Speaker 1: Through our social channels. We asked our listeners to name
Speaker 1: some of their favorite episodes, and Bobby Jeane Johnson's story
Speaker 1: rose to the top. Here is her heartbreaking story recorded
Speaker 1: in Atlanta at the Innis's Network conference in shortly before
Speaker 1: her untimely passing away later that year. Bobby Jeane Johnson
Speaker 1: was given up for adoption at birth and later molested
Speaker 1: while she was in foster care. She ran away from
Speaker 1: that horrible situation and tried to survive as a sex
Speaker 1: worker on the streets of New Orleans. In v seven,
Speaker 1: and Antiquity's dealer named Arthur Sampson was found dead at
Speaker 1: his St. Charles Avenue shop. He had been shot once
Speaker 1: in the stomach with a thirty two caliber bullet and
Speaker 1: stabbed over one hundred times. The store was ransacked and
Speaker 1: safe was missing about two thousand dollars. A month after
Speaker 1: the murder, Bobby Jean was writing and what she did
Speaker 1: not know at the time was a stolen car with
Speaker 1: two men when they were pulled over by the police
Speaker 1: for a traffic violation. One of the men stashed a
Speaker 1: knife and a thirty two caliber Bobert and Bobby Jean's
Speaker 1: purse at eighteen years old, Bobby Jeane Johnson was brought
Speaker 1: in for a violent interrogation that would change the course
Speaker 1: of her already tragic and vulnerable life. This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today, I have a guest
Speaker 1: who is UM, one of the most extraordinary people with
Speaker 1: one of the most insane stories that I've ever heard,
Speaker 1: and she's also just a beautiful, beautiful person. Um. So,
Speaker 1: Bobby Jean Johnson, Welcome to wrongful conviction. As I always say,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're here, but I'm glad you're here and
Speaker 1: everyone will find out why. UM. And with her is
Speaker 1: Kat Forrester, who is the communications director for the Insotance
Speaker 1: Project of New Orleans, also known as HYPNO. And Kat,
Speaker 1: welcome to wrongful conviction. Thanks so much, bit to be here. So,
Speaker 1: Bobby Jean was freed from prison two eighteen after serving
Speaker 1: forty one years in prison for a crime she didn't commit.
Speaker 1: And this case has so many of the hallmarks of
Speaker 1: the causes of wrongful convictions that you know, it's almost
Speaker 1: a clean sweep, so to speak. I mean, there was misconduct,
Speaker 1: there was a false confession that you were tortured into making,
Speaker 1: incompetent defense. It's not even that's not even strong enough
Speaker 1: of a word. And we're going to get into that
Speaker 1: all of that, But we're talking about the murder of
Speaker 1: Arthur Sampson, right, and this is an extremely violent crime.
Speaker 1: This was a white man who was an antiquities dealer
Speaker 1: in New Orleans who was shot and stabbed a hundred times.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a vicious, vicious crime. And just to
Speaker 1: paint a picture for people who are listening, how tall
Speaker 1: are you? You're five ft tall and you're not a
Speaker 1: big man. Wasn't that big at the time. I was
Speaker 1: like ninety eight pounds. Like in I Wall, size zero
Speaker 1: paints a couple my clothes out the children's section. So
Speaker 1: the whole thing makes no sense just on a purely
Speaker 1: physical level. And Mr Sampson, I mean, nobody deserves to
Speaker 1: die like he did. But he was a sort of
Speaker 1: a dicey character anyway, Right. He was known for bringing
Speaker 1: sex workers to his home, which is one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why the logical suspect would have been this woman
Speaker 1: who was a sex worker who was the last person
Speaker 1: to see him alive. Yeah, she was the last person
Speaker 1: he was seen with by anyone right. So usually you know,
Speaker 1: we all watched those crime shows on TV. You know,
Speaker 1: you go down that path at least take a look,
Speaker 1: you know, But that's not what happened. Um, what year
Speaker 1: was this by You were an eighteen year old girl?
Speaker 1: Yeah at the time, so what was going on? You
Speaker 1: were living in New Orleans at the time, and I
Speaker 1: was like on drugs and stuff, right, So one night
Speaker 1: we was riding in a call. It was me and
Speaker 1: two other dudes were running call in the cops. The
Speaker 1: police afters for traffic of valation. You were you driving? No,
Speaker 1: I wasn't driving right, And at the time when the
Speaker 1: police stopped us that one of the dudes that was
Speaker 1: in the care with me do the knife in a
Speaker 1: gun and my person so wouldn't because I know I
Speaker 1: didn't have no knife and gun in my purse. So
Speaker 1: when the police pulled all my stuff out my person,
Speaker 1: he said, oh, we got a knife and the gun.
