May 21, 2026 • 35 mins
15 year-old Alexis Ke’Erica Martin was aware that her ex-boyfriend was about to free her from sex trafficker, Angelo Kerney, but didn’t know that Kerney was about to be killed. Ohio’s brand new safe harbor law should have protected this inspiring survivor.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, everybody, it's Connor Hall, one of the producers here
at Wrongful Conviction, and I will be curating a list
of episodes for the next few weeks, offering case updates,
behind the scenes in FOE and maybe some insights. Now.
When given this opportunity, a number of people immediately came
to mind, including Alexis Kierka Martin. If you don't remember,
(00:27):
she was fifteen years old when the robbery of her
sex trafficker turned into his murder. Now, I'm sure many
folks would be sympathetic to somebody in that situation if
they were to be involved in a plot to bring
about the demise of their sex trafficker, a child sex trafficker,
(00:47):
But Kyerka maintains that she was not involved in any
such plot, and without any direct evidence of her involvement,
the d A in Akron, Ohio at the time still
thought that Kierica needed to pay, which is strange given
just the circumstances. Yet, in addition, Ohio had just enacted
a safe harbor law, which he the judge and trial
(01:10):
council should have known about, a law made for situations
just like this one to end a human trafficking survivor's
nightmare rather than compounding it with the legal system, and
since that law was not invoked, Kierica was bound over
into adult court, convicted and sentenced to twenty one years
(01:30):
to life. And when this was brought to the attention
of Ohio Governor Mike Dwine, he granted Kierka clemency, putting
her on parole in April twenty twenty, and about a
year later, we released our coverage of her case, at
which time she was doing speaking engagements as well as
a few normal jobs to save for college, with the
(01:51):
plan of starting a nonprofit to help prevent human trafficking
and support other survivors. Now a year on from that,
can remember it like it was yesterday. I mean, we
were at the twenty twenty two Innocence Network conference in Phoenix.
We had just wrapped another day of interviews. It was
really emotional, and it only got more emotional when we
(02:14):
heard that Kierica had been sent back to prison. Apparently
a friend of hers was in between living situations and
asked to crash on her couch for a few nights,
and then just mere hours after that person arrived at
her apartment with a bunch of moving boxes, Kierka's parole
officer came by for a random check, which may or
(02:36):
may not have been so random, since this was used
as an opportunity to bust not only a friend, but
then also Kierica because unbeknownst to her, her friend was
in possession of a number of items that were in
violation of her parole, so she was sent back to
serve the rest of that twenty one to life sentence. Luckily,
(02:57):
a huge law firm, Daikema, got wind of Kerka's story
and took on her case pro bono. They were able
to show the ineffectiveness of her trial council for first
not even being aware of and then failing to properly
invoke Ohio's Safe Harbor Law, which would have stopped Kierka's
legal troubles before they started, so her murder conviction was vacated,
(03:20):
at which point the state could have dismissed the charges,
especially with what the safe Harbor law demands, but they didn't,
which left Kierica with a choice to remain in prison
while the state appealed, and if they lost there, they
would retry her.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And who knows how long any of this would take
before they could finally get it back into the juvenile
court to then invoke the safe harbor law and finally
clear her name. So Kierica reluctantly accepted a guilty plea
to involuntary manslaughter with the sentence maxing out at eleven years,
just enough to let her go with time served, which
(03:59):
is going to do her exactly, zero favors and getting
any kind of compensation or standing in a civil proceeding.
And I want you all to keep that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
In mind when you listen to her story. It's a
very unique story, but the outcome is typical in a
state like Ohio or any state. Really, this is the
outcome that they felt comfortable delivering.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Alexis Kierka Martin was raised by her grandmother in Akron, Ohio,
and had a strained relationship with her birth mother and father.
She had a boyfriend, Deshaun Spear, but they broke up
around age thirteen, the same time that an older man
named Angelo Kearney began grooming her for the sex trade.
By the time she was fourteen, she was actively being trafficked.
(04:50):
Time passed and Deshaun reached out to Kierica to ask
if the rumors he had heard about prostitution were true.
Then one night, after a party, a Angelo Kearney's Kierka
and another woman, Jenney Jones, were alone with Angelo and
his brother Alicio Samuel while she was being raped by Alicio.
Samuel to Shaun and his friend Travaski Jackson broke in,
(05:14):
wearing masks and carrying guns. Kearney was shot and killed,
and Samuel survived a gunshot to his head. When Samuel
came to at the hospital, he mentioned nothing about the
child he had been raping, but he did mention the
other people he had been with earlier that night. A
further investigation led to Alexis Kierka Martin. Ohio's brand new
(05:38):
safe Harbor law was written for situations just like this,
but neither her lawyer nor the state invoked it before
she was tried in adult court for the murder of
the man that held her captive in child sex slavery.
This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with
(06:13):
Jason Flamm That's me. I'm your host, and today if
my voice is cracking a little, it's because this story is.
It's painful to read, it's painful to talk about. It's
an absolute disgrace that any of this happened. It's also
the story of triumph over tragedy though with us today,
we have an extraordinary lawyer, Sasha Naman from the Ohio
(06:36):
Justice and Policy Center. Sasha, it's wonderful to have you here.
Welcome to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Thank you so much, and we're.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Going to tell the story with the person who lived it,
Alexis Kierica Martin. You'll hear her referred to as Kierica
as we go through, but she's also known as Alexis Martin.
So Alexis, thank you for being here and sharing your story.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Thank you for allowing me the time and opportunity.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
So let's go back to your childhood, Akron, Ohio, Hardland
of America. What was your childhood like before this tragedy,
this series of tragedies struck.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
My childhood would be what some people would call unstable.
I grew up with multiple family members, but predominantly I
was blessed with having my grandmother raised me. All in all,
through everything, I would say that she did a pretty
good job with at least making sure I knew how
to say thank you.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Alexis was a child when she was trafficked. She had
a tough childhood in some ways, and she said her
grandma was a light in that in a big way.
But at fourteen years old, she was surviving some horrific things,
things that are unimaginable to many Americans. Is a prolonged
and terrible sex trafficking situation, and she wanted a life
that was free and safe and healthy, where she could
(07:56):
go to school, where her and her siblings weren't in danger.
