Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #378 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Hamid Hayat

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#378 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Hamid Hayat · Wrongful Conviction

0:04
Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Laura and I writer. This week, it's
0:07
Speaker 1: the story of Hamed Hyatt, a US citizen who was
0:10
Speaker 1: charged with terrorism in the frenzied time after the nine
0:13
Speaker 1: to eleven attacks. Hamed was one of the Muslim Men
0:16
Speaker 1: that were targeted by the FBI during its frantic search
0:20
Speaker 1: for terrorists still at large. But the story the FBI
0:24
Speaker 1: concocted about Hamed was full of crazy imagery and drama,
0:29
Speaker 1: almost like a movie or a comic strip. And that's
0:31
Speaker 1: because it wasn't true. Hamed Hyatt was innocent, but he
0:35
Speaker 1: served years behind bars before being exonerated. Now since we
0:39
Speaker 1: aired this episode, Hamed has gotten a new job with
0:42
Speaker 1: Amazon and he's working to rebuild his life. His new
0:46
Speaker 1: coworkers are often surprised to learn that he's been through
0:49
Speaker 1: the worst of the wrongful conviction stories and how well
0:52
Speaker 1: known his story is online. In fact, Hamed's story was
0:56
Speaker 1: featured prominently on comedian Hassan Minaja's Netflix special Patriot Act.
1:01
Speaker 1: Hasan Manaj even cited Hamed's story as the inspiration for
1:04
Speaker 1: the title of the show. While we wish that none
1:07
Speaker 1: of us had ever happened to Hamid, we're so glad
1:09
Speaker 1: his message is reaching a larger audience, and we wish
1:12
Speaker 1: him all the best. Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions.
1:22
Speaker 1: I'm Laura and I.
1:23
Speaker 2: Writer and I'm Steve Drisin.
1:26
Speaker 1: In the wake of nine to eleven, keeping America safe
1:28
Speaker 1: was everyone's priority. But what happens when an innocent man
1:32
Speaker 1: gets accused of terrorism based on a false confession. Today's
1:36
Speaker 1: case includes one of the most outlandish confessions I've ever heard.
1:41
Speaker 1: A thousand pole vaulting terrorists, all dressed up like Ninja turtles.
1:46
Speaker 1: It's a story that sounds like the punchline of a
1:48
Speaker 1: joke instead of the path to a conviction. But for
1:52
Speaker 1: US citizen Hamid Hyatt, the verdict was no joke at all.
2:05
Speaker 1: Usually we start each episode by telling you about a crime,
2:09
Speaker 1: but in today's story, there was both a crime on
2:11
Speaker 1: a scale we'd never seen before and no crime at all.
2:16
Speaker 1: You see, this case took place right after the horrific
2:19
Speaker 1: nine to eleven attacks. Thousands of Americans had died, and
2:23
Speaker 1: pressure was building on our government to prevent more attacks.
2:27
Speaker 1: Make no mistake, there was a lot of good police
2:29
Speaker 1: work done to keep us all safe, but sometimes fear
2:33
Speaker 1: started to override good decision making. Some law enforcement efforts
2:38
Speaker 1: became driven by panic and even prejudice, not proof. This
2:44
Speaker 1: story is one of the times we got it wrong.
2:47
Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, California native and US citizen
2:50
Speaker 1: Hamid Hyatt was accused of being part of a homegrown
2:54
Speaker 1: terrorist sleeper cell. Years later, the government admitted that no
2:59
Speaker 1: such sleeper cell ever existed, but Hamid had falsely confessed.
3:05
Speaker 1: He spent more than a decade in prison before being cleared.
3:08
Speaker 2: As prosecutors prepare for trial, they review the evidence that
3:13
Speaker 2: the FBI agents obtain in the case, and they look
3:17
Speaker 2: at the interrogation tapes, and you have to wonder what
3:22
Speaker 2: the prosecutors in this case were thinking when they saw
3:25
Speaker 2: these tapes. What were they thinking when the corroboration of
3:30
Speaker 2: this case was so thin.
3:32
Speaker 1: Hammed is one of the first post nine to eleven
3:35
Speaker 1: terrorism defendants to be exonerated, and he probably won't be
3:38
Speaker 1: the last. His story is a caution to us all
3:42
Speaker 1: when we're talking about our national security, there's nothing more
3:46
Speaker 1: important than getting it right. Hamid's story takes place in Lodi, California,
3:55
Speaker 1: a medium sized town halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.
