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Speaker 1: In two thousand and six, Lamont Hunter lived with his

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Speaker 1: girlfriend los Milda, along with their blended family in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Speaker 1: Luzmilda's three year old son, Trustin, had been previously hospitalized

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Speaker 1: for what was believed to be injuries resulting from child abuse. However,

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Speaker 1: no charges ever materialized. Then, on January nineteenth, two thousand

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Speaker 1: and six, Trustin was in Lamont's care when paramedics were

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Speaker 1: called to take Trustin again to the hospital, where he

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Speaker 1: passed away. Lamont told police that Trustin took a tumble

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Speaker 1: down the stairs, but the state's experts believed that the

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Speaker 1: medical evidence told a different story, that Trustin's injuries could

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Speaker 1: not have resulted from a fall down the stairs, but

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Speaker 1: rather from violent shaking coupled with forceful impact, in addition,

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Speaker 1: that the three year old boy may have been sexually assaulted.

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Speaker 1: With evidence like this, didn't take long for a three

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Speaker 1: judge panel to sentence Lamont Hunter to death. But this

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Speaker 1: is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we

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Speaker 1: have a story of a crime that never happened, that

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Speaker 1: resulted in a death sentence for a man who should

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Speaker 1: have been given time to grieve. Laman Hunter a sentenced

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Speaker 1: to death in the state of Ohio for a crime

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Speaker 1: that never happened, and here to help him tell his story.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to introduce I actually asked how she would

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Speaker 1: like to be introduced, and Lamon jumped right in and said,

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Speaker 1: just call her the amazing Aaron Barnhardt. But for context,

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Speaker 1: she is assistant public Defender at the Southern Ohio Federal

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Speaker 1: Public Defender Capital Habeas Unit. So, Aarin, thank you for

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Speaker 1: being here, thank you for having me, and here to

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Speaker 1: tell his own story with this assist from Aaron and

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Speaker 1: myself is the man himself who survived this incredible ordeal,

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Speaker 1: the Mont Hunter, the Mont I'm so happy you're here.

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Speaker 2: I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of a miracle that you're here, and you know,

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Speaker 1: and Aaron, you are a big part of that miracle.

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Speaker 1: So let's go back to your upbringing. The place that

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Speaker 1: you were born and where you lived has a lot

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Speaker 1: to do with your wrongful conviction. But did you actually

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Speaker 1: grow up there in Hamilton County.

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Speaker 2: Ohio, Cincinnati. Yes, I did Hamilton County.

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Speaker 3: I was born in the late sixties, so I grew

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Speaker 3: up through the seventies and eighties, and nineties. My mother,

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Speaker 3: my father, hit my heroes work their fingers to the

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Speaker 3: bone to provide a good life for me and my siblings.

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Speaker 2: My childhood was amazing.

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Speaker 3: Like I always say, I was fortunate to be born

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Speaker 3: in a family that I was born in school. I

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Speaker 3: mean cousins, aunts, uncles. We are all very close knit family.

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Speaker 1: You know, I understand eventually you became a father as well.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 3: I got four biological children and two children that I raised,

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Speaker 3: and I have an honorary daughter, Aisha.

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Speaker 1: What are the kids' names, Ashley.

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Speaker 3: Mariah Lamont Junior, Velita, Eric, Aish and Trinity. I've been

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Speaker 3: instrumental in very hands on and raising all my children,

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Speaker 3: all six of them.

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Speaker 1: To support his family, Lamont worked as a roofer, but

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Speaker 1: also he had a side hustle sending drugs through Federal Express,

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Speaker 1: which landed him in federal prison. Now, drug trafficking is

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Speaker 1: in no way related to how Lamont ended up on

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Speaker 1: Ohio's death row, but his prior conviction comes up later

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Speaker 1: in the story. So after his stint in prison, he

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Speaker 1: went back to roofing and met a woman named les Milde,

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Speaker 1: and together they had Lamont's youngest child, Trinity, Los Milda

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Speaker 1: also had three boys from a previous relationship, Tyree, Tyrell,

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Speaker 1: and Trustin.

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Speaker 4: So Lamont actually didn't spend much time with trust In.

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Speaker 4: The little boy who died in this case, Trustan, was

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Speaker 4: Louis Milda's son, and because of complications with her health

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Speaker 4: when he was born, he was basically raised by other

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Speaker 4: people family friends and relatives.

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Speaker 1: Right Wilma Forte and Amber White.

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Speaker 3: Yes, after she delivered Trusting, she had kidney stalls, so

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Speaker 3: she had immediately go back in for kidney surgery and

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Speaker 3: she couldn't care for Trusting. So they were loving enough

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Speaker 3: to take Trusting And for some reason I don't agree

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Speaker 3: with Luz mild on this, she just chose to let

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Speaker 3: him stay there. That's where Trustin lived.

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Speaker 1: Now Loismilda Lamont rarely took care of Trusting, and prior

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Speaker 1: to the two thousand and sixth incident that resulted in

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Speaker 1: Trustin's death, there had been some suspected abuse back in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four.

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Speaker 4: In January of two thousand and four, Lamont had been

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Speaker 4: carrying trust In up a flight of stairs and tripped

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Speaker 4: and fell on trust In and ended up breaking his

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Speaker 4: leg bone his tibia. At the time, his two older

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Speaker 4: half siblings were there, saw what happened. It was obviously

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Speaker 4: an accident. No one even suspected it wasn't an accident.

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Speaker 4: He was treated and let go. Then in June of

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Speaker 4: or Trustin had sort of a constellation of injuries, some swelling, scratches, rashes,

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Speaker 4: some other abrasions like by his lips and his ears.

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Speaker 4: When luiz Milda goes to change trust In's diaper, she

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Speaker 4: sees that it's really raw and red and irritated, luiz

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Speaker 4: Milda wondered if his genital swelling was a bug bite

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Speaker 4: or diaper rash, so she takes him to a local

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Speaker 4: urgent care. When they see these conditions, they end up

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Speaker 4: sending him to the hospital and it's treated as a

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Speaker 4: case of abuse.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 4: I don't think we'll ever know what happened to Trustan.

