Speaker 1: Ricky Jackson's story, as well as his co defendants, Kwame
Speaker 1: Ajamu and Wylie Bridgman, is a terrifying tale that illustrates
Speaker 1: just how important and imperative it is to abolish the
Speaker 1: death penalty. And when we sat down with Ricky at
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty three Innocist Network Conference in Phoenix, Arizona,
Speaker 1: we spoke about everything Ricky is doing to spread that message.
Speaker 1: We're here at the Innocence Network Conference with the one
Speaker 1: and only Ricky Jackson.
Speaker 2: We recently did a movie docu drama, Lovely Jackson, and
Speaker 2: I've been traveling literally around the world promoting this movie.
Speaker 2: But not only that, but you know about criminal justice reform.
Speaker 2: Use of this movie is like my segue into those
Speaker 2: kind of conversations about reform man, because it's a tragedy
Speaker 2: to know that so many lives have been altered through
Speaker 2: wrongful convictions and wrongful executions. It effects not only individuals
Speaker 2: and victims, it affects eye on tires, society.
Speaker 1: So, Ricky, your home never going back. What's life like
Speaker 1: for you now?
Speaker 2: Well, I taught of myself as being a professional dad.
Speaker 2: You know that's my number one primary concern. But I'm
Speaker 2: also an entrepreneur. I own a business. My wife owns
Speaker 2: several businesses.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: We have a home.
Speaker 2: We have two dogs and five kids and a grand baby.
Speaker 3: So an apartridge in the par tree and apotridge in
Speaker 3: a pear tree.
Speaker 2: Give me all the names we have, Juwan, we have Heavenly,
Speaker 2: we have Lovely my two year old. We have Shamari,
Speaker 2: and our grand baby's name is Royal.
Speaker 3: So we got like the.
Speaker 2: Brady Bunch thing going on. I wouldn't trade it for
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 1: Make sure you check out Lovely Jackson to put a
Speaker 1: visual to our original coverage of Ricky's case starting now
Speaker 1: On me nineteenth, nineteen seventy five, two men approach fifty
Speaker 1: nine year old Harold Franks outside of a Cleveland, Ohio
Speaker 1: grocery store demanding his briefcase. Franks resisted, and the men
Speaker 1: clubbed him with a pipe and splashed acid in his
Speaker 1: face before shooting him twice in the chest. The shooter
Speaker 1: fired into the grocery store as well, hitting co owner
Speaker 1: Ann Robinson, who survived. Mister Franks, however, did not. An
Speaker 1: eyewitness wrote down the plate number as the assailants sped
Speaker 1: off in a green convertible. Despite the plate number and
Speaker 1: other compelling leads, police instead focused on the word of
Speaker 1: twelve year old Eddie Vernon, who had been bragging about
Speaker 1: witnessing the crime from a bus, repeating an alleged rumer
Speaker 1: naming Ricky Jackson as well as Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman
Speaker 1: as the assailants. Vernon's classmates and the bus driver denied
Speaker 1: even having the vantage point to see the crime during
Speaker 1: interviews and then the lineup. When Eddie Vernon tried to
Speaker 1: back away from the lie, the investigators threatened to lock
Speaker 1: up his parents if he didn't stick to the story.
Speaker 1: By ignoring more compelling suspects and instead coercing a child,
Speaker 1: the states at Ricky Jackson, as well as Wiley and
Speaker 1: Ronnie Bridge to death rout. When the nineteen seventy four
Speaker 1: reinstatement of the death penalty in Ohio was struck dout
Speaker 1: as unconstitutional in nineteen seventy eight, those condemned between those
Speaker 1: years had their senses commuted to life, including Ronnie, Wileye
Speaker 1: and Ricky, assuring the possibility of their innocence one day
Speaker 1: being recognized. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction.
Speaker 1: Today's story is important in so many ways. The man
Speaker 1: who lived through this, well four decades of imprisonment on
Speaker 1: the basis of an eyewitness who wasn't there, who was
Speaker 1: twelve years old at the time, who was coerced, pressured,
Speaker 1: broutbeaten by authorities, the same authorities who overlooked or ignored
Speaker 1: evidence pointing to the actual to assailants and what was
Speaker 1: a brutal, brutal crime. And I'm very, very honored to
Speaker 1: have the man himself, Ricky Jackson. Ricky, thank you for
Speaker 1: being here today.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me Jason, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So let's set the stage here. When I
Speaker 1: tell you the name of the place where this occurred,
Speaker 1: people are probably going to be given some knowing nods
Speaker 1: in their car or their home wherever they're listening, because
Speaker 1: it feels like every other episode we do is a
Speaker 1: wrong for conviction based in Cuyahoga County.
Speaker 2: Well, when you look at the number of auxaneries through
Speaker 2: Kyahoga County, it justifies the statement you just made. At
Speaker 2: least in those times, the police pretty much owned the
Speaker 2: prosecutor's office, the coroner's office.
