Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #281 Maggie Freleng with Troy Burner

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#281 Maggie Freleng with Troy Burner · Wrongful Conviction

0:01
Speaker 1: You know, Maggie.
0:02
Speaker 2: Sometimes we see cases where someone's almost on the verge
0:05
Speaker 2: of being exaggerated and they die, and yet the attorneys
0:09
Speaker 2: or the innis's projects, whoevers of all the case continue
0:11
Speaker 2: the fight to prove their innocence. Many people must wonder
0:15
Speaker 2: why don't they just drop it at that point the
0:18
Speaker 2: person's gone, you.
0:20
Speaker 3: Know, I think specifically because these people's families still exist,
0:23
Speaker 3: and they're still around, and there's generations of kids and
0:27
Speaker 3: grandkids that want to have justice for their loved one
0:31
Speaker 3: and for themselves. So I think it's it's really important
0:36
Speaker 3: to make sure that all of these wrongs are righted.
0:41
Speaker 4: You know, as I sat there and I talked to him,
0:44
Speaker 4: and he was just hooked up to so many machines,
0:47
Speaker 4: and I whispered in his ear and said, how are
0:51
Speaker 4: you going to come back in my life? And you're
0:53
Speaker 4: just going to die on me? You can't be my
0:54
Speaker 4: husband if you die right.
0:58
Speaker 5: From love of for good, this wrongful conviction with Maggie
1:01
Speaker 5: Freeling today Troy Berner. On April twenty first, nineteen ninety,
1:17
Speaker 5: twenty seven year old Michael Wilson was walking with his
1:20
Speaker 5: friend Joseph Kinnard when two masked gunmen suddenly ambushed them.
1:25
Speaker 5: Joseph fled unharmed, but Michael was shot at least six times.
1:29
Speaker 5: He passed away days later in the hospital. Although Michael
1:33
Speaker 5: named his attackers before he died, investigators were somehow at
1:37
Speaker 5: a loss and the case went cold for three years.
1:40
Speaker 5: But in the years following the crime, things heated up
1:43
Speaker 5: when police arrested multiple men looking to strike deals in
1:47
Speaker 5: exchange for lighter sentences. Troy Berner's name was dragged into
1:51
Speaker 5: this process. Eventually, among various conflicting statements, Troy was named
1:57
Speaker 5: as one of the people present at Michael Wilson's shoe
2:00
Speaker 5: ready to go with a gun in his hands. Troy
2:05
Speaker 5: was a good kid with an impressive job a radiology
2:08
Speaker 5: aid at George Washington University Hospital, and he had an
2:11
Speaker 5: alibi for the time of the shooting. But Troy's career
2:14
Speaker 5: and life trajectory unfortunately came to a quick halt when
2:18
Speaker 5: his name got caught up in an elaborate murder plot.
2:24
Speaker 6: You know, my whole thing was, you know, I didn't
2:27
Speaker 6: have nothing to do with it, so, you know, and
2:29
Speaker 6: they're not gonna be able to find nobody to say
2:30
Speaker 6: I had nothing to do with it. So you know,
2:32
Speaker 6: I held on to that, you know, that belief on
2:35
Speaker 6: don't where they say the truth that you're free.
2:40
Speaker 1: My name is Troy Burner.
2:42
Speaker 6: I was wrongly convicted, serving twenty four years, eight months
2:45
Speaker 6: and twenty two days.
2:55
Speaker 5: Troy Burner was born in Southeast Washington, d C. On
2:59
Speaker 5: August thirtieth, nineteen seventy.
3:01
Speaker 1: Two, to Janie Berner and Janie Burner.
3:06
Speaker 6: Know that's a joke that I do because I say
3:08
Speaker 6: my mother is my father.
3:09
Speaker 1: But oh, Clarence avel.
3:13
Speaker 5: Smell, So were your parents not together?
3:16
Speaker 1: Didn't know they know they were. I was raised by
3:19
Speaker 1: my mom and my two grandmothers.
3:25
Speaker 5: Troy is the oldest of five siblings. He says in
3:28
Speaker 5: many ways he was like a father figure even within
3:31
Speaker 5: his extended family. As a teen, Troy got into boxing
3:36
Speaker 5: and would bring his pack of siblings, cousins, nieces, and
3:39
Speaker 5: nephews to his matches. He remembers the times they all
3:42
Speaker 5: hung out, and especially remembers his cousin Carlos.
