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#442 Maggie Freleng with Amer Zada · Wrongful Conviction

0:05
Speaker 1: Early on the morning of June fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine,
0:09
Speaker 1: Amir Zeta was driving home from partying with friends when
0:12
Speaker 1: his car got stuck in an embankment down near the
0:15
Speaker 1: Hudson River waterfront in Nyak, New York. Amir called a
0:19
Speaker 1: friend from a payphone to help him secure a tow truck.
0:23
Speaker 1: While he waited in the darkened parking lot of a
0:25
Speaker 1: nearby restaurant, he heard a strange noise coming from behind
0:29
Speaker 1: a dumpster.
0:31
Speaker 2: It was a growl, like a gruff, growling noise. I
0:34
Speaker 2: didn't want to go in the corner, but at the
0:36
Speaker 2: same time I was saying, like, well, whatever is going
0:40
Speaker 2: on over there, Like, you know, don't be a punk,
0:43
Speaker 2: go over there and check it out.
0:44
Speaker 1: What he saw there shocked and terrified him. But before
0:48
Speaker 1: he could react, police cars were on the scene, sirens blaring.
0:54
Speaker 2: Two police officers dow me down. He handcuffed me behind
0:56
Speaker 2: my back, searched me, and then they put me in
0:59
Speaker 2: a back at a car just that quick.
1:03
Speaker 1: Amir was arrested and charged with sexual assaults and the
1:06
Speaker 1: brutal murder of a young local woman, Shirley Smith. The
1:10
Speaker 1: woman he had found lying behind a dumpster covered in
1:13
Speaker 1: blood and had tried to help.
1:16
Speaker 2: My name is Emir Zeta. I did forty one years
1:19
Speaker 2: in prison for a crime that I didn't.
1:21
Speaker 3: Commit from Lava for good.
1:24
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Amir Zeta.
1:42
Speaker 2: I'm an Arab American. I was born in Nyak Hospital
1:46
Speaker 2: in Rockley County, New York.
1:48
Speaker 1: Amir Zeta was born in nineteen sixty one into a large,
1:52
Speaker 1: loving family.
1:55
Speaker 2: My mother and father are from Jordan. They immigrated to
1:58
Speaker 2: the United States in nineteen fifty eight. At the time,
2:01
Speaker 2: it was my eldest brother, Nasar, eldest sister in the Zira,
2:04
Speaker 2: and the two twins, Samir and Samir who was my
2:07
Speaker 2: next oldest, and then myself from the baby of the family.
2:11
Speaker 1: Growing up, Amir didn't feel any different from the other
2:14
Speaker 1: kids at school, but when he was five or six
2:16
Speaker 1: years old, something happened changed the way others saw his
2:20
Speaker 1: family and the way he felt about himself.
2:25
Speaker 2: My father got a dispute with a neighbor over property.
2:29
Speaker 2: Apparently my father didn't speak English at will, and they
2:33
Speaker 2: ended up calling a police officer. The police officer ended
2:35
Speaker 2: up getting a glass cut on the back of his hand.
2:38
Speaker 2: But at the time they maintained that he had been
2:40
Speaker 2: shot by my father. It wasn't the case. But I
2:45
Speaker 2: still have the memories too of being a six year
2:47
Speaker 2: old kid sitting in my father's attempted a murder on
2:50
Speaker 2: a police officer's trial, and how it affected me, and
2:54
Speaker 2: then how it affected me through my school years from
2:56
Speaker 2: that point on, about being called the murder the cop
3:00
Speaker 2: killer's son, even though there was no police officer killed
3:04
Speaker 2: or even shot.
3:06
Speaker 1: The charge against his father was dismissed, but from that
3:09
Speaker 1: time on, Amir says his family was treated differently by
3:13
Speaker 1: the police.
3:15
Speaker 2: They started going after my family in a methodical manner,
3:18
Speaker 2: for my eldest brother, then my next brother, and me.
3:21
Speaker 2: My eldest sister left out of the county. She seen
3:24
Speaker 2: the writing on the wall and she took off. She
3:26
Speaker 2: got married and left the county.
3:29
Speaker 1: Amir's other sister, Samira, was deported to the Middle East
3:33
Speaker 1: and later died from a medical issue that Amir beliefs
3:36
Speaker 1: could have been.
3:37
Speaker 3: Easily treated in the United States.
3:40
Speaker 1: His brother Samir ended up serving nearly forty two years
3:43
Speaker 1: in prison and was also deported upon his release. Despite
3:48
Speaker 1: his family's troubles, Amir found a bright spot in all
3:51
Speaker 1: of this darkness.
4:00
Speaker 4: I knew a mirror from the time I was like
4:03
Speaker 4: in grammar school, and I always knew Amir had a
4:07
Speaker 4: crush on me.
4:08
Speaker 2: So we were like, what maybe twelve years old.
4:15
Speaker 1: This is Bonnie McKenna, But when Amir met her in
4:18
Speaker 1: seventh grade, she was Bonnie Stalter.
4:22
Speaker 2: We shared an art class, I believe, in a music
4:24
Speaker 2: class at the school. I used to always sit at
4:27
Speaker 2: the table with her in the class, and you know,
4:30
Speaker 2: spend more time paying attention to her than I was
4:34
Speaker 2: to class. And then one day I took a chance
4:37
Speaker 2: and I walked up to her when we were at
4:39
Speaker 2: the lockers.
4:40
Speaker 4: And he's like Bonnie Sue Stalter, and he like just
4:44
Speaker 4: takes me and he flings me up against the locker
4:47
Speaker 4: and he starts kissing.
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Speaker 2: Me, and I kissed her.
4:50
Speaker 4: Man, he like stole the kiss from me, his first
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Speaker 4: kiss from me, and we have like connected ever since
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Speaker 4: that moment on.
