Speaker 1: On November six, Eric Riddick was hanging out in front
Speaker 1: of his friend's house at West Philadelphia. At the same time,
Speaker 1: just two blocks away, Eric's childhood friend, William Catlett, was
Speaker 1: fatally shot in what police believed was a drug dispute,
Speaker 1: and all eyewitnesses implicated a man named Edward Peanut Johnson.
Speaker 1: But this was Philadelphia in the nineties, where official misconduct
Speaker 1: was the norm and one shouldn't have expected investigations to
Speaker 1: follow the actual evidence. So despite all the signs pointing
Speaker 1: toward Peanut Johnson and a rock solid alibi, and Eric
Speaker 1: was charged with the unmotivated murder of his friend solely
Speaker 1: on a coerced statement from a man named Shaun Stevenson.
Speaker 1: So when none of the alibi witnesses were even called
Speaker 1: to testify, the trial reached a predictable outcome, sending Eric
Speaker 1: away for life in prison. In Stevenson finally recanted his
Speaker 1: bogus testimony, stating that he had been under pressure from
Speaker 1: both the victim's friends and the district attorney to maintain
Speaker 1: the lie. However, Eric was not even alerted to the
Speaker 1: recantation until two thousand and three. The time elapsed made
Speaker 1: this earth shattering evidence inadmissible. With the key to his
Speaker 1: freedom rendered useless. Eric's appeals were repeatedly denied. It took
Speaker 1: the support of meek Mill students at Georgetown, the election
Speaker 1: of a new district attorney with a real conviction integrity unit,
Speaker 1: and almost an additional two decades to finally set Eric
Speaker 1: Rennick free. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. That's me, of course,
Speaker 1: I'm your host, and today, well, if there's a heaviness
Speaker 1: in my voice, it's because this is a heavy story.
Speaker 1: We're about to tell you the story of Eric Riddick's
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction. And one of the reasons I've wanted to
Speaker 1: tell it is because so many people that I respect
Speaker 1: have for years made this a priority. This case stands out,
Speaker 1: and this person stands out. And so, without further ado,
Speaker 1: Eric Riddick, as I often say, I'm happy you're here,
Speaker 1: but I'm sorry you're here because of what it took
Speaker 1: to get you here. Thank you for having me right
Speaker 1: off the back. I want to definitely thank you personally,
Speaker 1: you and your network for giving voice to the voiceless,
Speaker 1: bringing light to these issues. So thank you on behalf
Speaker 1: of myself and those that are still fighting for freedom. No,
Speaker 1: that means the world to me and you know, for
Speaker 1: our listeners, I'm true that you won't be surprised to
Speaker 1: hear that this is a Philadelphia case. There is an
Speaker 1: incredible pull quote in the article about Tony Rights wrong
Speaker 1: for conviction case in Rolling Stone mag gazine where it
Speaker 1: said that in the nineties a black man had a
Speaker 1: better chance of getting justice in Philadelphia, Mississippi than Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: But just quickly before this happened. What was your life like?
Speaker 1: I was a young guy in the streets of South
Speaker 1: wast Philadelphia, but I lived all my life I was
Speaker 1: living in poverty in an impoverished area of area that
Speaker 1: was it was a lot of good things, a lot
Speaker 1: of beautiful things, but it was also a lot of violence,
Speaker 1: a lot of drugs, a lot of mental health issues
Speaker 1: for me. Because I had both parents in the house,
Speaker 1: I was being taught and educated from two perspectives. My
Speaker 1: parents always told me to do the right thing, always
Speaker 1: told me to go to school, but I chose to
Speaker 1: also hang out with the guys in the streets, hockey school,
Speaker 1: all those things that made me susceptible to being wrongly accused.
Speaker 1: The fact is you didn't do this crime, and it
Speaker 1: should have been really obvious to everyone from the beginning
Speaker 1: that you didn't do it. But your case has so
Speaker 1: many of the hallmarks that we see in wrongful conviction cases.
Speaker 1: It's incompetent defense, lying witness. I mean, there was only
Speaker 1: one accuser and no evidence and no alibi witnesses called,
Speaker 1: even though there were alibi witnesses and official misconduct. Let's
Speaker 1: go back to it. So this crime was your friend
Speaker 1: William Catlett, who was fatally shot in West Philadelphia November.
