Speaker 1: Since our initial release of James Davis's story, there have
Speaker 1: been some incredible developments. This is a rerelease of that
Speaker 1: story with new content outlining the great news. On January two,
Speaker 1: thousand four, James J. Davis went to a big party
Speaker 1: at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple to celebrate his little brother,
Speaker 1: Daniel's birthday. James's knight was cut short when he drank
Speaker 1: too much and vomited several times. Daniel put him in
Speaker 1: a cab to meet with his girlfriend Kenin Johnson. Two
Speaker 1: hours later, a big fight broke out in the club,
Speaker 1: resulting in their friend, Jamal Black, being stabbed and another man,
Speaker 1: Blake Harper, being shot and killed. Police would interview people
Speaker 1: at the scene to get a description of the shooter,
Speaker 1: a light skinned black man with braids, but James didn't
Speaker 1: have braids at the time. He had short hair with waves.
Speaker 1: Police then called stabbing victim Jamal Black's home and spoke
Speaker 1: to his sister, who happened to be James's spurned x
Speaker 1: Teina Black, who casually named James Is the shoot her,
Speaker 1: even though she had never even been at the party
Speaker 1: in the first place. Police found Jamal at the hospital,
Speaker 1: who told them the identity of the real shooter, Ta Hall,
Speaker 1: so was it Ta or Ja. Two weeks later, Jose Machicote,
Speaker 1: who was at the club that night, would enter the
Speaker 1: precinct and second Tina Black's identification. About six weeks after that,
Speaker 1: James found himself the target of an interrogation, a sham lineup,
Speaker 1: and a murder charge. Only after his case was picked
Speaker 1: up by the Legal Aid Society was it revealed that
Speaker 1: Jose Machicote was actually one of the most dangerous drug
Speaker 1: dealers in Brooklyn and the subject of a joint FBI
Speaker 1: NYPD investigation. Magic Cote was murdered five months after his
Speaker 1: false testimony that sent James to prison for the rest
Speaker 1: of his life. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam. That's me.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, and today you're gonna hear a story
Speaker 1: that when they write the History of Wrongful Convictions they
Speaker 1: could put this on the cover, because this story is
Speaker 1: so outrageous that well, you're just gonna have to hear
Speaker 1: it for yourself. Hello, this is a prepaid correct call
Speaker 1: from an inmate at New York State Department of corrections
Speaker 1: and community supervision. This call is subject to recording and monitoring.
Speaker 1: To accept charges, press one to refuse charges, press too.
Speaker 1: You would like thank you for using Securist. You may
Speaker 1: start the conversation now. On the phone from prison where
Speaker 1: he's been for almost twenty years, we have James J. Davis. Jay,
Speaker 1: thanks for calling in and I hope that we'll be
Speaker 1: able to make a difference. And with us today we
Speaker 1: have Elizabeth Felber, who is the supervising attorney in the
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Unit of the Legal Aid Society. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having us. Let's go back to the beginning. James,
Speaker 1: you had a rough childhood growing up in Brownsville right very.
Speaker 1: My mother and my father weren't really in my life.
Speaker 1: It was more my grandmother and my brother. My father
Speaker 1: died when I was in fourth grade. Roughly two years later,
Speaker 1: my mother passed away. The year before that, my brother
Speaker 1: father passed away, so both of us had no parents
Speaker 1: by the time I reached sixth grade. I had to
Speaker 1: keep people from picking on him outside as well as
Speaker 1: keep people from picking on me and bullying me. So
Speaker 1: that's when the fight started happening, and I started getting
Speaker 1: into a lot of trouble. I was doing a lot
Speaker 1: of stupid stuff. I was young, was robbing people, I
Speaker 1: was selling weird and that's when you ended up in juvie. Yes,
Speaker 1: when when I when I made it the juvie. I'm
Speaker 1: going to school and I met this teacher guy named
Speaker 1: Mr Bliss, and he convinced me to take my g
Speaker 1: D and I ended up passing at that past he
Speaker 1: was like, you can go to community college and get
Speaker 1: going to high school now for re education. So I
Speaker 1: understand you're accepted the CAPE for your community college in
Speaker 1: North Carolina, near where your aunt lived, no small feat
Speaker 1: considering your record, but your probation officer wouldn't transfer your
Speaker 1: supervision out of state, so you were trying to get
Speaker 1: yourself into some computer science classes locally. Around that time,
Speaker 1: I found out that my brother was into the streets,
Speaker 1: and that's pretty much where I got back involved in
Speaker 1: the streets, something weed and being there for this case. Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: take us back to January four. What happened that faithful night? Okay,
Speaker 1: So January was his brother Daniel's birthday, and Daniel wanted
Speaker 1: to go to a party that was being held at
Speaker 1: a Masonic temple lodge where they hosted events. It was
Speaker 1: a party for people with January birthdays. We all grew
Speaker 1: up in the projects. Bo is an older guy from
Speaker 1: the neighborhood that he's like a l like guy. He
Speaker 1: does parties. He knew my brother as well. My brother
Speaker 1: he've been talking about his birthday for a long time,
Speaker 1: so they put him on the flyer. I guess when
Speaker 1: my brother birthday. My plan was the like, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna shield, maybe call up some girls to come hang
Speaker 1: out at the projects with us. He was been doing
Speaker 1: going to the party because his name was on the flyers.
