Speaker 1: In the evening of September one, nineteen ninety eight, a
Speaker 1: fight broke out in East Cleveland, Ohio between two large
Speaker 1: groups of young men. Many were injured, including twenty year
Speaker 1: old Ricardo Gray, who had been struck in the head
Speaker 1: with a pipe. When police finally arrived, they also discovered
Speaker 1: that a young man named James Russell had been fatally shot. Eventually,
Speaker 1: a narrative developed that Ricardo Gray had returned after the
Speaker 1: fight to exact revenge, leading to a sentence of twenty
Speaker 1: three to life.
Speaker 2: But this is wrongful conviction.
Speaker 1: Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison,
Speaker 1: and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us
Speaker 1: at eight three three two o seven four six sixty
Speaker 1: six and tell us how these stories make you feel
Speaker 1: and what you've done to help the cause, even if
Speaker 1: it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing
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Speaker 1: a future episode. Call us A three three two o
Speaker 1: seven four six sixty six.
Speaker 3: Hello, this is a free call from Carl, an inmate
Speaker 3: at the North Central Correctional Institution. To accept this free call,
Speaker 3: press zero to refuse this free call, hang up or
Speaker 3: press one. Thank you for using GTL.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to wrongful Conviction and calling in today from
Speaker 1: an Ohio maximum security facility, we have Ricardo Gray on
Speaker 1: the line to share his story, another wrongful conviction out
Speaker 1: of Cuyahoga County, where it appears the only evidence against
Speaker 1: him was fabricated witness testimony. So we hope to see
Speaker 1: his release really soon.
Speaker 2: Ricardo.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you're here because of everything you've gone through
Speaker 1: and are going through.
Speaker 2: But thank you for joining us here today.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you myself.
Speaker 1: And joining him. The person who's trying to bring about
Speaker 1: justice in this case, Kim Krawl, Kim, thank you for taking.
Speaker 2: Up this fight.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for doing what you do now.
Speaker 1: Cleveland, Ohio, of course, is one of the absolute hotbeds
Speaker 1: of wrongful convictions in this country. But before we get
Speaker 1: into how Ricardo's case is emblematic of that ongoing tragedy,
Speaker 1: we want to know a bit about your life before
Speaker 1: all of this madness took place.
Speaker 4: I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with my mom and
Speaker 4: my dad. I got an older sister. We're staying on
Speaker 4: Barlett one hundred and forty third and Barlet. My mother
Speaker 4: and father they had their own house down there. I
Speaker 4: had a sweet grandmom. I think that's where I get
Speaker 4: all my kind from Kai. Her clothes off your back
Speaker 4: is if you needed it. Yeah. My father got incarcerating
Speaker 4: when I'm I was like fourteen for like seven years.
Speaker 4: You know, that's when I really needed him in my life.
Speaker 4: And then my cousin had got killed two in the
Speaker 4: same year my father went to jail. He was older,
Speaker 4: you know, I looked up to him like a brother.
Speaker 4: His name was y'all real Gray. He went to Kent
Speaker 4: State University too. I didn't graduate from high school. I
Speaker 4: dropped out of school when I was in like the
Speaker 4: eleventh grade. I was in the streets for real. I
Speaker 4: ain't gonna lie. I was in the streets. I had
Speaker 4: had a family to take care of. My mama needed me,
Speaker 4: my baby, mama and my daughter. I mean I had
Speaker 4: to take care of them.
Speaker 1: And not only did Riccardo Field responsible for his mother,
Speaker 1: but he had also started his own family with his girlfriend,
Speaker 1: Denika James.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just had one daughter together, Carriel. You know,
Speaker 4: we got together high school. We was together for about
Speaker 4: five years. We stayed in Warreneville Heights, So I wasn't
Speaker 4: really in the neighborhood no more for real, messing with
Speaker 4: the guys seemed like once I got my life together,
Speaker 4: they was mad at me for real.
Speaker 1: Now. Warrensville Heights was about five miles away from Lacarda's
Speaker 1: old neighborhood along Bartonell Avenue around East one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty third Street, and his friends there had a contentious
Speaker 1: relationship with the guys up on Kinsman Road, about a
Speaker 1: half a mile away.
Speaker 4: We right up the street from each other. We always
Speaker 4: ended up getting to it with each other about something
Speaker 4: about nothing for real, but if they make it something.
Speaker 4: We either playing basketball with each other, football. You know.
