Speaker 1: On November sixth, nineteen ninety one, Eric Ritick was hanging
Speaker 1: out in front of his friend's house at West Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: At the same time, just two blocks away, Eric's childhood friend,
Speaker 1: William Catlett, was fatally shot in what police believed was
Speaker 1: a drug dispute, and all eyewitnesses implicated a man named
Speaker 1: Edward Pinat Johnson. But this was Philadelphia in the nineties,
Speaker 1: where official misconduct was the norm and one shouldn't have
Speaker 1: expected investigations to follow the actual evidence. So despite all
Speaker 1: the signs pointing toward Penut Johnson and a rock solid alibi,
Speaker 1: and Eric was charged with the unmotivated murder of his
Speaker 1: friend solely on a coerce statement from a man named
Speaker 1: Sean Stevenson. So when none of the alibi witnesses were
Speaker 1: even called to testify, the trial reached a predictable outcome,
Speaker 1: sending Eric away for life in prison. In nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: Stephenson finally recanted his bogus testimony, stating that he had
Speaker 1: been under pressure from both the victim's friends and the
Speaker 1: district attorney to maintain the lie. However, Eric was not
Speaker 1: even alerted to the recantation until two thousand and three
Speaker 1: the time elapsed made this earth shattering evidence inadmissible, With
Speaker 1: the key to his freedom rendered useless. Eric's appeals were
Speaker 1: repeatedly denied. It took the support of meek Mill students
Speaker 1: at Georgetown, the election of a new district attorney with
Speaker 1: a real conviction integrity unit, and almost an additional two
Speaker 1: decades to finally set Eric Riddick free. This is Wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction with Jason flamm Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with
Speaker 1: Jason Flauhm. That's me, of course, I'm your host, and today, well,
Speaker 1: if there's a heaviness in my voice, it's because this
Speaker 1: is a heavy story. We're about to tell you the
Speaker 1: story of Eric Riddick's wrongful conviction. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons I've wanted to tell it is because so many
Speaker 1: people that I respect have for years made this a priority.
Speaker 1: This case stands out, and this person stands out. And so,
Speaker 1: without further ado, Eric Riddick, as I often say, I'm
Speaker 1: happy you're here, but I'm sorry you're here because of
Speaker 1: what it took to get your here.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me right off the back, I
Speaker 2: want to definitely thank you personally, you and your network
Speaker 2: for a giving voice to the voiceless, bringing light to
Speaker 2: these issues. So thank you on behalf of myself and
Speaker 2: those that are still fighting for freedom.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: That means the world to me and you know, for
Speaker 1: our listeners, I'm sure that you won't be surprised to
Speaker 1: hear that this is a Philadelphia case. There was an
Speaker 1: incredible pull quote in the article about Tony Wright's a
Speaker 1: wrongful conviction case in Rolling Stone Magny where it said
Speaker 1: that in the nineties, a black man had a better
Speaker 1: chance of getting justice in Philadelphia, Mississippi than Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: But just quickly before this happened, What was your life like?
Speaker 2: I was a young guy in the streets in southwest Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: I lived all my life I was living in poverty
Speaker 2: in an impoverished area. Our area that was it was
Speaker 2: a lot of good things, a lot of beautiful things,
Speaker 2: but it was also a lot of violence, a lot
Speaker 2: of drugs, a lot of mental health issues for me.
Speaker 2: Because I had both parents in the house, I was
Speaker 2: being taught and educated from two perspectives. My parents always
Speaker 2: told me to do the right thing, always told me
Speaker 2: to go to school, but I chose to also hang
Speaker 2: out with the guys in the streets, hooky school, all
Speaker 2: 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 ronfuel 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 email.
Speaker 1: There were alibi witnesses and official misconduct. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to it. So this crime was your friend William kat
Speaker 1: who was fatally shot in West Philadelphia November of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one. So take us back to that terrible night
Speaker 1: when this happened.
Speaker 2: Well, November sixth nineteen ninety one, approximately like between five
Speaker 2: thirty and six thirty. I was on fifty eethh and
Speaker 2: Trinity Street, two blocks away from where the tragedy happened
Speaker 2: on fifty eef and Belmart During the course of that week,
Speaker 2: it was a lot of things going on with different
Speaker 2: individuals in that area dealing with the drug activities around there.
