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Speaker 1: Early on the morning of June fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine,

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Speaker 1: Amir Zeta was driving home from partying with friends when

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Speaker 1: his car got stuck in an embankment down near the

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Speaker 1: Hudson River waterfront in Nyak, New York. Amir called a

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Speaker 1: friend from a payphone to help him secure a tow truck.

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Speaker 1: While he waited in the darkened parking lot of a

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Speaker 1: nearby restaurant, he heard a strange noise coming from behind

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Speaker 1: a dumpster.

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Speaker 2: It was a growl, like a gruff, growling noise. I

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Speaker 2: didn't want to go in the corner, but at the

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Speaker 2: same time I was saying, like, well, whatever is going

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Speaker 2: on over there, Like, you know, don't be a punk,

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Speaker 2: go over there and check it out.

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Speaker 1: What he saw there shocked and terrified him. But before

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Speaker 1: he could react, police cars were on the scene, sirens blaring.

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Speaker 2: Two police officers dow me down. He handcuffed me behind

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Speaker 2: my back, searched me, and then they put me in

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Speaker 2: a back at a car just that quick.

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Speaker 1: Amir was arrested and charged with sexual assaults and the

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Speaker 1: brutal murder of a young local woman, Shirley Smith. The

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Speaker 1: woman he had found lying behind a dumpster covered in

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Speaker 1: blood and had tried to help.

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Speaker 2: My name is Emir Zeta. I did forty one years

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Speaker 2: in prison for a crime that I didn't.

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Speaker 3: Commit from Lava for good.

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Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Amir Zeta.

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Speaker 2: I'm an Arab American. I was born in Nyak Hospital

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Speaker 2: in Rockley County, New York.

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Speaker 1: Amir Zeta was born in nineteen sixty one into a large,

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Speaker 1: loving family.

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Speaker 2: My mother and father are from Jordan. They immigrated to

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Speaker 2: the United States in nineteen fifty eight. At the time,

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Speaker 2: it was my eldest brother, Nasar, eldest sister in the Zira,

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Speaker 2: and the two twins, Samir and Samir who was my

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Speaker 2: next oldest, and then myself from the baby of the family.

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Speaker 1: Growing up, Amir didn't feel any different from the other

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Speaker 1: kids at school, but when he was five or six

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Speaker 1: years old, something happened changed the way others saw his

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Speaker 1: family and the way he felt about himself.

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Speaker 2: My father got a dispute with a neighbor over property.

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Speaker 2: Apparently my father didn't speak English at will, and they

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Speaker 2: ended up calling a police officer. The police officer ended

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Speaker 2: up getting a glass cut on the back of his hand.

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Speaker 2: But at the time they maintained that he had been

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Speaker 2: shot by my father. It wasn't the case. But I

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Speaker 2: still have the memories too of being a six year

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Speaker 2: old kid sitting in my father's attempted a murder on

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Speaker 2: a police officer's trial, and how it affected me, and

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Speaker 2: then how it affected me through my school years from

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Speaker 2: that point on, about being called the murder the cop

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Speaker 2: killer's son, even though there was no police officer killed

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Speaker 2: or even shot.

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Speaker 1: The charge against his father was dismissed, but from that

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Speaker 1: time on, Amir says his family was treated differently by

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Speaker 1: the police.

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Speaker 2: They started going after my family in a methodical manner,

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Speaker 2: for my eldest brother, then my next brother, and me.

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Speaker 2: My eldest sister left out of the county. She seen

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Speaker 2: the writing on the wall and she took off. She

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Speaker 2: got married and left the county.

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Speaker 1: Amir's other sister, Samira, was deported to the Middle East

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Speaker 1: and later died from a medical issue that Amir beliefs

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Speaker 1: could have been.

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Speaker 3: Easily treated in the United States.

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Speaker 1: His brother Samir ended up serving nearly forty two years

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Speaker 1: in prison and was also deported upon his release. Despite

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Speaker 1: his family's troubles, Amir found a bright spot in all

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Speaker 1: of this darkness.

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Speaker 4: I knew a mirror from the time I was like

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Speaker 4: in grammar school, and I always knew Amir had a

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Speaker 4: crush on me.

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Speaker 2: So we were like, what maybe twelve years old.

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Speaker 1: This is Bonnie McKenna, But when Amir met her in

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Speaker 1: seventh grade, she was Bonnie Stalter.

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Speaker 2: We shared an art class, I believe, in a music

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Speaker 2: class at the school. I used to always sit at

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Speaker 2: the table with her in the class, and you know,

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Speaker 2: spend more time paying attention to her than I was

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Speaker 2: to class. And then one day I took a chance

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Speaker 2: and I walked up to her when we were at

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Speaker 2: the lockers.

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Speaker 4: And he's like Bonnie Sue Stalter, and he like just

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Speaker 4: takes me and he flings me up against the locker

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Speaker 4: and he starts kissing.

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Speaker 2: Me, and I kissed her.

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Speaker 4: Man, he like stole the kiss from me, his first

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Speaker 4: kiss from me, and we have like connected ever since

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Speaker 4: that moment on.

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Speaker 1: Amir soon went away to military academy, but he never

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Speaker 1: forgot that first kiss. A year and a half later,

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Speaker 1: he came back to Nayak to register for high school.