Speaker 1: I said that it's not for me. But they took
Speaker 1: us to Homotide on Division and they put us in
Speaker 1: different rooms and kept questioning us in questions, and I
Speaker 1: kept telling me, I don't know nothing about I don't
Speaker 1: even know where this place is at and I heard
Speaker 1: this man, and so one of the dudes to do
Speaker 1: they put the gun in and I didn't make a
Speaker 1: statement and said, I when y'all stopped this, I put
Speaker 1: that knife in that gun and Barby jeans that's not hers.
Speaker 1: I did that, and he made a statement. They just
Speaker 1: ignored the statement. I meant, do you think they knew
Speaker 1: at the time that they has the wrong person, but
Speaker 1: they just wanted to clean up the case and that
Speaker 1: was what was really going on. Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they had a pretty viable suspect
Speaker 1: and they didn't follow any of the leads and not
Speaker 1: other suspects case. Um. And I think that so often,
Speaker 1: particularly you know, back in the seventies, eighties, nineties in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, particularly with black folks. I think that they,
Speaker 1: you know, the cops got tunnel vision and you know,
Speaker 1: when they found somebody and it seemed easy enough to
Speaker 1: pin it on that person, you know, even if all
Speaker 1: the evidence in the world pointed to someone else. So
Speaker 1: often they just got tunnel vision and um focused on
Speaker 1: one person and you know, force their theory of the
Speaker 1: case to fit to that person. So they knew they
Speaker 1: knew that this guy had come forward who admitted that
Speaker 1: he had a classy guy. By the way, it's a
Speaker 1: cops coming. He's putting his his knife and he's going
Speaker 1: to be your purse. I mean, that's a hell of
Speaker 1: a thing. And when you were arrested, and if you're
Speaker 1: okay even talking about it, I mean what I've read
Speaker 1: about the interrogation that you went through this is like
Speaker 1: something out of you know, a bad movie, or out
Speaker 1: of a torture that you read about in in a
Speaker 1: foreign country or abu grabe, you know something like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you went to the police station and what happened,
Speaker 1: and then they put this in separate rooms, and uh,
Speaker 1: they kept throwing pictures in front me and they said
Speaker 1: this is him and this saim I said, well, I've
Speaker 1: never seen that man before. The yeah, the dead man
Speaker 1: or the Samson and then um one he hit me
Speaker 1: in my face. He said, no, listic or to the
Speaker 1: other room. So when they took me to the other room,
Speaker 1: they still was asking me. So when I kept saying
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't tell you nothing. I don't know,
Speaker 1: he said, oh, you're gonna know, and he called me
Speaker 1: a black bee and he put my hand got me
Speaker 1: to the back behind his like wooden chair and put
Speaker 1: a plastic bag over my head. The chair fell back,
Speaker 1: and they started kicking me in my ribs and all
Speaker 1: over and hit me. And he kept saying, black Bee, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna tell us because we know you know, we
Speaker 1: know you know, he said, Because let me tell you.
Speaker 1: He said, ain't number of police officers in this in
Speaker 1: the station right here, and we could kill you and
Speaker 1: your family would never know nothing about. So I'm scared
Speaker 1: to that. And so he said, come on, we're going back.
Speaker 1: And there by the time he said you're gonna put
Speaker 1: on and if you don't, you'll get some more. And
Speaker 1: I was scared that I was crying and everything. I
Speaker 1: had five police officers standing up behind me and one
Speaker 1: sitting down who had the table cord. And he said,
Speaker 1: now you're ready. I said, I I don't know that,
Speaker 1: he said. He turned the table off and he said,
Speaker 1: you're going to repeat what I said. He turned off yeah,
Speaker 1: and told me that. So I was so scared. I
Speaker 1: did everything that was telling me to put on tape.
Speaker 1: I put on tape, but it was a lie. I
Speaker 1: did it because I was scared. Well, yeah, you had
Speaker 1: a very good reason to be scared. I mean I
Speaker 1: was certain everywhere and even after the chif fell back
Speaker 1: with they was kicking me in my ribs and everything.