4:00
Speaker 1: Lodi's downtown looks like the set of an old Western,
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Speaker 1: complete with a train depot from gold rush days. But
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Speaker 1: if you go south a mile, you'll find a large
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Speaker 1: Pakistani American community where families wear traditional clothing and center
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Speaker 1: their lives around the local mosque. We'll get to Lodi
4:18
Speaker 1: in a minute, but our story starts in Oregon. That's
4:22
Speaker 1: where FBI agents traveled in October two thousand and one
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Speaker 1: looking for a suspected terrorist named Nasim Khan. The Nasim
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Speaker 1: Khan they've found was a twenty eight year old convenience
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Speaker 1: store employee. The FBI quickly realized this guy had nothing
4:39
Speaker 1: to do with terrorism. He simply had the same name
4:42
Speaker 1: as their suspect. But with the FBI at his door,
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Speaker 1: Nasim smelled an opportunity. He gave the agents the biggest
4:50
Speaker 1: tip he could conjure up. He claimed to have seen
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Speaker 1: i'm In al Zawahiri, one of the most wanted terrorists
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Speaker 1: in the world, at a mosque in Lodai, Colorlifornia.
5:00
Speaker 2: It's ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous that Osama bin Lan's number two
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Speaker 2: person would make it into the United States without detection,
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Speaker 2: and of all places, settle in Lodie, California.
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Speaker 1: The FBI, to its credit, didn't believe Nasim. They figured
5:17
Speaker 1: out soon enough that he had a reputation for lying.
5:20
Speaker 1: Even his own mother later called Nasim a bag full
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Speaker 1: of lies, air and deceit. But this was a month
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Speaker 1: after nine to eleven, and the government was desperate to
5:31
Speaker 1: recruit informants who could infiltrate Muslim American communities and expose
5:35
Speaker 1: any sleeper cells. Somehow, they decided Nasim was their guy.
5:41
Speaker 1: Being hired as an informant was a pretty big deal
5:44
Speaker 1: for Nasem. He went from working in a convenience store
5:47
Speaker 1: to getting a cool FBI nickname Wildcat. He earned hundreds
5:52
Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars on the US government payroll. The
5:55
Speaker 1: FEDS even paid for his car washes in exchange. They
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Speaker 1: asked him to target the Lodi, California community. By early
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Speaker 1: two thousand and two, Nassim wormed his way into Lodei's
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Speaker 1: Pakistani neighborhoods. He started befriending people looking for any information
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Speaker 1: the FBI might consider useful, and pretty soon Nissin began
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Speaker 1: focusing on the Hyatt family, especially nineteen year old Hamid.
6:22
Speaker 1: Now the Hyatt family was well known in Lodi. They
6:25
Speaker 1: had no history of political involvement or extremism whatsoever. Hahmad's dad, Umer,
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Speaker 1: was the local ice cream truck driver.
6:34
Speaker 2: The pairing of Nassim and Hahmed was a strange pairing
6:37
Speaker 2: from the get go. Nassin was ten years older than Hamid,
6:42
Speaker 2: and Hamid nineteen or so at the time, acted much
6:46
Speaker 2: more immaturely than his age. He had suffered a terrible
6:50
Speaker 2: batt of meningitis years earlier, which left him cognitively and
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Speaker 2: physically slower.
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Speaker 1: As a child, Hamed had split his time between his
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Speaker 1: home and the US and his relative's home in Pakistan.
7:03
Speaker 1: Because of all the travel, he'd only finished elementary school,
7:06
Speaker 1: and he didn't have many friends in the States. So
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Speaker 1: when Nassim, the informant, befriended him, Hamed couldn't believe his luck.
7:14
Speaker 2: Nassim was paying attention to Hamid, and very few people
7:18
Speaker 2: in the community in lord I paid much attention to Hamid.
7:22
Speaker 1: Nasim was older, he had a fancy car, and apparently
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Speaker 1: endless money. This is the guy who wanted to chat
7:29
Speaker 1: up Hamed. Hamed was in Nasim Andhmmed became friends, or
7:34
Speaker 1: at least so Hamid thought. Over the next year or two,
7:38
Speaker 1: Nasim and Hahmed started having hours of phone conversations that
7:42
Speaker 1: Nassim was secretly recording. On those calls, Nasim portrayed himself
7:47
Speaker 1: as an extremist and told Hamed he'd been involved in
7:50
Speaker 1: jihadi activities for years. Pretty Soon, hapless Hamed started trying
7:55
Speaker 1: to impress Nasim by making up fake stories about his
7:58
Speaker 1: own exploits. Once, Hamed said he participated in a Taliban attack,
8:04
Speaker 1: another time he claimed he'd been held in a Pakistani jail.
