Speaker 1: On May eleven, Marilyn Millara was with a group of
Speaker 1: people mourning a friend who had recently been killed by
Speaker 1: the Latin Kings. The group split up and Marilyn went
Speaker 1: out with a friend and another mourner who they both
Speaker 1: had met that night, Jackie Montanez, who had her own
Speaker 1: sordid history with that gang. At around midnight, that three
Speaker 1: were driving near Humble Park when two guys who knew
Speaker 1: Jackie called out to her at a light. They all
Speaker 1: agreed to meet in the park to hang out. It
Speaker 1: turned out that these two men were members of the
Speaker 1: Latin Kings. Jackie lured one of them into the bathroom
Speaker 1: to make out, and when he stopped to urinate, she
Speaker 1: shot him in the back of the head. When she
Speaker 1: emerged alone, the other man asked about his friend, and
Speaker 1: Jackie shot him two. Marilyn and her friend were caught.
Speaker 1: Completely unaware and panicked, they fled the scene. Then the
Speaker 1: case fell into the hands of two of Chicago's now
Speaker 1: most infamous detectives, who used incentivized snitches, false eyewitness testimony,
Speaker 1: and coercive interrogation tactics to pull Maryland and her friend
Speaker 1: into a case that should have rested squarely on Jackie
Speaker 1: Manton as his shoulders. Then Maryland's hired attorney inexplicably advised
Speaker 1: her to plead guilty while getting nothing in return from
Speaker 1: the prosecutors, sending her directly to death row. News of
Speaker 1: this case would reach then twenty nine year old law
Speaker 1: professor Justin Brooks, and it drove him to uproot his
Speaker 1: life and begin a two and a half decade long
Speaker 1: quest to expose the misdeeds of those detectives and have
Speaker 1: the evidence of Maryland's innocence finally heard. She was released
Speaker 1: on April eighth, two thousand twenty. This is Wrongful Conviction
Speaker 1: with Jason Block. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom.
Speaker 1: Today we have an episode for you that is deeply
Speaker 1: person and all to me, but it's even more personal
Speaker 1: to our second guest today, Justin Brooks. He is the
Speaker 1: founder and director of the California Innocence Project. Justin Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Rowful Conviction. Always a pleasure, Jason, thank you.
Speaker 1: And I'm about to introduce one of the most extraordinary
Speaker 1: people and stories that I've ever met or heard. And
Speaker 1: when I say that, Marilyn Mallara, who I'm going to
Speaker 1: introduce in a second was sentenced to death in the
Speaker 1: nineties in Illinois after pleading guilty to a crime she
Speaker 1: didn't commit. So her attorney did such a terrible job
Speaker 1: that he actually resigned from the bar after the trial
Speaker 1: and became a priest. Marilyn, I'm so sorry that you
Speaker 1: have to be here because of what you went through,
Speaker 1: but I'm so happy you're here. So welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. So this whole insane story began
Speaker 1: around midnight on May eleventh and into May twelve, two
Speaker 1: members of the Latin Kings were shot and killed in
Speaker 1: and around a bathroom in Chicago's Humble Park. But Maryland,
Speaker 1: I want to go back even before that. You were
Speaker 1: just twenty one years old. What was your life like
Speaker 1: before all of this happened. Well, I was a mother
Speaker 1: of two. I used to work two jobs, live with
Speaker 1: my brother. I saw drugs at the time to help
Speaker 1: pay for the bills. I mean, a single woman of
Speaker 1: mother too. It's very difficult to pay for bills on
Speaker 1: your own, so I had to choose another method to
Speaker 1: bring some sort of income, and spelling marijuana and um
Speaker 1: cocaine was one of them. So you really had three jobs,
Speaker 1: two legal ones and one in the shadows. But no
Speaker 1: judgment here. I'm not a religious person, but let them
Speaker 1: who was without sin cast the first stone, and Justin,
Speaker 1: can you take us back to what happened and how
Speaker 1: the hell they decided to focus on an innocent woman
Speaker 1: when in fact they could have and probably did know
Speaker 1: all along who the real perpetrator was of this awful crime. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I mean, this case, Jason, and we can get
Speaker 1: into each one of these elements as we go along,
Speaker 1: involved every cause of wrongful conviction that you discussed on
Speaker 1: this podcast. This case involved the false confession, false informant testimony,
Speaker 1: a bad identification, a bad lawyer, bad judges, and bad cops.
Speaker 1: So pretty much all the causes of wrongful conviction occurred together.
Speaker 1: It was the perfect storm, um which led Maryland to
Speaker 1: spend twenty seven years in prison for a crime she
Speaker 1: didn't commit. This case was such an insane injustice that
Speaker 1: it actually led you to give up your life as
Speaker 1: you knew it and found an innocence project. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this this case changed my life. This UM I had
Speaker 1: heard about it. I was at the time in Michigan
Speaker 1: teaching law school, and I read in the newspaper about
Speaker 1: this young woman, Marilyn Mollarro, who had been sentenced to
Speaker 1: death on a plea bargain. And when I read that,
Speaker 1: I thought, how could she possibly been sentenced to death
Speaker 1: on a plea bargain. It's it's a plea, but it's
Speaker 1: certainly not a bargain. And you know there's supposed to
Speaker 1: be some kind of negotiated result where you get a
Speaker 1: lesser sentence as a result of you giving up all
Speaker 1: the rights that you have to give up in a
Speaker 1: plea agreement, and you're giving up your right to trial,
Speaker 1: you're giving up a lot of your pellet rights, and
Speaker 1: you know you're going directly to jail. And with her,
Speaker 1: she went directly to death row. And uh, I was
Speaker 1: so shocked by it that I've found out more about
Speaker 1: her case. I ended up meeting with her um on
Speaker 1: death row. She was a scheduled for execution, and I
Speaker 1: remember the day vividly, um one twenty five years ago,
Speaker 1: sitting across from Maryland and saying, how did you end
Speaker 1: up here? And she told me this remarkable story about
Speaker 1: how this lawyer, who had never handled a case like
Speaker 1: this in the past, had no training on death penalty litigation.