Speaker 2: We was on fifty eth and Trinity Street, myself a
Speaker 2: guy named Louis Jordan, Jeff Dawson, and Justine Joson Timak
Speaker 2: with Jordan, all of whom was my alibi witnesses that
Speaker 2: I gave to the homicide detectives. And as I told
Speaker 2: him in my statement, once we heard the gunshots, myself,
Speaker 2: Louis Jordan, and Jeff Dawson begin to walk towards where
Speaker 2: the gunshots. Said, when we got to Bellmar, we've seen
Speaker 2: that it was a crowd on a corner fifty eth
Speaker 2: in Belmar and that William Catley was shot.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the police began their investigation and many of
Speaker 1: the eyewitnesses were talking about this guy Edward Peanut Johnson right,
Speaker 1: which was a lead that they inexplicably ignored. I still
Speaker 1: can't understand why. But when they connected with Sean Stevenson,
Speaker 1: he went on to say that he saw the shooter
Speaker 1: up on a balcony about fifteen feet above William Catlet
Speaker 1: and he described the shooter as the skinny black mail
Speaker 1: in his early twenties, with a leather jacket like Eric Riddicks,
Speaker 1: but he didn't see the shooter's face. A day later, though,
Speaker 1: in a second interview, he says that you were the
Speaker 1: shooter and that you were the guy that shot William
Speaker 1: Catlet from the fire escape with a rifle that was
Speaker 1: about two feet long. Now, it came out much later
Speaker 1: that he was under pressure from both friends of the
Speaker 1: victim and from the DA to implicate you in the shooting.
Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in a little while. So
Speaker 1: what happens next.
Speaker 3: So make a long story short.
Speaker 2: On the eighth, I heard that the homicide detectives was
Speaker 2: looking for me, so my mother and my father they
Speaker 2: drove me down to the homicide detective Eighthan Reece, and
Speaker 2: I gave a statement basically stating that I had nothing
Speaker 2: to do with the crime. I was two blocks away,
Speaker 2: and here's the people that can confirm where I was
Speaker 2: at at the exact time we actually was on the
Speaker 2: portion we heard the gunshots. A detective named Paul Rich
Speaker 2: again to try to manipulate me. He said that he
Speaker 2: knew I didn't do it. He said that he knew
Speaker 2: who did it. He named the individuals who he said
Speaker 2: did it, but he was saying that being's door, I
Speaker 2: know them. That he wanted me to say that I
Speaker 2: knew that they did it. Basically, I was like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to put myself somewhere where I wasn't.
Speaker 2: So then he got hostile. He starts saying that he's
Speaker 2: going to charge me with the murder. This after he
Speaker 2: acknowledged that he knew I didn't had nothing to do
Speaker 2: with it. So we went back and forth. He tried
Speaker 2: to use a termination and every time he did that,
Speaker 2: he stopped recording, he stopped writing down the things that
Speaker 2: I was saying when I was coming to give a statement.
Speaker 2: So after that didn't work, I signed my statement stating
Speaker 2: where I was at, stating the people that can gratify
Speaker 2: where I'm at, and they let me go, but let
Speaker 2: me rewind back first. One of the things that Detective
Speaker 2: Paul Rich said when he was getting hostile that I
Speaker 2: wasn't saying what he wanted me to say, and he said,
Speaker 2: before it's all over, I'm gonna charge you with this murder.
Speaker 2: He said, I don't care about the individual of God,
Speaker 2: like he said, I just need a body for a body.
Speaker 3: This is exact words to me.
Speaker 2: You're gonna get convicted, You're gonna peel it, but by
Speaker 2: the time your case is overturned, you're gonna be old
Speaker 2: gray and broke down.
Speaker 1: You know. That's that's just really freaking sinister, and you
Speaker 1: know it's I mean, it's gonna stick away for a
Speaker 1: long time. The body for a body that line, it's
Speaker 1: as if they're saying, yeah, just anybody will do right.