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Speaker 2: She was the first person I seen she was actually

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Speaker 2: outside the school and I still had I was in

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Speaker 2: the military academy. I still have my uniform on, and

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Speaker 2: she was the first beautiful face that I seen. And

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Speaker 2: then from there we just reignited the flame that you

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Speaker 2: know has been lit for quite a while. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I've always felt like I loved her.

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Speaker 4: So I didn't have the perfect life. My life was

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Speaker 4: very complicated as a child, and I was a runaway

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Speaker 4: and I wound up with mister and missus.

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Speaker 1: Zaida Bonnie moved in with a Meher's family when she

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Speaker 1: was fifteen. They gave her a stable home, and she

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Speaker 1: says his parents treated her like a princess. By then,

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Speaker 1: she and Amir were inseparable.

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Speaker 4: He was the most generallest, kindest person I ever met,

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Speaker 4: and we had a good time together. You know, in

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Speaker 4: the seventies, we were just popping around, you know, being

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Speaker 4: kids having a good time.

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Speaker 1: But those good times would soon come to an end,

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Speaker 1: and Amir's troubles that the police were about to begin.

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Speaker 5: He was seventeen years old in June of nineteen seventy nine,

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Speaker 5: and the night that this crime happened, he and his

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Speaker 5: friends went out drinking and partying. You know, they were

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Speaker 5: out all night.

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Speaker 1: This is Arthur Larkin of the law firm Hale and Monico,

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Speaker 1: Amir's post conviction attorney.

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Speaker 5: And the last five years I'm representing plaintiffs in civil

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Speaker 5: rights cases, including people like Amir Zeta who've been wrongfully

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Speaker 5: convicted of crimes and are seeking to overturn their convictions.

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Speaker 1: So, Arthur, can you walk us through what happened that

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Speaker 1: night June fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine.

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Speaker 5: Emir was driving. He admits he was drinking. He actually

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Speaker 5: he bought Kayludes at Joseph Flente's Deli. He bought a

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Speaker 5: couple of magazines and he bought kayludes. So, as the

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Speaker 5: knight's coming to a close, he's driving around the town.

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Speaker 5: After he dropped all his friends off and he starts

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Speaker 5: driving home. He took a right turn down I believe

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Speaker 5: it's Gedney Street, and he turned off the street onto

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Speaker 5: a sort of a dirt area, an embankment adjacent to

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Speaker 5: the wind Jammer parking lot, and his car got stuck.

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Speaker 1: The Windjammer restaurant was located at the foot of Main

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Speaker 1: Street on the Hudson River waterfront. After trying unsuccessfully to

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Speaker 1: free his car from the embankment, Amir walked to a

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Speaker 1: phone booth and called his friend John Nash to tell

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Speaker 1: him he needed a tow truck. John offered to call

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Speaker 1: around looking for one, and after making a couple of calls,

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Speaker 1: he left to pick a mirror.

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Speaker 5: Up and Amir had told him in the phone call.

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Speaker 5: Amir had said, listen, just meet me at the in

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Speaker 5: the Windjammer parking lot. That's where my car is. It's adjacent.

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Speaker 5: After a Mer hangs up the phone, he goes down

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Speaker 5: back to his car. He tries to drive it again.

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Speaker 5: He can't. He wanders down to the parking lot and

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Speaker 5: as he's walking through the parking lot, he hears a sound.

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Speaker 2: It was a growl, like a gruff growling noise. I

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Speaker 2: was reluctant to actually even walk into that area because

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Speaker 2: it was dark. It was completely pitch black. There was

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Speaker 2: a garbage dumpster there, the trees were hanging over the top.

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Speaker 2: I had fear. I didn't want to go in the corner,

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Speaker 2: but at the same time, I was saying, like, well,

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Speaker 2: whatever is going on over there, Like, you know, don't

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Speaker 2: be a punk over there and check it out. I

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Speaker 2: approached slowly, and when I first looked, I seeing that

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Speaker 2: there was something at the dumpster, but I didn't. I

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Speaker 2: wasn't sure what it was.

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Speaker 1: A young woman was lying face down behind the dumpster,

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Speaker 1: her clothes and shreds. She was nearly naked and had

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Speaker 1: been stabbed multiple times.

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Speaker 5: He leans over and he tries to lift her up.

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Speaker 5: Oh my god, you know are you okay?

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Speaker 2: That's when I noticed, you know who that was?

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Speaker 3: The woman was seventeen year old Shirley Smith.

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Speaker 1: Amir recognized her because he'd gone to school with her cousin,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't know Shirley well.

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Speaker 2: By the time I had stepped up, discovered the victim

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Speaker 2: and attempted to try to help her, to you know,

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Speaker 2: give her assistance. I heard the my police car pulling

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Speaker 2: down the street.

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Speaker 5: Amir looks up. He sees a police car. He's standing

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Speaker 5: over a body. His family has had trouble with the

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Speaker 5: police before. Okay, so Amir immediately runs. He scared and

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Speaker 5: he runs.

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Speaker 1: Officers John McCorry and James Thurston were the first ones

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Speaker 1: on the scene. When they spotted a mirror crouch next

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Speaker 1: to the body. They immediately ran for him.

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Speaker 2: The two police officers threw me down. He hand cuffed

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Speaker 2: me behind my back, took me threw me over the

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Speaker 2: back of the police car, searched me, took everything out

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Speaker 2: of my pockets and put it in a police officer's hat,

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Speaker 2: and then they put me in the back of the

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Speaker 2: car just that quick.

