Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #279 Maggie Freleng with Sylvia Boykin

Transcript

#279 Maggie Freleng with Sylvia Boykin · Wrongful Conviction

0:00
Speaker 1: A note for listeners, this episode contains discussion of child
0:04
Speaker 1: sexual abuse and attempted suicide. Please listen with caution and care.
0:12
Speaker 2: Jason, we talk a lot about false confessions, and we
0:16
Speaker 2: know how and why they happen. Is there a scenario
0:20
Speaker 2: in which you would willfully confess to a crime like
0:23
Speaker 2: a murder.
0:24
Speaker 3: Well, I can envision the scenario which I would confess
0:27
Speaker 3: to a murder that I didn't commit, and that would
0:30
Speaker 3: be if I became so disoriented, scared, confused, lonely, and
0:38
Speaker 3: just terrified of the people who we all believe are
0:43
Speaker 3: there to protect us and to help us and to
0:45
Speaker 3: find the truth when they turn on you. Sometimes people
0:51
Speaker 3: see it as their only way out of that impossible situation.
0:55
Speaker 3: And you're in that room and you're like, I don't
0:57
Speaker 3: want to die, and maybe this will get sorted out
1:00
Speaker 3: because I know I didn't do it.
1:05
Speaker 4: And he kept saying, well, if you sign this, i'll
1:07
Speaker 4: let you go home, and so I was like, but
1:10
Speaker 4: this is not what happened. So we get me to
1:13
Speaker 4: the chair and he hit me with a phone book
1:15
Speaker 4: to wake me up.
1:16
Speaker 5: He's like, sign this and we will.
1:18
Speaker 4: Let you go.
1:19
Speaker 5: I signed a paper and I never left prison.
1:26
Speaker 6: From Love of for Good.
1:28
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Sylvia Boykin.
1:42
Speaker 1: On May fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, Sylvia Boykin went to
1:46
Speaker 1: collect a drug debt from a woman named Burnetta Pope.
1:50
Speaker 1: Sylvia showed up at the house in North Philadelphia with
1:53
Speaker 1: two men, Lamont Antoine Blackman, and Aaron Major. Burnetta owed
1:58
Speaker 1: Sylvia money, who in turn owed Antoine and Aaron as
2:02
Speaker 1: well as other men who were higher up in the
2:03
Speaker 1: drug network. But Burnetta was late in pain, so Sylvia
2:07
Speaker 1: brought Antoine and erin to prove that she was trying
2:10
Speaker 1: her best to obtain the debt. But things went horribly
2:14
Speaker 1: wrong when they got there. Burnetta and her son Albert,
2:19
Speaker 1: refused to pay. Exactly what happened next we may never know,
2:23
Speaker 1: but gunfire erupted and Burnetta Pope was shot dead. Sylvia
2:28
Speaker 1: was quickly arrested, charged and convicted of first degree murder.
2:33
Speaker 6: But Sylvia did not shoot anybody.
2:36
Speaker 5: I went there with no one chitches that no one
2:39
Speaker 5: would get killed. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't order
2:43
Speaker 5: for anyone to get killed.
2:47
Speaker 4: I'm Sylvia Boaken, I'm sixty three, I'll be sixty four
2:52
Speaker 4: in two days, and here I said thirty one years
2:56
Speaker 4: later in a prison.
3:08
Speaker 1: Sylvia Boykin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May twenty sixth,
3:13
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight.
3:15
Speaker 6: She's the youngest of six kids.
3:17
Speaker 4: So when I was born, all my sisters were grown
3:21
Speaker 4: and they were having babies, so I grew up with
3:25
Speaker 4: my nieces and nephews.
3:27
Speaker 1: On the surface, Sylvia's life seemed great. She went to
3:30
Speaker 1: Magnet Schools for kids with high IQs, and when she graduated,
3:34
Speaker 1: she moved to Virginia for college, where she studied data
3:37
Speaker 1: entry and medical administrative assistance. She had a good job
3:41
Speaker 1: at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia was on
3:44
Speaker 1: her way to greatness. But Sylvia wound up on a
3:47
Speaker 1: different path, one of substance abuse and addiction.
3:53
Speaker 5: Somewhere inside of me, I was running.
3:58
Speaker 4: God always had his hands on me, but I was running,
4:02
Speaker 4: and I was trying to I was trying to find
4:06
Speaker 4: something to fix the pain because I was hurt, like
4:12
Speaker 4: very bad, which is a really tough subject for me.