Speaker 4: It was just a neighborhood thing, just boys being boys.
Speaker 4: Growing up, everybody wanted to be hard for real, that's all.
Speaker 4: I wanted to have a name for they self.
Speaker 1: With his new responsibilities, Ricardo had been keeping to himself,
Speaker 1: raising his daughter, who was not even two years old
Speaker 1: yet when the crime in question occurred back on September one,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 4: I just happened to come into a neighborhood one day.
Speaker 4: You know, they was having a little cookout in the neighborhood,
Speaker 4: so I just wanted to show the guys. It was
Speaker 4: still love. So it's probably about eight thirty. Somebody come
Speaker 4: back there and the cookout and say, he just got
Speaker 4: jumped one of my guys, Mike, it just jumped by
Speaker 4: one of the Kingsman. God, it ain't that far from
Speaker 4: where we was at. It's right up the street. It
Speaker 4: had to be about ten or fifteen of us. So
Speaker 4: we'll go up there on one hundred and forty thirty
Speaker 4: Kinsman Today neighborhood. It had to be about twenty or
Speaker 4: thirty of them.
Speaker 6: So the police report says, at approximately twenty one hundred hours,
Speaker 6: a group of approximately sixty mails began to congregate at
Speaker 6: the parking lot at the corner of East one forty
Speaker 6: thirty Kinsmen. Trouble had been brewing between a group of
Speaker 6: juveniles from Bartlett Avenue and the group from Kinsmen. A
Speaker 6: fight started and for approximately one half hour, he heard
Speaker 6: random shots and bottles breaking.
Speaker 4: You wanted to fight? I got hit with a pole
Speaker 4: on the right side of my face. Dude knocked me out.
Speaker 4: I don't even know who would me. That's the crazy part. Well,
Speaker 4: my God told me, man, once you sail down, I'll
Speaker 4: picked you up and dragged you to Marquise Dugley car
Speaker 4: and drove me to the hospital. At the hospital, I
Speaker 4: made a police report, so I really ain't really know
Speaker 4: what really happened until I came back and my friends
Speaker 4: told me what happened at the lift.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: They told me that God Benny got the shooting and
Speaker 4: everybody ran.
Speaker 1: A guy named Benny, whose last name didn't surface until
Speaker 1: many years later, was alleged to have fired into the crowd.
Speaker 1: Everyone scattered away, and a young man named James D.
Speaker 1: Russell was dead. Detective Cipo and Kovac arrived after his
Speaker 1: body had been transported, and they began to get the statements.
Speaker 6: We have a statement from Edward McDowell, Edward Harris, Gary Blanchard,
Speaker 6: and from deneen Joy Smith. Edward Harris reported being outside
Speaker 6: when the shooting started, but not observing anyone who was
Speaker 6: doing the shooting.
Speaker 5: He was just told by neighbors to go in the house.
Speaker 6: Edward McDowell says he was involved in a fight with
Speaker 6: the males from Bartlett Avenue when he heard gunshots. At
Speaker 6: this time, the fight broke up and everybody ran. He
Speaker 6: didn't see who was doing the shooting. Gary Blanchard says
Speaker 6: he went out on his front porch with a blow,
Speaker 6: interviewed female he lives with, and saw the victim lying
Speaker 6: face down in the bushes on the side of his residence.
Speaker 6: Left the poetry and went down to the victim and
Speaker 6: turned him over and noticed he was bleeding and foaming
Speaker 6: at the mouth. He then told his wife to call
Speaker 6: nine one one. Almost immediately police began to arrive. He
Speaker 6: stated he recognized the male from the area, but did
Speaker 6: not know his name. He described as a shooter as
Speaker 6: having an afro haircut and wearing a white T shirt
Speaker 6: and blue jeans. He saw this male running toward Kinsmen,
Speaker 6: and that last piece of information was never disclosed.
Speaker 4: So I couldn't never question Blanchard about the guy he's seeing.
Speaker 4: He identified the same guy at my witnesses identified at
Speaker 4: my trial, dude with a short afro haircut, blue jeans
Speaker 4: with a white T shirt on. He said he was
Speaker 4: the shooter he's seen he run towards Kensmen. But see,
Speaker 4: they never went to the Barlett group and questioned them
Speaker 4: about what happened. And I didn't know Benny's full name.
Speaker 4: Did none of my guys know Benny fool name, And
Speaker 4: they were scared to talk to the police because you know,
Speaker 4: snitching people retaliate for that, you know.
