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Speaker 1: Hi, This is Laura and I writer. Because of COVID nineteen,

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Speaker 1: Steve and I recorded this episode from our homes, not

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Speaker 1: together in the studio. We might sound a little difference,

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Speaker 1: but I think the story we tell is as inspirational

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Speaker 1: as always be well and stay healthy. Welcome to Wrongful Conviction,

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Speaker 1: False Confessions. I'm Laura and I writer.

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Speaker 2: And I'm Steve Drissen.

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Speaker 1: Today we'll tell you the story of David McCallum, one

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Speaker 1: of two New York teens wrongfully convicted of murder in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six. Luckily for David, he had incredible allies

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Speaker 1: in his corner, the famous boxer Reuben Hurricane Carter and

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Speaker 1: a district attorney, Ken Thompson, who was dedicated to real justice.

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Speaker 1: Here comes the story of the DA and the Hurricane

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Speaker 1: and one of the men they saved.

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Speaker 2: So it was two thousand and six and I had

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Speaker 2: just become the legal director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions,

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Speaker 2: and my colleague Rob Warden came into my office and

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Speaker 2: handed me a VHS tape. On the tape there were

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Speaker 2: confessions from David McCallum and Willie Stuckey. And Rob told me,

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Speaker 2: he said, Ruben Hurricane Carter would like you to look

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Speaker 2: at this. You know, when Rubin Hurricane Carter asked you

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Speaker 2: to do something, you do it.

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Speaker 1: At the time, Ruben Carter was the most famous person

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Speaker 1: who'd ever been wrongly convicted. In the nineteen sixties, he

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Speaker 1: was a prize winning professional boxer, nicknamed Hurricane for his

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Speaker 1: record of early round knockouts, but in nineteen sixty six

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Speaker 1: he was convicted of a triple murder he didn't commit.

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Speaker 1: After twenty years behind bars, Ruben was exonerated. He dedicated

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Speaker 1: the rest of his life to advocating for others he'd

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Speaker 1: been wrongly convicted too. In nineteen seventy six, Bob Dylan

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Speaker 1: wrote the song Hurricane as a tribute to Ruben Carter.

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Speaker 2: You know, I had met Rubin a couple years before

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Speaker 2: Rob handed me that tape. Ruben was at Northwestern he

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Speaker 2: was at a conference to honor dozens of people who

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Speaker 2: had been exonerated off of death row, and for me

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Speaker 2: it was now there was a little bit of hero

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Speaker 2: worship on my part. I was eager to meet him

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Speaker 2: because I was so impressed with the way he remade himself,

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Speaker 2: you know, from a brawler to a deep thinker.

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Speaker 1: To be honest. You need both of those skills to

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Speaker 1: work on cases of wrongful conviction, and you need plenty

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Speaker 1: of perseverance.

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Speaker 2: I got hooked on a ten year struggle to represent

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Speaker 2: David after watching that tape.

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Speaker 1: Today's story begins in Queens, New York, in South Ozone Park,

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Speaker 1: a working class neighborhood next to JFK Airport. It's phil

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Speaker 1: with single family homes, storefronts, and the sound of jetplanes

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Speaker 1: circling overhead. It's three point thirty on a Sunday afternoon,

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Speaker 1: October twentieth, nineteen eighty five. Twenty year old Nathan Blenner

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Speaker 1: is behind the wheel of his nineteen seventy nine black

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Speaker 1: Buick Regal. It's parked on a neighborhood street, and he's

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Speaker 1: trying to get the car to start. A couple kids

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Speaker 1: playing in a nearby yard were the only witnesses to

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Speaker 1: what happened next. According to the kids, Nathan is fiddling

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Speaker 1: with the ignition when two men approach him from behind.

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Speaker 1: They're about to pass the car when they turn around,

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Speaker 1: go to the driver's side and tell Nathan to move over.

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Speaker 1: The men push him into the backseat, get in manage

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Speaker 1: to start the car. And drive off. It's over in

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Speaker 1: the blink of an eye. A carjacking and a kidnapping.