Speaker 1: So it comes to be almost twelve o'clock and I
Speaker 1: wanted to surprise my brother, so I walked to the
Speaker 1: liquor store before closed to get a bottle of the
Speaker 1: wet and the bottle of Hennessy. And when I got back,
Speaker 1: my brother was like, oh, I forgot the party. So
Speaker 1: by the time he got to the party, he had
Speaker 1: had a few already, and then he proceeded to have
Speaker 1: a few more drinks in the bathroom because they told him, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can have your own drink, but you have to
Speaker 1: put some shade on it. Before you know it, I
Speaker 1: was trying to rush my drinks so that we can
Speaker 1: actually get out of the bathroom. I wanted to see
Speaker 1: what the party was really like in the Hennessey, and
Speaker 1: the more wet turned my stomach over. That was the
Speaker 1: start of the end of the night. I threw up
Speaker 1: maybe once or twice in the bathroom, and before I
Speaker 1: know it, threw the laugh and I hear my brother
Speaker 1: pretty much like, come on, man, now, I gotta take
Speaker 1: you back home. We just got here. We ain't even
Speaker 1: fully been in the club long enough. Through negotiation, I
Speaker 1: just told him and I just woke me outside. I
Speaker 1: catch a cab and I go to my girlfriend house.
Speaker 1: So they went outside. They got a cab and James
Speaker 1: called his girlfriend kennein Johnson and took the cab to
Speaker 1: her place and she met him outside. Her mother didn't
Speaker 1: like James, so they would stay with her aunt. I
Speaker 1: got there to forty five maybe three. So when I
Speaker 1: got there, she's sitting on the steps already. I step
Speaker 1: out the cab and I threw up in between cars.
Speaker 1: Before I even touched the sidewalk. She came running down
Speaker 1: the steps, rubbed my back, I think, and walk to
Speaker 1: our house, stop at the store and went in to
Speaker 1: our house, so he was long gone Before anything happened.
Speaker 1: At the party, which was around four in the morning,
Speaker 1: a fight broke out and somebody was seriously stabbed. We
Speaker 1: now know that was Jamale Black, and Blake Harper was
Speaker 1: shot and killed. A couple other people were shot, but
Speaker 1: not seriously. Um James had already left the party hours earlier.
Speaker 1: So you wake up the next morning at your girlfriend
Speaker 1: canins her aunt's house. Really, and one of the guys
Speaker 1: you were with, Jamale Black, had been stabbed the night before?
Speaker 1: How did you hear that news? Both of us up
Speaker 1: the news was on It's about the Masonic temple. Immediately
Speaker 1: called my house on the landline in my arms, like,
Speaker 1: Jamal got stabbed and somebody got killed, but nobody knew
Speaker 1: who the guy was that got killed. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm coming over there. I got there. My brother pretty
Speaker 1: much told me all wasn't really involved in it, but
Speaker 1: it was crazy and eating. The fight broke out, people shooting,
Speaker 1: girls screaming, and everybody running. Police had responded to the
Speaker 1: scene and they interviewed a number of people at the club,
Speaker 1: and no one that they interviewed knew the identity of
Speaker 1: the shooter, but he was described as a young, light
Speaker 1: skinned Blackmail with braids on the back of his head. Now, James,
Speaker 1: is that an accurate description of you at that time? No,
Speaker 1: I actually didn't have braids at the time. I had
Speaker 1: a low season like waves. So police have already interviewed
Speaker 1: witnesses at the scene the night before your friend who
Speaker 1: was stabbed, Jamal Black. They call his house, but they
Speaker 1: get a sister on the phone instead back like the
Speaker 1: first girlfriend I ever had. What we learned was that
Speaker 1: Tina Black still harbord a flame for him and was
Speaker 1: hugely jealous when she found out that he had a
Speaker 1: new girlfriend, and out of spite, she told the police
Speaker 1: that James did the shooting, even though you can tell
Speaker 1: by the only police record on her she wasn't at
Speaker 1: the party that night. She was very sick with juvenile diabete.
Speaker 1: He's too sick to go to a party. The police
Speaker 1: should have known that she wasn't at the party, and
Speaker 1: yet they just focused on him. The second page of
Speaker 1: the detective notebook says PERP James Davis j So it's
Speaker 1: just tunnel vision from then on out right, So the
Speaker 1: people that were there couldn't identify the suspect the woman
Speaker 1: who wasn't there does identify a suspect. And of course
Speaker 1: we know that Tina later on confessed to her mother
Speaker 1: and to others and she had lied to the police.
