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Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Laura and I writer. This week, it's

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Speaker 1: the story of Hamed Hyatt, a US citizen who was

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Speaker 1: charged with terrorism in the frenzied time after the nine

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Speaker 1: to eleven attacks. Hamed was one of the Muslim Men

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Speaker 1: that were targeted by the FBI during its frantic search

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Speaker 1: for terrorists still at large. But the story the FBI

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Speaker 1: concocted about Hamed was full of crazy imagery and drama,

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Speaker 1: almost like a movie or a comic strip. And that's

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Speaker 1: because it wasn't true. Hamed Hyatt was innocent, but he

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Speaker 1: served years behind bars before being exonerated. Now since we

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Speaker 1: aired this episode, Hamed has gotten a new job with

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Speaker 1: Amazon and he's working to rebuild his life. His new

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Speaker 1: coworkers are often surprised to learn that he's been through

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Speaker 1: the worst of the wrongful conviction stories and how well

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Speaker 1: known his story is online. In fact, Hamed's story was

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Speaker 1: featured prominently on comedian Hassan Minaja's Netflix special Patriot Act.

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Speaker 1: Hasan Manaj even cited Hamed's story as the inspiration for

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Speaker 1: the title of the show. While we wish that none

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Speaker 1: of us had ever happened to Hamid, we're so glad

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Speaker 1: his message is reaching a larger audience, and we wish

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Speaker 1: him all the best. Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions.

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Speaker 1: I'm Laura and I.

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Speaker 2: Writer and I'm Steve Drisin.

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Speaker 1: In the wake of nine to eleven, keeping America safe

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Speaker 1: was everyone's priority. But what happens when an innocent man

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Speaker 1: gets accused of terrorism based on a false confession. Today's

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Speaker 1: case includes one of the most outlandish confessions I've ever heard.

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Speaker 1: A thousand pole vaulting terrorists, all dressed up like Ninja turtles.

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Speaker 1: It's a story that sounds like the punchline of a

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Speaker 1: joke instead of the path to a conviction. But for

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Speaker 1: US citizen Hamid Hyatt, the verdict was no joke at all.

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Speaker 1: Usually we start each episode by telling you about a crime,

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Speaker 1: but in today's story, there was both a crime on

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Speaker 1: a scale we'd never seen before and no crime at all.

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Speaker 1: You see, this case took place right after the horrific

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Speaker 1: nine to eleven attacks. Thousands of Americans had died, and

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Speaker 1: pressure was building on our government to prevent more attacks.

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Speaker 1: Make no mistake, there was a lot of good police

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Speaker 1: work done to keep us all safe, but sometimes fear

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Speaker 1: started to override good decision making. Some law enforcement efforts

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Speaker 1: became driven by panic and even prejudice, not proof. This

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Speaker 1: story is one of the times we got it wrong.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, California native and US citizen

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Speaker 1: Hamid Hyatt was accused of being part of a homegrown

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Speaker 1: terrorist sleeper cell. Years later, the government admitted that no

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Speaker 1: such sleeper cell ever existed, but Hamid had falsely confessed.

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Speaker 1: He spent more than a decade in prison before being cleared.

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Speaker 2: As prosecutors prepare for trial, they review the evidence that

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Speaker 2: the FBI agents obtain in the case, and they look

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Speaker 2: at the interrogation tapes, and you have to wonder what

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Speaker 2: the prosecutors in this case were thinking when they saw

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Speaker 2: these tapes. What were they thinking when the corroboration of

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Speaker 2: this case was so thin.

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Speaker 1: Hammed is one of the first post nine to eleven

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Speaker 1: terrorism defendants to be exonerated, and he probably won't be

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Speaker 1: the last. His story is a caution to us all

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Speaker 1: when we're talking about our national security, there's nothing more

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Speaker 1: important than getting it right. Hamid's story takes place in Lodi, California,

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Speaker 1: a medium sized town halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.