Speaker 1: Um never negotiated anything that the prosecution pled her straight
Speaker 1: up to the homicide case, and the result was she
Speaker 1: was sentenced to death. And then she said the most
Speaker 1: amazing thing, which is and I'm innocent. And so I
Speaker 1: went back to the law school where I was teaching,
Speaker 1: and I told my students her story, and I said,
Speaker 1: you know who wants to help me out on this case?
Speaker 1: And four brave souls raved their hands and we started
Speaker 1: investigating it, and everywhere we looked, we found out that
Speaker 1: she was innocent and that her case was a complete fabrication. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course, you know when you first told me about
Speaker 1: this case. Where however I learned about it, I became
Speaker 1: obsessed with it as well and kept me up many nights,
Speaker 1: and um, I was so thrilled when it finally resolved.
Speaker 1: Um it, you know, it was nice for you and
Speaker 1: I'd have something else to talk about. Okay, So let's
Speaker 1: go back to Maryland's out driving around with Jackie Montez
Speaker 1: and another friend around midnight or something that the night
Speaker 1: before a mutual friend's funeral who had been killed by
Speaker 1: the Latin Kings. They were near Humboldt Park and they
Speaker 1: met two guys who knew Jackie, Jimmy Cruise and Hector
Speaker 1: Yas you know, these guys saw these three girls and
Speaker 1: they started chatting at the light, and all three women
Speaker 1: went to Humboldt Park with these two guys who remembers
Speaker 1: the Latin King. Jackie went into the bathroom with one
Speaker 1: of the men. They were making out in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: He turned around to urinate and she pulled a gun
Speaker 1: out and shot him in the back of the head.
Speaker 1: She then leaves the bathroom. And then there's two stories.
Speaker 1: The story that convicted Maryland, which we ultimately proved to
Speaker 1: be false, was that Jackie walked over handed the gun
Speaker 1: to Maryland and then she shot the second victim. What
Speaker 1: we now know happened was Jackie came out of the bathroom,
Speaker 1: the other guy said, you know, where's my homeboy? She
Speaker 1: makes a joke about it. She laughs and says he's
Speaker 1: taken a ship. He turns around, and she walks over
Speaker 1: and shoots him in the back of the head in
Speaker 1: the exact same manner. Wait, so I have a couple
Speaker 1: of questions, but let's just start with this. How did
Speaker 1: they all not hear the gunshot from inside the bathroom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we actually had a hot former homicide detective go
Speaker 1: to the park because I never understood why the guy
Speaker 1: outside wouldn't be fully alerted to what happened, But apparently
Speaker 1: because it was low caliber bullet um and it was
Speaker 1: a contact killing, meaning the gun was actually on the
Speaker 1: back of his head. His head actually acted as a
Speaker 1: sort of silencer, so there wasn't a lot of noise
Speaker 1: even though it was a tiled bathroom. Do we know
Speaker 1: why Jackie did what she did? So? What Jackie has
Speaker 1: has said over the years is her motivation was a
Speaker 1: friend of theirs was killed by the Latin Kings, but
Speaker 1: there's also been a lot of talk about that she
Speaker 1: was doing it to rise up in the gang, to
Speaker 1: be seen as someone who would do something like this.
Speaker 1: So what did Marylyn do when the shooting happened, Well,
Speaker 1: Marilyn and the other girl are in shock, they see
Speaker 1: what happened, They run, and of course you know when
Speaker 1: you run, it's going to be equated to guilt. Neither
Speaker 1: Marilyn nor her other friend knew what Jackie Martinez was
Speaker 1: up to that night, and then ultimately they're arrested walking
Speaker 1: out of this funeral um that we've been talking about
Speaker 1: for their friend who had been killed by the Latin
Speaker 1: Kings and Maryland. Can you give us just from your perspective.
Speaker 1: So here, you were a mother of two, you're snatched
Speaker 1: off the street after this funeral, and you and fifteen
Speaker 1: year old Jackie Monton is the woman, the girl really
Speaker 1: who actually committed this crime were brought down to the
Speaker 1: Latin Kings and detected. I can't believe they did this.
Speaker 1: And detectives tell them, quote unquote, these are the two
Speaker 1: girls that killed your homeboys, which put you at immediate
Speaker 1: and grave risk. It threatens to make your kids into orphans.
Speaker 1: And then the cops bring you down to the station.
Speaker 1: Then now your legal representation interrogate you for around twenty
Speaker 1: hours without any sleep, and ultimately you signed a statement
Speaker 1: that they had prepared. It was a terrible moment. We
Speaker 1: had just left the funeral. The detectives just came straight
Speaker 1: and arrested Montanez and myself. Then they parked. They received
Speaker 1: a phone call. Once they hung up with the phone call,
Speaker 1: they took us to Humble Park. We sat there for
Speaker 1: like a good ten minutes and they were questioning us.
Speaker 1: I did not answer anything. After the ten minutes. They
Speaker 1: took us the Beach and Spalding. They displayed us before
Speaker 1: the Latin Kings, and that must have been terrifying in
Speaker 1: and of itself. At that moment, all I thought it
Speaker 1: was My ending was right there. You know, somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: pull the trigger and kill us both. Then they took
Speaker 1: us to Grant and Central, placed us in separate rooms,
Speaker 1: and from then on that's where the interrogation began. They
Speaker 1: took turns Detective Gorvera Halverson and kept questioning me over
Speaker 1: and over, trying to get me to admit that I've
Speaker 1: committed one of the crimes, which I kept telling him
Speaker 1: I did not, So the interrogation kept going back and
Speaker 1: forth between Guava and Halverson. They wanted me to say
Speaker 1: something that I could not say. You know, they wanted
Speaker 1: me to lie, and I didn't want to lie, but
Speaker 1: they kept pressuring me and pressuring me, and it's just,
Speaker 1: you know, it becomes to where you're like, what the hell,
Speaker 1: Just leave me the hell alone. And you know, I
Speaker 1: spend time just crying, and it was like they didn't care.
