Speaker 1: On June twenty first, nineteen, Evan came went to the
Speaker 1: East Cleveland apartment of a new friend, Crystel Hudson. Her
Speaker 1: daughter welcomed him in to await Cristel's return. Soon they
Speaker 1: were joined by Cristel's mother and a friend. Before leaving,
Speaker 1: the elder Hudson told them about a premonition that she
Speaker 1: had about Evan killing her daughter. Little did they all know,
Speaker 1: Cristel's body was already decomposing in the bedroom closet. While
Speaker 1: waiting for Crystel, Evan fell asleep, only to be awoken
Speaker 1: by her daughter's screams. Upon discovering the body, the autopsy
Speaker 1: showed signs of a struggle, rape and strangulation, and a
Speaker 1: rape kit collected a great deal of decomposing sperm. The
Speaker 1: police held Evan on a previous minor infraction while questioning
Speaker 1: him about Cristel's murder. His body and clothing were free
Speaker 1: from any of her blood and any sign that he
Speaker 1: may have been in a struggle. DNA testing also cleared
Speaker 1: him as the source of the sperm. However, in the
Speaker 1: summer heat, the decomposition gave the prosecution an opportunity to
Speaker 1: create uncertainty about whether the sperm had been deposited at
Speaker 1: the time of death. The prosecution presented false testimony to
Speaker 1: circumvent the DNA evidence, claiming that the sperm could have
Speaker 1: been deposited hours or even days before her death, paying
Speaker 1: no mind to the sheer number of sperm which indicated
Speaker 1: a more recent deposit. Nearly two decades later, DNA testing
Speaker 1: on Crystal's fingernail scrapings confirmed that her killer was also
Speaker 1: her rapist. But somehow even that wasn't enough for authorities
Speaker 1: to immediately release Evan King. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to wrongful conviction. Today we're going to be interviewing
Speaker 1: a man named Evan King who served almost a quarter
Speaker 1: century in prison for a crime that I don't want
Speaker 1: to say a third grader could have solved it, because
Speaker 1: that's not the case. But a third grader would have
Speaker 1: known that this was not the man that committed this crime.
Speaker 1: All the evidence was in plain sight, and his conviction
Speaker 1: was based on a freaking premonition. That's somebody, and I'm
Speaker 1: sorry I have to laugh to keep from crying. So
Speaker 1: with us today is the man himself. But before I
Speaker 1: introduced him, I'm gonna introduce someone who's voice he'll probably
Speaker 1: recognize Jennifer bergeron of the Ohio Innocence Project. Jennifer, welcome
Speaker 1: back to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you Jason for having me back.
Speaker 1: I feel like we could do just multiple seasons and
Speaker 1: just interview you because there's so many terrible cases in Ohio,
Speaker 1: but this case um is really something and the man
Speaker 1: himself survivor not only of almost a quarter century and
Speaker 1: some of the worst prisons in the country, but also
Speaker 1: cancer survivor. Just a guy that's tough to kill and
Speaker 1: easy to love, a guy named Evan King. Evan, welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. Thank you for having me. But before
Speaker 1: we get into the insanity that Cuyahoga County dished out
Speaker 1: and we hear that name again and again on this show,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Evan King as a young man before
Speaker 1: your life was before you were kidnapped by the state.
Speaker 1: Let's call it what it was, right, So what was
Speaker 1: your life like growing up? Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1: I grew up on the East side of Cleveland, starting
Speaker 1: and the projects on fifty five. Did you have a
Speaker 1: happy childhood? Your brothers and sisters nine of us, five
Speaker 1: boys and four girls. Wow, So you had a big family,
Speaker 1: had a whole whole baseball team. And by the time
Speaker 1: all this swept you off your feet, what was your
Speaker 1: life like? Well, at the time of this, I was
Speaker 1: valet at the Omni Hotel and I had ventured into drugs.
