Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #211 Jason Flom with Marcus Wiggins

Transcript

#211 Jason Flom with Marcus Wiggins · Wrongful Conviction

0:02
Speaker 1: Vietnam and Korean War veteran John Burge joined Chicago PD
0:06
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy, a detective in nineteen seventy two, and
0:09
Speaker 1: eventually Detective commander of Area two and later Area three.
0:13
Speaker 1: During his career, Haines acts of brutality and torture were
0:17
Speaker 1: carried out by him or at his direction, fixing cases
0:20
Speaker 1: with coerce confessions and false witness statements alike. He and
0:24
Speaker 1: his brethren were known as the Midnight Crew before his
0:28
Speaker 1: termination in Disgrace in nineteen ninety three and his eventual
0:32
Speaker 1: federal prison sentence. Purge and his crew beat an electrocuted
0:36
Speaker 1: thirteen year old Marcus Wiggins to extract the confession to
0:39
Speaker 1: the nineteen ninety one murder of Alfredo Hernandez. Fortunately, a
0:43
Speaker 1: courageous witness named Sean Tyler came forward and ensured that
0:46
Speaker 1: the attempted frame job failed. Marcus's mother, Carol ensued and
0:50
Speaker 1: eventually settled for ninety five thousand dollars. However, the Midnight
0:55
Speaker 1: Crew didn't like being exposed. In nineteen ninety four, they
0:59
Speaker 1: tried to frame Marcus again along with Sean Tyler, for
1:02
Speaker 1: the murder of Rodney Collins, but Marcus was at school
1:05
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, so his alibi was rock solid. Sean Tyler
1:09
Speaker 1: was not as lucky, and he's currently serving fifty eight years. Then,
1:13
Speaker 1: on February twenty seventh, nineteen ninety eight, Theopolis Tigue was found,
1:18
Speaker 1: undressed and shot. I won't bore you with a completely
1:21
Speaker 1: made up story about a fender bender from witnesses who
1:24
Speaker 1: have since recanted, one of whom was shot in the
1:27
Speaker 1: mouth the morning he was set to deliver an affidavit.
1:30
Speaker 1: Marcus Wiggins was paroled after twenty three years in prison
1:34
Speaker 1: and has not yet been exonerated. This is wrongful Conviction
1:38
Speaker 1: with Jason Flamm. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
1:55
Speaker 1: That's me, of course, I'm your host, and today we're
1:58
Speaker 1: gonna be telling the story with Marcus Wiggins of Marcus Wiggins.
2:02
Speaker 1: Marcus was framed three times by the same cops that
2:07
Speaker 1: let me just roll that back again. Three times by
2:09
Speaker 1: the same cops. He was physically tortured in a way
2:12
Speaker 1: that you know you would see and locked up abroad
2:15
Speaker 1: in some third world country, but it happened right in
2:17
Speaker 1: Chicago with us. Today, we have his legal team and
2:21
Speaker 1: that consists of Justin Bonus, who is Marcus's pro bono
2:25
Speaker 1: appellate counsel. So Justin, Welcome to ronfuel Conviction.
2:28
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jason.
2:30
Speaker 1: And then a guy with his own amazing story, but
2:33
Speaker 1: we're going to tell it in a different episode. But
2:35
Speaker 1: today we have Jared Adams. Jared was wrongfully convicted himself
2:39
Speaker 1: since almost three decades in prison and basically became a
2:43
Speaker 1: lawyer in prison, got himself out, passed the bar, worked
2:47
Speaker 1: at the Innocence Project for a couple of years as
2:48
Speaker 1: an attorney, is now in private practice. I'm super happy
2:51
Speaker 1: to have you on here this time as an attorney
2:54
Speaker 1: representing an innocent man.
2:55
Speaker 3: I appreciate the opportunery.
2:57
Speaker 1: Great to have you here. And of course, Marcus Wiggins,
3:00
Speaker 1: as I always say, I'm happier here, but I'm sorry
3:02
Speaker 1: you're here because of the reason why you're here. But anyway,
3:05
Speaker 1: welcome to Wronful Conviction.
3:07
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, man.
3:09
Speaker 1: So let's get right into it, because this story, it's
3:13
Speaker 1: a Chicago story, and of course Chicago has a miserable
3:17
Speaker 1: history of law enforcement, having tortured hundreds of black men,
3:23
Speaker 1: specifically black men in a literal torture chamber. It was
3:26
Speaker 1: an off site warehouse. And I know it sounds insane,
3:30
Speaker 1: but it's all true. It's all been documented, and hundreds
3:33
Speaker 1: of innocent men went to jail. But also cops went
3:37
Speaker 1: to jail as a result of their horrendous illegal activities
3:40
Speaker 1: and their disgusting practice of torturing confessions and false witness
3:44
Speaker 1: statements out of people. And of course that group of
3:46
Speaker 1: cops was known as the infamous Midnight Crew of Chicago
3:50
Speaker 1: Police Detective Commander John Burge. Now Laura and I writer
3:54
Speaker 1: and Steve Drizzond covered them on our show Wrongful Conviction,
3:57
Speaker 1: False Confession. So to hear more about them, you can
4:00
Speaker 1: find that right on our feed here. But today we're
4:02
Speaker 1: here to talk about Marcus's cases specifically. So Marcus, take
4:06
Speaker 1: us back to before all of this happened. What was
4:09
Speaker 1: your life like growing up young?
4:12
Speaker 4: At school?
4:13
Speaker 5: Want to be a firefighter, a seeker, service agent, you know,
4:18
Speaker 5: just being a kid, come home from school, do my homework,
4:23
Speaker 5: dele get cartoons, you know, just a normal kid life.
4:27
Speaker 1: A normal kid life. But this nightmare began when you
4:30
Speaker 1: were just thirteen years old.
4:32
Speaker 2: So Marcus gets picked up in ninety one for homicide,
4:35
Speaker 2: along with several other people and he's beaten with a
4:38
Speaker 2: flashlight over the head, electrocuted, taken in the precinct, tortured
4:42
Speaker 2: some more along with other people. And from my understanding
4:46
Speaker 2: is is that people actually heard screams in the police station.