Speaker 1: It's like, this is what gets me, right, Why wouldn't
Speaker 1: we want the person who actually committed the murder of
Speaker 1: your friend to be brought to justice, if for no
Speaker 1: other reason then that so they don't go and kill
Speaker 1: somebody else, right, I mean everyone kept saying, like the
Speaker 1: same name, right, Edward Penut Johnson. But they followed through
Speaker 1: on their threat to you, and sure enough you were arrested.
Speaker 2: January tenth, I was arrested on a corner fifty eighth
Speaker 2: in Trinity Street. They took me to homicide detectives and
Speaker 2: they charged me with murder.
Speaker 1: And so we get to the trial, and I just
Speaker 1: want to give a brief summary, which I think should
Speaker 1: shock everybody and frankly should piss everybody off, because the
Speaker 1: prosecution's case, they, let's face it, they had no case.
Speaker 1: So what they do. They relied solely on Stevenson's eyewitness testimony,
Speaker 1: which by the way, had changed a number of times,
Speaker 1: and then was eventually recanted. Stevenson said he saw you
Speaker 1: fire a rifle from a fire escape, But the medical
Speaker 1: examiner's ballistic report with the auto which breaks down each
Speaker 1: bullet wound and the trajectory of each bullet, says clearly
Speaker 1: that none of them traveled in a downward direction. So, Eric,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're a magician, but you'd have
Speaker 1: to be in order to shoot someone who's on ground
Speaker 1: level from fifteen feet up and not have the bullets
Speaker 1: traveling downward. I mean, it's obviously impossible. Did your lawyer
Speaker 1: bring that up at all.
Speaker 3: Through on trial?
Speaker 2: He didn't present the physical evidence dealing with the ballistics.
Speaker 2: He crossed examined that evidence, but he didn't pull out
Speaker 2: or extrapidly the exculpatory elements within the ballistics with the
Speaker 2: course called incontrovert evidence, which is scientific evidence that's proven
Speaker 2: this one accusation to be scientifically implausible. You know, he
Speaker 2: never brought that out. But also the greater tragedy in
Speaker 2: my lawyer was his ineffectiveness regarding the alibi witnesses and
Speaker 2: his opening statement. Three times he promised the jury that
Speaker 2: he was going to present three alibi witnesses refute the
Speaker 2: state's one witness. So through the whole trial, the fact
Speaker 2: find this is waiting for him to keep his promise.
Speaker 2: Because opening statements are important. You set in the stage
Speaker 2: for your defense. And he told the jury in three
Speaker 2: places in this opening statement that he was gonna present
Speaker 2: three alibi witnesses, stating that I was elsewhere at the
Speaker 2: exact time of the crime. And when the trial was over,
Speaker 2: me and him argue because he was saying he wasn't
Speaker 2: gonna present a case, and I told him to present
Speaker 2: my alibi witnesses. They was there waiting to testify. After that,
Speaker 2: me and him arguing about it, he turned to me
Speaker 2: and said, okay, okay, I'm gonna do it. And then
Speaker 2: he looked at the judge and said you're on and
Speaker 2: we rest. I'm sitting there listening and I heard him
Speaker 2: say it, but I didn't really understand until I was
Speaker 2: handcuffed and taking back to the holding cell, and then
Speaker 2: it hit me. He just disregarded what I told him
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy, he literally just sent you down
Speaker 1: the river, just processed you in like your life didn't
Speaker 1: matter at all. And it's like, in a certain way,
Speaker 1: he bears as much blame the people who framed you
Speaker 1: in the first place, because it was up to him. Yes,
Speaker 1: so now he rests his case. He throws you to
Speaker 1: the wolves. The jury goes out. What were you thinking
Speaker 1: when they went out? Did you still think that there
Speaker 1: was still a chance that justice would be served?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: I did in my mind and my naive mind at
Speaker 2: the time. I was saying to myself, it's no way
Speaker 2: in the world that they're going to convict me on
Speaker 2: a crime that I did not do. But I didn't
Speaker 2: know the depths of the defects and the criminal justice system.
