WEBVTT - #399 Jason Flom with Sean Tyler and Reginald Henderson 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:06.080 On March twenty ninth, nineteen ninety four, ten year old 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.840 Rodney Collins was fatally struck by a stray bullet on 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.680 the South side of Chicago. The investigation began with two 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.800 alleged gang members, whose witness statements led to three more 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.880 young men, Marcus Wiggins, as well as brothers Reggie Henderson 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:23.960 and Sean Tyler. Wiggetts had previously been wanted for murder 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:26.560 in nineteen ninety one, but Sean Tyler had come forward 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.600 to clear him in that case, thwarting the prosecution once again. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.000 In nineteen ninety four, Marcus had an airtight alibi, which 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.279 left just Sean and Reggie, who were arrested and eventually 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.520 signed statements admitting to their alleged roles in the shootout. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.160 The Juries heard those statements in court, but they also 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.599 heard allegations that the statements were the product of police torture, 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.479 not only from Sean, Reggie and their co defendants, but 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.800 also from the alleged gang members who had signed witness statements. Still, 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.480 the jury chose to believe the police, after all, they 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.480 weren't the ones in some street game with escort to settle. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:17.920 But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.440 And I say that in a melancholy tone because the 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.520 story you're about to hear, well, it might make you 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.560 want to quit the human race. On the other hand, 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.600 it also was a story of hope. You know, I 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.959 can't help thinking before I even introduce our distinguished guest 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.120 today that Mick Jagger just celebrated his eightieth birthday. And 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.160 it was him who said, when all the cops are 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.600 criminals and all the sinners saints, and there's some real 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.200 heroism in this story, but it ain't coming from the 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.280 guys in blue. It's coming from the guys who are 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.080 about to hear from on this show, Sean Tyler and 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.880 Reginald Henderson, who were wrongfully convicted. There were two of 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.960 just hundreds of black men who were wrongfully convicted in 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:59.200 this era in Chicago, when police torture was the norm. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.920 So thank you for being here today. I wrong for conviction, 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:02.840 Thank you forever. 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:04.960 Thank you for having us Jackson. 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:09.600 And with them to tell this incredible true story. Was 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.960 an attorney at the Exoneration Project in Illinois, Carl Leonard. 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:15.600 It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.959 So this happened to you when Sean was just seventeen 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.000 and Reggie you were eighteen. And although you have different 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:23.919 last names, you guys are full brothers, right. 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.520 Absolutely blood brother the same mother, same father. My father's 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.720 name is Reginald Lamar Henderson Senior. I'm junior my brother Ian. 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.200 That was my mother's maiden name, which is Tyler. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.560 Okay, that explains it. Let's start with you, Rechald growing 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.399 up in Chicago. What was your childhood like before this 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:43.880 terrible series of events. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.120 I was born to last sixteenth, the summer of nineteen 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.800 seventy five. I'd say childhood was like you know, any 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:53.000 other childhood. Growing up in the poverish communities of Chicago. 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.560 Things we've subjected to was normal, you know, coming up, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.480 our family was a beautiful family. I love to use 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.600 the term we was raised by villains because our neighbors 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.560 was like aunts and uncles, and you know, everybody knew everybody. 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.840 We've always had good people around us. You know, it 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.079 wasn't perfect, you know, as good as it was. Our 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.799 parents did happened to get nabbed by the crack era. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.320 But the love around us, you know, we've never fell 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.800 short on that. My granny and my aunts you know, 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.760 everybody had us, even when my mom and dad couldn't 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:25.239 have us. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:26.040 That village. 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:29.160 He speak of aunts and uncles. They filed in the hole. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:32.680 So you never felt like you was lost. So as 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:34.720 bad as it was, I couldn't even tell you it 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:35.080 was bad. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.400 So it was difficult, but you were surrounded by love, 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:40.440 and that ultimately is the most important thing for a 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.120 child growing up. Absolutely, Carl, I would have turned to 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.600 you paint the picture of the crisis in law enforcement 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.600 in the city of Chicago at this time. Of course, 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.080 we've done an episode on the Midnight Crew on the 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.560 Wrong for Conviction, False Confession Show, and we've interviewed Marcus Wiggins, 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.080 whose name is going to be coming up prominently throughout 0:03:59.080 --> 0:03:59.560 this story. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.600 This time there was, as you mentioned, the Midnight Crew. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:07.680 These are officers who were trained by or supervised by Jumberge, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:12.840 notorious Chicago police detective who employed straight up torture to 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.640 try to get people to confess to crimes, whether they 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.160 committed them or not just close cases. This is torture 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.479 that would involve chaining people to radiators to burn them. 