and I'm
- 31:23Speaker 5: blessing the clients that I come across by helping them
- 31:26Speaker 5: get through it.
- 31:27Speaker 1: No, and amen to that. It really is inspiring to
- 31:30Speaker 1: see you out there fighting a good fight and channeling
- 31:33Speaker 1: this awful, this nightmare that you went through into something
- 31:36Speaker 1: so positive. So now Jared, you're an attorney. You have
- 31:40Speaker 1: offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. I think you
- 31:43Speaker 1: have a book coming out on top of everything else,
- 31:46Speaker 1: which I'm I'm really excited to read. It's called Redeeming Justice. Jared,
- 31:51Speaker 1: if you could just tell us a little bit about
- 31:52Speaker 1: the book.
- 31:53Speaker 5: Right, So, it talks about my journey because what I
- 31:55Speaker 5: didn't want people to think is that I got here alone,
- 31:59Speaker 5: because I didn't get here alone.
- 32:00Speaker 2: I had to help with the community.
- 32:01Speaker 5: I had to help, and the support even of Dmitri
- 32:03Speaker 5: while going through through years of law school. Me and
- 32:06Speaker 5: Dmitri supported each other as well and Keith Finley. The
- 32:09Speaker 5: Wisconsin inisis Project Life After Justice. If you want to
- 32:13Speaker 5: go and support the work support Life After Justice, Support
- 32:16Speaker 5: Center for Forensic Science, which I am a part of
- 32:19Speaker 5: the board SIFTS along with Keith Finley. SIFTS is an
- 32:22Speaker 5: organization that make sure we hold people accountable in terms
- 32:25Speaker 5: of forensic evidence and how it's being used in the
- 32:29Speaker 5: ways in which it should and shouldn't be used. That's
- 32:31Speaker 5: important to people's innocence as well. There are so many
- 32:34Speaker 5: ways to get involved, including holding lawmakers and legislators responsible
- 32:40Speaker 5: for laws such as that book which Keith spoke about,
- 32:43Speaker 5: which is currently keeping Dmitri with this record. There are
- 32:46Speaker 5: ways for us together to help and to right the
- 32:49Speaker 5: wrongs that have been created by bad legislation. Use your voice,
- 32:53Speaker 5: it is key.
- 32:54Speaker 1: So we're going to have a link to the book
- 32:57Speaker 1: and they have a bio as well as a link
- 32:59Speaker 1: for people who want to find out more. And get
- 33:01Speaker 1: involved with the Center for Integrity and Forensic Sciences support
- 33:05Speaker 1: click the link in the bio We need you. Now
- 33:07Speaker 1: we turn to the closing of the show, which of
- 33:10Speaker 1: course is called Closing Arguments. First of all, I thank
- 33:13Speaker 1: each of you again from the bottom of my heart
- 33:16Speaker 1: for being here, taking your time and sharing your stories.
- 33:19Speaker 1: Jarrett is just an amazing guy man, and it's great
- 33:21Speaker 1: to have you here. Of course, Dmitri Henley, thanks again
- 33:25Speaker 1: for sharing. I know it's not easy to share your story,
- 33:27Speaker 1: but it's important. And Keith Finley, you know when I
- 33:30Speaker 1: grow up, I want to be you. So what can
- 33:33Speaker 1: I say? And now the closing Arguments works like this,
- 33:36Speaker 1: I'm going to turn my microphone off and leave each
- 33:39Speaker 1: of yours on for you to share any final thoughts
- 33:43Speaker 1: that you want. You can say nothing or everything or
- 33:46Speaker 1: anything in between. So let's finish the way we started. Professor,
- 33:49Speaker 1: why don't you go first? And then Jarrett and Dmitri?
- 33:53Speaker 2: Yeah? Thanks.
- 33:53Speaker 3: Well, first, let me start by saying thanks to Dmitri
- 33:57Speaker 3: and Jarrett for being who they are and for having
- 34:00Speaker 3: strength that they have shown to endure all this and
- 34:02Speaker 3: to keep up the fight. It's not over. I don't
- 34:05Speaker 3: know if I could have done what you've done, Jason,
- 34:08Speaker 3: I got to say thank you to you for giving
- 34:10Speaker 3: them a voice, for giving us a voice, for getting
- 34:12Speaker 3: the word out there, for all you've done to support
- 34:14Speaker 3: the movement. It's just vitally important what you're doing here
- 34:18Speaker 3: as well. And I guess the only other thing I'd
- 34:21Speaker 3: say right now is this case is just a reminder
- 34:24Speaker 3: of so many of the things that are wrong with
- 34:25Speaker 3: our criminal justice system, beginning with the baked in racism
- 34:29Speaker 3: that I think is just undeniable in a case like this,
- 34:32Speaker 3: to the problems with the way counsel is assigned to
- 34:37Speaker 3: people who can afford to hire their own lawyers. Too,
- 34:40Speaker 3: as we've seen so strongly here, all of the barriers
- 34:43Speaker 3: that legislatures, Congress, and the courts are erected to achieving
- 34:48Speaker 3: justice on behalf of the wrongly convicted. We got a
- 34:51Speaker 3: lot of systemic reform we've got to engage in. That's
- 34:54Speaker 3: why programs like this and the work of people like
- 34:56Speaker 3: Jared Dimitri is so important.
