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#393 Guest Host Tiffany Reese with Patrick Brown · Wrongful Conviction

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Speaker 1: A warning for our listeners. This episode contains discussion of
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Speaker 1: child sexual assault and of suicide. Please listen with caution
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Speaker 1: and care. In February of nineteen ninety four, a six
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Speaker 1: year old girl living in New Orleans complained of pain
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Speaker 1: in her abdomen and pelvic region. When she was examined
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Speaker 1: at the hospital, the doctor suspected she had been sexually assaulted,
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Speaker 1: and the police were alerted. The child was questioned by
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Speaker 1: doctors and by the police without apparent present. According to
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Speaker 1: the doctor, when he asked who had harmed her, the
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Speaker 1: child named Patrick Brown, her mother's live in boyfriend. Patrick
0:45
Speaker 1: insisted that he was innocent. He would never hurt a child,
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Speaker 1: let alone someone in his own family. Without any corroborating evidence,
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Speaker 1: the prosecution relied solely on the notes taken by the doctor,
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Speaker 1: and after just a day, an hour and half of trial,
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Speaker 1: the doctor's word was enough to convince the jury to convict.
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Speaker 1: But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction.
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Speaker 1: I'm Tiffany Reese, host of the podcast Something Was Wrong,
1:33
Speaker 1: sitting in for Jason flam. I am a documentarian, survivor,
1:37
Speaker 1: and advocate, and on my audio docuseries podcast I work
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Speaker 1: with survivors of abuse and crime. Today's case tragically impacted
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Speaker 1: the lives of two people, someone who was wrongfully convicted
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Speaker 1: of a heinous crime and the victim of that crime
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Speaker 1: who tried for decades to tell the truth that the
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Speaker 1: wrong person was in prison and was not heard. Thankfully,
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Speaker 1: there are two survivors in this story, and one of
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Speaker 1: them is with us today, Patrick Brown. Patrick, thank you
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Speaker 1: so much for joining us and being willing to share
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Speaker 1: your story and your experience with us today. I'd like
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Speaker 1: to start by just saying how sorry I am for
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Speaker 1: what you've experienced. It was incredibly heartbreaking coming across your
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Speaker 1: story and the story of the survivor. It was clear
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Speaker 1: to me that you're both victims and survivors of so
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Speaker 1: much systemic and legal abuse within this story, and I
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Speaker 1: think it's really brave that you're willing to share with
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Speaker 1: us after everything that you've already experienced and overcome to
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Speaker 1: be here today. So thank you so so much.
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Speaker 2: Oh, you're welcome, You're welcome.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. To your attorney, Kelly Orion's, who's
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Speaker 1: also joining us today. Kelly, could you introduce yourself and
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Speaker 1: give us a little bit about your background before we
2:49
Speaker 1: jump into Patrick's story.
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Speaker 3: Sure, sure, thank you so much for having both of
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Speaker 3: us here today. So I am the director of the
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Speaker 3: Decarceration and Commune to the re Entry Clinic at the
3:02
Speaker 3: University of Virginia School's Law. That is a mouthful in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Speaker 1: Patrick, I'd love to go back a bit and talk
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Speaker 1: a bit about you and where you were born, and
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Speaker 1: a little bit about your background and who you were
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Speaker 1: leading up to this horrific experience.
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Speaker 4: I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, braised in a
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Speaker 4: lay and I I come from a good family.
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Speaker 2: We're a beautiful family.
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Speaker 4: Family was full of love, so it wasn't broken at all,
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Speaker 4: you know, to where my family the open arms of
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Speaker 4: whoever welcome and feed.
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Speaker 2: Them, help them out. Well.
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Speaker 4: I wasn't no bad person, but I took a turn
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Speaker 4: in my life as I was growing up. That's to
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Speaker 4: become street hung out all night, hung with the fellas,
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Speaker 4: doing this, doing that, to the point to where when
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Speaker 4: I met my kid, mama a soldier.
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Speaker 2: You know, everybody got to have a soldier.
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Speaker 1: How did you meet Kathy? What was your reallyationship?
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Speaker 2: Like?
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Speaker 4: Oh, man, I met Cat. You know, I was just
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Speaker 4: coming at the club and she was walking up and
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Speaker 4: she was squiding me.
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Speaker 2: So I stopped and I say, you know, saw my
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Speaker 2: concerns because she's a nice looking woman.
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Speaker 4: And when I talked to her, we had hooked up
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Speaker 4: and we know, we dated having fun and you know,
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Speaker 4: moved in with her like two weeks. Then the relationships
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Speaker 4: stuff like that, and from there to where it was
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Speaker 4: a beautiful relationship. She had my daughter, and the whole
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Speaker 4: time she was pregnant, I was just soul protective of her.
