Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #225 Jason Flom and Laura Nirider with Brendan Dassey
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Laura. Today. October second is International Wrongful
- 0:08Speaker 1: Conviction Day, and to mark this day, we're re releasing
- 0:11Speaker 1: an episode that first came out exactly two years ago.
- 0:15Speaker 1: It's an episode that's really close to my heart because
- 0:17Speaker 1: it features my longtime clients and friend, Brendan Dacy. Here's
- 0:22Speaker 1: a quick update on worthings stand with Brendan. Although Wisconsin
- 0:25Speaker 1: Governor Tony Evers denied Brendan clemency in twenty nineteen, we're
- 0:29Speaker 1: still fighting to free him and we've been joined by
- 0:32Speaker 1: an army of supporters, everyone from legal experts to everyday people.
- 0:37Speaker 1: In fact, I want to shout out one particularly dedicated
- 0:40Speaker 1: group of online supporters that's been doing some pretty incredible
- 0:43Speaker 1: work over the past year. They've done everything from organizing
- 0:46Speaker 1: email campaigns to placing free Brendan Dasy billboards along Wisconsin highways.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Their message has reached more than one point eight million
- 0:55Speaker 1: people so far. Their dedication is amazing, and yours is tuo.
- 1:00Speaker 1: So to all of Brendan's supporters and to Brendan himself
- 1:03Speaker 1: and so many others like him. We're re releasing this
- 1:06Speaker 1: episode for you.
- 1:12Speaker 2: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flumm, you know
- 1:16Speaker 2: many of our listeners. Most of our listeners have seen
- 1:18Speaker 2: the Netflix original series Making a Murderer. It's the story
- 1:22Speaker 2: of Stephen Avery, a guy from the wrong side of
- 1:24Speaker 2: the tracks whose family owned an auto salvage yard in Manitoa, Wisconsin.
- 1:28Speaker 2: It starts off in nineteen eighty five, where Stephen Avery
- 1:31Speaker 2: was wrongfully convicted of a sexual assault, for which he
- 1:34Speaker 2: was exonerated eighteen years later when the DNA in the
- 1:38Speaker 2: case was found to match another man and his alibis
- 1:41Speaker 2: were proven to have been true all along. After his release,
- 1:45Speaker 2: in two thousand and three, Avery filed a thirty six
- 1:48Speaker 2: million dollars civil suit against Manitoa County, Wisconsin and several
- 1:52Speaker 2: of its officials. Fast forward to two thousand and five.
- 1:55Speaker 2: Teresa Halbach, a photographer known to have been photographing cars
- 1:59Speaker 2: on the Avery property when missing. The handling of the
- 2:02Speaker 2: investigation was quite controversial, to say the least, with issues
- 2:05Speaker 2: of evidence tampering, not to mention the obvious conflict of
- 2:09Speaker 2: interest in allowing Manitoa County to investigate the very same
- 2:12Speaker 2: man who was suing them for thirty six million dollars. However,
- 2:17Speaker 2: all of that aside The most damning piece of evidence
- 2:21Speaker 2: came in the form of a false confession from Avery's nephew,
- 2:24Speaker 2: Brendan Dacy, a sixteen year old boy with no criminal
- 2:28Speaker 2: record and serious mental challenges. Now, I'm honored to present
- 2:34Speaker 2: the exclusive, the one and only interview that Brendan has
- 2:37Speaker 2: ever given to anyone joining us has esteemed appellad attorney
- 2:43Speaker 2: from the Center on Romful Convictions at Northwestern University. My
- 2:46Speaker 2: friend Laura and nightrider. Laura was kind enough to pick
- 2:55Speaker 2: me up from the airport in Chicago and we drove
- 2:58Speaker 2: out to Oshkosh Correctional Facility for a pre interview behind
- 3:02Speaker 2: bars with Brandon. This left us with both time to
- 3:06Speaker 2: talk and plenty to talk about. We have had a
- 3:11Speaker 2: very eventful last twenty four hours.
- 3:15Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's been a trip I've done so
- 3:16Speaker 1: many times for going on twelve years now, and you know,
- 3:21Speaker 1: it was a trip I hoped to never have to
- 3:23Speaker 1: make again. That it's a trip that you know what
- 3:26Speaker 1: we're going to keep on doing for as long as
- 3:28Speaker 1: we have to do. Right, go out there, support him,
- 3:30Speaker 1: and I'm just glad you had a chance to see
- 3:32Speaker 1: who Brendan is, you know, to really spend some time
- 3:34Speaker 1: with him and get to know him, because he's he's
- 3:36Speaker 1: a pretty incredible guy.
- 3:37Speaker 2: Brandon is a very powerful example of a phenomenon that
- 3:43Speaker 2: amazes me and keeps me going and drives me onward
- 3:46Speaker 2: in this fight, which is that there is an absolute
- 3:50Speaker 2: and total absence of malice, anger, bitterness, self pity. Like
- 3:58Speaker 2: I don't even think he knows what those emotions are.
- 4:01Speaker 1: He's an incredible guy. I mean, you know, he was
- 4:04Speaker 1: sixteen when he went in. He's twenty nine years old now.
- 4:07Speaker 1: And during that whole period of time of knowing him,
- 4:09Speaker 1: You're right, I mean, Brendan is a sweet soul. You know,
- 4:14Speaker 1: he's a he's a simple guy. He's a funny guy.
- 4:16Speaker 1: He's gentle, he's so gentle and kind shallow. No, no,
- 4:21Speaker 1: he's not.
- 4:21Speaker 2: That's right, And in his story is one of extreme juxtaposition, right,
- 4:25Speaker 2: because he went from being a very childlike young person
- 4:30Speaker 2: adolescent into a very extreme grown up situation. You got
- 4:35Speaker 2: involved with Brennan's case at what stage?
- 4:38Speaker 1: Well, let's start with Steve Drisen, my colleague on the case.
- 4:42Speaker 1: In two thousand and seven, about three months after Brendan
- 4:46Speaker 1: was convicted. At his trial, Steve was asked to handle
- 4:49Speaker 1: Brendan's appeals going forward because of his expertise around interrogations
- 4:54Speaker 1: and confessions.
- 4:55Speaker 2: Two thousand and sevens this is lost. Yes, he was
- 5:00Speaker 2: just another of the two point two million people in prison.
- 5:03Speaker 1: That right, that's right, and Steve took the case. Now
- 5:07Speaker 1: this is two thousand and seven. Okay. So at the time,
- 5:09Speaker 1: Steve was teaching here at Northwestern Law School, and I
- 5:13Speaker 1: was a third year law student in Steve's class on
- 5:16Speaker 1: wrongful convictions. Now, I didn't intend to practice criminal law.
- 5:22Speaker 1: I actually had a career all mapped out for myself
- 5:23Speaker 1: as a business lawyer. I was going to go do that.
