Speaker 1: On May nineteenth, nineteen seventy five, two men approached fifty
Speaker 1: nine year old Harold Franks outside of a Cleveland, Ohio
Speaker 1: grocery store, demanding his briefcase. Franks resisted, and the men
Speaker 1: clubbed him with a pipe and splashed acid in his
Speaker 1: face before shooting him twice in the chest. The shooter
Speaker 1: fired into the grocery store as well, hitting co owner
Speaker 1: Ann Robinson, who survived. Mister Franks, however, did not. An
Speaker 1: eyewitness wrote down the plate number as the assailants sped
Speaker 1: off in a green convertible. Despite the plate number and
Speaker 1: other compelling leads, police instead focused on the word of
Speaker 1: twelve year old Eddie Vernon, who had been bragging about
Speaker 1: witnessing the crime from a bus, repeating an alleged rumer
Speaker 1: naming Ricky Jackson as well as Wiley and Ronnie Bridgman
Speaker 1: as the assailants. Vernon's classmates and the bus driver denied
Speaker 1: even having the vantage point to see the crime during
Speaker 1: interviews and then the lineup. When Eddie Vernon tried to
Speaker 1: back away from the lie, investigators threatened to lock up
Speaker 1: his parents if he didn't stick to the story. By
Speaker 1: ignoring more compelling suspects and instead coercing a child. The
Speaker 1: states at Ricky Jackson as well as Wiley and Ronnie
Speaker 1: Bridgman to death rout. When the nineteen seventy four reinstatement
Speaker 1: of the death penalty in Ohio was struck dout as
Speaker 1: unconstitutional in nineteen seventy eight, those condemned between those years
Speaker 1: had their senses commuted to life, including Ronnie, Wiley and Ricky,
Speaker 1: assuring the possibility of their innocence one day being recognized.
Speaker 1: This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today's
Speaker 1: story is important in so many ways. The man who
Speaker 1: lived through this well four decades of imprisonment on the
Speaker 1: basis of an eyewitness who wasn't there, who was twelve
Speaker 1: years old at the time, who was coerced, pressured, croutbeaten
Speaker 1: by authorities, the same authorities who overlooked or ignored evidence
Speaker 1: pointing to the actual two assailants and what was a brutal,
Speaker 1: brutal crime. And I'm very, very honored to have the
Speaker 1: man himself, Ricky Jackson. Ricky, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me Jason, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: So let's set the stage here. When I tell you
Speaker 1: the name of the place where this occurred, people are
Speaker 1: probably going to be given some knowing nods in their
Speaker 1: car or their home wherever they're listening, because it feels
Speaker 1: like every other episode we do is a wrong for
Speaker 1: conviction based in Cuyahoga County.
Speaker 3: Well, when you look at the number of Alexanderies through
Speaker 3: Kyahoga County, it justifies the statement you just made. At
Speaker 3: least in those times, the police pretty much owned the
Speaker 3: prosecutor's office, the coroner's office, whatever they sent up the pipeline.
Speaker 3: Nobody went against the police.
Speaker 1: No, that's right. Your story, as you were telling me earlier,
Speaker 1: is important because if it could happen to you, it
Speaker 1: can happen to anyone. And when I say that you
Speaker 1: lived a relatively normal, peaceful life growing up, you were
Speaker 1: only eighteen when this happened. You were still really a child,
Speaker 1: let's face it, but you know, turning into a man.
Speaker 3: I mean back in the mid seventies, you know, life
Speaker 3: was not as hectic as it is today, and I
Speaker 3: was doing the typical eighteen year old stuff. One of
Speaker 3: my friends, or Wilie Bridgeman, he had joined the National Guard.
Speaker 2: He came home one day on lead we saw that
Speaker 2: uniform and we were so all and impressed and amazed
Speaker 2: by that.
Speaker 3: That we immediately set our sights so on joining the military,
Speaker 3: you know, and.
Speaker 1: You joined the Marines, right, and then we're honorably discharged
Speaker 1: for medical reasons.
Speaker 3: Yes, I was doing a detail and the driver pulled
Speaker 3: off before.
Speaker 2: I had a good burm hold.
Speaker 3: On the back of a dump truck and I fell off,
Speaker 3: and my back hasn't been the same. I thought I
Speaker 3: was going to be able to get out, we had
Speaker 3: my back and re enlist. But in the process of
Speaker 3: doing that, Eddie burning happened.
Speaker 1: Yes, Eddie Vernon happened. That's a help of a way
Speaker 1: of putting it very direct. It all comes down to
Speaker 1: this kid, and I'm talking about he was a kid,
Speaker 1: he was twelve years old. I feel that he's a
Speaker 1: victim in this as well. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: share that belief.
Speaker 2: I do. I do. I strongly share that. I mean,
Speaker 2: he was a twelve year old kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and at twelve years old, we know how easily
Speaker 1: influenced you can be and how easily scared you can
Speaker 1: be at that age. And then a lie just grows into.
