WEBVTT - #265 Jason Flom with Keith Bush 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.160 The Innocent Network is an informal collective of independent organizations 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.440 that advocate on behalf of the wrongfully convicted, and every 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:09.840 year they gather along with the growing number of those 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.360 whom they've helped free. Our team was honored to join 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.520 them for their twenty twenty two gathering in Arizona. The 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.239 stories we heard were both heartbreaking and inspiring, and some 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.400 of those incredible people were willing to record with us. 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.360 On January tenth, nineteen seventy five, there was an open 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.320 house party in Suffolk County, Long Island, attended by seventeen 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.199 year old Keith Bush and fourteen year old Cherise Watson. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.400 Over twenty alibi witnesses confirmed that Keith Bush was with 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.120 them in the house around one thirty am, when Scherise 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:43.800 was believed to have gotten into a red sedan, never 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.200 to be seen alive again. The following day, Cheres's parents 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:50.120 frantic search for their daughter included a visit to Keith Bush, 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.360 who had told them about how he last saw her 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.880 inside the house party. Later that evening, her body was 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.640 discovered in a field near that house, having been strangled 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.600 to death. Us were partially on zipped and there were 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.080 multiple groupings of small punctual wounds on her back. Curiously, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.000 the wounds had not bled. Biological material and clothing fibers 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.520 were gathered from her fingernails, and a hair pick was 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.880 found near her body. Two witness statements emerged alleging that 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.240 Keith was the last person seen with Cherise. Ignoring a 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.199 more promising lead, investigators instead tortured Keith in the police 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.520 station until he relented and signed a statement he hadn't 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.840 even read. It was a false confession riddled with inconsistencies, 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:35.400 including an impossible hair pick stabbing scenario that sent Keith way. 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:37.080 For twenty years to life. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:42.080 DNA testing, independent autopsies, and witness recantations proved Keith's confession 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.600 was false, Yet Suffolk County authorities and the Parole Board 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.240 were not so easily convinced. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:02:03.720 This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.520 Here we're recording at the Innocence Network conference in Phoenix, 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:12.560 and what you're about to hear combines junk science, a 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:17.800 false confession, police and prosecutorial misconduct on a scale that 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:24.120 is staggering, lying witnesses, incentivized witnesses. It involves so many 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.480 of the causes of wrongful convictions that we see again 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.239 and again, all wrapped up into one. Keith Bush, Welcome 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:32.120 to wrongful conviction. 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:34.280 Thank you, Thank you for having me. 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.720 You know, I always say I'm sorry you're here because well, 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.280 the reason why we're interviewing you today. But I'm very 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:41.840 honored to have you here. 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:43.560 I appreciate being here. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.080 And your story is important for us to tell because 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:48.280 a lot of the reasons that I've already laid out. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.880 But before we do that, what I really want to 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.520 do is talk about the young man Keith Bush, the 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.800 young teenager Keith Bush growing up in Long Island. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:03.720 Well, I was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I was kind 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.680 of raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. My mother and my father 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.120 they separated when I was young. My mother has her 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:15.480 roots in Long Island. Her grandparents were born on the 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.320 Indian reservation. So she used to take us back and 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.440 forth to Long Island from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and then she 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:26.280 eventually moved to Bellport, New York. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:27.040 Got it. 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:31.000 And from what I understand, you were a fine young man. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:33.280 You weren't in any sort of trouble. Would you say 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:34.880 that you were on the right track growing up? 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.400 I was basically like most kids. I played sports, you know, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.119 I went to school, went to parties, and did basically 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.560 what you know kids normally do growing up. 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.160 Sounds like a nice childhood ride in the ferry back 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:53.000 and forth. Everything was fine more or less right. Everybody 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.680 has their ups and downs, but everything was fine until 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.680 this terrible incident that happened at a party Suffolk County, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:05.200 Long Island. And we know that Suffolk County unfortunately has 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:10.160 been a hotbed of police corruption and misconduct for generations. 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.440 Of course, we've covered the Marty Tankliff story on this podcast, 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.640 but your story is as powerful as any, so let's 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.719 get right into it. So this crime we're talking about 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.599 January eleventh, nineteen seventy five, the middle of the winter, 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.120 and on that fateful day, the parents of a young 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:33.800 girl named Sharise Watson called the Suffoc County Police Department 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.000 and they were worried because their daughter hadn't come home 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:37.599 from a party at a friend's house just a few 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.480 blocks away. This would be a cost for concern. She's fourteen, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.520 It's the wee hours of the morning, and they began 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.520 looking for Sharis. Now, about one hundred people had attended 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:48.560 this party, and you were one of them, right, Keith. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:54.000 That's correct. On Saturday, the eleventh of January nineteen seventy five, 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.719 Scharisse's mother, in her effort of trying to locate her daughter, 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.000 she was trying to go around finding all the peace 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.480 people that her daughter had come in contact with. They 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.600 came to my home and she had quiet about, you know, 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.359 Serice Watson, did she come home with me? Did she 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.919 leave with anybody or whatever? And I told her, I 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.279 don't know, because the last time I talked to her, 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:17.640 she walked out the front door and said I'll see 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.239 you later, but she didn't indicate that she was going 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.280 home or even coming back. And she said, well, if 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.479 you hear anything, could you give me a call. Later 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.839 on in the evening, they came back Cherise's mother and 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.560 her father to my house. That's when they came with 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:35.840 the police officer. And this time they obviously hadn't you know, 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.680 heard from her. And you're talking about five or six 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:39.839 o'clock in the afternoon. 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.480 I think it's every parent's worst nightmare, right, it is missing. 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.000 It's a young girl. I think that adds a layer 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.440 of fear, you know. But her body was found in 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.919 the field nearby where the party had been helped. Brace 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:56.240 yourself for this because it's hard to hear. But she 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.240 was faced down, her pants were partially unzipped, and there 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.599 were numerous small punctures on her back. That's an important detail, 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.320 as we'll see as we go along, And autopsy would 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:07.400 later say that she had been strangled with enough force 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.880 to snap the hyoid bone in her throat near her body, 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.080 another important detail which becomes the subject of misconduct of 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.400 a type that would be comical if it wasn't so 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.640 terrible and so serious. But near her body, police also 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.000 found a black plastic hairpick and a white hat. 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.599 You know, it's important to note that that night they 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:34.120 found Serise Watson, my cousin, and another friend that came 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.680 to my house with this elder gentleman Vietnam. That this 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.880 guy named Robert Stewart, and I didn't know him, but 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.839 my cousin, George Golson, knew him, and he seemed to 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.240 be a concerned person in the community, and we were 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.320 talking about what happened, and he wanted to try to help, 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:52.120 like a lot of people in the community, to find 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.840 out what happened to Scherise. So he had asked us, 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.160 if you know, we were willing to help find out 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.440 some of the people who was at the party, really 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.520 find out who did this, and so I agreed that, 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:04.480 you know, I would help in any way that I could, 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.520 and we had met over to this guy's house two nights. 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.880 He had said that, you know, there was having some 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.440 problems with the names of people who was at the party. 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.120 They didn't know how to connect the names to the faces, 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:18.920 and that maybe that we can kind of help connect 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.920 them because these people can probably provide some information about 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.920 what really happened. Only thing we knew at that time 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.240 was that Scherise Watson had came out the house and 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:33.240 got into a car, a stolen red car with three individuals, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.960 and drove off. We heard that these individuals were from 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:43.120 Riverhead in Suffolk County, which is another town over, but 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:46.520 I never knew who these persons were, and no one 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:48.360 really revealed it at that time. 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.880 So there's this whole red Sedan scenario right and compelling 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.720 alternate suspects. In fact, in May nineteen seventy five, which 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.000 was a few months after the murder, but critically before 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.840 you wereun for conviction, a guy named John Jones had 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:03.960 given a statement to the police which placed him at 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.000 the crime scene, and he admitted that the hair pick 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.080 at the scene was his. Now we can only speculate 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.600 that Jones wasn't pursued any further and a statement was 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.320 hidden from over four decades simply because police had already 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:19.640 decided that you were the guy. 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:20.000 Right. 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:24.120 Of course, that had dire consequences and not just only 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.040 for you, But we'll get to that in a minute. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.440 But back to the immedia aftermath. So you knew Charise 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.520 and you had joined Robert Stewart's effort with your cousin 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.160 George Golson and your friend Chuckie Corbyn. My understanding is 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.640 you told police what you told Cherise's mother, right the 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.000 same thing, that you had seen her walk out of 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:45.040 the party sometime around one am. Now, over twenty alibi 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.480 witnesses placed you at the party before you left around 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.280 three in the morning. Now, police claimed to have learned 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.360 that Cherise had left the party around when one thirty am, 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.440 and that a little while later people heard screaming and 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.000 shouts of rape coming from the field near the party 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.560 where her body was eventually bound. So on its face, 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.480 it seems very weird that no one from the party 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.520 looked into these alleged shouts of rape. And then I 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.120 also say that police claimed to have learned this because 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.559 wasn't Charisse said to have left in a red sedan. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:17.360 Now. 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.240 Police also interviewed a girl named Brenda Carlos, who said 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:22.520 that she had last seen Charise talking to you around 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.640 one fifteen am, but left the party before Charise, so 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.839 it doesn't seem like her statement is very relevant. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.880 Brenda Carlos was introduced to me by Charisse Watson that night. 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.600 From my understanding, Brenda Carlos was a little older than 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.880 Sarise and she was supposed to walk her home and 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:42.320 make sure she had got home. And Brenda Carlos had 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:46.080 said that she was going home, and Sharise Watson told 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.760 her that she wasn't going to go home, so she said, okay, 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.520 I'll see you later and she left. That was her 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.520 statement to police, which was kind of insignificant in terms 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:00.720 of the crime itself. But at trial when she testified, 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.320 she kind of altered that statement, and the bivocal part 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.240 of her testimony then became when she asked her where 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.679 you're going home? She said no, Kipy was going to 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.319 walk her home, and Kipy was supposed to be me 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:15.439 Keith Bush. 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:21.400 Even still, this would be circumstantial evidence even if her 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:22.800 second story was true. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:23.200 Right. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.120 What they were doing is kind of painting a picture. 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.640 Her statement might not have been relevant within itself, but 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:34.280 her statement becomes relevant when she's mentioning my name, and 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.880 then there's other evidence of suggestion that kind of points 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.040 to me now. 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:42.280 Police interviewed a teenage girl. Fifteen year old girl in 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.120 Vaccine Bell. She had recently run away from her foster 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.480 home and was living in an abandoned building. She knew 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.920 Sharise as well as you, Keith right, and many other 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:53.560 people at the party from when I guess she had 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:55.520 attended the same school as you did at one time. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:56.719 Oh, yes, she did so. 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:01.320 The statement she gave police, she said that she was 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.480 standing outside the party for several hours and had seen 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.959 you and Scharise leaving together quote unquote hugged up. That's 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.560 what she later testified, with your arms cradling Charise around 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.120 the neck. I wonder if somebody told her to say that, 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.520 I'm just saying, what can you tell us about this 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:18.120 young girl? 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.760 They had got two statements from him, but in that 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:26.000 first statement that Monday, which was the thirteenth of January 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:31.160 nineteen seventy five, she alleges that Cherise Watson comes out 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:36.679 the house with me, and when the Carlos later she backtracks. 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:40.160 She testifies that Charis Watson came out the house with me, 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.160 hugged up, and she asked her that you know, you 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.640 want me to walk you home, and then Cherise allegedly 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.079 told to know that you know, I was going to 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.959 walk her home, and she alleges that she left us 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.520 standing there and that was the last time, you know, 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.439 she had seen Charise, and she had hollered to her 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:02.440 that I'll call you tomorrow and she said okay. That 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:07.240 was her testimony, and that made me, according to the police, 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:13.120 a suspect in the case because that testimony was inconsistent 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.440 with the original statement I gave to police about my 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.440 activities on the night of the party. 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.679 Right, what you've always maintained about your activities on the 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.960 night of the party was that you stayed inside the 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.120 party when Charise left. And again, over twenty alibi witnesses 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.160 did confirm that, and some of them later even testified 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.480 despite pressure from the police, but police used this statement 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.320 from Maxim Bell, alleging that you were the last person 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.680 seeing with Scherise in order to establish probable cause. Now, 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.559 she tried to recant this statement as early as nineteen 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.720 eighty and eventually admitted in the twenty sixteen Affi David 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:49.440 that the statement was made out of fear of the 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.520 police and that she chose to just confirm what they 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.440 already believed. And when our audience, here's what happens next 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.600 to you, we can only imagine what kind of pressure 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.520 and terror was brought down on Maxine Bell, this young 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.520 female at risk runaway in order to evoke that false statement. 