8:07
Speaker 1: And when Nasim said that he wanted to go to
8:10
Speaker 1: a terrorist training camp, Hamad said that sounded cool. Fast
8:15
Speaker 1: forward a year to two thousand and three, Hamid's twenty
8:19
Speaker 1: one and his parents take him to Pakistan to find
8:22
Speaker 1: a bride for Nasim. This trip was a chance to
8:26
Speaker 1: up the ante to bully Hamed into actually going to
8:29
Speaker 1: a terrorist training camp. He starts telling Hamed that he's
8:33
Speaker 1: going to come to Pakistan himself and force Hamed into
8:36
Speaker 1: Jihati training, but Hamid refuses. He fends Nasim off with
8:42
Speaker 1: one excuse after another. It's too hot to go to
8:45
Speaker 1: a training camp, it's too difficult, I need to stay
8:48
Speaker 1: with my sick mother. It's pretty obvious Hammad has zero
8:51
Speaker 1: interest in becoming a terrorist. Finally, he straight out tells
8:55
Speaker 1: Nasim he's never going to a camp. It was their
8:59
Speaker 1: last phone call. Hamed gets married in Pakistan and ends
9:03
Speaker 1: up staying there for two years until June two thousand
9:05
Speaker 1: and five, when he decides to go back to the
9:08
Speaker 1: United States. He boards a plane in Pakistan.
9:11
Speaker 2: With his whole family, but the.
9:12
Speaker 1: Plane gets diverted to Tokyo because it turns out Hamit
9:16
Speaker 1: is on the no fly list. The whole Hyatt family
9:19
Speaker 1: is ushered off the plane and the FBI questions them
9:22
Speaker 1: about why they were overseas and who they were with.
9:26
Speaker 1: They even ask if the men Hamid was hanging out
9:28
Speaker 1: with had facial hair. Eventually, the family is allowed to
9:32
Speaker 1: get back on the plane and fly to California, but
9:35
Speaker 1: a day or two later, the FBI shows up again
9:38
Speaker 1: at the Hyatt family home and brings Hamed in to
9:41
Speaker 1: the Sacramento office for more questioning. Now let's step back.
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Speaker 2: For a minute.
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Speaker 1: By June two thousand and five, there'd been a three
9:50
Speaker 1: year multi agency Federal Terrorism Task Force investigation that revolved
9:56
Speaker 1: around Nasim Khan and his stories. None of seems claims
10:00
Speaker 1: yielded any real information about terrorism despite all the money
10:04
Speaker 1: he'd been paid, So by mid two thousand and five,
10:07
Speaker 1: the FBI was feeling pressure to show results in the
10:11
Speaker 1: worst way, and they got results from the Hyatt family
10:15
Speaker 1: in the worst way.
10:26
Speaker 2: Hamud's interrogation begins on June third, two thousand and five,
10:31
Speaker 2: at about eleven thirty in the morning, and it would
10:34
Speaker 2: go on for hours and hours before the agents turned
10:38
Speaker 2: on the video cameras.
10:40
Speaker 1: They start taping at five o'clock in the afternoon. You
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Speaker 1: can see skinny little Hamed, very nervous, sitting in a
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Speaker 1: chair that's pushed against the wall of a small windowless room.
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Speaker 1: He's facing two FBI agents who are staring him down.
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Speaker 2: The policy of the FBI at this time was that
11:00
Speaker 2: the decision to record interrogations was left in the discretion
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Speaker 2: of agents, so it was unusual that they would record
11:08
Speaker 2: these interrogations. But thank god they did, because otherwise we
11:14
Speaker 2: wouldn't have the record that we do have about how
11:17
Speaker 2: at least some of Hamid's interrogation went down as.
11:22
Speaker 1: Soon as the tapes rolling. The agents accuse Hamid of
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Speaker 1: spending between three and six months at a terrorist training
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Speaker 1: camp in Pakistan and then come to lies. First they
11:34
Speaker 1: say he failed a polygraph that he apparently took earlier
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Speaker 1: that day. Second, they claimed to have satellite photographs of
11:42
Speaker 1: a camp, implying Hamid's in those photos. Neither was true.
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Speaker 1: And then the agents offer him help. As long as
11:51
Speaker 1: he talks over and over and over, they promise that
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Speaker 1: they're there to help him. Hamid looks desperate to please
11:59
Speaker 1: these guys. He says he wants to cooperate for my country.
12:03
Speaker 3: From my country, I do anything, you know, because you know,
12:06
Speaker 3: these guys are hurting our country about well.
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Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
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Speaker 3: I mean it's important because you know, every day in
12:13
Speaker 3: and as we see her, you know, our troops Arooko,
12:15
Speaker 3: they're very hard for you know, making peace in the
12:17
Speaker 3: whole world front.