Speaker 2: Something you can't control.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it grows horns and it gets worse and worse.
Speaker 1: So Eddie Vernon, was he just a kid from the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Did you guys know him?
Speaker 2: He used to be our paperboy at one time.
Speaker 3: I remember when I used to come home from school
Speaker 3: to have lunch in the winter time.
Speaker 2: He will be sitting at our kitchen table.
Speaker 3: My mother would like give him soup and a grilled
Speaker 3: cheese sandwich or something like that because it was so
Speaker 3: cold outside before he continued on with his route. I
Speaker 3: mean because of our age difference. I never, you know,
Speaker 3: hung out with him and anything, but I knew his family.
Speaker 1: The crime itself, this is a crime that happened on
Speaker 1: May nineteenth to nineteen seventy five when fifty nine year
Speaker 1: old Harold Franks, who was a money order salesman, where
Speaker 1: he was leaving a grocery store on Fairhill Road in Cleveland, Ohio,
Speaker 1: when two men approached him. The men confronted mister Franks
Speaker 1: and demanded his briefcase. And this is where it gets
Speaker 1: really crazy. When Franks resisted, they clubbed him in the
Speaker 1: head with a pipe and splashed acid in his face.
Speaker 1: What kind of sick people are these And one of
Speaker 1: the men then shot him twice in the chest and
Speaker 1: fired a shot through the store's glass front door, hitting
Speaker 1: fifty eight year old Ann Robinson, who was the co
Speaker 1: owner of the store. She was shot at the neck,
Speaker 1: but somehow miraculously survived. Mister Franks tragically did not. The
Speaker 1: two robbers fled with the briefcase. Remember I said, two
Speaker 1: robbers containing four hundred and twenty five dollars 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.
Speaker 2: The way, No, never, I didn't even own a car.
Speaker 1: Okay, man So and by the way, the three guys
Speaker 1: convicted for a crime the two guys committed. That's just
Speaker 1: one little fraction of the problems with this case. Right
Speaker 1: find out as we go along.
Speaker 3: May nineteenth, the crime had just happened not two hundred
Speaker 3: feet from where we lived, the three of us, and so,
Speaker 3: you know, we saw people gradually going towards the Fair
Speaker 3: Hill area, and so we asked, like, what's going on,
Speaker 3: you know, and they like, somebody just.
Speaker 2: Got killed up at the store.
Speaker 3: We didn't have nothing to do at the particular time,
Speaker 3: so we decided to go up there and be lucky
Speaker 3: lose as well. We got up there and by the
Speaker 3: time we reached the location, the police were up there.
Speaker 3: There were TV cameras out there. The police had the
Speaker 3: area Hordendolph and there was a body with the sheet
Speaker 3: laying askew. And I saw Eddie Vernon at the scene
Speaker 3: at a crime and he was looking around like everybody
Speaker 3: else was. And so we stayed up there for approsequently
Speaker 3: fifteen to twenty five minutes and we left.
Speaker 1: The investigation involved detectives Eugene Terpe 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.
Speaker 3: The same caliber gun, mind you, of the gun that
Speaker 3: was used to kill mister Franks.
Speaker 1: The guy's freaking mother came forward, and then another informant
Speaker 1: also implicated Gardenshire, who said that he stole his grandfather's
Speaker 1: thirty eight caliber gun, which was the murder weapon, and
Speaker 1: was driving around in a convertible that was yes, you
Speaker 1: guessed it green in color, and that was the escape car.
Speaker 1: These details were not public knowledge at the time, right,
Speaker 1: so this is inside information, and Officer Terpe found the
Speaker 1: green convertible exactly where the informant said it would be.
Speaker 1: I'm getting the chills now.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of viable suspects.
Speaker 3: The FBI even got in contact with the Cleveland Police
Speaker 3: Department and told them that you need to be looking at.
Speaker 2: These guys right here.
Speaker 3: They have anmo of throwing liquids in people's faces when
Speaker 3: they robbed them, you know, And you know, the police
Speaker 3: for a time went down this road. But when you
Speaker 3: got a twelve year old boy saying that he was
Speaker 3: an actual eyewitness, you know, and they're not going to
Speaker 3: spend on that time chasing these leads of what might
Speaker 3: have been when we got an actual witness.
Speaker 1: And of course you're referring to Eddie Vernon, who had
Speaker 1: he actually seen anything and had you and the Bridgeman's
Speaker 1: actually been the culprits, he could have pointed you out
Speaker 1: to the police when you were all at the scene
Speaker 1: right after the crime had occurred. But the fact is
Speaker 1: he hadn't seen anything, As he admitted so many long
Speaker 1: years later, he was actually on the bus with a
Speaker 1: bunch of his classmates at the time of the crime.