- 5:26Speaker 1: I had a job lined up after graduation. I knew
- 5:28Speaker 1: nothing at a law from here in town, here in Chicago,
- 5:32Speaker 1: And you know, I knew nothing about the criminal justice system.
- 5:34Speaker 1: I knew nothing about wrongful convictions. I definitely knew nothing
- 5:37Speaker 1: about false confessions. But I'd signed up for Steve's class,
- 5:41Speaker 1: you know, on a whim, try to do something off
- 5:43Speaker 1: the beaten path. And a few months into that fall
- 5:48Speaker 1: semester of my last year of law school, that's you know,
- 5:51Speaker 1: Steve called me into his office and he said, I've
- 5:55Speaker 1: just gotten involved in a case from Wisconsin involving a
- 5:59Speaker 1: six teen year old boy with intellectual limitations who confessed
- 6:05Speaker 1: to a crime that I don't think he committed. And
- 6:09Speaker 1: he handed me the interrogation videos from Brendan Dazzy's case, right,
- 6:15Speaker 1: the same videos that years and years later ended up
- 6:17Speaker 1: in making a murder. And he told me to go
- 6:20Speaker 1: watch them. So I went home. I sat down on
- 6:22Speaker 1: my couch, I got out my laptop, because this is
- 6:23Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, I pop in these DVDs and
- 6:26Speaker 1: I watched them all right, from start to finish, their
- 6:30Speaker 1: confession tapes. Yeah, and my heart broke, and I knew
- 6:35Speaker 1: that this is it. This is what I had to
- 6:37Speaker 1: do with, you know, fight for people like Brendan. So,
- 6:41Speaker 1: you know, no more business law for me. I came
- 6:45Speaker 1: back to Northwestern after graduating, and for the last twelve years,
- 6:48Speaker 1: I've been building with Steve the Center on Wrongful Convictions,
- 6:51Speaker 1: where we represent Brendan and other kids just like him.
- 6:54Speaker 2: So for the people who may not have seen making
- 6:57Speaker 2: a murder, and there are those who listen to our
- 6:59Speaker 2: show who haven't seen, Yeah, what was it? What was
- 7:01Speaker 2: the moment? What was it about those tapes?
- 7:04Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great question. You know, I actually remember
- 7:06Speaker 1: the moment. Right. It's so this is a videotape of
- 7:09Speaker 1: the entire interrogation.
- 7:10Speaker 3: Right.
- 7:10Speaker 1: He was actually questioned four times over forty eight hours,
- 7:13Speaker 1: and it was only the last interrogation that produced the confession.
- 7:16Speaker 1: You know, which I which I say in quotation marks.
- 7:20Speaker 1: But this is an interrogation where they're asking Brendan about murder. Right,
- 7:23Speaker 1: this is a murder case. So they want to ask
- 7:24Speaker 1: him about, you know, how was the victim in this case?
- 7:28Speaker 1: How was Teresa Halbach killed? Right? And and these police
- 7:31Speaker 1: going into the interrogation, they know, or they think they
- 7:33Speaker 1: know based on their own investigation, that she had been
- 7:36Speaker 1: shot in the head. So they're waiting for Brendan to
- 7:40Speaker 1: describe shooting somebody in the head, right, So they ask him,
- 7:44Speaker 1: you know, Brendan, how did you guys, you know, how
- 7:46Speaker 1: did you kill Teresa Hallbach?
- 7:49Speaker 3: And he says, we choked her.
- 7:53Speaker 1: Well, that's that's not right. So they said, I'm okay,
- 7:57Speaker 1: you know what else, Brendan, what else did you do
- 7:59Speaker 1: to her?
- 8:00Speaker 3: Did he do it? When we know something else was done?
- 8:02Speaker 3: We stabbed her?
- 8:04Speaker 1: Still not right, So they actually started not even close,
- 8:08Speaker 1: So they start dropping him hints right. They say, come on, Brendan,
- 8:10Speaker 1: something with the head, something with the head. What else
- 8:13Speaker 1: did you guys do to her? And Brendan says, we
- 8:16Speaker 1: punched her and that's still not right. So it's like
- 8:19Speaker 1: Brendan's completely at sea and he says, you know, we
- 8:23Speaker 1: we cut off her hair and his voice goes up
- 8:27Speaker 1: like that like he's asking a question and no, no, no, Brendan,
- 8:31Speaker 1: come on, what else? What else? Something with the head?
- 8:33Speaker 1: What else?
- 8:33Speaker 3: What else? What else was done to her head?
- 8:36Speaker 1: And this goes on and on and on, and finally
- 8:37Speaker 1: Brendan he must get exhausted and he just says, remember,
- 8:42Speaker 1: And the officers at that point say to him, Brendan,
- 8:47Speaker 1: I'm just going to come out and ask you.
- 8:49Speaker 3: All right, I'm just going to come out and ask
- 8:51Speaker 3: him who shot her in the hat?
- 8:53Speaker 1: And you know, Brendan says, well, that was that was
- 8:56Speaker 1: my uncle Stephen. And then, you know, comes one of
- 9:00Speaker 1: the most heartbreaking moments of the entire interrogation, because I
- 9:02Speaker 1: say to him, Brendan, why didn't you just tell us that?
- 9:05Speaker 3: Why didn't you tell us that?
- 9:07Speaker 1: And he says, because I couldn't think of it right.
- 9:15Speaker 1: He was guessing. Yeah, So let's say you're not convinced
- 9:27Speaker 1: the way I am that Brendan was guessing. Let's say
- 9:31Speaker 1: for a moment that the story was true, that this
- 9:33Speaker 1: bloody attack occurred in Stephen Avery's bedroom the way that
- 9:36Speaker 1: Brendan's confession claimed that it did. You'd expect that bedroom
- 9:41Speaker 1: and that bed to be covered with forensic evidence, blood
- 9:45Speaker 1: from a stabbing and throat cutting, hair from when her
- 9:49Speaker 1: hair was supposedly cut. I mean, think about how hard
- 9:52Speaker 1: it is to clean up hair. And of course, after
- 9:56Speaker 1: Brendan gave his confession, the police went back to Stephen
- 10:00Speaker 1: Avery's bedroom and they searched it for evidence to corroborate
- 10:03Speaker 1: the confession. They searched the bed, They searched the bedding,
- 10:07Speaker 1: the mattress, the headboard, the bed frame. They looked at
- 10:12Speaker 1: the carpet underneath the bed. They pulled that carpet back
- 10:15Speaker 1: and looked underneath the carpet. They even took the paneling
- 10:20Speaker 1: off the walls in the bedroom, searching for a single
- 10:23Speaker 1: molecule of Teresa Halbach's DNA or Brendan Dacy's DNA, and
- 10:29Speaker 1: they found nothing. This story didn't happen. It's made up.
