WEBVTT - #482 Maggie Freleng with Eddie Ramirez 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:07.640 Back in the nineties, the crime and murder rate in 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:09.360 Philadelphia was at its peak. 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.040 There were more than five hundred. 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:15.440 Murders in nineteen ninety and the rate remained above four 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.200 hundred through nineteen ninety seven. A lot of this crime 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.440 happened in North Philadelphia, in areas notorious for sex work 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:28.479 and were open air drug markets thrived. I've reported on 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:30.960 and spoken to people who lived and grew up in 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:35.000 the area for years, people who've been punished by a 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:38.720 system hell bent on jailing its way out of social 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:43.720 problems like poverty, addiction, and mental health. Most of these 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.199 people were young men and boys of color, considered quote 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.360 super predators by politicians of the time like Hillary Clinton 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:52.440 and Joe Biden. 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:54.720 They are not just gangs of kids anymore. 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:57.400 They are often the kinds of kids that are called 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:58.520 super predators. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:00.920 No conscience, no empathy. 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:07.880 Without parents, without supervision, without any structure, without any conscience developing. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:13.000 One of those boys was David Luis Suave Gonzalez. Suave 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.600 grew up in prison, but he was given a chance 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.440 to prove he was more than the mistake that landed 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.720 him behind bars. While doing time, Suave earned degrees and 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.920 created enrichment programs aimed at things like helping men behind 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.080 bars with kids become better fathers. Throughout his years of mentorship, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.920 Save met a young man named Eddie Ramirez, also from 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:35.880 North Philadelphia. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.840 I remember when he came to the prison. He came 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.400 looking for me because he had heard of me in 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.440 another prison. I took him under the way, and you know, 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.280 I became his mentor and he became out of the. 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.960 Brother Swave told me that during the decades he'd spent 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.800 in prison meeting people from all walks of life, Eddie 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:57.080 Ramirez stuck out. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:01.480 He started talking to me about all I'm innocent, and 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.720 I was like, okay, everybody in prison is innocent, you know, 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:08.280 because that's something we don't discuss in the prison system. 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:15.520 But what I noticed was that Eddie really lived like 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:18.160 an innocent person in prison, and he had to. He 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.280 only told me one time. He never ran around saying 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.320 to me, convincing me or nothing. He'd just said, I'm innocent, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.040 but I gotta do what I got to do to 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:27.839 somebody here and to get out. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:31.080 Before life in prison, Eddie was a hyper little kid, 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:33.320 doing the things kids in cities do. 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.480 I just wanted to just be happy. I just want 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.160 to have a comfortable life, celebrating it with family and friends. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:42.800 What would that look like at. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:46.040 The time, It probably would have been like smoking weed, 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:56.959 watching rap videos, skateboarding. Yeah, like that. And I'm trying 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.000 to think how much of that has changed last thirty years. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:02.760 Eddie was fortunate unlike Suave. 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.000 He grew up in a stable home with both parents, siblings, 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.680 and love. In fact, Eddie's father was a police officer 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.560 with the Philadelphia Police, and Eddie grew up respecting the law. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.119 I just never thought of the police as being corrupt. 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:21.520 Do you think they were corrupt in your case? 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.120 I mean I ended up in prison for something I 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:24.520 didn't do. 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.000 From Lava for Good, this is wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.880 My name is Eddie Ramirez, and I was in prison 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:33.560 for twenty seven and a half years for something I 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:33.920 didn't do. 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.280 Today Eddie Ramirez. 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:48.040 Eddie was born on November tenth, nineteen seventy six, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:49.440 He's one of three kids. 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.960 I have two older sisters who were both my protectors 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.120 and my bullies, and I love them. 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:58.040 What was it like being the little brother to two 0:03:58.080 --> 0:03:58.800 older sisters? 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.480 Do you have Eddie younger siblings, you should ask them 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:04.240 see what they see about that. 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.680 So he said you guys were his protectors, but also 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:09.960 his bullies. 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:11.320 What does he mean by that. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.440 Well, he'll have the actually clear which one was the 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:18.320 actual bully. 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:19.719 I'm not going to say anything. 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:20.240 Other than that. 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:22.159 This is Emily, Eddie's sister. 