Speaker 1: In the late eighties and early nineties, Stefan Morant and
Speaker 1: his best friend Scott Lewis were dealing drugs for local
Speaker 1: New Haven drug kingpin Frank Parissi, who was going away
Speaker 1: on a weapon's charge. When Paris asked Scott to take
Speaker 1: a larger role in his business, Scott refused, a decision
Speaker 1: that would alter the course of his and Stefan's lives forever.
Speaker 1: On October eleven, former New Haven, Connecticut alderman Ricardo Turner
Speaker 1: and his lover Lamont Fields were shot and killed while
Speaker 1: they lay in bed. Now meet Detective Vincent Rauschi, a
Speaker 1: detective involved in Parisi's drug game who would pin this
Speaker 1: double homicide on Scott Lewis. For Paris. Roushi put pressure
Speaker 1: on Stefon to extract the false confession that Stefon would
Speaker 1: recant the very next day. His refusal to participate in
Speaker 1: Scott Lewis's wrongful conviction would seal him to the same fate.
Speaker 1: So now we have a double homicide. Politicians and law
Speaker 1: enforcement entangled in the drug game of a local Mafio
Speaker 1: so kingpin, Frank Parizi. But eventually the FBI and a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of Yale and Columbia law students under Professor
Speaker 1: Brett Dignam saved the day, bringing down the entire house
Speaker 1: of cards and setting Stefan and Scott free after they
Speaker 1: had served over twenty years in prison for crimes that
Speaker 1: they did not commit. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to wrongful conviction. Fasten your seatbelts and listen up, because
Speaker 1: the story of Stefan Morant includes a tangled web of
Speaker 1: a drug gang, a politician who turned up dead with
Speaker 1: his male lover in his bed, a corrupt detective who
Speaker 1: was in on the drug dealing as well and who
Speaker 1: ended up framing you, Stefan not to mention false confession,
Speaker 1: an incentivized witness who we know now was mentally ill
Speaker 1: and who lied through his teeth and changed his story
Speaker 1: multiple times, a mafia kingpin in case all that other
Speaker 1: stuff wasn't enough for you, and finally, a good judge
Speaker 1: who ironically was named hate. I mean, you can't even
Speaker 1: make this stuff up. And our featured guest today is
Speaker 1: Stefan Rant who lived through this nightmare. So Stefan, welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. Thank you. So let's go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning. I mean, this is a Connecticut story and
Speaker 1: the backs are that on October eleven, former New Haven
Speaker 1: alderman named Ricardo Turner and his lover Lamont Fields were
Speaker 1: shot and killed in their bed, and that's where our
Speaker 1: story starts. So back were a kid, yes, and you
Speaker 1: were you know, you were hustling right, yes, but you
Speaker 1: weren't killing anybody, absolutely not. And you certainly weren't killing
Speaker 1: Ricardo Turner and Lamont Fields. Okay, so how does this start?
Speaker 1: Because you ended up getting into the cross hairs of
Speaker 1: a let's say, corrupt detective. I mean corrupt wived be
Speaker 1: two light of a word for this guy Rouci. I
Speaker 1: mean you weren't his only victim. There were tons. He's
Speaker 1: sort of like a character along the lines of that
Speaker 1: guy out in Brooklyn Um who framed so many of
Speaker 1: those people. Stefan set the stage for us as to
Speaker 1: this crazy cast of characters in the New Haven drug
Speaker 1: market at the time that this double murder went down,
Speaker 1: because this was a culmination of a lot of other factors.
Speaker 1: So can you give us an overview. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of different what you mad call, I guess, organizations, guys
Speaker 1: um selling on different blocks. I was working with Scott
Speaker 1: and he was getting drugs from this guy by the
Speaker 1: name of Frank Parisi from out of the Favorite Heights area.
Speaker 1: That's who detective she used to work for. I think
Speaker 1: the reason why me and Scott got framed because Frank
Speaker 1: was about to go to prison. I think he was
Speaker 1: sentenced to eighteen years. So he wanted somebody to take
Speaker 1: over the organization and he picked Scott to take over
Speaker 1: the organization, and Scott wanted to get out of the
Speaker 1: drug trade. So Scott said that he would not do it.
Speaker 1: And next thing you know, me and Scott to be
Speaker 1: a frame for murder. So how did this cross your consciousness?
Speaker 1: When did you first become entangled in it? As a
Speaker 1: young man, I was living with my mother at the time.
Speaker 1: I happened to call my mother in between seven three
Speaker 1: and eight o'clock, me and a couple of the guys
Speaker 1: where we have got to go to a script club.
Speaker 1: So I just just calling her not to tell I
Speaker 1: was going to script club. But you just we're not
Speaker 1: doing that. So she tells me that if someone came by,
Speaker 1: it was a detective, a couple of them, so she
Speaker 1: said they wanted me to call. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I have no problem with calling him, so she gave
Speaker 1: me the number. Happened to be Detective Rachi and I
Speaker 1: think it was a detective swinging at the time, which
Speaker 1: came into case later on. And uh, just probably by
Speaker 1: the reason why I'm sent before you to day because
Speaker 1: of Detective Sweeney. That's another part of the story. But um,
Speaker 1: so I happened to call him. He's asking me because
Speaker 1: I meet him somewhere, and I said, not a problem.
Speaker 1: So my court defended Mr Lewis and I and another gentleman.
Speaker 1: We jumped into a vehicle. We dropped me off at
Speaker 1: a local gas station round the corner for my mother's home,
Speaker 1: and um, he started asking me questions. I was hesitant
Speaker 1: about answering anything because I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: He opened the back door and he thrusted me in.
Speaker 1: That was the beginning of a nightmare in my life. Um.