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.920 They would electro shock people their hands or their genitals. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.320 They would take the plastic dust cover that they used 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.320 to cover the typewriters and strangle people with that. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.320 They called it bagging, and they were carrying out mock executions. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.240 I mean stuff that people were outraged when they saw 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:40.600 in Abu Grab. I think would be shocked to learn 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.720 that this was happening right under everybody's noses in the 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.120 city of Chicago not that long. 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:51.680 Ago, to children, to teenagers, and the officers that were 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.039 involved in shot and Reggie's case were no strangers to 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.560 those tactics. There's a recent opinion from one of the 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.240 Illinois Pellet courts about one of the officers involved in 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.680 this case, said that he was engaged in what they 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:09.440 called a criminal street gang under the direction of John Burge. 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.400 During his tenure as a Cook County detective from nineteen 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.640 seventy two, through his promotion to detective commander in nineteen 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:19.160 eighty one, and finally to his termination in nineteen ninety three, 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:24.200 John Burge developed his notorious Midnight Crew, torturing almost exclusively 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.359 young black men and boys, suspects and witnesses alike into 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.280 signing false statements to close an untold number of cases, 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.200 and the terror at the hands of the police continued 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.520 well after he was gone. The many statements they squeezed 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.520 out of people were remarkably similar, so much so that 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.279 judges and prosecutors must have seen a pattern. Eventually, this 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.040 criminal behavior was brought to light, but not before Sean 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.200 and Reggie had their lives turned upside down. And to 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.920 give their story context, we've got to talk about another 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.760 boy from their neighborhood, Marcus Wiggins, whose first run in 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.960 with the Midnight Crew. He began on September twenty fifth, 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.880 nineteen ninety one, when a sixteen year old kid named 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.680 Alfredo Hernandez was gunned down in the street. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:11.560 And later that night, officers from Area three, one of 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:16.360 the police areas, supervised by John Birch, they arrest several people, 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:20.080 including Marcus Wiggins, who's thirteen at the time. Wiggins himself 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.159 was arrested by Detective O'Brien, who you'll hear more about. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:29.919 They bring Wiggins in and they use the torture techniques 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:31.640 that we've been describing. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.000 Detectives James O'Brien and Kenneth Boujeau punched thirteen year old 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.520 Marcus repeatedly in the chest, hit him with their flashlights, 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.360 and electrocuted him until he eventually said whatever they wanted 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.200 him to say. But in spite of his coerced false confession, 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.200 Sean was able to save Marcus. 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.919 Sean actually witnessed the shooting of mister Hernandez. Knew that 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:59.040 the confession was false, and he spoke to wiggins defense attorney, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.720 a public defender named Julie Hall, and explained to her 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:03.960 what he saw. 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.960 You know, basically saying that I didn't see Marcus, you 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.000 know the guys that they grabbed, that I didn't see 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:09.600 them that night. 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.800 And little did you know that coming forward with the 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.119 truth would put you right in the crosshairs of the 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:17.360 notorious midnight crill. 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:19.960 That was my introduction to it. Let's just say that 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.560 I'm a kid. You know, it was scary when they 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:25.520 threatened to do something to me. I was coming out 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:27.720 the house and I didn't know who they were. They 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.160 pulled up and you know, they asked me, you know, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.520 my name, and I told him my name and behind 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.080 that was a threat. You know, My mom had to 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:36.920 send me out of town after that threat. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.160 For Sean's safety, Evie Tyler sent him to Wisconsin until 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:42.120 the pretrial hearing. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.520 I never knew why my mother took him and sent away. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.760 She never disclosed that to me or my other younger siblings, 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.120 but I just knew he had left. To be honest, 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.360 I was kind of peed off because he it is 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:54.880 I got to go to school and he's somewhere having 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.640 the summer vacation. And it wasn't an til years later 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.760 that I found out it's about some guys follow him 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.360 in chasing him and all. I never knew none of that. 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.400 And in response to that, the public defender in the 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:11.520 Wiggins case, Miss Hall got Judge Straehorn, the Kirk County 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.720 judge overseeing the Wiggins case, to enter a protective order 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:19.560 which said that these specific officers involved in the Wiggins 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.880 case were not allowed to interact with, speak to interrogate 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.760 question Sean Tyler at all period, and that nobody from 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.400 the Chicago Police Department should talk to Seawan either without 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:32.960 permission from the court. 