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Speaker 1: Lodi's downtown looks like the set of an old Western,

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Speaker 1: complete with a train depot from gold rush days. But

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Speaker 1: if you go south a mile, you'll find a large

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Speaker 1: Pakistani American community where families wear traditional clothing and center

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Speaker 1: their lives around the local mosque. We'll get to Lodi

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Speaker 1: in a minute, but our story starts in Oregon. That's

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Speaker 1: where FBI agents traveled in October two thousand and one

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Speaker 1: looking for a suspected terrorist named Nasim Khan. The Nasim

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Speaker 1: Khan they've found was a twenty eight year old convenience

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Speaker 1: store employee. The FBI quickly realized this guy had nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with terrorism. He simply had the same name

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Speaker 1: as their suspect. But with the FBI at his door,

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Speaker 1: Nasim smelled an opportunity. He gave the agents the biggest

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Speaker 1: tip he could conjure up. He claimed to have seen

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Speaker 1: i'm In al Zawahiri, one of the most wanted terrorists

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Speaker 1: in the world, at a mosque in Lodai, Colorlifornia.

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Speaker 2: It's ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous that Osama bin Lan's number two

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Speaker 2: person would make it into the United States without detection,

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Speaker 2: and of all places, settle in Lodie, California.

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Speaker 1: The FBI, to its credit, didn't believe Nasim. They figured

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Speaker 1: out soon enough that he had a reputation for lying.

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Speaker 1: Even his own mother later called Nasim a bag full

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Speaker 1: of lies, air and deceit. But this was a month

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Speaker 1: after nine to eleven, and the government was desperate to

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Speaker 1: recruit informants who could infiltrate Muslim American communities and expose

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Speaker 1: any sleeper cells. Somehow, they decided Nasim was their guy.

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Speaker 1: Being hired as an informant was a pretty big deal

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Speaker 1: for Nasem. He went from working in a convenience store

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Speaker 1: to getting a cool FBI nickname Wildcat. He earned hundreds

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Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars on the US government payroll. The

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Speaker 1: FEDS even paid for his car washes in exchange. They

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Speaker 1: asked him to target the Lodi, California community. By early

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Speaker 1: two thousand and two, Nassim wormed his way into Lodei's

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Speaker 1: Pakistani neighborhoods. He started befriending people looking for any information

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Speaker 1: the FBI might consider useful, and pretty soon Nissin began

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Speaker 1: focusing on the Hyatt family, especially nineteen year old Hamid.

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Speaker 1: Now the Hyatt family was well known in Lodi. They

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Speaker 1: had no history of political involvement or extremism whatsoever. Hahmad's dad, Umer,

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Speaker 1: was the local ice cream truck driver.

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Speaker 2: The pairing of Nassim and Hahmed was a strange pairing

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Speaker 2: from the get go. Nassin was ten years older than Hamid,

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Speaker 2: and Hamid nineteen or so at the time, acted much

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Speaker 2: more immaturely than his age. He had suffered a terrible

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Speaker 2: batt of meningitis years earlier, which left him cognitively and

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Speaker 2: physically slower.

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Speaker 1: As a child, Hamed had split his time between his

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Speaker 1: home and the US and his relative's home in Pakistan.

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Speaker 1: Because of all the travel, he'd only finished elementary school,

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Speaker 1: and he didn't have many friends in the States. So

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Speaker 1: when Nassim, the informant, befriended him, Hamed couldn't believe his luck.

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Speaker 2: Nassim was paying attention to Hamid, and very few people

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Speaker 2: in the community in lord I paid much attention to Hamid.

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Speaker 1: Nasim was older, he had a fancy car, and apparently

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Speaker 1: endless money. This is the guy who wanted to chat

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Speaker 1: up Hamed. Hamed was in Nasim Andhmmed became friends, or

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Speaker 1: at least so Hamid thought. Over the next year or two,

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Speaker 1: Nasim and Hahmed started having hours of phone conversations that

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Speaker 1: Nassim was secretly recording. On those calls, Nasim portrayed himself

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Speaker 1: as an extremist and told Hamed he'd been involved in

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Speaker 1: jihadi activities for years. Pretty Soon, hapless Hamed started trying

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Speaker 1: to impress Nasim by making up fake stories about his

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Speaker 1: own exploits. Once, Hamed said he participated in a Taliban attack,

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Speaker 1: another time he claimed he'd been held in a Pakistani jail.