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Speaker 4: I think it's probably a combination of things we found

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Speaker 4: in medical records that Trustin had a lot of skin

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Speaker 4: conditions exzema, other sort of conditions where his hair was

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Speaker 4: falling out, environmental stressors and things like that, and then

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Speaker 4: he was playing with two older, rambunctious kids. And I

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Speaker 4: think probably what happened was there was some combination of

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Speaker 4: maybe a little rough housing, maybe some irritation that trusted

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Speaker 4: himself elf could have scratched or irritated that resulted in

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Speaker 4: these conditions. No matter what happened, everyone agrees Lamont wasn't involved,

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Speaker 4: but these circumstances were treated as abuse, and at the

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Speaker 4: hospital when they did a skeletal survey an X ray,

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Speaker 4: they discovered that Trusten had a number of older healing

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Speaker 4: fractures in his hands and feet. Now, Trustin was hardly

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Speaker 4: ever taken care of by his mother and therefore Lamont

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Speaker 4: so at the time that these injuries would have been

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Speaker 4: dated when he sustained them. Trustin was not around either

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Speaker 4: Lamont or his mother. He was in the care of

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Speaker 4: other people, so he had lived with them right, So

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Speaker 4: even if these older injuries were the result of abuse,

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Speaker 4: it was not from Lamont or his mother.

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Speaker 1: No one was charged in this two thousand and four incident,

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Speaker 1: but child protective services were made aware and even though

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Speaker 1: Lamont was never even considered a suspect in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and four, the Hamilton County prosecutors raised the specter of

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Speaker 1: ongoing abuse while seeking the death penalty for Lamont. In

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six.

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Speaker 4: The death penalty information Center has a report called the

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Speaker 4: two Percent Report. If you look statistically, Hamilton County and

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Speaker 4: Kyga County in Ohio, Cleveland and Cincinnati are part of

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Speaker 4: the two percent of counties in the entire nation that

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Speaker 4: account for more than half of people on death row

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Speaker 4: and more than half of people who've been executed in

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Speaker 4: this country.

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Speaker 1: We've covered a lot of Ohio wrongful convictions, too many

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Speaker 1: to list, but we're going to link Elwood Jones and

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Speaker 1: Keith Lamar, both death penalty cases handled by Hamilton County

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Speaker 1: prosecutors in which they hid or ignored exculpatory evidence at trial,

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Speaker 1: and Lamont's story is no different. So let's get to that.

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Speaker 1: On January nineteenth, two thousand and six, tragedy struck when

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Speaker 1: Trustin was staying with Liz, Milda and Lamont.

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Speaker 2: Lois Milton.

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Speaker 3: Well, she get up and go to work, and about

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Speaker 3: a hour or two later, I get the boys up

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Speaker 3: to get ready for school themselves. So I get Jordan

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Speaker 3: and Tiree out the door on their way to school.

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Speaker 3: Now I got trust In in Trinity, and I get

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Speaker 3: trust In waited for breakfast in our living room that

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Speaker 3: I made him French toes, sticks and little sausage links.

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Speaker 3: He wanted to watch the new Jurassic Park movie, so

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Speaker 3: set him in a chair, put it on for him,

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Speaker 3: and decided to start my daily chores. I grabbed Trinity,

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Speaker 3: my nine month old, and I went downstairs in the

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Speaker 3: basement to finish doing the laundry. That's when I first

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Speaker 3: heard him running across the floor above me. Next thing,

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Speaker 3: I hear, he's coming tumbling down the stairs and hit

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Speaker 3: his head, so.

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Speaker 2: I immediately run over.

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Speaker 3: His head was back and his eyes were fluttering, and

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Speaker 3: I'm scared. I just scooped him up and run up

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Speaker 3: the stairs. So I figured I throw some water on

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Speaker 3: his face to try to jug him awake, and his

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Speaker 3: eyes were still fluttering, so I seeing that he was

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Speaker 3: struggling to take a breath. I don't know how to

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Speaker 3: do CPR, but I attempted it, so I had to

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Speaker 3: open his mouth. I noticed a piece of sausage lodged

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Speaker 3: in the back of his mouth, blocking his airway, so

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Speaker 3: I got that out on my finger. I held his

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Speaker 3: nose and I blew in his mouth like I see

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Speaker 3: people do on TV. I don't know, I don't know

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Speaker 3: how to do it. I'm not certified nothing, so I

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Speaker 3: probably blew too much in his mouth because his stomach

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Speaker 3: was getting bloated. I got scared, so I called his

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Speaker 3: mother and she immediately came home. They made a big

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Speaker 3: deal of this, by the way, at my trial that

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Speaker 3: I didn't immediately call the paramedics instead of calling his mother.

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Speaker 3: They thought it was something the farious, but it wasn't.

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Speaker 3: It was just I panicked, and so paramedics got there

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Speaker 3: very quick and started tending to him.

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Speaker 2: I was just a mess.

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Speaker 4: The dog is running around parking.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, I could never prove this, but I know my dog,

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Speaker 3: when I left the room, tried to take his food

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Speaker 3: from him while he was sitting in that chair. I

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Speaker 3: believe that's what prompted Trusting to run across that.

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Speaker 1: Floor, and that might explain why he ended up with

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Speaker 1: a piece of food lodge in his throat.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, the sausage, and I know my dog was harassing

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Speaker 3: for it. But they get Trusting in the ambulance and

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Speaker 3: Lumilda gets in the ambulance with him, and me and

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Speaker 3: Trinity we followed them to the emergency room at Children's.

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Speaker 3: That's how my day started. January nineteenth, two thousand and six.

