June 26, 2025 • 36 mins
On September 15, 1988, there was an argument inside of Philadelphia, PA row house. As one party tried to leave, Everton Meade Johnson followed while making threats and was fatally shot. The victim's brother only knew one man at the row house, Trevor Mattis. But Trevor maintained that he was just a bystander and another eyewitness corroborated Trevor’s story. But when Trevor was charged with murder, that same eyewitness said something different at Trevor's trial and Trevor was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
On September fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight, there was an argument
inside of Philadelphia rowhouse. As one party tried to leave,
the other man followed, making threats that left him fatally shot.
The victim's brother only knew one man in that party,
(00:26):
Trevor Mattis, but Trevor maintained that he was just a bystander.
Then another eyewitness corroborated that story. Yet this eyewitness said
something else at Trevor's trial, This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this
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Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. I'm Ben Bollen from The
Stuff They Don't Want You to Know, and once again
I'm excited to be hosting the show. In this episode,
we're speaking with our guest, Trevor Matis, who was calling
in from a Pennsylvania correctional facility to share a story. Trevor,
thanks for joining us, Aware and folks. If we're detecting
(01:34):
an accent here, that's because Trevor originally traveled to the
US as a student from Jamaica, right.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I came from a backgrown of working class single Pearan
household and she had her brothers, so I had an
extended family. You just run into anybody else. That's just
how it is in the community that came from properties,
almost like a community property. With Winni Switchers growing up
as an only child, a lot of times I was
(02:02):
with my grandmother, who was a retired teacher who I
think she instilled in me from a very early age
the love of knowledge, reading specifically, but I was drawn
to the sciences as I grew up, specifically biology. Then
I was always achieving in school without any extra.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Promping, and Trevor's academic achievement continued. His high scores on
placement tests put him in the best high school in
all of Jamaica, and soon it came time to take
the Jamaican equivalent to the SATs.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I know my mom at a single appearance. She always
told me to shoot for it without really being a
conviction that I was achieving, and in one day sure
enough came back. You have been accepted to City University
and your college. So when I got accepted, I was
another check caused a financial commitment that she wasn't really
(03:02):
prepared for tuition is like twice the amount of the
regular tuition when you be coming from a foreign country
or whatever. Because she always told me there's one man,
so she always had she said, I'm not rich, i
can't leave your riches, but I'm going to make sure
you get a good education. At that point in time,
because the promise was made, she found that we do
not miss a point with that note. This scramble was on, well,
(03:25):
who you gonna stay with housing arrangement blah blah blah,
and just extended friends and family and netwhek somewhere was
found to me that was in Queen's village. So I
ended up in Queen's going to your college.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So at this point Trevor is a pre med biology
major and he ended up graduating with honors. He is
planning to become a dentist, and he can pretty much
go to any school he wishes.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
For this after I finished, was interested in one of
those schools in Philly like temp Law, University of pen
and Afferent from the neighborhood. He was actually resided in
Philadevasys to come back and forth. So he said, well,
whenever already actually should come up with him, and then
I could see with him in his apartment, and then
(04:15):
he was part of this community of Jamaican guys, young guys,
and I think it was doing his spring and the
summer's like somewhere around here when the weather was nice.
So usially screaming Soka dominos and as a nine young person,
initially to me, it was almost like a boys camp
because there are all these young guys, young Jamaicans, palier,
(04:35):
cohesive little unit and it was just a bold, fun
flirt with girls or whatever, just being a young man.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
For some quick context here, it was the summer of
nineteen eighty eight, and while Trevor was enjoying this coming
of age experience, the crack epidemic had swept across many
American cities, and this also applied to Philadelphia. It appears
that some of the young men we've mentioned were involved.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I got to realize that they were involved in the
joke game, but was not right where we were seeing it.
There was just like an old hangover spot because it
was well kept. Us at one bad Jamika and elder
to us, and so we used to hang upstairs. But
jokes would be so from the base then, and.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
It was soon discovered that this house on Louis Street
in Philadelphia was already under federal surveillance. The focus was
on a man named Franklin Watson. He was present on
the night of the incident September fourteenth into the fifteenth,
nineteen eighty eight, when the crew selling drugs out the
(05:46):
basement included a man named Kirk Crump, as well as
two brothers, Paul White and Everton Mead Johnson. Trevor showed
up with a man named Mikey Donovan who was visiting
from out of town.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
He was basically new to Philadelphia, not somebody I really
had no extensive long term relationship with. We've made each
other to somebody, and he said he wanted to what
phil it was like. We had a good Rahore at
that time.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So Trevor took Mikey Donovan to this hangout spot that
doubled as a drug house to see the owner of
the place, Rudy, but they spoke to Kirk Crump instead.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
When I arrived, it was early in the morning, like
twif thirty one name, and I was surprised to see
a lot of the other guys upstairs in the living room.
But these are guys that I know. The guy I'm with,
Mike Donovan doesn't know them. So when I spoke to
her indication, he said something like, oh, so many people
in the house. Why so many people know? Something like that.
(06:48):
But it was a basically generalized conversation, not about whether
someone should be here or not. So Johnson in the
basements and stuff her he must have phone was offended
and that I don't know. And he found up the steps,
was like boom, boom, boom, flung the door open. That
it his lamp, and then his first words was, by
the fuck you want to know? So why so much
(07:10):
people know? Something like that very barely cooes his manner.
He liked to intimidate because he was kind of big,
but that's just his personality and how he acts. Mike
had done but who was right beside me? He don't
know the spurs and so he just basically he asked
me in a low tone, he asked me, who is
this guy? Why is he talking so rough? That further
(07:31):
inside chance, So he basically was like pussue you, oh,
the blue pursue you you know me and the code
up the streets at that time, a remark like that
basically that declaration of war, So that immediately escalated things.
I could not understand where's all of that coming from.
(07:51):
I was like, what can I be done? The deed escalated,
that was my first thought. He was like stepping towards
an aggressive times step. So I basically put myself in
between both of them, and I was pleading, minimisea listen,
calm don, what's this all about? That's uncalled for. So
I basically got him to step back and take a
seat on the stool. And he was in a steering
(08:13):
countest now with Michael donabout behind me. So it's a
hardcore great locked in this real tunnel vision with anger.