4:51
Speaker 2: And all the while that this was going on, there
4:54
Speaker 2: was a witness that could exonerate Marcus. That did exonerate
4:56
Speaker 2: Marcus a guy by the name of Sean Tyler. And
4:59
Speaker 2: the police were so on to Sean Tyler that a
5:03
Speaker 2: judge issued a protective order for Sean Tyler that the
5:07
Speaker 2: police were not allowed to talk to Sean Tyler. And
5:10
Speaker 2: this case went on for about four or five years
5:14
Speaker 2: before the case was dismissed in nineteen ninety six. In
5:16
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, Marcus's mother filed the civil rights complaint
5:20
Speaker 2: alleging the torture by John Burge and Fred Bunkie. Was
5:24
Speaker 2: a sergeant, Kenneth Boudreau, James O'Brien, These were all officers
5:28
Speaker 2: that were involved with Marcus's alleged statement that they took
5:32
Speaker 2: after they beat him until he gave the statement.
5:35
Speaker 5: I'm just shocking that a person, as a citizen of
5:39
Speaker 5: his country, was alleged shock something that this guy learned.
5:42
Speaker 4: I think I read some at V.
5:44
Speaker 1: And R in Korea.
5:45
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and came over here man and used in tactics.
5:52
Speaker 4: And it's not outrage. Yeah, that's like man blowing to me.
5:57
Speaker 5: Like the State's Attorney's office, every body that who was
6:00
Speaker 5: evolved didn't say, enough is enough, man, we can't allow
6:05
Speaker 5: this to happen to our citizens.
6:07
Speaker 1: I mean, I imagine with what you went through, you
6:08
Speaker 1: would have confessed to killing Abraham Lincoln. Am I right?
6:11
Speaker 3: Man?
6:12
Speaker 5: You know people going to that type of torture, you
6:17
Speaker 5: know what I'm saying, anything just to get from under
6:18
Speaker 5: that pressure and that pain that you're going.
6:21
Speaker 2: Through, especially at thirteen years old, I.
6:24
Speaker 4: Mean thirteen and then the thirteen years.
6:26
Speaker 3: The thing about it too, You know when you think
6:28
Speaker 3: about birds, Jason, you don't get decorated in Korean Wars
6:33
Speaker 3: and Vietnam Wars if you don't get trauma. You understand
6:36
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. So, this is a guy who was
6:39
Speaker 3: given such power, and it may have been broken with
6:43
Speaker 3: Marcus's case, but the PDS office had notes between each
6:49
Speaker 3: other for years before Marcus, and they were all saying, hey,
6:54
Speaker 3: these guys, it's like they're reading off a template you know,
6:56
Speaker 3: it's like all their confessions aren't signed and written the same,
7:00
Speaker 3: you know, and it's like, you know, Marcus said, somebody
7:04
Speaker 3: should have stepped up and said stop, let's not move
7:07
Speaker 3: forward until we find out if all one hundred and
7:11
Speaker 3: fifty of these black men who signed confessions and I'm
7:14
Speaker 3: just throwing out a number, but you could just scratch
7:16
Speaker 3: out a name and you could put Marcus's or anyone
7:19
Speaker 3: else's confession, Sean Tyler and all of them, and you
7:22
Speaker 3: would see the same hallmarks. There's no way judges weren't
7:26
Speaker 3: tipped that something was wrong with that.
7:28
Speaker 1: Right, every confession was the same, and every one of
7:31
Speaker 1: the victims would basically described the same treatment.
7:35
Speaker 3: That lawsuit that Marcus's mom spearheaded, it really unearthed exactly
7:41
Speaker 3: how they were doing what they were doing, right, because
7:43
Speaker 3: it's one thing for people to just say, hey, they
7:45
Speaker 3: beating me, they kicking me. They found out in several
7:50
Speaker 3: different other circumstances that they were doing the same type
7:52
Speaker 3: of technics. They were smacking people with phone books so
7:55
Speaker 3: it wouldn't leave a mark. They would twist your genitals
7:58
Speaker 3: so no one could be seen, and in court were
8:00
Speaker 3: bruises on them, so when Marcus went through with the lawsuit,
8:04
Speaker 3: it settled for ninety five thousand, and may Marcus a
8:08
Speaker 3: target from that point on.
8:10
Speaker 1: This was the Alfredo Hernandez murder, right, And ultimately they
8:14
Speaker 1: couldn't pin that on you. Now we get to the
8:16
Speaker 1: second framing, right, which is the murder of Rodney Collins, right,
8:22
Speaker 1: And so they do no investigation whatsoever.
8:25
Speaker 2: Right now, which homicide didn't they do any investigation on?
8:28
Speaker 2: They did no investigation on all of them. They rely
8:31
Speaker 2: on terrible, wholly unreliable witnesses. I mean, Marcus's name in
8:34
Speaker 2: Rodney Collins gets thrown in there, and they list him
8:37
Speaker 2: as a gang member in the Alfredo Hernandez, the different
8:40
Speaker 2: gang member in Rodney Collins, and then I think a
8:42
Speaker 2: different gang member in Theopolis tig which we haven't gotten
8:45
Speaker 2: to yet, which is nineteen ninety eight.
8:47
Speaker 1: So we did a little research Marcus on you, because
8:50
Speaker 1: I went back thinking, well, why would he be targeted
8:53
Speaker 1: by the cops in this way in the first place?
8:55
Speaker 1: And all I could find about your background is that
8:57
Speaker 1: you were described as sweet, caring, good hearted, funny like
9:02
Speaker 1: people had nothing but good things to say about young Marcus.
9:05
Speaker 1: And I mean, were you ever in a gang or
9:07
Speaker 1: anything like that. No, No, he knew the answer that
9:11
Speaker 1: question because I researched it and the idea that this
9:13
Speaker 1: was really good versus evil, like literally good versus evil.
9:16
Speaker 1: And we're talking about cops that were well ultimately convicted
9:20
Speaker 1: of heinous acts of violence, torture, psychological abuse, electrocuting, mock executions.
