Speaker 1: On May nine, two men approached fifty nine year old
Speaker 1: Harold Frank's outside of a Cleveland, Ohio grocery store, demanding
Speaker 1: his briefcase. Frank's resisted, and the men clubbed him with
Speaker 1: a pipe and splashed acid in his face before shooting
Speaker 1: him twice in the chest. The shooter fired into the
Speaker 1: grocery store as well, hitting co owner An Robinson, who survived.
Speaker 1: Mr Franks, however, did not. An eyewitness wrote down the
Speaker 1: plate number as the assailant sped off in a green convertible.
Speaker 1: Despite the plate number and other compelling leads, police instead
Speaker 1: focused on the word of twelve year old Eddie Vernon,
Speaker 1: who had been bragging about witnessing the crime from a bus,
Speaker 1: repeating an alleged rumor naming Ricky Jackson as well as
Speaker 1: Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman as the assailants. Vernon's classmates and
Speaker 1: the bus driver denied even having the vantage point to
Speaker 1: see the crime during interviews, and that the line up.
Speaker 1: When Eddie Vernon tried to back away from the light,
Speaker 1: the investigators threatened to lock up his parents if he
Speaker 1: didn't stick to the story. By ignoring more compelling suspects,
Speaker 1: and instead coercing a child. The states that Ricky Jackson,
Speaker 1: as well as Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman to death route.
Speaker 1: When the nineteen seventy four reinstatement of the death penalty
Speaker 1: in Ohio was struck down as unconstitutional in ninety those
Speaker 1: condemned between those years had their senses commuted to life,
Speaker 1: including Ronnie, Wiley and Ricky, assuring the possibility of their
Speaker 1: innocence one day being recognized. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to wrongful conviction. Today's story is important in so
Speaker 1: many ways. The man who lived through this well four
Speaker 1: decades of imprisonment on the basis of an eyewitness who
Speaker 1: wasn't there, who was twelve years old at the time,
Speaker 1: who was coerced, pressured for outbeaten by authorities, the same
Speaker 1: authorities who overlooked or ignored evidence pointing to the actual
Speaker 1: two assailants and what was a brutal, brutal crime. And
Speaker 1: I'm very, very honored to have the man himself, Rickey Jackson, Ricky,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here today. Thank you for having
Speaker 1: me Jason. I appreciate it. Thank you. So let's set
Speaker 1: the stage here. When I tell you the name of
Speaker 1: the place, where this occurred. People are probably gonna be
Speaker 1: given some knowing nods in their car or their home
Speaker 1: wherever they're listening, because it feels like every other episode
Speaker 1: we do is a wrong for conviction based in Cuyahoga County. Well,
Speaker 1: when you look at the numine of Auxonorees through Cuyahoga County,
Speaker 1: it justifies the statement you just made. At least in
Speaker 1: those times, the police pretty much on the prosecutor's office,
Speaker 1: the coroner's office, whatever they sent up the pipeline. Nobody
Speaker 1: went against the police, right. And so your story, as
Speaker 1: you were telling me earlier, is important because if it
Speaker 1: could happen to you, it can happen to anyone. And
Speaker 1: when I say that you lived a relatively normal, peaceful
Speaker 1: life growing up, you were only eighteen when this happened.
Speaker 1: You were still really a child, let's face it, but
Speaker 1: you know turning into a man. I mean back in
Speaker 1: the mid seventies, you know, life was not as hectic
Speaker 1: as it is today, and I was doing the typical
Speaker 1: eighteen year old stuff. One of my friends, or Wiley Bridgeman,
Speaker 1: he had joined the National Guard. He came home one
Speaker 1: day on leave. We saw that uniform and we were
Speaker 1: sold all and impressed and amazed by that that we
Speaker 1: immediately set out sights so and joining the military, you know,
Speaker 1: and you joined the Marines, right, and then we're honorably
Speaker 1: discharged for medical reasons. Yes, I was doing a detail
Speaker 1: and the driver pulled off before I had a good
Speaker 1: burm hold on the back of a dump truck and
Speaker 1: I fell off, and my back hasn't been the same.
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna be able to get out,
Speaker 1: we had my back and re enlist. But in the
Speaker 1: process of doing that, Um, Eddie burning happened. Yes, Eddie
Speaker 1: Vernon happened. That's a that's a help of the way
Speaker 1: of putting it very direct. It all comes down to
Speaker 1: just a kid, and I'm talking about he was a kid,
Speaker 1: was twelve years old. I feel that he's a victim
Speaker 1: in this as well. I don't know if you share
Speaker 1: that belief. I do. I do. I strongly share that.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was a twelve year old kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and at twelve years old, we know how easily influenced
Speaker 1: you can be and how easily scared you can be
Speaker 1: at that age. And then a lie just grows into
Speaker 1: um something you can't control. Yeah, it grows horns and
Speaker 1: it gets worse and worse. So Eddie Vernon, was he
Speaker 1: just a kid from the neighborhood. Did you guys know him?
Speaker 1: He used to be a paper boy at one time.
