Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #519 Jason Flom with Marcus Blalock

Transcript

#519 Jason Flom with Marcus Blalock · Wrongful Conviction

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: On March twenty fourth, two thousand and one, the body
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of Howard Rose was discovered inside a burnt out pickup
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: truck on Interstate ninety in Pennsylvania. The night before, police
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: had responded to suspicious activity outside the Ohio home of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Arquita Willis. Two men sped off and were apprehended, both
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of whom gave statements that Willis had killed Rose and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: asked them to help dispose of his body. Soon after,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Willis was arrested, threatened with a death penalty, and she
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: told police that her former fling, a guy named Marcus Blaylock,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: was the shooter and that he had disposed of the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: body on I ninety alone. Despite obvious falsehoods and multiple
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: changes to her story, not even nineteen alibi witnesses could
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: save Marcus. This is wrongful conviction. You're listening to wrongful conviction.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You can listen to this and all the Lava for
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to Wrangful Conviction, where today we have another case out
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of Kuyahoga County. I mean, they just keep on coming,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and this is one of the capitals, if not the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: wrongful conviction capital of this country. And joining us is
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: one of our favorite attorneys who's very active in this space.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Kim Coral, welcome.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Back, Thank you, thanks for having.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Me and joining us from an Ohio correctional facility where
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: he never belonged, but he's been there for over twenty
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: four long years. The man himself, Marcus Blaylock, Marcus, thank
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you for joining us.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Sure, I appreciate it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And Marcus was originally Bordingland, but soon moved out to
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a nearby suburb called Maple Heights, or really a sub
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: section of that suburb.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: We moved out to Maple Heights seventy five seventy six
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: at the time. It's a predominantly white area and the
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: area that I grew up in was called President's Road.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: The railroad tracks run behind it, so those houses are cheaper,
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: so they put the blacks in that area. So the
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: blacks in that area, they kind of stuck together. So
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I had a good childhood. I played sports, football, wrestle,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: ran track, and then at the age of fourteen, I
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: got a job working at the local hardware store, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: the community stuck together in that area. I appreciated that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: But what I didn't appreciate was the police, because the
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: police were very prejudiced. Not even a brown person, not
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: a black person, not an Asian person, nothing, just all
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: white police force. Just say, if a white kid across
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Broadway get their bike stolen, the first place they're coming
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: to look for that bike is in President's role. And
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: then it seems like I was being singled out. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: it was one main cop who ended up turning into
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: a detective. Why was he always asking me about this
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: and about that? But I come to find out that
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: he was also working at Sears. My mother retired from Sears,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: so he knew my mom. And the other cop who
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: ended up being the detective all Henderson went to high
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: school with my oldest sister. So I got these cops
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: asking me questions this periodically and if somebody's having a
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: house party and a fight breakout. Seems like I was
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: always being targeted, like hey, Mark, who was doing all
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the fighting or who was doing this? And who? I
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: don't know. As I got older, I'm not saying I
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: was an angel. I got into mischief stuff, like my
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: last year of high school. Even though I worked, I
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: had a little hustle, I got caught with some marijuana
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: and some other drugs. I ended up getting probation or
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: whatever for that, so Dad kept the police on me,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: even when years later when I stopped.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Now, we've seen a lot of cases where a connection
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: to drugs made our guests the target of a frame job.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: But by two thousand and one, Mark was thirty two
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: years old and he had built a successful landscaping company.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: That landscaping company ended up being very profitable for me.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: I ended up having a lot of contracts with the county,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: so I'm with the city and helped me with money
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: to put down to buy a house for my family
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: that was off Libby.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And while Marcus had moved into the white part of town,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: it was some of his old acquaintances from President's Row,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Dion Johnson, Ernest McCauley, and Arkeda Willis who dragged him
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: into this case.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Arqita growing up, she just wasn't my type at the time,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: but years later I ended up having a friends with
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: benefits or so you want to say, relationship with her
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: that turned into something else. And then when I cut
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: it off, it wasn't tooken in a great way. It
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: was like she hated me after that. But Dion was
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: a friend and cuts hair. He's a barber, so used
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: to cut our hair and whatnot. And honest, he was
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: a friend of mine. And when he was released from
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: a federal prison after doing five years, I got this business,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I got this home. I gave him a job.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: He also gave him a cell phone that was registered
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to Marx Landscaping Business, which was about to score a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: major contract.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: And this contract was to service the children's playgrounds and
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: the top lots in the city. But this contract was
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: not publicized. The same Italian company, we're getting this contract
