Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #345 Maggie Freleng with James Richardson

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#345 Maggie Freleng with James Richardson · Wrongful Conviction

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: In June two thousand and nine, basketball star James Richardson
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: was back in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina, visiting
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: friends and family. A few of his friends wanted to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: have a night out, so they hopped around and eventually
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: wound up at a nightclub called The Other Place.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Bombay and drinks for pretty much everybody at the club.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: We haven't fine, but at some point in the evening
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a scuffle got out of hand.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know who pushed me, but when they pushed me,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: scenes like all everything you broke loose.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: By closing time, the scene was pandemonium, spilling out onto
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the sidewalk, shots were fired, and two local, well known
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: white men were killed. Within a few days, James found
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: himself under arrest for their murders.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: When I get to a police space there, that's the
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: last time that I've been out.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Do you think race had anything to do with us?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, as far as me getting convicted, I do. When
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: they felt like a black person kill two white individuals,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I feel like people went harder. They feel like, okay, yeah,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: we got to show him, but I didn't do it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: So you know what I'm saying, you got the wrong person.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: My name is James Richardson. I've been incarcerated for thirteen
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and a half years.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: From Love of for Good. This is wrongful conviction with
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling today James Richardson. James Richardson was born on
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: April thirtieth, nineteen seventy seven, in Greenville, North Carolina. He's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the middle child of nine kids.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: You know, we grew up in the projects. Really didn't
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: have a lot, and so I lived in one of
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: like the oldest and roughest like projects in Greenville, North Carolina,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: which is still there.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: It was called Kearny Park. It opened in nineteen sixty
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: two and is notorious for its violence.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: All night every night, you know, gunshots and so much
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: stuff going on. And as a kid, you're coming home
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and you got to worry about that, and you had
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to worry about You're trying to do your homework and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: different stuff, and there's so much, you know, going on.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: James's father wasn't really in his life growing up. He
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: was raised by his mother, Dorothy Ann Richardson, as well
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: as his older siblings.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Why you're not having a father figure, I kind of
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: lean on my brothers as well as you know, coming
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: to some of the guys as you know, there was
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: in the neighborhood to kind of just to help you know,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: they would be there and just like, you know, give
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: me advice on different things that I didn't know that,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: you know, I feel like a father should be able
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: to should teach you.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: James's brother, Donald, taught him to play baseball. One day,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Donald took him to try out for a little league.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: The tryouts were in a different section of town than
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: where they lived, and for the first time James saw
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: what life looked like outside of the projects.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Right, Wow, it's so different. Everything was over there just
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: like grass, green grass, and everything is like clean and
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: no trash nowhere and everything. So it was different for me,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and I met different people and really just became friends
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: with a lot of the guys.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And the friends James made were from all different walks
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: of life.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I guess for me that was just it was like
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: a turning point of something. I was just motivated to
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: just get out. Just because I lived, you know, when
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I was born and I lived here in this project, right,
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean that I had to just be here and
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: settle for this. So I kind of wanted to do
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: something with myself, make it out of there because I
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: didn't like, you know, the conditions that I was living in.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I didn't like what I had to go through.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: James dreamed of making it up and out, and not
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: just for himself.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I looked at what my mom, you know, what she
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: went through by raising nine kids and really having no help,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: and I just wanted to, you know, be able to
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: help her and move her out of the projects.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: James saw baseball as his ticket out until he discovered basketball.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: That was my getaway from a lot of the things
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: that was going on around me. You know, when I
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: was on that court, nothing else mattered to me. And
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I just picked the game up and I just started playing,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: and I loved it.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: At six foot seven and two hundred and fifteen pounds,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: James was all but perfect for the court, and with
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: his light skin and green eyes, he stands out in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the crowd. James became a star high school basketball player
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and went on to play in college professionally.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I end up saying being blessed to make get out
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: of the hood to go to college. I got a
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: full ride scholarship.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: James attended Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. He went on
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to travel the world and play for several European countries,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: including Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, and Greece.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: France was my first job at the first time I've
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: ever been out of the country. You know, I was
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: happy because you know, you get paid, you get paid
