Speaker 1: I'm Jason Flom, host of Wrongful Conviction, and so far
Speaker 1: we've brought you hundreds of stories of people stolen from
Speaker 1: their lives and families for crimes they did not commit.
Speaker 1: The sheer number of cases we've coverage speaks to the
Speaker 1: scale of the problem, but we've yet to even scratch
Speaker 1: the surface. To amplify this message even louder, I've invited
Speaker 1: new voices to host the show to create interviews of
Speaker 1: the system affected by the system affected. This is one
Speaker 1: of those interviews. On January, a sixty year old woman
Speaker 1: in the small town of Violet, Louisiana, her to knock
Speaker 1: at the door. It was two o'clock in the morning
Speaker 1: that night. She had been babysitting her three and a
Speaker 1: half year old grandson, and she opened the door thinking
Speaker 1: was her son to pick up the child. Instead, two
Speaker 1: men forced their way into her home and demanded to
Speaker 1: be taken to her safe. When she insisted she didn't
Speaker 1: have one, they raped her and stole her stereo equipment
Speaker 1: and of television. The next door neighbor saw the two
Speaker 1: men walking out of the house with the stolen goods.
Speaker 1: Then they saw them get into a car with a
Speaker 1: woman at the wheel. One of those neighbors was twenty
Speaker 1: four year old Louis Caesar, and he recognized one of
Speaker 1: the men as Ulysses Pierre, who also went by the
Speaker 1: name of Little Noon Lewis. Mother Yolanda called nine one
Speaker 1: one to report the crime. Later that day, police arrested
Speaker 1: Ulysses and brought him in for questioning. At first, he
Speaker 1: claimed he acted alone, but police physically abused him until
Speaker 1: he admitted that two others were involved. Ulysses said that
Speaker 1: Sidney Williams and his younger cousin, Jarvis Ballard, were with him.
Speaker 1: He also told the police where they hit the stolen items.
Speaker 1: Jarvis was arrested later that same day. During their interrogation,
Speaker 1: he denied taking any part of the crime, but after
Speaker 1: the police threatened and beat him, Jarvis eventually signed a
Speaker 1: false confession statement. Three men were arrested, even though the
Speaker 1: victim and the witnesses said only who had been involved.
Speaker 1: On July twenty one, Ulysses Pierre, Sidney Williams, and Jarvis
Speaker 1: Ballard were sentenced to life in prison. This is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 1: My name is Patrick Pursley, also known as Free Patrick Pursley.
Speaker 1: I was previously a guest on this show to tell
Speaker 1: the story of my own wrongful conviction today, though I'm
Speaker 1: stepping into the host role. This April, I had the
Speaker 1: honor to sit down with Jarvis Ballard and its lawyer
Speaker 1: G Park at the Instance Network conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 1: When we spoke, Jarvis had only been out of prison
Speaker 1: for eight months. It was emotional conversation for the both
Speaker 1: of us. I want to say how grateful I am
Speaker 1: to Jarvis for trusting me to tell his story. This
Speaker 1: case here really, UM, it took me apart because it's
Speaker 1: very steeped in the South and the culture and the
Speaker 1: practice of treatment black men in the South. Very heavy
Speaker 1: accusation of what you went through, what you were accused of, right,
Speaker 1: all these things. UM, it's very to me. It resonated
Speaker 1: with the historical harms of Deep South attitude towards black life.
Speaker 1: It's very good for you to be here. I'm very
Speaker 1: thankful to meet you. I'm sorry for what you went through. Everyone. Welcome,
Speaker 1: Jarvis Ballot and his attorney G Park, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Good to be here. It's nice to meet so tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about your past. It's like growing
Speaker 1: up in Louisiana. What you went through and what your experience. Well,
Speaker 1: I grew up with a single mother of two. My
Speaker 1: father got cute murder of shot nineteen times tendon Ai,
Speaker 1: so I was actually three, but I always knew that
Speaker 1: my daddy home with the wrong crowd. And I learned
Speaker 1: that a lot old as I grew up, because he
Speaker 1: was a known drug dealer and he was known for
Speaker 1: him in New Orleans, for him having a name of
Speaker 1: killing people. And I always didn't never want to be
Speaker 1: like that because I always played sports. But I found
Speaker 1: myself having his aggression towards other people, like, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't take much to meet me. Made if I
Speaker 1: think you're a bullet, you're not gonna bullet nobody around me.
