Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #504 Maggie Freleng with Brandon Spencer

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#504 Maggie Freleng with Brandon Spencer · Wrongful Conviction

0:01
Speaker 1: Thank you for you thing Green kill Link hey man
0:04
Speaker 1: young was say this before you ask your question? Yeah? Yeah,
0:10
Speaker 1: So I writ this book It's called to Kill a Mockingbird, right,
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Speaker 1: So I was kind of feeling like the modern day
0:15
Speaker 1: Colin Robinson, and I could say that I can relate
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Speaker 1: to to him because better than anybody, because I know
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Speaker 1: what it feels like to be Falster accused. And then
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Speaker 1: that book like shows what happens to someone that looks
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Speaker 1: like in our conditional system.
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Speaker 2: This is Brandon Spencer. I've known Brandon since twenty twenty
0:40
Speaker 2: when I first reported on his case.
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Speaker 3: Brandon, you were so young when you went to prison?
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Speaker 3: How old were you?
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Speaker 1: I was written it at nineteen, but when I actually
0:52
Speaker 1: went to see saw on CFR, I was twenty one.
0:56
Speaker 2: Brandon grew up in prison. He's been in over twelve years,
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Speaker 2: but has never lost the quirks and charm that make
1:03
Speaker 2: him him the kind of guy who talks about himself
1:06
Speaker 2: in the third person.
1:09
Speaker 1: Grady's pressure, It's probably, I would say the modern Mandela
1:14
Speaker 1: the Perst advance, as he's young man has shown the brilliance,
1:17
Speaker 1: the forty tude and face of this adversity.
1:22
Speaker 2: Brendan used to want to be an actor.
1:24
Speaker 1: Like it will Smith. That was that was my hide
1:26
Speaker 1: on it, especially when I was younger, the first stress
1:28
Speaker 1: of delire, that was that was my story. A lot
1:31
Speaker 1: of people told me I should do comedy. I'm not
1:34
Speaker 1: really good. Was just free, uh, just standing up there joking.
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Speaker 1: I'm just a natural joker, so I could just say
1:41
Speaker 1: stuff off to the grid.
1:43
Speaker 3: Would you describe yourself as a goofball.
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Speaker 1: Yes, I believe I still am. A lot of people
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Speaker 1: in here say that I'm always laughing and joking. So
1:51
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, that's how you cope with this. I said, well,
1:54
Speaker 1: you know, last at the best minute.
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Speaker 4: I don't know how to put it. He is like
1:58
Speaker 4: a bundle of just positivity.
2:01
Speaker 2: This is Claudia Salinas, Brendan's attorney.
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Speaker 4: I'm a pretty positive person and I'm always looking at
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Speaker 4: like best case scenario. But I think he even tops me,
2:10
Speaker 4: and that's kind of tough to do.
2:12
Speaker 2: But Brendon is also very serious, particularly about personal development.
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Speaker 1: There's this philosoph of psychology called post traumatic growth. So
2:23
Speaker 1: we're saying that post traumatic growth enables us, at times
2:26
Speaker 1: of difficulties or struggle or traumatic experience to create a
2:30
Speaker 1: life for ourselves as more meaningful and more purposeful and
2:32
Speaker 1: more fertility than ever. So when is until you only
2:35
Speaker 1: makes you stronger. So I have that mindset that I'd
2:39
Speaker 1: either be a victim and willow and self hatingful we
2:42
Speaker 1: have reagent me, or I can use this time widely
2:45
Speaker 1: and cultivate ourselves and develop ourselves to the very best
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Speaker 1: version of.
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Speaker 2: Myself from love of for good. This is wrongful conviction.
2:53
Speaker 2: With Maggie Freeling bringis prisoner.
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Speaker 1: I've been wrongfully convicted for the.
2:58
Speaker 2: Past twelve years today. Brendan Spencer. Brendan Spencer was born
3:07
Speaker 2: November third, nineteen ninety two. He grew up with three
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Speaker 2: siblings in a well off, upper middle class household in Inglewood, California.
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Speaker 1: I was born in Inglewood, California, the city of Champions.
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Speaker 1: Both of my parents they both ran up for public
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Speaker 1: office and how to be respected, so I came from
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Speaker 1: a positive home.
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Speaker 2: I can say his family went to church together and
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Speaker 2: Brandon played soccer, baseball, and did martial arts. For vacations,
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Speaker 2: Brandon and his family would travel to Mississippi and Saint Louis,
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Speaker 2: where his parents were from.
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Speaker 1: So we kind of were like But he knew our
3:45
Speaker 1: cousins and where we came from, and I had a
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Speaker 1: really good childhood. I can't really complain.
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Speaker 2: About it, but Brendan says, when he was twelve, his
3:55
Speaker 2: parents divorced, So that.
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Speaker 1: Was pretty hard on me to see that separate. So
4:00
Speaker 1: that kind of fed a key role in my life
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Speaker 1: a young I was confused. I kind of blamed myself, mate,
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Speaker 1: because my dad wasn't as round as much.
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Speaker 2: Feeling the weight of the divorce, Brendan started associating with
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Speaker 2: the wrong crowds. Inglewood, California, has a long history of
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Speaker 2: gangs and violence. In fact, Brendan was born just months
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Speaker 2: after one of the most infamous events in US history,
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Speaker 2: the La Riots. After a group of police officers were
4:40
Speaker 2: acquitted of beating Rodney King, a black man, the city
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Speaker 2: erupted in anger. Protesters took to the streets and rioted
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Speaker 2: for days.
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Speaker 5: The heart of every American aches at the side of
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Speaker 5: the violence, deaths, and hundreds of millions of dollars of
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Speaker 5: destruction in Los Angeles. Yesterday, the violence spread to Atlanta, Seattle,
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Speaker 5: San Francisco, but the pain and fear is now being
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Speaker 5: felt all across this nation.