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: real good old season. I was able to go over
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: there and you know, do you know out there play
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: a game that I loved. My mom was happy. I
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: was able to send money back to my family to help.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: And on his first day in France, James made a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: new friend.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I came out with this little kids like may play
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: eight years old and he was sitting on my step
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: and when I come out, he said basketball, basketball right,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and so night, okay, tell him looking around right because
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I didn't speak rich and so I started to get it,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: like okay, he tried to sail you the basketball player.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: The boy waited for James every day and followed him
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: everywhere to the store, to the gym. And James noticed
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: that the kid wore the same clothes every day. He
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was from one of the poor areas of town.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: So what I did was I took a liking to
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: him and I bought them clothes. I bought him shoes,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I made sure he could bring his family. He brought
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: his mom and them, they came to the game. I
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: just trying to just be there.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: On That was when James knew what he wanted to
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: do in life.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: I always wanted to get back there. I want to
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: get back to you know, the kids. I think they
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: deserved it.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: So when he returned to the States, James became a
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: mentor for kids in his community, coaching them one on one,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: advocating for them when they needed extra support, and helping
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: out at youth basketball camps.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: I like helping. I like giving back. I think that's
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: something big with me. And I tell a lot of
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: people that money thing doesn't matter to me. I care
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: about people because I feel like, you know what I'm saying,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: we put on this earth to help to help others.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: In his early thirties, James moved to Atlanta and started
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: working as a party promoter. He used his celebrity status
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to draw other players to events, attracting crowds of fans
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and attendees. One night, he was hanging out with his
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: cousin and some friends when he met someone.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: It was really casual.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: We kind of just were hanging you know, we're all
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: hanging out one night, and that initial meeting, James and
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I had like great conversation. It was just very organic.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: This is Hibba Elawad.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: The conversation just was so fluid and so natural. And
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: after that we really built a strong friendship. You know,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: James and I used to talk about dreams and aspirations
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: and five to ten years plans, things that you don't
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: usually talk about, you know, with someone that you just
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: meet right off the bat.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Hibba wasn't looking for a relationship at the time, but
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: there was just something about James.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: He was unlike any other man that I had met.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: The conversations were always about how he wants to help people,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: how he wants to give back, you know, how he
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: wants to make his mark and in this world by
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: doing for others what you know, maybe he didn't get
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: or didn't have growing up. You know, his love for
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: children is out of this world. Like every time we chatted,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I learned something new.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: The two were developing a strong friendship, but before they
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: could explore their relationship further, something completely unexpected happened. Near
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the end of June, James headed back to Greenville for
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a visit. He was just back from overseas and didn't
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: have a car of his own yet, so he had
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: borrowed one, a white BMW to make the trip from Atlanta.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: He spent a night in Rally on the way, and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a friend there asked him to give a ride to
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a couple of guys who joined James for the ride
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: down to Greenville. When he arrived in his hometown on
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: June twenty ninth, James made his rounds visiting family and friends,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and eventually landed at the house of a childhood friend,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Darryl Powell. James's friends wanted to go clubbing, and they
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: asked him to join.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I had some balling shorts and like some nikes sandals
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: out with you and want to go, and so everybody
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: else like, oh, well let's go, let's go, let's go.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: So you know, let me now want to disappoint people,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: because that's how I am. I said, Okay, end up going.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: The guys that drove from Rally with James ended up
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: taking the BMW, so he borrowed Dryl's Cadillac to meet
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: his brother Andre at Doctor Unk's Club. While there, the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Rally guys showed up and asked to take the Cadillac instead.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Of the BMA you, so James switched cars with them.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Around midnight, the group decided to move over to the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Other Place nightclub, which was known as Ops. James arrived
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: in the white BMW.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I'm buying everybody drinks. We haven't fine, I'm buying drinks
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: for pretty much everybody at the club.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Soon the rally guys returned with the Cadillac and gave
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: James the key. James, wearing basketball shorts with no pockets,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: put the key in his sock and continued to party.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: So at some point still bump me. I tell him, yo,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: can you please stop bump me? Okay? So a few
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: miss lady, he bought me again, but he trunk.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: The club was crowded and the bumping continued.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: He still like, he bumped me stuff, and so I
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: tell him to stop. You know, the next time he