9:26
Speaker 2: Right, the same detectives that arrested and tortured Marcus and
9:31
Speaker 2: knew about Sean Tyler as an exculpatory witness, then go
9:35
Speaker 2: after Sean Tyler for the Rodney Collins murder. He's another
9:38
Speaker 2: bird victim, so is his brother. There were several others
9:41
Speaker 2: that were convicted in this murder, and Sean, I think
9:43
Speaker 2: he was beaten into he vomited blood. Sean Tyler ends
9:46
Speaker 2: up getting fifty eight years in prison and his post
9:49
Speaker 2: conviction motion is pending and he's claiming he's innocent. So
9:52
Speaker 2: Marcus was a target of that investigation as well, from
9:56
Speaker 2: these same officers. Marcus was eliminated as a suspect because
10:00
Speaker 2: he was in school in Wisconsin, because he left the state, Okay,
10:04
Speaker 2: because he was terrified, all right, as he still is.
10:08
Speaker 2: And I think if Marcus had been in the city
10:10
Speaker 2: of Chicago. For the Rodney Collins he.
10:12
Speaker 3: Would have gone down for he would have been Yeah,
10:14
Speaker 3: he would be convicted.
10:15
Speaker 1: Okay, So now we get to the crux of this situation.
10:18
Speaker 1: Why Marcus spent twenty three years Ron Fleet incarcerated the
10:21
Speaker 1: murder of Theopolis Teague on February twenty seventh, nineteen ninety eight.
10:26
Speaker 1: This is the story of the crime that the police
10:29
Speaker 1: and State's Attorney's office used to convict Marcus. But I
10:33
Speaker 1: believe we can all see a pattern forming here that
10:35
Speaker 1: leans towards this being a total fabrication from Berg and
10:39
Speaker 1: his flunkies. So, okay, Allegedly, Theopolis Tigue was driving down
10:44
Speaker 1: fifty first Street in Chicago with Cedric Farley and Terrence
10:47
Speaker 1: Tyler Sean Tyler's fucking brother by the way, Okay, And allegedly,
10:52
Speaker 1: now the maroon car in front of Theopolis Tigue's car
10:56
Speaker 1: backs up into them with enough force to push them.
11:00
Speaker 1: I'm in the car backward. Then Tigue allegedly drove to
11:04
Speaker 1: the fifty two hundred block of South Marshfield Avenue, parked
11:07
Speaker 1: his car, and got out to assess the damage, at
11:10
Speaker 1: which point, supposedly the driver of the maroon car. Allegedly,
11:14
Speaker 1: Marcus Wiggins stepped up to Teague and said what's up now.
11:19
Speaker 1: Teague and the others allegedly ran, while Marcus allegedly opened fire,
11:25
Speaker 1: killing Tigue. Now, neighbors heard thirteen shots that supposedly came
11:30
Speaker 1: from a nine millimeters semi automatic. Neither were shellcasings found
11:35
Speaker 1: or collected at the scene, by the way, nor were
11:38
Speaker 1: bullets recovered from Tigue's body. So police maintained that the
11:42
Speaker 1: shooting was geang related, despite what we already covered, which
11:46
Speaker 1: was that Marcus was never in any gangs. Again, the
11:50
Speaker 1: state's word here is wholly and totally unreliable. Now, according
11:55
Speaker 1: to Cedric Barley, a statement and testimony that he later recanted,
12:00
Speaker 1: he ran over to Tigue, who allegedly told him that
12:03
Speaker 1: a guy named Stutter shot him, and Stutter was Marcus's nickname.
12:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, Marcus, please clarify about calling you Stutter and stuff
12:12
Speaker 3: like that, Like where it came from.
12:15
Speaker 4: It came from after the torture.
12:17
Speaker 5: Like my friend, my friends and my cousin knows when
12:20
Speaker 5: I talk, I stutter, So given the name because I
12:23
Speaker 5: know I stuttered after the torture.
12:25
Speaker 3: So that's important, Jason, because they put that shit in
12:28
Speaker 3: the witness's mouth. Man, that's intimate knowledge from somebody that
12:32
Speaker 3: you know, soooed you want wow.
12:46
Speaker 1: The Pacers Foundation is a proud supporter of this episode
12:49
Speaker 1: of Wrongful Convision with Jason Flam and of the Last
12:52
Speaker 1: Mile organization, which provides business and tech training to help
12:55
Speaker 1: incarcerated individuals successfully and permanently re enter the workforce. The
13:01
Speaker 1: Pacers Foundation is committed to improving the lives of Hoosiers
13:04
Speaker 1: across Indiana, supporting organizations that are dedicated primarily to helping
13:09
Speaker 1: young people and students. For more information on the work
13:12
Speaker 1: of the Pacers Foundation or the Last Mile Program, please
13:15
Speaker 1: visit Pacers Foundation dot org or the Lastmile dot org.
13:22
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by Paul Weiss, Rifkin, Porton and Garrison,
13:27
Speaker 1: a leading international law firm. Paul Weiss has long had
13:30
Speaker 1: an unwavering commitment to providing impactful, pro bono legal assistance
13:35
Speaker 1: to the most vulnerable members of our society and in
13:37
Speaker 1: support of the public interest, including extensive work in the
13:41
Speaker 1: criminal justice area. It's worth noting that a witness to
13:52
Speaker 1: the alleged fender bender, remember that part of the story
13:55
Speaker 1: reported that the car Marcus was allegedly driving was maroon
13:58
Speaker 1: or burgundy, but we know that he never owned a
14:00
Speaker 1: Maruna burgundy car. You owned a black car. And the
14:02
Speaker 1: mechanic bravely also reported that when Marcus brought his black
14:08
Speaker 1: car again black color was black to the shop, it
14:11
Speaker 1: had no damage to the rear bumper, so and the
14:14
Speaker 1: police told it. So the police knew that that didn't match.
14:18
Speaker 2: Up the mechanic. That information only comes out three years
14:22
Speaker 2: after his conviction. So it's documented that that car was
14:26
Speaker 2: in the shop. And get this, the police take the
14:29
Speaker 2: car out of the shop destroy it right away.
14:32
Speaker 1: Now here's another crazy thing about this case. The victim,
14:36
Speaker 1: Theopolis Tigue, his body was discovered clothed only in a
14:40
Speaker 1: T shirt and boxers in the dead of Chicago winter.