5:01
Speaker 1: Amir soon went away to military academy, but he never
5:04
Speaker 1: forgot that first kiss. A year and a half later,
5:07
Speaker 1: he came back to Nayak to register for high school.
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Speaker 2: She was the first person I seen she was actually
5:14
Speaker 2: outside the school and I still had I was in
5:17
Speaker 2: the military academy. I still have my uniform on, and
5:20
Speaker 2: she was the first beautiful face that I seen. And
5:23
Speaker 2: then from there we just reignited the flame that you
5:26
Speaker 2: know has been lit for quite a while. And you know,
5:30
Speaker 2: I've always felt like I loved her.
5:33
Speaker 4: So I didn't have the perfect life. My life was
5:36
Speaker 4: very complicated as a child, and I was a runaway
5:40
Speaker 4: and I wound up with mister and missus.
5:44
Speaker 1: Zaida Bonnie moved in with a Meher's family when she
5:47
Speaker 1: was fifteen. They gave her a stable home, and she
5:50
Speaker 1: says his parents treated her like a princess. By then,
5:54
Speaker 1: she and Amir were inseparable.
5:57
Speaker 4: He was the most generallest, kindest person I ever met,
6:01
Speaker 4: and we had a good time together. You know, in
6:04
Speaker 4: the seventies, we were just popping around, you know, being
6:08
Speaker 4: kids having a good time.
6:10
Speaker 1: But those good times would soon come to an end,
6:13
Speaker 1: and Amir's troubles that the police were about to begin.
6:21
Speaker 5: He was seventeen years old in June of nineteen seventy nine,
6:25
Speaker 5: and the night that this crime happened, he and his
6:28
Speaker 5: friends went out drinking and partying. You know, they were
6:32
Speaker 5: out all night.
6:34
Speaker 1: This is Arthur Larkin of the law firm Hale and Monico,
6:37
Speaker 1: Amir's post conviction attorney.
6:40
Speaker 5: And the last five years I'm representing plaintiffs in civil
6:43
Speaker 5: rights cases, including people like Amir Zeta who've been wrongfully
6:48
Speaker 5: convicted of crimes and are seeking to overturn their convictions.
6:55
Speaker 1: So, Arthur, can you walk us through what happened that
6:57
Speaker 1: night June fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine.
7:01
Speaker 5: Emir was driving. He admits he was drinking. He actually
7:05
Speaker 5: he bought Kayludes at Joseph Flente's Deli. He bought a
7:10
Speaker 5: couple of magazines and he bought kayludes. So, as the
7:15
Speaker 5: knight's coming to a close, he's driving around the town.
7:18
Speaker 5: After he dropped all his friends off and he starts
7:20
Speaker 5: driving home. He took a right turn down I believe
7:24
Speaker 5: it's Gedney Street, and he turned off the street onto
7:29
Speaker 5: a sort of a dirt area, an embankment adjacent to
7:32
Speaker 5: the wind Jammer parking lot, and his car got stuck.
7:37
Speaker 1: The Windjammer restaurant was located at the foot of Main
7:41
Speaker 1: Street on the Hudson River waterfront. After trying unsuccessfully to
7:44
Speaker 1: free his car from the embankment, Amir walked to a
7:48
Speaker 1: phone booth and called his friend John Nash to tell
7:50
Speaker 1: him he needed a tow truck. John offered to call
7:53
Speaker 1: around looking for one, and after making a couple of calls,
7:57
Speaker 1: he left to pick a mirror.
7:58
Speaker 5: Up and Amir had told him in the phone call.
8:01
Speaker 5: Amir had said, listen, just meet me at the in
8:03
Speaker 5: the Windjammer parking lot. That's where my car is. It's adjacent.
8:07
Speaker 5: After a Mer hangs up the phone, he goes down
8:09
Speaker 5: back to his car. He tries to drive it again.
8:11
Speaker 5: He can't. He wanders down to the parking lot and
8:15
Speaker 5: as he's walking through the parking lot, he hears a sound.
8:19
Speaker 2: It was a growl, like a gruff growling noise. I
8:22
Speaker 2: was reluctant to actually even walk into that area because
8:26
Speaker 2: it was dark. It was completely pitch black. There was
8:29
Speaker 2: a garbage dumpster there, the trees were hanging over the top.
8:32
Speaker 2: I had fear. I didn't want to go in the corner,
8:35
Speaker 2: but at the same time, I was saying, like, well,
8:39
Speaker 2: whatever is going on over there, Like, you know, don't
8:42
Speaker 2: be a punk over there and check it out. I
8:44
Speaker 2: approached slowly, and when I first looked, I seeing that
8:48
Speaker 2: there was something at the dumpster, but I didn't. I
8:52
Speaker 2: wasn't sure what it was.
8:56
Speaker 1: A young woman was lying face down behind the dumpster,
9:00
Speaker 1: her clothes and shreds. She was nearly naked and had
9:03
Speaker 1: been stabbed multiple times.
9:06
Speaker 5: He leans over and he tries to lift her up.
9:09
Speaker 5: Oh my god, you know are you okay?
9:12
Speaker 2: That's when I noticed, you know who that was?
9:16
Speaker 3: The woman was seventeen year old Shirley Smith.
9:19
Speaker 1: Amir recognized her because he'd gone to school with her cousin,
9:23
Speaker 1: but he didn't know Shirley well.
9:25
Speaker 2: By the time I had stepped up, discovered the victim
9:30
Speaker 2: and attempted to try to help her, to you know,
9:35
Speaker 2: give her assistance. I heard the my police car pulling
9:40
Speaker 2: down the street.
9:41
Speaker 5: Amir looks up. He sees a police car. He's standing
9:45
Speaker 5: over a body. His family has had trouble with the
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Speaker 5: police before. Okay, so Amir immediately runs. He scared and
9:53
Speaker 5: he runs.