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Speaker 1: Police from the local precinct and Queen's canvass the neighborhood

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Speaker 1: looking for leads. About a block away, they find a

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Speaker 1: woman who says she'd been outside washing Herbuick Regal a

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Speaker 1: red one when two men walked by, clearly checking out

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Speaker 1: her vehicle. One of them said nice car, She answered,

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Speaker 1: if it goes missing, I'll know where to look. The

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Speaker 1: two men didn't say anything else. Instead, they kept on

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Speaker 1: walking in the direction of Nathan Blenner. The woman gave

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Speaker 1: a description to the police. Both men were black and

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Speaker 1: in their twenties. They were also of noticeably different heights.

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Speaker 1: One was around five foot six and the taller guy

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Speaker 1: who had braided hair was five foot ten. But this

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Speaker 1: car theft and kidnapping soon got even more serious. The

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Speaker 1: next day, October twenty first, police in Brooklyn get a

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Speaker 1: phone call a doa dead on arrival in a wooded

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Speaker 1: area near a cemetery, Nathan Blenner's body had been found.

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Speaker 1: He was lying face down with a single gunshot wound

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Speaker 1: to the back of his head, and two days after

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Speaker 1: the carjacking, Brooklyn police were called to Fulton Street, about

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Speaker 1: a mile from where they discovered Nathan's body. A car

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Speaker 1: had been set on fire. It was Nathan's Buick Regal

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Speaker 1: Police douse the flames, search the car and find fingerprints,

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Speaker 1: along with some cigarette butts in the ashtray. Brooklyn cops

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Speaker 1: get in touch with NYPD Central Robbery. They learned there's

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Speaker 1: been a string of eight car thefts in Queen's over

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Speaker 1: the two days leading up to Nathan's kidnapping. In every case,

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Speaker 1: the offenders were described as two black men around age twenty,

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Speaker 1: one five foot six, the other five foot ten, and

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Speaker 1: armed with a gun. This was a two man car

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Speaker 1: theft crime spree that culminated in Nathan Blenner's murder, and

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Speaker 1: police were feeling intense pressure to stop it in its tracks.

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Speaker 1: A few days later, on October twenty fifth, two Brooklyn men,

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Speaker 1: Terence Hayward and Herman Mumford are arrested for snatching a

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Speaker 1: chain off a subway rider. One of these guys was

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Speaker 1: five foot six, the other one who had braided hair,

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Speaker 1: was five foot ten. Both were black. In other words,

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Speaker 1: they matched the car thief descriptions pretty well. Police question

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Speaker 1: Hayward and Mumford about the string of car thefts and

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Speaker 1: about Nathan's death. Now will never definitively know whether these

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Speaker 1: two were involved in anything. They didn't confess and police

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Speaker 1: stop investigating them pretty soon. That's because Hayward deflects attention

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Speaker 1: away by telling the cops he knows about a gun

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Speaker 1: that had been used in a murder. Now stick with

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Speaker 1: me here, because like a lot of police investigations, this

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Speaker 1: gets messy. Hayward told the police that his friend James

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Speaker 1: Johnson knew more about the gun. It turns out that

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Speaker 1: James was a suspect in a grocery store robbery in

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Speaker 1: which a gun had been used. When police interviewed James,

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Speaker 1: he said that he'd given the grocery store gun to

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Speaker 1: his aunt Lottie, who then gave the gun to a

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Speaker 1: man named Jamie, and then, shortly before Nathan's murder, Jamie

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Speaker 1: supposedly gave the gun to a sixteen year old Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: teenager named Willy Stucky.

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Speaker 2: What kind of story is that you got James's and

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Speaker 2: Jamie's and Lotties and who are all these people?

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Speaker 1: No kidding? This is a ridiculous story, And it's even

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Speaker 1: worse because it's coming from two guys who match the

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Speaker 1: descriptions of the carthieves. It's never clear whether this opposed

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Speaker 1: grocery store gun had anything to do with the car

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Speaker 1: thefts or Nathan Blenner, and there's no record of police

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Speaker 1: ever speaking to Aunt Lottie or Jamie. Instead, police goes

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Speaker 1: straight for Willy Stucky. For some reason, they jump to

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Speaker 1: the conclusion that Willy used that gun to kill Nathan.

