Speaker 1: Alexis Kierica Martin was raised by her grandmother in Akron, Ohio,
Speaker 1: and had a strained relationship with her birth mother and father.
Speaker 1: She had a boyfriend, Deshan Spear, but they broke up
Speaker 1: around age thirteen, at the same time that an older
Speaker 1: man named Angelo Kearney began grooming her for the sex trade.
Speaker 1: By the time she was fourteen, she was actively being trafficked.
Speaker 1: Time passed and Deshaun reached out to Kierica to ask
Speaker 1: if the rumors he had heard about prostitution were true.
Speaker 1: Pet One night, after a party at Angelo Kearney's, Kierica
Speaker 1: and another woman, jan A Jones, were alone with Angelo
Speaker 1: and his brother Alicio Samuel. Kierica was aware that robbery
Speaker 1: was about to take place that would afford her an
Speaker 1: opportunity to escape. While she was being raped by Alicio, Samuel,
Speaker 1: Deshaun and his friend Trabaski Jackson broke in, wearing masks
Speaker 1: and carrying guns. Kearney was shot and killed, and Samuel
Speaker 1: survived a gunshot to his head. When Samuel came to
Speaker 1: at the hospital, he mentioned nothing about the child he
Speaker 1: had been raping, but he did mention the other people
Speaker 1: he had been with earlier that night. A further investigation
Speaker 1: led to Alexis Kierica Martin. Ohio's brand new safe Harbor
Speaker 1: law was written for situations just like this, but neither
Speaker 1: her lawyer nor the state invoked it before she was
Speaker 1: tried in adult court for the murder of the man
Speaker 1: that held her captive in child sex slavery. This is
Speaker 1: wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction
Speaker 1: with Jason Flam. That's me. I'm your host, and today
Speaker 1: if my voice is cracking a little, it's because this
Speaker 1: story is it's painful to read, it's painful to to
Speaker 1: talk about. It's an absolute disgrace that any of this happened.
Speaker 1: It's also a story of triumph over tragedy. Though with
Speaker 1: us today we have an extraordinary lawyer, Sasha Naming from
Speaker 1: the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. Sasha, it's wonderful to
Speaker 1: have you here. Welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: And we're going to tell the story with the person
Speaker 1: who lived it, Alexis ki Ka Martin. You'll hear her
Speaker 1: referred to as Ki Eric as we go through, but
Speaker 1: she's also known as Alexis Martin. So, Alexis, thank you
Speaker 1: for being here and sharing your story. Thank you for
Speaker 1: allowing me the time and opportunity. So let's go back
Speaker 1: to your childhood acron Ohio, Heartland of America. What was
Speaker 1: your childhood like before this tragedy? This series of tragedies
Speaker 1: struck match out. It would be with some people would
Speaker 1: call unstable. I grew up with multiple family members, but
Speaker 1: predominantly I was blessed with having my grandmother raised me.