Speaker 1: I remember when I used to come home from school
Speaker 1: to have lunch and a wintertime, he will be sitting
Speaker 1: at our kitchen table. My mother would like give him
Speaker 1: soup and a grilled cheese sandwich or something like that
Speaker 1: because it was so cold outside before he continued on
Speaker 1: with his route because of our age difference. I never,
Speaker 1: you know, hung out, would in anything, but but I
Speaker 1: knew his family. The crime itself, this is the crime
Speaker 1: that happened in May nineteenth and nineteen seventy five when
Speaker 1: fifty nine year old Harold Franks, who was a money
Speaker 1: order salesman, when he was leaving a grocery store on
Speaker 1: Fair Hill Road in Cleveland, Ohio, when two men approached him.
Speaker 1: The men confronted Mr Franks and demanded his briefcase. And
Speaker 1: this is where it gets really crazy. When Frank's resisted,
Speaker 1: they clubbed him in the head with a pipe and
Speaker 1: splashed acid in his face. What kind of sick people
Speaker 1: are these? And one of the men then shot him
Speaker 1: twice in the chest and fired a shot through the
Speaker 1: store's glass front door, hitting fifty eight year old and Robinson,
Speaker 1: who was the co owner of the store. She was
Speaker 1: shot at the neck, but somehow miraculously survived. Mr Franks
Speaker 1: tragically did not. The two robbers fled with the briefcase.
Speaker 1: Remember I said, two robbers containing four hundred and some
Speaker 1: blank money orders, and they escaped in a green car
Speaker 1: that was parked down the street. Did you have a
Speaker 1: green car, by the way, No, never, I didn't even
Speaker 1: own a car, okay. So so, and by the way,
Speaker 1: the three guys convicted for a crime that two guys committed.
Speaker 1: That that's just one little fraction of the problems with
Speaker 1: this case. Right right as we go along May nine,
Speaker 1: the crime had just happened, not two hundred people where
Speaker 1: we lived, the three of us, and so you know,
Speaker 1: we saw people gradually going towards the Fair Hill area,
Speaker 1: and so we act like what's going on, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're like, somebody just got killed up at the store.
Speaker 1: We didn't have nothing to do at the particular time,
Speaker 1: so we decided to go up there and be lucky
Speaker 1: lose as well. We got up there and By the
Speaker 1: time we reached the location, the police were up there.
Speaker 1: Then were TV cameras out there. The police had the
Speaker 1: area cordoned off and there was a body with the
Speaker 1: sheet laying askew. And I saw Eddie Vernon at the
Speaker 1: scene at a crime and he was looking around like
Speaker 1: everybody else was. And so we stayed up there for
Speaker 1: ap prosequently fifteen to twenty five minutes and we left.
Speaker 1: The investigation involved detectives Eugene Turpey and James Farmer, as
Speaker 1: well as numerous others. They had the license plate number
Speaker 1: of the green escape car. This case came with instructions
Speaker 1: that escape car belonged to a guy named Ishmael Hickson,
Speaker 1: and they were also pointed this is I mean. When
Speaker 1: I read this, my head about exploded. Okay, so get
Speaker 1: this everyone. They were also pointed in the direction of
Speaker 1: Paul Gardenshire, whose own mother contacted the store owner and
Speaker 1: the police to report that her son had a gun
Speaker 1: and that she believed that he was involved in the shooting.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the same caliber gun, mind you, of
Speaker 1: the gun that was used to kill Mr Frank's. The
Speaker 1: guy's freaking mother came forward, and then another informant also
Speaker 1: implicated Gardenshire, who said that he stole his grandfather's thirty
Speaker 1: eight caliber gun, which was the murder weapon, and was
Speaker 1: driving around in a convertible that was, yes, you guessed
Speaker 1: it green in color, and that was the escape card.
Speaker 1: These details were not public knowledge at the time, right,
Speaker 1: so this is inside information. An officer Turpey found the
Speaker 1: green convertible exactly where the informants said it would be.
Speaker 1: I'm getting the chills now. There were a lot of
Speaker 1: viable suspects. The FBI even got in contact with the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Police Department and told them that you need to
Speaker 1: be looking at these guys right here. They have an
Speaker 1: m of throwing liquids and people's faces when they robbed them,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know the police for a time
Speaker 1: went down this road. But when you got a twelve
Speaker 1: year old boy saying that he was an actual eye witness,
Speaker 1: you know they're not going to spend on a time
Speaker 1: chasing these leads of what might have been. When we
Speaker 1: got an actual witness, and of course you're referring to
Speaker 1: Eddie Vernon, who had he actually seen anything and had
Speaker 1: you and the bridgeman has actually been the culprits He
Speaker 1: could have pointed you out to the police when you
Speaker 1: were all at the scene right after the crime had occurred.
Speaker 1: But the fact is he hadn't seen anything, As he
Speaker 1: admitted so many long years later, he was actually on
Speaker 1: the bus with a bunch of his classmates at the
Speaker 1: time of the crime. They all heard the gunshots, but
Speaker 1: none of them had advantage point to see anything. It
Speaker 1: was not possible for them to see the crime, not
Speaker 1: even the bus driver who would have had the best view.
