June 4, 2020 • 23 mins
To share in the sorrow, and join in solidarity with the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor, and so many more families of color who have lost loved ones for absolutely no reason; to show respect to the hundreds of thousands of courageous individuals across the country protesting the injustice and brutality; and to use our voices to echo the self-evident truth that BLACK LIVES MATTER, this week, “Dear Governor,” is disrupting our regular feed in order to participate in the #PodcastBlackOut. Death row inmate, Jarvis J. Masters weighs in on the loss of George Floyd, the civil unrest, and the vitality of the Black Lives Matter movement. And we share the stories of so many men of color who were sentenced to death, only to be found innocent after decades in prison.
Theme song SENTENCED, is complements of the band Stick Figure, from their album “Set In Stone.”
Have a question for Jarvis that you’d like to hear him answer on the podcast, please leave a message on our hotline: 201-903-3575 or, AskJarvisMasters@Gmail.com
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dear Governor is a production of iHeart Media and three
Months Media. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr Governor Newsom, this
is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom. Dear Governor Newsom,
to share in the sorrow and join in solidarity with
(00:20):
the families of George Floyd, Ahmad, are Very, Brianna Taylor,
and so many more families of color who have lost
loved ones for absolutely no reason. To show respect for
the hundreds of thousands of courageous individuals across the country
protesting the injustices and brutality, and to use our voices
to echo the self evident truth that black lives matter.
(00:43):
This week, Dear Governor is participating in the podcast Blackout.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since nineteen seventy three,
one hundred and sixty eight men and women who served
on death row have been exonerated. Capt punishment is the
ultimate racist machine. According to Capital Punishment Project at the
(01:05):
a c l U, the odds of receiving a death
sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is
black then if he or she is white. In the
recent spate of fatal shootings and beatings of weaponless black
men with little or no repercussions for the officers involved,
shines a white hot spotlight on the racist nature of
the criminal justice system at large. Jarvis and I talked
(01:27):
on the phone yesterday to get caught up on the
social unrest that's running rampant across the country and to
hear what he is hearing and seeing on the inside
of death Row. All right there, okay, did okay Jervis
jump forward to George Floyd. I mean, what we'll talk
about others, But since George is the ultimate tipping point
(01:50):
for the nation, what did you think when you saw
the videotape of the cop on on his neck that
was sort of like, you know, a climb that happened
the week before, are two months before or three months before?
I mean, these are a consistent pattern of crimes where
black men are being shown to the world as being
(02:13):
killed by a white officer, by the police, cops, whatever
you wanna call it. And so I thought this was
another case that just blew your mind, and that the
moment I looked at that he had said I couldn't breathe,
I can't breathe. It was at that time that I
actually turned to it, and I've seen this cops hand
(02:36):
in his in his past. I can see this really
not able to breathe. So in my mind, I'm thinking,
I know what that feels like. You guys have to
understand he's really serious about this. He can't breathe. He
would try to move his neck a little bit and
then he would say, I can't breathe. What do you
(02:57):
mean you know what that feels like. M Well, he
kind of like tried to figure out how to get
some air into his body. You can see it. I
saw it. You know, I don't care if no one
else saw it. I saw it, and he said it again,
I can't breathe, and I felt like I was in
(03:18):
his place. I understand what that show like, being a
black man and seeing when I was looking at Uh,
you couldn't watch it. I couldn't watch it, and I
felt like I was walking away from that. He's dead,
and I talked about Rodney King, but Rodney King survived.
(03:39):
I thought about it because the world was looking at it.
So in my mind, I said, this is this is bad,
but it's gonna blow up. This, this is not gonna
be good. This is then execution that they usually do
at night with men and women on death row, but
now they just did it in the middle of the
street and it's public. Did not start thinking of alls
(04:04):
for the scenarios I would have done. I would have
probably ran over there and kicked the cop off of
you are just things you would want to do. Have
you talked about the situation with George to any fellow inmates, Like,
is there discussion active discussion about it in prison? Well,
you know, like everybody, that discussion is still ongoing. You know,
(04:26):
every time we turn our TVs on our radio foson,
we hear about George Floyd being commemorated here are right
over here in this part of the country, that part
of the country. So it's a discussions. Everyone's talking about this.
You know, everyone's angry about it. Everybody who wanted to
(04:48):
prove a point was using business and it to prove
that point. Have you found it? Um, it's hardening to
see so many different races coming together to march for
Black Lives Matter? Is it the same way in the prison?
Do you see white guys outraged by this as well?