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Speaker 1: And when Nasim said that he wanted to go to

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Speaker 1: a terrorist training camp, Hamad said that sounded cool. Fast

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Speaker 1: forward a year to two thousand and three, Hamid's twenty

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Speaker 1: one and his parents take him to Pakistan to find

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Speaker 1: a bride for Nasim. This trip was a chance to

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Speaker 1: up the ante to bully Hamed into actually going to

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Speaker 1: a terrorist training camp. He starts telling Hamed that he's

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Speaker 1: going to come to Pakistan himself and force Hamed into

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Speaker 1: Jihati training, but Hamid refuses. He fends Nasim off with

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Speaker 1: one excuse after another. It's too hot to go to

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Speaker 1: a training camp, it's too difficult, I need to stay

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Speaker 1: with my sick mother. It's pretty obvious Hammad has zero

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Speaker 1: interest in becoming a terrorist. Finally, he straight out tells

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Speaker 1: Nasim he's never going to a camp. It was their

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Speaker 1: last phone call. Hamed gets married in Pakistan and ends

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Speaker 1: up staying there for two years until June two thousand

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Speaker 1: and five, when he decides to go back to the

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Speaker 1: United States. He boards a plane in Pakistan.

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Speaker 2: With his whole family, but the.

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Speaker 1: Plane gets diverted to Tokyo because it turns out Hamit

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Speaker 1: is on the no fly list. The whole Hyatt family

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Speaker 1: is ushered off the plane and the FBI questions them

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Speaker 1: about why they were overseas and who they were with.

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Speaker 1: They even ask if the men Hamid was hanging out

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Speaker 1: with had facial hair. Eventually, the family is allowed to

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Speaker 1: get back on the plane and fly to California, but

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Speaker 1: a day or two later, the FBI shows up again

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Speaker 1: at the Hyatt family home and brings Hamed in to

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Speaker 1: the Sacramento office for more questioning. Now let's step back.

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Speaker 2: For a minute.

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Speaker 1: By June two thousand and five, there'd been a three

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Speaker 1: year multi agency Federal Terrorism Task Force investigation that revolved

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Speaker 1: around Nasim Khan and his stories. None of seems claims

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Speaker 1: yielded any real information about terrorism despite all the money

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Speaker 1: he'd been paid, So by mid two thousand and five,

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Speaker 1: the FBI was feeling pressure to show results in the

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Speaker 1: worst way, and they got results from the Hyatt family

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Speaker 1: in the worst way.

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Speaker 2: Hamud's interrogation begins on June third, two thousand and five,

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Speaker 2: at about eleven thirty in the morning, and it would

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Speaker 2: go on for hours and hours before the agents turned

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Speaker 2: on the video cameras.

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Speaker 1: They start taping at five o'clock in the afternoon. You

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Speaker 1: can see skinny little Hamed, very nervous, sitting in a

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Speaker 1: chair that's pushed against the wall of a small windowless room.

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Speaker 1: He's facing two FBI agents who are staring him down.

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Speaker 2: The policy of the FBI at this time was that

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Speaker 2: the decision to record interrogations was left in the discretion

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Speaker 2: of agents, so it was unusual that they would record

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Speaker 2: these interrogations. But thank god they did, because otherwise we

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Speaker 2: wouldn't have the record that we do have about how

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Speaker 2: at least some of Hamid's interrogation went down as.

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Speaker 1: Soon as the tapes rolling. The agents accuse Hamid of

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Speaker 1: spending between three and six months at a terrorist training

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Speaker 1: camp in Pakistan and then come to lies. First they

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Speaker 1: say he failed a polygraph that he apparently took earlier

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Speaker 1: that day. Second, they claimed to have satellite photographs of

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Speaker 1: a camp, implying Hamid's in those photos. Neither was true.

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Speaker 1: And then the agents offer him help. As long as

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Speaker 1: he talks over and over and over, they promise that

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Speaker 1: they're there to help him. Hamid looks desperate to please

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Speaker 1: these guys. He says he wants to cooperate for my country.

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Speaker 3: From my country, I do anything, you know, because you know,

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Speaker 3: these guys are hurting our country about well.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate that.

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Speaker 3: I mean it's important because you know, every day in

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Speaker 3: and as we see her, you know, our troops Arooko,

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Speaker 3: they're very hard for you know, making peace in the

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Speaker 3: whole world front.

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Speaker 4: Why they're making peace, they're making peace.

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Speaker 5: For us so we can live together, all of us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And what do they do with these camps.

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Speaker 1: What they're doing is to teaching people out to how

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Speaker 1: to kill American truth of course, right, that's what the.

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Speaker 2: Camps are all about.

