#058 Jason Flom with Calvin Buari

Calvin Buari served 22 years for a double murder in the Bronx, even though someone else confessed to the crime. In the early 1990s, Calvin Buari was a well-known crack cocaine distributor in the Bronx, and authorities blamed him for a spasm of bloodshed there; the press reported that he practiced "black magic" and was a murderous thug. In 1992, a disgruntled drug associate who had recently shot Calvin implicated him in the murder of Elijah and Salhaddin Harris, who were parked when a gunman walked up and fired about a dozen rounds into their car. Calvin was charged with the double murder and six rival drug dealers testified against him at his 1995 murder trial. No physical evidence connected him to the crime. A jury took only two hours to convict Calvin of murder, and he was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. He never stopped fighting for his freedom, and the case took a turn with a 2003 affidavit from the key witness against him, Dwight Robinson, who confessed to the crime, stating that he “pinned this double murder on Calvin Buari because of a dispute between Calvin and me, and because I wanted complete control of my drug spot.” Journalist Steve Fishman followed Calvin’s story for seven years and eyewitnesses, first interviewed by Fishman, testified in court in 2015 that Calvin was not the murderer. By May 2017, a judge overturned the conviction and ordered 46-year-old Calvin Buari freed. In this episode, Calvin is joined by Steve Fishman, who chronicles his journey for justice in the hit podcast Empire on Blood.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I've never been to trouble in my life. I didn't
even have a parking ticket, and you know what I mean.
I was brought up like cops are the good guys.
I didn't know what was going to happen, but I
do know that everything was stacked against me. Everything like
everything this isn't supposed to happen this way. I'm innocent.

(00:22):
I know I'm innocent. I know I had nothing to
do with this. How is this possible? I grew up
trusting the systems. I grew up believing that every human
thing should do the right thing. And that's why, even
though I was dealing with corrop people, I wasn't going
to brave anyone to get me out of prison because
I wouldn't live with the fact that I braved my
way out of my wife's death. I'm not innocent to

(00:45):
proven guilty. I'm guilty until I proved my innocence. And
that's absolutely what happened to me. Our system. Since I've
been out ten years, it's come a little ways, but
it's still broken, a totally little trust in humanity after
what happened to me. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back

(01:18):
to wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam. Today's episode features two
extraordinary people. Steve Fishman, the journalist who was the host
of Empire on Blood, which played a role in the
ultimate reversal of the conviction of our other guests, who
was in prison for over two decades for a double

(01:38):
murder he didn't commit. And that's Calvin by Calvin Bari
was convicted of a double homicide in but maintained he
was innocent for more than two decades. He was released
last year after his conviction was overturned, but prosecutors threatened
to retrive a case until last week. So Steve, welcome

(01:59):
to the show. Thanks for having me. Jason and Calvin
Welcome to ron for Conviction. Thank you, thanks for having me. Jason.
Let's get right into the story, because your story has
more twists and turns than a Hollywood movie. I would say,
let's go back to the beginning. Calvin, where did you
grow up? Um? I grew up in the Bronx. I

(02:19):
grew up at nine twenty East to eleven Street in
the northeast section of the Bronx Wakefield area. And what
was that like? What was your childhood like? Did you
have brothers, sisters. Were your parents at home? Was it
uh a tough neighborhood? What was the situation growing up? Um,
that's where I was born, But I was moving around.
Where was that? At one time? I was staying in Brooklyn,

(02:41):
in the Brownsville area, you know. Um, it's very rough,
especially in the seventies at that time. I was a
baby when I was in the Bronx, but I came
back to the Bronx because that's where my grandmother lived,
and my mother ended up moving back with her mother.
Your dad wasn't around, No, my dad wasn't around. He
left me when I was about I think three or
four years old. And what about brothers and sisters. I

(03:04):
had one brother, one younger brother who's a year younger
than me. His name is Abdul. That's just a brother
on my mother's side. I have a whole lot of
other siblings on my father's side as well that I
just recently started getting in contact with. Got it Okay,
So you grew up in well difficult circumstances, right, dodging

(03:28):
dodge in trouble, um and ultimately getting into getting into trouble,
but not the trouble that you were convicted of right,
absolutely not, and that's part of the crazy story. So
you were known as a fixture in the drug trade
at the time that this went on, right, and you
were in the crosshairs of the police as a result

(03:48):
of the fact that you were a known dealer. And
can you just give us a quick overview of what
your life was like when you were in the game
and the Bronx back then. I mean, when I was
in the game, I could said I was on top
of my game, my lifestyle was good, I had money,

(04:08):
and I was doing well, you know. So I don't
know what else I could say about that. I could
add a little little, a little bit few details. Cal
sometimes likes to talk about him, but you know that's
not who he is now. So I understand a little
a little shyness about it. But Cal is he most
ond me. He was living the life. And we think

(04:30):
of people imitating rap stars now, but rap stars back
then were imitating people like Cal So. He had a
couple of mink coats, he had a matching mink hat.
He had to what he called black Man's Wishes, which
b m W. The car that let people know that
he made it, And I think, yeah, that was part

(04:55):
of the great thrill of it. But in the end
that brought a lot of attention into Canale, the wrong
time of attention. I'm not judging one way or the other.
I don't think anybody can unless they walk a mile
in your shoes. That being said, how did this crazy
situation unfold? You were convicted of a murder so on

(05:17):
that faithful night of September tenth, two brothers, Elijah and
Saladeine Harris, five years old, were murdered in cold blood
as they sat in the car eating their food, and
that's what started this whole chain of events that led
to your wrong for conviction. Yes, were you there at

(05:37):
the time. I wasn't on the scene where the crime happened.
That I was in the middle of the block. It
was probably what like five hundred or a thousand feet
away from where the incident actually took place when it
had happened. But I was always in and around that
area at all times. That was the that I was

(06:00):
known for selling drugs just to set the scene. One
of the things that's kind of incredible. Cow was a
drug distributor, a very good one. I mean, he's got
immense entrepreneurial talents, which also served him well when he
was in prison and managing his own case. But the
thing that's incredible going back to the late eighties early

(06:22):
nineties is that the cops target Cow and they say
it out loud, it's in the newspaper, we want Cow
Buari and they go so far as to say he's
not only a murderer, we believe a drug dealer who
walks around flaunting his success, but he knows black magic.

