Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #499 Guest Host Earlonne Woods with Joaquin Ciria
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: On the night of March twenty fourth, nineteen ninety, Felix
- 0:04Speaker 1: Costo Rico was walking down an alley in San Francisco's
- 0:08Speaker 1: Mission District. Witnesses saw a man get out of a
- 0:10Speaker 1: white money Carlo and confront Felix, and the two started arguing. Suddenly,
- 0:16Speaker 1: a shot rang out and Felix fell to the ground dead.
- 0:20Speaker 1: The shooter jumped back into the car and sped away
- 0:22Speaker 1: with another man at the wheel. By the next morning,
- 0:26Speaker 1: rumors were flying around the streets that the shooter was
- 0:28Speaker 1: a lifelong friend of Felix's, Joaquin Syria. They had grown
- 0:32Speaker 1: up together in Cuba. Word was that the two were
- 0:35Speaker 1: in a dispute over money. Joaquin had been out earlier
- 0:38Speaker 1: that evening with a friend who drove a white money Carlo,
- 0:41Speaker 1: but he claimed to be home with his wife and
- 0:43Speaker 1: baby son for the night by the time the crime
- 0:45Speaker 1: was committed. After viewing several lineups that included Joaquin's picture,
- 0:50Speaker 1: two eyewitnesses id'd him as the man they seen. One
- 0:54Speaker 1: witness claimed that she was eighty percent certain and that
- 0:58Speaker 1: was close enough for the jury. But this is wrongful conviction.
- 1:16Speaker 1: Welcome back to romeful conviction. I'm Mariline Woods, co creator
- 1:19Speaker 1: and co hosts of the Ear Hustle podcast, guest hosting
- 1:22Speaker 1: for Jason flummer Day. And I gotta tell you I
- 1:25Speaker 1: served over twenty seven years in prison, and I used
- 1:28Speaker 1: to always think about the people who were in here
- 1:31Speaker 1: that were actually innocent, you know, dealing with the day
- 1:34Speaker 1: to day grinding rigor of prison life. And that brings
- 1:38Speaker 1: us to our guest today, Joaquin Sariah. Joaquin. Welcome to
- 1:41Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction.
- 1:42Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Cool cool. And here to help tell Joaquin's story is
- 1:48Speaker 1: Paige Kanap. She's the supervising attorney at the Northern California
- 1:52Speaker 1: Innocent Project. Paige, thanks for being here.
- 1:55Speaker 3: Yeah, I am super excited to meet you, Arline. I'm
- 1:58Speaker 3: super happy to be with you.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Morning. Joaquin. Can you tell me, like, since you from Cuba,
- 2:05Speaker 1: what was your life like growing up growing now in Kilwow?
- 2:08Speaker 2: It was beautiful. It was beautiful, you know for me
- 2:12Speaker 2: to be a child growing now in my country. You know,
- 2:15Speaker 2: so rein them my family frame and kill what you
- 2:19Speaker 2: do a lot of teams you know that you're not
- 2:22Speaker 2: able to do in this country. You know, I remember
- 2:25Speaker 2: you know that in kill what we who to play
- 2:27Speaker 2: you know in the three to one o'cloud two o'cline
- 2:31Speaker 2: the morning, and it was no dingy everybody know everybody,
- 2:35Speaker 2: you know, because it's an island. I had a royal
- 2:39Speaker 2: beautiful shaohoo.
- 2:41Speaker 1: Got you, got you, got you. So when you were
- 2:43Speaker 1: a youngster, the US and Cuba was beefing. You know,
- 2:46Speaker 1: they have a pretty fraud history, you know, the Missile crisis,
- 2:50Speaker 1: the Communist revolt and bargoes. Not really a free flowing dialogue.
- 2:55Speaker 1: So I'm just curious, like, what were your impressions of
- 2:58Speaker 1: the United States back.
- 3:00Speaker 2: Well, let me let me tell you this, man, everybody
- 3:02Speaker 2: c what the majority we grow out believing everything that
- 3:06Speaker 2: we're watching the TV about the United States. We really
- 3:10Speaker 2: believe that Superman really exists. Anything that you go out
- 3:15Speaker 2: from United States, we really believe that. Brother, you know,
- 3:20Speaker 2: you know in we watch so brainwatched, you know that
- 3:24Speaker 2: when we're watching movie A Superman, Wonder Woman, we really
- 3:29Speaker 2: believe that these type of people exist in the United States.
- 3:35Speaker 1: You know, unbelievable. So this see how I grow out
- 3:39Speaker 1: and and and and wa quing. You knew the victim
- 3:43Speaker 1: in this case, Phyllis bastar Rica. When you were a kid,
- 3:46Speaker 1: back in Cuba.
- 3:47Speaker 2: You know, a Phillis we all call hi colitles. He
- 3:51Speaker 2: was close to my neighborhood, so mini mini minie time.
- 3:56Speaker 2: We who to skate from the school to go swimming
- 3:59Speaker 2: in the ocean, you know, go go hip some mango
- 4:02Speaker 2: sugar cane. Everybody liked to be around Philly. You know,
- 4:07Speaker 2: if you go into a party, you want him to
- 4:09Speaker 2: be there. He was only laughing all the time, making
- 4:14Speaker 2: a lot of joke. Definitely, he was a good friend, right.
- 4:19Speaker 1: And I'm just curious, did you come from like a
- 4:23Speaker 1: political family over in Cuba.
- 4:25Speaker 2: My father he was a revolutionary, you know, he was
- 4:28Speaker 2: a Commonist. He fight with they got through, you see,
- 4:33Speaker 2: if they got got the power way. My father was
- 4:36Speaker 2: a part of that. Yeah, the majority of my family
- 4:40Speaker 2: they really believed, you know, in the Commonies. And it
- 4:44Speaker 2: was problem in the house, you know, because we all
- 4:46Speaker 2: got different views. Since my ely age, I got really
- 4:50Speaker 2: really big trouble to fit in the Commonist party. I
- 4:54Speaker 2: got trouble with that. So you know, at the age
- 4:57Speaker 2: of eighteen, I was called to be in the army.
- 5:00Speaker 2: I was in high school at that time. But they
- 5:03Speaker 2: don't care. That was a man that told it called.
- 5:06Speaker 2: You know, a lot of young people escape because we
- 5:09Speaker 2: don't want to do that, you know, to go fight
- 5:12Speaker 2: to some other country, like a lot of Joonts in Cuba,
- 5:15Speaker 2: they were saying to Angola to fight a lot of
- 5:19Speaker 2: all these young people got killed, you know. So me
- 5:22Speaker 2: and I say, oh, I don't want to do that.