Speaker 1: So take us back to that terrible night when this happened, well,
Speaker 1: November six, proximately, like between five thirty and six thirty.
Speaker 1: I was on fifty and Trinity Street, two blocks away
Speaker 1: from where the tragedy happened on Fidief in Belmar. During
Speaker 1: the course of that week, it was a lot of
Speaker 1: things going on with different individuals in that area dealing
Speaker 1: with the drug activities around there. We was on fifty
Speaker 1: in Trinity Street myself, I got named Lewis Jordan's, Jeff
Speaker 1: Dawson and Justine Johnson and to mark with Jordan's all
Speaker 1: of whom was my alibi, our witnesses that I gave
Speaker 1: to the homicide detective, and as I told him in
Speaker 1: my statement, once we heard the gunshots, myself, Lewis Jordan's
Speaker 1: and Jeff Dawson begin to walk towards where the gunshot. Said.
Speaker 1: When we got to Belmore, we've seen that it was
Speaker 1: a crowd on a corner for theiefan Bellmore and that
Speaker 1: William Catley was shot. Okay, So the police begin their
Speaker 1: investigation and many of the eye witnesses were talking about
Speaker 1: this guy Edward Peanut Johnson right, which was a lead
Speaker 1: that they inexplicably ignored. I still can't understand why. But
Speaker 1: when they connected with Seawan Stevenson, he went on to
Speaker 1: say that he saw the shoot her up on a
Speaker 1: balcony about fifteen feet above William Catlet, and he described
Speaker 1: the shooter as a skinny black male in his early
Speaker 1: twenties with a leather jacket like Eric Riddicks, but he
Speaker 1: didn't see the shooter's face. A day later, though, in
Speaker 1: a second interview, he says that you were the shooter
Speaker 1: and that you were the guy that shot William Catlet
Speaker 1: from the fire escape where the rifle that was about
Speaker 1: two ft long. Now, it came out much later that
Speaker 1: he was under pressure from both friends of the victim
Speaker 1: and from the v A to implicate you in the shooting.
Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in a little while. So
Speaker 1: what happens next? To make a long story short, On
Speaker 1: the eighth, I heard that the homicide detective was looking
Speaker 1: for me, So my mother and my father they drove
Speaker 1: me down to the homicide detective Efan Reese, and I
Speaker 1: gave a statement basically stating that I had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the crime. I was two blocks away, and
Speaker 1: here's the people that getting confirmed where I was at
Speaker 1: at the exact time we actually was on the portion
Speaker 1: we heard the gunshots. A detective named Paul Rich again
Speaker 1: to try to manipulate me. He said that he knew
Speaker 1: I didn't do it. He said that he knew who
Speaker 1: did it. He named the individuals who he said did it,
Speaker 1: but he was saying that beings doing I know them
Speaker 1: that he wanted me to say that I knew that
Speaker 1: they did it. Basically, I was like, no, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna put myself somewhere where I wasn't. So then he
Speaker 1: got hostile. He started saying that he's going to charge
Speaker 1: me with the murder. This after he acknowledged that he
Speaker 1: knew I didn't had nothing to do with it. So
Speaker 1: we went back and forth. He tried to use a
Speaker 1: termination and every time he did that, he stopped recording,
Speaker 1: he stopped writing down the things that I was saying
Speaker 1: when I was coming to give the steament. So after
Speaker 1: that didn't work, I signed my statement stadium where I
Speaker 1: was that stating the people that can verify where I'm at,
Speaker 1: and they let me go, but let me rewind back first.
Speaker 1: One of the things that Detective Paul Rich said when
Speaker 1: he was getting hostile that I wasn't saying what he
Speaker 1: wanted me to say, and he said, before us all over,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna charge you with this murder. He said, I
Speaker 1: don't care about the individual. God like he said, I
Speaker 1: just need a body for body. This is exact words
Speaker 1: to me. You're gonna get convicted, You're gonna peel it,
Speaker 1: but by the time your case is overturned, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be old gray and broke down. You know that's that's
Speaker 1: just really freaking centister, And you know it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's gonna stick away for a long time. The body
Speaker 1: for a body that line. It's as if they're saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: just anybody will do right. It's like, this is what
Speaker 1: gets me right. Why wouldn't we want the person who
Speaker 1: actually committed the murder of your friend to be brought
Speaker 1: to justice if for no other reason than that, so
Speaker 1: they don't go and kill somebody else, right. I mean
Speaker 1: everyone kept saying like the same name, right, Edward Peanut Johnson.