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Speaker 2: Over fifty people were killed and thousand injured. Brandon's neighborhood
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Speaker 2: was hit hard. When Brandon was growing up in the
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Speaker 2: nineties and early two thousands, the violent crime rate in
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Speaker 2: Englewood was significantly higher than the US average. Systemic and
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Speaker 2: structural racism forced people to seek other means of survival,
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Speaker 2: and gangs were rampant. So Brandon says, his parents worried
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Speaker 2: about him as a young teen upset over the divorce.
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Speaker 2: They thought he would be susceptible to the outside influence
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Speaker 2: of gangs, so they tried sending him to Mississippi to
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Speaker 2: live with family.
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Speaker 3: So what was living in Mississippi like?
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Speaker 1: Lower than California's kind of boring I was, says Caliboy,
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Speaker 1: Way faster out there.
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Speaker 2: It's kind of like just the country too slow for Brandon,
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Speaker 2: So he went back to Englewood. It's what he knew.
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Speaker 2: It was home. He went to a few different schools
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Speaker 2: before graduating from high school in twenty ten with dreams
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Speaker 2: of pursuing acting, but gang life always wound in the background.
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Speaker 1: In that environment. You have to know the school so
6:21
Speaker 1: you don't get robbed, so you don't get on every
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Speaker 1: day about where are you from? You have to know
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Speaker 1: these individuals to survive that area. In that environment, it
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Speaker 1: was more gangs and actively right on the corner from
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Speaker 1: my house, you know, So I have to know these
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Speaker 1: individuals just to go to the store or go to rallies.
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Speaker 1: I remember one time my mom was so scared to
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Speaker 1: get out the car at rallies one time. That's at
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Speaker 1: the corner where we lived. And I was like, Mom,
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Speaker 1: I'm don't worried about it. I go to school with
6:50
Speaker 1: these duds and I'm going to do that. But I
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Speaker 1: get them perspective because it's scary. But you have to
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Speaker 1: know the schools, just like now my mom was scared.
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Speaker 1: I was able to get out the car and I
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Speaker 1: always have. But you're going along just getting a murder
7:02
Speaker 1: from my mom and said, what's you how doing? Just
7:04
Speaker 1: sit there and being goofy. That was goofy to me,
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Speaker 1: Like that life style, right.
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Speaker 2: Brandon says he was never part of a gang, but
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Speaker 2: they were almost impossible to avoid, and the repercussions of
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Speaker 2: growing up around that life would be impossible to escape.
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Speaker 2: In the summer of twenty eleven, Brandon went to a
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Speaker 2: party at the Proud Bird Restaurant and Event Center near
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Speaker 2: lax airport, and shortly after he arrived, shots rang out.
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Speaker 1: Did I start walking? I felt like somebody kicking in
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Speaker 1: my stomach and then taking my shirt off was like,
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Speaker 1: oh no, man like something in my stomach.
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Speaker 2: Brandon realized he'd been shot.
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Speaker 1: So I see the glus spreading out, and I'm just
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Speaker 1: laying there on that ground and sloby the same like
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Speaker 1: I was dying.
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Speaker 2: Emergency responders raced him to the hospital.
8:00
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan Medical When they saved my life.
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Speaker 2: However, they were unable to remove the bullet lodged in
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Speaker 2: his spine, so the.
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Speaker 1: Doctor said, we don't know how we saved you thought
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Speaker 1: you're not supposed to be here now.
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Speaker 2: That bullet got Brandon thinking long and hard about the
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Speaker 2: company he was keeping.
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Speaker 1: I want to know better people. I want to know
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Speaker 1: people that he had in my life.
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Speaker 2: So he decided to become a nurse.
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Speaker 1: I said, well, I want to get back. Hopefully I
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Speaker 1: can help save others.
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Speaker 2: Brandon applied and was accepted to UCLA's EMT program. He
8:34
Speaker 2: planned to go to college the following year and was
8:36
Speaker 2: also working a licensed security job. Brandon says, at eighteen,
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Speaker 2: he was living his best life.
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Speaker 1: I have all the security job I was working for
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Speaker 1: a stressing company part time out of four concrete, so
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Speaker 1: I was making like forty seven dollars an hours or
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Speaker 1: I was pretty fun and I had a girlfriend. I
8:57
Speaker 1: thought I was in love at that time, and you know,
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Speaker 1: I was awesome. They knew for me, you know, and
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Speaker 1: I going to look back at those memories because of
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Speaker 1: the only memories I have. But that was very cool
9:08
Speaker 1: at that time.
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Speaker 2: But his world was about to turn upside down. On
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Speaker 2: Halloween twenty twelve, Brandon was three days away from turning nineteen.
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Speaker 2: He and his then girlfriend were looking for a Halloween party.
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Speaker 1: I never wanted to go out this night. That was
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Speaker 1: one of the things too, Like myke's girlfriend wanted to
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Speaker 1: go to this party. I wasn't really certain about it
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Speaker 1: because my birthday was a few days after, so I
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Speaker 1: was more focused on my birthday celebration over Halloween.
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Speaker 2: But they went out anyway to a party in Hollywood.
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Speaker 1: In Hollywood and it was a shooting. So we left.
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Speaker 1: And there is a party in USC.
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Speaker 2: The University of Southern California.
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Speaker 4: This there was around the time of when USC was,
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Speaker 4: you know, a top twenty five school.
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Speaker 2: This is Claudia Selina's again. She's a staff attorney at
10:01
Speaker 2: the Innocent Center based in San Diego.
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Speaker 4: I always have known it to be really good. It's
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Speaker 4: a prestigious school, both the law school and the regular school.
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Speaker 2: We spoke two months ago about that night in twenty twelve.
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Speaker 4: So October thirty first, so close to this day of
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Speaker 4: the interview. Actually, so it's kind of wild that we're
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Speaker 4: sitting here talking about it. But there was a Freaks
10:24
Speaker 4: and Geeks party at the USC.
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Speaker 2: Campus when Brandon arrived. There were a few hundred people
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Speaker 2: outside waiting to get into the party.