(05:09):
That's an interesting thing about all this. You see it
on television and you see it on the fair Quin's
death row. That is what trips me out. That's the
interesting right there. Of course, there's just as many white
men on death row who's outraged by it as anyone else.
I mean, it's so vivid and it and its shocks
(05:31):
your senses. These are the kind of things I think about,
and I wonder what lift this on fire? The way
it flames, you know it was like and how they did.
So many people from all ethnic backgrounds and all social
ladders can be as outraged as this one incident. And
(05:52):
you hear on television all the time. It's because you know,
it was the tipping point. This lit a few, but
it lived for everybody. Do you think it's going to
um not end playing stuff out? I don't know. This
(06:12):
is history being made. This is history. This is you know,
this is a whole nation of all ethnic backgrounds, all everywhere.
And I mean I even heard on television mothers of
teenage kids saying, I'm not gonna ever put my son
into military United States military. That's out just by Trump's threats.
(06:36):
When you see preachers and churches are out there, you know,
conservative churches are out there. It's just I've never seen this.
You know, I've never seen this, and I don't know
how it's gonna play out. You have a president that
the lost is dawn mine, and I know that this
this should not be a topic of politics, but it
(06:57):
is be. The lost is your mind, and that's just
the way I see it. In teammates President Bush Reagan,
the other Bush looks like saints compared to him. And
I just wish that I knew where this is going
to go. But because of President Donald Trump, I have
(07:22):
no idea. Let me ask that. You know. I was
just talking about this with my mother and she was
saying that obviously the looting has to stop at some
point because small businesses and a lot of money of
their own businesses are being destroyed. But what do you
think about the looting is is that the necessary step
in order to really get the world to open their
(07:45):
eyes or is that a bridge too far. Well, a
couple of days ago, or even I think it was
last night, they said that cops shout into a supermarket
are some kind the business at people looting, you know,
and made me think, okay, what about the looting thing?
You know what's going on with that? You know? What
(08:06):
if I had a business or too business. And I
saw these white guys who swas stickers coming down because
somebody got shot, and now they want to just blow
my building up. But God forbid those kinds of things.
What's called andrew a telephone numbers will be monitored and recorded.
I had a friend I was talking to the other day.
(08:27):
We were talking about this, and I said this friend,
I say, you know what, if all these racial backgrounds
were out there with the protesters, it would be someone
who would say, you know what, man, that's that's my
uncle's business right there. You know that that Asian person
would say, that's my uncle's business. Are some person from
(08:47):
another country would say, my parents go here all the time.
But when you are so separated from society and you
have a business out there you were, it don't matter.
It doesn't matter no more. I'm upset, I'm mad. It
doesn't matter no more. But I also think that there
is a lot of people in those groups just wanting
(09:09):
to see fires. Oh, they want to see fires, you know,
they want for July to be that night tomorrow. I
think his agitation, I take hands everything to do with
agitating the problem, instigating, agitating, organizing this mass way of
(09:30):
exerting or bringing attention to what's going on based on
righteous anger. I don't know if it's righteous anger. I
think it's angered that that cannot be controlled at that moment,
it cannot be controlled. This is not just America. This
is where rosen uh injustice. You know, cities go up,
(09:52):
go up, in flames. Just one of those things that
is not unique to American society. It happens. I don't
know the source of why all that happens. I just
know that it's not exclusive American that people get mad
and then burn up someone else's business or tip over
cars are set fire too, cop cars, and this is
(10:15):
not unique. But I know it's that. I know it's agitated.
I know it's by agitations. The Black Lives Matter movement
penetrated the prison. Do you guys talk about that movement.
This is what I'm hearing when I hear them speak,
and they speak to me too. I just want to
make sure that you know that what I'm hearing them
(10:38):
say is that cut it out. You're killing us and
we're not being seen being killed. Our lives matter, so
we know everyone else's lives matter. But this is straight
out murder here and my brother's being killed because of that,
and my sisters being killed for that. That is not
about everyone dying. That's about black people dying and black
(10:59):
people experienced with cops. They're being killed. That's what I'm hearing.
But in my overall view of this is almost like
for me, it's almost saying that somehow you're going to
have to make a bridge to include other people for
(11:21):
his poor people or whatever, it has to have his bridge.
And I remember that. I'm thinking about it when Mark
Dr King he walked across the bridge and he had
more than just black folk walking with him, and that
made a difference. You know, if it would have been
all black folks crossing that bridge, I don't think it
would have had the same effect. But that's happening now.