- 5:26Speaker 2: So when I was called to be in the army,
- 5:29Speaker 2: I remember that I was there maybe for about sismon
- 5:34Speaker 2: and I escape. A lot of Johns they do that.
- 5:37Speaker 2: After I escape, I go to my fatherly house and
- 5:41Speaker 2: I spend some time with my family. Into my father
- 5:45Speaker 2: come and told me, and he said, you know what,
- 5:47Speaker 2: walking I don't want no trouble with the government. You
- 5:50Speaker 2: have to give it, you say, do the right thing,
- 5:53Speaker 2: you know. And and I respect my family, you know,
- 5:56Speaker 2: I love my father so more that this is how
- 5:58Speaker 2: I aim. Then, you know, in prison, you know in Cuba,
- 6:02Speaker 2: it's not like right here, you know, right here, I
- 6:04Speaker 2: waiting something hoppy to your yoka crying right in two
- 6:08Speaker 2: or three days they take.
- 6:10Speaker 1: You to court your due process.
- 6:11Speaker 2: Yeah, in kull White difity in Culba, they directed you, Yeah,
- 6:15Speaker 2: you can be out thea for one through three four. Yeah,
- 6:18Speaker 2: I never go to court. Yeah, they see how it
- 6:22Speaker 2: is in Kiwa damn.
- 6:25Speaker 1: So in May of nineteen eighty, after spending some time
- 6:30Speaker 1: in prison, you fled Cuba as a part of the
- 6:33Speaker 1: Mario boat left, which from my understanding was a mass
- 6:37Speaker 1: migration of around one hundred and twenty five thousand Cubans
- 6:41Speaker 1: that was sanctioned by both Jimmy Carter and Fidale Castro.
- 6:45Speaker 1: You were still a teenager at that time, right, yeah,
- 6:47Speaker 1: And I want to ask you what do you remember
- 6:49Speaker 1: about the boat ride from Cuba to Florida because I
- 6:52Speaker 1: used to always see it on the news, you know,
- 6:54Speaker 1: individuals on floats and stuff like that coming from Cuba.
- 6:57Speaker 1: What what do you remember about that boat ride?
- 7:00Speaker 2: Well, Frosseto, to be honest with you, bro, I see
- 7:04Speaker 2: a lot of ball when I was in the ocean,
- 7:07Speaker 2: you know, and we're talking about a ball that you
- 7:10Speaker 2: might can pull twenty or thirty people in that ball.
- 7:14Speaker 2: So what the Cuba government was doing need instead or
- 7:18Speaker 2: pull twenty or thirty people? They who to put two
- 7:22Speaker 2: hundred people in the bowl. So imagining and let me
- 7:27Speaker 2: tell you, Mane, I see with my own eyes how
- 7:31Speaker 2: a lot of ball that's appeal you know, in the
- 7:35Speaker 2: ocean one minute that was next to us, and when
- 7:39Speaker 2: I look, it's not a te anomal, it is like
- 7:42Speaker 2: it is gone. So it was really, really really it
- 7:47Speaker 2: was really ugly, you know, right.
- 7:50Speaker 1: So fortunately for you you got here safely and you
- 7:55Speaker 1: landed in Key West, Florida. Can you tell me what
- 7:58Speaker 1: your feelings were when you first read the United States?
- 8:01Speaker 2: At that moment, I feel, you know, I watched Hoppy. Yeah, yah,
- 8:05Speaker 2: I wa Hoppy completely. You know that I fleck. I
- 8:09Speaker 2: watched Hoppy. You know that. I mean you not a
- 8:11Speaker 2: state that I don't have to live it a field
- 8:13Speaker 2: no more. I don't have to water, you know about that?
- 8:16Speaker 2: I going and they killed Biddy. Govin ain't on Sonty
- 8:19Speaker 2: like that. I know. I washed the most power with
- 8:23Speaker 2: fo komtri in the war. So that moment, anything that
- 8:29Speaker 2: they told me WILLILL believe it.
- 8:32Speaker 1: So over the next few years, you kind of skipped
- 8:34Speaker 1: around to a few different cities and you finally ended
- 8:38Speaker 1: up in San Francisco living with a woman named Nellie Hernandez.
- 8:42Speaker 1: Nelly was a little older than you, and she has
- 8:44Speaker 1: six kids. And back then you were hanging out with
- 8:48Speaker 1: a couple of your partners from Cuba, your childhood friend
- 8:51Speaker 1: Felix Costa Rica who had also made it to the US.
- 8:54Speaker 1: And a guy named Robert Socorro. And there was another
- 8:58Speaker 1: cat from Cuba that was a hustler name Candido ds
- 9:01Speaker 1: What did you know about him?
- 9:03Speaker 2: You know, Candido Dias, what I know about him? You
- 9:07Speaker 2: know that he's a cute one. You know, he was
- 9:10Speaker 2: living in San Francisco in the Sta Hotel, you know,
- 9:13Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety. And I never think, you know, he
- 9:19Speaker 2: had any typeo or bad feeling about me, a fat
- 9:23Speaker 2: that I know. You know, we're talking sometimes and you
- 9:27Speaker 2: know when you got the feeling that you don't click
- 9:31Speaker 2: with the persion, you know, that's the way I feel,
- 9:33Speaker 2: that the way he feel. But we never let it,
- 9:36Speaker 2: you know, past to the level or having any type
- 9:40Speaker 2: of problem with him.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Okay, And when you was in San Francisco and asked
- 9:45Speaker 1: us what was the San Francisco Police Department like?
- 9:54Speaker 2: So in nineteen ninety in San Francisco Police Department, it
- 9:59Speaker 2: was really really really I could root department. I already
- 10:06Speaker 2: you know, listening in the three what they were doing,
- 10:09Speaker 2: how they brand drag on people car you know, and
- 10:14Speaker 2: and all that type of stuff. You know. Of course,
- 10:18Speaker 2: not everybody, not every police is doing you know, some
- 10:22Speaker 2: really Torigan, they really got some a lot of bad apple,
- 10:28Speaker 2: you know in the San Francis Complete department. Hyah my
- 10:52Speaker 2: twenty four, nineteen ninety. You know, my personal life at
- 10:55Speaker 2: that time it was changing, you know for the bet
- 10:59Speaker 2: you know, I mean my baby's mama, you know, Johanna
- 11:02Speaker 2: pays about almost about a jayago before my son was born.
- 11:07Speaker 2: I was a happy man, you know at that time,
- 11:09Speaker 2: and all my friend, oh, my friend, what's happy with
- 11:12Speaker 2: me too? You know, roveto socorro he was happy if
- 11:15Speaker 2: Philidy who took coming to my house. It was a
- 11:19Speaker 2: happy time for me, right, you know, at that time.