Speaker 1: They took me to the new police precinct, helped me
Speaker 1: to the Detective Burrow how may there for hours at
Speaker 1: the time, brought out police reports, statements, loose paper articles
Speaker 1: and started asking me questions about doing anything about the
Speaker 1: double homicide. I said, I did not, had you even
Speaker 1: heard about it in the neighborhood anything. No, I did not.
Speaker 1: So this is taking you totally off. And you didn't
Speaker 1: have a lawyer? No I did not. Did you read
Speaker 1: your right because you weren't a suspect yet, you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't suspect, like I said. We were at the
Speaker 1: house drinking and smoking, so it was a little no nice,
Speaker 1: you know, before going to the script club. Instead of
Speaker 1: spending all the money in the script club, we just
Speaker 1: to get high before. So, um, we're in the police
Speaker 1: precinct for hours at the time they start threatening me
Speaker 1: with talking about all you could get the death penalty,
Speaker 1: we'll put you an out of bond. So I'm looking around,
Speaker 1: like in a room such as this, one small little room,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I get out of here? Like
Speaker 1: if you help us, will help you. We don't want
Speaker 1: you anyway, we want Lewis. So and Lewis was Scott
Speaker 1: Lewis correct, Scott Lewis was your friend, my brother, your
Speaker 1: brother not from another mother an okay? So, and he
Speaker 1: had not been picked up yet. No, he wasn't. Right.
Speaker 1: So you're in there by yourself. Obviously a scary situation
Speaker 1: going on. Un Plus, you were already a little impaired
Speaker 1: in the first place. That couldn't have helped, although I
Speaker 1: imagine this would kill your buzz real quick. But still
Speaker 1: you didn't have all your wits about you. Um. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: I would like to go back in time to that
Speaker 1: day and shake you by the collar and go, dude,
Speaker 1: call a lawyer, like, tell them you want a lawyer.
Speaker 1: That's all you had to do, and the question would
Speaker 1: have had to stop. But you didn't know that because
Speaker 1: most people don't know. That was one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why we do the show, because we want to tell
Speaker 1: people what to do if they got for a bit
Speaker 1: of end up in a situation like yours. So this
Speaker 1: question goes on and on and on. You don't even know.
Speaker 1: You probably have no sense of time at this point.
Speaker 1: Did you have a watch or anything that was probably
Speaker 1: got there, Like I said, it was like I didn't
Speaker 1: get out of there until like probably like five six
Speaker 1: hours later. After if they gave me all this information,
Speaker 1: it was recording me, of course, and it kept stopping
Speaker 1: the tape. That's not how we wanted. We need you
Speaker 1: to write the statement correctly, stopping the tape starting stopping
Speaker 1: the tap. After they felt me all this information, so
Speaker 1: I said, I felt in my best interest on it
Speaker 1: with him to get out of here is to do
Speaker 1: what they want me to do. Because the key thing
Speaker 1: for me was what they said was you, after you
Speaker 1: write this, you gotta come back. So now I see
Speaker 1: a way out. Don't see a way out before because
Speaker 1: they weren't give me a way. I was like, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about the crime. I need to
Speaker 1: leave in let me go. And it was not let
Speaker 1: me go, which is actually against the law as well.
Speaker 1: They had to let you go if you have to
Speaker 1: be let go, like I mean, considering they were willing
Speaker 1: to break so many other rules, they certainly weren't going
Speaker 1: to abide by that one either. So so you give
Speaker 1: a statement, which is a statement that they had basically
Speaker 1: fed your giving details of the crime that you had
Speaker 1: no idea about. Correct, but that we're accurate presumably if
Speaker 1: they fed him to you. Yes, and then of course
Speaker 1: stopping and starting the tape. I mean, that's right out
Speaker 1: of a TV show as well. An amateur scriptwriter would
Speaker 1: put that in there, you know. And so they end
Speaker 1: up getting what they want. Did they then arrest you
Speaker 1: or did they send you home? No? They actually let
Speaker 1: me go. That's crazy to let me told me to
Speaker 1: come back because I have to signed a statement. So
Speaker 1: my godmother name is Emma Jones. She was a lawyer
Speaker 1: at the time, and I immediately went to her home.
Speaker 1: Um I got there, it was like three four in
Speaker 1: the morning. She looked at me, and I looked at her,
Speaker 1: and I told her what I was coming from. And
Speaker 1: she said, you did not say anything right, And I
Speaker 1: just put my head down and she said, the first
Speaker 1: thing in the morning, we're going to get representation. And
Speaker 1: my cousin, Detective Planto was my father's first cousin. He
Speaker 1: called my mother and he knew because at the time
Speaker 1: of the crime, when it actually happened, I wasn't even
Speaker 1: living here. I was living in South Carolina, actually going
Speaker 1: back and forth from South Carolina North Carolina. So he
Speaker 1: was aware that I didn't live here at the time,
Speaker 1: so he called my mother. I didn't know where we
Speaker 1: camp meant, so he's like, do you have a statement
Speaker 1: down here? Tell Steflon coming down here. We can't the statement.
Speaker 1: We know that he wasn't here. He knew he wasn't here.
Speaker 1: So I went back to the detective place with my
Speaker 1: mother a detective came out and he was brought the
Speaker 1: statement off of me to sign it. I heard over
Speaker 1: the dispatch because I actually supposed to meet my cousin
Speaker 1: over there, which you detective Planto, and it was disregard.
Speaker 1: We got this. So the detective came out, He's like,
Speaker 1: you have to sign this or so, I'm not signing anything.
Speaker 1: I said, that's bullshit. I'm not signing it. I'm not
Speaker 1: signing it because it's a lie, it's false information, it's
Speaker 1: not true. Like what if you don't sign this, if
Speaker 1: you could charge with conspiracy? And I mean my mother
Speaker 1: just she grabbed a pocketbook and we walked out the door. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is a bizarre story in a number of levels.