4:39
Speaker 4: I don't want nobody to smoke around her. I don't
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Speaker 4: want nobody doing that. And I always pop up at
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Speaker 4: the house. She'll robot stomach, leaves back in the screels,
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Speaker 4: didn't come back home. It was just like like no
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Speaker 4: mo tea for me. And she was all the way
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Speaker 4: one hundred with me. But what I was one hundred
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Speaker 4: with her. I understand somewhat I wasn't. Somewhat I wasn't
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Speaker 4: because I stood in the screech all night, hustling, try
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Speaker 4: to provide for my family by the streets, and really
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Speaker 4: I didn't have time for my family at home.
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Speaker 1: Do you do you think like you did the best
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Speaker 1: you could in the situation you were in at the time.
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Speaker 1: I mean you were only twenty years.
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Speaker 2: Old, right, right in nineteen.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that it's tough when you want to
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Speaker 1: be able to provide for your family and you feel
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Speaker 1: like you have limited options. I think sometimes on how.
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Speaker 2: To do that right.
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Speaker 4: Well, you know, I really had no guidance on how
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Speaker 4: to raise a family, how to keep up with the
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Speaker 4: bills and make sure.
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Speaker 2: That the family had med a care and I ain't
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Speaker 2: know about all that.
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Speaker 4: You know, ain't nobody really hold my hand and showed
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Speaker 4: me how to become a man to provide for family
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Speaker 4: like the man supposed to do. Because when I was
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Speaker 4: really young, my dad had died. I really ain't had
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Speaker 4: no fault to figure in my life. I just went
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Speaker 4: on my own, try to learn from the streets.
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Speaker 1: Did you have any previous run ins with the law?
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Speaker 1: You mentioned, you know, the lifestyle, but did you have
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Speaker 1: any like did they know who you were?
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Speaker 2: When the system?
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Speaker 4: The system, they did know who I was because during
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Speaker 4: the time of my arresting, during the time my trial,
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Speaker 4: they really gave me a figure how many times that
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Speaker 4: I had been arrested and the thirty seven times that
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Speaker 4: I've been arrested, was fighting and activated battery, disturbing the peace,
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Speaker 4: stuff like that. It wasn't have really no major crime.
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Speaker 4: It was like mostly missed the meanor childs.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and nothing involving violence against children to be.
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Speaker 2: Clear, no, no, nothing involved.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Patrick. We're going to talk about the events
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Speaker 1: that led to your wrongful conviction. Now, I'd like to
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Speaker 1: remind the listeners that we'll be discussing some triggering topics
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Speaker 1: involving a minor child. To protect the privacy of the victim,
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Speaker 1: we are not using her real name. Instead, we'll call
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Speaker 1: her Sarah Kelly. Would you mind walking us through what
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Speaker 1: we know of the case.
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Speaker 3: All right, So, first, I think it's important to make
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Speaker 3: clear that this is a case where someone was horrifically
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Speaker 3: victimized and survived an awful assault, and then was revictimized
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Speaker 3: for twenty years after while she tried to tell the
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Speaker 3: people around her, including the district Attorney's office, that the
7:39
Speaker 3: wrong person was in prison. I think it's important to
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Speaker 3: acknowledge the two ways that the victim in this case
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Speaker 3: was and the survivor in this case was harmed. So
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Speaker 3: the case starts in February of nineteen ninety four, when
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Speaker 3: Sarah was six years old. It was the day after
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Speaker 3: Marti Gras when she started complaining about discomfort and her
8:00
Speaker 3: abdomen and her pelvic region. So they attempted some home
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Speaker 3: remedies and over the counter treatment, but that didn't work,
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Speaker 3: and so then she was taken in to see doctor
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Speaker 3: Ronald Wilcox. Doctor Wilcox immediately suspected that she had been
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Speaker 3: raped and asked doctor Maria Menna, a pediatric specialist in
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Speaker 3: child sex abuse, to evaluate Sarah, And so they start
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Speaker 3: talking to Sarah about what happened to her. What's really
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Speaker 3: critical to understand about what happens next is what is
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Speaker 3: actually said in the doctor's office versus what then gets
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Speaker 3: put onto paper and given to the police and given
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Speaker 3: then to the district attorney's office. And what the difference
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Speaker 3: is is you have in the doctor's office a lot
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Speaker 3: of what we would call, you know, leading questions because
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Speaker 3: you're dealing with a six year old girl. At the time,
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Speaker 3: it was recorded in the doctor's notes that she's said,
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Speaker 3: quote Patrick put his penis in me down there. Sarah
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Speaker 3: maintains that is not what she said, and that at
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Speaker 3: the hospital she was only asked who is Patrick to
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Speaker 3: which she responded essentially that he was her family member.
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Speaker 3: When NOPD detectives were called in, Sarah was also questioned
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Speaker 3: without a family member present.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Kelly. So now Patrick, could you tell us
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Speaker 1: about what your experience was when you arrived at the
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Speaker 1: hospital that day with Sarah's mother.