(11:45):
That's what blows me away. That is what I'm saying.
I mean, literally, I'm seeing these white young kids getting
shot with tear gas. I'm seeing them being arrested, I'm
seeing them laying out in the streets sacrificing their bodies,
and they're saying in very clear terms, black lives matter.
They're saying it for many of my belief they're saying
(12:08):
it because that's why they're there. Black lives matter because
that could have been my brother, that could have been
my sister, and I don't know if it's not going
to be my brother, and if it's not going to
be my sister. Black lives matter because we are the
ones that I have to say something. We are the
ones who have to bring to light what's going on
(12:29):
about young men, black men, black people being killed. It
has to matter. If somebody needs to know that, it matters.
So that's what I think about that. In lieu of
our regularly scheduled programming, Jarvis and I will be reading
the names and stories of the men of color who
had been sentenced to death and since two thousand ten,
(12:50):
were subsequently found to be innocent and released from jail.
A regularly scheduled show will drop First Thing Tomorrow in
which Jervis will talk more about his very personal opinion
on Campa punishment and what it feels like from the inside.
In addition, we'll hear from esteemed Buddhist teacher and bestselling
author Pea Children. The criteria for inclusion in the Death
Penalty Information Center list are threefold. After being sentenced to death,
(13:13):
he or she must have a been acquitted of all
charges related to the crime that placed them on death row,
or b had all charges related to the crime that
placed them on death row dismissed by prosecution or the courts,
or see been granted a complete pardon based on the
evidence of innocence. Afthony Graves became a freeman. Anthony was
(13:37):
convicted in nine four of assisting Robert Carter in multiple murders.
Not only did the prosecutors elicit false statements and withhold
testimony that could have influenced the jurors, Carter himself testified
that he lied about Anthony's participation in the crimes. Sixteen
years were lost. Reginald Griffith became a freeman. In Reginald
(14:01):
had been sentenced to death for the murder of a
fellow inmate in nineteen eighty three, but not unlike Jarvis's case,
it was found out that not only did the state
withhold critical evidence, but his conviction relied on the testimony
of to jail how snitches who received benefits for their testimony,
and his two co defendants said Reginald was not involved.
He lost thirty years in prison. Brothers Henry McCollum and
(14:25):
Leon Brow became free. Henry was nineteen and Leon was
fifteen when they confessed to the rape and murder of
an eleven year old girl. Both men are intellectually disabled
and said they were unaware they were signing a confession.
They maintained their innocence from the start. They were freed
after thirty years based on DNA evidence. Brothers Wiley and
(14:49):
Ronnie Brickless and Rickie Jacksons became free in fourteen. They
were all convicted of a nineteen seventy five murder based
on the testimony of a twelve year old boy who
later recanted his testimony and who now has said he
did not witness the crime at all. Several people confirmed
that the boy was on the school bus at the
time of the crime. No other evidence linked the men
(15:12):
to the murder. Almost forty years lost, Anthony Ray Hinton
became a free man in Anthony was convicted of the
nineteen murders of two fast food restaurant managers based on
the testimony of a state forensic examiner that the bullets
and the two murderers came from the gun found in
(15:32):
Hinton's house. The prosecutor, who had a documented history of
racial bias said he could tell Hinton was guilty and
evil just by looking at him. In the U. S.
Supreme Court unanimously held that Hinton had been provided substandard
representation and returned his case to the state's courts. New
experts said they could not link the bullets to Hinton's gun,
(15:55):
and he was released after nearly thirty years. Alph Brown
became amen. Alfred had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to
death in two thousand five for the murders of a
Houston police officer and as store clerk during a robbery,
despite the fact there was no physical evidence tying him
to the crime, and he said he had been at
(16:16):
his girlfriend's home at the time of the murder. Alfred's
girlfriend corroborated his alibi, but reversed her testimony after being
badgered by the grand jury foreman and jailed for seven
weeks under threat of perjury. The court overturned Brown's conviction
because prosecutors withheld a phone record that supported Brown's alibi,
and said that the phone record had been inadvertently misplaced.
(16:38):
Daia McCoy became a free man in Isaiah had been
convicted and sentenced to death in despite the fact that
there was no physical evidence linking Isaiah to the murder,
and that two alleged accomplices had given contradictory testimony. The
court overturned his conviction in as a result of prosecutorial
(16:58):
misconduct in which the trial prosecutor belittled him in front
of the jury for choosing to represent himself, made intimidating
comments during a break in proceedings, then lied to the
judge about having made those comments. Roddricus Crawford became a
free man in seventeen. Rodriquez had been sentenced to death
in twelve on charges he suffocated his one year old son,
(17:21):
despite the fact that the autopsy results showed pervasive bronco
pneumonia in the baby's lungs and sepsis in his blood.