Speaker 1: Now we're up to the part where the detectives went
Speaker 1: to the hospital, right and the interview Jamal Black. So
Speaker 1: the detectives actually went to the hospital the day of
Speaker 1: the incident and they were told he was just coming
Speaker 1: out of surgery. He was too out of it. The
Speaker 1: doctors wouldn't let him interview Jamal. Jamal testified out our
Speaker 1: hearing and he told the court that what happened was
Speaker 1: those detectives came back later and Jamal told them he
Speaker 1: had been stabbed by the guy who was subsequently killed,
Speaker 1: and this guy named tay Hall was helping him out
Speaker 1: of the party when he says, oh shit, pushes Jamal
Speaker 1: to the ground and you hear shots fired. Jamal looks
Speaker 1: up and he sees putting a gun back in his
Speaker 1: pocket and saying, I got to get out of here.
Speaker 1: The police are coming. But there was no written report
Speaker 1: about that conversation and it never came out. At the hearing.
Speaker 1: The judge said, oh, it's just not credible that they
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a report about it. Well, it's also not
Speaker 1: credible that you wouldn't interview the person who was stabbed,
Speaker 1: because they would most likely have the most relevant information.
Speaker 1: So let's fast forward then to a couple of months
Speaker 1: after the shooting, right, and that's when the warrant squad came.
Speaker 1: They were actually looking for your younger brother when they
Speaker 1: arrested you, and you weren't even aware that they were
Speaker 1: looking for you because you knew that you didn't have
Speaker 1: anything to do with this and there was no reason
Speaker 1: to suspect you of anything other than being drunk and
Speaker 1: thrown up on the sidewalk. They took me from my
Speaker 1: house under the guides that I had a warrant, which
Speaker 1: I did. I did have a warrant for disorderly conducting
Speaker 1: blue community service with the of it. Took me to
Speaker 1: the court building, took me down to like HAMMASI headquarters
Speaker 1: where I'm at Detective Hutchinson for the first time before
Speaker 1: they took me to the precinct. At the precinct, they
Speaker 1: pretty much was asking me, do I know Jamal Black?
Speaker 1: And do I know what happened to Jamal Black? So
Speaker 1: I explained to them the same thing that I just
Speaker 1: was telling you about getting drunk and leaving. Who actually
Speaker 1: walked me to the door? Whatever where I went after
Speaker 1: I left the party? From there, I don't I don't
Speaker 1: remember exactly the rest of the questions, but it was
Speaker 1: pretty much all about the shooting there. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: when when am I going to court? I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: be going to court? Like, No, what we're gonna do
Speaker 1: is we're gonna put you in the lineup. I'm like,
Speaker 1: a line up. I need a lawyer. It's like, do
Speaker 1: you have a lawyer? I'm like, no, I don't have
Speaker 1: a lawyer, but I have a lawyer in my family
Speaker 1: who can come and represent me. But he tells me
Speaker 1: if I don't have a number for him, then he
Speaker 1: can't call them. Then they just took me back to
Speaker 1: the room and left me in the room, and from
Speaker 1: there it went to the lineup and he came back
Speaker 1: before guys. Three of them is dog skin, two of
Speaker 1: them have He said, nobody looks like me, nobody favors
Speaker 1: me in no way, shape or form. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: this can't be did he brings two more guys in,
Speaker 1: like Indian looking guys. I'm nah, this is this Las,
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about it? This lineup?
Speaker 1: And now things went so wrong. So the lineup in
Speaker 1: itself was already suggestive. But there were three people who
Speaker 1: viewed the lineup. One of them was jose Macha Cody.
Speaker 1: He was the first witness that they brought into view
Speaker 1: a photo spread about six weeks earlier, and it was
Speaker 1: unclear why he was called. He was the brother in
Speaker 1: law of the man who died, but he was not
Speaker 1: one of the people that had been originally interviewed. It's
Speaker 1: pretty common knowledge that when you've picked someone out of
Speaker 1: a photograph, you picked them again in the lineup because
Speaker 1: you recognized them as the person. But the lineup happened
Speaker 1: six weeks later. At the lineup, the two other witnesses,
Speaker 1: Harold Poe and Sean Belton, they were brought there by
Speaker 1: the mother of the deceased, and according to their testimony,
Speaker 1: she called them and said, they have the guy they
Speaker 1: think did it at the precinct, and they want you
Speaker 1: to just come to see if you can, you know,
Speaker 1: identify him or something to that effect. That's already contaminating
Speaker 1: the lineup because there's a pressure put on them that
Speaker 1: this is the person they have, the person they feel
Speaker 1: compelled to pick one person, especially especially when the mother
Speaker 1: of the deceased has show for driven you to the precincts.
Speaker 1: So they picked James. But one of them said always
Speaker 1: from the beginning, well he resembles him except where the braids,
Speaker 1: because when James got arrested, his hair was short. And
Speaker 1: the other guy, Sean Belton, Now, originally he had said
Speaker 1: I didn't see anything when the police spoke to him.
Speaker 1: Now he said, oh, I just said that because I
Speaker 1: was afraid. But the description he gave before he viewed
Speaker 1: him was of someone wearing a Skully cap and that's
Speaker 1: nowhere in any description. And also five ten and James
Speaker 1: was like five seven, so he didn't even describe someone
Speaker 1: that looked like James. So that's how they picked him.