Speaker 1: But they followed through on their threat to you, and
Speaker 1: sure enough you were arrested January. I was arrested on
Speaker 1: a corner fifty Trinity Street. They took me to homicile
Speaker 1: detectives and they charged me with murder. And so we
Speaker 1: get to the trial, and I just want to give
Speaker 1: a brief summary, which I think should shock everybody and
Speaker 1: frankly should piss everybody off because the prosecution's case, they,
Speaker 1: let's face it, they had no case. So what they do.
Speaker 1: They relied solely on Stevenson's eyewitness testimony, which by the way,
Speaker 1: had changed a number of times and then was eventually recanted.
Speaker 1: Stevenson said he saw you fire a rival from a
Speaker 1: fire escape, but the medical examers ballistic report with the
Speaker 1: auto which breaks down each bullet wound and the trajectory
Speaker 1: of each bullet says clearly that none of them traveled
Speaker 1: in a downward direction. So Eric, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you're a magician, but you'd have to be in order
Speaker 1: to shoot someone who's on ground level from fifteen feet
Speaker 1: up and not have the bullets traveling downward. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's obviously impossible. Did your lawyer bring that up at all?
Speaker 1: Go on trial? He didn't present the physical evidence dealing
Speaker 1: with the ballistics. He crossed examined that evidence, but he
Speaker 1: didn't pull out or extrapolate the sculpratory elements within the
Speaker 1: ballistics with the course called incontrovertible evidence, which a scientific
Speaker 1: evidence that's proven this one accusation to be scientifically implausible.
Speaker 1: You know, he never brought that out. But also the
Speaker 1: greater tragedy and my lawyer was his ineffectiveness regarding the
Speaker 1: Alibira witnesses and his openest statement. Three times he promised
Speaker 1: the jury that he was going to present three elibi
Speaker 1: witnesses to refute the state's one witness. So through the
Speaker 1: whole trial, the fact finders is waiting for him to
Speaker 1: keep his promise because opening statements are important. You set
Speaker 1: in the stage for your defense. And he told the
Speaker 1: jury in three places in his opening statement that he
Speaker 1: was gonna present three all of our witnesses statement. And
Speaker 1: I was elsewhere at the that time of the crime.
Speaker 1: And when the trial was over and meet him argued
Speaker 1: because he was saying he wasn't gonna present a case,
Speaker 1: and I told him to present my all Abu witnesses
Speaker 1: he was there waiting to testify. After meeting him arguing
Speaker 1: about it, he turned to me and said, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it, and then he looked at the
Speaker 1: judge and said, your honna we rest. I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: listening and I heard him say it, but I didn't
Speaker 1: really understand until I was handcuffed and taking back to
Speaker 1: the holding cell, and then it hit me. He just
Speaker 1: disregarded when I told him to do. I mean, this
Speaker 1: guy and he literally just sent you down the river,
Speaker 1: just processed you in like your life didn't matter at all.
Speaker 1: And it's like, in a certain way, he bears as
Speaker 1: much blame to people who framed you in the first place,
Speaker 1: because it was up to him. So now he rest
Speaker 1: his case. He throws you to the wolves. The jury
Speaker 1: goes out. What were you thinking when they went out?
Speaker 1: Did you still think that there was still a chance
Speaker 1: that justice would be served. I did, and my mind
Speaker 1: and my naive mind at the time, I was saying
Speaker 1: to myself, there's no way in the world that they're
Speaker 1: gonna convict me on a crime that I did not do.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know the depths of the defects and
Speaker 1: a criminal justice system. But also I didn't understand the language,
Speaker 1: because I actually was listening to my lawyer, and I
Speaker 1: remember going back to the holding cell, said my lawyer,
Speaker 1: you know he killing it because I didn't understand the language.
