1
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:06,240
Speaker 1: On June nineteenth, nineteen eighty eight, Vincent Wright and his

2
00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 1: girlfriend Anssia Johnson were parked outside a one stop convenience

3
00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:13,320
Speaker 1: store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While an Assia waited in

4
00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:15,880
Speaker 1: the car, Vincent went behind it to fill the rear

5
00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:20,240
Speaker 1: tire with air. Suddenly, two armed gunmen approached, demanding money.

6
00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,960
Speaker 1: Vincent said he didn't have any. Just then another man

7
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,800
Speaker 1: pulled up in a brown Oldsmobile and told the two

8
00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,920
Speaker 1: gunmen to take Vincent's car and Thisssy had jumped out

9
00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:32,240
Speaker 1: of the car and the two men sped off, followed

10
00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,960
Speaker 1: by the Oldsmobile. Police had no leads and did little

11
00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,920
Speaker 1: to investigate until Vincent's brother gave them the license number

12
00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,640
Speaker 1: of a brown Oldsmobile he had seen driving around. The

13
00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,840
Speaker 1: car belonged to twenty two year old Sidney Holmes, who

14
00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:50,879
Speaker 1: soon became the focus of the investigation, but Sydney denied

15
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,280
Speaker 1: any involvement, claiming to have been over a mile away

16
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,120
Speaker 1: at the time. After viewing two photo arrays, both of

17
00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,520
Speaker 1: which contained Sydney's picture, as well as a live lineup

18
00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,720
Speaker 1: in which Sydney participated, Vincent identified him as the man

19
00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:09,280
Speaker 1: in the brown car. It seemed to make sense. Why

20
00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:12,880
Speaker 1: would one person be shown in repeated lineups if the

21
00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:18,240
Speaker 1: police didn't think he was guilty? But this is wrongful conviction.

22
00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:39,640
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction. Before we even get into

23
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,959
Speaker 1: introductions with YouTube, gentlemen, I just want to give the

24
00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,000
Speaker 1: listener a little heads up about the insanity that is

25
00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:52,520
Speaker 1: about to unfold in their headphones. The thing that really

26
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:55,280
Speaker 1: gets me most about this case is that the prosecution

27
00:01:56,080 --> 00:02:01,600
Speaker 1: initially recommended an eight hundred and twenty five year sentence,

28
00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:07,200
Speaker 1: and even without knowing what you were accused of. I

29
00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,480
Speaker 1: just want that to resonate because I can't wrap my

30
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,400
Speaker 1: head around of what kind of a heinous crime would

31
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:19,440
Speaker 1: warrant such a long sentence. My name is Lauren brad Pacheco,

32
00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:22,600
Speaker 1: and I'm a broadcast journalist and a podcaster of such

33
00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,240
Speaker 1: series as Murder in Oregon, Murder in Illinois, and Murder

34
00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:29,240
Speaker 1: in Miami. And I am very honored to be sitting

35
00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:32,359
Speaker 1: in this seat filling in for Jason Flohm. But I'm

36
00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:36,400
Speaker 1: also very honored to be speaking to you too, Sydney Holmes.

37
00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,480
Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, thanks for having us, and also

38
00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:43,880
Speaker 1: joining us today is Brandon sheck Staff, attorney with the

39
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:45,639
Speaker 1: Innocence Project of Florida.

40
00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,040
Speaker 2: Welcome Brandon, Thanks Lauren, it's great to be here.

41
00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,280
Speaker 1: Sidney. Can you just tell me a little bit about

42
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,600
Speaker 1: your upbringing and your family.

43
00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,280
Speaker 3: Well, I grew it up in a household with two parents.

44
00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,600
Speaker 3: I have two sisters. We grew up in a Christian household.

45
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:05,400
Speaker 3: We know, very loving, family, were very close, all kind

46
00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:10,200
Speaker 3: of functions. Family functions were always coming together Thanksgiving, you know,

47
00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,040
Speaker 3: Christmas and all of the other days. The thing with me,

48
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:15,440
Speaker 3: I was always a book run I'm always, you know,

49
00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:18,640
Speaker 3: a gadget type of guy. You know, I always the intelligent.

50
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:22,000
Speaker 3: I always want to be the smartest guy in the

51
00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:23,919
Speaker 3: in the room. I was always that kind of guy.

52
00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:28,360
Speaker 1: And Sydney, just take me to who you were at

53
00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:31,520
Speaker 1: the age of twenty two, the year that this happened

54
00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,920
Speaker 1: in your life. What were your interests, you know, what

55
00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:38,040
Speaker 1: were your hopes and plans for the future at that age.

56
00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,040
Speaker 3: Well, age twenty two, I was working at a hospital

57
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,280
Speaker 3: in which they was going to send me to school

58
00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,640
Speaker 3: for a surgic technician. So, you know, I feel like

59
00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,560
Speaker 3: my future was bright at that time. I was highly

60
00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,960
Speaker 3: into the medical field. I was highly ambitionous, but it

61
00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 3: didn't happen.

62
00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:59,120
Speaker 1: And the irony is you had had two prior incidences

63
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:01,640
Speaker 1: run ins with the but you had turned your life

64
00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:03,920
Speaker 1: around at that point, correct, Yes, ma'am.

65
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,320
Speaker 3: It was a robbery case that at the same instinct,

66
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:10,680
Speaker 3: I was taking a coworker home and he went inside

67
00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:14,120
Speaker 3: and committed to crimes without my knowledge, and I was

68
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:15,680
Speaker 3: charged with the crime as well.

69
00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,760
Speaker 1: But as I understand it, you did plead guilty in

70
00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:22,560
Speaker 1: that case, even though you say you had no idea

71
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,040
Speaker 1: the robbery was going on. Were you offered some kind

72
00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:28,039
Speaker 1: of plea deal or were you told that if you

73
00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:30,080
Speaker 1: pled guilty it would make things easier.

74
00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 3: Yes, that was the case.