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Speaker 1: At about seven pm on October twenty seventh, police pick

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Speaker 1: up sixteen year old Willy Stucky and bring him to

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Speaker 1: the eighty third Precinct in Brooklyn for questioning, and within

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Speaker 1: a few hours police also pick up Willy's sixteen year

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Speaker 1: old buddy, David McCallum and bring him in for questioningo.

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Speaker 1: Willy and David were longtime friends who played handball together

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Speaker 1: at a local park. Now, Willy had never been in

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Speaker 1: trouble with the law before, but for David it was

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Speaker 1: a different story. David's family had moved from South Carolina

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Speaker 1: to Brooklyn when he was just seven years old, and

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Speaker 1: the culture shock had been pretty severe.

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Speaker 2: You know, he went from a very rural environment where

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Speaker 2: he would play in the fields and go fishing and

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Speaker 2: not have that many worries in his life. But once

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Speaker 2: he hit the streets of Brooklyn, he took on this

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Speaker 2: sort of aura of a big tough guy because he

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Speaker 2: needed that to survive, and he began to act out

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Speaker 2: on the street in ways to fit his profile. But

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Speaker 2: it was really more bravado than anything else.

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Speaker 1: Police feel like they're hot on the trail and they

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Speaker 1: begin interrogating Willy and David separate rooms at the police station. Now,

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Speaker 1: neither one of their interrogations was recorded, so we'll never

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Speaker 1: have a perfect record of what happened inside the box,

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Speaker 1: but suffice to say that the detectives described the interrogations

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Speaker 1: very differently than Willi and David did. In court, the

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Speaker 1: lead detective testified that both Willia and David voluntarily confessed

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Speaker 1: to killing Nathan Blenner after just a few questions. But

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Speaker 1: Willie testified that police handcuffed him and then hit him

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Speaker 1: three or four times. David also testified that police hit

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Speaker 1: him in the mouth hard enough to drop blood and

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Speaker 1: they threatened to use a chair next time.

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Speaker 2: You know, the confession, when I first looked at it

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Speaker 2: had a very rehearsed quality to it. It was very short,

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Speaker 2: but There's one moment it gave me pause. It's when

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Speaker 2: David McCallum looks with a moment of sheer terror at

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Speaker 2: the police officer who's not on the screen but is

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Speaker 2: clearly sitting in the room. And it was a look like,

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Speaker 2: am I doing okay? Am I telling the story the

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Speaker 2: way the story needs to be told? And I remember

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Speaker 2: Freeze framing that one frame of terror, and that suggested

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Speaker 2: to me that what David was saying in terms of

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Speaker 2: getting hit was probably true.

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Speaker 1: Both David and Willie testified that after they agreed to confess,

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Speaker 1: the police rehearsed a story with them. Willy in particular,

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Speaker 1: testified that police fed him details about the perpetrator's conversation

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Speaker 1: with that woman washing her red Bwick Regal. But the

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Speaker 1: police claimed that all the information in Willy and David's

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Speaker 1: confessions came straight from them.

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Speaker 2: This is exactly why you need to record the entire

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Speaker 2: interrogation process. If you don't do that, it's the police

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Speaker 2: versus the suspects. The suspects are never going to be

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Speaker 2: found more credible by a judge or a jury. Police

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Speaker 2: officers are professional witnesses. They testify in court on a

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Speaker 2: regular basis, and Willy and David were just kids. They

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Speaker 2: never stood a chance on cross examination.

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Speaker 1: But David and Willy's confessions were both really problematic. The

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Speaker 1: stories they told didn't match the actual evidence. Willie said

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Speaker 1: Nathan had been shot three times, when in fact he'd

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Speaker 1: only been shot once. Both Willy and David said the

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Speaker 1: shooting happened at night, but the medical examiner said the

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Speaker 1: murder happen during the day, probably right after the carjacking.

