WEBVTT - #391 Jason Flom with George Toca 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:05.080 On the night of April twenty third, nineteen eighty four, 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:07.800 outside of a convenience store in New Orleans, two young 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:10.880 men approached a couple and attempted to rob them at gunpoint. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.520 In the struggle that ensued, one of the perpetrator's, seventeen 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.520 year old Eric Batiste, was shot and killed by his partner. 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.360 The shooter ran off, and the couple gave a description 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.960 of the shooter to the police. Eric and his friends 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.680 were well known to local cops. When the call came 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:31.320 over the radio, officer Marlon Defillo immediately thought of George Toka. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.519 The two often ran together, so Defillo figured George may 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.240 have been Eric's partner in the posh robbery and pegged 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.280 him as the one who had killed Eric. When George 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.800 was brought in for questioning, he told police that although 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:45.959 he and Eric had been out with friends that night, 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:48.920 he'd left to spend time with his girlfriend at a 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.440 motel during the time of the robbery. At trial, the 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.200 prosecutor pointed out that the victims had id George in 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.280 a photo array, and the motel owner testified that he'd 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.560 never ran a room to a teenager like that. George. 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:04.600 Officer de Phillo's hunch must have been right, But then 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:22.640 a can This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.400 Today we're going to attempt to make sense out of 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.920 a situation that doesn't make any sense. It didn't make 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.680 sense back in nineteen eighty four when it happened. It 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.280 doesn't make sense now twenty twenty three, almost forty years later. 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:37.920 None of this should have ever happened, but it did, 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.840 and the consequences are very real. Today we're going to 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:43.959 be telling you the story of George Toka, my friend 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.800 who is here with us after serving over three decades 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:53.160 in and Goala Penitentiary in Louisiana. So, George, I'm glad 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.880 we're finally doing this. It's such an important story and 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:57.160 I'm so glad to have you here. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.360 Thank you, Thank you for the faith, for everything you'll 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:04.440 commitment to the calls of convictions and stuff. 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.520 And with George today to help us tell this story 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.600 is Richard Davis. Richard is the legal director of the 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:15.079 Innocence Project of New Orleans, also known as IPNO, one 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:19.080 of the most respected innocence organizations not just in the 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.240 country but in the world. And I'm really happy Richard 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:22.840 to have you here. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.000 Today, thank you and thank you for having us all. 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.640 So, George, what was your life like growing up? You 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.280 were just seventeen when this happened, So you're just a kid. 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:37.040 Yes, I came up and a single parent home. My 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:42.160 mom but that she had seven kids and we lived 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.920 in a new all the projects. Never met my father, 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.400 so it was it was tough and not having a 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.480 father there just watch my mom's struggle. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.880 We didn't have much to eat. Close the West. It 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:58.000 was tough. 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.679 You were known as chicking George back Dan, which is 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.200 kind of where did you get that nickname from? 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:04.320 Was growing up? 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.560 Loved animals and we started stealing chickens and people don't 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.440 give me chickens. I ran away at the kid because 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:16.519 my stepdad became abusive to my mom. And so I 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.720 met a guy land Terrence, and his mother missus Burnt 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:21.639 and me. I just went to the house. I ain't 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.160 won't leave one day and she's like, well, you come 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.280 on in. So she really bought me clothes, help me 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.320 go to school and things like that. She was a 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.000 good woman. And see she gave me that name chicken 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.080 jaw after watching me after you know, the movie roots 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:38.880 and stuff and seeing me with chickens and I hate 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.960 I hate that lamb as I got older. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:43.840 You know, but it stuck. 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.560 And tell me about your best friend, Eric Batiste. How 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:47.560 did you guys meet? 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:49.880 We met in about four to fifth grade, I think 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:53.320 at Phillips Weekly School. We met and we just instad 0:03:53.320 --> 0:03:56.800 became instant France. And we had so much in common, 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.480 like I said, coming from broken homes and uh, we 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.400 just we just had like a real bob peer love. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.000 But we were started leaving cut school together and just 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.600 to go to fence quarters on Burger Street just to 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:14.520 tap dance and shine shoes, just to earne food for cheeseburg. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.960 You know, it was something to eat and some clothes 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:17.680 because it. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.360 Would go home and there was no food at at home, 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.800 you know. Our mom was you know, they work or whatever, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.719 didn't have any money for food. 