WEBVTT - #107 Jason Flom with Nick Yarris Pt. 2 0:00:02.080 --> 0:00:04.480 Welcome to part two of the Nick Yarras story on 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:08.520 Wrongful Conviction. We've already heard about Nick's surviving sexual assault, 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.039 his misspent young adulthood, the lie that turned the authorities 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:16.360 hell bent on his conviction, Gladiator Sunday's suicide torture, and 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.400 then with a court date that could have led to 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.760 his freedom in sight, he unintentionally finds himself escaping from 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.759 death row, only to turn himself in instead of committing 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:29.720 suicide by shark, I mean, seriously, what the actual fuck? 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.600 And we're still just halfway. We pick up with Nick 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.400 again on death row in Florida, where he was awaiting 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.040 transfer back to Pennsylvania and where he ran into Jesse 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.000 to Farroh, who was the life partner and father of 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.040 the children of Sunny Jacobs, who we may remember was 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.960 one of the most extraordinary episodes of Wrongful Conviction. I 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.240 think it was season one episode four. Jesse, who ends 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.160 up crazy enough on death row in Florida with Nick, 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.240 was later executed in a botched execution where the electric 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:03.720 chair quote unquote malfunctioned and. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:04.679 His head caught fire. 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.919 It's a gruesome, gruesome story, and even more so because 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.200 he was an actually innocent. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:11.520 Man and get ready for this. 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.920 At the same time, Nick, on death Row again in Florida, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:21.320 was sharing that pod with one of the most notorious 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.440 inmates in the history of America, Ted Bundy. Fasten your 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:29.080 seatbelts for part two of nick yaris onun Wrongful Conviction. 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.600 I knew the beaten that was waiting on me, I 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.600 knew the torture that was waiting on me, and I 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.440 turned myself in and I went back to Pennsylvania, and 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.560 I faced the music because I told a lie of 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:54.400 missus Craig Jason, It's never stopped bothering me. Man. I 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.800 told a lie to get out of a copslot. But 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.760 that's only half the story. I told a lie about 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:04.840 a woman's murder man and shamed her family, disrespected mine. 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.440 I got to live with that man, so I decided 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.679 to go back, but first I had to sit in 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.400 friggin Florida for eight months down there with Ted Bundy. 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:20.000 When Florida's Death Row and I meet, of all people, 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:26.840 Jesse Trefero, an innocent man. Jesse was married to a 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:29.800 very good friend of mine now called Sonny Jacob's and 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.200 she lives over in Ireland with Peter Pringle, her partner, 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.200 who was also sentenced to death, and they got the 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.880 Sunny Foundation where they helped people who got out of prison. 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.800 And I didn't know any of this. All I knew 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:48.679 was this very attractive, sweet hearted Buddhist man told me, hey, man, 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.160 take me back to Pennsylvania with me. These crazy bessards 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.360 are trying to kill me. Man, I said, Jesse, what happen? 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.000 He said, Man, I pick up a hitchhiker, he kills 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.600 the cop. They put me and my wife death row, 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.200 but we didn't kill nobody. It's stuck with me, you know. 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:11.120 So I go back to Pennsylvania after eight months of Florida, 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.600 and they added thirty five years to my sentence in 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.520 the state of Florida for the escape and related charges, 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:21.600 and I knew I was done. I had one hundred 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:25.400 and five years. There is no such thing as DNA testing. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.239 I ruined my appeals with absconding. You know the law, Jason, 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.880 If you run, you forfeit your appeals, You're done. So 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:39.320 I was sitting there in nineteen eighty eight and I 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.560 had just met a woman who told me that I 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.560 had a fascinating mind and she wanted to spend time 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:49.160 talking to me, and I felt absolutely horrible about that. 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.080 And then I get a hand in a newspaper. It's 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.080 almost thrown away, and the next thing I know, I'm 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:59.520 the very first man in history to seek DNA testing 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.280 from death throw. In March of nineteen eighty eight, I 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:06.920 filed my first petition, and that historic event led me 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.960 to watch one hundred and ten men get set free 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:14.800 before me. I watched the mall, Gary Dotson, I watched 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.520 all these dudes. I watched Kurt Bludworth go out and 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.200 be the first death row prisoner exonerated, but he filed 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.800 years after I did. I had to watch him all 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.440 go home and walk free, and none of them spoke beautifully. 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.599 And I felt like, man, if I ever get my chance, 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:38.120 I'm going to do justice to this man. And then 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.920 meanwhile I meet a man who's innocent, named Walter Ogrod. 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.640 You see, I've been through so much at this point, 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:51.560 twenty years of prison, I'm sick with hepatitis. See all 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.520 the DNA evidence has either been destroyed or missing or 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:01.320 spilled in transit. I have no hope. And I get 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.200 moved to a Green County supermax prison, and the staff 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.680 there knew me from years ago from Huntington, and knew 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.120 I was cool. So they cut me a break and 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.599 they let me become a block worker for a month 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.719 where I could come out of my cell and sweep up. 