WEBVTT - #148 Jason Flom with James Davis 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:04.800 On January twenty fourth, two thousand and four, James J. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.400 Davis went to a big party at the Brooklyn Masonic 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:11.080 Temple to celebrate his little brother, Daniel's birthday. James's knight 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:13.680 was cut short when he drank too much and vomited 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.599 several times. Daniel put him in a cab to meet 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:21.040 with his girlfriend, Caneen Johnson. Two hours later, a big 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.320 fight broke out in the club, resulting in their friend 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.840 Jamel Black, being stabbed and another man, Blake Harper, being 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.440 shot and killed. Police would interview people at the scene 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.120 to get a description of the shooter, a light skinned 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.720 black man with braids, but James didn't have braids at 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:40.200 the time. He had short hair with waves. Police then 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.240 called stabbing victim Jammel Black's home and spoke to his sister, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.640 who happened to be James's spurned ex, Tina Black, who 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.840 casually named James as the shooter, even though she had 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.320 never even been at the party in the first place. 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.880 Police found Jamel at the hospital, who told them the 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.320 identity of the real shooter Tay Hall, So was it 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:06.120 Tay or Ja. Two weeks later, Jose Machakote, who was 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.520 at the club that night would enter the precinct and 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.360 second tin of Black's identification. About six weeks after that, 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.080 James found himself the target of an interrogation, a sham lineup, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.679 and a murder charge. Only after his case was picked 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.120 up by the Legal Aid Society was it revealed that 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.360 Jose Machakote was actually one of the most dangerous drug 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.280 dealers in Brooklyn and the subject of a joint FBI 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.959 NYPD investigation. Magic Kote was murdered five months after his 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.440 false testimony that sent James to prison for the rest 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:50.200 of his life. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.280 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. That's me. 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.480 I'm your host, and today you're going to hear a 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.000 story that when they write the History of Wrongful Convictions 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.320 they could put this on the cover because this story 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.040 is so outrageous that well, you're just going to have 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:07.000 to hear it for yourself. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.040 Hello, this is a prepaid correct call from sure an 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.680 inmate ed New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.480 This called the subject of recording and monitoring. 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.760 To accept charges, Press one to refuse charges, Press two 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.720 if you would like thank you for using securists. You 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:27.280 may start the conversation now. 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.359 On the phone from prison where he's been for almost 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:35.440 twenty years, we have James J. Davis. Hello, Jay, thanks 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.760 for calling in and I hope that we'll be able 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.480 to make a difference. And with us today we have 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.880 Elizabeth Felber, who is the supervising attorney in the Wrongful 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:45.760 Conviction Unit of the Legal Aid Society. 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:46.919 Thank you for having us. 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.600 Let's go back to the beginning. James, you had a 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:54.440 rough childhood growing up in Brownsville and Brooklyn, right, yeah, very. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.200 My movel and my favel. Really in my life it 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:04.160 was more my grandmother. School was good up until maybe 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.880 in fifth sixth grade, where where you start noticing that 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.440 your close ain't the same as everybody else's and people 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.600 pick on you and stuff like that. My father died 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:18.440 when I was in fourth grade. Roughly two years later. 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.600 My mother passed away. The year before that, my brother 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.440 father passed away, so both of us had no parent 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.399 by the time I reached sixth grade. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.680 Did you feel like a certain amount of responsibility, you know, 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.200 as an older sibling at that point, I think. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.400 I had all of the responsibility I had to watch 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.280 after my little brothers. I had to keep people from 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:40.920 picking on him outside, as well as keep people from 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.080 picking on me and bullying me. So that's when the 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.280 fights started happening. I started getting into a lot of trouble. No, 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.640 everybody has your mother joke. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.160 I've got to imagine that they stung you know a 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.839 lot more with all you've been through already. So now 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.360 you're staying at Grandma's looking out for your younger brother. 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:00.920 But who's looking out for you? 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.840 By the time I was fourteen, I was getting beat 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.400 a lot. I had a cousin who was supposed to 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.120 be disciplining me for getting in trouble in school and 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.640 in the neighborhood, and it was kind of obsessive. So 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.200 what ended up happening. I started running to the streets 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.360 as much as I could, for as long as I could. 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:25.520 I was doing a lot of stupid stuff. I was young, 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:32.080 robbing people. I was selling weed or whatever the old, 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.120 the older guys on the corner might be able to supply. 