WEBVTT - #279 Maggie Freleng with Sylvia Boykin 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.720 A note for listeners, this episode contains discussion of child 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.880 sexual abuse and attempted suicide. Please listen with caution and care. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:16.040 Jason, we talk a lot about false confessions, and we 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.120 know how and why they happen. Is there a scenario 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.119 in which you would willfully confess to a crime like 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:23.720 a murder. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.720 Well, I can envision the scenario which I would confess 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.200 to a murder that I didn't commit, and that would 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:37.400 be if I became so disoriented, scared, confused, lonely, and 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:43.120 just terrified of the people who we all believe are 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.559 there to protect us and to help us and to 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:51.440 find the truth when they turn on you. Sometimes people 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:55.040 see it as their only way out of that impossible situation. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.200 And you're in that room and you're like, I don't 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.760 want to die, and maybe this will get sorted out 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:02.160 because I know I didn't do it. 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.600 And he kept saying, well, if you sign this, i'll 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.240 let you go home, and so I was like, but 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.000 this is not what happened. So we get me to 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:15.319 the chair and he hit me with a phone book 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:16.320 to wake me up. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:18.839 He's like, sign this and we will. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:19.200 Let you go. 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.400 I signed a paper and I never left prison. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:28.120 From Love of for Good. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:32.560 This is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling today Sylvia Boykin. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.679 On May fifteenth, nineteen ninety two, Sylvia Boykin went to 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.120 collect a drug debt from a woman named Burnetta Pope. 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.960 Sylvia showed up at the house in North Philadelphia with 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:58.160 two men, Lamont Antoine Blackman, and Aaron Major. Burnetta owed 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.040 Sylvia money, who in turn owed Antoine and Aaron as 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:03.840 well as other men who were higher up in the 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.720 drug network. But Burnetta was late in pain, so Sylvia 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.480 brought Antoine and erin to prove that she was trying 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.679 her best to obtain the debt. But things went horribly 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.280 wrong when they got there. Burnetta and her son Albert, 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.040 refused to pay. Exactly what happened next we may never know, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:28.320 but gunfire erupted and Burnetta Pope was shot dead. Sylvia 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.440 was quickly arrested, charged and convicted of first degree murder. 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.280 But Sylvia did not shoot anybody. 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.399 I went there with no one chitches that no one 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:43.919 would get killed. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't order 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:45.280 for anyone to get killed. 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.720 I'm Sylvia Boaken, I'm sixty three, I'll be sixty four 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.880 in two days, and here I said thirty one years 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:58.400 later in a prison. 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:13.200 Sylvia Boykin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May twenty sixth, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:14.480 nineteen fifty eight. 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.079 She's the youngest of six kids. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.040 So when I was born, all my sisters were grown 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.240 and they were having babies, so I grew up with 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:26.560 my nieces and nephews. 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.600 On the surface, Sylvia's life seemed great. She went to 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.120 Magnet Schools for kids with high IQs, and when she graduated, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.920 she moved to Virginia for college, where she studied data 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.000 entry and medical administrative assistance. She had a good job 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.040 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia was on 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.520 her way to greatness. But Sylvia wound up on a 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.200 different path, one of substance abuse and addiction. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.440 Somewhere inside of me, I was running. 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.520 God always had his hands on me, but I was running, 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.360 and I was trying to I was trying to find 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.840 something to fix the pain because I was hurt, like 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:17.120 very bad, which is a really tough subject for me. 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.320 Sylvia's inner trauma and suffering it started when she was 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.240 a child and her grandfather sexually assaulted her. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.719 He didn't actually like have sex with me, to penetrate 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.360 me anything, but he touched me in my private area. 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.880 But that was just like the beginning, you know, of 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:41.520 things that happened in my life. 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:41.960 As a child. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.920 Then, at ten years old, she was raped by her 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:47.080 nineteen year old brother. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.159 I had to go to the hospital, and I was 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:55.480 a very young girl, and at that time I was 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:01.240 stitched up, and I was told by my mother and 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.640 not to tell the police who did it because that 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.000 they would arrest my brother. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.080 The assault and rape, plus the fact that her family 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.080 covered it all up, took a huge. 