Speaker 3: Whatever they sent up the pipeline. Nobody went against the police.
Speaker 1: No, that's right. And so your story, as you were
Speaker 1: telling me earlier, is important because if it could happen
Speaker 1: to you, it can happen to anyone. And when I
Speaker 1: say that you lived a relatively normal, peaceful life growing up,
Speaker 1: you were only eighteen when this happened. You were still
Speaker 1: really a child, let's face it, but you know, turning
Speaker 1: into a man.
Speaker 2: I mean back in the mid seventies, you know, life
Speaker 2: was not as hectic as it is today, and I
Speaker 2: was doing the typical eighteen year old stuff. One of
Speaker 2: my friends, or Wilie Bridgeman, he had joined the National Guard.
Speaker 3: He came home one day on leave. We saw that
Speaker 3: uniform and we were so all and impressed and amazed
Speaker 3: by that that we immediately set our sights so on
Speaker 3: joining the military, you know.
Speaker 1: And you joined the Marines, right, And then we're honorably
Speaker 1: discharged for medical reasons.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was doing a detail and the driver pulled
Speaker 2: off before I had a good firm hold on the
Speaker 2: back of a dump truck and I fell off, and
Speaker 2: my back hasn't been the same. I thought I was
Speaker 2: going to be able to get out. We had my
Speaker 2: back and re enlist. But in the process of doing that,
Speaker 2: Eddie Vernon happened.
Speaker 1: Yes, Eddie Vernon happened. That's a help away of putting
Speaker 1: it is very direct. It all comes down to this kid,
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about he was a kid. He was
Speaker 1: twelve years old. I feel that he's a victim in
Speaker 1: this as well. I don't know if you share that belief.
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 3: I do, I strongly share that. I mean, he was
Speaker 3: a twelve year old kid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and at twelve years old, we know how easily
Speaker 1: influenced you can be and how easily scared you can
Speaker 1: be at that age. And then a lie just grows
Speaker 1: into something you can't control. Yeah, it grows horns and
Speaker 1: it gets worse and worse. So Eddie Vernon, was he
Speaker 1: just a kid from the neighborhood. Did you guys know him?
Speaker 2: He used to be a paperboy at one time. I
Speaker 2: remember when I used to come home from school to
Speaker 2: have lunch in the winter time. He will be sitting
Speaker 2: at our kitchen table. My mother would like give him
Speaker 2: soup and a grilled cheese sandwich or something like that
Speaker 2: because it was so cold outside. Before he continued on
Speaker 2: with his route. I mean because of our age difference.
Speaker 2: I never, you know, hung out with him and anything,
Speaker 2: but I knew his family.
Speaker 1: The crime itself, this is a crime that happened on
Speaker 1: May nineteenth and nineteen seventy five when fifty nine year
Speaker 1: old Harold Franks, who was a money order salesman, where
Speaker 1: he was leaving a grocery store on Fairhill Road in Cleveland, Ohio,
Speaker 1: when two men approached him. The men confronted mister Franks
Speaker 1: and demanded his briefcase. And this is where it gets
Speaker 1: really crazy. When Franks resisted, they clubbed him in the
Speaker 1: head with a pipe and splashed acid in his face.
Speaker 1: What kind of sick people of these? And one of
Speaker 1: the men then shot him twice in the chest and
Speaker 1: fired a shot through the store's glass front door, hitting
Speaker 1: fifty eight year old Ann Robinson, who was the co
Speaker 1: owner of the store. She was shot at the neck,
Speaker 1: but somehow miraculously survived. Mister Franks tragically did not. The
Speaker 1: two robbers fled with the briefcase, remember I said, two
Speaker 1: robbers containing four hundred and twenty five dollars and some
Speaker 1: blank money orders, and they escaped in a green car
Speaker 1: that was parked down the street. Did you have a
Speaker 1: green car.
Speaker 2: By the way, No, never, I didn't even own a car.
Speaker 1: Okay man so so and by the way, the three
Speaker 1: guys convicted for a crime. The two guys committed that
Speaker 1: that's just one little fraction of the problems with this case.
Speaker 3: Right fight out.
Speaker 1: As we go along.
Speaker 2: May nineteenth, the crime had just happened not two hundred
Speaker 2: feet from where we lived, the three of us, and so,
Speaker 2: you know, we saw people gradually going towards the fair
Speaker 2: Hill area, and so we asked, like, what's going on,
Speaker 2: you know, and they're like, somebody just.
Speaker 3: Got killed up at the store.
Speaker 2: We didn't have nothing to do at the particular time,
Speaker 2: so we decided to go up there and be lucky
Speaker 2: lose as well. We got up there, and by the
Speaker 2: time we reached the location, the police were up there.
Speaker 2: There were TV cameras out there, the police had the
Speaker 2: area cordoned off, and there was a body with a
Speaker 2: sheet laying askew. And I saw Eddie Vernon at the
Speaker 2: scene at a crime and he was looking around like
Speaker 2: everybody else was. And so we stayed up there for
Speaker 2: a prosequently fifteen to twenty five minutes, and we left.