(06:47):
That was like the biggest propaganda in the world. I
think that only happened because they figured out that I
had an African last name, and instead of me knowing
this black magic as they proclaimed, they were the ones
that were really on the witch hunt and they just
wanted me by all means necessary. And one of the

(07:09):
things that I learned later is this is the way
that Alan Cameron when he mentioned how you know he
utilized different tactics and angles, that was actually one of
his biggest tools. Because what happened was when I went
to trial, not only did he ambush me with surprise

(07:31):
witnesses that me or my lawyer didn't know about who
was coming into wrongly accused me, he also utilized the
media so now jurors were actually getting that article delivered
in little flyers to their houses while I was on trail. Ye. Yeah,

(07:53):
I think there was even like a newsletter, a co
op newsletter that did this. And you know, Alan Carrn's
to prosecute do works for the bronx DA. He's got
a big reputation. He comes in like they're throwing their
heavy hitter at it because they want Cal. And you
know Cal has in their minds. I think he's you've
been accused of another murder and Cow keeps eluding them,

(08:17):
and this kind of engenders this ferocity on their part
to let's get Cow. And that's something that I talked
about a lot. You know, when they take this talk
about black magic like a witch hunter, they decide they're
going to get Cal. Right, that means, now this double

(08:37):
murder happens there, like how convenient will pin this on you?
But in the meantime, that means by definition, that they're
totally willing to ignore the actual killer or killers, who
are then going to be free to go do it again.
But I want to go back a little bit, because
there you are, five thousand feet away whatever shots ring out,
I mean this was a very violent time, right was

(08:59):
was there were shootings a frequent thing in the neighborhood.
I mean, in that era, murders were at an all
time high. New York I think at that time was
the murder capital. You know, you had two thousand and
something murders a year. Looking back at that time and
that age, you know, literally I knew that when I

(09:20):
was in the lifestyle I was in. Every day that
I walked out my house, I knew I was putting
my life on the line. But you know, to me,
it was a sacrifice because I felt like I had
to be the man of my household because my father
wasn't around, and I was the oldest sibling, and my
mother lost her job and she was struggling. So even

(09:41):
in the neighborhood where shootings were a regular occurrence, this
was a double murder of two brothers, and you heard
the shots, Did you go to the scene, and then
how did it happen? When did the arrest happen? And
when did you start to see that this was really
gonna be your undoing. Um after that happened, had immediately
ran to the opposite end of the block, and I

(10:03):
was with a friend of mine's John Paris. You know,
many resting PCs not here today. And then when I
walked back up to the block, we walked to his
house because he had drugs on him, and we started
seeing police come to the corner of the block. So
we wanted to know what was going on because we
just heard the shots go off. So once he had

(10:24):
took what he had in the house, we walked up
to the block and that's when I found out that
two guys had got murdered. No, I didn't, well, you
arrested on the spot or didn't know. I wasn't. I
was arrested six months later. I was arrested because Aldre Griffin.
He was one of the leaders of the Shower Posse,

(10:45):
the Jamaican gang called the Shower Posse, And from the
records that I had read, he had gotten locked up
for an inoperable or a fire arm, a weapon, and
I think some drugs. He already wanted to get me
off the block because he was also my competition of
course the street. So that's how I got arrested. He

(11:06):
falsely accused me for killings. And remember I mean this,
this block gets called eventually corner on Blood right on
that corner. And you know, some years later, there's like
seven eight nine shootings within the span of a month,
So this becomes a very very hot block. Juliani comes in,

(11:26):
he wants to clean up Calf kind of falls into
that to that profile in a big way. But when
they first arrest him, I think it's March of three,
so that's like six months after the actual executions. It's
an aspirational arrest. I mean, they got one witness who

(11:47):
may or may not hold up in court, but they
want cal off the street. So hey, we're going to
throw him in jail for as long as we can,
and we're going to try and develop a case while
we're holding him. And they don't have a case. It
it takes them years. And the thing that comes out
is that they're actually about to walk away from this case.

(12:08):
They're completely bluffing. Cow mentions Alan Karen, the prosecutor, and
really he tells me in the podcast he had no case.
He says, I was bluffing. I was gonna take this
as far as I could and then dismissive. And then
there's a twist and a turn that intervenes three years later. Right,

(12:32):
I wanted to touch on that too. I literally have
to commence Steve because I think that he did a
more thorough investigation than any prosecutor, than any lawyer that
I ever had, than any detective that was ever in
my case, and he talked to every single individual that
had anything to do with my case. And you know,

(12:53):
with that bluff that he said, that was a violation
of the six Amendments to my speedy trial rights. But
he never out a case against me. They always knew
that that guy initially was lying. When he got arrested,
he immediately went back to Jamaica. He wasn't trying to
cooperate with them. He just utilized me to get out
of jail and possibly get back on the block to

(13:15):
try to take over what I had going on out there,
you understand. And the sad part about it is when
you talk about Alan Caren, you talk about one of
Robert Johnson's leading hitman like so to speaking, that Johnson
is the district attorney in the years, and with him,

(13:36):
it's sad because I know that that man has a
lot of individuals possibly in prison right now for cases
they didn't commit. And with Robert Johnson, the reason why
I brought him up is because under his tenure, the
Bronx had the most Brady violation and positorium misconduct violations

(13:56):
than any other borrow and none of them ever has
been chastiles or punished for none of these acts. So
when they get away with doing these things, they walk
around as though they above the law, like with impunity.
That they have no impunity. So it's just sad, you know,
rather thancy justice done, Alan Cameron, rather uphold the conviction.