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Speaker 4: It seems like the party was popping because there was
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Speaker 4: a lion outside the door of people waiting to get in.
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Speaker 1: We were staying a line, and then so which just
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Speaker 1: heard gunshots? I just started learning.
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Speaker 2: Brandon says they were only there for about five minutes
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Speaker 2: before gunshots rang out.
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Speaker 4: There's about five gunshots, and then it turns out that
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Speaker 4: four people ended up getting.
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Speaker 2: Shot, DeVante Smith, Thomas Ritchie, My Sundowns, and Gino Hall.
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Speaker 2: Fortunately all survived, but in the chaos, nothing was clear.
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Speaker 2: Everyone was in a panic. Screaming, scattering, running for their lives.
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Speaker 1: Is real. So I like had that flashback of tenn
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Speaker 1: and I got shot and I just started running and
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Speaker 1: all that timely pay back.
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Speaker 2: As he was running, Brandan pulled off his shirt to
11:23
Speaker 2: check if he'd been shot, but he wasn't.
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Speaker 1: And I get to the parking lot and the police
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Speaker 1: I put your hands up. I'm like, dang, what do
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Speaker 1: I do?
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Speaker 2: Police confronted Brandon in the parking lot. They were suspicious
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Speaker 2: about why he was running without a shirt. They took
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Speaker 2: his phone and went through it and found some photos
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Speaker 2: of him with guns and other photos of what police
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Speaker 2: thought were him flashing gang signs. So they took Brandon
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Speaker 2: to the station. Meanwhile, on campus police were asking questions.
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Speaker 4: They talked to two security guards and then they also
12:00
Speaker 4: have like some other witness who provides She said that
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Speaker 4: she actually saw the shooting take place. She provides like
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Speaker 4: a general description as well. Once they had like those
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Speaker 4: three witnesses, they were pretty much drawn towards Brandon.
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Speaker 2: At the station, police question Brandon. They appeared to suspect
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Speaker 2: that Brandon had taken his shirt off because it had
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Speaker 2: red on it, a color associated with the Black Pea
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Speaker 2: Stones gang.
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Speaker 3: They tried to say that was because you were trying
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Speaker 3: to hide your gang colors.
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Speaker 1: YEA, nothing to do with gang colors. I was checking
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Speaker 1: to make sure they shot again and I had that
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Speaker 1: traumatic experience. So I'm sitting there like, I know I
12:36
Speaker 1: didn't do nothing to home.
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Speaker 2: I could go home, but he didn't go home.
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Speaker 1: Well, then they come in there and like, can't be
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Speaker 1: pressing up against me, like hey you did it? Just
12:46
Speaker 1: say you did it? I said, say I did what, bro?
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Speaker 1: And they're like, you know, say you did it. And
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Speaker 1: then there's a detective coming in. He comes in and
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Speaker 1: sits next to me and like rubbing my shoulder, like look, man,
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Speaker 1: we know you did it. So just goes and say
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Speaker 1: didn't pretentious and they come back and say, hey you did.
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Speaker 2: Brendan insisted he was innocent.
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Speaker 1: So then they paid my arms up and put him
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Speaker 1: in these avanilla envelope and I said, I what's this
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Speaker 1: and I was TSR R testing. I said, all he's.
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Speaker 2: Going, bro, because yea gunshot residue testing. When a gun
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Speaker 2: is shot, it releases microscopic particles onto hands and clothing.
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Speaker 2: But nothing came up on Brandon.
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Speaker 1: And they said, we'll tell us where the gun is.
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Speaker 1: And I said, what gun?
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Speaker 4: Bro?
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Speaker 1: You first the Parker like y'all tested me for the
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Speaker 1: TSRs me right, I had no gun, I didn't do nothing.
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Speaker 4: And then three hours later they ended up finding a
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Speaker 4: gun and it kind of all unwrappled from there and
13:41
Speaker 4: they started building the case around him.
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Speaker 1: So that was it.
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Speaker 3: So you never saw the free world. Aga asked for that.
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Speaker 4: No.
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Speaker 2: Brandon was charged with four counts of attempted first degree
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Speaker 2: murder and went to trial in January of twenty fourteen.
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Speaker 2: Deputy District Attorney Anchonella Nista Rescue told jurors that when
14:04
Speaker 2: Brandon got to the USC party, he saw a member
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Speaker 2: of a rival gang, Gino Hall. She alleged that Gino
14:11
Speaker 2: had been the one who shot Brandon in twenty eleven.
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Speaker 2: She told jurors, quote, this is a rivalry steeped in violence.
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Speaker 2: Claudia says, the prosecution's case really played up these gang allegations.
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Speaker 4: We were trying to count how many times the word
14:27
Speaker 4: gang was used in this case, and it's it's a
14:30
Speaker 4: ton of.
14:30
Speaker 1: Time, gangang, gang.
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Speaker 4: The more times you hear gangs, and the more time
14:35
Speaker 4: you hear violence and tensions between the bloods and the
14:38
Speaker 4: crypts and whatever it is, it's that is very inflammatory
14:42
Speaker 4: for a jury.
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Speaker 2: The prosecution also presented the photos they found on his
14:47
Speaker 2: phone of Brandon with guns and of Brandon flashing gang signs.
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Speaker 2: They also introduced a photo of Brandon's chest tattoo a BS.
14:57
Speaker 2: The prosecution said it stood for the Black Pea Stone Gang.
15:01
Speaker 2: Brandon says it's just his name. But Gino Hall testified
15:06
Speaker 2: at trial and did not identify Brandon as his shooter.
15:10
Speaker 2: In fact, none of the survivors implicated Brandon at trial.
15:15
Speaker 2: Only two security guards I d'd him, plus a star witness,
15:19
Speaker 2: a young man named La Paul Lane. Lapaul was at
15:23
Speaker 2: the party and testified that he had seen Brandon confronting Gino.
15:28
Speaker 1: They see that last came back with gun and approved.
