WEBVTT - Sentenced to Death, Again 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.840 Dear Governor is a production of I Heart Media and 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:09.800 three Months Media. Dear Governor Newsom, Dear Mr Governor Newsom, 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.520 this is an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, Dear 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:23.759 Governor Newsom. After the California Supreme Court, here's a habeas 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.279 corpus appeal for a capital crime. They have nine d 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:29.680 days with which to file their opinion. We had already 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.159 surpassed the nine week mark following Jarvis Master's appeal, so 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.839 we knew the decision was impending, soon to be delivered 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.680 to our inboxes. Anyone can stay apprized of ongoing Supreme 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.640 Court cases by signing up at Courts dot c A 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.559 dot gov. At the sixty six day mark, we all 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.440 received an email with a subject line Supreme Court of 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:55.680 California Case Notifications for s one three zero four nine five, 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.680 the body of which read notice of forthcoming opinion to 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:04.400 be filed in three days and three days later, twenty 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.920 one days before their deadline, the eagerly anticipated email read 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:14.319 the Supreme Court of California Opinion available online and then 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:20.640 in parentheses concurrence. I lost the English unanimously. That heard 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.080 it real bad, you know, but I mean just you know, 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.280 sucked it up for a while. I did a lot 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.080 of meditation and a lot of sitting in, a lot 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:34.080 of thinking, and one thing I was very very confident 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.320 in months out of this decision was that I will 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:42.440 try to feel in the same place ready to accept 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:47.280 whatever outcome that is. Jarvis's lawyers had filed his habeas 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.240 petition in two thousand five. It took the California Supreme 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.800 Court fourteen excruciatingly long years to address the petition and 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.920 then sixty nine short days to reaffirm what they had 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.520 already decided. Had the court moved with any sense of 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.200 urgency or a bare minimum respect for the goal of 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.280 a speedy trial, there's a possibility, however remote, it might 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.120 have been, that Jarvis could have already moved through the 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:16.320 Federal appeals, a far less politically fraught system, and inhaled 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:22.080 the wonders of freedom. When I heard about the decision, 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:29.400 my immediate reaction was I was crushed. I felt crushed 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.560 to the ball. Yeah. I was hoping that no one 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.800 asked me these questions about what it felt like, you know, 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:40.880 because to me, it would have been like I was 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.960 a specive than a subject card, uh, something to look 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.880 at you. I any want to be that way mm hmmm. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:57.200 I described it as having just had your wisdom keeeth 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.360 pulled out and someone's trying to hold a conversation with you. 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.600 You know, it hurt it in that way. So that 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.040 was my first you know, That's how I responded to it, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:16.120 and over the next ten fifteen hours, and so I 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.400 had to straighten up, you know, I had to figure 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.800 out how to straighten up off this, you know. And 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.920 when it comes down to your freedom, epis so long, 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.840 you really, deep down inside you know, want this. You 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.680 want to win this. And they caught up to me 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:39.160 that the idea of losing is one more long, long 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:44.480 time of being in prison for zero, for nothing, and 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.920 no one knew how. And I was saying this to myself, 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.000 No one knows how long a day is. I'm fucking 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.720 with someone that doesn't know what a day feels like, 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.600 innocent on the death throw. They have no idea. Then 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.200 they get upset because I'm upset. You know, what world 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.680 are you guys living in? Concerns that were key in 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.000 the two thousand five petition included, but we're not limited 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:15.600 to prosecutorial misconduct. Newly discovered evidence and ineffective counsel. His 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.239 appellate attorneys at the time wrote that his death sentence 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:22.000 rested on evidence that the prosecution had known or should 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:27.760 have known was quote inflammatory, unreliable, untrue, and or misleading. 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.560 In so many words, I had now hold everybody up. 