Speaker 1: One is that they let you go in the first place,
Speaker 1: instead of making you sign a statement right after you
Speaker 1: had false to confessed. That's I've never heard that one before.
Speaker 1: There must have been some reason for it, but I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was. By now, this is the
Speaker 1: next day talking about going back to the police station.
Speaker 1: It was a couple of days later. By now you
Speaker 1: knew the details of the crime. You knew this was
Speaker 1: a double murder. You know, the super serious situation. Um
Speaker 1: probably getting extra attention because of the fact that one
Speaker 1: of the dead guys, Ricardo Turner, was a former alderman, right,
Speaker 1: so there was probably pressure to stolve this crime. Um.
Speaker 1: So now, in these three days that had passed, did
Speaker 1: you touch base with Scott Lewis? Did you let him
Speaker 1: know what's going on? Yes? I called him actually probably
Speaker 1: the next day, and I told him about it. So
Speaker 1: he actually called the police priesting and called the detective
Speaker 1: himself and went down there and spoke to him. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the details of the conversation were, but
Speaker 1: he went down there himself. So what happens next? How
Speaker 1: does it progress from here to where you end up
Speaker 1: getting convicted and serving almost half your life in prison?
Speaker 1: So what was I doing prior to being convicted? So
Speaker 1: after leaving the police precinct, I went on with my life.
Speaker 1: I was I was working. I was working at a
Speaker 1: piece of place, being a delivery guy. And it detected Rachi.
Speaker 1: He's like used to follow me everywhere. I moved back
Speaker 1: and forth, you know, from North Carolina, South Carolina. I
Speaker 1: moved back down there with me and my kids mother.
Speaker 1: I formerly got arrested two years later. So this is
Speaker 1: the crime happened. I got arrested and February nineteen, my
Speaker 1: kids mother, Christie Sobing, she was pregnant with my sons
Speaker 1: and we were actually living in favor of North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Her mother and father came to pick her up in
Speaker 1: December of nine. Um. She was complaining because I was,
Speaker 1: of course still in the drug trade. I was going
Speaker 1: back and forth from North Carolina, South Caronlina trying to
Speaker 1: make ends meet something a little bit of drugs. So
Speaker 1: I called her in. Happened to be February, right, my
Speaker 1: sons was born on Valentine's Day, twins one of the
Speaker 1: great yeah, one of the greatest days in my life.
Speaker 1: Of course, it was definitely a blessing. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: got to get back to Connecticut, right. I didn't have
Speaker 1: no warrant, didn't have no nothing. The last time I
Speaker 1: heard from the detectives when I seen him following me
Speaker 1: around in the piece of place, in other various places
Speaker 1: like nightclubs and stuff like that. So I didn't see
Speaker 1: him anymore because I went back down South. So when
Speaker 1: I get here from my mother home she lives in
Speaker 1: New Haven, happened to see a K car, you know,
Speaker 1: police detective car. I just knew, you know what the
Speaker 1: detective car looks like. So I've seen him, and I
Speaker 1: just went the opposite way. So I happened to park
Speaker 1: in my car in the communal lot in Derby, Connecticut,
Speaker 1: and me and my friend named his name is robbed.
Speaker 1: After seeing my boys, I was on my way going
Speaker 1: back to South Carolina. So I was going to pick
Speaker 1: my car up at the communal lot and I've seen
Speaker 1: my left tire was flat and it looked crazy. I
Speaker 1: just felt something. And then I've seen a guy like
Speaker 1: in the Seville with a newspaper up on his face,
Speaker 1: like nobody reads the newspaper like that, something's not right.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I get out of the car. As soon
Speaker 1: as I get out of the car, police come from everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's like the scene out of a movie. My sons
Speaker 1: was in the back, my name was in the back.
Speaker 1: I was in the front. I got out the detectives.
Speaker 1: I was like, they asked me what was my name? Myself,
Speaker 1: of course my name and staff with my random but
Speaker 1: I said, you guys, I got kids in the car,
Speaker 1: and you put your guns down. It was like I
Speaker 1: was in control of the situation. But I wasn't because
Speaker 1: they put their guns down. I told of my name
Speaker 1: and the oh you have an arrest want for the homicide?
Speaker 1: Like what now, I'm arrested for the homicide. Like I
Speaker 1: believe if I would have never came back to Connecticut
Speaker 1: because what they was doing, they was about to take
Speaker 1: Scott the trial. So what they did was rest me
Speaker 1: so they could put pressure on me. I had to
Speaker 1: come and testify against Mr Lewis, And that's just that
Speaker 1: how you say. They tried to put division between both
Speaker 1: of us, and it didn't work. We both ended up,
Speaker 1: of course, getting convicted. I never testified on them because
Speaker 1: I'm not testifying to a lie. But I ended up
Speaker 1: getting arrested that day. Detective Rocher was the detective that
Speaker 1: came him and another detective and picked me up from
Speaker 1: the Orange Precinct. I said him, this bull crap again.
Speaker 1: So he's like, all we want you to do is
Speaker 1: tell us that Mr Lewis committed his crime. You could
Speaker 1: go home, this warrant could go away. Mike, listen, man,
Speaker 1: what's my bond? I just need to know my bond,
Speaker 1: That's all I wanna know. Ended up giving my phone call.