(14:20):
And that's who this man is. And it's just a
lot of other people that I know that in the
situation that I am, because when this God took a
set on you, he was gonna go by all means
to take you down, period, and he showed that clearly
when he spoke to Steve. He has no impunity for that,
you know. No, It's something that we talked about unrung

(14:41):
for conviction a lot, which is that until we are
able to get rid of prosecutorial immunity, which is almost
total but probably the only profession that enjoys that type
of protection. Right, almost any job that you do, if
you you're a doctor and you mess up, you know
you're going down. I mean it's like and there's so
many exact apples of that, but they're able to get

(15:03):
away with, uh, just insane things. I mean, it's the
most powerful position in the justice system. I think most
people think that a judge has ultimate authority, but we know,
those of us who are in this business no, that
the prosecutor has so much power. They can drop charges
whenever they want to, for whatever reason they want to.
They can throw the harshest penalties at you in a

(15:25):
in a in an attempt to bluff, as you said,
to get you to coper police. Cal was offered a
plea three years, three years, and he turned it down
because he's innocent. And you know, to your point about
the prosecutors, one thing that happens is the system gives them,
legitimately by law, enormous advantages. Now imagine six witnesses come

(15:51):
forward and testify against Cal and they're they're really drug
dealers who have been in the scene or people who
have committed crimes. And the prosecution is allowed to encourage
to hand out deals. And so there's actually a guy
in prison and they go to him and they say

(16:11):
how long you want to do right, or you can
testify against Cal. And by the way, there's a guy
who's who's very close to Caw. This all happens. It's
a kind of intimate drama. It all happens within most
of it, within a circle. But but the the second
advantage that and this is what really shocked me. I
think when I looked at the transcript, you know, eleven

(16:32):
hundred pages thick, Cal had it sent to me. This
is of a trial in as Cal alluded to. The
prosecutor goes to the judge and says, Calvin Bouary black magic.
Calvin Boary is so dangerous. We need an order of protection.
The judge says, all right, you know, I mean the

(16:52):
judge isn't running this. It's the prosecution that's running this.
He says, Okay, I don't want to be on the
front page of the New York Post if something happens.
And so that means that Cal and his attorney cannot
know who is going to testify against him until the
witness walks to the stand. Now, I may imagine that

(17:13):
kind of disadvantage, and that's legal. To your point, Jason,
there's a kind of immunity. Whether I don't think it's
in the law, but it. In practice, prosecutors are not
held to account for there let's give it the best,
the best interpretation their mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are due

(17:35):
to over zealousness, a refusal to look at the facts,
and it doesn't have an impact on a career, so
you know, recidivism, that's what we're talking about. They are
in fact immune in so many ways. There's a pull

(18:00):
things that I want to highlight. One is that had
they really believed that you murdered two people in cold blood,
there's no possibility they would have offered you three years.
That's ridiculous, right, That's just what I mean that you
have to you really have to suspend a lot of
layers of disbelief in order to try to give yourself
around that one. And what you were talking about is

(18:22):
a legal principle that was developed in England centuries ago,
which is called trial by ambush, right, which was where
they would not tell the defense anything that they were
going to say or do, or who they were going
to bring in. Their Their thought was that this way
they would get to the truth because they would just
use this surprise tactic that but of course it's it's
just patently unfair and now we have, you know, the

(18:44):
Brady decision from in which the Supreme Court said that
prosecutors have a duty, that obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence
of the defense, but they left it up to the
prosecutors to decide what they considered to be upratory. So
they really they had it right, and then they sort
of pulled the rug out from under their own decision,

(19:05):
which left us in a situation where we see time
and again in New York State, it's common that they
sometimes they turned it over the day of the trial too, right,
so it's like, oh, here's this stuff, and then what
are you supposed to do? Like, you can't, you can't,
you can't examine it, you can't invest and investigate, you
can't do anything. It's absolutely what you said as a
trial by ambush, I mean, and that's how I was

(19:26):
ultimately sand bag and convicted. Because if you're looking at
the ambush and you're looking at the media that was
brought up against me, then you have six individuals that
say they know me, and some of them I didn't know,
then you got a conviction. I'm not innocent to proven guilty.
I'm guilty until I proved my innocence, and that's absolutely
what happened to me. But I also think that Alan Carroon,

(19:49):
to to touch more on that point that Steve brought up,
he was actually promoted after all of that. He was
Robert Johnson's a d a top dog in that all,
and he allowed him to do whatever he wanted to.
That's why he has that attitude that he has. Would
you believe that out of four file folders, three of

(20:10):
those file folders went missing and my case completely, So
you know, this is the new tactic that Alan Carroon employed.
He's not only gonna turn over the sculpatory evidence, he's
gonna make sure that any sculpatory evidence just disappears, period.
So what do you do now when you have evidence
that they have in their possession they possibly always knew

(20:31):
I didn't commit the crime that you're gonna never be
able to get your hands on. There's also some type
of justice reform that needs to be done with that.
I think that there needs to be an open case
foul with the defense attorney and the prosecutor, because they
are both officers of the court, they say the same
ethical duty. It shouldn't be a disadvantage where they have

(20:53):
all the power and then if you have anything that
can support your position and you'll never get you'll never
know about it, and it is crazy. But the fact
is that, as we all know, in a civil trial,
everyone has to turn over everything and all you're arguing
about his money. In this case, they were arguing about
your life. And that's for some reason that's not treated

(21:13):
with the same level of respect by the justice system
as money is, which just strikes me as Alice in Wonderland,
like completely upside bound and inside out. It doesn't make
any damn sense. So back to you, did you know
after you go through this trial, they have these witnesses,
every one of which was an incentivized witness, right, and
you know, had every reason to lie. They didn't really

(21:34):
care about you. In some cases they wanted you convicted
because as as Robinson did, he wanted you off the
street so he could have it to himself. So, I mean,
he had multiple reasons he was getting he was getting
off and he was going into a better business situation
because his main competitor was going to be behind bars.
So when the jury went out, did you think you
had a snowballs chance in hell of being vindicated. Truthfully,

(21:59):
I put my even God and at that time, and
I'm taking myself back to that time, I didn't know
what was going to happen, but I do know that,
you know, everything was stacked against me, everything like everything.
Let me just add to that. Because Dwight Robinson, he's
a key, key character. He's a guy who he idolized Cal.

(22:20):
He's uh four years younger. He admires Cal and then
for whatever internal dynamics, he feels spurned, he's hurt. He's
also at the same time really ambitious, and that results
in an attempted murder of cal So. Dwight Robinson emerges

(22:40):
as the central witness. He organizes the prosecution. The prosecutor
uses the word to me. He says, Dwight Robinson was
a gift. Dwight is bringing people into the prosecutor's office
in the back of police cruisers. So he is not
only an arm of the prosecution, he's like a lieutenant

(23:01):
of the prosecution. They can't do it without him. He
has just I think three months prior to tried to
murder Cal in weeks three weeks project in a hail
of bullets in an ambush right, and that information it's
kept from the jury in this sense, it's brought up.