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:36.040 I had now played the role of don't worry about this, okay, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.680 blah blah blah. You know that was just that was 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:43.400 role playing because I knew no one would understand where 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.839 I was really at. You know, silence for me was 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.680 the biggest hug I could have gotten, just so like 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.520 every time someone talked to me, I was able to 0:04:54.560 --> 0:05:00.920 call somebody I had. I had to explain people were 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.520 calling you, but you felt like you had to comfort 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.760 them all the time. It just feels like I was 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:11.200 the strongest shoulder for people to lean on. And if 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.240 I was fillion upset, they were phillips. So Mynes, who 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.359 was not the shill upset because I knew it would 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:23.719 create a lot of unhealthy ways for me personally. The 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.560 star witness against Jarvis was a black guerrilla family member 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.039 by the name of Rufus Willis, who testified under grant 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.720 of immunity from prosecution at the trial that he had 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.320 been in the prison yard when the b GF gang 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.440 were planning the assassination of Officer Birchfield, where it was 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.839 agreed he said that Jarvis would provide the tip of 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.400 the spear. In the preliminary hearing, Rufus Willis described Jarvis 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:53.240 as standing five seven, chubby, with a stomach, wearing glasses, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.880 clean shaven, and free of tattoos. Note in fact that 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.480 Jarvis masters is six ft one, slender, didn't wear any glasses, 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.080 had a mustache and goatee with a tattoo on his 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:10.039 left cheek. An inmate named Harold Richardson, however, confessed to 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.160 playing the role in the crime that Rufus had attributed 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.600 to Jarvis, and fit the physical description Rufus had articulated 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.200 to a t seems like a slam dunk for reasonable doubt. 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.440 Right just have him testified before the jury. Not so fast. 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.640 Harold Richardson refused to testify, citing his right against self incrimination. 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.040 Jervis's council pleaded with the judge to grant immunity for prosecution, 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:40.480 but for whatever reason, the judge refused. Jervis's council also 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.600 pleaded with the judge to allow expert testimony regarding the 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.719 unreliability of jail house informants, and for whatever reason, she 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.360 refused that plea as well, do you feel like you're 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.880 losing hope? You know what? And there you're talking about, Well, 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:02.040 can you hear the Buddhist here? I'll I don't want 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.479 to get into what hope post to do for me 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:07.440 right now, you know, I don't. I don't think hope 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:12.080 is gonna that's gonna help me resolve where I'm that. 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.360 I just don't think hope is a necessary thing to 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:20.600 have right now. I think it's really unhealthy. I think 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:26.320 it has no real value to it. Yeah, I think 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.040 that I'll be chasing something that you know, I don't 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:34.560 know where it would go one way to other, and 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.840 Hope is not going to be responsible for that. I 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.640 would not let that be my response. I would not 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:49.480 give Hope that responsibility. In other words, I really don't 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.000 want to put hope o front street, you know so, 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:58.160 I think that is a very very Buddhist way of saying, 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:03.080 you know, hope is not an issue that you should 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.960 put everything into. Okay, what do you want to put 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.480 on street? If not hope? The idea of not expecting anything. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.480 Work with that? Why do I need to spend time 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.760 trying to effect one outcome from the other. To not 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.840 be that smart to know and to live in that 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.320 space of unknown, not knowing. That's a very comfortable space 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.640 if you can control it, if it can be maintained. 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.880 How do you do that? Oh man, I don't really know. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.600 You know, I know what the practice is. I really 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:40.440 don't know how to do that. I can give you 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:45.520 the basic instruction, but I don't I don't know how 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:50.360 it works. And that's what they call it. What a 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.840 practice is. You get better at it, you discover more, 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.920 it becomes more of a way of thinking. It supposed 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:04.040 to create balance in your life. H Quit trying to 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.920 tell yourself what you don't know. I mean, that's just 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.479 the way I see it in prison. On me, I 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:12.720 I cheech this kind of stuff to people. So I 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.760 mean my way of saying it to a lot of 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.160 guys in here is, you know, quick trying to tell 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.080 you know yourself you know something. When you don't, all 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:23.480 you're gonna do is fall asleep and want some bit 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.440 once some timely lost because of it, leave it alone. 