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:35.600 It is our understanding that as a result of seeking 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:38.600 the protective order, that Miss Hall was also the victim 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.080 of threats from these same officers that she continues to 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.679 fear them to this day now. When Shawn returned from 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.880 Wisconsin to testify at Marcus's pre trial hearing, it became 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.199 clear that Marcus had been coerced into a false confession, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.720 which was then barred from trial evidence. Without it, the 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:56.760 case was dismissed. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.760 Shawn helped prove that the confession that they tortured out 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.920 of this child was false. It was really the first 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.080 time that the public was exposed to these tactics that 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:09.200 we've been talking about. 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:13.319 Then, in nineteen ninety three, Marcus's mother, Carolyn Wiggans, sued 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:16.559 the City of Chicago, arguing that the torture caused post 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:21.240 traumatic stress disorder, as evidenced by Marcus's stutter that continues 0:09:21.480 --> 0:09:24.520 to this very day. Other kids and even some of 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.959 these dirtbag cops began taunting him, calling him stutters. 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:33.120 To see him in interviews trying to express itself. It's 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:35.559 hard to watch because it takes me back to everything 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:36.320 we went through. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.120 This lawsuit also came on the heels of another one 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.120 naming John Burge, which led to his termination from Cook 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.800 County PD in nineteen ninety three. Unfortunately, the Wigan suit 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.560 settled for only ninety five thousand dollars, while Burges's cohorts 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.680 remained on the force to carry on his legacy. Of torture. 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.480 Marcus Wiggins's case was a huge embarrassment to the Chicago 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.400 Police Department, and while Marcus Wiggins suing the police department, 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.480 while there's still a protective order in place to protect 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.000 Sean from these officers, they found an opportunity to get 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:12.480 revenged by framing him and Marcus originally for this crime. 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.560 And the crime in question happened around five pm on 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.480 March twenty ninth, nineteen ninety four, when a ten year 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.959 old boy named Rodney Collins was fatally shot while riding 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.600 his bike near the intersection of fifty first Street and 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:28.319 Winchester Avenue on the South side of Chicago. The same 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:33.000 detectives that had tortured Marcus Wiggins, O'Brien and Boudreau began 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:38.040 assembling a narrative about crossfire between two rival gangs, the 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.560 Blackstones and the Gangster Disciples. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.560 If you believe the police version of events, it started 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.719 with a couple of anonymous tips, and who knows that 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.080 these tips ever even happened, but they say maybe the 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.360 Gangster Disciples, maybe they were involved. And then there's another 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.679 anonymous tip that says it was Twan and Yogi. So 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:04.440 the police arrested. Antoine Ward, who was known as Twan Antwine, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.720 tells the police that he doesn't know anything about this crime, 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.480 doesn't know what happened. He's beaten by the police, he's threatened. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.400 He's left in an interrogation room for twenty four hours. 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.240 He wasn't taken to the bathroom. He had to urinate 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.760 on the floor at one point. And after a couple 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.360 days of this, he finally gives a statement that he 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.520 provided a gun to somebody named Carl Brannigan, and. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.760 Carl Brannigan was allegedly affiliated with the Gangster Disciples. Now, 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:32.520 what about. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.560 Yogi is a nickname for someone named Kenneth McGraw. And 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.920 just like Twan, he's beaten, and eventually he agrees to 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.720 give a statement where he gives three nicknames, Droopy, Stutter, 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.920 and Bullwinkle. He identifies a photo of Marcus Wiggins as Stutter, 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.800 and he identifies a photo of Reggie as Bullwinkle. For 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.079 whatever reason, he's never asked to identify any photos or 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.800 anything or otherwise explain who Droopy is. 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:01.880 Now, Sean, was that your nickname? 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.240 Even at seven years old, I had this exact same face, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:09.000 So you know the face has always been big and hanging, 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.199 you know, hints the name droopy, you know, like the dog. 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:14.520 But with this protective order in place, they went after 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.760 Marcus and Reggie first. Now was Bullwinkle your nickname? 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.640 So here's the thing. Man. As a child, I was 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.720 always called Moose. With Moose came the Bullwinkle and Rocky show. 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.120 Everybody told me I looked like which I didn't find 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:31.600 funny because as a kid, I had big lips. I 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.920 think they were like, no fucking Bullwinkle. So it was 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.440 something that some people found funny and I didn't find funny. 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.720 So excuse my French, but you've seen Bullwinkle, so I 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.560 don't think I looked like that. But nevertheless, that's where 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:45.439 it came from. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.120 So they got what they needed from Yogi aka Kenath McGrath, 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.440 and on March thirtieth, nineteen eighty four, they snatched up 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:53.840 eighteen year old Reggie. 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.840 They was relentless in the things that they did. Like 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.360 Carl said, the exact same thing that you know happened 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.200 to Twyn in a dog room. Now they able used 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.840 the bathroom. Even to this day, it's traumatizing. 