3:46
Speaker 6: You know, I used to take him to the gym
3:47
Speaker 6: with me and he was like, man, I remember when
3:50
Speaker 6: you was in there and you was spawned with such
3:52
Speaker 6: and such, you was doing this man, we were so happy.
3:54
Speaker 1: We was jumping around. Well.
3:55
Speaker 6: I remember when you know, I came to your fight
3:58
Speaker 6: and you know, and things of that nation. You know,
4:00
Speaker 6: we might just be talking and I'd be just telling
4:02
Speaker 6: him how funny he is, you know, I mean, he
4:05
Speaker 6: might be like you say, I'm funny, you know, like
4:09
Speaker 6: where you think I get it from, you know, and
4:12
Speaker 6: really it don't come from me. But you know, just
4:15
Speaker 6: the fact that you know, we think enough for me
4:17
Speaker 6: to say that, it means a great deal.
4:24
Speaker 5: Troy also had a lot of neighborhood friends.
4:30
Speaker 4: I remember saying, this little kid and I would get excited,
4:33
Speaker 4: you know, ears sticking out, little ears sticking out, socks
4:38
Speaker 4: up to here. It's like, oh, here, come Troy.
4:40
Speaker 5: You know this is Shari. She grew up with Troy.
4:44
Speaker 1: You didn't have to say that.
4:45
Speaker 6: There's no way that she would have known that my
4:47
Speaker 6: ear is stuck out from my head if you didn't
4:49
Speaker 6: say that.
4:53
Speaker 5: Seri's mom and Troy's mom were friends as children.
4:57
Speaker 4: You know, we played together. We were you know, even
5:00
Speaker 4: back then we were we were really close. Our parents
5:04
Speaker 4: did get together. My mom being a single mom, they
5:08
Speaker 4: kind of kept us, you know, close together.
5:12
Speaker 1: You know.
5:13
Speaker 4: Happenmstance and you know circumstances in life. We grew and
5:18
Speaker 4: he went one way. I went one way.
5:25
Speaker 5: At sixteen, Troy dropped out of school, but he wasn't
5:28
Speaker 5: done with his education. He got his ged before his
5:31
Speaker 5: class graduated and went on to become a radiology aid
5:34
Speaker 5: at George Washington University Hospital.
5:38
Speaker 6: There were a lot of things that you know, I
5:41
Speaker 6: was doing and would have liked to have further. You
5:46
Speaker 6: know that again, that was one of the things, like
5:48
Speaker 6: I said in hindsight, you know, that would definitely have
5:50
Speaker 6: been something that I could have went on and done further. Unfortunately,
5:57
Speaker 6: I'm a I'm a man of many unfulfilled dreams.
6:03
Speaker 5: Not long after he started his radiology job, when he
6:06
Speaker 5: was only seventeen, Troy was pulled into the criminal legal
6:09
Speaker 5: system and his dreams were shattered.
6:14
Speaker 6: You know, I just think, you know, there was a
6:16
Speaker 6: particular time, man, that there was so many things that
6:18
Speaker 6: I could have done, and you know, the opportunities was
6:21
Speaker 6: taken from me.
6:29
Speaker 5: Justin heads up, there are a lot of names to
6:31
Speaker 5: keep track of with this story, so pay careful attention.
6:37
Speaker 5: Shortly after nine pm on April twenty first, nineteen ninety,
6:41
Speaker 5: Michael Wilson and Joseph Kinnard, both twenty seven, were walking
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Speaker 5: down Fifteenth Street in Washington, d C. They had just
6:48
Speaker 5: met up with Michael's girlfriend, Jerry, her brother, and their friend.
6:53
Speaker 5: The trio left Michael and Joseph and got in their
6:55
Speaker 5: car to leave. They had only driven half a block
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Speaker 5: before they heard gunfire. The shots were from two masked
7:01
Speaker 5: gunmen who all of a sudden were ambushing Michael and Joseph.
7:07
Speaker 5: Joseph fled unharmed, but Michael was shot at least six
7:10
Speaker 5: times in the back as he was trying to escape.