Speaker 1: I called my mother she wasn't home. So I called
Speaker 1: my aunt, told my aunt about it, and she called
Speaker 1: my mother let her know. And I was in jail
Speaker 1: for like a few months, and then my mother she
Speaker 1: bonded me out. She put her home up in my
Speaker 1: stay out for an additional two years, and then I
Speaker 1: went to trial. The whole thing is really surreal. I mean,
Speaker 1: for a lot of reasons, but also because of in
Speaker 1: particular because of the elapsed time, right, because I feel
Speaker 1: like you're listening to you talking about it now, it
Speaker 1: seems like it was kind of in the tail life.
Speaker 1: You were going out your life. You're raising your family,
Speaker 1: trying to make hims meet, doing whatever you can, a
Speaker 1: little of this, a little legitimate stuff, some other stuff.
Speaker 1: But you weren't killing anybody. You weren't even hurting anybody.
Speaker 1: They had another sort of nefarious weapon in their arsenal,
Speaker 1: which was this and another another name that could only
Speaker 1: come out of a fictional account, right, This guy Oville
Speaker 1: Ruise like Oville, Are you getting me with this name? Not? Orville?
Speaker 1: Oville like evil? And Oval Ruise gave well, let's call
Speaker 1: it a co werst eyewitness account. He was incentivized, He
Speaker 1: was coerced they were using the carrot and the stick.
Speaker 1: He was promised leniency, and according to Ruise, he came
Speaker 1: up with this story. I imagine the first time you
Speaker 1: heard about this was a trial. Did you know this
Speaker 1: Ruise guy? Yes, I knew of him where when we
Speaker 1: sold drugs he was he used to sell drugs. We
Speaker 1: used to sell drugs. Yes, we wasn't the best of friends,
Speaker 1: but I know who he was. So Ruise came up
Speaker 1: with a pretty interesting story. He said that this alderman,
Speaker 1: the former alderman, Ricardo Turner, was storing drugs and money
Speaker 1: for Louis, your co defendant for his operation in the
Speaker 1: second flour apartment that he lived in, and that he
Speaker 1: also owed Louis money. So, according to Oval, Ruise, I
Speaker 1: love saying that name over and over again. On October
Speaker 1: tenth and eleventh, he claimed that you and Lewis discussed
Speaker 1: the idea that Turner might take the money and run,
Speaker 1: and therefore, whui He's rode with you guys to turn
Speaker 1: his apartment away in the car while you Again this
Speaker 1: is his account, his false account, but his account. He
Speaker 1: claimed that, armed with a three fifty seven and a
Speaker 1: thirty eight, do you guys forced your way into Turner's apartment,
Speaker 1: murdered he and Fields in their bed, then took the
Speaker 1: money and the coke got in the getaway car. Now,
Speaker 1: this would all be a little bit more believable if
Speaker 1: not for the fact that he was promised leniency if
Speaker 1: he admitted to being a getaway driver. And you know,
Speaker 1: he probably didn't even come up with his story. They
Speaker 1: probably came up and then gave it to him. But whatever, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, at the time, I'll be going to trial
Speaker 1: this young kid, what a background in mental health issues.
Speaker 1: My lawyer at the time subpoena in his records, and
Speaker 1: this guy was talking, but he see red bean, Um,
Speaker 1: he see different visions. He's on hollid doll and various
Speaker 1: drugs for his mental health. So he was not only
Speaker 1: thrown and thrusted in giving leniency for giving false testimony,
Speaker 1: but he also was a mental health patient. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't even understand how to jury believe this guy.
Speaker 1: So now they had you, guys, they had this guy.
Speaker 1: They had a false confession. You had no shot at trial.
Speaker 1: So you go to trial. You're tried separately from Lewis.
Speaker 1: I have four counts first, I have five counts one
Speaker 1: count of conspiracy dropped. That to the beginning of the
Speaker 1: trial too, counts eight into bendon and two counts of
Speaker 1: felony murdered. So when the jury came back in, did
Speaker 1: you have any hope that they would come to the
Speaker 1: right answer? We still believed even after everything that happened,
Speaker 1: you still believe that justice was gonna win. Out of
Speaker 1: course I did have hope because I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: So okay, so take us to that moment. So the
Speaker 1: jury comes in and they read the charges in order, right,
Speaker 1: So you've already had the one charge dropped. Now you
Speaker 1: have the first two charges and they go not guilty.
Speaker 1: So after that second not guilty, you're You're like, I'm
Speaker 1: going home, yes, I mean, and then they dropped a
Speaker 1: bomb on you, and then the literal Bob almost fell over,
Speaker 1: literally rocked back. I had to catch myself. And then
Speaker 1: I looked at the Jerry person. Um he like he
Speaker 1: shook his hand like, yeah, we're convicting you, and then
Speaker 1: he had read it off again. I looked in his
Speaker 1: eyes again and then he put his head down. The prosecutor,
Speaker 1: which is he was just as corrupt as the detective
Speaker 1: in my eyes, my son's again. He was twins. It
Speaker 1: was two years old at the time, and um, I
Speaker 1: didn't see my sons in a while, you know, So
Speaker 1: I didn't bring me the court. I don't even know
Speaker 1: I was going to court. The prosecutor rising fruit basket.
Speaker 1: He puts him on the table. So my mother's there.
Speaker 1: I didn't know my mother's gonna be there, and my
Speaker 1: sons are there. So he says to me, you missed this.
Speaker 1: Of course, what kind of questions? And of course I
Speaker 1: missed my kids, he said, So what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: about it? I listen, I told you before, I don't
Speaker 1: know nothing about this. I'm the same way. I'm looking
Speaker 1: at my son's right here. Mr Lewis has kids as well.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna just take myself and say, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna lie on the man to take myself out of
Speaker 1: prison and put him in prison. Possibly I can't do that,
Speaker 1: and I just can't do that. Did he actually tell
Speaker 1: you that he was willing to give you a deal
Speaker 1: if you were testify against Lewis? Or he would just
Speaker 1: assume that that's what he told me. And what was
Speaker 1: the deal they offered you? He said, we would work
Speaker 1: it out. He didn't tell me, well, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: thirty five I got seventy years now, thirty five years
Speaker 1: running wile, which means do this thirty five years and
Speaker 1: start all over again. So what can you offer me?