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Speaker 4: Trustin had head injuries that were fatal. He had blood

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Speaker 4: trapped between the layers of his brain, which they call

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Speaker 4: subdural hematoma. And then his brain also swelled, which is

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Speaker 4: what happens anytime there's any sort of injury or trauma

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Speaker 4: to the brain, they call it cerebral edema. And anytime

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Speaker 4: your brain swells, that also puts pressure on your optic

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Speaker 4: nerve and results in rental hemorrhages, so bleeding on the

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Speaker 4: back of your eye.

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Speaker 1: And by now our listeners are familiar with these findings

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Speaker 1: as what are commonly associated with the grotesque junk science

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Speaker 1: prosecution theory known as shaken baby syndrome. We're going to

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Speaker 1: have our shaken baby syndrome episode of wraeful conviction junk

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Speaker 1: science length as well. For years, the theory was widely

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Speaker 1: accepted across the medical establishment that the presentation of these

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Speaker 1: three things could mean only one thing, that the infant

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Speaker 1: or toddler had been shaken to death by their most

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Speaker 1: recent caretaker, denying any other potential or even probable causes.

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Speaker 1: But over time this theory has gradually fallen apart.

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Speaker 4: And this field has been very nimble because anytime someone shows, well,

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Speaker 4: guess what this person, we know it was an accident,

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Speaker 4: and they show these injuries, and then they say like, oh, okay, well,

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Speaker 4: first of all, we're not going to call it shaking baby,

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Speaker 4: because they did experiments. They had big beefy football players

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Speaker 4: shake a crash test dummy baby, and they could not

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Speaker 4: generate the type of force needed to cause the brain

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Speaker 4: injuries without breaking the child's neck. And so they said, okay,

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Speaker 4: so maybe shaking alone can't cause it, So shaking with impact,

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Speaker 4: that's what we'll say, shaking with impact. So we won't

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Speaker 4: call it shaken baby. We'll call it abusive head trauma.

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Speaker 4: And they just keep morphing and adapting to whatever fits.

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Speaker 1: No matter what has been revealed through biomechanical studies and

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Speaker 1: a confluence of medical histories that proved that in addition

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Speaker 1: to accidental causes like a fall down the stairs, there

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Speaker 1: are eighty one pre existing medical conditions and counting that

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Speaker 1: can cause the presentation of those findings. And yet there

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Speaker 1: are still proponents of this theory that refused to admit

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Speaker 1: that limiting the cause to shaking alone is an unscientific

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Speaker 1: leap in logic. And so in two thousand and six,

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Speaker 1: even though some of the medical establishment had begun to

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Speaker 1: realize the problem with this theory, including the neuroscientists who

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Speaker 1: had developed it. The state's witnesses attributed Trustin's triad of

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Speaker 1: findings to shaking and any other injuries, including a sheared

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Speaker 1: vertebrae and what appeared to be an impact injury, to

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Speaker 1: further violence. Lamount was arrested on January twenty second, two

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Speaker 1: thousand and six, three days after Trusten's death, and he

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Speaker 1: has taken a trial in June two thousand and seven.

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Speaker 4: The prosecutor, through their child abuse pedatrician witnesses, said these

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Speaker 4: kinds of injuries could not have come from a fall

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Speaker 4: down the stairs. It had to have been abuse.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 4: We only see these kinds of injuries from forces like

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Speaker 4: in a car accident or maybe LaMotte swung trusting around

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Speaker 4: like a base ball bag. You know, that's what have

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Speaker 4: caused it, but not from falling down the stairs. And

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Speaker 4: then in addition, Trusten had some injuries in his anal

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Speaker 4: rectal era. He had three puncture wounds in his rectal mucosa,

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Speaker 4: so kind of up in his rectum. There were three

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Speaker 4: wounds I think they were about two millimeters in diameter,

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Speaker 4: and then kind of on the outside lip of his anus.

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Speaker 4: It's not entirely clear if it's a tear or a cut.

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Speaker 4: It wasn't that accurately described, and so those injuries were

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Speaker 4: used to support a charge of rape.

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Speaker 1: As we'll explain later, there was a completely innocent explanation

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Speaker 1: for those anal and rectal injuries, yet the child abuse

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Speaker 1: pediatrician painted a completely different picture.

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Speaker 4: The child abuse pediatrician did say that the injuries were

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Speaker 4: consistent with an adult penis. Now that's the magic word, right, consistent,

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Speaker 4: which I think a lot of fact finders here and

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Speaker 4: think that means a match, but it doesn't at all.

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Speaker 4: It just means we can't exclude it as the cause.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what adult penis is two millimeters in diameter.

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Speaker 4: So macrof is only talking about the external injury kind

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Speaker 4: of along the edge of the anus. She never saw

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Speaker 4: the internal injuries, the puncture wounds.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: So the child abuse pediatrician did not have a full

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Speaker 1: understanding of the injuries, which may explain why the coroner,

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Speaker 1: doctor Gretel Stevens, true different conclusions.

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Speaker 4: What the coroner said was that it looked like the

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Speaker 4: interior wounds were like poked with something sharp like maybe

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Speaker 4: a pencil, and the prosecutors argued at trial that this

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Speaker 4: wasn't penile rape, but this was rape with some sort

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Speaker 4: of object.

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Speaker 1: While that explanation is still incorrect, at least doctor Stevens's

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Speaker 1: assumptions were more grounded in reality. However, the investigation failed

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Speaker 1: to find any such object or any efforts to cover

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Speaker 1: up that kind of crime. Doctor Stevens also acknowledged the

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Speaker 1: evolving science on shaking baby syndrome, saying that a rotational

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Speaker 1: fall would be consistent with the shearing of the neck

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Speaker 1: that trust And experienced, and that stairfalls are responsible for

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Speaker 1: the kinds of findings that were present in trust and situation.

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Speaker 4: And that's the thing, like doctor Stevens pretty much was

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Speaker 4: a straight shooter at trial, and it was just the

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Speaker 4: fact that she hadn't seen the photographs of the actual

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Speaker 4: staircase to know that there was a ledge abutting one

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Speaker 4: side of the stairs that kind of mashed up with

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Speaker 4: some injuries that she saw. There was also a throw

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Speaker 4: rug if he had slipped on, that may have contributed.