Yeah me, it's clearing at him, and I have no
clue what the reaction is going to be from Mikil
Japan who is behind me. And so I looked towards
the guy that was in the kitchen I was speaking
to and I said that where is really just all
(08:33):
the blue basically the giant change something? And he said
he just left. He went to the bus stop to
escort his daughter to work. So that basically gave me
an opportunity to know to a right, let me go
find him. So I'm just trying to divert that said
come let's go or something to that. I'm trying to
back down up and come, and took two more steps
(08:55):
towards the front doors. If you know me, this is
not big something like that. And when I look back
on more than I see him like a stepped back relax.
And therefore I figured that the game did worked because
that looked like nothing further gong go. So I hate
my step towards the front door, over the front door,
and I was ahead by a couple of steps. I
looked back and I was seeing Mikey Donner was just
(09:17):
emerging on the front door. So while I'm thinking that
I'm taking these steps towards the bust, I hear the
screen door clang again. I mean somebody had come out
by the time it shut. When I turned around on
the streets, Johnson was buying his car jump and his
car trunk was already opened and he was reaching in.
(09:38):
Mike Donovan was on the sidewalk. Johnson said something. Most
likely it would have been something intimidating, and the moment
he said something, Mikey Donovan pulled I've gone out of
his ways and hop fire immediately.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Everton Meet Johnson was shot fatally. According to the autopsy report,
the bullet entered from the back of his body toward
the front. Perhaps Mikey Donovan didn't wait for me Johnson
to turn around and fire, and since the scene of
the crime was in front of a drug house, it
(10:29):
appears no one stuck around to speak to the police,
except for the victim's brother, Paul White. According to others,
Paul had tried to stop his brother from following Donovan
and then he ran to the basement to get help
during the shooting, but he told police something else.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Because he had never seen Mike Donovan in his life.
He immediately told them he saw two people shoot his
brother find me along with this unknown Jamaican me that
you know. He said, I had a Tech nine, a
big machine gun and mine and a handgun. And he
said both the bos basically ambushim at the corner of
(11:12):
the car, and I was shooting and Danavan was shooting.
The seven shot fat. So that was basically what he
told them at the scene of the cramp what the
state is now because it happened at a joke host the
state really created this narrative of a joke curve for
r peer. So they took that and said, well, it
was a dispute of who was supposed to sell jokes
(11:34):
of the hose now me and just have friends from
back then, you know what I mean we had. Anyways, that's
not all we operate. If he wanted to sell jokes
or the house he had, all right, Kirk is one
selling know, so anybody could make some type of arrangement
with Kirk or whatever. So it wasn't no circumstance that
we would be in competition or anything like that. It
(11:55):
just a third story. But the state basically said I
took it upon myself to eliminate my arrivals.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So Trevor was arrested and over time, this unknown Jamaican
is eliminated from the.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Narrative, so nobody could identify, nobody knew where he was.
So basically, after I was made to target, the state
and everyone does didn't even try to final anything. Thirred
about the microdynamo that that's just how it works. They
had to target that they wanted, and everything was gear
to get this targeted regardless. What is my turn up?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Speaking of? While Trevor sat in pre trial detention for
nearly two years. The separate federal investigation of the drug
house closed in on Franklin Watson, who was present on
the night of the murder and tried to trade information
for leniency, And this was three weeks before trial in
(12:54):
January nineteen ninety. The Feds told the prosecution about this witness,
but for reasons that we'll discuss later, the defense remained
in the dark about this and a number of other things, including,
for instance, why the state wanted a bench trial.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
When I got to the court room, I requested the
jury trial, and then my lawyer got very old rage
and told me that he had an agreement with the
prosecute that's did not seek the head penalty if I
took a non jury trial. But I still was trying
to be adamant. So a couple of minutes before the
trial started, my mom was there and she came to
(13:34):
me in tears and distraughts, telling me that I should
listen to the lawyer because he told her that they
don't like Jamaicans in Philadelphia at that time, and I'm
going to try in the electric cheer and she was
so broken that that broke me. Just to see her
so distraught, So I rel ended and basically went along.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
So perhaps the state was confident that the assigned judge
would give them their desired result, as would Franklin Watson.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
The morning of the trial, the prosecutor announced as a
surprise witness just walked into his office five minutes before
the trial started and said he was there, and this
is how he announced it.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Rotson.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
So when he puts him understand, Watson testifies that he
was present. What is the first person ever said that
there was an argument in the house in the kitchen
between Johnson and I over who should sell jokes from
that location. And then he said for the first time
also that I brandished a weapon in the house and
(14:39):
had to be restrained by others. Then I walked out,
Johnson followed me out. We began to fight outside for
one minute by the car trump and then I got
the better of Johnson, pulled the weapon and shot him
multiple times from close range, and no one else was involved.
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So, in contrast to Paul White's original statement about two shooters,
Watson named Trevor as the loan shooter, and on cross examination,
Trevor's attorney was able to expose Watson's vulnerability.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
He got the fact that Watson was a federal informant.
I understand, but the lawyer he never followed up the
final what was happening? What did he say to defense?
It was just less that that just came out. So
basically that was how he impeached the credibility. And as
soon as he finished testifying, the prosecutor arrested their case.
They were like, well, we're not going to call the
(15:35):
original White now no more. Werested my lawyer objective. He
requested a mistrial, saying, Yeerona, it's a child by ambush.
We have been waiting for this case for over two years.
We have all this discovery. Nowhere in the entire discovery
was a Watson mention. They brought this person at the
twelfth hour claiming that he is a surprise waitness and
(15:56):
now they want to rest the case. They had the sidebar,
and then prosecutor relented and said our year and postponed
the case for one day and then we will bring
White the following him.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Additionally, and this is absent from the record, Watson escaped
a potential thirty year sentence in exchange for this testimony
and then came Paul White.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So the next day he brought White to the standard
and the White entire testimony was radically different and it
mimicked almost play by play, what Watson said. So initially
White was talking about two people shooting. Now he changed
and he said there was only one person and that
was me. And he also added an altercation because it
(16:41):
was never an adducation mentioned anywhere at the scene of
the crime or at the preliminary year and.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
A year after.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
But at the trial he testified it was an altercation,
but he said it didn't last a minute. He said
it lasted a few seconds before a brandish a weapon
and Shaq Johnson. So that's how his testimony changed to
mimic what Watson said, but he did not repeat the
allegation of it was an argument over job.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Unfortunately, the inconsistencies between White statements as well as how
they were inconsistent with Watson's, these issues are never pointed
out to the judge.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, I him in the head with a gun. You
know you hit somebody in the head with a gun.