Speaker 1: It's they didn't care about the tears, they didn't care
Speaker 1: about how I felt. They didn't care about, you know,
Speaker 1: how they were pressuring me, you know, and so mentally, emotionally,
Speaker 1: and physically. It was very draining. So justin why was
Speaker 1: Marylyn in their sights and and how did they come
Speaker 1: to focus on her. So this case started for Maryland
Speaker 1: with a combination of some corrupt detectives detective Guivara and Halverson,
Speaker 1: who by the way, have been linked to now dozens
Speaker 1: of exonerations in Chicago and more than fifty million dollars
Speaker 1: and settlements for wrongful convictions. So you have a couple
Speaker 1: of corrupt detectives and a snitch who's just making stuff
Speaker 1: up and gave three separate statements that kept changing in
Speaker 1: order for them to be consistent with the detective story.
Speaker 1: And it started with her saying that Jackie Martinez had
Speaker 1: been bragging about these killings. Then once they got Maryland
Speaker 1: into the mix, then she changed the story and said
Speaker 1: that Jackie just took credit for one of the murders.
Speaker 1: And then once they got a confession out of Maryland
Speaker 1: after keeping her for nearly twenty four hours in custody
Speaker 1: and keeping her up all night, then they built this
Speaker 1: new story where now this snitch claims to have seen
Speaker 1: these girls before the shooting and had said that they
Speaker 1: were going to go do the shooting in you know
Speaker 1: gang vernacular, which was that apparently they said We're going
Speaker 1: to roll on some flakes. And by the way, this
Speaker 1: snitch had been charged with a drug crime that night,
Speaker 1: which of course was later on dropped after they used
Speaker 1: her testimony. And all this was to build in the
Speaker 1: evidence they needed to make their case and they were
Speaker 1: just literally just making up their case as they went along.
Speaker 1: Um So it started with corrupt detectives and a snitch
Speaker 1: and then it went downhill from there. Now, Maryland, you've
Speaker 1: now gone through this unbelievable ordeal, no sleep, twenty something
Speaker 1: hours in the police station, and you signed a statement
Speaker 1: prepared by the police. At that point you probably would
Speaker 1: have signed anything to make this torture stop, right, But
Speaker 1: did you understand what this meant? I mean, you were
Speaker 1: implicating yourself in both murders, one is the shooter and
Speaker 1: the other as a conspirator. Right. Well, that was not
Speaker 1: explained to me at that point, and at that time
Speaker 1: I did not know the difference. You know, when they're
Speaker 1: telling you, well, if you want to grow old and
Speaker 1: see your kids and this is your best bet that
Speaker 1: you take the blame from one of the murders and
Speaker 1: Jackie Montaness will take the blame for the other. So
Speaker 1: it's like they leave you with no choice because you're
Speaker 1: going to put your children's before anything. So I just
Speaker 1: went ahead and signed that statement. And of course there's
Speaker 1: more insanity coming our way, right because there's a witness
Speaker 1: who ends up testifying to seeing the murders from her
Speaker 1: apartment window, even though we find out later, right, I
Speaker 1: guess just in your investigation on coverage of interesting things
Speaker 1: about that. Sure, so after they know use this snitch
Speaker 1: testimony to get to Maryland, they now have to build
Speaker 1: the case up. And this woman claimed to see the
Speaker 1: shooting from her apartment. And the first weekend I was
Speaker 1: working on this case, I drew to Chicago with my
Speaker 1: students and stood right in front of her apartment building.
Speaker 1: And it was crazy because all you had to do
Speaker 1: is go to the park to realize that she was lying.
Speaker 1: And when I measured it off, the distance between her
Speaker 1: apartment and the bathroom with a shooting occurred in front
Speaker 1: of it was four eight nine ft and she claimed
Speaker 1: at night, in the dark, with hardly any lighting, she
Speaker 1: saw Jackie hand this gun to Maryland and do this shooting. Now,
Speaker 1: this is like saying you were sitting in a football
Speaker 1: stadium behind one end zone in the dark, and you
Speaker 1: saw someone hand somebody a hot dog behind the opposite
Speaker 1: end zone. I'm gonna take your analogy one step further
Speaker 1: because four d eighty nine ft is closer to two
Speaker 1: football fields, and it's dark, and there was foliage in
Speaker 1: the way, right, So I mean, they don't even have
Speaker 1: that in a football state. I've never seen one with foliage.
Speaker 1: So there you go with your law students, and it
Speaker 1: takes you five minutes to realized that this whole thing
Speaker 1: is complete horseshit. It was factually impossible for her to
Speaker 1: see what she said, and nobody investigated it. Now when
Speaker 1: we finally tracked her down. Coincidentally, the one person who
Speaker 1: said they saw this shooting, the one person in the
Speaker 1: city of Chicago, was in a relationship with one of
Speaker 1: the victims, and none of that stuff was ever reported
Speaker 1: or investigated. So that's the bad identification portion of this case.
Speaker 1: So now we have bad cops, bad snitch testimony, and
Speaker 1: bad identification. And then there's this lawyer. This lawyer in
Speaker 1: quotes Jeremiah Lynch. So he was hired to represent Maryland.
Speaker 1: There were friends who hired him. Um, he was paid
Speaker 1: a retainer. I don't know if he capitulated his role
Speaker 1: in this case because he figured there was no more
Speaker 1: money coming, so why not just plead this out? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a death penalty cases takes a lot of
Speaker 1: time and energy and doing a trial very expensive and
Speaker 1: time consuming. Um. But he took this ten tho dollar
Speaker 1: retainer and as a result, he had a couple of
Speaker 1: meetings with Maryland, short meetings, and he didn't meet with
Speaker 1: the district attorney, and he didn't go to the crime scene,
Speaker 1: even though later on when he was questioned he wasn't
Speaker 1: that far away his office from the crime scene and
Speaker 1: he'd claimed that maybe he jogged by there one time.
