Speaker 1: In June two thousand and nine, basketball star James Richardson
Speaker 1: was back in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina, visiting
Speaker 1: friends and family. A few of his friends wanted to
Speaker 1: have a night out, so they hopped around and eventually
Speaker 1: wound up at a nightclub called The Other Place. Bumbine.
Speaker 1: Drinks were pretty much everybody in the club we haven't fine.
Speaker 1: But at some point in the evening a scuffle got
Speaker 1: out of hand. I don't know who pushed me, but
Speaker 1: when they pushed me, seeing like, oh everything, he broke
Speaker 1: those By closing time, the scene was pandemonium, spilling out
Speaker 1: onto the sidewalk, shots were fired, and two local, well
Speaker 1: known white men were killed. Within a few days, James
Speaker 1: found himself under arrest for their murders. When I get
Speaker 1: to police pass, i've been out. Do you think race
Speaker 1: had anything to do with us as far as me
Speaker 1: getting convicted? I do. And when they felt like a
Speaker 1: gag person killed two white individuals, I feel like people
Speaker 1: went harder. They feel like, okay, yeah, we gotta show him.
Speaker 1: But I didn't do it. So you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: you got the wrong person. My name is James richard said,
Speaker 1: I've been incarcerated for thirteen and a half years from
Speaker 1: Love of for Good This is Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Speaker 1: Freeling today. James Richardson. James Richardson was born on April thirtieth,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, in Greenville, North Carolina. He's the middle
Speaker 1: child of nine kids. You know, we grew up into projects,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have a lot, So I would live
Speaker 1: in one of like the oldest and roughest like projects
Speaker 1: in Greenville, North Carolina, which is still there. It was
Speaker 1: called Kearney Park. It opened in nineteen sixty two and
Speaker 1: is notorious for its violence all night every night, you know,
Speaker 1: gunshots and so much stuff going on it. As a kid,
Speaker 1: you're coming home and you got to worry about that,
Speaker 1: and you had to worry about You're trying to do
Speaker 1: your homework and different stuff, and there's so much, you know,
Speaker 1: going on. James's father wasn't really in his life growing up.
Speaker 1: He was raised by his mother, Dorothy and Richardson as
Speaker 1: well as his older siblings. Why you're not having a
Speaker 1: father figure. I kind of leaned on my brothers as
Speaker 1: well as you know, could come to some of the guys,
Speaker 1: that's you know there was in a neighborhood to kind
Speaker 1: of just to help, you know, that would be there
Speaker 1: adjusted that you know, give me advice, so different things
Speaker 1: that I didn't know, and that you know, she're like
Speaker 1: a father should be able to strategue you. James's brother, Donald,
Speaker 1: taught him to play baseball. One day, Donald took him
Speaker 1: to try out for a little league. The tryouts were
Speaker 1: in a different section of town than where they lived,
Speaker 1: and for the first time James saw what life looked
Speaker 1: like outside of the projects. Right, Wow, it's so different.
Speaker 1: Everything over there was just like grass, green grass, and
Speaker 1: everything is like clean and no trash nowear and everything.
Speaker 1: So it was different from me, and I met different
Speaker 1: people and really just became friends. But a lot of
Speaker 1: the guys and the friends James made were from all
Speaker 1: different walks of life. I guess for me that was
Speaker 1: just like a turning point in something. I would just
Speaker 1: motivated and just get out. Just because I lived, you know,
Speaker 1: and I was born and I live here in this projects, right,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that I had to they just be here
Speaker 1: and settle for this. So I kind of wanted to
Speaker 1: do something with myself, make it out of there because
Speaker 1: I didn't like, you know, the conditions that I was
Speaker 1: living in. I didn't like what I had to go through.
Speaker 1: James dreamed of making it up and out, and not
Speaker 1: just for himself. I looked at what my mom, you know,
Speaker 1: what she went through by raising nine kids and really
Speaker 1: having no help, and I just wanted to, you know,
Speaker 1: be able to help her and move her out of
Speaker 1: the projects. James saw baseball as his ticket out until
Speaker 1: he discovered basketball. That was my getaway from a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that was going on around me. You know,
Speaker 1: when I was on that court, nothing else mattered to me.