Speaker 2: But also I didn't understand the language because I actually
Speaker 2: was listening to my lawyer, and I remember going back
Speaker 2: to the holding cell saying, my lawyer, you know he
Speaker 2: killing it because I didn't understand the language. And I
Speaker 2: still was saying to myself, it's nowhere in the world
Speaker 2: that they're going to convict me, not just for a
Speaker 2: crime that I didn't commit, but a friend of mine.
Speaker 2: I couldn't fathom that, Chris. But they deliverate for three DS.
Speaker 2: They came back in the city was dead locked and
Speaker 2: he couldn't come to a conviction. Judge Paul Ribner turned
Speaker 2: around and gave them the most corrupt instructions in his
Speaker 2: own record. He put a burden on them outside of
Speaker 2: the facts, and he said, listen, we've been here three
Speaker 2: days deliverating on his keys. If y'all cannot come to
Speaker 2: an agreement, then it's going to cost the taxpayers more money.
Speaker 2: It's going to cost them more time and the courts,
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Ten minutes later, he
Speaker 2: came back with the first to be murder conviction.
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Speaker 2: This is very heavy to hold and wake up with
Speaker 2: a life sentence on your back. To use the bathroom
Speaker 2: with that life sentence on your back. To go to
Speaker 2: the shower and walk around every day all day for
Speaker 2: decades with that weight on your back, it's the heaviest
Speaker 2: feeling that a person can imagine. For me, I never
Speaker 2: experienced that personally because I never thought that I was
Speaker 2: not coming home. I said to myself, I'm a fight,
Speaker 2: I'm a fight. I'm a fight.
Speaker 3: You know. It fueled me.
Speaker 2: I was blessed to have strong parents and they passed
Speaker 2: their strength off to me to be able to survive
Speaker 2: in those arduous situations, hard situations. So that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I occupied my mind, I stayed in physical shape. I
Speaker 2: made a decision to learn everything that I can learn.
Speaker 2: Turned my incarceration into like a university, right. I was
Speaker 2: educated by a lot of powerful lifers that had rehability
Speaker 2: to reform themselves, and they taught me the law.
Speaker 3: They taught me how to be a man.
Speaker 2: But I was angry and I got into fights and
Speaker 2: I wanted to hurt people, just like these young guys
Speaker 2: out here now. And it was lifers that could still
Speaker 2: speak the language that I understood that taught me how
Speaker 2: to deal with it rationally. They gave me another option,
Speaker 2: and they taught me the law. They taught me how
Speaker 2: to understand the politics that the law was functioning in.
Speaker 2: You know, I learnt the law, and I fought for
Speaker 2: thirty years every day when I had sell may Say
Speaker 2: said I used to wake up in the middle of
Speaker 2: my sleep talking about Commonwealth versus Santana states that when
Speaker 2: incontrovertible evidence is repugnicant to human testimony, you reject the
Speaker 2: human testimony.
Speaker 3: They said, I used to wake up in my sleep,
Speaker 3: Lily geting.
Speaker 1: Listen, there's so much potential. Look, every time I visit
Speaker 1: a prison, you know, I always come out feeling like
Speaker 1: there's more humanity inside those walls than I see out here.
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus, Troy Coleman's calling me on the other phone.
Speaker 1: Let me actually picked this up while we're put them
Speaker 1: on speaker hold on how I can do this guated
Speaker 1: individual at s c I Somerset.
Speaker 2: It will be recorded and maybe monitored.
Speaker 1: Hey, Troy, I'm actually recording a podcast with Eric Riddick
Speaker 1: right now. We were talking about you earlier, so we
Speaker 1: got you on the speakerphone through the microphone, but he
Speaker 1: can't He can hear you, but he can't talk back
Speaker 1: to the ode hell, but he says, hello, he's thinking
Speaker 1: about you. We all are, and uh, what you do? Okay?
Speaker 1: God it call me later, all right? I mean, what
Speaker 1: the fuck?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: That's amazing. And I know you know Troy really well
Speaker 1: and worked on his case while you were still inside,
Speaker 1: and we actually covered his case recently, and we're we're
Speaker 1: just hoping for justice for Troy Coleman.
Speaker 3: Can I say something real quick?