9:58
Speaker 1: Officers John McCorry and James Thurston were the first ones
10:02
Speaker 1: on the scene. When they spotted a mirror crouch next
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Speaker 1: to the body. They immediately ran for him.
10:08
Speaker 2: The two police officers threw me down. He hand cuffed
10:10
Speaker 2: me behind my back, took me threw me over the
10:13
Speaker 2: back of the police car, searched me, took everything out
10:15
Speaker 2: of my pockets and put it in a police officer's hat,
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Speaker 2: and then they put me in the back of the
10:20
Speaker 2: car just that quick.
10:24
Speaker 1: And that's so fast, I mean, did you even register
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Speaker 1: what was happening at that point?
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Speaker 2: I knew something was wrong, it was someone there, but
10:32
Speaker 2: I didn't realize the extent as far as my involvement.
10:36
Speaker 2: I just walked up on it just that quick.
10:40
Speaker 5: They put him in the backseat of the car and
10:42
Speaker 5: they go to the victim and they try to revive her.
10:46
Speaker 5: The victim is very bloody and they're trying to you know,
10:49
Speaker 5: they're trying to do CPR, but she's pronounced dead at
10:52
Speaker 5: the scene.
10:53
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, at that point another officer, Michael Roman, had arrived.
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Speaker 1: The policeman put a mirror back out of the car,
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Speaker 1: patrol car number three eighty three, to frisk him.
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Speaker 5: Now keep in mind, they've been touching the victim's body,
11:07
Speaker 5: so their hands are bloody, they weren't wearing gloves, and
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Speaker 5: they don't find a murder weapon on a mirror there.
11:15
Speaker 2: You took me up in the troll car. They transported
11:18
Speaker 2: me up to my police station, and then later on
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Speaker 2: that morning I went before I believe it was Judge
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Speaker 2: mccar thing, and he arrayed me without bail and charged
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Speaker 2: me with second year murder and remanded me to the
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Speaker 2: Rockland County Jail.
11:42
Speaker 1: You're listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. You can
11:45
Speaker 1: listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
11:49
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11:52
Speaker 1: for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.
12:04
Speaker 2: I honestly believed that the truth would come out. I
12:09
Speaker 2: really I did not realize the extent that they were
12:12
Speaker 2: going to go to to make me look guilty.
12:20
Speaker 3: So Arthur Shirley Smith's body has been found.
12:23
Speaker 1: She's apparently been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death, but
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Speaker 1: no weapon has recovered and a mirror is the number
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Speaker 1: one suspect. So can you tell us about the investigation
12:32
Speaker 1: that followed? What did police report say?
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Speaker 5: The police's version of events is that they pulled into
12:38
Speaker 5: the parking lot after they received a call about screams
12:42
Speaker 5: and dogs barking in the vicinity of the Windjama parking lot.
12:46
Speaker 5: They say that when they got to the scene, they
12:49
Speaker 5: saw a pair of legs protruding from behind a dumpster
12:53
Speaker 5: with the underwear and pants down, and they said that
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Speaker 5: pair of legs was Amir Zeta's and that Amir was
12:58
Speaker 5: trying to sexually assault the victim.
13:02
Speaker 1: Officers McCord and Thurston claimed that when they came upon
13:05
Speaker 1: a mirror, he wasn't wearing a shirt, and that as
13:08
Speaker 1: they chased him, his pants were falling down. They said
13:11
Speaker 1: that when they cuffed him and put him in the car,
13:13
Speaker 1: his pants were still down.
13:16
Speaker 5: And after they had attended to the victim and they
13:18
Speaker 5: opened the police car door to try to frisk them,
13:21
Speaker 5: his pants were miraculously pulled up and zipped up. Okay,
13:26
Speaker 5: so they frisk a mirror and they find no murder weapon. Nothing.
13:29
Speaker 5: There's some blood on his underwear, the back of his underwear,
13:34
Speaker 5: there's some blood in his front pants pocket, and there's
13:37
Speaker 5: a marijuana cigarette that they say they found in his
13:40
Speaker 5: pocket with blood on it. Later tests show that that
13:43
Speaker 5: blood matches the victim's blood. Now, no murder weapon was
13:48
Speaker 5: ever found at the scene.
13:54
Speaker 1: Divers searched the nearby Hudson River, and detectives scoured the
13:57
Speaker 1: Windjammer parking lot, but no murder weapon was ever found.
14:02
Speaker 1: Two days later, another officer, Douglas McDonald, was driving the
14:06
Speaker 1: same patrol car number three eighty three, as McDonald later testified,
14:11
Speaker 1: when he stopped to get gas, he ran into another
14:14
Speaker 1: officer who was doing the same and the two started talking.
14:18
Speaker 5: Now the crime is on a Friday morning, this is
14:20
Speaker 5: now Sunday, and son of a gun. If both officers
14:23
Speaker 5: don't look in the backseat of the car and say, oh,
14:26
Speaker 5: my goodness, there's a knife.
14:28
Speaker 1: Remember, patrol car three point eighty three had been searched
14:32
Speaker 1: thoroughly after a mirror was picked up, and no knife
14:35
Speaker 1: had been found at the time. But now this knife
14:38
Speaker 1: had somehow been discovered in the car's back seat. This
14:42
Speaker 1: was before DNA testing was available, but when tested, traces
14:46
Speaker 1: of blood found on the knife were shown to be
14:48
Speaker 1: consistent with Shirley Smith's genetic profile.