Speaker 1: And I just picked the game up and I just
Speaker 1: started playing, and I loved it. At six foot seven
Speaker 1: and two hundred and fifteen pounds, James was all but
Speaker 1: perfect for the court, and with his light skin and
Speaker 1: green eyes, he stands out in the crowd. James became
Speaker 1: a star high school basketball player and went on to
Speaker 1: in college professionally. I end up, you know, saying, being
Speaker 1: blessed to make get out of the hood to go
Speaker 1: to college. I got our full ride scholarship. James attended
Speaker 1: Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. He went on to travel
Speaker 1: the world and play for several European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria,
Speaker 1: and Greece. France was my first job. That the first
Speaker 1: time I've ever been out of the country. You know,
Speaker 1: I was happy because you know, you get paid, you
Speaker 1: paid real good old season. I was able to go
Speaker 1: over there and you know, do you know out there
Speaker 1: played a game that I love. My mom was happy.
Speaker 1: I was able to send money back to my family
Speaker 1: to help. And on his first day in France, James
Speaker 1: made a new friend. I came out with this little
Speaker 1: kid just like they played eight years old, and he
Speaker 1: was sitting on my step and when I come out,
Speaker 1: he say basketball, basketball right, and so night, okay, tell
Speaker 1: him looking around right? Because I didn't speak French, and
Speaker 1: so I started to get it, like okay, he tried
Speaker 1: to sail, you're the basketball player. The boy waited for
Speaker 1: James every day and followed him everywhere to the store,
Speaker 1: to the gym. And James noticed that the kid were
Speaker 1: the same clothes every day. He was from one of
Speaker 1: the poor areas of town. So what I did was
Speaker 1: I took the lighter to him and I bought him clothes.
Speaker 1: I bought him shoes, I made should he could bring
Speaker 1: his family. He brought his mom and them, they came
Speaker 1: to the game. I ain't just trying to just beat him.
Speaker 1: That was when James knew what he wanted to do
Speaker 1: in life. I always wanted to get back. Don't want
Speaker 1: to get back to you know kids. I think they
Speaker 1: deserved that. So when he returned to the States, James
Speaker 1: became a mentor for kids in his community, coaching them
Speaker 1: when on one, advocating for them where they needed extra support,
Speaker 1: and helping out at youth basketball camps. I like helping.
Speaker 1: I like you giving back. I think that's something big
Speaker 1: with me. And I tell a lot of people that
Speaker 1: the money thing doesn't matter to me. I care about
Speaker 1: you know, people because I feel like, you know, I'm saying,
Speaker 1: we put on this earth to help to help others.
Speaker 1: In his early thirties, James moved to Atlanta and started
Speaker 1: working as a party promoter. He used his celebrity status
Speaker 1: to draw other players to events, attracting crowds of fans
Speaker 1: and attendees. One night, he was hanging out with his
Speaker 1: cousin and some friends when he met someone. It was
Speaker 1: really casual. We kind of just we're hanging you know,
Speaker 1: We're all hanging out one night, and that initial meeting,
Speaker 1: James and I had like great conversation. It was just
Speaker 1: very organic. This is Hibba lawad. The conversation was so
Speaker 1: fluid and so natural, and after that we really built
Speaker 1: a strong friendship. You know, James and I used to
Speaker 1: talk about dreams and aspirations and five to ten year plans,
Speaker 1: things that you don't usually talk about, you know, with
Speaker 1: someone that you just meet right off the bat. Hibbo
Speaker 1: wasn't looking for a relationship at the time, but there
Speaker 1: was just something about James. He was unlike any other
Speaker 1: man that I had met. The conversations were always about
Speaker 1: how he wants to help people, how he wants to
Speaker 1: give back, you know, how he wants to make his
Speaker 1: mark in this world by doing for others what you know,
Speaker 1: maybe he didn't get or didn't have growing up. You know,
Speaker 1: his love for children is out of this world. Like
Speaker 1: every time we chatted, I learned something new. The two
Speaker 1: were developing a strong friendship, but before they could explore
Speaker 1: their relationship further, something completely unexpected happened. Near the end
Speaker 1: of June, James headed back to Greenville for a visit.
