WEBVTT - #433 Jason Flom with Carl Miller 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:06.239 On October twenty fifth, nineteen seventy nine, Rabbi David Akanov 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.960 was walking with his prayer case in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.680 when an assailant approached, described as a young black man 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:17.119 about five foot nine, one hundred and fifty pounds, he 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.440 shot the prominent rabbi, stole the prayer case, and ran 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:24.800 into an apartment building. Eventually, NYPD found a young man 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:27.680 named Daryl Brown, who gave several accounts alleging that a 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:31.840 local amateur broxer named Carl Miller had made some incriminating statements. 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.919 Karl had an open warrant for assault, was brought in 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:40.600 for a lineup, but the eyewitnesses didn't identify him. After 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.360 he was processed for the previous assault charge and released, 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.839 Carl approached Daryl Brown in the street, but Brown was 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.440 not deterred. At trial, Brown testified that he had seen 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.720 the whole thing from start to finish, so the prosecutor 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.800 no longer needed the other eyewitnesses who did not identify 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:12.240 Karl in the lineup. But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:14.440 back to wrongful conviction, where we have a story born 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.200 out of racial and religious tension in New York City 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.240 that existed certainly before the crime came in the late seventies, 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.560 but also through the nineties and even today in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.560 between the Black and Ascidic communities. 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:26.560 That live there. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.759 But before we get into how that relates to this 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.920 story and the man who lived at Carl Miller, I'd 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:35.400 like to welcome back one of his attorneys, James Henning, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:36.240 to our show. 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:37.880 Pleasure to be back, Jason. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.560 And this time you brought along another attorney who played 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:42.840 a major role in this case, Carissa Cokin. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:44.000 Welcome, thank you. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.720 And now i'd like to introduce the man himself, Carl Miller. 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.000 And as we record this right now, October twenty fifth, 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.720 twenty twenty three, it's not only his birthday, but also 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.559 the forty fourth anniversary of the crime at the center 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:02.320 of his wrongful conviction. So Carl, I'm sure that colors 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.000 how you see this day, but we hope that this 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.920 one is a happy birthday, and thank you for choosing 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.440 to spend some of it here with us. 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:11.400 And you're welcome. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:13.960 Now, Carl, can you tell us a little bit about 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:14.640 your childhood. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.840 I grew up in Crown Heights with my family. I 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.880 went to public school to twenty one. From there went 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.080 to James D. Lawrence, which is a six hundred school. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.240 My mother and my father moved out, and I just 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:30.720 hung around with some of the guys that I was 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:31.560 associated with. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.440 Carl did not have his parents around for a while. 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.440 He was expected to go out and handle his own business. 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.359 And you were married, and you were a young father 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:41.200 at the time. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.080 That wasn't married at the time, but I was a 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:43.720 young father. 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.120 I understand you were an amateur boxer. 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:47.280 Yeah. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.880 I did box for Izzyzerland Youth and Recreation Center and 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.680 Crown Heights, and I had a little reputation in the 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.359 neighborhood as somebody that you didn't want to mess. 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.560 With, and I think that, unfortunately worked against him when 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.280 he was wrongfully accused. 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.040 In the months leading up to the murdering question, Carl 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:05.840 had been in a fight in which he was stabbed 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.480 with a screwdriver and hospitalized with a collapse lung, resulting 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.880 in an open arrestaurant for assault, which seems wrong for 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.320 someone defending themselves against deadly force, but that kind of 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.760 unfair application of the law was nothing new to Carl. 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.440 I did have a confrontation with the seventy first precinct 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.320 because they used to come around and get guys to 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.000 go in for lineups, and I started telling them, don't 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:32.200 do that because you getting paid five dollars for a lineup, 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.200 but in not giving you back the picture. So this 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.680 is my way of like trying to keep them out 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:39.040 of the police way. 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.000 Which is solid advice. We've seen misidentifications start just that 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.880 way in so many wrongful conviction cases. So as a 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.680 young man, Carl had already witnessed injustices to give him 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.480 that perspective. While in contrast, there appeared to be preferential 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.760 treatment for the Hasidic community and Crown Heights. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.040 It's a strong voting bocke. It's like you're not going 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.480 to get elected mayor if you don't have the Hasiatic 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.840 community because they will vote in droves for the candidate 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:05.760 that the rebbe tells them to vote for. 