Speaker 1: There was a fourth person at the lineup who did
Speaker 1: not testify at the trial or the hearings, and what
Speaker 1: Detective Hutchinson said about him was he picked him out.
Speaker 1: He just wouldn't sign the sheets saying he had again
Speaker 1: you know though some things, just your alarm goes off
Speaker 1: that smells fishies. So um, we caught up with him.
Speaker 1: He did not want to be involved. He made that
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty clear. But what he told us
Speaker 1: was no, I never said that was the guy. That's
Speaker 1: why I wouldn't sign. And what I said to them was,
Speaker 1: if you say that's the guy, that's the guy. So
Speaker 1: to me, that says they were being prompted to pick James,
Speaker 1: and I should just add that. Sean Belton at the
Speaker 1: second trial retanted again and said I just glanced at him.
Speaker 1: He gave four separate statements, so that was him, and
Speaker 1: the other guy always only said he resembled him. So
Speaker 1: essentially it really came down to hose the Macha cody
Speaker 1: when you think about the convenience of Tina Black Jr.
Speaker 1: Give him my name to the detective. And then a
Speaker 1: week later, Jose Monte Codi, the drug building, violent robber
Speaker 1: who's a humble barber, now just happens to walk into
Speaker 1: the priestsct Though he didn't stay at the crime scene
Speaker 1: when everything happened, he fled the crime scene. He walks
Speaker 1: into the precinct and he picks my picture. He's the
Speaker 1: only one that goes to the precinct. And it just
Speaker 1: so happens that he's known in this neighborhood to me
Speaker 1: the whole The whole case is weird from beginning to end.
Speaker 1: I think that this was a misunderstanding, maybe from speaking
Speaker 1: to Jamale Black and him telling them the story he
Speaker 1: told him about pay then then acting his sister about Hey,
Speaker 1: and she telling them Jane, and they just went from
Speaker 1: there with the easiest thing that they could do to
Speaker 1: close the case, and and it just so happened to
Speaker 1: be that I was convenient for them. This episode is
Speaker 1: underwritten by Paul Weiss, Rifkin, Orton, and Garrison. A leading
Speaker 1: international offer. Paul Weiss has long had an unwavering commitment
Speaker 1: to provide an impactful, pro bono legal assistance to the
Speaker 1: most vulnerable members of our society and in support of
Speaker 1: the public interest, including extensive work in the criminal justice area.
Speaker 1: After the lineup, they told me I was being charged
Speaker 1: with murder, and he offered me a deal pretty much
Speaker 1: to taking questions and asked me to tell him that
Speaker 1: I did it because he already heard about the story
Speaker 1: of what happened. Somebody told him that two groups of
Speaker 1: guys was fighting and the guy and one of the
Speaker 1: groups had a knife and the gun of a group
Speaker 1: had a gun, and he shot the guy with the
Speaker 1: knife that defend itself. But you can tell me that
Speaker 1: and I can help you speak to the d eight.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell kind of ship is that?
Speaker 1: Why the funk would I tell you I did something
Speaker 1: that I'm telling you I wasn't even aware of. I
Speaker 1: wasn't there for you, Like you know, if I was you,
Speaker 1: I would have did the same thing. If it was
Speaker 1: me that God comes at me with a knife and
Speaker 1: I got a gun, I would have shot him to
Speaker 1: you ain't doing nothing wrong. I was like, but you
Speaker 1: want me to admit to something, I didn't do it.
Speaker 1: That's wrong right there? Think of printing me and put
Speaker 1: me in a holding cell for the rest of the night.
Speaker 1: Now things go from bad to worse right the trial.
Speaker 1: There's a number of problems at both trials. Although the
Speaker 1: first trial, amazingly, in spite of the fact that you
Speaker 1: had substandard defense, you still ended up with an eleven
Speaker 1: to one hung jury in favor of acquittal. You have
Speaker 1: this this one guy, Jose Macha Cody, who's laming the
Speaker 1: cause of this fight for his brother in law. Well,
Speaker 1: the two prosecutors witnesses beside him are saying and that
Speaker 1: he started the whole fight, and he's saying that I
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. I'm a humble barber.
Speaker 1: I never permitted a crime again after I was blocked
Speaker 1: up all of those years ago. You have a conflict
Speaker 1: between your own witnesses. Nine Johnson, his girlfriend did testify
Speaker 1: at the first trial. She's explaining to them how I
Speaker 1: came to her aunt's place. While we didn't stay at
Speaker 1: a mother's house. Some of us was like a CEO
Speaker 1: or x CEO at the time. I guess she didn't
Speaker 1: think I was good enough for her daughter. I think that,
Speaker 1: in part, was part of what I'm led to. The
Speaker 1: eleven to one acquitted that she was a very persuasive witness.