12:19
Speaker 4: Why they're making peace, they're making peace.
12:20
Speaker 5: For us so we can live together, all of us.
12:22
Speaker 2: Yeah. And what do they do with these camps.
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Speaker 1: What they're doing is to teaching people out to how
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Speaker 1: to kill American truth of course, right, that's what the.
12:28
Speaker 2: Camps are all about.
12:30
Speaker 1: The interrogation goes on for hours into the night, until
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Speaker 1: Hamid starts breaking. He tells the agents he did go
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Speaker 1: to a camp in Pakistan for several months. But his
12:40
Speaker 1: story makes no sense.
12:42
Speaker 2: It's laughable.
12:43
Speaker 1: They ask him when he'd gone to the camp. At
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Speaker 1: first Hamad said it was during the hot season, but
12:48
Speaker 1: then he says it was during the cold season. When
12:51
Speaker 1: they ask him to describe the camp, Hammud's answer is
12:54
Speaker 1: just pathetic. He says the whole place had only four
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Speaker 1: weapons in it, a shotgun, two pistols, and a machine gun.
13:02
Speaker 2: He said the only weapon that he had handled was
13:04
Speaker 2: actually a pistol, and he'd only shot it three or
13:07
Speaker 2: four times. What kind of training is that?
13:10
Speaker 1: The agents ask comed where the camp was and he
13:13
Speaker 1: keeps switching his story there too. First it was in
13:16
Speaker 1: rural Afghanistan, then it was in rural Pakistan.
13:19
Speaker 3: You're all over the map here, oh yeah, and yeah,
13:21
Speaker 3: helping yourself out it by doing that, you know, Okay,
13:24
Speaker 3: when one minute you're saying Northwest Frontier, next minue you're
13:26
Speaker 3: saying cash from you, you're saying where this building was?
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Speaker 5: Which city was it?
13:30
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I'll say about court.
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Speaker 3: It's not that you will say you know where it is,
13:35
Speaker 3: you know where the building is, Tell me where was it?
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Speaker 3: Gon A Gourd and the BFP in NWFP.
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Speaker 1: Calling for and of course, remember Hamad had said none
13:45
Speaker 1: of this to Nassm Khan, despite years of recorded phone calls. Instead,
13:50
Speaker 1: he told Nasim he'd never go to a training camp.
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Speaker 1: It's only after this interrogation that Hamad starts saying whatever
13:58
Speaker 1: he thinks the agents want to hear, and piece by piece,
14:02
Speaker 1: the agents feed him nearly all the information in his confession,
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Speaker 1: down to the types of buildings he was supposedly going
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Speaker 1: to attack in the United States.
14:11
Speaker 3: There are certain kinds of targets that you know, are
14:13
Speaker 3: are good targets. You know, if you're gonna be worth
14:15
Speaker 3: your salt as a geode, you to know about his targets,
14:18
Speaker 3: like buildings, And I'll say buildings.
14:22
Speaker 2: What kind of buildings you take your bags? You know?
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Speaker 3: Okay, financial buildings, uh are private buildings, commercial buildings, big
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Speaker 3: of the Unity's commercial arctics and like those kind of buildings.
14:34
Speaker 2: I see, all right, you're.
14:36
Speaker 3: Not yeah, but I'm not sure about the big things.
14:39
Speaker 3: You guys are talking about, the big ones that will
14:41
Speaker 3: see him, you know, finance.
14:44
Speaker 2: Let's say, And what else?
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Speaker 3: What else did they tell you about coscuds?
14:48
Speaker 1: Maybe Hammid's confession is not very believable, so the FBI
14:52
Speaker 1: needs corroboration. While those agents are questioning Hamid, other agents
14:57
Speaker 1: bring in his dad, Umer, the ice cream truck driver,
15:01
Speaker 1: and start questioning him too. They tell Umer that Hamid
15:04
Speaker 1: admitted going to a training camp in Pakistan, and they
15:07
Speaker 1: start pressuring Umer to say he also went to visit Hamid,
15:12
Speaker 1: just like a parent would check out his kids college. Eventually,
15:16
Speaker 1: Umer agrees that he had gone to visit Hamid, but
15:19
Speaker 1: his story is totally wild. Hamid had described a rural
15:23
Speaker 1: camp in a forested area, but Umer says the camp's
15:26
Speaker 1: in rawal Pindi, a two million persons city. And Umer's description, well,
15:32
Speaker 1: he says he saw one thousand fighters at this camp
15:35
Speaker 1: and they're all in a huge underground basement practicing pole vaulting.