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Speaker 2: Me and Kaji arrive at the hospital to get it.
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Speaker 4: And when I got there, I passed the room the
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Speaker 4: examination room, and I seen family members in the room
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Speaker 4: with Sarah to the part to where when the detectives
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Speaker 4: and then came out of another room and brought me
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Speaker 4: into it. Was questioned me about it and basically questioned
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Speaker 4: me about you know something that happened to the victim.
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Speaker 2: And it was asked me a question.
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Speaker 4: By do I know anything about it? And no, I
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Speaker 4: don't know. That's why I'm here at the hospital try
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Speaker 4: to find out what is the problem.
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Speaker 3: At this At this time, mister Brown is completely cooperative
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Speaker 3: with the police and wants to know who hurt this
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Speaker 3: little girl that he loves and takes care of, and
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Speaker 3: so he is not at all thinking like a suspect.
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Speaker 3: He submits to various testing.
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Speaker 2: He waived his.
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Speaker 3: Rights to an attorney and his right to remain silent
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Speaker 3: and spoke to detectives without an attorney, where he denied
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Speaker 3: allegations that he had raped Sarah.
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Speaker 4: I went out to the police station with him and
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Speaker 4: was in a room where Raeric coroper with him as
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Speaker 4: to answering a lot of questions to the part to
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Speaker 4: where they asked me, did I actually do the crime?
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Speaker 4: And I think I could just tell her this, lamb,
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Speaker 4: I don't know nothing about it. The more I know
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Speaker 4: about it is what y'all telling me right now. And
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Speaker 4: I don't know nothing about it.
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Speaker 2: None of that.
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Speaker 3: However, based on the statements that Sarah made, or rather
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Speaker 3: was alleged to have made two doctors that day, mister
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Speaker 3: Brown was arrested on the charge of aggravated rape.
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Speaker 5: It was something unspeakable, you know, it's really speakable to
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Speaker 5: well get you off for something that you didn't do,
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Speaker 5: that did actually putting this charge on me.
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Speaker 4: But some kind of way that everything parted at me
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Speaker 4: for some reason. I don't know why, because maybe I
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Speaker 4: probably do know why, because the way I was through,
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Speaker 4: the type of person I was, and that side of
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Speaker 4: the family didn't really want me to.
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Speaker 2: Be with their daughter. But like I said, she was
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Speaker 2: my soldier. She was my everything.
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Speaker 4: You know, I would protect car. I would lose my
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Speaker 4: life to give hers and the kids. So I never
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Speaker 4: talked to nobody while I was in jail about it,
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Speaker 4: but I was going back and forth to court with
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Speaker 4: it and doing a pretrial investigation and all that is
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Speaker 4: really really kind of hurtful because it was like, this
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Speaker 4: is really actually happened. You know, you're taking me to
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Speaker 4: the trial behind something I did not do. And where
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Speaker 4: is the evidence because I ain't seen evidence at all,
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Speaker 4: because I know they're supposed to do a rape kit
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Speaker 4: and all that, and didn't no rape kit, and didn't
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Speaker 4: no joining the blood, and did nothing to take down evidence.
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Speaker 2: DNA and did not that.
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Speaker 3: After he was arrested, he was given a two hundred
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Speaker 3: and if the thousand dollars bond. His family could not
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Speaker 3: afford the roughly thirty thousand dollars that it would have
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Speaker 3: cost him to pay a bail bondsman, so mister Brown
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Speaker 3: spent more than nine months in jail waiting to go
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Speaker 3: to trial. His family also could not afford an attorney,
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Speaker 3: so Robert Jenkins, an attorney from the Orleans Parish Indigent
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Speaker 3: Defender Panel, was appointed to represent mister Brown.
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Speaker 1: Can you give us a rundown of the details of
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Speaker 1: the trial? December thirteenth, nineteen ninety four. Who was the judge,
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Speaker 1: the name of the prosecutor?
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Speaker 3: Absolutely so. Mister Brown went to trial in Section A
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Speaker 3: of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in front of Judge
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Speaker 3: Morris Reid. The prosecutor on the case was David.
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Speaker 1: Wolfe, and the district Attorney at the time was the
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Speaker 1: notorious Harry Connick Senior, who headed up the Orleans Parish
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Speaker 1: DA's office from nineteen seventy three to two thousand and three.
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Speaker 1: Jason's covered some of the many wrongful convictions that occurred
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Speaker 1: under Connick's watch on this podcast. His office was known
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Speaker 1: for withholding and suppressing evidence. In fact, the Innocence Project
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Speaker 1: of New Orleans estimates that during his tenure, favorable evidence
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Speaker 1: was withheld in the trials of one in four men
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Speaker 1: sent to death row.