7:13
Speaker 5: At the hospital, he was fortunately able to tell his
7:15
Speaker 5: girlfriend Jerry who shot him. On a piece of paper,
7:18
Speaker 5: he wrote the names Lewis and Little Rick, but that
7:21
Speaker 5: was all she would get. On May eighth, Michael succumbed
7:25
Speaker 5: to his wounds and passed away in the hospital. Although
7:30
Speaker 5: Michael gave the names of his attackers, investigators didn't follow
7:33
Speaker 5: up on these leads and the case went cold for
7:36
Speaker 5: almost three years. But in nineteen ninety one things started
7:43
Speaker 5: to shift when police arrested a man named Antonio Johnson.
7:47
Speaker 5: He was busted with an uzi and other guns, as
7:50
Speaker 5: well as five hundred grams of crap cocaine. Facing serious charges,
7:55
Speaker 5: he agreed to cooperate with the prosecution and became an informant.
8:00
Speaker 5: Johnson eventually wound up helping prosecutors in more than three
8:03
Speaker 5: dozen cases and earning quite a bit of money in exchange.
8:09
Speaker 5: About a year later, in nineteen ninety two, after he
8:12
Speaker 5: had already agreed to cooperate with the police, Johnson implicated
8:16
Speaker 5: four people in the shooting of Michael Wilson, Louis lou
8:20
Speaker 5: McCoy and Rick Harad, the two men who Michael named
8:23
Speaker 5: before he died, as well as Frank Brackmoort and Troy Berner. However,
8:27
Speaker 5: Johnson clarified that Troy did not fire his gun. Did
8:33
Speaker 5: you know the people involved in this crime? Were you
8:36
Speaker 5: familiar with any of them?
8:38
Speaker 6: Well, my co defenders I know him, and that was
8:41
Speaker 6: essentially you know how I got, you know, swept up
8:44
Speaker 6: into the victim itself.
8:45
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
8:47
Speaker 6: Well, for all respect, do God blessed day. I mean,
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Speaker 6: it's not possible if you walked in my face right now,
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Speaker 6: I wouldn't know.
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Speaker 1: Who he was.
9:02
Speaker 5: About four months later, a man named Antoine Peyton was
9:05
Speaker 5: arrested for a murder that took place a few months
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Speaker 5: before Michael Wilson's and only two blocks away from where
9:11
Speaker 5: Wilson was shot, and when he was arrested for that murder,
9:14
Speaker 5: Peyton was actually already in prison for two drug convictions.
9:18
Speaker 5: To avoid more charges, Peyton started giving information in the
9:21
Speaker 5: Michael Wilson case, and he ended up giving the same
9:24
Speaker 5: names that Johnson did, low Rick, Brockmoort, and Troy. Eventually,
9:30
Speaker 5: Peyton was offered a plea deal to confess to his
9:32
Speaker 5: murder case for a lesser charge. The deal was he
9:35
Speaker 5: had to give a statement and testify at the Michael
9:38
Speaker 5: Wilson murder trial. Peyton agreed.
9:42
Speaker 6: You know, it was a particular time in DC and
9:44
Speaker 6: they have all these collaborative law enforcement investigations going on,
9:49
Speaker 6: and they trying to close all these cold cases, and
9:54
Speaker 6: this case came up.
10:01
Speaker 5: On March fifteenth, nineteen ninety three, almost exactly three years
10:05
Speaker 5: after Michael Wilson's death, a grand jury investigation into his
10:08
Speaker 5: murder began. The important thing about this, though, was that
10:12
Speaker 5: Troy was not named as a subject of the investigation,
10:16
Speaker 5: only lou Rick and Brackmoort. At this point, Troy had
10:21
Speaker 5: not been named by the government at all. Initially, Peyton
10:26
Speaker 5: had told police that he didn't witness the shooting, but
10:29
Speaker 5: in front of the grand jury, he testified that he
10:31
Speaker 5: knew about the plant hate on Michael and that he
10:34
Speaker 5: drove to the scene and parked in an alley to watch.
10:37
Speaker 5: Peyton said he saw lou and Rick chase down Michael
10:40
Speaker 5: and shoot him, and that Troy was not there. He
10:43
Speaker 5: said that after the shooting, they all went to Brackmort's apartment,
10:46
Speaker 5: including Troy. Everyone was angry at Troy for not showing
10:50
Speaker 5: up at the scene, and according to Peyton, Troy said
10:53
Speaker 5: he didn't participate because there would have been crossfire. A
10:58
Speaker 5: grandeurer followed up with a question why would Troy have
11:01
Speaker 5: been afraid of the crossfire, and Peyton changed his story again.