Speaker 1: It was horrible. And Jason, I just wanted to say that, like,
Speaker 1: the world had not been kind to Bobby Jean before
Speaker 1: this all happened. You know, she had had a really
Speaker 1: tough up upbringing, and it makes so much sense that
Speaker 1: she would do anything to kind of survive, right this,
Speaker 1: this brutal police interrogation and eating thank you probably. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I just feel like the world had not been kind
Speaker 1: to her, had not offered her a lot of hope. UM.
Speaker 1: And I you know, I think because I was I
Speaker 1: was given away when my mom I had me and
Speaker 1: I had to go on like that. It was like
Speaker 1: I was scared, oh world of my shoulder. So I
Speaker 1: just got out there and I just wanted about it.
Speaker 1: Loved me and I just wanted to be accepted and stuff.
Speaker 1: So whenever it took for me to do that, I
Speaker 1: did it. And she was she was a young a
Speaker 1: young girl, as you keep kind of pointing out, you know,
Speaker 1: who was doing the best she could with what she had. Um.
Speaker 1: And then and then this thing happened to her right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: then this thing happened. This is you know, there's been
Speaker 1: too many of these cases where we've learned that the
Speaker 1: officers have threatened to kill the person unless they confess.
Speaker 1: Johnny and caapy A is one thing of a year,
Speaker 1: guys in Texas. There's too many of these. And you know,
Speaker 1: Johnny says to me, he was on the podcast and
Speaker 1: he said, um, people ask me why would I confess?
Speaker 1: And he was eighteen like you were, and uh, he says,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't I confess? He goes, I wanted to live,
Speaker 1: you know what I want? I just want. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be I was a young girl eighteen. You're really
Speaker 1: more of a child than a woman. I mean at
Speaker 1: that point, you know, I mean, we know that the
Speaker 1: adolescent brain doesn't fully develop until you're five, and here
Speaker 1: you are not just a younger but a little girl,
Speaker 1: right um pounds like you said, in a room full
Speaker 1: of big, tough guys who you would want to think
Speaker 1: are gonna protect you, right um. And in fact they're
Speaker 1: threatening in a very real way. Right. It's not like
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like an empty threat when you're putting
Speaker 1: a plastic bag over and being you and kicking you.
Speaker 1: I mean, so, I don't think there's any question, And
Speaker 1: I think it's so important that you're here, and I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you. I know it's difficult for you. I
Speaker 1: can see how difficult it is. But it's so important
Speaker 1: for the public to understand that these false confessions happened
Speaker 1: for a variety of reasons. Not everybody's tortured, but a
Speaker 1: lot of people are psychologically coerced, or they're tricked, or
Speaker 1: they're you know, confused. So yeah, in your situation, I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone would probably behave any differently than you did.
Speaker 1: But then what a difficult thing to live with. Two,
Speaker 1: Because knowing as you're going to prison for the rest
Speaker 1: of your life that you are in a certain way
Speaker 1: responsible because you you know, you admitted something that you
Speaker 1: didn't do. But but her confession didn't match the facts
Speaker 1: of the case anyway. No, she I mean she got
Speaker 1: a lot of of it wrong. Um, I mean, she
Speaker 1: didn't get much of it right actually, And that's also
Speaker 1: a typical thing in these false confession cases. After torturing
Speaker 1: her for hours, the police were able to extract the
Speaker 1: tapes confession, and that was riddled with inconsistencies. According to
Speaker 1: that false confession, Bobby Jeane and a woman named Kimberly
Speaker 1: Legan had met Sampson in the French Quarter. Legan solicited
Speaker 1: him for sex. Then when he brought them back to
Speaker 1: his store, and again back to the false narrative that
Speaker 1: she created just to make the torture stop, she said,
Speaker 1: Bobby herself shot him once in the chest and once
Speaker 1: in the head, and then her friend Legan stabbed him
Speaker 1: over one hundred times. Then they robbed his store and
Speaker 1: sped off in a stolen Pontiac Grand Prix. Now for
Speaker 1: the actual facts, Arthur Sampson was shot only once in
Speaker 1: the stomach. Bobby Jean described Sampson as being twenty years
Speaker 1: younger and a half foot taller than he was. And lastly,
Speaker 1: the Pontiac Grand Prix would not have made a good
Speaker 1: getaway car, as it was not stolen until hours after
Speaker 1: the murder. The man who had stashed at threty two
Speaker 1: caliber revolver and knife her purse had made a statement
Speaker 1: admitting to just that, but that back was inconvenient to
Speaker 1: the prosecution's narrative and was therefore hidden from the defense.