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.600 They left Reggie handcuffed to a wall alone for twenty 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.880 four hours with no access to a toilet. The following day, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:16.560 detectives folly and Hollerin demanded details of Shawn and Reggie's involvement. 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:21.520 After repeated denials, one of them grabbed Reggie by the throat, saying, quote, 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:23.960 we know you're lying and you're going to get fifty 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.720 fucking years from murder end quote. Then they delivered blows 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:28.480 to his chest. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:33.000 I can't recall specifically who it was, that guy folly Man, 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.640 you know his tactics again, Like, I'm trying my best 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.439 not the gey emotional about it while reliving it, because 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.520 I'm seeing it as I speak about it. 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.199 Later on, Reggie was put into a live lineup and 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.040 was not identified, but was then brought to what was 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.840 called the Mission Room, where he was forced to sign 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.040 a statement in front of Assistant State's Attorney Stephen Kleczynski. 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.079 The statement was never read aloud to Reggie, who importantly 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.679 at the time was functionally illiterate. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.760 Yeah, it was something that I didn't right. I think 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.400 anybody would do, you know, what they needed to do 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.000 to get out of situation like that. 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.520 This statement named Marcus Wiggins as well as said Reggie 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.960 had handed a gun to his little brother Sean before 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:17.720 the shootout. Now, the police were emboldened to ignore Seawn's protective. 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.600 Order and they go to his house. They leave a card. 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.040 His mom told him, do the right thing. Talk to 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:23.120 the police, tell them what you know. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.720 So I did call the number on the car and 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.360 they walked me into Area one. They put me in 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.960 this room, handcuffed me to the ball. That was the 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:37.080 introduction and the ending was me being rushed out of 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.280 the same police station that I walked into out the 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.440 back door to an emergency room for throwing up blood 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.240 after signing the false confession. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:14:59.960 This episode is sponsored by Marsh mccleannan, the world's lead 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.960 professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.960 It's legal and compliance department provides pro bono legal assistance 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.760 and other support to underrepresentative communities and individuals. 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.720 Being a big brother, I feel I had to do 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.320 what I had to do to protect my siblings. 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:26.280 It's no that I couldn't protect me. It was like 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.600 the weak see the world. And here we are man 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:32.240 thirty years later. 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.480 And remember, at this time, Sean is a kid. He's 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.320 being he's tortured, but he's also told that the police 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.960 broke his big brother. In his mind, if they can 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.320 break my big brother, what chance do I stand. They 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.920 get this false confession from Sean, like Sean says he's 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.320 throwing out blood, He's taken to the emergency room. All 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.120 of this is documented. The police then continue to talk 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.040 to other witnesses, evidently under the impression that these false 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.640 confessions aren't enough, possibly because they're not substantiated by any 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:05.480 physical evidence. 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.280 Before Shawn was rushed to the hospital, a witness named 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.520 Andrea Murray was called in to view a lineup and 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.280 allegedly identified Sean, as well as another guy named Michael Taylor, 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:17.800 who also after his own torture session, had signed a 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.320 statement saying that he was the one who had accidentally 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.600 shot Rodney Collins. So now they had the alleged shooter 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.360 and accomplished supported by an alleged eyewitness. But the statements 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:32.240 from Sean, Michael Reggie, Kenneth McGraw, Antoine Ward were riddled 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:37.040 with glaring inconsistencies and obvious contradictions. 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.440 So they had to go back and try to revise 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.200 some of these statements, Like Reggie's statement. 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.520 Reggie allegedly handed Sean a gun, but in Shawn's statement 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:49.160 it was Carl Brannigan. Also, Reggie and McGraw's statements were 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.200 written before detectives knew that Marcus Wiggins was away at 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.560 school in Wisconsin at the time of the shooting. So 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.760 now both McGraw and Reggie had signed statements containing the 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:00.320 exact same line. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:04.480 So they have Reggie changed that to say, actually, Wiggins 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:06.840 wasn't there. I was with this guy Travis Ashby, who 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:09.119 come to find out, also couldn't have been involved. So 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:11.520 they changed the statement again to say that it was 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:12.879 with Andrew Ganaway. 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.560 Oh, and Ganaway's nickname was also Drew By. Now ultimately 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:21.320 five young men were charged in the murder of Rodney Collins, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:27.200 Sean Reggie, Michael Taylor, Andrew Ganaway, and Antoine Ward. Curiously, 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:31.720 Carl Brannigan, who represented a contradiction between Shawn and Reggie's statements, 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.159 he was never charged. Andrew Ganaway pleaded guilty for a 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.680 thirty eight year sentence, not exactly a deal, and perhaps 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.240 he was actual droopy. Nevertheless, Sean went to trial alongside 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.840 Michael Taylor in September nineteen ninety five. 