- 11:23Speaker 1: Until, of course, your good friend Felix Basto Rico was killed,
- 11:27Speaker 1: which happened on the night of March twenty fourth of
- 11:29Speaker 1: nineteen ninety. So Paige, can you can you walk us
- 11:33Speaker 1: through what transpired that night?
- 11:35Speaker 3: Yeah, So what we know is that Felix Pasta Rica
- 11:38Speaker 3: was walking down the street with a plastic bag. We've
- 11:42Speaker 3: since learned from Roberto SoCoRo that Roberto was in hiding.
- 11:45Speaker 3: He had just killed someone and had asked Felix to
- 11:48Speaker 3: bring him some clothes and toilet trees and stuff. So
- 11:51Speaker 3: he's walking over to the bay Bridge Motel where Roberto is.
- 11:55Speaker 3: And in Clara Alley, which is sort of perpendicular to
- 12:00Speaker 3: the Baybridge Motel, there are people. There's a guy in
- 12:03Speaker 3: a car, Kenneth stuff, and there's a woman up in
- 12:05Speaker 3: the window, Kathleen Guovara, and they both hear this loud altercation,
- 12:10Speaker 3: this loud argument in the alleyway, and describe these two
- 12:14Speaker 3: people kind of walking back and forth interacting with each other.
- 12:18Speaker 3: There's a white Monte Carlo that the guy with the
- 12:19Speaker 3: gun gets out of and he shoots Felix Pastrica in
- 12:23Speaker 3: the street and jumps back in the white Monte Carlo
- 12:26Speaker 3: and drives off right.
- 12:29Speaker 1: And that even in Joaquin, you were spending time with
- 12:32Speaker 1: another friend, eighteen year old George Varilla, who was actually
- 12:36Speaker 1: the son of your former girlfriend Nellie Hernandez.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I remain. Me and Joe Barrela, we who
- 12:42Speaker 2: to be real close when he wasched, you know around
- 12:45Speaker 2: a nine. Yeah, oh, we who to go to the
- 12:48Speaker 2: video Keda all the time. We watched Aditta to play video.
- 12:54Speaker 2: I'm to be honesty, I feel, you know, even when
- 12:57Speaker 2: I watch young I feel like he watch my son.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Right.
- 13:01Speaker 2: He would come to my house almost every two three days.
- 13:05Speaker 1: Okay, so can you tell us like what you and
- 13:09Speaker 1: you know George got into on the evening of March
- 13:11Speaker 1: twenty fourth, before y'all have parted ways.
- 13:15Speaker 2: I remembered that nine that wasn't home with my family.
- 13:19Speaker 2: You know, I expaid that, you know, to stay home.
- 13:21Speaker 2: I was in May and I received a phone call
- 13:24Speaker 2: from your So when I got the phone your he
- 13:28Speaker 2: started told me and he said, hey, man, what you're doing?
- 13:31Speaker 2: I said, man, I'm right here. You know, I spent
- 13:32Speaker 2: some time with Johanna and with my son. Man, I bow,
- 13:36Speaker 2: why we don't go to play video? So he conveys
- 13:39Speaker 2: me and I go out with here and he come
- 13:42Speaker 2: out to peep me out. It is white Monte Carlo.
- 13:46Speaker 1: Oh, George Rilla drove a white money Carlo.
- 13:48Speaker 2: He got a white Monte Carlo. He peeped me out.
- 13:51Speaker 2: Almost around seven o'clock we go to the CAA to
- 13:55Speaker 2: play video. I remember that we got there almost around seven.
- 14:00Speaker 2: Your saving toty with what play video? Buado the Blue?
- 14:03Speaker 2: He come out and told me and said, hey, what
- 14:05Speaker 2: can I have to go back to my house because
- 14:07Speaker 2: my girlfriend. She come out from Richmond, so to make
- 14:10Speaker 2: this toy show.
- 14:11Speaker 1: We leave, and when you left, you didn't go straight home.
- 14:13Speaker 1: You enjoyed stopped by Gallon's Bar first, where a lot
- 14:16Speaker 1: of Cubans and Puerto Ricans ain't got at to see
- 14:19Speaker 1: if you might meet up with a friend of yours there,
- 14:22Speaker 1: But instead you ran into another guy, Roberto Hernandez, who
- 14:27Speaker 1: was not exactly a friend.
- 14:29Speaker 2: We don't get along, you know me, and he got
- 14:31Speaker 2: a fire side. After I see my friend Manolo, I
- 14:34Speaker 2: talking with Manolo for a little while and got to
- 14:37Speaker 2: the fight. Joe Barrella take me home. I got to
- 14:41Speaker 2: my house around a twenty five h eight toty Navid,
- 14:45Speaker 2: I leave my how a game And did you know
- 14:47Speaker 2: what you was wearing that night? Yeah? Yeah, that's something
- 14:50Speaker 2: that I never go and forget that, Navid, because at
- 14:52Speaker 2: that time, I don't know if you remain me that
- 14:55Speaker 2: a lot of young people Epecio black people like me,
- 14:59Speaker 2: we who to with that type post Jackie letter, JACKI
- 15:02Speaker 2: you know that it washed all colorful letter, Jaki Song said.
- 15:07Speaker 2: Ko Mamba Squad Song said, how roly So Coverda got you?
- 15:13Speaker 2: I don't think that I think that I even can
- 15:16Speaker 2: sleep with that Jackey d C how to much I know,
- 15:20Speaker 2: Michael Mama squad. Yeah, and they see how I get
- 15:23Speaker 2: out out of my house when yo body, I piped
- 15:26Speaker 2: me out.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Okay, cool. So George dropped you off at around eight
- 15:30Speaker 1: thirty and you spent the rest of the evening at
- 15:32Speaker 1: home with Johanna and your son. But by the next
- 15:35Speaker 1: day there was already a rumor going around that it
- 15:38Speaker 1: was you that killed Costa Rica, as you found out
- 15:41Speaker 1: from your friend Manolo when you went to Gallon's bar
- 15:44Speaker 1: the next day.
- 15:45Speaker 2: Manolo and some Odo people wasch outside the bottom. When
- 15:49Speaker 2: Manolo see me, Manolo approaching me, you know how, he said, hey, waking,
- 15:54Speaker 2: how you doing? My friend? You know ween brace and
- 15:56Speaker 2: he said, man why you don't leave the CD? And
- 15:58Speaker 2: I look at here. I say, leady, CD, what are
- 16:01Speaker 2: you talking about? Manolo? He said, Main CALITOQ last night?