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: for the last five years. So at the time, Maple
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Heights had just elected their first black councilman. So he
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: came to my mom and told my mom, Hey, have
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Marcus call me. It's like they got this contract coming up.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: They haven't even publicized it. They keep giving it to
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: the same company. We're going to back you and make
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: sure that you get this contract.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: And even though he had the lowest bid, the contract
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: went to the incumbent company. The council member encouraged Marcus
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: to contest that decision at the upcoming meeting.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Now, mind you, at this council meeting. You have the
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: chief of police, the mayor, seven council people, the fire chief.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: You have one of the two detectives that frame me
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: for this crime. I haven't had any run ins with
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Maple Heist police or the police period. In over five years.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Everything is going smooth for me. My business is going great.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: So I'm kind of leary to go to this council meeting.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: So when they get to the awarding of the contracts
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: and did anybody have anything to say, I stand up
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: and say yes I do. My name is Mark on
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: Mark's Landscaping. I had a lord bid, but I didn't
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: get the contract. Papers is shuffling. They shut the mics off.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: They're looking up there whispering to each other. They cut
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: the mic back on and was like, oh, it seems
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: to be had been a mistake. The contract has already
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: been awarded. But Mark will make sure that your company
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: will get work in the future. Let me tell you something.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Two months later, I'm arrested for this case.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: So that brings us to the end of March two
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: thousand and one, when Marcus was growing his business and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: supporting his family in their newly purchased home in the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: White part of town. He had also been fortunate enough
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: to be able to help send his cousin to the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: University of Cincinnati, so his cousin invited Marcus to an
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: alumni event over the weekend of Friday, March twenty third
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: into Saturday, the twenty fourth of two thousand and one.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: They're having their first annual Black student reunion, hosting it
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: in Cleveland. He lived in Cincinnati, so he's coming to clean.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: This is my cousin. I supported him all while he
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: went through college. I know most of his fraternity friends,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: people that he went to college with, so normally when
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: they have things, I'm always in attendance.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Dean Johnson had even given Marcus a haircut during the
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: day on March twenty third, but after they parted ways,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: according to Johnson's police statement, he and Ernest McCauley were
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: contacted by Archida Willis. She had been entertaining a known
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: drug deal named Howard Rose, who had been fatally shot,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and Willis needed help with disposing of his body.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: So around eleven thirty, the next door neighbor and great
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: ann of Arkida Willis, Dorothy Evans, makes a call to
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: police concerning suspicious activity. She states that she heard noises
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: like someone moving furniture outside her bedroom window near Arkida
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Willis's home, and then looked to see if Willis's car
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: was in the driveway, but it wasn't. She saw a
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: dark vehicle she didn't recognize in the driveway and she
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: calls the police, and while on the phone with the
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: nine one one dispatcher, she saw two individuals dressed in
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: black exitding the home next door. A little while later,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Willis arrives at the front door of Evan's home. Willis
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: asked Evans if Evans had called the police, and when
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Evans asked Willis what was going on, Willis responded saying
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: that someone was helping her do something and that's all
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: she said. When the police officers arrive, they observe a
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: car fleeing the scene and after a short chase, they
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: apprehend two individuals, Ernest mc collie and Dion Johnson.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Johnson and McCauley were arrested for trespassing. While the police
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: did a safety check of Arkida's home and they saw
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a puddle of blood on her driveway.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: They returned to Willis's house and they're like, what is
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: this puddle of blood in the driveway, they went to
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: the backyard, they find a back window unlocked. They go
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to the bathroom and find lick candles around the bathtub,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: a warm bathwater with Sophie residue and drying blood, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: a pager with blood on it, and this blood later
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: is tested and found to be the blood of Howard Rose.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Now the police leave the bathroom move to the bedroom
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: where they see a box spring without a mattress and
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: no bed linens visible.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: As of now, there was no body and according to
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: later statements from Marquita, at this time, Rose's body was
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: in his truck parked on a side street while she
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: went to work, where the police eventually tracked her down
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and they asked her to come to the station so
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: they could ride to the house together, and she explained
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: that Johnson and McAuley were not intruders.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: First she said she had some friends over there moving
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: some furniture. Then when they asked about the blood they
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: found in the driveway, where did it come from? She said, what,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: a blood came from a dogfight. She was hosting a
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: dog fight at her house.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, obviously, dog fighting.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: It's as ridiculous as it is sinister.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It's not what I would have gone with, but that's
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: what our Keida Willis goes with. When they go to