14:44
Speaker 3: So during this time, in this era, when people were robbed,
14:48
Speaker 3: they would make them undress almost right, So that was
14:53
Speaker 3: a big detail. It was glossed over, right. So it's
14:56
Speaker 3: more likely than not how the body was found, like
14:59
Speaker 3: you said, with a T shirt with the boxes, that
15:01
Speaker 3: he was robbed, being shot and killed, and it had
15:04
Speaker 3: nothing to do with the scenario that they made up
15:07
Speaker 3: to get their.
15:08
Speaker 2: Target Marcus or he was dropped there.
15:11
Speaker 3: That as well. Those are the options, but the option
15:13
Speaker 3: of back into the car. I went to go check
15:15
Speaker 3: the damage, I was shot and ran away. It's nonsense
15:17
Speaker 3: and it's never been credible.
15:19
Speaker 1: So we now have the car. He didn't known the gun,
15:22
Speaker 1: he never owned the gang that he was never in,
15:24
Speaker 1: because they said this was a gang related shooting, which
15:27
Speaker 1: again would point away from Marcus. Everyone knew he was
15:30
Speaker 1: never in a gang. In fact, he used to be
15:31
Speaker 1: tormented by gang members because he wasn't in a gang.
15:34
Speaker 1: So ultimately Marcus is charged with murder. Atlanta Johnson his
15:39
Speaker 1: attorney through the initial trial, and the state utilized that
15:45
Speaker 1: murder is chosen carefully. Three witnesses, Cedric Farley, RL Mahon,
15:49
Speaker 1: and Kelly Stokes to testify against Marcus.
15:51
Speaker 2: And he fully recanted it. He was interviewed by Kenneth Boudreau,
15:55
Speaker 2: who was a person that Marcus sues in nineteen ninety three.
16:00
Speaker 3: To say, Kenneth Boudreau was a hands on interviewer.
16:03
Speaker 2: Totally hands on. People want to make Chicago only look
16:07
Speaker 2: like confessions are what these guys were obtaining through torture.
16:11
Speaker 2: They were getting everything through torture. All the witnesses in
16:15
Speaker 2: this case were the type of guys that you want
16:17
Speaker 2: to flip, And how do you flip them?
16:19
Speaker 3: Force it to go to move?
16:21
Speaker 1: Was it right? Well, they weren't doing any investigating, so
16:23
Speaker 1: I guess what else you've got?
16:25
Speaker 2: They do no canvas in this case. What police do
16:28
Speaker 2: when they find a body in the neighborhood, what do
16:30
Speaker 2: they do? They go door to door to talk to people.
16:33
Speaker 2: What independent witnesses do we have? They don't do that.
16:36
Speaker 2: No shellcasings, no door to door. You arrest a guy
16:40
Speaker 2: three hours later, and Jason three hours after the crime.
16:43
Speaker 2: In the nineties and even till today, it is standard
16:46
Speaker 2: to do gunshot residue testing on clothing hands that the
16:50
Speaker 2: powder is going to stay on you. They don't do
16:54
Speaker 2: any of this because they don't want the physical evidence
16:57
Speaker 2: to show the unreliability of their witnesses. And I mean
17:01
Speaker 2: unreliability to me is actually a kind word in this
17:04
Speaker 2: in this case.
17:05
Speaker 3: Of very kind.
17:06
Speaker 2: It's kind the lies, the fabrication, and all the witnesses
17:11
Speaker 2: say when they're in the police station they're talking about
17:13
Speaker 2: Marcus Wiggins.
17:15
Speaker 1: They were aggressively disinterested in who actually committed this crime,
17:18
Speaker 1: which of course is just more bad.
17:20
Speaker 2: Safety issue, right of course.
17:22
Speaker 3: You know for folks like Marcus, you know, even like
17:26
Speaker 3: myself back then, you can't afford a fucking attorney man
17:30
Speaker 3: like you can't even like somebody like justin back then,
17:33
Speaker 3: with those facts, fucking hamram Man. The guys found damn
17:37
Speaker 3: near neked in the winter time, if he was running,
17:39
Speaker 3: when did he time time to take his call?
17:41
Speaker 2: What you investigate?
17:42
Speaker 1: Yeah?
17:43
Speaker 2: They if they would have called the cops in this
17:45
Speaker 2: case in front of a Chicago jury, the jury would
17:48
Speaker 2: have heard that these cops were sued by this kid
17:52
Speaker 2: five years prior and they tried to frame them in
17:54
Speaker 2: ninety four like this all would have caught. And I
17:57
Speaker 2: hate to slam them because they cross examine one the witnesses.
18:00
Speaker 2: One of the witnesses recants, but then they don't call
18:04
Speaker 2: their own investigator. But they get out of the witness
18:06
Speaker 2: that the witness recanted. A thirteen year old this guy
18:09
Speaker 2: orl Mayhan, who was named as the killer by one
18:12
Speaker 2: of our witnesses, presently recants. You know, he actually says
18:16
Speaker 2: Marcus doesn't do it, I mean, you know, and then
18:19
Speaker 2: he and then he gets back and he recants on
18:20
Speaker 2: his recantation.
18:22
Speaker 1: All three of them later recanted their testimony. Right. Two
18:26
Speaker 1: of them, Farley and Stokes, signed affid David's admitting that
18:30
Speaker 1: their testimonies were false. That's very brave, right, considering what
18:34
Speaker 1: they had been through. When you say, well, what happened
18:36
Speaker 1: to the third witness, I'm glad you asked. The third
18:39
Speaker 1: witness was fatally shot in the mouth on the day
18:42
Speaker 1: that he planned to sign a similar document. That's got
18:45
Speaker 1: to give everybody the fucking chills. I mean, he was
18:49
Speaker 1: shot in the mouth on the day he was going
18:52
Speaker 1: to sign a similar document.
18:54
Speaker 3: What a coincidence.
18:54
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ's that's a mafia.
18:56
Speaker 2: And he recanted to three different people. He recanted on
18:59
Speaker 2: the witness stand in the trial. He recanted to Marcus's
19:03
Speaker 2: appellet attorney, and then he recanted to another woman, Tracy Ross,
19:07
Speaker 2: who gave a sworn affidavit as well. So Url Mayhan.