Speaker 1: He was just back from overseas and didn't have a
Speaker 1: car of his own yet, so he had borrowed one,
Speaker 1: a white BMW to make the trip from Atlanta. He
Speaker 1: spent a night in Rally on the way, and a
Speaker 1: friend there asked him to give a ride to a
Speaker 1: couple of guys who joined James for the ride down
Speaker 1: to Greenville. When he arrived in his hometown on June
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, James made his rounds visiting family and friends,
Speaker 1: and eventually landed at the house of a childhood friend,
Speaker 1: Darryl Powell. James's friends wanted to go clubbing, and they
Speaker 1: asked him to join. I had on some ball in
Speaker 1: shorts and like them, you know, Nike sandals out William
Speaker 1: want to go, and so everybody else like, oh man,
Speaker 1: let's go, let's go, let's go. So, you know, not me.
Speaker 1: Not want to disappoint people, because that's how I am.
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, end up going. The guys that drove
Speaker 1: from Rally with James ended up taking the BMW, so
Speaker 1: he borrowed Garl's Cadillac to meet his brother Andre at
Speaker 1: Doctor Unk's Club. While there, the Rally guys showed up
Speaker 1: and asked to take the Cadillac instead of the BMW,
Speaker 1: so James switched cars with them. Around midnight, the group
Speaker 1: decided to move over to the Other Place nightclub, which
Speaker 1: was known as Ops. James arrived in the white BMW.
Speaker 1: I'm buying everybody drinks. We have them, fine, I'm buying drinks.
Speaker 1: Were pretty much everybody in the club. Soon the rally
Speaker 1: guys returned with the Cadillac and gave James the key. James,
Speaker 1: wearing basketball shorts with no pockets, put the key in
Speaker 1: his sock and continue to party. So at some point
Speaker 1: it's still bump me. I tell him, you know, can
Speaker 1: you sleep? Stopped buff me? Okay, so hi, miss Lay.
Speaker 1: He buffed me again, but he trunk. The club was
Speaker 1: crowded and the bumping continued. He still he bumping me stuff,
Speaker 1: and so I tell him stop. You know, next time
Speaker 1: he bumping night the third time, I said, listen, man,
Speaker 1: go over there. By this time, you know, his friends
Speaker 1: come told him like that. You know, I'm telling everybody
Speaker 1: let it go and be Barton to come to what's
Speaker 1: going on. I don't know. I say, it's got it
Speaker 1: right here. I guess he's drunk. He bumped me. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm just telling to go over there. James remembers that
Speaker 1: one of the owners, Matthew Blackman, then came over and
Speaker 1: asked them all to leave, even you know, young lady club,
Speaker 1: don't come back to my club. The more so I
Speaker 1: tell him, I said, Man, I said, I haven't started anything.
Speaker 1: I said, but that's fine. I ain't gotta come key
Speaker 1: club the more whatever. Blackman then had bouncers escort James
Speaker 1: and his friends out. In the chaos, James left the
Speaker 1: bmwks on the bar. It was closing time at this point,
Speaker 1: around two am, and people had started to gather on
Speaker 1: the sidewalk outside. Suddenly, James felt someone push him. I
Speaker 1: don't know, pushed me. Oh when they pushed messing like
Speaker 1: oh everything he broke those A brawl ensued. In the confusion,
Speaker 1: Blackman got punched, somebody hit owner, he grabbed me and
Speaker 1: because you know I still other have one day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the sandals right with the like the left sand, the
Speaker 1: Nike sandals and stuff. We fall because some of my
Speaker 1: head hit the seaman. I'm bleeding and stuff. Right, so
Speaker 1: an all day after that, right, it's all a second fight.
Speaker 1: People piled onto James. A bouncer later testified it was
Speaker 1: kind of pandemonium. Thanks for the one day. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to just leave. James eventually broke free from the melee.