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:14.200 So on January fourteen, things started to spiral even further downhill. 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:19.280 You were at school and detectives were with your investigative, 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.440 CHUCKI Corbin, George Golson, and the Vietnam VETT Robert Stewart, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.839 and the cops didn't just come and grab you first. 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.320 The two younger guys were sent to get you from school, 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.240 but when the school said that they needed an adult 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.160 to come and get you, Robert Stewart came instead. You 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:35.760 were released to him and he brought you to his 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:37.960 house where you thought that you were still just helping 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.800 with this lead on the stolen red sedan. Now, apparently 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.240 there was a guy named Michael Christian who might have 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:45.559 known something about the guys in the red car, and 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.280 you thought you were just going to look at some 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.319 pictures and help the police in any way that you could. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.360 So you got back to mister Stewart's what happened next. 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.480 That's when the police officers came in and they started 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.920 interviewing us about, you know, what we knew in Ivis. 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:02.840 I was the one that was at the party, George 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.960 Golsen was, and Chucky Corbin had left earlier, so they 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.439 were mainly asking the questions towards me. And then they 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.120 asked if I can show them where Michael Christian lives. 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.720 And this was a guy that supposed to had heard 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.200 something from these guys the next day that was in 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.400 that red car. That was something that's supposed to have been incriminating. 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:25.840 I know Michael Christian, and I knew where he lived. 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.440 But now, actually what they did is when I showed 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.720 him where he lived, they rolled past the house. So 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.280 I asked him where they were going, so they said, oh, 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:35.960 we have to go. We're going to the precinct to 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:37.760 get the list of names. We thought we had them, 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:39.440 but we don't have them, so that you can look 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.720 at him and go over them. But before they got there, 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.200 and they had spoke to two detectives that was in 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.960 another car behind them, got back in the car. They 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:52.600 took me to the fifth Precinct in Patchog, which is 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.280 the town over, and then they brought me down into 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.840 a basement. When they brought me down to the basement, 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.720 they they walked out, and two detectives walked in, Detective 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:08.240 Dennis Rafferty and Detective August Stall. They walked in and 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:11.560 took over the investigation. And that was the last time 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:12.920 I seen the outside world. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:19.040 Yeah, and this interrogation, it probably won't surprise. 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.920 People who are regular listeners to the podcast, but this 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:26.800 interrogation resulted in your false confession after they punched and 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:31.800 kicked and abused you in ways that had to be 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.800 beyond terrifying. I mean, on top of the fact that 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.680 it was sort of a surprise attack because you weren't 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.000 even brought there as a suspect. Now all of a sudden, 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.520 you're in the basement. That's scary enough, right, like kind 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.720 of almost like a dungeon scenario. Right as we find 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.400 out later, at least one of these detectives was so 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.880 racist that he was throwing the N word around. So 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:55.480 tell us about the interrogation itself. 0:15:55.840 --> 0:16:01.200 Let me just say, you know, the forty four years 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:06.200 I've been battling with this effort to exonerate myself, the 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:13.840 encounter in the precinct, particularly with the physical abuse, the psychological. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.640 Of all the efforts that I made to exonerate myself, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.080 the most painful part of that whole experience really sits did. 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:31.800 What they did to me was something I would have 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:37.920 never imagined from a person of that status, because obviously, 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.760 when you're young, you're taught to believe that law enforcement 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:46.560 represents an authority that's equivalent to your parents. So when 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.720 they begin to question me, in spite of the fact 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.840 that I maintained my innocence, they didn't really want to 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.680 hear that. They were only concerned with trying to get 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.000 me to confess to the crime and to sign a confession, 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:02.880 you know, with promises that they can help me. You know, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.359 I was a young kid, you know, things happened. I 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.840 just wanted to get laid. And then they started to 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.040 tell me about this statement they had from this witness, 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.760 which is why they said they know that I committed 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.320 the crime because I was the last person to be 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.640 seen with her alive. And they went on and on 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.760 with this for maybe about an hour and a half, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.280 and then they decided to move me to Hogpok, which 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.880 is the headquarters for homicide squad. Now, I constantly asked 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:37.400 them could I call my mother. I felt the pressure 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.960 of confinement, of being trapped. Today I can articulate it 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:45.440 as in communicato. There was no way, you know, they 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:46.919 was letting me out of here, and I had to 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.719 figure out how to get out of there. You know, 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.959 I found out that my cousin and mister Stewart and 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.240 Chucky Corbin had came to the precinct two to four 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.879 times looking for me, and they told them that I 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:04.600 wasn't there. So obviously they had no intentions of it ever. 