Speaker 1: All in all, through everything, I would say that she
Speaker 1: did a pretty good job with at least making sure
Speaker 1: I knew how to say thank you. Alexis was a
Speaker 1: child when she was trafficked. She had a tough childhood
Speaker 1: in some ways, and she said her grandma was a
Speaker 1: light in that in a big way. But at fourteen
Speaker 1: years old, she was surviving some horrific things, things that
Speaker 1: aren't imaginable to many Americans as a prolonged and terrible
Speaker 1: sex trafficking situation, and she wanted a life that was
Speaker 1: free and safe and healthy, where she could go to school,
Speaker 1: where her and her siblings weren't in danger. And she
Speaker 1: was a child, so she was in a position where
Speaker 1: she hoped that she could finally have this opportunity to
Speaker 1: flee from the trafficking, and that brought her into involvement
Speaker 1: with a robbery of her trafficker. I was fourteen when
Speaker 1: I met my trafficker, and me and my code of
Speaker 1: friend and DeShawn Spear. He was my boyfriend and we
Speaker 1: separated before this case occurred. And then while I was
Speaker 1: an act of trafficking, we would see each other and
Speaker 1: check on each other, but I never got too close
Speaker 1: with him or really like engaged. Um, everybody kept hearing
Speaker 1: rumors about me being prostituted. Some people were bold enough
Speaker 1: to ask. Some people, weren't they just you know, kind
Speaker 1: of turned their nose up to me. Well, he asked
Speaker 1: me a couple of times, and I continued to deny
Speaker 1: it and just admitted that I was dancing, but I
Speaker 1: wouldn't tell him where I was dancing at. So as
Speaker 1: of that moment, he's left in the dark. And before
Speaker 1: the night that the Shawn Spirit tried to free ki Erica,
Speaker 1: which was November seven, Sasha, she had tried to find
Speaker 1: another way to get out of that life. Right. She
Speaker 1: was trying to reach out to adults for help. So
Speaker 1: before the night of this offense happened. She was trying
Speaker 1: to earned herself in. She actually proactively went to the
Speaker 1: juvenile system because she had kind of an active case
Speaker 1: that had been going on in parallel, and she was
Speaker 1: hoping that they would take her in, that they would
Speaker 1: arrest her, they would put her in a program. But
Speaker 1: her trafficker sends her with someone who poses as her
Speaker 1: caretaker and says she's fine and she's cared for, and
Speaker 1: even though these adults see the way she's dressed, even
Speaker 1: though they see these red flags, they let her back
Speaker 1: out with that person. Alexis, as much as you're comfortable
Speaker 1: with talking about it. That night when this robbery occurred,
Speaker 1: can you tell us how this whole thing happened and
Speaker 1: how somebody ended up dead. I was caught to the
Speaker 1: house and Jane Jones was also there. They had a
Speaker 1: party and Angela was training me more so to be
Speaker 1: his madam. So I had to be there to make
Speaker 1: sure that the rest of the girls did what they
Speaker 1: were supposed to and that I made money that night.
Speaker 1: So during the whole time that the party occurred, I
Speaker 1: did what Angelo told to do. I dance, I collected money,
Speaker 1: I served drinks, and then as it got late, everybody left,
Speaker 1: but that means that there was a lot of eyewitnesses
Speaker 1: that seen me with him, some of his other brothers,
Speaker 1: they were there that night. When they left, it was
Speaker 1: just me, Jane Jones, Angelo Carney, and Alicio Samuel. Alexis
Speaker 1: was aware that Deshaun and Travasky we're going to be
Speaker 1: coming into the house. And in Ohio there's something called
Speaker 1: felony murder, as there is in many other states. And
Speaker 1: if you're aware of something like a robbery, if you're
Speaker 1: found legally culpable in something like a robbery and then
Speaker 1: somebody gets killed, then you're culpable for the homicide that happened.
Speaker 1: Alexis never shot anybody, never hurt anybody, never wanted anybody
Speaker 1: to get hurt. But there was this robbery that happened,
Speaker 1: and when Deshaun Spears and Travasky Jackson break in, when
Speaker 1: they shoot her trafficker and kill him, when they shoot
Speaker 1: the man who was raping her, although she is the
Speaker 1: child and she's the victim there, she became legally culpable
Speaker 1: ultimately for the death. Once Alicio was shot and Angela
Speaker 1: was killed, the question was where was I Because I
Speaker 1: was always with him, and if I wasn't with him,
Speaker 1: then I was in a position where one of his
Speaker 1: brothers knew where I was at, So where was I
Speaker 1: was missing? After Alicia woke up in the hospital, he
Speaker 1: identified Janet, he never identified me, And my theory on
Speaker 1: this subject is he didn't identify me because I was
Speaker 1: a child and he was an adult. But other people
Speaker 1: that the police questioned that night continuously brought up my name.
Speaker 1: So I turned myself in and um I was arrested.