And she was a child, so she was in a
position where she hoped that she could finally have this
opportunity to flee from the trafficking, and that brought her
into involvement with the robbery of her trafficker.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
I was fourteen when I met my trafficker, and me
and my co defriend and DeShawn Spirit. He was my
boyfriend and we separated before this case occurred, and then
while I was in active trafficking, we would see each
other and check on each other, but I never got
too close with him. Everybody kept hearing rumors about me
(08:36):
being prostituted. Some people were bold enough to act, some
people weren't. They just you know, kind of turned their
nose up to me. Well, he asked me a couple
of times, and I continued to deny it and just
admitted that I was dancing, but I wouldn't tell him
where I was dancing at.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So as of that moment, he's left in the dark.
And before the night that the Shawn Spirit tried to
free Kierika, which was November seven, twenty thirteen, Sasha, she
had tried to find another way to get out of
that life, right.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
She was trying to reach out to adults for help.
So before the night of this offense happened, she was
trying to turn herself in. She actually proactively went to
the juvenile system because she had kind of an active
case that had kind of been going on in parallel,
and she was hoping that they would take her in,
that they would arrest her, they would put her in
a program. But her trafficker sends her with someone who
(09:28):
poses as her caretaker and says she's fine and she's
cared for, and even though these adults see the way
she's dressed, even though they see these red flags, they
let her back out with that person.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Alexis, as much as you're comfortable with talking about it.
That night, when this robbery occurred. Can you tell us
how this whole thing happened and how somebody ended up dead.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
I was caught to the house and Jenney Jones was
also there. They had a party and Angela was training
me more so to be his madam. I had to
be there to make sure that the rest of the
girls did what they were supposed to and that I
made money that night. So during the whole time that
the party occurred, I did what Angelo told me to do.
(10:13):
I danced, I collected money, I served drinks, and then
as it got late, everybody left. But that means that
there was a lot of eyewitnesses that seen me with him,
some of his other brothers, they were there that night.
When they left, it was just me, Jenny Jones, Angelo Kearney,
and Alisio Samer.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Alexis was aware that Deshaun and Trevaski were going to
be coming into the house. And in Ohio there's something
called felony murder, as there is in many other states.
And if you're aware of something like a robbery, if
you are found legally culpable in something like a robbery
and then somebody gets killed, then you're culpable for the
(10:58):
homicide that happened. Alexis never shot anybody, never hurt anybody,
never wanted anybody to get hurt. But there was this
robbery that happened, and when Deshaun Spears and Travaska Jackson
break in, when they shoot her trafficker and kill him
when they shoot the man who's raping her. Although she
is the child and she's the victim there, she became
(11:20):
legally culpable ultimately for the death.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
Once Alisio was shot and Angela was killed, the question
was where was I because I was always with him,
and if I wasn't with him, then I was in
a position where one of his brothers knew where I
was at, So where was I was missing? After Alicio
woke up in the hospital, he identified Janey. He never
(11:46):
identified me. And my theory on this subject is he
didn't identify me because I was a child and he
was adult. But other people that the police questioned that
night continuously brought up my name. So I turned myself
in and I was arrested. I was fifteen, and I
felt like it was the first time in life that
(12:06):
anybody was actually like listening to me. I kind of
just told him everything that they wanted to know. My
only thing was I just wanted to know was he
alive or was he dead? Because I wasn't sure. And
when he told me Angelo was dead, I didn't really
know how to feel. It didn't click into me that
I was truly being arrested for his death until they
(12:28):
took me away from the detention center. I was on probation,
so I've been arrested a couple times. I was used
to the detention officers and stuff like that, so it
was kind of like, finally that night, I was going
to be safe until they pulled away from there and
took me down to the adult Question interrogation where they
(12:49):
left me in the code for about three or four hours.
I threw up on the table. They didn't clean that up.
I asked for my mother. They told me that my
mother left, and I knew some of my rights, and
I was like, you know, I thought my mom had
to be present because I was only fifteen, and they
told me she didn't care. And then I continuously asked
for my attorney. And I was fifteen. I knew some
(13:12):
of my rights right because of Criminal Minds and whatever
else I watched, but I didn't really know how to
enforce my rights. How they knew I had involvement was?
I admitted my own involvement. I didn't know what human
trafficking was. I only knew what prostitution and escorting was.
I didn't understand that I was a victim. I also
(13:33):
admitted to the cops Angela was training me to be
his madam. And I also admitted to the cops that
I called this man my dad. But that night and
for months on, nobody pays attention to that.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Before Alexis's case happened, Ohio had passed the Safe Harbor
Law that was specifically meant to protect survivors of human
trafficking like Kerica. The law would allow juvenile courts to
offer services to children like her who were trafficked and
to help them. And when she was arrested and sent
to juvenile court, that law was in effect, but her
(14:21):
attorney didn't know about it and didn't understand it. And
Kierko is actually the one who brought this question about
this law to the attorney because she had heard about
it somewhere.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
So she was.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Now advocating for herself. And this is above and beyond
a fifteen year old who is trying to educate her attorney,
who then did look into it but didn't understand the law.
And then neither he, nor the court nor the prosecutor
brings it up. You have this case that the law
is made for, the law is in effect, and nobody
brings it up, nobody applies it. In fact, the only
(14:52):
person who had mentioned it in the process really is
Kerka herself.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Just to clarify for all you, it's the safe Harbor
law in Ohio specifically mandates that miners under the age
of sixteen do not need to prove that they were
compelled to engage in commercial sexual activity. They're automatically considered
victims of child sex trafficking, and the statute requires juvenile
courts to appoint a guardian to the defendant, a professional
(15:20):
other than a parent or attorney who was responsible for
advocating in the best interests of the child on trial.
So here the defense, lawyer, the court itself, everybody, they
just didn't do what they're supposed to do. Nobody did.
It's crazy, and then to make matters worse, they send
you to adult court.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
At that point, I was educated on what human trafficking was,
so actually realize that you're a victim, and you hold
no power, and that somebody you thought you cared about
was hurting you. To know that they were knowledgeably hurting you,
and that was their only intent ever, was to hurt you,
it's pretty defeating. It hurts. So I know all this now.
(16:04):
I learned about what the grooming process was, and I
identified what my grooming process was. I learned about the trafficking.
I learned about the stages with a juvenile counselor named
Hilary Finkel, and she's the one who's bringing in this
lady named Maggan Madimo, who ultimately brings up the safe
harbor law to the juvenile court after I'm bound over
(16:26):
into the adult court, who ultimately educates my attorney. But
while I was in the courtroom, Judge Theodosia, who leads
the Human Trafficking Division in Summon County still to this day,
set out of her own mouths, can we take a
second in pause? And I want to ask you, Noah,
(16:48):
my attorney and the prosecutor, what do we do about
this fifteen year old's trafficking? She admits out her mouth
that I'm traffic. Not only was I sex traffic, but
labor traffic. She admits this, nobody had a response. The
prosecutor and my attorney looked at each other, looked at
the judge and was kind of dumbfounded when she asked
(17:10):
this question. My attorney, I can't even remember. He mustered
up some answer, but it clearly must not have been
good enough for Teodosia, because two months later, even after
you admit that I'm traffic I got bound over and
that made me feel like prior to the trafficking, I
was raped and I've reported it and I never got help.