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Speaker 3: The trial started that evening with opening statements and it
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Speaker 3: concluded the next day. We don't actually know the full
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Speaker 3: extent of what happened during the trial, because, as mister
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Speaker 3: Brown learned over the nearly thirty years that he fought
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Speaker 3: his conviction since his direct appeal no trial's transcript has
14:38
Speaker 3: actually been made available. When the case was reopened by
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Speaker 3: the District Attorney's office in twenty twenty three, we still
14:45
Speaker 3: could not find a transcript despite many, many, many efforts. However,
14:50
Speaker 3: what we do know is that the whole trial lasted
14:53
Speaker 3: about a day and a half from the time of
14:56
Speaker 3: jury selection to the time a verdict was delivered, which,
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Speaker 3: when you think about it, is deeply concerning considering the
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Speaker 3: mandatory sentence for aggravated rape at the time and still today,
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Speaker 3: is life without the possibility of parole Kelly.
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Speaker 1: Who testified in the trial and whose behalf did they
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Speaker 1: testify on.
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Speaker 3: Zarah was twice brought into the court to testify, and
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Speaker 3: twice her nose started to bleed as soon as she
15:25
Speaker 3: took the stand and questions began, which was something that
15:29
Speaker 3: was really common for her at the time whenever she
15:31
Speaker 3: was in a very stressful situation, and so she was dismissed.
15:37
Speaker 3: No accommodations were made for her to testify in private,
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Speaker 3: and instead the state called doctor Wilcox to testify in
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Speaker 3: her place, and recalled doctor Wilcox was the first physician
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Speaker 3: to examine her.
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Speaker 1: The child being questioned in front of the whole court
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Speaker 1: instead of the judges chambers, Like, what is your opinion
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Speaker 1: on that. I mean, it's obviously so traumatic and stressful
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Speaker 1: to the child that they're having this physical reaction after
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Speaker 1: being raped. It just seems that the victim wasn't being
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Speaker 1: thought of.
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Speaker 3: I completely agree. I think, you know, cases like this
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Speaker 3: are really tough because we keep courtrooms public for really
16:22
Speaker 3: important reasons, to make sure that crucial decisions in our
16:26
Speaker 3: justice system that carry serious consequences that compromise people's liberty
16:31
Speaker 3: interests do not happen in private, and when witnesses testify
16:36
Speaker 3: juries are empowered to make a decision about that witness's credibility. So,
16:42
Speaker 3: to answer your question, I think there's a tension because
16:46
Speaker 3: we want to make sure that people are safe. We
16:49
Speaker 3: want to make sure that children who have been harmed
16:52
Speaker 3: are not re traumatized, but we also have to ensure
16:57
Speaker 3: that the Constitution is followed, that liberty interests are not
17:01
Speaker 3: compromised in private. That being said, I do believe that
17:06
Speaker 3: accommodations could have been made to make Sarah more comfortable
17:11
Speaker 3: and less stressed, and that is crucial here because as
17:15
Speaker 3: we know, as Sarah has told us in the decades
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Speaker 3: since this happened. She did not say what doctor Wilcox
17:22
Speaker 3: alleged that she said, and so had she had the
17:25
Speaker 3: opportunity to testify, she would have been able to say
17:31
Speaker 3: the truth. She would have been able to testify that
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Speaker 3: she did not accuse Patrick of rape, and that was
17:38
Speaker 3: a very crucial fact for the jury to have. Instead,
17:41
Speaker 3: adults testified for her.
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Speaker 1: And instead, what did the jury hear from doctor Wilcox.
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Speaker 3: Doctor Wilcox testified to what was in what was recorded
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Speaker 3: in his notes that Sarah had told him that Patrick
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Speaker 3: put his penis in me down there, a statement that
18:02
Speaker 3: we now know and knew at the time had the
18:05
Speaker 3: police disclosed it, that was not was what was actually
18:08
Speaker 3: said in the doctor's office. So they were able to
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Speaker 3: introduce the doctor's report with no scrutinity with this statement
18:16
Speaker 3: that never got to be cross examined. So what happened
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Speaker 3: then is she never got a chance to tell her story.
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Speaker 3: So the jury convicts mister Brown of aggravated rape in Louisiana.
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Speaker 3: Age of the victim as an aggravating factor, and she
18:32
Speaker 3: was six years old at the time that she was raped,
18:35
Speaker 3: so he was sentenced to Manna's story life without the
18:37
Speaker 3: possibility of parole, and was sent to the Louisiana State
18:42
Speaker 3: Penitentiary at Angola.
19:07
Speaker 4: The hardest part being incarcerated is that you lose a
19:11
Speaker 4: family member while you're in now, and I lost several
19:16
Speaker 4: family members.
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Speaker 2: My mom, she went to three open.
19:20
Speaker 4: House surgeries while I was incarcerated, and some people that
19:26
Speaker 4: really loved me, like my grandmother, my aunt's cousins, they
19:30
Speaker 4: passed away while I was incarcerated.
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Speaker 2: And that's the hardest part to where.