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.560 He's five years younger than me. So imagine I was 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.400 five years old when this little baby boy comes to 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.120 the world, and my sister's only like a year and 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:32.919 a half older than me. 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.440 So he was just, you know, the little boy of 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:35.920 the house. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.360 I was the pesky little brother. But at the same 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:42.360 time they adored me. 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:48.320 Emily says she did and does adore Eddie and remembers 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.320 him as an active kid, always getting into everything. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:52.040 Kid. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.120 Eddie was a lot of imagination. 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.680 He was just always active the way he is now, 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.000 always active. He's trying to do something at home. We 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:05.919 have this this saying only us. The Ramier says know 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.880 that we say to each other we fike it, because 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.320 he used to say every time he would go underneath 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.400 the table and make pretend he's fixing something, and then 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.039 he'll tell Mom, I fake it. I fike it, so 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.760 all of us now whenever we fix something, we just 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:20.560 say we fike it. 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.640 We did have a driveway behind my house with the 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:25.760 kids from Ninth Street and the kids from Hutchinson Street 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.920 gathered to play sports, freeze. 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:35.080 Tag, football, baseball, king, we did everything. So the majority 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.039 of the people were our age, my sister and I. 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.120 I think Eddie might have been the youngest of them all, 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.839 and there was a couple of older guys. So yeah, 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.960 Eddie was so hyper that, you know, people didn't want 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:51.520 to you know, and they didn't want him to be around, 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:56.520 so we would have to come to his defense. I 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.880 know one time I fought a little boy because this 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:02.800 something to Eddie and Eddie was crying and I went 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:04.960 out and I fought him. 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.760 I still get called the mean girl because of that. 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:09.640 I'm the mean sister because of that. 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.279 Although Eddie grew up with older sisters, he still found 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:16.080 boy time. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.880 My cousins were the closest thing I had to brothers, 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.520 and I did everything with them. We played Street Fighter, 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.240 we played Nintendo. We would go to Hunting Park play 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:34.200 football or basketball. We went shopping, We chased girls, everything 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.320 that you can think about. I did everything with my 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.880 family In fact, I like to tell people I didn't 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.680 have friends. My friends were family members. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:45.720 Tell me about growing up in Philly back then, you 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:46.560 said North Philly. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:49.640 It depends on what you define as North Philly. It 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.840 is technically North Philly, but people from North Philly might 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:54.760 not think of my neighborhood as being North Philly. I'm 0:06:54.800 --> 0:07:00.880 logan north of the Boulevard. There were trees on my block. Like, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.000 maybe our experience isn't typical of the North Philly experience. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.040 But all of my cousins graduated from college or went 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.640 to the military, have stable lives. None of them ever 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.680 been arrested for anything while they were drugs in my neighborhood. 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.200 It probably wasn't as visible as some of the other 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:24.600 neighborhoods throughout North Philly. My upbringing was pretty modest, pretty 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:31.960 working class family. I never knew poverty. I never I 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:33.080 never wanted for anything. 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.640 This sounds very different from a lot of stories I've 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.160 heard from North Philly at the time. So were you 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.280 ever involved in any kind of crime, drugs, anything like that. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.720 No, I mean I was a graffiti writer as a kid, 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:45.600 so you know that. 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.360 No robberies, no guns. 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.440 No, no, No, I've in fact, being the son of 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:54.200 a police officer, I've never even seen a gun. 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.000 As I mentioned, Eddie's father was a Philadelphia police officer. 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.480 I sort of like idolized the police because I actually 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:07.840 saw them as heroes. Because not only was my father 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:12.520 a police officer, I have several uncles who were sheriffs 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.280 and prison guards. I grew up in a law enforcement family. 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.720 Upbringing was nothing but police officers. I mean, we used 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.080 to go camping, and it used to be all my 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:24.800 father's buddies. 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.200 Oh my god, Like we used to go camping in 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:32.320 Coatsville in the summertime every weekend. And so I grew 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.160 up with all those famis and they were all like 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:34.959 cousins to me. 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.640 February nineteenth, nineteen ninety five, was like any day for 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:52.240 eighteen year old Eddie Ramirez. 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.160 He was looking to have fun and hang out with friends. 