Speaker 1: They all heard the gunshots, but none of them had
Speaker 1: a vantage point to see anything. It was not possible
Speaker 1: for them to see the crime, not even the bus
Speaker 1: driver who would have had the best view. So from
Speaker 1: what I understand, there was a rumor that you and
Speaker 1: the Bridgemans may have been involved. We don't know how
Speaker 1: this river got started. Maybe there wasn't even a rumor
Speaker 1: at all. Maybe your name came from the cops. Either way,
Speaker 1: it's hard to know. But how the hell is Eddie
Speaker 1: end up as a target of police coercion and get
Speaker 1: forced into making a statement implicating you as well as
Speaker 1: Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman.
Speaker 3: Edward Burning was running around the neighborhood telling people that
Speaker 3: he had saw the whole crime and he knew who
Speaker 3: did it, and so you know, eventually this got back
Speaker 3: to the gentleman that owned the store where the crime
Speaker 3: took place, and so he tracked Edward Burning down, took
Speaker 3: him back to the store and started grilling him, like,
Speaker 3: if you saw who did this, you need to tell us.
Speaker 3: And so the store owner got the police involved, and
Speaker 3: then the police started putting the screws in Eddie burning.
Speaker 3: But upon talking to this twelve year old boy, even
Speaker 3: for a rookie police officer, it would have been easy
Speaker 3: to tell that this kid was fabricating a lot of shit.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I mean, this is probably an insecure
Speaker 1: kid who wanted to be the center of attention. So
Speaker 1: he went out and told people he had seen the crime. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's what started this whole snowball effect. And then
Speaker 1: the police get this tunnel vision and they decided that
Speaker 1: they don't really care about investigating the crime. In fact,
Speaker 1: when they did investigate the crime. When investigation they did,
Speaker 1: they collected physical evidence from the scene, but inconveniently, none
Speaker 1: of it matched you, Ronnie or Wiley. So the evidence
Speaker 1: that they did have, which again should have been the
Speaker 1: giant red flag ding ding ding ding ding that should
Speaker 1: have been it, right, all of that evidence pointed to
Speaker 1: other people, including the license plate number of the green
Speaker 1: escape car which they.
Speaker 3: Had, I mean, and all these people had arm robbery
Speaker 3: on their rap seats.
Speaker 1: So no other investigation was conducted into these or any
Speaker 1: other leads. Once Eddie Vernon came forward, all the other
Speaker 1: investigations stopped and they focused on you three guys with
Speaker 1: absolute total tunnel vision.
Speaker 3: They pretty much kidnapped this kid, you know, and they
Speaker 3: told his parents if they ever tried to get involved
Speaker 3: or ever tried to stop them from coming to get Edward,
Speaker 3: that they would prosecute them. Had complete and total control
Speaker 3: of this twelve year old kid, and so this began
Speaker 3: the process of molding Eddie Vernon from a liar and
Speaker 3: to aligning witness. They pretty much had to build this
Speaker 3: case and give Edward burning information as they went along,
Speaker 3: which is why his testimony and his statement changed from
Speaker 3: day to day, you know, because they were feeding him information.
Speaker 3: He didn't see what happened, and so he had to
Speaker 3: create something and they kept the pressure on it. Fast
Speaker 3: forward a few days later, the three of us were
Speaker 3: coming home from a party. Was about one o'clock at night,
Speaker 3: and my dad had this policy when he locks his
Speaker 3: doors at night, all in ain't getting in, you know,
Speaker 3: so it wasn't not common for me to, you know,
Speaker 3: go sleep at the Bridgeman's house, who stayed just a
Speaker 3: couple of houses down for me. Anyway, just as I
Speaker 3: was knotted off, I saw lights going by my window,
Speaker 3: you know, flashlights, And before I could get my whereabouts together,
Speaker 3: the door was exploded in the room was filled with
Speaker 3: police officers who with guns lights, and they were shouting
Speaker 3: my name and was shouting at Bridgeman's names. They got
Speaker 3: me first because I was right there on the couch
Speaker 3: in the front room where the door was kicked in,
Speaker 3: So they grabbed me, threw.
Speaker 2: Me to the floor, knees in the black.
Speaker 3: Handcuffed me, asking me what were the Bridgeman's at And
Speaker 3: I was so confused. I didn't know what to say
Speaker 3: because I was horrified. I mean, it was just like
Speaker 3: a total shock. But by the time they drugged me
Speaker 3: outside and had me on top of a police car,
Speaker 3: I could look down the street and see my entire family.