Be authors to going to show us a specific mark
that I've gone with. Leave And then White after what
he said the federal informant was not there to weakness,
and the federal informant said White was not there. He
said White was in the basement, and a federal informant
said I had a chrome nine millimeter. White said first
(17:44):
it was a Tick nine machine handgun, and then at
the child testimony he said it was a nine milimeter
but it was grown.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So without these glaring inconsistencies pointed out or what else
was hidden from the court at the time the judge
made his decision on the first degree murder, criminal conspiracy,
and weapons charges.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
He basically summarized the case and said it was a straightforward,
clear cut case of joke urs dispute, and I did
defend and took it upon myself to eliminate my rival
once and for all by gunning him down in cold
and within less than sixty seconds.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I was sawing it with the automatic sendments of life,
but of the passability of broad and my mom was there,
so I know that basically broker Art. When I'm looking
(18:48):
back to the whole scenario, it was basically a present
with a foregun conclusion. Maybe two months after I was convicted,
I received a statement that was made three weeks before
matrial by what to the federal authorities, which was a
part of his pleats to the federal authorities. And in
(19:11):
the statement it was Excotory specifically stated that he was
present at the chance to shooting, that Johnson was shot
by Mikey Dana Vlan and I was merely a bystander,
and that was just three weeks before my child. And
he spoke to the faith and told him basically actual
version of events, and then came into the stage and
(19:34):
gave a own separate contra victory statement.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
For state prosecutor.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
This was clearly a Brady violation. It upended the state's case.
So this one Trevor an evidentiary hearing on direct appeal.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
The same judge that convicted me had an evidential here
in five six months after I was convicted. The federal
prosecutors would understand when they carrabber the authenticity of the
Watson Pree Deal statement that I had. So when they
saw that I was able able to trial the case,
they contacted this prosecutor and conveyed the information that he
(20:13):
might have the wrong perpetrator. And that is how this
prosecutor became aware of Franklin Watson and made arrangements to
interview was one of the federal prosecutors said he specifically
recall that name sax because the saxophone or something that
that is saying.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
So it appears that Trevor's prosecutor, Richard Sachs, received this
information that Trevor was indeed an innocent bystander, but somehow
on the eve of the trial, Watson changed his story.
This allowed Sacks to forge ahead with the prosecution anyway,
in spite of the federal prosecutor's efforts.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
They gave it to him orally over the phone, Prosecutor
Toulist and also he said he didn't receive a specific
information that he might have the wrong perpetrator. So they
contradicted each other. But the judge said he found both
bodies to be.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Truthful, even though these testimonies are indirect contradiction.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And then the judge it meantal gymnastics by saying, since
the federal arts or conveyed the information orally over the
telephone and not in writing, the information would not amount
to really because of state prosecutor had nothing physically to
turn over to the defense. Wow. Yeah, But then he
(21:32):
went even Further, I guess he knows that wouldn't pass
the smell this, so he came up with this rational.
He said, well, even if the document was available and
turned over to the defense and the federal informal testified
exactly the exculpulary statement he made in that document, he
would still have found me guilty, not as a perpetrate
(21:52):
at this time, but as a co con spirit and
the laws at that time it will be sentenced exactly
the same way of mandatory life with oparole.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Even though the only witness, Watson, who even said anything
about a criminal conspiracy, the Trevor had allegedly killed me
Johnson to take out a rival dealer. That witness had
just been clearly proven to lie.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
So I told my lawyer immediately, as we have to
appeal this, and he was like, of course, So he
agreed to file an appeal, and they sent me off
state note and I was absolutely in the hole at
that time. And weeks went by and then let us
never got real response, never weeks and weeks went by,
and then I reached over to my family, contact this
lawyer and they find out what's going on with my appeal.
(22:41):
He informed them that did not file an appeal within
the timeframe. The thurnit the window to find the notice
of appeal, so the issue became waved. According to the
legal language, was basically I gave up on that issue, and.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
With that failure is barred from raising the issue again
in state court. So he tries federal court.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
There's a federal magistrate that the case and he ordered
that I be retried within one hundred and twenty days
are re released. The state appeal his decision, and the
district judge reversed the magistrates and uphel the conviction, maintaining
that there was a procedural default. Therefore, the federal courts
(23:26):
cannot entertain this issue whatsoever because the state did not
get full opportunity to reverse their own mistake or their
own issue. And I appeal that to the appellate court
at the federal level. They ruled that they were very
troubled by the circumstances of this case and they clearly
(23:48):
articulated that they will not decide this case on the merits.
Whether or not this judge is ruling that oral communication
is not pretty. However, they could not welcome the procedural
default the issue, but that claimed to be entertained in
the federal courts. So as a result, they upheld the conviction,
(24:10):
with the astering that they were very troubled by the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So the case breaking evidence that surfaced back in nineteen
ninety has effectively been newter by the system since nineteen
ninety one. The fight was fortunately revived in twenty eleven.
This is when the man who was in the kitchen
that night, Kurt Crump, sent Trevor an affidavit.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
The affidavit basically clarified that he operated residence and that
it is the victim. Johnson was one of his friends.
That the confrontation occurred in the kitchen between Johnson and Donovan,
and I intervened calm Johnson down. I left the house
with Donovan in tour and he said that Johnson was
angry that he was going to get his guns, and
(24:57):
why he tried to stop him from bard. You know,
Johnson shoved White aside, and a storm goes behind Donavar
and said that White ran down the basement together two
other guys to curve trailed behind Johnson to the front door,
and in his activity he described his saw Johnson reaching
the trunk when Mike Danaban shot him multiple times, and.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
That version of events is corroborated by the trajectory of
the bullets from the back to the front. This contradicted
both trial witness testimonies, and it continued to further discredit
Paul White.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
When the shots were fired, Curve heard White and the
guy from the basement coming up behind him from the kitchen.
Basically that White was not a witness because he said
was behind him when the shots got fired. But they
heard the shots and when he turned they as really
had begun to flee back down the business. He can
exit the residence to a business and that basically was it.
(25:55):
And he actually did follow up with a sworn video
deposition with the corroborreate affective and I submitted all of
that to the state court and it was denied it untimely,
no explanation. I appealed that to the state's unpelate courts
and they ruled that this evidence was untimely, but they
(26:16):
gave their explanation. They said it was cumulative because it
produced no new facts. It basically said the same thing
that the defense said. They said I should have gotten him,
and basically they didn't. Said I could have gone. It
didn't tell me how I was going to get him.