The prosecuting attorney, Dale Cox had unconstitutionally struck black jurors
on the basis of race, and wrote an internal memo
inten stating that Rodriquez quote deserves as much physical suffering
(17:43):
as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies.
New evidence proved the baby died of natural causes. Real
Daniel Right Junior became a free man sentenced in the
Court unanimously vacated Ralph can victions for the murders of
his ex girlfriend and their son, ruling that the quote
(18:04):
purely circumstantial evidence against him was insufficient to convict. The
concurring opinion held that quote no rational trier of fact
could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Right was
the killer. Gabriel Plachi became a free man in a
(18:25):
disgraced Chicago detective told bald face lies under oath when
he testified having no memory of interrogating Gabriel and denied
having beaten false confessions out of him for two stabbing deaths.
No physical or biological evidence linked Gabriel to the murder,
and he was convicted upon coerced confessions, deprived of sleep,
(18:46):
and given little food or drink until he falsely implicated
himself almost twenty years lost of vets, became a free man.
Vincente was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in on
charges that he had raped, ainally, sodomized, and murdered his
girlfriend's twenty one month daughter. The California Supreme Court had
(19:09):
granted the former farm worker a new trial, calling his
convictions a product of extensive, pervasive impactful and false forensic testimony.
The court concluded the girl had never been sexually assaulted
and may actually have died from being hit by a car.
He lost twenty five years behind bars. However, Aguers became
(19:32):
a freeman with newly discovered confessions in DNA evidence pointing
to the prosecution's chief witness as the actual killer. Prosecutors
dropped all charges against Clemente, convicted and sentenced to death
in two thousand six of the murder of two neighbors
twelve years lost, Clifford William Jr. Became a freeman. Of
(19:54):
twenty nineteen, Clifford and his nephew were wrongfully convicted of murder,
and he was sentenced to death. Forty two years later,
he was exonerated. Defense counsel ignored forty alibi witnesses, whom
Clifford had indicated would be able to testify that he'd
been next door at the birthday party at the time
of the shooting. The defense presented no witnesses. Prosecutors eventually
(20:17):
dismissed all charges after they found quote no credible evidence
of guilt and credible evidence of innocence. Charles Race fifth
became a freemier just last year. He was convicted and
sentenced to death in nineteen seventy six based on false
forensic testimony and eyewitness identification manipulated by police misconduct. Three
(20:39):
alibi witnesses testified that Charles had been playing poker with
them at the time of the shooting. Several witnesses for
the prosecution later indicated that they had been pressured into
providing false testimony implicating Finch. On January nineteen, the U
s Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found Finch
actually innocent of the murder, and in May of last year,
(21:01):
the Federal District Court ordered the eighty one year old
to be released. Forty four years lost, Paul Browny became
a free man this year. He was convicted and sentenced
to death in nineteen eighty six for the robbery and
murder of a Las Vegas jeweler. Paul was represented by
a trial lawyer who had been practicing criminal defense for
(21:22):
less than one year and failed to interview the police
who responded to the scene examined the evidence against Paul
or investigate the crime. In his post conviction appeal, defense
presented evidence that the police and prosecutors had withheld evidence
of a bloody footprint found at the scene that did
not match his shoes or foot size, misrepresented blood evidence
(21:44):
in the case, manipulated eyewitness testimony, and failed to disclose
the benefits it offered to a key witness who may
have committed the murder and framed Paul. A white witness
who worked near the crime scene told police she had
seen a man run by after the murder thought it
could have been Paul, but when the police asked if
she could be more sure about whom she'd seen, she said, quote, no,
(22:08):
I don't think so. No, they all looked the same,
and that's just what I think when I see a
black person, they all look the same. Though at trial,
she unhesitating Lee testified that Browning was the man she
had seen. In March nineteen, charges were dismissed. More than
thirty years lost. Black lives matter. Black and brown lives
(22:33):
are vital and indispensable to a better union. The Death
Penalty Information Center as a national nonprofit organization serving the
media and the public with analysis and information on issues
concerning capital punishment. To learn more about the work they
do and support their cause, please visit Death Penalty Info
dot org. Today's episode was written and produced by Donni
(22:57):
Fazzari and myself. Cornicole are themes song Sentence as compliments
of the band Stick Figure from their album Set in Stone.