Speaker 3: I could see my entire family stressed out in the street,
Speaker 3: and every one of them had a shotgun pointed at
Speaker 3: their heads.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by global law firm Greenberg Traig
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Speaker 1: Greenberg Triwerg attorneys have exonerated in freedomand in Philadelphia, represent
Speaker 1: numerous individuals previously sentenced to life for crimes committed as
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Speaker 1: for their work on five death penalty cases. GT is
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Speaker 3: It became obvious to me that they had hit my
Speaker 3: house first en route to the Brisma's house, and they
Speaker 3: finally got to Bri out of the house, and I mean,
Speaker 3: we were still just totally in shock. We didn't know
Speaker 3: what the hell did we do. We had just came
Speaker 3: from a party. There was no incident at the party,
Speaker 3: so we are totally confused as to what's going on,
Speaker 3: not knowing that this is all related to that man
Speaker 3: having got killed. A couple of days earlier up at
Speaker 3: fair Hill. We didn't know this at the time, We
Speaker 3: had no clue. We get downtown the next morning, we
Speaker 3: go into a lineup, they do their thing, they let
Speaker 3: us out. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Eddie Burning
Speaker 3: was standing behind that two way glass.
Speaker 2: And he refused, he couldn't pick anybody.
Speaker 3: He didn't pick anybody, and so the police never told
Speaker 3: us we were free to go. Instead, they took Edward
Speaker 3: Burning in the back room, a twelve year old boy,
Speaker 3: unescorted by a parent or a lawyer.
Speaker 2: Took him back in the back room and they threatened him.
Speaker 3: They told him that they couldn't do nothing to him
Speaker 3: because he was a kid, but if he didn't pick
Speaker 3: us out in that line up Ricky Jackson and Wally
Speaker 3: Bridgeman and Ronnie Bridgeman.
Speaker 2: That they would make sure that he never saw his
Speaker 2: mom and dad again.
Speaker 3: They would sending his mom and dad to prison for
Speaker 3: a long time because he started this process and now
Speaker 3: he had to finish it. And so while we were
Speaker 3: outside in the common area making a phone call to
Speaker 3: call our folks and say, well, you know, they haven't
Speaker 3: told us anything, so I guess you can come and
Speaker 3: get us he points us out while we're out in
Speaker 3: the common room with hundreds of other people, prisoners or whatever,
Speaker 3: making phone calls.
Speaker 2: And a couple hours later, they called us and told.
Speaker 3: Us that we had been indicted for murder and they
Speaker 3: were seeking the death penalty. And that's when we found
Speaker 3: out that Edward Vernon was a kid that was saying
Speaker 3: that he had saw us do this. It was just
Speaker 3: mind boggling because my mind instantly went back to that
Speaker 3: day when I saw him standing there at the scene
Speaker 3: at the crime like everybody else in the neighborhood, you know,
Speaker 3: and like, why wouldn't you say to the police because
Speaker 3: there was plenty of police there.
Speaker 2: 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 well life and death and
Speaker 1: so On May twenty fifth, nineteen seventy five, You, Wiley,
Speaker 1: and Ronnie were all charged with aggravated murder, aggravated attempted murder,
Speaker 1: as 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 is 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 attack mister Franks as he got out
Speaker 1: of his car walked the store, But a trial Eddie
Speaker 1: that he had already gotten off the bus when he
Speaker 1: saw the attack, and that the attack occurred as Frank's
Speaker 1: emerged from the store, So very very different than what
Speaker 1: he originally said. That should have been a huge flag
Speaker 1: there as well. An Robinson meanwhile testified the woman who
Speaker 1: was shot in the neck that she had been shot
Speaker 1: by a bullet that came through the store's front door,
Speaker 1: but she was unable to identify the robbers, understandably so,
Speaker 1: and a sixteen year old neighborhood girl testified for the defense,
Speaker 1: saying that she walked into the store just before the
Speaker 1: attack and saw two, not three men outside the store,
Speaker 1: and that neither of the two men or any of
Speaker 1: you three guys, very brave young girl. Several of Eddie
Speaker 1: Vernon's classmates testified that he was on the bus with
Speaker 1: them when they heard the gun shots, but that none
Speaker 1: of them were able to see the robbers.
Speaker 3: During the course of our three separate trials, we had
Speaker 3: nearly every kid on that bus testified in our behalf
Speaker 3: about what they saw where the bus was at that time.
Speaker 3: And that was like ten or twelve kids saying the
Speaker 3: same thing. You know, he couldn't have possibly be seen,
Speaker 3: and we were all on the bus together. He didn't
Speaker 3: get out before we got all we got off at
Speaker 3: the same stop, and the bus driver he's got the
Speaker 3: best seat in the house, you know, but he didn't
Speaker 3: see anything. But it was so easy to inflame an
Speaker 3: all white jewelry when you got a black person accused
Speaker 3: of killing a white person. You know, anything you have
Speaker 3: to say on your behalf, never really not listening to that.
Speaker 3: You know, Let's let's get to the park where we
Speaker 3: execute this dude.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: And that's pretty much what my trial balled down to,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean a judge even said during a
Speaker 3: recess that he didn't believe the state witness for one minute.
Speaker 3: But I'm not gonna take the power out of jury's hands.