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.000 The Hasidic community before and after World War Two settled 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:11.320 in Crown Heights, which had been anointed by the leaders 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.480 of what is known as the HBBAD or Hobbad Lubovich movement, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.719 many of whom had escaped persecution either at the hands 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.640 of the Germans or those in the Soviet block before 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.640 and after World War Two. Curiously, the city allowed one 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.440 of its most powerful voting blocks to operate their own 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.880 police force, the Jewish Defense League or JDL. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.799 The hard charge behind that JDL philosophy was never again, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.720 get yourself a gun, don't rely on the cops. People 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.400 lived in an era where the cops were hurting you 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:45.640 onto the trains to auschwitzenbergen Belsen and Triblinka and whatnot. 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:49.599 It's that Merkan slogan, never again, We're not going to 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.599 be vulnerable. Imagine any other group in New York City 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.480 having their own police force. There are two very distinct 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.359 worlds there in the Crown Heights area. One that is 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.400 set up with their own ambulance and emergency systems, and 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:07.040 they've had a number of issues going up until recent 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:09.599 days with those two communities bordering on each other. 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:11.599 One of the one that really stands out is the 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.200 Crown Heights riot. But as I will say to people, 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.000 prior to Crown Heights riots, you had like Victor Road, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.640 he was a guy that was a cost about the JDL, 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:20.480 And of. 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.239 Course you're talking about the awful incident on June sixteenth, 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.880 nineteen seventy eight, when approximately twenty Assitic men beat a 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.480 sixteen year old kid named Victor Roads into a coma 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.600 that lasted for two months. And so obviously the tension 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:37.680 was high in the area. 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.560 So it was always tension, but it wasn't the con 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.039 at tension that the Crown Heights riot had bought. 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.800 The Crown Heights riot took place in August nineteen ninety 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.640 one when a young Hasidic man drove through a red light, 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.160 peered off the road to avoid now oncoming traffic, and 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.000 pinned two seven year old Black children under his car, 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.960 one of whom Gavin Cato, was killed, signetic a race riot. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.920 The story at the scene was the Shibata ambulance showed 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:09.760 up and went straight for the Hasidam while kids underneath 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:11.440 the car and they're trying to lift it up. 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.279 The tension that was building for decades exploded. Jewish people 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.279 and their businesses were attacked, and the violence played heavily 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.480 into the nineteen ninety three mayoral election of Rudy Giuliani, 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:26.000 who unseated New York City's first African American mayor, David Dinkins. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.520 The unrest in Crown Heights was Palpable in nineteen ninety three, 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.680 and was certainly present when Victor Rhodes was attacked in 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.320 June of seventy eight, as well as when Rabbi David 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.120 Akanov was murdered in October seventy nine. 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.600 Rabbi David Akanov, the victim in this case, was in 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.720 his late sixties. He had been born in Ukraine in 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:51.360 nineteen eleven studied the Torah under Communist rule there. Actually, 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.159 after his bar Mitzvah, he wanted to continue studying, but 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:55.600 his parents wouldn't let him, so he went on a 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.599 hunger strike until they gave up and led him. He 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.880 ended up emigrating to the US after learning that the 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:07.440 KGB was looking into him, and he made efforts in 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.440 the Crown Heights community to help other Jews who were 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:14.520 living under oppression in Russia. So Rabbi Akanov was, by 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.600 all accounts, a very pious and charitable man. He was 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.320 not somebody who seemed to deal with a lot of trappings. 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.320 But he did have a regular prayer case that he 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.160 would bring with him to pray, and it contained and 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.800 I'm going to butcher this terminology, his talus and his 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.320 tapillon which are religious implements used by Lubovich has Seed him. 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.480 So just before seven am on October twenty fifth, nineteen 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.680 seventy nine, he's on his way to yeshiva when he shot. 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.400 This was a very high profile case. We've got a 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.280 very prominent rabbi. 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.760 In the community who was shot with a thirty two 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:55.120 caliber point blank in the face. There were two eyewitnesses 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:56.760 to this shooting. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.840 Both of the eyewitnesses Louis Fazio, who was not a 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.920 member of the seed Of community, and sixteen year old 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.880 Sinaya Sperlin, who was. It's pretty evident that they saw 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.680 the same person running from the scene with Rabbi Akinov's 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:10.320 prayer case. 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.960 Now, the descriptions were actually remarkably similar from the two witnesses. 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:19.760 A man who was black, twenty one years old, ish right, 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.600 about five nine, one hundred and fifty pounds, medium built, 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.640 medium hair, possibly wearing a hat and a dark jacket. Carl, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.480 does that description match you or did it match you 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:30.000 at that time? 