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.
Speaker 2: Bombay and drinks for pretty much everybody at the club.
Speaker 1: We haven't fine, but at some point in the evening
Speaker 1: a scuffle got out of hand.
Speaker 2: I don't know who pushed me, but when they pushed me,
Speaker 2: scenes like all everything you broke loose.
Speaker 1: By closing time, the scene was pandemonium, spilling out onto
Speaker 1: the sidewalk, shots were fired, and two local, well known
Speaker 1: white men were killed. Within a few days, James found
Speaker 1: himself under arrest for their murders.
Speaker 2: When I get to a police space there, that's the
Speaker 2: last time that I've been out.
Speaker 1: Do you think race had anything to do with us?
Speaker 2: Yes, as far as me getting convicted, I do. When
Speaker 2: they felt like a black person kill two white individuals,
Speaker 2: I feel like people went harder. They feel like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: we got to show him, but I didn't do it.
Speaker 2: So you know what I'm saying, you got the wrong person.
Speaker 2: My name is James Richardson. I've been incarcerated for thirteen
Speaker 2: and a half years.
Speaker 1: From Love of for Good. This is wrongful conviction with
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling today James Richardson. James Richardson was born on
Speaker 1: April thirtieth, nineteen seventy seven, in Greenville, North Carolina. He's
Speaker 1: the middle child of nine kids.
Speaker 2: You know, we grew up in the projects. Really didn't
Speaker 2: have a lot, and so I lived in one of
Speaker 2: like the oldest and roughest like projects in Greenville, North Carolina,
Speaker 2: which is still there.
Speaker 1: It was called Kearny Park. It opened in nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: two and is notorious for its violence.
Speaker 2: All night every night, you know, gunshots and so much
Speaker 2: stuff going on. And as a kid, you're coming home
Speaker 2: and you got to worry about that, and you had
Speaker 2: to worry about You're trying to do your homework and
Speaker 2: different stuff, and there's so much, you know, going on.
Speaker 1: James's father wasn't really in his life growing up. He
Speaker 1: was raised by his mother, Dorothy Ann Richardson, as well
Speaker 1: as his older siblings.
Speaker 2: Why you're not having a father figure, I kind of
Speaker 2: lean on my brothers as well as you know, coming
Speaker 2: to some of the guys as you know, there was
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood to kind of just to help you know,
Speaker 2: they would be there and just like, you know, give
Speaker 2: me advice on different things that I didn't know that,
Speaker 2: you know, I feel like a father should be able
Speaker 2: to should teach you.
Speaker 1: James's brother, Donald, taught him to play baseball. One day,
Speaker 1: Donald took him to try out for a little league.
Speaker 1: The tryouts were in a different section of town than
Speaker 1: where they lived, and for the first time James saw
Speaker 1: what life looked like outside of the projects.
Speaker 2: Right, Wow, it's so different. Everything was over there just
Speaker 2: like grass, green grass, and everything is like clean and
Speaker 2: no trash nowhere and everything. So it was different for me,
Speaker 2: and I met different people and really just became friends
Speaker 2: with a lot of the guys.
Speaker 1: And the friends James made were from all different walks
Speaker 1: of life.
Speaker 2: I guess for me that was just it was like
Speaker 2: a turning point of something. I was just motivated to
Speaker 2: just get out. Just because I lived, you know, when
Speaker 2: I was born and I lived here in this project, right,
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that I had to just be here and
Speaker 2: settle for this. So I kind of wanted to do
Speaker 2: something with myself, make it out of there because I
Speaker 2: didn't like, you know, the conditions that I was living in.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 2: I looked at what my mom, you know, what she
Speaker 2: went through by raising nine kids and really having no help,
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to, you know, be able to
Speaker 2: help her and move her out of the projects.
Speaker 1: James saw baseball as his ticket out until he discovered basketball.
Speaker 2: That was my getaway from a lot of the things
Speaker 2: that was going on around me. You know, when I
Speaker 2: was on that court, nothing else mattered to me. And
Speaker 2: I just picked the game up and I just started playing,
Speaker 2: and I loved it.
Speaker 1: At six foot seven and two hundred and fifteen pounds,
Speaker 1: James was all but perfect for the court, and with
Speaker 1: his light skin and green eyes, he stands out in
Speaker 1: the crowd. James became a star high school basketball player
Speaker 1: and went on to play in college professionally.