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: bumped me, like the third time, I said, listen, man,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: go over there. By this time, you know, his friends
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: come over and taught him like that. You know, I'm
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: telling everybody, let it go, and it'd be bought tend
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: to come. So what's going on? I don't know, I said,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: guy it right here. I guess he's drunk. If he
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: bumped me. You know, I'm just telling him go over there.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: James remembers that one of the owners, Matthew Blackman, then
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: came over and asked them all.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: To leave either you know, young lady club, don't come
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: back to my club no more. So I tell him,
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: I said, man, I said, I haven't started anything. I said,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: but that's fine. I ain't got to come Kee Club
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: no more. Whatever.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Black men then had bouncers escort James and his friends out.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: In the chaos, James left the BMW keys on the bar.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: It was closing time at this point, around two am,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and people had started to gather on the sidewalk outside.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Suddenly James felt someone push him.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know push me, but when they pushed me,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: it seemed like all everything broke those.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: A brawl ensued. In the confusion, black men got punched.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Somebody hit the orner. He grabbed me, and because you know,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I still have one that the sandals right with it,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: like the sandal, Nike sandals and stuff, we falled and
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: so my head hit the cement. I'm bleeding and stuff.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Right So in all day after that, right they saw
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: it's like a fight.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: People piled onto James. A bouncer later testified it was
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: kind of pandemonium.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Thanks, so the only thing I'm trying to is just lee.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: James eventually broke free from the melee. A witness later
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: said they saw him walking away down the street by himself.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: James remembered the Cadillac key in Issak.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: So I go and I'd be the key. I get
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: in the Cadillac and I hope people call them, but
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I just be.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. The brawl died
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: down and the crowd began to disperse. Black men later
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: said that as they left, some of the guys who
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: were kicked out with James that night were yelling, we
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: have something for you. We're going to come back and
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: shoot you up. Minutes later, a WHITEBMW tore down the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: street towards Op's. People were still on the sidewalk when
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: someone in the car fired at least six shots into
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the crowd. The bullets hit two white men, twenty one
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: year old land In Blackly, a popular East Carolina University student,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: in twenty nine year old Andrew Kirby, a well known
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: local business manager. Both men died from their injuries. Connie
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Elks was assigned as the case's lead investigator. During her investigation,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: she spoke to multiple witnesses who were outside of the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: club that night. People remembered that a professional basketball player
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: was among those kicked out of the club. These witnesses
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: also gave descriptions of the shooter. Most of the descriptions
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: were varied, but none of the witnesses descriptions matched James. Nevertheless,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Elks focused on him. Some witnesses were offered lineups. They
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: told police that while they recognized James as being at
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the club, he was not the shooter or even one
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: of the guys who was in the BMW when it
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: drove by. Witnesses Nicholas Golden and Brian Richards both said
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the person was shooting from the BMW's back passenger window,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and they both described the shooter as a black male
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: wearing a black shirt, a black and red baseball cap,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and sunglasses. James remember was dress differently.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I had us some ball the shoots in them. No Nikes, sandals.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Golden and Richards were the only two witnesses who actually
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: saw the shooting. Richards immediately described what he witnessed to
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a bartender and she gave them both a pen and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: paper so they wouldn't forget the details. While they gave
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: witness statements that night, officers did not follow up with
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: them for nearly eighteen months, and unlike other witnesses, they
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: were never provided any lineups. Some people also reported seeing
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: James leave ops in a gold Cadillac parked around the corner.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Regardless of all this, James was immediately the main suspect.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: His photo was blasted all over the media, and he
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: was publicly proclaimed the armed and dangerous killer. Later on
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the day of the shooting, June thirtieth, James was back
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: in Rally about an hour and a half away when
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: his sister told him the police were looking for him. Confused,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: James called his friend Sean, who worked with the Greenville
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Police Department.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: And I asked Sean. I sid Sean was going on.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: You know. He pretty much told me nothing, We just
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: want to talk to you. You know, they just wanted
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: they just want to talk to you whatever. So I
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: was like, okay, like, you know, that's fine. I thought
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: he was. They were talking about that, just the fight
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: about downtown. At this time. I don't know anything about
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: no shoe, non know nothing about none of this.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: James didn't know anyone had been killed. He thought the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: police just wanted to know about the fight. He told
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Sean he talked to them in a couple of days
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: when he was back in Greenville for Fourth of July,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: and they agreed to meet up.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Then that's how my time, rightness it. But I'll be
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: back and you got a couple days. Said that's fine, right,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: That's why he said. So I'm like okay.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Once in Greenville, James told Sean to come to his