Speaker 1: All of this could have been brought up during trial
Speaker 1: if Bobby Jean had adequate counsel. However, with no family
Speaker 1: and no backup whatsoever, her Bobby Jean didn't have a
Speaker 1: chance in help. Now you're taking to jail. How long
Speaker 1: did you have to wait for your trial? Eighteen months?
Speaker 1: Eighteen months in jail? And I know how bad that
Speaker 1: must have been, because jails, I mean anywhere terrible, but
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. Um, it's infamous. Yeah, your trial was. Um,
Speaker 1: it was like the combination of a bad dream and
Speaker 1: a bad joke because the people who were supposed to
Speaker 1: be defending you did nothing of the sort. And can
Speaker 1: you talk about that? Yeah, okay, Um, doing my trial,
Speaker 1: my lawyer wouldn't let me get understanding and talking my
Speaker 1: own defense. He fell asleep during the trial. Your lawyer
Speaker 1: was asleep. Yeah, he fell asleep during the trial. I
Speaker 1: had to wake him up. And he didn't do no
Speaker 1: opening statements, no opening statements, and no clue was in statements.
Speaker 1: And um, one of the jurors stood up and stay
Speaker 1: till the jewels. I cannot give miss Johnson a fair
Speaker 1: truck because I had a relationship with this man. The
Speaker 1: jud said, be seated with the victim. Yeah, and he Um,
Speaker 1: and na know because when I was imprisoner, took fairly
Speaker 1: when I graduated from it, But my lawyer should have
Speaker 1: called a mistrial when that Jews stood up and he
Speaker 1: didn't say not a world and the judge said, just
Speaker 1: let's let's please proceed. I mean, I've been doing this
Speaker 1: work for over twenty five years and I've heard a
Speaker 1: lot of stories. I've never heard that before. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've heard stories of jrors that had but I never
Speaker 1: heard a juror actually stand up and add too. She
Speaker 1: raised her hand and she said, yeah, I cannot get
Speaker 1: this lady a fair trial because I had a relationship
Speaker 1: with Mr Samson, and so your lawyer was asleep. You're
Speaker 1: waking him up. He made no opening statement, he made
Speaker 1: no closing statement, and he didn't object to that lady
Speaker 1: didn't call him miss trial. He made one objection throughout
Speaker 1: the trial, to the admission of a photograph um. He
Speaker 1: has a total of eight cross examination questions, the majority
Speaker 1: of which dealt with the ballistics of the gun. No
Speaker 1: opening and no closing, and he presented no case theory.
Speaker 1: He essentially did nothing except Jake and nep do Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, he didn't defend you so much as process.
Speaker 1: You right, Even when I was in jail, when they
Speaker 1: appearented him to me, he never came seeing me. Only
Speaker 1: time I seen him was in a court and sometimes
Speaker 1: when they would have court dates from me, but he
Speaker 1: wouldn't be there, so they would postpone it to another day.
Speaker 1: Oh so that's why I took a ten months to
Speaker 1: get to trial. Yeah, because he wouldn't show up. He
Speaker 1: wouldn't show up. Did at any point did you request
Speaker 1: a different lawyer? Did you even know that you? I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I was young and I didn't know, and
Speaker 1: you probably. I mean, I would think in that situation,
Speaker 1: nothing about the law, right, And I would think again
Speaker 1: in that situation, that you would be worried if you
Speaker 1: did request when then you can upset the only guy
Speaker 1: who's on your side right now? Did you have any
Speaker 1: family in the courtroom with you or anything like that? Nobody?
Speaker 1: Did you all alone? Jesus Christ to them less than
Speaker 1: an hour to come back with a guilty verdict. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when I got to prison, at first, I wasn't
Speaker 1: because I was angry. I was angry and I was hurt.
Speaker 1: That's when I was I started fighting all this. It
Speaker 1: didn't matter no more because I had It was like, well, Baptine,
Speaker 1: you've got a life sentence. Now it's nothing you could do.
Speaker 1: You to going to die in this prison. But then
Speaker 1: I started praying and praying and praying and won't the
Speaker 1: last fight I had. I remember I was in this cell.
Speaker 1: I just felt to my knees and I said, God,
Speaker 1: just take my life. I'm I'm tired of living. Like,
Speaker 1: just take my life and do what you want to
Speaker 1: do with it. And from that data this was I
Speaker 1: ain't been the same. I grew up, I got more
Speaker 1: mature and I did everything I could do. They was
Speaker 1: they was offering on the g D. So I know
Speaker 1: I have been out of school a few months and stuff,
Speaker 1: and I got in this trouble because I know I
Speaker 1: was a small girl. I had just I hadn't graduated.