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: her house, she's accompanied then with like a thin black
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: mail with a Jamaican accent, by the name of Omar.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: He was present while police questioned Willis outside her home.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Willis refused to allow the officers to do a second
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: search of her home, and in the police reports they
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: report that Willis is evasive and uncooperative and.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Then they left. They appear to have lost all interest
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in Omar, and it's believed that at this point the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: body was disposed of near Exit six on the Interstate
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: ninety in Pennsylvania.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: In the early morning hours of March two, twenty fourth,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Pennsylvania police are called to the scene of a fire
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: on I ninety. A pickup truck with Ohio plates is
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: engulfed in flames. Howard Rose is inside. He's identified through
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: an autopsy and it's determined that the cause of death
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: is a single gunshot wound to the head. The investigation
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: produced information that Willis was with Howard Rose on the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: day he was killed, and they determined that the death
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: they were investigating had initially taken place in Maple Heights,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: and so reshifting our focus back to Ohio, Ernest McCully
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: and Dean Johnson, who had been arrested on the twenty third,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: were released from Maple Heightst. Jail and for some reason
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: their property is all returned to them, including the bloody
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: clothing that they were wearing.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Who knows why, perhaps since they had been so forthcoming
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: with whose blood it was, as well as that it
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: was Arkda who hads built.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: It, they all pointed the finger on herd as she
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: was the one that did it. She was the one
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: that called them to help remove the body, clean up
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: the whole nine.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I guess cooperation can buy you a lot. Case in point,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Arquita was soon arrested, pressed again about her ridiculous dogfight explanation,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: threatened with the death penalty, and somehow was still able
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to come out of this with a plea deal for
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: obstruction and evidence tampering, receiving only four years.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Willis is initially charged with aggravated murder, burglary, and kidnapping.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Those charges are dropped in exchange for her testimony against Playlock.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: All she had to do was write a statement, put
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: the gun in my hand and sand that I killed
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: this guy over a drug deal gone bad, which was
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: all alive because I never was at her house doing
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: a drug deal before or after he was killed. It
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: was her and a Jamaican guy that accompanied her to
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: PA and New York when she disposed of the body.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: However, at this point, according to Arqida, Marcus had driven
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the body out to Pennsylvania alone. But how does one
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: return to Maple Heights when the burnt out pickup truck
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: was still out on I ninety. Well that would require
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: another adjustment in her story, but for now. Upon this
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: dubious statement, Marcus was arrested.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: It was April six, two thousand and one. I'm riding
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: with my contractor. We just come back from home depot
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: from picking up some materials. It looked at like one
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: hundred toy soldiers. They ran out of my house, my garage,
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: my neighbor's house with black on with masks on, telling
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: me to get out the truck, get out the truck.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: I get off the truck, and when a guy lift
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: this mask up. This guy's been messing with me for years,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: he said, I finally got you. I wanted you to
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: make one false mode so I could have killed you.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at this stew like, are you serious. I
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: get to the police station, they tell me what I'm
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: being arrested for. I said, are you see? I said,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: I didn't have nothing to do with that. Let me
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: write a statement, did detective? And say, I'm not letting
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: you write a statement. When I get done with you,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: you're gonna be guilty. And that was the last conversation
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: I had with that guy, Oh besides him telling me
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: who did I think I was to buy a house
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: and made likes.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: On April ninth, Arkita Willis said that Marcus had taken
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: her car to Pennsylvania, so they searched for car for
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: many physical ties to Marcus, and yeah, you guessed that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: they found nothing. But this still begs the question who
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: actually drove the pickup then, which was answered in another
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: narrative change at the preliminary hearing.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Willis, at this point, according to the third version of
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: her story, now claims that she and a person by
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the name of Omar, followed the truck containing Howard Rose's
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: body driven by Blaylock, who she claims as a person
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: who set the truck on fire. Claimed that after Blaylock's
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: hat the truck on fire, he got in the backseat
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: of her car, and the three of them proceeded to
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: New York City and stayed at Omar relative's home in
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the Bronx.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Curiously, this Omar character was never pursued.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: They never arrested this guy, but he's in my paperwork
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: with the prosecution. They sealed the investigative file before I
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: even went to trial. My lawyers asked several times for discovery.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: We never received the discovery before trial or at trial.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: They have been withholding evidence since I was arrested in
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: two thousand and one to this date, twenty twenty five,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: they're still fighting my attorney from getting post discovery, pre