Speaker 1: You know, I was messing with drugs and selling a
Speaker 1: little drugs, you know, just quick money, doing the wrong time,
Speaker 1: you know, listening. I believe is that all drugs should
Speaker 1: be legal, and no one should ever go to jail
Speaker 1: for what they put in their own bodies unless they're
Speaker 1: putting somebody else in harm's way. Um, were you ever
Speaker 1: involved in any violent crime? I mean, so there was
Speaker 1: no reason to suspect that all of a sudden one
Speaker 1: day you just snapped and committed this. What was really
Speaker 1: a brutal murder which happened in June of involved the
Speaker 1: victim and Crystal Hudson. And Crystal was someone who was
Speaker 1: known to you, right, Yes, she was known to me.
Speaker 1: I had Ben France, would have for about two weeks,
Speaker 1: which brings us to the evening, the faithful even of June.
Speaker 1: She was already gone at this point, but no one
Speaker 1: knew that yet except for the actual rapist and murderer.
Speaker 1: But that very night you went to visit Crystal at
Speaker 1: her high rise apartment building, and her daughter met you
Speaker 1: at the apartment door. She invited you in to wait
Speaker 1: for her mom, so, as far as you knew, she
Speaker 1: was expected home at some point. Soon you were joined
Speaker 1: by Crystal's mother and her best friend, Jean, and none
Speaker 1: of you, none of you, none of you had any
Speaker 1: idea that Chris, whose body had already begun decomposing in
Speaker 1: the bedroom closet down the hall. I mean, this is nuts.
Speaker 1: Can you walk us through how this evening unfolded. I
Speaker 1: got to the department and her youngest daughter was there,
Speaker 1: and I asked her, was a mama here? She said no.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I wait on her. You know. So
Speaker 1: the youngest daughter when the bag and played, I watched
Speaker 1: TV on the couch. Okay, so the body is in
Speaker 1: the apartment. There must have been an awful stench. I
Speaker 1: didn't notice a smell. Okay, so you're in the apartment.
Speaker 1: And then what happens. Christal's mother lived a couple of
Speaker 1: floors up, and so did her best friend. They came
Speaker 1: down later on that evening. Best friend had a couple
Speaker 1: of forty ounces and we're sitting that the kitchen table.
Speaker 1: That's where the mother meant and she had a premonition
Speaker 1: that I killed her daughter. That's exactly what she said.
Speaker 1: I had a permanent And I was like what. And
Speaker 1: after a while, the mother decides to go upstairs and
Speaker 1: she takes the youngest daughter and left me and Jeanne
Speaker 1: in the department. Now, why would she say she had
Speaker 1: a premonition? Yet in still you will leave me and
Speaker 1: jean in the department, you know, I mean, if you
Speaker 1: think I killed your daughter, why wouldn't you put us
Speaker 1: out when you left? And even when they was there,
Speaker 1: you know, the mother says something about was I cooking
Speaker 1: or something, because she was talking about she smells something,
Speaker 1: and I say, well, I don't smell nothing, and just
Speaker 1: left it at that, and the mother went upstairs with
Speaker 1: the youngest daughter. Me and jean sat there drinking the
Speaker 1: forty ounces. So when Jeanne left, I set them back
Speaker 1: on the couch and I nodded off from the couch
Speaker 1: and next thing I know, it's the next morning. Both
Speaker 1: of the young daughters come in and that's when I
Speaker 1: will up and they say they wanted to get some
Speaker 1: clothes with school. They go to the closet and the
Speaker 1: oldest daughter starts screaming and I jumped off the couch
Speaker 1: and run back down. Say what is it? She pointed
Speaker 1: to the close and said, my mother's in the closet. Look,
Speaker 1: I am touch nothing not. Took both girls out in
Speaker 1: the hallway, backed on the neighbor's door. See it. Called
Speaker 1: the police and for our audience, this is a brutal crime.
Speaker 1: So just be aware of what you're gonna hear. Is
Speaker 1: gonna be, you know, upsetting. And this is where I
Speaker 1: want to bring Jennifer, and Jennifer, can you tell us
Speaker 1: about the crime itself? So the crime was quite brutal.