Speaker 1: So while the Kinsman guys who were initially interviewed omitted
Speaker 1: the shooter's name, they were at least in agreement with
Speaker 1: the Bartlet guys that the fight had ended when shots
Speaker 1: were fired. Only two young men said otherwise, Anthony Mixon
Speaker 1: and Arthur Jackson, who were interviewed the following day by
Speaker 1: a new lead detective on the case.
Speaker 4: Death, Detective Beaman. He the one that got the statements
Speaker 4: from Nixon and Jackson, but see Detective Cepo and his partner.
Speaker 4: They was the first ones to the crime scene, but
Speaker 4: in the next day they started to change. The statements changed, so.
Speaker 1: It appears the statements gathered by Sipo and Kovak were
Speaker 1: ignored and may have been hidden, and Beamon focused on
Speaker 1: the statements from Mixing and Jackson, who claimed that the
Speaker 1: shooting happened long after the fight, conveniently, when all the
Speaker 1: other witnesses were gone and Ricardo Gray had been released
Speaker 1: from the hospital.
Speaker 4: They said, I did and came back on a bike
Speaker 4: and shot down the street and instruct the victim.
Speaker 6: Arthur Jackson says he was walking northbound from Kinsman in
Speaker 6: company with his friend Mike, last name unknown, and the victim.
Speaker 6: He then observed a mail he knows by the name
Speaker 6: of Ricardo Gray riding a mountain bike on his and
Speaker 6: began shooting at them. He says, as he, Mike and
Speaker 6: the victim ran, they separated. The victim ran on the
Speaker 6: right side of the street and Mike on the left.
Speaker 6: He reports hearing bullets buzzing by his head while running.
Speaker 1: Anthony Mixon claimed that he saw Ricardo ride passed him
Speaker 1: on a bike, pull out a nine millimeter and fire
Speaker 1: fourteen rounds of the guys from Kinsman.
Speaker 6: And what we now know is that the shooter was
Speaker 6: from the group that was with both Mixon and Arthur Jackson.
Speaker 6: And so one, they have an interest in protecting kind
Speaker 6: of their own boy. But two, they had their own
Speaker 6: legal issues. They had issues with parole and probation, and
Speaker 6: they were subject to pressure and threats by police.
Speaker 4: Next to you know, I hear it's a warm out
Speaker 4: for my risk, my family telling me just wait, don't
Speaker 4: turn myself in. So you know, I'm listening to my family.
Speaker 4: We get a lawyer ail me to Johnson and when
Speaker 4: the crazy party is I asked my lawyer at the time.
Speaker 4: Was there a warrm for my risk? She said, no,
Speaker 4: I diin't know wrong, So you know, I went on living.
Speaker 4: They came and got me in November. I was at
Speaker 4: my baby mother house, their mama house, and they came
Speaker 4: in there. They kicked the goe in and everything, came
Speaker 4: in there and got me.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Wrong for Conviction. You can listen to
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Speaker 4: I'm in the county jail trying to put my defense
Speaker 4: together and everything. I gave him three witnesses names that
Speaker 4: was there. But I had a speedy try. They tried
Speaker 4: me within ninety days, and that wasn't enough time for
Speaker 4: my lawyer to really investigate my case for real.
Speaker 6: It's very hard, especially from neighborhoods like this, to get
Speaker 6: people to come to testify on your behalf. It's very
Speaker 6: difficult to get anyone to come forward in situations like
Speaker 6: this because the police of the ability to put pressure
Speaker 6: on everybody. Everybody was there for a fight. Everybody is
Speaker 6: susceptible to like threats of charges police intimidation, and so
Speaker 6: he has three witnesses who come forward who are consistent
Speaker 6: he was hit with a poll He was rendered unconscious.
Speaker 5: And he had to be treated at the hospital.
Speaker 4: You know, when you get assaulted the hospital, they automatically
Speaker 4: call the police and they come make a report. So
Speaker 4: the police report spells my first name wrong, put Richard
Speaker 4: instead of Ricardo. They used that against me and said
Speaker 4: I was trying to falsify my name. And you know
Speaker 4: I got the same address, It got my last name.
Speaker 4: He just didn't know how to spell my damn name.
Speaker 4: That's what it all boiled down to. They put it
Speaker 4: on me. Look, he's gave the wrong name. His named Ricardo.
Speaker 4: He gave him the name Richard with the same address
Speaker 4: and everything. Come on.