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:37.520 And that's when you ended up in juvie. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.560 Yes, when I make it the juvie. I'm going to 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.880 school and I met this teacher, a guy named mister Bliss, 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.120 very very very smart guy, like he knew something about 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.200 anything or whatever you wanted to act. I liked that 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.600 he had that much knowledge, and I confided in him 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.559 about schooling, and he convinced me to take my GB 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.720 and I ended up passing. At that pass. He was like, 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.560 you can go to community college and get going to 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.159 high school now for re education. I was taking like 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:16.520 biology and global history or economics classes and it was 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.000 giving me credit for as somebody had come and check 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:19.480 my work. 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.000 So I understand you were accepted the CAPE for your 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:24.839 community college in North Carolina, near where your aunt lived, 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.799 no small feat considering your record, but your probation officer 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.360 wouldn't transfer your supervision out of state, so you were 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.479 trying to get yourself into some computer science classes locally. 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.040 Around that time, I found out that my brother was 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.240 into the streets, and that's pretty much where I got 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:46.560 back involved in the streets, selling weed and being there 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:47.279 for this case. 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.440 Elizabeth, take us back to January twenty fourth, two thousand 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.839 and four. What happened that faithful night? 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.799 Okay, So January twenty fourth was his brother, Daniel's birthday, 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.680 and Daniel wanted to go to a party that was 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:06.120 being held at a Masonic temple lodge where they hosted events. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:08.839 It was a party for people with January birthdays. 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.680 Well, my brother birthday was coming up. It was more 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.719 whatever you want to do, I'm going to participate. Bo 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.000 is an older guy from the neighborhood that he's like 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.000 a well like guy. He does parties. He knew my 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.440 brother as well. Two of them was promoting the party 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.240 po and another guy, I don't know which one of 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.719 them my brother. He been talking about his birthday for 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.560 a long time, so they put him on a flyer. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.600 I guess Jay was not really a party goer. He 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:40.800 was a quiet guy. I think he'd tell you himself 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.279 he'd rather stay home with friends smoke weed. But he 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.159 loved his brother. He was fiercely protective, so he decided 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:48.160 to go with them as well. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.600 Well my brother birthday. My plan was the like, we 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.320 just gonna chill, maybe call up some girls to come 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.320 hang out at the projects with us, someone making drink 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.279 for free, and hang out. He was been doing going 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.600 to the party because his name was on a flyer. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:07.039 So it comes to be almost twelve o'clock and I 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.720 wanted to surprise my brother. So I walked to the 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.120 liquor store before it closed to get a bottle on 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.760 the weet and a bottle of Hennessy. And when I 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.960 got back, my brother was like, oh, I forgot the party. 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.760 And Jay was not a big drinker, so by the 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.000 time he got to the party, he had had a 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.880 few already, and then he persuaded the bouncer to let 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.280 him or one of the hosts who let him combine 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.200 the two drinks he was drinking, which were hennessy and champagne, 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.200 kind of a disgusting combination. He threw them to you know, 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.720 we put them together. He went into the party, and 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:43.360 he proceeded to have a few more drinks in the 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:45.600 bathroom because they told him, okay, you can have your 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.280 own drink, but you have to put some shade on it. 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.960 Before you know it. I was trying to rush my 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.840 drinks so that we can actually get out of the bathroom. 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.000 I wanted to see what the party was really like. 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.760 Plus my brother, you know, smoke, so he's out on 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.280 the dance floor most of the time. Anyway, I'm like, 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.240 I want to get out there and actually enjoy some 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.360 of his birthday with him, and the mixture didn't agree 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.400 with me. The hennessy and the moat turned my stomach over. 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:14.720 That was the start of the end of the night. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:18.760 I threw up maybe once or twice in the bathroom, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.960 and before I know it, through the laughing, I hear 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.480 my brother pretty much like, come on, man, now, I 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:26.760 got to take you back home. 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:27.600 We just got here. 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:29.720 We ain't even fully been in the club long enough 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.679 full negotiation. I just told him I just woke me outside, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.439 I catch a cab and I go to my girlfriend house. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:39.560 So they went outside. 