11:05
Speaker 5: He replied that Troy actually was at the scene of
11:08
Speaker 5: the crime, but that he didn't have a gun or
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Speaker 5: do anything. This was the first time Peyton actually placed
11:14
Speaker 5: Troy at the scene, and it sealed Troy's fate. On
11:19
Speaker 5: April twentieth, nineteen ninety three, the gran jury indicted all
11:23
Speaker 5: four men, lou Rick, Brackmoort, and Troy on charges of
11:27
Speaker 5: first degree murder. So when you get charged.
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Speaker 3: What are you thinking, like, you have everything going for you,
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Speaker 3: you have a great life, You're making moves, and now
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Speaker 3: suddenly you're in the middle of a murder and you
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Speaker 3: are charged with this murder.
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Speaker 1: Well, initially, you know, I really didn't.
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Speaker 6: I really didn't have any thoughts on it because you know,
11:49
Speaker 6: my whole thing was, you know, I didn't have nothing
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Speaker 6: to do with it, so you know, and they not
11:55
Speaker 6: gonna beb to find nobody to say I had nothing
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Speaker 6: to do with it.
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Speaker 1: So you know, I hailed on to that.
12:00
Speaker 6: You know that belief on't where they say the truth
12:03
Speaker 6: sessue free.
12:15
Speaker 5: The trial against the men started a year later. The
12:18
Speaker 5: judge who oversaw the trial, Judge John H. Suda, denied
12:22
Speaker 5: a request by Troy's attorney to have him tried separately
12:25
Speaker 5: from his co defendants. At the trial, Antoine Payton testified
12:30
Speaker 5: again and gave yet another story on what exactly happened
12:34
Speaker 5: the night of the shooting and the days leading up
12:36
Speaker 5: to it. In this version, he said he saw Troy
12:39
Speaker 5: with a gun in his hands. Antonio Johnson, the first informant,
12:43
Speaker 5: also testified that he heard Brackmoort brag about ordering the
12:47
Speaker 5: other guys to shoot but that Troy didn't do so
12:50
Speaker 5: because his gun was jammed, and Michael Wilson's girlfriend and
12:54
Speaker 5: her brother also testified during the trial. They said they
12:57
Speaker 5: only saw two attackers. Even with contradiction after contradiction by
13:02
Speaker 5: the state's witnesses, the case against Troy and his co
13:05
Speaker 5: defendants was enough for the jury, and just over four
13:09
Speaker 5: years after the murder of Michael Wilson, all four men
13:12
Speaker 5: were convicted of first degree murder. Troy was sentenced to
13:16
Speaker 5: thirty years to life, the longest sentence of them all.
13:28
Speaker 5: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
13:33
Speaker 5: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
13:37
Speaker 5: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
13:40
Speaker 5: in the communities where we work and live. In light
13:43
Speaker 5: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
13:47
Speaker 5: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
13:52
Speaker 5: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
13:56
Speaker 5: other support to underrepresented communities and individual wolves. Troy entered
14:04
Speaker 5: prison when he was twenty one years old. A few
14:07
Speaker 5: years went by, and then one day in two thousand
14:09
Speaker 5: and nine, Troy was approached by a new arrival at
14:13
Speaker 5: the prison, a.
14:14
Speaker 6: Guy came down, you know from another institution, you know,
14:18
Speaker 6: somebody from DC, and he was like, man, I was
14:22
Speaker 6: out talking to this dude and he was like, man,
14:24
Speaker 6: he said, he think he got something that belonged to you.
14:27
Speaker 5: Troy had no idea what it was, so he made
14:29
Speaker 5: a point to meet this person.
14:32
Speaker 6: So, you know, we set up a time to meet
14:34
Speaker 6: the guy on the yard, on the reck yard, and
14:37
Speaker 6: we walked on the yard and the dude pulled out
14:39
Speaker 6: a payment said he said, I think this you. He said,
14:42
Speaker 6: because since I've been here, I've been hearing your name.
14:44
Speaker 6: He said, I think this you. And it was AffA
14:47
Speaker 6: David from Answan.
14:49
Speaker 5: Peyton Antoine Peyton, the state star witness in Troy's trial,
14:59
Speaker 5: had recanted. In the signed affidavit, Peyton admitted he lied
15:04
Speaker 5: about being at the scene of the crime and lied
15:07
Speaker 5: about Troy being there. Troy now had something he could
15:12
Speaker 5: use to help prove his innocence, so he got to work.
