Speaker 1: Derell Ewing was not your average prisoner. You have such
Speaker 1: a deep connection with a lot of celebrities in the
Speaker 1: Detroit area.
Speaker 2: All the time, and how does represent a city came
Speaker 2: right from my neighborhood, was my friends and my family.
Speaker 1: Growing up in the nineties and early two thousands, going
Speaker 1: to prison was common for many young black men in Detroit.
Speaker 1: Public schools in the city were starved of resources. There
Speaker 1: weren't many prospects for good jobs, so many young men
Speaker 1: turned to street life or fell victim to it, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the music coming out of Detroit at
Speaker 1: the time was about this. A childhood friend of Durell's
Speaker 1: is now a famous rapper. He goes by forty two
Speaker 1: Doug and has a song called It Gets Deeper about
Speaker 1: the life they grew up in. In the song, he
Speaker 1: gives a shout out to Durell, who he calls Apple,
Speaker 1: saying free app But unlike many of their other friends
Speaker 1: who ended up going to prison, they always believed in
Speaker 1: your innocence.
Speaker 2: They always believed in my innocence. Did look Eezy vezz
Speaker 2: All of them have always ice Wear has always champion
Speaker 2: and kept my name alive.
Speaker 3: And you know as soon as I went to jail.
Speaker 2: May always wrapped about me and my stories Alive put
Speaker 2: me on their album covers Some of Everything.
Speaker 1: At the twenty twenty be Et Awards forty two, Doug
Speaker 1: and Little Baby performed their opening ceremony with matching outfits.
Speaker 1: They had the names of their friends in prison written
Speaker 1: in graffiti all over. Derrell's name was on there too.
Speaker 3: Oh that was that was lit.
Speaker 2: The whole jail went crazy when they seen him come
Speaker 2: out with that on him and Little Baby and they
Speaker 2: talked about that on the yard for a whole month straight.
Speaker 2: I got letters from all type of other facilities talking
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 1: On the back of their jackets it said free them boys.
Speaker 3: My name is Darrel. You and a lot of people
Speaker 3: caught me miss the beat thighs.
Speaker 2: I did fourteen years, two months and fourteen days for
Speaker 2: crime out didn't commit.
Speaker 1: From love of for good. This is wrongful conviction with
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling today. Deroute Ewing Darote Ewing was born in Detroit, Michigan,
Speaker 1: November eighteenth, nineteen eighty eight. He's the second child of four.
Speaker 2: Say it is the baby and that's my ride to die.
Speaker 2: My oldest sister is Donald Angela Dawson. We call her Pooh.
Speaker 2: And my middle sister that's right under me is Tiara Dowson.
Speaker 2: That's my ace. Growing up with all three of them,
Speaker 2: they was my protectors, nah though, but it was love
Speaker 2: and I always took care of them and everything was
Speaker 2: It was actually amazing. Having three sisters taught me to
Speaker 2: love more, taught me to be patient, more, carme on women.
Speaker 1: And among those women was his mom, Lasanya Dodson, a
Speaker 1: single parent raising three kids.
Speaker 2: My mama always provided for us. We didn't need eat anything,
Speaker 2: We didn't lack anything.
Speaker 3: You know. She was truly amazing woman. A hustler.
Speaker 1: Darrell says his mom worked many jobs. How did she
Speaker 1: have time to do all that and raise you guys?
Speaker 2: Yeah, my sister or my Auntie Cheriss, Auntie Reill step in.
Speaker 2: My mom took care of all her sister because all
Speaker 2: her sisters was younger than her.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Sonya Dodson is a saint. Let's just put
Speaker 1: that on the record.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: She did a rocket a family. She did glue with.
Speaker 2: She didn't want to hells it all together.
Speaker 1: We Sonya remembers one day when she was working at Hurts.
Speaker 4: That day was way at the airport. We lived on
Speaker 4: the east side of Detroit, so that's about thirty miles right.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, dang, I ain't got no gas in
Speaker 4: my car and I got to go to work tomorrow. Well,
Speaker 4: Dereal gets his lawn more he go cut grass, he'd
Speaker 4: come back. He say, man, I bought the full up
Speaker 4: your car. I got gas money, full up your car,
Speaker 4: and I also bought you a corn beef sandwich at
Speaker 4: a Pepsi for your lunch. Warm my heart so much
Speaker 4: because he's always been.
Speaker 1: Caring, caring, thoughtful and intelligent. Massanya says, Dereal was so
Speaker 1: smart as a young man. That's how he got his
Speaker 1: nickname Apple for his big brain and head and has.
Speaker 2: Always had his head and always have seen eating apples
Speaker 2: and everything. And one of my friends started calling me
Speaker 2: and my peoples to my family and them all started calling.
Speaker 1: Me that Lasnia tried to teach your kids about work
Speaker 1: ethic from a young age.
