WEBVTT - #412 Jason Flom with Douglas DiLosa 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.120 We originally released our interview with Doug de Losan November 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.520 twenty eight, twenty sixteen. It was our eighth episode that 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:13.600 we ever recorded, and Doug and I go back even 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:15.800 further than that. So running into him at the twenty 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.080 twenty three Instance Network conference was like seeing an old friend. 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:21.560 So we caught up on everything he's been up to 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.240 his organization, the first seventy two plus, which aids people 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.200 in re entry to society coming out of prison. We'll 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.600 have that linked in the bio, but mostly we talked 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.199 about the people who do the time with the wrongfully convicted, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.560 their loved ones. Doug, it's been a long time since 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.640 you came home after fourteen years of a life sentence. 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:43.840 What's going on now? Update everybody? 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.680 Well, I'm now in my twenty third year of freedom 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:50.559 and I'm happily married. I don't know if I was 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:55.480 married when we did the other episode. My children are 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.720 even older now. My daughter, who will be forty two. 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:00.279 This h year. 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:05.319 She managed to graduate from college with honors, has a 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.480 degree in finance. She's been working as an accountant for 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.400 the same company seventeen eighteen years. 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:12.720 Now. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.280 She's a single mom. She has my grandson who's getting 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.880 ready to turn seventeen and she owns her own home. 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:26.760 My son has married, he is living in Sacramento, California, 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.720 and he's expecting twins, which I couldn't be more delighted 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.319 to become a grandfather again. 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.520 That's great, and it's great to hear about the new 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:38.880 family members coming your way. But I have to ask 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:41.800 you this, Doug So, you talked about on the podcast 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:43.280 when we recorded it back in I think it was 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.920 twenty sixteen, about how when you were almost at the 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:52.160 fourteenth year of your life sentence without parole, you had 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:54.080 felt like you had become such a burden to your 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.520 kids coming to visit you week in and week out, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.280 instead of doing the things that you hoped that they 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.520 would be doing and that kids wont to be doing. 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.360 Let's face it, now, your kids enduring the loss of 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.440 their mother who was murdered, the ronful imprisonment of their father, 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.720 and yet it seems like they have led good lives 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.000 and seem to be doing good things in the world. 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.400 How do you explain the fact that those kids could 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:18.360 go through this. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:23.120 Double trauma and still, you know, flourish in the world. 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.880 Well, I think they deserve all the credit for where 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.400 they are in life today. My daughter, I couldn't be 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.480 more proud of her because she's overcome so many obstacles 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.200 in her life. But she says all the time, biggest 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:40.800 thing in her life is she wished she would have 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.720 had a childhood. But she's doing fantastic today. She could 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.320 be happier, but you know again, I think she's done 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:54.240 a fantastic job of helping raise herself and reaching where 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.400 she has in life. As far as my son, who 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:03.559 will turn forty five this year, my son has experienced 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.959 a number of problems. I hate to say it, but 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.840 there's no sense in trying to hide it. He had 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.760 a terrible problem with drugs and alcohol, and he had 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.560 spiraled so far out of control in his late teens 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:22.040 and early twenties that I didn't know if I'd get 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.079 a phone call any given night given me bad news 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:30.080 regarding him. But somehow, when he reached about thirty years old, 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.240 he woke up, looked at himself in the mirror and said, 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.520 I'm not going to do it anymore. And he still 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.600 has an occasional drink. I don't think he has a 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:44.120 drinking problem. He doesn't do drugs. He's happily married. His 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.320 wife's a doctor, moved to California, and they have twins 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.400 on the way. And I guess the biggest thing I 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.120 wonder is given all the credit to my son and 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:59.800 daughter for managing to succeed in life. Where would they 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:04.360 be today if the police hadn't framed me, the DA 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.760 hadn't framed me, and they had grown up with a 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.840 loving father and had some direction in life. Because they 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:15.920 had none, they did it all on their own. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.600 And now Doug's story our eighth episode ever and one 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.040 of the most powerful ones I have to say I've 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:24.039 ever heard here. 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:25.920 It is as it originally aired. 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:32.800 I came from a beautiful neighborhood, had a beautiful life. 