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.399 My attorney at the time was a Frank Medea, and 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:52.200 I think the prosecutor was Matthew Coughlin. 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:53.159 Yeah. 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.040 The judge was Henry R. Simmons, a former assistant States 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.359 Attorney who decades later was named in several civil suits 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.359 as a co conspirator of the Midnight Crew, where during 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.880 his tenure as an assistant State's attorney he actually took 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:12.119 handwritten notes during the false confessions of torture victims. So 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.679 this guy Simmons was no stranger to the language of 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.520 the false statements being read in his courtroom for Sewn 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:21.679 and Michael. What else did the state present? 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:26.480 They presented evidence that there had been this sort of 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.879 gang conflict that sort of led up to these shots 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.320 being fired that hit the ten year old boy. They 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:37.560 presented a couple of eyewitnesses from the scene, kids who 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.719 were out there with the victim, who described sort of 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.600 what happened. But the really interesting thing is nobody who 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.359 actually witnessed the shooting said that it was Sean for 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.119 that they had Andrea Murray, she identified Sean and also 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.320 Michael Taylor as someone that she saw running through the 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.840 alley behind her house, which was in the general vicinity 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.880 of where the shooting happened. It turns out he had 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:05.000 received some benefits from the police or the state. They 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.760 paid for her to move, they provided money for a 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.680 security deposit and rent prior to her testimony. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.640 And it will surprise exactly no one that this incentivized 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.600 witness later recanted, which we'll get into in further detail 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.920 later on. Now. The defense called it alibi witness Donald Jones, 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.720 who testified that he and Sean had played video games 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.040 that afternoon before going to the mall. Sean said the same, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:31.680 as well as detailed what happened in the interrogation room. 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.160 His cousin Teresa Bonner, and his mother ev Tyler also 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.480 testified to seeing the signs of physical abuse on Sean 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.320 after his interrogation. Then the state added insult to injury 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.120 by calling the doctor who had treated Sean at the hospital. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:49.280 Doctor Bruce Tizes, said that Seawan had not mentioned being abused. 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:53.480 I didn't see that coming, you know, him denying that 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.359 he was told what was going on and everything. You know, 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:58.560 I explained to him for the reason as to why 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:00.360 I said I was vomiting blue. 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:05.399 Unfortunately, the doctor was an effective rebuttal witness. And then, remarkably, 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.920 Sean's attorney failed to present any evidence about the motives 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:10.880 of the Midnight Crew. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:15.200 The defense did not present any evidence about Marcus Wiggins 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.159 and the protective order, so that really important part of 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.919 the story. The jury never did get to hear Sean. 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:24.960 Did you hold out any hope that the jury was 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:27.920 gonna actually finally see the truth and get this right? 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.879 I did. I never looked at it from the side 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.679 of how deep it really was. You know that cops 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.880 had testified, who's intertwine with his crooked state's attorneys, who's 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:42.520 hooked up with a judge who shouldn't have never set 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.440 on the bench. I'm blind sided by believing that as 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:49.240 a kid that right gun outdo wrong and to have 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.760 it go the opposite way was breathtaking, you know. And 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.200 to hear them come back and say guilty took the 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:01.280 breath out of me because I'm hearing them while looking 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.440 at my mother watching her flip out, and my cousins 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:10.600 and my brother. I'm here in my family scream out. 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.879 I'm hearing the family of the kids. They're cheering, and 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.720 this brings about the altercation between family and family, and 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.119 I'm here and this says I'm being rushed to the 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.640 back by the sheriffs. How was I know the whole 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:26.080 setup was rigg to take me down? Because as a kid, 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.800 I should have shut my damn mouth as a kid, 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.320 I should have minded my damn business. As a kid, 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:36.000 I should have ignored television ads and America with you know, 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:38.639 teach your kid to do the right thing, raise your 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.359 child the right way, and only for you to turn 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.960 around and say, because you did everything we said, take 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:46.440 this fifty eight years. 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.520 The alleged shooter, Michael Taylor got sixty years, and his 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.119 alleged accomplished Sean got fifty eight, a discrepancy that was 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.200 later corrected to fifty years for Sean cold Comfort considering 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:02.120 his actual innocence of nineteen ninety six. The family experienced 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.119 their second tragic loss when Reggie went to trial alongside 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:09.359 Antoine Ward. Reggie's attorney was Leo Fox, and again Matthew 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.679