Speaker 1: So from what I understand, there was a rumor that
Speaker 1: you and the Bridgeman's may have been involved. We don't
Speaker 1: know how this rumor got started. Maybe there wasn't even
Speaker 1: a rumor at all. Maybe your name came from the cops.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's hard to know. But how the hell
Speaker 1: does Eddie end up as a target of police coercion
Speaker 1: and get forced into making a statement implicating you as
Speaker 1: well as Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman. Edward Burning was running
Speaker 1: around the neighborhood telling people that he had sought the
Speaker 1: whole crime and he knew who did it, and so
Speaker 1: you know, eventually this got back to the gentleman that
Speaker 1: owned the store when the crime took place, and so
Speaker 1: he tracked Edward burning down, took him back to the
Speaker 1: store and started grilling him, like, if you saw who
Speaker 1: did this, you need to tell us, And so the
Speaker 1: store owner got the police involved, and then the police
Speaker 1: started putting the screws and Eddie burning. But upon talking
Speaker 1: to this twelve year old boy, even for a rookie
Speaker 1: police officer, it would have been easy to tell that
Speaker 1: this kid was fabricating a lot of ship. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is probably an insecure kid who wanted
Speaker 1: to be the center of attention. So he went out
Speaker 1: and told people he had seen the crime. Well, and
Speaker 1: that's what started this whole snowball fact. And then the
Speaker 1: police get this tunnel vision and they decided they don't
Speaker 1: really care about investigating the crime. In fact, when they
Speaker 1: did investigate the crime on investigation, they did they collected
Speaker 1: physical evidence from the scene, but inconveniently, none of it
Speaker 1: matched you, Ronnie or Wiley. So the evidence that they
Speaker 1: did have, which again should have been the giant red
Speaker 1: flag ding ding ding ding ding, that should have been it, right,
Speaker 1: all of that evidence pointed to other people, including the
Speaker 1: license plate number of the green escape car okay, which
Speaker 1: they had, I mean and all these people had arm
Speaker 1: robbery on the rap seats, so no other investigation was
Speaker 1: conducted into these or any other leads. Once Eddie Vernon
Speaker 1: came forward, all the other investigations stopped and they focused
Speaker 1: on you three guys with absolute total tunnel vision. They
Speaker 1: pretty much kidnapped his kid, you know, and they told
Speaker 1: his parents if they ever tried to get involved or
Speaker 1: ever tried to stop them from coming to get Edward,
Speaker 1: that they would prosecute them. They had complete and total
Speaker 1: control of this twelve year old kid, and so this
Speaker 1: began the process of molding Eddie Burning from a liar
Speaker 1: and to a lying witness. They pretty much had to
Speaker 1: build this case and give Edward Burning information as they
Speaker 1: went alone. Which is why his testimony and his statement
Speaker 1: changed from day to day, you know, because they were
Speaker 1: feeding him information. He didn't see what happened, and so
Speaker 1: he had to create something and they kept the pressure
Speaker 1: on it. Fast forward a few days later, the three
Speaker 1: of us were coming home from a party. Was about
Speaker 1: one o'clock at night, and my dad had this policy
Speaker 1: when he locks his doors at night all in and
Speaker 1: getting me, you know, so it wasn't that common for
Speaker 1: me to you know, go sleep at the Bridgeman's house,
Speaker 1: who stayed just a couple of houses down for me. Anyway,
Speaker 1: just as I was knitted off, I saw lights going
Speaker 1: by my window, you know, flashlights, And before I could
Speaker 1: get my whereabouts together, the door was exploded. In the
Speaker 1: room was filled with police officers who with guns lights,
Speaker 1: and they were shouting my name and was shouting at
Speaker 1: Bridgeman's names. They got me first because I was right
Speaker 1: there on the couch in the front room where the
Speaker 1: door was kicked in. So they grabbed me, threw me
Speaker 1: to the floor knees and the dag handcuffed me. Asked
Speaker 1: me what the bridgements at and I was so confused.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to say because I was horrified.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was just like a total shock. But
Speaker 1: by the time they drugged me outside and had me
Speaker 1: on top of a police car, I could look down
Speaker 1: the street and see my entire family. Um, I could
Speaker 1: see my entire family stressed out in the street, and
Speaker 1: every one of them had a shotgun pointed at their heads.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by global law firm Greenberg Traaric
Speaker 1: through its pro Boto program. Greenberg Triary leverages it's more
Speaker 1: than lawyers across forty two offices to serve the greater
Speaker 1: good of our communities and provide equal access to justice
Speaker 1: for all. In the field of criminal justice, greenbrig Triary
Speaker 1: Attorneys have been soonerted and Freedom And in Philadelphia represent
Speaker 1: numerous individuals previously sentenced the life for crimes committed as
Speaker 1: juveniles and resentencing hearings, and received the American par Associations
Speaker 1: Exceptional Service Award for Death Penalty Representation for their work
Speaker 1: on five death penalty cases. GT is reimagining what big
Speaker 1: law can be because a more just world only happens
Speaker 1: by design. It became obvious to me that they had
Speaker 1: hit my house first en route to the Brismas house,
Speaker 1: and they finally got the aagements out of the house,
Speaker 1: and I mean we were still just totally in shock.
Speaker 1: We didn't know what the hell did we do. We
Speaker 1: just came from a party. There was no incident at
Speaker 1: the party, so we are totally confused, that's to what's
Speaker 1: going on, not knowing that this is all related to
Speaker 1: that man hadn't got killed a couple of days earlier
Speaker 1: up at fair him. We didn't notice at the time.