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Speaker 1: And that's so fast, I mean, did you even register

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Speaker 1: what was happening at that point?

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Speaker 2: I knew something was wrong, it was someone there, but

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Speaker 2: I didn't realize the extent as far as my involvement.

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Speaker 2: I just walked up on it just that quick.

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Speaker 5: They put him in the backseat of the car and

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Speaker 5: they go to the victim and they try to revive her.

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Speaker 5: The victim is very bloody and they're trying to you know,

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Speaker 5: they're trying to do CPR, but she's pronounced dead at

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Speaker 5: the scene.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately, at that point another officer, Michael Roman, had arrived.

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Speaker 1: The policeman put a mirror back out of the car,

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Speaker 1: patrol car number three eighty three, to frisk him.

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Speaker 5: Now keep in mind, they've been touching the victim's body,

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Speaker 5: so their hands are bloody, they weren't wearing gloves, and

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Speaker 5: they don't find a murder weapon on a mirror there.

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Speaker 2: You took me up in the troll car. They transported

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Speaker 2: me up to my police station, and then later on

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Speaker 2: that morning I went before I believe it was Judge

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Speaker 2: mccar thing, and he arrayed me without bail and charged

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Speaker 2: me with second year murder and remanded me to the

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Speaker 2: Rockland County Jail.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. You can

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Speaker 1: listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts

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Speaker 1: one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava

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Speaker 1: for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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Speaker 2: I honestly believed that the truth would come out. I

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Speaker 2: really I did not realize the extent that they were

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Speaker 2: going to go to to make me look guilty.

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Speaker 3: So Arthur Shirley Smith's body has been found.

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Speaker 1: She's apparently been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death, but

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Speaker 1: no weapon has recovered and a mirror is the number

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Speaker 1: one suspect. So can you tell us about the investigation

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Speaker 1: that followed? What did police report say?

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Speaker 5: The police's version of events is that they pulled into

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Speaker 5: the parking lot after they received a call about screams

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Speaker 5: and dogs barking in the vicinity of the Windjama parking lot.

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Speaker 5: They say that when they got to the scene, they

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Speaker 5: saw a pair of legs protruding from behind a dumpster

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Speaker 5: with the underwear and pants down, and they said that

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Speaker 5: pair of legs was Amir Zeta's and that Amir was

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Speaker 5: trying to sexually assault the victim.

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Speaker 1: Officers McCord and Thurston claimed that when they came upon

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Speaker 1: a mirror, he wasn't wearing a shirt, and that as

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Speaker 1: they chased him, his pants were falling down. They said

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Speaker 1: that when they cuffed him and put him in the car,

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Speaker 1: his pants were still down.

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Speaker 5: And after they had attended to the victim and they

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Speaker 5: opened the police car door to try to frisk them,

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Speaker 5: his pants were miraculously pulled up and zipped up. Okay,

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Speaker 5: so they frisk a mirror and they find no murder weapon. Nothing.

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Speaker 5: There's some blood on his underwear, the back of his underwear,

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Speaker 5: there's some blood in his front pants pocket, and there's

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Speaker 5: a marijuana cigarette that they say they found in his

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Speaker 5: pocket with blood on it. Later tests show that that

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Speaker 5: blood matches the victim's blood. Now, no murder weapon was

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Speaker 5: ever found at the scene.

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Speaker 1: Divers searched the nearby Hudson River, and detectives scoured the

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Speaker 1: Windjammer parking lot, but no murder weapon was ever found.

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Speaker 1: Two days later, another officer, Douglas McDonald, was driving the

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Speaker 1: same patrol car number three eighty three, as McDonald later testified,

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Speaker 1: when he stopped to get gas, he ran into another

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Speaker 1: officer who was doing the same and the two started talking.

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Speaker 5: Now the crime is on a Friday morning, this is

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Speaker 5: now Sunday, and son of a gun. If both officers

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Speaker 5: don't look in the backseat of the car and say, oh,

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Speaker 5: my goodness, there's a knife.

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Speaker 1: Remember, patrol car three point eighty three had been searched

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Speaker 1: thoroughly after a mirror was picked up, and no knife

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Speaker 1: had been found at the time. But now this knife

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Speaker 1: had somehow been discovered in the car's back seat. This

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Speaker 1: was before DNA testing was available, but when tested, traces

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Speaker 1: of blood found on the knife were shown to be

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00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,040
Speaker 1: consistent with Shirley Smith's genetic profile.

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Speaker 5: And the prosecution's theory of trial is that the knife

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Speaker 5: was the murder weapon, and that even those hands were

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Speaker 5: handcuffed behind his back after the officers put him in

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Speaker 5: the car, a meir Zeta had somehow managed to wherever

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Speaker 5: he had secreted the knife on his person. He managed

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Speaker 5: to extract it, shove it under the seat somehow, and

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Speaker 5: pull his pants up all in one shot. Okay.

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Speaker 1: There were no fingerprints on the knife, nothing that directly

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Speaker 1: connected it to a mirror, and the blood found on

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Speaker 1: the knife could very well have gotten there the next day,

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Speaker 1: when Detective Arthur Keenan took it to New York City

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Speaker 1: for testing along with two vials of the victim's blood.

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Speaker 1: But determined to hold onto their prime suspect a mirror,

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Speaker 1: the police went looking for a witness to corroborate their theory.