4:20
Speaker 1: Sylvia's inner trauma and suffering it started when she was
4:23
Speaker 1: a child and her grandfather sexually assaulted her.
4:27
Speaker 4: He didn't actually like have sex with me, to penetrate
4:31
Speaker 4: me anything, but he touched me in my private area.
4:36
Speaker 4: But that was just like the beginning, you know, of
4:39
Speaker 4: things that happened in my life.
4:41
Speaker 5: As a child.
4:43
Speaker 1: Then, at ten years old, she was raped by her
4:46
Speaker 1: nineteen year old brother.
4:48
Speaker 4: I had to go to the hospital, and I was
4:51
Speaker 4: a very young girl, and at that time I was
4:56
Speaker 4: stitched up, and I was told by my mother and
5:01
Speaker 4: not to tell the police who did it because that
5:04
Speaker 4: they would arrest my brother.
5:08
Speaker 1: The assault and rape, plus the fact that her family
5:11
Speaker 1: covered it all up, took a huge.
5:13
Speaker 6: Toll on Sylvia.
5:16
Speaker 4: After I was raped by my brother, I took my
5:20
Speaker 4: mother's sleeping hills.
5:21
Speaker 5: I tried to kill myself when I was ten. Yeah,
5:26
Speaker 5: I took the whole bottle.
5:28
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, who found you?
5:31
Speaker 4: My knee's Valerie, and she's like two years younger than me.
5:36
Speaker 4: She found me and she went and got my sister.
5:40
Speaker 4: They took me to the hospital. They pumped my stomach
5:43
Speaker 4: and they put me in the children psych wood.
5:50
Speaker 1: Sylvia's older sister, Teresa, was furious at the situation an
5:54
Speaker 1: intent on making sure Sylvia would be safe going forward.
5:58
Speaker 1: The whole family lived in a three story, do you
6:00
Speaker 1: Sylvia lived on the first floor with her mother and brother. Well,
6:03
Speaker 1: the rest of the family lived upstairs. Teresa lived on
6:07
Speaker 1: the second floor.
6:09
Speaker 4: She took me and wouldn't let me sleep downstairs in
6:12
Speaker 4: my mother's part. She said, I couldn't stay down there.
6:15
Speaker 4: She took me and so I stayed up in her
6:19
Speaker 4: part until I healed up, till I got well.
6:24
Speaker 1: And this isn't even the extent of Sylvia's suffering. Throughout
6:28
Speaker 1: her childhood and adolescence, Sylvia was again molested numerous times
6:33
Speaker 1: by close family friends.
6:36
Speaker 5: So I went through a lot of.
6:41
Speaker 4: Being raped and molested that I used to just go,
6:45
Speaker 4: like get in the front of the church for altar
6:49
Speaker 4: prayer and I would just stay there and pray, and
6:53
Speaker 4: you know, I just wanted to like, why why did
6:56
Speaker 4: these people do this to me?
7:02
Speaker 1: Well, Sylvia's sisters tried to protect her from the sexual abuse.
7:06
Speaker 1: Sylvia sought out coping mechanisms.
7:10
Speaker 4: My sister she would she started, she would give me beer,
7:14
Speaker 4: and sometimes she would give me strictest liquor called Macnoidan's
7:19
Speaker 4: and she would give me some.
7:22
Speaker 1: So, you know, do you think your need to escape
7:24
Speaker 1: is kind of what led you to drug use.
7:28
Speaker 4: Yes, I always felt like I needed to run away.
7:33
Speaker 4: I needed to numb the pain. So I would always
7:37
Speaker 4: be like the life of the party, like everybody wanted
7:42
Speaker 4: like to be around me, And sometimes I think I
7:47
Speaker 4: tried to ship my brain off from it.
7:57
Speaker 1: Eventually, when she was seventeen years old, Sylvia met the
8:00
Speaker 1: man who would become her first husband. She was motivated
8:04
Speaker 1: to move forward past the trauma and build a normal life.
8:11
Speaker 4: As a little girl, I'd always dream about just having
8:14
Speaker 4: this beautiful home and children and a husband and just
8:20
Speaker 4: being very happy. I used to always draw pictures like
8:23
Speaker 4: that when I was little, with the sunshine and the
8:26
Speaker 4: house with a talent and trees.