Speaker 1: Just basic stuff wasn't done and he had no training
Speaker 1: in this and this was his final case as a lawyer.
Speaker 1: After Maryland was sentenced to death, he actually went took
Speaker 1: off out of the courtroom and it took me a
Speaker 1: year to find him, and usually lawyers are easy to
Speaker 1: find that when I found him, he was studying to
Speaker 1: be a priest at University of Detroit and he now
Speaker 1: is a Catholic priest, and uh, you know, if this
Speaker 1: was a movie, we'd have to change his name because
Speaker 1: it would be too corny that his name was father Lynch.
Speaker 1: And he literally did lynch Maryland in this case due
Speaker 1: to his incompetence. The Pacers Foundation is a proud supporter
Speaker 1: of this episode and of the Last Mile organization, which
Speaker 1: provides business and tech training to help incarcerated individuals successfully
Speaker 1: and permanently re enter the workforce. The Pacers Foundation is
Speaker 1: committed to improving the lives of Hoosiers across Indiana, supporting
Speaker 1: organizations dedicated primarily to helping young people and students. For
Speaker 1: more information on the work of the Pacers Foundation or
Speaker 1: the Last Mile Program, visit Pacers Foundation dot org or
Speaker 1: the Last Mile dot org. This episode is sponsored by
Speaker 1: a i G, a leading global insurance company, and Paul
Speaker 1: Weiss Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison, a leading international law firm.
Speaker 1: The A i G Pro Bono Program provides free legal
Speaker 1: services and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals
Speaker 1: most in need, and recently they announced that working to
Speaker 1: reform the criminal justice system will become a key pillar
Speaker 1: of the program's mission. Paul Wise has long had an
Speaker 1: unwavering commitment to providing impactful, pro bono legal assistance to
Speaker 1: the most vulnerable members of our society and in support
Speaker 1: of the public interest, including extensive work in the criminal
Speaker 1: justice area. So Maryland's lawyer, this ex lawyer who's now
Speaker 1: a priest, gave her terrible and that's not even stronger
Speaker 1: forward counsel, because when you plead guilty, there's almost always
Speaker 1: some sort of a deal made and leniency given. But
Speaker 1: in this case, there was no deal on the table,
Speaker 1: so she doesn't even get a trial. And on top
Speaker 1: of that, her right to present evidence of innocence at
Speaker 1: that time and into the appellate process had been waived,
Speaker 1: So she went straight to a sentencing hearing in front
Speaker 1: of a jury, and it's just the prosecu cution telling
Speaker 1: twelve normal everyday people what a terrible, violent, evil person
Speaker 1: she is. And then there's the question of whether she
Speaker 1: gets death or whether she gets life in prison. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason there was so incompetent it's because you could
Speaker 1: at least make an argument if the sentencing was being
Speaker 1: done by a judge, that the judge had sort of
Speaker 1: off the record indicated this isn't going to be a
Speaker 1: death case, but when it's a jury, you have no
Speaker 1: assurances of anything. So the jury now gets to hear
Speaker 1: everything that the prosecution wants to put on, crime scene
Speaker 1: photos of dead bodies, testimony from the victims family, all
Speaker 1: these things in the sentencing phase of a death case,
Speaker 1: and Maryland ends up getting sentenced to death. And it's
Speaker 1: worth noting that Illinois, Um, I don't know how long ago,
Speaker 1: it was more than ten years ago, there was a
Speaker 1: professor at Northwestern who assigned his students to find innocent
Speaker 1: people on death row, and the students on the eleven
Speaker 1: innocent people on death row students, by the way, and
Speaker 1: at that point, the governor Ryan, at the end of
Speaker 1: his term, commuted the death sentences of everyone on death
Speaker 1: row in Illinois because he realized that during his term
Speaker 1: they'd executed ten people and hear these students had found
Speaker 1: eleven innocent ones, so his you know, they weren't even
Speaker 1: batting five hundred, even if they got it right on
Speaker 1: the ones they executed, and it's extremely unlikely that they
Speaker 1: didn't execute some innocent people along the way, so you know,
Speaker 1: they were maybe getting it right about three out of
Speaker 1: ten times. And we're talking about the death penalty for
Speaker 1: Christ's sakes, So Maryland, can you give us some insight
Speaker 1: into what it was like on death Row as a
Speaker 1: young mother now separated from her children, thrown into this
Speaker 1: twilight zone nightmare. Well, when I first arrived to um Dwight,
Speaker 1: and I was taken to Cottage fifteen, where it's basically segregation,
Speaker 1: and they have a wing where they held the death
Speaker 1: Row inmates, and it's basically glass where segregation inmates can
Speaker 1: see the death Row inmates. And they put me past
Speaker 1: that glass into a cell and I went in the room.
Speaker 1: They had brought me some boxes with clothing, all my
Speaker 1: beddings and everything that's required from the institution to give
Speaker 1: to you. And I wouldn't make my bed. I just
Speaker 1: sat there and started praying. And I just kept praying
Speaker 1: and praying out on my knees, and I'm like, Lord,
Speaker 1: just take the reins, whatever, you know, whatever you want
Speaker 1: me to do, I'm here and I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1: You know, Just let me be at ease, let me
Speaker 1: be at peace, let me be right by you, and
Speaker 1: let me get through this as fast as I can.
Speaker 1: You know, it was a beginning of a new start
Speaker 1: for me. Away from everybody and getting to know new people.
Speaker 1: And the officer came back and saw me praying and
Speaker 1: kind of disturbed me. It's like, hey, Ms Malarro, would
Speaker 1: you like the chuckhole open? And I'm like, sure, left
Speaker 1: the chuckhole opened. The girls came by, introduce themself to me,
Speaker 1: and they sat there and they pray with me, you know,
Speaker 1: through the chuckho and so, you know, it was like
Speaker 1: an experience being back there on death Row. I try
Speaker 1: to stay as active as I possibly could back there.
