WEBVTT - #442 Maggie Freleng with Amer Zada 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.800 Early on the morning of June fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine, 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:12.719 Amir Zeta was driving home from partying with friends when 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.640 his car got stuck in an embankment down near the 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.720 Hudson River waterfront in Nyak, New York. Amir called a 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.600 friend from a payphone to help him secure a tow truck. 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.599 While he waited in the darkened parking lot of a 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:29.840 nearby restaurant, he heard a strange noise coming from behind 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:30.479 a dumpster. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.559 It was a growl, like a gruff, growling noise. I 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:36.600 didn't want to go in the corner, but at the 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.639 same time I was saying, like, well, whatever is going 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.080 on over there, Like, you know, don't be a punk, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:44.680 go over there and check it out. 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.840 What he saw there shocked and terrified him. But before 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:53.279 he could react, police cars were on the scene, sirens blaring. 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.680 Two police officers dow me down. He handcuffed me behind 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.760 my back, searched me, and then they put me in 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.440 a back at a car just that quick. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.600 Amir was arrested and charged with sexual assaults and the 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.400 brutal murder of a young local woman, Shirley Smith. The 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.120 woman he had found lying behind a dumpster covered in 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:14.800 blood and had tried to help. 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.520 My name is Emir Zeta. I did forty one years 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.520 in prison for a crime that I didn't. 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.800 Commit from Lava for good. 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:41.839 This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Amir Zeta. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.160 I'm an Arab American. I was born in Nyak Hospital 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:47.480 in Rockley County, New York. 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.280 Amir Zeta was born in nineteen sixty one into a large, 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:53.240 loving family. 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.360 My mother and father are from Jordan. They immigrated to 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.360 the United States in nineteen fifty eight. At the time, 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.720 it was my eldest brother, Nasar, eldest sister in the Zira, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.320 and the two twins, Samir and Samir who was my 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.480 next oldest, and then myself from the baby of the family. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.960 Growing up, Amir didn't feel any different from the other 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.519 kids at school, but when he was five or six 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.280 years old, something happened changed the way others saw his 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.000 family and the way he felt about himself. 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.639 My father got a dispute with a neighbor over property. 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:33.400 Apparently my father didn't speak English at will, and they 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:35.840 ended up calling a police officer. The police officer ended 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:38.160 up getting a glass cut on the back of his hand. 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.919 But at the time they maintained that he had been 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.519 shot by my father. It wasn't the case. But I 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:47.720 still have the memories too of being a six year 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:50.840 old kid sitting in my father's attempted a murder on 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.160 a police officer's trial, and how it affected me, and 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.880 then how it affected me through my school years from 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.839 that point on, about being called the murder the cop 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.760 killer's son, even though there was no police officer killed 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:05.639 or even shot. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.760 The charge against his father was dismissed, but from that 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.160 time on, Amir says his family was treated differently by 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:14.960 the police. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.560 They started going after my family in a methodical manner, 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.440 for my eldest brother, then my next brother, and me. 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.040 My eldest sister left out of the county. She seen 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.800 the writing on the wall and she took off. She 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:28.160 got married and left the county. 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:33.280 Amir's other sister, Samira, was deported to the Middle East 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.880 and later died from a medical issue that Amir beliefs 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:37.720 could have been. 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.680 Easily treated in the United States. 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.680 His brother Samir ended up serving nearly forty two years 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:48.040 in prison and was also deported upon his release. Despite 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.840 his family's troubles, Amir found a bright spot in all 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:52.640 of this darkness. 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.800 I knew a mirror from the time I was like 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.520 in grammar school, and I always knew Amir had a 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:08.240 crush on me. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.080 So we were like, what maybe twelve years old. 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.120 This is Bonnie McKenna, But when Amir met her in 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.280 seventh grade, she was Bonnie Stalter. 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.800 We shared an art class, I believe, in a music 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.960 class at the school. I used to always sit at 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.680 the table with her in the class, and you know, 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.120 spend more time paying attention to her than I was 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.240 to class. And then one day I took a chance 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:39.360 and I walked up to her when we were at 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:40.320 the lockers. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:44.600 And he's like Bonnie Sue Stalter, and he like just 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.599 takes me and he flings me up against the locker 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.200 and he starts kissing. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.160 Me, and I kissed her. 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:54.920 Man, he like stole the kiss from me, his first 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.359 kiss from me, and we have like connected ever since 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:00.200 that moment on. 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.640 Amir soon went away to military academy, but he never 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.719 forgot that first kiss. A year and a half later, 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.839 he came back to Nayak to register for high school. 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.400 She was the first person I seen she was actually 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.039 outside the school and I still had I was in 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.120 the military academy. I still have my uniform on, and 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.440 she was the first beautiful face that I seen. And 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.960 then from there we just reignited the flame that you 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.320 know has been lit for quite a while. And you know, 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:31.840 I've always felt like I loved her. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.320 So I didn't have the perfect life. My life was 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.960 very complicated as a child, and I was a runaway 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.960 and I wound up with mister and missus. 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.200 Zaida Bonnie moved in with a Meher's family when she 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.680 was fifteen. They gave her a stable home, and she 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.039 says his parents treated her like a princess. By then, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:56.640 she and Amir were inseparable. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:01.400 He was the most generallest, kindest person I ever met, 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.520 and we had a good time together. You know, in 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.120 the seventies, we were just popping around, you know, being 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:09.839 kids having a good time. 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:13.400 But those good times would soon come to an end, 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.760 and Amir's troubles that the police were about to begin. 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.520 He was seventeen years old in June of nineteen seventy nine, 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.080 and the night that this crime happened, he and his 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:32.520 friends went out drinking and partying. You know, they were 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:33.440 out all night. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.320 This is Arthur Larkin of the law firm Hale and Monico, 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:40.279 Amir's post conviction attorney. 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.520 And the last five years I'm representing plaintiffs in civil 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:48.920 rights cases, including people like Amir Zeta who've been wrongfully 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.320 convicted of crimes and are seeking to overturn their convictions. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.760 So, Arthur, can you walk us through what happened that 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.320 night June fifteenth, nineteen seventy nine. 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.360 Emir was driving. He admits he was drinking. He actually 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:10.280 he bought Kayludes at Joseph Flente's Deli. He bought a 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:15.200 couple of magazines and he bought kayludes. So, as the 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:18.360 knight's coming to a close, he's driving around the town. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:20.440 After he dropped all his friends off and he starts 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.160 driving home. He took a right turn down I believe 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:29.280 it's Gedney Street, and he turned off the street onto 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.640 a sort of a dirt area, an embankment adjacent to 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.320 the wind Jammer parking lot, and his car got stuck. 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.040 The Windjammer restaurant was located at the foot of Main 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.920 Street on the Hudson River waterfront. After trying unsuccessfully to 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.960 free his car from the embankment, Amir walked to a 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.360 phone booth and called his friend John Nash to tell 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.520 him he needed a tow truck. John offered to call 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.800 around looking for one, and after making a couple of calls, 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:58.600 he left to pick a mirror. 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:00.960 Up and Amir had told him in the phone call. 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.760 Amir had said, listen, just meet me at the in 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.120 the Windjammer parking lot. That's where my car is. It's adjacent. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.200 After a Mer hangs up the phone, he goes down 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.160 back to his car. He tries to drive it again. 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.000 He can't. He wanders down to the parking lot and 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:17.680 as he's walking through the parking lot, he hears a sound. 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.880 It was a growl, like a gruff growling noise. I 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.960 was reluctant to actually even walk into that area because 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.760 it was dark. It was completely pitch black. There was 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.440 a garbage dumpster there, the trees were hanging over the top. 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.560 I had fear. I didn't want to go in the corner, 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.120 but at the same time, I was saying, like, well, 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.280 whatever is going on over there, Like, you know, don't 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:44.760 be a punk over there and check it out. I 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.440 approached slowly, and when I first looked, I seeing that 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.720 there was something at the dumpster, but I didn't. I 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:53.800 wasn't sure what it was. 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.199 A young woman was lying face down behind the dumpster, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.400 her clothes and shreds. She was nearly naked and had 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:05.240 been stabbed multiple times. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.800 He leans over and he tries to lift her up. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.280 Oh my god, you know are you okay? 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.520 That's when I noticed, you know who that was? 