Speaker 1: I was fifteen, and I feel like it was the
Speaker 1: first time in life that anybody was actually like listening
Speaker 1: to me. I kind of just told him everything that
Speaker 1: they wanted to know. My only thing was I just
Speaker 1: wanted to know was he alive or was he dead?
Speaker 1: Because I wasn't sure, And when he told me Angelo
Speaker 1: was dead, I didn't really know how to feel. It
Speaker 1: didn't click into me that I was truly being arrested
Speaker 1: for his death until they took me away from the
Speaker 1: detention center. I was on probation, so I've been arrested
Speaker 1: a couple of times. I was used to the attention
Speaker 1: officers and stuff like that, so it was kind of
Speaker 1: like finally that night I was gonna be safe until
Speaker 1: they pulled away from there and took me down to
Speaker 1: the dog Question interrogation, where they left me in the
Speaker 1: code for about three or four hours. Um. I threw
Speaker 1: up on the table. They didn't clean that up. I
Speaker 1: asked for my mother. They told me that my mother left,
Speaker 1: and I knew some of my rights, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought my mom had to be present
Speaker 1: because I was only fifteen, and they told me she
Speaker 1: didn't care. And then I continuously asked for my attorney,
Speaker 1: and um, I was fifteen. I knew some of my
Speaker 1: rights right because of Criminal Minds and whatever else I watched,
Speaker 1: but I didn't really know how to enforce my rights.
Speaker 1: How they knew I had involvement was? I admitted my
Speaker 1: own involvement. I didn't know what human trafficking was. I
Speaker 1: only knew what prostitution and escorting was. I didn't understand
Speaker 1: that I was a victim. I also admitted to the
Speaker 1: cops Angela was training me to be his madam. And
Speaker 1: I also admitted to the cops that I called this
Speaker 1: man my dad. But that night and for months on,
Speaker 1: nobody pays attention to that. This episode is brought to
Speaker 1: you by Stand Together. Stand Together is a philanthropic community
Speaker 1: dedicated to helping people improve their lives. For more than
Speaker 1: twenty years, Stand Together and its partners have been on
Speaker 1: the front lines of criminal justice reform. By empowering people
Speaker 1: to take action, supporting nonprodu fits, and working with businesses,
Speaker 1: Stand Together tackles the root causes of problems in our
Speaker 1: communities and empowers those closest to the problems to drive solutions.
Speaker 1: Solutions like reducing unjust prison sentences through the First Step Act,
Speaker 1: empowering community based programs and help people re enter society,
Speaker 1: and now working to bridge divides in our communities. To
Speaker 1: learn how you may get involved, visit stand Together dot
Speaker 1: org slash conviction. This episode is underwritten by the a
Speaker 1: i G pro Bono Program. A i G is a
Speaker 1: leading global insurance company, and for over a decade, the
Speaker 1: a i G pro Bono Program has provided thousands of
Speaker 1: hours of free legal services and other support to nonprofit
Speaker 1: organizations and individuals most in need. More recently, the program
Speaker 1: added criminal and social justice reform as a key pillar
Speaker 1: of its mission. Before Alexis Is Case Happen To, IO
Speaker 1: had passed the Safe Harbor law that was specifically meant
Speaker 1: to protect survivors of human trafficking like Kerrika. The law
Speaker 1: would allow juvenile courts to offer services to children like
Speaker 1: her who were trafficked and to help them. And when
Speaker 1: she was arrested and sent to juvenile court, that law
Speaker 1: was in effect, but her attorney didn't know about it
Speaker 1: and didn't understand it. And Kiko is actually the one
Speaker 1: who brought this question about this law to the attorney
Speaker 1: because she had heard about it somewhere, so she was
Speaker 1: now advocating for herself. And this is above and beyond
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old who was trying to educate her attorney,
Speaker 1: who then did look into it but didn't understand the law,
Speaker 1: and then neither he nor the court nor the prosecutor
Speaker 1: brings it up. You have this case that that the
Speaker 1: law is made for the laws in effect, and nobody