Speaker 1: We had no clue. We get downtown. The next morning,
Speaker 1: we go into a lineup, they do their thing. They
Speaker 1: let us out unbeannounced to us. At the time, Eddie
Speaker 1: Burning was standing behind that two way glass and he refused,
Speaker 1: he couldn't pick anybody. He didn't pick anybody, and so
Speaker 1: the police never told us we were free to go. Instead,
Speaker 1: they took Edward Burning in the back room or twelve
Speaker 1: you're a boy unescorted by a parent or a lawyer.
Speaker 1: Took him back in the back room and they threatened him.
Speaker 1: They told him that they couldn't do nothing to him
Speaker 1: because he was a kid, but if he didn't pick
Speaker 1: us out in that line up, Ricky Jackson and Wiley
Speaker 1: Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman, that they would make sure that
Speaker 1: he never saw his mom and dad again. They were
Speaker 1: sending his mom and dad to prison for a long
Speaker 1: time because he started this process and now he had
Speaker 1: to finish it. And so while we were outside in
Speaker 1: the common area making a phone call to call our
Speaker 1: folks and say, well, you know, they haven't told us anything,
Speaker 1: so I guess you can come and get us, he
Speaker 1: points us out while we're out in the common room
Speaker 1: with hundreds of other people, prisoners or whatever making phone calls,
Speaker 1: and a couple of hours later they called us and
Speaker 1: told us that we had been indicted for murder and
Speaker 1: they were seeking the death penalty. And that's when we
Speaker 1: found out that Edward Vernon was a kid that was
Speaker 1: saying that he had saw us do this. It was
Speaker 1: just mind boggling because my mind instantly went act to
Speaker 1: that day when I saw him standing there at the
Speaker 1: scene at a crime like everybody else in the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: you know, and like, why wouldn't you say to the
Speaker 1: police couzles, plenty of police there, that's him right there.
Speaker 1: Because Eddie Vernon never saw a freaking thing nothing. He
Speaker 1: just told a lie like many little kids do, and
Speaker 1: then he got roped into repeating that lie in an
Speaker 1: arena where the stakes were while life and death and
Speaker 1: so On May nineteen seventy five, You, Wiley, and Ronnie
Speaker 1: were all charged with aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder, as
Speaker 1: well as aggravated robbery, and the trial started that August.
Speaker 1: You guys went to trial. The prosecution's case rested, well,
Speaker 1: there was nothing else other than the testimony of this
Speaker 1: little kid who was now thirteen. His testimony was all
Speaker 1: over the place. He initially told the cops that he
Speaker 1: was on the bus coming home from school when he
Speaker 1: saw two men attacked Mr. Franks as he got out
Speaker 1: of his car walk to the store, But a trial
Speaker 1: Eddie tested that he had already gotten off the bus
Speaker 1: when he saw the attack, and that the attack of
Speaker 1: Curtis Frank's emerged from the store so very very different
Speaker 1: than what he originally said, that that should have been
Speaker 1: a huge flag there as well. And Robinson meanwhile testified
Speaker 1: the woman who was shot in the neck that she
Speaker 1: had been shot by a bullet that came through the
Speaker 1: store's front door, but she was unable to identify the
Speaker 1: robbers understandably so, and a sixen year old neighborhood girl
Speaker 1: testified for the defense, saying that she walked into the
Speaker 1: store just before the attack and saw two, not three
Speaker 1: men outside the store, and that neither of the two
Speaker 1: men were any of you three guys. Very brave young girl.
Speaker 1: Several of Eddie Vernon's classmates testified that he was on
Speaker 1: the bus with them when they heard the gunshots, but
Speaker 1: that none of them were able to see the robbers.
Speaker 1: During the course of our three separate trials. We had
Speaker 1: nearly every kid on that bus testify in our behalf
Speaker 1: about what they saw where the bus was at that time,
Speaker 1: and that was like ten or twelve kids saying the
Speaker 1: same thing. You know. He couldn't have possibly saying that
Speaker 1: we were all on the bus together. He didn't get
Speaker 1: out before we got all we got off at the
Speaker 1: same stop. And the bus driver he's got the best
Speaker 1: seat in the house, you know, but he didn't see anything.
Speaker 1: But it was so easy to inflame a all white
Speaker 1: jury when you got a black person accused of killing
Speaker 1: a white person. You know, anything you have to say
Speaker 1: on your behalf, they're really not listening to that. You know,
Speaker 1: Let's just get to the park. What we execute this dude,
Speaker 1: you know. And that's pretty much what my trial boiled
Speaker 1: down to, you know. I mean the judge even said
Speaker 1: during a recess that he didn't believe the state witness
Speaker 1: for one minute. But I'm not gonna take the power
Speaker 1: out of jury's hands. That's your job as a judge.
Speaker 1: If you have a witness, a key witness, you're talking
Speaker 1: about executing three people, and you say outside of the
Speaker 1: court record of I don't believe this kid for a
Speaker 1: man that he's lying. I saw him being coached out
Speaker 1: in the hallway, but I'm not gonna do anything about it.
Speaker 1: And when you're up against stuff like that, there's no
Speaker 1: way you can win. And let us not forget that.
