Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #224 Jason Flom with Eric Riddick

Transcript

#224 Jason Flom with Eric Riddick · Wrongful Conviction

0:03
Speaker 1: On November sixth, nineteen ninety one, Eric Ritick was hanging
0:06
Speaker 1: out in front of his friend's house at West Philadelphia.
0:09
Speaker 1: At the same time, just two blocks away, Eric's childhood friend,
0:13
Speaker 1: William Catlett, was fatally shot in what police believed was
0:16
Speaker 1: a drug dispute, and all eyewitnesses implicated a man named
0:20
Speaker 1: Edward Pinat Johnson. But this was Philadelphia in the nineties,
0:24
Speaker 1: where official misconduct was the norm and one shouldn't have
0:28
Speaker 1: expected investigations to follow the actual evidence. So despite all
0:32
Speaker 1: the signs pointing toward Penut Johnson and a rock solid alibi,
0:37
Speaker 1: and Eric was charged with the unmotivated murder of his
0:40
Speaker 1: friend solely on a coerce statement from a man named
0:43
Speaker 1: Sean Stevenson. So when none of the alibi witnesses were
0:48
Speaker 1: even called to testify, the trial reached a predictable outcome,
0:52
Speaker 1: sending Eric away for life in prison. In nineteen ninety nine,
0:57
Speaker 1: Stephenson finally recanted his bogus testimony, stating that he had
1:00
Speaker 1: been under pressure from both the victim's friends and the
1:04
Speaker 1: district attorney to maintain the lie. However, Eric was not
1:08
Speaker 1: even alerted to the recantation until two thousand and three
1:12
Speaker 1: the time elapsed made this earth shattering evidence inadmissible, With
1:17
Speaker 1: the key to his freedom rendered useless. Eric's appeals were
1:21
Speaker 1: repeatedly denied. It took the support of meek Mill students
1:25
Speaker 1: at Georgetown, the election of a new district attorney with
1:28
Speaker 1: a real conviction integrity unit, and almost an additional two
1:33
Speaker 1: decades to finally set Eric Riddick free. This is Wrongful
1:38
Speaker 1: Conviction with Jason flamm Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with
1:57
Speaker 1: Jason Flauhm. That's me, of course, I'm your host, and today, well,
2:01
Speaker 1: if there's a heaviness in my voice, it's because this
2:04
Speaker 1: is a heavy story. We're about to tell you the
2:06
Speaker 1: story of Eric Riddick's wrongful conviction. And one of the
2:09
Speaker 1: reasons I've wanted to tell it is because so many
2:11
Speaker 1: people that I respect have for years made this a priority.
2:17
Speaker 1: This case stands out, and this person stands out. And so,
2:22
Speaker 1: without further ado, Eric Riddick, as I often say, I'm
2:27
Speaker 1: happy you're here, but I'm sorry you're here because of
2:29
Speaker 1: what it took to get your here.
2:31
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me right off the back, I
2:33
Speaker 2: want to definitely thank you personally, you and your network
2:37
Speaker 2: for a giving voice to the voiceless, bringing light to
2:40
Speaker 2: these issues. So thank you on behalf of myself and
2:44
Speaker 2: those that are still fighting for freedom.
2:47
Speaker 3: No.
2:47
Speaker 1: That means the world to me and you know, for
2:49
Speaker 1: our listeners, I'm sure that you won't be surprised to
2:52
Speaker 1: hear that this is a Philadelphia case. There was an
2:55
Speaker 1: incredible pull quote in the article about Tony Wright's a
2:57
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction case in Rolling Stone Magny where it said
3:00
Speaker 1: that in the nineties, a black man had a better
3:02
Speaker 1: chance of getting justice in Philadelphia, Mississippi than Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
3:07
Speaker 1: But just quickly before this happened, What was your life like?
3:12
Speaker 2: I was a young guy in the streets in southwest Philadelphia.
3:14
Speaker 2: I lived all my life I was living in poverty
3:18
Speaker 2: in an impoverished area. Our area that was it was
3:21
Speaker 2: a lot of good things, a lot of beautiful things,
3:22
Speaker 2: but it was also a lot of violence, a lot
3:25
Speaker 2: of drugs, a lot of mental health issues for me.
3:30
Speaker 2: Because I had both parents in the house, I was
3:33
Speaker 2: being taught and educated from two perspectives. My parents always
3:37
Speaker 2: told me to do the right thing, always told me
3:39
Speaker 2: to go to school, but I chose to also hang
3:42
Speaker 2: out with the guys in the streets, hooky school, all
3:47
Speaker 2: those things that made me susceptible to being wrongly accused.
3:51
Speaker 1: The fact is you didn't do this crime, and it
3:54
Speaker 1: should have been really obvious to everyone from the beginning
3:59
Speaker 1: that you didn't do it. But your case has so
4:01
Speaker 1: many of the hallmarks that we see in ronfuel conviction cases.
4:05
Speaker 1: It's incompetent defense, lying witness. I mean, there was only
4:08
Speaker 1: one accuser and no evidence, and no alibi witnesses called email.