75
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:35,880
Speaker 1: So when all of this went down, you were seen

76
00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:40,240
Speaker 1: as a previous prior offender, yes, ma'am. All right, And

77
00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,599
Speaker 1: so Brandon, can you just take me to the time

78
00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:47,240
Speaker 1: and the place that we're talking about. This happened in

79
00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,960
Speaker 1: Fort Lauderdale, But give me an idea of what the

80
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,680
Speaker 1: scene was in nineteen eighty eight when the crime occurred.

81
00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:58,960
Speaker 1: Just in terms of the relationship between the police and

82
00:04:59,120 --> 00:04:59,640
Speaker 1: the public.

83
00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:04,240
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Broward County, Florida, has a history, and

84
00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:05,960
Speaker 4: it's a well documented history.

85
00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,880
Speaker 2: At that time in Fort Lauderdale.

86
00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,320
Speaker 4: There were a lot of these types of armed robberies,

87
00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:17,800
Speaker 4: and actually the arrest rate where police made arrests in

88
00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:19,560
Speaker 4: those cases was quite low.

89
00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:21,880
Speaker 2: It was twenty to twenty five percent.

90
00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:24,479
Speaker 4: So there are a large number of these types of

91
00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:28,680
Speaker 4: crimes happening, and you know, not enough police a lot

92
00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,040
Speaker 4: of cases, had not a lot to go on, and

93
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,520
Speaker 4: so there are a lot of these unsolved cases. And

94
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:38,000
Speaker 4: so in those cases, you know, we see shortcuts being taken,

95
00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:41,799
Speaker 4: and definitely we see shortcuts being taken here in Sydney's case,

96
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:46,800
Speaker 4: and those shortcuts definitely directly led to his wrongful conviction.

97
00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:51,880
Speaker 1: And probably contributed significantly to the fact that Broward County

98
00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:53,960
Speaker 1: doesn't have a great track record when it comes to

99
00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:59,039
Speaker 1: wrongful convictions. In fact, according to the National Registry of Exonerations,

100
00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,240
Speaker 1: he leads the way in Florida with thirteen out of

101
00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:04,839
Speaker 1: ninety one wrongful convictions.

102
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:05,680
Speaker 2: That's correct.

103
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,520
Speaker 4: There's definitely a long history, and of course that history

104
00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:14,599
Speaker 4: affected a lot of folks, and you know, there's ongoing work,

105
00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:18,400
Speaker 4: you know, still with our organization with the State Attorney's

106
00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:23,240
Speaker 4: Office to try to assist individuals that we can identify

107
00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 4: that were affected by that history, and Sydney here in

108
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:30,400
Speaker 4: this case was definitely one of those folks.

109
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:33,560
Speaker 1: I think it's also important to note that a lot

110
00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,400
Speaker 1: of those wrongful convictions occurred under the watch of Florida's

111
00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:42,159
Speaker 1: longest serving State Attorney, Mike Satz. I believe Satz was

112
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,600
Speaker 1: in office for almost fifty years.

113
00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:48,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's correct. And you know, to mister Satz's credit,

114
00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 4: you know, one of the things that he did on

115
00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,960
Speaker 4: the way out was established this Conviction Review Unit, and

116
00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:59,200
Speaker 4: that has continued, the review unit with great support by

117
00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:02,920
Speaker 4: the current State Attorney, mister Harrold Pryor. But yes, it's

118
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,440
Speaker 4: quite unusual, especially in such a large jurisdiction as the

119
00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:11,880
Speaker 4: seventeenth Circuit Broward County, to have someone with that amount

120
00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:13,760
Speaker 4: of power for that long.

121
00:07:13,920 --> 00:07:17,880
Speaker 1: Okay, so now let's talk about the crime. This occurred

122
00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:22,040
Speaker 1: on June nineteenth, nineteen eighty eight, Father's Day. The two victims,

123
00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,280
Speaker 1: Vincent Wright and his girlfriend, Anessia Johnson, were outside of

124
00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:29,520
Speaker 1: a convenience store gas station. Anicia was sitting in the

125
00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:32,440
Speaker 1: car and Vincent was putting air in the tires.

126
00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:35,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there were there were two perpetrators that were

127
00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:39,360
Speaker 4: armed that came up to them and demanded money, demanded possessions.

128
00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,280
Speaker 4: The victims didn't have anything to give them. I think

129
00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:46,880
Speaker 4: the perpetrators were kind of frustrated by that. And you know,

130
00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,960
Speaker 4: simultaneous to that, a third person driving a brown Oldsmobile

131
00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,840
Speaker 4: kind of came up onto the scene as it's unfolding

132
00:07:55,320 --> 00:08:00,200
Speaker 4: and told the two armed perpetrators, Hey, you just take

133
00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:03,960
Speaker 4: their car. And so the two armed perpetrators stole the

134
00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,720
Speaker 4: victim's car and drove off on the scene. And that

135
00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:11,559
Speaker 4: third individual got back into the brown Oldsmobile and also

136
00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:13,240
Speaker 4: drove off from the scene.

137
00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:17,480
Speaker 1: And where were you, Sydney At six thirty pm that

138
00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:18,520
Speaker 1: night when the crime.

139
00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:23,520
Speaker 3: Occurred, I was celebrating Father's Day with my father, friends, neighbors.

140
00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:25,320
Speaker 3: We were riding up and down the street on a

141
00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:27,960
Speaker 3: cold car. So for the whole day I was at

142
00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:30,040
Speaker 3: my parents' house celebrating Father's Day.

143
00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:33,720
Speaker 1: And multiple people were able to confirm that.

144
00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,760
Speaker 3: Yes, multiple pier cond term out way of Boss the

145
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:37,240
Speaker 3: whole day.

146
00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:42,160
Speaker 1: So after the three perpetrators sped off, an Asia called

147
00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:45,440
Speaker 1: the police and when the detective showed up, she told

148
00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,640
Speaker 1: him what had happened and described the first two men.

149
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:51,800
Speaker 1: She wasn't able to describe the man in the brown car.

150
00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:54,960
Speaker 1: At this point, Vincent had already set out with a

151
00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,120
Speaker 1: friend to try to chase the stolen car down themselves,

152
00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,520
Speaker 1: but Brandon, they didn't have any success, did they.