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.440 Toll on Sylvia. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.919 After I was raped by my brother, I took my 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:21.719 mother's sleeping hills. 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.200 I tried to kill myself when I was ten. Yeah, 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:27.320 I took the whole bottle. 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:29.960 Oh my gosh, who found you? 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.080 My knee's Valerie, and she's like two years younger than me. 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.320 She found me and she went and got my sister. 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:43.760 They took me to the hospital. They pumped my stomach 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.719 and they put me in the children psych wood. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.320 Sylvia's older sister, Teresa, was furious at the situation an 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.720 intent on making sure Sylvia would be safe going forward. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:05:59.920 The whole family lived in a three story, do you 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.800 Sylvia lived on the first floor with her mother and brother. Well, 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.159 the rest of the family lived upstairs. Teresa lived on 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:08.000 the second floor. 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:12.360 She took me and wouldn't let me sleep downstairs in 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.560 my mother's part. She said, I couldn't stay down there. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.599 She took me and so I stayed up in her 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:24.640 part until I healed up, till I got well. 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.680 And this isn't even the extent of Sylvia's suffering. Throughout 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.799 her childhood and adolescence, Sylvia was again molested numerous times 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:35.480 by close family friends. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:38.880 So I went through a lot of. 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.400 Being raped and molested that I used to just go, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.880 like get in the front of the church for altar 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:52.200 prayer and I would just stay there and pray, and 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.560 you know, I just wanted to like, why why did 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:57.839 these people do this to me? 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.640 Well, Sylvia's sisters tried to protect her from the sexual abuse. 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.480 Sylvia sought out coping mechanisms. 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.920 My sister she would she started, she would give me beer, 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.880 and sometimes she would give me strictest liquor called Macnoidan's 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:20.080 and she would give me some. 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.679 So, you know, do you think your need to escape 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.400 is kind of what led you to drug use. 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:33.400 Yes, I always felt like I needed to run away. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.080 I needed to numb the pain. So I would always 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:42.679 be like the life of the party, like everybody wanted 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.400 like to be around me, And sometimes I think I 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.160 tried to ship my brain off from it. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.880 Eventually, when she was seventeen years old, Sylvia met the 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.360 man who would become her first husband. She was motivated 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:10.040 to move forward past the trauma and build a normal life. 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.480 As a little girl, I'd always dream about just having 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:20.160 this beautiful home and children and a husband and just 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.440 being very happy. I used to always draw pictures like 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.760 that when I was little, with the sunshine and the 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:30.480 house with a talent and trees. 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.800 I used to always draw those pictures in school. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.880 Sylvia ended up having three daughters, Penny, Tsha, and Kimberly. 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.880 She was seventeen and she had Penny, her oldest. Here's Penny. 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:51.360 She was reay, I would say, into our lives, meaning 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.840 she was you know that mom that was into you know, 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:04.760 the girl scouts, the PTA meetings. She was always you know, 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:09.800 into the family functions and you know, everything with us. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.040 Sylvia tried her best to be a good mom and wife, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.520 but the damage from her past experiences inevitably disrupted her 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:20.320 personal life. 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:27.200 I've been married four times already, but I could never maintain, 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.360 like keep them a marriage going. 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.080 As the distractions from her trauma became increasingly destructive, Sylvia 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.400 eventually started abusing hard drugs like crack. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:41.679 Do you remember any of her drug use? 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:47.439 Yes, yes, I remember. She tried to keep it undercover, 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:52.920 but as me being the oldest of three girls, I 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.600 noticed a lot that was going on with her. 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.520 For example, Penny says she remembers late nights out and 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:02.800 a lot of trips in and out of the house. 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.840 She would be late for jobs. She would work jobs, 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:13.240 but she would be late or sometimes she would be tired, 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.480 and so we would have to fund for ourself. And 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.160 when I say fund for ourselves, get up and get 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.960 ready for school, I will be responsible making sure that 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:29.600 we got up for school, or making sure everything was 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.880 handled in the household. It was a lot because I 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:38.440 felt like it was unfair to me. And I would 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.960 say at that age, I had a lot of goals 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.960 for myself, a lot of things I wanted to do 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.280 out of life. I wanted to go places and do 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:54.480 things and be on my own and be able to 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:59.040 live my life. 