Speaker 1: You can't offer me. No, you couldn't. He couldn't offer
Speaker 1: me a day because I'm not gonna see here and
Speaker 1: lying the man for something that I didn't do and
Speaker 1: he didn't do. It's just not gonna happen. Then that
Speaker 1: speaks to your character too, because I think there's you know, again,
Speaker 1: no one knows how you would, hell anyone would deal
Speaker 1: with the situation like the one that you were in.
Speaker 1: But you handled it, I mean with courage and um,
Speaker 1: you know, you did the right thing at extreme cost
Speaker 1: to yourself. So now you're sentenced to seventy years and
Speaker 1: you get taken to prison, I mean, how did you
Speaker 1: get out? And these are the things I want to
Speaker 1: get to here, because you were there for twenty years,
Speaker 1: twenty one years and maximum security. Obviously it's felony murder.
Speaker 1: I believe that my guy made away, you know to me,
Speaker 1: of course legal things took place, but people came back.
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned to you earlier, detected Sweeney. He was
Speaker 1: a great part in this case. He came back after
Speaker 1: he was in Bosnia in nine nine. He happened to
Speaker 1: see my case. I was going back for a petition
Speaker 1: for new trial and um, I had to lawyer by
Speaker 1: the name of Michael Fitzpatrick at the time, and he said,
Speaker 1: I got some good evidence that's coming, and um that
Speaker 1: was It took another two sixteen more years for the
Speaker 1: court to even listen to him. And this is the
Speaker 1: supervisor of detective Racci. That's telling you that the two
Speaker 1: men that you have imprisoned, if you're going by the
Speaker 1: information that was gathered by Detective Racci and that informat
Speaker 1: that you had to testify in, these guys absolutely not
Speaker 1: seen Sween. Sween he came to testify to that. That's
Speaker 1: so crazy. I'm getting the chills now thinking about it,
Speaker 1: because here you have a senior official in law enforcement
Speaker 1: who is coming forward with no motivation. What could his
Speaker 1: motivation possibly be other than the truth? And they're going, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're good, like yeah, I mean, he's he's one of
Speaker 1: the heroes in this story, right, without a doubt. Scott
Speaker 1: Lewis wrote a letter to the FBI as well about Racchi.
Speaker 1: They looked into it, and every time they did they
Speaker 1: would find that things were not as he said they were,
Speaker 1: but as you guys said they were. They found that
Speaker 1: Rachi not only framed you and Lewis, but that he
Speaker 1: framed a number of other people. I don't think we'll
Speaker 1: ever know how many, because we know when these guys
Speaker 1: do it, like Scarcella in Brooklyn, they just keep doing
Speaker 1: it and doing it and doing it as long as
Speaker 1: they get away with it, which is why it's so
Speaker 1: important that we tell these stories. And they even brought
Speaker 1: him back Crouchy, They brought him back to New Haven
Speaker 1: to question him, but they never charged him. They ended
Speaker 1: up charging him, this is ridiculous. But they charged him
Speaker 1: for misbuilding his overtime hours and assaulting his wife, which
Speaker 1: is a serious crime in my view, and yet he
Speaker 1: received two years of probation. Um, so he was dealing drugs,
Speaker 1: framing people for murder, assaulting his wife and uh, he
Speaker 1: gets two years of probation and you end up with
Speaker 1: seventy years for a crime you didn't commit. Another hero
Speaker 1: in this story, and it's it's interesting because it's a
Speaker 1: New Haven story and along comes a Yale law professor
Speaker 1: named Brett, Dignham and Richard Mamanuel and a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of law students right coming in like the cavalry, all
Speaker 1: from Yale. And that's a pretty good group to have
Speaker 1: on your side because at Yale they don't mess around.
Speaker 1: There's no question that you have an incredible amount of
Speaker 1: brain power and energy to vote to your case. How
Speaker 1: did they get involved, how they find out about it?
Speaker 1: They got involved in Scott case actually two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine and m Brett moved from him. She was a
Speaker 1: law professor at Yale, and then she moved to Columbia
Speaker 1: and then they just the students. A lot of the
Speaker 1: students just went along with her, or she just had
Speaker 1: some more Columbian students. I'm not really sure of the
Speaker 1: whole procedure how it went down, but they played a
Speaker 1: big role in this getting the conviction overturn. And finally
Speaker 1: a good judge who ironically was named Hate the judge
Speaker 1: Hate huh with a name but a loving guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Judge Charles Hate, the U S District Judge Charles Hate Jr.
Speaker 1: Your team wanted ruling in front of Judge Hate that
Speaker 1: the prosecution had failed to tell the defense and does
Speaker 1: this heavvy get ready that the key witness over Louise
Speaker 1: had repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the murders, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden he had a big memory recall, after
Speaker 1: he was offered a deal. But it's important to recognize
Speaker 1: that he was at least initially telling the truth. Doesn't
Speaker 1: excuse his behavior whatsoever, but it does highlight the lengths
Speaker 1: that they were willing to go to to get a conviction.
Speaker 1: And let us not forget that, of course, in your case,
Speaker 1: like in so many other roblic conviction cases, like whoever
Speaker 1: it was that went in cold bloodedly gunned these two
Speaker 1: guys down? But there was one guy, two guys, women.