(17:32):
One of my cousins raped me from nine to ten
and they found him not guilty. And it made me
feel the exact same way that no matter how many
times I tell somebody somebody did something to me that
was wrong, I'm always gonna either be accused of a
liar or it doesn't matter. So I started to lose
hope again.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
It's a miracle that you clung onto any hope at
all after everything you had been through. And so February seventeenth,
tw fifteen, a day that will live in infamy, Karaka,
you were advised by your attorney that, with the goal
of returning to juvenile court, you should plead guilty to
polonious assault and murder. Yes, this was, of course a
(18:13):
terrible strategy, and ultimately you were sentenced to twenty one
to life. How did you process that sentence and how
did you manage to maintain any sort of trace of sanity.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Well, I have a little sister that's three and a
half years younger than me, and we were talking when
I was six years old, and I promised her that
I would never let nobody hurt her and I would
always be there to protect her. While I was fighting
my case at detention center, I tried to kill myself.
(18:48):
I busted all the above vessels in my face and
I was really close. It hurt her bad while I
was in prison. She's left out in the world with
my father and my birth mother, the two people I've
tried to protect her from my whole life. So if
I gave up fighting, I gave up fighting for her life.
(19:08):
If I gave up fighting, everything that happened to me,
every time a man abused me, hit me, sex with me,
everything that I have ever done to protect her was
ultimately for nothing. If I lay down and just gave up. Now,
I was scared to go to trial because my co defendant,
DeShawn just got forty one to life. I would have
(19:30):
went if I had somebody believe in me that told
me to go. I had two people that told me
you should maybe go to trial. One was another fifteen
year old girl, and all she said was best friend,
if you go, I'm gonna support you. And then I
had my older sister who was paying for my attorney,
and she was telling me she thinks I should take
(19:53):
it to trial. I had an indecisive father that kept
telling me one minute, plead out and act crazy. The
next one he was telling me to take it to trial.
My birth mother, she barely went to any hearings, but
she was telling me, plead because you don't want to
get max out at the box. And then I have
my attorney, who knows more than me, that's telling me, plead,
we have a good chance of winning your appeal because
(20:17):
of this safe harbor law. So I pled, But I
kept fighting because I have a baby's sister that at
the end I promised I would protect and if I
didn't protect her, nobody else would. So I fought, and
I continue to fight after denial after denial, after denial.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Her new attorney. Ke's new attorney, Jennifer Kinsley, ends up
taking on this case pro bono and appealing it all
the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing that Kierka
should have received the protections of the Safe Harbor law,
and ultimately the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the case. And
they did that while saying that there is ample evidence
(20:59):
that Kierica was a victim of human trafficking, but unfortunately,
the original trial attorney didn't present evidence linking the crime
to Kerica being a victim of sex trafficking. So the
Supreme Court said, because he didn't create that link between
the known trafficking and the crime, they were not going
to apply the safe Harbor law to Key. And to me,
(21:21):
that's a little bit absurd, because of course there's a connection.
You have a fifteen year old child trying to free
herself from being trafficked by adults. It doesn't take a
lot to think about how there could be a connection there.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
While justice was delayed, it surely wasn't going to be denied. Ultimately,
you petitioned Governor de Wine for clemency and you had
a hearing on that in September of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
I went in front of the pro board on determination
of my clemency in November. I got an eight to
two vote, eight in favor, two agains. In January, Governor
DeWine considered my clemency and said that he wanted me
to do this program Tapestry, and after I completed it,
I would come home. I started Tapestry January twenty first,
(22:11):
twenty twenty. Tapestry closed down due to COVID and I
was released April twenty of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
So, after serving seven long years in prison, what was
it like walking out? Take us inside? That day?
Speaker 5 (22:29):
That moment April eighteenth, on national television, I was told
I was going to be released. It didn't seem real
at all, Like this is something that I drinked about
many days in prison. It was going home, going home.
And now I'm signing a paper to agree to conditions
(22:49):
of parole and clemency and being told that I'll be
free by monday. So I signed the papers, and then
I'm told, you have to go to the whole to
the the craziest things ever. Yes, I have to go
get COVID nineteen tested and be put in quarantine in
the whole until Monday so that I could be released
(23:11):
to this program. So I pack up my stuff and
for two days, it's like the longest agony in the world,
knowing that in two days you'll be released. In two days,
you'll get to enter into a world of something you
don't know. I left as a kid, and I left
a world of chaos, and I'm supposed to be being
(23:32):
released into a world of peace and freedom. Right. I
decided that I didn't want to go back to my
hometown Akron because I didn't want to go back to
the same people, the same way, as the same lifestyle.
I believe that was, you know, the biggest reason of
why I didn't get to reach my goals as a kid.
I believe God gave me a second opportunity with the
new family, and I chose to take it. They released
(23:56):
me from the prison and it's this long corridor you
have to walk down, really really really long, and they
hand him my release ID, and it's none of this
is still real that I'm really being released until I
passed through the other side of the metal detectors and
there's Jennifer and Sasha and they hug me and we
(24:20):
walk out the doors, and we walk out the doors
to cameras in my face. They tell me I get
to say hi. I say hi, and finally I get
to embrace my little sister. Finally I get to embrace
this little girl that's not a little girl anymore. I
left and she was eleven, and I came home and
(24:42):
she's eighteen and has a big, old round belly. It
was hard seeing somebody that I thought was my baby
not a baby no more.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
So are you Are you an aunt? Now?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
I am? I also have another niece. She was born
four months after I went to prison. The reason why
I mentioned this is that I was supposed to raise her,
and four months before she is born into this world,
I am tooken away from her. Currently, right now, we
(25:27):
are in the process of getting temporary custody of her
and she is here with me. So I am an aunt.
I am an aunt by a lot. I have eleven
nephews and nieces together.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So I want to talk now about something you began
in prison that I hear you're hoping and planning to
continue with on the outside, and that's working with other survivors.