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Speaker 1: Willie told the police that he'd hidden the gun under

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Speaker 1: his mattress, but when police went to Willy's home and looked,

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Speaker 1: they couldn't find any gun. There were other problems too,

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Speaker 1: Like a lot of New York City kids, David and

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Speaker 1: Willie didn't know how to drive, making them unlikely suspects

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Speaker 1: for a car theft ring, and most importantly, they didn't

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Speaker 1: match the descriptions of the car thieves. David and Willie

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Speaker 1: were sixteen years old, not twenty something, neither one of

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Speaker 1: them had braids, and both were short, nowhere near five

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Speaker 1: foot ten. But despite all this, Willy and David were

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Speaker 1: charged with the murder of Nathan Blenner based on their

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Speaker 1: confessions and nothing else. Both were convicted on October twenty seventh,

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty six. Each was sentenced to twenty five years

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Speaker 1: to life. The story fast forwards now more than eighteen

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Speaker 1: years to two thousand and four. David McCallum was thirty

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Speaker 1: four years old. He'd transformed from an insecure teenager into

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Speaker 1: a man known by other prisoners for his unshakable integrity.

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Speaker 1: David had always maintained his innocence, but he'd lost all

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Speaker 1: his appeals and was running out of options. Tragically, Willie

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Speaker 1: Stuckey had died in two thousand and one at the

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Speaker 1: age of thirty one, from what the prison said was

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Speaker 1: a heart attack. So this was David's fight now, and

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Speaker 1: for too long he'd been fighting alone.

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Speaker 2: By two thousand and four, David had written over six

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Speaker 2: hundred letters. He wrote to lawyers, he wrote to TV stations,

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Speaker 2: radio stations, he wrote to anybody, and he always insisted

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Speaker 2: that he was innocent, But all he got back were

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Speaker 2: rejections until one of those letters made its way to

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Speaker 2: Ruben Hurricane Carter.

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Speaker 1: Remember Ruben Carter was the famous boxer who'd spent twenty

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Speaker 1: years in prison for a triple murder. He didn't commit.

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Speaker 1: Whose long fight to clear himself was immortalized by Bob

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Speaker 1: Dylan in the song Hurricane Now. Rubin wasn't exonerated until

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, the same year that David and Willie

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Speaker 1: went down for Nathan Blenner's murder. When he got out,

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Speaker 1: ruben was malnourished from decades of prison food, and he'd

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Speaker 1: lost sight in one eye from a botched prison surgery.

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Speaker 1: He couldn't fight for the middleweight crown any longer, so

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Speaker 1: instead he started fighting for the wrongfully convicted. After working

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Speaker 1: for one of North America's leading innocence organizations, Rubin founded

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Speaker 1: his own group, Innocence International.

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Speaker 2: Rubin recognized that he was probably the most well known

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Speaker 2: figure who had been wrongfully convicted, and that if he

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Speaker 2: didn't use his voice in some way to be a

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Speaker 2: champion for the wrongfully convicted, that it would be a

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Speaker 2: terrible waste.

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Speaker 3: For twenty years, I was incarcerated as a racist, triple murderer,

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Speaker 3: condemned by history, repudiated by the courts, and sentenced to

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Speaker 3: die amid the squalor and despair and of a maximum

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Speaker 3: security prison. And tonight I am standing here at the

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Speaker 3: United Nations making this address. Now, if that's not miraculous.

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Speaker 3: Then I don't know what it is.

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Speaker 2: I don't know what is. David was at his wits end.

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Speaker 2: His best friend had died, and every day was a

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Speaker 2: struggle for him because he didn't see a way out.

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Speaker 1: In February two thousand and four, David McCallum read a

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Speaker 1: magazine interview with Reuben Hurricane Carter, and he sent a

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Speaker 1: letter asking for help to the author, a man named

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Speaker 1: Ken Klonsky. Ruben and Ken had started working together on

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Speaker 1: wrongful conviction cases, and today Ken is the director of

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Speaker 1: Innocence International.

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Speaker 4: David sent me a letter and he explained his case

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Speaker 4: and the situation he was in. Now, I have no

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Speaker 4: legal background, and I had no background in wrongful convictions,

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Speaker 4: so I just thought, well, here's a person sounds honest,

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Speaker 4: and I'll just tell Ruben about him. And Ruben at

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Speaker 4: first he took it in and he said at some point, well,

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Speaker 4: let's go visit the brother and see what he's like.