Speaker 1: And I still was saying to myself, it's nowhere in
Speaker 1: the world that they're going to convict me, not just
Speaker 1: for a crime that I didn't commit, but a friend
Speaker 1: of mine. I couldn't fathom that person body deliberate. For
Speaker 1: three d s they came back in the city, was
Speaker 1: deadlocked and he couldn't come to a conviction. Judge Paul
Speaker 1: Ribner turned around and gave them the most corrupt instructions
Speaker 1: in his own record. He put a burden on them
Speaker 1: outside of the effects, and he said, listen, we've been
Speaker 1: here three days deliberating on his case. If y'all cannot
Speaker 1: come to an agreement, then it's going to cost the
Speaker 1: taxpayers more money. It's gonna cost them more time, and
Speaker 1: the courts, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Ten minutes later, he came
Speaker 1: back with the first re murder conviction. Wow. This episode
Speaker 1: is underwritten by A i G, a leading global insurance company,
Speaker 1: and by Accenture, a global professional services company with leading
Speaker 1: capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Working to reform the
Speaker 1: criminal justice system is a key pillar of the A
Speaker 1: i G pro Bono Program, which provides free legal services
Speaker 1: and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals most
Speaker 1: in need. As part of Accenture's commitment to racial and
Speaker 1: so justice. Accentri's Legal Access Program provides pro bono legal
Speaker 1: services in partnership with more than forty organizations, bringing meaningful
Speaker 1: change to people and communities worldwide. This is very heavy
Speaker 1: to hold and wake cover with a life sentence on
Speaker 1: your back, To use the bathroom with that life sense
Speaker 1: on your back, to go to the shower, to walk
Speaker 1: around every day all day for decades with that weight
Speaker 1: on your back. It's the heaviest feeling that a person
Speaker 1: can imagine for me. I never experienced that personally because
Speaker 1: I never thought that I was not coming home. I
Speaker 1: said to myself, I'm gonna fighting. I'm gonna fight, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna fight. You know, it fueled me. I was blessed
Speaker 1: to have strong parents, and they passed that strength off
Speaker 1: to me to be able to survive in those arduous situations,
Speaker 1: hard situations. So that's what I did. I occupied my mind,
Speaker 1: I stayed in physical shape and made a decision to
Speaker 1: learn everything that I can learn. That turned my incarceration
Speaker 1: into like a university, right. I was educated by a
Speaker 1: lot of powerful lifers that have rehability to reform themselves,
Speaker 1: and they taught me the law. They taught me how
Speaker 1: to be a man. But I was angry and I
Speaker 1: got into fights and I wanted to hurt people, just
Speaker 1: like these young guys out here now. And it was
Speaker 1: lifers that could still speak the language that I understood
Speaker 1: that taught me how to deal with it rationally. They
Speaker 1: gave me another option, and they taught me the law.
Speaker 1: They taught me how to understand the politics that the
Speaker 1: law was functioning. And you know, I learned the law
Speaker 1: and I fought for thirty years. Every day when I
Speaker 1: had self, may say said I used to wake up
Speaker 1: in the middle of my sleep talking about commonwealth versus
Speaker 1: Santana states that when incontrovertible evidence is repugnant to human testimony,
Speaker 1: you rejected human testimony they said I used to wake
Speaker 1: up in my sleep. Literally gains so much potential. Every
Speaker 1: time I visited a prison, you know, I always come
Speaker 1: out feeling like there's more humanity inside those walls than
Speaker 1: I see out here. Oh Jesus, Troy Coleman is calling
Speaker 1: me on the other phone. Let me actually picked this
Speaker 1: up while we're talking. Don't put him on speaker. Hold on.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I can do this. Re created
Speaker 1: individual at s CI Summerset did it. It will be
Speaker 1: recorded and maybe monitored. Hey, Troy, I'm actually recording a
Speaker 1: podcast with Eric Riddick right now. We were talking about
Speaker 1: you earlier, so we got you on the speaker phone
Speaker 1: through the microphone, but he can't He can hear you,
Speaker 1: but he can't talk back to but he says, hello,
Speaker 1: he's thinking about you. We all are, and uh, do
Speaker 1: you do what you do? Okay, got to call me later.