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Speaker 1: The interrogation goes on for hours into the night, until

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Speaker 1: Hamid starts breaking. He tells the agents he did go

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Speaker 1: to a camp in Pakistan for several months. But his

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Speaker 1: story makes no sense.

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Speaker 2: It's laughable.

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Speaker 1: They ask him when he'd gone to the camp. At

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Speaker 1: first Hamad said it was during the hot season, but

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Speaker 1: then he says it was during the cold season. When

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Speaker 1: they ask him to describe the camp, Hammud's answer is

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Speaker 1: just pathetic. He says the whole place had only four

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Speaker 1: weapons in it, a shotgun, two pistols, and a machine gun.

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Speaker 2: He said the only weapon that he had handled was

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Speaker 2: actually a pistol, and he'd only shot it three or

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Speaker 2: four times. What kind of training is that?

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Speaker 1: The agents ask comed where the camp was and he

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Speaker 1: keeps switching his story there too. First it was in

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Speaker 1: rural Afghanistan, then it was in rural Pakistan.

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Speaker 3: You're all over the map here, oh yeah, and yeah,

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Speaker 3: helping yourself out it by doing that, you know, Okay,

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Speaker 3: when one minute you're saying Northwest Frontier, next minue you're

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Speaker 3: saying cash from you, you're saying where this building was?

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Speaker 5: Which city was it?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I'll say about court.

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Speaker 3: It's not that you will say you know where it is,

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Speaker 3: you know where the building is, Tell me where was it?

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Speaker 3: Gon A Gourd and the BFP in NWFP.

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Speaker 1: Calling for and of course, remember Hamad had said none

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Speaker 1: of this to Nassm Khan, despite years of recorded phone calls. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he told Nasim he'd never go to a training camp.

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Speaker 1: It's only after this interrogation that Hamad starts saying whatever

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Speaker 1: he thinks the agents want to hear, and piece by piece,

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Speaker 1: the agents feed him nearly all the information in his confession,

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Speaker 1: down to the types of buildings he was supposedly going

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Speaker 1: to attack in the United States.

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Speaker 3: There are certain kinds of targets that you know, are

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Speaker 3: are good targets. You know, if you're gonna be worth

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Speaker 3: your salt as a geode, you to know about his targets,

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Speaker 3: like buildings, And I'll say buildings.

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Speaker 2: What kind of buildings you take your bags? You know?

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Speaker 3: Okay, financial buildings, uh are private buildings, commercial buildings, big

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Speaker 3: of the Unity's commercial arctics and like those kind of buildings.

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Speaker 2: I see, all right, you're.

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Speaker 3: Not yeah, but I'm not sure about the big things.

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Speaker 3: You guys are talking about, the big ones that will

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Speaker 3: see him, you know, finance.

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Speaker 2: Let's say, And what else?

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Speaker 3: What else did they tell you about coscuds?

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Speaker 1: Maybe Hammid's confession is not very believable, so the FBI

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Speaker 1: needs corroboration. While those agents are questioning Hamid, other agents

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Speaker 1: bring in his dad, Umer, the ice cream truck driver,

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Speaker 1: and start questioning him too. They tell Umer that Hamid

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Speaker 1: admitted going to a training camp in Pakistan, and they

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Speaker 1: start pressuring Umer to say he also went to visit Hamid,

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Speaker 1: just like a parent would check out his kids college. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: Umer agrees that he had gone to visit Hamid, but

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Speaker 1: his story is totally wild. Hamid had described a rural

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Speaker 1: camp in a forested area, but Umer says the camp's

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Speaker 1: in rawal Pindi, a two million persons city. And Umer's description, well,

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Speaker 1: he says he saw one thousand fighters at this camp

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Speaker 1: and they're all in a huge underground basement practicing pole vaulting.

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Speaker 2: Do you know how high a ceiling has to be

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Speaker 2: in order to pole vault?

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Speaker 1: I'll take shit you don't do in a basement for

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Speaker 1: five hundred alex. And it gets even crazier because, according

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Speaker 1: to Umer, those pole vaulters are dressed up like Ninja turtles.

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Speaker 1: Umer later explained that he lifted this story from the

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Speaker 1: movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He'd recently we've seen it

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Speaker 1: on TV. All this goes on and on. Both men

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Speaker 1: keep spinning stories and the agents aren't really getting anywhere.

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Speaker 1: At three am, Ahmad starts complaining that his head hurts.

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Speaker 1: He asks to go home and gets in sleep.