Speaker 2: I end up saying being blessed to make get out
Speaker 2: of the hood to go to college. I got a
Speaker 2: full ride scholarship.
Speaker 1: James attended Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. He went on
Speaker 1: to travel the world and play for several European countries,
Speaker 1: including Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, and Greece.
Speaker 2: France was my first job at the first time I've
Speaker 2: ever been out of the country. You know, I was
Speaker 2: happy because you know, you get paid, you get paid
Speaker 2: real good old season. I was able to go over
Speaker 2: there and you know, do you know out there play
Speaker 2: a game that I loved. My mom was happy. I
Speaker 2: was able to send money back to my family to help.
Speaker 1: And on his first day in France, James made a
Speaker 1: new friend.
Speaker 2: I came out with this little kids like may play
Speaker 2: eight years old and he was sitting on my step
Speaker 2: and when I come out, he said basketball, basketball right,
Speaker 2: and so night, okay, tell him looking around right because
Speaker 2: I didn't speak rich and so I started to get it,
Speaker 2: like okay, he tried to sail you the basketball player.
Speaker 1: The boy waited for James every day and followed him
Speaker 1: everywhere to the store, to the gym. And James noticed
Speaker 1: that the kid wore the same clothes every day. He
Speaker 1: was from one of the poor areas of town.
Speaker 2: So what I did was I took a liking to
Speaker 2: him and I bought them clothes. I bought him shoes,
Speaker 2: I made sure he could bring his family. He brought
Speaker 2: his mom and them, they came to the game. I
Speaker 2: just trying to just be there.
Speaker 1: On That was when James knew what he wanted to
Speaker 1: do in life.
Speaker 2: I always wanted to get back there. I want to
Speaker 2: get back to you know, the kids. I think they
Speaker 2: deserved it.
Speaker 1: So when he returned to the States, James became a
Speaker 1: mentor for kids in his community, coaching them one on one,
Speaker 1: advocating for them when they needed extra support, and helping
Speaker 1: out at youth basketball camps.
Speaker 2: I like helping. I like giving back. I think that's
Speaker 2: something big with me. And I tell a lot of
Speaker 2: people that money thing doesn't matter to me. I care
Speaker 2: about people because I feel like, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 3: It was really casual.
Speaker 4: We kind of just were hanging you know, we're all
Speaker 4: hanging out one night, and that initial meeting, James and
Speaker 4: I had like great conversation. It was just very organic.
Speaker 1: This is Hibba Elawad.
Speaker 4: The conversation just was so fluid and so natural. And
Speaker 4: after that we really built a strong friendship. You know,
Speaker 4: James and I used to talk about dreams and aspirations
Speaker 4: and five to ten years plans, things that you don't
Speaker 4: usually talk about, you know, with someone that you just
Speaker 4: meet right off the bat.
Speaker 1: Hibba wasn't looking for a relationship at the time, but
Speaker 1: there was just something about James.
Speaker 4: He was unlike any other man that I had met.
Speaker 4: The conversations were always about how he wants to help people,
Speaker 4: how he wants to give back, you know, how he
Speaker 4: wants to make his mark and in this world by
Speaker 4: doing for others what you know, maybe he didn't get
Speaker 4: or didn't have growing up. You know, his love for
Speaker 4: children is out of this world. Like every time we chatted,
Speaker 4: I learned something new.
Speaker 1: The two were developing a strong friendship, but before they
Speaker 1: could explore their relationship further, something completely unexpected happened. Near
Speaker 1: the end of June, James headed back to Greenville for
Speaker 1: a visit. He was just back from overseas and didn't
Speaker 1: have a car of his own yet, so he had
Speaker 1: borrowed one, a white BMW to make the trip from Atlanta.
Speaker 1: He spent a night in Rally on the way, and
Speaker 1: a friend there asked him to give a ride to
Speaker 1: a couple of guys who joined James for the ride
Speaker 1: down to Greenville. When he arrived in his hometown on
Speaker 1: June 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.
Speaker 2: I had some balling shorts and like some nikes sandals
Speaker 2: out with you and want to go, and so everybody
Speaker 2: else like, oh, well let's go, let's go, let's go.