They didn't discuss the fact that the state was looking
for kirk Crumb because he was one of the persons
that was in the discovery as a weakness.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
So you heard that, right, folks. Not even the state
can find this guy, yet Trevor is expected to do so.
It turned out that kirk Crump had been arrested in
another state under an alias before he was deported to Jamaica,
so finding him would have been nearly impossible. Yet when
(26:56):
Trevor appealed to the federal courts, they said that these
two factors made the witness unreliable and so they denied
him as well.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Subsequent nine two tenty twenty three, friends and family finally
get the resources to hire a forensic expert, doctor Sheril
leg from Pittsburgh, and he compared the trial testimony from
the witnesses, and he compared it to the autos report
and the ballistics evidence, and he gave a report. It's
(27:26):
his scientific conclusion that the description given by the state
witnesses were fabricated because they conflicted with the autops report
and described things that were physically impossible. They described the
victv shot multiple times in the chess face area, when
(27:47):
the autopsy reports showed that all the shots were going
from back to front.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Bullets don't have opinions. Bullets are not eye witnesses.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
These are facts facing somebody face to face and shoot
them in the back. On top of that, in twenty
twenty four, a private investigator in Jamaica located a federal
informat and what's revealed that he actually did explain the
same thing to the state prosecutor when the broad him
(28:19):
in the office, when that I was an innoc advices standard,
and then at that point he said Sacks got animated
and was angry and said this would be an open
and shortcase if he identified me as a perpetrator, explaining
to him that he would have negative implications on his
upcoming federal sentencing and the pleaar agreement that he had
(28:40):
signed feel incoporate. So this report that they investigator submitted,
along with thessarily work report, those two things are currently
in front the court and.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Another Acire Trevor, we wish you all the luck in court,
even though you shouldn't need any well wish is in
the first place, it certainly feels like you do.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
And if anyone listening has any information or wishes to
support Trevor in any way, we'll make sure to link
ways to reach them. In our episode description, you'll see
that he also goes by the name Anton ford On Socialist.
And with that we go to our closing. You know,
I'm just gonna sit back here and listen to anything
(29:26):
that Trevor has left to say. Let's let you have
the last word, all right, thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
For giving me this opportunity to address your listeners. I've
endored more than my full measure of injustice. As a result,
I'm driven by a desire to do my part and
to contribute everything I can to bend the moralogue of
the universe towards more justice. I aspire to embody the
virtues of revolutionary love, radical empathy, unapologetic kindness, and unconditional freedom.
(29:58):
I was forged to leading the bowels of a castoral
cauldun of oppression, where I was subjected to unspeakable trans
and tribulations at the hands of manifesting justice, systemic violence,
and steed inflicted torture meant to terrorize and design to dehumanize.
(30:20):
Yet I survived. I was grown down by the millstone
of oppression, tried by the fires of cruelty, and tested
in the face of unmitigated brutality. Yet I persevered to emerge,
a defied, purified, and sanctified. I'm now obsessed with and
(30:44):
possessed by an urgent need to call out, condemned and
deconstruct white supremacy, to love, clear, for, and nurture all
and any authentic expression of humanity. To demand liberty, equity,
and the humane treatment of the entire spectrum of nature.
(31:06):
And to end in justice and all forms of exploitation.
In the last seven years, Philadelphia's Conviction Integrity Units has
released over fifty inmates who were wrongfully convicted, a total
of more than seven hundred years sent incascerated illegally. All
of these black and brown people were sentenced to deathbine
(31:29):
casceration is sentenced ephimistically referred to as life without the
possibility of parole. Note these wrongful convictions occurred in Philadelphia County,
and there are many more similar cases like mine yet
to be reviewed. On June nineteen, twenty twenty three, Philadelphia
(31:49):
District Attorneys Office released their Racial Injustice Report. This report
stated unequivocally that Philadelphia's criminal justice system is racists. This
is a refusable proof that the wrongful convictions uncovered and documented.
We're not a matter of mistakes nor the system being broken. No,
(32:13):
this is institutional racism at work, and like all other
institutional racism, it's next serious and amounts to social engineering.
This is in justice by design. I argue that the
wrongful convictions in Philadelphia are so pervasive that they cannot
(32:33):
be tolerated by a civilized society, and we cannot depend
on the current lethogic by drip one case at the
time judicial review process to address this pervasive systemic problem.
Too many cases will be missed. We need an across
the board legislative fixed the remedy the cruel and unusual
(32:55):
harms inflicted by the state sanctioned the convictions of innocent people.
We need parole eligibility for lifers. There is no parole
for life as in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is one of the
four states in the Union that still employs the Barrick
draconian sentence in scheme of mandatory life without the possibility
(33:17):
of parole for murder. It's time to drive Pennsylvania's archaic
crime code into the modern era of Greece, mercy and
second chances. In February twenty sixteen, the United States Supreme Court,
in the case of two co versus Louisiana, rule that
sentence in juvenile offenders that is, offender seventeen years and
(33:41):
younger to mandatory life without parole was unconstitutional. As a
result of this ruling, Pennsylvania had to re sentence over
five hundred juvenile lifers, many incarcerated for over twenty years.
As of today, over one hundred of these juvenile lifers
have been sentenced and successfully reintegrated into society. Listen, there
(34:05):
are more than five thousands of the lifers, many incarcerated
over twenty years, languishing in prison in Pennsylvania. These other
five thousand lifers are no different, not by one judge,
now by one iota, from the juvenile lifers who were
paroled and successfully returned to the community. There is a
(34:27):
moral imperative, if not legal, equal protection, case to be
made that parole eligibility must be extended to these other
five thousand lifers. These other five thousand lifers, including myself,
do not have to die in prison to keep society safe.
I have a vision to make parole available to all
(34:48):
eligible lifers in Pennsylvania. I'm talking about bending the moral
arc of the universe towards more justice by ending the
politics of injustice. To achieve this goals, I need substantial
support and access to institutional resources. I want to create
a nonprofit organization, Gordon Justice und Accountability Project, to implement
(35:14):
a comprehensive five year plan design to achieve a roles
eligibility for life within Pennsylvania. I call upon all councient
just people who desire to help to join me on
this mission. You may contact me on the social media
platform of Instagram at my fun I am twenty three
page that is fun. I am twenty three a niam
(35:35):
two three the sign up for this cause. Thank you
for your time.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Thank you for listening to Ron for Conviction. You can
listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava
for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank
our production team, Color Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well
as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and
Jeff Cliber. The music in this production was supplied by
three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
(36:07):
follow us across all social media platforms at Lava for
Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me
on Instagram at it's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is a
production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Company Number One.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of Lava for Good.