Speaker 3: That's your job as a judge. If you have a witness,
Speaker 3: a key witness, you talk about executing three people, and
Speaker 3: you say, outside of the court record of I don't
Speaker 3: believe this kid for a man that he's lying. I
Speaker 3: saw him and being coached out in the hallway, but
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do anything about it. And when
Speaker 3: you're up against stuff like that, there's no way you
Speaker 3: can win.
Speaker 1: And let us not forget that. In so doing, and
Speaker 1: not just the judge, but the prosecutors, the cops, and
Speaker 1: everybody else who was involved in this fiasco, they're also
Speaker 1: allowing the two guys that committed this disgusting crime to
Speaker 1: remain free.
Speaker 3: Thank you for bringing that up, because it's a point
Speaker 3: I try to make so often about the uncounted victims
Speaker 3: that off Boss imprisonment possibly created.
Speaker 2: We'll never know the numbers you guys.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, did have alibi witnesses who testified.
Speaker 3: I hate to keep saying this man, but whatever we
Speaker 3: had to say, Yes, we had a lot of witnesses,
Speaker 3: you know, my mother, I mean, timelines, everything. But all
Speaker 3: they wanted to know was like, when is we gonna
Speaker 3: hang this league? And I'm sorry to say that, but
Speaker 3: that's what I felt like. You know, it didn't matter
Speaker 3: what we had to say. It didn't matter that the
Speaker 3: evidence was shitty. A white man is dead and somebody
Speaker 3: needs to pay for it. If they didn't do this,
Speaker 3: they probably did something else, you know, And that was
Speaker 3: the Bavaili attitude.
Speaker 2: How can you be prepared.
Speaker 3: To kill three young men based on almost absolutely nothing,
Speaker 3: but they were willing to and didn't blink an eye
Speaker 3: about it. I spent two and a half years on
Speaker 3: death road. I came within two months of being executed.
Speaker 3: This has got to stop. For a long time, I
Speaker 3: thought that this was just a racio and an economical issue.
Speaker 2: But this happens to everybody.
Speaker 3: I know a lot of gunneries from around the country,
Speaker 3: including Hawaii. You know what I'm saying, that had professions,
Speaker 3: they had children, they were happily married, and they got
Speaker 3: caught up in this same madness. They got caught up
Speaker 3: in the same madness. And when it's you against the state,
Speaker 3: guess what, You're gonna lose every time. You are gonna
Speaker 3: lose every time because they don't have to follow the rules.
Speaker 3: And if they get caught, guess what, there's no repercussions.
Speaker 1: Right. Imagine if the suspect went to a twelve year
Speaker 1: old kid and threatened him, I'm gonna take your parents
Speaker 1: away from you. You'll never see him again unless you
Speaker 1: do exactly what I said. You lie like I tell
Speaker 1: you too. I mean, we all know that no allowed
Speaker 1: to bribe a witness, but the government can offer them
Speaker 1: plea deals. I can threaten them and not supposed to
Speaker 1: threaten them, but they do. But they could definitely offer
Speaker 1: them plea deals, and that's the best bribe of all.
Speaker 1: So it's like, yeah, you have no shot in hell.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, and you had no shot in hell.
Speaker 1: So in August of nineteen seventy five, you were convicted
Speaker 1: along with Wiley, and Ronnie was convicted in September, and
Speaker 1: all of you were sentenced to death later commuted to
Speaker 1: life in prison, which is like a living death sentence.
Speaker 1: What was your experience of death.
Speaker 3: Throw The moment you got back, there was always this
Speaker 3: feeling I'm impending doom, Like it was right around the corner.
Speaker 3: You know, you had you had two options, go crazy
Speaker 3: or you accept this and make it work for you.
Speaker 3: You know, I was on the mission anyway, you know,
Speaker 3: I was innocent, you know, and I wasn't gonna lay
Speaker 3: back here waiting for my death. Dating So between my workouts,
Speaker 3: I would write. I wrote so many letters, you know,
Speaker 3: and they cut the lights off at a certain time
Speaker 3: in prison, so you got to get up on the
Speaker 3: bars and like get the little light coming out from
Speaker 3: the security light outside. And I'm up, like two thirty
Speaker 3: in the morning just writing anybody that would listen, you know,
Speaker 3: like I'm on death row, my execution data so and
Speaker 3: so so and so I'm innocent. My two friends are
Speaker 3: innocent looking to my case, you know. And that's what
Speaker 3: I did, worked out, made friends back there. You know,
Speaker 3: you survived, man, the best you could, you know, like
Speaker 3: I said, But it was always an impending doom while
Speaker 3: I was back there. You know, the Ohio state legislation
Speaker 3: was in flux about what they wanted to do with
Speaker 3: the death penalty and soul. They placed the moratorium on executions,
Speaker 3: and that's what eventually got everybody off of death row.