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:44.319 They got a cab and James called his girlfriend, Caneen Johnson, 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.400 and took the cab to her place and she met 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.600 him outside. Her mother didn't like James, so they would 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:52.880 stay with her aunt. 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.480 I got there at two forty five, maybe three. So 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:58.920 when I got there, she's sitting on the steps already, 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.560 I step out there cav th got threw up in 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.559 between cars before I even touched this side. Well, she 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.400 came running down the steps, rubbed my back, I think, 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:11.520 and walked to our house, stop at the store and 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.559 went into our house. And that was this. I think 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.000 she even had a couple of jokes and I, hey, y'all, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:18.840 go again. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.520 So he was long gone Before anything happened. At the party, 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:26.400 which was around four in the morning, a fight broke 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:30.400 out and somebody was seriously stabbed. We now know that 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.280 was Jamel Black, and Blake Harper was shot and killed. 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.400 A couple other people were shot, but not seriously, but 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:39.880 James had already left the party hours earlier. 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:42.560 So you wake up the next morning at your girlfriend 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:45.520 Kneen's her aunt's house, really, and one of the guys 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.320 you were with, Jamel Black, had been stabbed the night before. 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:50.400 How did you hear that news? 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.640 Well, both of us up. The news is on. It's 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:59.400 about the Masonic temple. Immediately I called my house on 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.920 the landline, and first thing I asked, is my brother there. 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.319 My grandmother like, yeah, he came in last night. He's 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.080 in the room sleep. You know, they had a fight, right, 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.040 And I asked for my aunt because my auntor probably 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.040 no more than my grandmother would and my aunt is like, yeah, 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:22.440 Jameel got stabbed and this guy got stabbed and somebody 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.920 got killed. But nobody knew who the guy was that 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.079 got killed. So I'm like, I'm coming over there. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:29.360 I got there. 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.280 My brother pretty much told me I wasn't really involved 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:34.439 in it, but it was crazy in it and a 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:39.120 fight broke out, people shooting, girls screaming and everybody running. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.839 Police had responded to the scene and they interviewed a 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.480 number of people at the club, and no one that 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.520 they interviewed knew the identity of the shooter. But he 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.920 was described as a young, light skinned blackmail with braids 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.400 on the back of his head. Now, James, is that 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:55.320 an accurate description of you at that time? 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.120 No, I actually didn't have braids at the time. I 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.840 had a low sea like waves. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.400 So police have already interviewed witnesses at the scene the 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.920 night before. You're a friend who has stabbed Jamel Black. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.400 They call his house, but they get his sister on 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.360 the phone in stat Now, James, you have a storied 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:15.679 past with this young woman. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.680 Correct, seeing a black like the first girlfriend I ever had. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:24.040 We've never done anything together, but we've been like close 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.760 friends ever since, being boyfriend and girlfriend at like eight 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.920 or nine years old. And when I went to Juvie, 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.000 me and her made contact again somehow, and we was 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.839 talking about pretty much moving in with each other when 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.640 I came home. But when I came home from Juvie. 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:43.240 It was like, I don't know. She gave me like 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.920 the code showed up. I did three and a half 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.000 years almost, I'm coming home to a girlfriend thinking that 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.320 you know, sex is like right there on the list 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.880 one of the first things at the seeing each other's 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.400 family and kicking it for a little bit, and herme 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.120 on it was like, nah, I'm not trying to do that. 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:05.400 So I was like, not really to be pressure in 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.000 peer pressure in anything. But this is stuff that we've 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.880 been speaking about for like over a year. Ready after 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.160 that day, we never spoke as girlfriend and boyfriend again, 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.200 but we see each ever in passing and we always 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.360 remain called you, but we never spoke on a relationship 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:23.839 or any of that stuff ever again. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.000 What we learned was that Tina Black still harbored a 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.240 flame for him and was hugely jealous when she found 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.240 out that he had a new girlfriend, and out of spite, 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.640 she told the police that James did the shooting, even 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.160 though you can tell by the only police record on 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:43.640 her she wasn't at the party that night. She was 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:47.160 very sick with juvenile diabetes, too sick to go to 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.560 a party. The police should have known that she wasn't 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.640 at the party, and yet they just focused on him. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.960 The second page of the detective notebook says Purp James 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.360 Davis Jay, So it's just tunnel vision from then on out. 