Bone Valley

Guests Barry Scheck (Co-Founder of The Innocence Project), exoneree Barry Gibbs and Vanessa Potkin (Director of Post-Conviction Litigation for The Innocence Project) detail the unfathomable odyssey of Barry Gibbs in the bizarre case of The Mafia Cops. Barry was wrongfully convicted of a 1986 second-degree murder in NYC. His conviction was based on misconduct by a NYPD detective, who was later convicted of arranging and committing several murders and cover-ups on behalf of an organized crime family. Barry was incarcerated for 19 years before new evidence led to his release and subsequent exoneration in 2005. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fernando Bermudez served over 18 years in New York State maximum security prisons after he was wrongfully convicted of murder in the shooting death of Raymond Blount in 1991. Fernando was proven innocent in late 2009 with help from a team of pro bono attorneys. Fernando was the first Latin-American male in New York state history to be exonerated on “actual innocence” grounds in a non-DNA case. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1976, Sonia “Sunny” Jacobs was sentenced to death for the murders of Florida Highway Patrol officer Phillip Black and Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable. The officers were killed during a traffic stop where Sunny was traveling with her boyfriend, Jesse Tafero, and her two children, Eric, nine, and Christina, 10 months, in a car driven by Walter Rhodes. After officers approached the vehicle, Rhodes fired shots at them, a gun battle ensued, and chaos erupted. Sunny and Jesse were arrested, and both of their children were taken away by the state. Rhodes negotiated a plea bargain with the state, claiming Jesse and Sunny had pulled the triggers, in exchange for a life sentence. In 1990, Jesse was executed by the state of Florida in horrific circumstances. Sunny spent five years in isolation on Florida’s death row and a total of 17 years in a maximum-security prison before her conviction was overturned. Sunny was freed in 1992 when she was 45 years old. In this episode, Jason talks with Sunny, her current husband, exoneree Peter Pringle, and her daughter Christina, who as a child was also a victim of this tragic injustice. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Derrick Hamilton was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1991 and served over two decades in prison after he was framed by the disgraced Detective Louis Scarcella. During an initial stint in prison in his teens for a separate wrongful conviction, Derrick began studying in the prison’s law library, eventually earning a reputation as one of the most highly skilled jailhouse lawyers in the country. When he wasn’t fighting to prove his own innocence, Derrick worked pro bono on the cases of his fellow inmates, and he formed the Actual Innocence Team with other jailhouse lawyers serving time. He was released on parole in 2011 and finally cleared his name in 2014. Today, he continues to work as a paralegal on wrongful conviction cases. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marty Tankleff had just turned 17 when he was arrested for murdering his parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff in September 1988. Based on an unsigned “confession" extracted from him following many long hours of interrogation by notorious Suffolk County detective K. James McCready, Marty was convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. After serving 17 years, Marty's conviction was vacated by the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department, in December of 2007. On July 22, 2008, a judge signed off on a motion by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to dismiss all charges against Marty. Marty recently passed the bar exam and is pursuing a career as an attorney, advocating criminal justice reform and wrongful convictions. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keith Allen Harward, a Navy veteran, was wrongfully convicted of a 1982 rape and murder in Newport News, VA and served 33 years in prison. The assailant had broken into a home, killed a man and brutally raped his wife. Keith was convicted primarily on the testimony of two forensic dentists who said that his teeth matched marks on the victim's body, and he was convicted of capital murder. The Innocence Project performed DNA testing on the rape kit and numerous other pieces of crime scene evidence, and the testing excluded Keith and identified Jerry Crotty as the perpetrator. After the Virginia Supreme Court granted a writ of actual innocence, Keith Allen Harward walked out of prison on April 8, 2016 after wrongly serving more than 33 years of a life sentence. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Rosario was convicted of a murder that took place in the Bronx on June 19, 1996, based on the testimony of two witnesses who had picked his picture out of a book of police photos. There was no other evidence linking him to the crime, and Richard did not know the victim or the witnesses. On June 30, 1996, after he heard that the authorities were looking for him, he got on a Greyhound bus in Florida, arrived in New York the next day, and voluntarily contacted the police. He named more than a dozen people in Florida who he said would vouch for him including a pastor and a sheriff’s deputy. But the police did not follow up, and prosecutors charged him with murder based on the statements of the two eyewitnesses. Richard was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. When Richard challenged his conviction in state court in 2004, seven more witnesses appeared to say he had been in Florida around the time of the murder. He was released in 2016 after serving 20 years when the Bronx District Attorney’s office concluded that Richard did not receive a fair trial. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Douglas DiLosa was wrongfully convicted in 1987 of his wife's murder in Jefferson Parish, LA and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The State's case against him consisted entirely of circumstantial evidence. As if making a jigsaw puzzle or a mosaic, prosecutors had to make the picture whole—there were contradictions and inconsistencies between Doug’s version of events, the physical evidence presented by the State, and witnesses' hearsay statements. While incarcerated at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Doug worked as an inmate legal counsel assisting fellow prisoners with their legal cases while also working on appeals to fight his own case. He filed a public records request with the prosecutor's office for the records in his case and received a 150-page police report that hadn't been disclosed to his trial lawyers. Based on the information and evidence Doug was able to gather on his case, in 2000 the Federal Court reversed his conviction and he was released from prison in January of 2001 after serving 16 years. He was exonerated in 2003 due to DA and police misconduct. Doug now works with the Rising Foundation helping other formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Morton's nightmare began in 1986, when his wife Christine was bludgeoned to death in their bed in Austin, TX. Despite any evidence pointing to his guilt and tremendous evidence showing his innocence, he quickly became the prime suspect. At his trial, Williamson County District attorney Ken Anderson painted a picture of him as a violent, sexually depraved murderer who showed no remorse for his crime and he was sentenced to life in prison. Evidence was withheld that may have cleared him, including statements from his child. Finally, after 25 years, a blue bandana found at the scene was tested for DNA evidence. The test not only proved the innocence of Michael Morton, it yielded a hit on a known felon who has since been charged with the murder of Christine Morton, along with the murder of another young woman two years later. After spending nearly 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Michael was released on October 4, 2011, and officially exonerated in December 2011. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special episode, Jason Flom talks to Amanda Knox, Jarrett Adams and Jeff Deskovic about what it's like for an innocent person who is forced to spend the holidays in prison. Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of a 21-year-old British exchange student, Meredith Kercher, who died from knife wounds in the apartment she shared with Amanda in Perugia, Italy in 2007. Amanda and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were both found guilty of killing Kercher, receiving 26- and 25-year prison sentences, respectively. Their convictions were subsequently overturned in 2011 and Amanda was released from prison after serving four years. In early 2014, the Italian Supreme Court ruled that they should both stand trial again and she and Sollecito were re-convicted. Finally, in March 2015, the Italian Supreme Court overturned both murder convictions, ending their eight-year ordeal. Jarrett Adams was 17 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman at UW-Whitewater in 1998. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison and spent close to a decade incarcerated before his conviction was reversed with the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project on the basis that trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to present the testimony of a critical witness. Jarrett graduated from Loyola Law School in May 2015 and is currently practicing law in New York and advocating for criminal justice reform. Jeffrey Deskovic was a 16-year-old high school sophomore when he was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a high school classmate in 1991. Although hair and semen samples taken from the scene did not match Jeff’s DNA, he aroused the suspicion of detectives by weeping openly at the victim’s funeral. After six hours of intense interrogation, Jeff confessed to the crime, though he later contended in a lawsuit that police investigators had fed him the details of the killing and promised him that if he admitted guilt, he would not go to prison but would instead get psychiatric treatment. With the help of The Innocence Project, Jeff Deskovic was exonerated and released in 2006 after DNA analysis linked convict Stephen Cunningham to the crime and Cunningham confessed. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sedrick Courtney was wrongfully convicted of robbery with a firearm and first-degree burglary in Tulsa, OK. On April 6, 1995, two armed men wearing ski masks broke into an apartment in Sedrick’s building complex and brutally beat a female victim, blindfolded her, and forced her to lie on the floor as they ransacked her home. The victim suffered traumatic brain injury because of the attack, but she positively identified Sedrick Courtney as one of the assailants, claiming she recognized his voice. The second assailant was never identified. Even though his sister and cousins corroborated his alibi, Sedrick was sentenced to 30 years and served 15 years before the Innocence Project was able to conduct DNA testing on hairs from the crime scene, proving that none of the hairs from the ski masks matched him. He was exonerated on July 19, 2012. In this episode, Sedrick Courtney appears with his wife, Tina, whom he met in prison when she was working as one of the guards. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Pringle was wrongfully convicted of an armed robbery and the murder of two police officers during a bank raid in Ireland in 1980. He was the last person sentenced to death in Ireland, and just days before a noose was to be tied around his neck, Peter learned that Ireland’s president had commuted his sentence to 40 years without parole. Peter then immersed himself in legal texts and effectively became a jailhouse lawyer. He discovered that the confession used by the prosecution was written down in a police officer’s notebook prior to his interrogation about the killings. Serving as his own counsel, he eventually convinced the Court of Criminal Appeal to quash his conviction in 1995. Today, Peter is a human rights and anti-death penalty activist and together he and his wife, Sunny Jacobs, also a death row exoneree, run the Sunny Center in Ireland where they provide counseling to other exonerees. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everton Wagstaffe was wrongfully convicted of the rape, kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Jennifer Negron in 1993. Everton’s conviction was based primarily on the testimony of Brunilda Capella, a 25-year-old, drug-addicted sex worker who claimed that she had seen Everton pull the victim into a Buick Skylark driven by Reginald Connor. It was later revealed, however, that the car had been parked at a church during the time that Capella claimed she had witnessed the kidnapping. The owner of the car testified that she had told the police this fact prior to Everton’s conviction, but the police didn’t write any reports of the interview. It was also revealed that Capella had been regularly providing information to the police at that time—remarkably, she testified for the prosecution in 20 cases. The Innocence Project consulted on the case and aided in testing foreign hairs found on the victim’s body for DNA, which revealed that the hairs had not come from Everton or Reginald Connor. The ruling to dismiss their charges, however, was primarily based on a revelation that prosecutors had buried evidence that Everton himself uncovered that police had targeted him before even speaking with the informant who provided critical testimony against the two men. In 2014, his conviction was ultimately vacated after serving 23 years in prison. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jon-Adrian “J.J.” Velazquez was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life for the 1998 shooting death of Albert Ward, a retired police officer who owned and operated an illegal gambling spot in Harlem. Ward was shot and killed in the course of a robbery. Following the robbery, witnesses provided a description of the gunman as “a light-skinned black male with dreadlocks,” which prompted the search for “Mustafa,” a known drug dealer who fit the description. After learning that he was being sought by the police, J.J. attempted to vindicate himself of the allegations by voluntarily subjecting himself to a lineup. Out of nine eyewitnesses present at the scene of the crime, three identified him at the lineup. Despite being a light-skinned Latino who had never had dreadlocks and despite providing phone records which corroborated his alibi and showed that he was talking to his mother during the time of the crime, J.J. Velazquez was sentenced to 25 years to life even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Since then, two of the witnesses have recanted, and the other eyewitness has expressed serious doubts. J.J. and his alibi witness have both taken lie detector tests and have passed them. He is currently in his 21st year, and Jason Flom interviews him from inside the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility for this special edition of Wrongful Conviction. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On November 16, 1983, a 28-year-old woman was attacked and sexually assaulted by an unknown male as she was walking home from work in Lowell, MA. The following evening, a 23-year-old woman was attacked less than one hundred yards away from the site of the first assault. Even though no biological evidence could link him to any of the crimes, Dennis Maher, who was a sergeant in the United States Army at the time, was arrested and charged with both attacks, in addition to an unsolved rape from the previous summer. He was convicted based on eyewitness misidentifications made by the victims, all of whom identified him in photographic lineups. In 2001, evidence from the assaults was recovered and subjected to DNA testing, yielding a genetic profile that excluded Dennis as a suspect. In 2003, results from DNA testing of evidence from the rape victim also excluded Dennis as a suspect, and he was exonerated after spending 19 years fighting to prove his innocence from behind bars. Dennis Maher is joined by attorney Alex Spiro and New England Innocence Project Director of Communications Hannah Riley. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kirk Bloodsworth, an honorably discharged former Marine, was the first person sentenced to death and subsequently exonerated by DNA testing. He was 22 years old in 1984 when he was arrested for the rape and murder of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton and sentenced to death in Baltimore County, MD. Kirk was arrested based on an anonymous call telling police that he was seen with the victim that day and an identification made by a witness from a police sketch shown on television. The description of the perpetrator was a 6 ft, 5 in tall white man with curly blond hair, a bushy mustache, skinny, and tan. Kirk was 6 ft, had red hair, and was well over 200 pounds. Though there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime, Kirk Bloodsworth was convicted based on the testimony of five witnesses who placed him either with the victim or near the scene of the crime. The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in 1986, finding that the prosecution had illegally withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, and he was then retried, convicted again, and sentenced to two life terms. In the early 1990s, Kirk learned about DNA testing and the opportunities it could provide to prove his innocence. The prosecution finally agreed to DNA testing for Kirk’s case in 1992. The victim’s shorts and underwear, a stick found at