- 10:42Speaker 2: The day after our face to face meeting at Oshkosh Correctional,
- 10:45Speaker 2: we did our formal interview with Brendan over the phone
- 10:48Speaker 2: from Laura's office at Northwestern University.
- 10:52Speaker 3: Not God Correctional Label.
- 10:59Speaker 2: Hello, Hi, Brendan. It seems like only yesterday that I
- 11:04Speaker 2: saw you, because it was only yesterday. Yeah, And it
- 11:07Speaker 2: was great to meet you. You know, Laura and I
- 11:09Speaker 2: had a long ride back to Chicago, and obviously we
- 11:12Speaker 2: talked about you a lot and things that we are
- 11:15Speaker 2: hoping to do to make a difference for you and
- 11:18Speaker 2: with you. I mean, we'll wait for the announcement to
- 11:26Speaker 2: go by. You went through an ordeal that even those
- 11:31Speaker 2: of us that have seen the show and have seen
- 11:34Speaker 2: on video parts of what happened, obviously we couldn't see
- 11:37Speaker 2: the whole thing, but none of us can understand what
- 11:40Speaker 2: it would be like to be in your shoes, you know,
- 11:43Speaker 2: to be in this impossible situation of being a really
- 11:48Speaker 2: a child at sixteen. You're still a child, You're not
- 11:51Speaker 2: a grown man, and to be going to this interrogation
- 11:56Speaker 2: where you have grown men who are interrogating you for days,
- 12:02Speaker 2: without a parent, without a lawyer, without anyone to help you.
- 12:05Speaker 2: I mean, were you scared or were you just thought
- 12:08Speaker 2: maybe if you just told the truth, everything would be fine,
- 12:10Speaker 2: or what was your thought process at that point?
- 12:13Speaker 4: Well, I just wanted it all over with, so I
- 12:15Speaker 4: said whatever they wanted to hear.
- 12:17Speaker 2: You know, most people grow up as I did, with
- 12:22Speaker 2: believing that the law enforcement are out to help us, right,
- 12:26Speaker 2: the people you call when you need help. Did you
- 12:28Speaker 2: have that same idea when you went in there?
- 12:31Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought maybe anything I can do to help them,
- 12:34Speaker 4: you know I would.
- 12:36Speaker 2: So was there a point when you were in that
- 12:40Speaker 2: horrible room where you started to worry about the outcome,
- 12:45Speaker 2: or that you thought that these men may have been
- 12:48Speaker 2: not as well intentioned as you originally thought.
- 12:53Speaker 4: Yeah, when they started saying that that I wasn't telling
- 12:57Speaker 4: the truth and that that my story didn't fit the
- 13:02Speaker 4: facts that they had, that's when I started getting worried.
- 13:07Speaker 2: There's a very good reason your story didn't fit the
- 13:09Speaker 2: vaccas you didn't know the facts. Yeah, so, Brandon, you
- 13:13Speaker 2: remember there was a time when the interrogators left the
- 13:16Speaker 2: room for a few minutes and your mom came back
- 13:19Speaker 2: into the room. Yeah, beautiful life.
- 13:22Speaker 3: To say, did you huh not? Really? We do you
- 13:34Speaker 3: need not really, huh what do you mean by that?
- 13:48Speaker 2: So was that the first time you had seen your
- 13:51Speaker 2: mom since they had started interrogating you?
- 13:54Speaker 4: Yeah, that is okay.
- 13:56Speaker 2: So what was it like to see her after being
- 13:58Speaker 2: alone with those interrogators for such a long time?
- 14:02Speaker 4: I felt that I could be safe and I could
- 14:04Speaker 4: tell her the truth. You know that they got into
- 14:06Speaker 4: my head, They got me to say whatever they wanted.
- 14:20Speaker 2: Do you think either before, during, or after that, the
- 14:26Speaker 2: detectives conducting that interrogation knew or realized that he was
- 14:31Speaker 2: actually innocent?
- 14:33Speaker 1: You know, it's a very good question, and it's something
- 14:36Speaker 1: I've asked myself right over and over again. This is
- 14:40Speaker 1: just my opinion, but I think that they were worried
- 14:44Speaker 1: that something had gone wrong. Brendan's already been in the
- 14:47Speaker 1: box for about three and a half hours. He's adopted
- 14:50Speaker 1: their their theories that he committed rape and murder and
- 14:53Speaker 1: the whole thing. And the story is over, it's done,
- 14:55Speaker 1: it's locked, and they let her into the room, and
- 14:57Speaker 1: the cameras are still rolling in the room, right and
- 14:59Speaker 1: they leave two of them alone. You know, it's my
- 15:02Speaker 1: theory that they were outside watching this all unclosed circuit
- 15:06Speaker 1: camera hoping that Brendan was going to make more admissions
- 15:08Speaker 1: to his mother. Instead, he recants one of the clearest
- 15:12Speaker 1: recantations I've ever heard, Right, Brendan using his own words,
- 15:16Speaker 1: his own ability to express himself, to tell his mom
- 15:19Speaker 1: what he had just been through. They got to my head.
- 15:24Speaker 1: And at that moment, the officers come barging back through
- 15:30Speaker 1: that door into the interrogation room, and Brendan doesn't say
- 15:34Speaker 1: another word.
- 15:37Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm getting the chills. I mean, as a parent,
- 15:39Speaker 2: it's just so heartbreaking. And look, I always say, there
- 15:42Speaker 2: are a lot of very good people in our criminal
- 15:44Speaker 2: justice system, but the ones who do the types of
- 15:47Speaker 2: things that were done to Brendan. I mean, there's a
- 15:50Speaker 2: lot of villains in this story.
- 15:51Speaker 1: Right, some unbelievable characters in the story.
- 15:53Speaker 2: Yeah, and so the system that was designed in theory
- 15:58Speaker 2: to protect the innocent and this case, to protect Brendan
- 16:01Speaker 2: failed at every level.
- 16:03Speaker 1: Right.
- 16:04Speaker 2: I mean you're starting in the interrogation room, that's right,
- 16:06Speaker 2: starting with the fact that they targeted him in the
- 16:08Speaker 2: first place. I don't really understand. I mean, I have
- 16:10Speaker 2: a theory in my own head about why they may
- 16:12Speaker 2: have done that, and maybe we'll never know, but it
- 16:14Speaker 2: seems like to me they wanted to build a stronger
- 16:17Speaker 2: case against Stephen, no doubt about it, and so they
- 16:19Speaker 2: went for the weakest length, no doubt about right. They
- 16:21Speaker 2: knew that small community, they knew that Brendan was a
- 16:25Speaker 2: simple person.
- 16:25Speaker 1: Well, that's right. And you know, one of the things
- 16:27Speaker 1: about Brendan, of course, he's got disabilities. Everybody knows that.