Speaker 1: So you know, always was challenging all the bullets. So
Speaker 1: I took on the name mass a little with the
Speaker 1: are which is my dad. And then they called him
Speaker 1: town taker because a lot of people are scared to
Speaker 1: mess with him. I didn't want that because I know
Speaker 1: eventually soon on last abody holme me and take my
Speaker 1: life like they took it, started selling drugs and smoking weeds.
Speaker 1: I'm thirteen years old, and you know I'm in high
Speaker 1: school playing bees but actually I'll playing bees ball in football.
Speaker 1: And my suppose this is kind of will help me
Speaker 1: get along whatever, just a little bit more than the
Speaker 1: next person, you know, and I will get away with
Speaker 1: a lot. I might get expelled from school. They're send
Speaker 1: a teacher to the house, just as just coming practice
Speaker 1: right for you. But I didn't care about school because
Speaker 1: like my my my ninth going in my team gray year,
Speaker 1: it was over it, which is having running is that
Speaker 1: landed me and Julie Hall for two years. But I
Speaker 1: just had it. I just had a natt for getting it.
Speaker 1: I just like this bad peep, bad boards. You know,
Speaker 1: you know what it is. You think you're bad. I
Speaker 1: want to. I want to. I want to be the
Speaker 1: one in the throne. Whatever you think you've got going on.
Speaker 1: His previous interactions with the criminal justice system put him
Speaker 1: on the police radar, and that's how Jarvis got swept
Speaker 1: up into what's about to happen next. So in January,
Speaker 1: a woman, she was a sixty year old white woman,
Speaker 1: um and then all of the night there's a knock
Speaker 1: on her door. She goes to the door. There are
Speaker 1: two men who burst into her home. They rape her
Speaker 1: viciously and then they steal things from her. And in
Speaker 1: her home was her grandson whom she was taking care
Speaker 1: of that night. And so right after this horrific incident
Speaker 1: happens to her, she calls the police. She calls nine
Speaker 1: on one, and she says, two black men came into
Speaker 1: my home, stole my belongings, and raped me. And they
Speaker 1: were in there at her home for quite some time.
Speaker 1: And not only that, they covered her eyes where visibility
Speaker 1: was hindered for most of this time. And as this
Speaker 1: robbery rape is happening, as they're carrying things from this
Speaker 1: woman's home to a car right where in which there
Speaker 1: was a driver in the car, and that driver is
Speaker 1: a woman. So it's three people total, right, two men
Speaker 1: who go in the house, and then there's a driver
Speaker 1: who is a woman in the car, in the getaway vehicle.
Speaker 1: And the neighbors are seeing something happening right to their
Speaker 1: neighbor's home. This is the mother and the son, Louis
Speaker 1: Caesar and Yolanda Caesar, Right does his mother and son
Speaker 1: who live next door to this woman, right, And they
Speaker 1: say when they talk to the police that night or
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter, they say to me, they see two men, right,
Speaker 1: and they see a third person in the car, and
Speaker 1: this is what they know, um immediately after the crime. Now,
Speaker 1: the way Jarvis gets involved is that Louis recognizes one
Speaker 1: of the people as Pierre. He says, oh, that's Jarvis's cousin,
Speaker 1: first cousin, Yeah, Eulicie spears. So he recognizes Julysi Speer
Speaker 1: and that's who. So Louis is the one who tells
Speaker 1: the police. I think one of the men recognize as
Speaker 1: Ulysses Pierre. And the next morning, at ten am, police
Speaker 1: go to Pierre's home. Right, Pierre's the last name, right,
Speaker 1: Ulyssi is his first name. They go to Pierre's home
Speaker 1: and they begin to interrogate him, right, and Pierre gives
Speaker 1: a really unfortunate statement he involved Jarvis. On the night
Speaker 1: of the crime, Jarvis was out at the club in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. Well, of course, I was out party with
Speaker 1: my friends. You know, we're having a few drinks, getting high.
Speaker 1: I come home, I'm so entire. The kid I my
Speaker 1: friend had to put him in my coat, which is
Speaker 1: Louis Caesar. Later on I would learn that he was
Speaker 1: the crime will be happening right next to it to
Speaker 1: his house Louis Caesar gave Jarvis a ride home from
Speaker 1: the party. Jarvis slept at his grandmother's house, where he
Speaker 1: often spent the night. I get on the next morning,
Speaker 1: I see all I'm thinking it's around up in the round.