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Speaker 3: You tell me, Kashmir, you tell me if Cahn stand

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Speaker 3: northwest seeing playing it on whatever you want to play on.

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Speaker 3: But what's goind of happening? That he's ran up the

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Speaker 3: rest of you? Okay, so i'd beg here to over. No,

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Speaker 3: you're not leaving here tonight now, No.

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Speaker 2: I mean tomorrow. I'm going to be here tonight, staying.

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Speaker 5: Here in that evening.

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Speaker 1: You're going to go to jail and.

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Speaker 5: Jed, So I'm going to get a place.

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Speaker 2: To steep older like that.

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Speaker 1: Instead, the agents arrest him and charge him with lending

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Speaker 1: material support to terrorism. Suddenly, he's facing up to thirty

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Speaker 1: years in prison for his part. Umer's also arrested based

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Speaker 1: on the crazy Ninja Turtle statement. He's charged with two

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Speaker 1: counts of lying to federal agents. The Hyat's arrest was

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Speaker 1: a huge news story. Now, some media outlets were skeptical.

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Speaker 1: They ran stories highlighting the pole vaulting and the Ninja

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Speaker 1: Turtles and the crazy mismatch between what Hamad and his

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Speaker 1: dad had said. But other media bought it all hook

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Speaker 1: line and sinker. They covered the story as proof that

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Speaker 1: domestic sleeper cells existed.

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Speaker 2: You throw a word out there, you throw the word terror,

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Speaker 2: you throw the word martyr, you throw the word gihad

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Speaker 2: out into public space, and people will believe almost anything

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Speaker 2: because the fear is so great.

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Speaker 1: There's a federal trial to get ready for, and the

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Speaker 1: Hyatt family hires lawyers. But while the lawyer that Umer

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Speaker 1: hires is very experienced, Hamed gets a novice. She'd never

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Speaker 1: gone before a jury before. The plan was for her

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Speaker 1: to imitate whatever Umer's lawyer did, but that was no

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Speaker 1: plan at all. The cases were totally different, very different charges,

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Speaker 1: very different confessions. Hamid needed his own defense, but he

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Speaker 1: didn't get one, or at least not a very good one.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I've had some trial experience in my career.

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Speaker 2: I know my way around a criminal court room. We've

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Speaker 2: had contested hearings in our own post conviction cases, and

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Speaker 2: I know more about false confessions than a lot of

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Speaker 2: other attorneys who practice in this area. But there is

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Speaker 2: no way that I would ever take a case like

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Speaker 2: this this case required a trial lawyer and one who

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Speaker 2: had worked with a security clearance and had done cases

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Speaker 2: in federal court against the FBI.

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Speaker 1: Hammid's lawyer had some of the best false confession experts

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Speaker 1: in her backyard, including doctor Richard Leo at the University

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Speaker 1: of San Francisco, but when Hahmed's trial rolled around in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six, his lawyer didn't call doctor Leo

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Speaker 1: to testify. Hamed's lawyer also didn't adequately challenge the government's

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Speaker 1: claim that he carried a Jihati prayer in his wallet.

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Speaker 1: Hamed did carry a note a tauiz, a standard Pakistani

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Speaker 1: Muslim prayer for good health and protection. It was a

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Speaker 1: gift from Hamed's uncle after the meningitis, but Hamed's lawyer

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Speaker 1: didn't clearly explain that the note had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with terrorism, and the jury was left to think the worst.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's a travel prayer. You know, Jews travel

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Speaker 2: with eighteen cents in their front pocket when they go

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Speaker 2: on an airplane.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, I feel comfortable traveling with you, Steve,

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Speaker 1: if you're going to be covered spiritually.

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Speaker 2: No, I kind of elapsed jew, okay, But people have

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Speaker 2: these prayers with regard to travel, and that's what my

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Speaker 2: understanding of this Taouis was. Yeah, I mean the language

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Speaker 2: that that expert use makes it sound very ominous, but

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure that that was the right translation.

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Speaker 1: Despite a pretty weak defense, Hamed's conviction was far from guaranteed.

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Speaker 1: Even after hearing his confession, the jury still took nine

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Speaker 1: days to reach a decision, but in the end they're

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Speaker 1: verdict guilty. Later it came out that there had been

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Speaker 1: instances of dury misconduct during deliberations. The jury foreman himself

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Speaker 1: had said that if you put all Muslims in the

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Speaker 1: same costume, they all look alike. Umer Hyatt's trial, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, ended in a mistrial, no verdict at all.