Speaker 1: In so doing, and not just the judge, but the prosecutors,
Speaker 1: the cops, and everybody else who was involved in this fiasco,
Speaker 1: they're also allowing the two guys that committed this disgusting
Speaker 1: crime to remain free. Thank you for bringing that up,
Speaker 1: because it's a point I try to make so often
Speaker 1: about the uncounted victims that off false imprisonment possibly created.
Speaker 1: We'll never know the numbers you guys. Meanwhile, did have
Speaker 1: alibi witnesses who testified. I hate to keep saying this, man,
Speaker 1: but whatever we had to say, Yes, we had a
Speaker 1: lot of witnesses, you know, my mother, I mean, timelines, everything.
Speaker 1: But all they wanted to know was like, when is
Speaker 1: we gonna hang this? And I'm sorry to say that,
Speaker 1: but that's what I felt like. You know, it didn't
Speaker 1: matter what we had to say. It didn't matter that
Speaker 1: the evidence was shitty. A white man is dead and
Speaker 1: somebody needs to pay for it. If they didn't do
Speaker 1: this they probably did something else, you know, and that
Speaker 1: was the bavairely attitude. How can you be prepared to
Speaker 1: kill three young men based on almost absolutely nothing, but
Speaker 1: they were willing to and didn't blink an eye about it.
Speaker 1: I spent three and a half years on death row.
Speaker 1: I came with them two months being executed. This has
Speaker 1: got to stop. For a long time, I thought that
Speaker 1: this was just a ratio and the economical issue. But
Speaker 1: this happens to everybody. I know a lot of linaries
Speaker 1: from around the country, including Hawaii. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: that had professions, they had children, they were happily married,
Speaker 1: and they got caught up in this same madness. They
Speaker 1: got caught up in the same madness. And when it's
Speaker 1: you against the state, guess what You're gonna lose every time.
Speaker 1: You are gonna lose every time because they don't have
Speaker 1: to follow the rules. And if they get caught, guess what,
Speaker 1: there's no repercussions, right. Imagine if a suspect went to
Speaker 1: a twelve year old kid and threatened him, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take your parents away from you. You'll never see him
Speaker 1: again unless you do exactly what I said. You lie
Speaker 1: like I tell you to. I mean, we all know
Speaker 1: that no is allowed to bribe a witness, but the
Speaker 1: government can offer them plea deals. I can threaten them
Speaker 1: that I supposed to threaten them, but they do. But
Speaker 1: they could definitely offer plea deals, and that's the best
Speaker 1: bribe of all. So it's like, yeah, you have no
Speaker 1: shot in hell. You're absolutely right, and you had no
Speaker 1: shot at hell. So in August of the nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: you were convicted along with Wiley, and Ronnie was convicted
Speaker 1: in September, and all of you were sentenced to death,
Speaker 1: later commuted to life in prison, which is like a
Speaker 1: living death sentence. What was your experience of death throw
Speaker 1: the moment you got back, there was always this feeling
Speaker 1: I'm impending doom, Like it was right around the corner.
Speaker 1: You know. You had you had two options, go crazy
Speaker 1: or you accept this and make it work for you.
Speaker 1: You know. I was on the mission anyway, you know,
Speaker 1: I was innocent, you know, and I wasn't gonna lay
Speaker 1: back here waiting for my death. Dating so between my workouts,
Speaker 1: I would write. I wrote so many letters. You know.
Speaker 1: They cut the lights off at a certain time and
Speaker 1: prisance you gotta get up on the bars and like
Speaker 1: get the little light coming out from the security light outside,
Speaker 1: and I'm up like two thirty in the morning, just
Speaker 1: writing anybody that would listen, you know, like I'm on
Speaker 1: death row, my execution data so and so so and
Speaker 1: so I'm innocent. My two friends are innocent, looking to
Speaker 1: my case, you know. And that's what I did, worked out,
Speaker 1: made friends back there. You know, you survived man as
Speaker 1: best you could, you know, like I said, But it
Speaker 1: was always that impending doome while I was back there.
Speaker 1: You know, the Ohio state legislation was influx about what
Speaker 1: they wanted to do with the death penalty and soul.
Speaker 1: They placed the moratorium on executions, and that's what it
Speaker 1: basically got everybody off a death row doing my stint
Speaker 1: back there. But life in general back there was like,
Speaker 1: you don't have a life. Your life is on the calendar.
Speaker 1: You know, you can see the end of your life.
Speaker 1: It's on the calendar. So you live from day to
Speaker 1: day and hope something comes down from the United States
Speaker 1: Supreme Court or the Ohio Supreme Court that's going to
Speaker 1: spare your life. You know, things could have went the
Speaker 1: other way. This interview might not ever be happening today.
Speaker 1: My daughter might not be here today, my wife, my
Speaker 1: other children. Things could have easily went the other way.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not uncommon for innocent people to get executed.
Speaker 1: It happens all the time. So I know you have
Speaker 1: been writing letters. A very powerful image you gave before
Speaker 1: from death Row leaning up against the bars to get
Speaker 1: a little bit of light you could get. So you
Speaker 1: had written probably to everybody and their mother by this point.
Speaker 1: But how did you manage to get the Ohio Innocence
Speaker 1: Project to take your case? And when did they get involved? Um?
Speaker 1: I think it was around two thousand and five when
Speaker 1: I first wrote them, they were just themselves starting up.