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.280 Trying to be in the best place when it happened. 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.800 So just be in the place of not knowing what 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.880 you what you really don't suppost and know anything about, 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.720 and be smart enough to think that you don't need 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:43.599 to know what you're not gonna be told to you 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:54.200 until it happens. Lawrence Woodard, the man who was accused 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.320 of masterminding the murder of Sergeant Birchfield, was sentenced to 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.640 life without possibility of parole. Andre Johnson, the man who 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.480 was accused of a single stab wound that severed Sergeant 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.959 Birchfield's pulmonary artery, was sentenced to life without the possibility 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.960 of parole. Jarvis Masters, accused of manufacturing the tip of 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.200 the spear, was sentenced to death after a penalty phase 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.800 hearing at which a prisoner named Johnny Hose, a member 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.280 of the Black Guerrilla Family, testified that Jarvis had bragged 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.720 about murdering a San Quentin prisoner in nine four, though 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.559 this case had never been adjudicated. Subsequent to the trials 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:36.960 and sentencing, all three States witnesses Rufus Willis, Bobby Evans, 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:41.160 and Johnny Hose have recanted and sworn statements saying that 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.000 they had lied at the trial in hopes of obtaining 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.800 favorable treatment for themselves. The rufus Willis statement also said 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:51.440 that he had coerced Jarvis, out of fear for his 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.480 own safety, to write the incriminating kites, which Masters copied 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.640 from the writings of Willis and Woodard. Finally, Andre Johnson, 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:04.040 Jarvis's co defendant convicted of actually stabbing Birchfield to death, 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.679 provided a sworn statement saying that Masters had no role 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.040 in the murder. Were you surprised when they came back 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.800 with the death penalty? Yes, Jeffrey Rockline, lead defense counsel 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:21.520 for Jarvis Masters from nineteen eighty six to nineteen Jarvis 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:28.160 testified and he was very compelling, very believable, very likable, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:33.760 very human, very warm, sympathetic. You know, he told a 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.440 story about his life that was, you know, really sad, 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:42.920 very upsetting, and you know, he testified to the jury, 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.720 I thought, in a very communicative way. And then we 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.480 had other experts on the stand about you know, his background, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.720 Craig Haney was was excellent. So yeah, I was surprised 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.959 that they came back with death, very very surprised. Do 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.319 you remember talking to Jarvis about it after? Oh? Sure, 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.920 Oh yeah, how was that to him? Well, it was hard, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.600 So yeah, it was difficult thinking with him. But you know, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.040 he Jarvis is a is a tough, strong guy, you know, 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.920 and he's a real fighter. And I really grew to 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:20.120 like Jarvis, you know, and like him very much like 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.800 him and feel for him and have sympathy for him 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.160 and as as a human being, as a person who 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.400 was able to actually pull himself out of you know, 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:35.120 that whole gang prison culture and the criminal culture. Um. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.360 So I have a great deal of respect for him. 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.000 And number one number two, there was so much evidence 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.640 that was kept from us. Um, there's so much of 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:48.360 the bad evidence that has flipped over, has reversed that. 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.480 You know, if he were tried now, whether I would 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.679 handle it or another defense lawyer would handle it, you know, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.640 they'd get an acquibble. I think there's this overwhelming reasonable 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:01.600 doubt that Jarvis was was guilty of the crimes. That's 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.840 what I feel. So I'm glad you're doing this work. 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.240 It's very important. He should not be on death row. 