19:11
Speaker 2: He recanted three separate times before he was killed.
19:14
Speaker 1: And if that wasn't enough, people are probably pulling their
19:17
Speaker 1: hair outs in the home listen to this or in
19:19
Speaker 1: their car. Melinda Chavers also reported what she knew about
19:23
Speaker 1: the case and assigned affidavit that she was sitting on
19:26
Speaker 1: her porch when Tigue, a member of the Blackstones. Tige
19:29
Speaker 1: was the victim came up to her and said that
19:31
Speaker 1: he saw a murder by other Blackstone members and that
19:34
Speaker 1: they were going to come after him and kill him.
19:37
Speaker 1: So this is powerful, right, because those witnesses were never
19:41
Speaker 1: called to the stand either. And we don't know if
19:43
Speaker 1: that's because of threats from detectives or more torture or
19:47
Speaker 1: just ineffective assistance, but that's certainly since Marcus was never
19:51
Speaker 1: a member of the Blackstones, you know, or any of
19:53
Speaker 1: these gangs, that certainly would have also been exculpatory. So
19:57
Speaker 1: there were all these different witnesses who could have refuted
20:01
Speaker 1: the state's phony narrative, the whole thing about the bumper.
20:04
Speaker 1: There were the witnesses that could have placed you at
20:07
Speaker 1: your girlfriend's house, multiple witnesses. Why why did your attorney
20:11
Speaker 1: not call them? And did you have conversations with your
20:15
Speaker 1: attorney about it at that time?
20:17
Speaker 6: Man oh Man, I had a conversation with them, but
20:22
Speaker 6: she was unimpression that she didn't need to call witness
20:26
Speaker 6: because m Mayhem and changed his.
20:30
Speaker 4: Statement and that was going to be the winning tickets.
20:36
Speaker 3: You know, I listen all too familiar, and yeah, and
20:39
Speaker 3: I mean and it's the same thing that I went
20:41
Speaker 3: through where it is where a lawyer court appointed. Oh
20:45
Speaker 3: this is a slam dunk. You don't have to worry
20:47
Speaker 3: about that. I've never heard of a patient saying, look,
20:51
Speaker 3: that's okay. You gave me half the antibiotics, you can
20:54
Speaker 3: keep the rest. I think this half will probably work.
20:56
Speaker 3: It doesn't make any sense.
20:57
Speaker 1: Right, doctors take half of my appendix out? I think
20:59
Speaker 1: that'll work?
21:00
Speaker 3: Makes no sense.
21:01
Speaker 1: But you know, there was no chance. This was a
21:03
Speaker 1: show trial because Marcus was never going to get a
21:05
Speaker 1: fair ruling as long as the presiding judge was then
21:08
Speaker 1: as Turnback because Turnback was known at the time as
21:12
Speaker 1: being a part of Burges's go to team when he
21:16
Speaker 1: had worked in the state's attorney's office and he had
21:19
Speaker 1: a history of accepting confessions despite knowing that they were
21:23
Speaker 1: coerced and given under torture.
21:25
Speaker 4: Sick name Thurnback. He allowed the state to have their weight,
21:29
Speaker 4: and then Mark turned on to Johnson, couldn't do this,
21:33
Speaker 4: couldn't do that. He gave his state a lot of league.
21:36
Speaker 5: Way later when I found out who don about was,
21:39
Speaker 5: I ain't stand a chance anyway.
21:41
Speaker 1: So September nineteenth, nineteen ninety nine, Marcus, I mean, you
21:45
Speaker 1: had a lot of bad days in your life leading
21:48
Speaker 1: up to this, But can you take us back to
21:50
Speaker 1: that miserable day when you were found guilty at first
21:54
Speaker 1: degree murder? And since the forty six years in prison?
21:56
Speaker 1: What was that moment?
21:58
Speaker 4: Like I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't no, you know,
22:02
Speaker 4: killed you and then he gave me forty six years
22:06
Speaker 4: no prison is It's what.
22:10
Speaker 5: Like the soldiers when they leave from overseas and come
22:13
Speaker 5: back home, they have post trump stress.
22:16
Speaker 4: I have that, you know what I'm saying. Because of
22:18
Speaker 4: the torture, the jails, the penitentiaries, there's not a place
22:22
Speaker 4: nobody want to be. You have to constantly be on guard.
22:25
Speaker 4: You got to defend yourself.
22:28
Speaker 5: The officers, you know, they come in with a baggage
22:31
Speaker 5: on top of everything else that's going on in our jails.
22:35
Speaker 4: So it's a nightmare, man. You know what I'm saying.
22:38
Speaker 4: Don't nobody want to leave at nightmare? I don't want
22:40
Speaker 4: to leave a nightmare no more.
22:41
Speaker 1: Man.
22:57
Speaker 2: Two thousand and two, Marcus filed approchate motion with detailing
23:01
Speaker 2: about the destruction of the car, detailing that the car
23:03
Speaker 2: was in the shop. You know, it's amazing. The car's
23:06
Speaker 2: in the shop. Car gets destroyed by the police, the
23:09
Speaker 2: piece of evidence that they needed to prove their case
23:12
Speaker 2: that there was a car accident gone right. Marcus's alibis
23:16
Speaker 2: all detailed in his pro say motion in two thousand
23:19
Speaker 2: and two. It was a very good motion. It should
23:21
Speaker 2: have had a hearing. It was summarily denied. Again, we
23:24
Speaker 2: go back to Dennis Drnbeck, the guy who presides over
23:27
Speaker 2: his trial, the guy who has this intimate relationship with
23:29
Speaker 2: these cops, is the guy that hears the post conviction motion.
23:32
Speaker 2: And then for years Marcus went really without a lawyer,
23:36
Speaker 2: and again he battled, and Northwestern got involved because they
23:40
Speaker 2: saw Marcus's case and they ended up doing a documentary.