Speaker 1: I dropped out at the eleventh grade. And um so
Speaker 1: I took the g D and I passed the g D.
Speaker 1: It was giving grand self for introduction in the business
Speaker 1: payroll accountant and pail league. First I took the pair
Speaker 1: of legal one and I passed with a four partow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I studied hard, or I studied hard because I
Speaker 1: wanted it. And I wanted. I did everything I could
Speaker 1: to rehabilitate myself in every kind of way. It was
Speaker 1: nothing I didn't do positive in jail. I had fights
Speaker 1: in jail because I was small, and they thought I
Speaker 1: was scared of him, but I wasn't. And I had
Speaker 1: fights with quite a few people. But I grew and
Speaker 1: I mature. I did everything I know to do right.
Speaker 1: I was a law curtin and all this in the prison.
Speaker 1: When I got into the oh, the law librry, I
Speaker 1: started writing to everybody to try to help me. One day,
Speaker 1: my sisters, they just sent me all of your papers
Speaker 1: on my Brittish Innocent project. And when I sent them
Speaker 1: on to they got and they started working on my
Speaker 1: case immediately. Every two weeks they would be up there
Speaker 1: to see me and they tell me how the case
Speaker 1: was going on. And then the day oh, I went
Speaker 1: to quote on the seven. I didn't even know I
Speaker 1: had a quote on the day. Oh, it's a it's
Speaker 1: if I having John to get ready. You got a culturrip,
Speaker 1: I said, a Coultripny all have never taken me back
Speaker 1: to court, so I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay. When I got dressed. They brought
Speaker 1: me the carhouse and all my all it was in
Speaker 1: the court room for me. All lawyers, yes, but all
Speaker 1: my lawyers walked up with me to the podium when
Speaker 1: I had to do the league in everything. For many
Speaker 1: long years, both the Promise of Justice Initiative and the
Speaker 1: Innocent Project of New Orleans worked tirelessly on Bobby Jean's case,
Speaker 1: investigating leads, studying the and identifying the inconsistencies in her
Speaker 1: violently courced false confession to eventually force the District Attorney's
Speaker 1: office to offer a plea deal. The deal was this
Speaker 1: her first degree murder conviction and life sentence would be vacated,
Speaker 1: but Bobby Jean had to plead guilty to manslaughter and
Speaker 1: armed robbery in order to be re sentenced to time served.
Speaker 1: Her attorneys also had to drop any claims that the
Speaker 1: d A's office did not turn over exculpatory evidence. This
Speaker 1: was not the outcome that they or anyone who cared
Speaker 1: about Bobby Jean, had hoped for, but it was the
Speaker 1: only one that would set her free. It's really sort
Speaker 1: of the last miserable aspect of this case is the
Speaker 1: fact that even after all these years and even after
Speaker 1: it's been proven that you had nothing to do with this,
Speaker 1: they still wouldn't admit their mistake, right because they wanted
Speaker 1: to maintain the conviction. They want to make sure you
Speaker 1: didn't get anything for it. So the d a's office
Speaker 1: in New Orleans forced you to take a plea you, um,
Speaker 1: just to sort of could be free as the work
Speaker 1: was the only way that you take this fleet or
Speaker 1: you stay in prison. Right, I think anybody would do
Speaker 1: what you did. And and Cat, I want you to
Speaker 1: jump in here anytime, because I know you're intimately familiar
Speaker 1: with this case, and I know how proud you are
Speaker 1: of the work that as I am as a supporter
Speaker 1: of in this project New Orleans, I'm so proud of
Speaker 1: the work that they did, and I'm so happy. I mean,
Speaker 1: I saw those pictures when and I posted on my Instagram, um,
Speaker 1: which is at it's Jason flam as people know, but
Speaker 1: I posted the pictures of Bobby Jean walking out of
Speaker 1: prison that day and just my heart was breaking or
Speaker 1: or or floated. I was breaking, My heart was breaking,
Speaker 1: and I was floating in the air, and it was
Speaker 1: a whole crazy thing. Can you shine some light on this, Cat,
Speaker 1: because this, this case is bizarre even by our standards. Yeah. Absolutely. So.