Speaker 2: So you know, let me now want to disappoint people,
Speaker 2: because that's how I am. I said, Okay, end up going.
Speaker 1: The guys that drove from Rally with James ended up
Speaker 1: taking the BMW, so he borrowed Dryl's Cadillac to meet
Speaker 1: his brother Andre at Doctor Unk's Club. While there, the
Speaker 1: Rally guys showed up and asked to take the Cadillac instead.
Speaker 1: Of the BMA you, so James switched cars with them.
Speaker 1: Around midnight, the group decided to move over to the
Speaker 1: Other Place nightclub, which was known as Ops. James arrived
Speaker 1: in the white BMW.
Speaker 2: I'm buying everybody drinks. We haven't fine, I'm buying drinks
Speaker 2: for pretty much everybody at the club.
Speaker 1: Soon the rally guys returned with the Cadillac and gave
Speaker 1: James the key. James, wearing basketball shorts with no pockets,
Speaker 1: put the key in his sock and continued to party.
Speaker 2: So at some point still bump me. I tell him, yo,
Speaker 2: can you please stop bump me? Okay? So a few
Speaker 2: miss lady, he bought me again, but he trunk.
Speaker 1: The club was crowded and the bumping continued.
Speaker 2: He still like, he bumped me stuff, and so I
Speaker 2: tell him to stop. You know, the next time he
Speaker 2: bumped me, like the third time, I said, listen, man,
Speaker 2: go over there. By this time, you know, his friends
Speaker 2: come over and taught him like that. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: telling everybody, let it go, and it'd be bought tend
Speaker 2: to come. So what's going on? I don't know, I said,
Speaker 2: guy it right here. I guess he's drunk. If he
Speaker 2: bumped me. You know, I'm just telling him go over there.
Speaker 1: James remembers that one of the owners, Matthew Blackman, then
Speaker 1: came over and asked them all.
Speaker 2: To leave either you know, young lady club, don't come
Speaker 2: back to my club no more. So I tell him,
Speaker 2: I said, man, I said, I haven't started anything. I said,
Speaker 2: but that's fine. I ain't got to come Kee Club
Speaker 2: no more. Whatever.
Speaker 1: Black men then had bouncers escort James and his friends out.
Speaker 1: In the chaos, James left the BMW keys on the bar.
Speaker 1: It was closing time at this point, around two am,
Speaker 1: and people had started to gather on the sidewalk outside.
Speaker 1: Suddenly James felt someone push him.
Speaker 2: I don't know push me, but when they pushed me,
Speaker 2: it seemed like all everything broke those.
Speaker 1: A brawl ensued. In the confusion, black men got punched.
Speaker 2: Somebody hit the orner. He grabbed me, and because you know,
Speaker 2: I still have one that the sandals right with it,
Speaker 2: like the sandal, Nike sandals and stuff, we falled and
Speaker 2: so my head hit the cement. I'm bleeding and stuff.
Speaker 2: Right So in all day after that, right they saw
Speaker 2: it's like a fight.
Speaker 1: People piled onto James. A bouncer later testified it was
Speaker 1: kind of pandemonium.
Speaker 2: Thanks, so the only thing I'm trying to is just lee.
Speaker 1: James eventually broke free from the melee. A witness later
Speaker 1: said they saw him walking away down the street by himself.
Speaker 1: James remembered the Cadillac key in Issak.
Speaker 2: So I go and I'd be the key. I get
Speaker 2: in the Cadillac and I hope people call them, but
Speaker 2: I just be.