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Speaker 4: They didn't want let you go out, to go to
19:37
Speaker 4: any funerals or none of that, and with the type
19:41
Speaker 4: of charge that they placed me on, you know, kind
19:46
Speaker 4: of restrict me from everything to where at a certain
19:49
Speaker 4: age I had to see my daughter once she get older,
19:53
Speaker 4: and any one of my family members, they can't come
19:55
Speaker 4: in as a child.
19:57
Speaker 2: Those certain things I couldn't do.
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Speaker 4: I couldn't go around certain people, certain jobs I can't
20:02
Speaker 4: have because of the charge.
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Speaker 1: I'm incredibly sorry that you experienced that. That must have
20:11
Speaker 1: been so hard to be stigmatized like that, and for
20:15
Speaker 1: something you did not do.
20:18
Speaker 4: From the time my cuceration, you know, I had to
20:20
Speaker 4: try to make it work for me.
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Speaker 2: I had to.
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Speaker 4: Due to the times that and let the time do
20:27
Speaker 4: me so at the time I was in there, you know,
20:30
Speaker 4: I educated myself. I become a better person, becomes a mentor,
20:34
Speaker 4: and I'm becoming helping a lot of people out there
20:37
Speaker 4: at a GOOLA even down to from the Oufenity security staff.
20:44
Speaker 2: To where I got to know them and they got
20:46
Speaker 2: to know me, and they see that I'm not a
20:48
Speaker 2: really bad.
20:49
Speaker 4: Person, you know, from that part from being that goal
20:53
Speaker 4: of being it's separing criticism from a lot of dudes
20:57
Speaker 4: that's around now. Really nothing really came hurt me no
21:00
Speaker 4: more because I'm all crowd out from that and anything
21:06
Speaker 4: that's not positive, I just don't want to be around it.
21:10
Speaker 4: But on my coaster that you know, they had dues
21:12
Speaker 4: there and they were going through a lot of things
21:14
Speaker 4: that they need mentor that he talked to and especially
21:18
Speaker 4: that's what I did. At one point in time in
21:23
Speaker 4: my life, I did lost hope. I did lost I
21:26
Speaker 4: hope to where I wouldn't come home, I wasn't gonna
21:28
Speaker 4: be with my family again. And I had looted in
21:32
Speaker 4: my mind to not be a commodity to the system
21:37
Speaker 4: to where you're just holding me there and collecting money
21:40
Speaker 4: off of me, and I'm doing this and doing that
21:43
Speaker 4: to keep a prison function to where dang I ain't
21:47
Speaker 4: had them a hope because you know it ain't goal
21:50
Speaker 4: inside of prison. Contraband comes and goes in there, and
21:55
Speaker 4: the most dealy contraband that they had in there was
21:58
Speaker 4: that fit now, and that fit now into the prison
22:04
Speaker 4: to where I did wanted to take that just the
22:06
Speaker 4: end this life because I didn't want that type of
22:09
Speaker 4: life inside of a system behind something I did not do.
22:13
Speaker 4: And then you know, when I got there, dude, say
22:15
Speaker 4: life mean lock in forever. Man, I ain't no going home.
22:21
Speaker 4: The next place I would be was a party. Lookout,
22:24
Speaker 4: mister penitentious cemetery. That's what I was gonna be. Never
22:30
Speaker 4: still going to be incocerated.
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Speaker 1: What kept you going? Patrick?
22:33
Speaker 2: What gave you hope?
22:35
Speaker 4: My family kept coming. It's fishing me talk to my
22:39
Speaker 4: daughter every day on the phone. My daughter was a
22:42
Speaker 4: month and eight days old when I got arrested. From
22:45
Speaker 4: that time, she was just a baby. She don't know
22:48
Speaker 4: nothing about the charge. And she fought for me too.
22:51
Speaker 4: She fought to keep me well, I keep hope going.
22:57
Speaker 4: She wanted her daddy. That kept me going down with
23:00
Speaker 4: my heart. She kept me going, she kept me fight,
23:04
Speaker 4: ca me find this to be with them, so she
23:07
Speaker 4: could have a fault in our life.
23:11
Speaker 1: So if you could, Kelly, speak to uh, if you
23:14
Speaker 1: recall when you first heard about mister Brown's case, what
23:18
Speaker 1: stood out to you like as a human and what
23:22
Speaker 1: drew you to essentially work on the case and kind
23:25
Speaker 1: of like how your relationship started those early days.
23:28
Speaker 3: So I got a call on March twenty fourth of
23:32
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three from the District Attorney's office, Jason William's office.
23:37
Speaker 3: It was specifically from Assistant District Attorney Emily maw who
23:41
Speaker 3: is the head of the civil rights division in the office.
23:45
Speaker 3: And I was asked if I was available to come
23:47
Speaker 3: in immediately, and I was told that a young woman
23:51
Speaker 3: had just come into their office and had essentially said
23:55
Speaker 3: that the wrong person was in prison for raping her.