Speaker 1: The investigation involved detectives Eugene Terpe and James Farmer, as
Speaker 1: well as numerous others. They had the license plate number
Speaker 1: of the green escape car. This case came with instructions
Speaker 1: that escape car belonged to a guy named Ishmael Hickson,
Speaker 1: and they were also pointed this is I mean when
Speaker 1: I read this, my head about exploded. Okay, so get
Speaker 1: this everyone. They were also pointed in the direction of
Speaker 1: Paul Gardenshire, whose own mother contacted the store owner and
Speaker 1: the police to report that her son had a gun
Speaker 1: and that she believed that he was involved in the shooting.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: The same caliber gun, mind you, of the gun that
Speaker 2: was used to kill mister Franks.
Speaker 1: The guy's freaking mother came forward. And then another informant
Speaker 1: also implicated Gardenship, who said that he stole his grandfather's
Speaker 1: thirty eight caliber gun, which was the murder weapon, and
Speaker 1: was driving around in a convertible that was, yes, you
Speaker 1: guessed it green in color, and that was the escape car.
Speaker 1: These details were not public knowledge at the time, right,
Speaker 1: so this is inside information. And Officer Terpe found the
Speaker 1: green convertible exactly where the informant said it would be.
Speaker 1: I'm getting the chills.
Speaker 3: Now, there were a lot of viable suspects.
Speaker 2: The FBI even got in contact with the Cleveland Police
Speaker 2: Department and told them that you need to be looking at.
Speaker 3: These guys right here.
Speaker 2: They have anmo of throwing liquids in people's faces when
Speaker 2: they round them, you know, and you know, the police
Speaker 2: for a time went down this road. But when you
Speaker 2: got a twelve year old boy saying that he was
Speaker 2: an actual eyewitness, you know they're not going to spend
Speaker 2: on that time chasing these leads of what might have
Speaker 2: been when we got an actual witness.
Speaker 1: And of course she referring to Eddie Vernon, who had
Speaker 1: he actually seen anything? And had you and the bridgeman's
Speaker 1: actually been the culprits, he could have pointed you out
Speaker 1: to the police when you were all at the scene
Speaker 1: right after the crime had occurred. But the fact is
Speaker 1: he hadn't seen anything, as he admitted so many long
Speaker 1: years later, he was actually on the bus with a
Speaker 1: bunch of his classmates at the time of the crime.
Speaker 1: They all heard the gunshots, but none of them had
Speaker 1: a vantage point to see anything. It was not possible
Speaker 1: for them to see the crime, not even the bus driver,
Speaker 1: who would have had the best view. So from what
Speaker 1: I understand, there was a rumor that you and the
Speaker 1: Bridgemans may have been involved. We don't know how this
Speaker 1: river got started. Maybe there wasn't even a rumor at all.
Speaker 1: Maybe your name came from the cops. Either way, it's
Speaker 1: hard to know. But how the hell does Eddie end
Speaker 1: up as a target of police coercion and get forced
Speaker 1: into making a statement implicating you as well as Wiley
Speaker 1: and Ronnie Bridgeman.
Speaker 2: Edward Vernon was running around the neighborhood telling people that
Speaker 2: he had saw the whole crime and he knew who
Speaker 2: did it, and so, you know, eventually this got back
Speaker 2: to the gentleman that owned the store where the crime
Speaker 2: took place, and so he tracked Edward Burning down, took
Speaker 2: him back to the store and started grilling him, like,
Speaker 2: if you saw who did this, you need to tell us.
Speaker 2: And so the store owner got the police involved, and
Speaker 2: then the police started putting the screws in Eddie burning
Speaker 2: But upon talking to this twelve year old boy, even
Speaker 2: for a rookie police officer, it would have been easy
Speaker 2: to tell that this kid was fabricating a lot of shit.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, I mean this is probably an insecure
Speaker 1: kid who wanted to be the center of attention, so
Speaker 1: he went out and told people he had seen the crime. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's what started this whole snowball effect. And then
Speaker 1: the police get this tunnel vision and they decide that
Speaker 1: they don't really care about investigating the crime. In fact,
Speaker 1: when they did investigate the crime with investigation, they did.
Speaker 1: They collected physical evidence from the scene, but inconveniently, none
Speaker 1: of it matched you, Ronnie or Wiley. So the evidence
Speaker 1: that they did have, which again should have been the
Speaker 1: giant red flag ding ding ding ding thing that should
Speaker 1: have been it, right, all of that evidence pointed to
Speaker 1: other people, including the license plate number of the green
Speaker 1: escape car which they had.
Speaker 2: I mean, and all these people had arm robbery on
Speaker 2: the rap seats.