Speaker 1: You know, you're not allowed to be with other offenders,
Speaker 1: but the people they were back there, so we had
Speaker 1: moments to where we were able to come out at
Speaker 1: hour at a time, or two people at a time.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it for the most part, not that I
Speaker 1: enjoy being on death row, but the way I was treated.
Speaker 1: I was loved and cared for. I was tend to.
Speaker 1: They would always constantly pray for me. We had lieutenants
Speaker 1: and officers, you know, kind of stay back there with us,
Speaker 1: keeping us company and praying with us. And because you
Speaker 1: get to know these officers, if they are a part
Speaker 1: of you, you know, they no longer become officers. You know,
Speaker 1: some of them are compassionate and their heart goes out
Speaker 1: to you, and they try to spend as much time
Speaker 1: as they possibly can, you know, keeping you on a
Speaker 1: positive note. And majority of the times I would stay
Speaker 1: in my room and I would try to sleep my
Speaker 1: days away, and the officer were like, miss Miller, get up,
Speaker 1: get up, let's go, let's go to the yard or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I would go just to you know, stay motivated.
Speaker 1: I tried to do some schooling. I enrode in myself
Speaker 1: for college. Within three months, they came back and told
Speaker 1: us back there that we were not worthy enough to
Speaker 1: take any schooling because we were deaf ral inmates. We
Speaker 1: were you know, about to be executed, So they took
Speaker 1: the schooling from us. And one of the ladies back
Speaker 1: there decided that, hey, okay, so let's get some sponsors.
Speaker 1: Let's write the church and see if they would you know,
Speaker 1: sponsor us and pay for some schooling for us. And
Speaker 1: that's what we did. We started writing several churches organizations
Speaker 1: to try to see if we got sponsors. You know,
Speaker 1: I was blessed to get two different sponsor serves to
Speaker 1: get some of my education. You know, I have diploma certificates,
Speaker 1: right now and I have like four more modules left
Speaker 1: before I attain my Associates degree on theology. And it
Speaker 1: hasn't been easy. It's been kind of a rough time
Speaker 1: in prison because prison is not designed for you to
Speaker 1: be comfortable. It's assigned for you to be uncomfortable, for
Speaker 1: you to stay in trouble. But it all determines on
Speaker 1: the individual one side, and what is it that you
Speaker 1: want to do and accomplish while you're there. So I
Speaker 1: was determined to do the right thing, not just by me,
Speaker 1: but for my children and my family and from my
Speaker 1: attorneys who were fighting hard to get my release. So
Speaker 1: I owed it to everybody, not just myself. So I
Speaker 1: pretty much stayed busy trying to stay focused on a
Speaker 1: positive note while I was there. Do you think they
Speaker 1: knew you were innocent? Yes, they did. They knew from
Speaker 1: the moment that I got there, because before my arrival,
Speaker 1: Montanez was already at Dwight Correctional Center and she was
Speaker 1: always bragging about, you know, killing these guys, So they
Speaker 1: already knew that I was innocent. And justin Jackie signed
Speaker 1: Affid David's ad admitted verbally numerous times that she alone
Speaker 1: planned and executed the murders. So these are the arguments
Speaker 1: that we made for years and years and years. But
Speaker 1: the problem was no one was willing to listen to
Speaker 1: them as long as that police stood, and Maryland never
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to present this evidence in a trial.
Speaker 1: So the process of how the hell this thing finally
Speaker 1: unraveled itself, it took god a better part of two
Speaker 1: and a half decades, really, right, yeah, twenty five years
Speaker 1: I was working on it. I mean when I started
Speaker 1: this case, to put it in context, I was twenty
Speaker 1: nine and Maryland was twenty four, and now I'm fifty five,
Speaker 1: and I won't say how old Maryland is, but it's
Speaker 1: been a long journey. So um. Now, that death sentence
Speaker 1: got reversed by the Illinois Supreme Court because the prosecution
Speaker 1: got greedy in the sentencing phase and in the prosecution's
Speaker 1: closing argument to the jury actually said, you know, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, miss Millaro filed emotion to suppress her confession
Speaker 1: in this case, that show she has no remorse, and
Speaker 1: that's another reason to sentence her to death. Now, the
Speaker 1: problem with that argument is you're basically saying, because somebody
Speaker 1: asserted a constitutional right they should be executed based on that,
Speaker 1: and when it went in front of the Illinois Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: the Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Maryland's favor to
Speaker 1: reverse the death sentence, saying like, you cannot use a
Speaker 1: constitutional right as an aggravating circumstance, and also we don't
Speaker 1: even see a logical connection between a lawyer filing emotion
Speaker 1: and then a person not having remorse. So then we
Speaker 1: went back to a new sentencing. UM. I handled that
Speaker 1: sentencing along with the Chicago Public Defender's Office. I first
Speaker 1: tried to get in all the innocence evidence, but it
Speaker 1: was very different cult because they didn't want to hear
Speaker 1: it because they said, this isn't about whether she's innocent
Speaker 1: or guilty, this is about whether she gets sentenced to death.
Speaker 1: Because the court refused to withdraw her play, so Maryland
Speaker 1: has always been stuck with this play. She then gets
Speaker 1: sentenced to natural life, which was the best case scenario
Speaker 1: out of that proceeding, and then we start this two
Speaker 1: decades long odyssey trying to get her out of prison
Speaker 1: or get her a new trial. I took the case
Speaker 1: up on appeal. From there, we went into federal Court.
Speaker 1: We argued the ineffective assistance a council Federal Court. The
Speaker 1: oral argument with it was really frustrating. One of the
Speaker 1: justices kept saying, well, it was her decision to plead,
Speaker 1: and I said, your honor, this is like going to
Speaker 1: a doctor's office and they say you're gonna be dead
Speaker 1: in ten minutes if you don't have open heart surgery,
Speaker 1: and you're saying, okay, you're right to effective assistance a
Speaker 1: council means getting good advice, and there was no way
Speaker 1: this advice was good. But I lost. I petition the U. S.
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, lost petition the Governor's office three separate times
Speaker 1: for clemency. I follow a petition in the United Nations
Speaker 1: trying to declare Chicago's justice system as a human rights violation.