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: grandma's house to talk.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: So when I get over there, I get out of
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: the car, it's people everywhere. Right, I'm thinking, like, okay,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: you know, everybody ready for the cookout. But at the
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: same time, I see Sean's standing out as regular host
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: so as I get out and then I see the
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: police badge from out his neck. So then I'm just like,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I said, show what's up man? I say, you know, okay,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: what do you want to talk about? He was like, nah,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: we got to go down to the station.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: When James went to the Greenville precinct with his friend Sean,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: he was immediately arrested.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: When I get to the police station, that's the last
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: time I was. I've been out.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: A few months later, he was indicted for two counts
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: of first degree capital murder and was facing the death penalty.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: And ever since then, I've been fighting for my nicer. Wow, man, like,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: this can't be. I never been in trouble, so I
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: don't know. I didn't know what this spay. You know,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: people tell the truth. I'm thinking that I go to
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the trial, I'll be out. You know. It's my you
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: know my this isn't gonna prevail.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: But that's not what happened.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: It was clear to the district attorneys at the time,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: probably the law enforcement officers at the time, that this
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: was a career making case.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: This is Don Blagrove, the executive director of Emancipate NC,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a North Carolina social and criminal justice reform nonprofit organization.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: She's also a post conviction attorney helping James's legal team.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: And if they could convict a high profile celebrity like James,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: they would be able to build whole careers off of
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: his conviction. Whether it was right or wrong. They were
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: going to make an example out of James Richardson for
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: shooting and killing two white men.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: The prosecutors were District Attorney Clerk Everett and Ada Kimberly Robb.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: The prosecutor's theory was that James was the only person
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: in the BMW and that while jar he leaned out
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the passenger window to shoot into the crowd, ultimately killing
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Blackly and Kirby. During a pre trial hearing, Everett and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: rob called four bar patrons, expecting them to identify James
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: as the person driving and shooting from the BMW. These
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: witness descriptions were inconsistent. They all said the shooter was
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: a medium to dark skinned black man, but none of
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: their differing descriptions matched James, a light skinned, green eyed
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: black man. At the end of the pre trial hearing,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: it was evident that the States case was hanging in
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the balance.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: So Detective Alex knew we've got a problem. We don't
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: have anyone that can put James in that car.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: This is Heather Radelaide, who is James's post conviction attorney
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: of record.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: So one week before trial, lo and behold, they discover
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: a brand new eyewitness and his name is Fidel Thorpe.
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: He happened to be the assistant prosecutor's daughter's soccer coach.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: By the time of trial, two years after the shooting,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: vy Dal, Thorpe became the state's star witness, given he
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: was the only one who positively identified James as the shooter,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: even though he was never given a lineup. He testified
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that he saw James's face through the passenger window. Detective
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Connie Elks testified under oath that one of the witnesses,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Rachel Burke, saw a black man wearing a white T shirt,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: go to the trunk of the BMW and take out
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: a gun. Detective Elks also said that Rachel identified James
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: as the shooter on the stand. However, Rachel's testimony undermined
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: all of this.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: She pointed to the defendants, so that's not the person
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: I identified in the Lineup to this day, we don't
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: know who she identified in the lineup.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Then Corporal John Jenkins provided bombshell evidence, the only actual
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: evidence the state had against James, a surveillance video. The
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: video was of the white BMW racing down the street,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: showing only one person in the car shooting at the crowd.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Officer Jenkins said the video was the original and that
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: it hadn't been altered or modified in any way. James's attorneys,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Tommy Moore and Jeffrey Cutler, did their best to refute
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: the state's argument, but the video left them stymied. The
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: court also denied the eyewitness identification expert they retained, so
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: all they could do was point out the inconsistencies and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the witness testimonies on their own. However, they were able
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: to present an alibi witness for James, Darryl Powell. He
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: testified that he saw James immediately after the fight that night,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: when James returned the gold Cadillac to his house. The
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: defense also presented Nicholas Golden and Brian Richards, the only
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: two witnesses to describe the shooter to responding officers. They
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: both testified that it was not James who they saw
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: in the car. The jury went to deliberation on April first,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: twenty eleven. Most of the jurors were convinced that James
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: was guilty, but as it turns out, there was one
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: loan holdout. Three days into deliberations, one of the black jurors,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Lamuel Anderson, sent a note to the judge, asking to
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: be removed from the jury.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: He felt like James was centicent, but he was intimidated
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: inside of the jury room.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: The racial tension and hostility in the jury room, Anderson said,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: had become intolerable.