23:59
Speaker 3: That's a pretty extraordinary call to get. You don't often
24:02
Speaker 3: say no when a district attorney's office calls you as
24:05
Speaker 3: a defense attorney and says we think we have someone
24:08
Speaker 3: in prison who shouldn't be there. I didn't need much
24:10
Speaker 3: more information than that.
24:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, So what did they tell you when you
24:15
Speaker 1: got to their office.
24:17
Speaker 3: On that day. What we knew is that in two
24:20
Speaker 3: thousand and two, when Sarah was fourteen years old, was
24:25
Speaker 3: when she first attempted to get the District Attorney's office
24:28
Speaker 3: to listen to her about the fact that the wrong
24:31
Speaker 3: man was in prison for raping her. She explained that
24:35
Speaker 3: she estimated that she had written at least one hundred
24:38
Speaker 3: letters to the District Attorney's office.
24:41
Speaker 1: And the DA at that time was still Harry Connick Senior.
24:45
Speaker 3: In twenty fifteen, she submitted an affidavit to the District
24:49
Speaker 3: Attorney's office at this time led by Leon Canazero, declaring
24:53
Speaker 3: that mister Brown was not the person who raped her
24:56
Speaker 3: and identifying by name the man who did. She remembers
25:00
Speaker 3: going to the DA's office at least four times, but
25:04
Speaker 3: it wasn't until the fourth time, on March twenty fourth,
25:07
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, that someone in that office actually decided
25:10
Speaker 3: to listen to her.
25:11
Speaker 1: And that was, of course, after Leon Connazaro had been
25:16
Speaker 1: succeeded as a district attorney by Jason Williams, who was
25:19
Speaker 1: elected in twenty twenty.
25:21
Speaker 3: And they immediately began reinvestigating her case. And I think
25:27
Speaker 3: what was most important to the investigators and to myself
25:33
Speaker 3: was Sarah's incredible credibility, her ability to recall in detail
25:39
Speaker 3: the efforts that she had made over more than two
25:42
Speaker 3: decades to undo this injustice and for the truth to
25:49
Speaker 3: be accepted by the DA's office. And part of what
25:53
Speaker 3: also bolstered her credibility was how deeply deeply harmed she
26:00
Speaker 3: was by having this truth ignored.
26:03
Speaker 1: What drew me to this story or this you know,
26:07
Speaker 1: hearing about mister Brown's experiences and Sarah's experience is that
26:12
Speaker 1: it really highlights how important it is to listen to
26:15
Speaker 1: survivors and for their voices to be heard. And you know,
26:20
Speaker 1: on the other side of that, the detriment that can
26:22
Speaker 1: happen to us when we're not heard. Two and a
26:25
Speaker 1: half perpetrators out of one hundred that rape actually end
26:30
Speaker 1: up in prison. That's the current statistics. And I mean,
26:34
Speaker 1: working with survivors every day, I know that, like the
26:37
Speaker 1: trust just isn't there that the effort will be meaningful
26:42
Speaker 1: and it won't just do more harm. And I think
26:45
Speaker 1: that's a really sad reality and a place to be,
26:50
Speaker 1: but it's one that we need to sit with because
26:52
Speaker 1: it's so important that we address it because it's absolutely
26:56
Speaker 1: not okay. It's absolutely not okay, and it's just a
27:01
Speaker 1: very heartbreaking, very heartbreaking example of the many cracks within
27:06
Speaker 1: the system. Kelly, What was the post conviction process like
27:13
Speaker 1: that led you from taking this case on to ultimately
27:18
Speaker 1: mister Brown's release.
27:20
Speaker 3: One thing that I think is very important and I
27:21
Speaker 3: want to throw it in there, is that mister Brown
27:24
Speaker 3: litigated his case himself for two decades. In fact, the
27:28
Speaker 3: petition that was granted on May eighth was actually the
27:32
Speaker 3: one that mister Brown filed himself pro see over a
27:36
Speaker 3: year before this hearing. In it, he argued factual innocence
27:41
Speaker 3: under a very new law in Louisiana that allows you
27:44
Speaker 3: to plead factual innocence. So the DA's office actually filed
27:48
Speaker 3: their response to mister Brown's pro say petition, and before
27:52
Speaker 3: they did this, they reviewed all of the available records.