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.200 He shouldn't be in prison actually for this crime. You know, 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.840 it's really a tragedy. Um, it really is. You know, 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.160 it's really unfair. How do you hear the decision? Who 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.480 told you? How did you find out? Art from at 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.400 least a dozen people, you know, they were coming at 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.559 me from all over the place, and what I noticed 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.600 about most of them was they wanted a response. They 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.040 wanted to know my first reaction, and they wanted to 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.360 know it in a way that it's so really really 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.480 sickening to me. It's almost like people are looking right 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.160 down you, right down your throat and wanting to know 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.199 what aposted to feel like, you know, how does it 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:50.080 feel for that to happen? I'm sorry, but I really 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.200 want to know how you're dealing with this. I wanted 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.480 to look in your eyes and see something you know 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.240 that that all, yeah, I can see, I mean that 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.599 kind of stuff. So I think what happened was I 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:10.559 dealt with it by trying to fear show I was 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:15.200 not defeated, you know, and I was ready to take 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.920 it to the next level that it's not as bad 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:25.280 as it was supposed to be. You know, the court 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:29.960 basically preached us with some really good issues, and that 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:34.520 was the issue by Blue and the other justice speak 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.880 the two issues that really we can really really build 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.880 on the two issues that Jarvis is referencing that may 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.120 help as he navigates the federal appeals process. Written by 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:50.360 California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin lou in his concurring opinion 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:55.040 on Jarvis's habeas corpus petition, he writes, we have no 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.440 occasion in this posture to consider whether, in light of 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.000 the trial evidence, as well as the reference hearing and findings, 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.239 we can be confident of the verdict beyond a reasonable 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.640 doubt and to quote, nor do we have occasion here 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.240 to consider whether, in light of all of the relevant circumstances, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.120 the fact that Masters was sentenced to death while his 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.640 co defendants were not maybe indicative of arbitrary nous in 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.680 the application of the death penalty. I had the last 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:30.040 god I killed executed was on my watch with my 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.480 client in two thousand and six. And that's another thing 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:39.160 that makes me so sick death. I'll tell you when 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:42.960 you have that kind of direct experience of it, as 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:46.000 well as the experience of standing up there next to 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.840 my client, Jarvis, and having the judge condemned him to death. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.120 Attorney Michael Satras sat second chair on Jarvis's defense team 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:59.560 from nineteen through nineteen nine, and his death penalty sentence. 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.280 I've always been against that penalty. I get a add 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:07.000 taste in my mouth from it, and every experience that 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.120 I have of it to me, just shows how wrong 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.920 and arbitrary and capricious it is. And for Jarvis to 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:20.800 end up with the death penalty when wood or jury 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.960 hangs on the issue, which is the same jury we had. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:29.320 Woodard is the he's the true believer. If anybody is 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:35.560 in participation in the gang, he is indisputably the leader 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:39.600 of those three. So the jury hangs on him and 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:44.560 then comes back with the death penalty for Jarvis. And 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:52.120 then you have Johnson, the actual killer, who gets the 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:58.880 death penalty by his jury, and the judge modifies it 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:01.880 because it is kind of arbitrary. He's sort of a 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.080 fall guy in some ways from Woodard and the higher 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:10.280 ups picking him as as the good soldier who wants 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:15.439 to make his bones and whatever to commit the killing. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:20.360 But he's kind of just this not very bright, innocent 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.199 young man. And so the judge, to me, that was 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:29.040 a very good move on her part. And then we 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:35.320 come up for pronouncement of judgment, and by all rights, 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:41.080 by all signs of justice and whatever should have been modified. 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.520 In reference to the three States witnesses recanting their testimony, 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:49.320 the California Supreme Court wrote that while Jarvis had demonstrated 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.800 them to be generally liars, he does not offer any 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:59.080 persuasive reason to credit their recantations over their trial testimony. 