23:43
Speaker 2: Jane Riley took over his case and God bless her,
23:46
Speaker 2: God bless her, God bless her. But she passed away,
23:49
Speaker 2: and so Marcus gets stuck in limbo. He submits an
23:52
Speaker 2: application to the Torture Commission and they tell him we
23:56
Speaker 2: don't condone the fact that your witnesses were tortured, but
23:59
Speaker 2: you weren't tort Yeah, so it was outside of yes, right,
24:04
Speaker 2: you weren't tortured in this case. You were tortured in
24:06
Speaker 2: any other case, the nineteen ninety one case, but we
24:09
Speaker 2: can't help you, right, So then you know, I got
24:12
Speaker 2: involved when I saw the documentary, and of course I
24:15
Speaker 2: knew Jared is licensed in Illinois, and we kind of
24:19
Speaker 2: formed like voltron and you know, and literally, let me
24:22
Speaker 2: just tell you something. Very few cases that I have,
24:24
Speaker 2: Jared knows this. I've got cases where men are getting
24:27
Speaker 2: ready to be exonerated four five years. The investigation takes right,
24:30
Speaker 2: Marcus's investigator hits the ground in August, motions filed in January.
24:36
Speaker 2: We've got seven affid davids from twenty twenty right, all
24:40
Speaker 2: the witnesses of recandidate full file from the prosecutor's office
24:44
Speaker 2: where you know, you see that Fred Bunkie is the
24:47
Speaker 2: supervisor at the scene of the investigation. This is a
24:51
Speaker 2: guy that Marcus sued personally in nineteen ninety three. He's
24:55
Speaker 2: the supervisor, He's the quarterback. He chooses what detectives are
24:59
Speaker 2: going to interview what and says he chooses Kenneth Boudro
25:02
Speaker 2: to interview Kelly Stokes. And then what we learned from
25:05
Speaker 2: Marcus Wiggins is is that James O'Brien was in the
25:08
Speaker 2: police station after they arrest Marcus Wiggins three hours after
25:12
Speaker 2: the doms it sticks his head and says, go suck
25:14
Speaker 2: your thumb in the corner now, because allegedly after he
25:17
Speaker 2: was thirteen and he had this, the trauma that he
25:19
Speaker 2: suffered when he was thirteen from being electrocuted caused him
25:23
Speaker 2: to suck his thumb. O'Brien walks right in there, and
25:26
Speaker 2: Marcus knows O'Brien because he was beat over the head
25:30
Speaker 2: with a flashlight by James O'Brien, and he tells him,
25:33
Speaker 2: we're going to stick your ass with this one. You
25:35
Speaker 2: ain't beaten this one right. The misconduct was so bad
25:40
Speaker 2: in the police station that Cedric Farley, one of the witnesses,
25:44
Speaker 2: said that they were passing around a single photo of Marcus.
25:48
Speaker 2: They showed him a single photo of Marcus, and they're
25:51
Speaker 2: talking about the lawsuit in the police station. But it
25:56
Speaker 2: gets where I mean again. The first witness to mention
25:59
Speaker 2: Marcus his name is Terrence Tyler, and we go back
26:02
Speaker 2: to the Tyler named Terrence is Sean Tyler's brother. Terrence
26:05
Speaker 2: is recovering right now from a stroke, but he recanted
26:09
Speaker 2: to two separate people. He recanted his statement and he said,
26:12
Speaker 2: I know Marcus is innocent, that he didn't commit this crime.
26:15
Speaker 2: I mean, this is unbelievable too, because Marcus has a
26:18
Speaker 2: code defendant in this case. This code defendant goes bench,
26:24
Speaker 2: he goes bench trial. Let me just explain that you
26:27
Speaker 2: have a right in America to a jury trial.
26:29
Speaker 1: Right.
26:30
Speaker 2: Would you want one person judging you or would you
26:32
Speaker 2: want twelve people judging you?
26:34
Speaker 1: Right? Man, you want twelve exactly.
26:38
Speaker 2: You definitely don't want to judge if you're a defendant.
26:41
Speaker 2: The code defendant in Marcus's case goes bench and gets acquitted. Wow,
26:46
Speaker 2: that's crazy, Okay, And he's still so scared to talk
26:52
Speaker 2: because of retaliation. Every witness that's Rickannon, Kelly Stokes, Ricannon
26:56
Speaker 2: fearful retaliation, Cedric Farley, Recannon fearful retaliation. Lavelle Adams, who
27:01
Speaker 2: was the co defendant, refuses to talk because he said
27:05
Speaker 2: his lawyer said, don't speak because the Chicago Police Department
27:09
Speaker 2: will come after you.
27:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're talking about folks impoverished areas, no protection, no protection,
27:17
Speaker 3: there's no I'm just gonna get up and move. That's
27:20
Speaker 3: not an option. Yeah, Jason, where you're going? Where the money? Yet?
27:23
Speaker 3: You know it's not an option, just hostage in their
27:26
Speaker 3: own place.
27:26
Speaker 2: And where's WITSEC for the civilians in Chicago?
27:29
Speaker 1: Right right?
27:30
Speaker 2: Where's with this protection against the police.
27:33
Speaker 1: In case anyone thought we were exaggerating any part of
27:37
Speaker 1: the torture as a practice of the Chicago Police Department,
27:40
Speaker 1: a not insignificant number of police officers in the Chicago
27:44
Speaker 1: PDE who were doing this systematically. There was an investigation
27:48
Speaker 1: which resulted in Birds himself going to prison for three years, which,
27:53
Speaker 1: don't even get me started, three years for framing and
27:56
Speaker 1: torturing hundreds of people while he collected pension, collected pension,
28:03
Speaker 1: their tax dollars are paying for the shit. So there
28:05
Speaker 1: were actual convictions that this was all supported and all found,
28:10
Speaker 1: you know, And it's hard to prove these things. It's
28:12
Speaker 1: always hard to get any sort of justice when it's
28:14
Speaker 1: a person in blue that's committed almost thirty years later.
28:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I want, I want to be real clear
28:20
Speaker 2: about this because this was a thirty year conspiracy, because
28:22
Speaker 2: it starts in ninety one, right, Yeah, But Marcus has
28:24
Speaker 2: testified in other cases right credibly where he's identified these
28:29
Speaker 2: officers because being around these men for so long, he
28:32
Speaker 2: was able to identify them, and courts have found him credible.
28:36
Speaker 2: I mean, this is something that is firmly established. And
28:39
Speaker 2: it's unfortunate that Marcus had the languish in prison for
28:43
Speaker 2: twenty three years and for me.