(23:23):
Dwight denies it on the stand. At the same time,
according to Dwight, and Dwight spent a lot of time
talking to me. According to Dwight, it's common knowledge among
the prosecution, certainly among the cops, the detectives. And at
one point I said to Dwight, I said, were you
surprised that they let you commit perjury on the stand,

(23:43):
And he said, nah, nah, I understood the game. It's
dirty all around. You tell the truth, you're gonna lose
every time. That may be the most chilling thing that
I heard, you know, that kind of organization, that kind
of or unizing of the prosecution. In fact, that kind
of by Dwight Robinson, that kind of utilizing of the prosecution,

(24:08):
becoming this collaborator of the prosecution. And I think Cal
used the phrase trying to kill cow by other means.
He failed with bullets. So now he teams up with
the prosecution. And by the way, Dwight admits that he says, yeah,
I wanted to get Cal off the street, and I
saw this opportunity. So Cal has to spend the next

(24:30):
two decades of his life proving the Dwight Robinson, this
guy once idolized him, is a liar. And that's I mean,
that's a drama that shouldn't be imposed on to anybody,
but it is an amazing drama to follow. And let's
get to that because that's one of the more interesting
aspects of this case, I think, is that you end
up being convicted. You were sentenced to fifty years of life,

(24:52):
fifty to life, right, so that's pretty much game over um.
But you didn't give up. It would have been pretty
easy to give up that point, you know, I mean,
you have now seen the justice system at its worst,
and you know what they're capable of. You know that
they're they're hiding stuff, They're they're bringing on witnesses, the
most cooperating with a sentence to lie with, the most

(25:16):
defarious characters they're bringing onto the stand like Robinson, right,
who they knew was a bad guy, right, but they
didn't care. So you know what they're capable of. You
know how steep of a hill you've got a client now,
because it just got a hundred times harder because now
you're behind bars and you're looking at fifty to life.
And then things get really interesting all of a sudden

(25:38):
when you get a letter in the mail, right, Um, yeah,
I received the foot from Dwight Robinson eight years after
his confection. And where were you serving at this point?
I was an upstate correctional facility at that time, maximum security, yes, right,
and um when he wrote me, he started explaining like
I've seen them, remorse in them. But because you know,

(26:00):
one of the things that jumped out with me is
the fact that he started saying, you know, cal, I'm
on the inside looking out now, you know, I know
your hand and call for this, and you know, I
started to sense some type of remorse, you know, when
it started from there, the way he was in prison
writing to you. Yes, he had been convicted of a
different murder under very remarkably similar similar circumstances, but so

(26:26):
Dwights doing twenty five to life, right, and then and
then to just point out for a second that that
murder didn't ever really have to happen. If they would
have just arrested him when they should have in the
first place, he wouldn't have been free to go kill
whoever it was if he killed. But okay, so let's
let's just put that on the side for a second. Right,
So you're here in this maximum security prison. First of all,

(26:47):
is it as bad as it sounds? I mean yes,
I mean, especially at that time and that era, it
was a whole lot of I mean, if you look
at right, because Island and Upstate in the early nineties,
that's when they started to have the most cutting, stabbings
and all that type of stuff. So, I mean, jail
is just not a place for nobody. To me, I

(27:09):
always wondered, cal you know, you're sentenced to fifty years
to life for crimes you didn't do. I mean, you
have to be angry, and I mean I was, and
I think that I had missed directed anger in the beginning,
and that's what allowed me to end up in the box.
But also being afraid. You know what I'm saying. I

(27:31):
was in an environment that I felt like you couldn't
show no weakness, and if you did, I've seen individuals
getting raped, stabbed in all type of stuff too. So
that's what kind of like I had missedirected anger. So
you know, I was doing what the romans to do
while in Rome, you know, yeah, I mean you had

(27:52):
almost nothing to lose if they can throw you when
the prison within the prison, which is the box, right,
and other than that, you can try to spend the
rest of your life in there anyway. So so how
did you turn that around? Because obviously you found a
different gear? Right? Has you already gone through that shift
when this letter arrived in the mail, because that's a
big moment when that letter gets there, right, Yeah, I
had already went through the shift at that that point.

(28:15):
I'm an introvert, so naturally the box was kind of
like a good place for me, you know what I'm saying.
Not only was I all right with myself that I
noticed that a lot of other individuals they couldn't live
with themselves inside of prison. And that's why a lot
of people do a lot of things that they do.
They want to stay on the gate, they want to

(28:36):
get high, they want to get into fights because you
know how I do. Oh, I don't mind as a
devil's playground. So that's what I kind of grew at
when I was in solitary confinement. This book by James
Allen called as a Man Think. If I read that book,
it was a simplistic book to me. However, it kind
of like related to me so well because it made

(28:59):
me look at the glass half full instead of half empty,
you know. And it allowed me to even to look
at and and and messed up situations. They're good out
of it. Even though I had fifty years to life,
I knew a lot of individuals that were in the grave,
and I still felt like I was alive. So I'm
blessed regardless. And and that's the mindset that I got

(29:23):
into once I read that book, and once I started
with that positive energy, that's what really gave me the
senseified because at the time, I started to beat myself
up to the point to saying, you know, I was
a drug dealer. Maybe I belong in jail, because in
the beginning, that's what I was telling myself. You know,
I never got locked up for selling drugs, so maybe

(29:43):
this was or recompensed for my actions. And once I
got into the positive mind frame, it made me throw
that away and say, you know, I'm in here for
somebody and do if I was here for drugs, and
to be all right, I did the crime out do
the time, but I'm in here for a double homicide
I did not commit. And I just started getting into

(30:06):
the books legal books started reading up on. I started
contact and a lot of attorneys, a lot of investigators.
The Innocent Project was one of the main ones. I
was in correspondence with very Check, Vanessa Parkin, Nina Morrison,
and a couple of others and an Innocent Project office.
But at the time, even though they were corresponding with me,

(30:28):
they were not taking cases that did not have DNA
evidence at the time, So you know, they were leading
me to other law firms that were taking pro bono
cases that dealt with wrongful convictions that did not have
DNA evidence. At that point, is like the gears shifted
from me, and once I started to dig into my case.