Speaker 2: Yeah, just the thing even with Dick case right there
Speaker 2: in Troy Coleman keys the victim in his case, Kevin
Speaker 2: Jones was a friend of mine. I grew up with
Speaker 2: the whole family, very close friends of mine, and just
Speaker 2: me even offering assistance is testimony to the injustice of
Speaker 2: even that case. Some of the family probably wouldn't even
Speaker 2: like the fact that I'm helping. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, right is right and wrong is wrong.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And you know another guy that you knew inside,
Speaker 1: who we also had the privilege of interviewing here, who
Speaker 1: had spoken very highly of you in the past, is
Speaker 1: Meek mill.
Speaker 2: I was just talking to Meek earlier when he came
Speaker 2: to prison. He was with me for those five months.
Speaker 2: He said, when I go home, I promise you I'm
Speaker 2: going to talk about your case. I'm gonna advocate for you.
Speaker 2: And when he went home, he did everything that he could.
Speaker 2: Georgetown dealt with me because he was sitting on the
Speaker 2: podcast about his case and he brought up my case.
Speaker 2: Dan Sepian and NBC. They was introduced to my case,
Speaker 2: Desiree Pereire. She took me through the whole Rock Nation.
Speaker 2: All of these individuals is like family to me now
Speaker 2: based on Meek Mill introduced in my case and the
Speaker 2: egregiousness of it to them. You know, he's an artist here,
Speaker 2: he financially stable, but he stepped out of his comfort
Speaker 2: zone and reached back, and just his case opened the
Speaker 2: door for a lot of other cases dealing with the
Speaker 2: corrupt cast.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just my case.
Speaker 1: So then let's get to the post conviction litigation. Because,
Speaker 1: first of all, all the way back in nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: that's a long time ago, the prosecution's only eyewitnessed Stevenson
Speaker 1: recanted his statement in an affidavit. He stated that he
Speaker 1: was under pressure from friends of the victim and from
Speaker 1: the district attorney to identify you. Now at the time,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania law, the post conviction relief Act required that new
Speaker 1: evidence get ready for this be filed within sixty days
Speaker 1: to be considered on a field that's insane. And you
Speaker 1: didn't physically receive a copy of the recantation affidavit for
Speaker 1: another four years after that, which was two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: So of course this meant that by the time you
Speaker 1: filed for post conviction relief, it was way too late
Speaker 1: and it couldn't even be included. Again, what the hell
Speaker 1: where is justice in that? Okay, So his recantation continued
Speaker 1: to be an admissible which meant that you're repeated attempts
Speaker 1: to prove your innocence in the following years were routinely denied.
Speaker 2: The PCRI statue is literally an obstruction of justice. No
Speaker 2: statue have the power to subvert the concept of justice.
Speaker 2: The foundation of the judicial system is in the preamble
Speaker 2: of the United States, Count Toru, we the people to
Speaker 2: form a more perfect union and to establish justice. So
Speaker 2: now any statue that come after that is opposed to
Speaker 2: actualized justice, not subordinate justice. The legislation cannot pass a
Speaker 2: statue that obstruct evidence from coming in that can proves innocence,
Speaker 2: because they surely wouldn't do it if it proved guilt
Speaker 2: right right, The politics of corruption, culture corruption is nullifying
Speaker 2: those foundational principles that really can't be justified. But that's
Speaker 2: what happens. That's why people is in prison under wrong
Speaker 2: for conviction. And that's what makes Larry Krasner administration so
Speaker 2: damn powerful, Larry Kraft and Patricia Cummings for him to
Speaker 2: get up there and identify a culture corruption. And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say this from being in prison and seeing it
Speaker 2: with my own eyes. I'm telling you today here on
Speaker 2: the record that there are thousands of individuals in prison
Speaker 2: that can prove today that their convictions is wrongly convictions,
Speaker 2: but they can't get the evidence in that the courts
Speaker 2: know exists.
Speaker 3: And they'll listen to it because they filed in pc
Speaker 3: of ORI's.
Speaker 2: But the courts have their hypocritical audacity to look in
Speaker 2: people faces and say, well, we see the evidence have merit,
Speaker 2: but we don't have jurisdiction to entertain it because it's
Speaker 2: time Barr.