28:44
Speaker 5: To stad it come home from the jails back until sady,
28:53
Speaker 5: where everybody want to play politics, nobody want to step
28:57
Speaker 5: up and do the right thing, which is that's what
29:01
Speaker 5: you was put in these positions for any way, is
29:05
Speaker 5: to do the right thing.
29:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think State's Attorney Kimpbox is the kind
29:10
Speaker 1: of person that will do the right thing. You know,
29:12
Speaker 1: we had her on Righteous Convictions just a few months ago.
29:16
Speaker 1: We asked her about your case, and although she couldn't
29:19
Speaker 1: comment on the ongoing proceedings, she expressed her hopes for
29:23
Speaker 1: getting to the truth and righting the wrongs of the past.
29:27
Speaker 1: I believe we've laid out plainly here today the only
29:30
Speaker 1: thing that justice could or even should mean here and now,
29:34
Speaker 1: with your leave application granted, the ball is in her court.
29:38
Speaker 3: If the Cook County State's Attorney's office is not willing
29:42
Speaker 3: right now to say Marcus Wiggins is actually innocent like
29:47
Speaker 3: me and Justin, and forget me and Justin. Just look
29:51
Speaker 3: at the evidence says. If they not aren't willing to
29:53
Speaker 3: do that, then then Jason, what's wrong with being able
29:56
Speaker 3: to admit that this man didn't receive a fair trial?
30:00
Speaker 1: Well, don't ask me, because obviously nothing but Marcus, October thirtieth,
30:05
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, you walked out of prison. You were paroled.
30:09
Speaker 1: You should have been exonerated. You will be exonerated. October
30:12
Speaker 1: thirty you walked out of prison. What was that like?
30:16
Speaker 4: Hey, it's like a feeling that I can't describe, man,
30:21
Speaker 4: But I was so happy. I was I was humble,
30:25
Speaker 4: I was peaceful. It was just feel so good man,
30:28
Speaker 4: to actually have your feet the hit of the payments
30:33
Speaker 4: and walk around and just feel that feel that freedom,
30:39
Speaker 4: feel that wind, feel that space. It was amazing man.
30:44
Speaker 1: And you and we know you passed your driving tests.
30:47
Speaker 1: Obviously you had to get a cell phone, computer. I
30:50
Speaker 1: know I know you FaceTime because we've spoken on FaceTime
30:53
Speaker 1: a bunch of times. All this new stuff that happened
30:56
Speaker 1: while you were locked up, right, how is it getting
30:59
Speaker 1: used to it? Starting to feel comfortable with some of
31:01
Speaker 1: this new technology and stuff.
31:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I'm I'm still learning how to work my phone,
31:07
Speaker 4: my laptop, I'm still having to learn that too.
31:12
Speaker 5: That's a lot of new stuff googogle going on out here.
31:15
Speaker 5: I'm trying to get familiating.
31:17
Speaker 1: And we're going to put links in the bio to
31:19
Speaker 1: learn more about Marcus's case to be able to support him.
31:24
Speaker 1: And now we turn to the part of our show,
31:26
Speaker 1: which I call closing arguments. First of all, I thank
31:30
Speaker 1: each of you for being here, and then turn off
31:33
Speaker 1: my mic, kick back in my chair and just sit
31:37
Speaker 1: and listen and learn from whatever you want to share,
31:41
Speaker 1: anything we might have left out, or anything you want
31:43
Speaker 1: to say at all about anything. I don't care if
31:44
Speaker 1: you want to talk about the weather. So let's do this.
31:46
Speaker 1: Alphabetical order is good for me and also saves Marcus
31:51
Speaker 1: for the closing of the closing argument. So you're bad
31:53
Speaker 1: and clean up, Marcus. Let's go to Jarrett first, then Justin,
31:57
Speaker 1: and then Marcus.
31:59
Speaker 3: Justice requires us to stop waiting for things to become
32:04
Speaker 3: a hashtag before we stand up and do something. You know,
32:09
Speaker 3: as we think about the one year anniversary of us
32:11
Speaker 3: watching George Floyd lose his life, you know, we as
32:15
Speaker 3: a society have to say to ourselves We've come a
32:19
Speaker 3: long way, but there's so much work to do, and
32:22
Speaker 3: I want to close my comments by saying this, there
32:26
Speaker 3: is power in people's voices.
32:28
Speaker 4: You know.
32:29
Speaker 3: People become jurors, people become judges, people are voters. People
32:33
Speaker 3: can make a difference. And I want people to think
32:35
Speaker 3: about this when they are faced with things that challenge
32:40
Speaker 3: them doing the right thing and speaking up. If your
32:43
Speaker 3: life was to be depicted in a book where the
32:46
Speaker 3: only reader would be someone that means the world to you,
32:53
Speaker 3: would they read that book and walk away impressed right
32:57
Speaker 3: now about you for what is right, calling out.
33:03
Speaker 4: Things that are wrong.
33:05
Speaker 3: If you can't answer that question definitively, there's more work
33:10
Speaker 3: to do, Jason. I can't answer that question definitively, So
33:13
Speaker 3: I get up and I work every day, and so
33:15
Speaker 3: I'm just calling on folks to not allow the norms
33:20
Speaker 3: and the depictions and narratives of folks to ever stop
33:24
Speaker 3: their moral compass from doing the right thing. I want
33:26
Speaker 3: to thank you, my friend, for having me on the show.
33:28
Speaker 3: Justin Marcus is an honor and a pleasure and a
33:31
Speaker 3: privilege to know you, to represent you and your mom
33:34
Speaker 3: a real g I'm gonna get her name on the
33:37
Speaker 3: T shirt real soon so people know who she is
33:39
Speaker 3: because she is the one who she get the credit
33:42
Speaker 3: for giving birth to you more than once. She gave
33:46
Speaker 3: birth to you to get here, and she also loved
33:49
Speaker 3: you out of that situation, and she's still fighting. Justin
33:52
Speaker 3: will tell you, okay, she will. She'll put you, put
33:56
Speaker 3: you in your place if you say something wrong.
33:57
Speaker 1: Okay.