Speaker 1: Now, regardless of the effort to discredit this alibi evidence,
Speaker 1: it didn't matter. They had changed the timeline of the
Speaker 1: shooting to have occurred long after the fight, rendering this
Speaker 1: alibi mood.
Speaker 4: See, they knew I could prove I was hit with
Speaker 4: a pole during the fight, so it couldn't have been me.
Speaker 4: See when I couldn't prove that the victim was shot
Speaker 4: during the fight and shots was fired doing to fight
Speaker 4: I couldn't dispute what they were saying at my trial
Speaker 4: that I came back.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Anthony Mixon testified that Ricardo Gray road passed him on
Speaker 6: a bike and pulled out a weapon that appeared to
Speaker 6: be a nine milimeter and then watched him fire approximately
Speaker 6: fourteen rounds. Arthur Jackson also testified that Ricardo Gray shot
Speaker 6: at him and his friends that Gray rode toward them
Speaker 6: on the bike. Those are really the only two fact
Speaker 6: witnesses from.
Speaker 4: The state see the original investigative report, and two other
Speaker 4: witnesses indicate that the shots was fired during to fight
Speaker 4: and everybody ran, so that's why they had to with
Speaker 4: told that evidence.
Speaker 1: It appears that the original police reports from Kovac and
Speaker 1: c Bote, with the statements confirming the defense timeline of
Speaker 1: the shooting, were either hidden from the defense or Ricardo's
Speaker 1: attorney neglected to use them to impeach Mixon and Jackson
Speaker 1: or raise Gary Blanche's original statement.
Speaker 6: When he got on the stand, Gary Blanchard testified that
Speaker 6: when he heard the shots, I was outside when the
Speaker 6: first ones. That's when I went into the house. While
Speaker 6: you were in your house, you heard more shots fired. Yes,
Speaker 6: did you ever see the person who was firing the shots. No,
Speaker 6: I was in my house with a door closed.
Speaker 1: But that's not what he told police on the night
Speaker 1: of the shooting.
Speaker 6: And that's why it would have been crucially important to
Speaker 6: have this statement that he made to police saying he
Speaker 6: saw someone running, describe what they looked like, and believed
Speaker 6: them to be the shooter.
Speaker 1: However, Ricardo's alibi witnesses also testified about the alternate timeline
Speaker 1: and suspect Benny.
Speaker 4: My three witnesses, London Heeljanmes Thomas and Sharon Williams that
Speaker 4: was there. They witnessed Benny do it, but they didn't
Speaker 4: know was last name. So you know, the prosecutor told
Speaker 4: the jury they made this name up. This guy doesn't
Speaker 4: even exist.
Speaker 1: According to the prosecutor, Benny didn't even exist, and Ricardo's
Speaker 1: witnesses were his friends, the kind of testimony that is
Speaker 1: routinely discredited for proximity to the defendant, while Mixing and
Speaker 1: Jackson's testimony went unchallenged.
Speaker 4: We're so crazy. Once Offor Jason testified at my trial,
Speaker 4: they took me back to the county jail and I
Speaker 4: remember one of the sheriffs said, I knew he was lying,
Speaker 4: But I.
Speaker 1: Guess the jury didn't pick up on what was so
Speaker 1: obvious to that sheriff. On February eighteenth, nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: Ricardo was convicted and Judge Nancy McDonald sentenced him to
Speaker 1: five years for assault, three years for the weapons charge,
Speaker 1: and fifteen to life for murder, to run consecutively, adding
Speaker 1: up to a total of twenty three years to life.
Speaker 4: If I'd have had all these facts I got now,
Speaker 4: it ain't no way they would either had a trial
Speaker 4: against me. You know, didn't nobody look me in I
Speaker 4: they just found me kuilty. Shit broke my soul.
Speaker 2: That tore me up.
Speaker 4: For a minute, you have one minute remaining here, right,
Speaker 4: I'm still in this damn place, man. But I got
Speaker 4: all the facts to prove what the hell going on,
Speaker 4: and I'm still in here. They sent me strike to Lucasville,
Speaker 4: twenty years old. Man, with all these killers and racists.
