WEBVTT - #282 Jason Flom with Bobbie Jean Johnson - RE-RELEASE 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.640 Through our social channels. We asked our listeners to name 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.760 some of their favorite episodes, and Bobby Jean Johnson's story 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.960 rose to the top. Here is her heartbreaking story recorded 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:13.119 in Atlanta at the INNOCENTCE Network conference in twenty nineteen, 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:20.520 shortly before her untimely passing away later that year. Bobby 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.239 Jean Johnson was given up for adoption at birth and 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.680 later molested while she was in foster care. She ran 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.480 away from that horrible situation and tried to survive as 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.519 a sex worker on the streets of New Orleans. In 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:36.199 nineteen seventy seven, an antiquities dealer named Arthur Sampson was 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.839 found dead at his Saint Charles Avenue shop. He had 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:41.599 been shot once in the stomach with a thirty two 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.120 caliber bullet and stabbed over one hundred times. The store 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.120 was ransacked and safe was missing about two thousand dollars. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.080 A month after the murder, Bobby Jean was writing in 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:52.760 what she did not know at the time was a 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.240 stolen car with two men when they were pulled over 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.760 by the police for a traffic violation. One of the 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.520 men stashed a knife and a thirty two caliber and 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:05.160 Bobby Jean's purse. At eighteen years old, Bobby Jean Johnson 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.080 was brought in from violent interrogation that would change the 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:13.040 course of her already tragic and vulnerable life. This is 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:26.320 wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today, I have 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.880 a guest who is one of the most extraordinary people 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.759 with one of the most insane stories that I've ever heard. 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:41.280 And she's also just a beautiful, beautiful person. So, Bobby 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.560 Jean Johnson, Welcome to wrongful conviction. As I always say, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.600 I'm sorry you're here, but I'm glad you're here and 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:50.000 everyone will find out why. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:52.760 And with her is Kat Forrester. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:54.920 Who is the communications director for the Unstan's Project of 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.360 New Orleans, also known as IPNO. 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:59.360 And Kat, welcome to wrongful conviction. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:00.640 Thanks so much to be here. 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:06.800 So Bobby Jean was freed from prison twenty eighteen after 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:10.200 serving forty one years in prison for a crime she 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.840 didn't commit. And this case has so many of the 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:19.680 hallmarks of the causes of wrongful convictions that you know, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:20.760 it's almost a clean. 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:21.640 Sweep, so to speak. 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.960 I mean, there was misconduct, there was a false confession 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.799 that you were tortured into making incompetent defense. It's not 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.840 even that's not even strong enough of a word. And 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:32.480 we're going to get into that all of that, But 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.000 we're talking about the murder of Arthur Sampson, right, And 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.080 this is an extremely violent crime. This was a white 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.880 man who was an antiquities dealer in New Orleans who 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.120 was shot and stabbed a hundred times. I mean, that's 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.600 a vicious, vicious crime. And just to paint a picture 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:49.959 for people who are listening, how. 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:51.519 Tall are you, I'm five feet tall. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:53.960 You're five feet tall, and you're not a big one. 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:56.040 I wasn't that big at the time. I was like 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.200 ninety eight pounds, like, and I will size zero pains. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.640 I could go my clothes out the children's section. 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.600 So the whole thing makes no sense just on a 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.960 purely physical level. And mister Sampson, I mean, nobody deserves 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:11.959 to die like he did. But he was a sort 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:13.800 of a dicey character anyway. 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:14.000 Right. 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:16.240 He was known for bringing sex workers to his home, 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.799 which is one of the reasons why the logical suspect 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:21.920 would have been this woman who was a sex worker 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:23.760 who was the last person to see him alive. 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.799 Yeah, she was the last person he was seen with 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:28.040 by anyone. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.480 Right, So usually you know, we all watch those crime 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.280 shows on TV, you know, you go down that path 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.520 at least take a look, you know, But that's not 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:37.120 what happened. 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.640 What year was this byby nineteen seventy seven? 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.080 You were an eighteen year old girl, yeah at the time, 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.320 So what was going on? You were living in New 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:46.400 Orleans at the time. 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.760 Yeah, and I was like on drugs and stuff, right. 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.080 So one night we was riding in a call. It 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.040 was me and two other dudes were writing in a 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.640 call and it caps the police staptics for a traffic violation. 