8:30
Speaker 5: I used to always draw those pictures in school.
8:35
Speaker 1: Sylvia ended up having three daughters, Penny, Tsha, and Kimberly.
8:40
Speaker 1: She was seventeen and she had Penny, her oldest. Here's Penny.
8:46
Speaker 7: She was reay, I would say, into our lives, meaning
8:52
Speaker 7: she was you know that mom that was into you know,
8:56
Speaker 7: the girl scouts, the PTA meetings. She was always you know,
9:04
Speaker 7: into the family functions and you know, everything with us.
9:12
Speaker 1: Sylvia tried her best to be a good mom and wife,
9:15
Speaker 1: but the damage from her past experiences inevitably disrupted her
9:19
Speaker 1: personal life.
9:21
Speaker 4: I've been married four times already, but I could never maintain,
9:27
Speaker 4: like keep them a marriage going.
9:31
Speaker 1: As the distractions from her trauma became increasingly destructive, Sylvia
9:35
Speaker 1: eventually started abusing hard drugs like crack.
9:39
Speaker 6: Do you remember any of her drug use?
9:43
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, I remember. She tried to keep it undercover,
9:47
Speaker 7: but as me being the oldest of three girls, I
9:53
Speaker 7: noticed a lot that was going on with her.
9:57
Speaker 1: For example, Penny says she remembers late nights out and
10:00
Speaker 1: a lot of trips in and out of the house.
10:05
Speaker 7: She would be late for jobs. She would work jobs,
10:08
Speaker 7: but she would be late or sometimes she would be tired,
10:13
Speaker 7: and so we would have to fund for ourself. And
10:18
Speaker 7: when I say fund for ourselves, get up and get
10:21
Speaker 7: ready for school, I will be responsible making sure that
10:25
Speaker 7: we got up for school, or making sure everything was
10:29
Speaker 7: handled in the household. It was a lot because I
10:33
Speaker 7: felt like it was unfair to me. And I would
10:38
Speaker 7: say at that age, I had a lot of goals
10:41
Speaker 7: for myself, a lot of things I wanted to do
10:45
Speaker 7: out of life. I wanted to go places and do
10:49
Speaker 7: things and be on my own and be able to
10:54
Speaker 7: live my life.
10:57
Speaker 1: But instead Penny would wind up permanently taking care of
11:00
Speaker 1: her siblings. By nineteen ninety two, Sylvia was suffering from
11:10
Speaker 1: a serious addiction to crack, and to finance her own addiction,
11:14
Speaker 1: she was selling it for a network of street level
11:17
Speaker 1: drug dealers. Sylvia says she sold crack to forty three
11:20
Speaker 1: year old Burnetta Pope on a few occasions, but she
11:23
Speaker 1: also felt sorry for Burnetta. She describes the house Burnetta
11:27
Speaker 1: was staying in.
11:29
Speaker 4: No furniture, no running water, the bathroom didn't work still
11:35
Speaker 4: TV a few old cheers like Willie Nasby. I bought
11:41
Speaker 4: her a sweatsuit to put on. I took food there
11:45
Speaker 4: and gable food, and I had just recently met them
11:48
Speaker 4: and they were very kind to me.
11:56
Speaker 1: In May of nineteen ninety two, Sylvia was waiting on
11:59
Speaker 1: seven dollars from Burnetta and then from the network, including
12:03
Speaker 1: one of the bosses, Joseph, demanded she get the money.
12:07
Speaker 5: I didn't know how the whole operation was working.
12:11
Speaker 4: Allie knew that he would tell me to take stuff
12:13
Speaker 4: to her and that I would go back to pick
12:16
Speaker 4: up the money.
12:17
Speaker 1: So she went to the place where she knew Burnetta
12:19
Speaker 1: was staying.
12:21
Speaker 5: I went around here to collect money for him.
12:24
Speaker 4: She said that she didn't have the money and she
12:27
Speaker 4: wasn't paying, and so I told him so.
12:29
Speaker 5: The next day he told me to go back.
12:34
Speaker 1: On May fifteenth, Sylvia smoked some crack, drank some booze,
12:38
Speaker 1: and returned to the house. This time she brought seventeen
12:42
Speaker 1: year old Lamont Antoine Blagman and nineteen year old Aaron Major.
