WEBVTT - Empire on Blood | 8. I Shot Him 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.160 Previously on Empire on Blood who stayed a full name 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.800 for the record, my name is Calvin Lures. 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:13.000 If this is satisfactory for conviction, I might be in 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:14.840 for an extremely long haul. 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:16.440 All right, cal you did it. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:17.160 You did it. 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.880 We were two inmates who had sentences that ended with 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.320 life on the back. Neither one of us knew if 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:24.560 we would ever get out of prison. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:26.120 We're always gonna come. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:26.520 Out on top. 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.840 It was a nineteen nineties hip hop party, loud music, lights, 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.720 all filled a teenagers email. 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.360 McDowell had been at a party, a Sweet sixteen party 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.599 at a community center in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It was 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:56.160 October nineteen ninety. He was seventeen years old, an honorall 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.800 student in twelfth grade. Email had gone with a couple 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:05.200 of friends, arriving about eleven pm, fashionably late. It was 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.319 a chilly evening and everyone crowded inside the center. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:12.520 They ain't really meant to hold that many people put 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:12.960 there in there? 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:13.200 Right? 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:21.320 Do you have a DJ there with speakers that are 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:26.720 saved probably up to your waist, glaring ll cool J 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.320 and everybody singing along, screaming a favorite lyric. 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.759 Email was at one end of the community Center. At 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.640 the other end, there was a fight, and then the 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.840 fight moved outside and there was a shooting. One bullet 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.760 in the chest. A nineteen year old died. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.120 They asked me to come to the precinct. I walked 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:50.120 over there by myself. 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:51.280 I figured, you. 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.840 Know, I was at the party, so they would want 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.320 to speak to me, like almost the other one hundred 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.560 people that were there, which was fine. I'm always sent 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.200 up to the homicide squad. They asked me, did I 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.160 want to be in a lineup? I was like okay. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.640 Final three witnesses were brought in. One witness said that 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:14.360 he couldn't identify anyone. Another witness he wasn't sure, and 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:20.760 they said the third person identified me as having committed 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:27.200 the crime. So I was arrested, charged with murdering the 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:27.920 second degree. 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.240 Email wouldn't go home for two decades. It was like 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:42.760 years of confusion for me. How did this happen? This 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.040 is Steve Fishman and this is Empire on Blood the 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:52.040 director's cut a story of murder, betrayal, and a man 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:57.280 who fought the law for two decades. In this new episode, 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:02.320 we continue Email mcdowe's story because something life changing has 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.720 happened to Email. Over the years, Email and I had 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.000 struck up a friendship. I came to trust his judgment. 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.680 You know, I am so outside the culture, and so 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:15.760 I had a question for him. It's going to seem 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.560 like I'm a spectator, you know, kind of tapping on 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:20.480 the aquarium. 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:23.480 To me, it gives more credibility because it's coming from 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:28.679 someone that can't be labeled as like you're just a sympathizer, 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:33.560 whereas someone like me who grew up in Brooklyn bephist ivisaid. 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:35.560 That's one of the things that I have to deal 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.480 with because when I tried to advocate certain issues, people 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.280 see me where if I had lived in the suburbs, 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:44.360 it would be different. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:49.400 All right, Well, that's that's encouraging. In nineteen ninety, the 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.240 police arrested Email. For the cops, it was an open 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:58.240 and shutcase. They solved the murder in under twenty four hours. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:03.560 A trial. Email pleaded not guilty, The jury found him guilty, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.320 and the judge sentenced him to twenty two years to life, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.840 longer than he'd been alive. Email sometimes thought about his 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.640 decision to go to the precinct voluntarily. 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.080 Go in, thinking you're being cooperative, and you get stuck 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:21.360 like glue. 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.320 At the age of seventeen, Email was brought to Riker's Island, 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.800 where his face was slashed while using a prison pay 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:34.200 phone in his cell. Email contemplated his life. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.520 I was just trying to make sense of it. How 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.520 did this happen? I was always under the belief that 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:43.320 to get a conviction, they want to make sure they 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.760 get the right guy, especially in the murder case. And 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:52.160 I finally got it. If I was going to prove 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.160 that I did not shoot this guy, that I did 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:57.720 not have anything to do with him getting killed, I 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.359 needed to take matters into my own hand. I needed 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.080 to learn the law to start to fight for myself, 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:05.800 being my own advocate. 