Speaker 2: Doing my stint back there, but.
Speaker 3: Life in general back there was like, you don't have
Speaker 3: a life. Your life is on the calendar, you know,
Speaker 3: you can see the end of your life.
Speaker 2: It's on the calendar. So you lived.
Speaker 3: From day to day and hope something comes down from
Speaker 3: the United States Supreme Court or the Hio Supreme court.
Speaker 3: That's going to spare your life. You know, things could
Speaker 3: have went the other way. This interview might not ever
Speaker 3: be happening today. My daughter might not be here today,
Speaker 3: my wife, my other children. Things could have easily went
Speaker 3: the other way. You know, it's not uncommon for innocent
Speaker 3: people to get executed.
Speaker 2: It happens all the time.
Speaker 1: So I know you had been writing letters. A very
Speaker 1: powerful image you gave before from death row leaning up
Speaker 1: against the bars to get a little bit of light
Speaker 1: you could get. So you had written probably to everybody
Speaker 1: and their mother by this point. But how did you
Speaker 1: manage to get the Ohio Innocence Project particulication? When did
Speaker 1: they get about I.
Speaker 3: Think it was around two thousand and five when I
Speaker 3: first wrote them, they were just themselves starting up. I
Speaker 3: contacted them and I gave them the particulars of my case.
Speaker 3: It was a long process, I mean, because they vetted
Speaker 3: everything that you send them and say to them, because
Speaker 3: they only deal with totally innocent people. I say, ope
Speaker 3: appeared of like three and a half years. I got
Speaker 3: a letter from them saying that they had decided, after
Speaker 3: reviewing my case, to take our case. It took another
Speaker 3: additional three or four years, you know, to get to
Speaker 3: the point of the recantation for Maddy Vernon.
Speaker 1: So okay. Twenty eleven, Cleveland Scene magazine published a very
Speaker 1: detailed examination of the case and highlighted the many, many
Speaker 1: inconsistencies in Vernon's testimony, as well as the absence of
Speaker 1: any 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 Ann 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 the 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 Swenson, the recorder 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. This 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 twenty thirteen, Singleton paid a visit to Vernon in
Speaker 1: a hospital where Eddie Vernon was being treated for high
Speaker 1: blood pressure. Singleton later said in a sworn AFFI David
Speaker 1: that he asked Vernon again about the article, and this
Speaker 1: is a direct quote. Eddie Vernon told me that he
Speaker 1: lied to the police when he said he had witnessed
Speaker 1: the murder in nineteen seventy five and he had put
Speaker 1: three innocent men in prison for the murder end quote.
Speaker 1: Then another quote. He told me that he tried to
Speaker 1: back out of the lie at the time of the lineup,
Speaker 1: but he was only a child that the police told
Speaker 1: him it was too late to change his story. Quote.
Speaker 1: Singleton said that Vernon then broke down and wept, and
Speaker 1: he said, quote I could see the weight being lifted
Speaker 1: from his shoulders end quote.
Speaker 3: By then, I and myself, Brian Howell, Mark Gatzi, and
Speaker 3: the rest of the team were quite familiar with each other.
Speaker 2: I get a call one day and Brian.
Speaker 3: Said I could immediately tell that it was something, something
Speaker 3: I've been waiting for for a long time.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what it was, but I knew just by.
Speaker 3: His attitude and the way he was trying to keep
Speaker 3: his composure, I knew it was something big. And when
Speaker 3: he told me that Eddie Vernon had recanted his testimony
Speaker 3: being a lawyer, that he is the great lawyer that
Speaker 3: he is, he was like, Yep, this is great.
Speaker 2: But it's not the end of the journey.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Now we have to get a judge to accept this.
Speaker 3: And I got to tell you, Ricky, recantations are the
Speaker 3: hardest piece of evidence to get before judge.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Once a witness makes a statement, that's it. But we're
Speaker 3: going to see what we can do.
Speaker 1: So now, after this recantation, Brian Howe and Mark Gotzi
Speaker 1: at the Ohio Innocence Project filed the petition for a
Speaker 1: new trial on behalf of you Ricky Jackson, and similar
Speaker 1: petitions were later filed on behalf of the Bridgeman brothers,
Speaker 1: and the Ohio Innocence Project's reinvestigation of the case uncovered
Speaker 1: evidence that when Vernon attempted to recant his identification of
Speaker 1: the three defendant's police intimidated him to testify falsely. The
Speaker 1: police had never disclosed to the defense attorneys to any
Speaker 1: of you guys that Vernon attempted to recant his accusations
Speaker 1: prior to the trials. Of course, if they had, it
Speaker 1: would have blown the case up. So of course they didn't, right,
Speaker 1: because they were just deep in their own lives now. So,
Speaker 1: police reports obtained by Ohiouse Innocence Project also showed the
Speaker 1: police considered the two other men, Paul Guard and shion
Speaker 1: Ismael 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 mister 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 Franks murder,
Speaker 1: Hickson pled guilty to over a dozen counts of aggravated robbery.