Speaker 1: brings it up, nobody applies it. In fact, the only
Speaker 1: person who had mentioned it in the process really is
Speaker 1: Kerrika herself. Just to clarify for audience, that Save Harbor
Speaker 1: Law Ohio specifically mandates that miners under the age of
Speaker 1: sixteen do not need to prove that they were compelled
Speaker 1: to engage in commercial sexual activity. They're automatically considered victims
Speaker 1: of child sex trafficking, and the statute requires juvenile courts
Speaker 1: to appoint a guardian to the defendant, a professional other
Speaker 1: than a parent or attorney who was responsible for advocating
Speaker 1: in the best interests of the child on trial. So
Speaker 1: here the defense, lawyer, the court itself, everybody. They just
Speaker 1: didn't do what they're supposed to do. Nobody did. It's crazy,
Speaker 1: and then to make matters worse, they send you to
Speaker 1: adult court. At that point, I was educated on what
Speaker 1: human trafficking was, so I actually realize that you're a
Speaker 1: victim and you hold no power, and that somebody you
Speaker 1: thought you cared about was hurting you. To know that
Speaker 1: they were knowledgeably hurting you, and that was their only
Speaker 1: intent ever, was to hurt you, it's pretty defeating. It hurts.
Speaker 1: So I know all this now. I learned about what
Speaker 1: the grooming process was, and I identified what my grooming
Speaker 1: process was. I learned about the trafficking. I learned about
Speaker 1: the stages with a juvenile counselor named Hilary Finkel, and
Speaker 1: she's the one who's bringing in this lady named Magan Madamo,
Speaker 1: who ultimately brings up the safe harbor law to the
Speaker 1: juvenile court after I'm bound over into the doc court,
Speaker 1: who ultimately educates my attorney. But while I was in
Speaker 1: the courtroom, Judge Theodosia, who leads the human trafficking division
Speaker 1: in some county still to this day, set out of
Speaker 1: her own mouth, can we take a second and pause?
Speaker 1: And I want to ask you, Noah, my attorney and
Speaker 1: the prosecutor, what do we do about this fifteen year
Speaker 1: olds trafficking? She admits out her mouth that I'm traffic.
Speaker 1: Not only was I sex traffic, but labor traffic. She
Speaker 1: admits this. Nobody had a response. The prosecutor and my
Speaker 1: attorney looked at each other, looked at the judge and
Speaker 1: was kind of dumbfounded when she asked this question. My attorney,
Speaker 1: I can't even remember. He mustered up some answer, but
Speaker 1: it clearly must not have been good enough for Theodosia,
Speaker 1: because two months later, even after you admit that I'm traffic,
Speaker 1: I got bound over, and that made me feel like
Speaker 1: prior to the trafficking, I was raped and I've reported
Speaker 1: it and I never got help. One of my cousins
Speaker 1: raped me from nine to ten and they found him
Speaker 1: not guilty, and it made me feel the exact same
Speaker 1: way that no matter how many times I tell somebody
Speaker 1: somebody did something to me that was wrong, I'm always
Speaker 1: going to either be accused of a liar or it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. So I started to lose hope again. It's
Speaker 1: a miracle that you clung onto any hope at all
Speaker 1: after everything you had been through. And so February seventeen,
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, a day that we'll live in infamy character,
Speaker 1: you were advised by your attorney that, with the goal
Speaker 1: of returning to juvenile court, you should plead guilty to
Speaker 1: felonious assault and murder. Yes, this was, of course a
Speaker 1: terrible strategy, and ultimately you were sentenced to twenty one
Speaker 1: to life. How did you process that sentence and how
Speaker 1: did you managed to maintain any sort of trace of sanity. Well,
Speaker 1: I have a little sister that's thuring a half years
Speaker 1: younger than me, and we were talking when I was
Speaker 1: six years old, and I promised her that I would
Speaker 1: never let nobody hurt her and I would always be
Speaker 1: there to protect her. While I was fighting my case
Speaker 1: at the Tension Center, I tried to kill myself. I
Speaker 1: busted all the above vessels in my face, and I
Speaker 1: was really close it her bad while I was in prison.