Speaker 4: I gave them money for Christmas to let them buy
Speaker 4: their own stuff, because kids got an unrealistic attitude on
Speaker 4: how much stuff costs. So I said, you know what,
Speaker 4: I got five hundred dollars to give you. That's all
Speaker 4: I got, so if you could bat Jordans out of
Speaker 4: the five hundred, that's what you do. So I remember
Speaker 4: him going to the mall and coming back and he like,
Speaker 4: well about by the Jordans, they one hundred and seventy,
Speaker 4: and I'm only gonna have this much left. So you
Speaker 4: start learning about money and everything, and just always he's
Speaker 4: been so intelligent. And then he started coming back and like,
Speaker 4: hey man, just take care of the kids. I'm like,
Speaker 4: you are not the father, young man.
Speaker 2: My mama always provided for us. We didn't need anything,
Speaker 2: we didn't lack anything.
Speaker 3: You know. She was truly amazing woman.
Speaker 2: A hustler for real, for real, the first hustler that
Speaker 2: I ever knew made me become a hustle boy.
Speaker 4: My entrepreneur where he got it all at them. He
Speaker 4: metimes ten.
Speaker 2: When I was cutting grass, selling dinners, doing all types
Speaker 2: of different things to make some money, because I always
Speaker 2: seen my mama hustle when he got ten different things
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 4: He always had that drive, that drive to want something,
Speaker 4: even as a boy.
Speaker 5: He did.
Speaker 1: When he was a teen, Durrell and his friend started
Speaker 1: a party promotion crew called the Hustle Boys.
Speaker 2: I was like fourteen, fifteen start throwing parties. We used
Speaker 2: to have everyone you know from the city coming to
Speaker 2: aut to our events, and it used to make a
Speaker 2: lot of money, making money and having fun.
Speaker 3: It was like a whole new hustle. I loved it.
Speaker 1: Were you doing any criminal activity.
Speaker 2: No, we weren't doing at that time. We weren't doing
Speaker 2: no criminal attitty. We was just having fun.
Speaker 1: So no drugs, no guns, nothing like that.
Speaker 2: I didn't start. I wasn't doing no drugs, none of that. Now, nope,
Speaker 2: I wonder doing any of that. None of my friends
Speaker 2: either then at that time wasn't doing drugs and none
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 3: Because actually we was all from It was.
Speaker 2: Actually a nice, you know, uh, middle class neighborhood that
Speaker 2: I was from.
Speaker 3: My best friends that daddy was a cop, the.
Speaker 2: Other ones it's daddy was a preacher.
Speaker 3: Everyone parents was doing something in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: In fact, the parents helped out.
Speaker 4: When it started, it was high school kids and people
Speaker 4: was bringing their kids out. Kids wanted to get out
Speaker 4: and parents let them go on the weekend. So they
Speaker 4: rented little halls and they learned how to do it theyself.
Speaker 4: So we kind of monitored them and would work the
Speaker 4: door and make sure they was okay. I would be
Speaker 4: up there. Yeah.
Speaker 2: They started having my mind working the dose and parents
Speaker 2: for actually he collecting the money for me and everything.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I watched them make so much money so fast. Social
Speaker 4: media made a travel fast like they had MySpace back then.
Speaker 1: So who were the knockout boys?
Speaker 5: Were?
Speaker 1: They also like a party promotion?
Speaker 2: Well, we were supreme in a party promotion. But they
Speaker 2: tried to do a little something they was doing. They
Speaker 2: had a little parties going, but they used to come
Speaker 2: to our events. We was really the ones. It was
Speaker 2: a party promoters. They was just they had their little
Speaker 2: dancing group and they would come to our parties or
Speaker 2: stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds like a far cry from like a
Speaker 1: violent gang. They had a dancing group.
Speaker 3: Far cry.
Speaker 1: I'm picturing the Dance Off and Step Up one of
Speaker 1: the many movies about dance crews that came out around
Speaker 1: this time.
Speaker 3: Because that's what a lot of people used to do
Speaker 3: back in our time.
Speaker 2: It wasn't though they would get together in that jit
Speaker 2: you know, Bisco tick all that type of stuff.
Speaker 3: Hip roll we was back in our era. It was
Speaker 3: hip rolling.
Speaker 1: That was Derell's crew in his early teens, kids partying
Speaker 1: and hustling.
Speaker 2: Detroit always had a history of cruise to come together
Speaker 2: and just get money. They don't have no affiliation, association
Speaker 2: of gang science, none of that. Did they do, no handshakes,
Speaker 2: none of that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Derell says. It was all pretty harmless. But things were
Speaker 1: about to change. Durell graduated high school early and enrolled
Speaker 1: in Wayne State.
Speaker 3: I didn't qualify for fininancial aid.
Speaker 2: And then I had an auntie who I seen had
Speaker 2: three degrees and she wasn't doing too good, and she
Speaker 2: got to stay in school to continue to make sure
Speaker 2: that she don't have to pay the student loans back.
Speaker 1: Derel says he was making a ton of money with
Speaker 1: the parties, so.
Speaker 3: I just said, now it's not the time.
Speaker 2: You know, I ain't gonna be buried in debt, and
Speaker 2: it ain't gonna be like my auntie who ain't using
Speaker 2: her degrees.
Speaker 4: You know, go ahead and got through with school. It's
Speaker 4: kind of hard to kill a kid what they can
Speaker 4: and cannot do.