- 16:30Speaker 1: But his disabilities in particular are clustered around speech. The
- 16:34Speaker 1: way he speaks, the way he hears language, the way
- 16:37Speaker 1: he processes words, and the way he uses his own words. Right,
- 16:40Speaker 1: So you know, this is not a person who can
- 16:43Speaker 1: sort of weave sophisticated stories or lies or things like that.
- 16:47Speaker 1: And of course these are disabilities that are at the
- 16:50Speaker 1: center of an interrogation, right, the sort of sophisticated level
- 16:53Speaker 1: of conversation talking about you know, what could happen to
- 16:55Speaker 1: him if he didn't confess because there was a threat
- 16:58Speaker 1: in this case, what happened to him if he didn't
- 17:01Speaker 1: start adopting the story that was being fed to him.
- 17:03Speaker 1: What was going to happen on the other hand, if
- 17:04Speaker 1: he if he did agree to go along with the story.
- 17:08Speaker 1: You know, this is a really hard situation for someone
- 17:10Speaker 1: like brendan sixteen special education student in Wisconsin public schools,
- 17:14Speaker 1: a hard situation for him to navigate. He did the
- 17:16Speaker 1: best he could.
- 17:18Speaker 2: For as long as he could, for as long as
- 17:19Speaker 2: he could.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Four times over forty eight hours, these officers questioned him.
- 17:24Speaker 2: And yeah, this should have been a first round knockout.
- 17:26Speaker 1: Oh my god, he held up as long as he could.
- 17:32Speaker 3: We've been investiating a lot, it is. We already know
- 17:36Speaker 3: what happened. To be a lot easier on you if
- 17:38Speaker 3: you live on it, that's going to be wrong. I'm
- 17:40Speaker 3: your friends, Really, it's on fair place, on crap. You're
- 17:43Speaker 3: an honest person, you get a better dealt of you
- 17:45Speaker 3: going to believe on network.
- 17:47Speaker 2: I don't believe in your archetical You can't make any propises,
- 17:50Speaker 2: but we'll stand behind you.
- 17:51Speaker 3: Your mom sid you'd be honest when she's behind you.
- 17:54Speaker 3: What happens? She thinks you know more to and you're
- 17:57Speaker 3: more borner.
- 17:57Speaker 1: We already know what happened on toss exactly.
- 18:06Speaker 2: What would you tell people when they're sitting in that
- 18:09Speaker 2: jury box and they're listening to incredible testimony videotapes. Yes,
- 18:15Speaker 2: I'm someone going yeah I did it? Yeah, So what
- 18:18Speaker 2: should peopleatch because some confessions are true.
- 18:20Speaker 1: Of course, some confessions are true. Those are the ones
- 18:22Speaker 1: we want, right, it's you know, we got to screen
- 18:23Speaker 1: out the false confession.
- 18:24Speaker 2: So what do they look for?
- 18:26Speaker 1: Okay? So the big message, right, A confession is just
- 18:29Speaker 1: a piece of evidence, like any other piece of evidence. Right,
- 18:33Speaker 1: Sometimes it can be misleading, and you question it and
- 18:36Speaker 1: you examine it in the same way that you'd ask
- 18:39Speaker 1: you know, critical questions, intelligent questions about any other piece
- 18:42Speaker 1: of evidence. Right, can I trust what this person is saying?
- 18:45Speaker 1: So when you see a confession like Brendan Darcy's, where
- 18:49Speaker 1: somebody is getting the facts of the crime wrong unless
- 18:52Speaker 1: they're being told the right answer, that's a red flag.
- 18:56Speaker 3: Right.
- 18:57Speaker 1: It happens throughout Brendan's interrogation, details learned and small he
- 19:00Speaker 1: can't come up with. He's guessing, and he guesses wrong,
- 19:04Speaker 1: actually until he gets strained out by the officers. Not
- 19:06Speaker 1: just about how Teresa Holbach was killed. But he can't
- 19:09Speaker 1: decide if a shirt was black or white, right, he
- 19:13Speaker 1: doesn't know what the right answer is. Has he never
- 19:15Speaker 1: met her because he never saw her, that's right. He
- 19:17Speaker 1: can't decide if the fire was started at three PM
- 19:20Speaker 1: or later on in the evening after dark, right, I
- 19:22Speaker 1: mean he doesn't know these things. He's just guessing all
- 19:25Speaker 1: over the place. And you see this repeatedly throughout false
- 19:28Speaker 1: confession cases, because what you have in those cases are
- 19:31Speaker 1: people who had nothing to do with the crime trying
- 19:33Speaker 1: to say something that sounds believable to satisfy their interrogators.
- 19:37Speaker 2: Almost everybody I've ever met says the same thing. I
- 19:40Speaker 2: am not that guy. I'm smart, I'm capable, I'm strong,
- 19:44Speaker 2: I'm not confessing with crime and then commitment.
- 19:46Speaker 1: Everybody thinks this, right, Well, that's for other people, right,
- 19:48Speaker 1: That's for you know, maybe mentally impaired people, that's for
- 19:51Speaker 1: children maybe. So what you have to understand is that
- 19:54Speaker 1: interrogation is a carefully orchestrated set of psychological tactics that
- 19:58Speaker 1: are designed to get people off their belief in their
- 20:01Speaker 1: own innocence and designed to actually make them believe that
- 20:05Speaker 1: it will help them, that it will improve their situation,
- 20:09Speaker 1: that it will benefit them to say they did these
- 20:11Speaker 1: things that the officers think. Right, These are incredibly powerful techniques,
- 20:17Speaker 1: and every single one of us has a breaking point,
- 20:20Speaker 1: and these techniques are designed to find it. So how
- 20:24Speaker 1: does this work, right, So the way this basically works,
- 20:27Speaker 1: interrogation is generally a two stage process. The first half
- 20:31Speaker 1: is all about confrontation and reducing you down to hopelessness. Right,
- 20:35Speaker 1: we know you did this. I've got so much evidence
- 20:38Speaker 1: against you. No one is going to believe you when
- 20:40Speaker 1: you say you're innocent. Right, I've got three people in
- 20:43Speaker 1: the room next door who picked you out of a lineup.
- 20:45Speaker 1: I've got your DNA on the scene, I've got your
- 20:47Speaker 1: fingerprints on the gun. Even if none of that is true.
- 20:50Speaker 1: By the way, it's perfectly legal for the police to lie.
- 20:53Speaker 1: That's right. Not the UK, that's right, but here it's
- 20:55Speaker 1: perfectly legal for the police to lie during interrogations. So
- 20:59Speaker 1: they bring you down to hopelessness. Right, I'm not going
- 21:01Speaker 1: to listen to you say you're innocent. You're just making
- 21:03Speaker 1: it worse off for yourself. No one's going to believe you.