27:56
Speaker 3: They reinterviewed witnesses, consulted with law enforcement, and spent a
28:00
Speaker 3: considerable amount of time listening to Sarah and assessing her
28:04
Speaker 3: credibility as well as verifying the details in the story
28:08
Speaker 3: that she told them. After reviewing all available records, they
28:12
Speaker 3: found clear and convincing evidence that mister Brown was factually innocent,
28:17
Speaker 3: and based on their filing their response to mister Brown's
28:20
Speaker 3: pro say petition, they found a few things. Most compelling
28:25
Speaker 3: those were the fact that Sarah stated unequivocally and on
28:28
Speaker 3: multiple occasions that mister Brown was not the man who
28:31
Speaker 3: raped her. Also that in twenty fifteen, she submitted a
28:35
Speaker 3: sworn affidavit to the DA's office, in it stating that
28:39
Speaker 3: mister Brown was not the person who raped her and
28:42
Speaker 3: naming the person that did. They also considered testimony and
28:46
Speaker 3: statements from the time the case was pre trial that
28:50
Speaker 3: indicated that during a fight with the victim's mother, a
28:54
Speaker 3: man gloated about raping Sarah and about the fact that
28:57
Speaker 3: mister Brown was doing time for the crime.
29:01
Speaker 1: That sounds like it would have been a pretty major
29:03
Speaker 1: incident for the defense to explore, but somehow the jury
29:07
Speaker 1: never heard about it. Can you tell us more about
29:10
Speaker 1: that exchange and why it was not brought up a trial?
29:13
Speaker 3: So this fight occurred well before the child, near the
29:16
Speaker 3: time that mister Brown was indicted on the charge of
29:20
Speaker 3: aggravated rape. The prosecution was aware of this fight. It
29:24
Speaker 3: is not entirely clear how accurately that evidence was provided
29:31
Speaker 3: to the defense. We know definitively that the fact that
29:35
Speaker 3: there were witnesses to this fight and witnesses to this
29:39
Speaker 3: admission that was not disclosed to the defense.
29:42
Speaker 1: And what was said during the fight that was significant.
29:46
Speaker 4: He stated, I know that your daughter has got rape
29:51
Speaker 4: and I ain't gonna be the one to do the time.
29:53
Speaker 3: For and I believe he also said, you know that
29:57
Speaker 3: mister Brown is doing time for somebody else's crime. And
30:00
Speaker 3: it's just it's almost irrefutable, right, Like that's a very
30:04
Speaker 3: relevant fact for a jury to hear and understand. This
30:09
Speaker 3: is the same man that Sarah stated raped her in
30:11
Speaker 3: the affidavit that she gave to the DA's office in
30:14
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen. They submitted this information to the court and
30:19
Speaker 3: on May eighth, an evidentiary hearing was held. And so
30:23
Speaker 3: when Sarah took the stand to testify, she was able
30:26
Speaker 3: to look at mister Brown, who was sitting at the
30:29
Speaker 3: table next to me, and she told the court about
30:34
Speaker 3: her twenty year effort to be able to sit where
30:37
Speaker 3: she was that day and tell the truth of what
30:40
Speaker 3: happened to her. At the end of that hearing, Judge
30:44
Speaker 3: Calvin Johnson delivered his ruling and before he did, he
30:48
Speaker 3: addressed Sarah and mister Brown directly, and I'll never forget
30:52
Speaker 3: what he said, and I want to repeat it verbatim.
30:54
Speaker 3: He said the state was complicit in the harm and
30:57
Speaker 3: horror that Sarah endured. He then vacated mister Brown's conviction
31:03
Speaker 3: and granted mister Brown a new trial, and Emily maw
31:07
Speaker 3: the Chief of the Civil Rights Division, immediately revised the
31:10
Speaker 3: bill of information that was filed against him in nineteen
31:13
Speaker 3: ninety four and immediately dismissed the charges. That day, he
31:18
Speaker 3: was able to hug Sarah, he was able to hug
31:20
Speaker 3: his family, and he was able to walk out of
31:22
Speaker 3: the front steps and not have to go back to Angola.
31:26
Speaker 1: Patrick, I can't imagine what it must have felt like
31:30
Speaker 1: to be in that courtroom with Sarah and to hear
31:33
Speaker 1: her testimony, and for both of you, after almost thirty years,
31:38
Speaker 1: to finally be heard.
31:41
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was.
31:46
Speaker 4: Unbelievable. It was beautiful. I know that this person came
31:52
Speaker 4: out and being hurd you know what kind of helped
31:56
Speaker 4: heal me. Heal me a whole lot so well. Once
32:00
Speaker 4: she gave a test, moment she finished gaving a TESTI
32:02
Speaker 4: moment she came up and she hugged me. And once
32:05
Speaker 4: she hugged me in the court room, I felt her pain,
32:11
Speaker 4: she felt mine. She told me that she was sorry
32:15
Speaker 4: that I have to go through it. I told her
32:18
Speaker 4: that I was sorry too, that I wouldn't death for
32:23
Speaker 4: I got supposed to. She said that she loved me.
32:31
Speaker 4: I told her that I love her back.
32:32
Speaker 2: Sae say, you never go back there. I know you
32:39
Speaker 2: never go back. I told her that I'll never leave again.
32:46
Speaker 2: Only way that I leave from this place.