15:40
Speaker 2: Do you know how high a ceiling has to be
15:42
Speaker 2: in order to pole vault?
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Speaker 1: I'll take shit you don't do in a basement for
15:45
Speaker 1: five hundred alex. And it gets even crazier because, according
15:49
Speaker 1: to Umer, those pole vaulters are dressed up like Ninja turtles.
15:54
Speaker 1: Umer later explained that he lifted this story from the
15:57
Speaker 1: movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He'd recently we've seen it
16:00
Speaker 1: on TV. All this goes on and on. Both men
16:07
Speaker 1: keep spinning stories and the agents aren't really getting anywhere.
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Speaker 1: At three am, Ahmad starts complaining that his head hurts.
16:15
Speaker 1: He asks to go home and gets in sleep.
16:18
Speaker 3: You tell me, Kashmir, you tell me if Cahn stand
16:20
Speaker 3: northwest seeing playing it on whatever you want to play on.
16:24
Speaker 3: But what's goind of happening? That he's ran up the
16:26
Speaker 3: rest of you? Okay, so i'd beg here to over. No,
16:30
Speaker 3: you're not leaving here tonight now, No.
16:32
Speaker 2: I mean tomorrow. I'm going to be here tonight, staying.
16:35
Speaker 5: Here in that evening.
16:36
Speaker 1: You're going to go to jail and.
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Speaker 5: Jed, So I'm going to get a place.
16:39
Speaker 2: To steep older like that.
16:40
Speaker 1: Instead, the agents arrest him and charge him with lending
16:44
Speaker 1: material support to terrorism. Suddenly, he's facing up to thirty
16:49
Speaker 1: years in prison for his part. Umer's also arrested based
16:54
Speaker 1: on the crazy Ninja Turtle statement. He's charged with two
16:58
Speaker 1: counts of lying to federal agents. The Hyat's arrest was
17:04
Speaker 1: a huge news story. Now, some media outlets were skeptical.
17:08
Speaker 1: They ran stories highlighting the pole vaulting and the Ninja
17:11
Speaker 1: Turtles and the crazy mismatch between what Hamad and his
17:14
Speaker 1: dad had said. But other media bought it all hook
17:18
Speaker 1: line and sinker. They covered the story as proof that
17:21
Speaker 1: domestic sleeper cells existed.
17:24
Speaker 2: You throw a word out there, you throw the word terror,
17:27
Speaker 2: you throw the word martyr, you throw the word gihad
17:30
Speaker 2: out into public space, and people will believe almost anything
17:35
Speaker 2: because the fear is so great.
17:38
Speaker 1: There's a federal trial to get ready for, and the
17:40
Speaker 1: Hyatt family hires lawyers. But while the lawyer that Umer
17:44
Speaker 1: hires is very experienced, Hamed gets a novice. She'd never
17:48
Speaker 1: gone before a jury before. The plan was for her
17:51
Speaker 1: to imitate whatever Umer's lawyer did, but that was no
17:55
Speaker 1: plan at all. The cases were totally different, very different charges,
18:00
Speaker 1: very different confessions. Hamid needed his own defense, but he
18:04
Speaker 1: didn't get one, or at least not a very good one.
18:07
Speaker 2: I mean, I've had some trial experience in my career.
18:10
Speaker 2: I know my way around a criminal court room. We've
18:13
Speaker 2: had contested hearings in our own post conviction cases, and
18:18
Speaker 2: I know more about false confessions than a lot of
18:20
Speaker 2: other attorneys who practice in this area. But there is
18:25
Speaker 2: no way that I would ever take a case like
18:28
Speaker 2: this this case required a trial lawyer and one who
18:33
Speaker 2: had worked with a security clearance and had done cases
18:37
Speaker 2: in federal court against the FBI.
18:40
Speaker 1: Hammid's lawyer had some of the best false confession experts
18:43
Speaker 1: in her backyard, including doctor Richard Leo at the University
18:47
Speaker 1: of San Francisco, but when Hahmed's trial rolled around in
18:51
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, his lawyer didn't call doctor Leo
18:54
Speaker 1: to testify. Hamed's lawyer also didn't adequately challenge the government's
18:59
Speaker 1: claim that he carried a Jihati prayer in his wallet.
19:03
Speaker 1: Hamed did carry a note a tauiz, a standard Pakistani
19:08
Speaker 1: Muslim prayer for good health and protection. It was a
19:11
Speaker 1: gift from Hamed's uncle after the meningitis, but Hamed's lawyer
19:16
Speaker 1: didn't clearly explain that the note had nothing to do
19:18
Speaker 1: with terrorism, and the jury was left to think the worst.