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Speaker 1: Both Ken Klonsky and Ruben Carter read up on David's

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Speaker 1: case and came to visit him in prison.

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Speaker 4: This was a prison in New York called Eastern Correctional.

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Speaker 4: When we visited, first of all, I'd never been in

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Speaker 4: a prison in my life, and the place itself was enormous.

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Speaker 4: It looked like a medieval castle.

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Speaker 1: In a visiting room, Reuben and David sat on opposite

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Speaker 1: sides of the table, silently studying each other. Later David

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Speaker 1: would remember feeling like Ruben was reading him, and David

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Speaker 1: refused to break the silence.

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Speaker 4: The eye contact was like love at first sight. And

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Speaker 4: they had a conversation which David started going on about

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Speaker 4: it case, and Ruben interrupted and says, you know what,

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Speaker 4: I'm not interested right now in your case. I want

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Speaker 4: to know who you are.

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Speaker 2: Ruben was a tough interviewer. He grilled David about you know,

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Speaker 2: if I get involved in your case, I don't want

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Speaker 2: you to come out of prison and act like a

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Speaker 2: fool and I'm wasting my time. And he got from

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Speaker 2: David the sense that this was somebody who was going

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Speaker 2: to make him proud, and Rubin left that meeting knowing

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Speaker 2: that he was going to do everything in his power

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Speaker 2: to get David McCallum out of prison.

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Speaker 4: I think we were there about two hours, and I

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Speaker 4: remember us getting up and leaving and I look back

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Speaker 4: at that enormous prison and I said Rubin. Really, who's

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Speaker 4: going to get him out of there?

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Speaker 1: Rubin and Ken hired a defense lawyer, Oscar Michelin, and

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, the three of them sent

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Speaker 1: the confession tapes to the Center on Wrongful Convictions for

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Speaker 1: Steve to review. Now, David had read about your work, Steve,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to out you here. He considers you

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Speaker 1: the Lebron James of false confessions.

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Speaker 2: Look, Laura, we're in Chicago, and out of respect for

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Speaker 2: the greatest basketball player of all time, I think we

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Speaker 2: should go with the Michael Jordan of false confessions.

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Speaker 1: Slow down, Steve. First of all, you're from Philly, that's right.

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Speaker 2: So actually, the more I think about it, I prefer

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Speaker 2: to be known as the Doctor j of false confessions,

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Speaker 2: as in, the doctor is in the house. Oh see,

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Speaker 2: the doctor makes house calls. The doctor is on the case.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Doctor j you analyze these confessions and you found

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Speaker 1: a pretty revealing error what we call a false fed fact.

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Speaker 5: I did.

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Speaker 2: A false fed fact is a fact that comports with

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Speaker 2: the police theory at the time of the interrogation, and

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Speaker 2: it's adopted by the suspect in his or her confession,

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Speaker 2: but the fact later turns out to be false, and

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Speaker 2: if it is in the suspects confession, then you know

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Speaker 2: that the police fed that fact to the suspects. And

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Speaker 2: that's exactly what happened here.

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Speaker 1: At the time of the interrogations, the police believed that

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Speaker 1: Willy and David were the ones who had talked to

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Speaker 1: that woman with the red Buick regal just before going

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Speaker 1: around the block and attacking Nathan Blenner. And sure enough,

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Speaker 1: right there in Willie Stucky's confession is a story about

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Speaker 1: talking to that woman and saying nice car.

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Speaker 2: But David and Willie didn't match their description. Remember, the

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Speaker 2: woman had described two guys five feet six and five ten,

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Speaker 2: one with braids. Now David and Willie were both five

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Speaker 2: six and neither of them had braids.

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Speaker 1: They couldn't have been the guys who talked to that woman.

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Speaker 1: And by the time of trial even the state agreed

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Speaker 1: that David and Willie were not the ones she'd seen.

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Speaker 2: So how did story get into Willie's confession? It must

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Speaker 2: have been fed by the police.

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Speaker 1: That was enough to make Steve join the team right

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Speaker 1: then and there, and.

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Speaker 2: I decided to recruit Laura Cohen, a law professor and

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Speaker 2: an attorney at Rutgridge University to join our defense team.