12:47
Speaker 1: These two were also part of the dealing network, and
12:50
Speaker 1: Sylvia wanted to prove that she had actually been trying
12:52
Speaker 1: to collect the money. She owed them all along. She
12:56
Speaker 1: also thought their mail presence would persuade Burnetta into paying.
13:01
Speaker 1: They all went in the same car together, Sylvia driving.
13:05
Speaker 1: They found Brunetta at the house with a man and
13:07
Speaker 1: her twenty six year old son, Albert.
13:11
Speaker 4: I went in the house first to ask her for
13:14
Speaker 4: the money. She said she wasn't going to pay the
13:16
Speaker 4: money in whatever, So I went back out and I
13:20
Speaker 4: told Anon Antoine that she said. Aaron Antoine went in
13:26
Speaker 4: and I don't really know exactly what happened, but I
13:31
Speaker 4: guess everybody started arguing and all I heard was a
13:36
Speaker 4: couple of gunshots by Froze. I was scared and I
13:43
Speaker 4: was like what happened, So they ran they left me.
13:46
Speaker 4: I drove and when I went around the block, I
13:50
Speaker 4: seen them. Then they got back in across me.
13:54
Speaker 1: Even after what had just happened, Antoine and Aaron still
13:58
Speaker 1: demanded their money.
14:01
Speaker 5: So I went to ATM machine.
14:04
Speaker 4: And I took the money out of my bank account
14:07
Speaker 4: and I paid them.
14:08
Speaker 6: Sylvia says she dropped them off and went home.
14:11
Speaker 1: She had no idea the gunshots she heard were bullets
14:14
Speaker 1: coming at the neck and leg of Burnetta Pope. This
14:28
Speaker 1: episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
14:32
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
14:36
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
14:40
Speaker 1: in the communities where we work and live. In light
14:43
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
14:46
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
14:51
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
14:56
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. By the time
15:03
Speaker 1: Sylvia got home, police were already waiting for her. They
15:07
Speaker 1: asked her where she had been and what she knew
15:08
Speaker 1: about her shooting. Sylvia was terrified. She denied knowing anything,
15:13
Speaker 1: and she denied knowing Antoine and Aaron, but the police
15:18
Speaker 1: had received word that Sylvia was at the house and
15:21
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a shooting. Burnetta Pope was now dead.
15:25
Speaker 1: Her son Albert, had called nine one one and told
15:27
Speaker 1: the police where Sylvia lived, so police knew that Sylvia
15:31
Speaker 1: was lying and that she wasn't going to cooperate. Just
15:37
Speaker 1: two hours after the incident, Sylvia was arrested for robbery,
15:41
Speaker 1: reckless endangerment, and assault. When they got to the police station,
15:45
Speaker 1: Detective Dennis Dusak questioned Sylvia about everything that transpired that night.
15:53
Speaker 4: When he arrested me, he handcuffed me to a chair
15:57
Speaker 4: for hours, and he kept adding to me what happened,
16:01
Speaker 4: And I told him.
16:02
Speaker 5: I didn't really know what happened.
16:04
Speaker 4: And I was talking to him and I was scared
16:07
Speaker 4: and I didn't know, you know, what to say or
16:10
Speaker 4: what to do. And he wouldn't let me go to
16:12
Speaker 4: the bathroom. He let me urinate on myself.
16:16
Speaker 1: Then, she says, detective Dusak wrote out a statement for
16:18
Speaker 1: her to sign.
16:20
Speaker 4: I kept telling him I had three children at home,
16:22
Speaker 4: and he kept saying, well, if you sign this, I'll
16:25
Speaker 4: let you go home, and so I was like, but
16:28
Speaker 4: this is not what happened.
16:29
Speaker 5: So he kept me to the chair and then I
16:33
Speaker 5: kept falling asleep and he hit me with a phone book.
16:35
Speaker 5: There's a.
16:38
Speaker 4: Paperbag phone book to wake me up. He's like, sign
16:41
Speaker 4: this and we will let you go. I signed the
16:44
Speaker 4: paper and I never left.
16:46
Speaker 1: Prison after that interaction, Sylvia ended up being charged with
16:58
Speaker 1: first degree murder on top of robbery, conspiracy, and possession
17:03
Speaker 1: of instruments of a crime. Antoine and Aaron were also
17:06
Speaker 1: charged with murder, robbery, and a host of other crimes.