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: trial discovery and during trial discovery.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So who knows what else they have and why they
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: need to hide it and why did they completely let
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: this Omar guy off the hook. In addition to that,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: there's the grand jury, where evidence of probable cause is
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: supposed to be presented to obtain the indict the transcripts
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: of which are typically not made available to defendants, but
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Marcus's attorney had reason to fight to have it unsealed
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: both before and after the trial.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Somebody told my trial attorneys that they need to get
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: the grand jury transcripts if you want those charges thrown out.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: So they fought to get it. That judge said that
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: she was doing an in camera inspection and if she
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: finds anything that will warrant the defense council to have
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: it and she would turn it over to us. Well,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: she denied us having it.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: And who knows what the judge's motivations were, because what
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: they discovered in post conviction is wild.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: What we see is that there's no probable cause for
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: him to have ever been indicted in the first place.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: At the time they went to the grand jury, the
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: police only had three statements about the death of Howard Rose.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Both McCully and Johnson's statements claimed that Willis told them
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: that she, and not Marcus Blaylock, shot Howard Rose in
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: the back of the head, and only Willis's statement implicated Blaylock.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Both McCully and Johnson's tasably entirely on Willis, and the
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: only other evidence is Detective Joseph aerbar So, despite admitting
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: at the preliminary hearing that he has no idea who
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: shot Howard Rose, he tells the grand jury, based on
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: nothing that's documented nowhere, that there were two lacerations on
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Rose's body and opined in an inflammatory way that those
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: lacerations were the result of pre mortem torture. Now it's
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: later learned and trial that they were the result of
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: the autopsy. But this misrepresentation was super prejudicial because you've
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: got a detective saying without basis that it's Blaylock who
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: did it, and that he tortured him before he died.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: And it appears that this wasn't the only misrepresentation.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: They liedd a grand jury and said that they talked
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: to me and I gave him a statement or I
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: admitted that I was there or whatever. I never talked
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: to you like that. I never admitted. But Danny cleaned
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: it up. This is detective Airbar, that's who testified. He
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: came right back and said, well, we never heard from Blaylock. Now,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: which one is that I told you that I was there?
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: Or is it that you didn't hear from Blaylock. It's
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: the second one. You didn't hear from me because I
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: never made any statements or anything. When I told you
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: that I will make a statement giving you my alibi,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: you told me you didn't want to hear it. The
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: only thing you want to hear is if I'm guilty.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: In addition, the grand jury questioned how Marcus became a
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: suspect at all, as Arkda is the only witness to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: mention Marcus, while the other two named only Arqda.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: They said they had other cooperating evidence besides Alkeda Willard's statement. Well,
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: they didn't have anything else besides her statement. They didn't
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: have any coroborating evidence. I was indicted on the presumption
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: that there will be other coroborating evidence to go along
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: with Alqda's statement.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the judge was also fooled into thinking that they'd
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: have corroborating evidence by the time of Marcus's trial. Maybe
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: even the prosecuting attorney, Richard Bomback, had fooled himself by now.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: They already tried to use cell phones and say my
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: telephones was a cell phone that was contacting the girl
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Arqda all that day. I haven't talked to her in
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: almost two years. It's Ernest's phone, my friend who was
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: just released from prison, who I went and purchased a
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: cell phone for, was contacted her. You know, years ago,
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: you couldn't just go get a cell phone. You had
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: to have credit. His credit was messed up. I had
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: a business account with all tail. I said, I'll just
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: put you on my account. You're about to be working
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: for Marx Landscaping anyway. His family testify that yes, it
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: is in Marx's landscape, but it's not Mark's phone, it's
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: Earnest's phone.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: So all they ever had was Arquida.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Well, she came in a courtroom. She get on the
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: stand and they asked her, you know, did she see
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: the accused or whatever? And she points at me. She's
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: fake crying on the witness stand. Not a teardrop fell
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: from her eye. Everybody in the courtroom witnessed. It seemed
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: like the judge played right along into her because she
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: handed her a box of clean next. So she's blowing
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: and wiping her nose and there's nothing coming out. I'm
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: listening to her and looking at her like this is crazy.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: She can't really recall exactly what she's saying, so the
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: prosecution grabbs her statements and he said, well, maybe I
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: can give you this, and this can job your memory.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: He said, we all know that you lied. It came
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: out that you lied in your previous statements or whatever,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: and you implicated Marcus Playlock. Later on why don't you
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: read your statement to the jury and to the court
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: and point out where you told the truth that and
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: where you lie.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: At While under oath, she admits to telling a different