Speaker 3: With me, when I was pro.
Speaker 2: Say, litigating, I argue I gave the judge their oath
Speaker 2: of office when they said my evidence was time Barr,
Speaker 2: and I'm saying, no, you have the inherent power of
Speaker 2: the court to adjudicate any matter that served the entert
Speaker 2: of 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.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm going to rewind a little bit. During the
Speaker 1: initial investigation, as we mentioned, most of the eyewitnesses told
Speaker 1: police that the actual perpetrator was Edward who went by
Speaker 1: the name Panut Johnson, but that lead was never followed
Speaker 1: up on, and Johnson himself was murdered in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1: So get this, everybody. In two thousand and five, Penut
Speaker 1: Johnson's father, Bruce Reese, submitted a fucking AffA David, confirming
Speaker 1: that his son and a friend were responsible for William
Speaker 1: Catlin's death for his own da head to do that,
Speaker 1: it's so freaking heavy, and Reese, the dad wrote, and
Speaker 1: I quote this is a quote direct quote. My son
Speaker 1: had always expressed regret that mister Riddick had sat at
Speaker 1: prison for a crime that he had nothing to do with,
Speaker 1: and quote and back in twenty nineteen, all those years later,
Speaker 1: two other witnesses also signed out for David, saying that
Speaker 1: they saw Johnson shoot Williams. So that brings us almost
Speaker 1: to the president. What happens next?
Speaker 2: So as we litigate in the court and we wind up
Speaker 2: going to the conviction and tech with unit, we had
Speaker 2: a PCRI pending. My lawyer in Mecca Igwy came on
Speaker 2: board and worked with Georgetown professor Mark Howard and the
Speaker 2: three Georgetown students who making them Exnery, Taylor, Kendall and
Speaker 2: Alex They also worked with Desiree Pere's team, Jordan Seve
Speaker 2: from Rock Nation and the Refirm on the powerful Atturning
Speaker 2: and they just extended all their resources to work with
Speaker 2: my attorney in Mecca, Igwy and we filed the petition
Speaker 2: in the CiU unit. They shout it down. Initially, we
Speaker 2: re argued it because they acknowledged that I was innocent,
Speaker 2: but they were saying, well, we still feel that you
Speaker 2: may have entered into a conspiracy to commit this crown,
Speaker 2: so we're not going to entertain your petition. Larry Krazen
Speaker 2: and Patricia Cummins, they still dealing with relics of that
Speaker 2: culture corruption sometimes. Patricia Cummins took on the case herself.
Speaker 2: When they turned over the files, we found out that
Speaker 2: a firearm was found in the alleyway.
Speaker 3: Can't make this out.
Speaker 2: A broken rifle was found in the alleyway connected to
Speaker 2: the balcony where I was accused of being, and the
Speaker 2: DA tested it back then found that it didn't work
Speaker 2: and that none of the projectiles came from his rifle,
Speaker 2: so they hit the evidence. They never turned that over
Speaker 2: to the defense. So when we found that, we amended it,
Speaker 2: and that was the means in which Patricia Comings in
Speaker 2: the DA's office agreed to release me under.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's amazing, but it's not shocking, right because
Speaker 1: it's the same damn thing we see over and over again.
Speaker 1: Until we fix the system, that's going to keep happening.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: And it's deep, like with the PCRI statue, for example,
Speaker 2: Counseling David oh who wound up being one of my
Speaker 2: greatest supporters from Philadelphia, he passed two resolutions regarding my keys,
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly one to addressed the time limitations that the PC
Speaker 2: already put on present evidence, but also he passed the
Speaker 2: resolution requested Governor Wolf depart in me things doing the
Speaker 2: record being saturated with evidence of innocence.