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.560 Right, So people that were there couldn't identify the suspect. 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:06.559 The woman who wasn't there does identify a suspect. And 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.079 of course we know that Tina later on confessed to 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.599 her mother and to others as she had lied to 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.920 the police. It just seems like so many different things 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.320 went wrong that didn't need to right, and this now 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.400 we're up to the part with the detectives went to 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.120 the hospital, right, and the interviewed Jammel Black. So can 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:23.200 you talk about that a little bit? 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:24.400 Sure? 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.080 So the detectives actually went to the hospital the day 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.559 of the incident and they were told he was just 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:31.559 coming out of surgery. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:32.480 He was too out of it. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:36.440 The doctors wouldn't let him interview. Jamel Jamelle testified out 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.000 our hearing and he told the court that what happened 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.640 was those detectives came back later and they wanted to 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.720 know what happened, and at first he wasn't really engaging 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.760 with them, but then they made it seem like they 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.320 thought he was the shooter, which makes sense because if 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:55.400 there's a brawl and one person gets shot and the 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.880 other person get stabbed, you kind of think that they're 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.200 they're somehow related. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.800 So because of that, Jammel told them what. 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.760 Happened, which was he had been stabbed by the guy 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.480 who was subsequently killed, and this guy named Tay Hall 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.600 was helping him out of the party when he says, 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.240 oh shit, pushes Jammel to the ground, and you hear 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.840 shots fired. Jammel looks up and he sees Tay putting 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:23.920 a gun back in his pocket and saying, I got 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.080 to get out of here. The police are coming. But 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.840 there was no written report about that conversation and it 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:31.920 never came out. At the hearing, the judge said, Oh, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.640 it's just not credible that they wouldn't have a report 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.440 about it. Well, it's also not credible that you wouldn't 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.520 interview the person who was stabbed, because they would most 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:42.440 likely have the most relevant information. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.400 So let's fast forward then to a couple of months 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:50.520 after the shooting, right, and that's when the warrant squad came. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.480 They were actually looking for your younger brother. When they 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.200 arrested you, and you weren't even aware that they were 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.080 looking for you because you knew that you didn't have 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.320 anything to do with this and there was no reason 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.080 to suspect you of anything other than being drunk and 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:08.120 throwing up on the sidewalk. And they arrested you. It 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.360 brought you to the precincts and interrogated you for hours 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.640 and hours. Maybe they thought you were going to confess 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:15.920 or something like, maybe even a false confession, but you 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:17.200 never did. No. 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.880 They took me from my house and under the guys 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.960 that I had a warrant, which I did. I did 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.680 have a warrant for disorderly conduct and do community service. 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.560 But they never took me to the court building. They 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.080 took me down to like homicide headquarters where I'm at 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.000 Detective Hutchinson for the first time before they took me 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.800 to the precinct. At the precinct, they pretty much was 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.240 asking me, do I know Jamail Black? And do I 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.400 know what happened to Jamail Black? So I explained to 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:50.560 them the same thing that I just was telling you 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:55.480 about getting drunk and leaving a party, and that seemed 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.560 the right. They left. Then they came back and they 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.840 were still asking me about the party and where I 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.760 was at. So I gave him more detail of who 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.960 I went with, who actually walked me to the door, whatever, 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.720 where I went after I left the party, and they 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.520 left again. But this time I'm feeling funny. I'm like, 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.480 I ain't keep asking me where was I at the 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.520 next time he came in, I think he started asking 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.320 about the shooting. Do you know the guy that got killed? 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.640 I'm like, I don't know the guy that got killed, 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:27.800 but I know one of the guys that got shot 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:29.720 because I went to school with him as well. But 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.080 I don't know the guy that got killed. And from there, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:36.520 I don't remember exactly the rest of the questions, but 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:38.720 it was pretty much all about the shooting there. So 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.560 I'm like, when am I going to court? I'm supposed 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:43.800 to be going to court. They're like, no, what we're 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.080 going to do is we're gonna put you in the lineup. 