WEBVTT - #233 Jason Flom with Mark Denny 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:06.160 At around two am on December twentieth, nineteen eighty seven, 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.720 three young men, Raphael James, Eddie Vieira, and Mark Smith 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.680 held up a Burger King in Brooklyn, where they blindfolded 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.640 and raped a female employee and forced a male employee 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.320 to participate. They left with three thousand dollars in cash. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:24.680 Both survivors initially described three assailants. Two weeks later, on 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.160 January eighth, Raphael James and Mark Smith were on their 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.040 way to a party with Raphael's sixteen year old cousin, 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.800 Mark Denny, when the two men stopped the car outside 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.840 of another store that they intended to rob. Mark wanted 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:41.159 no part of it. While they argued, police pulled up, 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:45.160 searched the car and found a gun. James and Smith 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.440 were suspects in the December twentieth incident, and Mark Denny 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:52.479 became a suspect by association. Mark was bailed out of 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.280 jail that night and ignored his cousin's request to raise 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.560 bail buddy, so out of spite, Mark's cousin named him 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.040 as an assailant as well, even though the victims repeatedly 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.120 said that there were only three assailants and had identified 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.959 Bierra Smith and James. The detectives pressured the female victim 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.920 with a suggestive lineup to change the number of assailants 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.800 from three to four, and Mark Denny was ultimately convicted. 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.920 Years later, Raphael James recanted excluding Mark from the crime, 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:24.160 but it took an investigation by the Brooklyn cru to 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.200 reveal the corrupt identification process in which the female survivor 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:34.559 was revictimized. Mark Denny was finally freed exactly thirty years 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.959 from the date of the crime. This is wrongful conviction. 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.960 Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. I'm your host, Jason Flahm, 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.440 and today I have a guest who's a really special guy, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.160 and he's it's special to me because I had the 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.160 privilege of meeting I'm actually having lunch with him three 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.519 days after he was released from prison after thirty years 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.560 for a crime he didn't commit. So, without further ado, 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.720 let me welcome and introduce my friend Mark Denny. Mark, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:19.280 Welcome to wrongful Conviction. 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.919 Thank you Jason Slump for having me so. Mark. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.440 This crime happened when you were just sixteen years old. 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.359 Sixteen right, and the crime itself is like something out 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.280 of a out of a horror movie. Before we get 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.520 into the whole situation and how you got wrapped up 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.360 in it, Mark tell us, what was your life like 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.600 growing up. Were you born and raised in Brooklyn. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:42.160 No. 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.200 I was born in Guyana, South America. I was there 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.480 all the way up until seventy years old. Then I 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:54.120 migrated to America. My childhood experience in Guyana was very 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.240 fun filled, and that's pretty much how I grew up. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.959 My grandmother left to migrate to America. She made certain 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.000 things happen and I was able to be flowing in 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.600 and I was so happy again. My grandmother was like 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.679 my everything. When I first came to America, I was 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.440 living in flat resection of Brooklyn. I was living with 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:17.640 my grandmother and after a while, my cousin, Raphael, he 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.040 decided to come and live with her too, So it 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.040 was me and him living with my grandmother, just like 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:22.880 he wasn't Guyana. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.520 And Raphael is a pivotal character in your story, and 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.880 it becomes clear later that he was into some really 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.639 bad stuff, dark stuff. But before all that, it seems 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.320 like you had a pretty happy and saved childhood. And 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.680 let's bear in mind as we listened to the story 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.280 that This was the nineteen eighties in Brooklyn, when both 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.800 crime and police misconduct were out of control, right, And 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.440 the crime in this case is even by the standards 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.120 of the day, it's just brutal, disgusting and really really sad. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.880 We're talking about an incident that happened on December twentieth, 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.520 nineteen eighty seven, around two am. And what happened was 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.440 two masked men forced their way into a Burger King 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.320 that was about the close in Brooklyn, right, and two 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.400 employees were there, one male and one female, were closing 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.760 up the shop. These guys came in and they forced 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.479 the male employee to undress and forced him into a storeroom. 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:24.160 A third assailant entered the restaurant at some point. They 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:29.280 hid blindfolded and forced the eighteen year old female employee 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.159 to take her clothes off as well, and then all 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:33.800 three men raped her in. 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:34.640 The back room. 