14:52
Speaker 5: And the prosecution's theory of trial is that the knife
14:56
Speaker 5: was the murder weapon, and that even those hands were
14:58
Speaker 5: handcuffed behind his back after the officers put him in
15:01
Speaker 5: the car, a meir Zeta had somehow managed to wherever
15:06
Speaker 5: he had secreted the knife on his person. He managed
15:09
Speaker 5: to extract it, shove it under the seat somehow, and
15:13
Speaker 5: pull his pants up all in one shot. Okay.
15:16
Speaker 1: There were no fingerprints on the knife, nothing that directly
15:20
Speaker 1: connected it to a mirror, and the blood found on
15:23
Speaker 1: the knife could very well have gotten there the next day,
15:26
Speaker 1: when Detective Arthur Keenan took it to New York City
15:29
Speaker 1: for testing along with two vials of the victim's blood.
15:33
Speaker 1: But determined to hold onto their prime suspect a mirror,
15:37
Speaker 1: the police went looking for a witness to corroborate their theory.
15:41
Speaker 5: They went to see Joe Lenti, who was known to
15:45
Speaker 5: be a local drug dealer and who had sold a
15:48
Speaker 5: mere the queludes and the magazines the night before. Joe
15:51
Speaker 5: Lenti says, Yeah, that's very similar to the knife that
15:55
Speaker 5: I sold a mer on Thursday night.
15:59
Speaker 1: So the main evidence against you, allegedly was this knife.
16:05
Speaker 1: Did you buy this knife?
16:06
Speaker 3: Was this knife yours?
16:08
Speaker 2: I'd had no knife. The knife miss magically appeared.
16:15
Speaker 1: The knife the cop said they found in the car
16:17
Speaker 1: was a black folding knife with the word leopard on
16:20
Speaker 1: the handle. When they went to see Joseph Lenty, they
16:24
Speaker 1: didn't show him this exact knife, but one that was
16:26
Speaker 1: very similar, a white handled knife with a lion on
16:30
Speaker 1: the handle that Detective Keenan had found in a drawer
16:33
Speaker 1: at the police station. Joseph Lenty told police that he
16:36
Speaker 1: had bought seventeen of these knives at a place called
16:39
Speaker 1: the Bronx Terminal Market.
16:42
Speaker 5: And that he had sold them all, well, sixteen of them.
16:45
Speaker 5: Amir came in the knife before the crime and bought
16:48
Speaker 5: the last of them, the seventeenth knife, and he had
16:51
Speaker 5: the receipt for fifteen dollars from a mer but that
16:54
Speaker 5: was for the kueludes and the magazines. That wasn't for
16:57
Speaker 5: a knife.
16:58
Speaker 1: Based on this knife that was found in the patrol car,
17:01
Speaker 1: the alleged murder weapon which a Mirror had supposedly purchased
17:04
Speaker 1: from Joseph Lenty, and the fact that a mirror was
17:07
Speaker 1: at the scene when police arrived, A Mirror was charged
17:10
Speaker 1: with second degree murder, first degree attempted sodomy, and aggravated
17:15
Speaker 1: criminal sexual abuse. His trial was set for six months later.
17:21
Speaker 3: So did you always believe in his innocence?
17:24
Speaker 1: You know, back then when you guys were kids and
17:26
Speaker 1: he gets arrested.
17:27
Speaker 3: What were you thinking.
17:30
Speaker 4: When that happened? And I heard mama downstairs, and I
17:35
Speaker 4: heard her crying and screaming, I never in a thousand
17:40
Speaker 4: years thought that he had gotten arrested for such a
17:43
Speaker 4: crime or anything of that nature. And I lost a
17:48
Speaker 4: lot of friends over that because they were like, Bonnie,
17:51
Speaker 4: you know, your life's going to change. I didn't care
17:54
Speaker 4: that my life was going to change. I stayed beside him,
17:57
Speaker 4: I stuck by him, and I said, this is going
18:00
Speaker 4: to get better. I don't know why they're doing this.
18:03
Speaker 4: I don't know why it came to this point, but I, honestly,
18:06
Speaker 4: Maggie thought that this was going to get better, that
18:09
Speaker 4: they were going to find the real person that committed
18:13
Speaker 4: this crime. And that's what I kept thinking for all
18:17
Speaker 4: of these years.
18:23
Speaker 1: Within a week following the crime, a grand jury was
18:25
Speaker 1: convened and Amir gave testimony about the events of that night.
18:29
Speaker 1: Amir's trial began six months later on January seventh, nineteen eighty,
18:34
Speaker 1: in Rockland County Court before Judge Albert Rosenblatt. The prosecutor
18:39
Speaker 1: was Rockland County's first Assistant District Attorney, William Frank. Amir's
18:44
Speaker 1: defense attorney was William Kunstler.
18:46
Speaker 5: The officer's testified to finding the knife in the backseat
18:50
Speaker 5: of the car. Two days later, Joe Lenti testifies that
18:53
Speaker 5: he bought the knife the Bronx Terminal market.
18:56
Speaker 1: The prosecution also presented a witness, Donald Lewis, someone who
19:00
Speaker 1: had gone to school with Shirley and knew a mirror
19:02
Speaker 1: as well.
19:04
Speaker 5: And he claimed that he saw a mir at a
19:07
Speaker 5: phone booth and the Amir turned and said to Shirley
19:10
Speaker 5: Smith the victim, hey, Shirley, want to smoke a joint?
19:13
Speaker 5: And Shirley said sure. That was his testimony at trial.
19:18
Speaker 1: Amir maintains that this encounter never happened, and in fact,
19:22
Speaker 1: Donald Lewis was later tape recorded telling an acquaintance that
19:26
Speaker 1: he had made the whole story up.
19:28
Speaker 5: And Lewis said, listen, you know I had a beef
19:30
Speaker 5: with him. Don't tell anybody I didn't see him at
19:34
Speaker 5: a phone booth. In essence, what he said was his
19:36
Speaker 5: trial testimony was a lie and he had that recorded.