- 21:05Speaker 1: You're caught, you're trapped, you're screwed, You've got nothing. And
- 21:10Speaker 1: then when you reach that point of hopelessness, that's when
- 21:14Speaker 1: they offer you an out right a life raft confession.
- 21:21Speaker 1: It's going to help you. If you confess, you will
- 21:25Speaker 1: go easy on you. You know, I'll go talk to
- 21:26Speaker 1: the judge. Right, I'll see what I can do for you.
- 21:29Speaker 1: Things are going to be so much better for you.
- 21:30Speaker 1: You've got a whole life to live in front of you.
- 21:33Speaker 1: You're just a kid. People are going to understand that
- 21:36Speaker 1: over and over. But I need to hear the story
- 21:38Speaker 1: from you.
- 21:39Speaker 2: Right.
- 21:39Speaker 1: People are going to understand that you deserve help if
- 21:41Speaker 1: you cooperate. That's how it works.
- 21:43Speaker 3: Right.
- 21:44Speaker 1: These techniques are incredibly good at getting true confessions, but
- 21:50Speaker 1: they are so potent that they also get false confessions.
- 21:54Speaker 2: And this actually we're sitting here in Chicago, which is
- 21:57Speaker 2: where this was originated, right, the read.
- 21:59Speaker 1: Technique read technique actually even better than that. It's originated
- 22:02Speaker 1: here out of the work of a professor at Northwestern
- 22:04Speaker 1: Law School. Oh my god, back in the nineteen forties, right,
- 22:06Speaker 1: so before these are that's right, before these psychological techniques
- 22:11Speaker 1: were developed, interrogations were physical, right, the third degree. People
- 22:14Speaker 1: were beaten or hung out of windows. Right, this is
- 22:17Speaker 1: how it was done. And in the forties, these people
- 22:20Speaker 1: who at the time were thought of as progressive reformers
- 22:23Speaker 1: come along and say, you know what, let's stop physically
- 22:25Speaker 1: abusing people. Let's do the psychological techniques. Instead, those techniques
- 22:29Speaker 1: that were developed here at Northwestern here in Chicago back
- 22:33Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties are still being used today. Talk
- 22:37Speaker 1: about outdated even though the DNA revolution, which has been
- 22:41Speaker 1: in full swing now for twenty five years, has proven
- 22:46Speaker 1: time and again that these outdated techniques are far too
- 22:50Speaker 1: capable of coercing false confessions.
- 22:52Speaker 2: The crazy thing is correct me if I'm wrong, you're
- 22:55Speaker 2: the lawyer in this equation. But had Brendan said what
- 22:59Speaker 2: I advise people listening to the show, or anybody who
- 23:02Speaker 2: asked me anywhere, if you're picked up for a crime
- 23:07Speaker 2: that you didn't commit, and you're brought to the station,
- 23:11Speaker 2: and you're placed in this situation, right, and you say yourself, well,
- 23:14Speaker 2: I don't want to end up like Brendan. What do
- 23:17Speaker 2: you do?
- 23:18Speaker 1: I want a lawyer, that's what you say, right. I
- 23:23Speaker 1: want a lawyer that stops the interrogation, or it should
- 23:26Speaker 1: stop the interrogation. That's your constitutional right to say that.
- 23:28Speaker 1: What's interesting, of course, you know the Miranda rights are
- 23:31Speaker 1: read usually at the beginning of interrogations. Eighty five percent
- 23:34Speaker 1: of people wave their miranda rights, So I mean a
- 23:37Speaker 1: huge number of people do right. We think of these
- 23:39Speaker 1: as these important safeguards, and everybody's out there asserting their
- 23:42Speaker 1: rights to lawyers and their right to be silent and
- 23:44Speaker 1: all these No, everybody waves these rights. And you know
- 23:46Speaker 1: we've all been in that situation right where you get
- 23:48Speaker 1: pulled over and you think you can talk your way
- 23:49Speaker 1: out of it. People wave these rights. They don't understand
- 23:52Speaker 1: how these rights can help them, especially kids. Right, what
- 23:55Speaker 1: does it mean to a kid? What does it mean
- 23:57Speaker 1: to Brendan Dassy that he can have a lawyer in
- 23:59Speaker 1: the room, his admissions will be used against him in court.
- 24:02Speaker 1: He doesn't know what a lawyer does. He doesn't understand
- 24:04Speaker 1: the ways in which a lawyer could help him or
- 24:06Speaker 1: improve his situation or stop this from happening to him.
- 24:09Speaker 1: But yeah, huge numbers of people waive those rights. And
- 24:11Speaker 1: it's actually the numbers are even greater when we're talking
- 24:15Speaker 1: about innocent people.
- 24:16Speaker 2: Sure, right, because you figure, ihing, I go home.
- 24:19Speaker 1: Right, nothing to hid, of course, I'll talk to you, right.
- 24:21Speaker 2: And you may also be sitting there thinking, well, if
- 24:23Speaker 2: it's going to take a long time for a lawyer
- 24:25Speaker 2: to get here, wait, I have things to do.
- 24:27Speaker 1: Let me just clear this up, No problem, No, I'll
- 24:29Speaker 1: be out of here.
- 24:30Speaker 2: No, No, we're begging you. This is Jason and Laura
- 24:34Speaker 2: personally begging you. If you're in that situation, there's only
- 24:38Speaker 2: four words you need. I want a lawyer.
- 24:40Speaker 1: Right.
- 24:43Speaker 2: Part of the process that landed Brendan in this situation,
- 24:45Speaker 2: which was his.
- 24:46Speaker 1: Own team, Lenn Kachinsky.
- 24:49Speaker 2: Can you tell us what that was like? I mean,
- 24:51Speaker 2: being represented by this guide.
- 24:56Speaker 4: When I first met him, I knew that he didn't
- 24:59Speaker 4: have I have my best interest in mind, because he
- 25:03Speaker 4: was always trying to get me to take a plead
- 25:04Speaker 4: deal or something.
- 25:06Speaker 2: So you knew right away. Yeah, Brendan, than a lot
- 25:10Speaker 2: of credit to you, because you know, many people might
- 25:13Speaker 2: not have picked up on that so quickly, because people
- 25:16Speaker 2: go into that situation they think, well, this is my lawyer.
- 25:18Speaker 2: He's going to be protecting me and defending me. Yeah,
- 25:21Speaker 2: so you knew right away. But then as things progressed,
- 25:24Speaker 2: I mean, did you feel betrayed or did you feel
- 25:28Speaker 2: hopeful that maybe he was going to turn it around
- 25:30Speaker 2: and actually do his job.
- 25:33Speaker 4: No, especially since that when I saw him on TV
- 25:37Speaker 4: with Nancy Drace, you know, and he more or less
- 25:41Speaker 4: told her that he believes that I'm guilty.
