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Speaker 1: Hi, it's Connor Hall, the producer for Wrongful Conviction. Today

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Speaker 1: we're sharing Lamont Hunter's story not because of a new

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Speaker 1: development in his case, but for how closely it resembles

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Speaker 1: that of Robert Robertson and how different the outcomes have

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Speaker 1: been so far. In both cases, there were unfounded accusations

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Speaker 1: of sexual assault that loomed large over their death penalty prosecutions,

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Speaker 1: while medical experts for the state touted tenets of the

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Speaker 1: now debunked hypothesis known as shaken baby syndrome. This hypothesis

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Speaker 1: was taken on faith by an establishment of science and

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Speaker 1: could only be tested by time, which eventually revealed a

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Speaker 1: flawed theory. The neurologist who developed it back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy one, doctor Norman guth Kelch, before his death in

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, said quote, I am frankly quite disturbed that

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Speaker 1: what I intended as a friendly suggestion for avoiding injury

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Speaker 1: to children has become I'm an excuse for imprisoning innocent parents.

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Speaker 2: End quote.

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Speaker 1: Yet many prosecutors and lawmakers around the globe have not

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Speaker 1: found the same courage as they continue to fight to

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Speaker 1: maintain wrongful convictions as well as prosecute newly aggrieved in

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Speaker 1: innocent parents, and Robert Robertson will be the first of

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Speaker 1: them to be put to death if we do not

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Speaker 1: continue to fight those that value finality over humanity. Robert

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Speaker 1: was scheduled to be executed in the state of Texas

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Speaker 1: on October seventeen, twenty twenty four, but through an unprecedented

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Speaker 1: series of legal maneuvers, the Texas Supreme Court issued his stay.

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Speaker 1: A new death warrant will likely be sought as Robert

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Speaker 1: lives to fight another day. Governor's attorneys, general, lawmakers, prosecutors,

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Speaker 1: they have the power, but not a responsibility, to do

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Speaker 1: something about injustice. We saw that play out last month

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Speaker 1: with the execution of Marcella's Williams in Missouri. Innocence is

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Speaker 1: not enough to set you free. The Supreme Court decided

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Speaker 1: that back in nineteen ninety.

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Speaker 2: Three Herrera v. Collins.

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Speaker 1: That's your system to them, and it's why folks who

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Speaker 1: are in my opinion, in humane and Mortley bankrupt. They're

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Speaker 1: just carrying out the law. I mean, it's only as

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Speaker 1: a matter of what seems to be chance in both

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Speaker 1: cases that you know, I was lucky enough to meet

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Speaker 1: Lamont Hunter as a freeman on a boat in New Orleans,

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Speaker 1: while the image of Robert touching the plexiglasses Jason and

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Speaker 1: I walked away from the visiting area is going to

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Speaker 1: continue to haunt me, especially if the efforts to kill

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Speaker 1: this innocent man succeed.

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Speaker 3: In two thousand and six, Lamont Hunter lived with his

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Speaker 3: girlfriend los Milda, along with their blended family in Cincinnati, Ohio.

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Speaker 3: Leismilda's three year old son, Trustin, had been previously hospitalized

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Speaker 3: for what was believed to be injuries resulting from child abuse. However,

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Speaker 3: no charges ever materialized. Then, on January nineteenth, two thousand

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Speaker 3: and six, Trustin was in Lamont's care when paramedics were

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Speaker 3: called to take Trustin again to the hospital, where he

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Speaker 3: passed away. Lamont told police that Trusten took a tumble

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Speaker 3: down the stairs, but the state's experts believed that the

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Speaker 3: medical evidence told a different story, that Trustin's injuries could

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Speaker 3: not have resulted from a fall down the stairs, but

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Speaker 3: rather from violent shaking coupled with forceful impact. In addition,

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Speaker 3: that the three year old boy may have been sexually assaulted.

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Speaker 3: With evidence like this, it didn't take long for a

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Speaker 3: three judge panel to sentence Lamont Hunter to death. But

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Speaker 3: this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given voice

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Speaker 3: to innocent people in prison, and now we're expanding that

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Speaker 3: voice to you. Call us at eight three three two

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Speaker 3: O seven four six sixty six and tell us how

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Speaker 3: these stories make you feel and what you've done to

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Speaker 3: help the cause, even if it's something as simple as

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Speaker 3: telling a friend or sharing on social media, and you

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Speaker 3: might just hear yourself in a future episode. Call us

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Speaker 3: A three three two O seven four six sixty six.

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Speaker 3: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Today we have a story

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Speaker 3: of a crime that never happened, that resulted in a

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Speaker 3: death sentence for a man who should have been given

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Speaker 3: time to grieve. Laman Hunter a sentenced to death in

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Speaker 3: the state of Ohio for a crime that never happened,

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Speaker 3: and here to help him tell his story. I'm going

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Speaker 3: to introduce I actually asked how she would like to

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Speaker 3: be introduced, and Laman jumped right in and said, just

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Speaker 3: call her the amazing Aaron Barnhardt. But for context, she

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Speaker 3: is Assistant Public Defender at the Southern Ohio Federal Public

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Speaker 3: Defender Capital Habeas Unit. So Aarin, thank you for being.

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Speaker 4: Here, Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 3: And here to tell his own story with this assist

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Speaker 3: from Aaron and myself is the man himself who survived

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Speaker 3: this incredible ordeal. Lamont Hunter La Mont. I'm so happy

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Speaker 3: you're here.

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Speaker 2: I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 3: It's kind of a miracle that you're here, and you know,

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Speaker 3: and Aaron, you are a big part of that miracle.

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Speaker 3: So let's go back to your upbringing. The place that

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Speaker 3: you were born and where you lived has a lot

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Speaker 3: to do with your wrongful conviction. But did you actually

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Speaker 3: grow up there in Hamilton County.

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Speaker 2: Ohio, Cincinnati. Yes, I did Hamilton County.

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Speaker 5: I was born in the late sixties, so I grew

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Speaker 5: up through the seventies and eighties and nineties. My mother,

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Speaker 5: my father, hit my heroes work their fingers to the

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Speaker 5: bone to provide a good life for me and my siblings.

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Speaker 2: My childhood was amazing.

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Speaker 5: Like I always say, I was fortunate to be born

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Speaker 5: in a family that I was born in school. I

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Speaker 5: mean cousins, aunts, uncles. We are all very close knit family,

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Speaker 5: you know.