Speaker 1: I mean, what the funk? Right, that's amazing. And I
Speaker 1: know you know Troy really well and worked on his
Speaker 1: case while you were still inside, and we actually covered
Speaker 1: his case recently, and we're we're just hoping for justice
Speaker 1: for Troy Coleman. Can I say something real quick or
Speaker 1: just the thing? Even with Dick case right there, Troy Coleman,
Speaker 1: keys the victim and his keys, Kevin Jones, who was
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, I grew up with the whole family,
Speaker 1: very close friends of mine, and just me even offer
Speaker 1: assistance is testimony to the injustice of even that case.
Speaker 1: Some of the family probably wouldn't even like the fact
Speaker 1: that I'm helping. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: right is right and wrong is wrong. Absolutely. And you
Speaker 1: know another guy that you knew inside, who we also
Speaker 1: had the privilege of interviewing here, who had spoken very
Speaker 1: highly of you in the past. It's Meek mel I
Speaker 1: was just talking to me earlier when he came to prison.
Speaker 1: He was with me for those five months. He said,
Speaker 1: when I go home, I promise you I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: about you in case, I'm gonna advocate for you. And
Speaker 1: when he went home, he did everything that he could.
Speaker 1: George Town dealt with me because he was sitting on
Speaker 1: the podcast about his case and he brought up my keys.
Speaker 1: Then Sepien and NBC, they was introduced to my case.
Speaker 1: Desiree Prayer. She took me through the whole rock Nation.
Speaker 1: All of these individuals is like family to me. Now
Speaker 1: based on Meek Mill introducing my case and the egregiousness
Speaker 1: of it to them. You know, he's an artist here,
Speaker 1: he financially stable, but he stepped out of his comfort
Speaker 1: zone and reached back, and just his case opened the
Speaker 1: door for a lot of other cases dealing with the
Speaker 1: corrupt cars. It wasn't just my keys. So then let's
Speaker 1: get to the post conviction litigation. Because, first of all,
Speaker 1: all the way back in that's a long time ago,
Speaker 1: the prosecution's only eyewitnessed Stevenson recanted his statement. In an
Speaker 1: affid David, he stated that he was under pressure from
Speaker 1: friends of the victim and from the district attorney to
Speaker 1: identify you. Now, at the time, Pennsylvania law, the Post
Speaker 1: Conviction Relief Act, required that new evidence get ready for
Speaker 1: this be filed within sixty days to be considered on
Speaker 1: the field. That's insane, and you didn't physically receive a
Speaker 1: copy of the recantation Affidavid for another four years after
Speaker 1: that was two thousand three. So of course this meant
Speaker 1: that by the time you filed for post pronviction relief,
Speaker 1: it was way too late and it couldn't even be included. Again,
Speaker 1: what the hell where is justice? And that? Okay, So
Speaker 1: his recantation continued to be inadmissible, which meant that your
Speaker 1: repeated attempts to prove your innocence in the following years
Speaker 1: were routinely denied. The phr a statue is literally an
Speaker 1: obstruction of justice. No statue have the power to subvert
Speaker 1: the concept of justice. The foundation of the judicial system
Speaker 1: is in the preamed order the United States country, we
Speaker 1: the people to form a more perfect union and to
Speaker 1: establish justice. So now any statue that come after that
Speaker 1: is supposed to actualize justice, not subordinate justice. The legislation
Speaker 1: cannot pass a statue that obstruct evidence from coming in
Speaker 1: that can proves innocence, because they surely wouldn't do it
Speaker 1: if it proved guilt. The politics of corruption, culture of
Speaker 1: corruption is nullifying those foundational principles that really can be justified.
Speaker 1: But that's what happens. That's why people was in prison
Speaker 1: under wrong for convictions. And that's what makes Larry Krafts
Speaker 1: administrations so damned powerful, Larry Krass and the Patricia Cummins
Speaker 1: for him to get over there and identify a cultural corruption.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna say this from being imprisoned and seeing
Speaker 1: it with my own eyes. I'm telling you today here
Speaker 1: on the record that there are thousands of individuals in
Speaker 1: prison that can prove today that their convictions is wrongly convictions,
Speaker 1: but they can't get the evidence in that the courts
Speaker 1: know exists and then listen to it because they're filed
Speaker 1: in pc ads. But the course have the hypocritical audacity
Speaker 1: looking people faces and say, well, we see the evidence
Speaker 1: have merit, but we don't have jurisdiction to entertain it.