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: version of her story to the police, to actually driving
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: the truck that contained Howard Rose's body, going to Pennsylvania
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: to dispose of Howard Rose's body, lying to the police
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: and feinding ignorance about what happened to Rose, lying during
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: the March twenty third interview, lying during the April sixth interview,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: lying during the April ninth interview, line during the June
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: sixth interview, and lying in written statements. And she admits
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: to lying because Willis did not want the crime to
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: be found out. And she admits that she intended to
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: lie to the police at each of those times. Super credible.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: It's very difficult to co sign a witness's credibility if
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: anything they've said is false, but that's what they did.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: The testimony that was truthful, according to this admitted liar,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: was that before going to work, she arranged for Marcus
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: to buy drugs from Rose at her house. When she
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: didn't hear from Rose, she called Marcus, who eventually told
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: her to come home from work, where she said that
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: she saw Rose's body on her bed and Marcus admitted
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: to shooting him. That McCauley and Johnson helped move the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: body to the truck, and that she parked the truck
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: on a side street before calling her friend Omar to
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: drive her back to work, and at some point her
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: next door neighbor, a great aunt, deb saw men in
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the driveway and called the cops.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Her aunt justified that she would know me a mile away.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: I know what Mark drives, I know how Mark looks.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: I've been knowing him since he was a little boy. No,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: Mark was not one of the persons that I've seen
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: that night.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Her kid's testimony continued that after she'd gotten off work,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: met with the police, told them to lie about the dogfight,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and they left. That she, Omar, and Marcus got a
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: gas can and then they followed Marcus out to Exit
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: six on nine ninety, where he lit the truck on fire,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: and the three sped off to New York City, returning
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: on Sunday, March twenty fifth, around eight am. But none
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of this was true, or at least the part about
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Marcus's involvement is.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: No way impossible That I could have been traveling to
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: PA or New York. I'm not David Copperfield. I can't
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: be in two places at one time. I'm in Cleveland.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: My cell phone shows that I'm in Cleveland. Back in
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: the day, you had roaming charges when you go out
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: of your call area. None of my phones were roaming.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: That's because I never loved Cleveland. But her phone is
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Roman in another state. That's because that's where she went
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: and disposed of the body. So when they knew that fact,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: she said, yeah, I drove a body out of town,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: but Marcus was with me. How was I with you?
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: I was in Cleveland. I got witnesses to prool where
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: I'm at, and my cell phone records proof that I'm
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: in Cleveland.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Which was the site for the University of Cincinnati's first
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: annual Black Students Reunion, for which he attended events on
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: both Friday and Saturday nights. It was even photographic proof
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: for Saturday, the twenty fourth.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: I was on a picture that night. However, the prosecutor
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: took it and twisted it and said, there's no date
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: on the picture, but behind it is a banner. This
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: is the first annual reunion, So there was no other one.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: This is where I was on this particular night.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: And they brought in nineteen alibi witnesses to corroborate his
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: alibi for both nights.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: People that were at the party, people who were wh
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: meed that weekend, some of them I didn't even know
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: my brother. I took my niece shopping that weekend. I
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: had all those people testifying it on my behalf, but
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: it made no difference. I could have put on one
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: hundred witnesses. It didn't make a difference.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: The police and the prosecutors unethically and impermissively rely on
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: testimony which they know to be false, and the jury
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: just gets it.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Dead wrong, even though the prosecutor and the witness herself
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: admitted that her testimony was full of lives, and so
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Marcus was convicted.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: After I get found guilty, I'm distraught, family's distraw. My
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: mother's screaming like she just witnessed me getting killed. While
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: they hauling me off, you can hear her screams echoing
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: throughout the courts corridor. They sent me back to the
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: holding sale of wherever I was at my lawyer's coming.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: You know, tell me, hey, we're gonna untill it you
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: got a case here. This isn't right. Appeals court, they're
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: gonna overturn this right away. I don't see how the
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: jury found you guilty. There was no evidence presented. The
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: girl even lied on the witness stand. I'm hearing them,
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: but at the time I'm not hearing them. All i'm
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: hearing is the judge saying guilty on all charges and
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: my mother's cries. At the time, I have a daughter
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: that's eighteen months old, and I have a nine year
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: old son going on ten, and I'm everything to him.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: I am everything to both of my kids. My son
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I didn't know until later. I asked him years later,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: like how does this affect you? He was a teenager
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: at the time when I asked him this, but I
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: wanted to know, like, how does me being incarcerated affect you?