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Speaker 3: I understand eventually you became a father as well.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, I got four biological children and two children that

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Speaker 5: I raised, and I have an honorary daughter, Aisha.

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Speaker 3: What are the kids' names, Ashley.

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Speaker 5: Mariah, Lamont Junior, Valita, Eric, Aisha, and Trinity. I've been

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Speaker 5: instrumental in very hands on and raising all my children,

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Speaker 5: all six of them.

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Speaker 3: To support his family, Lamont worked as a roofer, but

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Speaker 3: also he had a side hustle sending drugs through Federal Express,

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Speaker 3: which landed him in federal prison. Now, drug trafficking is

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Speaker 3: in no way related to how Lamont ended up on

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Speaker 3: Ohio's death row, but his prior conviction comes up later

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Speaker 3: in the story. So after his stint in prison, he

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Speaker 3: went back to roofing and met a woman named los Milda,

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Speaker 3: and together they had Lamont's youngest child, Trinity. Louis Milda

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Speaker 3: also had three boys from a previous relationship, Tyree, Tyrell,

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Speaker 3: and Trustin.

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Speaker 4: So Lamont actually didn't spend much time.

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Speaker 6: With trust In.

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Speaker 4: The little boy who died in this case, Trustan was

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Speaker 4: Luzmilda's son, and because of complications with her health, he

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Speaker 4: was born. He was basically raised by other people family

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Speaker 4: friends and relatives.

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Speaker 3: Right Wilma Forte and Amber White.

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Speaker 5: Yes, after she delivered Trusting she had kidney stones, so

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Speaker 5: she had immediately go back in for kidney surgery, and

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Speaker 5: she couldn't care for Trusting. So they were loving enough

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Speaker 5: to take Trusting And for some reason I don't agree

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Speaker 5: with luz Milde on this, she just chose to let

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Speaker 5: him stay there. That's where Trustin lived.

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Speaker 3: Now, Loismilda Lamont rarely took care of Trusting, and prior

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Speaker 3: to the two thousand and sixth incident that resulted in

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Speaker 3: Trustin's death, there had been some suspected abuse back in

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Speaker 3: two thousand and four.

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Speaker 4: In January of two thousand and four, Lamont had been

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Speaker 4: carrying trust In up a flight of stairs and tripped

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Speaker 4: and fell on trust In and ended up breaking his

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Speaker 4: leg bone his tibia. At the time, his two older

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Speaker 4: half siblings were there, saw what happened. It was obviously

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Speaker 4: an accident. No one even suspected it wasn't an accident.

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Speaker 4: He was treated and let go. Then in June of

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Speaker 4: two thousand and four, Trustin had sort of a constellation

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Speaker 4: of injuries, some swelling, scratches, rashes, some other abrasions like

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Speaker 4: by his lips and his ears. When Luizmilda goes to

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Speaker 4: change trust In's diaper, she sees that it's really raw

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Speaker 4: and red and irritated. Luzimlda wondered if his genital swelling

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Speaker 4: was a bug bite or diaper rash, so she takes

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Speaker 4: him to a local urgent care. When they see these conditions,

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Speaker 4: they end up sending him to the hospital and it's

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Speaker 4: treated as a case of abuse. Now, I don't think

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Speaker 4: we'll ever know what happened to Trustin. I think it's

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Speaker 4: probably a combination of things. We found in medical records

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Speaker 4: that Trustin had a lot of skin conditions ezema, other

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Speaker 4: sort of conditions where his hair was falling out, environmental

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Speaker 4: stressors and things like that, and then he was playing

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Speaker 4: with two older, rambunctious kids. And I think probably what

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Speaker 4: happened was there was some combination of maybe a little

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Speaker 4: rough housing, maybe some irritation that trust In himself could

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Speaker 4: have scratched or irritated that resulted in these conditions. No

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Speaker 4: matter what happened, everyone agrees Lamont wasn't involved, but these

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Speaker 4: circumstances were treated as abuse. And at the hospital when

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Speaker 4: they did a skeletal survey an X ray, they discovered

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Speaker 4: that Trusten had a number of older healing fractures in

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Speaker 4: his hands and feet. Now, Trustin was hardly ever taken

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Speaker 4: care of by his mother, and therefore Lamont so at

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Speaker 4: the time that these injuries would have been dated when

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Speaker 4: he sustained them. Trustin was not around either Lamont or

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Speaker 4: his mother. He was in the care of other.

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Speaker 2: People, so he had lived with them.

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Speaker 4: Right, So even if these older injuries were the result

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Speaker 4: of the abuse, it was not from Lamont or his mother.

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Speaker 3: No one was charged in this two thousand and four incident,

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Speaker 3: but child protective services were made aware, and even though

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Speaker 3: Lamont was never even considered a suspect in two thousand

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Speaker 3: and four, the Hamilton County prosecutors raised the specter of

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Speaker 3: ongoing abuse while seeking the death penalty for Lamont in

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Speaker 3: two thousand and six.

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Speaker 4: The Death Penalty Information Center has a report called the

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Speaker 4: two Percent Report. If you look statistically, Hamilton County and

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Speaker 4: Kyga County in Ohio, Cleveland and Cincinnati are part of

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Speaker 4: the two percent of counties in the entire nation that

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Speaker 4: account for more than half of people on death row

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Speaker 4: and more than half of people who've been executed in

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Speaker 4: this country.

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Speaker 3: We've covered a lot of Ohio wrongful convictions, too many

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Speaker 3: to list, but we're going to link Elwood Jones and

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Speaker 3: Keith Lamar both death penalty cases handled by Hamilton County

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Speaker 3: prosecutors in which they hid or ignored exculpatory evidence at trial,

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Speaker 3: and Lamont's story is no different. So let's get to that.

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Speaker 3: On January nineteenth, two thousand and six, tragedy struck when

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Speaker 3: Trustin was staying with Liz, Milda and Lamont Lois Milton.

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Speaker 5: Well, she get up and go to work, and about

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Speaker 5: an hour or two later, I get the boys up

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Speaker 5: to get ready for school themselves. So I get Jordan

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Speaker 5: and Tiree out the door on their way to school.

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Speaker 5: And now I got trust In in Trinity, and I

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Speaker 5: get trust and situated for breakfast in our living room

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Speaker 5: that I made him French toes sticks and little sausage links.