- 16:05Speaker 2: You know, I'm the rue noise that you beat it.
- 16:08Speaker 2: And I say, hey, A stop playing like tod mate,
- 16:11Speaker 2: do you show? What are you talking about? He said? Yeah.
- 16:13Speaker 2: So when he told me now the Frost team that
- 16:16Speaker 2: is coming, you know, in my mind, I just say, oh,
- 16:19Speaker 2: Main's something wrong here, and I just started to be afraid.
- 16:23Speaker 1: And it came out later that Condido DZ was the
- 16:26Speaker 1: likely instigator of that rumor. But however it got started.
- 16:29Speaker 1: The two homicide detectives work in the case, Art Gearns
- 16:33Speaker 1: and James Crowley ran with that rumor.
- 16:36Speaker 3: So Joaquin's name comes up really fast in the investigation,
- 16:39Speaker 3: and from as soon as they get his name, he
- 16:42Speaker 3: is the only person they ever look into, and so
- 16:46Speaker 3: essentially what you can see in the police reports is
- 16:48Speaker 3: the two homicide inspectors who have Joaquin as their one
- 16:52Speaker 3: and only suspect, start showing his picture to the two eyewitnesses,
- 16:56Speaker 3: neither of whom identify him. They ask her, well, who
- 16:59Speaker 3: looks most like the shooter, and she says, well, she
- 17:03Speaker 3: points to Jaquin's photo and says he looks most like
- 17:05Speaker 3: the shooter, but she doesn't say it's him, and the
- 17:08Speaker 3: guy in the car says he doesn't pick anybody out,
- 17:10Speaker 3: but they still keep their focus entirely on Joaquin.
- 17:13Speaker 1: But Joaquin didn't even match the descriptions that the two
- 17:16Speaker 1: witnesses gave right, No.
- 17:17Speaker 3: Yeah, so the police did get descriptions from the eyewitnesses
- 17:21Speaker 3: of the shooter and the things they describe because they
- 17:24Speaker 3: both sort of say they see him from a distance,
- 17:26Speaker 3: kind of the silhouette. They say he's got an afro,
- 17:29Speaker 3: and that he's wearing this long trench coat. And we
- 17:32Speaker 3: know from independent witnesses, including the guy Joaquin got in
- 17:35Speaker 3: a fight with, who you know, didn't like him and
- 17:37Speaker 3: had no reason to lie for him, that Joaquin's hair
- 17:40Speaker 3: is in a long Jerry curl, not in an afro,
- 17:42Speaker 3: and he's wearing this short, short leather jacket and not
- 17:45Speaker 3: a long trench coat. And in fact, no one had
- 17:48Speaker 3: ever seen Joaquin ever in a trench coat, and he
- 17:51Speaker 3: didn't even own a trench coat.
- 17:53Speaker 2: You know, thank God that I just stop at the
- 17:55Speaker 2: Gottam bottle because you'll see everybody see me how the race.
- 18:01Speaker 2: Everybody the people they said by they DeFi they've remained
- 18:05Speaker 2: by how I watched the race. They've remainbed that I
- 18:07Speaker 2: got a Jerry craile.
- 18:09Speaker 3: I mean, even when they search the house, they're never
- 18:11Speaker 3: able to find anything to connect Joaquin, and and so
- 18:15Speaker 3: you know, it doesn't match. He doesn't match the descriptions,
- 18:18Speaker 3: and he's got an alibi. His his girlfriend and their
- 18:21Speaker 3: roommate tell the police from the very beginning that he's
- 18:24Speaker 3: home that night by eight thirty.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Nevertheless, Garance and Crowley stay focused on Joaquin as a suspect.
- 18:31Speaker 1: And so at that point, Joaquin, you went to the
- 18:34Speaker 1: police station on your own, correct.
- 18:36Speaker 2: I cannot take a no mom maent. I cannot take
- 18:38Speaker 2: a no more you watch some more roomo that I said, Man,
- 18:40Speaker 2: I have to go to to with the homo side.
- 18:42Speaker 2: I have to go talk to with the homo side. Bolutalitly.
- 18:46Speaker 2: I go with my loyo to speak to the homo side.
- 18:49Speaker 3: About two and a half weeks after the shooting, and
- 18:53Speaker 3: he tells them that he was with George Ferrella in
- 18:55Speaker 3: the white Monte Carlo, and he tells them how to
- 18:58Speaker 3: find George, says, I, you know, I dated it his mother,
- 19:00Speaker 3: Nellie Hernandez. They live at this address. Here's what he
- 19:04Speaker 3: looks like. Here's the car he drives, I mean, basically
- 19:06Speaker 3: everything they need. And they pull in George Verilla and
- 19:11Speaker 3: George is initially saying, well, I can tell you what
- 19:13Speaker 3: happened up until the time Joaquin and I split up,
- 19:15Speaker 3: and then he says he went home after and he says, well,
- 19:17Speaker 3: I probably I probably went somewhere after though, and they
- 19:20Speaker 3: never ask him where did you go? Instead, what they
- 19:23Speaker 3: say is, we know Joaquin was the shooter. You're going
- 19:26Speaker 3: to go down for this murder. He's you know, George
- 19:28Speaker 3: is eighteen. They tell him, you're going to go down
- 19:30Speaker 3: for this murder unless you stop lying and covering up
- 19:33Speaker 3: for Joaquin. They essentially tell him like, he's just got
- 19:36Speaker 3: to say that Joaquin is the guy in the car
- 19:38Speaker 3: with him at the time of the shooting, and that
- 19:40Speaker 3: Joaquin is the shooter. And George Verilla literally says, Okay,
- 19:44Speaker 3: whatever you said, and then he repeats the story that
- 19:48Speaker 3: they have now fed to him, and that's it.
- 19:52Speaker 1: So I guess subsequently later you end up getting arrested. Joaquin, Yes,
- 19:57Speaker 1: and you end up getting arrested based on a confession
- 20:00Speaker 1: from George.
- 20:01Speaker 3: Or at least from George saying exactly what the police
- 20:04Speaker 3: told them to say.
- 20:05Speaker 1: Okay, and so he was he fabricated her from the
- 20:08Speaker 1: officers Garn's and Crowley.