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.960 It's horrible. The male employee also told police that the 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.480 men forced him to sexually assault her as well. I'm 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:44.599 sorry you have to hear this, but these are the 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:47.239 facts of the case. The three men fled with around 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.600 three thousand dollars in cash receipts from the restaurant safe. 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.320 I mean, even during this high crime era, this incident 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.080 stood out. And you find out later that your cousin, 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.640 Raphael James, along with his friends Mark Smith and Eddie Fierra, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.960 that they actually did this to the girl at your 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.280 local Burger King, who was a girl that you happen 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.359 to have had a crush on. Right, But for the 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.520 time being, this incident is just more insanity in a 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:19.000 neighborhood that's grown accustomed to insane things happening. So about 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.320 two weeks passed by, it's January eighth, nineteen eighty eight. 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.360 Tell us what happened that night. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.080 My cousin wanted to go to a certain party, but 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.120 he wanted to hold my aunt's car. She wouldn't let 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.279 him hold the car, so he kind of talked me 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.719 into doing it, under the impression that he'll. 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:34.440 Let me come with him. 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:36.640 So I went and borrowed my aunt's car, and they 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.400 directed me to where a party where it was supposed 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.880 to be in Manhattan. Then we got in front of 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.800 a store and it was me, my cousin and his friend, 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.840 and his friend wanted us to pull over and they 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.520 started talking about it's too early to go to a party. 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.719 They wanted to do a robbery real quick and automatically. 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:56.800 I became afraid for a lot of reasons, and the 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.360 main reasons was I was a kid, and I never 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:03.240 really did anything dangerous, you know, I was resistant. We 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.920 stood in the car arguing about it. But to make 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.200 a long story short, nothing happened. No one decided to 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.480 do anything because I was the I don't know how 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:12.800 long we was in front of the store, but I 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.120 guess the people in the store probably seen us, got 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.640 suspicious to call the cops. So the cops pulled up 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.599 and they was waiting to see what happened. And as 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.400 you was driving off, they pulled us over and I 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.400 was in the back seat. My cousin was in the 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.960 front seat with his friends, and out of nowhere, a 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:31.200 gun was tossed to me. 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.320 So, like you described, it was Raphael James driving and 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.200 Mark Smith in the front pastor seat. And they, of 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.960 course were suspects in the December twentieth robbery at rape 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.800 in Brooklyn. You became a suspect as well, just because 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:46.920 you happened to be in the car with them, right, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.520 But did you even know that they had been involved 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:52.960 in this insane crime? 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:55.400 No, I did not everything for me. 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.120 Became aware that this is what they do on a 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.159 regular because that's how they was trying to convince me 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:00.640 it's easy. 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:01.479 We did it before. 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.880 So the whole thing of what my cousin was actually 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.599 doing for a living, I became aware of all of 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.039 it at that very moment. 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.200 So he was some kind of stick up guy. This 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.760 was like a regular thing for him. But you were 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.600 just a kid who was in the wrong place at 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:18.160 the wrong time. 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.080 And we all got locked up that night as a 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:22.240 result of me being in the car with them. You know, 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.280 I got built out that night and he didn't. Him 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.160 and his friend Mark Smith stayed there, and Mark Smith 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.480 gave me a bunch of jewelry to bring home to 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.040 pawn for him to help make Bill money. And my cousin, 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:38.120 now Raphael James, he wanted me to go to my 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.280 grandmother house and get some kind of weedy ad stash. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:43.040 And sell it it was supposed to be like a 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.000 pound and get him Bill money. 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.520 So now here I get bailed out with all this 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.800 jewelry and these duty to go do stuff for people 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.400 that just finished almost got me killed and got me 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.160 locked up and tricked me into going to a party 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.320 that they claim wasn't even no party, you know. 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.080 So I was pissed off, and this is the energy 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:03.880 I came out with. 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:06.280 So when I went back to my friends the next 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:08.680 day and I explained it to them, you know, they 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.160 was all on my side. It was all again the 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:12.880 more they almost got you locked up, you could have 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:14.640 been in jail. Now you got to the court. Now 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.560 you're gonna come out here and go sell drugs and 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:18.600 jewely for them. You know, it made me felt like, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.040 you know, they just mailed me, felt like it wouldn't 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.040 have been the right thing to do. 