19:22
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a travel prayer. You know, Jews travel
19:26
Speaker 2: with eighteen cents in their front pocket when they go
19:28
Speaker 2: on an airplane.
19:29
Speaker 1: All right, well, I feel comfortable traveling with you, Steve,
19:30
Speaker 1: if you're going to be covered spiritually.
19:32
Speaker 2: No, I kind of elapsed jew, okay, But people have
19:37
Speaker 2: these prayers with regard to travel, and that's what my
19:40
Speaker 2: understanding of this Taouis was. Yeah, I mean the language
19:43
Speaker 2: that that expert use makes it sound very ominous, but
19:47
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that that was the right translation.
19:49
Speaker 1: Despite a pretty weak defense, Hamed's conviction was far from guaranteed.
19:54
Speaker 1: Even after hearing his confession, the jury still took nine
19:58
Speaker 1: days to reach a decision, but in the end they're
20:01
Speaker 1: verdict guilty. Later it came out that there had been
20:05
Speaker 1: instances of dury misconduct during deliberations. The jury foreman himself
20:09
Speaker 1: had said that if you put all Muslims in the
20:12
Speaker 1: same costume, they all look alike. Umer Hyatt's trial, on
20:17
Speaker 1: the other hand, ended in a mistrial, no verdict at all.
20:20
Speaker 1: He ended up pleading guilty to some minor customs violations
20:23
Speaker 1: and was released but hamid. On September tenth, two thousand
20:28
Speaker 1: and seven, Hamed Hyatt was sentenced to twenty four years
20:32
Speaker 1: in prison. It was one day before the sixth anniversary
20:36
Speaker 1: of the nine to eleven attacks. Federal prison is no
20:43
Speaker 1: picnic for anyone, especially not a young muslinman who's been
20:46
Speaker 1: convicted of terrorism. Most inmates are allowed only a limited
20:50
Speaker 1: number of visits something like once a week. Hamed was
20:53
Speaker 1: allowed only one visit per year from his family members.
20:57
Speaker 1: His dad Umer didn't get permission to say see him
21:00
Speaker 1: for more than eight years. But even while Hamad endured prison,
21:04
Speaker 1: he grew up. For the first time. He was meeting
21:07
Speaker 1: people of different faiths and backgrounds, albeit behind bars, and
21:12
Speaker 1: he began to realize that those things he'd said to
21:15
Speaker 1: impress Naseem about terrorism being cool or toxic. When a
21:21
Speaker 1: reporter interviewed him in twenty sixteen, Hamad retracted everything. He
21:26
Speaker 1: told the reporter. It was wrong what I said. I
21:29
Speaker 1: totally disagree with myself. I didn't know much then. I
21:32
Speaker 1: wasn't open minded about a lot of stuff.
21:47
Speaker 2: So Hammed is in prison and he's doing his time,
21:50
Speaker 2: and his case is winding its way through the system.
21:52
Speaker 2: He's losing at every stage. And then Hahmad gets a new.
21:57
Speaker 1: Lawyer, a great lawyer by the name of Dennis rear
22:00
Speaker 1: And for those of you who are real true crime junkies,
22:03
Speaker 1: you might remember Dennis Reardon as one of the leading
22:06
Speaker 1: lawyers on the team that freed the West Memphis three
22:09
Speaker 1: For us.
22:10
Speaker 6: Of course, the important thing about the case is that
22:13
Speaker 6: this was not about just a bad trial. You can
22:16
Speaker 6: have cases like that where someone's rights are violated. We
22:20
Speaker 6: passionately believe and knew, we knew it was an actual
22:24
Speaker 6: innocence case.
22:25
Speaker 1: So Dennis starts investigating the time that Hamid spent in
22:28
Speaker 1: Pakistan between two thousand and three and two thousand and five. Remember,
22:33
Speaker 1: the government said that during those two years, Hamad went
22:37
Speaker 1: off for three months to a training camp. And what
22:40
Speaker 1: does Dennis discover alibi witnesses, eighteen of them.
22:44
Speaker 6: They described in great detail his daily routine. He was
22:47
Speaker 6: generally almost every day in the native village, except for
22:52
Speaker 6: the time when he took two trips to raul Pindi
22:55
Speaker 6: with his mother. So there were witnesses from wyl Pindi,
22:59
Speaker 6: there were witnesses from the village of Babuti. He had
23:03
Speaker 6: never been out of their site for more than at
23:05
Speaker 6: most a couple of days, and had never attended at
23:09
Speaker 6: camp as the government alleged, for three to six months.