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: The judge has a duty at that point to take
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: that jury out of the jury room and ask him
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: questions about why he's requesting this. But this judge didn't
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: do that. Instead, he brought the entire jury out and
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: essentially admonished mister Anderson in front of all of his
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: fellow jurs. Quote, I must emphasize the fact it is
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: your duty to reach a verdict on all of the charges.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Judge W. Russell Duke Junior went on to say, quote,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I have already instructed you that your verdicts must be unanimous.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Each of you must agree on the verdicts.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Now, let me be clear about what Heather is describing.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: What she's actually describing is the living manifestation of systemic
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: and institutional racism. The fact that this drawer raised the
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: concerns about racial intimidation happening inside of the jury deliberation
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: room should have given this judge a strong pause and
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: created strong doubt as to whether or not a fair
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: verdict could have been reached.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: It took like three four to eight for them to
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: come back with a conviction on a capital case.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Their deliberation ended with a unanimous decision. Anderson later came
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: forward to say that he believed James to be one
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: hundred percent sent innocent, but the intimidation from the other
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: jurors had been too much. The jury declared James Richardson guilty.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: And I'm just like wow, and so it's like somebody
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: take this face and punch you in the stomach when
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: you hear it guilty.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: James was convicted of murder on April sixth, twenty eleven.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: The prosecution chose not to seek the death penalty. Instead,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: James received two sentences of life without parole. And here's
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a side note. Since nineteen eighty three, pitt County, or
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: James was tried, has sent seven men to death row,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and all of them have been black. Pitt County has
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: never sought the death penalty against a white defendant accused
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: of killing a black man. Statistically, in North Carolina, defendants
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: are twice as likely to be sentenced to death if
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: they're accused of killing a white person.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: It was hurtful and it was just I was just stunned.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it. I feel like doing they felt
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: like a gag person kill two white individuals. I feel
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: like people went harder. They feel like, okay, yeah, we
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: got to show him.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: James filed a direct appeal in July twenty twelve, mainly
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: arguing that the court aired in denying his eyewitness experts testimony.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: The appeal was denied, but his team continued to file
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: petitions for relief, and in the meantime, he tried to
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: focus on staying positive by praying and continuing to do
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: what he loved the most, mentoring a lot of these kids.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Man. I don't want him to go back out there
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: coming in the same way they came. He I want
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: him to go back out there to be a positive
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: influence on someone else. You know what I'm saying. I'm
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: trying to help people. I want people to do better.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: James and Hibba hadn't seen much of each other since
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: he'd returned to the States, but he was on her mind.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: For a couple of months after the incident happened. You know,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: I was constantly sitting, i'd say, like with a heavy
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: heart because I knew I knew, I knew in my
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: gut that James hadn't done this. And a couple months
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: later I ended up getting you know, his contact information.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: What made you want to reach out to him? I
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: couldn't sleep.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: So you know, when you have this like just gut
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: wrenching feeling in your stomach that something's wrong, I wanted
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: more answer.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: It wasn't just okay, you know this is a great guy.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: You've had this heavy heart, you know in your gut
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: that he couldn't have done this.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: But I needed answers.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: So Hibba started pouring over James's case, trying to understand
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: what had happened.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: And every time I would look through another piece of
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: paper or another police report, I'm like, this makes absolutely
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: no sense, right, this makes absolutely zero sense.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Finally, after nearly five years of investigating on her own,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Hibba got some help from Heather. After looking it over,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Heather agreed to take on James's case.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: Then, when I looked at James's case, I couldn't believe it.