Speaker 1: Up is when he come pick you up? When you said,
Speaker 1: what your undercovering? Ocati? So I'm like, man, So I
Speaker 1: go back inside and make a phone out, say many
Speaker 1: around people up for drugs. It's let me say no.
Speaker 1: He said, Look, let noon, which is my cousin they
Speaker 1: just arrested for a rape. Later that morning, Jarvis went
Speaker 1: down the street to hang out with a friend. He
Speaker 1: noticed on the way that the police were out in
Speaker 1: front of his cousin, Tracy's house, so he asked to
Speaker 1: from what was going on. So we're like, man, something
Speaker 1: happened there and night with knowing him, which is you list?
Speaker 1: I already knew what you're talking about because I heard it.
Speaker 1: He said. They said they put the stuff in her
Speaker 1: to ship. So this what draws me to go walk
Speaker 1: down there because I want to know what's going on
Speaker 1: with her. This is my family. But as I'm walking,
Speaker 1: they didn't already took the stuff out of the shade.
Speaker 1: They asking out about me, do you know where job
Speaker 1: is better? And she's pointing telling him that him coming
Speaker 1: right there. So as I'm coming and say you joll
Speaker 1: about and said yeah, they see, get on the ground,
Speaker 1: which I complied. When I got there, Detective Calvin bought
Speaker 1: arresting me. He bought me there and I was interviewed
Speaker 1: by Scott Davis. That's who actually meant me how to do.
Speaker 1: He said, you want to read old white women like
Speaker 1: I didn't read nobody, and he spread peppers from now
Speaker 1: I'm looking at my cousin and my cousin and fairly
Speaker 1: light skinning, so I see where he can like he'd
Speaker 1: been attacked. And he's like, man, just tell him what happened.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know what happened. What did you
Speaker 1: talking about? Now this next part I have to warn
Speaker 1: the listener it's very difficult to talk about and very
Speaker 1: difficult to hear. But during their interrogation, Jarvis was subject
Speaker 1: to a high level of brutality. He was sprayed with
Speaker 1: pepper spray and kicked repeatedly in the groin. The injuries
Speaker 1: he got from the police required him to have emergency
Speaker 1: surgery and they started you know, they kicked met me
Speaker 1: pretty much. It was very clear. I knew we did that.
Speaker 1: He did it two or three times I have, and
Speaker 1: I just like, like Jesus, I don't understand why family
Speaker 1: put people in position. But you know, I think the
Speaker 1: police had no right to treat you like that, all right.
Speaker 1: I mean they didn't have to spread. I mean they
Speaker 1: don't have They didn't have to. You know, people do
Speaker 1: not They didn't have to physical. While they were interrogating Jarvis,
Speaker 1: the police were also interrogating his cousin Ulysses and sister Quadrica.
Speaker 1: Jarvis could actually hear his sister from the other room
Speaker 1: and the police stay ship because I hit my sister.
Speaker 1: They're crying and she like it wasn't you know? It
Speaker 1: was me La noon. And now you were feeling protective
Speaker 1: or vulnerable with her there as well. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to see her get into trouble because I was like,
Speaker 1: she didn't got herself into Finally, after all that fiscal
Speaker 1: abuse and the instinct to protect the sister, Jarvis's will
Speaker 1: was completely overborne and he relented and he signed a
Speaker 1: false confession. And that man told my mom that she
Speaker 1: can have our daughter. I got your son, so now
Speaker 1: I had to play save my sister, and y'all beat me.
Speaker 1: I'm just strong man, but I had to make a decision.
Speaker 1: And once I signed that statement, then their kee was
Speaker 1: kind of sealed for them. And the only thing I
Speaker 1: got hope of the gold one day we had me
Speaker 1: in this position right here. So basically a trial, what
Speaker 1: was presented? What did the jury here? What's you know?
Speaker 1: How was that broke down to the jury because obviously
Speaker 1: they weren't apprized of all the facts, right, So the
Speaker 1: state presented, I mean, the state relied on three pieces
Speaker 1: of evidence. One was the positive identification of Jarvis by
Speaker 1: the complainant about the victim in the case, right. I
Speaker 1: mean for a sixty year old white woman to say
Speaker 1: in the courtroom pointing to Jervis and saying that is
Speaker 1: the man who raped me, that's pretty powerful evidence. Um.