4:13
Speaker 1: There were alibi witnesses and official misconduct. Let's go back
4:17
Speaker 1: to it. So this crime was your friend William kat
4:22
Speaker 1: who was fatally shot in West Philadelphia November of nineteen
4:25
Speaker 1: ninety one. So take us back to that terrible night
4:28
Speaker 1: when this happened.
4:29
Speaker 2: Well, November sixth nineteen ninety one, approximately like between five
4:34
Speaker 2: thirty and six thirty. I was on fifty eethh and
4:37
Speaker 2: Trinity Street, two blocks away from where the tragedy happened
4:40
Speaker 2: on fifty eef and Belmart During the course of that week,
4:43
Speaker 2: it was a lot of things going on with different
4:45
Speaker 2: individuals in that area dealing with the drug activities around there.
4:50
Speaker 2: We was on fifty eth and Trinity Street, myself a
4:52
Speaker 2: guy named Louis Jordan, Jeff Dawson, and Justine Joson Timak
4:57
Speaker 2: with Jordan, all of whom was my alibi witnesses that
5:01
Speaker 2: I gave to the homicide detectives. And as I told
5:04
Speaker 2: him in my statement, once we heard the gunshots, myself,
5:08
Speaker 2: Louis Jordan, and Jeff Dawson begin to walk towards where
5:12
Speaker 2: the gunshots. Said, when we got to Bellmar, we've seen
5:16
Speaker 2: that it was a crowd on a corner fifty eth
5:18
Speaker 2: in Belmar and that William Catley was shot.
5:20
Speaker 1: Okay, So the police began their investigation and many of
5:23
Speaker 1: the eyewitnesses were talking about this guy Edward Peanut Johnson right,
5:26
Speaker 1: which was a lead that they inexplicably ignored. I still
5:30
Speaker 1: can't understand why. But when they connected with Sean Stevenson,
5:34
Speaker 1: he went on to say that he saw the shooter
5:37
Speaker 1: up on a balcony about fifteen feet above William Catlet
5:40
Speaker 1: and he described the shooter as the skinny black mail
5:44
Speaker 1: in his early twenties, with a leather jacket like Eric Riddicks,
5:47
Speaker 1: but he didn't see the shooter's face. A day later, though,
5:51
Speaker 1: in a second interview, he says that you were the
5:53
Speaker 1: shooter and that you were the guy that shot William
5:55
Speaker 1: Catlet from the fire escape with a rifle that was
5:57
Speaker 1: about two feet long. Now, it came out much later
6:00
Speaker 1: that he was under pressure from both friends of the
6:03
Speaker 1: victim and from the DA to implicate you in the shooting.
6:06
Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in a little while. So
6:09
Speaker 1: what happens next.
6:10
Speaker 3: So make a long story short.
6:12
Speaker 2: On the eighth, I heard that the homicide detectives was
6:15
Speaker 2: looking for me, so my mother and my father they
6:17
Speaker 2: drove me down to the homicide detective Eighthan Reece, and
6:21
Speaker 2: I gave a statement basically stating that I had nothing
6:24
Speaker 2: to do with the crime. I was two blocks away,
6:27
Speaker 2: and here's the people that can confirm where I was
6:30
Speaker 2: at at the exact time we actually was on the
6:32
Speaker 2: portion we heard the gunshots. A detective named Paul Rich
6:36
Speaker 2: again to try to manipulate me. He said that he
6:38
Speaker 2: knew I didn't do it. He said that he knew
6:40
Speaker 2: who did it. He named the individuals who he said
6:43
Speaker 2: did it, but he was saying that being's door, I
6:45
Speaker 2: know them. That he wanted me to say that I
6:48
Speaker 2: knew that they did it. Basically, I was like, no,
6:51
Speaker 2: I'm not going to put myself somewhere where I wasn't.
6:53
Speaker 2: So then he got hostile. He starts saying that he's
6:55
Speaker 2: going to charge me with the murder. This after he
6:58
Speaker 2: acknowledged that he knew I didn't had nothing to do
7:00
Speaker 2: with it. So we went back and forth. He tried
7:03
Speaker 2: to use a termination and every time he did that,
7:05
Speaker 2: he stopped recording, he stopped writing down the things that
7:08
Speaker 2: I was saying when I was coming to give a statement.
7:10
Speaker 2: So after that didn't work, I signed my statement stating
7:13
Speaker 2: where I was at, stating the people that can gratify
7:15
Speaker 2: where I'm at, and they let me go, but let
7:18
Speaker 2: me rewind back first. One of the things that Detective
7:20
Speaker 2: Paul Rich said when he was getting hostile that I
7:23
Speaker 2: wasn't saying what he wanted me to say, and he said,
7:26
Speaker 2: before it's all over, I'm gonna charge you with this murder.
7:29
Speaker 2: He said, I don't care about the individual of God,
7:31
Speaker 2: like he said, I just need a body for a body.
7:33
Speaker 3: This is exact words to me.
7:35
Speaker 2: You're gonna get convicted, You're gonna peel it, but by
7:38
Speaker 2: the time your case is overturned, you're gonna be old
7:41
Speaker 2: gray and broke down.