Speaker 1: Poor Crystal was found strangled to death in her own closet,
Speaker 1: basically naked. And this was Cleveland in June, and it
Speaker 1: was hot and it wasn't air conditioned, and she'd been
Speaker 1: deceased for they decided over twenty four hours before she
Speaker 1: was even discovered. And she had been in this high
Speaker 1: apartment in Cleveland this whole time. You know, there's lots
Speaker 1: of degradation that happens. There was evidence from the very
Speaker 1: beginning that she had also been raped at the time
Speaker 1: of her death. Evan happened to be in the apartment
Speaker 1: unfortunately when she was found, and so I think that's
Speaker 1: why he sort of became suspect number one, because he
Speaker 1: was there and not waited in all way with the
Speaker 1: two daughters while the police game if you were the
Speaker 1: actual killer, would you stand there and wait for the
Speaker 1: police to arrive. I mean, you're neither dumb nor crazy,
Speaker 1: and you'd have to be both to do that. And
Speaker 1: not only that, when the detectives did come, they brought
Speaker 1: me and set me at the table and say it
Speaker 1: without mind asked, of course, now let's say it. No,
Speaker 1: I don't mind. The police, so far as I could tell,
Speaker 1: never did any actual investigation. They just decided it was him,
Speaker 1: in part because Crystal's mother told them she had a
Speaker 1: premonition that Evan was going to harm her daughter. Now,
Speaker 1: somehow that premonition even came into court, which still boggles
Speaker 1: my mind as to how that was introduced evidence, but
Speaker 1: it was. I wish this was the only time I
Speaker 1: had ever heard of something like a premonition being admitted
Speaker 1: into court, but it's not. Maybe instead of courts, we
Speaker 1: should all just go to psychics, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: and see if they can figure these things out for us.
Speaker 1: I mean it was a combination of laziness. Right, here's
Speaker 1: a guy who was in the apartment, okay, must be him,
Speaker 1: and then oh, there's a premonition bingo, right, and then
Speaker 1: they ran a check on me. I had a couple
Speaker 1: of tickets on me, a bench warrant, and after they
Speaker 1: did a little investigation up there, they took me from downtown.
Speaker 1: So okay, so you get arrested on these bench warrants
Speaker 1: and then did they hold you from that time right
Speaker 1: up until the trial? When did you find out you
Speaker 1: were being charged with the murder? I think it was
Speaker 1: seventy two hours later. Yeah, clearly they did a lot
Speaker 1: of investigation if they arrested and for murder and that
Speaker 1: short amount of time. Once I went to del I
Speaker 1: never got out, and the detectives interviewed me a couple
Speaker 1: of times over them seventy two hours, and I never
Speaker 1: forget the detective asked me, but I take a lot
Speaker 1: of de tech tests. I see, it's sure, I take
Speaker 1: a lot of detect tests. He never brought it up again.
Speaker 1: One of the things that really tripped me out was
Speaker 1: when the guy came and took photographs of my body.
Speaker 1: I'm standing in that naked. He had me get undressed, right,
Speaker 1: my man, Luke, he was like, turn around, he had
Speaker 1: his camera in his hand. He was put your hands
Speaker 1: up and you know, looking around. He said, you the
Speaker 1: first guy. I never took a picture, or if he
Speaker 1: didn't take one picture, I didn't have a scratch on me,
Speaker 1: no bruises. Now, I'm a light scanned guy. Believe me,
Speaker 1: I bruise easy. He didn't take one picture. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad you brought that up, because it's important to recognize
Speaker 1: that miss Hudson didn't leave this world willingly, right. She
Speaker 1: fought there were fingering out scrapings. Right, we find out
Speaker 1: later if they knew that, and of course that you know,
Speaker 1: she had scratched her attacker. But somehow or other, you
Speaker 1: didn't have any scratches en after I got even take
Speaker 1: one freaking picture. So okay, this is this is how
Speaker 1: ridiculous this really is. And it's made even more so
Speaker 1: by virtue of the fact that the biological evidence, and
Speaker 1: there was a lot of it, right, and none of
Speaker 1: it matched Evan. So how did they square that circle? Yeah,
Speaker 1: not only was there no evidence that that Evan actually
Speaker 1: committed the crime unless you count the fact that he
Speaker 1: was in the apartment in the premonition. But there was
Speaker 1: actually evidence at the time of trial that he didn't
Speaker 1: commit the crime. They had completed a rape kit on
Speaker 1: crystal and did some DNA testing on it even back then,
Speaker 1: and there was male DNA present, but it wasn't evan,
Speaker 1: so you know, they kind of had to come up
Speaker 1: with a way to explain that away because there was also,
Speaker 1: as I said before, there was physical evidence that she