17:10
Speaker 1: The three of them went to trial on March twenty third,
17:13
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, and were all tried together. The prosecutor
17:22
Speaker 1: was John Doyle. His argument was that Sylvia ordered Antoine
17:25
Speaker 1: and Aaron to kill both Burnetta and her son Albert.
17:28
Speaker 1: And Doyle developed this theory from Albert, who said that
17:32
Speaker 1: even though she was unarmed, Sylvia ordered the hit on
17:35
Speaker 1: their lives.
17:37
Speaker 6: In fact, because it was.
17:38
Speaker 1: Agreed that Sylvia was unarmed, Albert's statements were the main
17:42
Speaker 1: reason prosecutors could even charge Sylvia with murder in the
17:46
Speaker 1: first place. Prosecutor Doyle also presented Sylvia's signed statement, as
17:54
Speaker 1: well as one from Aaron Major. There's no evidence that
17:57
Speaker 1: Antoine Blackman signed a statement, but the defense council said
18:01
Speaker 1: that the two statements that were presented were coerced. In fact,
18:05
Speaker 1: on the stand, both Antoine and Aaron said that Sylvia
18:09
Speaker 1: did not have a gun and did not order anyone
18:11
Speaker 1: to shoot.
18:12
Speaker 6: All three also.
18:13
Speaker 1: Contended that Albert actually threatened them with a gun. First
18:17
Speaker 1: forensics showed that Burnetta was shot by two different guns.
18:23
Speaker 1: Although accounts of very the defense and prosecution agreed on
18:26
Speaker 1: one thing. Sylvia did not have a gun and did
18:29
Speaker 1: not shoot anyone. What was that like to see your
18:37
Speaker 1: mom in cuffs and facing a murder trial?
18:40
Speaker 6: I mean, that's I imagine it's really traumatizing.
18:43
Speaker 7: Yes, it was, you know, not being able to touch
18:47
Speaker 7: her or talk to her and seeing them question her.
18:52
Speaker 7: And for me most because my grandmother was there and
18:57
Speaker 7: at the time, my grandmother was starting to go through dementia,
19:03
Speaker 7: so it was really hard. I think that was the
19:06
Speaker 7: most for me watching my grandmother go through it, because
19:10
Speaker 7: my grandmother would just burst out in court, just stand
19:15
Speaker 7: up and scream and be like, you don't know what
19:17
Speaker 7: you're doing or you don't know what you're talking about,
19:21
Speaker 7: and just let my daughter go and and the things
19:25
Speaker 7: that you're saying, she didn't do that, So yes, it
19:29
Speaker 7: was really tough.
19:31
Speaker 1: On April first, nineteen ninety four, Sylvia, along with Antoine
19:34
Speaker 1: and Aaron, was convicted of first degree murder. Sixteen year
19:39
Speaker 1: old Penny was now in charge of taking care of
19:41
Speaker 1: her younger siblings, and it was hard.
19:47
Speaker 7: I would tell friends like far as school jobs. When
19:52
Speaker 7: they would asks about my mother, I would say that
19:56
Speaker 7: my mother is still live in Virginia, so that did
20:00
Speaker 7: not know that my mother was incarcerated. And I'm gonna
20:05
Speaker 7: be honest, it was that love hate relationship.
20:10
Speaker 1: Penny says it's been difficult to visit her mom in
20:12
Speaker 1: prison over the years.
20:15
Speaker 7: So to be honest. As a kid, we did go
20:19
Speaker 7: a lot. It was a group that went up and
20:25
Speaker 7: they took the children all the time. But as I
20:28
Speaker 7: got older, I stopped going because I didn't like it
20:32
Speaker 7: at all. I didn't like the way it felt to me.
20:36
Speaker 7: I didn't like seeing my mother like that, so I
20:41
Speaker 7: really didn't. I stop going a lot.
20:45
Speaker 1: But now that she's an adult with children, Penny wants
20:48
Speaker 1: her kids to have a relationship with their grandma, so
20:51
Speaker 1: they visit her.
20:53
Speaker 7: It's the only way for her to have a relationship
20:57
Speaker 7: with them since the sac You know, she is a
21:00
Speaker 7: lifer and unfortunately we grew up and we had kids
21:07
Speaker 7: of our own, and that's the only way she would
21:10
Speaker 7: have a bond with them and see them.