Speaker 1: So now we get to twenty fourteen, Judge Richard mcmonagall
Speaker 1: held a hearing on your motion for a new trial.
Speaker 1: Eddie Vernon testified that police had bet in the details
Speaker 1: of the crime. A 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.
Speaker 3: Edward Vernon was a catalyst to all of this. He
Speaker 3: got all of this started, He got us locked up.
Speaker 3: But in the end, his testimony is what got us free.
Speaker 3: Anybody that was in that courtroom, in that gallery that day,
Speaker 3: hearing him from the witness stand left no doubt in
Speaker 3: anyone's mind that this was a guy that had made
Speaker 3: a terrible mistake. And now he's sitting here, everybody against him,
Speaker 3: everybody hating him. But he's sitting up here and doing
Speaker 3: what he know he has to do. And he did it. Man,
Speaker 3: he really did it. And so I know a lot
Speaker 3: of people can't understand this. People like I don't care,
Speaker 3: I still would hate him or whatever. Well, that's y'all's.
Speaker 2: Problem to deal with. I don't have no time for it.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm just giving credit what credit is due
Speaker 3: because his testimony and his candor on that witness stand
Speaker 3: was tent about to us being free.
Speaker 1: Here today, so Vernon told the judge that he was
Speaker 1: on the bus when he heard two pops that sounded
Speaker 1: 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
Speaker 1: was thinking at the time he was doing the right thing,
Speaker 1: he said to the officer, and that he knew who
Speaker 1: did it. But he testified that he had tried to recamp.
Speaker 1: The detectives took him to a room, just like you said,
Speaker 1: into a room and told them that they would arrest
Speaker 1: his parents for perjury and he would never see them again, etc.
Speaker 1: So he agreed to testify at the trials. He was
Speaker 1: a traumatized kid at that point, and I can't even
Speaker 1: imagine being in his shoes, much less yours.
Speaker 3: The court had decided to take a brief recess, and
Speaker 3: the prosecutor went to the ad bench and they talked
Speaker 3: to the judge and they took me back into my
Speaker 3: holding sale and I was in there about a minute,
Speaker 3: and my lawyers came in and said, Rick, they got
Speaker 3: a proposition for you. They said, if you plead guilty
Speaker 3: right now to all the charges, they'll consider sitting served
Speaker 3: and you can go home today. And we got to
Speaker 3: have a decision right now. I mean, nothing in the
Speaker 3: courtroom was guaranteed. This was guaranteed. You know, plead guilty
Speaker 3: and you can go home today. But you're gonna live
Speaker 3: your life as a convicted murderer. It only took a
Speaker 3: few seconds when I told my lawyers, like, you know what, man,
Speaker 3: I'm innocent, and it came too far at this point,
Speaker 3: I ain't got nothing to lose. I'm gonna stay with
Speaker 3: the hand I was deal. We went out there, We
Speaker 3: went back out in the courtroom and proceeded with the proceedings,
Speaker 3: and after most of the testimony, the pertinent testimony, the
Speaker 3: prosecution once again went to the bench and I heard
Speaker 3: the judge say are you sure in a whispery tone,
Speaker 3: and the lady nodded, and they went back to their
Speaker 3: pspect the benches, and the judge.
Speaker 2: Asked me to rise.
Speaker 3: He said that the state was not going to you know,
Speaker 3: they weren't going to pursue me anymore. In other words,
Speaker 3: they weren't going to try to prosecute me anymore. They
Speaker 3: really believed that was innocent, you know, And it was
Speaker 3: just as simple man. After all that.
Speaker 2: It was just as simple man.
Speaker 1: So Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGuinty said, and this is
Speaker 1: very powerful, he said, quote the state concedes the obvious. Wow.
Speaker 1: McGonagall dured the hearing, granted motions for the new trial
Speaker 1: filed by you and Wiley, and vacated your convictions. Ronnie's
Speaker 1: conviction would later be vacated as well. The prosecution then
Speaker 1: dismissed the charts 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 this,
Speaker 1: this is the flip side, now, right, This is the
Speaker 1: good part. This is a good stuff. This is what
Speaker 1: I live for, right, So tell us about that moment
Speaker 1: when you were finally vindicated and released and walked out
Speaker 1: into the first free ara you had breathed in almost
Speaker 1: forty years.
Speaker 3: I guess that's one of the quirky things about all
Speaker 3: of that. You know, it's just saying those simple words guilty, innocent,
Speaker 3: Just those simple words, man. But it took so much
Speaker 3: and so much time to get to that point. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I was kind of subdued because I was tired. I
Speaker 3: was tired. But at the same time, I was grateful
Speaker 3: because I made it through the ordeal, and I feel
Speaker 3: like I was stronger than they were. But it was
Speaker 3: more tremendous relief than actual glee and happiness.