Speaker 1: had been raped, meaning physical evidence of trauma to her,
Speaker 1: you know, intimate areas that suggested and confirmed that she
Speaker 1: was raped at the time, but they just kind of
Speaker 1: ignored the physical trauma the areas. They basically got around
Speaker 1: this evidence by some testimony from some folks from the
Speaker 1: coroner's office from Cuyahoga County that we now know well
Speaker 1: they would have known it at the time, but no
Speaker 1: one paid that close of attention to it. But we
Speaker 1: know for sure now was just completely bogus. The big
Speaker 1: question was when this semen was deposited. Was it deposited
Speaker 1: at the time of death or was it deposited up
Speaker 1: to a week earlier. And of course the state came
Speaker 1: in and said, well, that could have been there for
Speaker 1: up to a week, and so she wasn't raped and murdered.
Speaker 1: The problem was that the folks from the Corner's office,
Speaker 1: especially one, you know, they were focusing on the wrong
Speaker 1: information um that was scientifically invalid at the time to
Speaker 1: even look at. They were looking at different fluid levels,
Speaker 1: but they should have been looking at sort of the
Speaker 1: number of sperm and the amount of semen that there was,
Speaker 1: and that's not what they were doing. So they weren't
Speaker 1: even following the appropriate practices at that time, and so
Speaker 1: that allowed them to go forward with the theory that
Speaker 1: she wasn't actually raped and murdered, that she was just murdered,
Speaker 1: even though the evidence clearly showed that she was raped
Speaker 1: and murdered. So the notorious Kuyahoga County Carner's office was
Speaker 1: either unconsciously or consciously presenting false testimony, as they've done before,
Speaker 1: they created some wiggle room for the jury to still
Speaker 1: believe in you as the assailant. If that sperm had
Speaker 1: been deposited earlier than the time of death, perhaps she
Speaker 1: had had contentsual sex or even been raped, you know,
Speaker 1: hours or even days before she was killed, making it
Speaker 1: plausible for the jury to believe that the DNA evidence
Speaker 1: from the sperm didn't determine who actually killed her, which
Speaker 1: would have left you as still some sort of potential suspect.
Speaker 1: Then you can see how the jury got fooled. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Unfortunately for Evan, his defense counsel
Speaker 1: didn't effectively cross examine them on this and didn't bring
Speaker 1: any expert to sort of debunk it. It wasn't that,
Speaker 1: you know, it should have been a battle of the
Speaker 1: experts where one was saying one thing and the other
Speaker 1: was saying the opposite. They were just flat out wrong,
Speaker 1: and nobody called them on it. Evan, who was your
Speaker 1: attorney and were they court appointed? Yeah? I never forget
Speaker 1: that name, Rockell Russo Wow, what a name. He didn't
Speaker 1: present no defense from me, because even my family when
Speaker 1: they came to court, they was like, your lawyer ain't
Speaker 1: objecting to nothing. He wouldn't object and he was falling
Speaker 1: asleep up time. You know, if you feel that lawyer
Speaker 1: is selling you out, you gotta let it be known
Speaker 1: instead of a lawyer telling you. Because Rockel Russa just
Speaker 1: kept telling me I got it. Just sit there, I
Speaker 1: got this and I believed him. I sat there and
Speaker 1: that was the mistake on my behalf. But you don't
Speaker 1: know at the time. Yeah, even if it seemed like
Speaker 1: you could see it, then you just didn't know it,
Speaker 1: unfortunately until it was too late. But back then, in
Speaker 1: that moment, did you still hold out any hope that
Speaker 1: the jury was going to see through this false testimony
Speaker 1: and believe their own eyes and ears when it came
Speaker 1: to the actual evidence in this case, Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: you know. I was thinking, well, I didn't do it,
Speaker 1: so they they ain't gonna refine me guilty. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's where my mind was. But you know, when you
Speaker 1: stand up and then and they come back with a
Speaker 1: verdict of guilty, you know you gotta take it and
Speaker 1: keep your head held up and walk out that God
Speaker 1: said what I wanted to say to the judge. I
Speaker 1: definitely told him I'll be back in this courtroom. I'd
Speaker 1: never forget what I told. Judge Corgan. What did you
Speaker 1: say at the said Mr King, I'm sending you to
Speaker 1: fifteen years of life, And he said, do you have
Speaker 1: anything to say? I say, you're sentence and an innocent
Speaker 1: man to prison while a guilty man walked the streets
Speaker 1: of Cleveland. Free pointed to him, and I said, one
Speaker 1: day I'll be back in this corproom for you to
Speaker 1: set me free. I have to see it that. I
Speaker 1: turned and I walked out of my head. He held him.