7:44
Speaker 1: You know. That's that's just really freaking sinister, and you
7:49
Speaker 1: know it's I mean, it's gonna stick away for a
7:52
Speaker 1: long time. The body for a body that line, it's
7:54
Speaker 1: as if they're saying, yeah, just anybody will do right.
7:57
Speaker 1: It's like, this is what gets me, right, Why wouldn't
7:59
Speaker 1: we want the person who actually committed the murder of
8:02
Speaker 1: your friend to be brought to justice, if for no
8:05
Speaker 1: other reason then that so they don't go and kill
8:07
Speaker 1: somebody else, right, I mean everyone kept saying, like the
8:11
Speaker 1: same name, right, Edward Penut Johnson. But they followed through
8:16
Speaker 1: on their threat to you, and sure enough you were arrested.
8:19
Speaker 2: January tenth, I was arrested on a corner fifty eighth
8:23
Speaker 2: in Trinity Street. They took me to homicide detectives and
8:26
Speaker 2: they charged me with murder.
8:28
Speaker 1: And so we get to the trial, and I just
8:31
Speaker 1: want to give a brief summary, which I think should
8:33
Speaker 1: shock everybody and frankly should piss everybody off, because the
8:37
Speaker 1: prosecution's case, they, let's face it, they had no case.
8:41
Speaker 1: So what they do. They relied solely on Stevenson's eyewitness testimony,
8:46
Speaker 1: which by the way, had changed a number of times,
8:49
Speaker 1: and then was eventually recanted. Stevenson said he saw you
8:54
Speaker 1: fire a rifle from a fire escape, But the medical
8:57
Speaker 1: examiner's ballistic report with the auto which breaks down each
9:01
Speaker 1: bullet wound and the trajectory of each bullet, says clearly
9:05
Speaker 1: that none of them traveled in a downward direction. So, Eric,
9:08
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're a magician, but you'd have
9:11
Speaker 1: to be in order to shoot someone who's on ground
9:14
Speaker 1: level from fifteen feet up and not have the bullets
9:18
Speaker 1: traveling downward. I mean, it's obviously impossible. Did your lawyer
9:22
Speaker 1: bring that up at all.
9:24
Speaker 3: Through on trial?
9:24
Speaker 2: He didn't present the physical evidence dealing with the ballistics.
9:27
Speaker 2: He crossed examined that evidence, but he didn't pull out
9:31
Speaker 2: or extrapidly the exculpatory elements within the ballistics with the
9:36
Speaker 2: course called incontrovert evidence, which is scientific evidence that's proven
9:40
Speaker 2: this one accusation to be scientifically implausible. You know, he
9:44
Speaker 2: never brought that out. But also the greater tragedy in
9:47
Speaker 2: my lawyer was his ineffectiveness regarding the alibi witnesses and
9:52
Speaker 2: his opening statement. Three times he promised the jury that
9:56
Speaker 2: he was going to present three alibi witnesses refute the
10:01
Speaker 2: state's one witness. So through the whole trial, the fact
10:04
Speaker 2: find this is waiting for him to keep his promise.
10:07
Speaker 2: Because opening statements are important. You set in the stage
10:10
Speaker 2: for your defense. And he told the jury in three
10:13
Speaker 2: places in this opening statement that he was gonna present
10:15
Speaker 2: three alibi witnesses, stating that I was elsewhere at the
10:19
Speaker 2: exact time of the crime. And when the trial was over,
10:22
Speaker 2: me and him argue because he was saying he wasn't
10:24
Speaker 2: gonna present a case, and I told him to present
10:27
Speaker 2: my alibi witnesses. They was there waiting to testify. After that,
10:30
Speaker 2: me and him arguing about it, he turned to me
10:32
Speaker 2: and said, okay, okay, I'm gonna do it. And then
10:34
Speaker 2: he looked at the judge and said you're on and
10:37
Speaker 2: we rest. I'm sitting there listening and I heard him
10:40
Speaker 2: say it, but I didn't really understand until I was
10:43
Speaker 2: handcuffed and taking back to the holding cell, and then
10:45
Speaker 2: it hit me. He just disregarded what I told him
10:48
Speaker 2: to do.
10:49
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy, he literally just sent you down
10:52
Speaker 1: the river, just processed you in like your life didn't
10:55
Speaker 1: matter at all. And it's like, in a certain way,
10:58
Speaker 1: he bears as much blame the people who framed you
11:01
Speaker 1: in the first place, because it was up to him. Yes,
11:04
Speaker 1: so now he rests his case. He throws you to
11:07
Speaker 1: the wolves. The jury goes out. What were you thinking
11:11
Speaker 1: when they went out? Did you still think that there
11:13
Speaker 1: was still a chance that justice would be served?
11:16
Speaker 3: Yes?
11:16
Speaker 2: I did in my mind and my naive mind at
11:19
Speaker 2: the time. I was saying to myself, it's no way
11:23
Speaker 2: in the world that they're going to convict me on
11:25
Speaker 2: a crime that I did not do. But I didn't
11:28
Speaker 2: know the depths of the defects and the criminal justice system.