(30:50):
I'm a very determined and resilient person. Once I put
my mind to something, I won't stop until I feel
like I'm gonna get it done. I'm not gonna hear
no for answer, and I'm gonna keep pushing until I
can't push no more. I met Calis after he found

(31:21):
that book. And that's a book that came out in
like nineteen o three something and it's by a British guy.
It's not a Cow's World, but it if you read it,
what it says essentially is you can create your own
reality by controlling your thoughts. And Cow probably the most
disciplined person I've ever met in terms of thinking positive

(31:43):
and he had enormous setbacks. Is not only does he
get that letter, but imagine Dwight is in one prison,
Cow isn't another prison, and they are suddenly put together.
They suddenly come together at which Clinton Correctional Clinton Correctional Institution,

(32:04):
and they meet in the yard. So there's this guy
who has maybe has been put away for something, and
then there's this other guy who says, you know, I
testified you and I shouldn't have, and I mean, tell
about that meeting. Um, what made me more comfortable as

(32:24):
the fact that I received that letter that he confessed
to the crime right before I actually met him, because
I don't think that I possibly would have went to
the yard to meet him when he wanted to meet me.
But I have received the confessional letter, and I've seen
him in the mess hall, and um, he told me
to come to the yard, and I really wanted to

(32:48):
hear what he had to say, outside of the fact
that he was now saying that you know, he committed
the crime. And when I talked to him. I felt contrition.
He started crying and he said the same thing. I'm
gonna side looking out. I want to do the right
thing to get you out because you went here for
something you ain't do. And we just started talking and

(33:09):
I just wanted to get serven answers from him on
why he did what he did, and you know that's
what we talked about. I mean, so if you could
imagine Dwight actually confesses to a double murder that Cal's
convicted for in this prison yard, and then what happens
is on the basis of that, on the strength of that,

(33:30):
Cal actually gets it for forty hearing. So now he's
back in court and there's somebody else who's confessed his crime.
I mean, Cal has to believe he's going home. Um,
except that on Frank Viggiano and Detective John Ward, they
were very ambitious for the d A and they were

(33:53):
not going to allow that to happen because, like I said,
there was a witch hunt out for me and Alan
Carron was at the driving seat of that vehicle, and um,
they worked over time to make sure that Dwight Robinson
took back that confession, right, which is another crazy aspect
of this case because you probably were thinking, well, okay,

(34:16):
that's where this thing is winding down. Now you got
a written confession, he confessed to you verbally in writing,
and he's coming to court to the loyal and that
should be This was two thousand three, right, Yes, yes,
so two thousand three. You've been in for ten years already,
maybe eleven, and you're going to court. And did you
think when you went to court for that hearing that

(34:37):
you were going home? Yes? I really did? You know?
It sound like it to me. The next best thing
that DNA is a confession, do you understand? And that's
what I thought until he came in and you know,
he got on the stand and he started doing what
he did best, started lying, So so you didn't know
until he got on the standard he was gonna take back.

(35:01):
I think we did find out that he did take
it back. But to me, when I said I've seen
him and how I felt with the meeting when I
met him, I didn't. I felt like probably the d
A or the detectives were pressing them like they did,
but I felt like, still, he'll probably come to court
and tell the truth, you understand, But um, he didn't

(35:24):
it's it's a remarkable plot twist, and then your case
falls apart, right, I mean, he he recants his recantation, right,
and so he's reversed himself again. Now his credibilities really
out the window, right, because he didn't hard to tell
when somebody's lying when there when you you know, when
they keep changing their story. I assume that they switched
him to a different prison at this point. Did you

(35:44):
have to go back to the same prison together after this? No,
Before um, we even went to court, he had left
the facility that we were I think immediately after the
confession he left. And you know what's so funny about that?
I don't know, man, but it just seemed like a
conspiracy too, because that naturally doesn't happen where they put
individuals that testify against you with the god, you know

(36:09):
that type of stuff. Does this seem kind of funny
that they did that, you know, like they really wanted
me to really burry myself your father, you know, I
think about that all the time. These dirty tricks are
just they I just don't I really don't understand that.
As we skip ahead, there were other recantations. There were
twists and turns and two thousand fifteen comes. Two decades

(36:32):
have passed even behind bars, and now things finally take
a turn for the better. You've had Steve Let's here
with us now, who's been investigating your case diligently fighting
for you? Do you have the Innocence Project helping you,
but you have pro bono attorneys who have taken your case.
Myron Bell doc the greatest lawyer on the planet Earth

(36:53):
that ever woke this planet Earth. His name is Gold.
So you got Myron. I mean, you went from having
the odds really stacked against you, and and it's a
credit to you, by the way, because it would have
been really easy for you to just fold. But instead,
somehow or other, from inside this darkest place, you managed
to enlist literally the dream team behind you. Absolutely. So

(37:18):
two thousand fifteen comes what happens um I had to
investigate a working on the case, and he actually was
able to get some new leads. And once the new
leads came out with the two sisters that were actually
like about ten or fifteen feet away from the crime
when it happened. They lived right where the crime happened.

(37:39):
That and they actually seemed to white. Due to crime,
there's a plot twist, so I mean, and we've seen
that again and again to where the witnesses the actual
killer and there's an incentive to lie right once. Once
I got that information, um, I think I was in
touch with more in Tankliff at the time. I was
also in contact with Jibral Collins, who was working for

(38:02):
Joe Ruden. I really wanted Joe Ruden as my attorney
at the time, but um, I wrote my Iron Bell Dot,
the great Myron Bell Dot, you know, who actually represented
Hurricane Carter and a whole lot of other people. And
when I wrote to him, he gave me his number
so I could call him and talk to him. And

(38:23):
from the initial start, man, I just loved this guy.
He treated me like family. He showed that I mattered,
and I don't think that at that point, I never
had an older male figure in my life that actually
genuinely was, you know, acted concerned for me or my
well being. And he was actually going for a surgery