- 25:45Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, there's a lot of things wrong with that
- 25:48Speaker 2: whole scenario. I mean, as you mentioned that named Nancy
- 25:51Speaker 2: Grace and you know my skin crawls and that. Yeah,
- 25:55Speaker 2: the fact that he went on there with hers is horrible.
- 25:58Speaker 2: And then you had this investigator who was supposed to
- 26:02Speaker 2: be helping you. Yeah, and can you talk about that
- 26:06Speaker 2: a little bit?
- 26:07Speaker 4: What do you want to know?
- 26:08Speaker 2: Well, when he was asking you to draw pictures and
- 26:11Speaker 2: all these other things, and he was sort of badgering you,
- 26:14Speaker 2: like Brendan, you did this? Yeah, what about this investigator?
- 26:19Speaker 4: At first I thought maybe he would try to help me,
- 26:22Speaker 4: you know, but then when he was trying to get
- 26:24Speaker 4: me to more or let's give another confession, you know,
- 26:27Speaker 4: I knew right then and there that he wasn't on
- 26:30Speaker 4: my side either.
- 26:32Speaker 2: So basically, you had your family and that was pretty
- 26:36Speaker 2: much it. But they're not lawyers and they're not investigators.
- 26:39Speaker 2: They're just just regular people.
- 26:41Speaker 3: Right.
- 26:42Speaker 2: Yeah, how did being represented or misrepresented by len and
- 26:47Speaker 2: the things that he did, how did that make you feel?
- 26:50Speaker 4: It made me feel betrayed and that I couldn't really
- 26:53Speaker 4: trust lawyers either, But now I can.
- 27:01Speaker 2: What an insane set of twists and turns.
- 27:04Speaker 1: Yeah, We've represented Brendan Dassi through the state court appeal system,
- 27:08Speaker 1: where the state courts in Wisconsin were not particularly bothered
- 27:11Speaker 1: by what they saw on that interrogation video, but we
- 27:14Speaker 1: sort of expected that, and then we took his case,
- 27:16Speaker 1: as people who watched Making a Murderer will remember, we
- 27:19Speaker 1: took his case to the federal court system. Right. The
- 27:22Speaker 1: way this basically works is you can go to federal
- 27:24Speaker 1: court and you can say, hey, federal court, will you
- 27:26Speaker 1: review the way in which the Wisconsin state courts protected
- 27:30Speaker 1: Brendan's rights. So that's what we did. We went to
- 27:32Speaker 1: the federal courts. We filed what's called a petition for
- 27:35Speaker 1: a writ of habeas corpus, asking the federal court to
- 27:37Speaker 1: take a look at how the state courts handled Brendan's case.
- 27:40Speaker 1: But there is a trick here. Okay, so let's say
- 27:44Speaker 1: you go into federal court and you prove to them
- 27:48Speaker 1: beyond the shadow of a doubt, right that the state
- 27:52Speaker 1: court was wrong in how it handled Brendan's case. You lose.
- 27:58Speaker 1: In order to win in federal court, you have to
- 28:02Speaker 1: prove not only that the state court was wrong in
- 28:05Speaker 1: how it handled Brendan's case, but that it was so
- 28:09Speaker 1: unreasonably wrong that no other judge in America could possibly
- 28:14Speaker 1: have ruled the same way. Right, that's literally the legal
- 28:18Speaker 1: standard thanks to the Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty
- 28:22Speaker 1: Act signed into law in nineteen ninety six, which keeps,
- 28:25Speaker 1: you know, a lot of innocent prisoners like Brendan Dacy
- 28:28Speaker 1: from accessing this kind of relief in the federal courts.
- 28:31Speaker 1: So that's the needle that you have to thread in
- 28:33Speaker 1: federal court. So we filed our petition, you know, we
- 28:36Speaker 1: made these arguments, yes, this is that's not just wrong,
- 28:39Speaker 1: it's it's unreasonably wrong. No one else would rule this way.
- 28:43Speaker 1: And we sat and waited months and months and months
- 28:45Speaker 1: for a decision, and we got our decision. You know,
- 28:48Speaker 1: we'd won after years of representing Brendan, we'd won in
- 28:51Speaker 1: the federal district court, you know, which was a moment
- 28:54Speaker 1: of enormous joy, as you can imagine. But we knew,
- 28:58Speaker 1: because we've pushed the boulder up the hill a lot
- 29:00Speaker 1: of times before, we knew that that was just round one,
- 29:04Speaker 1: that the state had every right to appeal, that it
- 29:06Speaker 1: was going to appeal this case, and it did. Right,
- 29:11Speaker 1: that's right, that's right, that's right. And so when we
- 29:13Speaker 1: found out that they were going to appeal, we said,
- 29:15Speaker 1: you know what that is. You're right, we can't stop
- 29:16Speaker 1: you from doing that, but we want Brendan out right.
- 29:18Speaker 1: We want him home. This is right around Thanksgiving. We
- 29:21Speaker 1: want him home for the holidays while you guys do
- 29:23Speaker 1: your thing. So we asked the court to release Brendan
- 29:26Speaker 1: during the appeals and we made all of our arguments.
- 29:30Speaker 1: Here's where he's going to go live. He's going to
- 29:32Speaker 1: be in a protected environment. We have a social worker
- 29:34Speaker 1: on the space, you know, working on the case, identifying
- 29:37Speaker 1: resources supports for him outside. And the court said, okay, yeah,
- 29:41Speaker 1: let's let Brendan go home. Right, He's not a danger
- 29:44Speaker 1: to this community. I believe in him. I can see
- 29:47Speaker 1: it's going to be fine, So let's release him. And
- 29:50Speaker 1: we had an order directing the State of Wisconsin to
- 29:53Speaker 1: release Brendan Dacy and came within about twelve hours of
- 29:58Speaker 1: getting Brendan out before the State of Wisconsin asked the
- 30:02Speaker 1: appeals court to block that order and they did. So,
- 30:09Speaker 1: you know, okay, we go forward with the appeal. The
- 30:13Speaker 1: state files its brief, we file our briefs, we argue
- 30:15Speaker 1: it out in court before the appeals court, the federal
- 30:18Speaker 1: appeals courts, and again, right, we're trying to thread the
- 30:20Speaker 1: eye of the needle. Here we wait and wait and
- 30:22Speaker 1: wait for our verdict, for our decision. And we'd won
- 30:27Speaker 1: again right, two to one. If this is in front
- 30:30Speaker 1: of three judges, we'd won two to one, which is
- 30:33Speaker 1: another moment of great joy in celebration. Two to one.