Speaker 1: She's left out in the world with my father and
Speaker 1: my birth mother. The two people tried to protect her
Speaker 1: from my whole life. So if I gave up fighting,
Speaker 1: I gave up fighting for her life. If I gave
Speaker 1: up fighting, everything that happened to me, every time a
Speaker 1: man abused me, hit me, tex with me, everything that
Speaker 1: I've ever done to protect her was ultimately for nothing.
Speaker 1: If I lay down and just gave up. Now, I
Speaker 1: was scared to go to trial because my codefendite d
Speaker 1: Sean just got forty one to life. I would have
Speaker 1: went if I had somebody believe in me that told
Speaker 1: me to go. I had two people that told me
Speaker 1: you should maybe go to trial. One was another fifteen
Speaker 1: year old girl, and all she said was best friend,
Speaker 1: if you go, I'm going to support you. And then
Speaker 1: I had my older sister who was paying for my attorney,
Speaker 1: and she was telling me she thinks I should take
Speaker 1: it to trial. I had an indecisive father that kept
Speaker 1: telling me one minute, plead out and act crazy. The
Speaker 1: next one, he was telling me to take it to trial.
Speaker 1: My birth mother. She barely went to any hearings, but
Speaker 1: she was telling me, plead, because you don't want to
Speaker 1: get max out at the box. And then I have
Speaker 1: my attorney who knows more than me that's telling me, plead,
Speaker 1: we have a good chance of winning your appeal because
Speaker 1: of the Safe Harbor Law. So I played, but I
Speaker 1: kept fighting because I have a baby sister that at
Speaker 1: the end I promised I would protect and if I
Speaker 1: didn't protect her, nobody else would. So I fought, and
Speaker 1: I continued to fight after denial after denial, after denial.
Speaker 1: Her new attorney. He's new attorney, Jennifer Kinsley, ends up
Speaker 1: taking on this case pro bono and appealing it all
Speaker 1: the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing that Kierka
Speaker 1: should have received the protections of the Safe Harbor Law,
Speaker 1: and ultimately the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the case. And
Speaker 1: they did that while saying that there is ample evidence
Speaker 1: that Kierka was a victim of human traffic king. But unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the original trial attorney didn't present evidence linking the crime
Speaker 1: to Karika being a victim of sex trafficking, So the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court said, because he didn't create that link, between
Speaker 1: the known trafficking and the crime. They were not going
Speaker 1: to apply the safe harbor law to Key, And to me,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit absurd, because of course there's a connection.
Speaker 1: You have a fifteen year old child trying to free
Speaker 1: herself from being trafficked by adults. It doesn't take a
Speaker 1: lot to think about how there could be a connection there.
Speaker 1: While justice was delayed, it surely wasn't going to be denied. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: you petition Governor Dwine for clemency and you had a
Speaker 1: hearing on that in September of two thousand nineteen. I
Speaker 1: went in front of the pro Board on determination of
Speaker 1: my clemency. In November I got an eight to two vote,
Speaker 1: eight in favor, two against. In January, Governor de Wine
Speaker 1: considered my clemency and said that he wanted me to
Speaker 1: do this program Tapestry, and after I completed it, I
Speaker 1: would come home. I started Tapestry January. Tapestry closed down
Speaker 1: due to COVID and I was released April. So, after
Speaker 1: serving seven long years in prison, what was it like walking?