Speaker 1: So Drell dropped out of Wayne State and continued the
Speaker 1: Hustle Boys.
Speaker 2: But at that time we was done with party and
Speaker 2: we were just straight selling drugs.
Speaker 1: Drell says, the once innocent party crew was now selling pills.
Speaker 2: OSSI cottins and purpose says lord tabs and things to understand.
Speaker 2: To be honest with you, I was living in the
Speaker 2: height of my life as far in the streets, and
Speaker 2: we was making a lot of money. I seen myself
Speaker 2: still at that time transitioning over to the business. I
Speaker 2: was using those that as a means to get in
Speaker 2: the proper position to give me some properties and open me.
Speaker 3: Up my own club. I was on the path to
Speaker 3: buy me at bar.
Speaker 1: But through street life, Derell eventually got to hanging out
Speaker 1: with the wrong people and soon all his dreams were
Speaker 1: going to come crashing down. On December tw ninth, two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, two cars pulled up to an intersection
Speaker 1: in East Detroit. A man named JB. Watson was in
Speaker 1: a red van with three other passengers. In the other vehicle,
Speaker 1: a turquoise car, were three men. One of the men
Speaker 1: got out of the car when stopped and fired multiple
Speaker 1: shots at the van, killing JB. Watson and injuring his cousin.
Speaker 1: Around the same time, about five miles away, Derell Ewing
Speaker 1: was at a family member's funeral was that something you
Speaker 1: had heard about?
Speaker 3: Of course I heard about the murder. It was all
Speaker 3: on the news and everything.
Speaker 1: And what did you think, was that just normal?
Speaker 2: Or in a city Detroit, especially at that time, crayon
Speaker 2: runs rapping, and you know, when some way get killed,
Speaker 2: it is like okay, you know, it's like it's a norm,
Speaker 2: especially back then.
Speaker 1: Detroit had three hundred and sixty four homicides in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, according to city data. At the time,
Speaker 1: the murder rate was actually falling in major cities like Chicago,
Speaker 1: New York, and LA but not in Detroit, and the
Speaker 1: chief of police called it the Wild West.
Speaker 2: It kind of man going because like when you have
Speaker 2: like a nifty hustle or prince died, the whole world
Speaker 2: and the whole neighborhood crimes, but when a little girl
Speaker 2: get killed down the street, nobody says nothing about it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So that's how numb.
Speaker 2: We is to crime in the city of Detroit, especially
Speaker 2: back then when murders and stuff occurred, because it was
Speaker 2: just like a.
Speaker 3: Norm.
Speaker 1: The victim, JB. Watson, was a member of the Knockout Boys.
Speaker 1: Remember Durell mentioned they were another party crew like the
Speaker 1: hustle boys. But now police were looking at this as
Speaker 1: a gang rivalry, and Darrell's name came up.
Speaker 3: Being a hustle boy.
Speaker 2: I was basically the face you know how they say
Speaker 2: Diddy used to run around and parade Severn rounds for
Speaker 2: Big A and M.
Speaker 3: I was the face of hustle boys, the one.
Speaker 2: Who was always on the mic hey, come on out,
Speaker 2: the one who was always passing flyers. So anytime somebody
Speaker 2: said something about the hustle boys, they always say app
Speaker 2: in the twins.
Speaker 3: So eventually that's how my name came up.
Speaker 1: After the shooting, a witness came forward, Raymond Love, who
Speaker 1: was at the intersection in his car with his wife
Speaker 1: at the time of the shooting. Although the incident was
Speaker 1: only a few seconds, and Love said he ducked down
Speaker 1: towards his wife. He identified Dareco Cerce as the driver
Speaker 1: of the turquoise car. He said he could see him
Speaker 1: through the rear view mirror. Did you know dia Rico Cearce?
Speaker 3: Yes? I knew Derico Cerce. He was an older guy
Speaker 3: from our neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Dareco Cerce was arrested two days later. Love also identified
Speaker 1: Darrell as the man who got out of the car
Speaker 1: and started shooting. Durrell was brought in for questioning.
Speaker 2: When they questioned me, they you know if they told
Speaker 2: me huh, he said, I know he didn't do it,
Speaker 2: but you don't say who did it.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do everything more power to make sure you
Speaker 3: go down for it.
Speaker 1: And then what did you do?
Speaker 3: I said?
Speaker 2: He called my lawyer and he was like, I promise
Speaker 2: you gonna need him. And ever since then, I thought
Speaker 2: when they take me back to the sale that they
Speaker 2: was going to just be a little seventy two hour
Speaker 2: hold and I'll be released. But then nat morning it
Speaker 2: was waking me up talking about Hey, you going down
Speaker 2: to the county.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what, Yeah, You're getting booked on murdered. I'm like, man,
Speaker 3: this can't be rial.
Speaker 2: They joking, you know, I know Ashton cushiering, I'm about
Speaker 2: to jump out to my punk.
Speaker 1: But he wasn't being punked. Ashton Kutcher wasn't waiting in
Speaker 1: the precinct and Darrell was charged with the murder of JB. Watson.