19:41
Speaker 1: After the trial, Amir tried to appeal his conviction based
19:44
Speaker 1: on that recorded confession, but at the hearing Lewis changed
19:48
Speaker 1: his story again.
19:50
Speaker 5: Instead of sticking by the recantation, Lewis said, yeah, I
19:55
Speaker 5: knew that he was recording me, and so we just
19:57
Speaker 5: orchestrated it and the judge did not buy the recantation,
20:00
Speaker 5: he wouldn't accept it, and Amir's motion was denied. I
20:05
Speaker 5: think the police probably got to him and said, look,
20:07
Speaker 5: you better, you better stick to your story.
20:10
Speaker 1: And that's because, as it turned out later, Lewis was
20:12
Speaker 1: facing criminal charges in another matter and thus highly incentivized to.
20:17
Speaker 3: Incriminate a mirror.
20:19
Speaker 1: By sticking to his story that he'd seen Amir and
20:21
Speaker 1: Shirley together, he was able to avoid prosecution. So Arthur,
20:27
Speaker 1: the defense did not know that at the time. It
20:30
Speaker 1: wasn't disclosed by the prosecution. So what was the defense
20:35
Speaker 1: that Amir's attorneys presented?
20:37
Speaker 5: You know, Counsseler did a pretty good job tracking down
20:41
Speaker 5: the witnesses who confirmed Amir Zeida's version of events. His
20:46
Speaker 5: friend John Nash testified. John Nash's mother, Catherine, testified that
20:50
Speaker 5: Emir had called the house at four o'clock in the morning.
20:52
Speaker 5: Kunsseler got phone records from the phone company showing that
20:57
Speaker 5: a call was made from a payphone in nayak All
21:00
Speaker 5: on Broadway to Nash's house at four in the morning.
21:03
Speaker 5: Phone records showing that Nash had called for a tow
21:07
Speaker 5: truck at four fifteen and four to fourteen am right,
21:10
Speaker 5: just as he testified, and just as Emir said that
21:13
Speaker 5: his friend told him he would.
21:15
Speaker 1: John testified that he had driven down to the waterfront
21:18
Speaker 1: that night, but his own car broke down, and when
21:21
Speaker 1: he couldn't locate a mirror, he called a taxi to
21:23
Speaker 1: take him home. And John's version of events matches up
21:27
Speaker 1: with the testimony that Amir gave at the earlier grand
21:30
Speaker 1: jury hearing.
21:32
Speaker 5: Amir testified in his own defense, and so the jury
21:35
Speaker 5: had Amir's version of what happened, and his explanation, as
21:39
Speaker 5: I just said, is backed up by witnesses and by
21:43
Speaker 5: telephone records and by the business records of this Buds taxi. Right,
21:47
Speaker 5: But it didn't it didn't matter to the jury. The
21:51
Speaker 5: jury credits the officer's version of events and they convict him.
22:01
Speaker 2: It was surreal. I guess the first time the reality
22:06
Speaker 2: of my situation hit me, dawned on me was the
22:09
Speaker 2: day of my sentencing, when they gave me twenty five
22:13
Speaker 2: to light. I just fell apart. I just started crying.
22:17
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe I can still feel that feeling right
22:20
Speaker 2: now in my heart as to what they did to me,
22:22
Speaker 2: and Howard felt, you know, they took my life away.
22:28
Speaker 2: You know I could. I still could not understand what
22:35
Speaker 2: motivated them to want to do what they did to me.
22:59
Speaker 2: We always believe, you know, like the truth will prevail.
23:02
Speaker 2: And once I got convicted, we believe that when we
23:06
Speaker 2: fillowed the appeal, you know, that I would win the
23:09
Speaker 2: appeal and they would be all be put in the
23:11
Speaker 2: past and then we can go on with our lives.
23:14
Speaker 2: And then as time started to go by, reality set in.
23:19
Speaker 2: I was in prison. There wasn't really much I can do.
23:23
Speaker 2: I've been assaulted, abused while I was incarcerated by staff.
23:27
Speaker 2: I'm missing a bone and my right shoulder where I
23:30
Speaker 2: was jumped by seven officers in the sergeant in attica
23:34
Speaker 2: and brutally beaten. That's a type of treatment that's like
23:37
Speaker 2: a regular thing, that's kind of like expected, as they say,
23:42
Speaker 2: for people with the type of crime that I was
23:44
Speaker 2: convicted of. They thought it was their privilege to abuse
23:47
Speaker 2: people that were incarcerated for the type of crime I
23:50
Speaker 2: was incarcerated for.
23:52
Speaker 3: You mean like a sex offense.
23:54
Speaker 2: The sex offense. Yeah, the corrections officers took it upon themselves.
23:59
Speaker 2: The you know, hurt people that had cases like mine. Yeah,
24:03
Speaker 2: they thought it was funny, you know. Yeah, I guess
24:07
Speaker 2: they thought it was their place in life to get
24:10
Speaker 2: revenge for the victims.
24:21
Speaker 1: Amir and Bonnie had gotten married in nineteen eighty before
24:25
Speaker 1: he went to prison. She continued to believe in him
24:28
Speaker 1: and to visit regularly. They were allowed conjugal visits, and
24:32
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, their son, Amir Junior, was born.
24:35
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty eight, they had a second son, Jimyor.
24:40
Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure if things had went better, we
24:43
Speaker 2: would have had more children.
24:45
Speaker 4: We had the two boys, and it was becoming complicated.
24:49
Speaker 2: I mean, I always.
24:51
Speaker 4: Thought that things were going to change, you know, because
24:53
Speaker 4: it was innocent. I thought that tomorrow is going to
24:56
Speaker 4: get out. Tomorrow, things are going to change.
24:58
Speaker 1: So what did you tell your kids over the years
25:00
Speaker 1: with their dad in prison.