Speaker 1: The second piece of evidence was co defendant Ulysses Peers
Speaker 1: statement right implicating Jarvis. And then Jarvis's own confession that
Speaker 1: they took from him. So those are the three pieces
Speaker 1: of evidence that a steep, steep, steep mountain to overcome.
Speaker 1: It is because the physical evidence only link to Ulysses
Speaker 1: Pierre and Sydney Williams, the two guys who actually committed
Speaker 1: a cross which makes sense. And there was nothing, no
Speaker 1: physical evidence, no DNA, nothing that connected Jarvis to the scene. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so after the police was called, after the victim
Speaker 1: gave her statement, she was taken to the hospital, right,
Speaker 1: and a sexual assault kid was performed on her. They
Speaker 1: collected evidence, physical evidence, right, and they conducted DNA testing
Speaker 1: on that too, physical on the physical evidence that was
Speaker 1: collective on the scene and from her body. And they
Speaker 1: were able to identify two male profiles and neither one
Speaker 1: of those belong to Jovis. There's two male profiles they
Speaker 1: developed belonged to Ulysses Pierre and also to Sydney Williams,
Speaker 1: the two men who actually committed this crime. The jury
Speaker 1: did not hear all the relevant evidence that they should
Speaker 1: have heard to decide what actually happened in this case.
Speaker 1: I mean to say, take care about to do to
Speaker 1: efficiency more than accuracy and justice and fairness. Louisiana, you know,
Speaker 1: has the highest incarceration per capita in the entire world, right, Um,
Speaker 1: And not only that, we have the highest exoneration rate
Speaker 1: per capita in the country. And so when you put
Speaker 1: those numbers together, you wonder what is really going on
Speaker 1: here in the South. The fact of the matter is,
Speaker 1: you know, Jervis was represented by a public defender system
Speaker 1: that is still falling apart in Louisiana. Right, you need
Speaker 1: effective attorneys to investigate your cases. His attorneys didn't have
Speaker 1: an investigator. Right. His attorney didn't know the discovery practices
Speaker 1: in the jurisdiction that he was practicing. It you get
Speaker 1: the file. Yeah, so attorneys, you would think that would
Speaker 1: be the you want complete file, right right, right, right right.
Speaker 1: It's your obligation, it's your duty, it's your job. And
Speaker 1: then on the flip side, you have the prosecutor who
Speaker 1: also has a duty to turn over, turn over everything.
Speaker 1: I feel like once they've seen who it was, it
Speaker 1: was old, it didn't even matter no more about how
Speaker 1: to get this conviction. I just wanted you know, you
Speaker 1: have an elderly white woman fifty was nine at the time,
Speaker 1: six years old, she's raped. You know, I understood that
Speaker 1: what I was up against because I under still growing
Speaker 1: up down and how it was, so I knew that
Speaker 1: it was dominated by white people. I learned this further
Speaker 1: of all, I have to learn that whatever happened. I
Speaker 1: gotta know that it was wrong. What happened to the woman.
Speaker 1: I looked at the router problem where she got raped.
Speaker 1: Ain't nothing right about that. Now I understand that the
Speaker 1: police had to make help make me a victim. That's
Speaker 1: when the racism come in. Look we got this black
Speaker 1: kid that he's saying that he did this to you,
Speaker 1: and did this here, and we want to show you
Speaker 1: a picture. You remember seeing the me your house? Now
Speaker 1: your points great at the picture. So I knew how
Speaker 1: now this is one day almost like suggested to her
Speaker 1: that there was three. Now they did they did? I
Speaker 1: think it. Actually they bought this one in front of
Speaker 1: me during a trial session and ex he told me,
Speaker 1: see if this woman said you went in the house,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you go right now. He said, this
Speaker 1: guy right here saying that she wasn't in his house.
Speaker 1: The woman started crying. She said, yes, you will you
Speaker 1: reading me. I'm like, ma'am, I don't even know you.
Speaker 1: On July one, after less than four hours of deliberation,
Speaker 1: the jury convicts Jarvis Ballard and Ulysses Pierre of aggravated rape.
Speaker 1: The next day, Sidney Williams was convicted of the same.
Speaker 1: All three were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Speaker 1: Jarvis's case is particularly heartbreaking because it happened within a family, right,
Speaker 1: It's about family as I turned kind of against one
Speaker 1: another and that got one of their brother cousin right
Speaker 1: in prison for twenty three years. And so I think
Speaker 1: that's case. It's incredibly heartbreaking. It's more than a betrayal.