On September fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight, there was an argument
inside of Philadelphia rowhouse. As one party tried to leave,
the other man followed, making threats that left him fatally shot.
The victim's brother only knew one man in that party,
(00:26):
Trevor Mattis, but Trevor maintained that he was just a bystander.
Then another eyewitness corroborated that story. Yet this eyewitness said
something else at Trevor's trial, This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this
and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early
and ad free subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. I'm Ben Bollen from The
Stuff They Don't Want You to Know, and once again
I'm excited to be hosting the show. In this episode,
we're speaking with our guest, Trevor Matis, who was calling
in from a Pennsylvania correctional facility to share a story. Trevor,
thanks for joining us, Aware and folks. If we're detecting
(01:34):
an accent here, that's because Trevor originally traveled to the
US as a student from Jamaica, right.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
I came from a backgrown of working class single Pearan
household and she had her brothers, so I had an
extended family. You just run into anybody else. That's just
how it is in the community that came from properties,
almost like a community property. With Winni Switchers growing up
as an only child, a lot of times I was
(02:02):
with my grandmother, who was a retired teacher who I
think she instilled in me from a very early age
the love of knowledge, reading specifically, but I was drawn
to the sciences as I grew up, specifically biology. Then
I was always achieving in school without any extra.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Promping, and Trevor's academic achievement continued. His high scores on
placement tests put him in the best high school in
all of Jamaica, and soon it came time to take
the Jamaican equivalent to the SATs.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I know my mom at a single appearance. She always
told me to shoot for it without really being a
conviction that I was achieving, and in one day sure
enough came back. You have been accepted to City University
and your college. So when I got accepted, I was
another check caused a financial commitment that she wasn't really
(03:02):
prepared for tuition is like twice the amount of the
regular tuition when you be coming from a foreign country
or whatever. Because she always told me there's one man,
so she always had she said, I'm not rich, i
can't leave your riches, but I'm going to make sure
you get a good education. At that point in time,
because the promise was made, she found that we do
not miss a point with that note. This scramble was on, well,
(03:25):
who you gonna stay with housing arrangement blah blah blah,
and just extended friends and family and netwhek somewhere was
found to me that was in Queen's village. So I
ended up in Queen's going to your college.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So at this point Trevor is a pre med biology
major and he ended up graduating with honors. He is
planning to become a dentist, and he can pretty much
go to any school he wishes.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
For this after I finished, was interested in one of
those schools in Philly like temp Law, University of pen
and Afferent from the neighborhood. He was actually resided in
Philadevasys to come back and forth. So he said, well,
whenever already actually should come up with him, and then
I could see with him in his apartment, and then
(04:15):
he was part of this community of Jamaican guys, young guys,
and I think it was doing his spring and the
summer's like somewhere around here when the weather was nice.
So usially screaming Soka dominos and as a nine young person,
initially to me, it was almost like a boys camp
because there are all these young guys, young Jamaicans, palier,
(04:35):
cohesive little unit and it was just a bold, fun
flirt with girls or whatever, just being a young man.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
For some quick context here, it was the summer of
nineteen eighty eight, and while Trevor was enjoying this coming
of age experience, the crack epidemic had swept across many
American cities, and this also applied to Philadelphia. It appears
that some of the young men we've mentioned were involved.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I got to realize that they were involved in the
joke game, but was not right where we were seeing it.
There was just like an old hangover spot because it
was well kept. Us at one bad Jamika and elder
to us, and so we used to hang upstairs. But
jokes would be so from the base then, and.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
It was soon discovered that this house on Louis Street
in Philadelphia was already under federal surveillance. The focus was
on a man named Franklin Watson. He was present on
the night of the incident September fourteenth into the fifteenth,
nineteen eighty eight, when the crew selling drugs out the
(05:46):
basement included a man named Kirk Crump, as well as
two brothers, Paul White and Everton Mead Johnson. Trevor showed
up with a man named Mikey Donovan who was visiting
from out of town.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
He was basically new to Philadelphia, not somebody I really
had no extensive long term relationship with. We've made each
other to somebody, and he said he wanted to what
phil it was like. We had a good Rahore at
that time.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So Trevor took Mikey Donovan to this hangout spot that
doubled as a drug house to see the owner of
the place, Rudy, but they spoke to Kirk Crump instead.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
When I arrived, it was early in the morning, like
twif thirty one name, and I was surprised to see
a lot of the other guys upstairs in the living room.
But these are guys that I know. The guy I'm with,
Mike Donovan doesn't know them. So when I spoke to
her indication, he said something like, oh, so many people
in the house. Why so many people know? Something like that.
(06:48):
But it was a basically generalized conversation, not about whether
someone should be here or not. So Johnson in the
basements and stuff her he must have phone was offended
and that I don't know. And he found up the steps,
was like boom, boom, boom, flung the door open. That
it his lamp, and then his first words was, by
the fuck you want to know? So why so much
(07:10):
people know? Something like that very barely cooes his manner.
He liked to intimidate because he was kind of big,
but that's just his personality and how he acts. Mike
had done but who was right beside me? He don't
know the spurs and so he just basically he asked
me in a low tone, he asked me, who is
this guy? Why is he talking so rough? That further
(07:31):
inside chance, So he basically was like pussue you, oh,
the blue pursue you you know me and the code
up the streets at that time, a remark like that
basically that declaration of war, So that immediately escalated things.
I could not understand where's all of that coming from.
(07:51):
I was like, what can I be done? The deed escalated,
that was my first thought. He was like stepping towards
an aggressive times step. So I basically put myself in
between both of them, and I was pleading, minimisea listen,
calm don, what's this all about? That's uncalled for. So
I basically got him to step back and take a
seat on the stool. And he was in a steering
(08:13):
countest now with Michael donabout behind me. So it's a
hardcore great locked in this real tunnel vision with anger.
Yeah me, it's clearing at him, and I have no
clue what the reaction is going to be from Mikil
Japan who is behind me. And so I looked towards
the guy that was in the kitchen I was speaking
to and I said that where is really just all
(08:33):
the blue basically the giant change something? And he said
he just left. He went to the bus stop to
escort his daughter to work. So that basically gave me
an opportunity to know to a right, let me go
find him. So I'm just trying to divert that said
come let's go or something to that. I'm trying to
back down up and come, and took two more steps
(08:55):
towards the front doors. If you know me, this is
not big something like that. And when I look back
on more than I see him like a stepped back relax.