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
Speaker 1: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. The brawl died
Speaker 1: down and the crowd began to disperse. Black men later
Speaker 1: said that as they left, some of the guys who
Speaker 1: were kicked out with James that night were yelling, we
Speaker 1: have something for you. We're going to come back and
Speaker 1: shoot you up. Minutes later, a WHITEBMW tore down the
Speaker 1: street towards Op's. People were still on the sidewalk when
Speaker 1: someone in the car fired at least six shots into
Speaker 1: the crowd. The bullets hit two white men, twenty one
Speaker 1: year old land In Blackly, a popular East Carolina University student,
Speaker 1: in twenty nine year old Andrew Kirby, a well known
Speaker 1: local business manager. Both men died from their injuries. Connie
Speaker 1: Elks was assigned as the case's lead investigator. During her investigation,
Speaker 1: she spoke to multiple witnesses who were outside of the
Speaker 1: club that night. People remembered that a professional basketball player
Speaker 1: was among those kicked out of the club. These witnesses
Speaker 1: also gave descriptions of the shooter. Most of the descriptions
Speaker 1: were varied, but none of the witnesses descriptions matched James. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: Elks focused on him. Some witnesses were offered lineups. They
Speaker 1: told police that while they recognized James as being at
Speaker 1: the club, he was not the shooter or even one
Speaker 1: of the guys who was in the BMW when it
Speaker 1: drove by. Witnesses Nicholas Golden and Brian Richards both said
Speaker 1: the person was shooting from the BMW's back passenger window,
Speaker 1: and they both described the shooter as a black male
Speaker 1: wearing a black shirt, a black and red baseball cap,
Speaker 1: and sunglasses. James remember was dress differently.
Speaker 2: I had us some ball the shoots in them. No Nikes, 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 leave ops 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.
Speaker 2: And I asked Sean. I sid Sean was going on.
Speaker 2: You know. He pretty much told me nothing, We just
Speaker 2: want to talk to you. You know, they just wanted
Speaker 2: they just want to talk to you whatever. So I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, like, you know, that's fine. I thought
Speaker 2: he was. They were talking about that, just the fight
Speaker 2: about downtown. At this time. I don't know anything about
Speaker 2: no shoe, non know 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 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.
Speaker 2: Then that's how my time, rightness it. But I'll be
Speaker 2: back and you got a couple days. Said that's fine, right,
Speaker 2: That's why he 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.
Speaker 2: So when I get over there, I get out of
Speaker 2: the car, it's people everywhere. Right, I'm thinking, like, okay,
Speaker 2: you know, everybody ready for the cookout. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, I see Sean's standing out as regular host
Speaker 2: so as I get out and then I see the
Speaker 2: police badge from out his neck. So then I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I said, show what's up man? I say, you know, okay,
Speaker 2: what do you want to talk about? He was like, nah,
Speaker 2: we got to go down to the station.
Speaker 1: When James went to the Greenville precinct with his friend Sean,
Speaker 1: he was immediately arrested.
Speaker 2: When I get to the police station, that's the last
Speaker 2: time I was. I've been out.
Speaker 1: A few months later, he was indicted for two counts
Speaker 1: of first degree capital murder and was facing the death penalty.
Speaker 2: And ever since then, I've been fighting for my nicer. Wow, man, like,
Speaker 2: this can't be. I never been in trouble, so I
Speaker 2: don't know. I didn't know what this spay. You know,
Speaker 2: people tell the truth. I'm thinking that I go to
Speaker 2: the trial, I'll be out. You know. It's my you
Speaker 2: know my this isn't gonna prevail.
Speaker 1: But that's not what happened.
Speaker 3: It was clear to the district attorneys at the time,
Speaker 3: probably the law enforcement officers at the time, that this
Speaker 3: was a career making case.
Speaker 1: This is Don Blagrove, 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 3: And if they could convict a high profile celebrity like James,
Speaker 3: they would be able to build whole careers off of
Speaker 3: his conviction. Whether it was right or wrong. They were
Speaker 3: going to make an example out of James Richardson for
Speaker 3: shooting and killing two white men.
Speaker 1: The prosecutors were District Attorney Clerk Everett and Ada Kimberly Robb.
Speaker 1: The prosecutor's theory was that James was the only person
Speaker 1: in the BMW and that while jar he leaned out
Speaker 1: the passenger window to shoot into the crowd, ultimately killing
Speaker 1: Blackly and Kirby. During a pre trial hearing, Everett and
Speaker 1: rob called four bar patrons, expecting them to identify James
Speaker 1: as the person driving and shooting from the BMW. These
Speaker 1: witness descriptions were inconsistent. They all said the shooter was
Speaker 1: a medium to dark skinned black man, but none of
Speaker 1: their differing descriptions matched James, a light skinned, green eyed
Speaker 1: black man. At the end of the pre trial hearing,
Speaker 1: it was evident that the States case was hanging in
Speaker 1: the balance.