Speaker 1: So no other investigation was conducted into these or any
Speaker 1: other leads. Once Eddie Vernon came forward, all the other
Speaker 1: investigations stopped and they focused on you three guys with
Speaker 1: absolute total tunnel vision.
Speaker 2: They pretty much kidnapped this kid, you know, and they
Speaker 2: told his parents if they ever tried to get involved
Speaker 2: or ever tried to stop them from coming to get Edward,
Speaker 2: that they would prosecute them. They had complete and total
Speaker 2: control of this twelve year old kid, and so this
Speaker 2: began the process of molding Eddie Vernon from a liar
Speaker 2: and to a lying witness. They pretty much had to
Speaker 2: build this case and give Edward burning information as they
Speaker 2: went along, which is why his testimony and his statement
Speaker 2: changed from day to day, you know, because they were
Speaker 2: feeding him information. He didn't see what happened, and so
Speaker 2: he had to create something and they kept the pressure
Speaker 2: on it. Fast forward a few days later, the three
Speaker 2: of us were coming home from a party. Was about
Speaker 2: one o'clock at night, and my dad had this policy
Speaker 2: when he locks his doors at night, all in ain't
Speaker 2: getting in, you know, so it wasn't not common for
Speaker 2: me to, you know, go sleep at the Bridgeman's house,
Speaker 2: who stayed just a couple of houses down for me. Anyway,
Speaker 2: just as I was knotted off, I saw lights going
Speaker 2: by my window, you know, flashlights, and before I could
Speaker 2: get my whereabouts together, the door was exploded.
Speaker 3: In the room was filled with police.
Speaker 2: Officers who with guns lights, and they were shouting my
Speaker 2: name and was shouting at Bridgeman's names. They at me
Speaker 2: first because I was right there on the couch in
Speaker 2: the front room where the door was kicked in. So
Speaker 2: they grabbed me, threw me to the floor, knees in
Speaker 2: the black handcuffed me, asking me what were the bridgeman's
Speaker 2: at And I was so confused. I didn't know what
Speaker 2: to say because I was horrified. I mean, it was
Speaker 2: just like a total shock. But by the time they
Speaker 2: drugged me outside and had me on top of a
Speaker 2: police car, I could look down the street and see
Speaker 2: my entire family. I could see my entire family stressed
Speaker 2: out in the street, and every one of them had
Speaker 2: a shotgun pointed at their heads.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by global law firm Greenbrook Traric
Speaker 1: through its pro bono program. Greenberg t leverages it's more
Speaker 1: than twenty four hundred lawyers across forty two offices to
Speaker 1: serve the greater good of our communities and provide equal
Speaker 1: access to justice for all. In the field of criminal justice,
Speaker 1: Greenbrook Triwery attorneys have exonerated in freedomand in Philadelphia, represent
Speaker 1: numerous individuals previously sentenced to life for crimes committed as
Speaker 1: juveniles and resentencing hearings, and received the American Bar Association's
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one Exceptional Service Award for Death Penalty Representation
Speaker 1: for their work on five death penalty cases. GT is
Speaker 1: reimagining what big law can be because a more just
Speaker 1: world only happens by design.
Speaker 2: It became obvious to me that they had hit my
Speaker 2: house first en route to the Brisma's house, and they
Speaker 2: finally got the Brismans out of the house, and I mean,
Speaker 2: we will still just totally in shock.
Speaker 3: We didn't know what the hell did we do. We
Speaker 3: had just came from a party.
Speaker 2: There was no incident at the party, so we are
Speaker 2: totally confused as to what's going on, not knowing that
Speaker 2: this is all related to that man having got killed
Speaker 2: a couple of days earlier up at Fair Hill.
Speaker 3: We didn't know this at the time. We had no clue.
Speaker 2: We get downtown the next morning, we go into a lineup,
Speaker 2: they do their thing.
Speaker 3: They let us out.
Speaker 2: Unbeknownst to us at the time, Eddie Bernon was standing
Speaker 2: behind that two way glass and he refused, he couldn't
Speaker 2: pick anybody. He didn't pick anybody, and so the police
Speaker 2: never told us we were free to go. Instead, they
Speaker 2: took Edward Vernon in the back room, a twelve year
Speaker 2: old boy unescorted by a parent or a lawyer, took
Speaker 2: him back in the back room and they threatened him.
Speaker 2: They told him that they couldn't do nothing to him
Speaker 2: because he was a kid, but if he didn't pick
Speaker 2: us out in that lineup, Ricky Jackson and Wally Bridgman
Speaker 2: and Ronnie Bridgeman, that they would make sure that he
Speaker 2: never saw his mom and dad again. They were sending
Speaker 2: his mom and dad to prison for a long time
Speaker 2: because he started this process.
Speaker 3: And now he had to finish it.