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.800 You might remember, Email was what you could call an 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:22.560 accomplished prison citizen. His reputation for accomplishment spread through the institution. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:24.640 COAL noticed and. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.960 I was just looking at him from a far and 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.760 I really could see why he was never supposed to 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:37.200 be in prison. He never fell into the mold of prison. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:42.839 He was running Cornell University College inside the prison. He 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.479 was running a lot of programs inside of prison. He 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.400 actually ran the whole industry that I made. The license 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.200 plates in the prison, Email was doing a lot of 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.000 positive things in prison. 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.039 By then, Email had taught himself a lot of law. 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.679 He was recognized throughout the New York State prison system 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:07.279 for his legal prowess. For six years at Auburn Correctional Institution, 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.160 he taught a legal research class. 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:16.680 Everybody knew that that was my prim everything legal research, litigation, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.560 and working on actual innocence type stuff. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.000 Inmates regularly came to him with their legal problems. They 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:30.400 wanted help. Email turned most everyone away because most weren't serious. 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.680 I was willing to help the other inmates, but I've 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.400 had my time wasted a lot of times where I 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.279 could have spent that time on my own case. 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.640 Half a dozen years after Call entered prison, he started 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.520 showing up at Email's door. You can imagine that Email 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.560 wasn't exactly impressed with a drug dealer accused of murdering 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.680 a couple of guys near his place of business, and 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.599 so Email put cal to the test. 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.279 The little library is like the place that had the plague. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:07.400 It. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.760 We didn't have computers, we had typewriters. 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:11.000 We had to use the. 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:12.840 Books, so we had to do it the old fashioned way. 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:14.640 When you walk in it's. 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:20.120 Just rolls and bookshelves with just books, tons of books. 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:24.040 The little library opened for the evening at five thirty. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.600 One day, Email told Cal to meet him in the library. 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:30.200 At five thirty. 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.600 Cal was there and he actually came down with a 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.960 big fold of papers and he was patient. Actually, it 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.560 was like he's organizing this stuff because he wants to 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:39.360 make a presentation. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:44.280 But Email lets Col know he's busy. This was the test. 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.680 If he wasn't serious, if he really wanted to go 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.160 to the yard, he would have left on the early 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.360 go back. But he stated, And I waited until about 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.480 seven o'clock and I went and sat down next to him. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.680 Library had pretty much emptied out, and so I was saying, 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.280 you know what you got here? And he started telling 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.040 me his story. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.160 That meeting changed CON's life. 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:09.160 Oh Man, email was very important to me. Man was like, yo, Cal, 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:14.240 I know very emotional with your case, but you can't 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.400 put all this stuff in your case. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:18.240 Cal rambles. 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.320 He was more caught up in his own you know, 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.840 anger and frustration. Well, he's saying like, I don't know 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.480 what to do. He said, you know, would would you 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.440 help me? I'm not asking you to do it for me, 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:31.960 but just guide me. 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:35.520 But Email did do some of it for him. 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.439 I were a hundred page packet, right, Email turned that 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:44.920 packet into fifteen or twenty pages. But it was so 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:50.360 concise and so powerful. I was sending this packet out 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.880 to a lot of the attorneys. I was getting a 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:53.680 greater reception. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:54.319 Right. 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.640 So that's when I really learned Yo, Email know his shit. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.600 Email spent almost all of his free time in the 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.680 law library, and not just to help other inmates. Once 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.800 Email realized he had to help himself, he was energized. 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:16.440 He started focusing granularly on that sweet sixteen party, the 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.360 one at the community center with the teenagers jammed inside 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:24.400 the building, dancing and shouting on a chilly night, and 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.520 he concentrated on the shooting, the fatal shooting that happened 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.920 towards midnight. He pieced the story together. 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.240 I'm in jail, so I'm calling everybody saying what specifically happened? 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:37.640 What would that? 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:39.720 And different people are telling me different stories. 