Speaker 1: We don't know who it was, right, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you took this day know who was I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is. I mean, they have the suspects
Speaker 1: that they say they have, um, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if they pushed forward to try to arrest anybody. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't wish nothing bad on anybody, but whether it's
Speaker 1: one individual, two or three individuals still out there. So now,
Speaker 1: what about our public exactly, Let's just say it's not
Speaker 1: unlikely that whoever it was that committed his crime, went
Speaker 1: on to commit other terrible crimes while you guys were
Speaker 1: serving the time for them. So how did you end
Speaker 1: up getting out? And why? I'm sure people are listening
Speaker 1: at home in their cars whatever, saying to themselves. But
Speaker 1: wait a minute. So you had this whole dream team
Speaker 1: all of a sudden Avengers riding in from Yale. How
Speaker 1: is it that you were never fully exonerated? How did
Speaker 1: that work? And was that because of your false confession?
Speaker 1: Is that why they refused to ultimately admit your innocence? Actually,
Speaker 1: Mr Lewis, he was releasing February March and two thousand
Speaker 1: and fourteen on a bracelet. Judge heat ordered that they
Speaker 1: released him within ninety days I think of after the
Speaker 1: conviction was overturned in December. Well actually after they affirmed it.
Speaker 1: It got overturned, then they had to go to the
Speaker 1: second Circuit court and then all the charges was dropped.
Speaker 1: I think he got exonerated in two thousand sixteen, if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, But it went in sequence like one
Speaker 1: year he got out, the next year it was affirmed
Speaker 1: next year. I think he got exonerated. Unlike myself, Mr
Speaker 1: Lewis had a dream team, and I had a team
Speaker 1: that wasn't frightening for me at all. So push full
Speaker 1: or to a year later after they affirmed from Mr
Speaker 1: Lewis average released because the attorney said he he spoke
Speaker 1: with the district attorney and said, oh I think that, Um,
Speaker 1: I could talk to him to talk to him about
Speaker 1: what like, why now you're not found the motion for
Speaker 1: me to get out of prison? Um, because you and
Speaker 1: Mr Lewis cases different. I said, what you mean, what
Speaker 1: do you mean different? We went to we just went
Speaker 1: to trial differently. The evidence is the same. We just
Speaker 1: went to trial at different times. I want to be
Speaker 1: out released from prison. I said, how long more do
Speaker 1: you think this is gonna take? He said it might
Speaker 1: take another three years. What this man is out of prison?
Speaker 1: You're telling me I still got away the additional three
Speaker 1: years to be released in prison. He was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go talk
Speaker 1: because I'm friends with the district attorney. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go down there and see if he had just say
Speaker 1: see what happened. I think that was a Tuesday. So
Speaker 1: he came back the very next day He's like, I
Speaker 1: got good news from you going home. The district attorney said,
Speaker 1: really give you time, sir, but you have the cop out.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking now, my little brother, he just passed away. Lopus.
Speaker 1: I lost my grandfather. I lost my father, I lost
Speaker 1: the host of a lot of friends. My mother's getting older,
Speaker 1: my children are older. You know they did when you
Speaker 1: come home. I have a wife now that married me
Speaker 1: for I don't know why in prison in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, what do I do between the rock and
Speaker 1: hard place. Do I sit here and say, listen, I
Speaker 1: won't fight for my name to be clear for another
Speaker 1: three years. There's nothing guaranteed in the judicial system. They
Speaker 1: already failed me once. So what do I do. I've
Speaker 1: always heard that if you could fight better from the
Speaker 1: outside and the inside, I need to get out. I
Speaker 1: need to get out of here. So I went with
Speaker 1: the terms in the agreement. I mean ignorant, of course,
Speaker 1: of the repercussions of still fighting for my conviction. Because
Speaker 1: I still have a conviction. Mr Lowis, as I told
Speaker 1: you a couple of minutes ago, is exonerated, same evidence,
Speaker 1: just different trial. He desonerated. I'm struggling. I just had
Speaker 1: to get a second job. You know what do you do.
Speaker 1: You know, I gotta survive though, you know, yeah, I
Speaker 1: just hope, I hope that this show, maybe you can
Speaker 1: be a part of helping you to get the justice
Speaker 1: that you have deserved for a quarter of a sentry
Speaker 1: now ever since you were wrongfully arrested in the first place,
Speaker 1: over quarter of centry almost thirty years, and that you
Speaker 1: can get a chance to get the compensation that you deserve,
Speaker 1: and that you're codefendant has received a significant amount of compensation.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys never get it, you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of guys or and women, um even whether they
Speaker 1: too complete or whether they were exonerated. And people ask
Speaker 1: me all the time, and we still only have like
Speaker 1: thirty two states that have conversation statutes, and we're trying
Speaker 1: to change that because I think that everyone who's wrongfully
Speaker 1: convicted deserves compensation and deserves help to get back on
Speaker 1: their feet, as opposed to put in more roadblocks in
Speaker 1: their way like they're doing with you, which I call
Speaker 1: the second punishment. I'm out here and I don't thankful
Speaker 1: like again, I mean, I'm thankful that I'm able to
Speaker 1: be able to stand on my two feet. I'm able
Speaker 1: to to go to a job and to go and
Speaker 1: make a difference some I don't know if you know,
Speaker 1: but I work at a halfway house. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a part of the correctional facility. Like my grandmother was
Speaker 1: a caregiver, so I guess I'm following the footsteps of her. Um.
Speaker 1: I also just took on another job working with the
Speaker 1: mental health. I work at hearth and Healthcare. Now it's
Speaker 1: not a lot of money, but it's getting me and
Speaker 1: my wife by because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a struggle again. Mr Mr Lewis was
Speaker 1: compensated for his wrong for conviction. I'm still fighting. I
Speaker 1: told you I spoke with you earlier as far as UM.