Speaker 4: That's all they was doing was racist dudes down there. Man,
Speaker 4: I did have to do five years down there before
Speaker 4: I could go to a close camp. I'm locked down
Speaker 4: twenty three hours a day. I was mentally fucked up
Speaker 4: off that shit. Man. My father died of cancer, like
Speaker 4: five years after he got out of jail. But my
Speaker 4: father hadn't been through the system, so he know how
Speaker 4: everything he's going. So I didn't really have nobody helping
Speaker 4: me on my case no more. Once he died, I
Speaker 4: had to contend on my sister and my Mamay, and
Speaker 4: they had lives to live their damn So so while
Speaker 4: I was sitting here fighting in my case, you know,
Speaker 4: I taught myself how to read and write, for I
Speaker 4: got my ged, taught myself out to hook up cases,
Speaker 4: and taught myself out of tight. I don't know how
Speaker 4: to file a whole brief and everything.
Speaker 1: While Ricardo did have a pellet counsel, it never hurts
Speaker 1: to learn the law and advocate for yourself, and he
Speaker 1: got his first break just a few years after his conviction.
Speaker 4: I had an investigator, Fine Jackson, and he voted as
Speaker 4: the David.
Speaker 6: He says three years ago, when I testified for the
Speaker 6: state against Riccardo Gray for the state, my testimony was
Speaker 6: not completely true. I did not see Ricardo with a gun,
Speaker 6: nor did I see him shooting a gun at any
Speaker 6: time during the fight. And when the shooting started, I
Speaker 6: began to run like everyone else did. I talked to
Speaker 6: the police at night, and I told them I would
Speaker 6: come down to talk to them about the case. Before
Speaker 6: I talked to the police, some of the Kinsman boys
Speaker 6: told me to say Ricardo was a shooter. I did
Speaker 6: because they made me feel like they would do something
Speaker 6: to me if I did not say Ricardo was a shooter.
Speaker 5: Arthur Jackson Senior made this statement of.
Speaker 6: My own free will dated May of two thousand and
Speaker 6: two with the investigator.
Speaker 4: Gave it to my attorney at the time. My attorney
Speaker 4: was Paul Massino, and then Massino he went to go
Speaker 4: talk to Mix and personally hisself because Anthony Mix and
Speaker 4: the stake. Whenness he was in jail for murdering his girlfriend,
Speaker 4: he comes.
Speaker 6: Forward to say, my name is Anthony Mixon. At Ricardo
Speaker 6: Grey's trial, I testified that Ricardo Gray was on a
Speaker 6: bike shooting a gun. This testimony is not correct. The
Speaker 6: person shooting the gun was Benny, a dark skinned, skinny
Speaker 6: black man with an afro haircut. He has wide eyes
Speaker 6: and a real small head. I was pressured by the
Speaker 6: detectives to say that Ricardo Gray was there. I was
Speaker 6: on parole and they told me that if I didn't
Speaker 6: say it, was Ricardo Gray, I would go back to prison.
Speaker 6: Arthur Jackson was about ten houses or more away and
Speaker 6: could not see who was shooting or who was shot.
Speaker 6: I have tried to tell my story, but nobody would listen.
Speaker 6: This is true, Anthony Mixon, August fourteenth, two thousand and two.
Speaker 4: So then I have both of them. And then Masino
Speaker 4: filed a motion for a new trial under newly discover evidence.
Speaker 4: They stalled me out for about three years. That was
Speaker 4: in two thousand and six. Man they came up with
Speaker 4: some bogus ruling saying that this was the same evidence
Speaker 4: I used a trial.
Speaker 1: Even though the defenses danced at trial was that Mixing
Speaker 1: and Jackson were lying. Ricardo most definitely did not have
Speaker 1: Mixing and Jackson's recantations a trial, and critically their testimony
Speaker 1: was the only evidence against him.
Speaker 6: So Nanthy McDonald had a very long career as a
Speaker 6: sitting judge. She was known, I think wildly by the
Speaker 6: defense community as being someone who had a pensiont for injustice.
Speaker 6: But we know just in the last few years there
Speaker 6: have been many wrongful convictions that have come out of
Speaker 6: her courtroom. Now, of course, when juries and prosecutors are involved,
Speaker 6: you can't shoulder the entire responsibility of wrongful convictions on
Speaker 6: a judge. But when we look at the number of
Speaker 6: years it's taken these folks to prove their innocence, that
Speaker 6: can be directly attributed to her, because she has denied
Speaker 6: every single filing in front of her, no matter how
Speaker 6: compelling like Ricardo's those filings are. We know that we're
Speaker 6: all Sailor's cases out of her courtroom, Isaiah Andrews, who
Speaker 6: spent one of the longest periods of wrongful incarceration in
Speaker 6: the history of the United States. We have other cases
Speaker 6: just like Ricardo's that represent very serious, very obvious innocence
Speaker 6: claims that have just been denied and denied for decades,
Speaker 6: and it's because they were constantly put back in front
Speaker 6: of the same judge, Nancy McDonald.