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.760 The woman was seventeen year old Shirley Smith. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.520 Amir recognized her because he'd gone to school with her cousin, 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:24.560 but he didn't know Shirley well. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:29.959 By the time I had stepped up, discovered the victim 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.360 and attempted to try to help her, to you know, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:40.240 give her assistance. I heard the my police car pulling 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:41.360 down the street. 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.640 Amir looks up. He sees a police car. He's standing 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.200 over a body. His family has had trouble with the 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:53.800 police before. Okay, so Amir immediately runs. He scared and 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.080 he runs. 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.160 Officers John McCorry and James Thurston were the first ones 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.719 on the scene. When they spotted a mirror crouch next 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.360 to the body. They immediately ran for him. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:10.720 The two police officers threw me down. He hand cuffed 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.160 me behind my back, took me threw me over the 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.839 back of the police car, searched me, took everything out 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.800 of my pockets and put it in a police officer's hat, 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:20.719 and then they put me in the back of the 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:22.960 car just that quick. 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.439 And that's so fast, I mean, did you even register 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.160 what was happening at that point? 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.000 I knew something was wrong, it was someone there, but 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.520 I didn't realize the extent as far as my involvement. 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.199 I just walked up on it just that quick. 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.240 They put him in the backseat of the car and 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.960 they go to the victim and they try to revive her. 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.640 The victim is very bloody and they're trying to you know, 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.680 they're trying to do CPR, but she's pronounced dead at 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:53.079 the scene. 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:58.880 Unfortunately, at that point another officer, Michael Roman, had arrived. 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.440 The policeman put a mirror back out of the car, 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.680 patrol car number three eighty three, to frisk him. 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:07.400 Now keep in mind, they've been touching the victim's body, 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.360 so their hands are bloody, they weren't wearing gloves, and 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.280 they don't find a murder weapon on a mirror there. 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.520 You took me up in the troll car. They transported 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.240 me up to my police station, and then later on 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.320 that morning I went before I believe it was Judge 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.120 mccar thing, and he arrayed me without bail and charged 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.520 me with second year murder and remanded me to the 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:31.560 Rockland County Jail. 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.880 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. You can 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.960 listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.439 one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava 0:11:52.480 --> 0:12:00.400 for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.719 I honestly believed that the truth would come out. I 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.839 really I did not realize the extent that they were 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.880 going to go to to make me look guilty. 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.160 So Arthur Shirley Smith's body has been found. 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.840 She's apparently been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death, but 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.040 no weapon has recovered and a mirror is the number 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:32.640 one suspect. So can you tell us about the investigation 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.480 that followed? What did police report say? 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.560 The police's version of events is that they pulled into 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.079 the parking lot after they received a call about screams 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:46.440 and dogs barking in the vicinity of the Windjama parking lot. 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.439 They say that when they got to the scene, they 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.920 saw a pair of legs protruding from behind a dumpster 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.240 with the underwear and pants down, and they said that 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:58.720 pair of legs was Amir Zeta's and that Amir was 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.640 trying to sexually assault the victim. 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.480 Officers McCord and Thurston claimed that when they came upon 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.240 a mirror, he wasn't wearing a shirt, and that as 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.360 they chased him, his pants were falling down. They said 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.160 that when they cuffed him and put him in the car, 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:15.120 his pants were still down. 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.560 And after they had attended to the victim and they 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.320 opened the police car door to try to frisk them, 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.760 his pants were miraculously pulled up and zipped up. Okay, 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.600 so they frisk a mirror and they find no murder weapon. Nothing. 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.160 There's some blood on his underwear, the back of his underwear, 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.520 there's some blood in his front pants pocket, and there's 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.120 a marijuana cigarette that they say they found in his 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.880 pocket with blood on it. Later tests show that that 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:48.560 blood matches the victim's blood. Now, no murder weapon was 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:49.840 ever found at the scene. 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.960 Divers searched the nearby Hudson River, and detectives scoured the 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:01.720 Windjammer parking lot, but no murder weapon was ever found. 