Speaker 1: Me and my lawyer. Right now, we're trying to put
Speaker 1: together a pardon to try to see if that the
Speaker 1: state of Connecticut were part of me un using circumstances.
Speaker 1: We spoke with various people about it. So hopefully that
Speaker 1: this doesn't take forever, that my conviction is a return,
Speaker 1: so I could go on and live my life because
Speaker 1: I can't get job, just pay as well because I
Speaker 1: have a conviction of our record. You know, I'm actually
Speaker 1: like getting half to pay, you know, for somebody didn't
Speaker 1: do what I'm still suffering. Sometimes I'd be like, yo, why,
Speaker 1: But then at the end of the day, why not.
Speaker 1: I'm not the first person that happened to him, won't
Speaker 1: be the last person that happens to One of the
Speaker 1: reasons I do this work and I'm so obsessed and
Speaker 1: committed to it, have been from a whole adult life
Speaker 1: and will be for the rest of my adult life,
Speaker 1: however long that may be. It's because of people like you. Um,
Speaker 1: honestly in awe that people like yourself can go through
Speaker 1: what you went through and come out with this and
Speaker 1: I picked it up when we've met before. Is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I want to have you on the show,
Speaker 1: because you're such a positive guy and you're such a sort.
Speaker 1: If I mean to meet you, no one would ever
Speaker 1: know that you had been through anything like this, much
Speaker 1: less this totally insane ordeal. So how did you survive prison?
Speaker 1: Was it as bad as what you were expecting? Was
Speaker 1: it as bad as what people think it is? Well?
Speaker 1: For me, Um, I have a Christian background, right, My
Speaker 1: grandmother was. She just was a faith driven women woman.
Speaker 1: My mother, you know, my father used to take me
Speaker 1: to church all the time. Actually the day I got
Speaker 1: convicted June eighth. That night when they threw me told me,
Speaker 1: they reminded me, how was it like, like the whole
Speaker 1: building on top of me, like, and I didn't know
Speaker 1: how it was would get it off of me? So
Speaker 1: they put me in the bullepen. There was nobody down there,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking around and I had a suit on,
Speaker 1: so in the tie. So I shifted my tie from
Speaker 1: the left to the right, and I'm like, yo, how
Speaker 1: did that get How did this happen to me? So
Speaker 1: I was about to cry, of course, I'm like and
Speaker 1: so literally a voice came over me and said, son,
Speaker 1: you go a b all right. You know, I got
Speaker 1: down on my knees in that bullpen and I prayed
Speaker 1: and that was my piece. That was my sinxtuy as
Speaker 1: my sanity. That's what brought me through. Just not my
Speaker 1: faith alone, but my family was there for me and
Speaker 1: they're still there for me. My big brother Frank, my
Speaker 1: brother julian Um he passed away at Lupus a year
Speaker 1: before I came home. He was my greatest support. My
Speaker 1: brother leand and my mother Linda, or host of family
Speaker 1: and friends. I mean, you know, it's crazy in prison
Speaker 1: because some people don't even know what the visiting room
Speaker 1: look like. I just had a great support my wife
Speaker 1: Rangely the snow, I'm telling you, if it was six
Speaker 1: ft of snow and the roses clear, she was there,
Speaker 1: you know. And and that says a lot for her,
Speaker 1: you know. But again, I had a lot of family
Speaker 1: there for me. My family was there, they're still there
Speaker 1: for me. And again my faith kept me whole. You know.
Speaker 1: I actually go to school right now, to a Bible
Speaker 1: institute to become a minister. It's not easy. See, I
Speaker 1: go through a lot of ups and downs because of
Speaker 1: the incarceration I call it today, because of they thrust
Speaker 1: them into a cage. I'm that dog that's running away
Speaker 1: from the cage, never to go back to that cage again.
Speaker 1: I want to go back there, but I want to
Speaker 1: go back there for the right reasons, as far as
Speaker 1: if I could inspire and encourage somebody to be like, listen,
Speaker 1: there is hope. These guys that see me today when
Speaker 1: I was actually incarcerated, when I don't call incarcerated again,
Speaker 1: when I was thrusting into that cage, they just literally
Speaker 1: like start crying like yeah, you know, you believed, like
Speaker 1: you believed you was coming home when you was going
Speaker 1: home and you're here. Sometimes, of course it gives rough sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, But what do you do with the situation
Speaker 1: when it happens to you? Do you sit down weeping
Speaker 1: crowd and you get up a stand to all? Because
Speaker 1: that's what they want you to do. They want you
Speaker 1: to be like, Okay, we're gonna take this person, thrust
Speaker 1: them in the cage, and we want them to become
Speaker 1: an animal. I did the total opposite. I became an example,
Speaker 1: like to be a better person than what they wanted
Speaker 1: me to be. Even through incarceration, I was counseling people,
Speaker 1: whether it was CEO's, whether it was convicts, whether its inmates.
Speaker 1: I just I just had a calling and I'm still
Speaker 1: doing that to this day. So I'm just not say
Speaker 1: grateful for incarceration, Absolutely not, But I'm grateful now for
Speaker 1: the opportunity to give back and to share with others
Speaker 1: that I've been through what you've been through. Like I
Speaker 1: talked to the guys in the halfway house all the time. Listen,
Speaker 1: I don't sit down and tell you that I've been
Speaker 1: in prison for twenty one years, but I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: you know I've been where you are. You can change,
Speaker 1: you can transition. Your life could be totally different than
Speaker 1: what it really is today, but you have to make
Speaker 1: that first step. I could only give you a little
Speaker 1: bit of tools and ingredients, something that I could share
Speaker 1: with you, a word of advice, but I can't make
Speaker 1: you walk like they say you could. You could bring
Speaker 1: a course to the trought, but you can't make them
Speaker 1: drink stuff. Fine, if people want to reach out to you,
Speaker 1: do you do public speaking? And how do uh people
Speaker 1: want to get involved in your case in any way?
