WEBVTT - #451 Jason Flom with Ricardo Gray 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.360 In the evening of September one, nineteen ninety eight, a 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.799 fight broke out in East Cleveland, Ohio between two large 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:14.840 groups of young men. Many were injured, including twenty year 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:18.080 old Ricardo Gray, who had been struck in the head 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:22.760 with a pipe. When police finally arrived, they also discovered 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:27.920 that a young man named James Russell had been fatally shot. Eventually, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.400 a narrative developed that Ricardo Gray had returned after the 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.120 fight to exact revenge, leading to a sentence of twenty 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:36.560 three to life. 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:38.839 But this is wrongful conviction. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.360 Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.000 and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.320 at eight three three two o seven four six sixty 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:57.680 six and tell us how these stories make you feel 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.320 and what you've done to help the cause, even if 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.120 it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.480 on social media, and you might just hear yourself in 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.920 a future episode. Call us A three three two o 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:11.520 seven four six sixty six. 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.600 Hello, this is a free call from Carl, an inmate 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.600 at the North Central Correctional Institution. To accept this free call, 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.480 press zero to refuse this free call, hang up or 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.040 press one. Thank you for using GTL. 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.360 Welcome back to wrongful Conviction and calling in today from 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:43.720 an Ohio maximum security facility, we have Ricardo Gray on 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:47.320 the line to share his story, another wrongful conviction out 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.560 of Cuyahoga County, where it appears the only evidence against 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.440 him was fabricated witness testimony. So we hope to see 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.040 his release really soon. 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:57.000 Ricardo. 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.480 I'm sorry you're here because of everything you've gone through 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:02.320 and are going through. 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.480 But thank you for joining us here today. 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.120 I appreciate you myself. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.880 And joining him. The person who's trying to bring about 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.520 justice in this case, Kim Krawl, Kim, thank you for taking. 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:14.920 Up this fight. 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:17.760 Yeah, thanks for doing what you do now. 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:23.240 Cleveland, Ohio, of course, is one of the absolute hotbeds 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.359 of wrongful convictions in this country. But before we get 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:31.440 into how Ricardo's case is emblematic of that ongoing tragedy, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.519 we want to know a bit about your life before 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:36.760 all of this madness took place. 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.640 I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with my mom and 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.560 my dad. I got an older sister. We're staying on 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.200 Barlett one hundred and forty third and Barlet. My mother 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.720 and father they had their own house down there. I 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:50.880 had a sweet grandmom. I think that's where I get 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.360 all my kind from Kai. Her clothes off your back 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:59.679 is if you needed it. Yeah. My father got incarcerating 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:04.000 when I'm I was like fourteen for like seven years. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.040 You know, that's when I really needed him in my life. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.680 And then my cousin had got killed two in the 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.120 same year my father went to jail. He was older, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.000 you know, I looked up to him like a brother. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.600 His name was y'all real Gray. He went to Kent 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:21.560 State University too. I didn't graduate from high school. I 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:23.200 dropped out of school when I was in like the 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.639 eleventh grade. I was in the streets for real. I 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:27.639 ain't gonna lie. I was in the streets. I had 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.880 had a family to take care of. My mama needed me, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.040 my baby, mama and my daughter. I mean I had 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:35.000 to take care of them. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.800 And not only did Riccardo Field responsible for his mother, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.200 but he had also started his own family with his girlfriend, 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:41.200 Denika James. 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.720 Yeah, we just had one daughter together, Carriel. You know, 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.200 we got together high school. We was together for about 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.400 five years. We stayed in Warreneville Heights, So I wasn't 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.320 really in the neighborhood no more for real, messing with 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.880 the guys seemed like once I got my life together, 0:03:57.960 --> 0:03:59.360 they was mad at me for real. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.720 Now. Warrensville Heights was about five miles away from Lacarda's 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.120 old neighborhood along Bartonell Avenue around East one hundred and 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.800 forty third Street, and his friends there had a contentious 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.760 relationship with the guys up on Kinsman Road, about a 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:13.640 half a mile away. 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.920 We right up the street from each other. We always 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.400 ended up getting to it with each other about something 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.000 about nothing for real, but if they make it something. 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.719 We either playing basketball with each other, football. You know. 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.799 It was just a neighborhood thing, just boys being boys. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.960 Growing up, everybody wanted to be hard for real, that's all. 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:34.840 I wanted to have a name for they self. 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.040 With his new responsibilities, Ricardo had been keeping to himself, 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.560 raising his daughter, who was not even two years old 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.920 yet when the crime in question occurred back on September one, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:46.000 nineteen eighty eight. 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:48.920 I just happened to come into a neighborhood one day. 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.440 You know, they was having a little cookout in the neighborhood, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:53.520 so I just wanted to show the guys. It was 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.000 still love. So it's probably about eight thirty. Somebody come 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:58.920 back there and the cookout and say, he just got 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.680 jumped one of my guys, Mike, it just jumped by 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.479 one of the Kingsman. God, it ain't that far from 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.120 where we was at. It's right up the street. It 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.599 had to be about ten or fifteen of us. So 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.520 we'll go up there on one hundred and forty thirty 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.760 Kinsman Today neighborhood. It had to be about twenty or 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:17.640 thirty of them. 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.040 So the police report says, at approximately twenty one hundred hours, 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.160 a group of approximately sixty mails began to congregate at 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.440 the parking lot at the corner of East one forty 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.120 thirty Kinsmen. Trouble had been brewing between a group of 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:32.520 juveniles from Bartlett Avenue and the group from Kinsmen. A 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.320 fight started and for approximately one half hour, he heard 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:36.919 random shots and bottles breaking. 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:38.920 You wanted to fight? I got hit with a pole 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.160 on the right side of my face. Dude knocked me out. 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:45.320 I don't even know who would me. That's the crazy part. Well, 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.720 my God told me, man, once you sail down, I'll 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.880 picked you up and dragged you to Marquise Dugley car 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.840 and drove me to the hospital. At the hospital, I 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.680 made a police report, so I really ain't really know 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.520 what really happened until I came back and my friends 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.479 told me what happened at the lift. 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:01.960 You know. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.920 They told me that God Benny got the shooting and 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:05.839 everybody ran. 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:11.320 A guy named Benny, whose last name didn't surface until 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.200 many years later, was alleged to have fired into the crowd. 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.640 Everyone scattered away, and a young man named James D. 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:22.479 Russell was dead. Detective Cipo and Kovac arrived after his 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.880 body had been transported, and they began to get the statements. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.280 We have a statement from Edward McDowell, Edward Harris, Gary Blanchard, 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:35.039 and from deneen Joy Smith. Edward Harris reported being outside 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.839 when the shooting started, but not observing anyone who was 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:38.640 doing the shooting. 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:40.480 He was just told by neighbors to go in the house. 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.440 Edward McDowell says he was involved in a fight with 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.280 the males from Bartlett Avenue when he heard gunshots. At 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.240 this time, the fight broke up and everybody ran. He 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.480 didn't see who was doing the shooting. Gary Blanchard says 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:54.599 he went out on his front porch with a blow, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:56.960 interviewed female he lives with, and saw the victim lying 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.599 face down in the bushes on the side of his residence. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:01.919 Left the poetry and went down to the victim and 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.320 turned him over and noticed he was bleeding and foaming 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:05.920 at the mouth. He then told his wife to call 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.880 nine one one. Almost immediately police began to arrive. He 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:10.800 stated he recognized the male from the area, but did 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.840 not know his name. He described as a shooter as 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.160 having an afro haircut and wearing a white T shirt 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:17.960 and blue jeans. He saw this male running toward Kinsmen, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.880 and that last piece of information was never disclosed. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.080 So I couldn't never question Blanchard about the guy he's seeing. 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:30.240 He identified the same guy at my witnesses identified at 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.840 my trial, dude with a short afro haircut, blue jeans 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.240 with a white T shirt on. He said he was 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.280 the shooter he's seen he run towards Kensmen. But see, 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.520 they never went to the Barlett group and questioned them 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.560 about what happened. And I didn't know Benny's full name. 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:47.680 Did none of my guys know Benny fool name, And 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:49.880 they were scared to talk to the police because you know, 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.240 snitching people retaliate for that, you know. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.040 So while the Kinsman guys who were initially interviewed omitted 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.720 the shooter's name, they were at least in agreement with 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.240 the Bartlet guys that the fight had ended when shots 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.800 were fired. Only two young men said otherwise, Anthony Mixon 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.120 and Arthur Jackson, who were interviewed the following day by 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.040 a new lead detective on the case. 