15:32
Speaker 2: Premeditation, premeditated attempted murder. The prosecution presented evidence to back
15:38
Speaker 2: up this beef between Gino and Brandon in the form
15:42
Speaker 2: of exchanges on Twitter.
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Speaker 4: Tweets of children essentially going back and forth between one
15:48
Speaker 4: of the victims that the prosecutor liked to use. But
15:50
Speaker 4: a lot of these words in these tweets is a
15:54
Speaker 4: lot of what they kind of call like fronting.
15:56
Speaker 2: According to the prosecution, one of the tweets ended with,
16:00
Speaker 2: you know, challenging Brandon to come and find him.
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Speaker 4: And they might be general, but they still have inflammatory parts.
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Speaker 4: Where then you get a police officer who gets deemed
16:10
Speaker 4: a gang expert, gets on the stand and starts making
16:14
Speaker 4: connections about what these things mean, what they see in
16:18
Speaker 4: the field, and then they do generalizations of the peace
16:21
Speaker 4: stone bloods fueling with the rolling forties, and so now
16:25
Speaker 4: you have this like little bow that the gang experts
16:28
Speaker 4: get to kind of put and you just see that
16:30
Speaker 4: throughout most of my gang cases here in the office,
16:33
Speaker 4: and it is quite inflammatory.
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Speaker 1: Well, I was here at at mar trial, sitting here
16:37
Speaker 1: scratching my head when.
16:38
Speaker 2: I did what Brendan insists. He was never in a gang.
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Speaker 2: He was a good kid with no record.
16:45
Speaker 1: They show the pictures in me at the congressional black
16:47
Speaker 1: coffees when I was fifteen. I've got Obama other pictures
16:51
Speaker 1: with me where lacting waters and they're different congressional people.
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Speaker 1: But the court allows this lady who doesn't note me,
17:00
Speaker 1: to tell twelve people lies that I'm just I'm this criminal.
17:03
Speaker 1: I'm well documented stereo Typeas for someone that looks like
17:08
Speaker 1: me is a game member a criminal in my jury
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Speaker 1: just goes off to that.
17:13
Speaker 2: The judge even criticized the prosecution for this displaying things
17:17
Speaker 2: to the jury without offering evidence. He said, quote, this
17:21
Speaker 2: is an improper and unprofessional move on your part. I
17:25
Speaker 2: don't know if you're lazy, or you're nervous, or you
17:27
Speaker 2: don't know how to do that. There was no physical
17:33
Speaker 2: evidence linking Brandon to the crime. There were no fingerprints
17:37
Speaker 2: on the gun. However, law enforcement did recover a partial
17:41
Speaker 2: DNA profile.
17:43
Speaker 4: They said that there was a one in forty chance
17:45
Speaker 4: that that was a hit to Brandon, whereas the shirt
17:49
Speaker 4: was a one in seven sextillion chance.
17:51
Speaker 2: A one in forty comparison can include way too many
17:55
Speaker 2: people compared to a conclusive ID like Brandon's shirt, which
17:59
Speaker 2: was also.
18:01
Speaker 4: So shirt there's no there's no doubt that it is
18:03
Speaker 4: his shirt, Like there was no contest there that it's his,
18:06
Speaker 4: but the gun. To go on the stand and tell
18:09
Speaker 4: jurors that one in forty chance, like nobody really understands
18:13
Speaker 4: what that means, and it's too many people that can
18:16
Speaker 4: be included into that lumpsum, but they don't take that
18:19
Speaker 4: extra step to kind of explain that at that level.
18:22
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting here the whole time, like, well, the
18:25
Speaker 1: evidence poofs, there's no TSR, my fingerprice on is done,
18:29
Speaker 1: my DNA's on the gun.
18:30
Speaker 2: But Brandon's defense was weak. His girlfriend, who was with
18:34
Speaker 2: him at the party and could say Brandon wasn't the shooter,
18:37
Speaker 2: wasn't called to testify even though she was his alibi,
18:41
Speaker 2: and it's unclear why. Still Brandon was hopeful.
18:46
Speaker 1: There's no video evidence, like, I'm sure he's come. It's
18:50
Speaker 1: like the evidence pools that I had nothing.
18:52
Speaker 2: To do with this, but stacked against police officers, key witness,
18:57
Speaker 2: gang experts, and a climate of fear crime in Los Angeles.
19:01
Speaker 2: Brandon was convicted of four counts of attempted murder.
19:07
Speaker 1: Are we playing right now? Pretty serious?
19:12
Speaker 3: Do you think the jury was thinking like, well, even
19:14
Speaker 3: if he didn't do this, he's in a gang, so
19:16
Speaker 3: he did something.
19:17
Speaker 1: Bad exactly, I could kill Looking at my jury that
19:21
Speaker 1: holiday thought, I didn't see Brandon. I didn't see the
19:25
Speaker 1: security guard, the young man who'd never had a record,
19:28
Speaker 1: the young man who a mayor of a city was
19:31
Speaker 1: highly of.
19:32
Speaker 2: Before sentencing, one of the survivors said that he knew
19:35
Speaker 2: Brandon and he didn't think Brandon would do this. He
19:38
Speaker 2: asked the judge to be lenient with his sentencing. A
19:41
Speaker 2: sergeant in the LAPD's seventy seventh division, familiar with gang activity,
19:46
Speaker 2: called Brandon a quote nice, respectable young man. Even the
19:51
Speaker 2: mayor of Inglewood vouched for Brandon, but after three hours
19:55
Speaker 2: of deliberating, the jury found him guilty and Brandan lost it.
20:04
Speaker 1: I kind of like blackout. I turned the chair, and
20:07
Speaker 1: what's pussling with the sheriff department. I told him he thought,
20:11
Speaker 1: just killed me? You know that that was my mindset
20:14
Speaker 1: at that time. I said, you want to just go
20:15
Speaker 1: to shoot me right now because even took it too
20:18
Speaker 1: far now And like that was like a powerless moment
20:22
Speaker 1: in my life.