Speaker 1: You know, I forgive me, but I would never be
Speaker 1: able to have been with him because you didn't have
Speaker 1: no reason to do that to that woman. To me,
Speaker 1: you made two victims that laid in me. Then you
Speaker 1: took something from me that you didn't have to do.
Speaker 1: So I don't I don't talk years, six months and
Speaker 1: you know him all your life. This is my We
Speaker 1: took bath together. He was my he was my big cousin,
Speaker 1: but I was you know, he's like my brother because
Speaker 1: I always was much bigger than him. But you you know,
Speaker 1: you heard me, and I don't hate, but I just
Speaker 1: rather not deal with him. During his twenty three years inside,
Speaker 1: Jarvis made a few good friends. One was Jerome Morgan
Speaker 1: now fellow as Honery. You know, and you meet people
Speaker 1: along the way, not knowing that you'll share the same
Speaker 1: similar story, just different. It means it's just different cases
Speaker 1: but the same situation. And I met Jerome and we
Speaker 1: become good friends, and he actually like a man talk
Speaker 1: to me. I loved Tom, you know, I watched him
Speaker 1: countless nights up two or three days working on his
Speaker 1: case and I'm talking. We sat up in the same
Speaker 1: place sports together, and you know, he was preparing himself
Speaker 1: for this date, but I wasn't. I only had hope,
Speaker 1: you know. And it was people like him that encouraged
Speaker 1: me to start right the Innocent Project, he said, Innocent right,
Speaker 1: Innocent Project, So you know it's people like him, and
Speaker 1: not knowing that, you know, years later, the same person
Speaker 1: that helped him get out of president would help actually
Speaker 1: take my case. Jarvis wrote to the Innocent Project in
Speaker 1: New Orleans IPNO for short, and they eventually took his
Speaker 1: case and helped him fight for his exoneration. In terms
Speaker 1: of investigating this case, we began to collect all the
Speaker 1: documents right related to this case, the d file for
Speaker 1: police records, to court files, anything and everything we get
Speaker 1: our hands on. And it's challenging to get access to
Speaker 1: old records right. Sometimes they are lost, Sometimes they're misplaced.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they give you copies that's heavily redacted. Sometimes they
Speaker 1: give you copies with missing pages. Right. And so I
Speaker 1: have to say, took us more time than we should
Speaker 1: have for us to gather, not just for the audience,
Speaker 1: the time that takes investigate. Oh my goodness. I mean
Speaker 1: there has been some sort of investigation happening since two thousand,
Speaker 1: eight thousand seventeen, right, I mean we're talking, uh nine years, right, um,
Speaker 1: And so what we learned, So during trial, we already
Speaker 1: talked about the witness Lewis Caesar, right, the neighbor who
Speaker 1: initially stated that he saw two men leaving the house
Speaker 1: and there's a woman in the car. Right. That was
Speaker 1: his initial statement to the police. What he testified to
Speaker 1: a trial was not fat though. What he testified to
Speaker 1: a trial was that he saw three men. Three men.
Speaker 1: That was his testimony a trial. So his testimony completely changed.
Speaker 1: Joey doesn't hear that his tire and cross examined for
Speaker 1: not because the lawyer doesn't really know either, right, lawyer
Speaker 1: doesn't he doesn't get the file, and or he doesn't
Speaker 1: conduct the investigation. He never went and interviewed Louis Caesar
Speaker 1: before trial. He is an eyewitness in this case, and
Speaker 1: the attorney representing Jarvis never thought it was important enough
Speaker 1: to go talk to an eyewitness in the case. So
Speaker 1: the lawyer doesn't know about this, right, the d ning
Speaker 1: always probably be like the center of it, because we
Speaker 1: know all we need to do is get all the
Speaker 1: other pieces of evidence. I can see, all right, we
Speaker 1: know Jovis was innocent. And actually I didn't notice. I
Speaker 1: found that out recently that they didn't testimony kid. But
Speaker 1: he tested partial pause of it, so a certain pause
Speaker 1: that he didn't test. But basically money ran the test back.
Speaker 1: Everything still came back. He's I don't reading. Ultimately, it
Speaker 1: was a combination things that got Jarvis out of prison,
Speaker 1: ipno attained affidavits from witnesses to the crime and to
Speaker 1: Jarvis's alibi, and retesting the rape kIPS show that none
Speaker 1: of jarvis DNA was present. After round of appeals, the
Speaker 1: district attorney released Jarvis Ballard from prison and affirmed his innocence.