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.159 So we just would fend for ourselves as kids. 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.320 And then we began to go to life of crime. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.000 The tap dancing and the shin sho wasn't bringing in 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.479 much money, so we were begin to see the other 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:40.760 guys around our neighb would come in crimes, and so 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.440 we started doing that work around bringing in like machines 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:44.279 and stuff like that. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.760 So you and Eric were, as I understand it, pretty 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.000 well known to the neighborhood police as a couple of 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.479 young kids who were into these petty crimes. But it 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.880 turns out that Eric was also getting into much more 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.600 serious crime, which is what ultimately led his unforse an 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.520 untimely death and to your tragic, wrongful conviction. Richard, can 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.039 you tell us what happened on that fateful night of 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.080 April twenty third, nineteen eighty four. 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:14.640 Yes, So the crime that Georgia was arrested for, it 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.560 was two young men were seen trying to rob a 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.599 white couple in the early hours of the morning on 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.799 a street in New Orleans. It turned into an altercation 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.320 and one of the people trying to commit for robbery 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:29.000 accidentally shot the person he was with, a young man 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.680 named Eric Batiste, who was a seventeen year old who 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:36.520 was George's best friend. And so essentially what happened is 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.960 that even over a couple who had been robbed, they 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.120 had descriptions of the two people who robbed them, the 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.279 second robber did not match George's appearance at all. An 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.480 officer who knew George and knew Eric from the neighborhood 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.320 heard being radioedvert Eric Batist had been killed and that 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.640 the person who accidentally shot him was his accomplice. And 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.800 just for Eric batist best friend is George Toker. So 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.680 if someone was committing a crime with Eric Batist and 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.239 accidentally shot him, it was George Toker. 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.080 And the officer you're referring to was a local cop 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:12.279 named Marlon Defillo. 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.120 He and I definitely had a history, you know, coming 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:20.520 up in my little Lapeno crime looks career. The arrest 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.279 me a field time, I had a few wires out, 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.640 and so he knew me and Eric best friends, So 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.320 you know, he's the main reason why my name got 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:30.640 implicated in his crime. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:32.040 You know, I didn't do it. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.200 Which should have been obvious as soon as the two 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.560 victims described the man who had killed Eric Batiz to 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:37.080 the police. 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:39.640 So they described an a sailant who was I think 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.000 five ten or five eleven and who was older than Eric. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.919 George was maybe five five or five six at the time, 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.960 and he also was a very young looking seventeen year 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:54.080 old two and he was significantly smaller both an Eric 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.960 and the description of the second person. 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.839 But even though George didn't fit that description. Officer to Pillow, 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.719 who had already fixed his sights on George for the murder, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.919 completely ignored that fact. And there was something else about 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:09.960 George that would have been obvious to the victims had 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:13.040 he been the second assailant, yet they never mentioned it 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.640 when they were shown George's picture in a photo array. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.000 George had extremely prominent gold teeth at the time, like 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.160 buck teeth, kind of that you could see with his 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:26.560 mouth closed. Even and Neave, a witness, described the person 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.480 that the shooter as having gold teeth. The mugshots, of course, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.640 didn't show George's heights, so they didn't know he was smaller, 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.760 and his gold teeth weren't clear in the photos, and 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.880 then they made those identifications, and that's their case, and 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.680 that is the basis for George getting life without parole. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:44.960 And I just wanted to take a quick second to 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:50.160 talk about how terribly unreliable eyewitness identifications can be. Now, 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.800 anyone can see that George doesn't match the description that 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.240 these two people gave, and yet they themselves id'd him 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.720 as the shooter after viewing his photo. Richard, can you 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:01.680 plane what might have been going on there? 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.800 So as far as we could piece it together. Twenty 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.400 to thirty years later, they were shown a photo array 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.600 containing George. Because it was a photo array rather than 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.880 a live lineup, his height isn't displayed in that and 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.480 it wouldn't have been apparent to them how distinctive his 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:22.280 gold teeth were, And so they make an identification from 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.920 a photo. I believe it was administered non blind, so 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.040 by an officer who knew who the suspect was in 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.560 the photo and vis across racial identification. So it's this 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.040 classic recipe for a wrongful identification. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.520 So first off, the photos are not clearly displaying the 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.199 features that excluded George. In addition, it was non blind, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.600 when the only way these should ever be done is 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.320 that the lineup should be administered by somebody who has 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.120 no knowledge of who the suspects actually are, nor any 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.520 contact with the investigators. But even more important than that, 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.120 in study after study, cross racial identification has been shown 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.240 to be less accurate than even just making a wild yes. 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.400 But back in nineteen eighty four, none of this was 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.840 known and probably should have been, but it wasn't known 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:07.640 or considered. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.640 And then, as we see in a lot of cases, 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.720 once they have identified someone from a photo that becomes 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.520 the person they stick with and find ways to discount 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:18.920 all the contradictory evidence. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.480 I mean, had they even cared a tiny bit, they 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.360 could have looked beyond officer to Fillow's hunch and found 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:32.120 truly contradictory evidence. George, after all, had an alibi. Plus 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.160 there could have been alternative suspects. 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.440 Anyone looking at the case knows that the person they're 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.720 looking for is someone with a connection to Eric Patis, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.280 So it's a pretty small universe of people to look at. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.360 And George and his girlfriend they had been in a 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.439 place called the MRV Motel at the time of a crime. 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:52.720 They had been with a group of people including Eric, 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.640 earlier in the night. They had parted ways about four 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.920 hours before Eric was killed and had gone together to 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.200 the MRV motel rented a room there. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.880 And let's not forget that George was underage. I mean, 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.280 he wasn't even close to being of age. But apparently 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.360 at the MRB Motel no things were a little more 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.000 fast and loose. He didn't necessarily need a credit card 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:14.640 or even ID to check in there. 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.520 When we investigated the case years later, it is not 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:20.880 hard to find a lot of people who knew that 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:22.640 that was the motel in the neighborhood you went to 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:24.560 when you were underage, because they didn't ask too many 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.200 questions coming back years later. We even had the priest 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.280 from the church across the road saying that this was 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.679 in nuisance business. They were always renting rooms to underage people. 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.120 George had no idea what had happened to his best 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:38.120 friend until the. 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.880 Next day when I got to know that my friend 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.120 was was cool. I couldn't believe it. I was just 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.600 in shot. I was going to the seeing more than 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:47.319 the villain. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.880 But you know, my friend mother told me, I don't 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.200 go down there, Geordie might think you had something to 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.800 do with it. But then the next day, my friend 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:58.959 of mine, Ju told me that, George, you want to 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.720 know that you wanted for Erica's murder. And my life 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.120 is really just to stop from there. Because when I 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.000 went home and my mom was like, George, get your 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.160 stuff a run, I'm like, man, I didn't do it. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:12.040 I'm not running. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.800 So I always believed that, you know, the justicism was 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:17.559 the good guys, you know, the judges and the d's 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:18.920 and stuff like that. 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.600 With rumors swirling around that the police were looking for him. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.760 George thought he'd better go down to the station and 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.120 tell them he had nothing to do with Eric's murder. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:29.559 But before he was able to do that. 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.120 They had a knock on the door and there was 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.360 Ball in the philot lead new pack hell bent on 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:37.880 a recipe, and he'll put my head out in the back, 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.079 like I got you, George, you know, and you're under 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:41.920 the rest of him. I'm like, I didn't do it, man, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:43.280 I didn't kill my best friend. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:44.080 I wasn't with Eric. 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.080 I was in a hotel when it helped. Man, You're like, yeah, 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.360 well I finally got you, and I'm like the fellow, 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:51.360 I didn't do it. 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:51.600 Man. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.040 You know, he was so excited to get me in handcuffs. 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.000 So when he got me down to the priests and 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.840 he told her the two detective, this is George right here, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.800 you know, and uh, he just throw me to the wolves. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.960 Literally to the freaking wolves. Like Officer de Fello, the 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.880 precinct detectives were determined to pin Eric's murder on George 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.120 by whatever means necessary. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.599 And they beat me until I give me confessed. I'm like, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.760 I'm not I didn't kill my best friend. I'm not confessing, 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.280 you know, I didn't do it. I've never killed nobody. 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.679 I'm not no murder and I didn't kill my friends, 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.400 so I'm not as signing nothing. And they beat me 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:29.000 in beat men. 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.120 But then after I got your abiavement a while the 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:33.880 tech a little bit road. He told me and said, 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.280 George just exceed, don't fit the description. 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.000 But uh they get your good lawyer and uh you 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.200 figured out working out, you know, working out. 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:41.520 On your home. 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.720 This episode is sponsored by marsh mc cleannan, the world's 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.239 leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.040 and people. It's legal and compliance department provides pro bono 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:08.440 legal assistance and other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.320 Two days after his best friend was killed, George Toko 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.920 was arrested in charge for a second degree murder. He 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.680 spent the next year of his life in jail awaiting trial. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.280 His attorney, Henry Julian, who had just recently left the 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.480 prosecutor's office for private practice, only visited George twice during 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.400 that entire miserable year. The third time they met was 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.480 on the morning of April fifteenth, nineteen eighty five. 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:40.960 I just went to court one Monday. He like, you ready, 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:42.080 we're going to try this morning. 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.400 I'm like, wow, it really and I say it is 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:46.800 eric mother out there is my family. 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:51.480 Nobody would there with my mom, my girlfriend Danielle. That 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:52.000 was it. 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:53.760 I mean, I didn't even I was going to try 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:55.680 out that moment for the first green murder, the faith, 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:56.280 the depth been. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.920 And unfortunately George was also facing the note glorious Judge 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:01.600 Frank Shay. 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.000 Frank Shay took pride in how many jury trials he 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.280 could get through in a day, how fast he can 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.760 move his cases, not providing any kind of justice. 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.600 Some trials in front of Frank Shay went as quickly 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.680 as get this ninety minute. Yeah you heard that correctly. 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.920 Over his thirty three year career as a judge in 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:24.040 Section G of Louisiana Criminal Court, Louisiana went from thirteenth 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.480 to second in the nation for incarceration, and since his 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.400 reign ended, some of the faulty convictions coming out of 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.440 his court have been vacated. In addition to George, there's 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.520 Isaac Knapper, Elvis Brooks, one of our recent guests on 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.640 the show, and Calvin Duncan who we know to be 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:45.720 an absolutely breathtakingly brilliant prison lawyer who's helped a lot 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.680 of other prisoners with their appeals. But let's get back 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:49.200 to the trial. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.800 George's lawyer had really done very little investigation of the case. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.400 And this is not a not a difficult case to 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:58.320 investigate it. 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.720 Right, Like we talked about earlier, Eric Batist did this 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.040 with someone he knew, so there's not a long list 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.440 of potential suspects. And George's girlfriend Danielle was there to 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.640 testify that they had parted with Eric about four hours 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.080 before his death and gone to that infamous MRV motel 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.240 where it seems everyone in town knew that a very 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.800 young person could get a room. 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.680 But the defense law was not prepared for prosecution, calling 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.080 the owner, who, of course wants to protect his business, 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:25.720 and so I said, no, of course, you do everything 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.000 by the book. No wonder was young looking at George 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.480 would ever get to rent room there? Which is I 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.400 mean going back, we found just everyone from the neighborhood 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:35.120 knew that was the motel you can rent room when 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:36.000 you're underage. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.400 Well, who knows what else was going on behind the 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.600 scenes there, Right, it's entirely possible that the cops either 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.240 threatened the motel owner or that he very well might 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.800 have faced some sort of charges himself. So for him, 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:53.800 it was probably expedient to go ahead and testify to 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.560 what they wanted him to say, right exactly. 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.040 I think that's always at least an employed for it. 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.440 When when you're running a somewhat sketchy business in law 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.320 enforcement comes cooling. You want to make law enforcement happy. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:07.800 I mean, right off the bat, that would have been 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.200 a great way to impeach that witness. But George, it 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.280 just didn't even occur to your attorney. It just didn't 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.440 even think to raise that on cross examination. 