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Speaker 4: She didn't know that Lamont had reported hearing trust and running.

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Speaker 1: In addition, the coroner was unaware of the innocent explanation

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Speaker 1: for these anal and rectal injuries. So since neither one

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Speaker 1: of the state's experts had a full picture of the incident, this,

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Speaker 1: along with Lamont's ineffective council, allowed the state's erroneous narrative

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Speaker 1: to take hold.

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Speaker 4: Lamont's child counsel, Clyde Bennett is the attorney's is not

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Speaker 4: a bad criminal defense attorney. He's actually pretty well known

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Speaker 4: as a good criminal defense attorney. But there are a

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Speaker 4: couple things that just weren't going to work in Lamont's case.

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Speaker 4: Number One, a death penalty case is different, a dead

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Speaker 4: kid is different, and you can't just kind of rely

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Speaker 4: on your old tricks and techniques in this kind of case.

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Speaker 4: Number two, this is a case where the evidence is

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Speaker 4: all based on medical expert testimony. The evidence is the

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Speaker 4: state expert coming in and saying you can only get

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Speaker 4: these injuries from abuse, period, And his trial council did

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Speaker 4: not hire an expert, not only not to testify or

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Speaker 4: just even to consult with an expert to explain the

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Speaker 4: medical records to him, to explain the flaws in the

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Speaker 4: state experts testimony and reasoning. He said he thought that

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Speaker 4: he could just rely on cross examination, and his theory

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Speaker 4: was that this chadabe'see pediatrician. She's not qualified to be

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Speaker 4: talking about retinal hemorrhages. She's not an ophthalmologist, she's not

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Speaker 4: qualified to be talking about the mechanism of injury. She

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Speaker 4: doesn't have a degree in biomechanics or anything. Now, this

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Speaker 4: is all true. The problem was when he made that objection,

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Speaker 4: the court overruled it, and he had no plan B.

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Speaker 4: So when that didn't work, he was left to just

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Speaker 4: kind of on his own try to cross examine, and

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Speaker 4: he knew enough to be dangerous, and so he's asking

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Speaker 4: questions about stuff that's not relevant. Like he's trying to say,

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Speaker 4: isn't it true that you could have a delayed onset

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Speaker 4: of injury? And that is true sometimes, except for that's

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Speaker 4: not what happened in Tresten's case. We know what happened.

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Speaker 4: He fell down the stairs and was immediately unresponsive, so

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Speaker 4: that line of questioning was completely irrelevant. Also, he didn't

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Speaker 4: hire an expert to look through the medical records, and

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Speaker 4: he didn't look through the records himself.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Lamont would have been better off with his

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Speaker 1: original court appointed attorney, not I mean much better off

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Speaker 1: because it turns out that mister Bennett was more than

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Speaker 1: a little bit distracted at the time.

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Speaker 4: That's true, he was a little distracted with his own

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Speaker 4: legal troubles. Mister Bennett himself was being investigated for some

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Speaker 4: pretty serious federal crimes, and in fact, shortly after Lamont

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Speaker 4: was sentenced to death, he signed his own plea agreement

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Speaker 4: and turned himself into federal custody and went away to

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Speaker 4: federal prison. He pled to structured deposits, so depositing money

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Speaker 4: just under the reporting limit.

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Speaker 1: Unbeknownst to Lamont, Clyde Bennett was connected to a major

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Speaker 1: drug dealer out of Dayton, Ohio, both of whom were

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Speaker 1: subjects of a federal investigation that ended in cooperation and

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Speaker 1: a plea deal for Clyde. Meanwhile, in Lamont's trial, Clyde

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Speaker 1: neglected to prepare the vital medical expert testimony, as well

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Speaker 1: as advised Lamont to take a bench trial in front

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Speaker 1: of a three judge panel, reasoning that a jury might

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Speaker 1: be susceptible to the emotion surrounding a dead child.

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Speaker 4: Turns out, so are three judge panels.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, especially when we know for sure that this judge

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Speaker 3: who's now passed on. Norbert Natl told Clyde Bennett and

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Speaker 3: his chambers it wouldn't be wise for him to bring

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Speaker 3: me in front of him on a bench trial because

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Speaker 3: I lose, and he still advised me not to have

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Speaker 3: a jury.

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Speaker 4: Now, the advantage of not having a jury is that

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Speaker 4: you can save a lot of time because you don't

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Speaker 4: have to go through vaidir and get a death qualified jury.

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Speaker 4: So you know, Clyde took a flat fee from Lamont's family,

357
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Speaker 4: so it's just economical to make the trial go as

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Speaker 4: fast as possible, and so great way to cut down

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Speaker 4: on time is to wave jury.

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Speaker 1: It sounds to me like the judge actually was telling

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Speaker 1: him if you do this, you're going to lose, and

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Speaker 1: he was like great. I mean, I'm glad you're laughing

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Speaker 1: a lot, because you know, sometimes I feel like I'm

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Speaker 1: laughing from crying. Where you lived through this, I say, what.

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Speaker 3: I'm doing I've been doing in society. Oh my god,

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Speaker 3: I've been laughing to keep from crying. Man, it's just

367
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Speaker 3: so much trauma on this journey, man, It's just a

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Speaker 3: lot of trauma.

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Speaker 1: So this bench troul played out exactly as this judge

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Speaker 1: told Lamont's attorney, it would.

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Speaker 4: It was pretty easy for them to convict because all

372
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Speaker 4: of the state's expert testimony was entirely unrebutted. So they

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Speaker 4: have these experts from the state saying this had to

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Speaker 4: be abuse, There is no way this could have come

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Speaker 4: from a fall down the stairs. And then on top

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Speaker 4: of that, they had the state saying, and look at

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Speaker 4: all this other suspicious stuff, injuries in his anal rectal era,

378
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Speaker 4: these injuries in the past when Lamont was around trust In.