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.160 Eddie's dad gave him permission to spend the night at 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.480 his friend Mary Emmanuel's house. His friend eighteen year olds 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.240 William Billy why he was there, and Pete Goesy. 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.000 Well Pete I didn't know that well at all. Pete 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.160 was Billy's friends. Billy was someone where I'd met in 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:15.400 years prior to that, not many years, I didn't where 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.880 I would have said I loved Billy like a brother. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.360 The truth of the matter is that I didn't know 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:26.800 Billy that well. Apparently I didn't know him that well, 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.920 and I think that it was it was obvious to 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.480 everybody that him and I did not compliment each other. 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:37.640 What does that mean? 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:43.680 We were into different things, Like I'm a big dreamer. 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.160 I don't know what he's into. But it wasn't that 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:57.040 I like to it's, you know, now thinking about it, 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:58.800 I'm like, man, I didn't know that guy at all. 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.839 But Billy wanted to playing a key role in Eddie's case, 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:07.040 and you'll be hearing more about him later. Back to 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:12.719 that winter day in nineteen ninety five, So they're all 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.480 hanging out at Mary Emmanuel's house and at around eleven PM, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:18.959 Eddie heads out to the laundromat across the street to 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.679 get a soda for Mary's dad, Jay Darnell Senior. He 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:24.640 asked for the soda earlier in the night, but the 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.360 kids forgot so Mary sent Eddie. According to Eddie and 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.959 his attorneys, he was at the laundromat for fifteen to 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.600 thirty minutes he says he met a girl there and 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.360 started flirting. She was one of the last customers of 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.679 the night. They exchanged numbers and Eddie headed back Around 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.600 one am, he actually called the girl and they spoke 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.720 for a few minutes, and shortly after Ja Darnell asked 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:53.120 everyone to leave. Peter Gozi gave Eddie and Billy why 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.000 He a ride back to Billy's house and that was 0:10:56.040 --> 0:11:02.680 that the end of a mostly uneventful night. The next day, 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.080 on February twentieth, police found the body of a woman 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:14.959 bludgeoned to death in the laundromat. Forty year old Joyce 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.760 Dennis was an employee there. She was a mother in 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.440 a newlywed and it was her first shift back from 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.280 her honeymoon in Mexico. When Joyce didn't come home after 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.480 her shift at two am, her husband Jim went to 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:29.040 look for her. 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:31.960 She would close up the laundromat late at night, and 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.679 she hadn't come home and hadn't called, so he went 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.400 to the laundromat and when he went inside, he saw 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.400 blood and he flagged out a cop who arrived at 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:46.120 the scene, and they investigated and discovered a victim's body 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.160 and she was beaten to death. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.400 Basically, this is Michael Wiseman. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.840 I'm a lawyer in Pennsylvania. I work in a small 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:56.560 firm called Wiseman and Schwartz. 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.240 Michael says Joyce had been hit in the head at 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.720 least no. Nine times with a metal bar. The police 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.600 had found at the scene when they arrived. There was 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:10.600 blood everywhere and the door handles inside, dead bolts all 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.959 on the floor. They found a fleece with blood on it, 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:20.280 and the place also appeared to have been robbed. While investigating, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.840 the police talked to Jay Darnell a few days after 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:24.720 the killing. 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:29.760 The dad of this girl who wanted the soda, reported 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:31.800 to the police that, oh, Eddie went to the launderrath 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.840 against soda and that's it. They were off to the races. 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:36.920 Eddie's the suspect. 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.200 Police start asking about Eddie. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.760 The cops got all these you know, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.520 year olds you know in the station whereas they used 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:52.200 to call it the round house, and basically six or 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.560 so people who gave statements against Eddie. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.280 What follows is a month's long investigation in which a 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:03.120 story starts to develop about Eddie and a party and 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:08.760 a confession a story that unfolds like a game of telephone. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.199 A key part of the story comes from a known 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.880 drug dealer named Corey Watkins. Police interview Watkins and he 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.440 tells them a seventeen year old kid named Joseph Mayo 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:24.120 told him that Billy Why he had killed a woman 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.880 at the laundromat. Remember, Billy was Eddie's friend, the one 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:32.079 he was with that night. Watkins does not mention anything 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.280 about Eddie. Police also bring in Billy why He for questioning, 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:41.160 and Billy ends up telling police that Eddie killed Joyce 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.000 Dennis during a robbery while he stood look out, and 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.400 after he and Eddie went to a friend's party to 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.160 buy drugs. Fifteen year old Luis Rivera says he was 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.160 at that party and he tells police that Billy told 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.440 him he and Eddie quote went to do a stick 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.320 up and Eddie hurt the lady and that the lady died. 