And therefore I figured that the game did worked because
that looked like nothing further gong go. So I hate
my step towards the front door, over the front door,
and I was ahead by a couple of steps. I
looked back and I was seeing Mikey Donner was just
(09:17):
emerging on the front door. So while I'm thinking that
I'm taking these steps towards the bust, I hear the
screen door clang again. I mean somebody had come out
by the time it shut. When I turned around on
the streets, Johnson was buying his car jump and his
car trunk was already opened and he was reaching in.
(09:38):
Mike Donovan was on the sidewalk. Johnson said something. Most
likely it would have been something intimidating, and the moment
he said something, Mikey Donovan pulled I've gone out of
his ways and hop fire immediately.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Everton Meet Johnson was shot fatally. According to the autopsy report,
the bullet entered from the back of his body toward
the front. Perhaps Mikey Donovan didn't wait for me Johnson
to turn around and fire, and since the scene of
the crime was in front of a drug house, it
(10:29):
appears no one stuck around to speak to the police,
except for the victim's brother, Paul White. According to others,
Paul had tried to stop his brother from following Donovan
and then he ran to the basement to get help
during the shooting, but he told police something else.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Because he had never seen Mike Donovan in his life.
He immediately told them he saw two people shoot his
brother find me along with this unknown Jamaican me that
you know. He said, I had a Tech nine, a
big machine gun and mine and a handgun. And he
said both the bos basically ambushim at the corner of
(11:12):
the car, and I was shooting and Danavan was shooting.
The seven shot fat. So that was basically what he
told them at the scene of the cramp what the
state is now because it happened at a joke host the
state really created this narrative of a joke curve for
r peer. So they took that and said, well, it
was a dispute of who was supposed to sell jokes
(11:34):
of the hose now me and just have friends from
back then, you know what I mean we had. Anyways, that's
not all we operate. If he wanted to sell jokes
or the house he had, all right, Kirk is one
selling know, so anybody could make some type of arrangement
with Kirk or whatever. So it wasn't no circumstance that
we would be in competition or anything like that. It
(11:55):
just a third story. But the state basically said I
took it upon myself to eliminate my arrivals.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So Trevor was arrested and over time, this unknown Jamaican
is eliminated from the.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Narrative, so nobody could identify, nobody knew where he was.
So basically, after I was made to target, the state
and everyone does didn't even try to final anything. Thirred
about the microdynamo that that's just how it works. They
had to target that they wanted, and everything was gear
to get this targeted regardless. What is my turn up?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Speaking of? While Trevor sat in pre trial detention for
nearly two years. The separate federal investigation of the drug
house closed in on Franklin Watson, who was present on
the night of the murder and tried to trade information
for leniency, And this was three weeks before trial in
(12:54):
January nineteen ninety. The Feds told the prosecution about this witness,
but for reasons that we'll discuss later, the defense remained
in the dark about this and a number of other things, including,
for instance, why the state wanted a bench trial.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
When I got to the court room, I requested the
jury trial, and then my lawyer got very old rage
and told me that he had an agreement with the
prosecute that's did not seek the head penalty if I
took a non jury trial. But I still was trying
to be adamant. So a couple of minutes before the
trial started, my mom was there and she came to
(13:34):
me in tears and distraughts, telling me that I should
listen to the lawyer because he told her that they
don't like Jamaicans in Philadelphia at that time, and I'm
going to try in the electric cheer and she was
so broken that that broke me. Just to see her
so distraught, So I rel ended and basically went along.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
So perhaps the state was confident that the assigned judge
would give them their desired result, as would Franklin Watson.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
The morning of the trial, the prosecutor announced as a
surprise witness just walked into his office five minutes before
the trial started and said he was there, and this
is how he announced it.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Rotson.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
So when he puts him understand, Watson testifies that he
was present. What is the first person ever said that
there was an argument in the house in the kitchen
between Johnson and I over who should sell jokes from
that location. And then he said for the first time
also that I brandished a weapon in the house and
(14:39):
had to be restrained by others. Then I walked out,
Johnson followed me out. We began to fight outside for
one minute by the car trump and then I got
the better of Johnson, pulled the weapon and shot him
multiple times from close range, and no one else was involved.
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So, in contrast to Paul White's original statement about two shooters,
Watson named Trevor as the loan shooter, and on cross examination,
Trevor's attorney was able to expose Watson's vulnerability.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
He got the fact that Watson was a federal informant.
I understand, but the lawyer he never followed up the
final what was happening? What did he say to defense?
It was just less that that just came out. So
basically that was how he impeached the credibility. And as
soon as he finished testifying, the prosecutor arrested their case.
They were like, well, we're not going to call the
(15:35):
original White now no more. Werested my lawyer objective. He
requested a mistrial, saying, Yeerona, it's a child by ambush.
We have been waiting for this case for over two years.
We have all this discovery. Nowhere in the entire discovery
was a Watson mention. They brought this person at the
twelfth hour claiming that he is a surprise waitness and
(15:56):
now they want to rest the case. They had the sidebar,
and then prosecutor relented and said our year and postponed
the case for one day and then we will bring
White the following him.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Additionally, and this is absent from the record, Watson escaped
a potential thirty year sentence in exchange for this testimony
and then came Paul White.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
So the next day he brought White to the standard
and the White entire testimony was radically different and it
mimicked almost play by play, what Watson said. So initially
White was talking about two people shooting. Now he changed
and he said there was only one person and that
was me. And he also added an altercation because it
(16:41):
was never an adducation mentioned anywhere at the scene of
the crime or at the preliminary year and.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
A year after.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
But at the trial he testified it was an altercation,
but he said it didn't last a minute. He said
it lasted a few seconds before a brandish a weapon
and Shaq Johnson. So that's how his testimony changed to
mimic what Watson said, but he did not repeat the
allegation of it was an argument over job.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Unfortunately, the inconsistencies between White statements as well as how
they were inconsistent with Watson's, these issues are never pointed
out to the judge.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, I him in the head with a gun. You
know you hit somebody in the head with a gun.