Speaker 5: So Detective Alex knew we've got a problem. We don't
Speaker 5: have anyone that can put James in that car.
Speaker 1: This is Heather Radelaide, who is James's post conviction attorney
Speaker 1: of record.
Speaker 5: So one week before trial, lo and behold, they discover
Speaker 5: a brand new eyewitness and his name is Fidel Thorpe.
Speaker 5: He happened to be the assistant prosecutor's daughter's soccer coach.
Speaker 1: By the time of trial, two years after the shooting,
Speaker 1: vy Dal, Thorpe became the state's star witness, given he
Speaker 1: was the only one who positively identified James as the shooter,
Speaker 1: even though he was never given a lineup. He testified
Speaker 1: that he saw James's face through the passenger window. Detective
Speaker 1: Connie Elks testified under oath that one of the witnesses,
Speaker 1: Rachel Burke, saw a black man wearing a white T shirt,
Speaker 1: go to the trunk of the BMW and take out
Speaker 1: a gun. Detective Elks also said that Rachel identified James
Speaker 1: as the shooter on the stand. However, Rachel's testimony undermined
Speaker 1: all of this.
Speaker 5: She pointed to the defendants, so that's not the person
Speaker 5: I identified in the Lineup to this day, we don't
Speaker 5: know who she identified in the lineup.
Speaker 1: Then Corporal John Jenkins provided bombshell evidence, the only actual
Speaker 1: evidence the state had against James, a surveillance video. The
Speaker 1: video was of the white BMW racing down the street,
Speaker 1: showing only one person in the car shooting at the crowd.
Speaker 1: Officer Jenkins said the video was the original and that
Speaker 1: it hadn't been altered or modified in any way. James's attorneys,
Speaker 1: Tommy Moore and Jeffrey Cutler, did their best to refute
Speaker 1: the state's argument, but the video left them stymied. The
Speaker 1: court also denied the eyewitness identification expert they retained, so
Speaker 1: all they could do was point out the inconsistencies and
Speaker 1: the witness testimonies on their own. However, they were able
Speaker 1: to present an alibi witness for James, Darryl Powell. He
Speaker 1: testified that he saw James immediately after the fight that night,
Speaker 1: when James returned the gold Cadillac to his house. The
Speaker 1: defense also presented Nicholas Golden and Brian Richards, the only
Speaker 1: two witnesses to describe the shooter to responding officers. They
Speaker 1: both testified that it was not James who they saw
Speaker 1: in the car. The jury went to deliberation on April first,
Speaker 1: twenty eleven. Most of the jurors were convinced that James
Speaker 1: was guilty, but as it turns out, there was one
Speaker 1: loan holdout. Three days into deliberations, one of the black jurors,
Speaker 1: Lamuel Anderson, sent a note to the judge, asking to
Speaker 1: be removed from the jury.
Speaker 3: He felt like James was centicent, but he was intimidated
Speaker 3: inside of the jury room.
Speaker 1: The racial tension and hostility in the jury room, Anderson said,
Speaker 1: had become intolerable.
Speaker 5: The judge has a duty at that point to take
Speaker 5: that jury out of the jury room and ask him
Speaker 5: questions about why he's requesting this. But this judge didn't
Speaker 5: do that. Instead, he brought the entire jury out and
Speaker 5: essentially admonished mister Anderson in front of all of his
Speaker 5: fellow jurs. Quote, I must emphasize the fact it is
Speaker 5: your duty to reach a verdict on all of the charges.
Speaker 1: Judge W. Russell Duke Junior went on to say, quote,
Speaker 1: I have already instructed you that your verdicts must be unanimous.
Speaker 1: Each of you must agree on the verdicts.
Speaker 3: Now, let me be clear about what Heather is describing.
Speaker 3: What she's actually describing is the living manifestation of systemic
Speaker 3: and institutional racism. The fact that this drawer raised the
Speaker 3: concerns about racial intimidation happening inside of the jury deliberation
Speaker 3: room should have given this judge a strong pause and
Speaker 3: created strong doubt as to whether or not a fair
Speaker 3: verdict could have been reached.
Speaker 2: It took like three four to eight for them to
Speaker 2: come back with a conviction on a capital case.