153
00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,760
Speaker 4: Know, so the perpetrators with the stolen car had about

154
00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:08,920
Speaker 4: a five minute head start. Police actually found the stolen

155
00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:13,320
Speaker 4: vehicle the next morning and returned it back to Vincent,

156
00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:17,360
Speaker 4: but essentially police didn't have any leads. They didn't do

157
00:09:17,679 --> 00:09:20,120
Speaker 4: much of any of their own investigation over the next

158
00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:24,439
Speaker 4: few days. But meanwhile, Vincent had gone home that night

159
00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,200
Speaker 4: of the crime and had told his brother Milton what

160
00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:32,679
Speaker 4: had happened. Interestingly enough, Milton told Vincent that earlier that

161
00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,160
Speaker 4: same day, a group of four people who were also

162
00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:39,800
Speaker 4: in a brown Olsmobile stopped his car in a street

163
00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:44,680
Speaker 4: attempting to carjack him and were actually shooting at him.

164
00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:49,480
Speaker 4: And Milton believed that that same group of folks that

165
00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,600
Speaker 4: tried to carjack him were the same people that tried

166
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:58,560
Speaker 4: to or that did rob Vincent and Anicia earlier that

167
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:03,120
Speaker 4: same day, and so so Milton decided to take the

168
00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,520
Speaker 4: investigation into his own hands. Over the next few days,

169
00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:10,000
Speaker 4: he kind of kept an eye out while he was driving,

170
00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,120
Speaker 4: you know, the streets of Fort Lauderdale to see if

171
00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:16,520
Speaker 4: he spotted any brown oldsmobiles.

172
00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:19,720
Speaker 1: He's basically playing citizen detective.

173
00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:19,800
Speaker 2: That's right.

174
00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,800
Speaker 4: And so he saw one brown oldsmobile, wrote down that

175
00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,960
Speaker 4: license plate, sent it to the police. Police ran it

176
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:31,480
Speaker 4: through their system, and came back and told the right brothers, No,

177
00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:35,040
Speaker 4: actually that's the wrong car. Of course, they're looking for

178
00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:40,280
Speaker 4: three young black male perpetrators. And I can only imagine

179
00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:44,480
Speaker 4: that whatever car that brown Oldsmobile that Milton saw was

180
00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:47,560
Speaker 4: registered to was probably not a young black man.

181
00:10:47,640 --> 00:10:49,960
Speaker 2: And so police said, no, that's not a match.

182
00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:52,880
Speaker 4: But Milton continued to drive around over the next few

183
00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:58,120
Speaker 4: days and at one point was driving behind Sydney's car,

184
00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:01,480
Speaker 4: which was a brown Oldsmobile. So he gave that license

185
00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:04,720
Speaker 4: number to the police. Police saw that it was registered

186
00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,280
Speaker 4: to Sydney, who, of course is a young black man.

187
00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:12,040
Speaker 4: And Sydney also had these prior convictions for armed robbery,

188
00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,280
Speaker 4: and at that point it's kind of like bingo, here's

189
00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:18,800
Speaker 4: the guy that we're looking for. And from that point forward,

190
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,319
Speaker 4: I would describe police as investigation as tunnel vision.

191
00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:23,920
Speaker 2: Essentially.

192
00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:27,120
Speaker 1: That's pretty incredible when you think of it. I mean,

193
00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,080
Speaker 1: what are the chances of Sydney having the same car

194
00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:31,600
Speaker 1: as the perpetrators.

195
00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:34,920
Speaker 4: So that's interesting that you mentioned that, because in our

196
00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:39,840
Speaker 4: post conviction investigation, we consulted with a historian at an

197
00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:44,000
Speaker 4: Oldsmobile museum in Michigan who told us, you know, you're

198
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,640
Speaker 4: not going to believe this, but that car and that

199
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:52,199
Speaker 4: precise color were the most common car and the most

200
00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:55,760
Speaker 4: common color of the most common car out on the

201
00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:58,600
Speaker 4: streets in the United States at that period of time,

202
00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:03,720
Speaker 4: and so I can only presume that there were hundreds,

203
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,040
Speaker 4: if not thousands, of these, you know, very type of

204
00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:11,720
Speaker 4: brown Oldsmobile driving around the very busy streets of Fort Lauderdale,

205
00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:14,400
Speaker 4: Florida at that time. The reality is is that if

206
00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:19,320
Speaker 4: Milton had been driving behind another brown Oldsmobile register to

207
00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:22,000
Speaker 4: a young black man, then that person might have been

208
00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:23,680
Speaker 4: wrongfully convicted in this case.

209
00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:29,160
Speaker 1: But even by his own description, you know, Sydney's car

210
00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:33,199
Speaker 1: didn't match because what he described was a similar looking

211
00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:37,640
Speaker 1: car but had a blown out circle where the lock

212
00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:38,560
Speaker 1: would have been.

213
00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,559
Speaker 4: That's right, Milton is definitely the driving force of this investigation,

214
00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:48,720
Speaker 4: but you know, there were many inconsistencies between the car

215
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:54,960
Speaker 4: involved in the one stop robbery, the car involved in

216
00:12:55,120 --> 00:13:00,320
Speaker 4: the attempted carjacking of Milton and Sydney's car, and so

217
00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:04,840
Speaker 4: one of the most significant inconsistencies is that the car

218
00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 4: involved in the one stop crime, in the arm robbery

219
00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,920
Speaker 4: of Milton was described as having a hole in the

220
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:14,720
Speaker 4: trunk kind of where the lock would be. It's possible

221
00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:16,760
Speaker 4: that that was a stolen car and so the lock

222
00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:21,200
Speaker 4: was popped out, but Sydney's car didn't have that. Sydney's car,

223
00:13:21,559 --> 00:13:24,560
Speaker 4: the lock in the back was completely intact. There was

224
00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,120
Speaker 4: otherwise no hole in the trunk, and the state never

225
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:32,960
Speaker 4: provided any evidence to suggest that that was ever the

226
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:36,160
Speaker 4: case with Sydney's car. And so obviously that's a very

227
00:13:36,200 --> 00:13:42,640
Speaker 4: glaring inconsistency between Sydney's car and the perpetrator's car. It

228
00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:45,040
Speaker 4: just didn't match up. And then, of course the physical

229
00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:47,880
Speaker 4: description of the perpetrator didn't match up with Sidney either.