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Speaker 1: Laura, Cohen and Steve approached the Brooklyn DA's office and

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Speaker 1: got them to agree to do forensic testing on the

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Speaker 1: cigarette butts and fingerprints found in Nathan Blenner's car, and

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Speaker 1: the results the cigarette butts had DNA on them that

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Speaker 1: excluded both David and Willie. Instead, the DNA matched a

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Speaker 1: different Brooklyn teenager they had no connection to. The fingerprints

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Speaker 1: also excluded David and Willie. They matched yet another Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: teenager who had been killed years before in an altercation

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Speaker 1: with the police.

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Speaker 2: This was more powerful evidence of both Willie and David's innocence,

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Speaker 2: and the whole team, including Rubin, was very excited.

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Speaker 1: But this evidence still wasn't enough to persuade the Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: DA to exonerate David, not yet. Then two big things happened. First,

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Speaker 1: an election in twenty thirteen, a new Brooklyn DA was elected,

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Speaker 1: a reformer named Ken Thompson who had campaigned on a

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Speaker 1: platform of rooting out wrongful convictions. David's legal team immediately

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Speaker 1: contacted Thompson and told him about the case.

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Speaker 2: We used every bit of our connections to try to

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Speaker 2: get David's case on Ken Thompson's radar screen, and it worked.

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Speaker 1: The second big thing that happened was a terrible blow

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Speaker 1: to the whole team. In twenty fourteen, Rubin announced that

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Speaker 1: he had prostate cancer and it was spreading fast.

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Speaker 5: You know.

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Speaker 2: When Rubin announced that he had cancer, he and I

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Speaker 2: were kind of at odds with one another. Rubin was

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Speaker 2: upset with me because he thought that we coddled the

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Speaker 2: DA instead of looking for an opportunity to land a

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Speaker 2: knockout blow with new evidence. So Ruben's answer to us was,

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Speaker 2: stop fiddling around with the DA's office, stop dealing with

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Speaker 2: state court. You need to go to federal court in

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Speaker 2: order to get David out of prison. And we told

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Speaker 2: Ruben that's just not going to work. And it created

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Speaker 2: a tension between Rubin and me at this point in time.

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Speaker 2: But the announcement that he had prostate cancer was devastating

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Speaker 2: because even though we were at odds, I had tremendous

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Speaker 2: respect for Ruben and I knew that his voice was

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Speaker 2: going to be crucial if we were ever going to

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Speaker 2: win this case.

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Speaker 1: Ruben was very sick and quickly got much sicker, but

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Speaker 1: he was still the ultimate fighter. On his deathbed, With

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Speaker 1: ken Klonsky's help, Ruben wrote an op ed for the

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Speaker 1: New York Post urging the New Brooklyn DA to exonerate

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Speaker 1: David McCallum. It was one of the last things he

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Speaker 1: did with his life. Here's some of what Reuben Hurricane

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Speaker 1: Carter wrote.

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Speaker 2: My single regret in life is that David McCallum is

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Speaker 2: still in prison. My aim in helping this fine man

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Speaker 2: is to pay it forward, to give the help that

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Speaker 2: I received as a wrongfully convicted man to another who

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Speaker 2: needs such help. Now now I'm looking death straight in

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Speaker 2: the eye, Ruben wrote, He's got me on the ropes,

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Speaker 2: but I won't back down. And then Ruben asked the

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Speaker 2: New Brooklyn DA to look straight into the eye of truth,

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Speaker 2: a tougher customer than death, and not to back down either.

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Speaker 1: To this day, ken Klonsky remembers helping Ruben write that

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Speaker 1: op ed.

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Speaker 4: We wrote a look utter together and it didn't have

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Speaker 4: a proper ending, And finally I hit on something. To

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Speaker 4: live in a world where truth matters, and just as

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Speaker 4: however late still happens, that world would be heaven enough

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Speaker 4: for us.

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Speaker 2: All.

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Speaker 4: So it was out there that Ruben was dying and

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Speaker 4: that Ruben had made a last wish.

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Speaker 2: That op ed was the knockout blow that we were

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Speaker 2: looking for.