Speaker 1: A witness later said they saw him walking away down
Speaker 1: the street by himself. James remembered the Cadillac key in
Speaker 1: his sack, so I go and I get the key
Speaker 1: again into Cadillac and I hope you're calling me, but
Speaker 1: I just leave. This episode is underwritten by AIG, a
Speaker 1: leading global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate social
Speaker 1: responsibility and to making a positive difference in the lives
Speaker 1: of its employees and in the communities where they work
Speaker 1: and live. In light of the compelling need for pro
Speaker 1: bono legal assistance, and in recognition of AIG's commitment to
Speaker 1: criminal and social justice reform, the AIG pro Bono Program
Speaker 1: provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented communities
Speaker 1: and individuals. The brawl died down and the crowd began
Speaker 1: to disperse. Black men later said that as they left,
Speaker 1: some of the guys who were kicked out with James
Speaker 1: that night were yelling, we have something for you. We're
Speaker 1: going to come back and shoot you up. Minutes later,
Speaker 1: a white BMW tore down the street towards Op's. People
Speaker 1: were still on the sidewalk when someone in the car
Speaker 1: fired at least six shots into the crowd. The bullets
Speaker 1: hit two white men, twenty one year old to land
Speaker 1: In Blackly, a popular East Carolina University student, in twenty
Speaker 1: nine year old Andrew Kirby, a well known local business manager.
Speaker 1: Both men died from their injuries. Connie Elks was assigned
Speaker 1: as the case's lead investigator. During her investigation, she spoke
Speaker 1: to multiple witnesses who were outside of the club that night.
Speaker 1: People remembered that a professional basketball player was among those
Speaker 1: kicked out of the club. These witnesses also gave descriptions
Speaker 1: of the shooter. Most of the descriptions were varied, but
Speaker 1: none of the witnesses descriptions match James. Nevertheless, Elks focused
Speaker 1: on him. Some witnesses were offered lineups. They told police
Speaker 1: that while they recognized James as being at the club,
Speaker 1: he was not the shooter or even one of the
Speaker 1: guys who was in the BMW when it drove by.
Speaker 1: Witnesses Nicholas Golden and Brian Richards both said the person
Speaker 1: was shooting from the BMW's back passenger window, and they
Speaker 1: both described the shooter as a black male wearing a
Speaker 1: black shirt, a black and red baseball cap, and sunglasses.
Speaker 1: James remember was dressed differently. I had no Nike's sandals.
Speaker 1: Golden and Richards were the only two witnesses who actually
Speaker 1: saw the shooting. Richards immediately described what he witnessed to
Speaker 1: a bartender and she gave them both a pen and
Speaker 1: paper so they wouldn't forget the details. While they gave
Speaker 1: witness statements that night, officers did not follow up with
Speaker 1: them for nearly eighteen months, and unlike other witnesses, they
Speaker 1: were never provided any lineups. Some people also reported seeing
Speaker 1: James Levops in a gold Cadillac parked around the corner.
Speaker 1: Regardless of all this, James was immediately the main suspect.
Speaker 1: His photo was blasted all over the media, and he
Speaker 1: was publicly proclaimed the armed and dangerous killer. Later on
Speaker 1: the day of the shooting, June thirtieth, James was back
Speaker 1: in rally about an hour and a half away when
Speaker 1: his sister told him the police were looking for him. Confused,
Speaker 1: James called his friend Sean, who worked with the Greenville
Speaker 1: Police Department, and I asked Sean, that's the Sean was
Speaker 1: going on. You know, he pretty much told me nothing,
Speaker 1: we just want to talk to you. You know, they
Speaker 1: just wanted they just want to talk to you whatever.
Speaker 1: So I was like, okay, like you know, that's fine.
Speaker 1: I thought he was. They were talking about that, just
Speaker 1: the fight about downtown. At this time, I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about no shoe, no, no, nothing about none of this.
Speaker 1: James didn't know anyone had been killed. He thought the
Speaker 1: police just wanted to know about the fight. He told
Speaker 1: Sean he'd talked to them in a couple of days
Speaker 1: when he was back in Greenville for Fourth of July,
Speaker 1: and they agreed to meet up. Then that's my town, right,
Speaker 1: that's it. But I'll be back in a couple he said.