Speaker 1: Their deliberation ended with a unanimous decision. Anderson later came
Speaker 1: forward to say that he believed James to be one
Speaker 1: hundred percent sent innocent, but the intimidation from the other
Speaker 1: jurors had been too much. The jury declared James Richardson guilty.
Speaker 2: And I'm just like wow, and so it's like somebody
Speaker 2: take this face and punch you in the stomach when
Speaker 2: you hear it guilty.
Speaker 1: James was convicted of murder on April sixth, twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: The prosecution chose not to seek the death penalty. Instead,
Speaker 1: James received two sentences of life without parole. And here's
Speaker 1: a side note. Since nineteen eighty three, pitt County, or
Speaker 1: James was tried, has sent seven men to death row,
Speaker 1: and all of them have been black. Pitt County has
Speaker 1: never sought the death penalty against a white defendant accused
Speaker 1: of killing a black man. Statistically, in North Carolina, defendants
Speaker 1: are twice as likely to be sentenced to death if
Speaker 1: they're accused of killing a white person.
Speaker 2: It was hurtful and it was just I was just stunned.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it. I feel like doing they felt
Speaker 2: like a gag person kill two white individuals. I feel
Speaker 2: like people went harder. They feel like, okay, yeah, we
Speaker 2: got to show him.
Speaker 1: James filed a direct appeal in July twenty twelve, mainly
Speaker 1: arguing that the court aired in denying his eyewitness experts testimony.
Speaker 1: The appeal was denied, but his team continued to file
Speaker 1: petitions for relief, and in the meantime, he tried to
Speaker 1: focus on staying positive by praying and continuing to do
Speaker 1: what he loved the most, mentoring a lot of these kids.
Speaker 2: Man. I don't want him to go back out there
Speaker 2: coming in the same way they came. He I want
Speaker 2: him to go back out there to be a positive
Speaker 2: influence on someone else. You know what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 2: trying to help people. I want people to do better.
Speaker 1: James and Hibba hadn't seen much of each other since
Speaker 1: he'd returned to the States, but he was on her mind.
Speaker 4: For a couple of months after the incident happened. You know,
Speaker 4: I was constantly sitting, i'd say, like with a heavy
Speaker 4: heart because I knew I knew, I knew in my
Speaker 4: gut that James hadn't done this. And a couple months
Speaker 4: later I ended up getting you know, his contact information.
Speaker 1: What made you want to reach out to him? I
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep.
Speaker 4: So you know, when you have this like just gut
Speaker 4: wrenching feeling in your stomach that something's wrong, I wanted
Speaker 4: more answer.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just okay, you know this is a great guy.
Speaker 4: You've had this heavy heart, you know in your gut
Speaker 4: that he couldn't have done this.
Speaker 3: But I needed answers.
Speaker 1: So Hibba started pouring over James's case, trying to understand
Speaker 1: what had happened.
Speaker 4: And every time I would look through another piece of
Speaker 4: paper or another police report, I'm like, this makes absolutely
Speaker 4: no sense, right, this makes absolutely zero sense.
Speaker 1: Finally, after nearly five years of investigating on her own,
Speaker 1: Hibba got some help from Heather. After looking it over,
Speaker 1: Heather agreed to take on James's case.
Speaker 5: Then, when I looked at James's case, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 5: I've been looking at capital murder cases in the state
Speaker 5: for twenty five years, and this case is an outlier,
Speaker 5: unlike anything I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Dawn also joined Heather to fight for James's innocence. She
Speaker 1: says it was obvious detective Elks had tunnel vision focusing
Speaker 1: on James, not only because he was a celebrity, but
Speaker 1: also because of his race.
Speaker 3: The undercurrent in any of these types of small towns
Speaker 3: is that black men are scary and they have a
Speaker 3: place that they're supposed to study in. James Richardson had
Speaker 3: made a very successful life for himself, had not stayed
Speaker 3: in that place that he was supposed to stay in,
Speaker 3: and was doing much better than many of the local residents.
Speaker 1: One of their main post conviction arguments that the trial
Speaker 1: was fundamentally unfair focuses on Lamuel Anderson. That's the juror
Speaker 1: who was intimidated into convicting James despite believing he was innocent.