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Speaker 1: Ruben's dying plea, combined with the new DNA evidence, made

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Speaker 1: the difference. A few months after Ruben passed away, the

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson announced that he was going to

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Speaker 1: exonerate David McCallum and posthumously exonerate Willie Stuck too. And

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Speaker 1: while this news was incredibly welcome, the way ken Thompson's

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Speaker 1: office handled the exonerations was extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: I had never seen so much grace in an exoneration.

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Speaker 2: And let me explain what I mean by that. When

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Speaker 2: we exonerate people, most of the time, it's after a

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Speaker 2: hard fought legal battle that brings the state down to

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Speaker 2: its knees, and the state reluctantly gives up, and on

400
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Speaker 2: the day of exoneration it's oftentimes a kind of anticlimactic moment.

401
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,879
Speaker 2: But David's case was so different. When David was picked

402
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 2: up by the detectives from prison, he was taken to

403
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Speaker 2: the courthouse and then the DA's office brought him a

404
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Speaker 2: lunch of barbecue chicken and whatever he wanted to drink,

405
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Speaker 2: and one by one, members of the DA's conviction Review

406
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 2: Unit congratulated David. David not only met Ken Thompson the DA,

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Speaker 2: but he also met Ken Thompson's wife, and there was

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Speaker 2: such a recognition of the humanity of David throughout this process.

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Speaker 6: I'm Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson, and I'm here today

410
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Speaker 6: with some members of my conviction review team. And it

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Speaker 6: continued because from day one I made a pledge to

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Speaker 6: the people of Brooklyn, and my pledge was to put

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Speaker 6: the guilty away, but also to make sure that our

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Speaker 6: criminal justice system was based on fundamental fairness. That's what

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Speaker 6: we're doing here today.

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Speaker 2: Normally, when prisoners are brought into the court room, they

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Speaker 2: had come in through the back door. They're handcuffed and

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Speaker 2: they are shackled. When it came time for David's case

419
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 2: to be called, he walked in through the front door

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Speaker 2: with his head held high, knowing that he would soon

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Speaker 2: be a free man.

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Speaker 6: Mister McCallum asked me to look at his case. I

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Speaker 6: agreed to do so because my duty is not just

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Speaker 6: to convict, but to do justice. We have conducted a

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Speaker 6: thorough and fair investigation of this matter, and as a

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00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,719
Speaker 6: result of that investigation, we've determined that there's not a

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00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 6: single piece of evidence that linked David McCallum or William

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Speaker 6: Stuckey to the abduction of Nathan Blenna.

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Speaker 2: Unbeknownst to David, they had brought Willie Stucky's mother in

430
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 2: for the exogeneration and it was a reunion that was

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00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:45,919
Speaker 2: just heartbreaking and incredibly tender. She was there also to

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Speaker 2: feel that her son was being vindicated at the same time.

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Speaker 6: And so today at two pm before Judge Demic in

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Speaker 6: Brooklyn State Supreme I will move in the interest of

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Speaker 6: justice to vacate the convictions of David McCallum and Willie Stuckey.

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00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:09,680
Speaker 2: This was not a reluctant exonerations, but a public reckoning,

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00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 2: and that kind of exoneration really is such an important

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00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:20,000
Speaker 2: step in the healing process for people who get out

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00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 2: of prison.

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00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 6: David McCallum walked into prison as a boy. Today he

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00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 6: will walk out of the courthouse as a man.

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00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 4: The District Attorney had a press conference and in the

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00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 4: press conference he said, I've inherited a legacy of disgrace

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00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 4: with respect to wrongful convictions, and that moment you knew

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00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:53,760
Speaker 4: his intention to change things, to write everything was going

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00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 4: to be realized. It was just a wonderful moment.

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00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 5: You know.

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00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 2: The only thing missed from David McCallum's exoneration was Rubin.

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00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 2: Hurricane Carter and the state even found a way to

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00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 2: bring Rubin into these proceedings. On the day of David's exoneration,

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00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 2: the DA's office dispatched two detectives to take him from

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00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 2: prison to court, and on the way back from prison,

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00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 2: one of the detectives pulled out his iPhone and he

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00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 2: pressed play, and of course it was the Story of

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00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,120
Speaker 2: the Hurricane by Bob Dylan. It comes the Story of

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00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 2: the Hurricane, the man the authorities came to.