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.079 Remember, Email says that at the party, he didn't see 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.880 the fight or the shooting that followed, so he needed 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.280 more information. He learned that there had been a beef 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.800 between two groups of teenagers. One was led by an 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.200 older teen a bully. He and his friends had beat 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.960 up a couple of kids, and then someone put a 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:06.600 bullet in the bully's chest. The prosecution supposed eyewitness claimed 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:08.600 that someone was Email. 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.120 Once I realized where the prosecution witness was saying that 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.920 he allegedly was, I told my defense attorney, I need 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.000 him to get photos of the crime scene, because what 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.839 the prosecution witness was testifying to was that he stood 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:28.640 in a doorway and literally seen through a brick wall. 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:33.960 But in court, the prosecutor repeatedly and with an attitude 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.000 like he was annoyed by the question, denied that he 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:42.080 had the crime scene photos, which is bizarre. Cops always 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:46.920 take crime scene photos and the prosecutor always receives them. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:52.760 Email was frustrated and depressed. Prison is a very lonely place, 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:59.160 and Email's quote unquote investigation had stoled. Then one day 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.920 out of blue, Email received a letter in the mail. 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.360 It was handwritten and signed by a friend, a friend 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:12.640 who'd accompanied Email to the party. This letter will prove 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.320 crucial to Email's case, and so I'm going to read 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.880 it to you. Email. You know me and you were 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.800 friends for a very long time, and that incident that 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.480 occurred should not break up our friendship. I want you 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.600 to know that if it were the other way around, 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.640 I would hold out and try to make the best 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.800 of things. Is it just me or does the writer 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:44.000 seem to be admitting to the crime, not straight out, 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:49.640 but reading between the lines, and also suggesting that Email 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:54.160 live with it and do the time, even if it 0:11:54.200 --> 0:12:00.720 was time he shouldn't be doing. The letter continues, Email, 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.600 don't think for one bit because I'm out here. I'm 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:09.679 not suffering because I am man. I'm suffering. I have nightmares, 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.960 I can't sleep or eat. Sometimes I just pray for death. 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:16.520 I don't think I deserve to walk the face of 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.520 the earth because one of my best friends is locked 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.080 up for something that he didn't do. I feel like this, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:28.720 if whoever didn't do what they had to do, we 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:32.880 probably would have been dead. I'm not out here hiding. 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.800 I'm in Florida so I can try to get peace 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.680 of mind and soul. That letter was signed by Baron Blount, 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:45.360 Email's friend. They'd gone to the party together. On the street. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.560 It was rumored that Baron was the shooter, and the 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:53.520 cops did talk to Baron. Barron told them he heard shots, 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:58.040 but only from a distance, and so the cops arrested Email. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:05.440 After all, they had supposed eyewitness who identified Email. When 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.320 Email received the letter, he was elated he had something 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.920 time barren to the crime. But for Email there was 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.599 a problem, a legal problem. His appeals had to challenge 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.800 what had happened during the trial and the letter it 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.840 arrived after the trial. Email understood the problem. 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.800 If it's not part of the record, you can't use it. 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:31.120 It doesn't even exist. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.840 Email filed every possible appeal, but he could never include 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:39.840 the letter. The DA dug in. He opposed each of 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:45.640 Email's appeals, and each time the DA prevailed. By two 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:51.040 thousand and seven, that's seventeen years after Email entered prison, 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:56.200 his state appeals were exhausted. Like cal he had one 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:01.080 last shot, a four to forty motion. The four forty 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:06.200 offered a legal advantage. It allowed Email to argue that 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:11.320 he was actually innocent, and this is key. He didn't 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.520 have to stick to the record made in court. He 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:19.840 could now introduce newly discovered evidence. He could submit the letter. 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.920 By the time Email filed his four to forty motion, 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:29.840 the DA's office had coughed up the crime scene photos, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.840 the photos they had been saying didn't exist. Email could 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:39.200 show that the supposed eyewitness could not have seen what 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.479 he claimed to have seen. Email now knew the prosecutor 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:44.240 had cheated. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.440 All you wanted to do was convict somebody for homicide. 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.480 You knew they were I, and that's on the oath. 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:51.680 And then you allowed him again to go on the 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.680 oath to say I looked dead in this guy's. 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.920 Eyes, this guy being Email. 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.640 I've seen his entire face. I seen him reaching his 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.160 waist pull a gun out, and I watched him pull 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.400 a trigger, and I saw that gun flash and it 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.520 hit the decease in the chest. That's a blatant material lie. 