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.039 And I meet this prisoner named Walter Ogrod and he 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.960 tries to speak to me. But Walter's been convicted of 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.479 putt a little girl in a TV box and leaving 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.040 her on the street corner in Philadelphia. And I don't 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:34.440 want no shit like that bothering me. I just lost everything. 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.760 The wife that I met just before the DNA testing 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.840 began walked out on me. I lost all the DNA evidence. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.640 I don't want no trouble. And there's these two men 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.320 in the prison tormenting them, Hackett and Spence. They broke 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.799 into Walter's house and they tried to kill his brother, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.839 and they murdered his sister in law to be. But 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.840 I didn't care. I had enough troubles on my own, 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.200 you know. But when I went back at my cell 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.919 and I thought about how I treated Walter, I thought, 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.680 that's it, Nick, Why get out? You got no humanity. 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.680 The very next day, I went over to Walter and 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:27.080 I began at first, I began writing letters to his lawyer. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:32.120 I would decipher Walter's efforts to write a letter in minutia. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.680 An entire eight by eleven page would be filled with 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:42.520 micro lines of writing, not just single line. I mean 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:47.080 he would compress as many possible words into one page 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.279 and desperation to get information out. I would take that 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:53.560 apart and write to his lawyers as best that I 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:58.480 could and help. I told Hackett and Spence that if 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.360 they kept bothering water that I'd smashed their face and 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.800 that they had time to just think about one thing. 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.320 I wasn't no fucking joke, and if they bothered my 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.359 friend again, I was gonna hurt him. I told the 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.080 rest of the dudes on death Row, I didn't care 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:14.160 what they thought. I was standing up for Walter. A 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.560 man named Tom Lowenstein, whose father had been murdered. He 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.360 was a journalist from Louisiana, contacted me and wanted to 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.760 write a book about my story and said it was incredible. 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:29.360 I said, Tom, tell Walter's story, leave me alone. This 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.320 man needs to help more than me. No one on 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.640 death Row does things like that. But I believe so 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.400 much in this man that it started to make me 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.040 feel good about it. In the past, I had already 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.600 done legal work and helped get other prisoners off death row, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.400 I wrote to their mother's. In fact, the administration told 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:49.760 me one of the things that made me the most 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.160 dangerous prisoner had ever dealt with is so many men 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.880 cared about me that whenever a guards or anything did 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.720 stuff to me, they would all go on hunger protests 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.880 and stuff like that. I said, well, I can't help, 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.080 but that I'm a caring person. I told my mom 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:09.640 I wouldn't lose that humanity. So while I'm trying to 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.440 get water help, I keep feeling weaker and weaker. Jay, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:19.480 something's wrong inside man. And in two thousand and two, 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:27.960 my brother died in August, and I knew over the 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:33.560 past seven months after being diagnosed with hepatitis see that 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:38.800 I was in bad condition, but I had to hold off. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:43.400 My parents were burying their youngest child, so I couldn't 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.880 ask to be executed then when I was really suffering, 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.080 so I waited, you know. And the whole precipice of 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.040 it all was I lost my eyesight for three days 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.600 one time because of the medical toxins that they were 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.880 giving me to fight the infection. Pumping my body full 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:06.080 of interferon and rivereverron Well. I had to go tell 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.360 Walter that I couldn't help him no more, and it 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.760 broke his heart. But I told him before I told 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.520 anybody else, that I was going to be asking to 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.440 be executed for a crime that I didn't commit, rather 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.520 than just die like Dale Carter did. There was a 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.760 dude convicted of rape and murder on my pod in 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:31.240 Green County Prison in two thousand and one. He died 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:36.640 of an impacted bowl from the onset of hepatitis C 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.480 while nurses stood in front of his cell, knowing he 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.320 was convicted of raping and murdering the woman, and they 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.720 laughed at him suffering. And I knew that's what my 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:50.280 fate was. They were going to taunt me, they were 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.480 going to make me miserable, and they were going to 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.880 laugh in my face at my death. And I said no, no, no, no. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:01.240 In fact, I decided I he was going to fulfill 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:06.920 my efforts. The only reason I ever learned how to 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:13.440 speak with any modicum of decency was after the escape, 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:15.520 when they beat my face and broke my teeth, and 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.400 I couldn't look at myself without flinching. So I took 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.880 all the photographs off my wall, and I put one 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.560 of myself up as a seventeen year old boy, and 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:30.760 I began to speak politely to this person. Every day, 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.200 I quietly began to speak to this man, knowing he 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:37.559 was the only one who going to get me out 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:42.560 of here. And that transitioned into reading beautiful literature to 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:48.560 this photograph. It was such an empowerment to read beautiful 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:55.280 passages from Gabron as I stood before my own photograph. 0:10:55.440 --> 0:11:00.600 Or even better, I practiced my death speech over and 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:05.880 over beautifully. I had it down. You see. The only 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:08.760 thing I really feared was that on the day that 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.600 they executed me, I would mess it up, that I 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:18.559 wouldn't have the acumen, the poise to say the lovely 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:22.560 thing that I had to say. It was so important 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:27.880 to me to talk and speak beautifully for myself that 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.920 I rehearsed this beautiful death speech forgiving them for taking 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:32.400 my life. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.520 You remember the speech always. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.080 It's a reference to the neutrino and how the neutrino 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.840 passes through the earth unnoticed by us all. But this 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:48.520 neutrino is unstoppable. It emanates from the earth and passes 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:54.480 through whatever surface it meets, regardless of density, strength, power 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.800 doesn't matter. And I was like a neutrino passing through 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.079 their lives. And just like that new trainer that they 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:08.319 allowed to pass through in ignorance, so too were they 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.520 ignorant of the loving, caring person that I made myself 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:15.280 into be and that I forgave them for killing me. 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:21.679 I apologized for embarrassing my family, and I accepted my faith. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.400 I want to get into the exoneration because you know 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.079 the miracle that awaited you that you had just almost 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.520 given up hope of ever having, which there would be 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.400 very good reason that somebody in your situation would give 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.079 up hope and that you might have ended up either 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.360 executed or having taken your own life like so many 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.040 other people that you knew. Is that in two thousand 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:07.040 and three, fast forwarding God, this is twenty two years 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.760 since the original date. Right in two thousand and three, 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.839 a doctor named Edward Blake tested the gloves, fingernail scrapings, 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.000 and sperm that was found on inside of the victim, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.360 Missus Craig, and it was determined at that time all 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.320 of the DNA that was found was from the same 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.640 person and on July second of two thousand and three, 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.000 you were excluded as the source of any of that 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:37.480 biological material. And on September third, so this is now 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.559 another two months and a day later, your conviction was 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.600 vacated by the court. You became at that time at 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:48.760 the one hundred and fortieth DNA exoneration in America and 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.079 the thirteenth from death throat. I'm getting the chills when 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.920 as I say that, So, I mean, we have to 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.040 talk about that, right, What was that? 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:56.679 Like? You know? 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:58.760 I wish I could tell you it was something really big. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.240 But the truth is I was still in prison until 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:07.160 January two thousand and four. The federal court gave Pennsylvania 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.000 the right to retry me as they would, and they 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.640 drug it out, and they drug it out, and it 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:18.559 kept going on. So in the end they botched my release. 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:20.720 After a week of telling me I was going home 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:26.480 on Monday, they came and told me, January eleventh, you're 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.240 going home, pack your stuff. We'll be back for you 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.120 in an hour. They didn't come back on what day 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:33.640 was that, January eleventh? 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.680 January eleven, two thousand and four. You're going home, pack 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.040 your stuff, getting out of here. 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:39.880 The whole argument was do we send them back to Florida? 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:41.520 Do we let them go? What do we do? What 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:42.600 do we do? What do we do? 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.160 So wait, you'd already been exonerated, so why in the 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:47.560 world did you have to go back to Florida. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:49.720 It was a possibility that they would have to take 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.080 me back to Florida and release me there because Florida 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.160 still had that thirty five year sentence on me. So 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.000 Pennsylvania had, of course dropped all the charges against me, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.760 but they were in the process of negotiating with Florida, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.760 at which time my lawyer filed an application to have 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.280 my sentence reduced because I was sentenced in Florida only 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.280 because I was an escapee and convicted of murder. Everybody 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.760 vacated their sentences. Everything's ready, but I'm dragging on the 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.480 whole time I'm sitting in a mental cell. They took 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.400 me out of prison and put me into a restricted 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:29.400 housing union meant for mentally impaired prisoners, because they rationalized 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:31.520 that because of all the things that they'd done to me, 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:32.760 I was going to kill one of them as soon 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.080 as my door opened up, And I swear to God 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.720 that's what they told me to my face. So meanwhile, 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.720 I'm waiting. January eleventh, they tell me I'm going home. 