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00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: Blame Ruben Carter wasn't the only hero of this story

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00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: who passed away too soon. On October ninth, twenty sixteen,

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00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: Ken Thompson, that reform minded Brooklyn DA who exonerated David

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00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 1: McCallum and Will Stucky with such grace, also died of cancer.

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00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,880
Speaker 2: He'd exonerated by that point in time about thirteen or

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00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 2: fourteen people, and so when he died it was a

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00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 2: really terrible blow for justice. But one of the things

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00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,360
Speaker 2: that happened after Ken's death was his wife actually reached

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00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 2: out to David McCallum and invited David to speak at

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00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,880
Speaker 2: the going home service for Ken Thompson.

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00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: And so David McCallum stood up at the packed memorial

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00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: service for the da who had agreed to free him

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00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: and gave a powerful eulogy.

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00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:44,720
Speaker 7: He promised that he would investigate lawful convictions in a

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00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 7: very fair way, and my legal team and I that's

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00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 7: all we ever wanted.

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00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: It was two years to the day after David had

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00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 1: been exonerated.

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00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 7: Mister Thompson touched me in a way that I don't

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00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:04,320
Speaker 7: think anybody ever would again, because mister Thompson didn't only

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00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:11,600
Speaker 7: give me my freedom. Mister Thompson, and this may sound

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00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 7: point to some who don't believe in compassion, mister Thompson

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00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 7: gave me my old daughter, Quinn. Because had he not

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00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 7: did what he promised he would do, I'm not sure

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00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 7: where I.

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00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 2: Would be right now.

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00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 5: David, Yes, you still see it's been a while, so

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00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 5: you've been out now for five and a half years almost.

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00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,360
Speaker 5: You know, what are your hopes and dreams? And what

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00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 5: are your hopes and dreams for Quinn?

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00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 8: What about hopes and dreams is to become even the

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00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 8: more effective then I think I'm pretty good at it now,

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00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 8: but I just want to be really really good at

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00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 8: it because I work very hard work, because it's all

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00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 8: worth at the end of the day, and I am

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00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:00,760
Speaker 8: braced it.

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00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: You know.

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00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:03,080
Speaker 8: I consider myself for hairs on Dad.

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00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 5: She Daddy's little girl.

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00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 8: Absolutely. I have to tell you how many times I've

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00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 8: picked us at school that soon I come in the door.

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00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:14,160
Speaker 5: Oh my god.

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00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:16,840
Speaker 8: You know, she just runs from what else he's doing.

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00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 8: And that's it's almost undesciable in some way when it's

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00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 8: really really good failing up.

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00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 1: And that's the story of David McCallum. Join us next

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00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: week for the last episode in our first season, we'll

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00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: tell you about one of the first modern day cases

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00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: of false confession from nineteen seventy three. Peter Riley was

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00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,200
Speaker 1: just sixteen when he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his

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00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 1: own mother. Peter's innocence was championed by everyone from neighborhood

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00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:55,760
Speaker 1: moms to New York celebrities. His people powered campaign for

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00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 1: exoneration has been the inspiration for the work Steve and

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00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:03,040
Speaker 1: I do till then. Thanks for listening to wrongful conviction,

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00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 1: false confessions, wrongful Conviction False Confessions is a production of

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00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One.

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00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: Special thanks to our executive producer Jason Flamm and the

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00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,719
Speaker 1: team at Signal Company Number one. Executive producer Kevin wardis

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00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: Senior producer and Pope and additional production and editing by

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00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:32,520
Speaker 1: Connor Hall. Special thanks to Jogi Hammer for additional script

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00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 1: editing and for wrangling and writing like a mad woman.

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00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: Our music was composed by Jay Ralph. You can follow

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00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura.

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00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 2: Nyriter and you can follow me on Twitter at s Drizzen.

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00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrongfulconvictionpodcast dot com

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00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: and be sure to follow the show on Instagram at

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00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:57,239
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on

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00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 1: Twitter at wrong Conviction