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.440 And when you didn't do what your cousin and Mark 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.400 Smith had told you to do, and your cousin found 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.120 out about it, he was really pissed, and he eventually 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.440 made a statement sending investigators in your direction. 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.240 It stained him to such an extent that I guess 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:39.760 he always wanted to get me back, because in the 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:41.920 statement he said he just wanted to put me in 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.600 jail so I could see what he was going through. 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:46.240 And he was in there and I and he needed 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.120 my help. But I don't even see how. I don't even. 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:50.600 See the logic in that. I don't see that. 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:55.840 So while both victims had reported three assailants right three, 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.040 and the other three guys your cousin and his friends 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.600 Eddi Vier and Marks Smith had been identified from either 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.839 photographic or live lineups, that should have been the end 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.920 of it right there, right But with what your cousin 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:11.600 had told detectives, it didn't stop right there. This is 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:16.240 when the identification process got corrupted. It's now March of 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.800 nineteen eighty eight. The detectives told the female victim who 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.800 had maintained that there were only three assailants, right three, 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.600 and she'd already identified the three, but she had been 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:31.360 through an unbelievably traumatic experience, and remember she was blindfolded 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:33.920 for most of it. So the detectives told her that 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.000 they had one of her attackers and that his name 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.560 was Mark Denny, and they put your picture in a 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:44.120 photo lineup, and she still didn't pick you. But two 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.160 days later, you're at your grandmother's house and these cops 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.080 come and take you back to the precinct where they 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.720 interrogate you and eventually puts you in a live lineup, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.120 and she picks you the person remember whose picture she 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.520 saw but did not identify. Two days earlier, and now 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.360 the number of assailings goes from three to four. Now 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.080 you were the only person who appeared in both the 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.679 photo and live lineups. And we know that type of 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:15.160 suggestive technique plays psychological tricks on anybody, right If you 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.800 see the same person over and over again, your brain 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.920 will start to adjust, and people can be easily influenced 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.560 by this type of manipulation. And this is not just 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.080 me saying it. It's been proven over and over again 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.839 in countless studies. So her account was altered to make 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:34.000 room for four assailants. Yet the male employee only viewed 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.000 the live lineup, and of course he did not identify you, 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.439 and he was the one who was not blindfolded, and 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.920 he maintained that there were only three assailants. And of 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.719 course there was exactly zero physical evidence pointing to you 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:52.480 because you weren't freaking there, but the other three guys 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:58.040 had all left fingerprints and other evidence at the scene. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.200 I mean, I don't know what the hell these detectives 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:03.880 thought they were doing, but it definitely wasn't in the 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:08.199 interest of justice, especially not to you, a sixteen year 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:09.240 old boy at the time. 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:11.160 You know, it took me to the prison. 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.080 They smacked me around, asking me questions over and over 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.280 and over that I really didn't have any answer to. 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.000 That was telling I really didn't know nothing, and they 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.199 smacked me around. They took me to a lineup room. 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.120 They put me in there and claimed I got picked out. 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:26.600 I didn't know what to do or what to say 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.320 other than what I was already saying. I was really 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.400 like an empty vessel at that moment that was just 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:36.080 being done with whatever that authorready felt was appropriate to 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:37.319 try to resolve. 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.000 A nasty case, and that became a nightmare. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:56.000 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company, 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:59.840 and by Accenture, a global professional services company with leading 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.000 capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Working to reform the 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:06.480 criminal justice system is a key pillar of the AIG 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.920 pro Bono Program, which provides free legal services and other 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.320 support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals most in need 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.880 as part of Eccentric's commitment to racial and civil justice. 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.080 Accentric's Legal Access Program provides pro bono legal services in 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.160 partnership with more than forty organizations, bringing meaningful change to 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.239 people and communities worldwide. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.600 There was like five hundred thousand dollars something like that, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.360 and then they finally took me to ryk As Island. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:45.600 You know, I was scary because all the reputations in 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.480 the neighborhood, you know, it was about people going to 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.280 right a island and coming out. What I really want 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:52.200 to do is just tell anyone that would listen to 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.080 my story and get them to help me out. 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.440 But I had no increant of how. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:00.760 Ugly and repulsed people are by the nature of sex 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.360 defense and yeil. So when I got there, the first 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:08.880 level of abuse was from the gods because when you 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:10.640 come in, they get your criminal records, so they know 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.520 what you're coming in for. That crime is esteem is 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.360 one of the most disgusting in prison sex defense period 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.720 by the civilians, by the criminals, even the dirt bags, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.840 you know, So me having that title automatically it started 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.160 off for the abuse. You know, I started to intermingle. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.079 I felt that if people understood my situation that they 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.720 would take my side and help me out. But they didn't. 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:37.400 You know, I just became a target. The gods beat 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.680 me down one day on my way back from the messoor. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:41.760 They beat me down to a point where you couldn't 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.080 even recognize me friends that I had. They they didn't 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:45.920 even know it was me walking through the hallway because 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:47.080 my face was so battered. 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.480 Jesus, I don't know. I don't know how people can 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:53.920 behave this way. I mean, the Wrikers Dound is a 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:56.840 notorious place. It's no place for any human being, much 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:02.000 less a kid like you situation, and you certainly didn't 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:04.040 deserve any of this shit to happen to you. So 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.960 how long Mark were you held in Rikers before the trial? 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.960 I was a Rikazzan a belief for approximately one year. 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.360 So Eddie Viera and Mark Smith pled guilty and was 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.600 sent to prison. But you and your cousin Robhail James 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:22.520 went to trial together, and at that point you still 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.120 had no idea that he had made this statement naming 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.720 you as an assailant, a statement that, of course, he 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:32.000 later recanted. So who represented you, oh Man? 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.920 I had this lawyer named Harry Dusenberry. He was a 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.400 straight bozoe man. I mean, from the way he. 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:43.000 Dressed, his jacket sneezes midway between his wrists and his elbows, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.880 his hair looking all crazy, his pants is how waters 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.240 he just looked like a like a joke. 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.120 That's ridiculous. Yess, I got of a movie or something, 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.720 so okay. So you're represented by this guy who can't 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.600 even find clothes that fit right much. Let's figure out 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:01.880 the law. And he was a public defender. 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.120 No, he was actually a paid attorney. Like I don't 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.520 know where my parents got this guy from. He didn't 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.320 really communicate with me at all, and the relationship was 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.480 not good. They came to a point where he was 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.960 charged my family seven thousand dollars. My grandmother had to 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.280 work give the money to my mother to give to him. 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:20.880 So he came to a point where when the payment 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.280 was supposed to be done, he was claiming that he 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.360 was still short two thousand dollars and if he didn't 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:27.560 get it, my case was going to fall apart. 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.080 Mark, did he visit you in prison? Did he prepare 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:31.080 for the case at all? 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.360 He never came to prison to visit me. I would 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:34.760 see him when I go to the courtroom, in the 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.920 back of the courtroom, in the holding pins. 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.480 So that trial, your grandmother was called to the stand 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.080 in your defense, and she testified that you were home 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.160 with her on the night of the crime. But no 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.880 one seemed to care about that, you know, it's so 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.960 easy for them to disparage her as being willing to 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:55.080 lie for her grandson. Then, of course, the female victim, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.480 who had been pressured into changing her memory right of 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.280 three assailants, changed it to four. She was called to 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:06.760 identify you, but as we know, she was also blindfolded 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.680 throughout most of this incident and repeatedly stated that she 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.080 couldn't remember what happened. Meanwhile, the other victim in this 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:18.000 case maintained still that there were only three assailants and 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.440 did not identify you as one of those assailants. So, 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.480 for a fleeting moment, this kind of looked like it 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.440 might have gone your way, which would have been the 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.320 right way, of course. But then this statement from your 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.400 own cousin and co defendant, Raphael James, came to light 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:35.840 and sealed your faith. 