Speaker 1: Any prison is bad because basically you're on guard twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day. I mean, you don't know when
Speaker 1: somebody flip out, they flip off for the minus thanks.
Speaker 1: Somebody might not be able to get on the phone
Speaker 1: and bush you in your head to cut you. Heah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's crazy on guard twenty four hours
Speaker 1: a day, basically, you know. But even you can stay
Speaker 1: in prison and keep back in a fool in prison
Speaker 1: and be that the rest of your life. For you
Speaker 1: got to learn some things or get some help. I
Speaker 1: couldn't adapt good to the books as far as the
Speaker 1: Gates law, and so I had to start writing letters,
Speaker 1: seeing who can give me some help. I was lucky
Speaker 1: enough to get in touch with Miss Burst right now, wow,
Speaker 1: innocent project gods. So you ended up finally in the
Speaker 1: hands of people who cared a lot and were talented lawyers,
Speaker 1: and they weren't gonna let go. But one after another,
Speaker 1: these courts denied you and it was not that long
Speaker 1: ago that justice was finally delayed but not denied. So
Speaker 1: Jennifer take us through these denials. So Evan was represented
Speaker 1: by a different attorney for a while, and back in
Speaker 1: two thousand four I think actually he filed the first
Speaker 1: motion for DNA testing, and it took a long time,
Speaker 1: but in two thousand eight he asked for DNA testing
Speaker 1: on the fingernail scrapings because, as you mentioned, we know
Speaker 1: that Crystal Hudson fought back at the time of her death,
Speaker 1: and so his theory was, well, if we test these
Speaker 1: fingernail scrapings and you find male DNA and it's the
Speaker 1: same as the DNA from the semen, then that's going
Speaker 1: to confirm what Evans been saying since day one, which
Speaker 1: is that he was not the murderer, and that the
Speaker 1: person who loved the Semen was actually raped her and
Speaker 1: was the murderer. So Evan had filed for DNA testing
Speaker 1: and the trial judge had ordered it, saying, I think
Speaker 1: I can quote him here, DNA belonging to an unknown
Speaker 1: party found under the fingernails of the victim, and then
Speaker 1: went on to say would prove the identity of the
Speaker 1: real killer. If it matches the DNA from the scene. Okay,
Speaker 1: So basically, the trial judge was agreed that if the
Speaker 1: fingernail scrapings came back and matched the rape kit, that
Speaker 1: that would prove Evans claim. Well, it did exactly that.