- 20:10Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, they tell him he's got to say
- 20:12Speaker 3: it's Joaquin. That's like. Then they keep going back to
- 20:14Speaker 3: the eyewitnesses. Basically, the witnesses make positive ideas only after
- 20:18Speaker 3: they're repeatedly shown Joaquin and for one of them. She
- 20:21Speaker 3: doesn't even make a first positive Ida until the preliminary
- 20:24Speaker 3: hearing when he's literally sitting in a red jumpsuit at
- 20:26Speaker 3: the defense table, and then she's like, oh, I'm sure
- 20:29Speaker 3: that's the guy. And she says it's based on his
- 20:32Speaker 3: attitude that she can see is how she's identifying. I mean,
- 20:36Speaker 3: there's a lot of racism all through this trial, Like
- 20:39Speaker 3: she even says, I think they were speaking African.
- 20:42Speaker 1: So on April nineteen, nineteen ninety, Joaquin, you were arrested
- 20:47Speaker 1: in charged with first degree murder, bro what was going
- 20:50Speaker 1: through your head? I mean, did you even think this
- 20:53Speaker 1: shit was real?
- 20:54Speaker 2: Do you know what? Let me tell you these whoop
- 20:58Speaker 2: not even when I washed my try you, I really
- 21:01Speaker 2: believe that everything worth real. I was thinking that I
- 21:04Speaker 2: wasn't a can't the camera show looking all these people
- 21:08Speaker 2: coming and pointed me with a finger, Yeah, that the
- 21:12Speaker 2: main And in my mind I said main, I know,
- 21:16Speaker 2: I know the camera is going come out and they
- 21:18Speaker 2: go and say a smile you in camera, you know,
- 21:23Speaker 2: because that was a famite show at the time. I
- 21:25Speaker 2: you to watch that show tomorrow, you know, and I
- 21:30Speaker 2: and I say, you know what I mean, what happened
- 21:33Speaker 2: to me. I cannot believe it. You you cannot, being innocing,
- 21:38Speaker 2: believe that what is happening to you is real. You cannot,
- 21:45Speaker 2: you know, and that's what happened to me. And you know,
- 21:48Speaker 2: to respond to your question, no, you know, I steel,
- 21:52Speaker 2: don't get it, I steal. You don't even get it.
- 21:55Speaker 2: Main you're being charged with frost the good morning. I
- 22:01Speaker 2: just deal with them getting so.
- 22:03Speaker 3: George had actually kind of disappeared, George Urella, he'd not
- 22:06Speaker 3: shown up for the prelim, he was missing leading up
- 22:10Speaker 3: to the trial. I honestly believe Joaquin's attorney just didn't
- 22:13Speaker 3: think he was even going to have to deal with George.
- 22:16Speaker 3: It was just going to be this eyewitness I D case.
- 22:19Speaker 3: And so he did, I think, a fairly good job,
- 22:22Speaker 3: you know, showing all these discrepancies between the descriptions and
- 22:25Speaker 3: what Joaquin actually looked like their own inconsistent statements and
- 22:30Speaker 3: kind of the evolution of their ideas. He did a
- 22:33Speaker 3: nice job of showing that George Ofrella's timeline didn't make
- 22:36Speaker 3: any sense, that there was this like big gap in
- 22:38Speaker 3: between the way he says what they did that night
- 22:41Speaker 3: and how he drove Joaquin home his timelines that lines
- 22:44Speaker 3: up with joaquines that Joaquin is home long before the
- 22:47Speaker 3: murder happens. But what he missed, what he didn't manage
- 22:51Speaker 3: to do, And one of the things I really respect
- 22:54Speaker 3: about him is that he actually gave us a declaration
- 22:56Speaker 3: saying he was ineffective because he didn't present to the jury.
- 22:59Speaker 3: The jury never heard that Joaquin's name came from the
- 23:03Speaker 3: homicide inspectors first, and that they told Rilla essentially that
- 23:06Speaker 3: he had to identify Joaquin, So the jury just never
- 23:09Speaker 3: heard that. What they heard instead was this guy who
- 23:11Speaker 3: knows Joaquin, who'd grown up with him around is saying
- 23:15Speaker 3: he's the guy who was with me in my car
- 23:17Speaker 3: and who got out and shot him. And then he
- 23:19Speaker 3: hears that corroborated by these two independent eyewitnesses, and Joaquin's
- 23:25Speaker 3: attorney presented witnesses who describe what Joaquin looked like that night,
- 23:29Speaker 3: how he had Jerry Curl in the short jacket, But
- 23:32Speaker 3: he never presented the alibi witnesses. So they also didn't
- 23:35Speaker 3: hear that Joaquin was at home with his one month
- 23:38Speaker 3: old son, and that they had a good reason to
- 23:40Speaker 3: remember that night because they were going to celebrate the
- 23:42Speaker 3: one month anniversary of his birth the next day. So
- 23:46Speaker 3: you know, they knew that George Verrella was incentivized, they
- 23:49Speaker 3: knew he got immunity, they knew he was in and
- 23:51Speaker 3: out of trouble. So it wasn't a super strong case
- 23:54Speaker 3: even with what they heard. But what they never heard
- 23:56Speaker 3: was anything else about someone else actually did it, or
- 24:00Speaker 3: that Joaquin had this really credible alibi, and so they
- 24:03Speaker 3: end up convicting him.
- 24:09Speaker 2: It don't matter if I'm trying to explain to you
- 24:11Speaker 2: a thousand times, I cannot even feeling close to really
- 24:20Speaker 2: really tell you how I feel when they come out
- 24:25Speaker 2: with a guilty verity. You know, everything inside me stopped, everything,
- 24:33Speaker 2: I stop reading, my heart stop. It is a feeling
- 24:39Speaker 2: that that you can never you can never explain how
- 24:48Speaker 2: it is that they find you guilty, especial find me
- 24:55Speaker 2: guilty or the moory of my bed framing that's all
- 25:01Speaker 2: I really killed me? How can I be doing time
- 25:04Speaker 2: for the mony or my beayfriend made somebody that I
- 25:08Speaker 2: love even to today. I ended almost opened Pelican Bay
- 25:33Speaker 2: presum in what the more taught prisum in the California
- 25:36Speaker 2: system at the time. I see people when they told
- 25:41Speaker 2: these people you go into Pelican Bay. I see grown
- 25:44Speaker 2: Maine crumbled in the floor and crying when I was
- 25:48Speaker 2: in some queen, you know. And I ask the people
- 25:52Speaker 2: and I say, hey, Main, why he crying? I said, man,
- 25:55Speaker 2: you don't know where we're going. He said, we're going
- 25:57Speaker 2: to Pelican be And I said what aboudy? I said, Cuba,
- 26:02Speaker 2: let me tell you mane, it is no joke. He said,
- 26:06Speaker 2: may wait until you get there. You know it was true.