Speaker 1: Listen, there's so many villains in this case, but there
Speaker 1: are even more heroes at the end of the day. Right,
Speaker 1: You've got the Georgetown students, You've got Meek Mill, you
Speaker 1: got Patricia Cummins, you got Rock Nation. Oh listen, I
Speaker 1: mean was little I had to do with it, but
Speaker 1: thank you for saying that. But Dan Selepion, I mean
Speaker 1: you went from having the D team to the A team. Right,
Speaker 1: and as a result of course, justice has finally been done, delayed,
Speaker 1: but not denied. And that's a miracle. So, okay, thirty
Speaker 1: years you finally step out to breathe free air. What
Speaker 1: was that moment?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Oh man, well, I haven't yet found the words to
Speaker 2: explain what I felt. The greatest moment was seeing my
Speaker 2: mother's face. You know, that woman been on the front line.
Speaker 2: She did everything from going in front of the legislation
Speaker 2: Harrisburg or in front of the DA's office with bullhorns,
Speaker 2: organizing and protesting non stop. When they told me that
Speaker 2: I was going home in a half hour, that was
Speaker 2: the greatest moment seeing her face. That felt greater than
Speaker 2: the actual feeling of me going home. And since I've
Speaker 2: been home, just seeing her enjoy the moment. What people
Speaker 2: don't know is that the burden that I had to
Speaker 2: carry all these years. Was that my father, which was
Speaker 2: one of the greatest men I ever met in my life,
Speaker 2: my situation actually took his life. He always was able
Speaker 2: to protect his family, and my mother spoke about that
Speaker 2: on an interview, how his heart couldn't take it once
Speaker 2: they convicted me and there wasn't nothing that he could
Speaker 2: do for the first time to protect his children. She
Speaker 2: actually see him deteriorate after he watched his son get
Speaker 2: railroaded in court and he died shortly after that. He
Speaker 2: had a heart attack that took his life.
Speaker 1: Wow. I think anyone who has a father or is
Speaker 1: a father can probably relate. And that's literally heartbreaking. I mean,
Speaker 1: it sounds like he was a great man. And all
Speaker 1: I can say is rest and power. And if you
Speaker 1: and your family can take any solace, it's in the
Speaker 1: fact that you're out here now and you've really hit
Speaker 1: the ground running. And what I mean by that is
Speaker 1: your work with the Emergency Response Foundation or the ER Foundation.
Speaker 1: For sure. Can you tell us about the amazing work
Speaker 1: that you're doing.
Speaker 2: So I've been home three months. I'm sitting right now
Speaker 2: doing this interview, sitting in my office, the office of
Speaker 2: the Emergency Response Foundation, which is an organization that I
Speaker 2: created while I was in prison, and it's geared to
Speaker 2: address the most critical issues in two areas, criminal justice reform,
Speaker 2: stash reborn, and community development. It's amazing that nineties a
Speaker 2: guard was sitting in the cell and today I'm sitting
Speaker 2: in the office with three rooms in law books. I'm
Speaker 2: looking at the law books right now, and the main
Speaker 2: people that's going to be working in here is Axigneries
Speaker 2: on the Horton Brothers that was commutated by Fetterman. They
Speaker 2: hit the ground running, and that's the most beautiful thing
Speaker 2: about it. Everybody's coming home. We all either on the
Speaker 2: front line helping to get other wrongly convictors out or
Speaker 2: just living normal lives.
Speaker 1: So the Emergency Response Foundation, it's so many incredible people
Speaker 1: working to help other amazing people get the justice that
Speaker 1: they're seeking, that they deserve and that they've been waiting
Speaker 1: for for decades and decades. There's going to be I'm
Speaker 1: sure a number of our listeners reaching out for help,
Speaker 1: and there's also going to be people reaching out who
Speaker 1: want to help, who can help, and who want to
Speaker 1: support the work of the Foundation. So the best way
Speaker 1: to reach out or get involved is through the website,
Speaker 1: which is er Foundation on nine dot com, so it's
Speaker 1: er Foundation nineteen dot com. But it'll be linked in
Speaker 1: our bio as well. So now we have a tradition
Speaker 1: on wrongful conviction which is called closing arguments, and it's
Speaker 1: the part of the show that I look forward to
Speaker 1: each and every week because it works very simply just
Speaker 1: like this. First of all, I thank you again, Eric
Speaker 1: Riddick for just being who you are and for being
Speaker 1: an inspiration to me and so many other people both
Speaker 1: out here and on the inside. Thank you for just
Speaker 1: being here and sharing your thoughts and your incredible story.