Speaker 1: How do they reach out to you? Do Gmail? Step
Speaker 1: far Morant s t e f O n m r
Speaker 1: r a n t at gmail dot com. Stefan Morant
Speaker 1: st e f O n m O r a n
Speaker 1: t at gmail dot com. And the movie about this
Speaker 1: crazy case is called A Hundred and twenty Years. You
Speaker 1: haven't watched it yet. I think you could go on
Speaker 1: YouTube and watch it, but it's it's called A hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty Years, a documenting of Scott Lewis. I'm also
Speaker 1: a part of that as well. Check it out. So
Speaker 1: now we get to my favorite part of the show,
Speaker 1: where I first of all. I thank you again Stefan
Speaker 1: Moran for coming into the studio and sharing your thoughts
Speaker 1: and your incredible story. I wish you all the best
Speaker 1: for the future. And then I get to turn off
Speaker 1: my microphone and just sit back and leave yours on
Speaker 1: for what we've come to call closing arguments, go for it. Well,
Speaker 1: I just like to say I appreciate and I thank
Speaker 1: you for everything that you do wrong of conviction. Um,
Speaker 1: it's just it's a sad day. It's just a sad situation.
Speaker 1: I remember my first Innocence Project conference and um, they
Speaker 1: say you go in your network. It was in Texas.
Speaker 1: So I was walking about and I've seen this guy
Speaker 1: and I just walked up to him and he was
Speaker 1: a social worker for my to Ohio, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: He says, um, all right, how are you? I said yeah.
Speaker 1: They said we need a network, need different people. So um,
Speaker 1: he said, what's what happened with you? And I said, um, well,
Speaker 1: I wasn't just incarcerated for twenty one years, I know,
Speaker 1: even Connecticut and m I said to him, I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody says that that they're innocent. And he looked at
Speaker 1: me and he says, no, they don't. And I had
Speaker 1: to think about that and I said, Wow, you're actually right.
Speaker 1: You hear that on TV. But in prison, it's like
Speaker 1: I could count on probably one of my hands and
Speaker 1: somebody actually said that they were innocent. And I've been
Speaker 1: around thousands and thousands of guys. If somebody tell you
Speaker 1: the innocent right, how much effort does it take for
Speaker 1: you just to reopen investigation or two just look into
Speaker 1: what he or she is saying instead of allowing this
Speaker 1: to carry on for like it carried on with me
Speaker 1: and Mr Lewis, for Mr Lewis twenty years and for
Speaker 1: myself twenty one years, crying, like getting shot down, denials
Speaker 1: after denials after denials, you know again. Now I have
Speaker 1: seven kids, Christian and Julian or Twilight, Stefan jorjanal A,
Speaker 1: Mida and Prince Boy Jr. So we have me and
Speaker 1: my wife have a total of seven kids. Her name
Speaker 1: is Kimberly Morant, you know for biological, but all of
Speaker 1: them are biological to me now because that's how I
Speaker 1: bring my acceptance. You know, my children today, I don't
Speaker 1: even have a relationship like with them. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: we're building one and that's like the at as part
Speaker 1: of this this situation. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's like, how do you just do that to somebody
Speaker 1: and how do you live with yourself? Right? We need
Speaker 1: to change the way that judicial system is being ran today,
Speaker 1: you know, it has to be changed. We just need
Speaker 1: somebody just to have an ear and to listen, not
Speaker 1: just to say, well, we're gonna talk about doing something,
Speaker 1: don't do something. If you just put forth for effort
Speaker 1: and take the time out of your day, just be like, okay,
Speaker 1: just let me look into this case. Give me an
Speaker 1: opportunity to give me a chance. The evidence is going
Speaker 1: to speak for yourself. It's just as simple as that.
Speaker 1: If the person actually committed the crime, you could set
Speaker 1: time for saying they did this or they didn't do it.
Speaker 1: But just give my opportunity to be investigating the situation,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I thank god for the FBI.
Speaker 1: You know who does that. They don't just say okay,
Speaker 1: you write me a letter and not I'm gonna get involved,
Speaker 1: and they said hold up, something that's wrong is going on,
Speaker 1: and then the state's attorney still doesn't do anything about it.
Speaker 1: The state's attorney stated that for a period of time.
Speaker 1: We knew that the lead detective was a liar, also
Speaker 1: the key witness. So why am I sitting here taking
Speaker 1: time served? Why are you just not saying, okay, we're
Speaker 1: dismissing this case right now. So if if it's a lie,
Speaker 1: if it's a taint of situation, why on earth is stuff?
Speaker 1: I'm a rent, still convicted fellow. Mind you, I've never
Speaker 1: had a traffic ticket, I've never had a conviction. I
Speaker 1: sold a little drugs to get by, but I worked
Speaker 1: on my life. The question is, and I leave with this,
Speaker 1: I need help and I need stuff from a rent
Speaker 1: conviction to be overturned, because it's just not right. If
Speaker 1: one is innocent, the other one definitely has to be
Speaker 1: innocent because you're saying I was just there. You didn't
Speaker 1: say I kill anybody? So how am I still a convicted? Fellow?
Speaker 1: Don't forget to give us a fantastic review wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast us. It really helps. And I'm a
Speaker 1: proud donor to the Innocence Project, and I really hope
Speaker 1: you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and
Speaker 1: helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocence Project
Speaker 1: dot org. To learn how to donate and get involved.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and
Speaker 1: Kevin Wardis. The music on the show is by three
Speaker 1: time Oscar nominet composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam is a
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal
Speaker 1: Company Number one