21:21
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Sylvia filed appeal after appeal to no avail. Neither
21:26
Speaker 1: of her two attorneys were effective. Sylvia's trial attorney, Michael Wallace,
21:31
Speaker 1: failed to file her appeal in a timely manner, so
21:33
Speaker 1: he was unable to appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Eventually,
21:38
Speaker 1: her rights to appeal were reinstated and she got a
21:40
Speaker 1: new attorney, James Bruno, But the appeals that Bruno filed
21:44
Speaker 1: were all denied and exhausted, leaving Sylvia very few options
21:49
Speaker 1: for release, and Bruno had issues of his own. He
21:52
Speaker 1: was later suspended from practicing law for violating rules of
21:56
Speaker 1: professional conduct. Meanwhile, Antoine Blackman was released from prison on
22:01
Speaker 1: his direct appeal in nineteen ninety seven.
22:04
Speaker 8: One of the tragedies in this particular case is that
22:07
Speaker 8: she never had adequate legal representation.
22:10
Speaker 6: This is doctor Jill mccorkyl.
22:13
Speaker 8: I'm a professor of sociology and criminology, at Villanova University,
22:17
Speaker 8: and I'm also the founder and the executive director of
22:20
Speaker 8: the Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls.
22:23
Speaker 1: Doctor McCorkle studies how mass incarceration intersects with gender and poverty.
22:29
Speaker 1: She was looking into another similar case, a woman who
22:32
Speaker 1: is not the shooter in a crime and also got
22:34
Speaker 1: a life sentence when she came across Sylvia's case.
22:39
Speaker 8: There are a number of women with similar kinds of
22:43
Speaker 8: scenarios where it's the principal offender is a man.
22:47
Speaker 1: She says, women are often at a unique disadvantage in
22:50
Speaker 1: this situation.
22:52
Speaker 8: They're unable to cooperate with police because usually they're scared
22:57
Speaker 8: of retaliatory violence, and then you know, police and prosecutors
23:03
Speaker 8: engage in a malicious prosecution. And so that's really how
23:06
Speaker 8: I got to Sylvia.
23:08
Speaker 1: Doctor mccorkyl believes that Sylvia would have and should have
23:11
Speaker 1: been treated as a witness, and that it was Sylvia's
23:14
Speaker 1: hesitancy to cooperate with police that got her the murder charge.
23:18
Speaker 1: Remember when the police asked Sylvia what she knew about
23:21
Speaker 1: the crime and if she knew Antoine and Aaron, she
23:23
Speaker 1: said no.
23:26
Speaker 4: I was scared, and I was like, what did they
23:28
Speaker 4: go do something to my girls if I go tell
23:31
Speaker 4: on him what happened. I was scared, like, I got
23:34
Speaker 4: three girls at home that's alone, and I was afraid
23:38
Speaker 4: that if I told on him, like it's something that
23:41
Speaker 4: might happen to my daughters.
23:45
Speaker 1: Doctor mccorkyl says that a lot of women like Sylvia,
23:48
Speaker 1: who are vulnerable because of poverty, precarious lifestyles, drug and
23:52
Speaker 1: alcohol abuse, and her domestic violence, are not in a
23:55
Speaker 1: position where they can cooperate with police and prosecutors.
24:00
Speaker 8: Puts them at risk. It often puts family members at risk,
24:04
Speaker 8: and police and prosecutors, I'll say, I'll be as generous
24:09
Speaker 8: as possible, misinterpret that hesitancy, and I think in some
24:15
Speaker 8: cases honestly take that unwillingness to cooperate as an indicator
24:21
Speaker 8: of criminal culpability and then hit them with elevated charges
24:25
Speaker 8: to try to force their hand. And so, you know,
24:29
Speaker 8: you can really look at these cases and see women
24:32
Speaker 8: sort of situated between street violence and then what I
24:38
Speaker 8: refer to as state violence, so that they're sort of
24:41
Speaker 8: taking their chances either way. And those who are particularly
24:46
Speaker 8: vulnerable to violence and retaliation are saying, all right, well,
24:50
Speaker 8: you know I'm going to take my chances at trial
24:53
Speaker 8: because it's better than taking my chances on the street.
24:57
Speaker 1: Sylvia took those chances and they didn't land in her favor.
25:01
Speaker 1: Albert's contention that Sylvia ordered the hit ended up being
25:04
Speaker 1: her downfall, and doctor mccorky believes that Albert testified to
25:08
Speaker 1: this because of pressure.
25:10
Speaker 6: He faced at the time.