20:24
Speaker 6: As to count three, a conviction of penal co Section
20:27
Speaker 6: sixty six four.
20:28
Speaker 2: On April eighteenth, twenty fourteen, judge sentence Brandon to fifteen
20:33
Speaker 2: years to life on four attempted murder convictions running concurrently.
20:38
Speaker 6: The minimum period of parole eligibility is fifteen years plus
20:42
Speaker 6: twenty five years the life in accordance with penal COO
20:44
Speaker 6: sections one.
20:45
Speaker 2: Two zero two two plus twenty five years to life
20:49
Speaker 2: for gun enhancements, all made worse by the alleged gang retaliation.
20:56
Speaker 2: As the judge read the sentence, Brendan.
20:58
Speaker 1: Solved fived this is to be kind of current.
21:03
Speaker 2: Sitting there with his hands cuffed behind his back, he
21:05
Speaker 2: banged his head against the table and he pleaded with
21:12
Speaker 2: the judge.
21:14
Speaker 1: IM sorry, but like the president, and I'm not a
21:20
Speaker 1: bad person, but I made a stage. But I'm not
21:24
Speaker 1: just some game begger that you try to betray me yet.
21:28
Speaker 2: But it didn't matter. Brandon was sentenced to forty years
21:32
Speaker 2: to life at twenty one years old for four shots
21:36
Speaker 2: that killed no one. After his sentencing, a column came
21:45
Speaker 2: out in the La Times. The author was Sandy Banks.
21:49
Speaker 6: I'm a journalist who worked with Lost Handless Times for
21:53
Speaker 6: more than thirty years, most of that as a columnist
21:57
Speaker 6: covering issues that might be missed by others but that
22:01
Speaker 6: were roiling the community.
22:03
Speaker 2: The column held no punches in it. Sandy called out
22:07
Speaker 2: Brandon for throwing a tantrum at his sentencing. She called
22:10
Speaker 2: him a two year old and wrote that the last
22:12
Speaker 2: thing Ela needed was more hoodlums carrying guns.
22:17
Speaker 6: What got me there was that here was this young
22:19
Speaker 6: man who had kind of a glowing resume except for
22:23
Speaker 6: a couple of mishaps in his young teenage years, and
22:27
Speaker 6: yet he was about to go to prison for forty
22:29
Speaker 6: years for shooting into a crowd of kids, And initially
22:35
Speaker 6: I thought that's really pretty dramatic and overkill, But then
22:40
Speaker 6: I thought back to how many times people in my
22:44
Speaker 6: community and the greater Los Angeles community felt threatened by
22:49
Speaker 6: the young being with guns. I'm the mother of three
22:52
Speaker 6: girls who were teenagers at that point, and I don't
22:56
Speaker 6: have enough fingers to count the times they had encountered
23:02
Speaker 6: the potential for shootings or violence. And so I just
23:06
Speaker 6: felt like he was a representative, in my mind of
23:10
Speaker 6: all these young men who were Willie Milly shooting to
23:13
Speaker 6: settle their scores and don't seem concerned about, you know,
23:19
Speaker 6: the collateral damage.
23:21
Speaker 2: Her column was merciless, calling him.
23:24
Speaker 6: A fry baby, and you know what, there's a thug
23:27
Speaker 6: with a gun, and Brandon read it and that gainst.
23:30
Speaker 1: Us is actually coming disresprateful that I'm associated with it.
23:34
Speaker 1: That's not who I am. And then that's there, like
23:37
Speaker 1: a repeating with someone that looks like me, is that
23:39
Speaker 1: their eggnorant, their dug, their criminals, and that hurts.
23:42
Speaker 2: Brandon says his entire being was reduced simply to thug.
23:47
Speaker 2: He stewed on Sandy's article. Brandon wouldn't be eligible for
23:52
Speaker 2: parole until twenty thirty one, but he wanted to prove
23:55
Speaker 2: everyone wrong. He wasn't who they thought he was, and
23:59
Speaker 2: he needed to make sure he had the best shot
24:02
Speaker 2: he could at parole, so he continued his education and
24:06
Speaker 2: personal development.
24:08
Speaker 4: He has done so much schooling, like probably more than
24:11
Speaker 4: any of the other clients that I personally have worked with.
24:13
Speaker 4: At least he's in the dogcare program, so he helps
24:17
Speaker 4: train dogs for veterans and for people who want to
24:20
Speaker 4: adopt these dogs.
24:21
Speaker 1: I took it full ownership of my life. I've been
24:25
Speaker 1: able to not and bring to the victims attitude that
24:28
Speaker 1: became a constant learner. That's my nuphilosophy to remain a
24:32
Speaker 1: lifelong learner.
24:34
Speaker 2: Barny Flesher is striving to be the best version of
24:37
Speaker 2: himself the whole time hoping something would break in his case. Then,
24:42
Speaker 2: six years after being arrested, it happened. In twenty eighteen,
24:48
Speaker 2: the prosecution's star witness recanted. In a written off of
24:54
Speaker 2: David Lapaul Lane said that he was threatened by law
24:57
Speaker 2: enforcement and the prosecution.
25:00
Speaker 4: He actually had some pending criminal charges at the time,
25:04
Speaker 4: and that is leveraged to be able to negotiate a deal.
25:10
Speaker 4: I can't pretend to imagine what it's like to be
25:12
Speaker 4: under those circumstances, So that is what he talks about.
25:15
Speaker 4: In the declaration.
25:17
Speaker 2: The Paul's Affidavid reads.
25:19
Speaker 7: I was threatened by the detectives investigating the case and
25:22
Speaker 7: by the district attorney prosecuting the case that if I
25:25
Speaker 7: did not say what they needed me to say, that
25:28
Speaker 7: the district attorney would intervene in my own pending criminal
25:31
Speaker 7: case and cause me to be harmed or sentenced more severely.
25:36
Speaker 7: I am sincerely sorry that I testified falsely against mister Spencer,
25:40
Speaker 7: but I was afraid of what the prosecutor would do
25:42
Speaker 7: to me if I didn't.