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.680 I went to sleep because September seventh was the first 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:37.880 day of my high school year. I was going to 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.000 be a senior at twenty two, I was set to 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.680 start college. I woke up and my life was never 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:44.320 the same again. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.400 Cops came out with guns drawn, and I never saw 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.000 freedom ever since after that. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.359 It's like groach mode ta once you get in and 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:54.200 I can't now. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.800 This is wrong for conviction with Jason. 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:23.400 Klom particularly thrilled today to have as our guest, my 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:24.839 good friend Doug Delosa. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:26.119 Doug, welcome to the show. 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:27.240 Thank you, Jason. 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.280 Having worked with the Nisis Project now for twenty years 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:33.159 in my role as a founding board member, I thought 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.600 I had heard everything until I heard Doug's story. So 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.360 you were living in Louisiana, right. 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.920 I grew up there. I was born and raised in 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:48.160 New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time, I wasn't living in 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.719 New Orleans proper, but I was living just outside of 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.000 New Orleans in the city of Cana. I was married. 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:57.800 My wife and I had been together a little over 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.560 ten years. We had two beautiful children and a son 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.000 who was seven at the time and a daughter who 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:05.520 was five. 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.840 Right, So you had a little yard and basically some 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:11.960 neighbors and sort of like they we think of in 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:13.720 New York. We think everything's a culled the sack. Right, 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:15.839 we have this strange region know America as a series 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.920 of called the sack. But basically, am I painting the 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:19.480 right picture? 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:20.040 Yes? 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:21.279 Until it all went wrong? 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.320 Absolutely, until that American dream turned into the American nightmare? 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:29.480 Right, And it's a nightmare of proportions that are impossible 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:35.360 to overstate. You were at home with your wife and kids. Right, 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:37.279 and tell us what happened. 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:42.760 It was a typical Friday evening in our lives. Fast 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:49.160 forward to about two thirty in the morning on Saturday morning, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:55.520 September twenty seventh, and I woke up, sat up in bed. 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.960 I heard a noise. The noise that I was positive 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:05.560 I heard was our pet parrot squawking and fluttering around 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.120 in its cage. I get up from bed, Tell my wife, 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.200 I'm going to check on Andy. That was the name 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:12.760 of the bird. 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:13.920 And what was your wife's name. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:18.680 My wife's name was Glinda. Right, I get up, I 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.440 go downstairs. As soon as I got to the foot 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:27.960 of the stairs, one person came from the side of 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:33.560 me out of our bathroom area, and this person immediately 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.440 struck me with an object that I think was a 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:41.240 piece of mob pandle or a broomstick. Another person came 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:46.200 from the kitchen area and immediately knocked me to the ground. 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:51.080 And the two individuals, I don't know how long it lasted, 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:57.080 probably less than thirty seconds, kicked me, beat me until 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:05.480 I lost consciousness. Sometime later I was regaining consciousness. I'm 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.760 not sure how long I laid on the floor. But 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.400 I realized thing that sort of frightened me. At first, 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.760 I couldn't move my fans and feet were tied behind 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.520 my back. I was hog tied, and I was struggling 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.760 to gain consciousness and put my thought process together to 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:27.040 figure out what had happened. And after whether it was 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:32.120 one minute or ten minutes, I started calling for my wife. 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.000 Didn't get any response at all. 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.520 So you're at the foot of the stairs, at the. 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.920 Foot of the stairs, inside of what would have been 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:40.719 our den. 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:45.679 Right, and she's and she's upstairs. She's ups upstairs. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.760 In the bedroom. Getting no response at all from my wife. 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:55.120 I called for my seven year old son, Dennis, and 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.960 on the third of the fourth call from my son, 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:06.720 I heard him stirring upstairs. He answered me. Initially, he 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:12.920 went into the master bedroom and I could hear him say, Daddy, 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.040 where are you? I see mommy, but she's sleeping, and 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:23.360 I said, Daddy's downstairs, Please come downstairs. He came downstairs 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:29.240 and I told him, Dennis, two bad men had broken 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.360 in the house and they hurt Daddy. But I'm gonna 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.440 be all right. I need you to untie my hands. 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.560 He couldn't untie my hands. Because the rope was tied 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.560 so tightly. Then I asked him to go in the kitchen, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.960 please get a knife and try to cut the rope. 