Speaker 1: How take us inside? That day? That moment April eight,
Speaker 1: on national television, I was told I was going to
Speaker 1: be released. It didn't seem real at all, Like this
Speaker 1: is something that I dreamt about many days in prison,
Speaker 1: was going home, going home, And now I'm signing a
Speaker 1: paper to agree to conditions of parole and clemency and
Speaker 1: being told that I'll be free by monday. So I
Speaker 1: signed the papers, and then I'm told, you have to
Speaker 1: go to the whole, to the whole the craziest things ever. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have to go get COVID nineteen tested and be
Speaker 1: put in quarantine in the hole until Monday so that
Speaker 1: I could be released to this program. So I packed
Speaker 1: up my stuff and for two days, It's like the
Speaker 1: longest agony in the world. Knowing that in two days
Speaker 1: you'll be released. In two days, you'll get to enter
Speaker 1: into a world of something you don't know. I left
Speaker 1: as a kid, and I left a world of chaos,
Speaker 1: and I'm supposed to be being released into a world
Speaker 1: of peace and freedom. Right. I decided that I didn't
Speaker 1: want to go back to my hometown, Akron, because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to go back to the same people, the
Speaker 1: same way, as the same lifestyle. I believe that was,
Speaker 1: you know, the biggest reason of why I didn't get
Speaker 1: to reach my goals. As a kid. I believe God
Speaker 1: gave me a second opportunity with the new family, and
Speaker 1: I chose to take it. They released me from the
Speaker 1: President and it's this long corridor you have to walk down,
Speaker 1: really really really long, and they hand me my release.
Speaker 1: I d and it's none of this is still real,
Speaker 1: that I'm really being released until I passed through the
Speaker 1: other side of the metal detectors and there's Jennifer and
Speaker 1: Sasha and they hugged me and we walk out the
Speaker 1: doors and we walk out the doors to cameras in
Speaker 1: my face. They told me I get to say hi.
Speaker 1: I say hi, and finally I get to embrace my
Speaker 1: little sister. Finally I get to embrace this little girl
Speaker 1: that's not a little girl anymore. I left and she
Speaker 1: was eleven, and I came home and she's eighteen and
Speaker 1: has a bigger round belly. It was hard seeing somebody
Speaker 1: that I thought was my baby not a baby no more.
Speaker 1: M So are you are you with aunt now? I am.
Speaker 1: I also have another niece. She was born four months
Speaker 1: after I went to prison. The reason why I mentioned
Speaker 1: this is that I was supposed to raise her and
Speaker 1: four months before she is born into this world I
Speaker 1: am looking away from her currently right now, we are
Speaker 1: in the process of getting temporary custody of her, and
Speaker 1: she is here with me. So I am a aunt.
Speaker 1: I am an aunt by a lot. I have eleven
Speaker 1: nephews and nieces together. So I want to talk now
Speaker 1: about something you began in prison that I hear you're
Speaker 1: hoping and planning to continue with on the outside, and
Speaker 1: that's working with other survivors. I heard that when you
Speaker 1: were in prison, and this sounds, I mean incredible, but
Speaker 1: hear me out you improved on an existing program by
Speaker 1: reaching out to someone with the f B I who
Speaker 1: had actually interviewed you. I got interrogated by the FBI
Speaker 1: about the human trafficking and stuff, and so I contacted
Speaker 1: one of the contacts and told her like, Hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to run this group. Do you have any
Speaker 1: pointers on what I should teach these girls about what
Speaker 1: is human trafficking? And she actually sent me like these
Speaker 1: packets and stuff. So me and one of my case
Speaker 1: managers we went through what I wanted to touch on,
Speaker 1: and I created a twelve week group on human trafficking
Speaker 1: and prostitution education. So it talked about healthy relationships talked
Speaker 1: about sex. It talked about what is grooming, It talked
Speaker 1: about family loves, It touched on the trafficking part of it,
Speaker 1: but also some of the healing process of it. And
Speaker 1: then after you went through the group, you became a
Speaker 1: mentor to the new ladies. I was going through a group,
Speaker 1: so it was an ongoing cycle that you had somewhere
Speaker 1: to go. And every time that group was going on,
Speaker 1: it would keep me and a lot of other girls
Speaker 1: out of trouble because you had a place where you
Speaker 1: were not alone. Somebody could feel every emotion that you
Speaker 1: felt and wouldn't look at you like you were crazy.