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.679 At that time, I was probaby a five one hundred 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:36.120 and eighty pounds, weigh a little afro and wear too 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.400 many hats, very athletic, not slim, as they had described 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.160 this person as being a slender person. 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:42.960 That's not me. 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.920 They're talking about a guy who's five nine one fifty. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.360 You're about six feet tall, right, Yeah, there's a significant difference. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:51.520 You were a boxer, right, so with a class of boxing. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.240 I was in a light heavy, light heavyweight, light heavyweight. 0:08:55.720 --> 0:09:01.640 So the descriptions didn't match. What about alibis and things 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:02.040 like that. 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.600 I was in Queens, New York, celebrating my birthday with 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.120 my daughter's mother at the time, and I left her 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.520 house came back to Brooklyn, and that's when I learned 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:13.240 about the rabbi being murdered. 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.920 Carl had spent the night in Queens, and even after 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.480 lies and coercion, his daughter's mother, Joanne Davis, maintained that 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.920 he was there that morning and not in Crown Heights 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.320 at seven am, murdering Rabbi Akanoff and running off with 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.600 his prayer case into the apartment building at five point 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.040 sixty five Crown Street. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.800 And that is where they end up finding a suitcase 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:38.200 that belonged to an individual named Darryl Brown. 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:42.040 Rabbi Akonov's prayer case is never found, and in an 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.760 abandoned apartment they find this suitcase belonging to Darryl Brown 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.200 with his property in there, and two days later he 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.400 shows up at the precinct because he heard that they 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:52.360 were looking for them. 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.560 Daryl Brown essentially ends up being the only person to 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.280 ever implicate Carl Beller in this crime. 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.640 Right, you sure Lock Holmes to figure out that a 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:04.120 misdirection play there. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.200 Right, You've also got the fact that Darryl Brown is 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.920 repeatedly lying to them. His statements evolve. His initial statement 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.320 indicates that he didn't see anything. 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:16.240 And then they received a second statement from Daryl Brown 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.679 on November eight, nineteen seventy nine, while he was being 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.720 treated at King's County Hospital for a gunshot wound to 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.480 the hand. They never investigate the cause of the wound. 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.440 When they come back to him, presumably with the ability 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.000 to turn the screws a little bit, when he's in 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.760 the hospital with the gunshot wound, he now says that 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.160 he and two other friends had seen a Jewish man 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.680 with some money in a pizza falafel store and Carl 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.720 supposedly said, oh, you should have ripped him off, and 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.439 that he had heard the shot and saw Carl near 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:47.120 the scene. 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.360 Carl has always maintained if he was not present either 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.120 for the murder or that day in the store. We 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.480 only find out who that actually was much later then. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:00.800 Darryl Brown in his third documented statement and his first 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.959 sworn statement the next day on November ninth, he says 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.240 that he had seen Carl near the scene and he 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.160 tried to get into five point sixty five Crown where 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:11.600 I was staying. I've seen him with a thirty two 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.320 and I spoke to him the day before the crime 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.800 about a jew with money in a blue bag. And 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.360 that's a quote which is important because it departs from 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:21.520 his testimony at trial. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.000 On the strength of Dwell Brown's ever shifting word, Carl 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.240 was eventually charged with the murder. However, with his open 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.720 arrest warrant for assault, his reputation as a neighborhood tough guy, 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.360 and previous interactions with the seventy first Precinct, they came 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.839 looking for him way before Brown had ever made any statements. 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.320 Just a few days after the rabbi's murder in late October. 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.480 My sister tell me that the police was looking for 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:47.840 me to talk to me, and I called him, said, 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:49.679 what are you looking me for? Oh, we want to 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.840 talk to you about the homicide. Come to the precinct. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.600 I'm like, nah, we can talk about not come to 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.400 the precinct. I didn't go because I made he was 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.120 going to arrest me, so I had an open case. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.719 I had a warrant, which is completely within his rights. 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.680 And I think it was November fourteenth. They picked me 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.280 up at my house, took me to the sixty ninth precinct, 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:08.360 questioned me about the homicide, but they arrested me for 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:08.920 my warrant. 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.360 When Carl does get brought to the precinct, he offers 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:18.520 to take a polygraph and provide his fingerprints, and police 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:20.920 don't take his prince, but they do take a polygraph, 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.760 which they claim Carl failed. He then stands in two 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.280 lineups without council and is viewed by Shanina Sperlin and 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.800 Louis Fazio, the two undisputed eyewitnesses, neither of whom identify him. 