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:07.320 Watkins's girlfriend, Melanie Foreman, also a local drug dealer, tells 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.960 police she saw Eddie a few days later and he 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:15.120 confessed to her. The police eventually reinterviewed Mayo, who remember 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:21.560 hadn't said anything about Eddie originally, but now he says, 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:25.080 Billy and Eddie told him they were involved in the 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:32.320 death of Joyce Dennis at the laundromat, almost a year 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.320 and a half after Joyce Dennis was found bludgeoned to death. 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.520 Billy why he was arrested the following day, on the 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.320 fourth of July, Eddie was working the overnight attendant shift 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:47.080 at a gas station when police showed up and arrested him. 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.640 And I thought, Okay, they clearly they made a mistake 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:53.960 and cool a headge will prevail. Let me do what 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:55.360 I care so I can get back to work. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.400 But that's not what happened. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.760 I's been in jail for twenty months with waiting trial. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.880 Both were charged with murder, robbery, and criminal conspiracy. Billy 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.680 took a deal, pleading to a lesser sentence in exchange 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.320 for testifying as the star witness against Eddie at trial. 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.560 What followed for Eddie's family was mostly confusion. 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:21.920 We remember that day when we were told he was arrested. 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:27.440 I immediately went over to my sister's house and we 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.720 were just like in shock and what we were going 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:32.440 to do, and we didn't even know what to do. 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:37.040 We did not know what to do. It was embarrassing. 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.800 In the beginning, family didn't want to talk about it. 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.720 And you know, everybody thinks that you go to jail, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.800 you have something to do with it. Nobody was going 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.720 to believe or the innocent. My brother's innocent. He had 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:51.400 nothing to do with it, like nothing. 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:57.160 You know, nobody believed that. Nobody believed it. There was 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.480 always doubt in people's minds. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.520 Emily says her dad was desperate and being a former cop, 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.520 he started to look into the case too, to see 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.560 if anything implicated Eddie. 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.560 My dad checked the house I think a thousand times. 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.480 He tried to investigate the case. He tried to be 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.760 detective and found nothing. And it was just mind boggling. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.720 What person says, Hey, let me prepare for a rainy 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:23.920 day in the case I get arrested for something I 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:28.760 didn't do. So you don't know, that's not something you 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.960 prepare for. It's just something you're in in the moment, 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.480 and when the moment comes for some people, it catches 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:35.920 you off guard. 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:47.600 And nothing could have prepared him for what came next. 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:53.600 Eddie's trial began in December nineteen ninety seven. Assistant District 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.720 Attorney Mark Gilson called Star witness Billy Wyhee to the 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:02.480 stand along with Joseph Mayo Melanie Foreman, who repeated what 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:03.720 they had told police. 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.240 Yeah, he made admissions to me. I saw him with 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.280 blood on him. I saw him with a pocket full 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:10.800 of quarters quarters. 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.280 It was all over the press when Eddie was first arrested. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:18.440 Police were saying the teenagers had killed Joyce Dennis over 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.520 a bucket of change from the machines. Then, according to 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.320 the prosecution, they went to a party, got high and 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:31.960 bragged about what they had done. Eddie's defense attorney was 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:36.560 a former DA named Jack McMahon. There was no evidence 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.320 linking Eddie to the crime for McMahon to refute with experts, 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.760 the case was all based on alleged witness testimony, so 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.199 he had to challenge the credibility of each witness. He 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.240 pointed out that except for why he, none of them 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.800 had implicated Eddie in their original statements with police. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:57.520 None. 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.400 His strategy was to rely on his obeities to impeach 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.200 the witnesses based on their own inconsistent testimony. 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.760 He was trying to point out that all these kids. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:10.840 You know, were forced to implicate. 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:12.119 Eddie, and these were all teenagers. 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.480 Yeah, the teenagers without their families involved in the interrogation, 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.920 which is itself problematic, and you know, it's just threats 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.399 and threats and threats and the you know, if you 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.520 don't give up Eddie, then you must have done it. 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.560 You know something on that you're not telling us, And 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:34.399 it's just, you know, it takes an extraordinary person, especially 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.480 as a teenager, to resist that kind of pressure, or. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.960 It would take someone who is not in a lot 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.359 of trouble. Witness Melanie Foreman, for example, was facing two 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.600 state drug charges and three federal drug charges at the time. 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.040 McMahon also called Sarah Hurd, the girl who allegedly threw 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.119 the party or Eddie had confessed, and she testified the 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.800 party had been the night before the murder and she 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.840 never heard Eddie say anything about Joyce. 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:03.320 Dennis. 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.520 Eddie's dad, also testified that Eddie came home the next 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:11.880 day wearing the same clothes he'd been in the day before. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.440 The defense was trying to make a point that Eddie 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:15.920 was not seen with blood on him. 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.560 Remember, the laundromat was a bloody mess. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:24.479 It was really inconceivable that a person who had committed 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.800 this crime would have gotten away from there. With literally 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:32.960 no blood, but they hid the fact that the place 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:34.040 was a wash of blood. 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.280 The prosecution was able to suppress evidence at trial, so 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.000 the defense could not bring up the blood. So the 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:48.080 whole case hinged on the word of these witnesses against Eddie, 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:52.200 and on January second, nineteen ninety eight, Eddie was convicted 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.199 of second degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.640 When I was convicted, I thought to myself, well, I'm 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.359 a arrest did I'm health for trial? And I think 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.200 to myself, Okay, cool. At some point, they're gonna realize 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:07.119 this is a mistake, and they're gonna drop the charges 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:07.959 and they're gonna release me. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.240 Like I was in denial, what were the first years, Like. 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.040 I was still super young and had no real identity, 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:20.120 but he's. 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.680 Had a lot of time to think about what put 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.760 him in prison and who he could trust. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.040 I stayed to myself like now, I wasn't so much 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:33.040 isolated as I wanted to learn from my mistakes. And 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:38.440 my biggest mistake was associating with people who I had 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.399 who I didn't have much in common with right and 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.240 to this day I don't do it. And so for 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:51.240 those first few years, like I'd played cards with you, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:52.720 but we weren't boys. 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.320 Years past and the reality of prison set in. 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:00.520 I remember the date, November tenth, two thousand and why 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:02.879 that date, That's my birthday. And the clock struck midnight 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:07.040 and I realized I had just turned thirty and I 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.960 had spent all of my twenties in prison. And I 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:12.840 was like, oh, this is real. 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:17.680 Time passed for Eddie's family as well. 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:22.359 It was just mind boggling. All the years the hope 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:23.240 was being lost. 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.480 But then Eddie was transferred. 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.800 I ended up at Greaterford and that changed my life. 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:35.440 Greaterford was a maximum security prison in Pennsylvania's largest able 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.080 to house about thirty five hundred men, and Eddie says 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:43.160 it was really those men at Greiderford who changed him. 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:46.879 Oh where my family taught me love and tolerance. My 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.680 brother's at Greaterford taught me how to be a man. 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:56.320 I met guys like Soabre Tyrone Works, Albert Bandy, Sam 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.160 Magic Brown. They taught me how to be an adult. 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.399 And when I say and I don't mean no, no 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:03.719 kind of toxic masculinity. 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.479 Eddie says, these men taught him how to have integrity, honor, 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:07.960 and a sense of purpose. 0:22:08.400 --> 0:22:10.200 How does that happen in a prison? 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.800 You know, how do these guys, some of them did 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.520 do crimes, how do they suddenly just become these like 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:19.520 Dali Lama guru guys. 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:21.800 Because most of the crimes that were committed were committed 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:26.879 when they were young men, and they you know, you 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.320 sit in you go to prison, and you start to 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:33.320 see the effect of the crimes you've committed, and then 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:37.520 they start to like, you're mature. And so for those guys, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.080 I mean, it happens for everyone, but it happens differently, right, 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:44.200 And so those guys who are fall intensive purposes never 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.679 going to leave the prison. What do you have? You 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.720 have your legacy, you have the way that you affect 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:55.440 other people going out into the world, and they take 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:57.959 that piece of you with them. 0:22:58.440 --> 0:22:59.879 And that's kind of what you were thinking, because you 0:22:59.880 --> 0:23:00.960 were never going to go home. 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:03.000 Oh no, I knew I was going to go home, 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:05.560 did I mean? Listen, there were times where I questioned it, 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:10.360