Be authors to going to show us a specific mark
that I've gone with. Leave And then White after what
he said the federal informant was not there to weakness,
and the federal informant said White was not there. He
said White was in the basement, and a federal informant
said I had a chrome nine millimeter. White said first
(17:44):
it was a Tick nine machine handgun, and then at
the child testimony he said it was a nine milimeter
but it was grown.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
So without these glaring inconsistencies pointed out or what else
was hidden from the court at the time the judge
made his decision on the first degree murder, criminal conspiracy,
and weapons charges.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
He basically summarized the case and said it was a straightforward,
clear cut case of joke urs dispute, and I did
defend and took it upon myself to eliminate my rival
once and for all by gunning him down in cold
and within less than sixty seconds.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I was sawing it with the automatic sendments of life,
but of the passability of broad and my mom was there,
so I know that basically broker Art. When I'm looking
(18:48):
back to the whole scenario, it was basically a present
with a foregun conclusion. Maybe two months after I was convicted,
I received a statement that was made three weeks before
matrial by what to the federal authorities, which was a
part of his pleats to the federal authorities. And in
(19:11):
the statement it was Excotory specifically stated that he was
present at the chance to shooting, that Johnson was shot
by Mikey Dana Vlan and I was merely a bystander,
and that was just three weeks before my child. And
he spoke to the faith and told him basically actual
version of events, and then came into the stage and
(19:34):
gave a own separate contra victory statement.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
For state prosecutor.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
This was clearly a Brady violation. It upended the state's case.
So this one Trevor an evidentiary hearing on direct appeal.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
The same judge that convicted me had an evidential here
in five six months after I was convicted. The federal
prosecutors would understand when they carrabber the authenticity of the
Watson Pree Deal statement that I had. So when they
saw that I was able able to trial the case,
they contacted this prosecutor and conveyed the information that he
(20:13):
might have the wrong perpetrator. And that is how this
prosecutor became aware of Franklin Watson and made arrangements to
interview was one of the federal prosecutors said he specifically
recall that name sax because the saxophone or something that
that is saying.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
So it appears that Trevor's prosecutor, Richard Sachs, received this
information that Trevor was indeed an innocent bystander, but somehow
on the eve of the trial, Watson changed his story.
This allowed Sacks to forge ahead with the prosecution anyway,
in spite of the federal prosecutor's efforts.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
They gave it to him orally over the phone, Prosecutor
Toulist and also he said he didn't receive a specific
information that he might have the wrong perpetrator. So they
contradicted each other. But the judge said he found both
bodies to be.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Truthful, even though these testimonies are indirect contradiction.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
And then the judge it meantal gymnastics by saying, since
the federal arts or conveyed the information orally over the
telephone and not in writing, the information would not amount
to really because of state prosecutor had nothing physically to
turn over to the defense. Wow. Yeah, But then he
(21:32):
went even Further, I guess he knows that wouldn't pass
the smell this, so he came up with this rational.
He said, well, even if the document was available and
turned over to the defense and the federal informal testified
exactly the exculpulary statement he made in that document, he
would still have found me guilty, not as a perpetrate
(21:52):
at this time, but as a co con spirit and
the laws at that time it will be sentenced exactly
the same way of mandatory life with oparole.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Even though the only witness, Watson, who even said anything
about a criminal conspiracy, the Trevor had allegedly killed me
Johnson to take out a rival dealer. That witness had
just been clearly proven to lie.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
So I told my lawyer immediately, as we have to
appeal this, and he was like, of course, So he
agreed to file an appeal, and they sent me off
state note and I was absolutely in the hole at
that time. And weeks went by and then let us
never got real response, never weeks and weeks went by,
and then I reached over to my family, contact this
lawyer and they find out what's going on with my appeal.
(22:41):
He informed them that did not file an appeal within
the timeframe. The thurnit the window to find the notice
of appeal, so the issue became waved. According to the
legal language, was basically I gave up on that issue, and.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
With that failure is barred from raising the issue again
in state court. So he tries federal court.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
There's a federal magistrate that the case and he ordered
that I be retried within one hundred and twenty days
are re released. The state appeal his decision, and the
district judge reversed the magistrates and uphel the conviction, maintaining
that there was a procedural default. Therefore, the federal courts
(23:26):
cannot entertain this issue whatsoever because the state did not
get full opportunity to reverse their own mistake or their
own issue. And I appeal that to the appellate court
at the federal level. They ruled that they were very
troubled by the circumstances of this case and they clearly
(23:48):
articulated that they will not decide this case on the merits.
Whether or not this judge is ruling that oral communication
is not pretty. However, they could not welcome the procedural
default the issue, but that claimed to be entertained in
the federal courts. So as a result, they upheld the conviction,
(24:10):
with the astering that they were very troubled by the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So the case breaking evidence that surfaced back in nineteen
ninety has effectively been newter by the system since nineteen
ninety one. The fight was fortunately revived in twenty eleven.
This is when the man who was in the kitchen
that night, Kurt Crump, sent Trevor an affidavit.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
The affidavit basically clarified that he operated residence and that
it is the victim. Johnson was one of his friends.
That the confrontation occurred in the kitchen between Johnson and Donovan,
and I intervened calm Johnson down. I left the house
with Donovan in tour and he said that Johnson was
angry that he was going to get his guns, and
(24:57):
why he tried to stop him from bard. You know,
Johnson shoved White aside, and a storm goes behind Donavar
and said that White ran down the basement together two
other guys to curve trailed behind Johnson to the front door,
and in his activity he described his saw Johnson reaching
the trunk when Mike Danaban shot him multiple times, and.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
That version of events is corroborated by the trajectory of
the bullets from the back to the front. This contradicted
both trial witness testimonies, and it continued to further discredit
Paul White.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
When the shots were fired, Curve heard White and the
guy from the basement coming up behind him from the kitchen.
Basically that White was not a witness because he said
was behind him when the shots got fired. But they
heard the shots and when he turned they as really
had begun to flee back down the business. He can
exit the residence to a business and that basically was it.
(25:55):
And he actually did follow up with a sworn video
deposition with the corroborreate affective and I submitted all of
that to the state court and it was denied it untimely,
no explanation. I appealed that to the state's unpelate courts
and they ruled that this evidence was untimely, but they
(26:16):
gave their explanation. They said it was cumulative because it
produced no new facts. It basically said the same thing
that the defense said. They said I should have gotten him,
and basically they didn't. Said I could have gone. It
didn't tell me how I was going to get him.
They didn't discuss the fact that the state was looking
for kirk Crumb because he was one of the persons
that was in the discovery as a weakness.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
So you heard that, right, folks. Not even the state
can find this guy, yet Trevor is expected to do so.