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.080 In other words, we know that prison snitches are prison snitches. 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.400 We know that prison snitches lie when it benefits them. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.119 We know that there was a chance that they were 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.720 lying in the original trial, and there's an equal chance 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.240 that they lied in their recantations, and because of that, 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.639 we unanimously endorse the execution of a man because you know, 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.160 we really don't know in this prison context. Yeah, I mean, 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:29.080 you're accurate in observing that these people, many of them, 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.960 the snitches, are unreliable. They tell different stories. Jeffrey Rotwine, 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.359 again lead defense counsel for Jarvis during his murder trial. 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.320 We attacked Ruvius Willis. We attack you know, Johnny Hoes, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:46.160 Bobby Evans, the people that were, you know, cooperating with 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.000 the government. And typically there's a whole history of cooperation, 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:54.760 you know, and and and requests for leniency or money 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.480 or reduction and sentences or dismissal of cases, and you 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.400 have to kind rely on the institution, the district attorney 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:07.520 and the you know, the prison and the Department of Corrections, 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.320 you know, to disclose and and produce all the records 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.760 and information varying on that person's character and background and 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:25.800 motives for testifying. I asked Larry Marshall, a professor of 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.160 law at Stanford who happens to be consulting on Jarvis's case. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.280 Now that the habeas corpus opinion has been rendered on 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:37.159 the state level, what is next for Jarvis? So the 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.679 next step, after one goes through the state system of 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.520 the direct appeal and then the habeas is we give 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:50.000 a defendant capital or otherwise the right to go into 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:55.720 federal court. And two show that the state court was 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:02.520 unreasonable in rejecting his or her ca institutional claims. So 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:07.679 it's not enough to convince a federal judge that my 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:10.760 rights have been violated and that I should have been 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.800 given relief. You have to show, and this is since 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.840 since the anti terrorism and effective death penalty app you 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.919 have to show that the state court was reasonable, that 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:30.080 it unreasonably applied settled law, Settled Supreme Court, United States 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.560 Supreme Court precedent. So it's a very high burden. But 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.520 on the other hand, it's a burden that has met 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:40.560 at times in outrageous cases. And it also has to 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:44.920 be the claims have to be federal constitutional claims, and 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.080 this is a very This federal habeas is a very 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:53.719 odd bird in the structure of our court system because 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:58.040 it kind of puts it does put a federal district 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.119 court judge and then a federal Court of Appeals in 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:05.000 the role of reviewing the reasonableness of what the state 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.480 supreme court has done. We don't do that in civil cases. 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.359 And civil cases, if there's a federal issue, you go 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.359 straight to the Supreme Court. You don't get to go 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:19.240 into federal court and have a judge sort of second 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.840 guess at some level what the state court has done. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:26.280 But again, because we do recognize that constitutional rights in 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:31.639 the criminal setting are particularly cherished, we do provide we 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.119 do provide this remedy. And just as an historical note, 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:38.840 it was born in large part over the fact that, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:43.879 let's say, during reconstruction, a lot of states in the South, 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:51.240 we're not respecting the constitutional rights of black defendants. Congress 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.480 had a mechanism, they had those defendants had a mechanism 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:59.560 of going into court um and saying to the federal 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.440 court book, our constitutional rights are being violated, and there 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:05.440 was a sense that the federal courts would be more 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:11.560 independent and more willing to recognize those constitutional rights. I've 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:15.280 told Jarvis that I will work very hard to help 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:19.000 put together a terrific team of the lawyers pro bono 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:23.440 lawyers who will take on his representation in federal court. 