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.640 In his four forty papers, Email included the letter from 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:18.480 Baron Blount, a letter he'd been waiting seventeen years to use. Yeah, 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.120 the letter might not be a full confession, but it 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:25.560 was close, and it surely qualified as newly discovered evidence. 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:32.000 Email was recognized as a master jailhouse lawyer, but still 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.720 he needed a licensed attorney to defend him in court. 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.080 He'd recently read in the newspaper about a lawyer named 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.600 Oscar mitchellin Oscar had won a big case for a 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:47.440 wrongfully convicted man. Email wrote to him, and Oscar agreed 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.320 to step in, and it. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.520 Was it was a relief for me, right talking to 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:57.640 somebody who fucking got it. It didn't feel like I 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:59.840 was trying to explain a foreigner language. 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.760 Oscar grew up in the Bronx. He lives in Long 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.520 Island now, a bald, middle aged man with electric guitars 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.080 from his rock and roll days strewn around the house. 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.160 In the Bronx, he'd attended public school. He'd been to 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.200 parties like the one that landed Email in jail. 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.880 Talking to Oscar. You know, everything that I explained to 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.480 him is not subjected to this sense of you're lying 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.240 because it doesn't jive with my life experience. 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.160 An Email likes something else about Oscar. 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:34.080 He's aggressive. He doesn't just let them walk him around 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.280 the courtroom like a fucking puppy like a lot of 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.080 these lawyers, do you know, Ostill rolls up the sleeves 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:40.760 and like, fuck it, this is a rumble, let's get 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:41.040 to it. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.640 Email one is for forty motion, and that earned him 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.360 a hearing on the merits of his case. At that hearing, 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:54.320 he could win a reversal of his conviction, and so 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.920 in two thousand and nine, Email was seated at the 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:01.640 defense table with Oscar. There's no recording of this hearing, 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.960 but I know there was one key spectator, Email's mother. 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:12.800 She sat in the back. Email was prepared for a 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:18.480 legal war, but then surprisingly, before the hearing started, the 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:23.080 prosecutor approached Oscar. He didn't really know what to expect. 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.160 He certainly didn't expect that the prosecutor would offer a deal. 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:29.760 He said, no, no, no, we don't think you shot him. 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.200 We think you were involved. And that's when my head 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:36.680 probably should have exploded. 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:42.120 Twenty years earlier, Email had been indicted as the sole actor, 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.840 not for anything else, not for being. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.120 Involved, me solo by myself. 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.439 He said, I know, you guys probably didn't do this. 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:55.600 That's Oscar talking about the prosecutor. 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:57.439 But I got nothing on Blount. 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.640 Of course, at that point, the DA's office didn't think 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.360 it worth the effort to speak to Baron Blount, the 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.280 author of the letter. So yeah, they had nothing on Blount. 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.120 Know me that he said to. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.080 Me, he being the prosecutor, He. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.560 Said to me, sometimes we can't let the truth get 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:19.600 in the way of justice. 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:22.560 I said, what the fuck does that mean? 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.919 In effact, the prosecutor is talking to Email. 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.320 You're basically telling me I don't care. That's the truth 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.720 getting lost in a pursuit of justice. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.080 The prosecutor said he was sure that Email was a 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.400 participant in the murder. 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.760 I believe that he was involved somehow, So I'm going 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.560 to continue to pursue him. He's going to cheat like 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:45.880 they did in my first droute. 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.040 Yes, I wasn't going to get a fair hamon or 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:48.680 fair dropper. 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.840 Even though the prosecutor seemed convinced that Email was not 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.680 the shooter, he had no intention of letting him off. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.480 Even if the judge ruled in Email's favor and vacated 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:10.160 his conviction. The prosecutor assured Email he would not relent. 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.159 He promised to oppose bail and to take Email to 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:15.720 trial again. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.320 He's despicable. This was a piece of shit movie did here. 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:25.159 But the prosecutor did have an alternative. The prosecutor agreed 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:30.240 to overturn the murder conviction, but he insisted that Email 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:36.200 plead guilty to being an accomplice the complete fiction. In exchange, 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:41.480 the DA would get Email out on time served. He'd 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.960 never get those nineteen years back. But he could walk 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.240 out in the next few days. 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.280 I'm asking you don't make him take the offer. I 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.840 said he would admit to kidnapping Charle Limbrough's baby right 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:54.640 now to get out. 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:55.320 Are you kidding me? 