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.360 But instead Penny would wind up permanently taking care of 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:10.120 her siblings. By nineteen ninety two, Sylvia was suffering from 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.880 a serious addiction to crack, and to finance her own addiction, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.959 she was selling it for a network of street level 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.520 drug dealers. Sylvia says she sold crack to forty three 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.680 year old Burnetta Pope on a few occasions, but she 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.680 also felt sorry for Burnetta. She describes the house Burnetta 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:28.520 was staying in. 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:35.520 No furniture, no running water, the bathroom didn't work still 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:41.480 TV a few old cheers like Willie Nasby. I bought 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.800 her a sweatsuit to put on. I took food there 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.600 and gable food, and I had just recently met them 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.000 and they were very kind to me. 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.600 In May of nineteen ninety two, Sylvia was waiting on 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.240 seven dollars from Burnetta and then from the network, including 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.640 one of the bosses, Joseph, demanded she get the money. 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.160 I didn't know how the whole operation was working. 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.240 Allie knew that he would tell me to take stuff 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.240 to her and that I would go back to pick 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:16.880 up the money. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.880 So she went to the place where she knew Burnetta 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:20.439 was staying. 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:23.600 I went around here to collect money for him. 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.520 She said that she didn't have the money and she 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.520 wasn't paying, and so I told him so. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.480 The next day he told me to go back. 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.520 On May fifteenth, Sylvia smoked some crack, drank some booze, 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.280 and returned to the house. This time she brought seventeen 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.520 year old Lamont Antoine Blagman and nineteen year old Aaron Major. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.920 These two were also part of the dealing network, and 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.839 Sylvia wanted to prove that she had actually been trying 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.200 to collect the money. She owed them all along. She 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.560 also thought their mail presence would persuade Burnetta into paying. 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.760 They all went in the same car together, Sylvia driving. 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:07.880 They found Brunetta at the house with a man and 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:09.920 her twenty six year old son, Albert. 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.040 I went in the house first to ask her for 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:16.840 the money. She said she wasn't going to pay the 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.480 money in whatever, So I went back out and I 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:25.400 told Anon Antoine that she said. Aaron Antoine went in 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.560 and I don't really know exactly what happened, but I 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:36.600 guess everybody started arguing and all I heard was a 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:43.040 couple of gunshots by Froze. I was scared and I 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.960 was like what happened, So they ran they left me. 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:50.800 I drove and when I went around the block, I 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:52.719 seen them. Then they got back in across me. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.439 Even after what had just happened, Antoine and Aaron still 0:13:58.640 --> 0:13:59.680 demanded their money. 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.839 So I went to ATM machine. 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.400 And I took the money out of my bank account 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:08.440 and I paid them. 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:10.880 Sylvia says she dropped them off and went home. 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.080 She had no idea the gunshots she heard were bullets 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:28.160 coming at the neck and leg of Burnetta Pope. This 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:32.520 episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.840 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.960 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.000 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.760 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:51.440 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.880 the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:03.840 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. By the time 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.960 Sylvia got home, police were already waiting for her. They 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:08.800 asked her where she had been and what she knew 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:13.440 about her shooting. Sylvia was terrified. She denied knowing anything, 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:18.960 and she denied knowing Antoine and Aaron, but the police 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.520 had received word that Sylvia was at the house and 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.120 it wasn't just a shooting. Burnetta Pope was now dead. 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.920 Her son Albert, had called nine one one and told 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.360 the police where Sylvia lived, so police knew that Sylvia 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:37.480 was lying and that she wasn't going to cooperate. Just 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.280 two hours after the incident, Sylvia was arrested for robbery, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.560 reckless endangerment, and assault. When they got to the police station, 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:51.280 Detective Dennis Dusak questioned Sylvia about everything that transpired that night. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.920 When he arrested me, he handcuffed me to a chair 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:01.480 for hours, and he kept adding to me what happened, 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:02.160 And I told him. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.600 I didn't really know what happened. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.000 And I was talking to him and I was scared 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.320 and I didn't know, you know, what to say or 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.760 what to do. And he wouldn't let me go to 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.000 the bathroom. He let me urinate on myself. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.680 Then, she says, detective Dusak wrote out a statement for 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:19.400 her to sign. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.640 I kept telling him I had three children at home, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.840 and he kept saying, well, if you sign this, I'll 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.960 let you go home, and so I was like, but 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:29.280 this is not what happened. 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.960 So he kept me to the chair and then I 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:35.520 kept falling asleep and he hit me with a phone book. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:35.880 There's a. 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.520 Paperbag phone book to wake me up. He's like, sign 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.680 this and we will let you go. I signed the 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.120 paper and I never left. 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:58.640 Prison after that interaction, Sylvia ended up being charged with 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:03.000 first degree murder on top of robbery, conspiracy, and possession 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.320 of instruments of a crime. Antoine and Aaron were also 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:09.880 charged with murder, robbery, and a host of other crimes. 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.920 The three of them went to trial on March twenty third, 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:21.960 nineteen ninety four, and were all tried together. The prosecutor 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.640 was John Doyle. His argument was that Sylvia ordered Antoine 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.600 and Aaron to kill both Burnetta and her son Albert. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.280 And Doyle developed this theory from Albert, who said that 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.800 even though she was unarmed, Sylvia ordered the hit on 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:36.600 their lives. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:38.600 In fact, because it was. 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:42.640 Agreed that Sylvia was unarmed, Albert's statements were the main 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.720 reason prosecutors could even charge Sylvia with murder in the 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:54.239 first place. Prosecutor Doyle also presented Sylvia's signed statement, as 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.119 well as one from Aaron Major. There's no evidence that 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.920 Antoine Blackman signed a statement, but the defense council said 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.800 that the two statements that were presented were coerced. In fact, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.960 on the stand, both Antoine and Aaron said that Sylvia 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.520 did not have a gun and did not order anyone 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:12.800 to shoot. 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:14.119 All three also. 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.439 Contended that Albert actually threatened them with a gun. First 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.480 forensics showed that Burnetta was shot by two different guns. 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.439 Although accounts of very the defense and prosecution agreed on 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.760 one thing. Sylvia did not have a gun and did 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:37.480 not shoot anyone. What was that like to see your 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:40.240 mom in cuffs and facing a murder trial? 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.760 I mean, that's I imagine it's really traumatizing. 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:47.200 Yes, it was, you know, not being able to touch 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:52.080 her or talk to her and seeing them question her. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.800 And for me most because my grandmother was there and 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:03.000 at the time, my grandmother was starting to go through dementia, 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.199 so it was really hard. I think that was the 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:10.800 most for me watching my grandmother go through it, because 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.879 my grandmother would just burst out in court, just stand 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:17.359 up and scream and be like, you don't know what 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.879 you're doing or you don't know what you're talking about, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:25.320 and just let my daughter go and and the things 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.399 that you're saying, she didn't do that, So yes, it 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:30.280 was really tough. 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.800 On April first, nineteen ninety four, Sylvia, along with Antoine 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:39.679 and Aaron, was convicted of first degree murder. Sixteen year 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:41.760 old Penny was now in charge of taking care of 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.040 her younger siblings, and it was hard. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.880 I would tell friends like far as school jobs. When 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.320 they would asks about my mother, I would say that 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.600 my mother is still live in Virginia, so that did 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:05.240 not know that my mother was incarcerated. And I'm gonna 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.919 be honest, it was that love hate relationship. 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:12.679 Penny says it's been difficult to visit her mom in 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:14.280 prison over the years. 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:19.000 So to be honest. As a kid, we did go 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:25.040 a lot. It was a group that went up and 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.520 they took the children all the time. But as I 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:32.640 got older, I stopped going because I didn't like it 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.760 at all. I didn't like the way it felt to me. 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.399 I didn't like seeing my mother like that, so I 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.080 really didn't. I stop going a lot. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.359 But now that she's an adult with children, Penny wants 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.040 her kids to have a relationship with their grandma, so 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:53.560 they visit her. 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.840 It's the only way for her to have a relationship 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.800 with them since the sac You know, she is a 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:07.359 lifer and unfortunately we grew up and we had kids 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.560 of our own, and that's the only way she would 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:19.680 have a bond with them and see them. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:26.600 Meanwhile, Sylvia filed appeal after appeal to no avail. Neither 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.920 of her two attorneys were effective. Sylvia's trial attorney, Michael Wallace, 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.879 failed to file her appeal in a timely manner, so 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:38.000 he was unable to appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Eventually, 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.679 her rights to appeal were reinstated and she got a 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.760 new attorney, James Bruno, But the appeals that Bruno filed 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:49.480 were all denied and exhausted, leaving Sylvia very few options 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.840 for release, and Bruno had issues of his own. He 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.359 was later suspended from practicing law for violating rules of 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:01.439 professional conduct. Meanwhile, Antoine Blackman was released from prison on 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:03.840 his direct appeal in nineteen ninety seven. 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.600 One of the tragedies in this particular case is that 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:10.119 she never had adequate legal representation. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:12.359 This is doctor Jill mccorkyl. 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:17.359 I'm a professor of sociology and criminology, at Villanova University, 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.679 and I'm also the founder and the executive director of 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:23.240 the Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls. 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:28.440 Doctor McCorkle studies how mass incarceration intersects with gender and poverty. 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.280 She was looking into another similar case, a woman who 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:34.800 is not the shooter in a crime and also got 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.399 a life sentence when she came across Sylvia's case. 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:43.120 There are a number of women with similar kinds of 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:47.120 scenarios where it's the principal offender is a man. 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.719 She says, women are often at a unique disadvantage in 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:51.480 this situation. 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:57.720 They're unable to cooperate with police because usually they're scared 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.840 of retaliatory violence, and then you know, police and prosecutors 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:06.760 engage in a malicious prosecution. And so that's really how 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:07.720 I got to Sylvia. 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.600 Doctor mccorkyl believes that Sylvia would have and should have 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:14.400 been treated as a witness, and that it was Sylvia's 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:18.119 hesitancy to cooperate with police that got her the murder charge. 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.280 Remember when the police asked Sylvia what she knew about 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:23.720 the crime and if she knew Antoine and Aaron, she 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:24.200 said no. 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:28.720 I was scared, and I was like, what did they 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.280 go do something to my girls if I go tell 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:34.679 on him what happened. I was scared, like, I got 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:38.560 three girls at home that's alone, and I was afraid 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.480 that if I told on him, like it's something that 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:43.240 might happen to my daughters. 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.040 Doctor mccorkyl says that a lot of women like Sylvia, 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:52.280 who are vulnerable because of poverty, precarious lifestyles, drug and 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:55.639 alcohol abuse, and her domestic violence, are not in a 0:23:55.640 --> 0:24:00.000 position where they can cooperate with police and prosecutors. 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:03.440 Puts them at risk. It often puts family members at risk, 0:24:04.200 --> 0:24:09.040 and police and prosecutors, I'll say, I'll be as generous 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:15.040 as possible, misinterpret that hesitancy, and I think in some 0:24:15.119 --> 0:24:21.080 cases honestly take that unwillingness to cooperate as an indicator 0:24:21.200 --> 0:24:25.639 of criminal culpability and then hit them with elevated charges 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:29.399 to try to force their hand. And so, you know, 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:32.200 you can really look at these cases and see women 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:38.399 sort of situated between street violence and then what I 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:41.679 refer to as state violence, so that they're sort of 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:46.400 taking their chances either way. And those who are particularly 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:50.680 vulnerable to violence and retaliation are saying, all right, well, 0:24:50.920 --> 0:24:53.119 you know I'm going to take my chances at trial 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:55.240 because it's better than taking my chances on the street. 0:24:57.520 --> 0:25:00.920 Sylvia took those chances and they didn't land in her favor. 0:25:01.400 --> 0:25:04.920 Albert's contention that Sylvia ordered the hit ended up being 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:08.800 her downfall, and doctor mccorky believes that Albert testified to 0:25:08.840 --> 0:25:10.520 this because of pressure. 0:25:10.200 --> 0:25:11.359 He faced at the time. 0:25:11.920 --> 0:25:14.680 He had an open drug charge, and after he offered 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:17.920 up this information, he was able to plead a very 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:21.400 favorable and short sentence to his own case, even though 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:27.000 he never initially said that Sylvia ordered the shooting. But 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.240 doctor mccorky believes that Albert's testimony about Sylvia during the 0:25:30.280 --> 0:25:33.920 trial is actually one of the most preposterous things about 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:34.879 Sylvia's case. 0:25:36.440 --> 0:25:43.600 When Sylvia is initially arrested, she's arrested for robbery, maybe 0:25:43.640 --> 0:25:49.440 simple assaul or aggravated assaults, nothing about murder. So even 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:53.840 when the police pick her up, there's no you know, 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:57.919 kind of framing of Sylvia as somehow this you know, 0:25:59.000 --> 0:26:04.960 criminal master mind or street heavy ordering the execution of 0:26:04.960 --> 0:26:09.560 the people in this house. Now, Albert testifies to that, 0:26:09.600 --> 0:26:13.080 and I think probably does so because that's the only 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:16.640