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Speaker 5: They went to see Joe Lenti, who was known to

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Speaker 5: be a local drug dealer and who had sold a

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Speaker 5: mere the queludes and the magazines the night before. Joe

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Speaker 5: Lenti says, Yeah, that's very similar to the knife that

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Speaker 5: I sold a mer on Thursday night.

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Speaker 1: So the main evidence against you, allegedly was this knife.

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Speaker 1: Did you buy this knife?

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Speaker 3: Was this knife yours?

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Speaker 2: I'd had no knife. The knife miss magically appeared.

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Speaker 1: The knife the cop said they found in the car

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00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:20,680
Speaker 1: was a black folding knife with the word leopard on

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00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:24,120
Speaker 1: the handle. When they went to see Joseph Lenty, they

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00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,800
Speaker 1: didn't show him this exact knife, but one that was

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00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:30,040
Speaker 1: very similar, a white handled knife with a lion on

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Speaker 1: the handle that Detective Keenan had found in a drawer

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00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,920
Speaker 1: at the police station. Joseph Lenty told police that he

287
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:39,920
Speaker 1: had bought seventeen of these knives at a place called

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00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:41,960
Speaker 1: the Bronx Terminal Market.

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00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,080
Speaker 5: And that he had sold them all, well, sixteen of them.

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Speaker 5: Amir came in the knife before the crime and bought

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00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,440
Speaker 5: the last of them, the seventeenth knife, and he had

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00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,760
Speaker 5: the receipt for fifteen dollars from a mer but that

293
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:57,360
Speaker 5: was for the kueludes and the magazines. That wasn't for

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Speaker 5: a knife.

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00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,000
Speaker 1: Based on this knife that was found in the patrol car,

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00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:04,760
Speaker 1: the alleged murder weapon which a Mirror had supposedly purchased

297
00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:07,399
Speaker 1: from Joseph Lenty, and the fact that a mirror was

298
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,600
Speaker 1: at the scene when police arrived, A Mirror was charged

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00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:15,160
Speaker 1: with second degree murder, first degree attempted sodomy, and aggravated

300
00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:19,720
Speaker 1: criminal sexual abuse. His trial was set for six months later.

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00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:23,960
Speaker 3: So did you always believe in his innocence?

302
00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:26,760
Speaker 1: You know, back then when you guys were kids and

303
00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:27,680
Speaker 1: he gets arrested.

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00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:29,520
Speaker 3: What were you thinking.

305
00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:35,399
Speaker 4: When that happened? And I heard mama downstairs, and I

306
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,960
Speaker 4: heard her crying and screaming, I never in a thousand

307
00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:43,840
Speaker 4: years thought that he had gotten arrested for such a

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00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:48,240
Speaker 4: crime or anything of that nature. And I lost a

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00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,320
Speaker 4: lot of friends over that because they were like, Bonnie,

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Speaker 4: you know, your life's going to change. I didn't care

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Speaker 4: that my life was going to change. I stayed beside him,

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00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:00,359
Speaker 4: I stuck by him, and I said, this is going

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Speaker 4: to get better. I don't know why they're doing this.

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Speaker 4: I don't know why it came to this point, but I, honestly,

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Speaker 4: Maggie thought that this was going to get better, that

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Speaker 4: they were going to find the real person that committed

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00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:17,760
Speaker 4: this crime. And that's what I kept thinking for all

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Speaker 4: of these years.

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Speaker 1: Within a week following the crime, a grand jury was

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00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,080
Speaker 1: convened and Amir gave testimony about the events of that night.

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00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:34,320
Speaker 1: Amir's trial began six months later on January seventh, nineteen eighty,

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Speaker 1: in Rockland County Court before Judge Albert Rosenblatt. The prosecutor

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Speaker 1: was Rockland County's first Assistant District Attorney, William Frank. Amir's

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Speaker 1: defense attorney was William Kunstler.

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Speaker 5: The officer's testified to finding the knife in the backseat

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Speaker 5: of the car. Two days later, Joe Lenti testifies that

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Speaker 5: he bought the knife the Bronx Terminal market.

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Speaker 1: The prosecution also presented a witness, Donald Lewis, someone who

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00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:02,879
Speaker 1: had gone to school with Shirley and knew a mirror

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 5: And he claimed that he saw a mir at a

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Speaker 5: phone booth and the Amir turned and said to Shirley

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Speaker 5: Smith the victim, hey, Shirley, want to smoke a joint?

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00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,879
Speaker 5: And Shirley said sure. That was his testimony at trial.

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00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,600
Speaker 1: Amir maintains that this encounter never happened, and in fact,

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00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:26,159
Speaker 1: Donald Lewis was later tape recorded telling an acquaintance that

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Speaker 1: he had made the whole story up.

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00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:30,920
Speaker 5: And Lewis said, listen, you know I had a beef

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Speaker 5: with him. Don't tell anybody I didn't see him at

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00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,679
Speaker 5: a phone booth. In essence, what he said was his

341
00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,040
Speaker 5: trial testimony was a lie and he had that recorded.

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00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,560
Speaker 1: After the trial, Amir tried to appeal his conviction based

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00:19:44,600 --> 00:19:48,320
Speaker 1: on that recorded confession, but at the hearing Lewis changed

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00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:49,560
Speaker 1: his story again.