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.320 It's Christmas in a week, it's his birthday in a 0:19:58.359 --> 0:19:58.880 little while. 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.080 She wants to be home, and Email's mother wanted him home. 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.040 In the back of the courtroom, she was in tears. 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.840 Her son had been kidnapped by the state and now 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:16.560 he faced a terrible choice. If he pleads guilty, he 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.760 won't be able to sue the government for wrongfully imprisoning him. 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.280 Col got more than five million dollars in compensation, and 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.720 he was a drug dealer who helped bring crack to 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:32.119 the Bronx. Email was an honor student snatched out of 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:38.920 high school, and he'd qualify for nothing. Horrible Email took 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.600 the deal. Four days later, he was home, looking for 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:58.919 a job and for justice. Fast forward. Email has been 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.640 out of prison for fourteen years and a lot has changed. 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.639 He's put his acute legal mind to work. He landed 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:10.320 a job as a paralegal at a respected defense firm. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.440 His employer took a gamble on an admitted accomplished to murder. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.479 He even bought Email a suit for work emails first, 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:25.639 and Email proved himself leading cases, winning multimillion dollar settlements. 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.280 During this time, Email and I have become good friends. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.439 We met at my bar. May it rest in peace. 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.680 Sometimes Cal joined us. Occasionally Email came to dinner at 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.520 my house. He and my wife, who's a lawyer, decided 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.840 to work on legal projects together, and when my wife 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:50.440 became pregnant in twenty twenty two, Email was thrilled for us. Meantime, 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:54.480 the city had changed in Brooklyn. The DA's office had 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:58.760 a new outlook. Eric Gonzalez was the DA now and 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:05.040 his office was a aggressively reinvestigating questionable convictions. Eric had 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:08.560 grown up in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, a neighborhood a 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:10.159 lot like Emails. 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:14.640 And I really, honestly do believe that he thinks it's 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.480 fucked up the way some of us just got fucking manhattaned. 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.479 Email would never say so, but I knew he was angry. 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.160 I could hear it in his voice, angry at what 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.080 the criminal justice system had done to him. And so 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:35.880 he and Oscar came up with a plan. Oscar sent 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:42.159 a letter asking DA Gonzalez to reinvestigate Email's case. On 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:47.280 the face of it, Oscars asked, was ridiculous. No one 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:50.560 I'd ever spoken to could recall the DA's Conviction Review 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:55.720 Unit reopening the case of someone who'd pled guilty and who, 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:59.000 on top of that, was out of prison and doing well. 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:03.400 Gonzalez's CRU is among the best funded in the country 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:07.000 and one of the most respected. But it does not 0:23:07.160 --> 0:23:12.560 have unlimited resources, and it has lots of demand. But 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:17.480 inside Oscar's letter was another letter. The letter Email had 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:21.120 held on to for three decades. This is the one 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:25.840 with Baron Bount's signature on it. That letter made its 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:27.879 way to the head of the CRU. 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.199 When he read Baron's letter, he said, he read it 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:33.760 two or three times. He's like, this fucking guy. 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:34.120 Did this shit. 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:41.600 Suddenly there was energy behind Email's claims, the wheels of justice, 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:46.000 a different sort of justice started to turn. The letter 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:50.199 traveled to the desk of Assistant District Attorney Rachel Kalman, 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:54.240 who'd been at the CRU for four years. Rachel is 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:58.800 not someone whose vibe shouts I love a fight, and 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:01.600 in all likelihood that's what was in store if the 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:05.520 investigation went forward. But she was determined to get to 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:07.960 the bottom of this. Where did she start? 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:11.960 So the first step was to authenticate this letter. Anyone 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:12.639 could have written a. 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:15.320 Letter, including Email, so. 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:17.000 I had to get the original copy of the letter, 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:22.040 which I did. We were satisfied that he had written 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:22.480 that letter. 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:26.560 So now Rachel wanted to hear what Baron Blount had 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:30.560 to say for himself. These days, Baron seemed to be 0:24:30.600 --> 0:24:34.679 an upstanding citizen. I looked at his Facebook page. On 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:39.000 it Baron's tall and in his photos he's rarely smiling. 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.520 He lives in New York and Facebook says he works 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:46.320 at the Department of Education. Along the way, he'd become 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:51.440 a pastor. One post says God. First. Family. Second, there 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:54.080 are a bunch of photos of kids in one of 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:58.000 a Father's daycard. Any man can be a father. It 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:00.760 takes a special man to be a dad, says the car. 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:05.040 He's been married for nineteen years. All these artifacts of 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:08.680 family life make me think about Email. Baron's life has 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:13.119 gone on. Email's life has been on hold for two decades. 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:17.439