15:16
Speaker 5: For the next six years, Troy read up on law
15:18
Speaker 5: and in twenty fifteen, without the help of a lawyer,
15:21
Speaker 5: filed a motion for innocence. The petition included Peyton's recantation,
15:26
Speaker 5: as well as an affidavit from Rickharrod saying that only
15:30
Speaker 5: he and Lou chased and shot the victims, Troy was
15:34
Speaker 5: not with them. This new account by Rick was exactly
15:37
Speaker 5: what Michael had expressed in the first place. Also, by
15:40
Speaker 5: this time, Antonio Johnson had admitted that the prosecutors essentially
15:45
Speaker 5: told him what to say at trial, but the motion
15:51
Speaker 5: was denied. Troy then reached out to the mid Atlantic
15:54
Speaker 5: Innocence Project or MAIP.
15:57
Speaker 7: You know, Troy had done a lot of work on
15:59
Speaker 7: his case and presented some new evidence to us that
16:03
Speaker 7: got us interested and had us dig deeper.
16:06
Speaker 5: This is Francis Walters. She's the former legal director of
16:09
Speaker 5: the mid Atlantic Innocence Project and is now an attorney
16:12
Speaker 5: advisor at the Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney.
16:16
Speaker 5: Francis was Troy's post conviction attorney.
16:20
Speaker 7: What stood out in Troy's case was that there was
16:23
Speaker 7: very minimal evidence of any involvement in the crime, and
16:29
Speaker 7: it's pretty unusual to have someone convicted on such minimal
16:33
Speaker 7: evidence and then to have this recantation. It really it
16:38
Speaker 7: wasn't hard to come to the conclusion that Troy was innocent.
16:42
Speaker 5: Troy's team went out and confirmed the recantation from Peyton.
16:45
Speaker 5: They also discovered more information about him.
16:49
Speaker 7: One of the things that had happened was Peyton said
16:52
Speaker 7: in an affidavit that he had expected Troy to help
16:55
Speaker 7: him out in one of his own cases, and he
16:58
Speaker 7: got angry when Troy did, and so he said, you
17:02
Speaker 7: know what, I'm just going to throw him in there.
17:04
Speaker 5: Remember, Peyton had made a deal with the police to
17:07
Speaker 5: testify for leniency in his own murder case.
17:10
Speaker 7: We found like an FBI memo that said he was
17:12
Speaker 7: like the most prolific confidential informant they had ever used.
17:18
Speaker 5: The team continued to investigate Troy's conviction and they uncovered
17:21
Speaker 5: some alibi witnesses who could help clear his name.
17:25
Speaker 7: A couple of people who were from the neighborhood where
17:28
Speaker 7: the shooting took place. They learned about Troy's Andcartridge many
17:32
Speaker 7: years later, and when they learned about it, they said,
17:35
Speaker 7: what Troy was playing dice with us? Again, not someone
17:39
Speaker 7: who was close to Troy, And he said, but we
17:41
Speaker 7: were all from this laundry room and we were all
17:44
Speaker 7: playing dice together, and so he couldn't have been there.
17:47
Speaker 7: So all those pieces of evidence we brought to the court.
17:51
Speaker 5: In twenty seventeen, Maip, along with attorneys Seth Rosenthal and
17:55
Speaker 5: Laurence stock Smith from the law firm Venable, LP, filed
17:59
Speaker 5: a new motion in twenty eighteen. They were granted an evidence.
18:03
Speaker 5: You're hearing.
18:04
Speaker 7: So it's Monday Tuesday. So Lou testified, Rick testified, to
18:08
Speaker 7: alibi witnesses testified.
18:10
Speaker 5: Usually a judge takes weeks or months to rule, but
18:13
Speaker 5: in this case, it only took a week.
18:18
Speaker 7: The court had called us back because he was ready
18:21
Speaker 7: to resentence Troy to time served and let him be
18:27
Speaker 7: released from incarceration. At that point, it was an amazing day.
18:34
Speaker 7: I mean, we thought it would happen, but you just
18:36
Speaker 7: never know, and so that was pretty special that the
18:39
Speaker 7: judge did that the very week that we presented all
18:44
Speaker 7: the evidence of innocence.
18:48
Speaker 5: Although Troy was released on time served, he was still
18:51
Speaker 5: not exonerated at this point, but he continued to work
18:54
Speaker 5: on his innocence claim while out and about enjoying life.