Speaker 1: When did it all become real that it was happening.
Speaker 2: When I was in the courtroom and people walked in
Speaker 2: the Ring and Love and Jenday Love and they talked
Speaker 2: about it was me.
Speaker 3: That was when it was came real.
Speaker 2: I almost lost my mind, telling them look at me,
Speaker 2: hold on, look at me, and just like hold on.
Speaker 3: Be quiet, and they can't be talking about me.
Speaker 1: Derell went to trial almost a year later, in October
Speaker 1: twenty ten. He and Direco Cercy were tried together by
Speaker 1: Assistant Prosecuting Attorney camp Town. No gun was ever recovered
Speaker 1: from the crime scene. The only evidence tying Derell to
Speaker 1: the crime was the eyewitness testimony of Raymond Love. He
Speaker 1: testified that inside the Turqoids vehicle he'd seen Direco Cerce
Speaker 1: driving and two other men. Love said once at the intersection,
Speaker 1: Drell got out of the vehicle with a handgun, approached
Speaker 1: the van and started firing at the rear. It's unclear
Speaker 1: if they tried to find the third man allegedly in
Speaker 1: the vehicle. Camp Town said this was a gang retaliation,
Speaker 1: that the Hustle Boys had beef with the Knockout Boys.
Speaker 1: Would a beef with the Knockout Boys wind up in
Speaker 1: a murder, in a shooting, It.
Speaker 3: Wasn't a beef. Seat they get this case all twisted.
Speaker 2: It's only the pain and narrative and help paint a
Speaker 2: theory to sell it to the jury.
Speaker 1: To be clear, federal court records cites some kind of
Speaker 1: beef going on between the Hustle Boys and the Knockout Boys. However,
Speaker 1: no one ever testified that Darrell had anything to do
Speaker 1: with those fights. Darrell also says he had no idea
Speaker 1: who JB. Watson was.
Speaker 2: Nah, I knew of some KOB members, but I didn't
Speaker 2: know this guy. I never had an issue with this guy.
Speaker 2: I never had an issue with none of the KOB members.
Speaker 3: I've never been in the same room with him. When
Speaker 3: he said his name, I'm like, wow, I don't even know.
Speaker 1: You know, Durell sat through an entire trial listening to
Speaker 1: testimony about him being in a gang and beefing with
Speaker 1: the Knockout Boys.
Speaker 4: When you're a black young man, especially black people, but
Speaker 4: black young men especially anything they do dance groups, singing groups,
Speaker 4: you could end up being a gang.
Speaker 1: Mom, La Sonya.
Speaker 4: Again, when they stormed the White House, they called them
Speaker 4: a group, but they called my son a gang. And
Speaker 4: it's the burbigeh that they use when they speak on you.
Speaker 1: You know, La Sonya knew her son couldn't have committed
Speaker 1: this murder. She was with him at the time of
Speaker 1: the killing and testified in Durrell's defense. How many people
Speaker 1: vouched for your alibi?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: I could have called two three hundred people and said there,
Speaker 2: you know, their own witnesses placed me at the hall
Speaker 2: we called sis and I believe five or six five
Speaker 2: or sits five five.
Speaker 1: They all said Durell had been at Bardon Hall for
Speaker 1: a gathering following a family member's funeral. He was there
Speaker 1: the entire time the shooting had taken place. Then a bombshell,
Speaker 1: a man took the stand saying it really hadn't been Durrell,
Speaker 1: and he knew who the real shooter was because he
Speaker 1: Christopher Richardson was there.
Speaker 3: Christopher Richardson when William Bill and Tyree.
Speaker 1: Washington, they had gone on a carjacking spree.
Speaker 2: When they all got locked up, they started to tell
Speaker 2: on each other and they wind up that William Bill's cousin,
Speaker 2: and Christopher Richardson said, hey, man, y'all got the wrong
Speaker 2: people locked up Darrell Ewing and Derico ser She didn't
Speaker 2: commit that crime. My Cody Finish and cousin is actually
Speaker 2: wants to responsible William Bill and Tyree Washington.
Speaker 1: Richardson said Tyree Washington had been the shooter. And the
Speaker 1: thing about Richardson is that he was also a trusted
Speaker 1: confidential informant for the FBI. He had testified in front
Speaker 1: of four federal grand juries before, so the FBI trusted
Speaker 1: him and brought this testimony to Assistant prosecuting Attorney Cam Towns.
Speaker 1: They tried to tell her she was getting it wrong.
Speaker 1: Tyree Washington was even willing to come to trial and testify, and.
Speaker 2: It turns out that Cam Towns had told him that
Speaker 2: she didn't need him and that she was want to
Speaker 2: use him, and if she had, she wanted You know,
Speaker 2: when they locked in on their position, they hate the
Speaker 2: admit that they screwed up, so they kept pressing in
Speaker 2: the gas and I guess they wanted to just play
Speaker 2: out in the courtroom because it's not about guilt or innocence,
Speaker 2: you know, they just be trying to close the case.