(38:48):
at the time, and he didn't even know if he
was would have been able to take the case. And
it was so funny that, you know, I initially wanted
Joe Ruden so bad, but you know, Joe Rooten wanted
his money. You know, he didn't care about nothing, no
innocence of any of that. He wanted his money. But
the funny thing was, Myron had told me that if

(39:11):
I take the case, if you could get somebody to
assist me, then I'll feel better because I'm getting ready
to go through the surgery. So I contacted Joel at
that time, and once I once he found out that
Myron Beldock was on the case, he was willing to
jump on board now. So that was kind of ironic.
That's the first time that he ever stayed on the
phone with me for an hour, you know. And actually

(39:34):
Myron started to get better, he started to heal better.
And once I told him that, you know, Joe Ruden
would be willing to co counsel with him, he said,
don't worry about we don't need him no more. I'll
be all right. I got I got it, you know
what I mean. And you know that's how Myron was.
And I had right after the surgery, and it was
very touching for me. I had called him in the office,

(39:56):
I don't know, as like eight pm, and I thought
he was been home recoup parade and held it up
my room was still in the office working and here
is this man. He's almost eighty years old. And you know,
that meant a lot to me because I never had
an attorney to that point that I felt like was
given my case. They're all you understand here it is

(40:18):
I had the best of the best one. It came
to your attorney, and I'm calling him now and he's
on my case. You understand that he should have been
home recuperating. I just never met a guy like that,
you know, amazing, you know. And I spent a little
time with Myron Cal. I actually never met Myron. Didn't
have that good fortune. But Myron, I don't think it's

(40:40):
so much to say he came off his deathbed to
really represent Cal. He had prostate cancer, he had heart problems.
He when I met atim, he had a tumor behind
his eye, so his left eye actually bulged. He'd looked
at you, but that left eye kind of veered off
to the to the left at a forty five degree angle.
It was very disorienting. He's eight five years old, and

(41:01):
he says, this could be my last crusade. And I
say to Myra, and you're you know, you're either a
fool or a hero and his responses. I think this
case is going to make me live five years longer.
So so Myron is that's where he gets his adrenaline from.
And of course the tragedy is it it doesn't make
Myron live five years longer. And and Cal gets that.

(41:26):
I guess you hear a rumor in prison and then
you you call me, and and uh, I have to
confirm it for calin you know, Cal is a extremely strong,
mentally disciplined, emotionally disciplined person. And and by the way,
physically he can do a hundred push ups without stopping,
so you know, he's been in prison twenty years. He

(41:49):
knows his way around physical challenges, emotional challenges. And I
confirmed that Maron's did and and and you know for
Cal and I mean, imagine, this is the guy, his savior,
his savior now has has died, has passed. And I
was like the most crushing blow ever that I ever felt,

(42:10):
because I literally felt comfortable with my life and Myron hands.
You know, I want you to understand, I literally felt
like that. I never felt like that with nobody, you understand.
So when I lost him, it's like I didn't know
where to go after that, Like I finally got the
person that was the best of the best that I

(42:32):
loved him outside of him being my lawyer, you understand,
I loved him as a person, and when I lost him,
I just didn't know how to take that, you know,
because it was like I just came just so far
and to be able to get the guy to believe
in me, you know, it was just I just I

(42:55):
couldn't help it. I've just broke down and I was
in the yard and that really broke me down. And
you broke down on the phone with me. You called
me back, and and actually I never heard that kind
of emotion. I mean you could. You couldn't speak exteriorly.
A person is not gonna be able to read my
emotions and my feelings because in jail, I felt like

(43:16):
I couldn't show no weakness. That's how it was in prison.
If you showed like the people in prison, there's there's
a lot of predators in there, and if they sense
any type of fear, that's when they're coming for you.
That's just how it is. It's no other way. It's
a savage life in prison. I love this guy, Myron
Belldocks so much that I couldn't help but to break down,

(43:39):
you understand. And I was in the yard with hundreds
of men, you understand, And that would be the last
place that I would want to break down, because here
I am with all of the wolves and stuff like that,
and I'm in the middle of that, and I'm breaking down.
So I was overcome by emotions when I lost Martin.
And and actually I remember you, you shouted over your shoulder.

(44:00):
I just had a loss in the family, had a
loss in the family, so that nobody would exactly. Also,
Myron is the one that gave me the tenacity and
affortitude in order to push on when I took you
to the incident. When Myron was working on my case
at eight PM, and I started to read up on
everything about Myron. You know, Myron was a guy that

(44:24):
just didn't give up, period, you know. And I put
his pictures up in like a mural of Myron and
and and the cell that I was in, and his
spirit just came to me, like you gotta keep pushing,
don't give up, be a fighter. And Myron actually fought
for my life while he was fighting for his own.

(44:45):
So I wasn't gonna get in a situation. Okay, Now
I lost my top guy and just lay down and
just said because that's something that I felt that he
would never do. So he kind of like put the
tenas city and me to just continue to fight. Kyl,
can you just take us through how you were able
to get your conviction reversed? Um when I went to

(45:08):
the supply my arm second four forty and they entertained
the evidence that substantiated that Dwight Robinson actually committed a
crime with the clock sisters. Just to expand briefly, it's
a dramatic moment. And Cal had always said, you know,
there were a lot of people there that night, the
night of the shooting, and the scene had never been canvased. Well,

(45:31):
you know, the cops did go door to door and
they knock on the door of the Clark sisters, kimber
Leah and Nikia Clark, and they don't want to get involved.
These are the two eyewitnesses to the crime, to the murder.
But the older sister says, no, we heard shots, that's it,
and that's what's in the police report. And why Well,

(45:54):
years later I asked him they didn't want to it
was a block full of drugs and murder. They're not
gonna come for ward. Two decades later, through a series
of circumstances, they resurfaced there in North Carolina, and now
they find out that cal was convicted. They didn't know
that they had moved away, like a year or so

(46:14):
after the murders. They find out, and they're kind of heartbroken,
and frankly, the younger one, who is the one on
the street twenty feet away, she she feels guilty. She
feels guilty that she hasn't come forward and that this man,
Calvin Buari, is in prison for something she knows he
didn't do. So there's this dramatic moment when they walk