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:02.160 Were you were you driving? No? 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.640 I wasn't driving right. And at the time when the 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:07.960 police stopped us, one of the dudes that was in 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.000 the call with me threw the knife in the gun 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.080 in my person. So because I know, I didn't have 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.400 no knife and gun in my purse. So when the 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.320 police pulled all my stuff out my person, he said, oh, 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.039 we got a knife in the gun. I said, that 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.440 is not for me. But they took us to Homicide 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.479 Armed Division and they put us in different rooms and 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.400 kept questioning us in questions, and I kept telling them 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:30.720 I don't know nothing about it. I don't even know 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:32.680 where his place is at. And I heard his man 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.560 and so one of the dudes, the dude that put 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.479 the gun in the knife, didn't make a statement and said, 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:40.479 when y'all stopped us, I put that knife in that 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.520 gun and Bible jeans, that's not us. I did that, 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.080 And he made a statement. They just ignored the statement. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.760 I mean, Kat, do you think they knew at the 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:50.680 time that it has the wrong person, but they just 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:52.520 wanted to clean up the case and that was what 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:53.520 was really going on. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:54.520 Yeah, I think so. 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:56.800 I mean, I think they had a pretty viable suspect 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.000 and they didn't follow any of the leads and that 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:04.000 other suspect case. And I think that so often, particularly 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.960 you know, back in the seventies, eighties, nineties in New Orleans, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.599 particularly with black folks. I think that they, you know, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.880 the cops got tunnel vision, and you know, when they 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.520 found somebody and it seemed easy enough to pin it 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.279 on that person, you know, even if all the evidence 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:22.880 in the world pointed to someone else. So often they 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:27.839 just got tunnel vision and focused on one person and 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.160 you know, force their theory of the case to fit 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:32.560 to that person. 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.440 So they knew, they knew that this guy had come 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.840 forward who admitted that he had a classy guy. By 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.080 the way the cops coming, he's put in his knife 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:41.919 and he's gone to your purse. I mean, that's a 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.720 hell of a thing. And when you were arrested, and 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.120 if you're okay even talking about it, I mean, what 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.520 I've read about the interrogation that you went through, this 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.760 is like something out of a you know, a bad movie, 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.080 or out of torture that you read about in a 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.480 foreign country or Abu grabe, you know, or something like that. 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:01.760 But I mean, you went to the police station and 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:02.400 what happened, And. 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.360 Then they put us in separate rooms. And they kept 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.680 throwing pictures in front of me, and they said this 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:10.240 is him and this is I said, well, I've never 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:14.200 seen that man before. Guy, Yeah, the dead man, Arthur Samson. 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.520 And then one hit me in my face. He said, no, 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.839 listack to the other room. So when they took me 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.080 to the other room, they still was asking me. So 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:26.680 when I kept saying I don't know. I can't tell 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.520 you nothing. I don't know, he said, oh, you're gonna know, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.880 and he called me a black bee and he put 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.240 my hand, got me to the back behind his like 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.560 wooden chair and put a plastic bag over my head. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.719 The chair fell backwards and they started kicking me in 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.080 my ribs and all over and hit me. And he 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.440 kept saying, black b Yeah, you're gonna tell us because 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.760 we know you know, we know you know, he said, 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.039 because let me tell you. He said, ain't number of 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.080 police officers in this in the station right here, and 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:53.960 we could kill you and your family would never know 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.080 nothing about you. So I'm scared at that, and so 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:58.760 he said, come on, we're going back in there by 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:00.400 the time, he said, and you're gonna put and if 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:02.599 you'd known't, you'll get some more. And I was scared 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.039 of that. I was crying and everything. I had five 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.360 police officers standing up behind me and one sitting down 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.640 who had the tapecader and he said, now you ready, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.000 I said, I don't know now he said. He turned 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:15.840 the tape off and he said, you're going to repeat 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.680 what I say. He turned the yeah and told me that. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.400 So I was so scared. I did everything they was 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.560 telling me to put on tape. I put on tape, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.520 but it was a lie. I did it because I 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:30.280 was scared well. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.160 Yeah, you had a very good reason to be scared. 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:36.480 I mean, I was hurting everywhere, and even after the 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:38.920 JL fell backward, they was kicking me in my ribs 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:43.240 and everything. It was horrible. 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:45.840 And Jason, I just wanted to say that, like, the 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.520 world had not been kind to Bobby Jean before this 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.400 all happened. You know, she had had a really tough 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.000 up upbringing, and it makes so much sense that she 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.720 would do anything to kind of survive, right this, this 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.920 brutal police interrogation, and thank you about me. 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:05.160 Yeah, I just feel like. 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.040 The world had not been kind to her, had not 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.240 offered her a lot of hope. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:12.200 And I, you know, I. 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:19.120 Think because I was I was given away when my 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.280 mama had me, and I had to go on like that. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:24.760 It was like I was scaring all world with my huldren. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.360 So I just got out there and I just wanted 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:28.960 somebody to love me, and I just. 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.199 Wanted to be accepting and stuff. So whatever it took 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:33.520 for me to do that, I did it. 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.480 And she was she was a young a young girl, 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.040 as you keep kind of pointing out, you know, who was. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:48.760 Doing the best she could with what she had. And 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:50.760 then and then this thing happened to her, right. 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:55.560 Yeah, then this thing happened. 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:00.440 This is you know, there's been too many of these 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.800 cases where we've learned that the officers have threatened to 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.440 kill the person unless they confess. Johnny Encapier is one 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.959 Daniel Villegas in Texas. There's too many of these. And 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:14.720 you know, Johnny says to me, he was on the 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.840 podcast and he said, people asked me why would I confess? 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.960 And he was eighteen, like you were, and he says, 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:23.079 why wouldn't I confess? 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:25.199 He goes, I wanted to live, you know. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.559 What I want? I just want I want to live. 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.559 I was a young girl eighteen. You're really more of 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.839 a child than a woman. I mean at that point, 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.040 you know, I mean, we know that the adolescent brain 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:36.400 doesn't fully develop. 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:37.160 Until you're twenty five. 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.319 And here you are not just a young girl, but 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.520 a little girl, right, ninety eight pounds, like you said, 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.319 in a room full of big, tough guys who you 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.600 would want to think are going to protect you, right, 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.000 And in fact they're threatening in a very real way. 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:52.240 Right. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:53.800 It's not like it doesn't sound like an empty threat 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:55.960 when they're putting a plastic bag over here, and being 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.439 you and kicking you. I mean, so, I don't think 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.840 there's any question, And I think it's so important that 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.400 you're here, and I really appreciate you. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.160 I know it's difficult for you. I can see how 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:04.920 difficult it. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.559 Is, but it's so important for the public to understand 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.760 that these false confessions happened for a variety of reasons. 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.839 Not everybody's tortured, but a lot of people are psychologically coerced, 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:18.480 or they're tricked, or. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.280 They're you know, confused. 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:22.840 So yeah, in your situation, I don't think anyone would 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.160 probably behave any differently than you did. But then what 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.559 a difficult thing to live with too, because knowing as 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.319 you're going to prison for the rest of your life 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.160 that you are in a certain way responsible because you know, 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:34.760 you admitted something that you didn't do. 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.800 But her confession didn't match the facts of the case anyway. 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.480 No, she I mean she got a lot of it wrong. 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:49.360 I mean, she didn't get much of it right actually, 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.880 And that's also a typical thing in these false confession cases. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.680 After torturing her for hours, the police were able to 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.840 extract the taped confession that was riddled with inconsistencies, According 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.079 to that false confession, Bobby Jean and a woman named 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.000 Kimberly Leagun had met Samson in the French Quarter. Legan 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.559 solicited him for sex. Then when he brought them back 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.439 to his store, and again back to the false narrative 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.600 that she created just to make the torture. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:17.920 Stop, she said, Bobby herself shot. 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:19.480 Him once in the chest and once in the head, 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.600 and then her friend Legan stabbed him over one hundred times. 