23:13
Speaker 1: Person after person comes forward to say that when Hamad
23:16
Speaker 1: was in Pakistan, he was living with family and friends
23:19
Speaker 1: the whole time. There were no three month unexplained absences.
23:23
Speaker 1: He spent his days playing soccer, not training for jihad.
23:26
Speaker 2: Hamad was no terrorist. He was totally innocent.
23:30
Speaker 1: Dennis prepares an appeal based on these alibis. He's granted
23:33
Speaker 1: a hearing a chance to make the case for Hahmad's innocence.
23:37
Speaker 1: The alibi witnesses testify at the hearing over a live
23:41
Speaker 1: video feed from Pakistan. Dennis also calls that false confession
23:45
Speaker 1: expert to the stand doctor Richard Leo.
23:48
Speaker 2: And doctor Leo testified that this confession was useless. It
23:52
Speaker 2: wasn't worth the tape that it was recorded on.
23:55
Speaker 6: And of course, if you look at the interrogation itself,
23:59
Speaker 6: one of the owly humorous aspects of it was that
24:02
Speaker 6: he was painfully thin and hardly looked like someone who
24:07
Speaker 6: had trained for terrorist activities, and in fact gave this
24:11
Speaker 6: description during this marathon interrogation where he's trying very hard
24:16
Speaker 6: to please them and give them answers. Well, I was
24:18
Speaker 6: in the camp. Well did you ever do arms trading? Well,
24:22
Speaker 6: they gave me a rifle once, but it was too
24:24
Speaker 6: heavy for me, so they never gave it to me again,
24:26
Speaker 6: and so what they had me do was peel vegetables
24:29
Speaker 6: in the kitchen.
24:30
Speaker 1: The media is following all of this. A PBS Frontline
24:34
Speaker 1: episode had been made questioning Hamid's conviction. A written piece
24:38
Speaker 1: in the Intercept did the same thing, and while the
24:41
Speaker 1: hearing was going on, an episode of the Netflix series
24:44
Speaker 1: The Confession Tapes also pointed to Hammid's innocence. His case
24:49
Speaker 1: was attracting supporters, momentum was building fast. So what does
24:53
Speaker 1: the government do. They offer Hamid his freedom, but he's
24:57
Speaker 1: got to plead guilty.
24:59
Speaker 6: As a lawyer, robl to go to Calient and say,
25:01
Speaker 6: the government is still talking about potentially helping you out
25:05
Speaker 6: if you provide him with information about Pakistan, and he said,
25:08
Speaker 6: I have nothing to provide them with.
25:10
Speaker 1: Now we've heard the story way too often. As soon
25:12
Speaker 1: as a case starts falling apart, the government offers a deal.
25:16
Speaker 1: It lets prosecutors say face and it's pretty hard for
25:18
Speaker 1: any defendant to turn down. But Hamad, he.
25:21
Speaker 6: Said, I've gone through all of that and I am
25:24
Speaker 6: not going to stand up and say that I did
25:27
Speaker 6: something I didn't do. And we said, you know, we
25:31
Speaker 6: have a very strong case, but there's no way we
25:34
Speaker 6: can guarantee you that it will succeed, and he said,
25:37
Speaker 6: I'm prepared to see this through.
25:40
Speaker 1: Years ago, he refused to go to a camp when
25:43
Speaker 1: a scene pressured him. Now he refuses to say he
25:47
Speaker 1: went to a camp. He turns down the deal. Instead,
25:51
Speaker 1: he bets that the truth will set him free.
25:53
Speaker 2: Turns out he was right to take that bet.
25:56
Speaker 6: You just see before you click on it, there's an
25:59
Speaker 6: order of the District Court, and you know you're talking
26:02
Speaker 6: about ten seconds of absolute terror. And then I clicked
26:08
Speaker 6: on it and the conviction is overturned. I'll admit it.
26:12
Speaker 6: I wept, I really did.
26:14
Speaker 1: On July thirtieth, twenty nineteen, after fourteen years behind bars,
26:20
Speaker 1: hamit Hyatt's conviction was thrown out based on his trial
26:23
Speaker 1: attorney's ineffectiveness. If Hamid's lawyer had called those alibi witnesses,
26:28
Speaker 1: the court found, he would have been acquitted.
26:33
Speaker 2: So where's Hamid today?
26:34
Speaker 1: Laura Hamid was freed on August ninth, twenty nineteen, and
26:38
Speaker 1: formally exonerated just a few months ago. On Valentine's Day
26:42
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the government dismissed all charges against him. He's
26:47
Speaker 1: the first post nine to eleven international terrorism defendant to
26:50
Speaker 1: be officially cleared of any wrongdoing.