Speaker 1: Tyree Washington did not testify a trial, but the FBI
Speaker 1: agents and Christopher Richardson were allowed to share their testimony,
Speaker 1: all saying Darrell and do Rico had not been the
Speaker 1: ones who killed JB. Watson. By the end of trial,
Speaker 1: the prosecution's case seemed in shambles. Darrell Ewing had an alibi,
Speaker 1: there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime,
Speaker 1: and the jury was aware that someone else had confessed.
Speaker 1: Drellte was feeling pretty good about the outcome.
Speaker 2: We had the federal agents coming to testify, and they
Speaker 2: bringing their top performer, Christopher Wich. Jennalo was telling on
Speaker 2: his own cousin. So when you got that, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm secure.
Speaker 1: During deliberation, the jury was deadlocked when they returned. Instead
Speaker 1: of ordering a mistrial, the trial judge Carol Youngblood responded
Speaker 1: by ordering them to continue deliberating. When the jury came back,
Speaker 1: Durell was convicted a first degree murder and later sentenced
Speaker 1: to life in prison without parole. La Sonya was heartbroken.
Speaker 4: Oh god, it was so horrifying. I mean, my body
Speaker 4: took a hole, like I went into my minstrel stopped
Speaker 4: when they convicted him. Like literally, how old were you?
Speaker 4: I was forty four, and I was so sick, Like
Speaker 4: it really really really took a hole on us, like
Speaker 4: it was very high. They almost had to drag us
Speaker 4: out of the out of the courthouse because we were
Speaker 4: just we couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: Durrell felt it too, but didn't have much time to wallow.
Speaker 1: Very soon after trial, another bombshell would drop. As soon
Speaker 1: as Derell got to prison, he started trying to prove
Speaker 1: his innocence. When you go out to prison, as you know,
Speaker 1: twenty two years old, why didn't you just start hustling
Speaker 1: in there, dealing drugs in there? And maybe you did.
Speaker 1: You don't just say so, but you did more than that.
Speaker 1: You didn't just say prison is now my life.
Speaker 2: You know, when you embrace to start to hustle in
Speaker 2: prison and everything, it's certain things to come with that,
Speaker 2: and it's a certain focus that it keep you distracted.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of gas that hustle inside of prison,
Speaker 2: but they'd be consumed with that because that's a daily
Speaker 2: thing that you can have to focus on, you know,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't give you time to focus on your case.
Speaker 2: Everybody that I ever knew that ever get out of prison,
Speaker 2: they were extremely dedicated to nothing but their case.
Speaker 3: And that's what I was on.
Speaker 2: So I was always I spent all my time in
Speaker 2: the law library and reading law books.
Speaker 1: Darrell actually learned the laws so well he started practicing law.
Speaker 2: Not only do I fight for me, I fight for others,
Speaker 2: and you know I fight for others on behalf of others.
Speaker 1: Darrell became a paralegal in prison, helping others file legal
Speaker 1: documents and fight their cases for free.
Speaker 2: Everyone that I have got out recently, I didn't give
Speaker 2: charge of a dollar in their home.
Speaker 1: Now, Derell was also trying to get himself home, and
Speaker 1: he had a lot to work with in terms of
Speaker 1: trying to prove his innocence. After trial, two specific things happened.
Speaker 1: Tyree Washington, who the FBI and FORMAT pointed to, formally confessed.
Speaker 2: He told the Michigan State Police undermandarized confession that he
Speaker 2: was responsible.
Speaker 1: Years later, Tyree Washington would also talk to private investigator
Speaker 1: Scott Lewis, and I got a hold of that recording.
Speaker 3: We just asked you some questions. We'll get right down to.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you about the December twenty ninth,
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, fatal shooting of JB.
Speaker 3: Watson. Are you familiar with that incident?
Speaker 1: Yes, I am.
Speaker 3: What do you know about it?
Speaker 5: Well, I know everything about it was I was there
Speaker 5: and I actually was the shooter.
Speaker 2: Of that answer Okay, where did this take place?
Speaker 5: All van Dykin Harper.
Speaker 1: The second thing that happened was a juror came forward.
Speaker 2: Kathleen Barnes was great, the most amazing woman I ever seen,
Speaker 2: came forward and told the truth.
Speaker 1: Kathleen Burns said that she was the holdout for a
Speaker 1: not guilty verdict, but she changed her mind after two
Speaker 1: jurors came up with extra information. One of the jurors,
Speaker 1: Karen James, had googled about gangs and gang hierarchy.
Speaker 2: She valeted the court orders, the court orders you put
Speaker 2: when you are the jurors every time to not to
Speaker 2: consider anything outside this corporal you go home, don't talk
Speaker 2: about this even with your husband.
Speaker 3: Please don't look on anything social media and that about
Speaker 3: the case.
Speaker 1: But Karen James did. She found articles about gangs having
Speaker 1: a pecking order, and she told the other jurors she
Speaker 1: believed Durell was at the top. She surmised that Tyree
Speaker 1: Washington was at the bottom, so the Hustle boys sacrificed
Speaker 1: him instead of Durell. They set up Tyree for the murder.
Speaker 2: That wasn't even the prosecuted theory. Let's make that clear.