- 30:37Speaker 1: I'll take it. Except please notice that as we studied
- 30:41Speaker 1: this decision was two to one decision, there was suddenly
- 30:45Speaker 1: another judge in America who would have ruled to keep
- 30:49Speaker 1: Brendan Dacy still in prison. Right. And the more we
- 30:54Speaker 1: read that dissenting judge's opinion, we realized that it read
- 30:59Speaker 1: like in open invitation for the state of Wisconsin to
- 31:02Speaker 1: try this very rare leo maneuver a rehearing on bank
- 31:07Speaker 1: where you throw out the appeal and redo it in
- 31:09Speaker 1: front of the full court. And that's exactly what they did.
- 31:13Speaker 1: We argued that case and lost by a single vote,
- 31:17Speaker 1: four to three. Steve and I are not done fighting
- 31:25Speaker 1: for Brendan, and the world isn't either, and the Wisconsin
- 31:27Speaker 1: ights aren't either. Right, So today we have filed a
- 31:31Speaker 1: petition with the governor of Wisconsin asking that he grant
- 31:37Speaker 1: Brendan clemency, that he release Brendon Dassy from prison. It's
- 31:43Speaker 1: the only person in the world with the power to
- 31:46Speaker 1: do that, Governor Tony Evers. We hear so much from
- 31:51Speaker 1: people in state, out of state, right, people from all
- 31:53Speaker 1: over all four corners of Wisconsin, Madison, Milwaukee, but up
- 31:56Speaker 1: in Superior, up in Green Bay, out in Eau Claire.
- 32:00Speaker 1: I get these messages constantly from people who I just
- 32:04Speaker 1: think it's time for Brennan to come home. You know,
- 32:07Speaker 1: it's pastime. And you know, we're honored to be in
- 32:10Speaker 1: a position where we can hopefully show the governor it's
- 32:14Speaker 1: the right time to do this.
- 32:15Speaker 2: Yes, and the good news is that, by all accounts,
- 32:17Speaker 2: this governor is a reasonable man. He's had experience. He's
- 32:21Speaker 2: visited a juvenile detention facilities one of the first things
- 32:24Speaker 2: he did.
- 32:24Speaker 1: That, that's right, he did. And he comes from the
- 32:26Speaker 1: education system. You know, he was the head of the
- 32:29Speaker 1: Wisconsin Board of Education before he assumed the governor's office.
- 32:32Speaker 1: So this is somebody who understands. You know, Brendan was
- 32:35Speaker 1: a tenth grader in the public school special education system, right,
- 32:41Speaker 1: That's who he was in many ways, it's still who
- 32:43Speaker 1: he is.
- 32:47Speaker 2: Brendan. You know, one of the things I was personally
- 32:51Speaker 2: so struck by was when we spoke yesterday about your
- 32:57Speaker 2: dreams for after you get out what you want to
- 33:01Speaker 2: do in the world. Do you mind sort of talking
- 33:03Speaker 2: about that a little bit.
- 33:05Speaker 4: I mean, like getting into making and playing video games.
- 33:10Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and hopefully getting paid for it. Yeah. We
- 33:14Speaker 2: always I think it was Laura that asked you, if
- 33:16Speaker 2: you had a superpower, what would.
- 33:17Speaker 1: That's right, That's always one of my favorite questions to ask, Brendan.
- 33:20Speaker 4: I would want to have the power to heal illnesses
- 33:23Speaker 4: and diseases all over the world.
- 33:26Speaker 2: And where do you think that comes from? Like, I mean,
- 33:28Speaker 2: it's a great superpower. I'd like to have it too.
- 33:30Speaker 2: But of all the things, why do you think that
- 33:32Speaker 2: one is the one that came to your mind.
- 33:35Speaker 4: Well, I just like helping people, so I wanted to
- 33:37Speaker 4: help other people in the world.
- 33:39Speaker 2: I mean, look, there's a lot of people that want
- 33:41Speaker 2: to help you too, and it's amazing. We talked about
- 33:43Speaker 2: yesterday how many letters you get. Do you figure you've
- 33:46Speaker 2: gotten letters from every state in the country by now,
- 33:48Speaker 2: all fifty states.
- 33:49Speaker 4: It's got to be close.
- 33:51Speaker 2: Uh huh, you.
- 33:52Speaker 1: Know, Brendan, why don't you tell them some of the
- 33:53Speaker 1: countries that people have sent you letters from? Do you
- 33:56Speaker 1: remember some of the.
- 33:56Speaker 4: Countries Singapore, Ireland, Iceland, South America, Canada, Hawaii, New Zealand.
- 34:09Speaker 1: Too, Yeah, even Australia, right, Australia, it's amazing, and also
- 34:13Speaker 1: some from Wisconsin. Right. Yeah, that's great.
- 34:16Speaker 2: So there's tens of millions of people now all over
- 34:19Speaker 2: the world, as you know, who have watched Making a
- 34:22Speaker 2: Murderer have learned about your story. Do you want to
- 34:25Speaker 2: see the show when you get out? Are you interested?
- 34:28Speaker 4: I might eat. I don't know if I can.
- 34:30Speaker 2: No, Yeah, you mean it might be hard to watch.
- 34:34Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, more or less because I lived it,
- 34:37Speaker 4: So why would I want to watch it again?
- 34:40Speaker 2: Really understandable after everything you've been through and all the
- 34:43Speaker 2: twists and turns and the freedom being sort of, you know,
- 34:47Speaker 2: yanked away from you twice? Really?
- 34:50Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 34:51Speaker 2: What was that? Like? Your bags were packed, right, You're
- 34:53Speaker 2: ready to go home, and then they pulled the rug
- 34:56Speaker 2: out from under you. I mean I would think that
- 34:57Speaker 2: would make somebody crazy.
- 34:59Speaker 4: Yeah. I I was a little depressed, you know, and
- 35:02Speaker 4: called my mom that night and you know I was,
- 35:06Speaker 4: I was upset, you know, and so she was she
- 35:09Speaker 4: you know, she thought I was going to be coming home,
- 35:11Speaker 4: you know, and I was willing to give up all
- 35:13Speaker 4: my stuff, you know, just walk out the doors with nothing.
- 35:19Speaker 2: Right, So you were going to give it to some
- 35:20Speaker 2: of the other guys in there.
- 35:21Speaker 4: Or either that or or just tell all the prison
- 35:26Speaker 4: that they can keep it.
- 35:27Speaker 2: Right, Well, you weren't going to need it anymore.
- 35:29Speaker 1: Yeah, what helps you sort of get through this, Brendon?
- 35:32Speaker 1: As this was all happening to you, Where did you
- 35:35Speaker 1: find your strength?
- 35:37Speaker 4: Mostly having my family support me and have.
- 35:40Speaker 2: My back, Yeah, especially your mom, right. Yeah, so it's
- 35:45Speaker 2: visiting day, right, Yeah, I'll.
- 35:47Speaker 4: Be getting a visit from my mom tonight. M It
- 35:50Speaker 4: means everything, you know. They have a family that loves
- 35:53Speaker 4: and supports me no matter what, and they always have
- 35:57Speaker 4: my back, you know.