- 26:12Speaker 2: You know when I gotta tell your Maine every time
- 26:15Speaker 2: that you heal alund sound in that prison, it was
- 26:21Speaker 2: not a first alarm. It was somebody got killed, you know.
- 26:28Speaker 2: And I said, man, how did I ain't in there? Bo?
- 26:32Speaker 2: My mind is still do not stopping play some trick
- 26:36Speaker 2: on me? I remember, you know. I who to wag
- 26:39Speaker 2: into my said go to sleep. And I had to
- 26:42Speaker 2: cover my head with the Blankee real tie and I
- 26:47Speaker 2: had to close my eyes royal tie, and I hold
- 26:50Speaker 2: to say, Main, when I open my eyes now, when
- 26:53Speaker 2: I open my eyes, now, I know this is a three.
- 26:57Speaker 2: This is a three. I go and being home, we
- 27:00Speaker 2: might sign with my baby's mama. This is a three, man,
- 27:04Speaker 2: This is a three. I went, I got Cobway might
- 27:08Speaker 2: sell I need the sall. You know, I say, wow, man,
- 27:14Speaker 2: this is real mm hm.
- 27:20Speaker 1: So I gotta ask you, man, like, how did you
- 27:22Speaker 1: hold on to hope so much for all those years?
- 27:25Speaker 1: Because I always always say, you know, for a person
- 27:27Speaker 1: that committed crime, it's hard, you know, to deal with
- 27:30Speaker 1: the time, But for an innocent person sitting there, it's
- 27:33Speaker 1: a whole different level because you're going through everything, whether
- 27:37Speaker 1: it's the violence in the prison, the abuse from the cops,
- 27:41Speaker 1: whatever it is, the CEOs, whatever it is. So how
- 27:44Speaker 1: did you hold on the hope that you would get out?
- 27:48Speaker 2: You know why? In the beginning I watched completely ain't
- 27:53Speaker 2: good with God? Everything that I got in my mayis
- 27:58Speaker 2: how did I go and prove that I don't do
- 27:59Speaker 2: the what I can do? You know? And the good
- 28:04Speaker 2: thing about it is and thank God, you know, to
- 28:07Speaker 2: all the emails, you know, in every prison that I be, brother,
- 28:12Speaker 2: in every priston that i'd be, every email, believe on me,
- 28:20Speaker 2: they can see through into my heart. They can see
- 28:23Speaker 2: through into the type of man that I was. You know,
- 28:28Speaker 2: this call it homies homeboy. They asking me working and
- 28:34Speaker 2: why are you here for? Man? And I say, man, brother,
- 28:39Speaker 2: they give me totally one year to life or a
- 28:41Speaker 2: model that I not come make. I'm taking God. They say, hey, man,
- 28:45Speaker 2: you know what, man, I believe you? What can I
- 28:48Speaker 2: believe you? And I say thank you man. And I
- 28:52Speaker 2: received so much respect. I receive the respect that the
- 28:57Speaker 2: systems don't give it to me. I got any all
- 29:00Speaker 2: these em the respect that deceased denight to me. I
- 29:05Speaker 2: got in it from all these people.
- 29:07Speaker 1: And page can you can you walk us through the
- 29:10Speaker 1: post conviction litigation? I mean didn't Evidently nothing worked for him.
- 29:15Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean you got to give Joaquin credit, like
- 29:18Speaker 3: he litigated his case to the nines, Like he got
- 29:24Speaker 3: himself into federal court. I know he had helped from
- 29:26Speaker 3: jail house lawyers. I have a lot of respect for
- 29:28Speaker 3: jailhouth lawyers. And I mean, unfortunately the courts just refused
- 29:32Speaker 3: to look at it and refuse to listen. But what
- 29:35Speaker 3: eventually happened was Joaquin had earned the respect not only
- 29:39Speaker 3: of other incarcerated folks, but also some of the free staff.
- 29:42Speaker 3: And we were contacted by this guy Ray Leonardini, who
- 29:46Speaker 3: ran a meditation circle that Joaquin was a part of,
- 29:49Speaker 3: and also Ellen egger Is a pro bono attorney who
- 29:53Speaker 3: have partnered with in a few cases, was helping another
- 29:56Speaker 3: guy with parole who told her, you have to meet Joaquin,
- 29:59Speaker 3: like he's actually innocent and you need to help them.
- 30:02Speaker 3: And so Ellen went and met Joaquin. He told her everything.
- 30:06Speaker 3: She like everybody, found him very compelling and believable, and
- 30:11Speaker 3: so she The first thing asked her to do was
- 30:13Speaker 3: go talk to George Verilla's sister, Denise Courchier, and Alan
- 30:16Speaker 3: did that and Denise told her, my brother told me
- 30:20Speaker 3: that Joaquin is innocent, that it was another Cuban man,
- 30:24Speaker 3: and that the police really wanted Joaquin, and George was
- 30:27Speaker 3: scared of them, and so he went along with what
- 30:30Speaker 3: they wanted. But what really turned the case around was
- 30:33Speaker 3: when Roberto Sacoro got out of prison. He went to
- 30:36Speaker 3: Cuba and he tracked down Joaquin's family and told them
- 30:40Speaker 3: that he personally knew that Joaquin was innocent because he
- 30:43Speaker 3: had actually seen the whole thing from his motel room.
- 30:46Speaker 1: And listeners, remember, Roberto Cicoro was another friend of Joaquin's.
- 30:51Speaker 1: The day before all of this happened, Roberto had killed
- 30:54Speaker 1: this other guy named Ruben Alfonso, and he was hiding
- 30:57Speaker 1: out at the Bay Bridge Motel, wading on Felix to
- 31:00Speaker 1: bring up some clothes when he heard Felix southside argon
- 31:03Speaker 1: with Candido Diaz.
- 31:04Speaker 3: They had been fighting over a gun and not paying
- 31:08Speaker 3: for the gun, and so he recognized their voices and
- 31:10Speaker 3: they start coming in and out of his view, and
- 31:12Speaker 3: you know, he hears the gunshot and he runs out
- 31:14Speaker 3: and he sees Candido get into the white Monte Carlo
- 31:18Speaker 3: and drive away, and he basically broke down and apologized
- 31:22Speaker 3: to Joaquin's family and explained that while he was in
- 31:26Speaker 3: he'd been a shot caller initially, and so he felt like,
- 31:30Speaker 3: you know, in addition to the normal amount of trouble
- 31:32Speaker 3: you can get in in prison for stitching, that he,
- 31:34Speaker 3: especially as someone who'd sort of enforced those rules, would
- 31:37Speaker 3: be even more in danger. And for a long time
- 31:40Speaker 3: he'd hope to be able to get his own revenge,
- 31:42Speaker 3: that at some point Candido would get locked up and
- 31:46Speaker 3: he would be able to avenge Felix's death, and in
- 31:51Speaker 3: some ways, fortunately that never happened, and instead he gets
- 31:54Speaker 3: out and tells the truth, and that really broke open
- 31:57Speaker 3: the case.