Speaker 1: I actually have a mentee that I still talked to.
Speaker 1: She sits on a human trafficking board in Columbus, Ohio,
Speaker 1: and she wrote me a letter I was in prison
Speaker 1: and told me that because of me is the reason
Speaker 1: why she believed that she was a survivor not just
Speaker 1: a prostitute. One thing with a lot of survivors is
Speaker 1: we have a problem with men for a while. So
Speaker 1: somebody that may not have had the issue with men.
Speaker 1: If I said, oh God, I want to punch him
Speaker 1: in his face, somebody that hasn't had that issue would
Speaker 1: be like, there's something wrong with her, but another survivor
Speaker 1: would be like, girl, I know too, Like yeah, he
Speaker 1: was talking really mean or something. You know. So the
Speaker 1: group was just very productive and supportive, and it gave
Speaker 1: us a family, which ultimately most of us never really
Speaker 1: had a family or felt we had a family that
Speaker 1: cared about us. So those are one of the things
Speaker 1: that I did in prison. Since I've been home, I'm
Speaker 1: working on going back to college or start my business
Speaker 1: so I can do a business for at risk teams.
Speaker 1: That's ultimately what I want to work with. I want
Speaker 1: to work with kids before they even get involved in
Speaker 1: the victimization. So, um, that is my dream. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: he's doing more than most three people I know. It's
Speaker 1: a really beautiful thing. And if I know, after hearing
Speaker 1: your story, Kierica, people are gonna want to get involved
Speaker 1: even more than they already are. So please, Sasha, you
Speaker 1: want to. So there is a go fund me for
Speaker 1: Alexis Kierca Martin. Um, she's building up her new future.
Speaker 1: So she's in a position where she's gonna need some
Speaker 1: resources to continue her education. She hopes to one day
Speaker 1: start her own nonprofit to serve survivors, but also just
Speaker 1: to get up on her feet. And there's the go
Speaker 1: fund me if you look for Alexis Kierrika Martin support Fund,
Speaker 1: people can donate and help keep it on her way
Speaker 1: to the bright future that she deserves. And the other piece,
Speaker 1: asn't say is Ohio Justice and Policy Center does lots
Speaker 1: of work to free people who are unfairly sentenced and
Speaker 1: unfairly incarcerated. And if people want to learn more about
Speaker 1: keys case or about similar cases, are about our work.
Speaker 1: Our website is Ohio JPC dot org. So Ohio Justice
Speaker 1: Policy Center JPC dot org. Where there are two distinct
Speaker 1: ways people can help Key and then also learn more
Speaker 1: about the way we need to change our systems and
Speaker 1: the work that's being done throughout Ohio. And I wanted
Speaker 1: to say it's not up and running yet, but I
Speaker 1: would just ask that people stay tuned. I will be
Speaker 1: releasing my first poetry book. It's all the poems that
Speaker 1: I did fighting my case and while I was in prison.
Speaker 1: The person that I'm working with, we are hoping to
Speaker 1: publish it sometime after my birthday. And one well, we
Speaker 1: will be happy and proud to help support it and
Speaker 1: promoted when it comes out. Congratulations on at and we
Speaker 1: will also be putting the links to the co fund
Speaker 1: me in our episode guide, so we'll make it easy
Speaker 1: for our audience to get involved, and we'll post it
Speaker 1: on our Instagram as well. Now we turned to the
Speaker 1: segment of the show that I always look forward to,
Speaker 1: closing arguments, where first of all, I once again thank
Speaker 1: each of you, Sasha Naman and ki Erica Martin for
Speaker 1: being here and sharing your amazing saga of a of
Speaker 1: a life and a case. We wish you all the
Speaker 1: best of everything. And then I turned my microphone off
Speaker 1: and I kicked back in my chair and close my
Speaker 1: eyes so that you can share anything you want to
Speaker 1: share with our audience. And of course, Karrika, we'd like
Speaker 1: to save you for last. Sasha, if you can go first,
Speaker 1: and then whenever you're done, hand the mic off to Kiarka.