25:46
Speaker 4: He also does describe some of the six pack identification
25:49
Speaker 4: procedures from what he remembers and the specifics that he
25:54
Speaker 4: has about that does raise a couple red flags.
25:57
Speaker 2: Here's a reading of the affidavit again.
26:00
Speaker 7: Detective Jones had me review at least three six packs
26:03
Speaker 7: of photographs to try to get me to identify Brandon Spencer.
26:08
Speaker 7: The first three six packs were of black men wearing
26:10
Speaker 7: black shirts, except that in each six pack The photograph
26:14
Speaker 7: of mister Spencer was at least twice the size of
26:17
Speaker 7: the other photographs, and mister Spencer was wearing a red shirt.
26:22
Speaker 7: When the detective asked me if any of the men
26:24
Speaker 7: looked familiar, of course I pointed to the larger photograph
26:28
Speaker 7: with the red instead of black shirt. After the detective
26:31
Speaker 7: showed me another six pack of photographs, but this time
26:35
Speaker 7: all the photographs were the same size, I was told
26:39
Speaker 7: to circle an initial the photograph of mister Spencer on
26:41
Speaker 7: the last six pack only. I don't know what the
26:45
Speaker 7: detective did with the other lineups, but afterward I was
26:48
Speaker 7: allowed to leave.
26:50
Speaker 2: Finally, Brandon felt like he had something, but it took
26:54
Speaker 2: years of fighting his case on his own to make
26:57
Speaker 2: any headway.
26:59
Speaker 4: He is his greatest advocate, and I don't know that
27:03
Speaker 4: you know, had he not had that really strong advocacy
27:07
Speaker 4: and positivity and willingness to help in his own case,
27:10
Speaker 4: that he would have gone as far as he has
27:13
Speaker 4: gone today and got the attention of the people that
27:16
Speaker 4: he needs to get the attention.
27:18
Speaker 2: Of, like Claudia and the Innocent Center, who officially started
27:22
Speaker 2: working on Brandon's case this year.
27:25
Speaker 4: He did have a recantations and so for us, you know,
27:28
Speaker 4: you always got to look at those with some kind
27:30
Speaker 4: of scrutiny. But it had a lot of information in
27:35
Speaker 4: there about the six pack identification procedures, about some of
27:39
Speaker 4: the potential coercion that took place during the identification and
27:44
Speaker 4: investigation process, and so that kind of opened the door
27:47
Speaker 4: into kind of just, okay, well, what's this case about.
27:53
Speaker 2: The shooting took place on USC campus, a prestigious institution, They.
27:58
Speaker 4: Had a reputation to uphold, and of course nobody wants
28:03
Speaker 4: there to be just a bunch of shootings taking place.
28:05
Speaker 4: But it certainly doesn't help that six months prior to
28:09
Speaker 4: this Halloween night shooting, there was a prior shooting of
28:12
Speaker 4: two USC students, Ming and Ying, who were actually shot
28:17
Speaker 4: and killed on campus as well.
28:19
Speaker 2: They were killed in an apparent robbery. So the rush
28:22
Speaker 2: to arrest and prosecute someone in this second shooting became clear.
28:26
Speaker 2: Claudia says. Then she focused on the sentence forty years
28:31
Speaker 2: to life for a shooting where no one died, but
28:35
Speaker 2: the judge actually gave Brandon the lowest possible sentence he could.
28:39
Speaker 2: That's because of mandatory minimums sentences that require a minimum
28:44
Speaker 2: prison term for certain crimes, regardless of mitigating circumstances. Mandatory
28:50
Speaker 2: minimums are just one of many policies from the tough
28:53
Speaker 2: on crime era that still exists today. Brandon was given
28:57
Speaker 2: the minimum for each crime years to life on four
29:01
Speaker 2: attempted murder convictions running concurrently, plus twenty five years to
29:07
Speaker 2: life for a gun enhancement.
29:10
Speaker 4: I think that, you know, the United States is working
29:15
Speaker 4: the way it's intended to write, which is to create
29:19
Speaker 4: casts of people that incarcerate people, specifically black and brown
29:24
Speaker 4: people and other minorities. And so I'm actually sadly not
29:28
Speaker 4: surprised that, you know, he got such a big sentence.
29:32
Speaker 4: You know, a person in like a white supremacist type
29:35
Speaker 4: of gang, you typically don't see them getting the gang
29:39
Speaker 4: enhancement as much as your typical blood or crip gang.
29:43
Speaker 2: Claudia points to examples from trial where this bias was
29:46
Speaker 2: on display, like the photo and videos the prosecution shows
29:49
Speaker 2: the jury of Brandon flashing gang signs.
29:53
Speaker 4: If you grow up in a gang neighborhood, these are
29:55
Speaker 4: the people that you're associated with, whether you know you're
29:59
Speaker 4: put onto the game or not.
30:01
Speaker 1: The gang signs. I would say that I was young,
30:04
Speaker 1: just being goofy just hanging in and those pictures that
30:08
Speaker 1: they use. I was like fifteen sixteen.
30:10
Speaker 4: But nonetheless, you know, a jury doesn't necessarily know that,
30:14
Speaker 4: you don't necessarily have a jury of your peers. So
30:17
Speaker 4: what you're seeing is these kind of inflammatory pictures that
30:20
Speaker 4: were allowed.
30:21
Speaker 2: But Claudia says there's actually a new law in California
30:24
Speaker 2: that could be beneficial to helping Brandon specifically in these avenues.
30:29
Speaker 2: It's called the Racial Justice Act, and.
30:32
Speaker 4: It's meant to target issues of the government or a prosecutor,
30:37
Speaker 4: a judge, or a law enforcement officer, even an attorney
30:41
Speaker 4: if they exhibit actual bias or implicit bias or any
30:48
Speaker 4: kind of amagust towards the suspect or the defendant because
30:52
Speaker 4: of their race, ethnicity, or origin. So this is great.