230
00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:53,120
Speaker 1: Yes, let's talk about their physical characteristics. What was the

231
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,920
Speaker 1: description given of the man in the brown car.

232
00:13:56,679 --> 00:14:01,880
Speaker 4: So in his first deposition, Vincent said that the perpetrator

233
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:04,880
Speaker 4: was five foot six. Vincent said that he himself was

234
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,800
Speaker 4: five foot eight and the perpetrator was shorter. Than he was.

235
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:11,600
Speaker 4: He described him as one hundred and seventy pounds, kind

236
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,719
Speaker 4: of heavy set. He described him as a little bit overweight,

237
00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:19,280
Speaker 4: and that was not Sydney at the time of the crime.

238
00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:24,280
Speaker 1: Sidney just described to me then, what your height and

239
00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:27,680
Speaker 1: weight was at the time of the crime. When you

240
00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:28,400
Speaker 1: were twenty.

241
00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:31,160
Speaker 3: Two, I was six feet one hundred eighty three pounds.

242
00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:32,680
Speaker 1: She were a tall, skinny guy.

243
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:36,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, six feet about one eighty three.

244
00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:36,840
Speaker 2: Got it.

245
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:41,080
Speaker 1: The lead investigator in this case was Detective Robert Campbell,

246
00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:44,480
Speaker 1: and it does seem like he was focused on you

247
00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:48,200
Speaker 1: as the only suspect, despite the fact that the driver

248
00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,680
Speaker 1: of the oldsmobile was not even one of the armed robbers. Sydney,

249
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,680
Speaker 1: when did you even get an inkling that the police

250
00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,840
Speaker 1: were setting their sights specifically on you?

251
00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:02,840
Speaker 3: My car at the time was Readyster. The address I

252
00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,680
Speaker 3: was using at that time was my grandmother's resident and

253
00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:09,480
Speaker 3: when they got to tag them rand his number to

254
00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,880
Speaker 3: the address, they came into the house and left a

255
00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,400
Speaker 3: business card. Satday, I need to contact them, these two detectives,

256
00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:18,400
Speaker 3: in which I did because I have nothing been high,

257
00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:22,200
Speaker 3: I haven't done anything. So I called them and they

258
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,120
Speaker 3: came by questioned me and I actually take a photograph

259
00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:27,960
Speaker 3: to mirect. I didn't think anything was to that. I

260
00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:31,920
Speaker 3: gave him a photograph and that was that. That's the

261
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:33,920
Speaker 3: first time. The next time I seen them, I was

262
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:35,360
Speaker 3: being arrested for ann rovit.

263
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,320
Speaker 4: Initially, the victims were shown what we would call mugg book,

264
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:57,440
Speaker 4: which is essentially just a large book of photographs of

265
00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:02,000
Speaker 4: people who had previously been arrested for similar crimes, and

266
00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,440
Speaker 4: neither of the victims made an identification from the mug book.

267
00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:09,720
Speaker 4: Several days later, Sydney's license plate number was given to

268
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:13,000
Speaker 4: the police, and that is the impetus for him becoming

269
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,040
Speaker 4: a suspect in this case. And so the police created

270
00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:21,440
Speaker 4: a six pack, a photo lineup of six photos, including Sydney's,

271
00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:25,480
Speaker 4: using his booking photo from his prior arrest, from his

272
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:29,360
Speaker 4: prior conviction in nineteen eighty four, which would have been

273
00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:33,640
Speaker 4: four years before this crime occurred, and neither of the

274
00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,960
Speaker 4: victims identified Sidney from that lineup.

275
00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,800
Speaker 1: But then, of course the photo that Sidney just talked about,

276
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,680
Speaker 1: the one he freely agreed to give the police, came

277
00:16:43,720 --> 00:16:45,520
Speaker 1: into play exactly.

278
00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,880
Speaker 4: And so, as Sidney explained, you know, police came to

279
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:51,320
Speaker 4: talk to him and he told them, you know, I

280
00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:54,360
Speaker 4: didn't do this. I have nothing to hide. Yes, of course,

281
00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,160
Speaker 4: please take a photograph of me, you know, expecting that

282
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:00,640
Speaker 4: that photograph is going to help a limit him as

283
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:03,720
Speaker 4: a suspect because he knew that he didn't commit this crime.

284
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,159
Speaker 4: And so a second photo lineup was created using that

285
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:10,560
Speaker 4: new photograph of Sydney that he agreed to take, and

286
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,080
Speaker 4: five different people than from the filler photos in the

287
00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:18,240
Speaker 4: first lineup. And so Sidney is the only person that

288
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:21,159
Speaker 4: was shown to the victims multiple times.

289
00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:25,080
Speaker 1: And it should be noted that Detective Campbell was the

290
00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:27,960
Speaker 1: one who administered every one of those lineups.

291
00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,760
Speaker 4: The female victim, she did not identify Sidney. She never

292
00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:35,400
Speaker 4: made an identification. In the case Vincent, the male victim,

293
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:40,240
Speaker 4: he identified Sidney in the second lineup, and that's the

294
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,879
Speaker 4: principal evidence used to convict him and Sidney.

295
00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:49,440
Speaker 1: You know, you were quite willing to assist the detectives

296
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:55,480
Speaker 1: in their initial investigation, and turns out there wasn't much

297
00:17:55,720 --> 00:18:01,080
Speaker 1: of an investigation because you were arrested on October sixth

298
00:18:01,560 --> 00:18:03,080
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty eight.

299
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:07,359
Speaker 3: That morning of October sixth, I was sitting at my parents' house,

300
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:10,919
Speaker 3: actually talking to my father having breakfast at the kitchen table.