25:02
Speaker 4: That he was always innocent that, you know, when they
25:05
Speaker 4: were little. That was hard to tell them things like that,
25:08
Speaker 4: you know, but they always hurt the same thing over
25:11
Speaker 4: and over, so they always believed.
25:13
Speaker 2: In his innocence.
25:15
Speaker 4: I mean, I didn't want to get into the glory
25:17
Speaker 4: parts of it, you know, it's not something you really
25:19
Speaker 4: wanted to discuss. But the kids were being subjected to
25:22
Speaker 4: things they shouldn't have.
25:24
Speaker 2: Maggie, she had two sons to raise and she had
25:28
Speaker 2: a life of her own that she had to live,
25:32
Speaker 2: so it became difficult for her.
25:35
Speaker 1: Eventually, Bonnie and Amir made the difficult decision to divorce.
25:39
Speaker 1: Bonnie later remarried and had a third son, Connor.
25:43
Speaker 2: She did what she had to do, and I respected that.
25:46
Speaker 2: It broke my heart. But the thing is is though
25:50
Speaker 2: even though she went on and made a life for herself,
25:54
Speaker 2: I was still always a part of her life and
25:56
Speaker 2: she was still there for me.
26:00
Speaker 1: Filed a number of appeals between nineteen eighty seven and
26:03
Speaker 1: two thousand, but his conviction was upheld in every case.
26:07
Speaker 1: He went up for parole seven times, but was denied
26:11
Speaker 1: each time because he refused to admit guilt for the murder.
26:15
Speaker 1: The Parole Board has since relaxed its requirement that defendants
26:19
Speaker 1: admit guilt in order to be eligible, and finally, in
26:22
Speaker 1: February of twenty eighteen, after serving almost forty years of
26:27
Speaker 1: his sentence, Amir was granted parole, but his incarceration didn't
26:32
Speaker 1: end there.
26:33
Speaker 2: I wasn't released for two more years because parole sabotaged
26:38
Speaker 2: my release, he.
26:40
Speaker 5: Couldn't find suitable housing, and the reason for that is
26:43
Speaker 5: he's got a sex offense as part of his conviction,
26:46
Speaker 5: and there were restrictions on where he can live.
26:50
Speaker 2: My family, my son were attempting to get me a
26:53
Speaker 2: place to stay, but I also still went through trouble
26:57
Speaker 2: because every time my family rented a place with the
27:02
Speaker 2: New York state law, with the registry, you have to
27:05
Speaker 2: inform the landlord as to what you're incarcerated for.
27:09
Speaker 1: Finally, Amir was able to find a housing situation that
27:12
Speaker 1: satisfied the parole board and he was officially released in
27:16
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, but the charges and the restrictions remain
27:21
Speaker 1: on his record.
27:23
Speaker 3: You're still a registered sex offender right now. You have
27:25
Speaker 3: not been cleared of that.
27:27
Speaker 2: No, I haven't been cleared of anything yet. So I
27:29
Speaker 2: am a Level three and I'm basically under house arrest.
27:38
Speaker 4: So yeah, after Jesus, I don't know how many years
27:41
Speaker 4: we've got back together again. I never stopped loving them
27:44
Speaker 4: and I never stopped believing in them.
27:47
Speaker 1: Amir is now living with Bonnie, whose husband Brian McKenna
27:50
Speaker 1: passed away in twenty twenty one. Amir is able to
27:54
Speaker 1: spend time with his sons and under certain conditions, his grandchildren.
27:58
Speaker 1: But his current status out of prison but with severe
28:01
Speaker 1: restrictions on his freedom is taking a toll.
28:05
Speaker 2: You know.
28:06
Speaker 4: It's it's hard for him just to become a grandfather
28:10
Speaker 4: at home because he's actually not fully home yet if
28:15
Speaker 4: you look at the big picture of it. We can't
28:18
Speaker 4: go to them and Vermont, we can't play with the
28:21
Speaker 4: grandchildren over there. We can't go to a Thanksgiving dinner
28:24
Speaker 4: over there, or at Easter dinner.
28:27
Speaker 1: Amir also suffers from PTSD as a result of his
28:31
Speaker 1: decades in prison.
28:32
Speaker 4: So sometimes he's got to take a step back because
28:36
Speaker 4: it just it's too overwhelming. He'll just sit there and
28:39
Speaker 4: sometimes stare.
28:41
Speaker 2: You know, I don't even know what's.
28:42
Speaker 4: Going on in his mind, and what does it look
28:45
Speaker 4: like throughout the night? He fights, he yells, he's he's
28:50
Speaker 4: got a lot of you know, things that happen to
28:54
Speaker 4: him in the sleep, and we're still learning how to
29:00
Speaker 4: control that. He's still in his back of his mind,
29:05
Speaker 4: is not released from this hole that's on him. It's
29:08
Speaker 4: rough sometimes, but I love him. He doesn't need me
29:12
Speaker 4: any harm. Here's a man that wouldn't hurt a freaking fly.
29:16
Speaker 2: We had one.
29:17
Speaker 4: Incident where it was a little rough and oh my god,
29:22
Speaker 4: didn't cry and cry and cry, and it was something
29:26
Speaker 4: that we got through and it's something we continue to
29:30
Speaker 4: get through.
29:33
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Arthur Larkin learned about a Mirror through
29:36
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Dskovic an XANNERI, who, upon his release, started a
29:41
Speaker 1: foundation to look into other cases of wrongful conviction.
29:44
Speaker 5: And he took letters from people all over the country
29:49
Speaker 5: who alleged that they were wrongfully convicted. And this is
29:52
Speaker 5: one case that he and I started working on a
29:54
Speaker 5: couple of years ago.
29:55
Speaker 3: So what was it about this case?