Speaker 1: It was a case that we worked on for for
Speaker 1: several years. UM. One of the attorneys in our office,
Speaker 1: Treil Arnold, worked on it for a long time and
Speaker 1: it ended up being UM the Promise of Justice Initiative,
Speaker 1: incredible organism Asian in New Orleans who ended up freeing
Speaker 1: Bobby Jean and walking her out of prison. But we
Speaker 1: were there because she was, you know, the first female
Speaker 1: client who we had really worked on her case for
Speaker 1: for for a long time and had a really good
Speaker 1: lead and and and part of that is because, as
Speaker 1: you know, Jason, I'm sure you know, women aren't often
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison or long prison sentences, which
Speaker 1: is what HYPNO does is free innocent life sentence prisoners UM.
Speaker 1: And and and women so often are caught up in things
Speaker 1: that men do right there, or they harm or kill
Speaker 1: their domestic abusers. UM. And so this was you know,
Speaker 1: really exciting for us, I think because it was the
Speaker 1: first time that we'd worked with a woman UM for
Speaker 1: a number of years. UM. And of course Bobby Jean
Speaker 1: is just incredible, and you know, I think having her
Speaker 1: come home. UM. I actually came and hung out with
Speaker 1: her in Atlanta when she got home, and we went
Speaker 1: to the aquarium and um started learning how to use
Speaker 1: a cell phone and as as I think, we showed
Speaker 1: you some pictures and UM, it was a really incredible moment.
Speaker 1: I you know, can't imagine being incarcerated for forty one years. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, when you put that in context, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: you were only eighteen at the time, so that's twice
Speaker 1: as long as you had been alive, plus another five years.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's impossible I think for anybody to
Speaker 1: comprehend who hasn't been through it. Jesus, who was president
Speaker 1: when you went to prison, I don't remember. I don't
Speaker 1: know Jimmy Carter was president. That's yeah. I mean it's
Speaker 1: a lot most of the people who are listening to
Speaker 1: the show weren't born yet. Um, and everything was different, Um,
Speaker 1: and then you come out into a world where everybody's
Speaker 1: walking around typing on their phones, cross's going everywhere, like
Speaker 1: there's just everything is different. When I have my first
Speaker 1: phone in my hand, was like, oh my god. Kay.
Speaker 1: She had assume me everything. I had to turn it
Speaker 1: on and everything. First thing she wanted was an Instagram account.
Speaker 1: What is it? What is your Instagram account? I don't know.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know, Bobby Jean. So you walk out, I mean,
Speaker 1: what what the difference you You go in as it's scared, brutalized, young,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty year old woman, but eighteen when you went
Speaker 1: to jail um and you come out as a an accomplished, mature,
Speaker 1: fifty nine year old woman. You walk out into a
Speaker 1: world that looks almost nothing like it did when you
Speaker 1: went in. It was New Orleans. Don't look nothing like
Speaker 1: it did when I went in. I mean I almost
Speaker 1: forgot the names of the streets. That's how defferently looked
Speaker 1: to me. Yeah, I had five my lowers with me,
Speaker 1: and it was just, I don't know. It was a
Speaker 1: feeling I never had before. I used to pray everything, God,
Speaker 1: you are only witn't it? And you know I didn't
Speaker 1: kill nobody, Just open these doors and help me. Every
Speaker 1: night I prayed that in my room. It was so
Speaker 1: awk for me. Here we are at the Innocence Network conference.
Speaker 1: By the way, how about this conference, Bobby love it?
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Yeah. So we're here at the Innsence Never
Speaker 1: conference with about two hundred exonorees and six hundred UM people, activists,
Speaker 1: social workers, UM civilians who want to get involved. Two
Speaker 1: of them are in the room with us right now. Um.
Speaker 1: We have lawyers here, we have experts on everything from
Speaker 1: you know, false confessions to uh, you name it, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's an awesome, awesome thing. I mean, people are connected
Speaker 1: and strategizing and coming up with best practices and helping
Speaker 1: each other. And yeah, I mean we have we have
Speaker 1: thirty five new exonorees here that we're on stage last
Speaker 1: night singing and dancing and it was just some crazy scene. Man,
Speaker 1: it's amazing, including you. Yeah, yeah, I saw you up there.
Speaker 1: Had to feel to be up there, Poppy Jane, it
Speaker 1: was it feel good? It feel good for you to
Speaker 1: connect with the other exonorees. What is that experience? Like,
Speaker 1: it's just like because I just don't I said, I
Speaker 1: knowing it that many people there both convictions and it
Speaker 1: made me feel good to know that I was I was.