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Speaker 5: Instead of sticking by the recantation, Lewis said, yeah, I

346
00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:57,199
Speaker 5: knew that he was recording me, and so we just

347
00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:00,679
Speaker 5: orchestrated it and the judge did not buy the recantation,

348
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:05,119
Speaker 5: he wouldn't accept it, and Amir's motion was denied. I

349
00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:07,320
Speaker 5: think the police probably got to him and said, look,

350
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Speaker 5: you better, you better stick to your story.

351
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Speaker 1: And that's because, as it turned out later, Lewis was

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00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:17,880
Speaker 1: facing criminal charges in another matter and thus highly incentivized to.

353
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:18,879
Speaker 3: Incriminate a mirror.

354
00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 1: By sticking to his story that he'd seen Amir and

355
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:27,640
Speaker 1: Shirley together, he was able to avoid prosecution. So Arthur,

356
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:29,960
Speaker 1: the defense did not know that at the time. It

357
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:34,920
Speaker 1: wasn't disclosed by the prosecution. So what was the defense

358
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:36,960
Speaker 1: that Amir's attorneys presented?

359
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:41,480
Speaker 5: You know, Counsseler did a pretty good job tracking down

360
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:46,159
Speaker 5: the witnesses who confirmed Amir Zeida's version of events. His

361
00:20:46,240 --> 00:20:50,199
Speaker 5: friend John Nash testified. John Nash's mother, Catherine, testified that

362
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:52,600
Speaker 5: Emir had called the house at four o'clock in the morning.

363
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 5: Kunsseler got phone records from the phone company showing that

364
00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:59,879
Speaker 5: a call was made from a payphone in nayak All

365
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 5: on Broadway to Nash's house at four in the morning.

366
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:07,120
Speaker 5: Phone records showing that Nash had called for a tow

367
00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,400
Speaker 5: truck at four fifteen and four to fourteen am right,

368
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,840
Speaker 5: just as he testified, and just as Emir said that

369
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 5: his friend told him he would.

370
00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,320
Speaker 1: John testified that he had driven down to the waterfront

371
00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,360
Speaker 1: that night, but his own car broke down, and when

372
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:23,840
Speaker 1: he couldn't locate a mirror, he called a taxi to

373
00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:27,040
Speaker 1: take him home. And John's version of events matches up

374
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,399
Speaker 1: with the testimony that Amir gave at the earlier grand

375
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Speaker 1: jury hearing.

376
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:35,240
Speaker 5: Amir testified in his own defense, and so the jury

377
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:39,439
Speaker 5: had Amir's version of what happened, and his explanation, as

378
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,040
Speaker 5: I just said, is backed up by witnesses and by

379
00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:47,120
Speaker 5: telephone records and by the business records of this Buds taxi. Right,

380
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,600
Speaker 5: But it didn't it didn't matter to the jury. The

381
00:21:51,720 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 5: jury credits the officer's version of events and they convict him.

382
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:06,720
Speaker 2: It was surreal. I guess the first time the reality

383
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,760
Speaker 2: of my situation hit me, dawned on me was the

384
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 2: day of my sentencing, when they gave me twenty five

385
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:17,359
Speaker 2: to light. I just fell apart. I just started crying.

386
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,120
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe I can still feel that feeling right

387
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:22,679
Speaker 2: now in my heart as to what they did to me,

388
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:27,720
Speaker 2: and Howard felt, you know, they took my life away.

389
00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:34,840
Speaker 2: You know I could. I still could not understand what

390
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:39,440
Speaker 2: motivated them to want to do what they did to me.

391
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 2: We always believe, you know, like the truth will prevail.

392
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 2: And once I got convicted, we believe that when we

393
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:09,159
Speaker 2: fillowed the appeal, you know, that I would win the

394
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 2: appeal and they would be all be put in the

395
00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,240
Speaker 2: past and then we can go on with our lives.

396
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 2: And then as time started to go by, reality set in.

397
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:23,000
Speaker 2: I was in prison. There wasn't really much I can do.

398
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:27,560
Speaker 2: I've been assaulted, abused while I was incarcerated by staff.

399
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 2: I'm missing a bone and my right shoulder where I

400
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 2: was jumped by seven officers in the sergeant in attica

401
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:37,720
Speaker 2: and brutally beaten. That's a type of treatment that's like

402
00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 2: a regular thing, that's kind of like expected, as they say,

403
00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:44,280
Speaker 2: for people with the type of crime that I was

404
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 2: convicted of. They thought it was their privilege to abuse

405
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,760
Speaker 2: people that were incarcerated for the type of crime I

406
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:51,760
Speaker 2: was incarcerated for.

407
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 3: You mean like a sex offense.

408
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:59,000
Speaker 2: The sex offense. Yeah, the corrections officers took it upon themselves.

409
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 2: The you know, hurt people that had cases like mine. Yeah,

410
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:07,160
Speaker 2: they thought it was funny, you know. Yeah, I guess

411
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:10,800
Speaker 2: they thought it was their place in life to get

412
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:15,640
Speaker 2: revenge for the victims.

413
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,000
Speaker 1: Amir and Bonnie had gotten married in nineteen eighty before

414
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,080
Speaker 1: he went to prison. She continued to believe in him

415
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 1: and to visit regularly. They were allowed conjugal visits, and

416
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,240
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, their son, Amir Junior, was born.

417
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:39,160
Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty eight, they had a second son, Jimyor.

418
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure if things had went better, we

419
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:44,919
Speaker 2: would have had more children.

420
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 4: We had the two boys, and it was becoming complicated.

421
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:51,399
Speaker 2: I mean, I always.