301
00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:14,280
Speaker 3: Then you know, to the the same to the technis

302
00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:16,280
Speaker 3: came knocking at the front door, say they had a

303
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:19,160
Speaker 3: warrant for my arrest armed robbery. They took place at

304
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:23,359
Speaker 3: this at that station. I'm looking at him saying, for robbery.

305
00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,320
Speaker 3: I haven't robbed anyone. So, you know, being the humble

306
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,159
Speaker 3: god I am, you know, the Homer spirit. Okay, I

307
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:34,359
Speaker 3: complied with law enforcement and I was arrested. You know,

308
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:35,880
Speaker 3: I can't even put in the words what went through

309
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:37,960
Speaker 3: my head. I'm saying, why is I being handcuffed? Why

310
00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:40,680
Speaker 3: is I being trout with something? Having done I'm twenty

311
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:43,720
Speaker 3: two A while, you know, what did I do? I

312
00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:46,639
Speaker 3: was speaceless, go to the kind of jail I'm in

313
00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,760
Speaker 3: art trying to figure it, you know. But like I said,

314
00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:53,119
Speaker 3: you know, the resilient person I am. I stayed humble

315
00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:55,840
Speaker 3: through the process, you know, praying that you know, we

316
00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,680
Speaker 3: got a lawyer and hoping that the true fights that

317
00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,439
Speaker 3: come out. Apparently it didn't.

318
00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:06,440
Speaker 1: So a little over six months later, on April twenty fourth,

319
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:10,480
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, your trial began. Your defense attorney was

320
00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:15,320
Speaker 1: Mitchell Pole, and the prosecutor was Peter Magrino, So Brandon,

321
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:17,680
Speaker 1: what did the prosecution present.

322
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:21,639
Speaker 4: So essentially it's the identification of Sydney by one of

323
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,439
Speaker 4: the two victims, and again that's only after the second

324
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:29,640
Speaker 4: lineup that he was in, plus whatever stock you want

325
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:34,320
Speaker 4: to put into his car being similar, although significantly different

326
00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,520
Speaker 4: than that of the perpetrator's car that he was driving

327
00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:41,320
Speaker 4: at the crime scene. I think it's also really important

328
00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:46,000
Speaker 4: to note that Milton was critical to the investigation, the

329
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,639
Speaker 4: citizen's investigation that we described, but he was never called

330
00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:53,960
Speaker 4: to testify at mister Holmes's trial, so the jury never

331
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:58,560
Speaker 4: heard his perspective and precisely what he did and what

332
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 4: he saw during his own an investigation. And that information

333
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,600
Speaker 4: is critical because it's the exact reason why Sidney became

334
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:11,240
Speaker 4: a suspect in the first place. And without that citizen investigation,

335
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:15,480
Speaker 4: without what Milton did, Sidney would never have been a

336
00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,399
Speaker 4: suspect in this case. So the jury never heard that.

337
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,600
Speaker 4: You know, Milton is looking for what happens to be

338
00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 4: the most common car in the United States at that time,

339
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,200
Speaker 4: and you're just kind of going about his day keeping

340
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,800
Speaker 4: an eye out looking for that car, and the jury

341
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:33,920
Speaker 4: never heard from him. And the only thing that put

342
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:37,080
Speaker 4: Sidney in the crosshairs here is that he has, you know,

343
00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:39,840
Speaker 4: that type of car, and he's a young black man

344
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:45,560
Speaker 4: with the prior arm robbery convictions, and so again that

345
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:49,360
Speaker 4: kind of totality of the factors just leads police into

346
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,000
Speaker 4: tunnel vision that he must have been the person who

347
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:52,879
Speaker 4: committed this crime.

348
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 1: I'd also want to know that this identification was the

349
00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,439
Speaker 1: result of planting Sydney's image in Vincent's mind in the

350
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 1: first photo array in which he was not identified, followed

351
00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:07,800
Speaker 1: by an identification in the second after the seed had

352
00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:12,800
Speaker 1: been planted. Nevertheless, that was the state's case. So what

353
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:14,000
Speaker 1: did the defense present?

354
00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 4: So the defense's case was that this was a misidentification,

355
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:21,119
Speaker 4: that essentially the state got the wrong guy, and to

356
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:28,240
Speaker 4: bolster that misidentification defense, the defense presented several alibi witnesses that,

357
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,760
Speaker 4: like Sidney said, he was at this Father's Day cookout

358
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,120
Speaker 4: and because he was there, he could not have committed

359
00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:39,560
Speaker 4: this crime at the one stop. And so essentially what

360
00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,560
Speaker 4: it boils down to is you have on the state side,

361
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:48,200
Speaker 4: the one identification from Vincent. Again that happened only after

362
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:50,760
Speaker 4: the second time that he was shown a photo of Sydney.

363
00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:55,119
Speaker 4: And on the defensive side, you have, I believe, four

364
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:59,440
Speaker 4: alibi witnesses who came into court and testified that Sydney

365
00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,640
Speaker 4: was at the father's did cookout at his parents' house,

366
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 4: and therefore could not have committed this crime. And so

367
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:09,080
Speaker 4: you know, the jury chose the state's evidence, the victim's

368
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 4: identification in court over the alibi witnesses who said that

369
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,159
Speaker 4: Sydney couldn't have possibly been at the crime scene.

370
00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,159
Speaker 1: Sydney. Can you just take me to what it was

371
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:20,840
Speaker 1: like to sit inside that courtroom?