Speaker 1: But at the second trial, the d A is saying
Speaker 1: that I one of the witnesses, Sean Belton rekints but
Speaker 1: it's I can't really consider that rekinting because he went
Speaker 1: back to the initial statement that he never seen anything
Speaker 1: have a hold. We had his testimony read into the
Speaker 1: record because throughout the whole thing, he never identified me.
Speaker 1: He only referred to me as looking similar to one
Speaker 1: of the guys, the other person that they say picked
Speaker 1: me out of a photo hre. He never signed on
Speaker 1: none of the pictures, but the detective is saying, I
Speaker 1: made a monk next to the picture that he picked
Speaker 1: out because he wouldn't sign it. It's like that don't
Speaker 1: even make sense. The only only witness that they had
Speaker 1: was jose Manta Cody that actually positively picked me out
Speaker 1: of a lineup, and all you needed was your star
Speaker 1: witness Kenney and Johnson to show up and counter magic,
Speaker 1: just like she did at the first trial. But at
Speaker 1: the second trial, I'm not with my girlfriend anymore, so
Speaker 1: our contact is kind of really touch and go, where
Speaker 1: you know that I'm only calling to notify her of
Speaker 1: court dates and what's going on with my life, which
Speaker 1: she's trying to avoid. I guess I don't know. My
Speaker 1: lawyers said he spoke to her and she was supposed
Speaker 1: to be coming in and then she didn't show up,
Speaker 1: but she was still being nice to him on the phone.
Speaker 1: He called her again and then she cursed him out.
Speaker 1: She told him that he sent police to her house
Speaker 1: that like one in the morning. But we learned that
Speaker 1: day in the court room that it wasn't actually my
Speaker 1: lawyer that sent the police, that it was the district
Speaker 1: attorney who subpoenaed her, even though in court she said,
Speaker 1: I never planned on calling this girl as a witness
Speaker 1: because I don't know what she's gonna say, even though
Speaker 1: she heard what my witness said at the first trial.
Speaker 1: But they still the subpoened hub and sent police to
Speaker 1: her house that like one in the morning, which actually
Speaker 1: infuriated her mother and caused her mother to kick out.
Speaker 1: That right there, pretty much still the deal as far
Speaker 1: as her come in to court and tell me guilty.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's listening it is probably wondering right now. Well,
Speaker 1: if if I was representing him back then, I would
Speaker 1: have checked to cell phone records. I would have checked
Speaker 1: the cab records. We could have gotten ahold of the
Speaker 1: cab company and see if anybody because you took a
Speaker 1: cab right, and none of that stuff was done right.
Speaker 1: The weird thing is, out of all of the easy
Speaker 1: stuff that we think of that could have been done,
Speaker 1: my attorney at the time highest uh chiropractor or a
Speaker 1: child doctor to do medical examin or work. And I've
Speaker 1: never even seen the medical examin of work or any
Speaker 1: paperwork that he had done. But he didn't go and
Speaker 1: check a cab, he didn't go and speak to none
Speaker 1: of these witnesses. That's in the d D files from
Speaker 1: the police reports. But you found adopted to play as
Speaker 1: a medical examiner from your office building. It's sad to say,
Speaker 1: but if you don't have money to actually pay for
Speaker 1: a lawyer and the justice system doesn't really work for you,
Speaker 1: it's real that it does. So meanwhile, the story goes on.
Speaker 1: Mr Machakot was murdered by a drug dealer five months
Speaker 1: after James second trial. Yes, after he was trying to
Speaker 1: rob the drug deal there for the second time in
Speaker 1: a month. Um, so yeah, he was tortured and killed.
Speaker 1: And I mean, this is some Clinton Tarantino stuff now,
Speaker 1: but this is the guy that the authorities were painting
Speaker 1: to be a wonderful citizen who was bravely coming forward
Speaker 1: and now he's a simple barber and blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So that's all out the window. So we learned this
Speaker 1: as the hearing was going on, the actual innocence hearing
Speaker 1: that we litigated last summer and we're appealing now. During
Speaker 1: our hearing, I reached out to the assistant U S
Speaker 1: attorney because people were prosecuted federally for killing Macha Cody,
Speaker 1: and through it I met the FBI agent who told
Speaker 1: me that at the time of the trial, Jose Macha
Speaker 1: Cody was under their investigation. It was a joint NYPD
Speaker 1: FBI investigation into drug dealing, major drug dealing in Brownsville
Speaker 1: and lo and Behold. In the spring, which was when
Speaker 1: the second trial was happening, a confidential informant was buying
Speaker 1: huge quantity of heroin and cocaine from Match of Cody.
Speaker 1: Now we don't know if the assistant district attorney knew that,
Speaker 1: but it's hard to believe that the detective who used
Speaker 1: to be a narcotics detective in Brownsville did not know
Speaker 1: that this man was a one of the major most
Speaker 1: violent drug dealers in Brooklyn and be under you know,
Speaker 1: investigation by the FBI. So that was never disclosed. No,
Speaker 1: that would have been an inconvenient fact to bring up.