Speaker 2: This is something that the juror summarized in her mad
Speaker 2: Karen James, another black woman, hurt me.
Speaker 3: I'm like wow.
Speaker 1: Another juror, Michelle Chesney, found Drell's Facebook and on it
Speaker 1: there were photos of him with guns.
Speaker 2: One day, it was my man home girl birthday and
Speaker 2: she came over and we had a few guns out,
Speaker 2: and she's like, oh, let's take some pictures with these guns.
Speaker 2: And we took some pictures with them guns that she
Speaker 2: put on our social media. And from that the juries testified.
Speaker 2: This ain't my words. This was testified on oath that
Speaker 2: they said, hey, if he didn't do this, he did
Speaker 2: something else just because I had a gun. But that's
Speaker 2: just because I'm a black man, a black young guy
Speaker 2: with a gun. Because if you see a Caucasian man
Speaker 2: with a gun, especially the ones we had, you're gonna
Speaker 2: say he doing hunting, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: All this information made Kathleen Burns change her vote to guilty.
Speaker 1: Years later, in an evidentiary hearing in twenty nineteen, she
Speaker 1: testified that this trial haunted her, that she kept wondering
Speaker 1: if she'd done something terribly wrong. Once the jury misconduct
Speaker 1: came to light, Darrell was able to file post conviction relief. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: out on the streets, Lasaanya and Derell's family were also
Speaker 1: putting in the work.
Speaker 4: We wouldn't stop protesting and making the ways and making
Speaker 4: sure that we did everything we possibly could do to
Speaker 4: get him out of there.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: My family, then petitions, my family, and then protests.
Speaker 3: Is my family that did town halls? They did? They
Speaker 3: didn't done something. Everything they have it.
Speaker 2: One time we was applotting to strategizing to do a
Speaker 2: protest in front of kim Worthy's house.
Speaker 1: Kim Worthy is the prosecutor in Wayne County, which covers Detroit, Lasnia.
Speaker 1: Says she wasn't going to let the system treat another
Speaker 1: young black man as disposable.
Speaker 4: When you throw somebody away and nobody ever say nothing
Speaker 4: out of sight, out of mind, you know, you kind
Speaker 4: of don't worry. But if you keep seeing us on
Speaker 4: social media, you're seeing us on the news, that's different.
Speaker 4: We knew he didn't do it. So when we knew
Speaker 4: he didn't do it, there's no way. The love that
Speaker 4: we have for him and the love that we have
Speaker 4: as a family, this is what I think people supposed
Speaker 4: to do. You know, I didn't see it no other
Speaker 4: way until a young man told me that he was
Speaker 4: locked up for eight years and it took his mother
Speaker 4: two years to send him some pictures. He said, you
Speaker 4: don't even know what you did. He said, my mom
Speaker 4: took two years just to send me a couple of pictures.
Speaker 4: And I kept asking for him and it took her
Speaker 4: two years to get him to me.
Speaker 1: But Lasnya wasn't that mom. She stuck with Durell, and
Speaker 1: in true hustler fashion, she even started a transportation business.
Speaker 4: Man, I've been doing everything like I am. I we
Speaker 4: started a transportation company. When Drell was in prison. He
Speaker 4: started calling me to about mine. Some such Grandma want
Speaker 4: to ride with you, some such want to ride with you.
Speaker 4: I'm like, shoot, we finished out a transportation company and
Speaker 4: get a vans and come up there. So then he
Speaker 4: would do work that in the inside and we'd come
Speaker 4: up there and pick up people. And we called the
Speaker 4: Stay Connected Transportation. So really we just made the best
Speaker 4: out of a bad situation.
Speaker 1: That support meant everything to Durell.
Speaker 3: It kept me fighting.
Speaker 2: You know me, when you know you got a support system,
Speaker 2: I gotta be strong for them and they strong for me.
Speaker 3: It was a battery in my bed.
Speaker 1: One of those times was in twenty thirteen, the Court
Speaker 1: of Appeals upheld his conviction, saying the jury misconduct was
Speaker 1: quote harmless error. But since then, multiple federal and state
Speaker 1: judges ordered a new trial for Durell and de Rico,
Speaker 1: finding that their constitutional right to a fair trial was
Speaker 1: indeed violated by juror misconduct. In twenty seventeen, a judge
Speaker 1: struck down the murder conviction and ordered release or a
Speaker 1: new trial within ninety days. But despite the order, Durell
Speaker 1: stayed in prison, and then the pandemic hit. When I
Speaker 1: first spoke to Durell in twenty twenty, he had actually
Speaker 1: just recovered from the illness. How long were you sick for?
Speaker 3: I was thankful about thirty three days, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5: And then I couldn't nail the taste even half of
Speaker 5: that and fealed to it. I feel got like plammed
Speaker 5: to be in.
Speaker 3: My system and my launs.
Speaker 5: I'll be trying to go out and run and work
Speaker 5: out and keep myself have a job. But it's just
Speaker 5: all type of aspects of this COVID thing. And in
Speaker 5: Michigan they had yet to release any prisoners.