Speaker 2: And so while we were outside in the common area
Speaker 2: making a phone call to call our folks and say, well,
Speaker 2: you know, they haven't told us anything, so I guess
Speaker 2: you can come and get us, he points us out
Speaker 2: while we're out in the common room with hundreds of
Speaker 2: other people prisoners or whatever, making phone calls, and a
Speaker 2: couple hours later, they called us and told us that
Speaker 2: we had been indicted for murder and they were seeking
Speaker 2: the death penalty. And that's when we found out that
Speaker 2: Edward Vernon was a kid that was saying that he
Speaker 2: has saw us do this. It was just mind boggling
Speaker 2: because my mind instantly went back to that day when
Speaker 2: I saw him standing there at the scene of the crime,
Speaker 2: like everybody else in the neighborhood, you know, and like,
Speaker 2: why wouldn't you say to the police, because there was
Speaker 2: plenty of police.
Speaker 3: That's him right.
Speaker 1: There, because Eddie Vernon never saw a freaking thing nothing.
Speaker 1: He just told a lie like many little kids do.
Speaker 1: And then he got roped into repeating that lie in
Speaker 1: an arena where the stakes were well life and death
Speaker 1: and so on May twenty fifth, nineteen seventy five, You,
Speaker 1: Wiley and Ronnie were all charged with aggravated murder, aggravated
Speaker 1: attempted murder, as well as aggravated robbery, and the trial
Speaker 1: started that August. You guys went to trial. The prosecution's
Speaker 1: case rested, well, there was nothing else other than the
Speaker 1: testimony of this little kid who is now thirteen. His
Speaker 1: testimony was all over the place. He initially told the
Speaker 1: cops that he was on the bus coming home from
Speaker 1: school when he saw two men attacked mister Franks as
Speaker 1: he got out of his car walked the store. But
Speaker 1: a trial, Eddie testified that he had already gotten off
Speaker 1: the bus when he saw the attack, and that the
Speaker 1: attack occurred as Frank's emerged from the store. So very
Speaker 1: very different than what he originally said. That should have
Speaker 1: been a huge flag there as well. Ann Robinson meanwhile
Speaker 1: testify the woman who was shot in the neck that
Speaker 1: she had been shot by a bullet that came to
Speaker 1: the store's front door, but she was unable to identify
Speaker 1: the robbers understandably so. And a sixteen year old neighborhood
Speaker 1: girl testified for the defense, saying that she walked into
Speaker 1: the store just before the attack and saw two, not
Speaker 1: three men outside the store, and that neither of the
Speaker 1: two men or any of you three guys. Very brave
Speaker 1: young girl. Several of Eddie Vernon's classmates testified that he
Speaker 1: was on the bus with them when they heard the
Speaker 1: gun shots, but that none of them were able to
Speaker 1: see the robbers.
Speaker 2: During the course of our three separate trials, we had
Speaker 2: nearly every kid on that bus testify in our behalf
Speaker 2: about what they saw where the bus was at that time,
Speaker 2: and there was like ten or twelve kids saying the
Speaker 2: same thing. You know, he couldn't have possibly seen it.
Speaker 2: We were all on the bus together. He didn't get
Speaker 2: out before we got all we got off at the
Speaker 2: same stop, and the bus driver, he's got the best
Speaker 2: seat in the house, you know, but he didn't see anything.
Speaker 2: But it was so easy to inflame an all white
Speaker 2: jewry when you got a black person accused of killing
Speaker 2: a white person. You know, anything you have to say
Speaker 2: on your behalf now really not listening to that, you know,
Speaker 2: Let's just get to the park where we execute this dude.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: And that's pretty much what my trial balled down to,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean a judge even said during a
Speaker 2: recess that he didn't believe the state witness for one minute.
Speaker 2: But I'm not gonna take the power out of jury's hands.
Speaker 2: That's your job as a judge. If you have a witness,
Speaker 2: a key witness, you talk about executing three people, and
Speaker 2: you say outside of the court record of I don't
Speaker 2: believe this kid for a man that he's lying. I
Speaker 2: saw him being coached out in the hallway, but I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna do anything about it. And when you're up
Speaker 2: against stuff like that, there's no way you can win.
Speaker 1: And let us not forget that. In so doing, and
Speaker 1: not just the judge, but the prosecutors, the cops, and
Speaker 1: everybody else who was involved in this fiasco. They're also
Speaker 1: allowing the two guys that committed this disgusting crime to
Speaker 1: remain free.
Speaker 2: Thank you for bringing that up, because it's a point
Speaker 2: I try to make so often about the uncounted victims
Speaker 2: that off Boss imprisonment possibly created.
Speaker 3: We'll never know the numbers.
Speaker 1: You guys. Meanwhile, did have alibi witnesses who testified.