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Speaker 5: He wanted to watch the new Jurassic Park movie, so

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Speaker 5: set him in a chair, put it on for him,

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Speaker 5: and decided to start my daily chorice. I grabbed Trinity,

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Speaker 5: my nine month old, and I went downstairs in the

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Speaker 5: basement to finish doing the laundry. That's when I first

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Speaker 5: heard him running across the floor above me. Next thing,

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Speaker 5: I hear he's coming tumbling down the stairs and hit

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Speaker 5: his head. So I immediately run over. His head was

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Speaker 5: back and his eyes were fluttering. Now I'm scared. I

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Speaker 5: just scooped him up and run up the stairs. So

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Speaker 5: I figured I throw some water on his face to

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Speaker 5: try to jug him awake, and his eyes were still fluttering.

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Speaker 5: So I seeing that he was struggling to take a breath.

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Speaker 5: I don't know how to do CPR, but I attempted it,

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Speaker 5: so I had to open his mouth. I noticed a

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Speaker 5: piece of sausage lodged in the back of his mouth,

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Speaker 5: blocking his airway, so I got that out on my finger.

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Speaker 5: I held his nose and I blew in his mouth

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Speaker 5: like I see people do on TV.

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know how to do it.

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Speaker 5: I'm not certified or nothing that so I probably blew

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Speaker 5: too much in his mouth because his stomach was getting bloated.

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Speaker 5: I got scared, so I called his mother and she

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Speaker 5: immediately came home. They made a big deal of this,

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Speaker 5: by the way, at my trial that I didn't immediately

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Speaker 5: call the paramedics instead of calling his mother.

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Speaker 2: They thought it was something to Farius, but it wasn't.

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Speaker 5: It was just I panicked, and so paramedics got there

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Speaker 5: very quick and started tending to him.

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Speaker 2: I was just a mess.

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Speaker 6: The dog is running around parking.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, I could never prove this, but I know my

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Speaker 5: dog when I left the room, tried to take his

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Speaker 5: food from him while he was sitting in that chair.

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Speaker 5: I believe that's what prompted Trusting to run across that.

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Speaker 3: Floor, and that might explain why he ended up with

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Speaker 3: a piece of food lodge in his throat.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, the sausage, and I know my dog was harassing

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Speaker 5: for it. But they get Trusting in the ambulance and

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Speaker 5: Zamilda gets in the ambulance with him, and me and

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Speaker 5: Trinity we followed them to the emergency room at Children's.

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Speaker 5: That's how my day started. January nineteenth, one thousand and six.

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Speaker 3: You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this

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Speaker 3: and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early

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Speaker 3: and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus

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Speaker 3: on Apple Podcasts.

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Speaker 4: Trustin had head injuries that were fatal. He had blood

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Speaker 4: trapped between the layers of his brain, which they call

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Speaker 4: subdural hematoma, and then his brain also swelled, which is

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Speaker 4: what happens anytime there's any sort of injury or trauma.

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Speaker 4: To the brain. They call it cerebral edema. And anytime

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Speaker 4: your brain swells that also puts pressure on your optic

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Speaker 4: nerve and results in rental hemorrhages, so bleeding on the

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Speaker 4: back of your eye.

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Speaker 3: And by now our listeners are familiar with these findings

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Speaker 3: as what are commonly associated with the grotesque junk science

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Speaker 3: prosecution theory as shaking baby syndrome. We're going to have

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Speaker 3: our shaken baby syndrome episode of wronful conviction junk science

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Speaker 3: lenked as well. For years, the theory was widely accepted

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Speaker 3: across the medical establishment that the presentation of these three

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Speaker 3: things could mean only one thing, that the infant or

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Speaker 3: toddler had been shaken to death by their most recent caretaker,

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Speaker 3: denying any other potential or even probable causes. But over

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Speaker 3: time this theory has gradually fallen apart.

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Speaker 4: And this field has been very nimble because anytime someone

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Speaker 4: shows well guess what this person, we know it was

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Speaker 4: an accident and they show these injuries and then they

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Speaker 4: say like, oh, okay, well, first of all, we're not

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Speaker 4: going to call it shaking baby. Because they did experiments.

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Speaker 4: They had big, beefy football players shaik a crash test

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Speaker 4: dummy baby, and they could not generate the type of

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Speaker 4: force needed to cause the brain injuries without breaking the

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Speaker 4: child's neck. And so they said, okay, so so maybe

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Speaker 4: shaking alone can't cause it. So shaking with impact, that's

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Speaker 4: what we'll say, shaking with impact. So we don't call

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Speaker 4: it shaken baby, will call it abusive head trauma. And

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Speaker 4: they just keep morphine and adapting to whatever fits.

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Speaker 3: No matter what has been revealed through biomechanical studies and

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Speaker 3: a confluence of medical histories that prove that in addition

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Speaker 3: to accidental causes like a fall down the stairs, there

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Speaker 3: are eighty one pre existing medical conditions and counting that

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Speaker 3: can cause the presentation of those findings. And yet there

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Speaker 3: are still proponents of this theory that refused to admit

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Speaker 3: that limiting the cause to shaking alone is an unscientific

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Speaker 3: leap in logic. And so, in two thousand and six,

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Speaker 3: even though some of the medical establishment had begun to

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Speaker 3: realize the problem with this theory, including the neuroscientists who

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Speaker 3: had developed it, the state's witnesses attributed Trusten's triad of

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Speaker 3: findings to shaking and any other injuries, including a sheared

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Speaker 3: vertebrae and what appeared to be an impact injury to

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Speaker 3: further violence. Lamount was arrested on January twenty second, two

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Speaker 3: thousand and six, three days after Trustin's death. He's taken

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Speaker 3: a trial in June two thousand and seven.

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Speaker 4: The prosecutor, through their child abuse pediatrician witnesses, said these

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Speaker 4: kinds of injuries could not have come from a fall

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Speaker 4: down the stairs. It had to have been abuse. You know,

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Speaker 4: we only see these kinds of injuries from forces like

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Speaker 4: in a car accident or maybe LaMotte swung trusting around like.

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Speaker 6: A base ball base.

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Speaker 4: You know, that's what have caused it, but not from

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Speaker 4: falling down the stairs. And then in addition, Trusten had

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Speaker 4: some injuries in his anal rectal era. He had three

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Speaker 4: puncture wounds in his rectal mucosa, so kind of up

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Speaker 4: in his rectum. There were three wounds. I think they

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Speaker 4: were about two millimeters in diameter, and then kind of

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Speaker 4: on the outside lip of his anus. It's not entirely

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Speaker 4: clear if it's a tear or a cut. It wasn't

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Speaker 4: that accurately described. And so those injuries were used to

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Speaker 4: support a charge of rape.