Speaker 3: This happened all of the time in our judicial system,
Speaker 3: and it is at the heart of why we end
Speaker 3: up with so many, so many convictions that are disproportionately
Speaker 3: impacting black communities. It is because our systems are designed
Speaker 3: to subjugate black voices and to amplify white voices, even
Speaker 3: when those white voices are racist.
Speaker 1: Additionally, the team secured an interview with Vital Thorpe, the
Speaker 1: state's star witness, and he recanted. At trial, Thorpe had
Speaker 1: testified quote, I saw his face, but when questioned by
Speaker 1: the investigator, he admitted he did not see the shooter's face,
Speaker 1: that he only saw an arm and a gun coming
Speaker 1: out the back window of the car. They also argued
Speaker 1: that by the court denying expert testimony for the defense,
Speaker 1: they violated James's due process rights. The defense's expert would
Speaker 1: have explained to the jury that many of the witnesses
Speaker 1: were white, and studies have shown that cross racial identifications
Speaker 1: are often flawed because of own race by in James's case,
Speaker 1: white witnesses confused him with another bar patron, who was
Speaker 1: a dark skinned black male. Black witnesses, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: were able to describe James accurately. James's brother, Andre, also
Speaker 1: came forward and signed an affidavit stating that during the
Speaker 1: scuffle in the club, he was the one who took
Speaker 1: the BMW keys off the bar. Remember James left them
Speaker 1: there amidst the chaos. Andre, who was never called to
Speaker 1: the witness stand during the initial trial, said he gave
Speaker 1: the keys to one of the guys from rally, who
Speaker 1: was known as B. And finally, it turns out the
Speaker 1: key evidence against James, the surveillance video footage that showed
Speaker 1: the BMW was not the original video. It was actually
Speaker 1: a lower quality copy that had been altered, and the
Speaker 1: prosecution did not preserve the original copy For the defense,
Speaker 1: Heather and Dawn analyzed the video and saw that it
Speaker 1: was badly distorted.
Speaker 3: What they used to support that version of events were
Speaker 3: incredibly tainted videos, videos that never should have been introduced
Speaker 3: into trial. The defense council had no idea that they
Speaker 3: even needed to do deep dive investigation into the validity
Speaker 3: of that video, because it was never disclosed to them
Speaker 3: 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 4: It's just me and James, like nothing else matters, Like
Speaker 4: we kind of get into this zone where it's just
Speaker 4: the two.
Speaker 1: Of us and.
Speaker 4: There's nothing better than being able to see him, like
Speaker 4: laugh and smile for a little bit.
Speaker 1: They often talk about their plans for the future.
Speaker 4: Aside from you know, getting married, we have collectively decided that,
Speaker 4: you know, we have a bigger purpose in this world,
Speaker 4: and that is, you know, not to just kind of
Speaker 4: carry out his original plans of helping you know, children
Speaker 4: in underserved communities, but hopefully, you know, God willing would
Speaker 4: love to help people in this space. You know, people
Speaker 4: that have been wrongfully convicted, families that are dealing with
Speaker 4: wrongfully convicted individuals, or you know, whether there are spouses
Speaker 4: or children, and you know, really just finding a way
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 4: There are still people in Greenville that say, gosh, a
Speaker 4: lot of these kids would have turned out so much
Speaker 4: better if James was here.
Speaker 2: I know one day I'm gonna get out. I know
Speaker 2: one day I'm gonna get out because I know I
Speaker 2: didn't do it. So you have to just stay positive
Speaker 2: through this whole situation. You can't never give up, because
Speaker 2: if you ever give up, day you're accepting. We have
Speaker 2: to stand up, you know, because that's the only way
Speaker 2: that you're gonna be able to They're gonna make a
Speaker 2: difference in life.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to help support James, you can sign
Speaker 1: a petition for his release at change dot org. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Lisa Spies for her tireless efforts and work
Speaker 1: on James's case. Next time on Wrongful Conviction with Maggie
Speaker 1: Freeling Amanda Bussy.
Speaker 6: It was so bad, like I couldn't even go in
Speaker 6: Walmart to get diapers without him accusing me, and then
Speaker 6: I would risk, you know, getting beat on and stuff
Speaker 6: like that. There was no leavin. He was going to
Speaker 6: make sure of that.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliber
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
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Speaker 1: well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
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Speaker 1: at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a
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