I heard that when you were in prison, and this
sounds I mean incredible, but hear me out. You improved
on an existing program by reaching out to someone with
(26:01):
the FBI who had actually interviewed you.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
I got interrogated by the FBI about the human trafficking
and stuff, and so I contacted one of the contacts
and told her like, Hey, you know, I'm trying to
run this group. Do you have any pointers on what
I should teach these girls about what is human trafficking?
And she actually sent me like these packets and stuff.
So me and one of my case managers we went
through what I wanted to touch on, and I created
(26:26):
a twelve week group on human trafficking and prostitution education.
So it talked about healthy relationships, talked about sex, It
talked about what is grooming, It talked about family loves.
It touched on the trafficking part of it, but also
some of the healing process of it. And then after
you went through the group, you became a mentor to
(26:47):
the new ladies. I was going through a group, so
it was an ongoing cycle that you had somewhere to go,
and every time that group was going on, it would
keep me and a lot of other girls out of
trouble because you had to play where you were not alone,
somebody could feel every emotion that you felt and wouldn't
look at you like you were crazy. I actually have
(27:08):
a mentee that I still talk to. She sits on
a human trafficking board in Columbus, Ohio, and she wrote
me a letter WHI was in prison and told me
that because of me is the reason why she believed
that she was a survivor and not just a prostitute.
One thing with a lot of survivors is we have
a problem with men for a while. So somebody that
(27:31):
may not have had the issue with men, if I say,
oh God, I want to punch him in his face,
somebody that hasn't had that issue would be like, there's
something wrong with her. But another survivor would be like, girl,
I know too, Like yeah, he was talking really mean
or something. You know. So the group was just very
productive and supportive, and it gave us a family, which
ultimately most of us never really had a family or helped.
(27:54):
We had a family that cared about us. So those
are one of the things that I did in prison.
Since I've been home, I'm working on going back to
college to start my business so I can do a
business for at risk tines. That's ultimately what I want
to work with. I want to work with kids before
they even get involved in a victimization. So that is
(28:17):
my dream.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Oh my god, he's doing more than most three people.
I know. It's a really beautiful thing. And I know
after hearing your story, Jerka, people are gonna want to
get involved even more than they already are. So please, Sasha,
you want to.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
So there is a GoFundMe for Alexis Karaca Martin. She's
building up her new future, so she's in a position
where she's gonna need some resources to continue her education.
She hopes to one day start her own nonprofit to
serve survivors, but also just to get up on her feet.
(28:51):
And there's this GoFundMe. If you look for Alexis Kierka
Martin support fund, people can donate and help keep it
on her way to the great future that she deserves.
And the other pieces and say is Ohio Justice and
Policy Center does lots of work to free people who
are unfairly sentenced and unfairly incarcerated. And if people want
(29:14):
to learn more about Key's case, or about similar cases,
or about our work, our website is Ohio JPC dot org.
So Ohio Justice Policy Center JPC dot org. Those are
two distinct ways people can help key and then also
learn more about the way we need to change our
systems and the work that's being done throughout Ohio.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
And I wanted to say it's not up and running yet,
but I would just ask that people stay tuned. I
will be releasing my first poetry book. It's all the
poems that I did fighting my case and while I
was in prison. The person that I'm working with, we
are hoping to publish it sometime after my birthday in
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Well, we will be happy and proud to help support
it and promote it when it comes out. Congratulations on that.
And we will also be putting the links to the
GoFundMe in our episode guide, so we'll make it easy
for our audience to get involved, and we'll post it
on our Instagram as well. Thank you. Now we turn
(30:15):
to the segment of the show that I always look
forward to, closing arguments, where first of all, I once
again thank each of you, Sasha Name and Kierka Martin
for being here and sharing your amazing saga of a
life and a case, we wish you all the best
(30:35):
of everything. And then I turned my microphone off and
I kick back in my chair and close my eyes
so that you can share anything you want to share
with our audience. And of course, Kerica, we'd like to
save you for last. Sasha, if you can go first,
and then whenever you're done, hand the mic off to
(30:57):
Kierka Alexis.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Kiera Ka Mark is this incredibly resilient and smart and
kind human being, and she has survived a lot and
in so many ways is a unique gift in this world,
and in some ways her story is one that other
people also have, and it's important to keep that in
(31:22):
mind because the work toward criminal justice has to be
centered on the humanity of people like Key, and right
now we have a criminal legal system. It's not always
a criminal justice system. Key came out of prison just
as we had a pandemic. But also this moment where
(31:42):
we're really starting to rethink the way we have justice
and racial equity and the way we treat human beings
in a system that cages people. So there's a lot
of work to do and we're incredibly lucky that Governor
DeWine granted clemency for Key because she's going to be
a major player I think in the way we improve
(32:04):
this world. And I'm just incredibly honored to be on
her team and to be her friend and to get
to see her grow and to be a part of it.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Kierica is all yours, Okay.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
I just wanted to thank you, know, the listeners for
staying tuned and listening. I wanted to thank you guys
for having me on and talking with me. I wanted
to clarify, just maybe for the listeners because I was thinking,
like they may have been wondering, why do I want
to be called Kerka? It is taking ownership of who
(32:39):
I am. I feel like alexis Lexi Alex. They all
have like a bad past. I feel like holding on
to that part of my name is like holding on
to baggage. I don't plan on dropping my name completely,
but Kierka is something that my grandmother named me, and
(33:03):
that's really the only good of a lot of my past.
So I believe I have a new life, a new
start or new home, a new dream, so why not
a new name. So that is why I like being
called Kiera Khurkee and my final thoughts and final things
that I would say is the main reason why I
(33:26):
tell my story. I call it getting naked. Main reason
why I get naked in front of the audience and
I let people see the vulnerability is that anybody can
be a victim. Anybody. I was a girl who got
all a's in school. I wanted to go to the
Air Force. I was at ROTC. I just didn't have
(33:48):
parents at home that loved me, but I had a dream.
I wasn't some bad kid that a lot of people thought.
Anybody can be a victim, but it takes love in
the community to make that victim into a survivor. And
that's the difference between me and a lot of other
people is that I didn't let my victimization leave me
(34:08):
as a victim. And I'm still fighting and I'm going
to continue fighting, and so there's no longer a breath
in my body to fight for survivors and not just
survivors of human trafficking. And I hope that hearing my
story encourages people to if you're not going to, at
least support the calls, support your family, hug the little
(34:31):
girl that's alone, play with the little boy that wants
to play and just let your kids know that they're
loved so that there's not men like my trafficker that
can come in and use and abuse them.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Thank you for listening to Wrong for Conviction. You can
listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
one week early and ed free by subscribing to Lava
for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank
our production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well
as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and
Jeff Cleibern. The music in this production was supplied by
three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
(35:13):
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 and association with Signal
Company Number One.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate. 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.