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Speaker 3: As we'll explained later there was a completely innocent explanation

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Speaker 3: for those anal and rect injuries, yet the child abuse

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Speaker 3: pediatrician painted a completely different picture.

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Speaker 4: The child abuse pediatrician did say that the injuries were

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Speaker 4: consistent with an adult penis. Now that's the magic word, right, consistent,

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Speaker 4: which I think a lot of fact finders here and

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Speaker 4: think that means a match, but it doesn't at all.

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Speaker 4: It just means we can't exclude it as the cause.

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Speaker 3: I mean, what adult penis is two millimeters in diameter.

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Speaker 4: So macrof is only talking about the external injury kind

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Speaker 4: of along the edge of the anus. She never saw

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Speaker 4: the internal injuries, the puncture wounds.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 3: So the child abuse pediatrician did not have a full

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Speaker 3: understanding of the injuries, which may explain why the coroner,

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Speaker 3: doctor Gretel Stevens, true different conclusions.

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Speaker 4: What the coroner said was that it looked like the

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Speaker 4: interior wounds were like poked with something sharp, like maybe

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Speaker 4: a pencil. And the prosecutors argued at trial that this

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Speaker 4: wasn't penile rape, but this was rape with some sort

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Speaker 4: of object.

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Speaker 3: While that explanation is still incorrect, at least doctor Stevens's

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Speaker 3: assumptions were more grounded in reality. However, the investigation failed

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Speaker 3: to find any such object or any efforts to cover

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Speaker 3: up that kind of crime. Doctor Stevens also acknowledged the

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Speaker 3: evolving science on shaking baby syndrome, saying that a rotational

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Speaker 3: fall would be consistent with the shearing of the neck

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Speaker 3: that trust And experienced, and that stairfalls are responsible for

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Speaker 3: the kinds of findings that were present in trust In situation.

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Speaker 4: And that's the thing, like doctor Stevens pretty much was

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Speaker 4: a straight shooter at trial, and it was just the

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Speaker 4: fact that she hadn't seen the photographs of the actual

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Speaker 4: staircase to know that there was a ledge abutting one

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Speaker 4: side of the stairs that kind of mashed up with

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Speaker 4: some injuries that she saw. There was also a throw

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Speaker 4: rug if he had slipped on, that may have contributed.

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Speaker 4: She didn't know that Lamont had reported hearing trust and running.

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Speaker 3: In addition, the coroner was unaware of the innocent explanation

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Speaker 3: for these anal and rectal injuries. So since neither one

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Speaker 3: of the state's experts had a full picture of the incident, this,

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Speaker 3: along with Lamont's ineffective council, allowed the state's erroneous narrative

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Speaker 3: to take hold.

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Speaker 4: Lamont's trial counsel, Clyde Bennett is the attorney's name, is

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Speaker 4: not a bad criminal defense attorney. He's actually pretty well

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Speaker 4: known as a good criminal defense attorney. But there are

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Speaker 4: a couple things that just weren't going to work in

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Speaker 4: Lamont's case. Number One, a death penalty case is different,

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Speaker 4: A dead kid is different, and you can't just kind

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Speaker 4: of rely on your old tricks and techniques in this

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Speaker 4: kind of case. Number two, this is a case where

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Speaker 4: the evidence is all based on medical expert testimony. The

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Speaker 4: evidence is the state expert coming in and saying you

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Speaker 4: can only get these injuries from abuse, period. And his

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Speaker 4: trial council did not hire an expert, not only not

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Speaker 4: to testify or just even to consult with an expert

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Speaker 4: to explain the medical records to him, to explain the

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Speaker 4: flaws in the state experts testimony and reasoning. He said

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Speaker 4: he thought that he could just rely on cross examination.

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Speaker 4: And his theory was that this chatabusee pediatrician. She's not

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Speaker 4: qualified to be talking about retinal hemorrhages. She's not an ophthalmologist.

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Speaker 4: She's not qualified to be talking about the mechanism of injury.

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Speaker 4: She doesn't have a degree in biomechanics or anything. Now,

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Speaker 4: this is all true. The problem was when he made

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Speaker 4: that objection, the court overruled it, and he had no

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Speaker 4: plan B. So when that didn't work, he was left

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Speaker 4: to just kind of on his own try to cross examine.

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Speaker 4: And he knew enough to be dangerous, and so he's

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Speaker 4: asking questions about stuff that's not relevant. Like he's trying

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Speaker 4: to say, isn't it true that you could have a

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Speaker 4: delayed onset of injury? And that is true sometimes, except

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Speaker 4: for that's not what happened in Tresten's case. We know

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Speaker 4: what happened. He fell down the stairs and was immediately unresponsive,

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Speaker 4: So that line of questioning was completely irrelevant. Also, he

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Speaker 4: didn't hire an expert to look through the medical records.

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Speaker 6: And he didn't look through the records himself.

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Speaker 3: I mean, Lamont would have been better off with his

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Speaker 3: original court appointed attorney, not I mean much better off.

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Speaker 3: Because it turns out that mister Bennett was more than

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Speaker 3: a little bit distracted at the time.

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Speaker 4: That's true, he was a little distracted with his own

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Speaker 4: legal troubles. Mister Bennett himself was being investigated for some

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Speaker 4: pretty serious federal crimes. And in fact, shortly after Lamont

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Speaker 4: was sentenced to death, he signed his own plea agreement

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Speaker 4: and turned himself into federal custody and went away to

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Speaker 4: federal prison. He pled to structured deposits, so depositing money

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Speaker 4: just under the reporting limit.

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Speaker 3: Unbeknownst to Lamont, Clyde Bennett was connected to a major

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Speaker 3: drug dealer out of Dayton, Ohio, both of whom were

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Speaker 3: subjects of a federal investigation that ended in cooperation and

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Speaker 3: a plea deal for Clyde. Meanwhile, in Lamont's trial, Clyde

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Speaker 3: neglected to prepare the vital medical expert testimony, as well

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Speaker 3: as advised Lamont to take a bench trial in front

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Speaker 3: of a three judge panel, reasoning that a jury might

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Speaker 3: be susceptible to the emotion surrounding a dead child.

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Speaker 4: Turns out, so are three judge panels.