Speaker 1: Would they allow people to plead guilty and get death
Speaker 1: on a plea bargain? And due to all the incompetence
Speaker 1: in this case, the United Nations has still not ruled
Speaker 1: on that petition. So there's been a lot of proceedings
Speaker 1: and ultimately the most successful one occurred just a few
Speaker 1: months ago, and that was finally another petition to the
Speaker 1: governor asking for her release. Laying the case out that
Speaker 1: evidence had never really seen the light of day. It's madness.
Speaker 1: I mean, the idea that she was prevented from presenting
Speaker 1: overwhelming evidence of innocence is not It's absolutely nuts. It's
Speaker 1: a terrible indictment of our system. There should be some
Speaker 1: mechanism for justice to see the light of day. Of course,
Speaker 1: the last resort this case was clemency from the governor.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it wasn't just me that petition
Speaker 1: for that, it was the Exoneration Project, the Illinois Innocence Project.
Speaker 1: As you said, there's been a lot of innocence work
Speaker 1: in Chicago over the past few decades since a lot
Speaker 1: of great lawyers and organizations. They were doing it. I know,
Speaker 1: I called so many people trying to uh get this
Speaker 1: on the governor's desk. That's probably people listening were like,
Speaker 1: you bother crap out of me on this case for
Speaker 1: so long. But anyway, it doesn't matter because the point
Speaker 1: is that it finally worked. So Maryland, So October nineteen,
Speaker 1: there's a clemency hearing, and then there's a got almost
Speaker 1: seven months go by, almost to the day until April six.
Speaker 1: How did you find out that the governor had granted
Speaker 1: you clemency. I had surgery not too long ago, and
Speaker 1: one of the officers that sat with me at the
Speaker 1: hospital ended up working with internal affairs and she comes
Speaker 1: to my room. She's like, hey, Marylyn, I need to
Speaker 1: see you. And I'm like yeah. Everybody's like, oh shucks,
Speaker 1: I ace here. Hi, your contrabant, you know. So she's like, no,
Speaker 1: come here, I need to speak to you. I'm like okay,
Speaker 1: and she's like do you know. And I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, you're leaving me too. And she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you don't know. I'm like, don't know what. She whispered
Speaker 1: in my ear and she's like, no, you're going home.
Speaker 1: I'm like, stop playing with me. And she's like, un
Speaker 1: for real and like, stop playing with my emotions. This
Speaker 1: is not funny. I love you. You're good to me.
Speaker 1: You were good to me then, but right now you're
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, working a little nerve. She's like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm for real. She's like, Officer Dorothy, it's up there
Speaker 1: at the business office right now, shutting down your account
Speaker 1: doing or your paperwork. The people for the parole Board
Speaker 1: is coming to see you. You need to sign the
Speaker 1: paperwork the governor sending you your release form. You need
Speaker 1: to sign it. I said, I believe it when I
Speaker 1: see it. And I looked at her and she's like,
Speaker 1: hum for real. I'm like, Okay, I believe you. So
Speaker 1: then there's two officers who are just they go above
Speaker 1: and beyond. They're very compassionate and I'm very fond of
Speaker 1: them because they break their neck to help women in there.
Speaker 1: And Lamar and Hardison were like Ms. Malaro, come to
Speaker 1: the day room right now. And I'm like, oh shucks.
Speaker 1: And they were like, we're about to announce it on
Speaker 1: the intercom that you're going home. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: please do not do that just yet. They were like why,
Speaker 1: because I don't want the girls to be in an
Speaker 1: uproar because once they find out that I was going home,
Speaker 1: because they've been waiting and waiting impatiently. We were on lockdown,
Speaker 1: difficult situation to where we couldn't see each other. I
Speaker 1: felt like maybe a riot would have kicked out in
Speaker 1: the on the unit, you know. So what we did
Speaker 1: was we waited till next morning. So I woke up
Speaker 1: about four o'clock in the morning and started packing my
Speaker 1: things and giving everything I had a way. I didn't care.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to take nothing home but my bible,
Speaker 1: my pictures, my school were and my legal work. That's all.
Speaker 1: I walked out of there with everything else was left behind,
Speaker 1: and the lieutenant came with the paperwork. I signed it.
Speaker 1: Parl Board came. I signed it. At seven o'clock in
Speaker 1: the morning when count was clear. They're like, we gotta
Speaker 1: get you out the institution so you won't be on
Speaker 1: our eight o'clock count. I'm like, okay, So we went
Speaker 1: to the b A. I took my picture, took the fingerprints,
Speaker 1: took my stuff to property, and was headed out the
Speaker 1: front gate and right at the sally port where the
Speaker 1: visitors come in. Outside at the gate is where my
Speaker 1: brothers were waiting for me, and all the wardens were there.
Speaker 1: The administration was there, Heidi Brown and other people, and they,
Speaker 1: you know, hugged me. We knew we didn't have it
Speaker 1: the coronavirus. We hugged and said our goodbyes, you know,
Speaker 1: shed tears, and everybody was kind of mad that I
Speaker 1: didn't say bye to the latency institution. But I couldn't
Speaker 1: because we were on lockdown, you know, so I mean
Speaker 1: when the girls found out, the officers blasted it, Hey,
Speaker 1: Malari's going home, and everybody started hollering out the window
Speaker 1: trying to let the other ladies on other units know
Speaker 1: that I was going home, and you know, they were
Speaker 1: hollering and screaming, don't forget about us, don't forget about us.
Speaker 1: I tell you, Maryland. When I got the call that
Speaker 1: that you were getting out, I couldn't even speak. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just been so long, and uh, yeah, it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it's over. But I really hope we can
Speaker 1: learn from the story, and I hope some changes are made.
Speaker 1: Did you get a chance to see your children while
Speaker 1: you were in prison or how what was that communication like?
Speaker 1: Over all those twenty six years, I was pretty blessed.