Speaker 1: But before they told Jarvis he was getting out, one
Speaker 1: of his lawyers, Charrelle Arnold, had a bit of fun
Speaker 1: with him. Serral was about to send me a business book.
Speaker 1: She never sent it. That's what I said, why you
Speaker 1: didn't send my book? She said, I'm not to find
Speaker 1: another way to meet it up to you because she
Speaker 1: liked the Joe too. I said, yeah, well you you
Speaker 1: know you said you're gonna say And she said, well,
Speaker 1: how can I make it up to you? I said,
Speaker 1: you can get me out here. She said, no, we're
Speaker 1: gonna do that tomorrow. Brus See what she said, they
Speaker 1: throw all your charges out. You're coming home to m hmm.
Speaker 1: If we had a world war was one sided and
Speaker 1: you just let crime go, probably wouldn't be here, you
Speaker 1: and a lot of us. But they need That's the
Speaker 1: only way this world. But rate you need to have that.
Speaker 1: But sometimes people get arrested bad you and I in
Speaker 1: the process of that. You know, I'm still young, I'm
Speaker 1: still active. I like the work out I have, I
Speaker 1: have fund I play with the kid. I'm like a
Speaker 1: big old child when I go to the fair. Guess
Speaker 1: why I met on the rise with the kids the
Speaker 1: two and fIF upon I might can't get on this
Speaker 1: one and they go somewhere else. Been home since for
Speaker 1: August eight months. That's that's why I work it. I
Speaker 1: work in the Federal fifth circuit, cold house remodeling Irony
Speaker 1: listen works good. Put me in this place. I'm really
Speaker 1: remodeling it. So I'm working with a construction people it
Speaker 1: up and I'm getting on the elevator with guess what
Speaker 1: judges that in prov to see my keys. But when
Speaker 1: I told one of those guys my story and he
Speaker 1: googled it, he liked, man, congratulations, you know, and I
Speaker 1: let him know that I respect everything he's staying for.
Speaker 1: I really, do you know, I respect everything that Ginn's
Speaker 1: staying for. By chance, Jarvis ran into District Attorney Perry Nicosia,
Speaker 1: the man who dismissed the case and allowed him to
Speaker 1: walk free after twenty three years behind bars, and they
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to talk. You know. I met Perry
Speaker 1: and he was like, man, I'm very very very sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Perry, Man, you did the right thing, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. That's the d I say, you did
Speaker 1: the right thing. I say, man, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Jerome Morgan, the one who encouraged Jarvis to reach out
Speaker 1: to IO in the first place. He was also there
Speaker 1: to help him cope with this transition to free world living.
Speaker 1: But when you come in prison. Man, it's a different
Speaker 1: type of atmosphere. And when you meet good people like
Speaker 1: this guy, you know, you want to hold onto them,
Speaker 1: you know, because it's very spell it coming out that place.
Speaker 1: Because the same way he smiled, and I'm smiling the
Speaker 1: whole time, I got emotional and serious, but the whole
Speaker 1: time I always had a legitiate, happy attitude. We don't
Speaker 1: let what happened to us, you know, this raw so
Speaker 1: have us to the point where we got a lot
Speaker 1: of hate and bitterness in us. We don't do that.
Speaker 1: We described for better and he teached me that every day,
Speaker 1: and that's the journey I'm on right now. I really
Speaker 1: want to focus on, you know, trying to you know,
Speaker 1: get in position to where when no call us, we
Speaker 1: can be there for those dudes. You know, it ain't
Speaker 1: much about being financial to just being there. Any do
Speaker 1: that basically with everybody, And that's the type of relationship
Speaker 1: that we're trying to create for people that's coming home
Speaker 1: through this program. Jerome was a previous guest on this podcast,
Speaker 1: and now he's back to talk about how he and
Speaker 1: Jarvis are teaming up to help other asnorees coming home
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. Thank you for having me. I never
Speaker 1: thought that I would be back along these lines, but
Speaker 1: I appreciate how this has coming come about because we
Speaker 1: went through some of the similar things by being wrongfully
Speaker 1: convicted and being in prison where it don't matter if
Speaker 1: you're guilty or not, you still get the same treatment.