11:32
Speaker 2: But also I didn't understand the language because I actually
11:35
Speaker 2: was listening to my lawyer, and I remember going back
11:37
Speaker 2: to the holding cell saying, my lawyer, you know he
11:40
Speaker 2: killing it because I didn't understand the language. And I
11:43
Speaker 2: still was saying to myself, it's nowhere in the world
11:45
Speaker 2: that they're going to convict me, not just for a
11:47
Speaker 2: crime that I didn't commit, but a friend of mine.
11:50
Speaker 2: I couldn't fathom that, Chris. But they deliverate for three DS.
11:54
Speaker 2: They came back in the city was dead locked and
11:57
Speaker 2: he couldn't come to a conviction. Judge Paul Ribner turned
12:01
Speaker 2: around and gave them the most corrupt instructions in his
12:04
Speaker 2: own record. He put a burden on them outside of
12:07
Speaker 2: the facts, and he said, listen, we've been here three
12:10
Speaker 2: days deliverating on his keys. If y'all cannot come to
12:13
Speaker 2: an agreement, then it's going to cost the taxpayers more money.
12:16
Speaker 2: It's going to cost them more time and the courts,
12:19
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Ten minutes later, he
12:21
Speaker 2: came back with the first to be murder conviction.
12:24
Speaker 1: Wow. This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global
12:37
Speaker 1: insurance company, and by Accenture, a global professional services company
12:42
Speaker 1: with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Working to
12:46
Speaker 1: reform the criminal justice system is a key pillar of
12:48
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono program, which provides free legal services
12:52
Speaker 1: and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals most
12:56
Speaker 1: in need. As part of Eccentsure's commitment to racial and
12:59
Speaker 1: civil justice. Accenture's Legal Access Program provides pro bono legal
13:03
Speaker 1: services in partnership with more than forty organizations, bringing meaningful
13:08
Speaker 1: change to people and communities worldwide.
13:18
Speaker 2: This is very heavy to hold and wake up with
13:20
Speaker 2: a life sentence on your back. To use the bathroom
13:22
Speaker 2: with that life sentence on your back. To go to
13:24
Speaker 2: the shower and walk around every day all day for
13:27
Speaker 2: decades with that weight on your back, it's the heaviest
13:31
Speaker 2: feeling that a person can imagine. For me, I never
13:34
Speaker 2: experienced that personally because I never thought that I was
13:38
Speaker 2: not coming home. I said to myself, I'm a fight,
13:41
Speaker 2: I'm a fight. I'm a fight.
13:42
Speaker 3: You know. It fueled me.
13:44
Speaker 2: I was blessed to have strong parents and they passed
13:46
Speaker 2: their strength off to me to be able to survive
13:48
Speaker 2: in those arduous situations, hard situations. So that's what I did.
13:53
Speaker 2: I occupied my mind, I stayed in physical shape. I
13:57
Speaker 2: made a decision to learn everything that I can learn.
14:00
Speaker 2: Turned my incarceration into like a university, right. I was
14:04
Speaker 2: educated by a lot of powerful lifers that had rehability
14:08
Speaker 2: to reform themselves, and they taught me the law.
14:11
Speaker 3: They taught me how to be a man.
14:12
Speaker 2: But I was angry and I got into fights and
14:15
Speaker 2: I wanted to hurt people, just like these young guys
14:16
Speaker 2: out here now. And it was lifers that could still
14:19
Speaker 2: speak the language that I understood that taught me how
14:23
Speaker 2: to deal with it rationally. They gave me another option,
14:25
Speaker 2: and they taught me the law. They taught me how
14:27
Speaker 2: to understand the politics that the law was functioning in.
14:30
Speaker 2: You know, I learnt the law, and I fought for
14:32
Speaker 2: thirty years every day when I had sell may Say
14:35
Speaker 2: said I used to wake up in the middle of
14:36
Speaker 2: my sleep talking about Commonwealth versus Santana states that when
14:40
Speaker 2: incontrovertible evidence is repugnicant to human testimony, you reject the
14:45
Speaker 2: human testimony.
14:46
Speaker 3: They said, I used to wake up in my sleep,
14:49
Speaker 3: Lily geting.
14:51
Speaker 1: Listen, there's so much potential. Look, every time I visit
14:54
Speaker 1: a prison, you know, I always come out feeling like
14:56
Speaker 1: there's more humanity inside those walls than I see out here.
15:00
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus, Troy Coleman's calling me on the other phone.
15:03
Speaker 1: Let me actually picked this up while we're put them
15:05
Speaker 1: on speaker hold on how I can do this guated
15:10
Speaker 1: individual at s c I Somerset.
15:14
Speaker 2: It will be recorded and maybe monitored.
15:17
Speaker 1: Hey, Troy, I'm actually recording a podcast with Eric Riddick
15:20
Speaker 1: right now. We were talking about you earlier, so we
15:24
Speaker 1: got you on the speakerphone through the microphone, but he
15:26
Speaker 1: can't He can hear you, but he can't talk back
15:28
Speaker 1: to the ode hell, but he says, hello, he's thinking
15:32
Speaker 1: about you. We all are, and uh, what you do? Okay?