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.200 Two days later, another officer, Douglas McDonald, was driving the 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:10.880 same patrol car number three eighty three, as McDonald later testified, 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.960 when he stopped to get gas, he ran into another 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.800 officer who was doing the same and the two started talking. 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:20.200 Now the crime is on a Friday morning, this is 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.200 now Sunday, and son of a gun. If both officers 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.200 don't look in the backseat of the car and say, oh, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:27.680 my goodness, there's a knife. 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.880 Remember, patrol car three point eighty three had been searched 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.000 thoroughly after a mirror was picked up, and no knife 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.360 had been found at the time. But now this knife 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.960 had somehow been discovered in the car's back seat. This 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:46.120 was before DNA testing was available, but when tested, traces 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.160 of blood found on the knife were shown to be 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.040 consistent with Shirley Smith's genetic profile. 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.200 And the prosecution's theory of trial is that the knife 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.440 was the murder weapon, and that even those hands were 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.560 handcuffed behind his back after the officers put him in 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:06.240 the car, a meir Zeta had somehow managed to wherever 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.320 he had secreted the knife on his person. He managed 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.320 to extract it, shove it under the seat somehow, and 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.920 pull his pants up all in one shot. Okay. 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.320 There were no fingerprints on the knife, nothing that directly 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.040 connected it to a mirror, and the blood found on 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.840 the knife could very well have gotten there the next day, 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.080 when Detective Arthur Keenan took it to New York City 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.960 for testing along with two vials of the victim's blood. 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.640 But determined to hold onto their prime suspect a mirror, 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.720 the police went looking for a witness to corroborate their theory. 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:45.680 They went to see Joe Lenti, who was known to 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.960 be a local drug dealer and who had sold a 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.920 mere the queludes and the magazines the night before. Joe 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.720 Lenti says, Yeah, that's very similar to the knife that 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.840 I sold a mer on Thursday night. 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:04.320 So the main evidence against you, allegedly was this knife. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:06.120 Did you buy this knife? 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:06.920 Was this knife yours? 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:13.840 I'd had no knife. The knife miss magically appeared. 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.240 The knife the cop said they found in the car 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.680 was a black folding knife with the word leopard on 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.120 the handle. When they went to see Joseph Lenty, they 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.800 didn't show him this exact knife, but one that was 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.040 very similar, a white handled knife with a lion on 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.120 the handle that Detective Keenan had found in a drawer 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.920 at the police station. Joseph Lenty told police that he 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.920 had bought seventeen of these knives at a place called 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:41.960 the Bronx Terminal Market. 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.080 And that he had sold them all, well, sixteen of them. 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.600 Amir came in the knife before the crime and bought 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.440 the last of them, the seventeenth knife, and he had 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.760 the receipt for fifteen dollars from a mer but that 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.360 was for the kueludes and the magazines. That wasn't for 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:57.960 a knife. 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.000 Based on this knife that was found in the patrol car, 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.760 the alleged murder weapon which a Mirror had supposedly purchased 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.399 from Joseph Lenty, and the fact that a mirror was 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.600 at the scene when police arrived, A Mirror was charged 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:15.160 with second degree murder, first degree attempted sodomy, and aggravated 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:19.720 criminal sexual abuse. His trial was set for six months later. 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:23.960 So did you always believe in his innocence? 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:26.760 You know, back then when you guys were kids and 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:27.680 he gets arrested. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:29.520 What were you thinking. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:35.399 When that happened? And I heard mama downstairs, and I 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.960 heard her crying and screaming, I never in a thousand 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.840 years thought that he had gotten arrested for such a 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:48.240 crime or anything of that nature. And I lost a 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.320 lot of friends over that because they were like, Bonnie, 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:53.960 you know, your life's going to change. I didn't care 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.600 that my life was going to change. I stayed beside him, 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.359 I stuck by him, and I said, this is going 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.240 to get better. I don't know why they're doing this. 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.440 I don't know why it came to this point, but I, honestly, 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.360 Maggie thought that this was going to get better, that 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.560 they were going to find the real person that committed 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.760 this crime. And that's what I kept thinking for all 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:19.359 of these years. 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.560 Within a week following the crime, a grand jury was 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:29.080 convened and Amir gave testimony about the events of that night. 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:34.320 Amir's trial began six months later on January seventh, nineteen eighty, 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.480 in Rockland County Court before Judge Albert Rosenblatt. The prosecutor 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.080 was Rockland County's first Assistant District Attorney, William Frank. Amir's 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.120 defense attorney was William Kunstler. 