Speaker 2: I hate to keep saying this man, but whatever we
Speaker 2: had to say. Yes, we had a lot of witnesses,
Speaker 2: you know, my mother, I mean, timelines, everything. But all
Speaker 2: they wanted to know was like, when is we gonna
Speaker 2: hang this league? And I'm sorry to say that, but
Speaker 2: that's what I felt like.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It didn't matter what we had to say. It didn't
Speaker 2: matter that the evidence was shitty. A white man is
Speaker 2: dead and somebody needs to pay for it. If they
Speaker 2: didn't do this, they probably did something else, you know,
Speaker 2: And that was the prevailing attitude. How can you be
Speaker 2: prepared to kill three young men based on almost absolutely nothing,
Speaker 2: But they were willing to and didn't blink an eye
Speaker 2: about it. I spent two and a half years on
Speaker 2: death Rod. I came within two months of being executed.
Speaker 2: This has got to stop. For a long time, I
Speaker 2: thought that this was just a ratio and an economical issue.
Speaker 3: But this happens that everybody.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of gunneries from around the country,
Speaker 2: including Hawaii. You know what I'm saying, that had professions,
Speaker 2: they had children, they were happily married, and they got
Speaker 2: caught up in this same madness.
Speaker 3: They got caught up in the same madness.
Speaker 2: And when it's you against the state, guess what, You're
Speaker 2: gonna lose every time. You are gonna lose every time
Speaker 2: because they don't have to follow the rules. And if
Speaker 2: they get caught, guess what, there's no repercussions.
Speaker 1: Right. Imagine if the suspect went to a twelve year
Speaker 1: old kid and threatened him, I'm gonna take your parents
Speaker 1: away from you. You'll never see him again unless you
Speaker 1: do exactly what I said. You lie like I tell
Speaker 1: you too. I mean, we all know that no one's
Speaker 1: allowed to bribe a witness, but the government can offer
Speaker 1: them plea deals. I can threaten them and not supposed
Speaker 1: to threaten them, but they do. But they can definitely
Speaker 1: offer them plea deals, and that's the best price of all.
Speaker 1: So it's like, yeah, you have no shot in hell.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right, and you had no shot in hell.
Speaker 1: So in August of nineteen seventy five, you were convicted
Speaker 1: along with Wiley, and Ronnie was convicted in September, and
Speaker 1: all of you were sentenced to death, later commuted to
Speaker 1: life in prison, which is like a living death sentence.
Speaker 1: What was your experience of death.
Speaker 2: Throw The moment you got back, there was always this
Speaker 2: feeling I'm impending doom, like it was right around the corner.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: You had you had two options, go crazy or you
Speaker 2: accept this.
Speaker 3: And make it work for you.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I was on the mission anyway, you know. I was innocent,
Speaker 3: you know, and I wasn't gonna lay back here waiting
Speaker 3: for my death. Dating.
Speaker 2: So between my workouts, I would write. I wrote so
Speaker 2: many letters, you know, And they cut the lights off
Speaker 2: at a certain time in prison, so you got to
Speaker 2: get up on the bars and like get the little
Speaker 2: light coming out from the security light outside. And I'm up,
Speaker 2: like two thirty in the morning just writing anybody that
Speaker 2: would listen, you know, like I'm on death row, my
Speaker 2: execution data so and so so and so I'm innocent.
Speaker 2: My two friends are innocent looking to my case, you know.
Speaker 2: And that's what I did, worked out, made friends back there,
Speaker 2: you know, You survived, man, the best you could, you know,
Speaker 2: like I said, but it was always an impending doom
Speaker 2: while I was back there. You know, the Ohio state
Speaker 2: legislation was in flux about what they wanted to do
Speaker 2: with the death penalty and soul. They placed the moratorium
Speaker 2: on executions, and that's what eventually got everybody off of
Speaker 2: death Row.
Speaker 3: Doing my stint back there.
Speaker 2: But life in general back there was like, you don't
Speaker 2: have a life. Your life is on the calendar. You know,
Speaker 2: you can see the end of your life. It's on
Speaker 2: the calendar. So you live from day to day and
Speaker 2: hope something comes down from the United States Supreme Court
Speaker 2: or the Higher Supreme Court that's going to spare your life.
Speaker 2: You know, things could have went the other way. This
Speaker 2: interview might not ever be happening today. My daughter might
Speaker 2: not be here today, my wife, my other children. Things
Speaker 2: could have easily went the other way.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's not uncommon for innocent people to get executed. It
Speaker 2: happens all the time.
Speaker 1: So I know you had been writing letters. A very
Speaker 1: powerful image you gave before from death row leaning up
Speaker 1: against the bars to get a little bit of light
Speaker 1: you could get. So you had written probably to everybody
Speaker 1: and their mother by this point. But how did you
Speaker 1: manage to get the Ohio Innocent's Project particulication? When did
Speaker 1: they get about I.
Speaker 2: Think it was around two thousand and five when I
Speaker 2: first wrote them. They were just themselves starting up. I
Speaker 2: contacted them and I gave them in particulars of my case.
Speaker 2: It was a long process, I mean, because they vetted
Speaker 2: everything that you send them and say to them, because
Speaker 2: they only you deal with totally innocent people. I said,
Speaker 2: over a period of like three and a half years,
Speaker 2: I got a letter from saying that they had decided,
Speaker 2: after reviewing my case, to take our case. It took
Speaker 2: another additional three or four years, you know, to get
Speaker 2: to the point of the recantation for Maddie Vernon.