Speaker 1: You know, one would think that just one judge couldn't
Speaker 1: and shouldn't have that much power.
Speaker 2: There are other courts to appeal to.
Speaker 6: Every effort you make to reopen your case based on
Speaker 6: new evidence, whether it's newly discovered because a witness just
Speaker 6: came forward, or because the state withheld it, or because
Speaker 6: of ineffective assistance of counsel of your trial council.
Speaker 5: All of those are raised in the trial court.
Speaker 6: I bet if you were to go through her entire
Speaker 6: decades long term on the bench, she didn't grant a
Speaker 6: single one. She didn't even grant a hearing on one.
Speaker 6: I mean, we had cases where like the shooter came
Speaker 6: forward and she was.
Speaker 1: Like, man, now, all of a sudden, he's not credible anymore.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's not credible now. But then you get more
Speaker 6: evidence of his credibility and she's like, Eh, that's not new.
Speaker 6: You've been saying you're innocent for years, so that's no
Speaker 6: longer a new theory of your case, Like it's wild.
Speaker 6: And so while there are a lot of factors that
Speaker 6: lead to wrongful convictions, the police, juries lowering their standard
Speaker 6: of beyond reasonable doubt, judges and of course prosecutors overzealz
Speaker 6: prosecutors who care more about winning than justice, and lazy
Speaker 6: defense attorneys. All of those things contribute to wrongful convictions.
Speaker 6: But the one thing that maintains wrongful convictions are trial
Speaker 6: judges who don't give meaningful consideration to these claims, because
Speaker 6: then when it goes to the Court of appeals, they
Speaker 6: give deference to the trial court the trial. Judge sat
Speaker 6: on the trial. They're the ones looking at this now,
Speaker 6: we're going to give difference their decision. We don't sit
Speaker 6: in judgment of their decision unless it's arbitrary or absurd,
Speaker 6: which is a very high standard. And when you have
Speaker 6: someone like her who's been on the bench in a
Speaker 6: political climate for decades, they're not calling her arbitrary and absurd.
Speaker 6: They're affirming every single one of her crappy decisions. And
Speaker 6: we know they're crappy because so many of these men
Speaker 6: have now been exonerated, and we can literally attribute hundreds
Speaker 6: and hundreds of years of wrongful conviction to her unwillingness
Speaker 6: to consider these claims from her bench.
Speaker 1: Even though finding new evidence appeared to be feudal with
Speaker 1: Judge McDonald. Ricardo caught another break.
Speaker 4: I found Denny last name. That's when my god Quincy,
Speaker 4: but I called him Q. I was in Lucas Wheel waiting.
Speaker 4: Quincy told me he was in Toledo with Benny and
Speaker 4: his last name is Karen Ben. He told Q that
Speaker 4: I was in jail for some he did. That's how
Speaker 4: I got his full name. At the time, my lawyer
Speaker 4: was Brett Burner, so I got my I told him
Speaker 4: my appel attorney felt the mixing again and Mixing identify
Speaker 4: by Benny Kerr as a shooter. I file another emotion
Speaker 4: for a new trial. They deny it, talking about my lawyer.
Speaker 4: Ain't give a time frame and when I discovered the
Speaker 4: new evidence, so they shot that down.
Speaker 1: Another break in the case came from a four year
Speaker 1: request along the way, someone on his legal team did
Speaker 1: a Freedom of Information Act request but did not realize
Speaker 1: what they had discovered until moving on from the case
Speaker 1: and returning Ricardo's files.
Speaker 4: So then when they send me my paperwork, I go
Speaker 4: through all my file dam I see the original investigator
Speaker 4: reporting here, Gary Blanchard police report and Edward McDowell police report.
Speaker 4: I'm like, man, I'm looking at it, like man, this
Speaker 4: all the stuff to prove Ryan commit this crime. I
Speaker 4: never got this stuff in my trial, So bam I
Speaker 4: end up filing the motion myself. That had to be
Speaker 4: Like in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: These police reports undermined Mixing and Jackson and the state's
Speaker 1: timeline of the shooting while validating Ricardo's alibi if the
Speaker 1: shooting ended the fight like these witnesses in the alibi,
Speaker 1: witness has said then Ricardo's police report from the hospital
Speaker 1: was checkmate.