Speaker 1: That's fine, right, that's where you said. So I'm like okay.
Speaker 1: Once in Greenville, James told Sean to come to his
Speaker 1: grandma's house to talk. So when I get over there,
Speaker 1: I get out of the car. It's deeper everywhere, right,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, like, okay, you know, everybody ready for the
Speaker 1: cook out. But at the same time, I see Sean
Speaker 1: standing out that is regular host. So as I get out,
Speaker 1: and then I see the police badge around his neck.
Speaker 1: So then I'm just like, um, I said, Shaw, what's
Speaker 1: up man? I said, you know, okay, we want to
Speaker 1: talk about He was like, nah, we got to go
Speaker 1: down to the station. When James went to the Greenville
Speaker 1: precinct with his friend Sean, he was immediately arrested. When
Speaker 1: I get to police station, that's last time I was.
Speaker 1: I've been out. A few months later, he was indicted
Speaker 1: for two counts of first degree capital murder and was
Speaker 1: facing the death penalty. And every since then, I've been
Speaker 1: fighting for my innocent Wow. Man, like, this can't be now.
Speaker 1: I've never been in trouble, so I don't know. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what this space. You know, people tell the truth.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that I go to trial and I'll be out,
Speaker 1: you know, if you know my innes isn't gonna prevail.
Speaker 1: But that's not what happened. It was clear to the
Speaker 1: district attorneys at the time, probably the law enforcement officers
Speaker 1: at the time, that this was a career making kase.
Speaker 1: This is don Blair Grove, the executive director of Emancipate NC,
Speaker 1: a North Carolina social and criminal justice reform nonprofit organization.
Speaker 1: She's also a post conviction attorney helping James's legal team,
Speaker 1: and if they could convict a high profile celebrity like James,
Speaker 1: they would be able to build whole careers off of
Speaker 1: his conviction. Whether it was right or wrong. They were
Speaker 1: going to make an example out of James Richardson for
Speaker 1: shooting and killing two white men. The prosecutors were District
Speaker 1: Attorney Clark Everett and Ada Kimberly Rob. The prosecutor's theory
Speaker 1: was that James was the only person in the BMW
Speaker 1: and that wild he leaned out the passenger window to
Speaker 1: shoot into the crowd, ultimately killing Blackley and Kirby. During
Speaker 1: a pre trial hearing, Everett and Rob called four bar patrons,
Speaker 1: expecting them to identify James as the person driving and
Speaker 1: shooting from the BMW. These witness descriptions were inconsistent. They
Speaker 1: all said the shooter was a medium to dark skinned
Speaker 1: black man, but none of their differing descriptions matched James,
Speaker 1: a light skinned, green eyed black man. At the end
Speaker 1: of the pre trial hearing, it was evident that the
Speaker 1: States case was hanging in the balance. So Detective Alps new,
Speaker 1: We've got a problem. We don't have anyone that can
Speaker 1: put James in that car. This is Heather Radelaide, who
Speaker 1: is James's post conviction attorney of record. So one week
Speaker 1: before trial, low and behold, they discover a brand new
Speaker 1: eyewitness and his name is Fidel Thorpe. He happened to
Speaker 1: be the assistant prosecutor's daughter's soccer coach. By the time
Speaker 1: of trial, two years after the shooting, Vidal Thorpe became
Speaker 1: the state's star witness, given he was the only one
Speaker 1: who positively identified James as the shooter, even though he
Speaker 1: was never given a lineup. He testified that he saw
Speaker 1: James's face through the passenger window. Detective Connie Elks testified
Speaker 1: under oath that one of the witnesses, Rachel Burke, saw
Speaker 1: a black man wearing a white tshirt go to the
Speaker 1: trunk of the BMW and take out a gun. Detective
Speaker 1: Elks also said that Rachel identified James as the shooter
Speaker 1: on the stand. However, Rachel's testimony undermined all of this.