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.800 Death, Detective Beaman. He the one that got the statements 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.560 from Nixon and Jackson, but see Detective Cepo and his partner. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.200 They was the first ones to the crime scene, but 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:24.520 in the next day they started to change. The statements changed, so. 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.720 It appears the statements gathered by Sipo and Kovak were 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.040 ignored and may have been hidden, and Beamon focused on 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.040 the statements from Mixing and Jackson, who claimed that the 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.080 shooting happened long after the fight, conveniently, when all the 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.520 other witnesses were gone and Ricardo Gray had been released 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:42.280 from the hospital. 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:44.800 They said, I did and came back on a bike 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.280 and shot down the street and instruct the victim. 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:53.040 Arthur Jackson says he was walking northbound from Kinsman in 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.840 company with his friend Mike, last name unknown, and the victim. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:57.520 He then observed a mail he knows by the name 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.880 of Ricardo Gray riding a mountain bike on his and 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.760 began shooting at them. He says, as he, Mike and 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.640 the victim ran, they separated. The victim ran on the 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:07.440 right side of the street and Mike on the left. 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.880 He reports hearing bullets buzzing by his head while running. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.920 Anthony Mixon claimed that he saw Ricardo ride passed him 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.559 on a bike, pull out a nine millimeter and fire 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:18.640 fourteen rounds of the guys from Kinsman. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.160 And what we now know is that the shooter was 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:26.440 from the group that was with both Mixon and Arthur Jackson. 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.559 And so one, they have an interest in protecting kind 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.040 of their own boy. But two, they had their own 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.600 legal issues. They had issues with parole and probation, and 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.680 they were subject to pressure and threats by police. 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.480 Next to you know, I hear it's a warm out 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.640 for my risk, my family telling me just wait, don't 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.600 turn myself in. So you know, I'm listening to my family. 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.520 We get a lawyer ail me to Johnson and when 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:56.400 the crazy party is I asked my lawyer at the time. 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.160 Was there a warrm for my risk? She said, no, 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.079 I diin't know wrong, So you know, I went on living. 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.319 They came and got me in November. I was at 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:09.080 my baby mother house, their mama house, and they came 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.960 in there. They kicked the goe in and everything, came 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:13.120 in there and got me. 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.960 You're listening to Wrong for Conviction. You can listen to 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:27.400 this and. 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.080 All the Lava for Good podcasts one week early and 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.720 ed free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:34.760 Apple Podcasts. 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.160 I'm in the county jail trying to put my defense 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.200 together and everything. I gave him three witnesses names that 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.480 was there. But I had a speedy try. They tried 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:54.760 me within ninety days, and that wasn't enough time for 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.200 my lawyer to really investigate my case for real. 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:01.160 It's very hard, especially from neighborhoods like this, to get 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.880 people to come to testify on your behalf. It's very 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:09.520 difficult to get anyone to come forward in situations like 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.120 this because the police of the ability to put pressure 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.080 on everybody. Everybody was there for a fight. Everybody is 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:19.360 susceptible to like threats of charges police intimidation, and so 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.319 he has three witnesses who come forward who are consistent 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.560 he was hit with a poll He was rendered unconscious. 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.319 And he had to be treated at the hospital. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.559 You know, when you get assaulted the hospital, they automatically 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.600 call the police and they come make a report. So 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.560 the police report spells my first name wrong, put Richard 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.920 instead of Ricardo. They used that against me and said 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.720 I was trying to falsify my name. And you know 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.319 I got the same address, It got my last name. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:49.600 He just didn't know how to spell my damn name. 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:51.920 That's what it all boiled down to. They put it 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.240 on me. Look, he's gave the wrong name. His named Ricardo. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.120 He gave him the name Richard with the same address 0:11:58.160 --> 0:11:59.120 and everything. Come on. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.560 Now, regardless of the effort to discredit this alibi evidence, 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.320 it didn't matter. They had changed the timeline of the 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.440 shooting to have occurred long after the fight, rendering this 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:10.360 alibi mood. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.040 See, they knew I could prove I was hit with 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.520 a pole during the fight, so it couldn't have been me. 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.280 See when I couldn't prove that the victim was shot 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.959 during the fight and shots was fired doing to fight 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.720 I couldn't dispute what they were saying at my trial 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:24.920 that I came back. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:25.400 Yeah. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.280 Anthony Mixon testified that Ricardo Gray road passed him on 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:31.200 a bike and pulled out a weapon that appeared to 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.760 be a nine milimeter and then watched him fire approximately 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.880 fourteen rounds. Arthur Jackson also testified that Ricardo Gray shot 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.560 at him and his friends that Gray rode toward them 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.920 on the bike. Those are really the only two fact 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:44.760 witnesses from. 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.280 The state see the original investigative report, and two other 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.920 witnesses indicate that the shots was fired during to fight 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.679 and everybody ran, so that's why they had to with 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:55.880 told that evidence. 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.640 It appears that the original police reports from Kovac and 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.120 c Bote, with the statements confirming the defense timeline of 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.079 the shooting, were either hidden from the defense or Ricardo's 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.440 attorney neglected to use them to impeach Mixon and Jackson 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.280 or raise Gary Blanche's original statement. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.520 When he got on the stand, Gary Blanchard testified that 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.679 when he heard the shots, I was outside when the 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.480 first ones. That's when I went into the house. While 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:23.600 you were in your house, you heard more shots fired. Yes, 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.839 did you ever see the person who was firing the shots. No, 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:28.880 I was in my house with a door closed. 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.560 But that's not what he told police on the night 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:32.120 of the shooting. 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.400 And that's why it would have been crucially important to 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.199 have this statement that he made to police saying he 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.080 saw someone running, describe what they looked like, and believed 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:39.839 them to be the shooter. 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:44.480 However, Ricardo's alibi witnesses also testified about the alternate timeline 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:45.760 and suspect Benny. 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:50.959 My three witnesses, London Heeljanmes Thomas and Sharon Williams that 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.400 was there. They witnessed Benny do it, but they didn't 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.080 know was last name. So you know, the prosecutor told 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.280 the jury they made this name up. This guy doesn't 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:02.000 even exist. 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:07.040 According to the prosecutor, Benny didn't even exist, and Ricardo's 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.319 witnesses were his friends, the kind of testimony that is 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.920 routinely discredited for proximity to the defendant, while Mixing and 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.600 Jackson's testimony went unchallenged. 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.960 We're so crazy. Once Offor Jason testified at my trial, 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.720 they took me back to the county jail and I 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.680 remember one of the sheriffs said, I knew he was lying, 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:29.080 But I. 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.040 Guess the jury didn't pick up on what was so 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:37.600 obvious to that sheriff. On February eighteenth, nineteen ninety nine, 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.920 Ricardo was convicted and Judge Nancy McDonald sentenced him to 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.640 five years for assault, three years for the weapons charge, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.720 and fifteen to life for murder, to run consecutively, adding 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:49.920 up to a total of twenty three years to life. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:52.360 If I'd have had all these facts I got now, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:54.880 it ain't no way they would either had a trial 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.160 against me. You know, didn't nobody look me in I 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.360 they just found me kuilty. Shit broke my soul. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:02.760 That tore me up. 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:08.280 For a minute, you have one minute remaining here, right, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.480 I'm still in this damn place, man. But I got 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:13.480 all the facts to prove what the hell going on, 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:29.800 and I'm still in here. They sent me strike to Lucasville, 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.160 twenty years old. Man, with all these killers and racists. 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.920 That's all they was doing was racist dudes down there. Man, 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:39.960 I did have to do five years down there before 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:42.520 I could go to a close camp. I'm locked down 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.200 twenty three hours a day. I was mentally fucked up 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.080 off that shit. Man. My father died of cancer, like 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.920 five years after he got out of jail. But my 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.080 father hadn't been through the system, so he know how 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.800 everything he's going. So I didn't really have nobody helping 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.080 me on my case no more. Once he died, I 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.360 had to contend on my sister and my Mamay, and 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.120 they had lives to live their damn So so while 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.200 I was sitting here fighting in my case, you know, 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.920 I taught myself how to read and write, for I 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.960 got my ged, taught myself out to hook up cases, 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.560 and taught myself out of tight. I don't know how 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.240 to file a whole brief and everything. 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.240 While Ricardo did have a pellet counsel, it never hurts 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.720 to learn the law and advocate for yourself, and he 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.440 got his first break just a few years after his conviction. 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.120 I had an investigator, Fine Jackson, and he voted as 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:32.720 the David. 