Speaker 1: And they were trying to present him as the perfect witness, right,
Speaker 1: and what was in it for Match of Cody? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go down too deep a rabbit
Speaker 1: hole of conspiracy theories, but that he was on parole
Speaker 1: the night of this murder. He had violated parole by
Speaker 1: being out past his curfew and the fight that Jay
Speaker 1: was referring to a lot of the police reports, say
Speaker 1: a Spanish guy wearing a fur coat grabbed a bottle
Speaker 1: within a fight on the floor. That was Macha Cody,
Speaker 1: So that was also a violation of parole. So I
Speaker 1: don't know whether they threatened him with having him locked up,
Speaker 1: whether there was something corrupt going on. You know, it
Speaker 1: was the seventy Precinct, which is notorious. And all we
Speaker 1: do know is that when the prosecutor got up in
Speaker 1: summation and said, he's such a credible witness, and you
Speaker 1: know he's credible because he was so honest about his
Speaker 1: past and now he's a barber. Well he might have
Speaker 1: been honest about his past, but he wasn't really honest
Speaker 1: about his present. So you know, in addition to the
Speaker 1: problems with you know, idea evidence in a situation like that,
Speaker 1: you also have this unsavory character pretending to be someone
Speaker 1: that he's not. It's almost like an exclamation point on
Speaker 1: the whole thing. You know, he ends up in like
Speaker 1: a scene from Reservoir Dogs, being tortured to death by
Speaker 1: a guy who he was trying to rob for a
Speaker 1: second time, a drug dealer. I mean, nice witness right,
Speaker 1: and the first time he entered at gunpoint and tied
Speaker 1: them up and robbed them. So it wasn't his first rodeo, no,
Speaker 1: And it sounds like they turned the tables on him.
Speaker 1: And then he took this false testimony presented to the
Speaker 1: grave with him. But I didn't know that justice system
Speaker 1: actually takes this long. But I thought, maybe, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: two years, I'll be back home. They fixed this whole thing,
Speaker 1: and I'll be home. Two years turned into seventeen and
Speaker 1: I'm still fighting and trying to convince them that they
Speaker 1: actually locked up the wrong person. And then, to compound
Speaker 1: this tragedy again, the little brother that you felt so
Speaker 1: responsible for it was murdered in two thousand twelve. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't possibly begin to imagine your pain. But your
Speaker 1: grandmother's still here. My brother, my grandmother was like my
Speaker 1: oldest friends in the world. My grandmother have been here
Speaker 1: for as long as I knew. I know she know
Speaker 1: my pain, and my brother was there with me through
Speaker 1: every thing. So it's like I lost out on with
Speaker 1: little I was able to spend his life with him
Speaker 1: in seventeen years. And my grandmother's like she was sixty
Speaker 1: three I dismissed all of these birthdays and times to
Speaker 1: spend with her. I think that was my first Christmas ever,
Speaker 1: actually really buying my grandmother my own gift, and she
Speaker 1: was so happy for that. And then yeah, every year
Speaker 1: since that's something I didn't even do, pray for her
Speaker 1: every night. I need her to be strong for me,
Speaker 1: because that's one of the reasons that I lived for
Speaker 1: my grandmother. My mother was murdered two weeks or yeah,
Speaker 1: weekend some change at the Mother's Day, which was hard
Speaker 1: for my grandmother, and then my brother on Father's Day
Speaker 1: right before her birthday. So it's like I've had a real,
Speaker 1: real rough journey. Her journey is just as rough. So
Speaker 1: this is why that's like my closest friend right there
Speaker 1: outside of my brother that passed away. Yeah, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: We need to do everything we can to bring you home, James. Yes,
Speaker 1: So now you know we get to the post conviction investigation,
Speaker 1: and of course you had a meeting with the conviction
Speaker 1: Review Unit in Brooklyn that was actually before I became
Speaker 1: involved in the case. Susan Epstein, who did the appeal
Speaker 1: and did a phenomenal investigation, brought the witnesses to the
Speaker 1: Conviction Review Unit. They had the case incredibly for five years.
Speaker 1: It's not exactly clear what happened, but one refrain that
Speaker 1: is throughout the transcripts of those interviews is why didn't
Speaker 1: you come forward sooner? And there's lots of them, right,
Speaker 1: It's not like this is one person. These are people
Speaker 1: who are you know, members of the community, who are
Speaker 1: who are not kids anymore either. I don't know why
Speaker 1: they dragged their feet and they never came right out
Speaker 1: and said we don't believe you, we think he's guilty.