18:58
Speaker 5: One night he was out at a club.
19:00
Speaker 4: I looked up and I just saw him walking through
19:03
Speaker 4: the club, and you know, in my mind, the first
19:05
Speaker 4: thing that flashed back was, you know, the little boy
19:08
Speaker 4: with earsticking out, and I lugged and I said, that's Troy.
19:12
Speaker 1: Burner And I ran.
19:14
Speaker 4: Over there and he gave me a hug and he
19:16
Speaker 4: was like, little Cherie, you're back. And I'm like where
19:19
Speaker 4: you been?
19:20
Speaker 6: And he's like, you didn't know?
19:22
Speaker 4: I said, well, I know some, but you know, not everything.
19:26
Speaker 5: Over the years, Troy and Shari's mothers had stayed in touch,
19:29
Speaker 5: and so Shari had heard little bits here and there
19:32
Speaker 5: about Troy's situation.
19:35
Speaker 4: He you know, he sat down and we talked, and
19:39
Speaker 4: he explained and told me everything that happened.
19:44
Speaker 5: From that point forward, Shari says she and Troy became
19:46
Speaker 5: close again, like the women they were kids. A romance
19:50
Speaker 5: soon developed and they were inseparable. So what happened next?
19:57
Speaker 7: Yeah, so he was on parole and and then Troy
20:02
Speaker 7: got really, really sick, and.
20:07
Speaker 1: That was.
20:08
Speaker 7: Scary for everyone, thinking that he could die. Before even
20:14
Speaker 7: having a decision in his innocence case.
20:24
Speaker 5: In twenty nineteen, Troy was diagnosed with the flu and pneumonia.
20:28
Speaker 5: His condition was so bad it looked like he might
20:30
Speaker 5: not make it.
20:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, they put me in a comb expired wife.
20:39
Speaker 4: And his mom she called me and she she woke
20:43
Speaker 4: me up one night and she said they lost him,
20:47
Speaker 4: and I think I panicked, and she said, baby, calm down,
20:51
Speaker 4: he's back. They brought him back. And you know, I
20:53
Speaker 4: was like, man, don't do that, you know, don't call
20:56
Speaker 4: me right away and say they lost him. But yes,
21:00
Speaker 4: so she called and she said, well, she said, I
21:02
Speaker 4: just want you to know. She said, he's back, you know,
21:06
Speaker 4: just get up there and go see him, you know.
21:09
Speaker 4: So I sat there and I talked to him, and
21:12
Speaker 4: he was just hooked up to so many machines, and
21:16
Speaker 4: you know, it was just kind of hard to look
21:19
Speaker 4: at him for a little bit. But then I just
21:23
Speaker 4: I remember leaning over him, whispering in his ear because
21:26
Speaker 4: she said, you know, just go talk to him. You
21:28
Speaker 4: know he can hear you.
21:29
Speaker 1: He's just resting. Go talk to him.
21:32
Speaker 4: And I whispered in his ear. I said, how are
21:34
Speaker 4: you going to come back in my life? And they're
21:35
Speaker 4: just going to die on me. You can't be my
21:37
Speaker 4: husband if you die, right, and.
21:38
Speaker 7: So get his eyes just pop open right then?
21:43
Speaker 4: You know that would have that would have been yeah,
21:47
Speaker 4: that would have been a story, you know, but surely
21:50
Speaker 4: you know, about a month or so after that, his
21:52
Speaker 4: mom she called me and she was just he's back.
22:02
Speaker 5: Troy was put in rehab and Shari went to see
22:04
Speaker 5: him there.
22:06
Speaker 4: You know, he just gave me the biggest hug and
22:09
Speaker 4: he told me.
22:09
Speaker 7: He was like, you know, you're going to be my wife.
22:12
Speaker 4: And I said, well, you must have heard what I
22:14
Speaker 4: said to you then, huh, And he was just kind
22:17
Speaker 4: of looking at me, like, what are you talking about. Later,
22:20
Speaker 4: I said, you know said I whispered in your ear.
22:22
Speaker 4: You know you must have heard what I said too.
22:34
Speaker 5: Troy was alive and with his love, but he was
22:37
Speaker 5: still a prisoner of the state working on his innocence claim.
22:41
Speaker 5: On March twenty second, twenty twenty, he left rehab, but
22:44
Speaker 5: he didn't have to wait long to hear the news
22:46
Speaker 5: he had been waiting for.