25:11
Speaker 1: He had an open drug charge, and after he offered
25:14
Speaker 1: up this information, he was able to plead a very
25:18
Speaker 1: favorable and short sentence to his own case, even though
25:21
Speaker 1: he never initially said that Sylvia ordered the shooting. But
25:27
Speaker 1: doctor mccorky believes that Albert's testimony about Sylvia during the
25:30
Speaker 1: trial is actually one of the most preposterous things about
25:33
Speaker 1: Sylvia's case.
25:36
Speaker 8: When Sylvia is initially arrested, she's arrested for robbery, maybe
25:43
Speaker 8: simple assaul or aggravated assaults, nothing about murder. So even
25:49
Speaker 8: when the police pick her up, there's no you know,
25:54
Speaker 8: kind of framing of Sylvia as somehow this you know,
25:59
Speaker 8: criminal master mind or street heavy ordering the execution of
26:04
Speaker 8: the people in this house. Now, Albert testifies to that,
26:09
Speaker 8: and I think probably does so because that's the only
26:13
Speaker 8: way that prosecutors can can hook Sylvia on in any
26:16
Speaker 8: meaningful way. They need some kind of statement, you know,
26:20
Speaker 8: going directly to her culpability.
26:22
Speaker 1: Doctor McCorkle has studied crack cocaine markets in depth. She
26:26
Speaker 1: says knowing their structure is key to understanding the forces
26:30
Speaker 1: that led to Sylvia's conviction.
26:32
Speaker 8: These markets are organized hierarchically and by gender. You know,
26:38
Speaker 8: Sylvia is in her thirties at the time this goes down,
26:41
Speaker 8: and so one of the things that prosecutors are doing
26:44
Speaker 8: at trial is saying, here's this woman in her thirties
26:48
Speaker 8: and she's got these two you know, teenagers, so she's
26:52
Speaker 8: the adult, so therefore, you know, she must have been
26:57
Speaker 8: in charge of this. But that's not how crack cocaine
27:01
Speaker 8: markets work. These markets and particularly the responsibility for retaliation
27:08
Speaker 8: and the responsibility for collecting debt is men's responsibility. So
27:14
Speaker 8: you know, sort of gender segregation in the drug market.
27:17
Speaker 8: So you know, women aren't the enforcers in these markets.
27:21
Speaker 6: That's men.
27:25
Speaker 1: Even though Antoine Blackman was eventually released from prison, doctor
27:28
Speaker 1: mccorko believes him to be the likeliest shooter in this case.
27:33
Speaker 8: The mythology on the street is, yeah, you give a
27:35
Speaker 8: teenager the gun because they're not going to get as
27:39
Speaker 8: lengthy a sentence as an adult Wood, Which is the
27:43
Speaker 8: other reason that it's entirely plausible to me that blackman
27:46
Speaker 8: is the shooter. He's the juvenile, and so that's certainly
27:50
Speaker 8: not unusual. It was the norm to have a juvenile
27:53
Speaker 8: be the shooter. So I can see major handing that
27:57
Speaker 8: gun to blackmen.
28:07
Speaker 1: Sylvia was left with a life without parole sentence, and
28:10
Speaker 1: now with her appeals exhausted.
28:12
Speaker 8: Where we're really left here is commutation. And I think
28:16
Speaker 8: she deserves commutation on her merits, you know, without even
28:21
Speaker 8: looking into the kind of specifics of all, right, well,
28:24
Speaker 8: how culpable was she in this particular case. But I
28:27
Speaker 8: think on her own merits, she deserves to have a
28:32
Speaker 8: sentence commutation, which would release her from life in prison
28:36
Speaker 8: without possibility of parole. It would allow her to go
28:39
Speaker 8: home to her family.
28:42
Speaker 1: Sylvia has made the best of her time in prison.
28:44
Speaker 8: However, She's gotten, you know, multiple certifications, and she's got
28:49
Speaker 8: three decades in Certainly, Sylvia has done everything that we
28:54
Speaker 8: would expect someone to do over the duration of such
28:57
Speaker 8: a long period of time.
29:03
Speaker 1: Sylvia goes to church for weekly services, Bible study and prayer.
29:08
Speaker 1: She has continued to develop her computer skills and she
29:10
Speaker 1: studies entrepreneurship, but she especially enjoys being a certified peer specialist.