Speaker 1: You can't acclimate yourself to society how they operating, you
Speaker 1: know now and as they were when you was in prison,
Speaker 1: you know, so you have to, I guess self, create
Speaker 1: a way to to to live in that space because
Speaker 1: there's no road map for you. In the closest road
Speaker 1: map for somebody's coming home to the arms of people
Speaker 1: who have been through that situation. That's what we want
Speaker 1: to provide now. And I'm glad that you know, Jovis
Speaker 1: has you know, been encouraged and inspired to do that
Speaker 1: throughout his time, even in prison. You know, it shows
Speaker 1: that he honestly wants to be a positive despite the
Speaker 1: negative things that has happened to and to me, you know,
Speaker 1: that's some of the greatest people in the world. So
Speaker 1: we'll have the link in the bio for IPNO as
Speaker 1: well as your go fund me, And I really really
Speaker 1: want thank you for trust me to tell your story.
Speaker 1: I really do, Like I've never met you before, so
Speaker 1: this is amazing for me. It's a process for me.
Speaker 1: And just know that you can call me personally any time. Okay,
Speaker 1: because my brother and my Deasonery brothers and exoneration, we're
Speaker 1: at the part of the show now where um it's
Speaker 1: called closing arguments where we turn off my might and
Speaker 1: just kind of let you guys speak your peace and
Speaker 1: say what's on your mind to the audience and thank
Speaker 1: you so much. You know, IPNO has freed or exonerated
Speaker 1: forty individuals who have served over nine and seventy five
Speaker 1: years in prison for crimes they did not commit. And
Speaker 1: that is just a drop in the bucket. You know,
Speaker 1: there's over five thou and men and women in Louisiana
Speaker 1: prisons doing a life sentence without the possibility of all
Speaker 1: these men and women are not coming home, just like
Speaker 1: you know Jerome and Jarvis before if NO got involved,
Speaker 1: and so um, there's a lot to be done still,
Speaker 1: and UM, I'm really um, I feel really privileged for
Speaker 1: this opportunity to speak with Jerome, to speak with Jarvis,
Speaker 1: to speak with Patrick, and for um having this moment
Speaker 1: with them. So thank you, she said, I just appreciate everything,
Speaker 1: you know, even the people that donate. You know, it's
Speaker 1: appreciate it, you know, because like I said earlier, got
Speaker 1: a lot of people that's not gonna be in this shoot,
Speaker 1: a lot of innescent people gonna not made it because
Speaker 1: you know, if knowing it, have the resources to do
Speaker 1: so many cases and hopefully before this is and it
Speaker 1: will be far closed my eyes, they'd probably be big.
Speaker 1: And with this is now, because I think everybody has
Speaker 1: every chance, like me and your own. Unfortunately we know
Speaker 1: you don't work like that. Thank you for listening at
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction. I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason
Speaker 1: Flim and Kevin Wardis. The Senior producer for this episode
Speaker 1: is Jackie Polly, and our producers are Lila Robinson, Connor Hall,
Speaker 1: and Jeff Clyburne. Our editor is Roxander Guidi and special
Speaker 1: thanks to Jillian Forstad for help on this episode. The
Speaker 1: music and this production is by three time OSCAR nominated
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction podcast, and
Speaker 1: on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as well as Lava for
Speaker 1: Good on all three platforms. You can also follow me
Speaker 1: on Facebook and Instagram at free Patrick Pursley at I
Speaker 1: Am Kid Culture Too, and online at i Am Kid
Speaker 1: culture dot org. Rawful Conviction is a production of Lava
Speaker 1: for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.
Speaker 1: On next week's guest hosted episode of Wrongful Conviction, Chris
Speaker 1: Fabricamp will be talking to Gilbert Pool about the the
Speaker 1: nonsensical bite mark evidence that landed Gilbert in prison for
Speaker 1: thirty two years for a crime he had absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: to do with. Now, Chris is a personal hero of
Speaker 1: mine and we have a deep connection because Chris is
Speaker 1: the man who kicked off and occupies the Joe Flom
Speaker 1: chair at the Innocence Project named after my dad, and
Speaker 1: his position as Strategic Litigation Director is so critical to
Speaker 1: our work and our mission at the Innocence Project, And
Speaker 1: of course what it means is that Chris not only
Speaker 1: helps to exonerate innocent people by shining a light on
Speaker 1: many of the junk sciences that are routinely accepted as
Speaker 1: real science in court rooms across our country, but he
Speaker 1: then uses those examples of these grotesque injustices to affect
Speaker 1: policy and change and to change practices. Listen next Monday
Speaker 1: in The Wrongful Conviction Podcast feed