Speaker 1: Because it's time. Barn with me. When I was pro sedalitigating,
Speaker 1: I argued I gave the judge there both the office
Speaker 1: when they said my evidence was Tom Barn and I'm
Speaker 1: saying no, you have the inherent power of the court
Speaker 1: to adjudicate any matter that served the enter the justice.
Speaker 1: So let's go back to the post conviction litigation and
Speaker 1: how you ended up out here today, because it's kind
Speaker 1: of a miracle, really now I'm going to rewind a
Speaker 1: little bit. During the initial investigation, as we mentioned, most
Speaker 1: of the eyewitnesses told police that the actual perpetrator was
Speaker 1: Edward who went by the name Peanut Johnson, but that
Speaker 1: lead was never followed up on and Johnson himself was murdered.
Speaker 1: So get this, everybody. In two thousand and five, Peanut
Speaker 1: Johnson's father, Bruce Reese, submitted a fucking half of David,
Speaker 1: confirming that his son and a friend were responsible for
Speaker 1: William Catlin's death for his own. Dad had to do that.
Speaker 1: It's so freaking heavy and and Reese, the dad wrote,
Speaker 1: and I quote this is a quote direct quote. My
Speaker 1: son had always expressed regret that Mr. Riddick has sat
Speaker 1: at prison for a crime that he had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with, and quote and back in two thousand nineteen,
Speaker 1: all those years later to other witnesses also signed affter
Speaker 1: David saying that they saw Johnson shoot Williams. So that
Speaker 1: brings us almost to the president. What happens next. So
Speaker 1: as we're litigating the court and we wound up going
Speaker 1: to the conviction integrit Unit, we had a pcr A pending.
Speaker 1: My lawyer, Mecca Igwi, came on board and worked with
Speaker 1: Georgetown professor Mark Howard and at three Georgetown students who
Speaker 1: making the axonary teller, ken Do and Alex. They also
Speaker 1: worked with Desiree Perez Team, Jordan's Seed from Rock Nation
Speaker 1: and refirm On Powerful Attorney and they just extended all
Speaker 1: their resources to work with my attorney in Mecca, Igwi,
Speaker 1: and we found the petition in the CiU unit. They
Speaker 1: shouted down initiatly, we re argued it because they acknowledged
Speaker 1: that I was innocent, but they were saying, well, we
Speaker 1: still feel that you may have entered into a conspiracy
Speaker 1: to commit this crown, so we're not going to entertain
Speaker 1: your petition. Larry Kras and the Patricia Cummins, they're still
Speaker 1: dealing with relics of that culture corruption. Sometimes. Patricia Cummins
Speaker 1: took on the case herself. When they turned over the files,
Speaker 1: we found out that a firearm was found in the
Speaker 1: alley way. I can't make this up. A broken rifle
Speaker 1: was found in the alley way connected to the balcony
Speaker 1: way I was accused of being and the d A
Speaker 1: tested it back then found that it didn't work and
Speaker 1: that none of the projectiles came from his rifle, so
Speaker 1: they hed the evidence. They never turned it over to
Speaker 1: the defense. So when we found that, we admended it.