Speaker 1: Even after we brought the motion and started the hearing,
Speaker 1: they said to the press, you know, we're still looking
Speaker 1: into it, or something to that effect. But for some
Speaker 1: reason they just were unpersuaded. And that brings us to
Speaker 1: the hearing we've been referring to this entire time. You
Speaker 1: and Susan Wilder for fort Emotion, which is New York
Speaker 1: legally'es for a motion to set aside the judgment that
Speaker 1: was in September two thou eighteen, and you argued for
Speaker 1: James's actual innocence as well as ineffective assistance of council
Speaker 1: and newly discovered evidence. At this hearing back in June
Speaker 1: of two thousand nineteen. Yes, we were pretty optimistic going
Speaker 1: into it. So we had eight witnesses, including James. James
Speaker 1: went first, so he told the story that you heard,
Speaker 1: you know, about leaving because he was intoxicated. And then
Speaker 1: you Jamil Black came in and he had initially refused
Speaker 1: to cooperate and sent a letter to Susan saying he
Speaker 1: ruined my life because he had James had slept with
Speaker 1: his girlfriend when he was locked up at Rikers and
Speaker 1: he held a grudge. But he came in and he
Speaker 1: told the whole story. First of all, he helped walk
Speaker 1: James out to the car, but then they started to
Speaker 1: get into a fight about this girlfriend again and he
Speaker 1: went inside and he met up with Tay, the shooter.
Speaker 1: So he told the whole story about how the stabbing happened,
Speaker 1: and how the shooting happened, and how it was Tay,
Speaker 1: and then how he told this to the police. We
Speaker 1: also had the woman who cut his hair and that
Speaker 1: the last time she saw him his hair was short.
Speaker 1: And you had Corey Hines, who was at the party
Speaker 1: in the bathroom laughing at him as he was throwing up.
Speaker 1: His brother had signed an affi David saying I put
Speaker 1: him in a cab and sent him to his girlfriend's house.
Speaker 1: I'm sadly he was murdered in two thousand twelve, so
Speaker 1: we didn't have him as a witness. We had his
Speaker 1: affidavit and we believe the judge should have allowed that
Speaker 1: into evidence, and he didn't. And we had Kenine Johnson,
Speaker 1: the girlfriend who didn't show up at the second trial.
Speaker 1: We actually had to do what's called a material witness
Speaker 1: order to have her arrested to bring her in, which
Speaker 1: I really didn't want to do. So when that happens,
Speaker 1: they assigned an attorney to you, and the attorney came
Speaker 1: in and said to the judge, she's willing to testify,
Speaker 1: but she's terrified of the family. And what came out
Speaker 1: on the witness stand is that after she testified at
Speaker 1: the first trial, friends and family of the deceased followed
Speaker 1: her not just out of the courtroom, but out of
Speaker 1: the courthouse, calling her names, threatening her if we're going
Speaker 1: to find out where you live, if we see you
Speaker 1: on the street, And it was so bad that James's
Speaker 1: attorney put her in a cab because he was afraid
Speaker 1: of her having to take public transportation home, so here
Speaker 1: she is. She hasn't seen James since the first trial,
Speaker 1: and she essentially says exactly what she testified to years before,
Speaker 1: that he got out of the car, threw up, and
Speaker 1: she got am ginger ale out of bodega and they
Speaker 1: walked to his hands. So she told that entire story.
Speaker 1: The two new witnesses that I found also particularly compelling.
Speaker 1: One was b O. His real name is Ernest. Ernest
Speaker 1: was one of the promoters, and we asked him, well,
Speaker 1: how is it that you remember that he was there,
Speaker 1: and he said, so, I remember when he came in
Speaker 1: and I was joking about whose waves were better. So, unprompted,
Speaker 1: he basically said he had short hair at the time.
Speaker 1: And he also said somebody had thrown up by the bar,
Speaker 1: and he asked the bouncer what happened here, and he said, oh,
Speaker 1: you know those two brothers. One of them was drunk,
Speaker 1: and I told him they had to leave. So that
Speaker 1: was information we didn't even know about. I think it's
Speaker 1: also worthwhile to mention Tina Black, a young woman who
Speaker 1: named James in the first place, is sadly no longer
Speaker 1: with us. In two thousand thirteen, she died of complications
Speaker 1: related to the very diabetes that had kept her from
Speaker 1: the party that faithful night, all the way back in
Speaker 1: two thousand four. And then lastly, and maybe the most
Speaker 1: emotionally compelling witness was Tina Black Senior, the mother. So
Speaker 1: she came in, you know, with the cane. She's like
Speaker 1: crippled by arthritis. She basically was racked with guilt that
Speaker 1: her daughter eventually confessed to her and that she had
Speaker 1: set James up and that he was never coming home,
Speaker 1: and that she was still in love with him. So
Speaker 1: that was extremely compelling testimonies. So that was essentially our case.