Speaker 2: You know. It's just like, man, it's nice to be
Speaker 2: able to breathe again.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It was a great moment. Man. Everything after that was
Speaker 2: like I was on cloud nine. You know. It was
Speaker 2: just a great relief man, to be free. You know.
Speaker 1: So, ultimately all three of you guys were compensated. I
Speaker 1: wish I could say that for most of the people
Speaker 1: that are on our show.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it's a real tragedy. Man.
Speaker 1: It should be automatic. It should be you walk out
Speaker 1: of prison with an apology and a big check and
Speaker 1: a chance to start your life anew. But even the
Speaker 1: people who do get compensated normally have to wait years,
Speaker 1: typically have to wait years.
Speaker 2: I 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.
Speaker 3: I'm sixty five now, you know, and I've been fortunate
Speaker 3: enough to be surrounded by people who have given me
Speaker 3: so much, you know, helped me navigate the world that
Speaker 3: I've been absent from for thirty nine years.
Speaker 2: And you know, trust me.
Speaker 3: Man, if I didn't have to help, man, I'm still
Speaker 3: lost today. I've been out here for almost six years now,
Speaker 3: and I'm still kind of lost compared to what a
Speaker 3: lot of guys got it.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I had it. I had it easy. Man, I cannot lie.
Speaker 3: This is a social problem. This is our society, This
Speaker 3: is our America.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: When I became an exignery, always before that, I always
Speaker 3: thought it was black people because that's all I ever
Speaker 3: saw black people.
Speaker 2: On TV getting exonerated.
Speaker 3: But my first Exigonnery conference after I got out of prison,
Speaker 3: I saw people from all manner of life. They have
Speaker 3: an innocence project in Hawaii, and that boggles my mind.
Speaker 3: I've been to Hawaii. It's paradise. Why would you need
Speaker 3: an innocent project over there?
Speaker 2: But it just.
Speaker 3: Brings back home that we need it everywhere, you know,
Speaker 3: because justice isn't perfect anywhere. And it just opened my
Speaker 3: perspective upon like, man, this just isn't an inner city
Speaker 3: black problem. This is an America world problem, you know.
Speaker 3: But there's a lot of stuff you can overcome, man,
Speaker 3: you know. And I'm living a great life right now,
Speaker 3: and I try to live my life and an example
Speaker 3: of what it can be like I mean and out
Speaker 3: of perfect life now, but I'm living a life that
Speaker 3: I love and the life that I usually dream about
Speaker 3: in my prison cell every night, every night, you know, now.
Speaker 1: Ricky, without further ado, the best part of the show
Speaker 1: is the same every week. It's called closing Arguments, and
Speaker 1: it's the part of the show where I first of all,
Speaker 1: thank you again. I'm going to turn my microphone off,
Speaker 1: kick back of my chair with my eyes closed and
Speaker 1: my headphones on, and just listen to anything else you
Speaker 1: want to share my journey.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I know a lot of people say I don't know
Speaker 3: how you so calm, cool and collected, but you need
Speaker 3: it to be there to understand why I am the
Speaker 3: type of person I am today forgiving understanding. Yes, I
Speaker 3: get mad sometimes when I think about I just had
Speaker 3: a baby two years ago, my butt, my daughter's about
Speaker 3: to turn to my first child. I think about all
Speaker 3: the time that I'm not going to have with her,
Speaker 3: and I kick myself in the butt for that, because
Speaker 3: I need to be thinking about the time I do
Speaker 3: have with her. But sometimes those thoughts creep in, Like
Speaker 3: my mother died while I was in prison, you know, And.
Speaker 2: It's just stuff like that.
Speaker 3: You know, it's okay to reminisce about the time you lost,
Speaker 3: but you can't get caught up in it. You know,
Speaker 3: you can't get caught up in it. You have to
Speaker 3: appreciate what you have right now. And that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 3: I have a beautiful wife. I have three knucklehead step
Speaker 3: children and lovely the daughter me and my wife had together.
Speaker 3: We got three dogs, we have a beautiful home, and
Speaker 3: I'm blessed.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: You know, the easiest thing to do is to be
Speaker 3: angry and bitter. You know, I'd rather be happy and
Speaker 3: get out there and try to change the system. Channel
Speaker 3: that anger and bitterness and resentment into doing something. Man,
Speaker 3: Get out there and help somebody because somebody helped me,
Speaker 3: you know, And I'd be a complete asshole if I
Speaker 3: will just sit here and then't try to help anybody else.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to
Speaker 1: thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Cliburn, and Kevin Wartis,
Speaker 1: with research by Lyla Robinson. The music in this production
Speaker 1: was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and on Twitter at
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
Speaker 1: TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason flam Ravil. Conviction is
Speaker 1: the production of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with
Speaker 1: Signal Company Number one