15:38
Speaker 1: God it call me later, all right? I mean, what
15:41
Speaker 1: the fuck?
15:42
Speaker 3: Right?
15:42
Speaker 1: That's amazing. And I know you know Troy really well
15:45
Speaker 1: and worked on his case while you were still inside,
15:48
Speaker 1: and we actually covered his case recently, and we're we're
15:53
Speaker 1: just hoping for justice for Troy Coleman.
15:56
Speaker 3: Can I say something real quick?
15:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, just the thing even with Dick case right there
16:00
Speaker 2: in Troy Coleman keys the victim in his case, Kevin
16:04
Speaker 2: Jones was a friend of mine. I grew up with
16:07
Speaker 2: the whole family, very close friends of mine, and just
16:10
Speaker 2: me even offering assistance is testimony to the injustice of
16:15
Speaker 2: even that case. Some of the family probably wouldn't even
16:18
Speaker 2: like the fact that I'm helping. But at the end
16:21
Speaker 2: of the day, right is right and wrong is wrong.
16:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And you know another guy that you knew inside,
16:26
Speaker 1: who we also had the privilege of interviewing here, who
16:29
Speaker 1: had spoken very highly of you in the past, is
16:32
Speaker 1: Meek mill.
16:32
Speaker 2: I was just talking to Meek earlier when he came
16:35
Speaker 2: to prison. He was with me for those five months.
16:37
Speaker 2: He said, when I go home, I promise you I'm
16:40
Speaker 2: going to talk about your case. I'm gonna advocate for you.
16:42
Speaker 2: And when he went home, he did everything that he could.
16:45
Speaker 2: Georgetown dealt with me because he was sitting on the
16:47
Speaker 2: podcast about his case and he brought up my case.
16:50
Speaker 2: Dan Sepian and NBC. They was introduced to my case,
16:54
Speaker 2: Desiree Pereire. She took me through the whole Rock Nation.
16:56
Speaker 2: All of these individuals is like family to me now
16:59
Speaker 2: based on Meek Mill introduced in my case and the
17:03
Speaker 2: egregiousness of it to them. You know, he's an artist here,
17:06
Speaker 2: he financially stable, but he stepped out of his comfort
17:09
Speaker 2: zone and reached back, and just his case opened the
17:13
Speaker 2: door for a lot of other cases dealing with the
17:15
Speaker 2: corrupt cast.
17:16
Speaker 3: It wasn't just my case.
17:17
Speaker 1: So then let's get to the post conviction litigation. Because,
17:21
Speaker 1: first of all, all the way back in nineteen ninety nine,
17:24
Speaker 1: that's a long time ago, the prosecution's only eyewitnessed Stevenson
17:28
Speaker 1: recanted his statement in an affidavit. He stated that he
17:32
Speaker 1: was under pressure from friends of the victim and from
17:34
Speaker 1: the district attorney to identify you. Now at the time,
17:37
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania law, the post conviction relief Act required that new
17:40
Speaker 1: evidence get ready for this be filed within sixty days
17:44
Speaker 1: to be considered on a field that's insane. And you
17:47
Speaker 1: didn't physically receive a copy of the recantation affidavit for
17:50
Speaker 1: another four years after that, which was two thousand and three.
17:53
Speaker 1: So of course this meant that by the time you
17:55
Speaker 1: filed for post conviction relief, it was way too late
17:58
Speaker 1: and it couldn't even be included. Again, what the hell
18:01
Speaker 1: where is justice in that? Okay, So his recantation continued
18:05
Speaker 1: to be an admissible which meant that you're repeated attempts
18:07
Speaker 1: to prove your innocence in the following years were routinely denied.
18:10
Speaker 2: The PCRI statue is literally an obstruction of justice. No
18:15
Speaker 2: statue have the power to subvert the concept of justice.
18:19
Speaker 2: The foundation of the judicial system is in the preamble
18:22
Speaker 2: of the United States, Count Toru, we the people to
18:24
Speaker 2: form a more perfect union and to establish justice. So
18:27
Speaker 2: now any statue that come after that is opposed to
18:31
Speaker 2: actualized justice, not subordinate justice. The legislation cannot pass a
18:36
Speaker 2: statue that obstruct evidence from coming in that can proves innocence,
18:41
Speaker 2: because they surely wouldn't do it if it proved guilt
18:44
Speaker 2: right right, The politics of corruption, culture corruption is nullifying
18:49
Speaker 2: those foundational principles that really can't be justified. But that's
18:53
Speaker 2: what happens. That's why people is in prison under wrong
18:56
Speaker 2: for conviction. And that's what makes Larry Krasner administration so
19:00
Speaker 2: damn powerful, Larry Kraft and Patricia Cummings for him to
19:03
Speaker 2: get up there and identify a culture corruption. And I'm
19:07
Speaker 2: gonna say this from being in prison and seeing it
19:09
Speaker 2: with my own eyes. I'm telling you today here on
19:11
Speaker 2: the record that there are thousands of individuals in prison
19:16
Speaker 2: that can prove today that their convictions is wrongly convictions,
19:21
Speaker 2: but they can't get the evidence in that the courts
19:23
Speaker 2: know exists.