379
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Speaker 3: After conviction, Clyde Bennett pops up in the jail on

380
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Speaker 3: a Sunday, and I'm pissed at this point. I'm like,

381
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Speaker 3: what are you doing here? And he just said, man,

382
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Speaker 3: you know, I just wanted to come and ask you

383
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Speaker 3: how our federal prisons, how are they ran, what it's

384
00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:04,960
Speaker 3: like in federal prison. I'm looking at him, like, what

385
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Speaker 3: does that have to do with my case? He said, well,

386
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Speaker 3: he's well, I know you've been in federal prison before,

387
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Speaker 3: and I'm going there. I'm fighting for my own life, Lamont,

388
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Speaker 3: so I just wanted to know how these federal prisons.

389
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Speaker 3: I walked off on him and went back to my sale. Man,

390
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Speaker 3: I was done with him. At the time, so all

391
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Speaker 3: hope was lost at that point. I was convicted and

392
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Speaker 3: then mitigation where you have to get the most closest

393
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Speaker 3: loving person in your life. They had to literally beg

394
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Speaker 3: the courts to save my life. It was humiliating for

395
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Speaker 3: me and my family, and it didn't work, so they

396
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:40,600
Speaker 3: were dug in. So I still got sentenced to death.

397
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Speaker 3: And my father, who I have a lot of love

398
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Speaker 3: and respect for, he's actually my hero. I after getting

399
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Speaker 3: on a standing testifying and asking the course to save

400
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Speaker 3: my life and telling the story that he did about

401
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:57,240
Speaker 3: me and growing up with my siblings, he had a

402
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:58,840
Speaker 3: heart attack right there in the courtroom.

403
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Speaker 1: He had a heart attack right there in the courtroom.

404
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 2: Right in the courtroom. Ambulance was called.

405
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Speaker 3: They saved his life there, but he had a heart

406
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:10,399
Speaker 3: attack right in the courtroom. They never got talked about

407
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:11,959
Speaker 3: in the media or nothing like that. They was too

408
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,919
Speaker 3: busy calling me a monster and a child rapist. And

409
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Speaker 3: my father he's no longer with us. He died in

410
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Speaker 3: twenty eighteen before I got home, but from that day

411
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Speaker 3: his health just declined. Since to death, isolated away from

412
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Speaker 3: general population, there's no programming set up for us back

413
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 3: there it's just mundane and waking up every day knowing

414
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Speaker 3: that your name is on a list to be executed.

415
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:58,200
Speaker 3: The State of Ohio intents on executing you. And that's

416
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:02,119
Speaker 3: like having a gorilla constantly on your shoulders, weighing you down.

417
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Speaker 3: And this is it from far as you can see.

418
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Speaker 3: Is it every day? It's like the same day. The

419
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:10,800
Speaker 3: first year I was there, I was still in the haze.

420
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Speaker 3: I didn't know what to expect as far as the courts.

421
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 3: I've never appealed the sentence before, so I was, of

422
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 3: course jaden and kind of paranoid of my attorneys after

423
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Speaker 3: coming through the whrror show of the trial that I

424
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:27,560
Speaker 3: went through and being served up by my trial attorney, like, well,

425
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Speaker 3: what's going to happen at this phase.

426
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Speaker 4: Although Lamont had pretty capable post conviction attorneys from the

427
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:38,399
Speaker 4: Ohio Public Defender's Office, unfortunately they couldn't get any traction

428
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 4: in state court, which is not uncommon. But their claims

429
00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 4: that they raised were not that different than what we

430
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:48,760
Speaker 4: raised in our federal habeas petition. The problem is they

431
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,400
Speaker 4: didn't have access to the evidence they needed. They asked

432
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Speaker 4: for discovery to get the medical records to depose the coroner,

433
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:57,920
Speaker 4: just like we did, and it was all denied.

434
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 1: As we've mentioned a trial, both states experts Macaroff and

435
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:06,520
Speaker 1: Stevens have been operating with incomplete understandings of the incident. Additionally,

436
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:10,440
Speaker 1: Makarov had ignored the evolving science on sbs, which continued

437
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 1: through post conviction, even as the science continued to evolve

438
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:16,960
Speaker 1: further and further away from her position.

439
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:22,479
Speaker 4: Doctor Macaroff, she's doubling down on everything as everyone in

440
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 4: her sort of little industry has to do. This is

441
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:31,400
Speaker 4: what makes this field so dangerous and unscientific, is the

442
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 4: feedback loop that exists. During our deposition, doctor Macroff cited

443
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:40,120
Speaker 4: an article about stairfalls, saying, look, we know stairfalls aren't

444
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 4: fatal because we draw this data from different hospitals. All

445
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,199
Speaker 4: these kids come in after falling down the stairs and

446
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 4: they didn't die. And I said, okay, I said, would

447
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,919
Speaker 4: trust In's case be included in that data set? And

448
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 4: she said, well, what do you mean? I said, well,

449
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 4: is his case classified as a stairfall because you guys

450
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 4: don't believe mister Hunter that he fell down the stairs, right,

451
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 4: And she was like, oh, that's a good point. They're

452
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:07,360
Speaker 4: self selecting the data they're using to draw the conclusions

453
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 4: that they used to exclude the data that they don't want.

454
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 4: And then they say that, you know, these are so rare,

455
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 4: and I agree. You know, most kids who tumble down

456
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 4: the stairs don't die from it. But that doesn't mean

457
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 4: that it's impossible, which is what they say to put

458
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 4: people on death row. And just because something is rare

459
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 4: doesn't mean that they know which is the rare case

460
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:32,239
Speaker 4: and which isn't. So there's all this bad science that

461
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,440
Speaker 4: goes into it. The thing that actually is scientific about

462
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 4: this would be biomechanics, right force Chawdabez. Pediatricians don't think

463
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:45,520
Speaker 4: biomechanics have any place in their world. And when doctor Macroff,

464
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,159
Speaker 4: she says, I didn't say lamont abuse trust in. I

465
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 4: just said that his report does not match the mechanism

466
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 4: of injury. And I said, well, when you're talking about

467
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 4: the mechanism of injury, that kind of sounds like force.