Hey, everybody, it's Connor Hall, one of the producers here
at Wrongful Conviction, and I will be curating a list
of episodes for the next few weeks, offering case updates,
behind the scenes in FOE and maybe some insights. Now.
When given this opportunity, a number of people immediately came
to mind, including Alexis Kierka Martin. If you don't remember,
(00:27):
she was fifteen years old when the robbery of her
sex trafficker turned into his murder. Now, I'm sure many
folks would be sympathetic to somebody in that situation if
they were to be involved in a plot to bring
about the demise of their sex trafficker, a child sex trafficker,
(00:47):
But Kyerka maintains that she was not involved in any
such plot, and without any direct evidence of her involvement,
the d A in Akron, Ohio at the time still
thought that Kierica needed to pay, which is strange given
just the circumstances. Yet, in addition, Ohio had just enacted
a safe harbor law, which he the judge and trial
(01:10):
council should have known about, a law made for situations
just like this one to end a human trafficking survivor's
nightmare rather than compounding it with the legal system, and
since that law was not invoked, Kierica was bound over
into adult court, convicted and sentenced to twenty one years
(01:30):
to life. And when this was brought to the attention
of Ohio Governor Mike Dwine, he granted Kierka clemency, putting
her on parole in April twenty twenty, and about a
year later, we released our coverage of her case, at
which time she was doing speaking engagements as well as
a few normal jobs to save for college, with the
(01:51):
plan of starting a nonprofit to help prevent human trafficking
and support other survivors. Now a year on from that,
can remember it like it was yesterday. I mean, we
were at the twenty twenty two Innocence Network conference in Phoenix.
We had just wrapped another day of interviews. It was
really emotional, and it only got more emotional when we
(02:14):
heard that Kierica had been sent back to prison. Apparently
a friend of hers was in between living situations and
asked to crash on her couch for a few nights,
and then just mere hours after that person arrived at
her apartment with a bunch of moving boxes, Kierka's parole
officer came by for a random check, which may or
(02:36):
may not have been so random, since this was used
as an opportunity to bust not only a friend, but
then also Kierica because unbeknownst to her, her friend was
in possession of a number of items that were in
violation of her parole, so she was sent back to
serve the rest of that twenty one to life sentence. Luckily,
(02:57):
a huge law firm, Daikema, got wind of Kerka's story
and took on her case pro bono. They were able
to show the ineffectiveness of her trial council for first
not even being aware of and then failing to properly
invoke Ohio's Safe Harbor Law, which would have stopped Kierka's
legal troubles before they started, so her murder conviction was vacated,
(03:20):
at which point the state could have dismissed the charges,
especially with what the safe Harbor law demands, but they didn't,
which left Kierica with a choice to remain in prison
while the state appealed, and if they lost there, they
would retry her.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And who knows how long any of this would take
before they could finally get it back into the juvenile
court to then invoke the safe harbor law and finally
clear her name. So Kierica reluctantly accepted a guilty plea
to involuntary manslaughter with the sentence maxing out at eleven years,
just enough to let her go with time served, which
(03:59):
is going to do her exactly, zero favors and getting
any kind of compensation or standing in a civil proceeding.
And I want you all to keep that.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
In mind when you listen to her story. It's a
very unique story, but the outcome is typical in a
state like Ohio or any state. Really, this is the
outcome that they felt comfortable delivering.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Alexis Kierka Martin was raised by her grandmother in Akron, Ohio,
and had a strained relationship with her birth mother and father.
She had a boyfriend, Deshaun Spear, but they broke up
around age thirteen, the same time that an older man
named Angelo Kearney began grooming her for the sex trade.
By the time she was fourteen, she was actively being trafficked.
(04:50):
Time passed and Deshaun reached out to Kierica to ask
if the rumors he had heard about prostitution were true.
Then one night, after a party, a Angelo Kearney's Kierka
and another woman, Jenney Jones, were alone with Angelo and
his brother Alicio Samuel while she was being raped by Alicio.
Samuel to Shaun and his friend Travaski Jackson broke in,
(05:14):
wearing masks and carrying guns. Kearney was shot and killed,
and Samuel survived a gunshot to his head. When Samuel
came to at the hospital, he mentioned nothing about the
child he had been raping, but he did mention the
other people he had been with earlier that night. A
further investigation led to Alexis Kierka Martin. Ohio's brand new
(05:38):
safe Harbor law was written for situations just like this,
but neither her lawyer nor the state invoked it before
she was tried in adult court for the murder of
the man that held her captive in child sex slavery.
This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with
(06:13):
Jason Flamm That's me. I'm your host, and today if
my voice is cracking a little, it's because this story is.
It's painful to read, it's painful to talk about. It's
an absolute disgrace that any of this happened. It's also
the story of triumph over tragedy though with us today,
we have an extraordinary lawyer, Sasha Naman from the Ohio
(06:36):
Justice and Policy Center. Sasha, it's wonderful to have you here.
Welcome to Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Thank you so much, and we're.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Going to tell the story with the person who lived it,
Alexis Kierica Martin. You'll hear her referred to as Kierica
as we go through, but she's also known as Alexis Martin.
So Alexis, thank you for being here and sharing your story.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Thank you for allowing me the time and opportunity.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
So let's go back to your childhood, Akron, Ohio, Hardland
of America. What was your childhood like before this tragedy,
this series of tragedies struck.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
My childhood would be what some people would call unstable.
I grew up with multiple family members, but predominantly I
was blessed with having my grandmother raised me. All in all,
through everything, I would say that she did a pretty
good job with at least making sure I knew how
to say thank you.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Alexis was a child when she was trafficked. She had
a tough childhood in some ways, and she said her
grandma was a light in that in a big way.
But at fourteen years old, she was surviving some horrific things,
things that are unimaginable to many Americans. Is a prolonged
and terrible sex trafficking situation, and she wanted a life
that was free and safe and healthy, where she could
(07:56):
go to school, where her and her siblings weren't in danger.
And she was a child, so she was in a
position where she hoped that she could finally have this
opportunity to flee from the trafficking, and that brought her
into involvement with the robbery of her trafficker.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
I was fourteen when I met my trafficker, and me
and my co defriend and DeShawn Spirit. He was my
boyfriend and we separated before this case occurred, and then
while I was in active trafficking, we would see each
other and check on each other, but I never got
too close with him. Everybody kept hearing rumors about me
(08:36):
being prostituted. Some people were bold enough to act, some
people weren't. They just you know, kind of turned their
nose up to me. Well, he asked me a couple
of times, and I continued to deny it and just
admitted that I was dancing, but I wouldn't tell him
where I was dancing at.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
So as of that moment, he's left in the dark.