Speaker 1: She pointed to the defendant, so that's not the person
Speaker 1: identified in the lineup. To this day, we don't know
Speaker 1: who she identified in the lineup. Then, Corporal John Jenkins
Speaker 1: provided bombshell evidence, the only actual evidence the state had
Speaker 1: against James a surveillance video. The video was of the
Speaker 1: white BMW racing down the street, showing only one person
Speaker 1: in the car shooting at the crowd. Officer Jenkins said
Speaker 1: the video was the original and that it hadn't been
Speaker 1: altered or modified in any way. James's attorneys, Tommy Moore
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Cutler, did their best to refute the state's argument,
Speaker 1: but the video left them stymied. The court also denied
Speaker 1: the eyewitness identification expert they retained, so all they could
Speaker 1: do was point out the inconsistencies and the witness testimonies
Speaker 1: on their own. However, they were able to present an
Speaker 1: alibi witness for James, Daryl Powell. He testified that he
Speaker 1: saw James immediately after the fight that night, when James
Speaker 1: returned the gold Cadillac to his house. The defense also
Speaker 1: presented Nicholas Golden and Brian Richards, the only two witnesses
Speaker 1: to describe the shooter to responding officers. They both testified
Speaker 1: that it was not James who they saw in the call.
Speaker 1: The jury went to deliberation on April first, twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Most of the jurors were convinced that James was guilty,
Speaker 1: but as it turns out, there was one loan holdout.
Speaker 1: Three days into deliberations, one of the black jurors, Lamuel Anderson,
Speaker 1: sent a note to the judge asking to be removed
Speaker 1: from the jury. He felt like James will Sendison, but
Speaker 1: he was intimidated inside of the jury room. The racial
Speaker 1: tension and hostility in the jury room, Anderson said, had
Speaker 1: become intolerable. The judge has a duty at that point
Speaker 1: to take that juror out of the jury room and
Speaker 1: ask him questions about why he's requesting this. But this
Speaker 1: judge didn't do that. Instead, he brought the entire jury
Speaker 1: out and essentially admonished mister Anderson in front of all
Speaker 1: of his fellow jurors, say quote, I must emphasize the
Speaker 1: fact it is your duty to reach a verdict on
Speaker 1: all of the charges. Judge W. Russell Duke Junior went
Speaker 1: on to say, quote, I have already instructed you that
Speaker 1: your verdicts must be unanimous. Each of you must agree
Speaker 1: on the verdicts. Now, let me be clear about what
Speaker 1: Heather is described. What she's actually describing is the living
Speaker 1: manifestation of systemic and institutional racism. The fact that this
Speaker 1: drawer raised the concerns about racial intimidation happening inside of
Speaker 1: the jury deliberation room should have given this judge a
Speaker 1: strong pause and created strong doubt as to whether or
Speaker 1: not a fair verdict could have been reached. It took
Speaker 1: like three four days for them to come back with
Speaker 1: a conviction on a capital key. Their deliberation ended with
Speaker 1: a unanimous decision. Anderson later came forward to say that
Speaker 1: he believed James to be one hundred per scent innocent,
Speaker 1: but the intimidation from the other jurors had been too much.
Speaker 1: The jury declared James Richardson guilty and I'm just like wow,
Speaker 1: and so it's like, somebody take peace. It isn't punch
Speaker 1: him in the stomach when you hear a guilty James
Speaker 1: was convicted of murder on April sixth, twenty eleven. The
Speaker 1: prosecution chose not to seek the death penalty. Instead, James
Speaker 1: received two sentences of life without parole. And here's a
Speaker 1: side note. Since nineteen eighty three, Pitt County, or James
Speaker 1: was tried, has sent seven men to death row, and
Speaker 1: all of them have been black. Pitt County has never
Speaker 1: sought the death penalty. Against a white defended accused of
Speaker 1: killing a black man. Statistically, in North Carolina, defendants are
Speaker 1: twice as likely to be sentenced to death if they're
Speaker 1: accused of killing a white person. It was hurtful and
Speaker 1: it was just I was just stunning. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I feel like a like a gag person kill two
Speaker 1: white individuals. I feel like people were harder. They feel like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta show him. James filed a direct appeal in
Speaker 1: July twenty twelve, mainly arguing that the court aired in
Speaker 1: denying his eyewitness experts testimony. The appeal was denied, but
Speaker 1: his team continued to file petitions for relief, and in
Speaker 1: the meantime, he tried to focus on staying positive by
Speaker 1: praying and continuing to do what he loved the most,
Speaker 1: mentoring a lot of the kids. Man, I don't want
Speaker 1: him to go back out there coming in the same
Speaker 1: the same way to Camy. I want him to go
Speaker 1: back out there to be a positive influence on someone else.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm trying to help people.