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.000 He thought like he thought I was guilted. He didn't care. 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.760 He was so inferior of just Shaye and other people 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.160 either just scared the object or just doing anything. He 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.000 didn't have the investigative team. 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:31.480 You know. 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.400 He could have simply got the hotel phone records that 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.800 would exonerate me within thirty days instead of thirty years. 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.000 He could have got the dinal records for the gold teep. 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.040 He didn't go get that. He just didn't care. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.760 But then there's a whole other element of this Richard, 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.160 which is the victim's family, what was their role in this? 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:55.560 Because they believed throughout in George's innocence, right, I mean 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.640 that would seem like some powerful testimony. 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.800 So I think what we see here is that for 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.560 police and prosecution, they wanted to treat Eric as a 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.000 victim so they could use a murder charge against George, 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:10.800 how they could get life of outprole against George. That 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.680 essentially they were only treating Veeric as a victim to 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.520 the extent that it helped them punish George, and nothing 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.280 to do with compassion for the family keeping even just 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.320 like basic professionalism in terms of keeping them informed. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.480 And as a result of that, they weren't even notified 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.119 of the trial as I understand it against George. That 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:32.360 would be powerful for a jury to see the victim's 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:37.080 family sitting right behind the accused. I mean that's going 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:39.320 to have an impact on people, right, Yeah. 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.720 And I think when they heard the evidence about this older, 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.360 this older, taller person with son, they you know, they 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:48.560 already knew it wasn't George because they knew George wouldn't 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:50.840 like of them if he'd been responsible for Eric's death. 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:53.600 But they'd have had, you know, like additional that reallyesing 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:55.720 to know it wasn't George. If they known this description, 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.280 you know they know George, they know Eric, they know 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.360 George's modern the older too to hus and compared to Eric. 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.919 So predictably, George, you were convicted of second degree murder 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.280 and given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.600 the possibility of parole. This was on April twenty third, 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.960 nineteen eighty five. But I have to ask how long 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.720 did the trial take and how long did the jury deliberate? 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:22.840 It was it was a two day trial. It was 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.879 it a circus. It was it just it wasn't nothing 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.040 done right. The judge kept rushing the winner's office. Stands 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.960 he had a five o'clock appointment to go to I 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.520 think I go to the golf golf events he had. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:39.680 He had no respect for black people at all. And 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.600 and then most shocking, he sluck into the jury deliberating 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.479 rum the second day of trial and directed the jury verdict. 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:52.440 Wait what the he went into the jury room during 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:53.640 the deliberations. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.120 He got Tyler waiting for the jury to come out 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.560 the great rum, and he went in there and I 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:01.280 can it's a imagine that's what he told me to 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.359 kill him out there so he could leave, so the 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:05.800 track could show that he actually went into the jury 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.480 rum and discussing took part into the jury deliberation of 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:11.399 my trial. So after he came out of there, the 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.520 jury they all agreed the secondary murder and I was 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:35.360 wont for convicted. My first five years after being wont 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:39.159 for convicted, I just laid in the cell in the darkness, 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.760 this this in depressed and mold this shock, this disbelief 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.359 because that that system that then that just took my 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.640 life for for wrong, convicted of killing my best friend, 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:52.879 somebody I love. But but I know I knew I 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.040 was innocent. That the main thing I knew I didn't 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.520 kill my best friend. I was innocent, and I knew 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.359 that the truth will you know, will come out, and 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.199 so that that that would kept me strong like that 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:03.879 I didn't do it. 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.280 The whole neighborhood know, I didn't do it, the whole city. 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.680 No, I didn't do it, And I just do believe 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.399 that God knew and that it was gonna work. 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:11.679 Out for me. 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.440 So that's why I just just kept hold on to 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:20.200 mount mount troop and my faith and uh I began 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.960 to pass so you know, and God spoke to me, 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.080 you know, like like he let me know, like George 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.000 get in the position to be to be blessed. You 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.440 got you gotta start going low live Berry, get out, 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.320 get out the TV room, and and this depressed state 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.440