Speaker 1: I contacted them and I gave them the particulars of
Speaker 1: my case. It was a long process, I mean, because
Speaker 1: they dad it everything that you send them and say
Speaker 1: to them, because they only you deal with totally innocent people.
Speaker 1: I said, over appeared of like three and a half years,
Speaker 1: I got a letter from them saying that they had decided,
Speaker 1: after reviewing my case, to take our case. It took
Speaker 1: another additional three or four years, you know, to get
Speaker 1: to the point of the recantation from Maddie Vernon. So Okay.
Speaker 1: Two thousand eleven, Cleveland Seen magazine published a very detailed
Speaker 1: examination of the case and highlighted the many, many inconsistencies
Speaker 1: in Vernon's testimony, as well as the absence of any
Speaker 1: other evidence linking you, Ronnie or Wiley to the crime.
Speaker 1: And the article pointed out that Vernon had been paid
Speaker 1: fifty dollars by n Robinson's husband to testify at the trial. Okay, now,
Speaker 1: fifty dollars in nineteen seventy whatever it was to a
Speaker 1: twelve year old kid, probably was a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But besides that, there's all the other stuff. But that
Speaker 1: was in fact, most importantly that Vernon had failed to
Speaker 1: mention in his testimony that he had literally been paid
Speaker 1: for it. Okay. So, Kyle Swinson, the record who wrote
Speaker 1: this article, attempted to interview Eddie Vernon, but he refused
Speaker 1: to talk about the case. So Swinson reached out to
Speaker 1: Vernon's pastor, Arthur Singleton. The Swinson guy, man, I'd like
Speaker 1: to buy him a beer. When Singleton mentioned to Vernon
Speaker 1: that the reporter wanted to talk to him, Vernon brushed
Speaker 1: him off, telling him to ignore the reporter. But months
Speaker 1: later Swinson sent his article to Singleton, who asked Vernon
Speaker 1: about it, and still Vernon refused to talk about it.
Speaker 1: In two thousand thirteen, Singleton paid a visit to Vernon
Speaker 1: in a hospital where Eddie Vernon was being treated for
Speaker 1: high blood pressure. Singleton later said in a sworn AFFI
Speaker 1: David that he asked Vernon again about the article, and
Speaker 1: this is a direct quote. Eddie Vernon told me that
Speaker 1: he lied to the police when he said he had
Speaker 1: witnessed the murder in nineteen seventy and he had put
Speaker 1: three innocent men in prison for the murder end quote
Speaker 1: and then another quote. He told me that he tried
Speaker 1: to back out of the lie at the time of
Speaker 1: the lineup, but he was only a child that the
Speaker 1: police told him it was too late to change his story,
Speaker 1: and Singleton said that Vernon then broke down and wept,
Speaker 1: and he said quote I could see the weight being
Speaker 1: lifted from his shoulders. By then, I and myself, Ryan,
Speaker 1: how Mark Garzi and the rest of the team were
Speaker 1: quite familiar with each other. I get a call one
Speaker 1: day and Brian said, um, I could immediately tell that
Speaker 1: it was something something I've been waiting for for a
Speaker 1: long time. I didn't know what it was, but I
Speaker 1: knew just by his his attitude and the way he
Speaker 1: was trying to keep its composure, I knew it was
Speaker 1: something big and um. When he told me that Eddie
Speaker 1: Vernon had recantied his testimony being a lawyer, that he
Speaker 1: is the great lawyer that he is, he was like, Yep,
Speaker 1: this is great, but it's not the end of the journey.
Speaker 1: You know. Now we have to get a judge to
Speaker 1: accept this. And I gotta tell you, Ricky, recantations are
Speaker 1: the hardest piece of evidence to get before judge. You know,
Speaker 1: once a witness makes a statement, that's it. But we're
Speaker 1: going to see what we could do. So now, after
Speaker 1: this recantation, Brian Howe and Mark Godsey at the Ohio
Speaker 1: Innocence Project filed the petition for a new trial on
Speaker 1: behalf of you, Ricky Jackson, and similar petitions were later
Speaker 1: filed on behalf of the Bridgeman brothers, and the Ohio
Speaker 1: Innocence Project's reinvestigation of the case uncovered evidence that when
Speaker 1: Vernon attempted to recant his identification of the three defendants,
Speaker 1: police intimidated him to testify falsely. The police had never
Speaker 1: disclosed to the defense attorneys to any of you guys
Speaker 1: that Vernon attempted to recant his accusations prior to the trials.
Speaker 1: Of course, if they had, it would have blown the
Speaker 1: case up. So of course they didn't write because they
Speaker 1: were just deep in their own lives now. So, police
Speaker 1: reports obtained by Ohio Innocence Project also showed the police
Speaker 1: considered the two other men, Paul guard and Shire and
Speaker 1: Ishmael Hickson, as suspects, but their investigation was terminated as
Speaker 1: soon as this young kid falsely identified you three guys.
Speaker 1: And of course, lastly, the license plate on the green
Speaker 1: car scene speeding away from the crime was matched to
Speaker 1: a car belonging to Mr Hickson, whose record, his long
Speaker 1: rap sheet, included a robbery and a shooting a year earlier.