Speaker 1: I wasn't the only one. Oh no, hell no, but
Speaker 1: I didn't know it at the time, but it really
Speaker 1: feel good and to know how much love this we
Speaker 1: showed each other. Mm hmm. Yeah, we ain't done yet.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be loving on you for the well for
Speaker 1: the rest of the time, but especially the less next
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. And we're all gonna be here together.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a amazing um. And I know that
Speaker 1: people are are so glad that you're here. It's amazing, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm so honored to be here and be
Speaker 1: a part of this movement. Um. I will tell anybody
Speaker 1: who's listening that, Um. You know, I call it selfish
Speaker 1: altruism because I consider it a privilege and an honor
Speaker 1: to get to be around people like yourself and to
Speaker 1: be able to make some small difference is uh. You know,
Speaker 1: it's the most rewarding thing in my life. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously you know, I'm a father and that's
Speaker 1: a tremendously important thing to me. But beyond that, it's
Speaker 1: the most important work that I can imagine being involved with.
Speaker 1: And you're a living proof of it. And and here
Speaker 1: we are celebrating you and celebrating freedom and working on
Speaker 1: getting the next people out and and so now you're
Speaker 1: living in Georgia, Gia the Cator, and what gives you join? Now?
Speaker 1: Do you have any joy in your life? Now? I
Speaker 1: have plan enjoy in my life now because it's like
Speaker 1: living where I live. I can come and go with that. Please.
Speaker 1: Anybody could come get me and like take me wherever
Speaker 1: they want to see me. Like if they want to
Speaker 1: take me out did or whatever, I could do it.
Speaker 1: And they have a lot of activities because I'm because
Speaker 1: I'm because of my age. They have a lot of
Speaker 1: activities for all. And I always attended. They have church service.
Speaker 1: I always attended, and they treat me good. And what
Speaker 1: is the thing you do once a month Bobby Jean, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'll go to George's Innocent Project. I'm a man of
Speaker 1: the George's Innocent Project and I never missed a meeting.
Speaker 1: I'm always there. Yeah, they've really lovingly taken her into
Speaker 1: the egonary meetings that happened once a month there so
Speaker 1: she gets to hang out with other wrongfully incursory to
Speaker 1: people who live in Georgia. Yeah, I see you got
Speaker 1: the shared on George you go. What did Georgia Innocent
Speaker 1: Project shirt? I say, yeah, I don't have one for all?
Speaker 1: If no where, I mean to get you a justice shirt.
Speaker 1: I know I have a justice sir. I need me more.
Speaker 1: I think we can arrange that you got that one.
Speaker 1: I got it, Okay. Perfect teamwork makes the dream work. Um.
Speaker 1: So this is the part of the show that is
Speaker 1: my favorite part because this is the part of the
Speaker 1: show where I get to First of all, I thank
Speaker 1: you well, thank you for having me, Bobby, Gene Johnson,
Speaker 1: and Cat Forrester. Thank you for coming and and sharing,
Speaker 1: especially Bobby obviously Bobby Jeane for I know how difficult
Speaker 1: it is to talk about these things, and it's so
Speaker 1: important that you're here. Um, So, you know, thank you
Speaker 1: on behalf of me and all my listeners and everybody
Speaker 1: in the Innocence Network. And then this is the part
Speaker 1: where I get to stop talking, and um, I turned
Speaker 1: it over to you two fabulous ladies for final closing thoughts.
Speaker 1: Um and I think we should we should finish with you, Bobby,
Speaker 1: because um, I want to hear anything you have to say,
Speaker 1: any anything at all about any subject. But first, Cat,
Speaker 1: what what are your closing thoughts. I'm just so glad
Speaker 1: that we have to get her home. And I was
Speaker 1: thinking about it because we're at the aquarium last night
Speaker 1: for the Innocence Network dinner, and we went to the
Speaker 1: aquarium right after she got out and to see the
Speaker 1: joy on her face, you know, at like you know,
Speaker 1: seeing very cool fish. Um was just unparalleled um. And
Speaker 1: I'm just so glad to have been able to experience
Speaker 1: that with her and to see, you know, how many
Speaker 1: new things she gets to explore in this life now
Speaker 1: that she's a free, a free woman. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: amazing to me. Because the Querama would always say to
Speaker 1: the shore, don't tee how I used to say, I
Speaker 1: want to go there. I want to go there. So
Speaker 1: when KT him and she said, you want to go
Speaker 1: to the aqua and when she did, it was like
Speaker 1: a joy. A lot of George just jumped on my face.