Speaker 1: I had a family who would take turns bringing my
Speaker 1: kids see me constantly. So in that perspective, I, you know,
Speaker 1: it was very grateful for my family. So throughout my
Speaker 1: home incarceration, I was able to see them. It was
Speaker 1: heartbreaking sometimes because my oldest son will always try to
Speaker 1: undo the handcuffs to release me and stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: and he will always be like my mom, let's go
Speaker 1: let's go. And I'm like, no, baby, i gotta stay
Speaker 1: here in school. He's like, Mom, You're not in school,
Speaker 1: You're in jail, you know. So they pretty much knew.
Speaker 1: So at that point I knew that I had to
Speaker 1: keep it real with them and be like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm us in jail, you know, but not for long,
Speaker 1: and I'll be home with you guys. You know. It
Speaker 1: took them to be grown man now, but I'm blessed
Speaker 1: to be here with them and be able to spend
Speaker 1: time with them and my grandkids and my family. Since
Speaker 1: I've been out here, I've been on a movement trying
Speaker 1: to focus back on those ladies that are still there,
Speaker 1: that are also innocent, that no one knows about, because
Speaker 1: like myself, I've been fighting and it's been falling on
Speaker 1: deaf ears and the same thing with the women that
Speaker 1: are in there. So I am fighting hard with the
Speaker 1: Exoneration Project to make these ladies known. So that's what
Speaker 1: I'm working on right now. You've really hit the ground running,
Speaker 1: and it's awesome to see that your spirit is beyond
Speaker 1: and all I can say about that is welcome home.
Speaker 1: And of course there was another development, which is that
Speaker 1: in May of this year, the Cook County States Attorney's
Speaker 1: Office began a comprehensive review of now retired Detective Ronaldo
Speaker 1: Guevera's cases and what has now been called one of
Speaker 1: the biggest policing scandals in US history. And let me
Speaker 1: just say that again, one of the biggest policing scandals
Speaker 1: in the US history. This is the detective, were the
Speaker 1: two detectives that we're responsible for your wrongful conviction. But
Speaker 1: but justin what about Ernest Halverson. Yeah, he's been tied
Speaker 1: into these cases as well. Um, you know, as usual,
Speaker 1: it's not one bad apple. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: bad things happened in Chicago back then, and there's still
Speaker 1: problems now. And fortunately we have organizations like the Exoneration
Speaker 1: Project in Chicago, the Illinois Innocence Project Center Wrongful Convictions,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a real hotbed of wrongful convictions in Chicago,
Speaker 1: and they're not just letting these laid down. You know,
Speaker 1: for a long time it's been about just getting our
Speaker 1: clients out of prison. But we need real reform and
Speaker 1: we need to examine these cases after they happen and
Speaker 1: look for the people responsible and hold them accountable, and
Speaker 1: then look at their other cases. I've been talking for
Speaker 1: years about how Detective Gravara was part of Maryland's case
Speaker 1: because people have been looking at him for a long
Speaker 1: long time. But the problem is in our system. Getting
Speaker 1: the truth into a format that then can get presented
Speaker 1: within our judicial system and have a result is very,
Speaker 1: very difficult. It's the greatest frustration of my life is
Speaker 1: that often we know the truth and we have the facts,
Speaker 1: but for some reason, the system won't allow those facts
Speaker 1: to be presented or won't give you an opportunity to
Speaker 1: get the right result. And and that's taken away twenty
Speaker 1: seven years of Maryland's life. It's so remarkable to sit
Speaker 1: here and listen to Maryland, and you know, it just
Speaker 1: dawned me. She hasn't had one negative thing to say.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been any trace of and maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: not hearing it, but I don't think it's there of bitterness. No.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's focused on during this interview, on the things,
Speaker 1: the bright spots, the positive things that happened while she
Speaker 1: was on death row, while she was in prison, in
Speaker 1: maximum security prison for twenty six years, or something she
Speaker 1: didn't do. So all I can say is you are
Speaker 1: a blessing and it is an honor to be able
Speaker 1: to talk to you and to be a part of
Speaker 1: your story in some small way. Well, I kind of
Speaker 1: knew that eventually. You know, I've always believed in God,
Speaker 1: and I've always placed my faith in Him, and that
Speaker 1: allow me to see me through that it's going to
Speaker 1: be okay. That I was going to come through this
Speaker 1: if I kept believing and maintaining my faith in Him.
Speaker 1: It takes a lot to maintain faith after everything you've
Speaker 1: been through, but more power to you. And she is extraordinary.
Speaker 1: You know you said about how a positive an upbeat
Speaker 1: she is. I've had times over the last couple of
Speaker 1: decades where Maryland has tried to cheer me up about
Speaker 1: the case, and you know, that's a very strange thing.
Speaker 1: She's she's been a believer. She's an incredibly strong woman.
Speaker 1: And that's what we see with a lot of exonorees.
Speaker 1: They are different, and they are survivors and they are fighters,
Speaker 1: and that's why they make it through this nightmare. Well said,
Speaker 1: and it is um, justice delayed, But at least in
Speaker 1: this case, justice was not denied. And um, there's still
Speaker 1: fighting left to be done on Maryland's behalf, and I
Speaker 1: know she's in the best possible hands with you and
Speaker 1: the California Innocence Project, as well as all the other
Speaker 1: great people that have been involved in helping to get
Speaker 1: you home, Maryland. And I want to put a plug
Speaker 1: into you've heard today about the work of the California
Speaker 1: Innocence Project as well as the two other organizations that
Speaker 1: helped free Maryland, the Illinois Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna have a link in our bio to
Speaker 1: all of those wonderful organizations. Please go click on the
Speaker 1: link and learn more and join us and get involved.
Speaker 1: So this is a part of the show where I
Speaker 1: first of all get to thank both of you for
Speaker 1: um coming on and and sharing your thoughts and your
Speaker 1: perspective and your spirit. And then I turned my microphone
Speaker 1: off and kick back in my chair with my headphones on,
Speaker 1: close my eyes and just listen to whatever else you
Speaker 1: have to say. Maryland. We're gonna save you the best
Speaker 1: for last, UM, and I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: So now again, UM. Justin Brooks, founder and director of
Speaker 1: the California Innocence Project, law professor and human rights fighter, extraordinaire.