Speaker 1: And now I'm just going to kick back in my chair,
Speaker 1: turn off my microphone, leave my headphones on, and listen
Speaker 1: to whatever else you want to share for the closing
Speaker 1: arguments of our show.
Speaker 2: So when I walked out of the courtroom, I basically
Speaker 2: see that my freedom is a further testimony that justice
Speaker 2: is in season. Me being on this show is testimony
Speaker 2: that justice is in season. Rock Nation, Meek Mill getting
Speaker 2: involved in the cases criminal justice Reform is testimony that
Speaker 2: justice is in season. Georgetown University, the people at the
Speaker 2: Grassroot becoming dissatisfied with the institutions they're supposed to serve
Speaker 2: the people, like the judicial system, the police department, advocating
Speaker 2: dissatisfaction and automatically compels change. So these are testimonies that
Speaker 2: justice is in season. I'm going to continue to fight
Speaker 2: on the front line as a vanguard with all those
Speaker 2: entities that I just mentioned. I want to thank everybody
Speaker 2: that was involved. I want to thank my attorney in
Speaker 2: mecha Iguy again, but I want to thank the grass
Speaker 2: Root and the ER Foundation. Emergency Response Foundation is going
Speaker 2: to do everything in our power to help assist in
Speaker 2: liberating those that's wrongly convicted and fighting for issues that's
Speaker 2: worthy of fighting for. Our foundation is going to create
Speaker 2: documentaries on these issues. You have many men and women
Speaker 2: that's in prisons wrongly convicted, totally actually innocent of any
Speaker 2: degree of guilt. But you have some that's innocent of
Speaker 2: the degree of culpability that they convicted for. So the
Speaker 2: ER Foundation has created what it's called an Alternative Resolution
Speaker 2: service where we find those cases, we point out the
Speaker 2: evidence that mitigate the degree of culpability, and we take
Speaker 2: it to the DA's office, the Conviction Integrity Units, and
Speaker 2: we find an alternative resolution, many of which may be
Speaker 2: a plea to a lesser degree, because that's just as
Speaker 2: much of an egregious injustice as someone that's actually complete
Speaker 2: the innocent. So were going to try to address all
Speaker 2: the issues of injustice and we're gonna build the foundation
Speaker 2: as we go along. I want to salute again the
Speaker 2: Jason Flum Show and other shows and networks like this,
Speaker 2: because we always had a voice in prison, but we
Speaker 2: didn't have those outlets. So today the Jason Flum Show
Speaker 2: and other shows this testimony that justice is in season.
Speaker 2: And the beauty about it is the universe is bent
Speaker 2: towards justice, So we always knew that these moments was
Speaker 2: gonna come. I want to thank the Crafts the Ministry
Speaker 2: for their courage. I was set on a panel discussion
Speaker 2: with Crafting and a mic came to me and I said,
Speaker 2: I never thought that I would be sitting comfortably next
Speaker 2: to the Phildelphy DA. But then I looked at him
Speaker 2: and I said, this is not the DA. This is
Speaker 2: the will of the people being manifested. You know, when
Speaker 2: the people is dissatisfied, the people is going to start
Speaker 2: networking and it's going to bring about change. I want
Speaker 2: to thank everybody, all the names that we don't know,
Speaker 2: for being vanguards on the frontline, fighting for justice, fighting
Speaker 2: for community development and all of those things. And I'm
Speaker 2: available anytime if you call on the Er Foundation if
Speaker 2: our help is needed. We are here any advice that
Speaker 2: people that's listening or that's involved want to give to
Speaker 2: the Er Foundation. We are open for any suggestions and
Speaker 2: any assistance and any help. So again, thank you for
Speaker 2: having me. Everybody have a blessed day.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
Speaker 1: links in our bio now to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our amazing production team Connor Hall,
Speaker 1: Justin Golden, Jeff Clyburn, and Kevin Wardis. The music on
Speaker 1: this show, as always, is by three time OSCAR nominated
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast.
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm is a production of Lava
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one