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:39.360 My co defendant, Raphael James. They say that he made 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.960 a statement and he was quested, and in his statement 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.520 they asked him who was all there, and he said 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.520 Eddie Vieira, He said Mark Smid And he said and 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.560 my cousin, Mark. You know this is my cousin. This 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.640 is a blood relative. And we talked about something as 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.080 serious as a race. So I guess even though it 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.840 was all those ind that it wasn't me. I think 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:04.760 it's because of the ugly and nasty nature the case 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.760 that made a lot of people just become blinded to 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.520 the truth and act out in a manner of disregarded truth. 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.960 Now we know that he later recanted this statement and 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.320 excluded you from the crime, but at this point you 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.840 were basically doomed. I mean, it arguably all comes down 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.719 to him. Had he never told detectives that spiteful lie 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.159 to begin with, there would have never been any motivation 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:34.119 for them to obtain that corrupted ID or to basically 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.920 coerce the victims to change the number of assailants from 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.120 three to four. But of course that's not how this went. 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.879 I was really depressed at that whole thing. I was 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:47.760 just waiting for it to be oval, but I wasn't 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.360 really listening. When the victim pointed at me and actually 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.399 said that I raped it. That helped me, and it 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.840 was heartbreaking to me because seeing the victim for the 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.320 very first time up on the stand. The store that 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.679 the crime took place in a is a restaurant that 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.040 as a kid, me and my female cousins would go 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:08.480 in that store and play in the playground area. 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:09.840 So I saw the. 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.240 Person before, but I never said anything to the female 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.200 in my life. But one of the things that I 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.320 noticed was that she was very beautiful. She had a 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:20.720 very very bright aura to herself. And when I actually 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.160 seen her for the first time in that courtroom up 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.520 on that stand, that broke my heart because in my 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.280 head I was thinking to myself about my codefendant, Raphid 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.479 Jameson right next to me. I'm like, hold up, you 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.200 know that I know that girl. So they used to 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.960 tease me about being infatuated. Oh, I mean, I can't 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.880 really explain it that. It was like he just broke 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.600 up in me. I started crying because someone that in 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.520 my childhood timeline, who's past that I crossed, that I 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.440 was infatuated. It ended up being the very source that's 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:51.879 condemning me. And it's because of my cousin. 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.199 That is a lot man, that is heavy. Right. This 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.120 whole thing would be hard enough for anybody to process 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.760 or deal with without all of those other factors mixed in. 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:02.880 So there you are. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.119 I mean, you had no shot of getting justice in 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:10.120 this scenario whatsoever. And the trial of course lasted only 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:14.600 two days, right, two days for man's life. So mark 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.320 the moment that the verdict was read. Do you even 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:18.800 remember what that was like? 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.959 No, man, I cried, I broke down. 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.840 I was trying to tell the judge for the very 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.879 last time I wasn't there. I told her that my 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.520 cousin lied on me. I learned everything about the case 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.280 and everything as I was going through the process. I 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:35.360 didn't even know he made a statement dragging me in, 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.720 and it devastated me. In no trouble because I had 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.600 to sit next to this person that throughout the whole 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.280 trial until that statement came out, he was acting on 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.600 nice and like he was concerned and telling me, don't worry, 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:49.640 I'm going to beat it and blah blah blah blah. 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.639 Never when the statement come out showing that he pulled 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.160 me into it, I couldn't believe that. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.760 Yeah, that just adds another layer of horror to this 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:04.440 whole scenario. Okay, so you're convicted, you're taking away sentenced 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.600 to nineteen to fifty seven years in prison. These numbers 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:10.119 couldn't even have made any sense to you much longer 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:12.240 than you had been alive at this point in time, Right, 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.680 But we know that in these cases when you come 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:16.960 up for parole, if you don't admit guilt, the chance 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:18.480 of you getting out on a crime like this is 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.439 virtually nothing. So it's really effectively a life sentence that 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.720 they gave you at this point in time. Right, So 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.320 what happens next? And how did you survive this entire ordeal? 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.399 Which prisons were you in, and how did you find 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.400 the strength to survive this impossible situation? 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.359 You know, I was in just about all the maxes 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:42.400 in New York State, And in spite of the harsh 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:46.920 criticism and stigma that I had to carry for all 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:50.920 those years, I will admit that there were prisons where 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.080 I actually was able to find peace. 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.520 There was prisoners, you know, who. 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.040