422
00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:53,640
Speaker 4: Thought that things were going to change, you know, because

423
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:56,000
Speaker 4: it was innocent. I thought that tomorrow is going to

424
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,080
Speaker 4: get out. Tomorrow, things are going to change.

425
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,399
Speaker 1: So what did you tell your kids over the years

426
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 1: with their dad in prison.

427
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 4: That he was always innocent that, you know, when they

428
00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:08,639
Speaker 4: were little. That was hard to tell them things like that,

429
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 4: you know, but they always hurt the same thing over

430
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,200
Speaker 4: and over, so they always believed.

431
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 2: In his innocence.

432
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:16,960
Speaker 4: I mean, I didn't want to get into the glory

433
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 4: parts of it, you know, it's not something you really

434
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:22,639
Speaker 4: wanted to discuss. But the kids were being subjected to

435
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:23,840
Speaker 4: things they shouldn't have.

436
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 2: Maggie, she had two sons to raise and she had

437
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,480
Speaker 2: a life of her own that she had to live,

438
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 2: so it became difficult for her.

439
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: Eventually, Bonnie and Amir made the difficult decision to divorce.

440
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 1: Bonnie later remarried and had a third son, Connor.

441
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 2: She did what she had to do, and I respected that.

442
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 2: It broke my heart. But the thing is is though

443
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 2: even though she went on and made a life for herself,

444
00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,679
Speaker 2: I was still always a part of her life and

445
00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 2: she was still there for me.

446
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:03,199
Speaker 1: Filed a number of appeals between nineteen eighty seven and

447
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: two thousand, but his conviction was upheld in every case.

448
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,360
Speaker 1: He went up for parole seven times, but was denied

449
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,719
Speaker 1: each time because he refused to admit guilt for the murder.

450
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 1: The Parole Board has since relaxed its requirement that defendants

451
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,760
Speaker 1: admit guilt in order to be eligible, and finally, in

452
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: February of twenty eighteen, after serving almost forty years of

453
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 1: his sentence, Amir was granted parole, but his incarceration didn't

454
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: end there.

455
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 2: I wasn't released for two more years because parole sabotaged

456
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:40,640
Speaker 2: my release, he.

457
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 5: Couldn't find suitable housing, and the reason for that is

458
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,400
Speaker 5: he's got a sex offense as part of his conviction,

459
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 5: and there were restrictions on where he can live.

460
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,600
Speaker 2: My family, my son were attempting to get me a

461
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 2: place to stay, but I also still went through trouble

462
00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:02,280
Speaker 2: because every time my family rented a place with the

463
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,159
Speaker 2: New York state law, with the registry, you have to

464
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 2: inform the landlord as to what you're incarcerated for.

465
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 1: Finally, Amir was able to find a housing situation that

466
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,439
Speaker 1: satisfied the parole board and he was officially released in

467
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:20,960
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, but the charges and the restrictions remain

468
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:21,760
Speaker 1: on his record.

469
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 3: You're still a registered sex offender right now. You have

470
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 3: not been cleared of that.

471
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 2: No, I haven't been cleared of anything yet. So I

472
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 2: am a Level three and I'm basically under house arrest.

473
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 4: So yeah, after Jesus, I don't know how many years

474
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 4: we've got back together again. I never stopped loving them

475
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,359
Speaker 4: and I never stopped believing in them.

476
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 1: Amir is now living with Bonnie, whose husband Brian McKenna

477
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 1: passed away in twenty twenty one. Amir is able to

478
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: spend time with his sons and under certain conditions, his grandchildren.

479
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,679
Speaker 1: But his current status out of prison but with severe

480
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: restrictions on his freedom is taking a toll.

481
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 2: You know.

482
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,879
Speaker 4: It's it's hard for him just to become a grandfather

483
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 4: at home because he's actually not fully home yet if

484
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 4: you look at the big picture of it. We can't

485
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 4: go to them and Vermont, we can't play with the

486
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 4: grandchildren over there. We can't go to a Thanksgiving dinner

487
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:26,159
Speaker 4: over there, or at Easter dinner.

488
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,760
Speaker 1: Amir also suffers from PTSD as a result of his

489
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: decades in prison.

490
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:36,159
Speaker 4: So sometimes he's got to take a step back because

491
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 4: it just it's too overwhelming. He'll just sit there and

492
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 4: sometimes stare.

493
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 2: You know, I don't even know what's.

494
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 4: Going on in his mind, and what does it look

495
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 4: like throughout the night? He fights, he yells, he's he's

496
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 4: got a lot of you know, things that happen to

497
00:28:54,800 --> 00:29:00,080
Speaker 4: him in the sleep, and we're still learning how to

498
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 4: control that. He's still in his back of his mind,

499
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,640
Speaker 4: is not released from this hole that's on him. It's

500
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 4: rough sometimes, but I love him. He doesn't need me

501
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 4: any harm. Here's a man that wouldn't hurt a freaking fly.

502
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 2: We had one.

503
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 4: Incident where it was a little rough and oh my god,

504
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 4: didn't cry and cry and cry, and it was something

505
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 4: that we got through and it's something we continue to

506
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 4: get through.

507
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty, Arthur Larkin learned about a Mirror through

508
00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:41,000
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Dskovic an XANNERI, who, upon his release, started a

509
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: foundation to look into other cases of wrongful conviction.