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:06.280 Let me get past that phase. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.440 No, they wouldn't have let Jesus in if he showed 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:10.440 up to try to help you. 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.720 Right, And their intentions was clear. They wanted me to 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.479 confess to this crime. And once they took me to 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.119 hog Park, they kept drilling me, one officer coming in 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.359 after another, and you know, they kept going through that 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.879 whole process, the good guy, bad guy tactic, and I 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.440 kept telling him over and over I didn't commit the crime. 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:33.600 I wanted to call my my mother, called somebody, but 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:35.800 you know, they just continue the process until all of 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.000 a sudden, six or seven of these guys came running 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.840 in and grabbed me from all over and just started 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.119 pounding me, hit me upside their head with a phone 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.600 book and stopping, trying to make me sign a confession. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.120 And I kept telling them I didn't do it. Then 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.399 they would start back up, stop, start. You know, they're threatening, 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.360 and you know we're gonna make you stare you'll never 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.399 have kids, and you know you're not going nowhere til 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:00.720 you sign this. We'll beat you to and you know 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.760 they're going on and on, and at some point, you know, 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.959 I just you know, I got scared. I lost my focus, 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:32.159 and when I signed that confession, I signed my life away. 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.119 I know I signed something. I didn't know what the 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:40.040 confession said or what I signed said. I never set 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.000 it out my mouth. I just signed the paper. When 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:46.439 I first came to the County jail, I was in 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.040 sick Bay for maybe the week to two weeks, and 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.120 that's when I first you know read and found out 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:56.520 what I had allegedly said to them through the signing 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.040 of the confession. 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:02.280 You quickly recanted your confession, saying that the detectives wouldn't 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.560 accept your denials or even let you call your mother. 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:09.000 And importantly, this confession said that when she pulled your 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.600 hand away from her pants, that she had refused your 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:13.320 sexual advance, and then when she pulled her hand away, 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.879 you started stabbing her with her hair pick, and that 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.399 when she screamed or strangled her to keep her quiet. 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.200 So they provided the narrative, but even what they said 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:26.440 was obviously provably not true and not possible scientifically, because 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.919 the victim didn't bleed, which means of course that she 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.639 was dead before whatever it was that punctured her skin 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:35.639 punctured her skin. 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:40.399 That was a fabricated confession constructed by them before the 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.560 facts were cleared to them. Whatever they had at that 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.720 particular time, they used to try to paint a picture 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.560 of me committing this crime, and they got it wrong. 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.280 Now, the hairpic is so important in this scenario. First 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.040 of all, it's a ridiculous concept the hairpick. Unless it's 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:57.879 made out of steel, it's going to break if you 0:20:58.119 --> 0:20:59.800 start stabbing somebody with it. And you don't have to 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.560 be scientists to figure this out or an expert in 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:04.760 plastic Did you even carry a hair pick at the time? 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:06.920 Keith is balled these days, so I don't know what 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:08.240 your hairstyle was back then. 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.119 Yeah, I wore an afro. Back then. We all carried picks. 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:12.040 They were popular. 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:12.560 Oh yeah. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.000 During the interrogation, they had showed me a black plastic 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:19.679 pick that wasn't a plastic bag. And I didn't know 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.480 that the pick that they found was from the crime scene. 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.720 And they asked me, was that my pick? I said, no, 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.800 that wasn't. But I don't know what's going on. I 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.680 ain't know what she had punctured wounds in a lower back. 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:33.040 How would you know? You weren't there? 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:34.640 Yeah, I don't know none of this now. 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.640 They executed a search warrant on your house on January fourteenth, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:41.200 and they recovered or claimed to recover several items, including 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.040 a metal hair pic that would be introduced to trial 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.600 as the weapon that left the punctures on Scharissa's back, 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:49.119 but it would later be revealed again surprise surprise, that 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.080 the pick the police seized didn't belong to. 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.560 You, they wasn't going to leave my home until they 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.520 found a metal pick, it didn't matter what kind, with 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:00.840 style or whatever. And when they didn't have my pick, 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.240