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.720 January twelfth, they told me the same thing. On January thirteenth, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.240 I was shown a photograph of my mother in the 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.880 Delaware County newspaper holding up a photograph of me from 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.400 the previous day, saying where's my son? He was supposed 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:00.400 to be released on January fourteenth. That photograph was very 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:03.520 widely used in the Philadelphia area because January fifteenth, I 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.600 was told I was going home, but at five pm 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.200 that night they said it was too late. On January sixteenth, 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.520 two thousand and four, I packed up my belongings, said 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.040 goodbye to everybody, and I got in a van and 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.800 I drove out of the prison, only to be stopped 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:23.280 at the second barrier and told we made a mistake. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:29.200 You have to go back. It was the testing moment 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:33.160 of testing moments in my life, and I handled it 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:39.240 with grace because I knew this was important. They put 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.120 me back into prison and they said, what can we 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:42.640 do for you? This has nothing to do with this. 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.880 We just simply have to get some paperwork from Florida 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.360 done and we will let you go. I said how long. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:51.680 They said, what do you mean? I said, well, my 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.400 parents are across the street with all the assembled press. 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:56.880 How long do you think they're going to stand out 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.320 there in the snow. He said, no, no, no, no. 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.600 We told your parents. They're well aware of the situation. 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.680 They're not put off by this. They understand there's a lawyer. 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:11.040 This is crazy. Elliott Shirker, attorney at law, put a 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:15.120 lawyer on a plane in Fort Lauderdale and flew to Tallahassee, 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.760 Florida to have my parole papers stamped so I could 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.960 be released by one o'clock that day. That's the power 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.400 of having my wonderful attorney, Peter Goldberger, have that kind 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.560 of influence over friendships because he told people, look, my 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.040 client's innocent, but I need some help. So Elliott Shirker, 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.800 on his own dime, sends a lawyer by plane to 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.360 the state capitol, faxes the paperwork over, and at one 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.600 o'clock they let me out. The crazy thing is they 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.600 dropped all the charges. I was allowed to have my 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.959 conviction vacated, and then the state attorney appealed it and 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.119 got it reinstated. While I was in France speaking before 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.719 the League the Nationale and told that if I go 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:59.679 back to Florida that I can voluntarily resume my thirty 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.960 five your sentence there if I so choose. 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:04.320 So I guess it's fair to say you won't be 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:05.680 going to Florida anytime soon. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:07.800 I don't think I'm going to go to Florida and 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.280 commit any crimes. But I have been there to thank 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.760 Elliott Shirker. I went down there to thank that lawyer 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.920 to help me get free. And by the way, Jeff, 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:17.960 I think you're an amazing man. Thank you, thank you, 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.679 thank you. But I had this amazing gift given to 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:22.960 me by this Baptist preacher who was a sergeant in 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.480 the prison, and he came in and he spent these 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.480 two hours with me, and I'm telling you, man, he 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.680 made every officer on shift come and shake my hand. 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.000 Dudes were coming up to me and saying the same thing. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.920 It's a hard job. Sorry, sometimes we have to hurt men. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.359 But you're a good man, Nick. I respect you, thank 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.440 you for help. And other prisoners when they were down, 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.879 I'm like, fuck, I'm growing, Like this is building me 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.040 up so much, Jason, that when I walked out of 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.840 that prison and got into the arms of my father. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.120 I knew I didn't have a goddamn thing to say. 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.600 I walked up to the assembled media. I said, Walter 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.560 Ogrod and Ernie Simmons are two men in the prison 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.840 behind me. Can someone send some help for them? Thank you, 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:13.280 and goodbye. I knew everybody wouldn't listen to me. I 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.040 knew that they would think I was crazy if I 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.960 went on this big rant or anything. I did the 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.440 honorable thing. I said, we need a moratorium on the 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:23.240 death penalty, and I got some friends here, I'm going 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.560 to help. They didn't think I was serious. Only ten 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.919 months after my release, when I got set free, I 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.440 had no medical help nothing. I had to heal myself 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.960 with my parents' help. Ten months later, I'm in London 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.760 speaking in Parliament and Kofi Annan listens to me speak, 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.520 walks up to me and said, young men, you are 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.359 one of the finest speakers I've ever heard in my life. 