29:57
Speaker 1: You know, on its face, it does seem like this
29:59
Speaker 1: was a guy who was found next to a body,
30:03
Speaker 1: kind of wrong place, wrong time. So what was it
30:05
Speaker 1: about this that you were like, you know, I think
30:07
Speaker 1: this guy might be innocent.
30:09
Speaker 5: I think it's a good point you're making, because a
30:12
Speaker 5: lot of these cases, when you first look at them,
30:15
Speaker 5: you think, Okay, you know this guy saying he's innocent.
30:19
Speaker 5: Knock me over with a feather. You know, you were
30:22
Speaker 5: at the scene. You were found leaning over the body,
30:26
Speaker 5: according to your version of events, at a minimum, so
30:30
Speaker 5: there's no question you were there. What happened here. And
30:34
Speaker 5: when I started digging into the facts of the case
30:37
Speaker 5: and looking at some of the police reports in the case,
30:40
Speaker 5: you know, bit by bit, my confidence in the conviction
30:43
Speaker 5: was chipped away. And the kicker for me was the
30:48
Speaker 5: information about the knife, which was the alleged murder weapon.
30:53
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, Paula Parrish, a caseworker for the Deskovic Foundation,
30:58
Speaker 1: filed a freedom of information in law request to review
31:01
Speaker 1: the Nayak police records from Amir's case.
31:04
Speaker 5: And in this box of documents is a lot of information,
31:09
Speaker 5: a lot of stuff that was never turned over to
31:11
Speaker 5: the defense. The first document is an investigation memorandum prepared
31:18
Speaker 5: by an investigator, James Stewart, who was a DA investigator.
31:22
Speaker 2: At the time.
31:23
Speaker 3: And so what does this memo say?
31:25
Speaker 5: The memorandum says that in August nineteen seventy nine, investigator
31:29
Speaker 5: Stuart and a Nayak detective went to the Bronx terminal
31:33
Speaker 5: market and they interviewed a security supervisor who told them that,
31:37
Speaker 5: to his knowledge, the Bronx terminal market does not sell knives,
31:44
Speaker 5: which means that Joe Lenti's story about buying knives at
31:49
Speaker 5: the Bronx terminal market and selling one to Amir Zeta
31:52
Speaker 5: was highly.
31:53
Speaker 3: Suspect, So why would Lenti lie.
31:56
Speaker 5: Lenti would lie because he was under investigation at the
32:00
Speaker 5: time for selling drugs in Niak, and in July of
32:04
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy nine, about a month after he gave his statement,
32:08
Speaker 5: he was arrested and charged in a federal case. He
32:11
Speaker 5: was arrested by the Niak police working in conjunction with
32:15
Speaker 5: the FBI, and he was charged with federal drug crimes.
32:20
Speaker 5: He was indicted and he was allowed to plead guilty
32:23
Speaker 5: and got a sentence of probation. All the other defendants
32:27
Speaker 5: in that drug case went to prison, all of them
32:29
Speaker 5: who were convicted, except for Joe Lenti, he only got probation.
32:35
Speaker 1: The information that lenty could not have bought the knives
32:38
Speaker 1: of the Bronx terminal market was never turned over to
32:41
Speaker 1: the defense. Withholding evidence from the defense is known as
32:45
Speaker 1: a Brady violation.
32:46
Speaker 5: And not only that, the reports of the two officers
32:49
Speaker 5: who supposedly found the knife, their daily activity reports were
32:53
Speaker 5: never turned over to the defense. Now we've seen them,
32:56
Speaker 5: they're full of crossouts and strikeouts. They suggest that they
33:00
Speaker 5: were both at this garage at different times. They weren't
33:03
Speaker 5: there at the same time as they said they were
33:05
Speaker 5: a trial.
33:06
Speaker 3: So that would be another Brady violation.
33:08
Speaker 5: Yes, that would be clearly be a Brady violation my view, absolutely,
33:12
Speaker 5: But the jury did not know the information about the knife.
33:15
Speaker 5: And I think that if the jury had known that
33:18
Speaker 5: the police made up a story and testified inaccurately, if
33:23
Speaker 5: not outright falsely about investigating the source of that knife,
33:27
Speaker 5: and that the testimony was intended to cover up the
33:30
Speaker 5: fact that there was a witness out there who could
33:32
Speaker 5: have said that they didn't sell knives at the Bronx
33:34
Speaker 5: terminal market, it would have called into question the whole
33:37
Speaker 5: story of how how is it that this knife got
33:40
Speaker 5: into the backseat of the car.
33:42
Speaker 1: All of this points to police and prosecutorial misconduct, which
33:47
Speaker 1: in itself is basis for a new trial. But when
33:50
Speaker 1: they took a deeper dive into those recovered police documents,
33:54
Speaker 1: the team uncovered further evidence that could prove even more significant.
33:59
Speaker 5: We did make another FOIL freedom of information law request
34:03
Speaker 5: to a different agency within Rockland County known as the
34:07
Speaker 5: Bureau of Criminal Identification, and one of the things that
34:11
Speaker 5: that agency does is process crime scenes. So we requested
34:15
Speaker 5: everything that they had on this case, and we got
34:18
Speaker 5: over one hundred photographs as well as additional reports and
34:21
Speaker 5: summaries of what the investigators found that morning when they
34:26
Speaker 5: came to the crime scene after the crime had occurred.
34:29
Speaker 1: Arthur and his team showed those photographs to a renowned
34:32
Speaker 1: crime reconstruction expert, Brent Turvy.
34:36
Speaker 5: So one of the conclusions he drew after looking at
34:39
Speaker 5: all the photos is that the victim was transported within
34:42
Speaker 5: the parking lot inside of a car. You can see
34:45
Speaker 5: blood spatter on one end of the parking lot, and
34:48
Speaker 5: then you see the victim's body is found on the
34:51
Speaker 5: other end of the parking lot, and there was a
34:53
Speaker 5: large blood stain close to where the victim was apparently
34:57
Speaker 5: thrown out of a car and then dragged behind the dumpster.