Speaker 2: This appears to be a major Brady.
Speaker 6: Violation, So it's important to know some of the context
Speaker 6: of what was going in Ohio in terms of the
Speaker 6: way criminal trials were handled at that time. We didn't
Speaker 6: have open discovery, so there's no way of knowing what
Speaker 6: actually was and was not shared with defense other than
Speaker 6: presuming that if a defense attorney had the information, they
Speaker 6: would have used it. Now, when Ricardo goes on to
Speaker 6: file all these things, he's saying, we obviously didn't have it,
Speaker 6: because he would have used it if we had it.
Speaker 6: But the court says that without some affirmative proof that
Speaker 6: it was not turned over, he cannot meet his burden. Now,
Speaker 6: there is law in Ohio which contradicts those holdings, but
Speaker 6: there are holdings that support that perspective also, and so
Speaker 6: what the state is arguing is that you can't prove
Speaker 6: that it wasn't turned over because all we used to
Speaker 6: do back then is the defense attorney would meet with
Speaker 6: the prosecutor. The prosecutor would have have the police reports,
Speaker 6: not share them or show them, but summarize what was
Speaker 6: said in them. And so there's no way to prove
Speaker 6: or disprove what might have been said in some back
Speaker 6: room handing these things back and forth. It's a system
Speaker 6: that disfavors the truth because how do you prove the
Speaker 6: absence of an occurrence.
Speaker 1: Well, if it wasn't Brady, then it's sure as hell
Speaker 1: was an effective assistance of counsel. Nevertheless, Ricardo caught another
Speaker 1: break in twenty twenty when another witness came forward, Derek James,
Speaker 1: who said that he told police about ben Kerr in
Speaker 1: the night of the shooting. But what good was any
Speaker 1: of it if it had to pass to Judge McDonald first.
Speaker 6: This is awful, but for years we were just waiting
Speaker 6: for her to leave the bench, which we knew she
Speaker 6: would not do on her own. It took an act
Speaker 6: of God to save our clients from her ongoing reign
Speaker 6: of injustice. She died a few years ago, which the
Speaker 6: result is finally clients whose wrongful convictions arose out of
Speaker 6: her courtroom can get fair consideration.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, Riccardo did not benefit. She passed in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: after he had already used up to Derek James affid
Speaker 1: David So to recap all the evidence that this judge
Speaker 1: denied him on the initial interviews with McDowell and Blanchard,
Speaker 1: discrediting the state's timeline of the crime, the description of
Speaker 1: Benny Kern, all of which corroborated his alibi defense. Multiple
Speaker 1: people identified Benny Kern along the way, not to mention
Speaker 1: recantations from the only material witnesses in this case.
Speaker 6: And so all of those things together not only entirely
Speaker 6: undermind the states claim, but present a meaningful case for
Speaker 6: who the actual wrong doer is. And really he should
Speaker 6: have had a hearing in two thousand and two when
Speaker 6: these initial affidavids came forward, but his judge denied him.
Speaker 6: The Court of Appeals just constantly affirms what the trial
Speaker 6: judge does and the fact that he remains in prison.
Speaker 6: So when this case came to me, it's exactly where
Speaker 6: it is right now. All of this has been filed,
Speaker 6: and here we are, twenty one years later from those affidavids,
Speaker 6: with an insurmountable amount of evidence supporting his innocence.
Speaker 5: And really, if I'm being honest, no.
Speaker 6: Proceed door to get into court for meaningful consideration. And
Speaker 6: so here we are thinking artfully and creatively about how
Speaker 6: do we get that door open so that we can
Speaker 6: do the right thing for this innocent person. We have
Speaker 6: done it before this office, and we will do it again.
Speaker 6: We will find a way to get this man back
Speaker 6: in court because that's what justice requires, but we are
Speaker 6: up against a substantial mountain of procedural hurdles and procedural default.