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:54.959 Keep going. That was my empowerment when I realized that 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.399 this education I gave myself because I went well past 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.960 those five first books, I went crazy. I read all 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:05.840 of the world's religions so that I could have respect 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.639 for everyone's beliefs. I went out of my way to 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:13.240 read and read and read every possible thing about history 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.800 and our arts and sciences so I could be alive 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:20.000 to the world. What was the point if I got out? 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.080 So I even spent six years of my life studying 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:27.280 psychology so I could understand the principles of what I 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:33.520 would face. I am a human experiment of endurance, and 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:38.400 for some magical reason, I'm built for it. I took 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:44.560 this notion that I am everything I believed about myself 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:49.520 while there, and I've expounded upon it now to teaching 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:57.480 people about neuroplasticity, healing, the receptacle, and beautiful feeding frenzy. 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:03.200 Your brain gets from being polite. You having a meticulous 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:08.520 polite behavior is your own healing. Your brain absorbs all 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:14.520 of this neuron reciprocal healing from being nice. I didn't 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.360 understand any of this. All I knew is that on 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:19.879 the second day of my freedom, I had to go 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.320 to the hospital to pick my brother up who got 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.400 hit by a car. Because that's an alcoholic crossing the road. 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.520 He tended to get hit by cars. But my mother 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.880 sat me down and she said, NICKI do me a favor. 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.120 Please listen to what I'm about to say to you. 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.280 I need you to be a polite man so that 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.920 when you meet people, you say yes sir and no sir, 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:46.480 and yes ma'am and no ma'am. Because I want you 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.200 to show respect for this family, for what we've gone through. 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.560 Because I got something to tell you, Nick. For you 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.440 to get out of prison and not be a nice 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.679 man is a waste of every one of my prayers 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:04.439 and tears. Don't you dare let me down? Well, I 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:09.640 didn't know. This is the basis of neuroplasticity healing. If 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.000 you can think about this, your brain when you go 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.920 out and light up and smile has receptacles in it. 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.080 For you to go out and be gregariously nice and polite, 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.440 your brain is actually erasing the PTSD in your brain. 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:28.880 How is it that for the last hour or so, 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:30.960 I've been able to sit here and talk about things 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:34.000 that most people will be crushed by, and yet Jason 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:36.679 knows this. I'm probably the happiest I've been in my 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:41.119 life in the fifteen years of my freedom, so exponentially, 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.920 I've been able to take on this notion that I'm 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:50.680 an athlete, and as an athlete in training in neuroplasticity healing. 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:54.680 I am like an olympian. I have been doing this 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.480 so well for so long, with such a polite manner. 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.840 I am not affected by the stresses that deteriorate our brains, 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:07.840 cause heart attacks, stress, divorce. I don't have a need 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:11.040 for substance abuse because I don't have the fissure within 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:15.160 me that needs to be masked. I actually go around 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.720 and I teach people in the corporate world how to 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.639 empower themselves with kindness for the workforce to be the 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:25.879 utmost beautiful boss. I go around and teach students about 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.119 how their politeness makes them a better student, able to 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:33.600 absorb more from their own self respect. I go around 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:37.320 and I teach people how to handle fucked up shit. 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.080 Sorry for the language, but since I did Joe Rogan's podcast, 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:45.159 over a thousand people came to me and promised me 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:48.920 they would no longer be abusive and killing themselves. A 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:55.080 thousand men like dudes with the most broken hearted, damaged lives. 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:58.840 They come to me and they say, if you're doing 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:01.479 what you're doing in your because of it, I'm going 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:05.560 to do this. Just listening to you talk, I swear 0:24:05.600 --> 0:24:09.640 to God changed my whole perspective. That too, is why 0:24:09.680 --> 0:24:14.560 I'm doing this, Jason. I listened to your podcasts, and 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:16.680 the one thing that I really wanted to tell you, 0:24:17.280 --> 0:24:19.760 I was so glad that you were alive to caring 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:25.200 about other species, not just humans. We can all feel 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:27.800 that empathy and we all try for that, but when 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:32.399 I saw that, you really likened it to your own happiness. 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:36.040 You're well on your way to having neuroplasticity healing in 0:24:36.080 --> 0:24:40.440 your life. Whatever scars you've carried, you've already mastered them. 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:45.760 You're now this fountain of foundation and hope for other people. 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:50.159 You are now able to have a perspective that allows 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:53.919 you freedom, just like me. But Dude, the way you 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.720