Stu Sternbach has composed the original music. Nate Defort did
the sound design. If you'd like to learn more about
Jarvis and support his cause, please visit free Jarvis dot org.
As a reminder, Episode five of Dear Governor drops tomorrow morning.
(23:20):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Black and Brown Lives Matter. They're so
important for black and brown I do, I do. I
(23:47):
can go there. I can really go there. I know
you can. I have no doubt. Good stuff
Dear Governor is a production of iHeart Media and three
Months Media. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr Governor Newsom, this
is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom. Dear Governor Newsom,
to share in the sorrow and join in solidarity with
(00:20):
the families of George Floyd, Ahmad, are Very, Brianna Taylor,
and so many more families of color who have lost
loved ones for absolutely no reason. To show respect for
the hundreds of thousands of courageous individuals across the country
protesting the injustices and brutality, and to use our voices
to echo the self evident truth that black lives matter.
(00:43):
This week, Dear Governor is participating in the podcast Blackout.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since nineteen seventy three,
one hundred and sixty eight men and women who served
on death row have been exonerated. Capt punishment is the
ultimate racist machine. According to Capital Punishment Project at the
(01:05):
a c l U, the odds of receiving a death
sentence are nearly four times higher if the defendant is
black then if he or she is white. In the
recent spate of fatal shootings and beatings of weaponless black
men with little or no repercussions for the officers involved,
shines a white hot spotlight on the racist nature of
the criminal justice system at large. Jarvis and I talked
(01:27):
on the phone yesterday to get caught up on the
social unrest that's running rampant across the country and to
hear what he is hearing and seeing on the inside
of death Row. All right there, okay, did okay Jervis
jump forward to George Floyd. I mean, what we'll talk
about others, But since George is the ultimate tipping point
(01:50):
for the nation, what did you think when you saw
the videotape of the cop on on his neck that
was sort of like, you know, a climb that happened
the week before, are two months before or three months before?
I mean, these are a consistent pattern of crimes where
black men are being shown to the world as being
(02:13):
killed by a white officer, by the police, cops, whatever
you wanna call it. And so I thought this was
another case that just blew your mind, and that the
moment I looked at that he had said I couldn't breathe,
I can't breathe. It was at that time that I
actually turned to it, and I've seen this cops hand
(02:36):
in his in his past. I can see this really
not able to breathe. So in my mind, I'm thinking,
I know what that feels like. You guys have to
understand he's really serious about this. He can't breathe. He
would try to move his neck a little bit and
then he would say, I can't breathe. What do you
(02:57):
mean you know what that feels like. M Well, he
kind of like tried to figure out how to get
some air into his body. You can see it. I
saw it. You know, I don't care if no one
else saw it. I saw it, and he said it again,
I can't breathe, and I felt like I was in
(03:18):
his place. I understand what that show like, being a
black man and seeing when I was looking at Uh,
you couldn't watch it. I couldn't watch it, and I
felt like I was walking away from that. He's dead,
and I talked about Rodney King, but Rodney King survived.
(03:39):
I thought about it because the world was looking at it.
So in my mind, I said, this is this is bad,
but it's gonna blow up. This, this is not gonna
be good. This is then execution that they usually do
at night with men and women on death row, but
now they just did it in the middle of the
street and it's public. Did not start thinking of alls
(04:04):
for the scenarios I would have done. I would have
probably ran over there and kicked the cop off of
you are just things you would want to do. Have
you talked about the situation with George to any fellow inmates, Like,
is there discussion active discussion about it in prison? Well,
you know, like everybody, that discussion is still ongoing. You know,
(04:26):
every time we turn our TVs on our radio foson,
we hear about George Floyd being commemorated here are right
over here in this part of the country, that part
of the country. So it's a discussions. Everyone's talking about this.
You know, everyone's angry about it. Everybody who wanted to
(04:48):
prove a point was using business and it to prove
that point. Have you found it? Um, it's hardening to
see so many different races coming together to march for
Black Lives Matter? Is it the same way in the prison?
Do you see white guys outraged by this as well?
(05:09):
That's an interesting thing about all this. You see it
on television and you see it on the fair Quin's
death row. That is what trips me out. That's the
interesting right there. Of course, there's just as many white
men on death row who's outraged by it as anyone else.
I mean, it's so vivid and it and its shocks
(05:31):
your senses. These are the kind of things I think about,
and I wonder what lift this on fire? The way
it flames, you know it was like and how they did.