372
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:26,320
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it was agony. You know, I thought

373
00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 3: sure that I was going to be going home that

374
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 3: day because of lack of evidence, you know, and the

375
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 3: alibi witness and alab people's uh standing on the standing

376
00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:41,879
Speaker 3: total jerum wear my wayabouts. But when they deliberated, you know,

377
00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:45,000
Speaker 3: came back with it gives a verdict. You know, I

378
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,479
Speaker 3: was completely and giving them four hundred er sentence at

379
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:52,560
Speaker 3: age of twenty two, I was just devastating, you know

380
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,439
Speaker 3: what a while, you know, and then I have a

381
00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:01,399
Speaker 3: six month old child. I had a daughter that was

382
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:03,200
Speaker 3: six months so all that was taking away. So I

383
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:07,719
Speaker 3: seen none of the childhood. She was two days from

384
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 3: being seven months old when I got arrested. I've been

385
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:37,679
Speaker 3: in prisonbe thirty four years. My life is just, you know,

386
00:23:37,840 --> 00:23:40,160
Speaker 3: just a snappery my eye. It was gone for something

387
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 3: I haven't done. So how can I feel I was

388
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 3: feeling empty? I was, I was devastated, you know. So

389
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 3: I don't know, It's just it was just a day

390
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 3: that I would never forget. But to day I just

391
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,840
Speaker 3: want to move on from.

392
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:05,919
Speaker 1: So Sidney was not ever accused of being one of

393
00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 1: the guys involved in an armed robbery. He's accused of

394
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: being a guy who drives by and says, hey, you

395
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 1: should take that car, and then drives away. And based

396
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:24,880
Speaker 1: on that, prosecution recommends eight hundred and twenty five years,

397
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,120
Speaker 1: and he gets sentenced to four hundred.

398
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's correct. Four hundred was a compromise. The prosecutor

399
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 4: asks for eight hundred and twenty five years. The defense

400
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,639
Speaker 4: attorney came back and said, well, forty years would be

401
00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:39,240
Speaker 4: a sufficient sentence, that.

402
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 2: Would be an effective life term.

403
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:43,960
Speaker 4: And the judge said, well, perhaps eight hundred and twenty

404
00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:46,720
Speaker 4: five is too many years. I can only presume that

405
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,639
Speaker 4: he landed on four hundred because it's somewhere in the

406
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 4: middle of forty and eight hundred and twenty five, and

407
00:24:54,080 --> 00:24:56,959
Speaker 4: that's the sentence that Sydney got, four hundred years. And

408
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,120
Speaker 4: so I think a lot of people are thinking, well,

409
00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:02,080
Speaker 4: why four hundred, eight hundred and twenty five. These are

410
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 4: just kind of arbitrary numbers. But really what it boils

411
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:08,439
Speaker 4: down to is, at that time in Florida, a life

412
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 4: sentence would have made Sydney eligible for parole after twenty

413
00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 4: five years. A term of years sentence, a four hundred

414
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:19,399
Speaker 4: years sentence would mean that he would have to serve

415
00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 4: out that number of years and he was not eligible

416
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 4: for parole. I know Sidney has said this multiple times,

417
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:30,639
Speaker 4: but only God can serve four hundred years, right, No

418
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 4: man can serve four hundred years. So essentially that's the

419
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 4: workaround to make Sydney not eligible for parole. He would

420
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:38,240
Speaker 4: never get out of prison.

421
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 1: Did they ever before it even got to court, did

422
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: they ever offer you some kind of a deal if

423
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: you could give them the names of the two armed assailants?

424
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 3: They offered a deal. Well, why would I take a

425
00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:54,640
Speaker 3: deal for something I haven't done. No, I'm not taking

426
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,240
Speaker 3: a deal because I haven't did anything I'm an anathent.

427
00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,639
Speaker 1: Man, and how can you name two people you have

428
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 1: no eye idea, I.

429
00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 3: Don't know who they are.

430
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 4: If I can just elaborate on At Sidney's sentencing after

431
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 4: he was convicted, the prosecutor said to the judge at sentencing,

432
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 4: and I'm looking at the quote right now, I would

433
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 4: point out that this defendant was given the opportunity to

434
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 4: carry the keys to the prison in his back pocket

435
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 4: because of the factual circumstances surrounding the robbery. And what

436
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 4: he's referring to is precisely, Lauren, what you just said

437
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 4: is that Sidney was given an opportunity to take a plea,

438
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 4: to plead to a crime that he did not commit,

439
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 4: in exchange for giving up the two other perpetrators. And

440
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 4: of course, if you didn't commit a crime, how could

441
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:41,679
Speaker 4: you possibly know who those other two perpetrators were. He

442
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:46,040
Speaker 4: maintained his innocence throughout and therefore he got punished when

443
00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 4: it came to sentencing with this very harsh sentence.

444
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,400
Speaker 1: Sidney, you were in prison for thirty four years. Can

445
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: you just take me to what your day to day

446
00:26:57,359 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: was like?

447
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I spent a lot of time in low life.

448
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 3: They're trying to research, trying to find, you know, a

449
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 3: way to become free, you know, get this charge of

450
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 3: me something I didn't do. But in the meantime, why

451
00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 3: outside of that, I educated myself. I read a lot.

452
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 3: I love to read. I educated my self computer skills.

453
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,880
Speaker 3: I got a social degree in theology. I learned coul

454
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:23,000
Speaker 3: their art skills, I learned counseling skills. I would drug

455
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:26,760
Speaker 3: abuse skills. Day to day, I just kept myself busy,

456
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,440
Speaker 3: reading a lot, studying a lot, always you know, by

457
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 3: you know, scriptures. I did a lot just to keep

458
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:37,960
Speaker 3: myself afloat. Giving up wasn't an option, and my parents

459
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 3: and my family member, they weren't going to allow me

460
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 3: to ever give up. You know, all the faith that

461
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 3: we have. I was always going to fight until I

462
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 3: stopped breathing.

463
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: And unfortunately it was a long fight, decades long. You

464
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 1: filed appeals for post conviction relief several times and all

465
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:00,160
Speaker 1: were denied. What was the turning point.

466
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 3: Well, twenty seventeen, I would let's take write our application

467
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,360
Speaker 3: to the end. Surprise of Florida, and you know, they

468
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 3: have a screening process. You know, they have to a

469
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,320
Speaker 3: lot of cases, they have to go through I also

470
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:16,920
Speaker 3: applied to the CRU and then between them and they

471
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:18,360
Speaker 3: collaborated with each other.