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.120 Then they robbed his store and sped off in a 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.440 stolen Pontiac Grand Prix. Now for the actual facts, Arthur 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.439 Samson was shot only once in the stomach, Bobby Jean 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:34.600 described Samson as being twenty years younger and a half 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.440 foot taller than he was. And lastly, the Pontiac Grand 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.319 Prix would not have made a good getaway car, as 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.360 it was not stolen until hours after the murder. The 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.400 man who had stashed the thirty two caliber revolver a 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:46.760 Knight for her purse, had made a statement admitting to 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:50.160 just that, but that fact was inconvenient to the prosecution's 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.240 narrative and was therefore hidden from the defense. All of 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:55.120 this could have been brought up during trial if Bobby 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:59.000 Jean had adequate counsel. However, with no family and no 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.880 backup whatsoever, Bobby Jean didn't have a chance in help. 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.640 Now you're taking to jail. Yeah, how long did you 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:08.679 have to wait for your trial? 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:10.120 Eighteen months? 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:11.200 Eighteen months in jail? 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.120 And I know how bad that must have been, because jail's, 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:20.400 I mean anywhere are terrible, but in New Orleans it's infamous. 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:21.280 It is. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:26.120 Yeah, your trial was. It was like a combination of 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.920 a bad dream and a bad joke. It was because 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.600 the people who are supposed to be defending you did 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:32.520 nothing of the sort. 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.800 Yeap, And can you talk about that? 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:35.200 Yeah? 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.320 I can't doing my trial. My lawyer wouldn't let me 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.080 get on a standing and talking my own defense. He 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:43.600 fell asleep during the trial. 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:46.400 Your lawyer was asleep. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.280 Yeah, he fell asleep during the I had to wake 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.960 him up. And he didn't do no opening statements. 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.760 No opening statement and statements, no clothing statement. 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.920 And one of the jurors stood up in state till 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.400 the jews. I can I give miss Johnson a fair 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.480 truck because I had a relationship with this man, the 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.800 judge said, be seated with the victim. Yeah, and he 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.040 and now I know because when I was in prison, 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.640 I took fair leave and I graduated from it. But 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.080 my lawyer should have called a mistrial when that juror 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.559 stood up and he didn't say not a word, and. 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.880 The judge said, just let's let's please proceed. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.120 I mean, I've I've been doing this work for over 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.800 twenty five years, and I've heard a lot of stories. 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:29.440 I've never heard that before. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:31.240 I mean, I've heard stories of jurors that had but 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.320 I never heard a juror actually stand up in a mid. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.839 She she raised her hand and she said, I can 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.560 I get this lady a fair trial because I had 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:40.640 a relationship with mister Samson. 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.360 And so your lawyer was asleep, you're waking him up. 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:47.480 He made no opening statement, he made no closing statement, 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:48.960 and he didn't object. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.040 To that lady didn't call a mistrial. 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:52.959 Didn't call him miss trial. 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.520 He made one objection throughout the trial, to the admission 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.760 of a photograph. He has a total of eight cross 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.439 examination questions, the majority of which dealt with the ballistics 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.360 of the gun. No opening and no closing, and he 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:10.800 presented no case theory. He essentially did nothing except Jacob 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:11.480 Evan sid Do. 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.839 Yeah. I mean he didn't defend you so much as 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:16.600 process you. 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.760 Right, Even when I was in jail when they accurring 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:21.600 him to me, he never came seeing me. The only 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.840 time I seen him was a court and sometimes when 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.000 they would have court dates for me, but he wouldn't 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:29.160 be there, so they would postpone it to another day. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:31.960 Oh so that's why I took eighteen months to get 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:33.680 to trial. Yeah, because he wouldn't show up. 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:34.480 He wouldn't show up. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.280 Did at any point did you request a different lawyer? 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:38.960 Did you even know that you? I didn't know. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.920 I was young and I didn't know, and you probably. 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.000 I mean I would think in that situation, you know 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.000 nothing about the law, right And I would. 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.120 Think again, in that situation, that you would be worried 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:49.840 if you did request, Well, then you're going to upset 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.640 the only guy who's on your side right now. Did 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:54.680 you have any family in the courtroom with you or 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:55.520 anything like that. 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:57.240 No, nobody? Did you all alone? 