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:34.280 I was held on the warrant. 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.520 They took me to Rockets Island, came back out and 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.600 walking around the street and people was telling me that 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.640 this guy Brown was talking about me with the police, 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.040 and I had a confrontation with him when I was accident. 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:47.920 Why are you telling um talking to the police about 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.240 me about this case? Oh, they want me to say 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:52.959 and I'm not gonna say nothing. I was just telling 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:54.719 him leave my name out of it, because I had 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:56.360 nothing to do with that at all. 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.120 This was around probably right after Thanksgiving. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.559 Daryl Brown on November twenty ninth is given a polygraph 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.160 quote to test out his earlier statement end quote to 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:11.199 the prosecutor and according to the police, Brown's polygraph shows 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.320 that he was telling the truth about everything, but there 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:17.200 was some question about his withholding evidence from the police. 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.440 Now think about that statement, because we know number one, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:24.360 polygraphs aren't this nuance? Now they weren't this nuance? Then 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:26.319 this was a tool for coercion. 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:31.200 It usually is. Polygraphs aren't even admissible in court. And 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.079 I need our audience to remember that police are allowed 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.400 to lie to you about evidence, and they routinely lie 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.080 about polygraph results in order to coerce confessions. 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.720 When they arrested me on the fourteenth and I volunteered 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.360 for the lineup, the guy has said that, oh, you 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.720 was picked out in Alno, which we come to learn 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.520 that was not true, that I was never identified in Lano. 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.920 After I take the polygraph test, they said, oh, you fail, 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.120 So I'm like, okay, I mean I watched Perry Mason 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.200 when I was a kid. So if I failed a 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.120 lot to take the test and I was picked down 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.080 on the lineup, what more evidence do you need to 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.240 arrest me? But I wasn't arrested. I was arrested in 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:10.640 November thirtieth for this case. 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:15.360 After Daryl Brown gives that polygraph statement where according to 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.280 the police, he was truthful about everything. On the thirtieth 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.040 they put Daryl Brown in lineups. But what are you 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.080 putting somebody in lineups for if they've told the truth 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.560 about everything implicating another individual. 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.360 That's a good question. If I'm following this correctly, then 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.360 they must have suspected that he might have been the guy, right. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:38.840 It doesn't make sense to conclude otherwise. Either he's telling 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:42.400 the truth about everything when he implicates Carl, and okay, 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.560 authorize the arrest. Certainly, there's no basis the next day 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.960 to put Darryl Brown in lineups unless you're saying maybe 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.920 he's still not telling the truth about everything, and instead 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.600 what they do is revert to tunnel vision and authorize 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:01.320 and arrest for Karl based entirely. This is disputed entirely 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:06.200 on the accusation of Daryl Brown, his second differing sworn statement, 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:10.560 his fourth or fifth differing documented statement since the murder. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.800 It's just a travesty. 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.040 Freedom Agenda is a proud sponsor of this episode of 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:30.200 Wrongful Conviction. Freedom Agenda is led by people directly impacted 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.680 by incarceration, and they're organizing to get Mayor Eric Adams 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.120 to follow the law and shut down Rikers Island. Right now, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.119 thousands of people are awaiting trial there in life threatening conditions. 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.880 Freedom Agenda is committed to creating a safer and more 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:49.080 just city by winning investments in long neglected communities, protecting 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.480 the rights of people involved in the criminal legal system, 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.280 and ending the cycle of violence that Rikers perpetuates. To 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.640 learn more about the campaign to Close Rikers and to 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.800 sign up for Freedom Agenda's mailing list to Campaign to 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.560 Close Rankers dot org, slash, get involved or followed a 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.520 Freedom Agenda and why on social media. 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.080 When you coming off the street, you know you gotta 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.440 fight within Rockets Island because that's how it was. So 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.760 it can be really alled on the person that if 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:24.680 you're not really up to it, and I was the 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:26.840 type of person that I could defend myself, so I 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.880 had no problem like that. You just waiting to go 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:31.600 to trial and prove my innocence. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.400 So nine months later, September eighth, nineteen eighty, you go 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:38.600 to trial. I'm assuming you were represented by a public defender. 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.600 Yes, I was rep presented by how it listwise, the 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.920 guy come in tell me, oh, I never lost a 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:45.640 murder case. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.400 I didn't know you didn't have one until you had minds. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.760 There were some very serious discovery issues here, whether you 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:55.320 want to blame it on trial council or whether you 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.120 want to blame it on the prosecution. But two things 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:03.000 that we now know happened just prior to trial. There's 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.920 no indication that Carl knew at the time of trial. 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.920 It's that Shanina Sperlin shows up at the Brooklyn DIA's 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:15.040 office and tells Ada Barbara Newman, the trial prosecutor, that 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.400 he recognized a possible perpetrator in one of the lineups 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.880 he viewed. But it's not the Carl Miller lineup. It's 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.560 the Darryl Brown lineup. The other thing that is potentially 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.520 but we're not certain, disclosed on August twenty eighth, nineteen eighty, 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.480 about a week or so before Carl's trial starts, is 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:37.400 that Ada Newman discloses that an individual named Barry Lee 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:41.879 Jackson had been identified from photographs on or before October 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.240 twenty seventh, nineteen seventy nine, which is just two days 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.680 after the murder, and in writing whether this was received 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.520 by mister weiss Wesser or not, or whether it was 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.240 taken as legitimate or not, she tells him that if 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.840 he lacked any further discovery, he should tell her so 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.280 she could provide it. Now, that's kind of a catch 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.160 twenty two, and it's not how discovery works. He can't 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.720 tell her if he's lacking something that he doesn't know about. 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.879 And you're now on the eve of trial. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:15.640 There were several other important Brady violations, including more alternate 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.720 suspects like a man named Derek Peterson, as well as 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.480 a guy named Willie Easterling who had been seen trying 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.200 to sell religious artifacts in the area. Police reports did 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.800 not demonstrate any follow up and were not shared with 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.159 the defense either, and this conduct was only compounded by 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.720 presenting the ever changing testimony of Daryl Brown, this time 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.399 at trial He said that he followed Carl that morning, 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.879 saw him grab Achanoff, who screamed before he was shot, 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.720 then saw him run off to five sixty five Crown 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.720 Street with the prayer case, and Carl's attorney did lean 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.119 heavily on the inconsistencies between Brown's version of events and 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:53.960 undisputed facts of the crime, as well as how Brown's 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.000 testimony may have resulted from pressure from investigators. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:02.080 Detective Sorrentino, who's the assigned detective here, testifies that he 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.760 never told Darryl Brown he was a suspect, which, as 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.600 we noted earlier, if after the fact of him giving 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.640 you a completely truthful statement, you're placing him in lineups, 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.680 there's only one reason to play somebody in a lineup 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:19.400 as the subject. Second, the court prohibited Carl's council from 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:24.280 questioning Detective Sorrentino about whether he had ever put psychological 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.359 pressure on a suspect. And there's one more thing. Darryl 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:32.959 Brown's account of Rabbi Akanov's suitcase is not accurate. His 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:38.480 prayer bag was a distinctive dark blue color, and in 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:43.560 the early unrecorded police statement that Daryl Brown gives describing 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.360 this bag, it is a dark blue bag, but by 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.760 the time he gets a trial, it's a clear bag 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.920 that he can see into and actually tell the type 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:58.399 of felt material inside, and more concerning it indicates to 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:03.120 me one of two possible conclusions. One Daryl Brown saw 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.320 inside that bag or touched it. Two Daryl Brown was 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:10.720 told how that bag looked after he gave independent statements. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.760 Neither of them tend to support the reliability of the 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:15.840 verdict in this case. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.159 Darryl Brown also testified that Rabbi Achanov made no attempt 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.880 to block the bullet with his hand, which was contradicted 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.320 by the state's forensic pathologist, citing the black powder stain 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:28.639 and stippling on the back of the rabbi's hand. So, 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.919 while the defense seated doubt about the state's witness, the 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.320 state attacked Carl's alibi witness, his daughter's mother, Joanne Davis. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:40.400 From everything in the transcript, everything on the record, all 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.720 the materials we have, the only indication we can really 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.480 come to is that Carl's alibi witness was really just 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.240 spoken to in order to try and get impeachment material 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:51.840 for her. 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:53.480 And you know something. 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.000 Else that we see as well too, is that false 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.879 statements are attributed to Carl's alibi witness, which is some 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:04.000 thing that we very frequently see in these cases as well. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.600 You have unendorsed statements, you have unsigned statements. Then at 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.840 trial it's the detective's word against the witnesses word. 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.520 In this case, the lead detective Sorrentino, testified that Miss 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.400 Davis said that she saw Karl with the thirty two 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.720 caliber pistol, the kind of gun used to kill Achanov, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.840