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.760 He came back with a knife, but he was panicking 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.360 because he said, Daddy, I'm scared because I can see 0:09:53.400 --> 0:10:00.080 four legs under the blind or the curtain in the 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.120 kitchen leading out to the patio. I can see people 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.520 standing on the patio, and I'm afraid it's the bad 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:10.040 men that hurt you. And I sort of panicked myself then, 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.760 and I said, Dennis, pick up the phone. The phone 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:18.079 was right there on the landing of the stairs. I said, 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:23.120 dial nine one one, and he immediately picked up the phone, 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.680 dial nine one one. He says, what do I say? 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.840 And I said, just tell him you need help, that 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:37.200 your daddy's hurt. And you had seen two men standing 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.960 on the patio. I don't think he told them that 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.840 exact anyway, he got their attention, and within minutes police 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:46.280 arrived on the scene. 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.679 And then the police arrive on the scene, and then 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.319 this is where things start to really get crazy, right, 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:54.880 because it seems like a pretty simple situation. 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:56.559 You're hog tied, right. 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:59.360 The police enter. The first thing, one of them does 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.360 is kneel down next to me, ask me if I'm 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:08.040 all right. I guess I basically tell him, yeah, I'm fine. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:12.760 He doesn't untime, he doesn't do anything, and I hear 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:18.880 another officer goes upstairs, and at that point in time, 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.480 the next thing I hear him is kicking the door 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.200 off the hinges. And it turned out that after my 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:31.000 son had gone in the bedroom when I called him 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.520 and he found his mother what he described as being asleep, 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.760 he must have pulled the door shut behind him and 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:40.400 it just automatically locked. 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:44.880 So he kicks in the door. 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.400 He kicks in the door. When he kicks in the door, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.840 he really startles my daughter, who's in the bedroom next door, 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:56.240 and she starts crying hysterically. And at that point then 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:01.600 my son starts crying hysterically. And I'm getting pretty hysterical myself. 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.800 Laying on the floor. I'm still hog tied, and I'm 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.160 telling you what's going on, what's going on, And policemen 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:12.840 is trying to restrain me and keep me on the ground. 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:13.480 Which is not that hard. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.760 You're but go ahead, and I'm like, and he says, 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:22.280 don't worry, Everything'll be fine, And I mean within moments, 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:27.200 it seems like ambulance attendants arrived on the scene. I 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.640 couldn't hear exactly what they were being told, but they 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.600 were being told something about my wife was in the 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.000 bedroom upstairs, and that somebody needed to get my daughter 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:41.720 and bring a downstairs, which they did. And again I 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:45.600 don't know how much time was elapsing, but at some 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.360 point in time, more police officers arrived on the scene. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:58.480 Eventually someone cut me free. Moments after they cut me free, 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.440 they told me that that I would have to be 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.720 taken to the emergency room, and that the other paramedic 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.160 team was working on my wife and I'd see her there. 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.839 And also at some point in time they asked me 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.400 if there was anybody that they could call to take 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.920 care of my children. I'm being treated in the emergency room. 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.920 I don't know how much later again, was it ten 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.880 or fifteen minutes? Was it an hour later? My brother 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.760 and a priest come into the emergency room, and they 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:41.760 informed me that my wife had been killed. 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.800 And at this point, you're I mean, you've just been 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:50.360 through an impossibly traumatic experience and now you're getting hit 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.040 with this news and the whole world must be collapsing 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:54.480 around you. 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:58.880 At this point in time, it was pretty hard to 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.840 believe what I was being told. I think I almost 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.640 went in the shock when they told me my wife 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.880 had been killed, And I mean, I just can't process 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.599 what I'm being told and come up with any logical 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.160 reason why it had happened. 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:21.920 And then you get back with your kids and try 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.200 to piece things back together. You had given the police 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.920 the information that they wanted right about it, basically the story. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:29.640 That you just told us. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:35.320 I had recalled everything I could remember to the police. 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.080 Except for when you were unconscious, of course, which was 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:41.680 that's the only missing part. And then they were having 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:42.880 trouble solving the case. 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:48.520 Right There had been considerable criticism of the police department 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:53.880 for not solving having any viable leads in this case, 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.640 demanding to know from the police chief what were they doing, 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:01.720 how were they protecting the neighborhood. I had gotten a 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.200 little bit vocal, and I probably said on more than 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.600 one occasion, all of these stupid son of a bitches 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:11.400 need to be fired because they don't appear to know 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.800 what they're doing. Their actions were, in my mind, reminiscent 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:22.280 of the old Keystone cops in slapstick comedies because they 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:23.720 just didn't appear to be very. 