468
00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:57,880
Speaker 2: Right.

469
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:00,679
Speaker 4: Oh, no, I'm not a physicist. Biomechanics doesn't fit there

470
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,399
Speaker 4: or whatever. I don't know how, right, I don't know

471
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,640
Speaker 4: how you can talk about a mechanism without using biomechanics. Anyway,

472
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,800
Speaker 4: we did hire a biold mechanical engineer, and we went

473
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 4: to the site and he took measurements of the stairs

474
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 4: and the elasticity of the surface, and he used a

475
00:26:19,280 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 4: computer program and he put in the height that Trusten

476
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 4: was and his weight and the average that a child

477
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 4: his age could run, and you know, ran through all

478
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,199
Speaker 4: these different scenarios of how he could have fallen and

479
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,879
Speaker 4: showed that, like the forces generated were well within the

480
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 4: range that have been shown to be enough to generate

481
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 4: the kind of injuries that he had. So absolutely stair

482
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 4: falls can cause this. And also now with cell phones

483
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 4: and security cameras, like, people have started capturing injuries that

484
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:53,439
Speaker 4: otherwise would have been indicted as abuse if we didn't

485
00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 4: have proof that it was actually accidental. And doctor Macaroff claims.

486
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,960
Speaker 2: It even that could be doctors, even that could be doctored.

487
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 4: She maybe would have to see it with her own

488
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,919
Speaker 4: eyes to be convinced, and so you know, there's just

489
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,040
Speaker 4: no pleasing the child abuse pediatricians.

490
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: However, the defense was able to please the coroner, doctor Stevens,

491
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,080
Speaker 1: when they provided a fuller picture of the incident, including

492
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,159
Speaker 1: photographs of the staircase. A biomechanical expert and finally, the

493
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,760
Speaker 1: innocent explanation for the anal and rectal injuries that were

494
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: available to prosecutors, the state's experts, and even la Mons

495
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 1: attorney at the trial. Had he even bothered to look.

496
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 4: He would have found, like our investigator Pam Swanson did

497
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 4: when we took over the case, notations in the medical

498
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 4: records that staff at the hospital in the pic you

499
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,000
Speaker 4: had attempted to take Trusten's temperature three times with a

500
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 4: rectal thermometer had been unsuccessful, and immediately after that had

501
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:55,439
Speaker 4: noted blood in his rectum, which of course perfectly matches

502
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 4: up with the three puncture wounds that the coroner identified

503
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:01,800
Speaker 4: and said could have been caused by something sharp like

504
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,600
Speaker 4: a pencil. And in fact, and in another piece of

505
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:09,119
Speaker 4: undisclosed evidence, the coroner even told detectives that she couldn't

506
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,960
Speaker 4: rule out a temperature probe as the cause of this. Now,

507
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 4: nobody turned that over to Lamont at trial, and the

508
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 4: prosecutor didn't ask the coroner that question, but he did

509
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 4: ask the child abuse pediatrician at trial if Trustan's injuries

510
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 4: could have been caused by a thermometer, and she said no.

511
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 4: When we deposed the coroner and showed her these records,

512
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,440
Speaker 4: she immediately changed her opinion on the cause of those injuries.

513
00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 4: She still said it was non accidental, but it was

514
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 4: inflicted medically, not as an assault. For me, I saw

515
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 4: that and felt like I was just shouting into the void.

516
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 4: For years after that, nobody seemed to care about it

517
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 4: until the coroner did. But I was like, people, this

518
00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 4: is it, Like this explains.

519
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 3: Everything, because that was a huge void in my defense.

520
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a huge gap because nobody could explain I.

521
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 3: Never could explain the rape to the time we found

522
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,959
Speaker 3: that in the record, I couldn't not explain the rape.

523
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 2: I didn't rape me, So.

524
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:08,160
Speaker 1: These idiots couldn't even figure out the three pokes with

525
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: the thermometer were what caused what otherwise sounded like an

526
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 1: awful thing that was done to this child, Right.

527
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that's the really troubling thing is that I

528
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 4: think nobody looked at these records, including doctor Stevens. You know,

529
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:26,840
Speaker 4: at the time, had she she would have learned things

530
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:30,760
Speaker 4: about the scene that would have explained the mechanism of injury,

531
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:34,760
Speaker 4: plus the findings about the anal and rectal injuries, and

532
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 4: so then, like she did her deposition when we showed

533
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 4: them to her, she would have changed her opinion not

534
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 4: only about the injuries that supported the rape, but also

535
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 4: about the cause of death, that it was not a

536
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 4: homicide and his trial attorney is just as much to blame.

537
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: So in addition to the Brady violations, this was also

538
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 1: a clear case of ineffective assistance of counsel as well.

539
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 4: When we went back to our judge in federal court judgment,

540
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 4: Michael Watson, with the deposition testimony from Clyde, he kind of,

541
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 4: in his opinion, went through all the things he didn't do,

542
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 4: you know, didn't hire experts, didn't talk to witnesses, didn't

543
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 4: look at the records, blah blah blah. And then the

544
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 4: way he put it was he appeared to settle on

545
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 4: his strategy of not using an expert, not as a

546
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 4: result of a strategic investigation, but rather in lieu of one,

547
00:30:24,280 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 4: which is kind of the classic definition of being an

548
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:32,120
Speaker 4: effective lawyer. You know, like all these people participate in

549
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 4: a process that could result in a man's execution, and

550
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 4: that there's so little you know, I mean plenty of time.

551
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 4: I think there's outright misconduct and malicious intent, and I

552
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 4: think there's some of that here with the Brady evidence,

553
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 4: the withheld evidence that we saw, but a lot of

554
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 4: other is I think just in competence, a lack of thoroughness.