19:24
Speaker 3: And they'll listen to it because they filed in pc
19:26
Speaker 3: of ORI's.
19:27
Speaker 2: But the courts have their hypocritical audacity to look in
19:30
Speaker 2: people faces and say, well, we see the evidence have merit,
19:33
Speaker 2: but we don't have jurisdiction to entertain it because it's
19:37
Speaker 2: time Barr.
19:39
Speaker 3: With me, when I was pro.
19:40
Speaker 2: Say, litigating, I argue I gave the judge their oath
19:44
Speaker 2: of office when they said my evidence was time Barr,
19:47
Speaker 2: and I'm saying, no, you have the inherent power of
19:49
Speaker 2: the court to adjudicate any matter that served the entert
19:52
Speaker 2: of justice.
20:04
Speaker 1: So let's go back to the post conviction litigation and
20:06
Speaker 1: how you ended up out here today, because it's kind
20:09
Speaker 1: of a miracle.
20:09
Speaker 3: Really.
20:09
Speaker 1: Now, I'm going to rewind a little bit. During the
20:12
Speaker 1: initial investigation, as we mentioned, most of the eyewitnesses told
20:16
Speaker 1: police that the actual perpetrator was Edward who went by
20:20
Speaker 1: the name Panut Johnson, but that lead was never followed
20:24
Speaker 1: up on, and Johnson himself was murdered in nineteen ninety seven.
20:29
Speaker 1: So get this, everybody. In two thousand and five, Penut
20:33
Speaker 1: Johnson's father, Bruce Reese, submitted a fucking AffA David, confirming
20:38
Speaker 1: that his son and a friend were responsible for William
20:41
Speaker 1: Catlin's death for his own da head to do that,
20:45
Speaker 1: it's so freaking heavy, and Reese, the dad wrote, and
20:48
Speaker 1: I quote this is a quote direct quote. My son
20:52
Speaker 1: had always expressed regret that mister Riddick had sat at
20:56
Speaker 1: prison for a crime that he had nothing to do with,
20:59
Speaker 1: and quote and back in twenty nineteen, all those years later,
21:05
Speaker 1: two other witnesses also signed out for David, saying that
21:08
Speaker 1: they saw Johnson shoot Williams. So that brings us almost
21:12
Speaker 1: to the president. What happens next?
21:14
Speaker 2: So as we litigate in the court and we wind up
21:17
Speaker 2: going to the conviction and tech with unit, we had
21:19
Speaker 2: a PCRI pending. My lawyer in Mecca Igwy came on
21:22
Speaker 2: board and worked with Georgetown professor Mark Howard and the
21:26
Speaker 2: three Georgetown students who making them Exnery, Taylor, Kendall and
21:30
Speaker 2: Alex They also worked with Desiree Pere's team, Jordan Seve
21:35
Speaker 2: from Rock Nation and the Refirm on the powerful Atturning
21:39
Speaker 2: and they just extended all their resources to work with
21:41
Speaker 2: my attorney in Mecca, Igwy and we filed the petition
21:44
Speaker 2: in the CiU unit. They shout it down. Initially, we
21:47
Speaker 2: re argued it because they acknowledged that I was innocent,
21:50
Speaker 2: but they were saying, well, we still feel that you
21:52
Speaker 2: may have entered into a conspiracy to commit this crown,
21:55
Speaker 2: so we're not going to entertain your petition. Larry Krazen
21:58
Speaker 2: and Patricia Cummins, they still dealing with relics of that
22:02
Speaker 2: culture corruption sometimes. Patricia Cummins took on the case herself.
22:06
Speaker 2: When they turned over the files, we found out that
22:09
Speaker 2: a firearm was found in the alleyway.
22:12
Speaker 3: Can't make this out.
22:14
Speaker 2: A broken rifle was found in the alleyway connected to
22:18
Speaker 2: the balcony where I was accused of being, and the
22:21
Speaker 2: DA tested it back then found that it didn't work
22:24
Speaker 2: and that none of the projectiles came from his rifle,
22:27
Speaker 2: so they hit the evidence. They never turned that over
22:30
Speaker 2: to the defense. So when we found that, we amended it,
22:33
Speaker 2: and that was the means in which Patricia Comings in
22:36
Speaker 2: the DA's office agreed to release me under.
22:39
Speaker 1: I mean, it's amazing, but it's not shocking, right because
22:42
Speaker 1: it's the same damn thing we see over and over again.
22:45
Speaker 1: Until we fix the system, that's going to keep happening.
22:47
Speaker 3: You know.
22:48
Speaker 2: And it's deep, like with the PCRI statue, for example,
22:51
Speaker 2: Counseling David oh who wound up being one of my
22:53
Speaker 2: greatest supporters from Philadelphia, he passed two resolutions regarding my keys,
22:58
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly one to addressed the time limitations that the PC
23:02
Speaker 2: already put on present evidence, but also he passed the
23:06
Speaker 2: resolution requested Governor Wolf depart in me things doing the
23:09
Speaker 2: record being saturated with evidence of innocence.