30:54
Speaker 4: This is like a mode to be able to look
30:56
Speaker 4: into gang enhancements. Are the prosecutors applying the gang enhancement
31:03
Speaker 4: at the same rate for the same similar circumstances to
31:07
Speaker 4: white people that they are to black or brown people.
31:11
Speaker 2: She also says it's being used in the over criminalization
31:14
Speaker 2: of rap lyrics.
31:16
Speaker 4: Rap Lyrics are one of like the prominent issues that
31:18
Speaker 4: are going on in California, they finally have some legal
31:22
Speaker 4: standard to be able to attack those because we do
31:24
Speaker 4: know that rap lyrics are an expression of art and
31:26
Speaker 4: it does not always necessarily mean that this person did
31:30
Speaker 4: this crime, and it is more inflammatory for people who
31:33
Speaker 4: might not listen to rap music on a general basis
31:35
Speaker 4: and understand that context.
31:37
Speaker 8: If I was tweeting those lyrics and beefing with somebody else,
31:41
Speaker 8: the assumption might not be she's in a gang because
31:43
Speaker 8: I'm a white woman. Yeah, and he was a black guy,
31:46
Speaker 8: and it's like, oh, he's tweeting me. Is he's a
31:48
Speaker 8: black kid, He's in a gang?
31:50
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
31:51
Speaker 7: Yeah.
31:51
Speaker 4: And then same with you know, the the guns that
31:55
Speaker 4: were on the phone. You know, I can think of
31:57
Speaker 4: many times that I've seen guns on my friend phones.
32:00
Speaker 4: But they are lawyers and they wear suits, and so
32:02
Speaker 4: it's not the same.
32:04
Speaker 2: She also sees using the Racial Justice Act to examine
32:07
Speaker 2: the way the prosecution used the tweets between Brandon and
32:10
Speaker 2: Gino Hall.
32:12
Speaker 4: Some of the tweets we had the word gun play
32:14
Speaker 4: in them. In twenty twelve when this case occurred, Gunplay
32:19
Speaker 4: was actually one of the artists that were like peeking
32:21
Speaker 4: in the hip hop kind of industry at the time too,
32:24
Speaker 4: so that context didn't necessarily get to come out at trial,
32:28
Speaker 4: but it's all very important information. Are there different ways
32:32
Speaker 4: that these tweets can be interpreted? And if so, then
32:37
Speaker 4: was the gang expert, you know, using some type of
32:41
Speaker 4: racial bias to apply these to him? They also tried
32:45
Speaker 4: to use like his tattoos. I know tattoos are coming
32:47
Speaker 4: up in the Racial Justice Act as well, and so
32:51
Speaker 4: that that could be an option.
32:53
Speaker 2: Claudia says she's excited to take on Brandon's case because
32:56
Speaker 2: of how many potential avenues into court. There are some.
33:00
Speaker 4: Cases that we run into where it's like, I can
33:02
Speaker 4: believe in this person's innocence all I want, but there's
33:05
Speaker 4: no areas of investigation. It was literally just the testimony
33:08
Speaker 4: of like one person. You know, that's not the case here.
33:11
Speaker 4: There's a few different red flags and areas that we
33:14
Speaker 4: can pursue, and that always just makes me much more excited.
33:17
Speaker 2: She's also going to look into more DNA testing since
33:20
Speaker 2: science has advanced, and of course regular shoe leather investigation.
33:25
Speaker 4: It's my hope to track down some of the people
33:27
Speaker 4: that were involved so we can talk to them directly.
33:31
Speaker 4: The security guards from the USC. They were pretty significant
33:35
Speaker 4: prosecution witnesses, and I'd love to see some of the
33:38
Speaker 4: circumstances around what happened with the six pack identification procedures.
33:44
Speaker 4: You know, you just want to get out there, You
33:46
Speaker 4: want to talk to the people and just figure out
33:48
Speaker 4: what happened. Really, I think that's kind of what we
33:51
Speaker 4: all want, is we want the truth to come out.
33:53
Speaker 4: And that's exciting for me. That's why I got into
33:55
Speaker 4: this work for sure.
34:02
Speaker 2: Brandon has been in prison for over a decade for
34:05
Speaker 2: a crime he says he didn't commit, and he continues
34:08
Speaker 2: to work on himself. He says next he wants to
34:11
Speaker 2: get his PhD.
34:12
Speaker 1: I want to do my dissertation about post traumatic growth,
34:15
Speaker 1: like I was saying earlier, hopefully become a motivational speaker
34:20
Speaker 1: and help young men, you know, page their mindset and
34:23
Speaker 1: understand that that that lifestyle and that way of hating
34:27
Speaker 1: is hating.
34:29
Speaker 2: And another person has also spent years reflecting on her mindset.
34:35
Speaker 2: Sandy Banks has had time to look back on her
34:37
Speaker 2: column about Brandon.
34:39
Speaker 6: And I wrote a column and when I read it
34:41
Speaker 6: now kind of embarrasses me because it was so nature
34:48
Speaker 6: and I realized I was biased by the fact that
34:51
Speaker 6: I were about my girls every time they would leave
34:53
Speaker 6: the house, you know, when they're going to a party
34:55
Speaker 6: or a football game or whatever. And that shouldn't be what,
35:00
Speaker 6: you know, steering my opinion. You know, it's tough as
35:02
Speaker 6: a columnist because you're supposed to have an opinion, and
35:07
Speaker 6: we try to explain why we have this opinion. But
35:11
Speaker 6: me being worried for my girls is not a valid
35:14
Speaker 6: reason for making Brandon the symbol of game violence in
35:20
Speaker 6: the city.
35:22
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, I released an episode about Brandon on
35:25
Speaker 2: my podcast Unjustin Unsolved. A listener sent it to Sandy
35:29
Speaker 2: after reading her article. Sandy saw the name Brandon Spencer
35:33
Speaker 2: and listened.