Speaker 1: To help facilitate that, we're going to link Kim's instagram
Speaker 1: in the episode description. If anyone listening has information about
Speaker 1: this case, it could be the key to getting them
Speaker 1: back into court without Judge McDonald, So please reach out
Speaker 1: to her and help bring Ricardo home. We're also going
Speaker 1: to be linking a petition to help raise awareness about
Speaker 1: this horrible injustice, so please take a moment and join
Speaker 1: us sign it. And with that, now we're going to
Speaker 1: go to my favorite part of the show, we called
Speaker 1: closing arguments, and it's where I thank you again for
Speaker 1: being here. Now I'm going to turn my microphone off
Speaker 1: and kick back in my chair and just listen to
Speaker 1: anything else you have to share with me in our
Speaker 1: amazing audience. So, Kim, when don't we start with you
Speaker 1: and then Ricardo, do you take us off into the sunset.
Speaker 5: At the end of the day.
Speaker 6: What we're looking for is to give Ricardo a chance
Speaker 6: at a fair trial due process. We have no doubt
Speaker 6: he would be acquitted when presented with that opportunity, But
Speaker 6: he hasn't even had the chance to have his fair trial,
Speaker 6: his fair day.
Speaker 5: In court yet.
Speaker 6: So I think Ricardo Gray's case is one of the
Speaker 6: most obvious claims of innocence we've ever seen. There was
Speaker 6: very little evidence to support a conviction to begin with,
Speaker 6: and all of it, every ounce of it, has been overturned.
Speaker 6: But the problem with his case is that it really
Speaker 6: highlights the failures of the criminal justice system to correct
Speaker 6: itself in every incident, and so is one of those
Speaker 6: examples of where the criminal justice system has the tools
Speaker 6: to convict, but not the tools to overturn conviction. And
Speaker 6: so not only is this an opportunity to look meaningfully
Speaker 6: at his case, but at the rules of procedural default
Speaker 6: that keep people innocent, people like Ricardo Gray prison for
Speaker 6: ten twenty thirty years before having a chance to even
Speaker 6: have a hearing, to have their day in court, or
Speaker 6: to present their claims in a way that the merits
Speaker 6: of their claims are considered. And so, you know, when
Speaker 6: listening to stories like this, It's important that we not
Speaker 6: only consider how we can help Ricardo Gray, but how
Speaker 6: we can expect more of the system and demand that judges,
Speaker 6: that people we elect to be in positions to make
Speaker 6: these choices give consideration or be held accountable, and that
Speaker 6: when you get that jury summons, that you don't think, oh,
Speaker 6: I don't want to be a jur but you think,
Speaker 6: this is my chance to hold the government accountable to
Speaker 6: its very high standard and to participate in preventing wrongful
Speaker 6: and convictions. Because that is the most minimal way we
Speaker 6: all get to participate and to change the system.
Speaker 5: And it would have.
Speaker 6: Made all the difference, a lifetime of difference to Ricardo
Speaker 6: Gray if he had a jury who held the state
Speaker 6: to that very high standard to begin with.
Speaker 4: I'm ready to go on, man.
Speaker 2: I'm tired.
Speaker 4: I'm sickly tired, but so strong.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: I need help, man, it's killing me. I'm trying not
Speaker 4: to start crying with around all these dudes in here. Man,
Speaker 4: I can't show no sign of weakness in here. I'm
Speaker 4: here with lyons. Oh yeah, I just need some help, man,
Speaker 4: to show what the hell really going on here? Man.
Speaker 4: I got all the facts, I just need help man
Speaker 4: to get me the hell out of here. Man. I
Speaker 4: need to get hold of my daughter.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 4: I don't missed twenty years of my daughter life. Man.
Speaker 4: I wasn't able to raise my daughter. Man. That's what
Speaker 4: fuck with me the most.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: I ain't been able to I ain't been there with
Speaker 4: my family. I was really just miss raising my daughter. Man.
Speaker 4: That was the key part of everything. We've been through
Speaker 4: a lot, through this whole thing. Man, It's just time
Speaker 4: to go. Man, twenty six years, it's just out of control.
Speaker 4: They wrong, and they know they're wrong, and they willing
Speaker 4: to keep me in here until I put it on
Speaker 4: the wall of what's really going on. If I don't
Speaker 4: put it on the wall what's going on, they not
Speaker 4: gonna do nothing.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: So I need help, you know. Appreciate you good day,
Speaker 4: man for real.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
Speaker 1: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
Speaker 1: week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team, Connor
Speaker 1: Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow executive
Speaker 1: producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn. The music
Speaker 1: in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated
Speaker 1: composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all
Speaker 1: social media platforms at Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction.
Speaker 1: You can also follow me on Instagram at it's Jason Vlahm.
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one