(46:35):
into court, and particularly the younger one walks into court
and I remember the assistant prosecutor tried to pick her
apart and rattle her. Okay, it's the d a's job,
and she is fiery. She's got this nickname Evelina because
when she gets challenged and pushed, here's this kind of

(46:56):
fierce character that lives inside of her that comes out
on the stand. And thank God for that. And there's
this moment because we have the whole courtroom Mike and
we have a mic right up near the witness stand
and you can't hear it in the courtroom, but we
picked up where the assistant district attorney is really prodding
her and under her breath evilinesses and then she returns

(47:23):
fire and you know, she doesn't give and she says,
you know, I saw who did it and it wasn't
Calvin bo Aren't. Yeah, And I wanted to spend on
that too, And you know that was so grateful for
me too, because I always knew that after my first
initial for forty when the witnesses that actually came back

(47:43):
who lied at war criminals, You know, I knew what
type of games that these prosecutors played with the detectives.
And I was always adamant on Steve listen, I want
these witnesses this time to have attorneys like I was
not gonna allow what happened to me previously happened to
me again. But it was it was overwhelming that the

(48:04):
personality and the spirit of this witness, because that is
the very type of witness that I needed to stand
up against these type of tactics, you understand, And I
just want to say, true, man, when you when you
believe in something, stand for it. If you feel something
was wrong, stand for it. And and I'm happy that
she stood. She stood up, and she still firm, and

(48:27):
the cops did go to her. She was unfortunately, she
was in a shelter for abused women. The cops showed up,
and that caused a lot of problems in her in
her life. But you know, Cal was also fortunate he
got another attorney warrior, a guy named Oscar Mitchellin who
really in that courtroom I think helped her tell her

(48:48):
story and beat back the assistant t a when she
tried to replay the ninety nineties and say, cow's a
bad dude. He was a drug dealer who strolled around
and make cut oats. But you know it was true.
That's not what he was on trial for. He wasn't
on trial for being a wealthy drug dealer. And and

(49:10):
it was mitchell and who pointed it out. And Nikki
who gets on the on the stand and fires back,
who is the real killer? Who is the person who
did the grind? For witch? Cal servant time the tactics
were utilized on the kid and Kimberly Clark, she was
in the shelter at the time, and when you're in

(49:31):
the shelter, you need someplace to stay. They went there
and made it seem as though she was being looked
into for a double homicide. You know what I'm saying.
And these are the tactics that these guys employed to make,
you know, life hell for a person. I just want
to feel the truth, you understand. And she got kicked
out of the shelter. She got into an abusive relationship after.

(49:55):
But like I said, I was so proud to hear
the personality that she stu up because normally with you know,
average people, they're not gonna want to be bothered period.
They're gonna care more about their personal situation than wanting
to help somebody else that you know, Okay, I want
to help them, but I don't want to go through

(50:15):
the headaches that I'm going through with my personal life.
Let me leave that alone. That's what the person doing.
And I'm I'm so proud that this woman stood up. Yeah,
I mean, what's the question you're here today, what's the
upside for me? Well, there's no upside for her, but
she stood up. Yeah. We end up two thousand and

(50:36):
seventeen in Bronx State, Supreme Court. Yes, and that's the
day you have been waiting for since the early nineties.
And and tell me about that. Can you take us
back to that day when the judge vacated the conviction.
I had my room picture in front of me. I
had an actual Innocent magazine that came out on time.

(50:59):
And before that D White Robinson was supposed to come in.
They couldn't produce d White Robinson. And then when I
went back to court, I just kept my eyes and
myself fixated on in God we trust. And like I said,
I'm a firm believe in God. So that is my

(51:21):
number one attorney, and I believe that the right thing
was going to be done. And actually that's what happened
in that moment. So it was Judge Eugene Oliver Jr.
And we're talking about State Supreme Court. This is a
this is a big deal, right, I mean? And how

(51:42):
did that feel? After decades of fighting and trying to
get people to listen to have a man in that
position vacate your conviction. Um, it didn't really hit me
at first. I think when I went back to the
bullpen then it really really like really just started to

(52:04):
sink in like I made it, you know, I made it,
but um, yeah, I'm going home, and I gotten hit
with another hurdle I was. I had to go back
to the facility that I was in and stay for
the weekend. And those two days were the longest two
days than the twenty two years that I didn't press

(52:26):
it because I didn't sleep and it was just late,
and I really felt kind of nervous because you know,
you get a lot of hate ration in prison, and
I was kind of surprised that the people actually were
more happy than upset yere. So then I got the
day where I came home, which was May eighth, which

(52:48):
is tomorrow. That's my second birthday, my rebirthday, and it
was surreal. I'm still looking at it. And the nice
day that we had a couple two days ago. I
stayed out until I think four in the morning, just
enjoying the breeze. When I first came home, my goal
wasn't just to come home. My goal was to come

(53:10):
home and also build a legitimate entrepreneurial life for myself.
So I had goals out of side of just coming home,
you understand. So even to this day, I'm still enjoying
the little things, and it's just still hit me because
I ain't give myself a chance to breathe. You know,

(53:30):
let's talk about that, because three sixty four days as
the recording this podcast, as we're sitting here now, you
haven't even been out of year, and what you've got
going on, it was gonna make a lot of people
feel like, Wow, this is crazy. I mean, you've got
multiple businesses that you started, right, Yes, I have a
van company that goes to prisons. It is number one

(53:51):
van company by the way, you know in New York State.
While I had started a new concept that I felt
like when I was in prison, a lot of my
family members came to visit me, and a lot of
the van service they had the old Yankee vans and
they wasn't clean and they were decrepit, and you know,
regardless of what their family members wanted to see their

(54:13):
loved ones that were in concerrated. So they dealt with it.
And I felt like our family members deserved the same
quality service that a regular civilian to get out in
the street. So I started the concept of the uber
like prison visit services called Riders Vance Services spelled r

(54:34):
y d E r Z Van service and my numbers
eight four or five to or four or five none,
three zero. In New York State, I service the down
State area. Right now, I'm serving ten facilities. I'm going
to down State sing Sing, Shiwanga, Sullivan, war Killed, wood Burn,

(54:54):
green Haven, what else the majorities of the facility these
that are close to New York. At the present time,
I'm moving out for the We're supposed to be getting
a bigger bus to go to Elmira, calm Stock all
burned and the further facilities up where. I'm in the
process of doing that as I speak, and things are