35:00
Speaker 5: But in between those two areas there's no blood spatter,
35:04
Speaker 5: and you'd naturally expect a lot of blood inside the
35:07
Speaker 5: car where that victim was transported. Emir Zeta's car, as
35:11
Speaker 5: you know, was found near the crime scene. It was
35:13
Speaker 5: not driveable, it had broken down, and there was not
35:16
Speaker 5: a drop of blood in the car. So clearly Emir's
35:20
Speaker 5: car was not used in this crime. That's point number one.
35:24
Speaker 5: Point number two is he looked closely at the photos
35:28
Speaker 5: of the knife that was alleged to be the murder weapon.
35:31
Speaker 1: Remember this is the knife that the two policemen said
35:34
Speaker 1: they found in the patrol car days after the crime.
35:38
Speaker 5: He said clearly that knife was not used in this
35:41
Speaker 5: crime because if it had been, it would have had
35:44
Speaker 5: a lot more blood on it than it did. The
35:46
Speaker 5: thing would have been full of blood if it had
35:48
Speaker 5: been used to stab this woman twenty six times.
35:51
Speaker 1: Arthur believes this new evidence, along with a number of
35:54
Speaker 1: other conclusions Turvy drew from the crime scene photos, is
35:58
Speaker 1: a game changer for Amir's case.
36:01
Speaker 5: What we have now is affirmative evidence that Amir had
36:06
Speaker 5: nothing to do with this, and so we've asked the
36:08
Speaker 5: court to hold a hearing on a claim of actual
36:11
Speaker 5: innocence that Amir is actually innocent of the crime. And
36:15
Speaker 5: I really think the court should take a very hard
36:18
Speaker 5: look at everything we've presented. I really do think this
36:22
Speaker 5: is a compelling case of a miscarriage of justice and
36:27
Speaker 5: I hope the court agrees with us.
36:29
Speaker 1: But for now, until he's fully exonerated, Amir's life is
36:33
Speaker 1: still on hold.
36:39
Speaker 2: I want to go on with my life and be
36:41
Speaker 2: able to live my life like a human being, not
36:43
Speaker 2: like a trapped animal. That throle has me like, you know,
36:47
Speaker 2: caged up as I just you know, I want to
36:50
Speaker 2: be able to go and go to water parks and
36:53
Speaker 2: amusement parks with my grandkids. I am not allowed to
36:56
Speaker 2: go anywhere where there's children. I mean, they're just like, really,
37:01
Speaker 2: they literally have me designated as being an animal, a monster.
37:08
Speaker 1: What does that feel like emotionally to be called these things?
37:12
Speaker 3: A murderer, a rapist and you're none of those? What
37:17
Speaker 3: is that like?
37:18
Speaker 2: I mean, it breaks my heart. I see it in
37:22
Speaker 2: the look that people give me when they look at
37:24
Speaker 2: me like I'm an animal and I've never done anything
37:29
Speaker 2: to anybody in my life in a cool way, my
37:33
Speaker 2: mother and father raised me right.
37:35
Speaker 6: They were beautiful people. I want people to know. I
37:39
Speaker 6: want them to know the truth. I want my mother
37:40
Speaker 6: and father to finally be able to rest in peace.
37:44
Speaker 6: I don't want this to be the legacy.
37:46
Speaker 2: That I leave behind from my children and my grandchildren.
37:52
Speaker 4: We wanted all to come to an end. We haven't
37:54
Speaker 4: started living again, Maggie, you know, and that's where we
37:58
Speaker 4: need to get.
37:59
Speaker 1: At Amir and Bonnie are planning to remarry when the
38:10
Speaker 1: time is right, she says, when all of this is
38:12
Speaker 1: behind them.
38:15
Speaker 4: I envision us like getting married next to the ocean.
38:19
Speaker 7: Us being dressed in attire that we dressed in the seventies,
38:24
Speaker 7: like me in this beautiful white, easy going dressed with
38:28
Speaker 7: some flowers in my hair.
38:30
Speaker 4: And I envision him and white khakis and you know,
38:33
Speaker 4: a shirt from that time period. I do envision good things,
38:37
Speaker 4: and I envision all our kids with us.
38:39
Speaker 3: What beach do you think? Is there a place that
38:42
Speaker 3: you like?
38:43
Speaker 2: I would say down at the shore.
38:44
Speaker 4: We used to spend a lot of time down at
38:47
Speaker 4: the shore. Seaside heights, that area, those are our stopping grounds. Yeah,
38:52
Speaker 4: we both missed the shore.
39:02
Speaker 1: If you'd like to support the work of the Jeffrey
39:04
Speaker 1: Deskovic Foundation for Justice, please go to the link in
39:08
Speaker 1: the episode description, and we'll also have a link to
39:11
Speaker 1: amersko fund me campaign to help support him in his
39:14
Speaker 1: new life. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with
39:25
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling. Please support your local innocence organizations and go
39:29
Speaker 1: to the links in the episode description to see how
39:32
Speaker 1: you can help. I'd like to thank our executive producers
39:35
Speaker 1: Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis, as well as
39:38
Speaker 1: senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Kathleen Fink, story editor Hannah Beal,
39:43
Speaker 1: and researcher Shelby Sorels. Mixing and sound design are by
39:47
Speaker 1: Jackie Pauley, with additional production by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall.
39:52
Speaker 1: The music in this production is by three time OSCAR
39:55
Speaker 1: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on
39:59
Speaker 1: all social media platforms at Lava for Good and at
40:02
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on all platforms
40:06
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