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.040 The officer's testified to finding the knife in the backseat 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.159 of the car. Two days later, Joe Lenti testifies that 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.160 he bought the knife the Bronx Terminal market. 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.479 The prosecution also presented a witness, Donald Lewis, someone who 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.879 had gone to school with Shirley and knew a mirror 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.040 as well. 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.280 And he claimed that he saw a mir at a 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.240 phone booth and the Amir turned and said to Shirley 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.440 Smith the victim, hey, Shirley, want to smoke a joint? 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.879 And Shirley said sure. That was his testimony at trial. 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.600 Amir maintains that this encounter never happened, and in fact, 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:26.159 Donald Lewis was later tape recorded telling an acquaintance that 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.280 he had made the whole story up. 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:30.920 And Lewis said, listen, you know I had a beef 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.159 with him. Don't tell anybody I didn't see him at 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:36.679 a phone booth. In essence, what he said was his 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.040 trial testimony was a lie and he had that recorded. 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.560 After the trial, Amir tried to appeal his conviction based 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.320 on that recorded confession, but at the hearing Lewis changed 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:49.560 his story again. 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:55.000 Instead of sticking by the recantation, Lewis said, yeah, I 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:57.199 knew that he was recording me, and so we just 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.679 orchestrated it and the judge did not buy the recantation, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:05.119 he wouldn't accept it, and Amir's motion was denied. I 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.320 think the police probably got to him and said, look, 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.439 you better, you better stick to your story. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.840 And that's because, as it turned out later, Lewis was 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:17.880 facing criminal charges in another matter and thus highly incentivized to. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:18.879 Incriminate a mirror. 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.240 By sticking to his story that he'd seen Amir and 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:27.640 Shirley together, he was able to avoid prosecution. So Arthur, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:29.960 the defense did not know that at the time. It 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:34.920 wasn't disclosed by the prosecution. So what was the defense 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:36.960 that Amir's attorneys presented? 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.480 You know, Counsseler did a pretty good job tracking down 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:46.159 the witnesses who confirmed Amir Zeida's version of events. His 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.199 friend John Nash testified. John Nash's mother, Catherine, testified that 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.600 Emir had called the house at four o'clock in the morning. 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:57.040 Kunsseler got phone records from the phone company showing that 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.879 a call was made from a payphone in nayak All 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.320 on Broadway to Nash's house at four in the morning. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.120 Phone records showing that Nash had called for a tow 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.400 truck at four fifteen and four to fourteen am right, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.840 just as he testified, and just as Emir said that 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:15.000 his friend told him he would. 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:18.320 John testified that he had driven down to the waterfront 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.360 that night, but his own car broke down, and when 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.840 he couldn't locate a mirror, he called a taxi to 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:27.040 take him home. And John's version of events matches up 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.399 with the testimony that Amir gave at the earlier grand 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:31.199 jury hearing. 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.240 Amir testified in his own defense, and so the jury 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:39.439 had Amir's version of what happened, and his explanation, as 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:43.040 I just said, is backed up by witnesses and by 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:47.120 telephone records and by the business records of this Buds taxi. Right, 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.600 But it didn't it didn't matter to the jury. The 0:21:51.720 --> 0:22:01.240 jury credits the officer's version of events and they convict him. 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:06.720 It was surreal. I guess the first time the reality 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:09.760 of my situation hit me, dawned on me was the 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.040 day of my sentencing, when they gave me twenty five 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:17.359 to light. I just fell apart. I just started crying. 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.120 I couldn't believe I can still feel that feeling right 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:22.679 now in my heart as to what they did to me, 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:27.720 and Howard felt, you know, they took my life away. 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:34.840 You know I could. I still could not understand what 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:39.440 motivated them to want to do what they did to me. 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:02.000 We always believe, you know, like the truth will prevail. 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.000 And once I got convicted, we believe that when we 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.159 fillowed the appeal, you know, that I would win the 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:11.199 appeal and they would be all be put in the 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:14.240 past and then we can go on with our lives. 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.639 And then as time started to go by, reality set in. 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:23.000 I was in prison. There wasn't really much I can do. 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:27.560 I've been assaulted, abused while I was incarcerated by staff. 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.879 I'm missing a bone and my right shoulder where I 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:33.800 was jumped by seven officers in the sergeant in attica 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:37.720