472
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: And that was the Broward County Conviction Review Unit, headed

473
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: up by Assistant State Attorney Ariel dembie Berger Brandon. When

474
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:32,000
Speaker 1: you started working with the CRU on Sydney's case, what

475
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:36,440
Speaker 1: stood out to you? What were the biggest red flags.

476
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 4: In Sydney's case. Unfortunately, just like one read of the

477
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,920
Speaker 4: trial transcripts, they aren't very long, and there were all

478
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 4: these holes, these things that didn't make sense. It's like,

479
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 4: how did this person even become a suspect in the

480
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 4: first place. It's not until you really dig into the

481
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 4: police reports, the depositions, and the discovery that's kind of

482
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 4: behind the scenes that the jury isn't always privy to.

483
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,240
Speaker 4: When you get down to the bottom of the facts.

484
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 4: In Sydney's case, the facts overwhelmingly speak of discrepancies rather

485
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 4: than corroboration of guilt. And so when you see the

486
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 4: specific facts in Sydney's case and how they just don't

487
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 4: line up right, Nothing added up. And that's not even

488
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 4: taking into consideration Sidney's alibi. This crime happened on Father's Day,

489
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 4: and he was at a Father's Day gathering that had many,

490
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 4: many people that corroborated that either through trial testimony and

491
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 4: or deposition testimony. No physical evidence, no other corroborating witness identifications.

492
00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,320
Speaker 4: All that the state had in this case was one

493
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 4: eyewitness identification.

494
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 1: And as we talked about earlier, that eyewitness identification was

495
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: obviously tainted. What did you learn when you dug deeper

496
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:55,440
Speaker 1: into that process.

497
00:29:55,680 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 4: We had two separate eyewitness identification experts and everything relevant

498
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,960
Speaker 4: to Sydney's identification, and they both identified double digit issues

499
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:15,000
Speaker 4: pertaining to the identification, both the victim's ability to perceive

500
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 4: the event at the convenience store, but then also the

501
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 4: way that the lineup was composed and administered by the police.

502
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 4: They came back with very similar reports citing very similar

503
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 4: issues that have contributed to hundreds and hundreds of people

504
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 4: being exonerated based on eyewitness identification evidence across the country.

505
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 4: There was no identification of Sydney made by either of

506
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 4: the victims in the first lineup, and so what's problematic

507
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 4: in the second lineup where Sidney was identified by one

508
00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 4: of the two victims, is that Sidney was the only

509
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 4: person that's in both lineups. Because of the way that

510
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 4: the lineup is composed, this one photo visa via the

511
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 4: other five sticks out to them, and so it could

512
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 4: be an in cater to them that police are signaling

513
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,480
Speaker 4: and drawing their attention into that photo, and in this case,

514
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 4: that photo was Sydney's photo.

515
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: I thought it was really interesting to the during the

516
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 1: reinvestigation that you interviewed Vincent Wright and Anicia Johnson, who

517
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:20,600
Speaker 1: were the original victims of this crime.

518
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 4: I think Miss Johnson and mister Ray were very forthcoming

519
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 4: in the information that they provided to us. They were

520
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 4: quite honestly astonished that Sidney, irrespective of whether he committed

521
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 4: the crime, that he was still in prison for this,

522
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 4: and we appreciated their willingness to speak to us and

523
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 4: provide that kind of context to us to understand from

524
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:44,240
Speaker 4: their perspective what happened.

525
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: So on March ninth, twenty twenty three, the Innocence Project

526
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: of Florida and the Conviction Review Unit presented all of

527
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: their findings and filed emotion for post conviction relief. And

528
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 1: then Sidney, while you were waiting for your hearing to

529
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: come up, you get some really great news from television

530
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 1: of all places.

531
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, what happened was ab By eleven thirty, they came

532
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 3: and told me the judge want to see me. So

533
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 3: I kind of baffled. Why would I judge want to

534
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 3: see me? I know the hearings on Thursday. But they

535
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:19,239
Speaker 3: took me downstairs to see the judge. But then they

536
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 3: say eleven third was too early because the hearing is

537
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 3: set for two o'clock. So they took me back to

538
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 3: the cell and I went and laid down on Then

539
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 3: I heard the guys shower. Hey, I think I see

540
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 3: your picture on TV. So I'm saying, why have my

541
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 3: pictures on TV? Why? You know? I didn't even see it.

542
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 3: It came out. It wasn't there. So I called my sister.

543
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 3: Then when I called my sister, I asked what is

544
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,239
Speaker 3: going on? Then she just w was start crying on

545
00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 3: the phone, and then I went right to I was

546
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 3: in Courtina at two o'clock to be released.

547
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,440
Speaker 1: And so on March thirteenth, twenty twenty three, you walked

548
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:52,680
Speaker 1: out of prison a free man. What did that feel like?

549
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know, I can't even know what to say.

550
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:02,479
Speaker 3: I was in tears, you know it. It was kind

551
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 3: of a bittersweet because you know, my father wasn't there.

552
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 3: You know, he died four years ago, so other than that,

553
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 3: that was only a bittersweet part of it, you know,

554
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:16,680
Speaker 3: being released that he wasn't there to see this happen. No,

555
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 3: I'm still really you know, it's only been thirty five

556
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 3: days I've been home, so I'm still trying to grab

557
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 3: to you know, it's still unbelievable. I am free after thirty.

558
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: Four years Brandon, as Sydney told us, he'd been working

559
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: on his appeals for a long time without success before

560
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 1: connecting with you and the cru What do you think

561
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: was the magic ingredient this third time around?

562
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 4: Well, the magic ingredient, ironically, is the current state of

563
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 4: the State Attorney's Office in Broward County. You have Ril

564
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 4: Demie Berger and her staff at the Conviction Review Unit,

565
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 4: and you have the elected State Attorney, Harold Pryor, who

566
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:01,760
Speaker 4: are truly seeking justice. I think that that is the difference.

567
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 4: They have an open mind and they follow the evidence,

568
00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:06,680
Speaker 4: and that's what they did in Sydney's case.

569
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,920
Speaker 1: What's next for you, Sydney, what are your hopes and

570
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:13,120
Speaker 1: plans for the future.