And before the night that the Shawn Spirit tried to
free Kierika, which was November seven, twenty thirteen, Sasha, she
had tried to find another way to get out of
that life, right.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
She was trying to reach out to adults for help.
So before the night of this offense happened, she was
trying to turn herself in. She actually proactively went to
the juvenile system because she had kind of an active
case that had kind of been going on in parallel,
and she was hoping that they would take her in,
that they would arrest her, they would put her in
a program. But her trafficker sends her with someone who
(09:28):
poses as her caretaker and says she's fine and she's
cared for, and even though these adults see the way
she's dressed, even though they see these red flags, they
let her back out with that person.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Alexis, as much as you're comfortable with talking about it.
That night, when this robbery occurred. Can you tell us
how this whole thing happened and how somebody ended up dead.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
I was caught to the house and Jenney Jones was
also there. They had a party and Angela was training
me more so to be his madam. I had to
be there to make sure that the rest of the
girls did what they were supposed to and that I
made money that night. So during the whole time that
the party occurred, I did what Angelo told me to do.
(10:13):
I danced, I collected money, I served drinks, and then
as it got late, everybody left. But that means that
there was a lot of eyewitnesses that seen me with him,
some of his other brothers, they were there that night.
When they left, it was just me, Jenny Jones, Angelo Kearney,
and Alisio Samer.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Alexis was aware that Deshaun and Trevaski were going to
be coming into the house. And in Ohio there's something
called felony murder, as there is in many other states.
And if you're aware of something like a robbery, if
you are found legally culpable in something like a robbery
and then somebody gets killed, then you're culpable for the
(10:58):
homicide that happened. Alexis never shot anybody, never hurt anybody,
never wanted anybody to get hurt. But there was this
robbery that happened, and when Deshaun Spears and Travaska Jackson
break in, when they shoot her trafficker and kill him
when they shoot the man who's raping her. Although she
is the child and she's the victim there, she became
(11:20):
legally culpable ultimately for the death.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
Once Alisio was shot and Angela was killed, the question
was where was I because I was always with him,
and if I wasn't with him, then I was in
a position where one of his brothers knew where I
was at, So where was I was missing? After Alicio
woke up in the hospital, he identified Janey. He never
(11:46):
identified me. And my theory on this subject is he
didn't identify me because I was a child and he
was adult. But other people that the police questioned that
night continuously brought up my name. So I turned myself
in and I was arrested. I was fifteen, and I
felt like it was the first time in life that
(12:06):
anybody was actually like listening to me. I kind of
just told him everything that they wanted to know. My
only thing was I just wanted to know was he
alive or was he dead? Because I wasn't sure. And
when he told me Angelo was dead, I didn't really
know how to feel. It didn't click into me that
I was truly being arrested for his death until they
(12:28):
took me away from the detention center. I was on probation,
so I've been arrested a couple times. I was used
to the detention officers and stuff like that, so it
was kind of like, finally that night, I was going
to be safe until they pulled away from there and
took me down to the adult Question interrogation where they
(12:49):
left me in the code for about three or four hours.
I threw up on the table. They didn't clean that up.
I asked for my mother. They told me that my
mother left, and I knew some of my rights, and
I was like, you know, I thought my mom had
to be present because I was only fifteen, and they
told me she didn't care. And then I continuously asked
for my attorney. And I was fifteen. I knew some
(13:12):
of my rights right because of Criminal Minds and whatever
else I watched, but I didn't really know how to
enforce my rights. How they knew I had involvement was?
I admitted my own involvement. I didn't know what human
trafficking was. I only knew what prostitution and escorting was.
I didn't understand that I was a victim. I also
(13:33):
admitted to the cops Angela was training me to be
his madam. And I also admitted to the cops that
I called this man my dad. But that night and
for months on, nobody pays attention to that.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Before Alexis's case happened, Ohio had passed the Safe Harbor
Law that was specifically meant to protect survivors of human
trafficking like Kerica. The law would allow juvenile courts to
offer services to children like her who were trafficked and
to help them. And when she was arrested and sent
to juvenile court, that law was in effect, but her
(14:21):
attorney didn't know about it and didn't understand it. And
Kierko is actually the one who brought this question about
this law to the attorney because she had heard about
it somewhere.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
So she was.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Now advocating for herself. And this is above and beyond
a fifteen year old who is trying to educate her attorney,
who then did look into it but didn't understand the law.
And then neither he, nor the court nor the prosecutor
brings it up. You have this case that the law
is made for, the law is in effect, and nobody
brings it up, nobody applies it. In fact, the only
(14:52):
person who had mentioned it in the process really is
Kerka herself.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Just to clarify for all you, it's the safe Harbor
law in Ohio specifically mandates that miners under the age
of sixteen do not need to prove that they were
compelled to engage in commercial sexual activity. They're automatically considered
victims of child sex trafficking, and the statute requires juvenile
courts to appoint a guardian to the defendant, a professional
(15:20):
other than a parent or attorney who was responsible for
advocating in the best interests of the child on trial.
So here the defense, lawyer, the court itself, everybody, they
just didn't do what they're supposed to do. Nobody did.
It's crazy, and then to make matters worse, they send
you to adult court.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
At that point, I was educated on what human trafficking was,
so actually realize that you're a victim, and you hold
no power, and that somebody you thought you cared about
was hurting you. To know that they were knowledgeably hurting you,
and that was their only intent ever, was to hurt you,
it's pretty defeating. It hurts. So I know all this now.
(16:04):
I learned about what the grooming process was, and I
identified what my grooming process was. I learned about the trafficking.
I learned about the stages with a juvenile counselor named
Hilary Finkel, and she's the one who's bringing in this
lady named Maggan Madimo, who ultimately brings up the safe
harbor law to the juvenile court after I'm bound over
(16:26):
into the adult court, who ultimately educates my attorney. But
while I was in the courtroom, Judge Theodosia, who leads
the Human Trafficking Division in Summon County still to this day,
set out of her own mouths, can we take a
second in pause? And I want to ask you, Noah,
(16:48):
my attorney and the prosecutor, what do we do about
this fifteen year old's trafficking? She admits out her mouth
that I'm traffic. Not only was I sex traffic, but
labor traffic. She admits this, nobody had a response. The
prosecutor and my attorney looked at each other, looked at
the judge and was kind of dumbfounded when she asked
(17:10):
this question. My attorney, I can't even remember. He mustered
up some answer, but it clearly must not have been
good enough for Teodosia, because two months later, even after
you admit that I'm traffic I got bound over and
that made me feel like prior to the trafficking, I
was raped and I've reported it and I never got help.