Speaker 1: I first read what did Joe said about if the
Speaker 1: fingernails scripting, Matt, that's it, don't out to you. And
Speaker 1: then when it comes back for him to deny me,
Speaker 1: that just took me away. I'm like, isn't writing you
Speaker 1: say if if this come back the mess that it
Speaker 1: eliminates me as the killer, and then it comes back
Speaker 1: to do just that, then you say not, even though
Speaker 1: he explicitly said before that that's what he was looking for,
Speaker 1: but he denied it based on the expert testimony from
Speaker 1: the trial. That same expert testimony that we've been talking
Speaker 1: about that we know was just complete fogus nonsense. And
Speaker 1: so the trial judge said, well, the jury already knew
Speaker 1: that the DNA on the rape kit came from someone else,
Speaker 1: and you know, the expert said that could have come
Speaker 1: out to a week beforehand, so it really doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 1: So then he appealed. This was in two thousand twelve,
Speaker 1: and the appeal was split three ways. One judge, who
Speaker 1: has now in Ohio Supreme Court justice said he'd already
Speaker 1: showed he was actually innocent and should be released. And
Speaker 1: then there was two other opinions basically saying, well, we
Speaker 1: see the DNA results, but there was no expert testimony
Speaker 1: contradicting the trial expert testimony. So at this point is
Speaker 1: when the Ohio Innocence Project got involved, and with the
Speaker 1: help of actually one of our former lawyers, carry Wood,
Speaker 1: who worked at the Public Defender's Office, she got an
Speaker 1: expert involved and then she got in touch with me.
Speaker 1: Long story short, we refiled several things in state court
Speaker 1: and we also filed in federal court. The Corner's Office
Speaker 1: and the Prosecutor's office refused to give us all of
Speaker 1: the information we were asking for, like the additional data
Speaker 1: on the DNA testing, and they just flat out refused
Speaker 1: to give it to us. So our expert was working
Speaker 1: with what he had available, and he produced an affidavit
Speaker 1: that's said several things, one that the Corner's office experts
Speaker 1: who testified at the trial essentially presented false testimony, and
Speaker 1: also the additional information about the fact that they found
Speaker 1: male DNA under her fingernails indicated it had to have
Speaker 1: been a struggle because most people don't walk around with
Speaker 1: DNA under their fingernails belonging to someone else. Um and
Speaker 1: the fact that they were able to get a full
Speaker 1: profile off the rape kit all those years later also
Speaker 1: indicated that semen must have been put there at the
Speaker 1: time of death, because it wouldn't be that strong that
Speaker 1: much later. So we had three different motions pending and
Speaker 1: the trial court level, but eventually, like a year and
Speaker 1: a half later, the trial judge finally just denied all
Speaker 1: of those, so we had to peel it again. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just insane that you were denied by the trial
Speaker 1: court at this point, considering that you were remedying what
Speaker 1: they claimed was the reasoning behind the earlier denial involving
Speaker 1: the DNA match from the scrapings and the rape kit.
Speaker 1: Now you had done it. You had refuted the trial experts,
Speaker 1: but the trial court went ahead and moved the gold
Speaker 1: hosts again, calling your refuting of the state's false expert
Speaker 1: testimony a quote battle of the experts. Of course, you
Speaker 1: appealed this denial, and in January two seventeen, the appellate
Speaker 1: court agreed with you, reversing the trial court's denial, granting
Speaker 1: you access to the DNA test results, which they had
Speaker 1: previously been blocking. They granted an upload to codas to
Speaker 1: see if you could get a match to another known purpose,
Speaker 1: and so far there's no dice with that. But significantly,
Speaker 1: you've got an evidential hearing out of this, so you
Speaker 1: all start prepping for what you thought was gonna be
Speaker 1: an epic battle. Your expert now had access to those
Speaker 1: DNA results, so he could go beyond what he'd already
Speaker 1: done in the APPI dated, and in two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: something truly unexpected happened, just completely out of the blue.
Speaker 1: One day in April, I was in a meeting and
Speaker 1: got got done, and I had like multiple voicemails and
Speaker 1: emails and things from one of the people from the
Speaker 1: prosecutor's office. I called her back and she told me
Speaker 1: that they had reviewed the case and talked to the
Speaker 1: corner's office again and had concluded essentially that we were
Speaker 1: right and that our expert was right, and that they
Speaker 1: were agreeing that they would release Evan. And I think
Speaker 1: I fell out of my chair about when that phone,
Speaker 1: when I had that conversation because it was so unexpected,
Speaker 1: given how they had been fighting everything up until that point.