Speaker 1: And that was the means in which Patricia comes in
Speaker 1: the DA's office agreed to release me under. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's amazing, but it's not shocking, right because it's the
Speaker 1: same damn thing we see over and over again. Until
Speaker 1: we fix the system is gonna keep happening, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's deep. Like with the pcr A statue. For example,
Speaker 1: Councilman David oh who wounded up being one of my
Speaker 1: greatest supporters from Philadelphia, he passed two resolutions regard my
Speaker 1: keys overwhelmingly one two addressed the time limitations that the
Speaker 1: PC already put on presenting evidence. But also he passed
Speaker 1: the resolution request and government wolf the part in me
Speaker 1: they stilling to record being saturated with evidence of in incence. Listen,
Speaker 1: there's so many villains in this case, but there are
Speaker 1: even more heroes at the end of the day. You
Speaker 1: got the Georgetown students, you got Meek Mill, you got
Speaker 1: Patricia Cummins, you got to the Rock Nation. Oh listen,
Speaker 1: I mean, what little I had to do with it,
Speaker 1: but thank you for saying that but Dan Sleppian, I
Speaker 1: mean you went from having the D team to the
Speaker 1: A team, right, and as a result of course, justice
Speaker 1: has finally been done, delayed, but not denied, and that's
Speaker 1: a miracle. So okay, thirty years you finally step out
Speaker 1: the breathe free air. What was that moment? Like? Oh, man, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't yet to found a word to explain when
Speaker 1: I felt. The greatest moment was seeing my mother's fees.
Speaker 1: You know, that woman has been on the front line.
Speaker 1: She did everything from going in front of the legislation Harrisburg,
Speaker 1: in front of the d's offer with boll horns, organizing
Speaker 1: and protesting NonStop. When they told me that I was
Speaker 1: going home and a half hour, that was the greatest
Speaker 1: moment seeing her face that felt greater than the actual
Speaker 1: feeling of me going home, and since I've been home,
Speaker 1: just seeing her enjoy the moment. What people don't know
Speaker 1: is that the burden that I had to carry all
Speaker 1: these years was that my father, which was one of
Speaker 1: the greatest men I've met in my life, my situation
Speaker 1: actually took his life. He always was able to protect
Speaker 1: his family, and my mother spoke about that on an interview,
Speaker 1: how his heart couldn't take it once they convicted me,
Speaker 1: and there was nothing that he could do for the
Speaker 1: first time to protect his children. She actually see him
Speaker 1: deteriorate after he watched his son get rare rooted in
Speaker 1: court and he died shortly after that. He had a
Speaker 1: heart attack that took his life. Wow. I think anyone
Speaker 1: who has a father or is a father can probably relate.
Speaker 1: And that's literally heartbreaking. I mean, it sounds like he
Speaker 1: was a great man. And all I can say is
Speaker 1: rest and power, and if you and your family can
Speaker 1: take any solace, it's in the fact that you're out
Speaker 1: here now and you've really hit the ground running. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is your work with the
Speaker 1: Emergency Response Foundation or the e R Foundation for short.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us about the amazing work that you're doing.
Speaker 1: So I've been home three months. I'm sitting right now
Speaker 1: during his interview, sitting in my office the office of
Speaker 1: the Emergency Response Foundation, which is an organization that I
Speaker 1: created while I was in prison, and it's geared to
Speaker 1: address the most critical issues in two areas, criminal justice reform,
Speaker 1: stash reborn, and community development. It's amazing that nineties a
Speaker 1: guard was sitting in the cell, and today I'm sitting
Speaker 1: in the office with three rooms and law books. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the law books right now. And the main
Speaker 1: people that's gonna be working in here is axonorees On
Speaker 1: the Horton Brothers that was commutated by Fetterman. They hit
Speaker 1: the ground running, and that's the most beautiful thing about it.
Speaker 1: Everybody's coming home. We all either on the front line
Speaker 1: helping to get other we're only convicted is out or
Speaker 1: just living normal lives. So the Emergency Response Foundation, it's
Speaker 1: so many incredible people working to help other amazing people
Speaker 1: get the justice that they're seeking, that they deserve and
Speaker 1: that they've been waiting for for decades and decades. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be I'm sure a number of our listeners reaching
Speaker 1: out for help, and there's also gonna be people reaching
Speaker 1: out who want to help, who can help, and who
Speaker 1: want to support the work of the foundation. So the
Speaker 1: best way to reach out or get involved is through
Speaker 1: the website, which is e ER Foundation one nine dot com.
Speaker 1: So it's e R Foundation nine team dot com. But
Speaker 1: it'll be linked in our bio as well. So now
Speaker 1: we have a tradition on wrongful conviction, which is called
Speaker 1: closing arguments, and it's the part of the show that
Speaker 1: I look forward to each and every week because it
Speaker 1: works very simply just like this. First of all, I
Speaker 1: thank you again, Eric Riddick for just being who you
Speaker 1: are and for being an inspiration to me and so
Speaker 1: many other people both out here and on the inside.