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I want to go. I want to go, kid,
Speaker 1: I want to go see you. And when I came
Speaker 1: seeing it was so beautiful. I just it was so amazing.
Speaker 1: Now Here but cat led me all the way through
Speaker 1: and she was there. If Nowhere has been there for me,
Speaker 1: I can call him in any given time or whenever,
Speaker 1: and if it's a problem I have, they will do
Speaker 1: their best to fix it. Or if I like sometimes
Speaker 1: I used to get depressed and stuff and I used
Speaker 1: to call him me and talk. And Angelique has been marvelous. Oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, she has been great. She client services specialists. Yes,
Speaker 1: she has been great, no matter what. If she can't
Speaker 1: call me back at the time, she had takes me
Speaker 1: back and say I'll call you in a few minutes,
Speaker 1: just hold on and um. But then it has been
Speaker 1: great and it's and I'm happy to be home. I'm happy.
Speaker 1: I'm happy, more happy now than I've ever been in
Speaker 1: my life. I didn't I never knew so much love
Speaker 1: and stuff, but now I do, and it's it's great.
Speaker 1: It's just that they took a lot of away from me.
Speaker 1: It took everything away from me for nothing but something
Speaker 1: that I didn't even do. I lost everything. Oh, my
Speaker 1: youth was gone. And I just want to thank you
Speaker 1: Jason for having me. Wow, we're gonna be here for
Speaker 1: you too. Um. Do you have a whole new family now.
Speaker 1: You got family members here now, and you've got a
Speaker 1: lot more that are listening to the show. And so
Speaker 1: um you're you're a brave and strong and amazing woman
Speaker 1: and we're gonna support you in every way we can.
Speaker 1: So UM, so again, thank you for being here, Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. Um, I'm gonna go try to recover.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm gonna do and uh and and we'll
Speaker 1: see you next week. I'm wrong for conviction. I have
Speaker 1: some devastating news to share. Um. Bobby Jane Johnson, who
Speaker 1: I recorded this razing, haunting episode with, passed away. Um.
Speaker 1: It was unexpected. I'm no doctor, but I can say
Speaker 1: that she died of the abuse and neglect that she
Speaker 1: suffered at the hands of the State of Louisiana during
Speaker 1: her forty one years of wrongful incarceration. Bobby was an
Speaker 1: angel on earth. She was just a beautiful, damaged soul
Speaker 1: who wanted nothing but to be loved and to help others.
Speaker 1: And she was out less than eighteen months when she died.
Speaker 1: And I bring that up because it's a sort of
Speaker 1: a hidden and horrible truth. I don't know the statistics nationally,
Speaker 1: but in the state of Louisiana, approximately of axonorees die
Speaker 1: within eighteen months of their release from prison. It's really
Speaker 1: hard for me to process this one. We were planning
Speaker 1: Bobby's birthday party when we got the news. She had
Speaker 1: called me and said that she called me, Mr j
Speaker 1: She called me. She called me, she says, Mr Ja.
Speaker 1: She goes, you know, my birthday is coming up. And
Speaker 1: she said I in her little voice because you know,
Speaker 1: she's only about ninety something pounds, and she said, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I've never had a happy birthday. And you
Speaker 1: know that really just messed my head up, as you
Speaker 1: can imagine. So we begin planning myself. Stacy Ryan, who
Speaker 1: mentored her hero of the band, UM wonderful rock and
Speaker 1: roll band that I worked with from Atlanta. We all
Speaker 1: were putting our resources together and planning a big, beautiful
Speaker 1: birthday celebration for her in Atlanta. And you know, just
Speaker 1: a week before it was supposed to happen, we got
Speaker 1: the news that she was gone. So um, Bobby Jean,
Speaker 1: You're gone, but never forgotten. Rest in power. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to thank our
Speaker 1: production team, Connor Hall, Jeff Clyvern, a Ken Awards, with
Speaker 1: research by Lila Robinson. The music in this production was
Speaker 1: supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on
Speaker 1: Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at Wrong Conviction,
Speaker 1: as well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
Speaker 1: you can also follow me on both TikTok and Instagram
Speaker 1: at it's Jason flom Raleful Conviction is the production of
Speaker 1: Lava for Good podcasts and association with Signal Company Number
Speaker 1: one