It turned out that kirk Crump had been arrested in
another state under an alias before he was deported to Jamaica,
so finding him would have been nearly impossible. Yet when
(26:56):
Trevor appealed to the federal courts, they said that these
two factors made the witness unreliable and so they denied
him as well.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Subsequent nine two tenty twenty three, friends and family finally
get the resources to hire a forensic expert, doctor Sheril
leg from Pittsburgh, and he compared the trial testimony from
the witnesses, and he compared it to the autos report
and the ballistics evidence, and he gave a report. It's
(27:26):
his scientific conclusion that the description given by the state
witnesses were fabricated because they conflicted with the autops report
and described things that were physically impossible. They described the
victv shot multiple times in the chess face area, when
(27:47):
the autopsy reports showed that all the shots were going
from back to front.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Bullets don't have opinions. Bullets are not eye witnesses.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
These are facts facing somebody face to face and shoot
them in the back. On top of that, in twenty
twenty four, a private investigator in Jamaica located a federal
informat and what's revealed that he actually did explain the
same thing to the state prosecutor when the broad him
(28:19):
in the office, when that I was an innoc advices standard,
and then at that point he said Sacks got animated
and was angry and said this would be an open
and shortcase if he identified me as a perpetrator, explaining
to him that he would have negative implications on his
upcoming federal sentencing and the pleaar agreement that he had
(28:40):
signed feel incoporate. So this report that they investigator submitted,
along with thessarily work report, those two things are currently
in front the court and.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Another Acire Trevor, we wish you all the luck in court,
even though you shouldn't need any well wish is in
the first place, it certainly feels like you do.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
And if anyone listening has any information or wishes to
support Trevor in any way, we'll make sure to link
ways to reach them. In our episode description, you'll see
that he also goes by the name Anton ford On Socialist.
And with that we go to our closing. You know,
I'm just gonna sit back here and listen to anything
(29:26):
that Trevor has left to say. Let's let you have
the last word, all right, thank you.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
For giving me this opportunity to address your listeners. I've
endored more than my full measure of injustice. As a result,
I'm driven by a desire to do my part and
to contribute everything I can to bend the moralogue of
the universe towards more justice. I aspire to embody the
virtues of revolutionary love, radical empathy, unapologetic kindness, and unconditional freedom.
(29:58):
I was forged to leading the bowels of a castoral
cauldun of oppression, where I was subjected to unspeakable trans
and tribulations at the hands of manifesting justice, systemic violence,
and steed inflicted torture meant to terrorize and design to dehumanize.
(30:20):
Yet I survived. I was grown down by the millstone
of oppression, tried by the fires of cruelty, and tested
in the face of unmitigated brutality. Yet I persevered to emerge,
a defied, purified, and sanctified. I'm now obsessed with and
(30:44):
possessed by an urgent need to call out, condemned and
deconstruct white supremacy, to love, clear, for, and nurture all
and any authentic expression of humanity. To demand liberty, equity,
and the humane treatment of the entire spectrum of nature.
(31:06):
And to end in justice and all forms of exploitation.
In the last seven years, Philadelphia's Conviction Integrity Units has
released over fifty inmates who were wrongfully convicted, a total
of more than seven hundred years sent incascerated illegally. All
of these black and brown people were sentenced to deathbine
(31:29):
casceration is sentenced ephimistically referred to as life without the
possibility of parole. Note these wrongful convictions occurred in Philadelphia County,
and there are many more similar cases like mine yet
to be reviewed. On June nineteen, twenty twenty three, Philadelphia
(31:49):
District Attorneys Office released their Racial Injustice Report. This report
stated unequivocally that Philadelphia's criminal justice system is racists. This
is a refusable proof that the wrongful convictions uncovered and documented.
We're not a matter of mistakes nor the system being broken. No,
(32:13):
this is institutional racism at work, and like all other
institutional racism, it's next serious and amounts to social engineering.
This is in justice by design. I argue that the
wrongful convictions in Philadelphia are so pervasive that they cannot
(32:33):
be tolerated by a civilized society, and we cannot depend
on the current lethogic by drip one case at the
time judicial review process to address this pervasive systemic problem.
Too many cases will be missed. We need an across
the board legislative fixed the remedy the cruel and unusual
(32:55):
harms inflicted by the state sanctioned the convictions of innocent people.
We need parole eligibility for lifers. There is no parole
for life as in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is one of the
four states in the Union that still employs the Barrick
draconian sentence in scheme of mandatory life without the possibility
(33:17):
of parole for murder. It's time to drive Pennsylvania's archaic
crime code into the modern era of Greece, mercy and
second chances. In February twenty sixteen, the United States Supreme Court,
in the case of two co versus Louisiana, rule that
sentence in juvenile offenders that is, offender seventeen years and
(33:41):
younger to mandatory life without parole was unconstitutional. As a
result of this ruling, Pennsylvania had to re sentence over
five hundred juvenile lifers, many incarcerated for over twenty years.
As of today, over one hundred of these juvenile lifers
have been sentenced and successfully reintegrated into society. Listen, there
(34:05):
are more than five thousands of the lifers, many incarcerated
over twenty years, languishing in prison in Pennsylvania. These other
five thousand lifers are no different, not by one judge,
now by one iota, from the juvenile lifers who were
paroled and successfully returned to the community. There is a
(34:27):
moral imperative, if not legal, equal protection, case to be
made that parole eligibility must be extended to these other
five thousand lifers. These other five thousand lifers, including myself,
do not have to die in prison to keep society safe.
I have a vision to make parole available to all
(34:48):
eligible lifers in Pennsylvania. I'm talking about bending the moral
arc of the universe towards more justice by ending the
politics of injustice. To achieve this goals, I need substantial
support and access to institutional resources. I want to create
a nonprofit organization, Gordon Justice und Accountability Project, to implement
(35:14):
a comprehensive five year plan design to achieve a roles
eligibility for life within Pennsylvania. I call upon all councient
just people who desire to help to join me on
this mission. You may contact me on the social media
platform of Instagram at my fun I am twenty three
page that is fun. I am twenty three a niam
(35:35):
two three the sign up for this cause. Thank you
for your time.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Thank you for listening to Ron for Conviction. You can
listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava
for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank
our production team, Color Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well
as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and
Jeff Cliber. The music in this production was supplied by
three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
(36:07):
follow us across all social media platforms at Lava for
Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me
on Instagram at it's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is a
production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
Company Number One.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of Lava for Good.
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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