Speaker 1: Alexis Kerricka Martin is incredibly resilient and smart and kind
Speaker 1: human being, and she has survived a lot and in
Speaker 1: so many ways is a unique gift in this world,
Speaker 1: and in some ways her story is one that other
Speaker 1: people also have, and it's important to keep that in
Speaker 1: mind because the work toward criminal justice has to be
Speaker 1: centered on the humanity of people like Key, and right
Speaker 1: now we have a criminal legal system. It's not always
Speaker 1: a criminal justice system. Key came out of prison just
Speaker 1: as we had a pandemic, but also this moment where
Speaker 1: we're really starting to rethink the way we have justice
Speaker 1: and racial equity and the way we treat human beings
Speaker 1: in a system that the cages people. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of work to do, and we're incredibly lucky that
Speaker 1: Governor de Wine granted clemency for Key, because she's going
Speaker 1: to be a major player, I think, in the way
Speaker 1: we improve this world. And I'm just incredibly honored to
Speaker 1: be on her team and to be her friend and
Speaker 1: to get to see her grow and to be a
Speaker 1: part of it. Erica is all yours, okay, um. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to thank you, know, the listeners for staying
Speaker 1: tune and listening. I wanted to thank you guys for
Speaker 1: having me on and talking with me. I wanted to
Speaker 1: clarify just maybe for the listeners, because I was thinking,
Speaker 1: like they may have been wondering, why do I want
Speaker 1: to be called Kirka. It is taking ownership of who
Speaker 1: I am. I feel like Alexis Lexi legs. Um, they
Speaker 1: all have like a bad past. I feel like holding
Speaker 1: onto that part of my name is like holding on
Speaker 1: to a baggage. Um. I don't plan on dropping my
Speaker 1: name completely, but Kirka is something that my grandmother named me,
Speaker 1: and that's really the only good of a lot of
Speaker 1: my past. So UM, I believe I have a new life,
Speaker 1: a new start or new home, a new dream, so
Speaker 1: why not a new name. So that is why I
Speaker 1: like being called kier Kurkey. And my final thoughts and
Speaker 1: final things that I would say is the main reason
Speaker 1: why I tell my story. I call it getting naked.
Speaker 1: Main reason why I get naked in front of audience
Speaker 1: and I let people see the vulnerability is that anybody
Speaker 1: can be a victim. Anybody. I was a girl who
Speaker 1: got all a's in school. I wanted to go to
Speaker 1: the Air Force. I was in ARLTC. I just didn't
Speaker 1: have parents at home that loved me. But I had
Speaker 1: a dream. I wasn't some bad kid that a lot
Speaker 1: of people thought. Anybody can be a victim, but it
Speaker 1: takes love in the community to make that victim into
Speaker 1: a survivor. And that's the difference between me and a
Speaker 1: lot of other people is that I didn't let my
Speaker 1: victimization leave me as a victim, and I'm still fighting
Speaker 1: and I'm going to continue fighting, and so there's no
Speaker 1: longer a breath in my body to fight for survivors
Speaker 1: and not just survivors of human trafficking. And I hope
Speaker 1: that hearing my story encourages people too. If you're not
Speaker 1: going to at least support the costs, support your family,
Speaker 1: hug the little girl that's alone, play with the little
Speaker 1: boy that wants to play, and just let your kids
Speaker 1: know that their loved, so that there's not men like
Speaker 1: my trafficker that can come in and use and abuse them.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrong for Conviction with Jason Flopper.
Speaker 1: Please support your local innocence projects and go to the
Speaker 1: link in our bio to see how you can help.
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff
Speaker 1: Cleburne and Kevin Warns. The music on the show, as always,
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and
Speaker 1: on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason
Speaker 1: flam Is a production of Lava for Good podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with signal Company Number one