29:18
Speaker 4: Train us to like sit down and to listen to people,
29:22
Speaker 4: you know, so it's not like to tell them what
29:24
Speaker 4: to do, but just to be listening and caring and
29:27
Speaker 4: helping them to find their own answer.
29:30
Speaker 5: And it makes you feel good.
29:33
Speaker 4: Also, I try to help, like a lot of the
29:35
Speaker 4: young people, I try to guide them. I try to
29:40
Speaker 4: talk to them a lot about being here and going
29:44
Speaker 4: home and making a change in their life.
29:47
Speaker 1: Sylvia loves doing this and this is what she wants
29:50
Speaker 1: to continue to do. Doctor McCorkle has also offered her
29:54
Speaker 1: a position with the Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls.
29:58
Speaker 6: When she gets out.
29:59
Speaker 8: We're going to have her be our ambassador and do
30:03
Speaker 8: a lot of outreach to other incarcerated women. And certainly,
30:08
Speaker 8: you know, there's there's no better expert both with respect
30:13
Speaker 8: to these kinds of prosecutions, as well as you know,
30:17
Speaker 8: an expert in what it means to be a woman,
30:20
Speaker 8: to be a mother, to be a grandmother, Navigating decades
30:24
Speaker 8: in prison.
30:28
Speaker 4: I feel like after thirty one years in here that
30:32
Speaker 4: I've came to know myself. I have so much that
30:37
Speaker 4: I want to give back. I want to be able
30:40
Speaker 4: to go out and to help young people. I want
30:44
Speaker 4: to be able to tell my story that helps some
30:47
Speaker 4: young girl know that no matter what happened in her life,
30:51
Speaker 4: no matter if she was molested, no matter if somebody
30:55
Speaker 4: you know led her down the wrong road to get
30:57
Speaker 4: on drugs or to drink, that she can't change.
31:03
Speaker 1: Sylvia is now sixty four and in declining health. Among
31:07
Speaker 1: her ailments is psiatic nerve damage, arthritis, and herniated disks,
31:12
Speaker 1: all of which cause her daily pain.
31:16
Speaker 8: It is costing Pennsylvania taxpayers so much to lock up
31:22
Speaker 8: a prison population that you know, twenty five percent of
31:25
Speaker 8: them are fifty and older, and it's just incredibly expensive,
31:28
Speaker 8: and so regardless of sort of where you're situated politically,
31:32
Speaker 8: there's a recognition that we have got to get aging
31:36
Speaker 8: people out of prison.
31:45
Speaker 1: While Sylvia knows she's not directly responsible for Brunetta's death,
31:49
Speaker 1: she still feels regret over what happened.
31:55
Speaker 5: And I'm just so so sorry everyone that I heard
32:05
Speaker 5: for a paid that I cost.
32:08
Speaker 9: I'm very sorry for that. I wish I could take
32:12
Speaker 9: it all back. I wish I could go back to
32:15
Speaker 9: that day and two things are different. I would just
32:21
Speaker 9: wish I could just go back.
32:36
Speaker 1: In July twenty twenty one, doctor mccorkyl submitted a letter
32:39
Speaker 1: to the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons urging them to grant
32:43
Speaker 1: Sylvia commutation. Sylvia's case is up for review in October
32:47
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. She needs a majority of a five
32:50
Speaker 1: person panel to move to the next round of voting,
32:53
Speaker 1: where she will need all five votes to be free.
33:01
Speaker 1: If you'd like to show your support for Sylvia, go
33:03
Speaker 1: to free Sylvia boycrind dot com to sign a petition
33:06
Speaker 1: calling for her commutation.
33:13
Speaker 6: Next time.
33:13
Speaker 1: On Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling, Troy Berner.
33:19
Speaker 10: You know I didn't have nothing to do with it,
33:20
Speaker 10: so you know, and they're not going to be to
33:22
Speaker 10: find nobody to say I had nothing to do with it,
33:24
Speaker 10: so you know, I held on to that, you know,
33:26
Speaker 10: that belief on where they say the truth says you're free.
33:37
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
33:40
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
33:43
Speaker 1: links in our bio to see how you can help.
33:46
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flahm and
33:49
Speaker 1: Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
33:52
Speaker 1: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
33:57
Speaker 1: by Jeff Clyburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
34:00
Speaker 1: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
34:05
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
34:08
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
34:11
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
34:15
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
34:18
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
34:22
Speaker 1: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
34:25
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one