555
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 4: I don't know that might even be worse, because you know,

556
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 4: you care so little about being careful in.

557
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 2: Case, it was such magnitude as a person's life.

558
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: Right with proceeding so fraught with constitutional violations and convincing

559
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 1: evidence of innocence. The Hamilton County Prosecutor's office joined Lamont's

560
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 1: motion for a new trial in April twenty twenty three,

561
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: but this didn't mean that they were finally seeking justice

562
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: for Lamont.

563
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 4: After Lamont had a new trial and we are trying

564
00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 4: to get him out on bond, the prosecutor's office ran

565
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 4: to the coroner's office and got the other pathologists in

566
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 4: the office to issue this addendum to the original autopsy

567
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 4: report that basically just says, like, we think the coroner

568
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 4: was wrong to change her opinion under oath and the deposition.

569
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 4: We do think that this should still be a homicide

570
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 4: and still be a rape with zero explanation. And then

571
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 4: those pathologists refused to talk to us without the prosecutors

572
00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 4: being present. It just became so obvious to us that

573
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 4: I believe the Hamilton County Coroner's Office, there's supposed to

574
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 4: be neutral experts guided by science, considers itself an arm

575
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 4: of the prosecutor's office.

576
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: So while Lamont was still trying to get out on

577
00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,239
Speaker 1: bond and the lead up to his new trial, the

578
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 1: prosecutor's office began to apply pressure.

579
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 2: And here comes to please offer.

580
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 4: Basically, Lamont had this pressure of stay here in jail

581
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 4: for at least another year, or take a plea and

582
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 4: get out time served. Lamont could walk out the door. Well,

583
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 4: we decided to fight it and ask for bond, and

584
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 4: the prosecutors fought dirty. Basically had to go through a

585
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 4: little mini trial where they are allowed to summarize their

586
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:36,719
Speaker 4: case by presenting evidence, including evidence that wasn't even presented

587
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 4: at trial the first time, so stuff that isn't tested

588
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 4: in any way, but just allegations. We were able to

589
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 4: beat them there. The judge ruled that they hadn't met

590
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 4: their burden to keep him locked up. But then the

591
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 4: bond was five hundred thousand dollars, which he would have

592
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 4: needed to get fifty thousand dollars together cash to meet it.

593
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 2: Would have been very hard which we couldn't do.

594
00:32:57,680 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 4: I mean, so that was one problem. And then the

595
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 4: other problem was the prosecutor convinced the judge to order

596
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 4: no contact for Lamont with anyone under eighteen, so that

597
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,080
Speaker 4: meant all of his nine grandchildren eight at the time.

598
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 2: And went on the way.

599
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:13,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, he wouldn't be able to meet them.

600
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 3: My children was in the courtroom when they asked for that,

601
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 3: and just seeing them cry, man, and they want me

602
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 3: to meet their kids so bad, and I want to

603
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 3: meet my grandchildren so bad.

604
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:24,000
Speaker 2: They're right there.

605
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 3: That's when you know the decision was firmly made that

606
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 3: I'm taking his plea agreement.

607
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 1: It sounds like the prosecutor, Seth Tiger, was just trying

608
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:33,120
Speaker 1: to have it both ways.

609
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 4: You're saying that he's so dangerous and such a monster

610
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 4: that you don't think you should be led at at all.

611
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 4: But you've offered him a plea, and if he agrees

612
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 4: to that, he walks out of the door today with

613
00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 4: no conditions at all, no conditions, which is what he

614
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 4: ended up doing.

615
00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 1: Lamont took the plea for time served, which also meant

616
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 1: that he's not eligible for state compensation regardless. He was

617
00:33:56,760 --> 00:34:01,920
Speaker 1: finally free after sixteen long years in fifteenth twenty twenty.

618
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 3: Three, one of the best days of my life, mind too,

619
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:09,359
Speaker 3: on Aaron's birthday, by the way, and ironically I was

620
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:13,520
Speaker 3: convicted on her birthday as well, sixteen years earlier. Aaron

621
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 3: had already told me it's a bank of cameras and

622
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,880
Speaker 3: reporters out there, so be prepared when you walk through

623
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,360
Speaker 3: the door. One of the questions was how are you

624
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 3: feeling getting your freedom back? And my answer then and

625
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 3: today is still the same. Imagine feeling all of the

626
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,720
Speaker 3: emotions anger, stress, joy and relief, frustration, all of those

627
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 3: emotions at the same time. I'm still going through it,

628
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 3: trying to figure it out.

629
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:37,439
Speaker 2: Man.

630
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:41,040
Speaker 3: It's been amazing though, and I actually got a good

631
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 3: start on everything too. Got my driver's license, my cousin

632
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,600
Speaker 3: gave me a vehicle. I got a job rather quickly.

633
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:50,239
Speaker 3: It took a little longer for me to get in

634
00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 3: an apartment. I have to go in for a full

635
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 3: knee replacement surgery because O the writer is on set

636
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 3: in on it, bone on bone, so I haven't been

637
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:02,959
Speaker 3: able to work. That is frustrating. So I'm just trying

638
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 3: to figure things out. Aaron set up a GoFundMe page

639
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:07,640
Speaker 3: that's been helping a little bit.

640
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: Well, we're hoping our audience can help out a whole

641
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: bunch more, and who knows how long it's going to

642
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,319
Speaker 1: be till Lemon is on his feet again. So if

643
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 1: you have a few bucks, a few thousand bucks, a

644
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:22,080
Speaker 1: few million bucks laid around, whatever you can spare, and

645
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:24,279
Speaker 1: you want to help this man who has already been

646
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,200
Speaker 1: through so much, we're going to have the GoFundMe linked

647
00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:31,279
Speaker 1: in the episode description along with Lamon's LinkedIn page. He's

648
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,279
Speaker 1: begun public speaking and he's a great speaker, so if

649
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: anyone's interested, I'm sure he'd be very happy to have

650
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 1: work that's not as physically demanding as the job he

651
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:42,759
Speaker 1: was able to find before the surgery. And with that,

652
00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 1: we're going to go to closing arguments, where first of all,

653
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 1: I want to thank Aaron and Lamont, both of you

654
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:50,759
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today. And now I'm just

655
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 1: going to do what I do best. I'm going to

656
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,279
Speaker 1: kick back in my chair, turn off my microphone, leave

657
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 1: my headphones on, close my eyes, and just listen to

658
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:00,879
Speaker 1: anything you feel is left to be said. So let's

659
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:04,040
Speaker 1: start with you Erin, and then just tan the mic

660
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 1: off to Lamont and Lamont, you take us out into

661
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:07,840
Speaker 1: the sunset.