Speaker 1: Then January, sixteen years to the day after Blake Harper
Speaker 1: was tragically murdered, the judge denied James Davis's wrongful conviction
Speaker 1: motion and its entirety. I remember reading that the first time,
Speaker 1: We're going, oh god, right, we were stunned. And then
Speaker 1: we asked the judge to reopen the hearing so that
Speaker 1: we could call this FBI agent, so that we could
Speaker 1: show that they would have known about this evidence that
Speaker 1: Matchic Cody was not just a humble barber, but he
Speaker 1: was a major drug dealer in Brooklyn, and the judge
Speaker 1: refused to reopen the hearing, and now there's really literally
Speaker 1: one stop left on this. You don't get to appeal
Speaker 1: of four or forty as a matter of right, you
Speaker 1: have to ask permission. He's called seeking leave to appeal,
Speaker 1: and we did get permission to appeal. So we are
Speaker 1: in the process of writing a brief and this is
Speaker 1: the last stop. We are going to the second Department
Speaker 1: of Pellet Division and asking them first and foremost to
Speaker 1: find him innocent and dismiss these charges. So it turns
Speaker 1: out that the last stop in the second department of
Speaker 1: Palate Division, Jay and Elizabeth Hail Mary pass was a
Speaker 1: great success. And I have with me right now, James J. Davis. Jay,
Speaker 1: welcome back to wrongful conviction, finally breathing free. Hey man,
Speaker 1: thank you, Jason, thank you for having me back. If
Speaker 1: it was good to actually be doing this from my
Speaker 1: own cell phone instead of a jailful yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 1: Obviously this should have never happened. It would have been
Speaker 1: better if you never had to go through this in
Speaker 1: the first place. But now, from what I understand, Elizabeth
Speaker 1: was able to finally prove that your trial counsel was
Speaker 1: ineffective because he failed to present any of the laundry
Speaker 1: list of alibi witnesses that would have easily and certainly
Speaker 1: cast reasonable doubt and proven your innocence at the original trial.
Speaker 1: Do you have, like if you could say anything to them,
Speaker 1: because they're probably listening, let's face it, do you have
Speaker 1: a message for Elizabeth and all her great people at
Speaker 1: the Legal Aid Society. I gotta think Susan and Elizabeth
Speaker 1: and invest of the Legal Aid Society, but the hope
Speaker 1: that they gave me. Without them, I wouldn't be here
Speaker 1: right now. So that's the great news. But the truth
Speaker 1: is we're not completely out of the woods yet, because
Speaker 1: after all, the Brooklyn d A has the choice to
Speaker 1: either appeal the decision, retry you, or dismiss the charges,
Speaker 1: and we're all hoping and so many of us are
Speaker 1: praying that they choose the ladder, because, as we've outlined here,
Speaker 1: out of the three who originally identified you, there's Seawan
Speaker 1: Belton who recanted, and Harold Poe, who didn't testify at
Speaker 1: the second trial and always only said James resemble the shooters.
Speaker 1: So that leaves the dead drug dealer who lied to
Speaker 1: the jury about his true identity a lie. The prosecutor
Speaker 1: capitalized on in her summation, the likely incentivized witness, Jose Machakote,
Speaker 1: is the only person left identifying you. Meanwhile, the person
Speaker 1: who was stabbed and saw Tey Hall kill bla carper.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm referring to Jamal Black, a guy who,
Speaker 1: despite his own personal grudge against you, testified to your
Speaker 1: innocence and to Tay Hall's guilt. So if the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: d A's Office chooses to continue to charge you, it's
Speaker 1: definitely not any interest of justice. Please don't let us
Speaker 1: down here. And that said, Jay, what have you been
Speaker 1: up to since you're releasing I've been trying to spend
Speaker 1: time with my family, Man and my grandmother. Me and
Speaker 1: have been talking one on one about creating new memories because,
Speaker 1: as I told you before, my mother was murdered at
Speaker 1: the Mother's Day and my brother was murdered right at
Speaker 1: the father's day. So we've been putting positive energy into
Speaker 1: the universe to create new memories for them two occasions
Speaker 1: and me coming home started it off. So we're trying
Speaker 1: to continue, trying to do something nice for her birthday
Speaker 1: to create some better memories cover up the old ones.
Speaker 1: Just have some happy moments, man, enjoy the rest outside
Speaker 1: to get And is there any way that our wonderful
Speaker 1: audience can show you their support. There's a go fund
Speaker 1: me big that that my family is running for me
Speaker 1: right now and I'm trying to get me um be
Speaker 1: adjusted back to society. Anything that the audience can do
Speaker 1: to help me, great Man. I'm just happy to be
Speaker 1: here and have this opportunity. We will absolutely definitely have
Speaker 1: that link in our bio so our listeners can help.
Speaker 1: And I can honestly say, and everyone who knows me
Speaker 1: knows this. Nothing makes me happier than news like yours.
Speaker 1: So thank you again for talking with us. And with that,
Speaker 1: I'd like to give your closing an argument and update.
Speaker 1: And what I mean now again is I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: kick back in my chair, turn off my microphone and
Speaker 1: just listen to whatever you have to say, Jason Man,
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you, Man. I want
Speaker 1: to thank you again, Thanks Susan Epstein, Elizabeth Felber and
Speaker 1: the Legal Aist Society for to the help that they've
Speaker 1: given me. Mad I don't want to thank God Mancus
Speaker 1: without him, I wouldn't be here. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam. Please support your local
Speaker 1: innocence projects and go to the link in our bio
Speaker 1: to see how you can help. I'd like to thank
Speaker 1: our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburne and Kevin Wardens.
Speaker 1: The music on the show, as always, is by three
Speaker 1: time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
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Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam is a
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal
Speaker 1: Company Number one