Speaker 1: I want people to do better. James and Hibba hadn't
Speaker 1: seen much of each other since he'd returned to the States,
Speaker 1: but he was on her mind for a couple of
Speaker 1: months after the incident happened. You know, I was constantly
Speaker 1: sitting I'd say, like with a heavy heart because I
Speaker 1: knew I knew, I knew in my gut that James
Speaker 1: hadn't done this. And a couple of months later I
Speaker 1: ended up getting you know, his contact information. What made
Speaker 1: you want to reach out to him? I couldn't sleep. So,
Speaker 1: you know, when you have this like just gut wrenching
Speaker 1: feeling in your stomach that something's wrong, I wanted more answer. Right,
Speaker 1: It wasn't just okay, you know this is a great guy.
Speaker 1: You've had this heavy heart, you know in your gut
Speaker 1: that he couldn't have done this. But I needed answers.
Speaker 1: So Hibba started pouring over James's case, trying to understand
Speaker 1: what had happened, and every time I would look through
Speaker 1: another piece of paper or another police report, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this makes absolutely no sense, right, this makes absolutely zero sense. Finally,
Speaker 1: after nearly five years of investigating on her own, Hibba
Speaker 1: got some help from Heather. After looking it over, Heather
Speaker 1: agreed to take on James's case. Then, when I looked
Speaker 1: at James's case, I couldn't believe it. I've been looking
Speaker 1: at capital murder chases in the state for were twenty
Speaker 1: five years, and this case is an outlier. I don'tlike
Speaker 1: anything I've ever seen. Dawn also joined Heather to fight
Speaker 1: for James's innocence. She says it was obvious detective Elks
Speaker 1: had tunnel vision focusing on James, not only because he
Speaker 1: was a celebrity, but also because of his race. The
Speaker 1: undercurrent in any of these types of small towns is
Speaker 1: that black men are scary and they have a place
Speaker 1: that they're supposed to stay in. James Richardson had made
Speaker 1: a very successful life for himself, had not stayed in
Speaker 1: that place that he was supposed to stay in, was
Speaker 1: doing much better than many of the local residents. One
Speaker 1: of their main post conviction arguments that the trial was
Speaker 1: fundamentally unfair focuses on Lamuel Anderson. That's the juror who
Speaker 1: was intimidated into convicting James despite believing he was innocent.
Speaker 1: This happens all of the time in our judicial system,
Speaker 1: and it is at the heart of why we end
Speaker 1: up with so many, so manyful convictions that are disproportionately
Speaker 1: impact in black communities. It is because our systems are
Speaker 1: designed to subjugate black voices and to amplify white voices,
Speaker 1: even when those white voices are racist. Additionally, the team
Speaker 1: secured an interview with a. Vital Thorpe, the state's star witness,
Speaker 1: and he recanted. At trial, Thorpe had testified quote I
Speaker 1: saw his face, but when questioned by the investigator, he
Speaker 1: admitted he did not see the shooter's face, that he
Speaker 1: only saw an arm and a gun coming out the
Speaker 1: back window of the car. They also argued that by
Speaker 1: the court denying expert testimony for the defense, they violated
Speaker 1: James's due process rights. The defenses expert would have explained
Speaker 1: to the jury that many of the witnesses were white,
Speaker 1: and studies have shown that cross racial identifications are often
Speaker 1: flawed because of own race by In James's case, white
Speaker 1: witnesses confused him with another bar patron who was a
Speaker 1: dark skinned blackmail Black witnesses, on the other hand, were
Speaker 1: able to describe James accurately. James's brother, Andrea, also came
Speaker 1: forward and signed an affidavit stating that during the scuffle
Speaker 1: in the club, he was the one who took the
Speaker 1: BMW keys off the bar. Remember, James left them there
Speaker 1: amidst the chaos. Andre, who was never called to the
Speaker 1: witness stand during the initial trial, said he gave the
Speaker 1: keys to one of the guys from Raleigh who was
Speaker 1: known as B. And Finally, it turns out the key
Speaker 1: evidence against James, the surveillance video footage that showed the
Speaker 1: BMW was not the original video. It was actually a
Speaker 1: lower quality copy that had been altered, and the prosecution
Speaker 1: did not preserve the original copy For the defense, Heather
Speaker 1: and Dawn analyzed the video and saw that it was
Speaker 1: badly distorted. What they used to support that version of
Speaker 1: events were incredibly tainted videos, videos that never should have
Speaker 1: been introduced into trial. The defense council had no idea
Speaker 1: that they even needed to do deep dive investigation into
Speaker 1: the validity of that video, because it was never disclosed
Speaker 1: to them that that video and those images were significantly deteriorated.