Speaker 1: But of course the first thing I needed to do
Speaker 1: was to get ahold of Evan to tell him the news.
Speaker 1: So that means that means I think it's not going
Speaker 1: to get filed till Monday. But I think that means
Speaker 1: you should hopefully be able to be going home soon.
Speaker 1: He MEMA moment to process this, I wanted. I wanted
Speaker 1: you to know right away, all right, I do. I
Speaker 1: knew this did a day, a couple one, babe, But
Speaker 1: I do. I cry too because my brother told me,
Speaker 1: don't know what, but you know, one thing to show.
Speaker 1: I know you're looking down at me, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure she is, like Ohlwa told you I had complete
Speaker 1: play in you. You know, thank you. After told me
Speaker 1: I had, I just laid the phone down. In my
Speaker 1: mind just tears came out. That's where I'm telling up now,
Speaker 1: tears just because at that the only thing that I
Speaker 1: really think about it was mom my mom and mind.
Speaker 1: Because my mama always told me the Lord's gonna let
Speaker 1: you out one day. He just wants you to get
Speaker 1: your life together. He held on right, yeah, And when
Speaker 1: she told me that it was. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of tears that day, but it's the day that I
Speaker 1: would never forget. Yeah, we had the call on Friday,
Speaker 1: and then it was getting ready to be Easter weekend.
Speaker 1: So yeah, as your listeners probably know by now, when
Speaker 1: someone is released from prison after they've been wrongkly convicted,
Speaker 1: it's obviously amazing, but it's not like their sent home
Speaker 1: with you know, any anything to help them readjust to life.
Speaker 1: So you know, we had to go into sort of
Speaker 1: high gear in our office trying to make sure Evan
Speaker 1: had somewhere to go, and he did with his cousin,
Speaker 1: who was fantastic. But I was on the phone most
Speaker 1: of the weekend trying to make sure all of that
Speaker 1: was said, and then wait for them to transfer back
Speaker 1: to the county jail, and then I was able to
Speaker 1: visit him there the night before we went back to court,
Speaker 1: which was amazing, um. And then finally we went back
Speaker 1: to court, but then it took hours and hours for
Speaker 1: them to process him back out, and then in the meantime,
Speaker 1: even after we knew he was coming home, it still
Speaker 1: wasn't a relaxing experience because even just simple things like
Speaker 1: he needed access to medication that he took daily, and
Speaker 1: they weren't letting him come home with any And I
Speaker 1: spent the day trying to track down the doctor who
Speaker 1: ran the jail to make sure they would at least
Speaker 1: release him with a prescription so that we could make
Speaker 1: sure he didn't miss any of the doses of the
Speaker 1: medication that he needed. They wouldn't even give me the
Speaker 1: medication I had then they didn't let you take it out.
Speaker 1: And it was crazy, which makes absolutely zero sense on
Speaker 1: any level. Right, It's just some bureaucratic insanity on top
Speaker 1: of all the other insanity. But luckily you had this
Speaker 1: great team behind you and and good family, and so
Speaker 1: you walk out into the fresh air. What was that
Speaker 1: moment like? And where did you go? Did you did
Speaker 1: you go straight to a restaurant or a bar, or
Speaker 1: did you hug a tree or what did you go?
Speaker 1: When once we got outside, you know, just the air
Speaker 1: is different on this side of the defense. It's like
Speaker 1: you can breathe again, you know. To Media's God's gift.
Speaker 1: I hear you. I mean we hear it in different
Speaker 1: ways from every different person who's been through what you've
Speaker 1: been through, different variations of it. It's Um, it's it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: I mean sad, but it's beautiful. So UM, we're just
Speaker 1: happy your your home and you're free, and we wish you,
Speaker 1: you know, every blessing that life has to offer going forward.