571
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,719
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm still working though things I always want,

572
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 3: like I have culinary skills and the food truck is

573
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:22,920
Speaker 3: emine that I you know, roughly one day that might happen.

574
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:26,240
Speaker 3: But you know, like I say, take capitally, take finance.

575
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 3: You know, it's a process. So whatever, just try to

576
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:32,160
Speaker 3: keep brand opportunity to come.

577
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:36,920
Speaker 1: Just take it and Brandon, I understand that under Florida law,

578
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:41,840
Speaker 1: Sydney is unfortunately not even eligible for compensation from the

579
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: state because he had those prior convictions we talked about

580
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 1: in the beginning of this episode.

581
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,280
Speaker 4: That's what the state statute says, is called the Clean

582
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,239
Speaker 4: Hands Provision as it it's now essentially says that if

583
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,799
Speaker 4: you have a prior felony conviction, you're not eligible for

584
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,360
Speaker 4: compensation in a subsequent wrongful conviction, matter how much time

585
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 4: or whatever the circumstances are for that wrongful conviction. You know,

586
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 4: the data says that if you have a prior conviction

587
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 4: of any kind, you're fifty percent more likely to subsequently

588
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,560
Speaker 4: be convicted for a crime that you didn't commit in

589
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 4: a later case. There's a bill pending in the Florida

590
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 4: legislature right now that would eradicate that requirement, if you will,

591
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,560
Speaker 4: and the Instence Project of Florida is working to fix

592
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 4: that to make people like Sidney who have prior convictions

593
00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 4: eligible for compensation for the wrongful conviction cases.

594
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 1: Well, I understand that the IPF has started a go

595
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:40,319
Speaker 1: Fundme page for Sydney. We'll have a link to that

596
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 1: on our bio page for our listeners who'd like to

597
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 1: help Sydney get a new start. Who knows, maybe start

598
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 1: up capital for that food truck. And now at the

599
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: end of every podcast, we have what's called closing arguments,

600
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 1: just your final thoughts, whatever you'd like to say to listeners. Brandon,

601
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: why don't you start and then go to Sydney to

602
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:02,520
Speaker 1: close things out.

603
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 4: Wrongful convictions absolutely happen. It takes a lot of diligence

604
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,800
Speaker 4: to overturn them. It takes a lot of seeking the truth,

605
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 4: seeking facts. And in Sydney's case, it was clear from

606
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 4: the very beginning that he was innocent, what he told

607
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 4: everyone all along, and the system got it wrong thirty

608
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 4: four years ago. And there's no amount of effort, no

609
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,439
Speaker 4: amount of money, that can get him that time back

610
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 4: with his family, with his daughter, with his mother and

611
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 4: father and sister. But the State Attorney's office in this

612
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:43,280
Speaker 4: case ultimately did the right thing. They ultimately pursued justice.

613
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 4: They themselves sought the facts and the truth, and with

614
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,000
Speaker 4: a lot of diligence and hard work, they saw that

615
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:53,400
Speaker 4: Sydney was in fact telling the truth all along, that

616
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:57,120
Speaker 4: he was innocent. And I really do commend the work

617
00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:00,360
Speaker 4: that State Attorney's offices are doing across the country to

618
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 4: realize when they got things wrong in the past, to

619
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:06,800
Speaker 4: take accountability for that, and to do whatever it takes

620
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 4: to rectify the situation so that people like Sydney can

621
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:13,120
Speaker 4: come home to their families and live the rest of

622
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:14,600
Speaker 4: their life in freedom.

623
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 3: Well, like I say, I can't say it enough, that

624
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 3: fantastic job. Like I say to say that you know

625
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 3: the new current state attorney, it's entire staff mis Bergier

626
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 3: and also Brandon Jeth Miller and the whole staff of

627
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 3: the Innocent Project. But a close statement is that throughout

628
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 3: this process, I will always tell the person you can

629
00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 3: never give up hope. It's always the chance. It's always

630
00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:41,319
Speaker 3: a slim hope, a chance of anything in life that

631
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,759
Speaker 3: we does. It was a hard fault. I was twenty two,

632
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 3: But I'm not mad with a justice system. I can't

633
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 3: be mad because you know that's something that's needed in

634
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 3: our country, you know it is if it weren't with

635
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,879
Speaker 3: justice system. But I think it's broken. But I think

636
00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 3: we're on the right track. That we got prosecuted throughout

637
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:03,760
Speaker 3: the country and justices throughout the country that they trying

638
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 3: to make changees other states that you got organizations, innocent projects.

639
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:09,480
Speaker 3: You know, they're doing a lot of hard work to

640
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:12,400
Speaker 3: try to reclify some of these things that's going on

641
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 3: in our great state of Florida. It's so much that

642
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:17,279
Speaker 3: need to be done. But like I say, I'm just

643
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:19,200
Speaker 3: so grateful that I had the opportunity to be free.

644
00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 3: It was a long road. My thing is to help

645
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 3: help people to overcome the things that I went through,

646
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:28,279
Speaker 3: and I hope I can be some kind of light

647
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:30,800
Speaker 3: and I own it for them, for the youth as well,

648
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 3: because it's needed in our country.

649
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:42,520
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'm your guest

650
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 1: host Lauren Bright Pitchecko. I'd like to thank executive producers

651
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,240
Speaker 1: Jason Flahm and Kevin Wardis for inviting me to be here.

652
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 1: Special thanks also to our wonderful production team Connor Hall,

653
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 1: Annie Chelsea, Lyla Robinson, and Jeff Cliburn. The music in

654
00:38:58,560 --> 00:39:03,320
Speaker 1: this production comes from three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.

655
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:06,360
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction,

656
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at

657
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: wrong Conviction, as well as Lava for Good on all

658
00:39:13,719 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 1: three platforms. Be online at Lauren Bright Pacheco, and you

659
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,839
Speaker 1: can find my podcasts Murder and Oregon, Murder and Illinois,

660
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,480
Speaker 1: and my latest Murder Miami wherever you listen to podcasts.

661
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,439
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts

662
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 1: in association with Signal Company Number one