So many people from all ethnic backgrounds and all social
ladders can be as outraged as this one incident. And
(05:52):
you hear on television all the time. It's because you know,
it was the tipping point. This lit a few, but
it lived for everybody. Do you think it's going to
um not end playing stuff out? I don't know. This
(06:12):
is history being made. This is history. This is you know,
this is a whole nation of all ethnic backgrounds, all everywhere.
And I mean I even heard on television mothers of
teenage kids saying, I'm not gonna ever put my son
into military United States military. That's out just by Trump's threats.
(06:36):
When you see preachers and churches are out there, you know,
conservative churches are out there. It's just I've never seen this.
You know, I've never seen this, and I don't know
how it's gonna play out. You have a president that
the lost is dawn mine, and I know that this
this should not be a topic of politics, but it
(06:57):
is be. The lost is your mind, and that's just
the way I see it. In teammates President Bush Reagan,
the other Bush looks like saints compared to him. And
I just wish that I knew where this is going
to go. But because of President Donald Trump, I have
(07:22):
no idea. Let me ask that. You know. I was
just talking about this with my mother and she was
saying that obviously the looting has to stop at some
point because small businesses and a lot of money of
their own businesses are being destroyed. But what do you
think about the looting is is that the necessary step
in order to really get the world to open their
(07:45):
eyes or is that a bridge too far. Well, a
couple of days ago, or even I think it was
last night, they said that cops shout into a supermarket
are some kind the business at people looting, you know,
and made me think, okay, what about the looting thing?
You know what's going on with that? You know? What
(08:06):
if I had a business or too business. And I
saw these white guys who swas stickers coming down because
somebody got shot, and now they want to just blow
my building up. But God forbid those kinds of things.
What's called andrew a telephone numbers will be monitored and recorded.
I had a friend I was talking to the other day.
(08:27):
We were talking about this, and I said this friend,
I say, you know what, if all these racial backgrounds
were out there with the protesters, it would be someone
who would say, you know what, man, that's that's my
uncle's business right there. You know that that Asian person
would say, that's my uncle's business. Are some person from
(08:47):
another country would say, my parents go here all the time.
But when you are so separated from society and you
have a business out there you were, it don't matter.
It doesn't matter no more. I'm upset, I'm mad. It
doesn't matter no more. But I also think that there
is a lot of people in those groups just wanting
(09:09):
to see fires. Oh, they want to see fires, you know,
they want for July to be that night tomorrow. I
think his agitation, I take hands everything to do with
agitating the problem, instigating, agitating, organizing this mass way of
(09:30):
exerting or bringing attention to what's going on based on
righteous anger. I don't know if it's righteous anger. I
think it's angered that that cannot be controlled at that moment,
it cannot be controlled. This is not just America. This
is where rosen uh injustice. You know, cities go up,
(09:52):
go up, in flames. Just one of those things that
is not unique to American society. It happens. I don't
know the source of why all that happens. I just
know that it's not exclusive American that people get mad
and then burn up someone else's business or tip over
cars are set fire too, cop cars, and this is
(10:15):
not unique. But I know it's that. I know it's agitated.
I know it's by agitations. The Black Lives Matter movement
penetrated the prison. Do you guys talk about that movement.
This is what I'm hearing when I hear them speak,
and they speak to me too. I just want to
make sure that you know that what I'm hearing them
(10:38):
say is that cut it out. You're killing us and
we're not being seen being killed. Our lives matter, so
we know everyone else's lives matter. But this is straight
out murder here and my brother's being killed because of that,
and my sisters being killed for that. That is not
about everyone dying. That's about black people dying and black
(10:59):
people experienced with cops. They're being killed. That's what I'm hearing.
But in my overall view of this is almost like
for me, it's almost saying that somehow you're going to
have to make a bridge to include other people for
(11:21):
his poor people or whatever, it has to have his bridge.
And I remember that. I'm thinking about it when Mark
Dr King he walked across the bridge and he had
more than just black folk walking with him, and that
made a difference. You know, if it would have been
all black folks crossing that bridge, I don't think it
would have had the same effect. But that's happening now.
(11:45):
That's what blows me away. That is what I'm saying.
I mean, literally, I'm seeing these white young kids getting
shot with tear gas. I'm seeing them being arrested, I'm
seeing them laying out in the streets sacrificing their bodies,
and they're saying in very clear terms, black lives matter.