Speaker 1: You certainly deserve it, UM, And I want to before
Speaker 1: we go to the closing of the show, first of all,
Speaker 1: I want to encourage people to support the Ohio Innocence
Speaker 1: Project and we will put a link in the bio
Speaker 1: for people who want to donate or get involved in
Speaker 1: any way they can. Um, you were the twenty five
Speaker 1: person exonerated by the Ohio Innocence Project. It's a remarkable number,
Speaker 1: but still it's a tiny number in terms of the
Speaker 1: overall innocent people that are remained behind bars. But we're
Speaker 1: happy you're here. And now we're going to turn to
Speaker 1: the closing of our show, which we call Closing Arguments.
Speaker 1: It works like this. I think you both again, Jennifer.
Speaker 1: You know, you inspire me and so many other people
Speaker 1: by your remarkable advocacy, and it's always great to have
Speaker 1: you on the show. And obviously I'm working closely with
Speaker 1: the Highly Instance Project on other cases Jhon Jones and others,
Speaker 1: and UM I know we're gonna win those two. It
Speaker 1: just takes longer than we wanted to, like it always does,
Speaker 1: but a closing arguments works like this. I'm gonna finally
Speaker 1: stop talking. I'm going to turn my microphone off. Thank
Speaker 1: you again, Evan King, Jennifer berge Round for being here
Speaker 1: with us closing arguments. I'm gonna just turn my microphone
Speaker 1: off and let you say anything else that's left unsaid
Speaker 1: that you want to share with our audience. Evan, We're
Speaker 1: gonna save you. I mean, you're the man of the hour,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna be the last one to speak, if
Speaker 1: that's okay, and we're gonna let Jennifer share her thoughts
Speaker 1: and then hand the mic off to you and then
Speaker 1: take us out into the sunset a rather well. First
Speaker 1: of all, I wanted to say thank you for having
Speaker 1: me back on. I'm kind of sad that I'm here
Speaker 1: because it means that there's more clients whose cases we
Speaker 1: can discuss. But I'm so grateful for the light that
Speaker 1: you're bringing to cases all over the country, their stories
Speaker 1: that deserve to be told. Also, if I may, would
Speaker 1: like to put in a plug for two of my
Speaker 1: current clients, Carl Willis and Wayne Brady, or there's a
Speaker 1: website set up free Wayne and Carl dot com where
Speaker 1: that you can go read more information and find all
Speaker 1: kinds of information. And then of course I wanted to
Speaker 1: say thank you to Evan for being here with me
Speaker 1: and you've always inspired me to keep going. And anytime
Speaker 1: I'm down and need to pick me up, I like
Speaker 1: to watch the video ofs you woo hoo hooing after
Speaker 1: you're coming out of the court when you were released,
Speaker 1: because it's just a feeling of pure joy that gives
Speaker 1: me a smile every time. Thank you, Thank you uh,
Speaker 1: first of all to how Innocent Project was the gods
Speaker 1: and to me their family, to me for those of
Speaker 1: you out there listening, look up to O How Innocent Project.
Speaker 1: Some of you have people in love, ones that you
Speaker 1: know are innocent, need to be free. You don't know
Speaker 1: where to start, Just give him a call and as always,
Speaker 1: stay in your lane, try to stay troubled for you,
Speaker 1: but the Lord has your back. Just keep your faith
Speaker 1: and continue to do the right thing. But one thing
Speaker 1: I would like to say came out good out of this.
Speaker 1: I haven't messed with the drug cocaine and almost thirty
Speaker 1: years now. I've been clean for almost thirty years now.
Speaker 1: People who are always talking about you can't stop drugs overnight.
Speaker 1: Oh yes you can. When the right thing happened to you,
Speaker 1: you can stop in it, Dame. But that all happens
Speaker 1: in God's blessings. So with that, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me here on your podcasts. As I bade you verywell,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you for listening to ronfl Conviction. I'd
Speaker 1: like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburn,
Speaker 1: and Kevin Ward Us with research by Lila Robinson. The
Speaker 1: music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR
Speaker 1: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast,
Speaker 1: and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as at
Speaker 1: Lava for Good. On all three platforms. You can also
Speaker 1: follow me on both TikTok and Instagram at It's Jason
Speaker 1: flam ralevul Conviction is the production of Lava for Good
Speaker 1: Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one