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Speaker 5: Exactly, especially when we know for sure that this judge

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Speaker 5: who's now passed on. Norbert Natel told Clyde Bennett and

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Speaker 5: his chambers it wouldn't be wise for him to bring

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Speaker 5: me in front of him on a bench trial because

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Speaker 5: I lose, And he still advised me not to have

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Speaker 5: a jury.

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Speaker 4: Now, the advantage of not having a jury is that

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Speaker 4: you can save a lot of time because you don't

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Speaker 4: have to go through vaidir and get a death qualified jury.

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Speaker 6: So Clyde took a flat fee.

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Speaker 4: From Lamont's family. So it's just economical to make the

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Speaker 4: trial go as fast as possible, and so great way

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Speaker 4: to cut down on time is to wave jury.

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Speaker 3: It sounds to me like the judge actually was telling

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Speaker 3: him if you do this, you're going to lose, and

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Speaker 3: he was like, great. I mean, I'm glad you're laughing

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Speaker 3: a lot, because you know, sometimes I feel like I'm

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Speaker 3: laughing to keep from crying. But you live through this.

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Speaker 5: That what I'm doing I've been doing in society. Oh

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Speaker 5: my god, I've been laughing to keep from crying.

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Speaker 2: Man. It's just so much trauma on this journey. Man,

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Speaker 2: It's just a lot of trauma.

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Speaker 3: So this bench troul played out exactly as this judge

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Speaker 3: told Lamont's attorney it would.

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Speaker 4: It was pretty easy for them to convict because all

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Speaker 4: of the state's expert testimony was entirely unrebutted. So they

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Speaker 4: have these experts from the States saying this had to

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Speaker 4: be abuse. There is no way this could have come

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Speaker 4: from a fall down the stairs. And then on top

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Speaker 4: of that, they had the state saying and look at

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Speaker 4: all this other suspicious stuff injuries in his anal rectal era,

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Speaker 4: these injuries in the past when Lamont was around, trust in.

435
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,960
Speaker 5: Clyde Bennett pops up in the jail on a Sunday

436
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 5: and I'm pissed at this point.

437
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are you doing here?

438
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,640
Speaker 5: And he just said, man, you know, I just wanted

439
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:13,560
Speaker 5: to come and ask you how are federal prisons, how

440
00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 5: are they ran, what it's like in federal prison. I'm

441
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 5: looking at him, like, what does that have to do

442
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 5: with my case? He said, well, he's well, I know

443
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:23,720
Speaker 5: you've been in federal prison before, and I'm going there.

444
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:26,439
Speaker 5: I'm fighting for my own life, Lamont, so I just

445
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 5: wanted to know how these federal prisons. I walked off

446
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:30,479
Speaker 5: on him and went back to my sale. Man, I

447
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,600
Speaker 5: was done with him at the time, so all hope

448
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 5: was lost at that point. I was convicted and then

449
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,520
Speaker 5: mitigation will you have to get the most closest loving

450
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,199
Speaker 5: person in your life. They had to literally beg the

451
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 5: courts to save my life. It was humiliating for me

452
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,479
Speaker 5: and my family, and it didn't work, so they were

453
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 5: dug in.

454
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 2: So I still got sentenced to death.

455
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,760
Speaker 5: And my father, who I have a lot of love

456
00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:00,879
Speaker 5: and respect for, he's actually my hero. I getting on

457
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 5: a stand and testifying and asking the course to save

458
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 5: my life and telling the story that he did about

459
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 5: me and growing up with my siblings. He had a

460
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 5: heart attack right there in the courtroom.

461
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:15,280
Speaker 3: He had a heart attack right there in the courtroom.

462
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,199
Speaker 5: Right in the courtroom. Ambulance was called. They saved his

463
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 5: life there, but he had a heart attack right in

464
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,639
Speaker 5: the courtroom. They never got talked about in the media

465
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 5: or nothing like that. They was too busy calling me

466
00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 5: a monster and a child rapist. And my father, he's

467
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 5: no longer with us. He died in twenty eighteen before

468
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,400
Speaker 5: I got home, but from that day his health.

469
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 2: Just declined since to death.

470
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 5: Isolated away from general population, there's no programming set up

471
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 5: for us back there. It's just mundane and waking up

472
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 5: every day knowing that your name is on a list

473
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 5: to be executed. The State of Ohio intents on executing you.

474
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 5: And that's like having a gorilla constantly on your shoulders,

475
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 5: weighing you down. And this is it from far as

476
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,439
Speaker 5: you can see, is it every day? It's like the

477
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 5: same day. The first year I was there, I was

478
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,120
Speaker 5: still in the haze. I didn't know what to expect

479
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 5: as far as the courts. I've never appealed the sentence before,

480
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 5: so I was, of course jaded and kind of paranoid

481
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 5: of my attorneys after coming through the horror show of

482
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 5: the trial that I went through and being served up

483
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,440
Speaker 5: by my trial attorney, like, well, what's going to happen

484
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 5: at this phase.

485
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,560
Speaker 4: Although Lamont had pretty capable post conviction attorneys from the

486
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 4: Ohio Public Defender's Office, unfortunately they couldn't get any traction

487
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 4: in state court, which is not uncommon. But their claims

488
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,919
Speaker 4: that they raised were not that different than what we

489
00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 4: raised in our federal habeas petition, and the problem is

490
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 4: they didn't have access to the evidence they needed. They

491
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 4: asked for discovery to get the medical records to depose

492
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 4: the coroner, just like we did, and it was all denied.

493
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 3: As we've mentioned a trial, both states experts Macaroff and

494
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:19,199
Speaker 3: Stevens have been operating with incomplete understandings of the incident. Additionally,

495
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 3: Makarov had ignored the evolving science on SBS, which continued

496
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 3: through post conviction. Even as the science continued to evolve

497
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:29,680
Speaker 3: further and further away from her position.

498
00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:35,199
Speaker 4: Doctor macaroff, she's doubling down on everything, as everyone in

499
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 4: her sort of little industry has to do. This is

500
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:44,120
Speaker 4: what makes this field so dangerous and unscientific is the

501
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 4: feedback loop that exists. During our deposition, doctor Macroff cited

502
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 4: an article about stairfalls, saying, look, we know stairfalls aren't

503
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:56,360
Speaker 4: fatal because we draw all this data from different hospitals.

504
00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 4: All these kids come in after falling down the stairs

505
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:01,200
Speaker 4: and they didn't die. And I said, okay, I said,

506
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 4: would trust In's case be included in that data set?