33:58
Speaker 3: So I thank you, guys man again for his opportunity,
34:00
Speaker 3: and it's always a pleasure to be around you all.
34:03
Speaker 4: I appreciate you to us.
34:05
Speaker 2: Justin h definitely Carolyn Johnson's strong woman has spoken her many,
34:11
Speaker 2: many many times. So would you want somebody that you
34:16
Speaker 2: sued to investigate you for a homicide? Successfully sued? I mean,
34:22
Speaker 2: I think that's like, I think this is a common
34:25
Speaker 2: sense case just to get the man a new trial.
34:29
Speaker 2: We don't even need to get to the witnesses. We
34:32
Speaker 2: could just stop it. Would you want somebody that you
34:34
Speaker 2: sued to be the person that investigated you for a homicide?
34:38
Speaker 2: The answer is no, Okay. I mean, and these guys
34:42
Speaker 2: really really disliked Marcus. Not only does he sue them,
34:46
Speaker 2: but he also basically internally gets them in trouble, blows
34:50
Speaker 2: the lid off of bird. This is like the Keystone
34:53
Speaker 2: case that sets everything in motion. This is like the
34:56
Speaker 2: clearest case I've ever seen a retaliation. And that's before
34:59
Speaker 2: we get to of the witnesses. All right, Every witness
35:02
Speaker 2: in this case is recannid. There's no evidence that Marcus
35:06
Speaker 2: was in a gang. There's no evidence that there was
35:08
Speaker 2: a car accident, there's no evidence that there were shellcases
35:11
Speaker 2: at the scene, there's no evidence that backs up this trial.
35:15
Speaker 2: Literally like happened in a vacuum, right where everything was
35:19
Speaker 2: literally stripped away in this trial, so you don't hear
35:23
Speaker 2: the truth. It is just clearly a depiction that only
35:28
Speaker 2: the state's attorney and the police department wanted the jury
35:31
Speaker 2: to hear. And then Marcus had no defense. How can
35:36
Speaker 2: anyone have a fair trial when something like that goes on.
35:40
Speaker 2: And then when you come back and witnesses are a
35:43
Speaker 2: little bit more willing to talk about what actually happens
35:46
Speaker 2: because it takes time for people to come It takes time.
35:50
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm not the same as I was
35:52
Speaker 2: when I was a teenager. There are things when I
35:56
Speaker 2: was a teenager that I probably would have lied about
35:58
Speaker 2: if I had gotten put into a certain situation. So
36:01
Speaker 2: it took time for this body of evidence to come
36:04
Speaker 2: forward and these witnesses to come out and tell you
36:07
Speaker 2: what happened in that precinct. These cops were obsessed with
36:11
Speaker 2: Marcus Wiggins, and we'll name them James O'Brien scumbag, Okay,
36:17
Speaker 2: Kenneth Boudreau scumbag, and Fred Bunky scumbag. They were all
36:22
Speaker 2: under the umbrella of John Birch. These are the ones
36:26
Speaker 2: that focused on Marcus. And every single witness that testified
36:30
Speaker 2: in this case said the same thing, which is I
36:34
Speaker 2: was either beaten, I was threatened, and this is why
36:37
Speaker 2: I did.
36:37
Speaker 1: What I did.
36:39
Speaker 2: And it's believable because it's happened. How I mean at
36:41
Speaker 2: this point that we don't have two, three, four, five, six, seven,
36:44
Speaker 2: eight hands we got I don't know, there's so many
36:46
Speaker 2: hands that you'd have to have to count the fingers
36:49
Speaker 2: that this has happened. It's just it's unbelievable. And Marcus
36:52
Speaker 2: case is clear. There was no case against Marcus. This
36:54
Speaker 2: is a complete, utter fabrication and it's the clearest case
36:58
Speaker 2: I've ever seen of retaliation in my life.
37:02
Speaker 1: All Right, Marcus, saving the best for last over to you, Well, Well, we.
37:07
Speaker 5: Know, we know, and we see what's going on all
37:10
Speaker 5: around the country, fars dealing with the police, how they
37:15
Speaker 5: fabricate they police reports, and then all of a sudden,
37:19
Speaker 5: our video comes out, obviously from what they filed in
37:22
Speaker 5: the reports, so we know what's going around to see.
37:25
Speaker 5: We know what's going on these officers, especially in the
37:29
Speaker 5: city of Icago, where I feel like I'm up against
37:31
Speaker 5: a giant and don't nobody want to do the right
37:35
Speaker 5: thing because their friends did their careers. They were about
37:39
Speaker 5: more conventions, more of this and study doing the right thing.
37:44
Speaker 4: It frustrates me so much. It just frustrats me so much.
37:48
Speaker 4: But on a broader note, y'all have been a blessing
37:53
Speaker 4: to me, man, since I've been out. Man, y'all truly
37:54
Speaker 4: been a blessing all y'all. You know what I'm saying,
37:57
Speaker 4: all three of y'all. You know, I just want to
38:00
Speaker 4: continue to strive for what I'm doing, and I feel
38:05
Speaker 4: like I'm in debt to help the next person. I
38:08
Speaker 4: feel like I'm in debt to y'all to help the
38:10
Speaker 4: next person to be on the same page that y'all
38:13
Speaker 4: along when y'all come out, help people and fight the
38:17
Speaker 4: powers that be man and y'all definitely been a blessing, man.
38:20
Speaker 4: I definitely appreciate y'all from the bottom of my heart.
38:23
Speaker 1: Man.
38:23
Speaker 4: And I'm just hoping, I hopeing Kim Fox do the
38:28
Speaker 4: right thing.
38:30
Speaker 5: See how full acknowledge of what's going on in our commune,
38:33
Speaker 5: how four not as going on with our birds in
38:36
Speaker 5: the Midnight crew.
38:37
Speaker 4: I just hope everybody just do the right thing, man.
38:47
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamer.
38:51
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence projects and go to the
38:54
Speaker 1: link in our bio to see how you can help.
38:56
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff
38:59
Speaker 1: Cliber and Kevin Warnis. The music on the show, as always,
39:03
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
39:07
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
39:10
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
39:14
Speaker 1: Flamm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
39:17
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one