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen seventy six, a year after the Frank's murder,
Speaker 1: Hickson played guilty to over a dozen counts of aggravated robbery.
Speaker 1: So now we get to two thousand fourteen, Judge Richard
Speaker 1: mcmonagle held a hearing on your motion for a new trial.
Speaker 1: Eddie Vernon testified that police had bet him. The details
Speaker 1: of the crime is direct quote from him I don't
Speaker 1: have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of
Speaker 1: the crime. Everything was a lie. They were all lies.
Speaker 1: End quote. Edward Vernon was the catalyst to all of this.
Speaker 1: He got all of this started, He got us locked up.
Speaker 1: But in the end, his testimony it's what got us free.
Speaker 1: Anybody that was in that court room, in that gallery
Speaker 1: that day, hearing him from the witness stand left no
Speaker 1: doubt in anyone's mind that this was a guy that
Speaker 1: had made a terrible mistake. And now he's sitting here,
Speaker 1: everybody against him, everybody hating him, but he's sitting up
Speaker 1: here and doing what he know he has to do.
Speaker 1: And he did it, man, he really did it. And so, um,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people can't understand this, People
Speaker 1: like I don't care still would hate himn whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: well that's y'alls problem to deal with. I don't have
Speaker 1: no time for what you know. I'm just giving credit
Speaker 1: what credit is due, because his testimony and his candor
Speaker 1: on that witness stand was ton about to us being
Speaker 1: free here today. So Vernon told the judge that he
Speaker 1: was on the bus when he heard two pops that
Speaker 1: sounded like firecrackers. The bus was you know, in the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: in the area of the store, but not near enough
Speaker 1: to the crime scene that he could have seen anything
Speaker 1: that took place, just like all the other kids on
Speaker 1: the bus had said. But based on a rumor he
Speaker 1: heard on the street, he went to the scene and
Speaker 1: told police that you three guys committed the crime. He's
Speaker 1: he was thinking at the time. He was doing the
Speaker 1: right thing, he said to the officer, and that you
Speaker 1: do who did it. But he testified that he had
Speaker 1: tried to recamp. The detectives took him to a room,
Speaker 1: just like you said, into a room and told him
Speaker 1: that they would arrest his parents for perjury and he
Speaker 1: would never see them again, etcetera. So he agreed to
Speaker 1: testify at the trials. So he was just a traumatized
Speaker 1: kid at that point. And I can't even imagine being
Speaker 1: in his shoes, much less yours. The court had decided
Speaker 1: to take a brief recess, and the prosecutor wanted advance
Speaker 1: and they talked to the judge and they took me
Speaker 1: back into my holding sale and I wasn't there about
Speaker 1: a minute, and my lawyers came in and said, um Rick,
Speaker 1: they got a proposition for you. They said, if you
Speaker 1: plead guilty right now to all the charges, um, they'll
Speaker 1: considered sitting served and you can go home today. And
Speaker 1: we we got to have a decision right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: nothing in the courtroom was guaranteed. This was guaranteed. You know,
Speaker 1: plead guilty and you can go home today. But you're
Speaker 1: gonna live your life as a convicted murderer. And only
Speaker 1: took a few seconds when I told my lawyers like,
Speaker 1: you know what, man, I'm innocent, and it came too
Speaker 1: far at this point, I ain't got nothing to lose.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay with the hand I was dealt. We
Speaker 1: went out there, We went back out in the courtroom
Speaker 1: and proceeded with the proceedings, and after most of the testimony,
Speaker 1: the pertinent testimony, the prosecution once again went to the
Speaker 1: bench and I heard the jud say are you sure
Speaker 1: in a whispery tone, and the lady nodded, and they
Speaker 1: went back to their perspect the benches, and the judge
Speaker 1: asked me to rise. He said that the state was
Speaker 1: not gonna, you know, they weren't going to pursue me anymore.
Speaker 1: In other words, they weren't going to try to prosecute
Speaker 1: me anymore. They really believed I was innocent, you know,
Speaker 1: And it was just that simple man. After all that,
Speaker 1: it was just that simple man. So kya hooke, the
Speaker 1: county prosecutor, Timothy McGuinty said, And this is very powerful,
Speaker 1: he said, quote the state concedes the obvious. Wow. McGonagall
Speaker 1: adjourned the hearing, granted motions for the new trial filed
Speaker 1: by you, and wildly and vacated your convictions. Ronnie's conviction
Speaker 1: would later be vacated as well. The prosecution then dismissed
Speaker 1: the charge and you were released after thirty nine years,
Speaker 1: three months, and nine days, and would you say four
Speaker 1: hours on top of that, And at that time you
Speaker 1: were the longest serving defendant exonerated in US history. We
Speaker 1: know that there are others who served longer that we
Speaker 1: never heard their names because they were never freed. But
Speaker 1: this is this is the flip side, now, right, this
Speaker 1: is a good part. This is a good stuff. This
Speaker 1: is what I lived for. Right, So tell us about
Speaker 1: that moment when you were finally vindicated and released and
Speaker 1: walked out into the first free area you had breathed
Speaker 1: in almost forty years. I guess that's one of the
Speaker 1: quirky things about all of that. You know, it was
Speaker 1: just saying those simple words guilty, innocent, Just those simple words, man.