- 34:58Speaker 5: Man.
- 34:59Speaker 2: Thank you, Keith, thank you Jason.
- 35:01Speaker 5: You know, when we were reached out to do this,
- 35:03Speaker 5: I wanted to make sure that all three of us
- 35:05Speaker 5: was on because we are all three connected.
- 35:08Speaker 2: You know, including Rovinne.
- 35:09Speaker 5: I mean, what many people don't know about Rovine is this,
- 35:12Speaker 5: after Romane's charges were dismissed, Rovinn went to the army,
- 35:16Speaker 5: and the army has its own experiences, both negative and
- 35:19Speaker 5: positive as well. So it's like he had never talked
- 35:22Speaker 5: about going to the army. He wanted to escape and
- 35:25Speaker 5: never ever be in a situation like this again, and
- 35:28Speaker 5: that's forever changed his personality as well. And so to
- 35:31Speaker 5: have gone through all of this, three different people, three
- 35:35Speaker 5: different outcomes, you know, I decided to write this book
- 35:38Speaker 5: about the journey and about the work that I'm doing
- 35:41Speaker 5: now and about being able to work alongside of Keith
- 35:44Speaker 5: now and to work and try to figure out how
- 35:46Speaker 5: do we finally get finality in justice for Dimitri's case.
- 35:51Speaker 5: And the book focuses on what it was like for
- 35:54Speaker 5: me and Dmitri going through it and to have the
- 35:57Speaker 5: opportunity now to speak about it, you know. Compensated. I
- 36:01Speaker 5: didn't get it done. I got out, and I bust
- 36:03Speaker 5: my butt to get to where I am. But I
- 36:05Speaker 5: believe in sending the elevator back down, which is why,
- 36:08Speaker 5: no matter you know, how or where my career, you.
- 36:11Speaker 2: Know leads me.
- 36:12Speaker 5: I most certainly won't forget those who help me on
- 36:15Speaker 5: my journey, Keith Finley, the Wisconsin Innocence Project, and also
- 36:18Speaker 5: those who are part of my journey, Dmitri and Jason.
- 36:21Speaker 5: I can't thank you enough. I mean, this is a
- 36:23Speaker 5: huge platform and what it does, I hope you know
- 36:26Speaker 5: this is this for many people, me and Dmitri included.
- 36:29Speaker 5: This platform gives people for the very first time, to
- 36:33Speaker 5: be the author of their own story because for so long,
- 36:36Speaker 5: the police reports and the false narratives within them have
- 36:40Speaker 5: become the facts of the case. And now because of
- 36:42Speaker 5: this platform, the record could be set straight. You know, Jason,
- 36:45Speaker 5: you guys are the only podcast that would have me,
- 36:48Speaker 5: Keith and Dmitri telling the story together, and I thank
- 36:52Speaker 5: you guys for that opportunity. I want people to go
- 36:54Speaker 5: out by the book and support Life After Justice, a
- 36:57Speaker 5: nonprofit and also sifts the Center for for Ends the Integrity.
- 37:00Speaker 2: Thank you guys again.
- 37:02Speaker 4: I really appreciate you.
- 37:03Speaker 6: Keith Man, you know, you guys gotten me who I
- 37:06Speaker 6: am right now and I'm.
- 37:07Speaker 4: Very appreciative of that. Thank you again.
- 37:10Speaker 6: Think Wisconsin ANDSCE Project, you know, as well as Jerry,
- 37:12Speaker 6: you know, Jared's my brother forever man, and I'm definitely
- 37:15Speaker 6: grateful for him, you know, reaching back, and I agree
- 37:18Speaker 6: definitely what he said.
- 37:19Speaker 4: Jason.
- 37:19Speaker 6: You know, we appreciate the opportunity for you giving us
- 37:21Speaker 6: the platform to actually getting our side of the story
- 37:24Speaker 6: out there.
- 37:25Speaker 4: What I can say, you know, talking about this is
- 37:27Speaker 4: just like.
- 37:28Speaker 6: Opening old wounds. You know, this is a story that
- 37:31Speaker 6: I live. It's difficult, it has been difficult. But my
- 37:34Speaker 6: whole point of view from the day I got out,
- 37:37Speaker 6: even when I went in, you know, was to have
- 37:39Speaker 6: some hope and I'm going to make the best of
- 37:40Speaker 6: the situation regardless of what I was going through. I
- 37:43Speaker 6: do look forward to today that my name is finally clear,
- 37:47Speaker 6: but you know, until then, I'm going to continue to
- 37:49Speaker 6: live the best life I can and continue to fight
- 37:53Speaker 6: with whatever I have to work with. So again, I
- 37:55Speaker 6: thank everyone for the opportunity.
- 38:05Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
- 38:09Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
- 38:12Speaker 1: links in our bio now to see how you can help.
- 38:15Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our amazing production team, Connor Hall,
- 38:18Speaker 1: Justin Golden, Jeff Clyburn, and Kevin wardis The music on
- 38:22Speaker 1: this show, as always, is by three time OSCAR nominated
- 38:25Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram
- 38:29Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast.
- 38:34Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Lava
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