22:53
Speaker 1: I desgonerated in March twenty six, just four.
22:56
Speaker 7: Days after he finished rehab, when we weren't sure he
23:00
Speaker 7: was going to make it.
23:01
Speaker 5: Wow, at forty eight years old, Troy was a free man. Today,
23:09
Speaker 5: Troy is an associate with the Justice Policy Institute, helping
23:12
Speaker 5: others who have been wrongfully convicted. He's also involved with
23:16
Speaker 5: other organizations that help people caught up in the criminal
23:19
Speaker 5: legal system, including the organization Changing Perceptions, which helps formally
23:24
Speaker 5: incarcerated people adjust to life outside prison. Troy has published
23:28
Speaker 5: multiple articles about the criminal legal system as well. In
23:35
Speaker 5: March twenty sixth, twenty twenty one, exactly one year from
23:39
Speaker 5: his exoneration, Troy and Shari got married.
23:43
Speaker 7: So what are what are y'all's plans hope streams for
23:46
Speaker 7: the future.
23:48
Speaker 4: Well, I have four children from a previous marriage that
23:52
Speaker 4: they've all adopted him.
23:55
Speaker 1: So he is Polish. How's that?
24:00
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, he's like the ultimate stepdad and pop pop.
24:06
Speaker 4: So we you know, we have seven grandkids.
24:10
Speaker 1: Oh, boys, you better not do it all boys.
24:14
Speaker 3: You know you're still very young to like you're young.
24:17
Speaker 5: You're forty?
24:18
Speaker 1: What this big fifty this year?
24:21
Speaker 4: Wow?
24:21
Speaker 1: Fifty this year? Okay, I might party all fifty states?
24:26
Speaker 1: Is city near you? Where you're at?
24:34
Speaker 5: As for Troy, he feels like he's been given a
24:36
Speaker 5: whole new chance at life.
24:40
Speaker 6: Well, you just heard the story, you know, about me
24:43
Speaker 6: being sick and the doctor told me, you know, when
24:46
Speaker 6: I got to the rehabb he said, you know, you're
24:49
Speaker 6: a miracle. You're not supposed to be here. And I
24:52
Speaker 6: told him, essentially that he was a damn lie.
24:58
Speaker 1: You know, God said otherwise wasn't my time.
25:01
Speaker 6: And even without that, you know, I had to settle
25:04
Speaker 6: my emotions down and find some acceptance and understanding what happened,
25:11
Speaker 6: because if I didn't, my emotions would have took you know, control,
25:15
Speaker 6: and just try to continue life and find, you know,
25:17
Speaker 6: that opportunity to see society again.
25:20
Speaker 1: Otherwise I would have been lost.
25:22
Speaker 6: Comes to the point, man, where it just you know,
25:24
Speaker 6: it had to be accepted, you know, to move on,
25:26
Speaker 6: because otherwise there's nothing else I can do. And being
25:31
Speaker 6: here and have an opportunity, you know, to speak with
25:34
Speaker 6: you and share my story and my understanding and also
25:37
Speaker 6: you know, on my every day, you know, with my work,
25:40
Speaker 6: you know, I just try to pour my efforts.
25:42
Speaker 1: Into that, and somehow I come to the.
25:46
Speaker 6: Realization that that would allow me to make some sense out.
25:49
Speaker 1: Of all of this.
26:03
Speaker 5: Next time on wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling, Marnie Yang,
26:09
Speaker 5: there was nobody.
26:10
Speaker 8: That could help me at that point. My parents couldn't
26:13
Speaker 8: help my attorney couldn't seem to protect us. I couldn't
26:17
Speaker 8: go to the police. They were the ones that were
26:20
Speaker 8: terrorizing us. I had just decided I'm just going to
26:24
Speaker 8: tell them whatever they want to hear.
26:32
Speaker 5: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
26:35
Speaker 5: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
26:38
Speaker 5: links in our bio to see how you can help.
26:41
Speaker 5: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flahm and
26:44
Speaker 5: Kevin Wurtis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
26:47
Speaker 5: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonya Paul, with additional production
26:52
Speaker 5: by Jeff Cliburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
26:55
Speaker 5: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Rowel.
27:00
Speaker 5: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
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Speaker 5: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
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Speaker 5: Wrongful Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
27:10
Speaker 5: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
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Speaker 5: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
27:17
Speaker 5: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
27:20
Speaker 5: association with Signal Company Number one