- 31:58Speaker 1: And Ellen also tracked a couple of people that George
- 32:01Speaker 1: Rilla had talked to and had told them Joaquin was innocent.
- 32:05Speaker 1: One was Joaquin's sister, Denise, and the other was a
- 32:08Speaker 1: woman named Kadi Dad Gonzales.
- 32:10Speaker 3: She was friends with Nellie Hernandez, George's mother, and also
- 32:14Speaker 3: knew Joaquin through Nelly and through the Cuban community. George
- 32:19Speaker 3: tells her also, so it's very similar to what he
- 32:21Speaker 3: said to Denise, that he knows Joaquin is innocent and
- 32:24Speaker 3: didn't do this. And so we had these two statements
- 32:26Speaker 3: from George Verilla to two different people saying that Joaquin
- 32:29Speaker 3: was innocent and also saying that it was another Cuban man.
- 32:32Speaker 3: And so Candy ro Diez is not only Cuban but
- 32:35Speaker 3: also matches the original description. He was always had his
- 32:38Speaker 3: hair in an afro, He was known to wear long
- 32:41Speaker 3: trench coats. And it turns out he'd had this, you know,
- 32:44Speaker 3: ongoing and escalating feud with Felix Pasta Rica right before
- 32:48Speaker 3: the murder, and it all started over the weapon that
- 32:51Speaker 3: may actually have been used, A forty four, which was
- 32:53Speaker 3: actually the weapon they said was used to kill Felix
- 32:56Speaker 3: Pasta Rica. So Ellen had done most of the investigation
- 33:00Speaker 3: by the time she came to me. And it was
- 33:01Speaker 3: only the Roberto piece that came afterwards, but we really
- 33:04Speaker 3: felt like that pushed it over the top. And then
- 33:08Speaker 3: the Innocence Commission also got an eyewitness I D expert
- 33:10Speaker 3: to look at the eyewitnesses and just really explain and
- 33:15Speaker 3: under the social science that we now know even more.
- 33:18Speaker 3: While all of those, all the reasons eyewitness identifications are unreliable,
- 33:22Speaker 3: but we're especially so in this case.
- 33:24Speaker 1: Well not just unreliable. I believe one of the witnesses,
- 33:27Speaker 1: Kathleen Gavada, had another reason to identify Joaquin.
- 33:31Speaker 2: You know, the same woman I say from the BORGINI
- 33:34Speaker 2: now that I hold the pa SHOLDI nimin, I only
- 33:37Speaker 2: atey poucing and later you know, to give you diffending
- 33:42Speaker 2: change and watch you see, well she gotla.
- 33:46Speaker 1: So, Paige, after all this new information you put in
- 33:49Speaker 1: front of them, did the courts quickly agree that Joaquin
- 33:53Speaker 1: was innocent?
- 33:54Speaker 3: I mean we expected them to, especially because the DA's
- 33:57Speaker 3: office was on.
- 33:58Speaker 1: Board, and that was District Ernie chess A Bodin, who
- 34:01Speaker 1: was repeatedly under fire from the police union and adversaries.
- 34:05Speaker 1: There were I think like two recall elections, so his
- 34:08Speaker 1: political foot and was never secure, and he was the
- 34:11Speaker 1: one that was making the recommendation based on the Innocence
- 34:14Speaker 1: Commission findings.
- 34:15Speaker 3: They had this separate Innocence Commission, right, that was supposed
- 34:18Speaker 3: to be this independent body. It had DA's public defenders, experts,
- 34:22Speaker 3: law professors, you know, like this whole commission of different
- 34:25Speaker 3: stakeholders who all agreed Joaquin is fully innocent. And in
- 34:28Speaker 3: my experience, usually when that happens, the courts are pretty
- 34:32Speaker 3: willing to go along pretty quickly, right. But unfortunately we
- 34:35Speaker 3: had the exact opposite experience here, and I can only
- 34:38Speaker 3: imagine some of that was the politics going on in
- 34:41Speaker 3: San Francisco. The court essentially just the first thing they
- 34:44Speaker 3: did was ask us to do another round of briefing,
- 34:46Speaker 3: and they invited the Attorney General's office, in which you
- 34:50Speaker 3: know doesn't generally happen in superior court. But here's the
- 34:53Speaker 3: court saying, you know, District Attorney, I don't trust what
- 34:55Speaker 3: you have to say, and so Attorney General, I'm inviting
- 34:58Speaker 3: you in to tell me something different. Fortunately, the AG's
- 35:02Speaker 3: office also saw that this wasn't a case to oppose.
- 35:04Speaker 3: Everything pointed to Jacquin's innocence. There's no reliable evidence of
- 35:07Speaker 3: guilt anywhere. But even after you know, a second round
- 35:11Speaker 3: of briefing in the AG's office, refusing to come in,
- 35:15Speaker 3: they still had us have an evident you're hearing. And
- 35:17Speaker 3: so here we are both sides arguing for the same thing.
- 35:20Speaker 3: So we're both presenting opening statements on Joaquin being innocent,
- 35:24Speaker 3: and then we're both doing closing arguments about how he's
- 35:27Speaker 3: entitled to relief and how we all believe he's innocent
- 35:29Speaker 3: and the judge should reverse his conviction. Luckily, by then
- 35:32Speaker 3: we'd been switched to a different judge, was a really good,
- 35:35Speaker 3: experienced judge and just saw all the problems with the case.
- 35:39Speaker 3: And then finally, on April eighteenth, the court reversed Joaquin's
- 35:43Speaker 3: conviction and the district attorneys again announced he was innocent.
- 35:48Speaker 3: They dismissed all of the charges.
- 35:52Speaker 2: Man, I almost fail to be fluw yes, to go
- 35:57Speaker 2: out to the freedom that I want, denying for almost
- 36:03Speaker 2: thirty two yeah, and I don't even know how to
- 36:05Speaker 2: make it all the way to the door, you know,
- 36:08Speaker 2: And I keep walking. I'm walking, imagin you know, when
- 36:12Speaker 2: when they open the door to me and I see
- 36:15Speaker 2: you know, I see pay ailing my son and my
- 36:20Speaker 2: baby's mama. I see everybody. Man, it was too much
- 36:24Speaker 2: for me. I say, my god, it was a day unbelievable.