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:29.600 Bright, right, Okay, And so obviously the police, you know, 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.760 they're feeling a lot of pressure and they're feeling a 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:35.400 little they're getting their back up about this, right, right. 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:39.520 So then comes the craziest part, in some ways the 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.760 craziest part of the story, right, which is that now 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.880 we're three months from the day to the crime basically. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:48.080 Right, we're now the morning of December twenty ninth. 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:51.240 I was it's hot, it's hot in. 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.360 It's very warm in Louisiana. I'm deciding I'm going to 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.880 put out the Christmas tree. It's starting. It was a 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:03.360 live tree. It's starting to drop needles all over. So 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.400 I tell my children, I'll be right back. I'm just 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:08.880 going to put the Christmas tree out for the trash. 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.640 I've got a pair of cutoff jeans on, nothing else. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.960 And as I'm putting the tree in the back of 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.600 my house by the curve for the trash, I hear 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.560 Doug Delosa turn around, and I sort of turn around 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:29.520 and I'm like almost in shock. I have no idea 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:33.600 how many police officers are there, at minimum of six, 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:37.800 maybe ten or more. I have many. No idea how 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:42.840 many news cameras are there. Probably as many personnel were 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.240 there as there were police officers pointing cameras at me, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.920 and the police pointing guns at me, and they say, 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.080 you know why we're here. We're here to rest you 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.280 for the murder or your wife. And I'm just like 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.680 thinking to myself, this can't be true. This nightmare just 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.560 keeps getting worse and worse. I knew that I had 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:10.520 been labeled to suspect, but I never, in my wildest imagination, 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.960 thought that it would evolve into an arrest. I'm not 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.800 dressed except for with a pair of cutoffs on. My 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.560 children are in their pajamas, and I asked the one detective, 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.640 could I please go dress my children and call somebody 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:31.240 to take them well. As I was changing their clothes, 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.640 I turned to this man who couldn't have been more 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.640 than two to three feet away from me, standing right 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.520 in my face, and I asked him. I said, detective Dote, 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.639 why are you doing this to me? Why are you 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.840 doing this to my children? You know that I didn't 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:53.560 kill my wife, and this police officer, when I asked 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.879 him that question, he had the look of a wild 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.800 man on his face, and he almost I don't know 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:04.959 how to describe it. His voice was almost venomous, and 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:10.520 he says, man, fuck you, fuck your children, and fuck 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.560 that dead wife of yours. I didn't ask that stupid 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.680 bitch to die in my city. And he goes on 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.359 to say, he says, why should I give a fuck 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:22.800 about you or your children? Do you care about me 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.639 and my children? My job's on the line, and he said, 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.960 you have asked that I be terminated in competence. Well, 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.639 you know what, I don't know who did it. Maybe 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.040 I know you didn't do it, but I can build 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.160 the case against you. So you're it. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:47.280 So you're you know, you go to trial, and well 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.280 they withheld several critical pieces of evidence from the defense, 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:53.920 that which is called a Brady violation, which which would 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:57.760 have excluded you and would have led to you being 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.119 found innocent. Do you want to talk about the trial? 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:06.960 From start to finish, nine days had passed, and from 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:12.320 the very beginning, the two district attorneys prosecuting me told 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.840 the jury that they were never going to hear any 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.240 direct evidence that tied me to this crime. That basically 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.879 what they were trying to convict me on was a 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.520 theory of how I did it and why I did it, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.200 and what was going to be important to the jury 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:37.160 to find me guilty was that I had no evidence 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:42.600 to support my story that two black men broke into 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.560 my house that night, beat me unconscious, hog tied me, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.679 and at some point in time killed my wife. 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.320 Right now, But the reason we know that you couldn't 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.000 provide any proof is because they were withholding the proof 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.920 that they had. They had the investigators. You didn't have investigators. 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.639 They had all the guys sweeping the and doing the 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:01.879 whole thing exactly. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:07.000 There were fingerprints found in several places throughout the house 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:11.120 that didn't belong to me, any of my family members, 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:16.240 any of our friends, anyone any member of the investigative 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.880 team that had all been ruled out, and these fingerprints 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.639 found throughout the house belonged to someone. But we have 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:27.239 no idea who they belonged to. 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:28.199 But they didn't tell you that. 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.800 No, their fingerprint expert committed perjury on the stand when 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:38.200 he said absolutely no other fingerprints were found in the house. 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.040 Can we talk about the cab driver for a second, 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.320 because that's one to me, that's one that's always stuck 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:42.960 in my mind. 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:44.239 That's really you know. 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:49.760 Sometime after I was arrested, well, actually, let's back up 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:55.400 to right after my wife's funeral, three days after the murder, 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.399 a taxi driver came forward to the can of Police 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:04.080 department and he said, I think I may have some 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.800 testimony that would help you catch the people who killed 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:16.000 this lady, meaning my wife. And as the story goes 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.840 in his written deposition to the police, he was dropping 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.439 off affair in that neighborhood, which at that time was 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:29.199 exclusively white. There would have been no reason whatsoever to 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.760 have seen blacks in that particular neighborhood. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:34.760 At least aboot three in the morning. 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.560 Yeah, least of all at three to four o'clock in 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.639 the morning. And he goes on to give in his 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:46.120 written deposition that as he was driving down this one street, 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:51.679 he saw two black men leaving the vicinity of the 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.679 front of my house carrying what would have fit the 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.240 description of some of the items I told police were 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.800 taken from my house. And he says that as his 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.440 lights shone on the two men, it appeared that they panicked. 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.439 They ran to a silver van that was waiting, and 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.000 they sped off in a reckless manner and he found 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.680 that very unusual and thought it was important to bring 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:21.720 that testimony to the police, which he did. 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.480 As it was, but they, of course withheld that from. 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.680 The defense illegally. They withheld that and said that there 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:34.640 was nobody had ever seen anything regarding any black men 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.879 in that neighborhood, much less in the vicinity of my home. 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.640 Now fast forward another six to seven months, I'm at 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:47.080 trial this you know, good citizen is reading in the 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:51.159 newspaper and hearing on the TV that I'm undergoing a 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.080 trial for the murder of my wife. Well, he just 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:56.720 doesn't understand, and at this point he doesn't trust the 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.040 police because he's already gone to the police twice. So 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.920 he shows up at the courthouse somehow manages to talk 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:06.879 to one of the two or maybe perhaps both, of 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.800 the district attorneys who were trying the case, and he 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:16.760 tells his story to them, and they very nonchalantly brush 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:21.080 him off and said, oh, don't worry. We presented your 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:26.359 written statement to mister Dolosa's attorney. He reviewed it, but 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:31.960 in light of the overwhelming evidence against him, he knows 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:35.320 that your testimony wouldn't do any good, so he decided 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:37.399 not to call you as a witness, which was a 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.560 total lie. They hadn't given any of that information to 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:44.720 my attorney. And one of the biggest parts of their 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:48.439 case was over and over again they repeated to the jury, 0:23:49.080 --> 0:23:54.639 no one repeat, no one saw anything suspicious in that 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:59.280 neighborhood that night, much less two black men. And that's 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:02.960 why you must find mister Dolosa guilty because he was lying. 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:20.000 The jury comes back, they find you guilty and sends 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:22.600 you to life in prison. Now, the only thing that 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:24.840 can make it worse is they're going to send you 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:29.160 to what is arguably the worst prison in America, in Louisiana, 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:31.480 which is the state which has the highest prison population 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:35.679 by far. Louisiana does have three times higher rate of 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:38.040 incarceration than the rest of the country per capita, and 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:40.439 of course America has a five times higher rate than 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:43.320 the rest of the world. So it's off the chain. 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:46.720 But now you're being sent to Angola prison farm, and 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:49.120 let's talk about that. 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:55.240 Well. Arriving at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which they call Angola, 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.200 it was beyond culture shock. I didn't know what to expect. 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:04.440 I'd heard numerous rumors that scared the hell out of me. 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:09.040 But I arrived at Angola and one of the first 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:14.320 things that I guess was really strange was they put 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:17.399 you in an initial classification to decide where you're going 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:22.240 to be housed. And I'm going before these classification officers 0:25:23.440 --> 0:25:25.520 and they decide that they're going to put me in 0:25:25.560 --> 0:25:30.640