They're saying it for many of my belief they're saying
(12:08):
it because that's why they're there. Black lives matter because
that could have been my brother, that could have been
my sister, and I don't know if it's not going
to be my brother, and if it's not going to
be my sister. Black lives matter because we are the
ones that I have to say something. We are the
ones who have to bring to light what's going on
(12:29):
about young men, black men, black people being killed. It
has to matter. If somebody needs to know that, it matters.
So that's what I think about that. In lieu of
our regularly scheduled programming, Jarvis and I will be reading
the names and stories of the men of color who
had been sentenced to death and since two thousand ten,
(12:50):
were subsequently found to be innocent and released from jail.
A regularly scheduled show will drop First Thing Tomorrow in
which Jervis will talk more about his very personal opinion
on Campa punishment and what it feels like from the inside.
In addition, we'll hear from esteemed Buddhist teacher and bestselling
author Pea Children. The criteria for inclusion in the Death
Penalty Information Center list are threefold. After being sentenced to death,
(13:13):
he or she must have a been acquitted of all
charges related to the crime that placed them on death row,
or b had all charges related to the crime that
placed them on death row dismissed by prosecution or the courts,
or see been granted a complete pardon based on the
evidence of innocence. Afthony Graves became a freeman. Anthony was
(13:37):
convicted in nine four of assisting Robert Carter in multiple murders.
Not only did the prosecutors elicit false statements and withhold
testimony that could have influenced the jurors, Carter himself testified
that he lied about Anthony's participation in the crimes. Sixteen
years were lost. Reginald Griffith became a freeman. In Reginald
(14:01):
had been sentenced to death for the murder of a
fellow inmate in nineteen eighty three, but not unlike Jarvis's case,
it was found out that not only did the state
withhold critical evidence, but his conviction relied on the testimony
of to jail how snitches who received benefits for their testimony,
and his two co defendants said Reginald was not involved.
He lost thirty years in prison. Brothers Henry McCollum and
(14:25):
Leon Brow became free. Henry was nineteen and Leon was
fifteen when they confessed to the rape and murder of
an eleven year old girl. Both men are intellectually disabled
and said they were unaware they were signing a confession.
They maintained their innocence from the start. They were freed
after thirty years based on DNA evidence. Brothers Wiley and
(14:49):
Ronnie Brickless and Rickie Jacksons became free in fourteen. They
were all convicted of a nineteen seventy five murder based
on the testimony of a twelve year old boy who
later recanted his testimony and who now has said he
did not witness the crime at all. Several people confirmed
that the boy was on the school bus at the
time of the crime. No other evidence linked the men
(15:12):
to the murder. Almost forty years lost, Anthony Ray Hinton
became a free man in Anthony was convicted of the
nineteen murders of two fast food restaurant managers based on
the testimony of a state forensic examiner that the bullets
and the two murderers came from the gun found in
(15:32):
Hinton's house. The prosecutor, who had a documented history of
racial bias said he could tell Hinton was guilty and
evil just by looking at him. In the U. S.
Supreme Court unanimously held that Hinton had been provided substandard
representation and returned his case to the state's courts. New
experts said they could not link the bullets to Hinton's gun,
(15:55):
and he was released after nearly thirty years. Alph Brown
became amen. Alfred had been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to
death in two thousand five for the murders of a
Houston police officer and as store clerk during a robbery,
despite the fact there was no physical evidence tying him
to the crime, and he said he had been at
(16:16):
his girlfriend's home at the time of the murder. Alfred's
girlfriend corroborated his alibi, but reversed her testimony after being
badgered by the grand jury foreman and jailed for seven
weeks under threat of perjury. The court overturned Brown's conviction
because prosecutors withheld a phone record that supported Brown's alibi,
and said that the phone record had been inadvertently misplaced.
(16:38):
Daia McCoy became a free man in Isaiah had been
convicted and sentenced to death in despite the fact that
there was no physical evidence linking Isaiah to the murder,
and that two alleged accomplices had given contradictory testimony. The
court overturned his conviction in as a result of prosecutorial
(16:58):
misconduct in which the trial prosecutor belittled him in front
of the jury for choosing to represent himself, made intimidating
comments during a break in proceedings, then lied to the
judge about having made those comments. Roddricus Crawford became a
free man in seventeen. Rodriquez had been sentenced to death
in twelve on charges he suffocated his one year old son,
(17:21):
despite the fact that the autopsy results showed pervasive bronco
pneumonia in the baby's lungs and sepsis in his blood.
The prosecuting attorney, Dale Cox had unconstitutionally struck black jurors
on the basis of race, and wrote an internal memo
inten stating that Rodriquez quote deserves as much physical suffering
(17:43):
as it is humanly possible to endure before he dies.