Speaker 1: But it took so much and so much time to
Speaker 1: get to that point. Um. Honestly, I was kind of
Speaker 1: subdued because I was I was tired. I was tired.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I was grateful because I
Speaker 1: made it through the ordeal. And um, I feel like
Speaker 1: I was stronger than they were. But it was more
Speaker 1: tremendous relief than actual glee and happiness. You know. It's
Speaker 1: just like, man, it's nice to be able to breathe again.
Speaker 1: You know. It was a great moment. Man. Everything after
Speaker 1: that was like I was on cloud nine, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: it was just a great relief, man, to be to
Speaker 1: be free. You know. So, ultimately, all three of you
Speaker 1: guys were compensated. I wish I could say that for
Speaker 1: most of the people that are on our show. Yes,
Speaker 1: and it's it's a real tragedy, man, and it should
Speaker 1: be automatic. It should be walk out of prison with
Speaker 1: an apology and a and a big check and a
Speaker 1: chance to start your life anew. But even the people
Speaker 1: who do get compensated normally have to wait years or
Speaker 1: typically have to wait years, and you can attest to that,
Speaker 1: trust me, And now, luckily, thankfully, you have been compensated.
Speaker 1: There's no amount of money that would be enough, but
Speaker 1: it does give you the freedom to be able to
Speaker 1: live out your days in relative comfort. I'm sixty five now,
Speaker 1: you know, and I've been fortunate enough to be surrounded
Speaker 1: by people who have given me so much, you know,
Speaker 1: and helped me navigate the world that I've been absent
Speaker 1: from for thirty nine years. And you know, trust me, man,
Speaker 1: if I didn't have to help, man, I'm still lost today.
Speaker 1: I've been out here for almost six years now, and
Speaker 1: I'm still kind of lost compared to what a lot
Speaker 1: of guys got it. Man. I had it. I had
Speaker 1: it easy. Man, I cannot lie. This is a social problem.
Speaker 1: This is our society, This is our America. You know.
Speaker 1: When I became an exonery always before that, I always
Speaker 1: thought it was black people because that's all I ever
Speaker 1: saw black people on TV getting exonerated. But my first
Speaker 1: exoner ReConference after I got out of prison, I saw
Speaker 1: people from all manner of life. They have an innocence
Speaker 1: project in Hawaii, and that boggles my mind. I've been
Speaker 1: to Hawaii. It's paradise. Why would you need an innocent
Speaker 1: project over there? But it just brings back home that
Speaker 1: we need it everywhere, you know, because justice isn't perfect anywhere.
Speaker 1: And it just opened my perspective upon like, man, this
Speaker 1: just isn't an inner city black problem. This is an
Speaker 1: America world problem, you know. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff you can overcome that, you know. And I'm living
Speaker 1: a great life right now, and I try to live
Speaker 1: my life and an example of what it can be like.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not a perfect life now, but I'm
Speaker 1: living a life that I love and the life that
Speaker 1: I should dream about in my prison Celle every night,
Speaker 1: every night, you know, now, Ricky, without further ado, the
Speaker 1: best part of the show is the same every week.
Speaker 1: It's called closing Arguments, and it's the part of the
Speaker 1: show where I, first of all, thank you again. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna turn my microphone off, kick back in my chair
Speaker 1: with my eyes, closing, my headphones on, and just listen
Speaker 1: to anything else you want to share at the into
Speaker 1: my journey. You know. Um, I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people say, I don't know how you're so calm, cool
Speaker 1: and collected. But you needed to be there to understand
Speaker 1: why I am the type of person I am today
Speaker 1: for giving understanding. Yes, I get mad sometimes when I
Speaker 1: think about, um, I just had a baby two years ago,
Speaker 1: my but my daughter is about to turn to my
Speaker 1: first child. I think about all the time that I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna have with her. And I kicked myself in
Speaker 1: the butt for that, because I need to be thinking
Speaker 1: about the time I do have with her. But sometimes
Speaker 1: those thoughts creep in, Like my mother died while I
Speaker 1: was in prison, you know, and it's just stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's okay to reminisce about the time you lost,
Speaker 1: but you can't get caught up in it. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't get caught up in it. You have to
Speaker 1: appreciate what you have right now, and that's when I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I have a beautiful wife. I have three knucklehead step
Speaker 1: children and lovely the daughter me and my wife had together.
Speaker 1: We got three dolls. We have a beautiful home, and
Speaker 1: I'm blessed. Man. You know, the easiest thing to do
Speaker 1: is to be angry and bitter. You know, I'd rather
Speaker 1: be happy and get out there and try to change
Speaker 1: the system. Channel that anger and bitterness and resentment and
Speaker 1: they're doing something. Man, get out there and help somebody,
Speaker 1: because somebody helped me, you know, And I'd be a
Speaker 1: complete asshole if I will just sit here and then
Speaker 1: try to help anybody else. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall,
Speaker 1: Jeff Clyvern, and Kevin Wardis with research by Lila Robinson.
Speaker 1: The music in this production was supplied by three time
Speaker 1: OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast,
Speaker 1: and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at
Speaker 1: Lava for Good. On all three platforms, you can also
Speaker 1: follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
Speaker 1: flam Raval. Conviction is the production of Lava for Good
Speaker 1: Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one