35:35
Speaker 6: I got to see him and hear him, and it
35:39
Speaker 6: was a very different experience than you know, watching the
35:43
Speaker 6: scene in the courtroom unfold where he's screaming and carrying on.
35:47
Speaker 6: It was a young man who was kind of perplexed
35:50
Speaker 6: himself about how he got there and who proclaimed his
35:54
Speaker 6: innocence still and you know, and had things to back
35:58
Speaker 6: him up.
35:58
Speaker 2: So Sandy started taking of her own experiences as a
36:02
Speaker 2: black woman, and I will tell.
36:03
Speaker 6: You I live in the San Fernando Valley, which is,
36:06
Speaker 6: you know, had reputationally very white. There have been times
36:10
Speaker 6: that I have been considered suspicious. I can remember walking
36:14
Speaker 6: home from the Whole Foods with Whole Foods bags, but
36:18
Speaker 6: I had a hoodie on and my hair wasn't combed,
36:20
Speaker 6: and I was you know, you know, and there was
36:23
Speaker 6: a guy following me in the car, and I realized,
36:26
Speaker 6: you know, I'm going to be on the next door
36:28
Speaker 6: feed next time about the suspicious black lady who might
36:31
Speaker 6: be homeless because she's walking around with shopping beds, you know,
36:35
Speaker 6: and that would not happen to a white neighbor.
36:38
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm aware of.
36:40
Speaker 6: That, and that's kind of you know, I should I
36:44
Speaker 6: should have thought of that, even when I was castigating him.
36:48
Speaker 2: Sandy and Brandon connected after she listened to my episode.
36:52
Speaker 1: Well, she finally got to hear me and talk to me.
36:55
Speaker 1: You know, I kind of emotional. I've got it cures
36:58
Speaker 1: when I spoke to her that you know, how she
37:00
Speaker 1: supports me, and she apologized to and that that really
37:04
Speaker 1: was motivation.
37:06
Speaker 6: I think we need to be we need to be
37:07
Speaker 6: able to step back, to plunge deeper into the backgrounds
37:11
Speaker 6: of the people that are you know, quote unquote doing
37:14
Speaker 6: the shooting, because that's what's going to give us the
37:18
Speaker 6: answer on how we be a less violent society. Talk
37:23
Speaker 6: into them, listening to them, having programs in prisons to
37:27
Speaker 6: help them see the light.
37:29
Speaker 5: You know.
37:30
Speaker 2: Sandy also spoke to Brandon's parents for context for her
37:32
Speaker 2: most recent column about Brandon, titled I once applauded a
37:37
Speaker 2: forty year sentence for a shooter, not now.
37:40
Speaker 6: His parents are good people. They did the best they
37:43
Speaker 6: can in our heartbreak into and are still working every
37:46
Speaker 6: day to free their son. What he did, if he's guilty,
37:52
Speaker 6: was certainly wrong, but his forty years in prison and
37:58
Speaker 6: appropriate sentence for that when you have you know, child
38:01
Speaker 6: molesters and you know other kind of guys getting out
38:04
Speaker 6: after you know, five or six years, and I think
38:08
Speaker 6: we need to kind of embrace the notion that these
38:13
Speaker 6: are young people growing up in difficult times, and aren't
38:16
Speaker 6: there ways that we can help and support them instead
38:20
Speaker 6: of just you know, castigate them when they do wrong.
38:23
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what Brandon wants to do.
38:26
Speaker 1: Now. I want to hope other young men not get
38:30
Speaker 1: involved or caught up with that, or don't even be
38:32
Speaker 1: associated with that, because me being knowing these people got
38:35
Speaker 1: me my license and I just want to go home
38:37
Speaker 1: and live my life. I'm an asset to earn society
38:41
Speaker 1: amount of liability. You know, one time I was suicidal.
38:45
Speaker 1: I rather had to get than where I am today,
38:48
Speaker 1: you know, and to see who I become now and
38:50
Speaker 1: is very inspiring, and I believe it's it's motivational for
38:54
Speaker 1: some other people that we all say struggles in our lives,
38:58
Speaker 1: but we're not designed by those only insistence. It's about
39:01
Speaker 1: pushing forward, you know, looking at me out and rowloaded
39:04
Speaker 1: by as system that everyone in the America, in the
39:06
Speaker 1: world knows that is designed first someone that looks like
39:08
Speaker 1: need to fail that. But all the odds right now
39:11
Speaker 1: are backed against. This is the modern daily versus the lions.
39:13
Speaker 1: I'm going against USC this is a billion dollar dollars.
39:17
Speaker 1: I'm going against false this police department, and you know,
39:20
Speaker 1: harnessing that and embracing struggle, and you know, don't don't
39:25
Speaker 1: want over yourself paid, you know, I just I just
39:29
Speaker 1: want my justice. I want to get free, and I
39:32
Speaker 1: hope that we're able to speak on the facts and
39:34
Speaker 1: I'm able to be commerrating one day and receive the
39:37
Speaker 1: justice I deserve.
39:49
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
39:52
Speaker 2: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
39:55
Speaker 2: links on our website to see how you can help Brandon.
39:58
Speaker 2: This episode was written by me Maggie Freeling, with story
40:01
Speaker 2: editing and sound design by senior producer Rebecca Ibarra. Our
40:05
Speaker 2: producer is Kathleen Fink. Our mixer is Josh Allen, with
40:08
Speaker 2: research by Alison Levy. An additional production help by Jeff Cleiburn.
40:13
Speaker 2: Executive producers are Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wordis.
40:17
Speaker 2: The music is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
40:21
Speaker 2: Make sure to follow us on all social media platforms
40:24
Speaker 2: at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can
40:27
Speaker 2: also follow me on all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful
40:31
Speaker 2: Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava for
40:33
Speaker 2: Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One. We
40:38
Speaker 2: have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in
40:40
Speaker 2: this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by
40:43
Speaker 2: the individuals featured in this show are their own and
40:46
Speaker 2: do not necessarily reflect those of lava for good