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:34.960 He says three years ago, when I testified for the 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.160 state against Riccardo Gray for the state, my testimony was 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.160 not completely true. I did not see Ricardo with a gun, 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:42.920 nor did I see him shooting a gun at any 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.120 time during the fight. And when the shooting started, I 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:47.640 began to run like everyone else did. I talked to 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:49.160 the police at night, and I told them I would 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.320 come down to talk to them about the case. Before 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.520 I talked to the police, some of the Kinsman boys 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.800 told me to say Ricardo was a shooter. I did 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:57.440 because they made me feel like they would do something 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.360 to me if I did not say Ricardo was a shooter. 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:01.840 Arthur Jackson Senior made this statement of. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.480 My own free will dated May of two thousand and 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:06.040 two with the investigator. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.040 Gave it to my attorney at the time. My attorney 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.600 was Paul Massino, and then Massino he went to go 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:15.639 talk to Mix and personally hisself because Anthony Mix and 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.440 the stake. Whenness he was in jail for murdering his girlfriend, 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:21.600 he comes. 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.080 Forward to say, my name is Anthony Mixon. At Ricardo 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.680 Grey's trial, I testified that Ricardo Gray was on a 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.520 bike shooting a gun. This testimony is not correct. The 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.119 person shooting the gun was Benny, a dark skinned, skinny 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:37.040 black man with an afro haircut. He has wide eyes 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.720 and a real small head. I was pressured by the 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.600 detectives to say that Ricardo Gray was there. I was 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.159 on parole and they told me that if I didn't 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.639 say it, was Ricardo Gray, I would go back to prison. 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:52.359 Arthur Jackson was about ten houses or more away and 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.200 could not see who was shooting or who was shot. 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.320 I have tried to tell my story, but nobody would listen. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.640 This is true, Anthony Mixon, August fourteenth, two thousand and two. 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.280 So then I have both of them. And then Masino 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:11.400 filed a motion for a new trial under newly discover evidence. 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:14.879 They stalled me out for about three years. That was 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.080 in two thousand and six. Man they came up with 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.480 some bogus ruling saying that this was the same evidence 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:22.840 I used a trial. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:25.760 Even though the defenses danced at trial was that Mixing 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.080 and Jackson were lying. Ricardo most definitely did not have 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.240 Mixing and Jackson's recantations a trial, and critically their testimony 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.080 was the only evidence against him. 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.119 So Nanthy McDonald had a very long career as a 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:41.680 sitting judge. She was known, I think wildly by the 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.560 defense community as being someone who had a pensiont for injustice. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.119 But we know just in the last few years there 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.440 have been many wrongful convictions that have come out of 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:55.360 her courtroom. Now, of course, when juries and prosecutors are involved, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:59.320 you can't shoulder the entire responsibility of wrongful convictions on 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:01.240 a judge. But when we look at the number of 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.440 years it's taken these folks to prove their innocence, that 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.240 can be directly attributed to her, because she has denied 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.199 every single filing in front of her, no matter how 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:15.000 compelling like Ricardo's those filings are. We know that we're 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.880 all Sailor's cases out of her courtroom, Isaiah Andrews, who 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.080 spent one of the longest periods of wrongful incarceration in 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.120 the history of the United States. We have other cases 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:30.320 just like Ricardo's that represent very serious, very obvious innocence 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.800 claims that have just been denied and denied for decades, 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:35.760 and it's because they were constantly put back in front 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.240 of the same judge, Nancy McDonald. 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.640 You know, one would think that just one judge couldn't 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:42.399 and shouldn't have that much power. 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:44.399 There are other courts to appeal to. 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.920 Every effort you make to reopen your case based on 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:52.080 new evidence, whether it's newly discovered because a witness just 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.800 came forward, or because the state withheld it, or because 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.080 of ineffective assistance of counsel of your trial council. 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.440 All of those are raised in the trial court. 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.080 I bet if you were to go through her entire 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.080 decades long term on the bench, she didn't grant a 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:09.240 single one. She didn't even grant a hearing on one. 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.160 I mean, we had cases where like the shooter came 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:13.119 forward and she was. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.600 Like, man, now, all of a sudden, he's not credible anymore. 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:17.280 Yeah, he's not credible now. But then you get more 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:19.760 evidence of his credibility and she's like, Eh, that's not new. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:22.200