Speaker 1: Thank you for just being here and sharing your thoughts
Speaker 1: and your incredible story. And now I'm just gonna kick
Speaker 1: back in my chair, turn off my microphone, leave my
Speaker 1: headphones on, and listen to whatever else you want to
Speaker 1: share for the closing arguments of our show. So when
Speaker 1: I walked out of the courtroom, I basically said that
Speaker 1: my freedom is a further testimony that justice is in season.
Speaker 1: Me being on this show is testimony that justice is
Speaker 1: in season. Rock Nation, Meek Mill getting involved in the cases,
Speaker 1: Criminal justice Reform is testimony that justice is in season.
Speaker 1: George Town University, the people at the grassroom becoming dissatisfied
Speaker 1: with the institutions that's supposed to serve the people, like
Speaker 1: the judicial system, the police department, advocating dissatisfaction and automatically
Speaker 1: compels change. So these are testimonies that justice is in season.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna continue to fight on the front line as
Speaker 1: a vanguard with all those entities that I just mentioned.
Speaker 1: I want to thank everybody that was involved. I want
Speaker 1: to thank my attorney in mecha Igny again, but I
Speaker 1: want to thank the grassroot and the EUR Foundation. Emergency
Speaker 1: Response Foundation is going to do everything in our power
Speaker 1: to help assist in liberating those that's wrongly convicted and
Speaker 1: fighting for issues that's worthy of fighting for. Our foundation
Speaker 1: is going to create documentaries on these issues. You have
Speaker 1: many men and women that's in prisoners, wrongly convicted, totally
Speaker 1: actually innocent of any degree of guilt, but you have
Speaker 1: some that's innocence of the degree of culpability that they're
Speaker 1: convicted for. So the EUR Foundation has created what it's
Speaker 1: called an Alternative Resolution service where we find those cases,
Speaker 1: we point out the evidence that mitigate the degree of culpability,
Speaker 1: and we take it to the D's office, the conviction
Speaker 1: Integrity Units, and we find an alternative resolution, many of
Speaker 1: which may be a plea to a lesser degree, because
Speaker 1: that's just as much of an egregious injustice as someone
Speaker 1: that's actually complete the innocent. So we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: address all the issues of injustice, and we're gonna build
Speaker 1: the foundation as we go along. I want to salute
Speaker 1: again the Jason Flum Show and other shows and networks
Speaker 1: like this, because we always had a voice in prison,
Speaker 1: but we didn't have those outlets. So today that Jason
Speaker 1: Flum Show and other shows this testimony that justice is
Speaker 1: in season. And the beauty about it is the universe
Speaker 1: has bent towards justice, so we always knew that these
Speaker 1: moments was gonna come. I want to thank the craft
Speaker 1: and the Ministry Asian for their courage. I was set
Speaker 1: on the panel discussion with Crafts and I and it.
Speaker 1: Mike came to me and I said, I never thought
Speaker 1: that I would be sitting comfortably next to the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: d A. But then I looked at him and I said,
Speaker 1: this is not the d A. This is the will
Speaker 1: of the people being manifested. You know, when the people
Speaker 1: is dissatisfied, the people is gonna start networking and it's
Speaker 1: gonna bring about change. I want to thank everybody, all
Speaker 1: the names that we don't know, for being vanguards on
Speaker 1: the frontline, fighting for justice, fighting for community development and
Speaker 1: all of those things. And I'm available any time if
Speaker 1: you call on the E R Foundation if our help
Speaker 1: is needed, we are here. Any advice that people that's
Speaker 1: listening or that's involved I want to give to the
Speaker 1: EUR Foundation. We are open for any suggestions and any
Speaker 1: assistance and any help. So again, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Everybody have a blessed day. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Please support your local innocence
Speaker 1: organizations and go to the links in our bio now
Speaker 1: to see how you can help. I'd like to thank
Speaker 1: our amazing production team Connor Hall, Justin Golden, Jeff Clyburne
Speaker 1: and Kevin Wardis. The music on this show, as always,
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Speaker 1: Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one