Speaker 1: Lake Lynd was one of the worst prisons in Michigan,
Speaker 1: where at least twenty four prisoners died from COVID, but
Speaker 1: Darrell would eventually get a break. After years of fighting,
Speaker 1: he got a retrial date set for March twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: Howell.
Speaker 1: On December one, twenty twenty three, thirty five year old
Speaker 1: Durell Ewing went in front of Judge Keefer Cox for
Speaker 1: emotions hearing. Durell stood in the courtroom in his green
Speaker 1: jailhouse uniform, representing himself with some help from outside council,
Speaker 1: and Derell went for it, even criticizing the judge for
Speaker 1: having just come out of a job at the Wayne
Speaker 1: County Prosecutor's office.
Speaker 6: But the thing is run, the thing is, and respectfully,
Speaker 6: I just learned that you just came out to prosecuted
Speaker 6: office a couple of months ago, and did your friends
Speaker 6: with Ken Wordy and did your friends with John watch
Speaker 6: the toll? So how are you even sitting on my case?
Speaker 4: I just learned this, drun. How are you even that's actual?
Speaker 3: White?
Speaker 1: The press, friends and family were in the audience.
Speaker 6: Did you remove yourself from this case because you this
Speaker 6: is a fact. Anyone in the crowd here's the mumbling
Speaker 6: and hearing some speaking in the background.
Speaker 4: The scariest thing I ever seen. I was just so scared,
Speaker 4: so nervous. I didn't even know what I was going
Speaker 4: to do if they wouldn't have got this right. But
Speaker 4: you know, as I watched him, like he did such
Speaker 4: an awesome job. We almost give him standing ovations, and
Speaker 4: it was it was something to see, like you had
Speaker 4: to be there.
Speaker 1: As Durell prepared for his retrial, District Attorney Kim Worthy's
Speaker 1: office was confronted with several challenges. Not only did they
Speaker 1: have to account for jury misconduct, they also did not
Speaker 1: provide Durell with evidence he'd requested for over a year,
Speaker 1: and they were short on witnesses.
Speaker 2: Because by this time, Raymond Love he got to be
Speaker 2: at home somewhere like, hey man, I don't want nothing
Speaker 2: to do with that case. This case is everywhere don
Speaker 2: and got this innocent man locked up. He didne finally
Speaker 2: came to the realization.
Speaker 1: And that was one of their key That was their
Speaker 1: key witness.
Speaker 3: That's their key witness.
Speaker 1: On March twenty fifth, twenty four, after considering Durell's case
Speaker 1: and the fact that the police and prosecution still had
Speaker 1: not made their evidence available to Durell. Judge Cox made
Speaker 1: a decision just miss the case.
Speaker 3: This is egregious due process violation. So for.
Speaker 2: All the reasons, plays down the records have dismissed the cases.
Speaker 3: Don't time to keep it under control.
Speaker 4: If there's gonna be an outburst taken in a hallway leave.
Speaker 1: Derell's family and friends tried to contain their emotion, but
Speaker 1: after years of fighting, when the courtroom doors opened, you
Speaker 1: heard the sound of relief. That day Darrell walked out
Speaker 1: of Wayne County Jail a freeman.
Speaker 4: I just feel like since he came home, I almost
Speaker 4: have relaxed. Finally. I used to start at eight o'clock
Speaker 4: in the morning. I don't want to do eight no more.
Speaker 4: Like I'm like, oh God, can we do ting? You know?
Speaker 1: Today Lasagnya is surrounded by her entire family and owns
Speaker 1: her own beauty salon. But a decade ago she lost
Speaker 1: her home, her four one K and the good years
Speaker 1: of her life advocating for her son's innocence.
Speaker 4: It was a lot. It's a lot to go through.
Speaker 4: But you know, I tell him all the time, only
Speaker 4: the strong subbab.
Speaker 1: And Darrell takes none of it.
Speaker 3: For granted, I was one of the blessed ones.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people in prison that need help
Speaker 2: and don't have little ones that support them. But the
Speaker 2: difference is when you do TECH, when you do time
Speaker 2: for a crime that not only you know you didn't do,
Speaker 2: your family you know you didn't do They're always going
Speaker 2: to be behind.
Speaker 3: You one hundred percent, you know.
Speaker 1: So what's next?
Speaker 2: Well, right now I'm working to put into the appeal
Speaker 2: that they just filed.
Speaker 1: DA kim Worthy is appealing Judge Cox's decision. If she
Speaker 1: wins jury will have to go to trial, but he
Speaker 1: says he's not worried. He thinks the evidence in her
Speaker 1: case is too weak. And on the flip side, if.
Speaker 3: Kim Worthy Lewis's appeal is over and I'm a suit
Speaker 3: of shit out or ass.
Speaker 1: Does kim Worthy have the power to not fight this?
Speaker 1: Does she have the power to say it's over?
Speaker 3: Of course she do.
Speaker 2: She decided this moment's enough, We're gonna dismiss the appeal
Speaker 2: and let this be got back one. But at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, they got they thinking dollars now
Speaker 2: over justice. They got forty people that just got desonerated.