(17:32):
One of my cousins raped me from nine to ten
and they found him not guilty. And it made me
feel the exact same way that no matter how many
times I tell somebody somebody did something to me that
was wrong, I'm always gonna either be accused of a
liar or it doesn't matter. So I started to lose
hope again.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
It's a miracle that you clung onto any hope at
all after everything you had been through. And so February seventeenth,
tw fifteen, a day that will live in infamy, Karaka,
you were advised by your attorney that, with the goal
of returning to juvenile court, you should plead guilty to
polonious assault and murder. Yes, this was, of course a
(18:13):
terrible strategy, and ultimately you were sentenced to twenty one
to life. How did you process that sentence and how
did you manage to maintain any sort of trace of sanity.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Well, I have a little sister that's three and a
half years younger than me, and we were talking when
I was six years old, and I promised her that
I would never let nobody hurt her and I would
always be there to protect her. While I was fighting
my case at detention center, I tried to kill myself.
(18:48):
I busted all the above vessels in my face and
I was really close. It hurt her bad while I
was in prison. She's left out in the world with
my father and my birth mother, the two people I've
tried to protect her from my whole life. So if
I gave up fighting, I gave up fighting for her life.
(19:08):
If I gave up fighting, everything that happened to me,
every time a man abused me, hit me, sex with me,
everything that I have ever done to protect her was
ultimately for nothing. If I lay down and just gave up. Now,
I was scared to go to trial because my co defendant,
DeShawn just got forty one to life. I would have
(19:30):
went if I had somebody believe in me that told
me to go. I had two people that told me
you should maybe go to trial. One was another fifteen
year old girl, and all she said was best friend,
if you go, I'm gonna support you. And then I
had my older sister who was paying for my attorney,
and she was telling me she thinks I should take
(19:53):
it to trial. I had an indecisive father that kept
telling me one minute, plead out and act crazy. The
next one he was telling me to take it to trial.
My birth mother, she barely went to any hearings, but
she was telling me, plead because you don't want to
get max out at the box. And then I have
my attorney, who knows more than me, that's telling me, plead,
we have a good chance of winning your appeal because
(20:17):
of this safe harbor law. So I pled, But I
kept fighting because I have a baby's sister that at
the end I promised I would protect and if I
didn't protect her, nobody else would. So I fought, and
I continue to fight after denial after denial, after denial.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Her new attorney. Ke's new attorney, Jennifer Kinsley, ends up
taking on this case pro bono and appealing it all
the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing that Kierka
should have received the protections of the Safe Harbor law,
and ultimately the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the case. And
they did that while saying that there is ample evidence
(20:59):
that Kierica was a victim of human trafficking, but unfortunately,
the original trial attorney didn't present evidence linking the crime
to Kerica being a victim of sex trafficking. So the
Supreme Court said, because he didn't create that link between
the known trafficking and the crime, they were not going
to apply the safe Harbor law to Key. And to me,
(21:21):
that's a little bit absurd, because of course there's a connection.
You have a fifteen year old child trying to free
herself from being trafficked by adults. It doesn't take a
lot to think about how there could be a connection there.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
While justice was delayed, it surely wasn't going to be denied. Ultimately,
you petitioned Governor de Wine for clemency and you had
a hearing on that in September of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 5 (21:49):
I went in front of the pro board on determination
of my clemency in November. I got an eight to
two vote, eight in favor, two agains. In January, Governor
DeWine considered my clemency and said that he wanted me
to do this program Tapestry, and after I completed it,
I would come home. I started Tapestry January twenty first,
(22:11):
twenty twenty. Tapestry closed down due to COVID and I
was released April twenty of twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
So, after serving seven long years in prison, what was
it like walking out? Take us inside? That day?
Speaker 5 (22:29):
That moment April eighteenth, on national television, I was told
I was going to be released. It didn't seem real
at all, Like this is something that I drinked about
many days in prison. It was going home, going home.
And now I'm signing a paper to agree to conditions
(22:49):
of parole and clemency and being told that I'll be
free by monday. So I signed the papers, and then
I'm told, you have to go to the whole to
the the craziest things ever. Yes, I have to go
get COVID nineteen tested and be put in quarantine in
the whole until Monday so that I could be released
(23:11):
to this program. So I pack up my stuff and
for two days, it's like the longest agony in the world,
knowing that in two days you'll be released. In two days,
you'll get to enter into a world of something you
don't know. I left as a kid, and I left
a world of chaos, and I'm supposed to be being
(23:32):
released into a world of peace and freedom. Right. I
decided that I didn't want to go back to my
hometown Akron because I didn't want to go back to
the same people, the same way, as the same lifestyle.
I believe that was, you know, the biggest reason of
why I didn't get to reach my goals as a kid.
I believe God gave me a second opportunity with the
new family, and I chose to take it. They released
(23:56):
me from the prison and it's this long corridor you
have to walk down, really really really long, and they
hand him my release ID, and it's none of this
is still real that I'm really being released until I
passed through the other side of the metal detectors and
there's Jennifer and Sasha and they hug me and we
(24:20):
walk out the doors, and we walk out the doors
to cameras in my face. They tell me I get
to say hi. I say hi, and finally I get
to embrace my little sister. Finally I get to embrace
this little girl that's not a little girl anymore. I
left and she was eleven, and I came home and
(24:42):
she's eighteen and has a big, old round belly. It
was hard seeing somebody that I thought was my baby
not a baby no more.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
So are you Are you an aunt? Now?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
I am? I also have another niece. She was born
four months after I went to prison. The reason why
I mentioned this is that I was supposed to raise her,
and four months before she is born into this world,
I am tooken away from her. Currently, right now, we
(25:27):
are in the process of getting temporary custody of her
and she is here with me. So I am an aunt.
I am an aunt by a lot. I have eleven
nephews and nieces together.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
So I want to talk now about something you began
in prison that I hear you're hoping and planning to
continue with on the outside, and that's working with other survivors.
I heard that when you were in prison, and this
sounds I mean incredible, but hear me out. You improved
on an existing program by reaching out to someone with
(26:01):
the FBI who had actually interviewed you.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
I got interrogated by the FBI about the human trafficking
and stuff, and so I contacted one of the contacts
and told her like, Hey, you know, I'm trying to
run this group. Do you have any pointers on what
I should teach these girls about what is human trafficking?