(55:17):
picking up. Doing it with the van service for the
prisons to show you know how important implementing family tides are,
because they had done statistics that shows that individuals when
they're incarcerated and they loved ones check for them, they
have a lower rate of recticism when they come home.
And I also plan to have a van go to

(55:39):
the female facility and Beacon. I think that is for
free and I want to be able to give back
to the female facilities because I feel like they don't
get as much visits as the males do and they
have kids and stuff like that. So things are probably
much harder, and I want to be able to put
it in rotation, where is that I could go through

(56:01):
the whole facility, female facility and give each one of
them female females a visit. But I want to find
a social worker that's a it's a mediary just in
case they need somebody to transport their kids to be
able to go see their loved ones, because I know
that maybe a barrier as well because of the age
of the child and stuff like that. But that's another

(56:23):
way that I plan to give back. So the service
which is uh, it's great there you are doing good
while you're doing good and really making life better for
those people who are able to now visit their loved ones.
I wouldn't be able to otherwise, and we know what
the difference that makes to people on the inside. I
think that one of the main reasons that I wanted
to do that business is because I never wanted to

(56:44):
allow myself to forget about where I came from, and
by not forgetting that will constantly keep me away from
doing anything that will put me back in that place.
So I want to constantly be reminded of that, and
that's that's how I do it. Yeah, well, I think
your future looks really bright. I mean, you are obviously

(57:06):
a very smart and capable and entrepreneurial guy, and you know,
reapplying your skills and the way that you are is
extremely admirable, and I know you're gonna be a big success,
and I mean I'm looking forward to watching you. I know,
when we were speaking earlier, we were talking about some
innocent people that you left behind, and I want to
try to bring attention to those cases. And it's entirely

(57:28):
possible that by highlighting these innocent people that you left
behind it you care so much about, we may be
able to affect some change in their cases. So do
you want to just talk about that briefly. I'll start
off with some of the brothers that I know about
case that I'll just left in green Haven that we
were actually working on our cases together. That's why I'm

(57:51):
so much familiar with their effects. Um, you got a
guy named Nelson Crews that's currently in green Haven who
was actually innocent, and they did a New York Times
article on him. He was actually caught up in the
Lewis Carce Seller situation and he just recently got denied
on his full forty and I believe in his innocence.

(58:14):
There's another guy named Paul Clark that actually has almost
forty years in that was arrested by the mafia cops.
So Paul Clark is one. He's currently at green Haven facility.
And you know, you have another young brother that I
met named Kyrie Fry who was also at green Haven
and Anthony Reid, but just recently me and Meek Mills

(58:36):
was in correspondence with each other and he just sent
me the information of a person that he was incarcerated
within Chester at the time. This brother has in twenty
six years in prison and the only reason that he's
currently there his name is Eric Riddick. You can look
up Eric Riddicky's in Pennsylvania and Chester, p A and

(58:58):
in the penitentiary. And this brother is actually innocent and
the only reason he's still inconcerrated is because of procedural
situation where is that you have to have evidence in
at a certain time, and if you don't have actual
innocent evidence. By the way, you know, he has evidence
that proves is innocent, and he has expert evidence that

(59:21):
proves his innocence. It's just appalling that he's still in
prison at the twenty six years and this brother needs
to be free. So we will post the names of
all those individuals that Calle just highlighted on the website.
Get involved and maybe we can together help some of
these people get justice. So we have a tradition here

(59:42):
on Wrongful Conviction, which is that at the end of
the show, I like to turn the microphone over to you,
I do what I don't do very well, which is
that I stopped talking and just let you share any
final thoughts that you have. And and Steve, I'm gonna
start with view so that we can have Cal br

(01:00:02):
clean up hit her here. So, uh so, Steve Fishman,
any final thoughts? Well, first off, thanks for having me.
It's an incredibly important issue, and I spent a lot
of time on it, actually sometimes but against my will.
But you know, Cal being relentless whever I could, I
could never say no, even if I wasn't always saying yes.

(01:00:24):
But Empire on Blood is was really a work of
of passion and it tells Cal's story and I think
what you get from it that you don't often get
is you you get the thinking and the thoughts and
the feelings of the prosecutor of of Dwight Robinson, who
not convicted but stands accused by eyewitness of having done

(01:00:48):
this murder of the detective who talked Twight Robinson out
of his confession. So you really end up with a
sense of the criminal justice system. And I guess the
last thing I'd say is, you know, yeah, I kind
of took a journey with Cal and sometimes I'm giving
some credit for having pushed his case forward, but you know,

(01:01:11):
really all credit to Cal I. I I I just think, um,
the kind of discipline and persistence in the face of
enormous disappointment that would have not only disheartened people, but
I think broken most people would I couldn't have persisted.
I mean, that kind of instinct and ability is very

(01:01:35):
very rare, whether you're talking to people on the outside
or people on the inside. So you know, all credit
to cal for realizing is the beginning of his future.
And now over to you, Calvin Bari, what do you
god for us? I mean, I want to thank Steve
for saying that, because that means a lot to me
because he didn't have to get involved with my case.

(01:01:58):
But but as of my diligence, and I think that
you know, he just still he wanted to do the
right thing. And it's good that we have people like that,
whether you're a stranger or a friend or not. It's
just that I I feel like people are waking up
and they want the right things to be done. I
think that my last words is gonna be like what

(01:02:20):
Meek Mills said, it's all about justice reform so these
type of things don't happen to other individuals. I hope
that I'm an example to the people that these things
do occur and we just have to do something so
they won't reoccur again. That's basically what I have to say. Well,

(01:02:41):
now I just want to thank the audience for tuning
in and listening. This has been an amazing journey, and
thanks again to Steve Fishman and Calibuari for being a
part of the show. Thank you Jason, Thank you Jason.
Don't forget to give us a fantastic review. Wherever you

(01:03:03):
get your podcasts, it really helps. And I'm a proud
donor to the Innocence Project, and I really hope you'll
join me in supporting this very important cause and helping
to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot
org to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd
like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin A. Wardis.

(01:03:23):
The music on the show is by three time Oscar
nomind composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on
Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast.
Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam is a production of Lava
for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one