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:57.960 Yeah? 0:14:58.040 --> 0:14:58.880 Jesus Christ. 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.560 It took them less than an hour to come back 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:04.480 with a guilty verdict. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:16.040 Yeah. 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:18.760 So when I got to prison, at first, I was 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.240 because I was angry. I was angry and I was hurt. 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:25.840 That's when I was starting. I started fighting, and all 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:28.760 this it didn't matter no more because I had It 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.640 was like, well, Baptisia, you got a life sentence. Now 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.800 it's nothing you could do. You're going to die in 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:38.160 this prison. But then I started praying and praying and praying, 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.080 and one of the last fight I had, I remember 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:41.720 I was in that cell. I just fell to my 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.520 knees and I said, God, just take my life. I'm 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.040 tired of living like this. Take my life and do 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.360 what you want to do with it. And from that 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.760 day to this one, I ain't been the same. I 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:56.200 grew up, I got more mature, and I did everything 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:01.920 I could do. They was offering the g so I know, 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:03.760 I had been out of school a few months and stuff, 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:05.960 and I got in this trouble because I know I 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.280 was a small girl. I had just I hadn't graduated. 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.760 I dropped out at the eleventh grade. And so I 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.640 took the GD and I passed the GED. The it 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.040 was giving grants out for introduction in the business Payroll 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.240 Accountant and PA league. First I took the pay legal 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.480 one and I passed with a full PARANORL. Yeah, wow. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.720 And I studied hard, or I studied hard because I 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.480 wanted it and I wanted I did everything I could 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.040 to rehabilitate myself in every kind of way. It was 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.840 nothing I didn't do positive in jail. I had fights 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:40.760 in jail because I was small, and they thought I 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.520 was scared of him, but I wasn't. And I had 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:49.120 fights with quite a few people. But I grew and 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:54.000 I matured. I did everything I know to do right. 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:56.800 I was a law curt and all this in the prison. 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.040 When I got into the old the law library, I 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:05.240 started writing to everybody to try to help me. One 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.760 day my sister said, just send me all your papers. 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:09.720 I'm go an bring into an innocent project. And when 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.800 I sent them all to it, they got them and 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.280 they started working on my case immediately. Every two weeks 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.399 they would be up there to see me and they 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:20.960 tell me how the case was gone or whatever. And 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.120 then the day, oh, I went to court on the seventh. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.480 I didn't even know I had a court On the 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.520 day of they said, they said, VI Johnson getting ready 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.920 to got a court trip. I said, court trip. Don't 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.480 y'all have never taken me back to court? So I 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.359 didn't know what was going on, so I said okay, 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.080 And when I got dressed, they brought me in the 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:42.160 court house and all of them was in the courtroom 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.480 for me. All lawyers, yes, but all my lawyers walked 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:48.320 up with me to the podium when I had to 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:49.600 do the plea and everything. 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.080 For many long years, both the Promise of Justice Initiative 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.760 and the Innocence Project of New Orleans worked tirelessly on 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:01.199 Bobby Jane's case, investigating leads, studying theden and identifying the 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.359 inconsistencies in her violently coursed false confession to eventually force 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:07.240 the District Attorney's office to offer. 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:07.680 A plea deal. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.760 The deal was this, her first degree murder conviction and 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.919 life sentence would be vacated, but Bobby jan had to 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.119 plead guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery in order to 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.840 be re sentenced to time served. Her attorneys also had 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.159 to drop any claims that the DA's office did not 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.280 turn over exculpatory evidence. This was not the outcome that 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.720 they or anyone who cared about Bobby Jean had hoped for, 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:31.800 but it was the only one that. 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:32.719 Would set her free. 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.200 It's really sort of the last miserable aspect of this 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.520 case is the fact that even after all these years, 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.840 and even after it's been proven that you had nothing 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:50.680 to do with this, they still wouldn't admit their mistake, 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:52.920 right because they wanted to maintain the conviction. They want 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.400 to make sure you didn't get anything for it. So 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.920 the DA's office in New Orleans forced you to take 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.280 a plea just to sort. 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.119 Of so it would be free as the work was 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.119