the scene, and an autopsy slide were compared against DNA from the victim and Kirk. The DNA lab determined that testing on the panties excluded Kirk, and he was released from prison in June 1993 and pardoned in December 1993. Kirk Bloodsworth had spent almost nine years in prison, two of those years facing execution. He is now a published author and was instrumental in Maryland’s abolishment of the death penalty. The introduction of the Innocence Protection Act of 2003 established the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, a program that helps states defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 16 years old, Jason Baldwin along with Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley – known as the West Memphis Three – was convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, AK. There was no DNA linking the WM3 to the crime, and some of the DNA found at the crime scene even seemed to implicate the stepfather of one of the victims. The case gained national attention soon after the teenagers' arrests when word was leaked that the murders were committed as part of a satanic ritual. A key prosecution witness in the second trial was a self-proclaimed cult expert who stated that the murders bore "trappings" of the occult. This testimony, combined with testimony about books Damien Echols read and some of his writings, plus evidence that he and Jason Baldwin liked heavy-metal music and several black t-shirts were found in Jason’s closet, helped to convict the two teenagers. Jason received life without parole; Echols was sentenced to death, and Misskelley was sentenced to 40 years. After serving more than 17 years in prison, all three of the WM3 took the Alford Plea, which meant that the state of Arkansas admitted no wrongdoing. After being released, Jason Baldwin executive produced the 2014 film about his tragic saga, Devil’s Knot. He is joined by the co-founder of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Wright endured two trials and 25 years in prison before a jury found him not guilty for the rape, sodomy and murder of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old woman in Philadelphia. Tony, who was only 20 years old when he was arrested in 1993, signed a confession after being beaten and threatened by the interrogating detectives. He was sentenced to life in prison—he narrowly escaped the death penalty after the jury voted against it 7 to 5. Later DNA testing of the rape kit not only excluded Tony as a suspect, but also identified Ronnie Byrd as the real assailant. On August 23, 2016, Tony Wright was exonerated, and he became the 344th DNA exoneree in the nation. He is joined by co-founder of the Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Francisco Carrillo Jr. was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1992 in the fatal drive-by shooting of Donald Sarpy in Lynwood. Franky, who was 16 at the time of the 1991 shooting, maintained his innocence through two trials and in prison. His conviction relied on eyewitness testimony from six people. Franky said that a gang of corrupt and racist Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies—known as the "Lynwood Vikings"—coerced and threatened key witnesses into identifying him in a photo lineup. In 2011, a judge overturned his conviction after witnesses later admitted they did not have a view of the shooter, and instead had been influenced by police officers, and each other, to identify Franky. Two men since confessed to the crime, and stated Franky was not involved. Since his release, Franky Carrillo has gotten married, started a family and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1995, 20-year-old Elizabeth Ramirez and three of her friends —Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez — were indicted on charges of sexually molesting Ms. Ramirez’s 7-year-old and 9-year-old nieces in San Antonio, TX. Before charges were filed, police learned that all four women were gay and had recently come out to their families. The allegations came in the wake of more than a decade of national hysteria over claims of satanic ritual abuse of children. All four women cooperated with authorities but vehemently denied they molested the girls. In both trials, prosecutors won convictions by discounting the many inconsistencies in the little girls’ testimonies and argued that the inconsistencies were outweighed by the testimony of a pediatrician. Prosecutors portrayed Elizabeth Ramirez as the ringleader and tried her first. She was convicted in 1997 of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child and sentenced to 37½ years in prison. The remaining women were tried together in 1998 and were each convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child. All three were sentenced to 15 years in prison on the aggravated sexual assault charges and 10 years for the indecency charges. The convictions began to unravel many years later when one of Elizabeth’s two nieces, now in her twenties, stepped forward to say she had lied. Members of her family coached her, she told authorities, to make up a story because of their anger about Elizabeth's sexuality. Soon after, the pediatrician used by the prosecution recanted her testimony based on new scientific evidence that showed her original findings regarding the girls' injuries were medically inaccurate. With the new evidence, the Innocence Project of Texas filed for post-conviction relief to have the verdicts overturned. A Bexar County District Court allowed Kristie Mayhugh, Cassandra Rivera, and Elizabeth Ramirez to be released from prison in 2013 while the court considered their request to have their verdicts overturned. Anna Vasquez had just been released on parole. They were finally exonerated in 2016 after serving a combined total of 62 years in prison. https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a production of Lava For Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.