510
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 5: And he took letters from people all over the country

511
00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 5: who alleged that they were wrongfully convicted. And this is

512
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 5: one case that he and I started working on a

513
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 5: couple of years ago.

514
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 3: So what was it about this case?

515
00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: You know, on its face, it does seem like this

516
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: was a guy who was found next to a body,

517
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: kind of wrong place, wrong time. So what was it

518
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: about this that you were like, you know, I think

519
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: this guy might be innocent.

520
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 5: I think it's a good point you're making, because a

521
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 5: lot of these cases, when you first look at them,

522
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 5: you think, Okay, you know this guy saying he's innocent.

523
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 5: Knock me over with a feather. You know, you were

524
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:26,719
Speaker 5: at the scene. You were found leaning over the body,

525
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 5: according to your version of events, at a minimum, so

526
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 5: there's no question you were there. What happened here. And

527
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 5: when I started digging into the facts of the case

528
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 5: and looking at some of the police reports in the case,

529
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 5: you know, bit by bit, my confidence in the conviction

530
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 5: was chipped away. And the kicker for me was the

531
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 5: information about the knife, which was the alleged murder weapon.

532
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, Paula Parrish, a caseworker for the Deskovic Foundation,

533
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: filed a freedom of information in law request to review

534
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 1: the Nayak police records from Amir's case.

535
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 5: And in this box of documents is a lot of information,

536
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:11,719
Speaker 5: a lot of stuff that was never turned over to

537
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 5: the defense. The first document is an investigation memorandum prepared

538
00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 5: by an investigator, James Stewart, who was a DA investigator.

539
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 2: At the time.

540
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 3: And so what does this memo say?

541
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 5: The memorandum says that in August nineteen seventy nine, investigator

542
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:33,240
Speaker 5: Stuart and a Nayak detective went to the Bronx terminal

543
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 5: market and they interviewed a security supervisor who told them that,

544
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 5: to his knowledge, the Bronx terminal market does not sell knives,

545
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 5: which means that Joe Lenti's story about buying knives at

546
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 5: the Bronx terminal market and selling one to Amir Zeta

547
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 5: was highly.

548
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 3: Suspect, So why would Lenti lie.

549
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 5: Lenti would lie because he was under investigation at the

550
00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 5: time for selling drugs in Niak, and in July of

551
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy nine, about a month after he gave his statement,

552
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 5: he was arrested and charged in a federal case. He

553
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 5: was arrested by the Niak police working in conjunction with

554
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 5: the FBI, and he was charged with federal drug crimes.

555
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 5: He was indicted and he was allowed to plead guilty

556
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:27,240
Speaker 5: and got a sentence of probation. All the other defendants

557
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 5: in that drug case went to prison, all of them

558
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 5: who were convicted, except for Joe Lenti, he only got probation.

559
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: The information that lenty could not have bought the knives

560
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,280
Speaker 1: of the Bronx terminal market was never turned over to

561
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: the defense. Withholding evidence from the defense is known as

562
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:45,960
Speaker 1: a Brady violation.

563
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,480
Speaker 5: And not only that, the reports of the two officers

564
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 5: who supposedly found the knife, their daily activity reports were

565
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 5: never turned over to the defense. Now we've seen them,

566
00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 5: they're full of crossouts and strikeouts. They suggest that they

567
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 5: were both at this garage at different times. They weren't

568
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 5: there at the same time as they said they were

569
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 5: a trial.

570
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 3: So that would be another Brady violation.

571
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 5: Yes, that would be clearly be a Brady violation my view, absolutely,

572
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,600
Speaker 5: But the jury did not know the information about the knife.

573
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:18,760
Speaker 5: And I think that if the jury had known that

574
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 5: the police made up a story and testified inaccurately, if

575
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:27,680
Speaker 5: not outright falsely about investigating the source of that knife,

576
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 5: and that the testimony was intended to cover up the

577
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,360
Speaker 5: fact that there was a witness out there who could

578
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 5: have said that they didn't sell knives at the Bronx

579
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 5: terminal market, it would have called into question the whole

580
00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 5: story of how how is it that this knife got

581
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:41,960
Speaker 5: into the backseat of the car.

582
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: All of this points to police and prosecutorial misconduct, which

583
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 1: in itself is basis for a new trial. But when

584
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: they took a deeper dive into those recovered police documents,

585
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 1: the team uncovered further evidence that could prove even more significant.

586
00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 5: We did make another FOIL freedom of information law request

587
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:07,280
Speaker 5: to a different agency within Rockland County known as the

588
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 5: Bureau of Criminal Identification, and one of the things that

589
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:15,279
Speaker 5: that agency does is process crime scenes. So we requested

590
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 5: everything that they had on this case, and we got

591
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,880
Speaker 5: over one hundred photographs as well as additional reports and

592
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 5: summaries of what the investigators found that morning when they

593
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 5: came to the crime scene after the crime had occurred.

594
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,800
Speaker 1: Arthur and his team showed those photographs to a renowned

595
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:35,440
Speaker 1: crime reconstruction expert, Brent Turvy.

596
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 5: So one of the conclusions he drew after looking at

597
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,479
Speaker 5: all the photos is that the victim was transported within

598
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 5: the parking lot inside of a car. You can see

599
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 5: blood spatter on one end of the parking lot, and

600
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:51,040
Speaker 5: then you see the victim's body is found on the

601
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:53,360
Speaker 5: other end of the parking lot, and there was a

602
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 5: large blood stain close to where the victim was apparently

603
00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 5: thrown out of a car and then dragged behind the dumpster.