662
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:11,080
Speaker 4: Nothing like this happens without the help of a village,

663
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,880
Speaker 4: and that's certainly true in Lamont's case. In our office,

664
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 4: attorneys Tasiplesio and Justin Thompson, we're also on Lamont's team.

665
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:23,560
Speaker 4: I mentioned Pam Swanson. She's retired now, but she's the

666
00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 4: investigator that kick things off. And then our paralegal, extraordinary

667
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 4: Shannon Flammer.

668
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:31,799
Speaker 2: Oh my god, yes, who runs.

669
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 4: The office and is really the backbone of everything. Was

670
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 4: absolutely wonderful. But I honestly don't know if there's a

671
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:39,719
Speaker 4: single person in the Capitol habeous unit who didn't help

672
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 4: in some way with Lamont's case. And that includes a

673
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,880
Speaker 4: lot of our law student externs who helped us with

674
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 4: research and writing, people helped with site checking, just brainstorming

675
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:55,279
Speaker 4: figuring out how to approach this crazy developments in the case,

676
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,480
Speaker 4: especially when the Supreme Court is changing the law on

677
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 4: what we're allowed to present in the state court and

678
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 4: federal court, you know, as it's going on, you know.

679
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 4: And then he had post conviction attorneys Melissa Jackson and

680
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 4: Kim Rigby at the Ohio Public Defender's Office, who fought

681
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:15,280
Speaker 4: valiantly and kept hitting a brick wall, but stayed supportive

682
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,919
Speaker 4: of Lamont. And then we are just so grateful for

683
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:23,160
Speaker 4: al Gerhartstein, who's been so supportive and brought on some

684
00:37:23,239 --> 00:37:26,719
Speaker 4: amazing attorneys to help us in state court, Sarah Jelsonino

685
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 4: and Elizabeth Bonham and Marcus Siddodi. They really made an

686
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 4: awesome team. And then Kate Jutson, who's the executive director

687
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,600
Speaker 4: at the Center for Integrity of Forensic Sciences, helped with

688
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 4: in particular her expertise in shaking baby science and abuse

689
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 4: of head trauma. Finally, I think a big part of

690
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,279
Speaker 4: Lamont's success has been his family. As he's mentioned, I

691
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:50,480
Speaker 4: think he has maybe one of the most supportive families

692
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 4: that I've ever seen. It's been a real privilege to

693
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 4: have Lamont and his family trust me with his life

694
00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 4: and with his case, because it's pretty scary, especially it's

695
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:03,640
Speaker 4: so complicated and technical and you don't know what's going on,

696
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 4: and they let me into their home to explain things,

697
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,799
Speaker 4: and we're patient as I explained why we need to

698
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:13,680
Speaker 4: be patient and why it takes so long and that

699
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 4: kind of thing.

700
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,759
Speaker 3: So one of the things I talk about, especially when

701
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 3: talking to the law students, is about, you know, how

702
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,360
Speaker 3: to try your best to meet your client where they are,

703
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:28,880
Speaker 3: you know, intellectually, emotionally if you could. Because I just

704
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 3: had an attorney asked me, you know, after doing the

705
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 3: talk up there, she said, what could I do better?

706
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 3: I have a kind of a guarded client. You know

707
00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 3: what I'm saying that I can't seem to get through too,

708
00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:40,479
Speaker 3: you know, and he don't trust me. I said, well,

709
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:43,960
Speaker 3: my recommendation, this is what worked for me and my family.

710
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,040
Speaker 3: It might not work for everybody. If you could pinpoint

711
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,880
Speaker 3: somebody in his family or trusted a friend or something

712
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:53,239
Speaker 3: who he listens to and try to get through to

713
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,640
Speaker 3: that person and let that person be the liaison or whatever,

714
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:59,440
Speaker 3: maybe you can, you know, get a better working relationship

715
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 3: with your client. You know, Aaron took the time, Aaron

716
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 3: justin to you. They took the time to explain the

717
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:08,920
Speaker 3: process going forward when Aaron first came on my case,

718
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 3: when we first met each other, and it was very effective.

719
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:14,800
Speaker 3: I don't know what other attorneys do with their clients,

720
00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:18,520
Speaker 3: but Aaron took the necessary time literally explain what to

721
00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:22,719
Speaker 3: expect going forward and to relate the same information to

722
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 3: my family through a liaison which we chose to be

723
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:31,360
Speaker 3: my sister Debbie, who has been amazing in this process

724
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 3: as well as keeping me straight when I give Aaron

725
00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:38,359
Speaker 3: problems and have phone.

726
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:38,760
Speaker 2: Calls and stuff.

727
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 3: So it's a whole village, like Aaron just mentioned, on

728
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,960
Speaker 3: both sides, it's just it takes a village, man.

729
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,080
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrong for Conviction. You can

730
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,640
Speaker 1: listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts

731
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 1: one week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus

732
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,640
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team,

733
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,600
Speaker 1: Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow

734
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 1: executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn. The

735
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 1: music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR

736
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,240
Speaker 1: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across

737
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 1: all social media platforms at Lava for Good and at

738
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:20,399
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram at

739
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 1: It's Jason Vlahm. Wrongful Conviction is the production of Lava

740
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:27,040
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one