507
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 4: And she said, well, what do you mean? I said, well,

508
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 4: is his case classified as a stairfall because you guys

509
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 4: don't believe mister Hunter that he fell down the stairs.

510
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,679
Speaker 6: Right, And she was like, oh, that's.

511
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 4: A good point. They're self selecting the data they're using

512
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 4: to draw the conclusions that they used to exclude the

513
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 4: data that they don't want. And then they say that,

514
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 4: you know these are so rare, and I agree. You know,

515
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 4: most kids who tumble down the stairs don't die. From it,

516
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,359
Speaker 4: But that doesn't mean that it's impossible, which is what

517
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,919
Speaker 4: they say to put people on death row. And just

518
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 4: because something is rare doesn't mean that they know which

519
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 4: is the rare case and which isn't. So there's all

520
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 4: this bad science that goes into it. The thing that

521
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 4: actually is scientific about this would be biomechanics, right Force

522
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 4: chaw Tobe s Pediatricians don't think biomechanics have any place

523
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 4: in their world. And when doctor Macroff, she says, I

524
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 4: didn't say lamont use trust and I just said that

525
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,000
Speaker 4: his report does not match the mechanism of injury.

526
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 6: And I said, well, when.

527
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 4: You're talking about the mechanism of injury, that kind of

528
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 4: sounds like force.

529
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 2: Right.

530
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 4: Oh, no, I'm not a physicist. Biomechanics doesn't fit there

531
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,120
Speaker 4: or whatever. I don't know how right, I don't know

532
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 4: how you can talk about a mechanism without using biomechanics. Anyway,

533
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 4: we did hire a biol mechanical engineer and we went

534
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 4: to the site and he took measurements of the stairs

535
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 4: and the elasticity of the surface, and he used a

536
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 4: computer program and he put in the height that Trustin

537
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 4: was and his weight and the.

538
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 6: Average that a child his age.

539
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,680
Speaker 4: Could run, and you know, ran through all these different

540
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 4: scenarios of how he could have fallen and showed that,

541
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,479
Speaker 4: like the forces generated were well within the range that

542
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 4: have been shown to be enough to generate the kind

543
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 4: of injuries.

544
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:52,240
Speaker 6: That he had.

545
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 4: So absolutely stair falls can cause this. And also now

546
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 4: with cell phones and security cameras, like, people have started

547
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:05,400
Speaker 4: capturing injuries that otherwise would have been indicted as abuse

548
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 4: if we didn't have proof that it was actually accidental.

549
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 4: And doctor Macaroff claims it.

550
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,680
Speaker 2: Even that could be doctors, even that could be doctored.

551
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 4: She maybe would have to see it with her own

552
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 4: eyes to be convinced, and so you know, there's just

553
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 4: no pleasing the child abuse pediatricians.

554
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,680
Speaker 3: However, the defense was able to please the Carner doctor

555
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 3: Stevens when they provided a fuller picture of the incident,

556
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:34,800
Speaker 3: including photographs of the staircase, a biomechanical expert, and finally

557
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 3: the innocent explanation for the anal and rectal injuries that

558
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 3: were available to prosecutors, the States, experts, and even la

559
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 3: Mon's attorney at the trial. Had he even bothered to look.

560
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,520
Speaker 4: He would have found like our investigator Pam Swanson did

561
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 4: when we took over the case notations in the medical

562
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 4: records that staff at the hospital in the pice had

563
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 4: attempted to take Trusten's temperature three times with a rector thermometer,

564
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 4: had been unsuccessful, and immediately after that had noted blood

565
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 4: in his rectum, which of course perfectly matches up with

566
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 4: the three puncture wounds that the coroner identified and said

567
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 4: could have been caused by something sharp like a pencil.

568
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 4: And in fact, and in another piece of undisclosed evidence,

569
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 4: the coroner even told detectives that she couldn't rule out

570
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 4: a temperature probe as the cause of this. Now, nobody

571
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 4: turned that over to Lamont at trial, and the prosecutor

572
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 4: didn't ask the coroner that question, but he did ask

573
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 4: the child abuse pediatrician at trial if Trusten's injuries could

574
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 4: have been caused by a thermometer, and she said no.

575
00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 4: When we deposed the coroner and showed her these records,

576
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 4: she immediately changed her opinion on the cause of those injuries.

577
00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 4: She still said it was non accidental, but it was

578
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 4: inflicted medically, not as an assault. For me, I saw

579
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 4: that and felt like I was just shouting into the

580
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 4: void for.

581
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 2: Years after that.

582
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 4: Nobody seemed to care about it until the coroner did.

583
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,280
Speaker 6: But I was like, people, this is it.

584
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 5: This explains everything, because that was a huge void in

585
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:05,760
Speaker 5: my defense.

586
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a huge gag because nobody could explain I.

587
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 5: Never could explain the rape to the time we found

588
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,800
Speaker 5: that in the record, I could not explain the rape.

589
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 2: I didn't rapeing.

590
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:20,720
Speaker 3: So these idiots couldn't even figure out the three pokes

591
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:24,600
Speaker 3: with the thermometer were what caused what otherwise sounded like

592
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 3: an awful thing that was done to this child, right.

593
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, that's the really troubling thing is that I

594
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 4: think nobody looked at these records, including doctor Stevens. You know,

595
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 4: at the time, had she she would have learned things

596
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 4: about the scene that would have explained the mechanism of injury,

597
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 4: plus the findings about the anal and rectal injuries, and

598
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 4: so then like she did her deposition when we showed

599
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 4: them to her, she would have changed her opinion not

600
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 4: only about the injuries that supported the rape, but also

601
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 4: about the cause of death that it was not a homicide.

602
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 4: And his trial attorney is just as much to blame.

603
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,320
Speaker 3: So in addition to the Brady violations. This was also

604
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,720
Speaker 3: a clear case of ineffective assistance of counsel as well.

605
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 4: When we went back to our judge in federal court judgment,

606
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 4: Michael Watson, with the deposition testimony from Clyde, he kind of,

607
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 4: in his opinion went through all the things he didn't do,

608
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 4: you know, didn't hire experts, didn't talk to witnesses, didn't

609
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:25,760
Speaker 4: look at the records, blah blah blah. And then the

610
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:28,520
Speaker 4: way he put it was he appeared to settle on

611
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,000
Speaker 4: his strategy of not using an expert, not as a

612
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 4: result of a strategic investigation, but rather in lieu of one,

613
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,240
Speaker 4: which is kind of the classic definition of being an

614
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 4: effective lawyer. You know, like all these people participate in

615
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 4: a process that could result in a man's execution, and

616
00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 4: that there's so little you know, I mean plenty of time.