23:12
Speaker 1: Listen, there's so many villains in this case, but there
23:14
Speaker 1: are even more heroes at the end of the day. Right,
23:16
Speaker 1: You've got the Georgetown students, You've got Meek Mill, you
23:20
Speaker 1: got Patricia Cummins, you got Rock Nation. Oh listen, I
23:25
Speaker 1: mean was little I had to do with it, but
23:26
Speaker 1: thank you for saying that. But Dan Selepion, I mean
23:30
Speaker 1: you went from having the D team to the A team. Right,
23:33
Speaker 1: and as a result of course, justice has finally been done, delayed,
23:38
Speaker 1: but not denied. And that's a miracle. So, okay, thirty
23:44
Speaker 1: years you finally step out to breathe free air. What
23:49
Speaker 1: was that moment?
23:50
Speaker 3: Like?
23:52
Speaker 2: Oh man, well, I haven't yet found the words to
23:55
Speaker 2: explain what I felt. The greatest moment was seeing my
23:58
Speaker 2: mother's face. You know, that woman been on the front line.
24:02
Speaker 2: She did everything from going in front of the legislation
24:05
Speaker 2: Harrisburg or in front of the DA's office with bullhorns,
24:09
Speaker 2: organizing and protesting non stop. When they told me that
24:14
Speaker 2: I was going home in a half hour, that was
24:17
Speaker 2: the greatest moment seeing her face. That felt greater than
24:21
Speaker 2: the actual feeling of me going home. And since I've
24:24
Speaker 2: been home, just seeing her enjoy the moment. What people
24:28
Speaker 2: don't know is that the burden that I had to
24:30
Speaker 2: carry all these years. Was that my father, which was
24:33
Speaker 2: one of the greatest men I ever met in my life,
24:35
Speaker 2: my situation actually took his life. He always was able
24:39
Speaker 2: to protect his family, and my mother spoke about that
24:41
Speaker 2: on an interview, how his heart couldn't take it once
24:44
Speaker 2: they convicted me and there wasn't nothing that he could
24:46
Speaker 2: do for the first time to protect his children. She
24:49
Speaker 2: actually see him deteriorate after he watched his son get
24:54
Speaker 2: railroaded in court and he died shortly after that. He
24:57
Speaker 2: had a heart attack that took his life.
25:01
Speaker 1: Wow. I think anyone who has a father or is
25:06
Speaker 1: a father can probably relate. And that's literally heartbreaking. I mean,
25:14
Speaker 1: it sounds like he was a great man. And all
25:17
Speaker 1: I can say is rest and power. And if you
25:20
Speaker 1: and your family can take any solace, it's in the
25:24
Speaker 1: fact that you're out here now and you've really hit
25:27
Speaker 1: the ground running. And what I mean by that is
25:30
Speaker 1: your work with the Emergency Response Foundation or the ER Foundation.
25:34
Speaker 1: For sure. Can you tell us about the amazing work
25:36
Speaker 1: that you're doing.
25:38
Speaker 2: So I've been home three months. I'm sitting right now
25:40
Speaker 2: doing this interview, sitting in my office, the office of
25:43
Speaker 2: the Emergency Response Foundation, which is an organization that I
25:47
Speaker 2: created while I was in prison, and it's geared to
25:49
Speaker 2: address the most critical issues in two areas, criminal justice reform,
25:53
Speaker 2: stash reborn, and community development. It's amazing that nineties a
25:58
Speaker 2: guard was sitting in the cell and today I'm sitting
26:01
Speaker 2: in the office with three rooms in law books. I'm
26:04
Speaker 2: looking at the law books right now, and the main
26:06
Speaker 2: people that's going to be working in here is Axigneries
26:09
Speaker 2: on the Horton Brothers that was commutated by Fetterman. They
26:12
Speaker 2: hit the ground running, and that's the most beautiful thing
26:15
Speaker 2: about it. Everybody's coming home. We all either on the
26:18
Speaker 2: front line helping to get other wrongly convictors out or
26:22
Speaker 2: just living normal lives.
26:24
Speaker 1: So the Emergency Response Foundation, it's so many incredible people
26:28
Speaker 1: working to help other amazing people get the justice that
26:32
Speaker 1: they're seeking, that they deserve and that they've been waiting
26:35
Speaker 1: for for decades and decades. There's going to be I'm
26:39
Speaker 1: sure a number of our listeners reaching out for help,
26:42
Speaker 1: and there's also going to be people reaching out who
26:44
Speaker 1: want to help, who can help, and who want to
26:47
Speaker 1: support the work of the Foundation. So the best way
26:50
Speaker 1: to reach out or get involved is through the website,
26:53
Speaker 1: which is er Foundation on nine dot com, so it's
26:58
Speaker 1: er Foundation nineteen dot com. But it'll be linked in
27:02
Speaker 1: our bio as well. So now we have a tradition
27:05
Speaker 1: on wrongful conviction which is called closing arguments, and it's
27:08
Speaker 1: the part of the show that I look forward to
27:10
Speaker 1: each and every week because it works very simply just
27:13
Speaker 1: like this. First of all, I thank you again, Eric
27:15
Speaker 1: Riddick for just being who you are and for being
27:18
Speaker 1: an inspiration to me and so many other people both
27:21
Speaker 1: out here and on the inside. Thank you for just
27:25
Speaker 1: being here and sharing your thoughts and your incredible story.