Speaker 1: So Okay. Twenty eleven, Cleveland Scene magazine published a very
Speaker 1: detailed examination of the case and highlighted the many, many
Speaker 1: inconsistencies in Vernon's testimony, as well as the absence of
Speaker 1: any other evidence linking you, Ronnie or Wiley to the crime.
Speaker 1: And the article pointed out that Vernon had been paid
Speaker 1: fifty dollars by Ann Robinson's husband to testify at the trial. Okay,
Speaker 1: now fifty dollars in nineteen seventy. Whatever it was to
Speaker 1: a twelve year old kid, probably was a lot of money.
Speaker 1: But besides that, there's all the other stuff. But that
Speaker 1: was the fact, most importantly that Vernon had failed to
Speaker 1: mention in his testimony that he had literally been paid
Speaker 1: for it. Okay, So Kyle Swenson, the recorder who wrote
Speaker 1: this article, attempted to interview Eddie Vernon, but he refused
Speaker 1: to talk about the case. So Swinson reached out to
Speaker 1: Vernon's pastor, Arthur Singleton. This Swinson, guy, man, I'd like
Speaker 1: to buy him a beer. When Singleton mentioned to Vernon
Speaker 1: that the reporter wanted to talk to him, Vernon brushed
Speaker 1: him off, telling him to ignore the reporter. But months
Speaker 1: later Swinson sent his article to Singleton, who asked Vernon
Speaker 1: about it, and still Vernon refused to talk about it.
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, Singleton paid a visit to Vernon in
Speaker 1: a hospital where Eddie Vernon was being treated for high
Speaker 1: blood pressure. Singleton later said in a sworn Affidavid that
Speaker 1: he asked Vernon again about the article, and this is
Speaker 1: a direct quote. Eddie Vernon told me that he lied
Speaker 1: to the police when he said he had witnessed the
Speaker 1: murder in nineteen seventy five and he had put three
Speaker 1: innocent men in prison for the murder end quote. Then
Speaker 1: another quote, he told me that he tried to back
Speaker 1: out of the lie at the time of the lineup,
Speaker 1: but he was only a child that the police told
Speaker 1: him it was too late to change his story end quote.
Speaker 1: Singleton said that Vernon then broke down and wept, and
Speaker 1: he said, quote I could see the weight being lifted
Speaker 1: from his shoulders end quote.
Speaker 2: By then, I and myself, Brian Howell, Mark Gatzi, and
Speaker 2: the rest of the team were quite familiar with each other.
Speaker 2: I get a call one day and Brian said, I
Speaker 2: could immediately tell that it was something something I've been
Speaker 2: waiting for for a long time. I didn't know what
Speaker 2: it was, but I knew just by his attitude and
Speaker 2: the way he was trying to keep his composure, I
Speaker 2: knew it was something big. And when he told me
Speaker 2: that Eddie Vernon had recanted his testimony being a lawyer,
Speaker 2: that he is the great lawyer that he is, he
Speaker 2: was like, Yep, this is great, but it's not the
Speaker 2: end of the journey, you know. Now we have to
Speaker 2: get a judge to accept this. And I got to
Speaker 2: tell you, Ricky, recantations are the hardest piece of evidence
Speaker 2: to get before a judge. You know, once a witness
Speaker 2: makes a statement, that's it. We're going to assume what
Speaker 2: we can do.
Speaker 1: So now, after this recantation, Brian Howe and Mark Gotsei
Speaker 1: at the Ohio Innocence Project filed the petition for a
Speaker 1: new trial on behalf of you Ricky Jackson, and similar
Speaker 1: petitions were later filed on behalf of the Bridgeman brothers,
Speaker 1: and the Ohio Innocence Project's reinvestigation of the case uncovered
Speaker 1: evidence that when Vernon attempted to recant his identification of
Speaker 1: the three defendant's, police intimidated him to testify falsely. The
Speaker 1: police had never disclosed to the defense attorneys to any
Speaker 1: of you guys that Vernon attempted to recant his accusations
Speaker 1: prior to the trials. Of course, if they had, it
Speaker 1: would have blown the case up. So of course they didn't, right,
Speaker 1: because they were just deep in their own lives now. So,
Speaker 1: police reports obtained by Ohiouse Innocence Project also showed the
Speaker 1: police considered the two other men, Paul Gardenshire and Ismael
Speaker 1: Hickson as suspects, but their investigation was terminated as soon
Speaker 1: as this young kid falsely identified you three guys. And
Speaker 1: of course, lastly, the license plate on the green car
Speaker 1: scene speeding away from the crime, was matched to a
Speaker 1: car belonging to mister Hickson, whose record, his long rap sheet,
Speaker 1: included a robbery and a shooting a year earlier. Back
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six, a year after the Franks murder,
Speaker 1: Hickson pled guilty to over a dozen counts of aggravated robbery.