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: I've been looking at capital murder cases in the state
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: for twenty five years, and this case is an outlier,
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: unlike anything I've ever seen.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Dawn also joined Heather to fight for James's innocence. She
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: says it was obvious detective Elks had tunnel vision focusing
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: on James, not only because he was a celebrity, but
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: also because of his race.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: The undercurrent in any of these types of small towns
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: is that black men are scary and they have a
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: place that they're supposed to study in. James Richardson had
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: made a very successful life for himself, had not stayed
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: in that place that he was supposed to stay in,
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: and was doing much better than many of the local residents.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: One of their main post conviction arguments that the trial
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: was fundamentally unfair focuses on Lamuel Anderson. That's the juror
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: who was intimidated into convicting James despite believing he was innocent.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: This happened all of the time in our judicial system,
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: and it is at the heart of why we end
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: up with so many, so many convictions that are disproportionately
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: impacting black communities. It is because our systems are designed
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: to subjugate black voices and to amplify white voices, even
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: when those white voices are racist.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Additionally, the team secured an interview with Vital Thorpe, the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: state's star witness, and he recanted. At trial, Thorpe had
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: testified quote, I saw his face, but when questioned by
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the investigator, he admitted he did not see the shooter's face,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: that he only saw an arm and a gun coming
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: out the back window of the car. They also argued
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: that by the court denying expert testimony for the defense,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: they violated James's due process rights. The defense's expert would
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: have explained to the jury that many of the witnesses
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: were white, and studies have shown that cross racial identifications
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: are often flawed because of own race by in James's case,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: white witnesses confused him with another bar patron, who was
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a dark skinned black male. Black witnesses, on the other hand,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: were able to describe James accurately. James's brother, Andre, also
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: came forward and signed an affidavit stating that during the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: scuffle in the club, he was the one who took
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the BMW keys off the bar. Remember James left them
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: there amidst the chaos. Andre, who was never called to
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the witness stand during the initial trial, said he gave
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: the keys to one of the guys from rally, who
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: was known as B. And finally, it turns out the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: key evidence against James, the surveillance video footage that showed
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the BMW was not the original video. It was actually
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: a lower quality copy that had been altered, and the
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: prosecution did not preserve the original copy For the defense,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Heather and Dawn analyzed the video and saw that it
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: was badly distorted.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: What they used to support that version of events were
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: incredibly tainted videos, videos that never should have been introduced
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: into trial. The defense council had no idea that they
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: even needed to do deep dive investigation into the validity
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: of that video, because it was never disclosed to them
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: that that video and those images were significantly deteriorated.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: In other cases, District Attorney Everett had been known to
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: suppress exculpatory evidence, for example, that lab tests were altered
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: and no evidence actually linked the defendant to the crime.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: On September eighth, twenty twenty one, James filed his second
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: motion for appropriate relief, arguing all of this and asking
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the court to vacate his conviction. Today, after years of
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: writing and visits, James and Hibba are engaged to be married.
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: It's just me and James, like nothing else matters, Like
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: we kind of get into this zone where it's just
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: the two.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Of us and.
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: There's nothing better than being able to see him, like
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: laugh and smile for a little bit.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: They often talk about their plans for the future.
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: Aside from you know, getting married, we have collectively decided that,
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: you know, we have a bigger purpose in this world,
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: and that is, you know, not to just kind of
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: carry out his original plans of helping you know, children
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: in underserved communities, but hopefully, you know, God willing would
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: love to help people in this space. You know, people
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: that have been wrongfully convicted, families that are dealing with
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: wrongfully convicted individuals, or you know, whether there are spouses
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: or children, and you know, really just finding a way
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: to take all of our experiences and help other people.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: James has developed widespread support for his innocence in the
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Greenville community, where he's known as a youth mentor and
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a role model.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: There are still people in Greenville that say, gosh, a
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: lot of these kids would have turned out so much
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: better if James was here.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: I know one day I'm gonna get out. I know
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: one day I'm gonna get out because I know I
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: didn't do it. So you have to just stay positive
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: through this whole situation. You can't never give up, because
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: if you ever give up, day you're accepting. We have
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: to stand up, you know, because that's the only way
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: that you're gonna be able to They're gonna make a
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: difference in life.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to help support James, you can sign
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: a petition for his release at change dot org. Special
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: thanks to Lisa Spies for her tireless efforts and work
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: on James's case. Next time on Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Freeling Amanda Bussy.
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: It was so bad, like I couldn't even go in
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: Walmart to get diapers without him accusing me, and then
• 34:23
  Speaker 6: I would risk, you know, getting beat on and stuff
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: like that. There was no leavin. He was going to
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: make sure of that.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliber
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
• 35:06
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• 35:10
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• 35:14
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• 35:17
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• 35:20
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• 35:24
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• 35:27
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