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: And he said, I feel like I lost my best friend.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Son is in the military now, he's in this fourteenth
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: year in the United States Navy. He's a chief in
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: the Navy. Not only do I have those kids, my
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: two kids, now, I have grandkids who I don't want
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: them to see me like this. They don't even know
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: that I'm incarcerated. They never met me. They've seen pictures
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: of me, but they don't know me, and I just
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: want that opportunity to be there. My mother's now and
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: med eighties. Her health is failing. There's so many people
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: that died in my family. My father has passed. My
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: older brother we were tight. He's nine years old me.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: He was basically like a father to me. He passed
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: away in twenty seventeen. He had a heart attack. So like,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: this doesn't just affect me, this affects my whole entire family.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: If it wasn't for my faith in God, I wouldn't
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: be here talking to you now on this podcast. I'm
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: doing things in here to try to keep me busy.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I'm a mentor, a spiritual mentor, and even my heart,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: I still have hope that things would one day turn around.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: I don't know when, but I have faith that it's
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: going to happen.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: And it's been an uphill battle despite many positive developments
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: along the way, the first of which was getting one
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of the slew of charges an obstruction of justice conviction,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: overturned way back in two thousand and three, and at
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: the same time, Marcus's attorney discovered all the lies and
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: manipulation and the grand jury which he tried to raise
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: in the obstruction proceedings.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: And I received those grand jury transcripts, but my lawyer
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: sent me a one page letter like this is everything.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: We get in front of the judge when they're dismissing
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: the obstruction charges, and my lawyer says, you'r honor, we
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: have the grand jury transcripts right here. There was no
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: probable cost. My clients shouldn't have never been indicted. She says,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: she didn't want to hear about it. We're not there
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: to discuss the grand jury transcripts. She hit the gavel
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: and it was over with and I was out the.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Courtroom at this point. His sentence was reduced to twenty
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: eight years to life, while his co defendants received very
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: lenient deals for actually being involved. Rakida Willis was charged
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: only with obstruction of justice and evidence tampering, even though
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: according to Dion and Ernest, she was the actual shooter.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: She ended up doing four years. Dion did two years,
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Ernest at nine. I think he ended up doing seven
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: and a half.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: So almost immediately after Arkita does her four years, she
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: calls up Ernest mccaullay and in the conversation, she admits
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: that she falsely implicates Blaylock. In this case, Willis admits
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: to killing Howard Rose. McCauley asked, well is when she
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: decided to shift the blame to Blaylock, and Willis told
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: McCauley that she didn't care about mister Blaylock. McCully says, listen,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: you took a soul, She says, right, and McCully says,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: which would be Howard And she says, uh huh. You
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: could save two souls, which would be me and mister
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: She says, uh huh. The conversation shows she's admitting that she,
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: and not Blaylock, killed Howard Rose. She states, although she
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: had changed her stories to fit the date she said,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: detectives did not investigate. Willis said this showed that the
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: detective's vindictiveness toward Blaylock.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: She said she even told the detectives in front of
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: her attorneys that she drove the body away and they
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: fell out their cheer, laughing because they couldn't believe it.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: But they say, well, it doesn't make a difference. Just
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: pay to ten percent bond. Whatever obstruction of justice and
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: tempering what evidence bond was to get out.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: When McCauley asks Willis what her largest reservation about admitting
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: that she killed Rose would be, Willis responds because she
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: wants to be home too. She then discusses a fictional
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: in air quotes book she wants to write about the murder,
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: entitled Murder One was the case they gave me, And
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: then they talk about the contents in her book, where
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: she admits that she hates Blaylock. She tells McCauley that
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: she feels badly because of all the people in prison
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: who didn't actually do the crime. She says it was
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: easy to frame Marcus because she hated him. When McCauley
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: tells Willis about lying being problematic because it necessitates moral lies,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Willis says, it isn't that hard. You get a story,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: you stick with it, and that's that, and that's a quote. Moreover,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Willis admits that she lied to her own attorneys about
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: what transpired, and she admits that she couldn't believe that
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: a jury convicted Marcus based solely on her testimony, giving
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: how many times her story shifted.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Prison phone conversations are recorded, so McCauley reached out to
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Marcus's lawyer and they retrieved and transcribed the recording, adding
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: it to his federal havias where you need to show
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: that your constitutional rights were violing, and they bolstered the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: filing with this evidence of innocence.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: It's two three hours worth of conversation that my lawyer
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: ended up getting and submitted it into evidence in my
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: federal hay and it changed the direction that my hat
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: was going at that time. And I told my lawyer
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: to file a stay and take that evidence back to
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: the trial courts so you can exhaust it. If the
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: federal courts hear it before the trial court, then I'll
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: be forever barred from bringing it back up. So what
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: happened was he didn't listen to me. He said, no,
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: I'm going to file at both places. Whoever answers first,
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: we're good. We got a confession from the actual murderer.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: So when it got included in the record, the magister
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: judge said that the conversation proves that the state of
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Ohio convicted the wrong person when they found Playlock guilty