- 36:31Speaker 2: This type of feeling. You have to really go through
- 36:35Speaker 2: that for you can really have the thing what I'm
- 36:38Speaker 2: talking about. It is unbelievable. It is unbelievable.
- 36:44Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you on that. And of course we're
- 36:46Speaker 1: all super grateful to the Northern California Innocent Project and
- 36:50Speaker 1: the fantastic work that they do because it's through them
- 36:54Speaker 1: that people like Joaquin can you know, have a chance
- 36:57Speaker 1: to get back to this free world. So if anyone
- 37:00Speaker 1: want to show the Northern California Innocent Projects some love,
- 37:03Speaker 1: we'll have the link in the bios so you can
- 37:06Speaker 1: do that. So we've got to the point of the
- 37:10Speaker 1: show where we do this thing called closing arguments. And
- 37:13Speaker 1: first I want to thank you all for being here,
- 37:15Speaker 1: and I also want to ask y'all to share your
- 37:18Speaker 1: final thoughts for the listeners, you know, anything that you
- 37:21Speaker 1: want to say, any takeaway you may have, and page
- 37:26Speaker 1: I want to first start with you and then we
- 37:29Speaker 1: can close with Joaquin.
- 37:32Speaker 3: So the thing that I think we haven't done a
- 37:35Speaker 3: great job of yet, especially in San Francisco is like,
- 37:37Speaker 3: we know, there was this era in which they were
- 37:40Speaker 3: treating especially young black men terribly and saw themselves as
- 37:44Speaker 3: like cleaning up the streets by somehow getting people involved
- 37:48Speaker 3: in homicides and throwing them away for life. And there
- 37:51Speaker 3: are six people who've been exonerated out of San Francisco,
- 37:53Speaker 3: all of them are black men, and five of them
- 37:56Speaker 3: are from this nineteen ninety era. They all have incredible story.
- 38:00Speaker 3: You should look into all of them. Joaquin, Maurice Caldwell,
- 38:04Speaker 3: Antoine Goff, John Tennyson, and Kara mad Conley, who I
- 38:07Speaker 3: know you've already interviewed, But what we haven't done is
- 38:10Speaker 3: look back at what else went wrong there. So it
- 38:12Speaker 3: shouldn't be luck of the draw, right whose cases get
- 38:14Speaker 3: looked at and who gets picked up? And so Headwoaquin
- 38:18Speaker 3: not you know, convinced other incarcerated folks that he was
- 38:21Speaker 3: innocent and then one of them meeting Ellen, like you know,
- 38:24Speaker 3: this luck of the draw thing. It's not okay for
- 38:27Speaker 3: justice to be that arbitrary with what little justice exists
- 38:30Speaker 3: in our system. And so my hope and listeners, I'd
- 38:35Speaker 3: love for you to encourage this is that we actually
- 38:37Speaker 3: look back there's four homicide investigators who were involved in
- 38:41Speaker 3: all of these cases. We could look at their cases,
- 38:43Speaker 3: We could look at all cases from this era. You know,
- 38:46Speaker 3: cdcr's budget for this year is over fourteen billion dollars.
- 38:50Speaker 3: Just imagine what would happen if we just spent a
- 38:52Speaker 3: tiny fraction of that on actually looking for where things
- 38:56Speaker 3: went wrong, starting with the places we already know things
- 38:59Speaker 3: went Everybody should have a chance to prove themselves. No
- 39:03Speaker 3: one's as bad as the worst thing they've ever done.
- 39:05Speaker 3: And you know, these guys who have done all this
- 39:08Speaker 3: time like you are Land, like Yuki, and who have
- 39:10Speaker 3: come out and shown like I mean, one of the
- 39:13Speaker 3: things I just love also about what you've been doing
- 39:15Speaker 3: is just highlighting the humanity of people right whether they're
- 39:18Speaker 3: incarcerated or not. We are all have this huge amount
- 39:22Speaker 3: to offer and give, and I just would love for
- 39:25Speaker 3: us to stop leaving so many people behind and really
- 39:28Speaker 3: start focusing on using our resources in better ways.
- 39:33Speaker 2: What I want to say, you know, to all be listening.
- 39:36Speaker 2: I want to lay everybody know that what happened to
- 39:39Speaker 2: me is continually happy right now, and the only way
- 39:45Speaker 2: it can be at top we all have to come
- 39:47Speaker 2: out together and do something about it. I always say,
- 39:52Speaker 2: if we're capable to go to the moon, we have
- 39:57Speaker 2: to be capable to prevent the anal same peace go
- 40:00Speaker 2: to prison. Simple like that. How can you go to
- 40:03Speaker 2: the moon but you cannot premain one person to go
- 40:07Speaker 2: to prison. It domain saying I know right now, at
- 40:11Speaker 2: this moment, in some part of the country in a
- 40:14Speaker 2: court house, somebody's going to prison right now, being innocing.
- 40:20Speaker 2: It is no doubt in my mind. And he going
- 40:22Speaker 2: through for the same thing that I go through when
- 40:26Speaker 2: I was in that position. I know we can stop it.
- 40:30Speaker 2: I know we can do so anything about it because
- 40:33Speaker 2: I know Number one is we need to make the
- 40:36Speaker 2: dis Ratney accountable for any wrong doing that they do.
- 40:44Speaker 2: And I said the every dish Ratney. No, we got
- 40:47Speaker 2: some really good dist rattorney that they do their job,
- 40:51Speaker 2: they go by the law and they honest the people,
- 40:55Speaker 2: how walking people. But we got some other one that
- 40:58Speaker 2: they don't care, they don't kate. They want to wing
- 41:03Speaker 2: our CAGs O this fasic or the egocent people. We
- 41:08Speaker 2: have to stop. Doc.
- 41:14Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'm your guest host
- 41:18Speaker 1: Erline Woods. I like to thank executive producers Jason Flumm
- 41:22Speaker 1: and Kevin Waters for inviting me to be here. Good
- 41:25Speaker 1: Looking Special thanks to our wonderful production team Connor Hall,
- 41:30Speaker 1: Annie Chelsea, Lila Robinson and Jeff Clyburn. The music in
- 41:34Speaker 1: this production comes from three time Oscar numberee Jay Raff.
- 41:38Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
- 41:42Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
- 41:46Speaker 1: Rome Conviction, as well as Lava for Good. On all
- 41:50Speaker 1: three platforms. You can find me online at Erline Woods,
- 41:54Speaker 1: and you can find my podcast ear Hustle wherever you
- 41:57Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. Wrongful Conviction is a productiontion a Blober
- 42:00Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one