27:29
Speaker 1: And now I'm just going to kick back in my chair,
27:32
Speaker 1: turn off my microphone, leave my headphones on, and listen
27:37
Speaker 1: to whatever else you want to share for the closing
27:40
Speaker 1: arguments of our show.
27:41
Speaker 2: So when I walked out of the courtroom, I basically
27:45
Speaker 2: see that my freedom is a further testimony that justice
27:49
Speaker 2: is in season. Me being on this show is testimony
27:53
Speaker 2: that justice is in season. Rock Nation, Meek Mill getting
27:58
Speaker 2: involved in the cases criminal justice Reform is testimony that
28:03
Speaker 2: justice is in season. Georgetown University, the people at the
28:06
Speaker 2: Grassroot becoming dissatisfied with the institutions they're supposed to serve
28:11
Speaker 2: the people, like the judicial system, the police department, advocating
28:15
Speaker 2: dissatisfaction and automatically compels change. So these are testimonies that
28:21
Speaker 2: justice is in season. I'm going to continue to fight
28:24
Speaker 2: on the front line as a vanguard with all those
28:27
Speaker 2: entities that I just mentioned. I want to thank everybody
28:30
Speaker 2: that was involved. I want to thank my attorney in
28:32
Speaker 2: mecha Iguy again, but I want to thank the grass
28:35
Speaker 2: Root and the ER Foundation. Emergency Response Foundation is going
28:39
Speaker 2: to do everything in our power to help assist in
28:42
Speaker 2: liberating those that's wrongly convicted and fighting for issues that's
28:46
Speaker 2: worthy of fighting for. Our foundation is going to create
28:49
Speaker 2: documentaries on these issues. You have many men and women
28:54
Speaker 2: that's in prisons wrongly convicted, totally actually innocent of any
28:57
Speaker 2: degree of guilt. But you have some that's innocent of
29:00
Speaker 2: the degree of culpability that they convicted for. So the
29:04
Speaker 2: ER Foundation has created what it's called an Alternative Resolution
29:08
Speaker 2: service where we find those cases, we point out the
29:11
Speaker 2: evidence that mitigate the degree of culpability, and we take
29:15
Speaker 2: it to the DA's office, the Conviction Integrity Units, and
29:18
Speaker 2: we find an alternative resolution, many of which may be
29:22
Speaker 2: a plea to a lesser degree, because that's just as
29:25
Speaker 2: much of an egregious injustice as someone that's actually complete
29:29
Speaker 2: the innocent. So were going to try to address all
29:32
Speaker 2: the issues of injustice and we're gonna build the foundation
29:35
Speaker 2: as we go along. I want to salute again the
29:37
Speaker 2: Jason Flum Show and other shows and networks like this,
29:41
Speaker 2: because we always had a voice in prison, but we
29:44
Speaker 2: didn't have those outlets. So today the Jason Flum Show
29:47
Speaker 2: and other shows this testimony that justice is in season.
29:51
Speaker 2: And the beauty about it is the universe is bent
29:53
Speaker 2: towards justice, So we always knew that these moments was
29:57
Speaker 2: gonna come. I want to thank the Crafts the Ministry
30:00
Speaker 2: for their courage. I was set on a panel discussion
30:03
Speaker 2: with Crafting and a mic came to me and I said,
30:06
Speaker 2: I never thought that I would be sitting comfortably next
30:08
Speaker 2: to the Phildelphy DA. But then I looked at him
30:11
Speaker 2: and I said, this is not the DA. This is
30:14
Speaker 2: the will of the people being manifested. You know, when
30:17
Speaker 2: the people is dissatisfied, the people is going to start
30:20
Speaker 2: networking and it's going to bring about change. I want
30:23
Speaker 2: to thank everybody, all the names that we don't know,
30:26
Speaker 2: for being vanguards on the frontline, fighting for justice, fighting
30:30
Speaker 2: for community development and all of those things. And I'm
30:33
Speaker 2: available anytime if you call on the Er Foundation if
30:37
Speaker 2: our help is needed. We are here any advice that
30:41
Speaker 2: people that's listening or that's involved want to give to
30:44
Speaker 2: the Er Foundation. We are open for any suggestions and
30:47
Speaker 2: any assistance and any help. So again, thank you for
30:50
Speaker 2: having me. Everybody have a blessed day.
31:00
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
31:03
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
31:06
Speaker 1: links in our bio now to see how you can help.
31:09
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our amazing production team Connor Hall,
31:13
Speaker 1: Justin Golden, Jeff Clyburn, and Kevin Wardis. The music on
31:17
Speaker 1: this show, as always, is by three time OSCAR nominated
31:20
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram
31:23
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast.
31:28
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Lava
31:31
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one