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:27.679 That I will be more than willing to consult with 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.280 those lawyers as they as they as they work through 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:33.000 the case and to the you know, part of the 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:36.720 team in that sense, um, in an informal in an 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:41.359 informal way, but I do believe they play that he 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:46.320 needs to get some lawyers who are both passionate and 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:53.119 brilliant and and very eager to get involved in a 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.840 in an injustice like this. I asked Larry what he 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.560 believes that we as a society oh to those who 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.440 have languished on death row and in prison in general, 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:07.639 only to be found innocent years, if not decades later 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:15.840 after their incarceration. I believe that and this might sound corny, um, 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:20.879 which I guess is appropriate, but I'm pumped there you go. 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:26.880 I I believe that the main thing we owe them 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.480 is to learn from our mistakes. Is the main thing 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.960 we owe them is that their pain have not been 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:41.480 in vain and that um other people will not suffer 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.160 because of what they went through and what we've learned. Now, 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:49.119 that's not all that we were. We owe them, We 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:51.840 owe them, we need to make them whole as best 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:55.239 we can really can't. Part of the way we do 0:23:55.320 --> 0:24:01.440 that is through money, uh, and judgments and the ability 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:06.000 to try to rebuild or build a life. Um and 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:09.200 I think those are vital as well. But it does 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.000 seem to me as a society that if we go 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:16.879 through that with an individual, we learned that the individual 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:22.200 was wrongly convicted, and then we nonetheless just go back 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:27.520 to business as usual. That is just this massive slap 0:24:27.560 --> 0:24:31.000 in the face to the person who has been exonerated 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.760 and two people coming down the pike. The late Geronimo 0:24:35.840 --> 0:24:38.800 Pratt served two tours in Vietnam, where he earned two 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:42.520 bronze stars, a silver star, and two purple stars. When 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:44.879 he returned to the States, he became a high ranking 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.120 member of the Black Panther Party and was eventually imprisoned 0:24:48.119 --> 0:24:50.919 in San Quentin for twenty seven years for a murder 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:53.960 he did not commit, and was awarded four point five 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:57.680 million dollars from federal and local governments as settlement in 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.760 a wrongful imprisonment suit. Here we have Geronimo on tape 0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:05.840 decades ago bearing witness to his friend Jarvis J. Masters, 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:09.879 at the launch party for Jarvis's first book, Finding Freedom, 0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:17.199 Writings from Death Row. Hey, UM, met Jarvis Masters in 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:20.880 prison while we were in the hole in San Quentin's 0:25:20.920 --> 0:25:25.600 adjustment center, shortly after he was charged with the murder 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:34.200 of Sergeant Burstville. No, I should say, wrongfully charge. And um, 0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:39.880 he's a very beautiful brother. I kind of two did 0:25:39.960 --> 0:25:42.879 like I do with Uh. I did, but most youngsters 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:45.359 kind of took him under my way for a minute 0:25:45.840 --> 0:25:49.520 the brief time we were together, and uh I noticed 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:56.040 that specialness about him that made him stand apart from 0:25:56.320 --> 0:26:00.760 most youngsters his age. And uh later on when I 0:26:00.920 --> 0:26:04.000 learned that he had written a book and that he 0:26:04.080 --> 0:26:08.960 had continued just practices and to his disciplines that we 0:26:09.000 --> 0:26:12.479 had been trying to promote as older prisoners, and I 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:14.480 was very proud of that. And then when I got 0:26:14.520 --> 0:26:17.040 the book and read it, and I knew he was there, 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:21.160 and so uh, even though he sits on death row 0:26:22.160 --> 0:26:26.439 and facing death, I was also up there for eighteen months, 0:26:27.040 --> 0:26:29.520 but I was not facing officially the death. I know 0:26:29.600 --> 0:26:32.520 what it's like. But now that I know, he has 0:26:32.560 --> 0:26:36.880 reached this nirvana at this level, and I'm sure that 0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:40.480 the Jarvis is this in a safe place, even though 0:26:40.480 --> 0:26:43.280 he still physically needs our help to get him off 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:48.240 of death row. And hopefully through these methods and channels 0:26:49.480 --> 0:26:53.760 now we'll we'll be able to generate enough support, enough 0:26:53.800 --> 0:26:59.600 funds or whatever to effect his release from uh the gallows. 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:03.600 And I want to encourage all of you to get 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:06.080 this book. Read it. You will find a lot of 0:27:06.119 --> 0:27:10.479 knowledge and a lot of freedom in this book. And 0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:12.960 it might sounds fames that you will find freedom from 0:27:12.960 --> 0:27:15.600 a guy locked up, but take my word from it. 0:27:15.840 --> 0:27:19.080 Read this book. You will find a lot of freedom. 0:27:19.080 --> 0:27:23.680 Where do we find our freedom? I describe situations where 0:27:24.440 --> 0:27:28.840 someone has a very very beautiful home or two door 0:27:29.119 --> 0:27:34.760 garage right off the beach, great job, a trained dog, 0:27:34.960 --> 0:27:41.639 and how their lives are so miserable. At the same time, 0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:47.280