Speaker 1: So now we get to twenty fourteen. Judge Richard mcmonagall
Speaker 1: held a hearing on your motion for a new trial.
Speaker 1: Eddie Vernon testified that police had bet him. The details
Speaker 1: of the crime is direct quote from him. I don't
Speaker 1: have any knowledge about what happened at the scene of
Speaker 1: the crime. Everything was a lie. They were all lies.
Speaker 1: End quote.
Speaker 2: Edward Vernon was the catalyst to all of this. He
Speaker 2: got all of this started, He got us locked up.
Speaker 2: But in the end his testimony is what got us free.
Speaker 2: Anybody that was in that courtroom, in that gallery that day,
Speaker 2: hearing him from the witness stand, I have no doubt
Speaker 2: in anyone's mind that this was a guy that had
Speaker 2: made a terrible mistake and now he's sitting here, everybody
Speaker 2: against him, everybody hating him. But he's sitting up here
Speaker 2: and doing what he know he has to do. And
Speaker 2: he did it, man, he really did it. And so
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people can't understand this, People
Speaker 2: like I don't care, I still would hate him or whatever.
Speaker 3: Well, that's the y'all's problem to deal with. I don't
Speaker 3: have no time for it.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm just giving credit what credit is due
Speaker 2: because his testimony and his candor, oh, that witness stand
Speaker 2: was tent about to us being free here today.
Speaker 1: So Vernon told the judge that he was on the
Speaker 1: bus when he heard two pops that sounded like firecrackers.
Speaker 1: A bus was, you know, in the neighborhood, in the
Speaker 1: area of the store, but not near enough to the
Speaker 1: crime scene that he could have seen anything that took place,
Speaker 1: just like all the other kids on the bus had said.
Speaker 1: But based on a rumor he heard on the street,
Speaker 1: he went to the scene and told police that you
Speaker 1: three guys committed the crime. He was thinking at the
Speaker 1: timers doing the right thing, he said to the officer,
Speaker 1: and that you do who did it? But he testified
Speaker 1: that he had tried to recamp. The detectives took him
Speaker 1: to a room, just like you said, into a room
Speaker 1: and told them that they would arrest his parents for
Speaker 1: perjury and he would never see them again, etc. So
Speaker 1: he agreed to testify at the trials. So he a
Speaker 1: traumatized kid at that point, and I can't even imagine
Speaker 1: being in his shoes, much less yours.
Speaker 2: The court had decided to take a brief recess, and
Speaker 2: the prosecutor went to the bench and they talked to
Speaker 2: the judge and they took me back into my holding
Speaker 2: sale and I was in there about a minute, and
Speaker 2: my lawyers came in and said, Rick, they got a
Speaker 2: proposition for you. They said, if you plead guilty right
Speaker 2: now to all the charges, they'll consider sitting served and
Speaker 2: you can go home today. And we got to have
Speaker 2: a decision right now. I mean nothing in the courtroom
Speaker 2: was guaranteed. This was guaranteed. You know, plead guilty and
Speaker 2: you can go home today, but you're gonna live your
Speaker 2: life as a convicted murderer. It only took a few
Speaker 2: seconds when I told my lawyers, like, you know what, man,
Speaker 2: I'm innocent, and it came too far at this point,
Speaker 2: I ain't got nothing to lose. I'm gonna stay with
Speaker 2: the hand I was deal. We went out there, We
Speaker 2: went back out in the courtroom and proceeded with the proceedings.
Speaker 2: And after most of the testimony, the pertinent testimony, the
Speaker 2: prosecution once again went to the bench, and I heard
Speaker 2: the judge say are you sure in a whispery tone,
Speaker 2: and the lady nodded, and they went back to their
Speaker 2: prospective benches, and the.
Speaker 3: Judge asked me to rise.
Speaker 2: He said that the state was not gonna, you know,
Speaker 2: they weren't going to pursue me anymore. In other words,
Speaker 2: they weren't going to try to prosecute me anymore. They
Speaker 2: really believed that was innocent, you know, And it was
Speaker 2: just as simple man. After all that.
Speaker 3: It was just a simple man.
Speaker 1: So Cuyahoga, the county prosecutor, Timothy McGuinty said, and this
Speaker 1: is very powerful, he said, quote the state concedes the obvious. Wow.
Speaker 1: McGonagall journed the hearing, granted motions for the new trial
Speaker 1: filed by you and Wiley, and vacated your convictions. Ronnie's
Speaker 1: conviction would later be vacated as well. The prosecution then
Speaker 1: dismissed the charge, and you were released after thirty nine years,
Speaker 1: three months, and nine days, and would you say four
Speaker 1: hours on top of that, and at that time you
Speaker 1: were the longest serving defendant exonerated in US history. We
Speaker 1: know that there are others who