26:53
Speaker 6: And his family knew that he had been freed, but
26:57
Speaker 6: they didn't know what was the next step family was
27:00
Speaker 6: brought to the Council on American Islamic Relations, not knowing
27:05
Speaker 6: that he would be there, and the video of his
27:11
Speaker 6: mother seeing him for the first time in fourteen years
27:15
Speaker 6: because she was never able to visit him, and then
27:19
Speaker 6: the same with his father.
27:22
Speaker 4: Jeremy Jeremah Jeremah.
27:27
Speaker 6: It was extraordinary. Everyone wept just watching it.
27:37
Speaker 1: Since his exoneration, Hama's been taking life one day at
27:40
Speaker 1: a time. He's living in California, although not in Lodi,
27:44
Speaker 1: and he's reconnecting with his family, including nieces and nephews
27:48
Speaker 1: who were born while he was locked up. But like
27:51
Speaker 1: all exoneries, he's struggling to navigate a world that's really
27:54
Speaker 1: different than the one he was taken from in two
27:57
Speaker 1: thousand and five. When I saw him a few months ago,
28:01
Speaker 1: I asked him if he was okay. He looked at
28:03
Speaker 1: me for a long time and simply said, no, I'm not.
28:10
Speaker 1: Hammed's got a lot of healing to do. But the
28:12
Speaker 1: good news He's got an enormous number of supporters who
28:16
Speaker 1: believe in him, and Hamad, we're here to support you too.
28:22
Speaker 6: Hey, Hammed, is that you?
28:24
Speaker 2: Hey? Laura? How you doing? Good?
28:25
Speaker 1: Good?
28:26
Speaker 5: What are you up to today?
28:27
Speaker 4: Not much? Where are you stand the day you sand
28:29
Speaker 4: with your family? Yes, I'm with my family.
28:32
Speaker 2: Yes.
28:33
Speaker 5: What's it like to be back with your family after
28:34
Speaker 5: so many years away?
28:36
Speaker 4: Surely a blessing.
28:37
Speaker 5: They always believed in you.
28:39
Speaker 4: My family was there, my legal team was there, all
28:41
Speaker 4: my supporters. That was my hope, my parent.
28:44
Speaker 1: Where do you see yourself five years from them?
28:47
Speaker 4: I just want to go back to school and get
28:49
Speaker 4: my ice school the phone line did, and go to
28:50
Speaker 4: college after that. I hope you'll find a good job.
28:54
Speaker 1: I see you on social media posting pictures of you
28:56
Speaker 1: with your nieces and nephews.
28:58
Speaker 4: It's amazing.
28:59
Speaker 5: You've been out since August and you're already way better
29:01
Speaker 5: than me at Instagram. So the checks.
29:13
Speaker 2: And balances in our criminal justice system failed miserably in
29:17
Speaker 2: this case. And I think it's not because these are
29:20
Speaker 2: bad people or they were trying to frame Hamid Hyad
29:24
Speaker 2: and his father. I think it's because they were operating
29:28
Speaker 2: in the panic and fear that everybody in this country
29:34
Speaker 2: was living under in the wake of nine to eleven,
29:37
Speaker 2: And in that context, I think standards for what a
29:41
Speaker 2: good case is sometimes get ignored.
29:45
Speaker 1: Standards start being cut short and the results is the
29:50
Speaker 1: taking of more innocent life right, in this case fourteen
29:54
Speaker 1: years from the life of Hamed Hyad. When Hamad was released,
30:00
Speaker 1: he said, I still think this is a dream. I
30:03
Speaker 1: wake up and I still think I'm in prison. I'll
30:07
Speaker 1: never be able to pay back my sisters and brothers,
30:09
Speaker 1: none of my supporters. I'm your servant until the day
30:13
Speaker 1: of judgment. Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is a production of
30:24
Speaker 1: Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One.
30:29
Speaker 1: Special thanks to our executive producer Jason Flamm and the
30:32
Speaker 1: team at Signal Company Number one. Executive producer Kevin wardis
30:36
Speaker 1: Senior producer and Pope, and additional production and editing by
30:40
Speaker 1: Connor Hall. Special thanks to Jogi Hammer for additional script
30:44
Speaker 1: editing and for wrangling and writing like a mad woman.
30:47
Speaker 1: Our music was composed by Jay Ralph. You can follow
30:51
Speaker 1: me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura Nywriter, and you.
30:54
Speaker 2: Can follow me on Twitter at s Drisen.
30:57
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrong Conviction podcast
31:01
Speaker 1: dot com and be sure to follow the show on
31:03
Speaker 1: Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast,
31:08
Speaker 1: and on Twitter. At wrong conviction