Speaker 1: Thank you again for being here with us today. You know,
Speaker 1: this case changed my life. Maryland changed my life. I
Speaker 1: was teaching law school and a nice quiet life and
Speaker 1: the middle of Michigan with a nice little Victorian house.
Speaker 1: And UM, I'd been a criminal defense attorney for a
Speaker 1: number of years in Washington, d C. But when I
Speaker 1: got involved in this case, I was shocked. I was
Speaker 1: shocked at the United States of America, a twenty one
Speaker 1: year old individual could be sentenced to death on a
Speaker 1: police bargain with no investigation into our case. UM, a
Speaker 1: conspiracy between the police and the lawyers and the judges.
Speaker 1: Everybody let this happen. They let this twenty one year
Speaker 1: old fall through this giant crack. And it shocked me.
Speaker 1: And I didn't think I could be shocked as a
Speaker 1: chrmal defense attorney. And so it just changed my life.
Speaker 1: It caused me to leave my job in Michigan, moved
Speaker 1: to California, start the California Innocence Project, and and this
Speaker 1: case is the inspiration for the more than thirty people
Speaker 1: we've been able to free in California. I don't think
Speaker 1: any of that would have happened without without Maryland. Um.
Speaker 1: And now even a few months after she's out of prison,
Speaker 1: it's still not real to me because it's been part
Speaker 1: of my life for so long. It's almost like I
Speaker 1: don't know who I am if I'm not representing Marilyn
Speaker 1: Molero and trying to get around of prison. So UM,
Speaker 1: I'm really happy we could tell her story today. It's
Speaker 1: an important story and it's certainly a big part of
Speaker 1: who I am. Amen to that. And Wow, Carlyn, that
Speaker 1: must be an amazing feeling to hear justin say those
Speaker 1: words and to know that you are a key element
Speaker 1: in the free of so many others who were wrongfully
Speaker 1: convicted of thirty encounting so and now what we've all
Speaker 1: been waiting for. UM, no pressure. Thank you again, Marilyn
Speaker 1: Monaro for being here, for being so strong, and uh
Speaker 1: will turn it over to you for closing arguments. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you. I want to thank everybody who's
Speaker 1: been involved in my case throughout my twenty seven plus years.
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of good people working on my case,
Speaker 1: and some of them are still in contact with me,
Speaker 1: and that's a very you know, emotional thing knowing that
Speaker 1: these people can still stay in contact, which they didn't
Speaker 1: have to, but they are, you know, so I take
Speaker 1: that to heart. Prison life was has not been easy
Speaker 1: for me. You know. I've had some struggles, my ups
Speaker 1: and downs, you know, my downfalls, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: part of the struggle while you in prison. And sometimes
Speaker 1: you have to set up a mechanism so that people won't,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that you're vulnerable or take the
Speaker 1: best of you. So I always had my head up
Speaker 1: and always stay positive. I've always tried to do my
Speaker 1: best to help other women. Um my experience with my
Speaker 1: situation in my case had helped me to deal with
Speaker 1: other women in their situations as well and help them
Speaker 1: cope with, you know, their pain and suffering and being
Speaker 1: able to be away from their families. And you know,
Speaker 1: while I've been incarcerated, I've helped create different programs, different
Speaker 1: groups and joined the Phoenix Rising, and as soon as
Speaker 1: a week within joining Phoenix Rising, which is a program
Speaker 1: from long term prisoners, I was voted in to become
Speaker 1: a committee member, and you know, I was honored by
Speaker 1: that because a lot of women had respect for me
Speaker 1: and a lot of my ideas and we've always succeeded
Speaker 1: in everything that we've tried to accomplish, and the wardens
Speaker 1: would allow me to partake in a lot of the
Speaker 1: things and be a part of what they would do
Speaker 1: in the institution. And they asked me and tell me
Speaker 1: fight if we would create a program for the elderly
Speaker 1: and the disabled. And we took a whole unit, which
Speaker 1: was the House Unit six, and we created that which
Speaker 1: became a safe haven for those women so they would
Speaker 1: not be mistreated, you know, and misled and extorted and
Speaker 1: beat down in whatever other case could have taken place
Speaker 1: with these women. And we've created various programs, groups, activities.
Speaker 1: You know, we constantly always pray for the unit so
Speaker 1: that the women's could get along together and not create
Speaker 1: a lot of chaos. And I'm very grateful that I'm
Speaker 1: here now. I'm grateful for Justin. You know, Justin always
Speaker 1: told me, hey, Maryland, I'm never divorcing this case and
Speaker 1: you get home. But like I told Justin, I'm home,
Speaker 1: but you're still not divorcing me. You're stuck with me
Speaker 1: for life. So you know, now he's got to deal
Speaker 1: with me. So, you know, and Lauren and the other
Speaker 1: Lauren and you know, Cindy, the all these people, so
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful and at this small men I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do me. I'm still at piece. I'm happy with
Speaker 1: the women I've became while I was incarcerated, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to continue to do what I'm doing, and that's
Speaker 1: helping people while I'm out here and reaching back out
Speaker 1: to the women that are still in there as well
Speaker 1: as to the men. You know, I'm in supportive of
Speaker 1: all the Gravarra victims and I'm just going to continue
Speaker 1: to be me and be positive, and one day I
Speaker 1: hope to put together my work release center to help
Speaker 1: somebody's women that don't have places to go. And that's
Speaker 1: my story as my life, and that's my dream, and
Speaker 1: I believe I was designed to do this. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: It really helps. And I'm a proud donor to the
Speaker 1: Innocence Project, and I really hope you'll join me in
Speaker 1: supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future
Speaker 1: wrong for convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot org to
Speaker 1: learn how to donate and get involved. I'd like to
Speaker 1: thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin wardis the
Speaker 1: music in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast.
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam is a production of Lava
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one