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: of the murderer. Roles those exact words.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: However, the court ruled that an innocence claim absent the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: constitutional violation was insufficient so the recordings, having not been
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: added to the record and exhausted in trial court, were
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: now procedurally barred. But then Arkeita kept right on communicating
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: with Ernest McCauley.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: She admits her guilt on multiple occasions. In letters she's
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: drafted to Ernest McCully, Willis admits to killing Howard Rose
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: and that mister Blainlogg was not involved, and like the
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: phone call, McCully often refers to a soul that was
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: lost or stolen because of Willis's lies. She wrote, I
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: guess when you take a life, you have to live
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: with it. You really don't have a choice but to
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: look at it different. She discusses her gratitudes towards McCully
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: for his assistance and helping to remove Rose's body from
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: her house. She describes her fear that mccullay Harbor's resentment
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: towards her because he remains incarcerated for the crime she committed.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: She says, all of which we've been through, I still
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: wonder if you hate me. I wonder if one day
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: you'll break my neck because of what you're going through
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: because of me. She goes on rape I just feel
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: like crying all the time. Then I start questioning myself
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: all those lies I told. I never would have guessed
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: they'd believe my statement. I just thought I'd get a
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: plea bargain and they would find everyone not guilty because
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: of all of the dishonesty in all of my written statements.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: This time, his attorney took it to the trial court.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: A judge decided that to these letters and recordings you
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: couldn't prove they were her. She would not testify taking
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: responsibility for them, and so those subsequent post conviction petitions
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: were denied. They went back and forth through the Court
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: of Appeals.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: At this point, it appears that the state offered Ernest
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: a deal for early release, which he told Marcus about
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: in a letter two days after he made the deal
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: and later testified to in twenty fourteen. This is what
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: he said about the offer.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: Ernest said that he ended up writing a statement later
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: for the prosecution to get out of prison early. He
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: told him that whatever he writes is this against me
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: is going to be a lie because I'm innocent. But
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: they said they don't care if he lie. They just
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: needed to stop my post conviction and it did.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: A statement was drafted allegedly from Ernest that the phone
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: conversations were just a setup and that Marcus was the
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: actual shooter, And despite presenting a letter from Ernest admitting
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: that the statement was just a means to get his
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: on early release, Marcus didn't get any traction again on
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the now procedurally barred confession materials until a twenty thirteen
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: affid David for one of the Cauley's cellmates, Shannon Drake.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: He gets throwed in the mix because Ernest let him
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: listen to Archidah on the phones and wrote affidavit from
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: my lawyer Sam. He heard her saying how she set
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: me up. In twenty fourteen, I'm back in the courtroom
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: on our everdentary of hearing it. Ernest came in there
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: and got on the stand and Danny said that he
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: ended up writing a statement, and a statement is really
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: no good until you testify to it. So now he's
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: testifying that statement is false. The prosecution told him what
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: to say, and as a matter of fact, that's not
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: even my signatures. Blaylock is innocence. The judge doesn't make
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: a ruling on her for two years, and then when
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: she comes back two years later in twenty sixteen, she denies,
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: saying that evidence was not new.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Which goes back to the original sin that this phone
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: conversation was presented in federal court but was never exhausted
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: in trial court, so it was used up where it
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: couldn't be effective on its own, and then they can
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: say that this related evidence is not new. But there
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: was a new hope in Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office, the
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: creation had long last of a conviction Integrity Unit.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Well, I found an application to them for my role
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: for conviction in twenty eighteen. I didn't hear nothing from
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: him for two years. In twenty twenty, during the pandemic,
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I had someone reach out to the head of that
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: unit at the time. He said, oh, it's ironic that
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: you're calling me about the Blacklock case because something new
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: has came up and I'm going to ask the head
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: prosecutor for special permission to re review his case.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: So at this time Marcus reached out to Kim, who
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: agreed to represent him with the CiU.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: So I talked to the then head of the Conviction
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Integrity Unit, who says he won't confirm that they've found
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: something new, but he doesn't deny that he's had this
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: conversation with this contact person, mister Blaylock. But the whole
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: time we're going through this and get a response from
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: them one way or the other, like about what's going on,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: what the investigation is. However, McCully is telling us, Yeah,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: they interviewed me. We send our investigator out to talk
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: to Willis, who says, those prosecutors took me out to
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: dinner and I told them the truth. I'm not going
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: to say anything more. And then she slams the door
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: in his face words to that effect. So we know
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: they have some investigation which is favorable. And you would
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: think if their answer was we don't have anything favorable
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: to overturn, that would have been said years ago. In
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: the course of this they had represented at some point
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: that it moved on to the investigation phase and the
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: voting phase.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Now, this CiU was assigned an independent review board made
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: up of judges and community members, whose purpose was to
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: review the findings of these reinvestigations and vote on recommendations
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: for the head prosecutor.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: I talked to the members of the board who said, no,