Speaker 1: In other cases, District Attorney Everett had been known to
Speaker 1: suppress exculpatory evidence, for example, that lab tests were altered
Speaker 1: and no evidence actually linked the defendant to the crime.
Speaker 1: On September eighth, twenty twenty one, James filed his second
Speaker 1: motion for appropriate relief, arguing all of this and asking
Speaker 1: the court to vacate his conviction. Today, after years of
Speaker 1: writing and visits, James and Hibba are engaged to be married.
Speaker 1: It's just me and James, like nothing else matters, Like
Speaker 1: we kind of get into this zone where it's just
Speaker 1: the two of us and there's nothing better than being
Speaker 1: able to see him, like laugh and smile for a
Speaker 1: little bit. They often talk about their plans for the
Speaker 1: future aside from you know, getting married. We have collectively
Speaker 1: decided that, you know, we have a bigger purpose in
Speaker 1: this world, and that is, you know, not to just
Speaker 1: kind of carry out his original plans of helping you know,
Speaker 1: children in underserved communities, but hopefully, you know, God willing
Speaker 1: would love to help people in this space, you know,
Speaker 1: people that have been wrongfully convicted, families that are dealing
Speaker 1: with wrongfully convicted individuals or you know, whether they're spouses
Speaker 1: or children, and um, you know, really just finding a
Speaker 1: way to take all of our experiences and help other people.
Speaker 1: James has developed widespread support for his innocence in the
Speaker 1: Greenville community, where he's known as a youth mentor and
Speaker 1: a role model. There are still people in Greenville that say, gosh,
Speaker 1: a lot of these kids would have turned out so
Speaker 1: much better if James was here. I know one day
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get out. I know one day I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get out to kind of know I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: So you have to just stay positive through this whole situation.
Speaker 1: You can't never give up, because if you ever give up,
Speaker 1: day your accepting. We have to stand up, you know,
Speaker 1: because that's the only way that you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to They're gonna make a difference in life. If you'd
Speaker 1: like to help support James, you can sign a petition
Speaker 1: for his release at change dot org. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Lisa Spees for her tireless efforts and work on James's case.
Speaker 1: Next time Unwrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Amanda Bussey. It
Speaker 1: was so bad, like I couldn't even go in Walmart
Speaker 1: to get divers without him accusing me, and then I
Speaker 1: would risk, you know, getting beat on and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: There was no Laban's. She was going to make sure
Speaker 1: of that. Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
Speaker 1: links in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flam and
Speaker 1: Kevin Wurdis, as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea,
Speaker 1: producer Lila Robinson, and story editor Sonya Paul. The show
Speaker 1: is edited and mixed by Annie Chelsey, with additional production
Speaker 1: by Jeff Cleber and Connor Hall. The music in this
Speaker 1: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Wrong Conviction, as well as at Lava for Good. On
Speaker 1: all three platforms, you can also follow me on both
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Speaker 1: Freeling is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one