- 35:59Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's real is heartening to know that so
- 36:01Speaker 2: many people care and still care. And what would you
- 36:05Speaker 2: tell people that want to get involved that have seen
- 36:08Speaker 2: your story didn't really have any idea of what goes
- 36:12Speaker 2: on in our justice system, but now they do. Is
- 36:15Speaker 2: there anything particular that you could advise someone.
- 36:21Speaker 4: Just keep fighting for me and keep showing your love
- 36:26Speaker 4: and support.
- 36:27Speaker 2: And then there's a lot of ways to do that,
- 36:29Speaker 2: and going to Innocenceproject dot org is a good place
- 36:32Speaker 2: to start, Laura. Are there other places people can go
- 36:36Speaker 2: to learn more about this case and to follow your
- 36:39Speaker 2: progress and the progress and getting Brendan home.
- 36:41Speaker 1: Absolutely, Folks can go to CWCY dot org. That's the
- 36:46Speaker 1: Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth. You can learn a
- 36:49Speaker 1: lot more about Brendan's case, read as legal papers and
- 36:52Speaker 1: follow developments as they happen.
- 36:54Speaker 2: And do you have social media yourself that we can
- 36:57Speaker 2: tag you in here because we want to have people
- 36:59Speaker 2: follow you and your progress, not only on Brenda's case,
- 37:02Speaker 2: but also on all the other amazing work that you're doing.
- 37:04Speaker 1: I do, I do. I'm on Instagram and Twitter both
- 37:08Speaker 1: at Laura and I writer.
- 37:10Speaker 2: That's easy, that's at Laura and I writer.
- 37:11Speaker 1: That's right.
- 37:12Speaker 2: And now, as regular listeners of the show know, it's
- 37:16Speaker 2: time for the best part of the show, closing arguments,
- 37:20Speaker 2: where I get to just kick back in my chair
- 37:23Speaker 2: turn my microphone off. First of all, thank you again
- 37:27Speaker 2: for taking the time to share your thoughts and your
- 37:32Speaker 2: perspective and your spirit with me. And with our audience,
- 37:35Speaker 2: And of course thank you Laura for arranging this and
- 37:39Speaker 2: for being such a passionate, dedicated, obsessive justice fighter, and
- 37:45Speaker 2: for being on the show. So Laura, first, thank you
- 37:47Speaker 2: for being here.
- 37:48Speaker 1: Thanks for giving this opportunity to let the world hear
- 37:51Speaker 1: who Brendan Naci is. You know, there have been so
- 37:53Speaker 1: many people out there who watched Making a Murderer and
- 37:57Speaker 1: were moved disturbed Brendan's story, and who've reached out to
- 38:02Speaker 1: us to ask what they can do to help Brendan.
- 38:06Speaker 1: There's something really easy you can do. Maybe this upcoming weekend,
- 38:09Speaker 1: you find yourself in the extra ten minutes a time,
- 38:12Speaker 1: think about sending him a letter. Right. These letters don't
- 38:17Speaker 1: have to be long, they don't have to be powerful,
- 38:20Speaker 1: but just tell him, you know, keep your head high.
- 38:23Speaker 1: I believe in you. Right, we're fighting for you. It'll
- 38:28Speaker 1: happen for you. These letters are such a small gesture
- 38:34Speaker 1: on the part of every one of us, but they
- 38:35Speaker 1: sustain him, right. They give him hope every day, and
- 38:42Speaker 1: that gives us the hope we need to keep on fighting.
- 38:47Speaker 1: So find his address on the Wisconsin Department of Corrections website.
- 38:52Speaker 1: He's in the Oshkosh Correctional Institution. Reach out to him,
- 38:56Speaker 1: let him know he's got friends all over the world
- 39:00Speaker 1: who believe in him. If you want to get involved
- 39:02Speaker 1: in other ways, you can do that. You can educate yourself.
- 39:05Speaker 1: There are a lot of other books, films, TV shows
- 39:09Speaker 1: about wrongful conviction. Right, Brendan is not the only one.
- 39:12Speaker 1: Get out there. Watch when they see us, Right, Watch
- 39:15Speaker 1: the Paradise Last series about the West Memphis three or
- 39:18Speaker 1: West of Memphis. Watch You Murder on a Sunday morning, Right,
- 39:22Speaker 1: watch the confession tapes. You can see incredible shows, read
- 39:26Speaker 1: incredible books about this happening over and over, some of
- 39:28Speaker 1: which we've mentioned today, and you can get out there.
- 39:31Speaker 1: Of course, you can support organizations like the Center on
- 39:34Speaker 1: Wrongful Convictions or the Innocence Project or a lot of
- 39:37Speaker 1: other incredible organizations that do this work. But most importantly, right,
- 39:42Speaker 1: don't stop saying Brendan Dacy's name. Get out there on
- 39:46Speaker 1: social media, remember him, Keep insisting that the people with
- 39:50Speaker 1: power in this system do justice for Brendan. Write letters
- 39:54Speaker 1: to the governor of Wisconsin. Tell him what you see
- 39:58Speaker 1: when you see Brendan on TV. Tell him what you
- 40:01Speaker 1: hear when you hear Brendan on a podcast like this,
- 40:04Speaker 1: especially if you live in Wisconsin, tell him you want
- 40:07Speaker 1: Brendan home. That's the difference that you can make. It's
- 40:12Speaker 1: a huge difference. We rely on people like you to
- 40:17Speaker 1: light the way, to show the path. We're doing the
- 40:19Speaker 1: right thing here. So thank you to everybody who's written
- 40:22Speaker 1: to Brendan. Keep doing it, keep showing your support. Let's
- 40:25Speaker 1: get him home together.
- 40:27Speaker 2: And Brendan, thank you again for you know, letting me
- 40:31Speaker 2: come see you and for spending time on the air
- 40:35Speaker 2: with us today. And now I get to leave it
- 40:40Speaker 2: open for you to say whatever you want as we
- 40:43Speaker 2: close the show.
- 40:48Speaker 4: I don't know what to say. I love Pokemon and
- 40:54Speaker 4: my favorite Pokemon is Mew. But there's a new one
- 40:58Speaker 4: coming out called El Creamy that I really like, and
- 41:04Speaker 4: hopefully I get to see some of the more new
- 41:06Speaker 4: ones coming out pretty soon.
- 41:18Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flahm.
- 41:21Speaker 2: Please support your local innocence projects and go to the
- 41:24Speaker 2: link in our bio to see how you can help.
- 41:26Speaker 2: I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburn,
- 41:30Speaker 2: and Kevin Warnis. The music on the show as always
- 41:33Speaker 2: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
- 41:37Speaker 2: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
- 41:40Speaker 2: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
- 41:45Speaker 2: Flahm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and
- 41:47Speaker 2: association with Signal Company Number one