617
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 4: I think there's outright misconduct and malicious intent, and I

618
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 4: think there's some of that here with the Brady evidence,

619
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:00,960
Speaker 4: the withheld evidence that we see, but a lot of

620
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:05,960
Speaker 4: other is I think just in competence, a lack of thoroughness.

621
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 4: I don't know that might even be worse, because you know,

622
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:14,240
Speaker 4: you care so little about being careful in case.

623
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 2: It was such magnitude as a person's life.

624
00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 3: Right, with proceeding so fraught with constitutional violations and convincing

625
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 3: evidence of innocence. The Hamilton County Prosecutor's office joined Lamont's

626
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:27,439
Speaker 3: motion for a new trial in April twenty twenty three,

627
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 3: but this didn't mean that they were finally seeking justice

628
00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 3: for Lamont.

629
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 4: After Lamont had a new trial and we are trying

630
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,600
Speaker 4: to get him out on bond, the prosecutor's office ran

631
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 4: to the coroner's office and got the other pathologists in

632
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:46,360
Speaker 4: the office to issue this addendum to the original autopsy

633
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,720
Speaker 4: report that basically just says, like, we think the coroner

634
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:52,440
Speaker 4: was wrong to change her opinion under oath and the deposition.

635
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 4: We do think that this should still be a homicide

636
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:59,239
Speaker 4: and still be a rape with zero explanation. And then

637
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 4: those we just refused to talk to us without the

638
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 4: prosecutors being present. It just became so obvious to us

639
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 4: that I believe the Hamilton County Corner's Office, there's supposed

640
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:15,520
Speaker 4: to be neutral experts guided by science, considers itself an

641
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 4: arm of the prosecutor's office.

642
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 3: So while Lamont was still trying to get out on bond,

643
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:22,760
Speaker 3: and the lead up to his new trial, the prosecutor's

644
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 3: office began to apply pressure and here comes to please offer.

645
00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:31,480
Speaker 4: Basically, Lamont had this pressure of stay here in jail

646
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 4: for at least another year, or take a plea and

647
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,439
Speaker 4: get out time served. Lamont could walk out the door. Well,

648
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 4: we decided to fight it and ask for bond, and

649
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 4: the prosecutors fought dirty.

650
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 6: Basically had to go through.

651
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:45,879
Speaker 4: A little mini trial where they're allowed to summarize their

652
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 4: case by presenting evidence, including evidence that wasn't even presented

653
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 4: at trial the first time, so stuff that isn't tested

654
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 4: in any way, but just allegations. We were able to

655
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,399
Speaker 4: beat them there. The judge ruled that they hadn't met

656
00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 4: their burden to keep him locked up. But then the

657
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:04,560
Speaker 4: bond was five hundred thousand dollars, which he would have

658
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 4: needed to get fifty thousand dollars together cash to meet.

659
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 2: Which would have been very hard, which we couldn't.

660
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 4: Do, I mean, So that was one problem. And then

661
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 4: the other problem was the prosecutor convinced the judge to

662
00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 4: order no contact for Lamont with anyone under eighteen, so

663
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 4: that meant all of his nine grandchildren eight.

664
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:24,399
Speaker 2: At the time and went on the way.

665
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, he wouldn't be able to meet them.

666
00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 5: My children was in the courtroom when they asked for that,

667
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 5: and just seeing them cry, man, and they want me

668
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 5: to meet their kids so bad, and I want to

669
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:35,839
Speaker 5: meet my grandchildren so bad.

670
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:36,720
Speaker 2: They're right there.

671
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 5: That's when you know the decision was firmly made that

672
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:41,840
Speaker 5: I'm taking his plea agreement.

673
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 3: It sounds like the prosecutor, Seth Tiger, was just trying

674
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:45,880
Speaker 3: to have it both ways.

675
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:49,320
Speaker 4: You're saying that he's so dangerous and such a monster

676
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 4: that you don't think you should be let at at all.

677
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 4: But you've offered him a plea, and if he agrees

678
00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:55,239
Speaker 4: to that, he.

679
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 6: Walks out of the door today.

680
00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 4: With no conditions at all, no conditions, which is what

681
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 4: he ended up doing.

682
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 3: Lamar took the plea for time served, which also meant

683
00:37:05,680 --> 00:37:09,400
Speaker 3: that he's not eligible for state compensation regardless. He was

684
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 3: finally free after sixteen long years on June fifteenth, twenty twenty.

685
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 5: Three, one of the best days of my life mine too,

686
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 5: on Aaron's birthday, by the way, and ironically I was

687
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:26,240
Speaker 5: convicted on her birthday as well, sixteen years earlier. Aaron

688
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,840
Speaker 5: had already told me it's a bank of cameras and

689
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 5: reporters out there, so be prepared when you walk through

690
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 5: the door. One of the questions was how are you

691
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:37,920
Speaker 5: feeling getting your freedom back? And my answer then and

692
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,840
Speaker 5: today is still the same. Imagine feeling all of the

693
00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 5: emotions anger, stress, joy and relief, frustration, all of those

694
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,960
Speaker 5: emotions at the same time. I'm still going through it,

695
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:49,879
Speaker 5: trying to figure it out.

696
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 2: Man.

697
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,759
Speaker 5: It's been amazing though, and I actually got a good

698
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 5: start on everything too, got my driver's license, my cousin

699
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,320
Speaker 5: gave me a vehicle. I got a job rather quickly.

700
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:02,960
Speaker 5: It took a little longer for me to get in

701
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,399
Speaker 5: an apartment. I have to go in for a full

702
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,840
Speaker 5: knee replacement surgery because the writer is on set in

703
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 5: on it, bone on bone, so I haven't been able

704
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:15,680
Speaker 5: to work, and that is frustrating. So I'm just trying

705
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,719
Speaker 5: to figure things out. Aaron set up a GoFundMe page

706
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 5: that's been helping a little bit.