Speaker 1: One wrongfully convicted man was recently awarded ten million dollars
Speaker 1: in damages.
Speaker 3: You know they think in money now in bankruptcy.
Speaker 1: Darrell says he wants people to understand that public officials
Speaker 1: like Da kim Worthy are elected.
Speaker 2: We as a people only get involved in the elections,
Speaker 2: in the voting process when it's a national thing. We
Speaker 2: in a frenzy about Donald Trump, but we don't deal
Speaker 2: with the real people that directly affect us locally. Be
Speaker 2: intentional on who you vote for and put in not
Speaker 2: only a seats of power in a presidential but you
Speaker 2: a local prosecutor and judges seeks. Because we be crying
Speaker 2: about injustice, but we put these judges in there who
Speaker 2: don't get a damn about the law.
Speaker 1: Since he's been out, Durrell re enrolled in Wayne State
Speaker 1: with a full scholarship to study law man.
Speaker 4: When his first day down in law school, we all
Speaker 4: followed him down there. I said, we're gonna get him
Speaker 4: kicked out on his first day. We taking pictures, We
Speaker 4: got camera crews with us. We like so excited about
Speaker 4: everything that he do, Like the whole family is excited.
Speaker 4: And that's a beautiful thing because this is like our moment,
Speaker 4: our happy time that we waited on, that we didn't
Speaker 4: see it was we was in the dark and now
Speaker 4: it's just light and we're just happy. We want to
Speaker 4: see everything evolved.
Speaker 1: And she says she is always grateful to the woman
Speaker 1: who had the courage to come forward and make this
Speaker 1: all possible.
Speaker 4: Kathleen Burns had a heart to speak up, and a
Speaker 4: couple of times when she spoke, she said, I just
Speaker 4: hope he makes his mother is proud as she thinks
Speaker 4: he is. And I'm like, oh he is. And every
Speaker 4: time he doing something I'll get today, I just be like,
Speaker 4: I hope she watching them.
Speaker 1: Not only is Durrell in law school, but he's working
Speaker 1: in the community doing outreach.
Speaker 2: I work hand in hand with our mayor and police
Speaker 2: chief out here intervening in community violence, keeping the.
Speaker 3: Crime right down daily, winning schools.
Speaker 2: Were going there, We do mentoring, were working with the
Speaker 2: Turnative School right now, real heavy. These are the most
Speaker 2: risks and trouble making kids, you know, but when we
Speaker 2: get in there, all they need is love and attention.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Some of these parents are struggling, don't have no job,
Speaker 2: on welfare, struggling to make it.
Speaker 3: Some of them kids don't have no food.
Speaker 2: We got to turn around and get them money to
Speaker 2: go home and get them get their mother and them
Speaker 2: fell theirfrigerators up, you know, just being there any way
Speaker 2: we can, showing offering them resources.
Speaker 3: That's what I spend my time doing. I ain't in
Speaker 3: school working on a case.
Speaker 1: He also spends time catching up with the family that
Speaker 1: was there for him for nearly fifteen years.
Speaker 4: We just love just getting together. I could just have
Speaker 4: him here at the house, like seeing him with my
Speaker 4: grandkids now and just they love him to death. We
Speaker 4: love him like we loved him, and he love us.
Speaker 1: Do you hope that Drell gives you some.
Speaker 4: Man, I'm waiting on my little grandson coming to look.
Speaker 4: I just keep seeing Grasslam. But I take a granddaughter too.
Speaker 1: But Drell says he's got time first, more hustle.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I got a book coming out of the real stuff,
Speaker 2: and the most saying I'm working on my documentary.
Speaker 3: Be on the lookout for it. I got work.
Speaker 1: That's what I wanted to ask you about the book.
Speaker 1: I have a copy that you sent me years ago.
Speaker 1: Is there more to it now?
Speaker 3: Oh? I didn't reassed and re edited. I'm gonna send
Speaker 3: it to you.
Speaker 1: Well when you're super famous. I now have an original manuscripts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got the original manuscript.
Speaker 1: That's Darrell the whole time I've known him, always on
Speaker 1: the move, an array of light even in his darkest times.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
Speaker 1: links on our website to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: Thank you to Attorney Adam Clements at Perkins lawg Group
Speaker 1: for helping with legal review. And thank you to the
Speaker 1: reporting of Diane Bukowski for Voice of Detroit. We relied
Speaker 1: on it while researching this episode. This episode was written
Speaker 1: by me Maggie Freeling, with story editing and sound design
Speaker 1: by senior producer Rebecca Ibarra. Our producer is Kathleen Fink.
Speaker 1: Our mixer is Josh Allen, with research by Alison Levy
Speaker 1: an additional production help by Jeff Cliburn. Executive producers are
Speaker 1: Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wurtis. The music is
Speaker 1: by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Make sure
Speaker 1: to follow us on all social media platform at Lava
Speaker 1: for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow
Speaker 1: me on all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
Speaker 1: in association with Signal Company Number One. We have worked
Speaker 1: hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show
Speaker 1: are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals
Speaker 1: featured in this show are their own and do not
Speaker 1: necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.