And she actually sent me like these packets and stuff.
So me and one of my case managers we went
through what I wanted to touch on, and I created
(26:26):
a twelve week group on human trafficking and prostitution education.
So it talked about healthy relationships, talked about sex, It
talked about what is grooming, It talked about family loves.
It touched on the trafficking part of it, but also
some of the healing process of it. And then after
you went through the group, you became a mentor to
(26:47):
the new ladies. I was going through a group, so
it was an ongoing cycle that you had somewhere to go,
and every time that group was going on, it would
keep me and a lot of other girls out of
trouble because you had to play where you were not alone,
somebody could feel every emotion that you felt and wouldn't
look at you like you were crazy. I actually have
(27:08):
a mentee that I still talk to. She sits on
a human trafficking board in Columbus, Ohio, and she wrote
me a letter WHI was in prison and told me
that because of me is the reason why she believed
that she was a survivor and not just a prostitute.
One thing with a lot of survivors is we have
a problem with men for a while. So somebody that
(27:31):
may not have had the issue with men, if I say,
oh God, I want to punch him in his face,
somebody that hasn't had that issue would be like, there's
something wrong with her. But another survivor would be like, girl,
I know too, Like yeah, he was talking really mean
or something. You know. So the group was just very
productive and supportive, and it gave us a family, which
ultimately most of us never really had a family or helped.
(27:54):
We had a family that cared about us. So those
are one of the things that I did in prison.
Since I've been home, I'm working on going back to
college to start my business so I can do a
business for at risk tines. That's ultimately what I want
to work with. I want to work with kids before
they even get involved in a victimization. So that is
(28:17):
my dream.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Oh my god, he's doing more than most three people.
I know. It's a really beautiful thing. And I know
after hearing your story, Jerka, people are gonna want to
get involved even more than they already are. So please, Sasha,
you want to.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
So there is a GoFundMe for Alexis Karaca Martin. She's
building up her new future, so she's in a position
where she's gonna need some resources to continue her education.
She hopes to one day start her own nonprofit to
serve survivors, but also just to get up on her feet.
(28:51):
And there's this GoFundMe. If you look for Alexis Kierka
Martin support fund, people can donate and help keep it
on her way to the great future that she deserves.
And the other pieces and say is Ohio Justice and
Policy Center does lots of work to free people who
are unfairly sentenced and unfairly incarcerated. And if people want
(29:14):
to learn more about Key's case, or about similar cases,
or about our work, our website is Ohio JPC dot org.
So Ohio Justice Policy Center JPC dot org. Those are
two distinct ways people can help key and then also
learn more about the way we need to change our
systems and the work that's being done throughout Ohio.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
And I wanted to say it's not up and running yet,
but I would just ask that people stay tuned. I
will be releasing my first poetry book. It's all the
poems that I did fighting my case and while I
was in prison. The person that I'm working with, we
are hoping to publish it sometime after my birthday in
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Well, we will be happy and proud to help support
it and promote it when it comes out. Congratulations on that.
And we will also be putting the links to the
GoFundMe in our episode guide, so we'll make it easy
for our audience to get involved, and we'll post it
on our Instagram as well. Thank you. Now we turn
(30:15):
to the segment of the show that I always look
forward to, closing arguments, where first of all, I once
again thank each of you, Sasha Name and Kierka Martin
for being here and sharing your amazing saga of a
life and a case, we wish you all the best
(30:35):
of everything. And then I turned my microphone off and
I kick back in my chair and close my eyes
so that you can share anything you want to share
with our audience. And of course, Kerica, we'd like to
save you for last. Sasha, if you can go first,
and then whenever you're done, hand the mic off to
(30:57):
Kierka Alexis.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Kiera Ka Mark is this incredibly resilient and smart and
kind human being, and she has survived a lot and
in so many ways is a unique gift in this world,
and in some ways her story is one that other
people also have, and it's important to keep that in
(31:22):
mind because the work toward criminal justice has to be
centered on the humanity of people like Key, and right
now we have a criminal legal system. It's not always
a criminal justice system. Key came out of prison just
as we had a pandemic. But also this moment where
(31:42):
we're really starting to rethink the way we have justice
and racial equity and the way we treat human beings
in a system that cages people. So there's a lot
of work to do and we're incredibly lucky that Governor
DeWine granted clemency for Key because she's going to be
a major player I think in the way we improve
(32:04):
this world. And I'm just incredibly honored to be on
her team and to be her friend and to get
to see her grow and to be a part of it.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Kierica is all yours, Okay.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
I just wanted to thank you, know, the listeners for
staying tuned and listening. I wanted to thank you guys
for having me on and talking with me. I wanted
to clarify, just maybe for the listeners because I was thinking,
like they may have been wondering, why do I want
to be called Kerka? It is taking ownership of who
(32:39):
I am. I feel like alexis Lexi Alex. They all
have like a bad past. I feel like holding on
to that part of my name is like holding on
to baggage. I don't plan on dropping my name completely,
but Kierka is something that my grandmother named me, and
(33:03):
that's really the only good of a lot of my past.
So I believe I have a new life, a new
start or new home, a new dream, so why not
a new name. So that is why I like being
called Kiera Khurkee and my final thoughts and final things
that I would say is the main reason why I
(33:26):
tell my story. I call it getting naked. Main reason
why I get naked in front of the audience and
I let people see the vulnerability is that anybody can
be a victim. Anybody. I was a girl who got
all a's in school. I wanted to go to the
Air Force. I was at ROTC. I just didn't have
(33:48):
parents at home that loved me, but I had a dream.
I wasn't some bad kid that a lot of people thought.
Anybody can be a victim, but it takes love in
the community to make that victim into a survivor. And
that's the difference between me and a lot of other
people is that I didn't let my victimization leave me
(34:08):
as a victim. And I'm still fighting and I'm going
to continue fighting, and so there's no longer a breath
in my body to fight for survivors and not just
survivors of human trafficking. And I hope that hearing my
story encourages people to if you're not going to, at
least support the calls, support your family, hug the little
(34:31):
girl that's alone, play with the little boy that wants
to play and just let your kids know that they're
loved so that there's not men like my trafficker that
can come in and use and abuse them.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Thank you for listening to Wrong for Conviction. You can
listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts
one week early and ed free by subscribing to Lava
for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank
our production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well
as my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and
Jeff Cleibern. The music in this production was supplied by
three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
(35:13):
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 and association with Signal
Company Number One.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate. 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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