32:53
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Oh my goodness, thank you so
32:57
Speaker 1: so much for your time and your willingness. It is
33:01
Speaker 1: incredibly brave to be this vulnerable in such a public way,
33:07
Speaker 1: and I just want to hold space and acknowledge that
33:12
Speaker 1: what you did today is an incredibly big thing. And
33:16
Speaker 1: I wish you and your family all of the best
33:19
Speaker 1: in the future. And yeah, thank you so so much.
33:24
Speaker 1: We also want to let our listeners know that there's
33:28
Speaker 1: a GoFundMe page to help you get back on your feet.
33:32
Speaker 1: So listeners, if you want to show your support for
33:34
Speaker 1: Patrick as he starts this new chapter in his life,
33:38
Speaker 1: please look for Patrick Brown on GoFundMe dot com or
33:43
Speaker 1: go to the link in our episode Bio. Now, this
33:47
Speaker 1: is the part of the show that we call closing arguments.
33:50
Speaker 1: We'd like to hear your final thoughts, anything at all
33:53
Speaker 1: that you want to share with listeners or that you
33:56
Speaker 1: hope listeners will take away from hearing this story. Kelly,
33:59
Speaker 1: can we hear you're closing arguments first, and then we'll
34:02
Speaker 1: hear from Patrick.
34:03
Speaker 3: This is the first exoneration that I have ever been
34:07
Speaker 3: involved in, and I am horrified by what I have
34:13
Speaker 3: learned through this process. I also think it's really important
34:18
Speaker 3: to remember that what happened to mister Brown is a
34:22
Speaker 3: symptom of a diseased system that puts not only people
34:28
Speaker 3: who are factually innocent in prison, but puts people in
34:33
Speaker 3: prison who should not be there in the first place,
34:38
Speaker 3: people who have caused harm, but who also have a
34:42
Speaker 3: larger story, who have a story that is often rarely
34:48
Speaker 3: ever heard, usually until decades later. And so I hope
34:54
Speaker 3: that mister Brown's story will inspire us not just to
34:58
Speaker 3: look at the cases of people who are actually innocent,
35:01
Speaker 3: but the cases of all people who are in prison,
35:04
Speaker 3: to question and continue questioning is prison really an answer
35:08
Speaker 3: and an effective answer to the harm that's occurring in
35:11
Speaker 3: our community. It has been, in my experience, a one
35:15
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty year experiment that has failed. It has
35:18
Speaker 3: not served people that have been harmed. It has not
35:20
Speaker 3: brought justice to victims and survivors. I know that we
35:24
Speaker 3: can do better. I believe that we can do better,
35:27
Speaker 3: and I hope that all of us will be inspired
35:29
Speaker 3: to take a second look at this system that we
35:31
Speaker 3: have become so dependent on and taken for granted, and
35:35
Speaker 3: challenge ourselves to radically reimagine what justice and safety and
35:40
Speaker 3: health look like in our communities and try to do
35:44
Speaker 3: so much better than we have done.
35:50
Speaker 4: To allur listeners, Adele, be mindful what should do because
35:56
Speaker 4: just saying I heard that person they hurt out of
35:58
Speaker 4: people's be truthful to yourself and others to the point
36:05
Speaker 4: to where we need to stop all the nonsense and
36:09
Speaker 4: be straightforward with ourselves. That's not putting an instant person
36:13
Speaker 4: in jail. Let's stop the folence. Let's just stop all
36:17
Speaker 4: that because it ain't worth it. We all just come together,
36:21
Speaker 4: no matter and I we love no color race. Get along.
36:26
Speaker 4: It's time for us people to get along and enjoy
36:28
Speaker 4: life and George's beautiful world that God gave us because
36:33
Speaker 4: we don't have nothing. You know, who else can we
36:36
Speaker 4: depend on? We basically depend on the people that's around us.
36:42
Speaker 4: You know, we don't know nobody until we open our
36:44
Speaker 4: mouth and start communicate. I want to start communicating, we
36:48
Speaker 4: start learning people.
36:49
Speaker 6: We have a better world. And I really appreciate you
36:52
Speaker 6: all listening and have a good heart of your heart
36:57
Speaker 6: to life itself. Hope y'all have a good heart.
37:10
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
37:13
Speaker 1: to this and all Lava for Good podcasts one week
37:17
Speaker 1: early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
37:22
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank executive producers Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler,
37:27
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wardis for inviting me to sit in today,
37:30
Speaker 1: and thanks to our production team Connor Hall, Annie Chelsea,
37:34
Speaker 1: Leila Robinson, and Kathleen Fink. The music in this production
37:38
Speaker 1: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
37:43
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Speaker 1: at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can
37:50
Speaker 1: follow me Tiffany Reese at Lookiboo and listen to my
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Speaker 1: podcast Something Was Wrong. Wherever you get your podcasts. Wrongful
37:59
Speaker 1: Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
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