707
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,279
Speaker 3: Well, we're hoping our audience can help out a whole

708
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:25,200
Speaker 3: bunch more. And who knows how long it's going to

709
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 3: be till Lemon is on his feet again. So if

710
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:31,480
Speaker 3: you have a few bucks, a few thousand bucks, a

711
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 3: few million bucks laid around, whatever you can spare, and

712
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 3: you want to help this man who has already been

713
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 3: through so much. We're going to have the GoFundMe linked

714
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 3: in the episode description along with Lamont's LinkedIn page. He's

715
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 3: begun public speaking, and he's a great speaker, so if

716
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,759
Speaker 3: anyone's interested, I'm sure he'd be very happy to have

717
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 3: work that's not as physically demanding as a job he

718
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 3: was able to find before the surgery. And with that,

719
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 3: we're going to go to closing arguments, where first of all,

720
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:00,440
Speaker 3: I want to thank Aaron and Lamont, both of you

721
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:03,480
Speaker 3: so much for joining us today. And now I'm just

722
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:05,279
Speaker 3: gonna do what I do best. I'm going to kick

723
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 3: back in my chair, turn off my microphone, leave my

724
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 3: headphones on, close my eyes, and just listen to anything

725
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:13,880
Speaker 3: you feel is left to be said. So let's start

726
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:17,000
Speaker 3: with you Erin and then just hand the mic off

727
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 3: to Lamont, and Lamont you take us out into the sunset.

728
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:23,799
Speaker 4: Nothing like this happens without the help of a village,

729
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 4: and that's certainly true in Lamont's case. In our office,

730
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:32,239
Speaker 4: attorneys Tasiplesio and Justin Thompson. We're also on Lamont's team.

731
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 4: I mentioned Pam Swanson, she's retired now, but she's the

732
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:40,879
Speaker 4: investigator that kick things off. And then our paralegal extraordinary

733
00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:42,560
Speaker 4: Shannon Flammer.

734
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 2: Oh my god, yes, who runs.

735
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:47,520
Speaker 4: The office and is really the backbone of everything. Was

736
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 4: absolutely wonderful. But I honestly don't know if there's a

737
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:52,439
Speaker 4: single person in the Capitol Habeus unit who didn't help

738
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,360
Speaker 4: in some way with Lamont's case. And that includes a

739
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 4: lot of our law student externs who helped us with

740
00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:03,200
Speaker 4: research and writing, people helped with site checking, just brainstorming

741
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:08,000
Speaker 4: figuring out how to approach this crazy developments in the case,

742
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 4: especially when the Supreme Court is changing the law on

743
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 4: what we're allowed to present in the state court and

744
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 4: federal court, you know, as it's going on, you know.

745
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:19,799
Speaker 4: And then he had post conviction attorneys Melissa Jackson and

746
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 4: Kim Rigby at the Ohio Public Defender's Office who fought

747
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 4: valiantly and kept hitting a brick wall but stayed supportive

748
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:31,640
Speaker 4: of Lamont. And then we are just so grateful for

749
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,879
Speaker 4: al Gerhartstein who's been so supportive and brought on some

750
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,440
Speaker 4: amazing attorneys to help us in state court, Sarah Jelsonino

751
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,839
Speaker 4: and Elizabeth Bonham and Marcus Siddodi. They really made an

752
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:46,800
Speaker 4: awesome team. And then Kate Jutson, who's the executive director

753
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,319
Speaker 4: at the Center for Integrity of Forensic Sciences, helped with

754
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,760
Speaker 4: in particular her expertise in shaking baby science and abuse

755
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:57,759
Speaker 4: of head trauma. Finally, I think a big part of

756
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,239
Speaker 4: Lamont's success has been his family. He's mentioned, I think

757
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 4: he has maybe one of the most supportive families that

758
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,400
Speaker 4: I've ever seen. It's been a real privilege to have

759
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,360
Speaker 4: Lamont and his family trust me with his life and

760
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:13,399
Speaker 4: with his case, because it's pretty scary, especially when it's

761
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,359
Speaker 4: so complicated and technical and you don't know what's going on.

762
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,720
Speaker 4: And they let me into their home to explain things

763
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 4: and we're patient as I explained why we need to

764
00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,400
Speaker 4: be patient and why it takes so long, and that

765
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:27,000
Speaker 4: kind of thing.

766
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 5: So one of the things I talk about, especially when

767
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 5: talking to the law students, is about you know, how

768
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 5: to try your best to meet your client where they are,

769
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 5: you know, intellectually, emotionally if you could. Because I just

770
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 5: had an attorney asked me you know, after doing the

771
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,279
Speaker 5: talk up there, she said, what could I do better?

772
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 5: I have a kind of a guarded client. You know

773
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:50,799
Speaker 5: what I'm saying that I can't seem to get through too,

774
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 5: you know, and he don't trust me. I said, well,

775
00:41:53,560 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 5: my recommendation, this is what worked for me and my family.

776
00:41:57,080 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 5: It might not work for everybody. If you could pinpoint

777
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 5: somebody in his family or trusted a friend or something

778
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:05,960
Speaker 5: who he listens to and try to get through to

779
00:42:06,040 --> 00:42:09,360
Speaker 5: that person and let that person be the liaison or whatever,

780
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 5: maybe you can, you know, get a better working relationship

781
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:12,760
Speaker 5: with your client.

782
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 2: You know, Aaron took the time, Aaron justin to you.

783
00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 5: They took the time to explain the process going forward

784
00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:22,399
Speaker 5: when Aaron first came on my case, when we first

785
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:25,239
Speaker 5: met each other, and it was very effective. I don't

786
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 5: know what other attorneys do with their clients, but Aaron

787
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:31,879
Speaker 5: took the necessary time literally explain what to expect going

788
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:36,200
Speaker 5: forward and to relate the same information to my family

789
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:40,760
Speaker 5: through a liaison, which we chose to be my sister Debbie,

790
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,879
Speaker 5: who has been amazing in this process as well as

791
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:50,120
Speaker 5: keeping me straight when I give Aaron problems and have

792
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:53,239
Speaker 5: phone calls and stuff, So it's a whole village. Like

793
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:56,759
Speaker 5: like Aaron just mentioned, on both sides, it's just it

794
00:42:56,800 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 5: takes a village.

795
00:42:57,480 --> 00:42:57,640
Speaker 2: Man.

796
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:06,160
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen

797
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 3: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one

798
00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:11,560
Speaker 3: week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on

799
00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,760
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team Connor

800
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,760
Speaker 3: Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive

801
00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:21,439
Speaker 3: producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn. The music

802
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,120
Speaker 3: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated

803
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 3: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all

804
00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:30,840
Speaker 3: social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.

805
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 3: You can also follow me on Instagram at It's Jason Flamm.

806
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 3: Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts

807
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:39,759
Speaker 3: and association with Signal Company Number one