604
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,880
Speaker 5: But in between those two areas there's no blood spatter,

605
00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 5: and you'd naturally expect a lot of blood inside the

606
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 5: car where that victim was transported. Emir Zeta's car, as

607
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:13,840
Speaker 5: you know, was found near the crime scene. It was

608
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 5: not driveable, it had broken down, and there was not

609
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:20,240
Speaker 5: a drop of blood in the car. So clearly Emir's

610
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:23,879
Speaker 5: car was not used in this crime. That's point number one.

611
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:28,200
Speaker 5: Point number two is he looked closely at the photos

612
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 5: of the knife that was alleged to be the murder weapon.

613
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 1: Remember this is the knife that the two policemen said

614
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 1: they found in the patrol car days after the crime.

615
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 5: He said clearly that knife was not used in this

616
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 5: crime because if it had been, it would have had

617
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 5: a lot more blood on it than it did. The

618
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 5: thing would have been full of blood if it had

619
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 5: been used to stab this woman twenty six times.

620
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:54,759
Speaker 1: Arthur believes this new evidence, along with a number of

621
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: other conclusions Turvy drew from the crime scene photos, is

622
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,920
Speaker 1: a game changer for Amir's case.

623
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 5: What we have now is affirmative evidence that Amir had

624
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 5: nothing to do with this, and so we've asked the

625
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 5: court to hold a hearing on a claim of actual

626
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 5: innocence that Amir is actually innocent of the crime. And

627
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,280
Speaker 5: I really think the court should take a very hard

628
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,279
Speaker 5: look at everything we've presented. I really do think this

629
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 5: is a compelling case of a miscarriage of justice and

630
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 5: I hope the court agrees with us.

631
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:33,359
Speaker 1: But for now, until he's fully exonerated, Amir's life is

632
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 1: still on hold.

633
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 2: I want to go on with my life and be

634
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,480
Speaker 2: able to live my life like a human being, not

635
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 2: like a trapped animal. That throle has me like, you know,

636
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 2: caged up as I just you know, I want to

637
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 2: be able to go and go to water parks and

638
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,400
Speaker 2: amusement parks with my grandkids. I am not allowed to

639
00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:01,560
Speaker 2: go anywhere where there's children. I mean, they're just like, really,

640
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:07,680
Speaker 2: they literally have me designated as being an animal, a monster.

641
00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:12,799
Speaker 1: What does that feel like emotionally to be called these things?

642
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:17,160
Speaker 3: A murderer, a rapist and you're none of those? What

643
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:17,640
Speaker 3: is that like?

644
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 2: I mean, it breaks my heart. I see it in

645
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 2: the look that people give me when they look at

646
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:29,160
Speaker 2: me like I'm an animal and I've never done anything

647
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,239
Speaker 2: to anybody in my life in a cool way, my

648
00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 2: mother and father raised me right.

649
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 6: They were beautiful people. I want people to know. I

650
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:40,879
Speaker 6: want them to know the truth. I want my mother

651
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,480
Speaker 6: and father to finally be able to rest in peace.

652
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:46,320
Speaker 6: I don't want this to be the legacy.

653
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:50,480
Speaker 2: That I leave behind from my children and my grandchildren.

654
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 4: We wanted all to come to an end. We haven't

655
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 4: started living again, Maggie, you know, and that's where we

656
00:37:58,560 --> 00:37:59,280
Speaker 4: need to get.

657
00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:09,960
Speaker 1: At Amir and Bonnie are planning to remarry when the

658
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 1: time is right, she says, when all of this is

659
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: behind them.

660
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,680
Speaker 4: I envision us like getting married next to the ocean.

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Speaker 7: Us being dressed in attire that we dressed in the seventies,

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00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:28,680
Speaker 7: like me in this beautiful white, easy going dressed with

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Speaker 7: some flowers in my hair.

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Speaker 4: And I envision him and white khakis and you know,

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00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 4: a shirt from that time period. I do envision good things,

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00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 4: and I envision all our kids with us.

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00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 3: What beach do you think? Is there a place that

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00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:42,440
Speaker 3: you like?

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00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:44,720
Speaker 2: I would say down at the shore.

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00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 4: We used to spend a lot of time down at

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00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:51,799
Speaker 4: the shore. Seaside heights, that area, those are our stopping grounds. Yeah,

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00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 4: we both missed the shore.

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00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:04,760
Speaker 1: If you'd like to support the work of the Jeffrey

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00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 1: Deskovic Foundation for Justice, please go to the link in

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00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 1: the episode description, and we'll also have a link to

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00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: amersko fund me campaign to help support him in his

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00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 1: new life. Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with

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00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:29,640
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling. Please support your local innocence organizations and go

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00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 1: to the links in the episode description to see how

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00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:35,120
Speaker 1: you can help. I'd like to thank our executive producers

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00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 1: Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis, as well as

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00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:43,320
Speaker 1: senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Kathleen Fink, story editor Hannah Beal,

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00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:47,839
Speaker 1: and researcher Shelby Sorels. Mixing and sound design are by

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00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: Jackie Pauley, with additional production by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall.

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00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:55,360
Speaker 1: The music in this production is by three time OSCAR

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00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on

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00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: all social media platforms at Lava for Good and at

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00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on all platforms

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00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,560
Speaker 1: at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a

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00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal

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Speaker 1: Company Number one