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.920 I'm like, a lineup. I need a lawyer. It's like, 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:51.920 do you have a lawyer. I'm like, no, I don't 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:53.720 have a lawyer, but I have a lawyer in my 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.440 family who can come and represent me. And he asked 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.400 me for his name and phone them I'm like, I 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.600 don't have a phone number for him, but he should 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.520 be listed. My uncle, Robert Davis, is a lawyer. I 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.320 want somebody present. But he tells me if I don't 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:11.320 have a number for him, then he can't call them. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.320 And they just took me back to the room and 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.800 left me in the room. And from there it went 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.639 to the lineup and it came back with four guys. 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.879 Three of them is dark skinned, two of them have 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.080 he set this can't be the people that they're going 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.520 to put in the lineup with me. Nobody looks like me, 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:32.080 nobody favors me in no way, shape or form. But 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.000 I'm like, this can't be. And he bring two more 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:41.320 guys in, like Indian looking guys. I'm like, nah, this 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:42.720 is this is a fix. 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.320 Can you tell us a little bit about this lineup 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:47.800 and how things went so wrong? 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:50.040 As he says in his own statement, this is not 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:53.359 a fair lineup. So the lineup in itself was already suggestive. 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.959 But there were three people who viewed the lineup. One 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.560 of them was Jose Macha Cody. He was the first 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.639 witness that they brought into view a photo spread about 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.919 six weeks earlier, and it was unclear why he was called. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.480 He was the brother in law of the man who died, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:11.399 but he was not one of the people that had 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.760 been originally interviewed. It's pretty common knowledge that when you've 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.320 picked someone out of a photograph, you pick them again 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:19.760 in the lineup because you recognize them as the person. 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.240 But the lineup happened six weeks later. At the lineup, 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.040 the two other witnesses, Harold Poe and Sean Belton, they 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.680 were brought there by the mother of the deceased, and 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.679 according to their testimony, she called them and said, they 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.320 have the guy they think who did it at the 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:37.240 precinct and they want you to just come to see 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.240 if you can identify him, or something to that effect. 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.520 That's already contaminating the lineup because there's a pressure put 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.280 on them that this is the person they have, the person, 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.320 they feel compelled to sit pick one person, especially especially 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.080 when the mother of the deceased has chauffeur driven you 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.359 to the precincts. So they picked James, but one of 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:01.200 them said, always from the beginning, we resembles him, except 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.920 for the braids, because when James got arrested, his hair 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.800 was short, and the other guy, Sean Belton. Now, originally 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:08.800 he had said I didn't see anything when the police 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:10.880 spoke to him. Now he said, oh, I just said 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.280 that because I was afraid. But the description he gave 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.200 before he viewed him was someone wearing a Scully cap 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.520 and that's nowhere in any description. And also five ten 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.199 and James was like five seven, so he didn't even 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:23.840 describe someone that looked like James. 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:25.600 So that's how they picked him. 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.679 There was a fourth person at the lineup who did 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.639 not testify at the trial or the hearings, and what 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.800 Detective Hutchinson said about him wash we picked him out. 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.720 He just wouldn't sign the sheets, saying he had again 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.440 you know some things, just your alarm goes off. That 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.119 smells fishy. So we caught up with him. He did 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:47.080 not want to be involved. He made that one hundred 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.840 and fifty percent clear. But what he told us was no, 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.720 I never said that was the guy. That's why I 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:54.800 wouldn't sign. And what I said to them was, if 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.920 you say that's the guy, that's the guy. So to me, 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:02.359 that says they were prompted to pick James, and I 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.560 should just add that. Sean Belton at the second trial 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.800 recanted again and said I just glanced at him. He 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:11.600 gave four separate statements, so that was him, and the 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:15.040 other guy always only said he resembled him. So essentially, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:16.800 it really came down to host him Macha Cody. 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:22.119 When you think about the convenience of Tina Black Jr. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:27.800 Giving my name to the detective, and then a week later, 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.960 Jose Machakodi, the drug building, violent robber who's a humble 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:37.080 bobber now just happens to walk into the precint though 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.520 he didn't stay at the crime scene when everything happened, 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:43.920 he fled the crime scene. He walks into the precinct 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.520 and he picks my picture. He's the only one that 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.119 goes to the precinct and it just so happens that 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:55.680 he's known in this neighborhood. To me, the whole case 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.240