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: we've never heard about this case. We haven't met for
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: over two years, and As a result, November of twenty
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: twenty two, all community members of the Higer County Prosecutor's
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Conviction Integrity Unit resigned, citing the units inactivity perceived lack
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: of impact, with a letter noting that the office had
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: not even referred a case for review since prior to
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: the pandemic. As far as I'm concerned, Ural Sailor's the
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: only case of exoneration by the Conviction Integrity Unit. Now
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: there's Octavius Williams, where he was voted to be exonerated,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: but instead they just gave him a judicial release, which
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: really compromises the idea that the purpose was ever without
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: conviction integrity.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: And you can hear about both of those cases. We're
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: going to have our coverage linked in the episode description.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: So Kim filed motions to compel the CiU to release
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: anything they'd found, because, after all, when Marcus filed with
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: the CiU, they'd signed an agreement to share materials, not
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to mention other obligations to do so.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: As a result of the court sort of order that, well,
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: if your beef is with the Conviction Integrity Unit, the
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: whole board resigns. So we're not sure that they are
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: a thing anymore, and therefore we can't compel them. These
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: obligations exist out of ongoing Brady obligations, concepts of justice,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: out of the prosecutor's ethical duty to pursue justice. And
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: there's an AVIA requirement that if they find subsequent evidence,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: they're required to turn it over. None of that seems
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: to matter. The agreement doesn't seem to matter, and here
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: we are two and a half years into litigation just
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: about whether they have to turn over the materials from
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: this investigation because we need to establish that it was
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Willis who said this, and Willis is not presently cooperative.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Marcus Blaylock's conviction should have never occurred, but it should
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: have ended the first time Willis made it admission that
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: she had framed him. And it's now been twenty years
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: since that admission, and the justice system is playing games
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: about whether or not he should have access to this
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: state's investigation of his innocence. That shouldn't even be a question.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, my public records requests have been denied, my
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: court filings have been denied. Now we're at a man
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: in the Court of Appeals, and it's just every step
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: of the way we're hit with obstacles about just having
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: access to information, and information should be free to everybody.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: So the path forward is we are not going to
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: stop until we get this investigation because we know that
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: what's contained in it is the basis to move forward.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: And the reason we know that is nobody would work
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: so hard to protect nonsense.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that our audience can do to help?
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think public outcry, call the prosecutors,
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: demand that they released information. Why are they protecting it?
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: What is the purpose?
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: What are they hiding?
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: And if anyone wants to learn more about Marcus and
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: his case, he's written a book.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: My book is out, My Long Journey through Faith at
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: New Beginning by Marcus Blaylock. I appreciate to somebody that
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: knows about this case, that heard about this case, that
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: maybe the witness has talked to in the past, please
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: come forward, Feel free to talk to my attorney. I
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: have a website to free Mark M A R. C.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: Blaylock B L A L O C K dot com.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we're going to link the book his website
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: as well as ways that you can contact Kim if
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: you have any information about this case, And with that
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: we're going to go to closing arguments, where first of all,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I think each of you for being here, and now
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I'm going to kick back in my chair and close
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: my eyes and just listen to anything else you have
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: to say. Kim, as always, let's start with you, and
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: then you can just hand the microphone off to Marcus
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: and he'll take us off into the sunset.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: This case is so obvious. How it got indicted is
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: the original question. How there was probable cause to move
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: forward with an arrest, with an indictment, with a trial,
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: and how a conviction is sustained. We're questions that weren't
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: answered until after trial, unfortunately, but we've known the answer
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: for now more than twenty years. And the fact that
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: we haven't been able to extend justice or procedure to
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Marcus Blaylock to give him access to tell the truth
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: of his story is one of the greatest injustices i've seen.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: The fact that the prosecutor's office, in acknowledgement that it
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: had information favorable to mister Blaylock, did an investigation and
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: won't turn that over, have spent thousands of hours and
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: dollars just keeping this information secret is proof positive that
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: the system is protecting what it knows to be a
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: wrongful conviction.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: Something is hidden and you're not showing it. You're not
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: showing your hand. But yet and still she shows her hand.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's not right, it's not right. You have
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: me wrongfully convicted now going on twenty four years support
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: crime I didn't commit, and you use the self admitted statement,
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: a percase statement at that to convict me. I need prayers.
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: I need prayers, support phone calls for this to go through.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: My lawyer is amazing, but I need a miracle right now.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: That's what I need. I need God to create a
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: miracle for me so I can be exonerated from this
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: wrongful conviction.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
• 41:10
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• 41:16
  Speaker 1: production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Kleiber.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: The music in this production was supplied by three time
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph be Sure to follow us
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• 41:32
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• 41:38
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• 41:41
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• 41:44
  Speaker 1: in this show are accurate.
• 41:45
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• 41:48
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  Speaker 3: those of Lava for Good.