New evidence proved the baby died of natural causes. Real
Daniel Right Junior became a free man sentenced in the
Court unanimously vacated Ralph can victions for the murders of
his ex girlfriend and their son, ruling that the quote
(18:04):
purely circumstantial evidence against him was insufficient to convict. The
concurring opinion held that quote no rational trier of fact
could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Right was
the killer. Gabriel Plachi became a free man in a
(18:25):
disgraced Chicago detective told bald face lies under oath when
he testified having no memory of interrogating Gabriel and denied
having beaten false confessions out of him for two stabbing deaths.
No physical or biological evidence linked Gabriel to the murder,
and he was convicted upon coerced confessions, deprived of sleep,
(18:46):
and given little food or drink until he falsely implicated
himself almost twenty years lost of vets, became a free man.
Vincente was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in on
charges that he had raped, ainally, sodomized, and murdered his
girlfriend's twenty one month daughter. The California Supreme Court had
(19:09):
granted the former farm worker a new trial, calling his
convictions a product of extensive, pervasive impactful and false forensic testimony.
The court concluded the girl had never been sexually assaulted
and may actually have died from being hit by a car.
He lost twenty five years behind bars. However, Aguers became
(19:32):
a freeman with newly discovered confessions in DNA evidence pointing
to the prosecution's chief witness as the actual killer. Prosecutors
dropped all charges against Clemente, convicted and sentenced to death
in two thousand six of the murder of two neighbors
twelve years lost, Clifford William Jr. Became a freeman. Of
(19:54):
twenty nineteen, Clifford and his nephew were wrongfully convicted of murder,
and he was sentenced to death. Forty two years later,
he was exonerated. Defense counsel ignored forty alibi witnesses, whom
Clifford had indicated would be able to testify that he'd
been next door at the birthday party at the time
of the shooting. The defense presented no witnesses. Prosecutors eventually
(20:17):
dismissed all charges after they found quote no credible evidence
of guilt and credible evidence of innocence. Charles Race fifth
became a freemier just last year. He was convicted and
sentenced to death in nineteen seventy six based on false
forensic testimony and eyewitness identification manipulated by police misconduct. Three
(20:39):
alibi witnesses testified that Charles had been playing poker with
them at the time of the shooting. Several witnesses for
the prosecution later indicated that they had been pressured into
providing false testimony implicating Finch. On January nineteen, the U
s Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found Finch
actually innocent of the murder, and in May of last year,
(21:01):
the Federal District Court ordered the eighty one year old
to be released. Forty four years lost, Paul Browny became
a free man this year. He was convicted and sentenced
to death in nineteen eighty six for the robbery and
murder of a Las Vegas jeweler. Paul was represented by
a trial lawyer who had been practicing criminal defense for
(21:22):
less than one year and failed to interview the police
who responded to the scene examined the evidence against Paul
or investigate the crime. In his post conviction appeal, defense
presented evidence that the police and prosecutors had withheld evidence
of a bloody footprint found at the scene that did
not match his shoes or foot size, misrepresented blood evidence
(21:44):
in the case, manipulated eyewitness testimony, and failed to disclose
the benefits it offered to a key witness who may
have committed the murder and framed Paul. A white witness
who worked near the crime scene told police she had
seen a man run by after the murder thought it
could have been Paul, but when the police asked if
she could be more sure about whom she'd seen, she said, quote, no,
(22:08):
I don't think so. No, they all looked the same,
and that's just what I think when I see a
black person, they all look the same. Though at trial,
she unhesitating Lee testified that Browning was the man she
had seen. In March nineteen, charges were dismissed. More than
thirty years lost. Black lives matter. Black and brown lives
(22:33):
are vital and indispensable to a better union. The Death
Penalty Information Center as a national nonprofit organization serving the
media and the public with analysis and information on issues
concerning capital punishment. To learn more about the work they
do and support their cause, please visit Death Penalty Info
dot org. Today's episode was written and produced by Donni
(22:57):
Fazzari and myself. Cornicole are themes song Sentence as compliments
of the band Stick Figure from their album Set in Stone.
Stu Sternbach has composed the original music. Nate Defort did
the sound design. If you'd like to learn more about
Jarvis and support his cause, please visit free Jarvis dot org.
As a reminder, Episode five of Dear Governor drops tomorrow morning.
(23:20):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Black and Brown Lives Matter. They're so
important for black and brown I do, I do. I
(23:47):
can go there. I can really go there. I know
you can. I have no doubt. Good stuff
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