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Speaker 1: He ended up pleading guilty to some minor customs violations

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Speaker 1: and was released but hamid. On September tenth, two thousand

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Speaker 1: and seven, Hamed Hyatt was sentenced to twenty four years

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Speaker 1: in prison. It was one day before the sixth anniversary

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Speaker 1: of the nine to eleven attacks. Federal prison is no

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Speaker 1: picnic for anyone, especially not a young muslinman who's been

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Speaker 1: convicted of terrorism. Most inmates are allowed only a limited

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Speaker 1: number of visits something like once a week. Hamed was

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Speaker 1: allowed only one visit per year from his family members.

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Speaker 1: His dad Umer didn't get permission to say see him

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Speaker 1: for more than eight years. But even while Hamad endured prison,

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Speaker 1: he grew up. For the first time. He was meeting

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Speaker 1: people of different faiths and backgrounds, albeit behind bars, and

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Speaker 1: he began to realize that those things he'd said to

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Speaker 1: impress Naseem about terrorism being cool or toxic. When a

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Speaker 1: reporter interviewed him in twenty sixteen, Hamad retracted everything. He

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Speaker 1: told the reporter. It was wrong what I said. I

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Speaker 1: totally disagree with myself. I didn't know much then. I

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Speaker 1: wasn't open minded about a lot of stuff.

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Speaker 2: So Hammed is in prison and he's doing his time,

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Speaker 2: and his case is winding its way through the system.

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Speaker 2: He's losing at every stage. And then Hahmad gets a new.

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Speaker 1: Lawyer, a great lawyer by the name of Dennis rear

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Speaker 1: And for those of you who are real true crime junkies,

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Speaker 1: you might remember Dennis Reardon as one of the leading

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Speaker 1: lawyers on the team that freed the West Memphis three

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Speaker 1: For us.

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Speaker 6: Of course, the important thing about the case is that

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Speaker 6: this was not about just a bad trial. You can

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Speaker 6: have cases like that where someone's rights are violated. We

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Speaker 6: passionately believe and knew, we knew it was an actual

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Speaker 6: innocence case.

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Speaker 1: So Dennis starts investigating the time that Hamid spent in

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Speaker 1: Pakistan between two thousand and three and two thousand and five. Remember,

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Speaker 1: the government said that during those two years, Hamad went

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Speaker 1: off for three months to a training camp. And what

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Speaker 1: does Dennis discover alibi witnesses, eighteen of them.

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Speaker 6: They described in great detail his daily routine. He was

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Speaker 6: generally almost every day in the native village, except for

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Speaker 6: the time when he took two trips to raul Pindi

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Speaker 6: with his mother. So there were witnesses from wyl Pindi,

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Speaker 6: there were witnesses from the village of Babuti. He had

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Speaker 6: never been out of their site for more than at

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Speaker 6: most a couple of days, and had never attended at

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Speaker 6: camp as the government alleged, for three to six months.

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Speaker 1: Person after person comes forward to say that when Hamad

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Speaker 1: was in Pakistan, he was living with family and friends

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Speaker 1: the whole time. There were no three month unexplained absences.

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Speaker 1: He spent his days playing soccer, not training for jihad.

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Speaker 2: Hamad was no terrorist. He was totally innocent.

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Speaker 1: Dennis prepares an appeal based on these alibis. He's granted

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Speaker 1: a hearing a chance to make the case for Hahmad's innocence.

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Speaker 1: The alibi witnesses testify at the hearing over a live

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Speaker 1: video feed from Pakistan. Dennis also calls that false confession

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Speaker 1: expert to the stand doctor Richard Leo.

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Speaker 2: And doctor Leo testified that this confession was useless. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't worth the tape that it was recorded on.

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Speaker 6: And of course, if you look at the interrogation itself,

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Speaker 6: one of the owly humorous aspects of it was that

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Speaker 6: he was painfully thin and hardly looked like someone who

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Speaker 6: had trained for terrorist activities, and in fact gave this

401
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Speaker 6: description during this marathon interrogation where he's trying very hard

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Speaker 6: to please them and give them answers. Well, I was

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Speaker 6: in the camp. Well did you ever do arms trading? Well,

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Speaker 6: they gave me a rifle once, but it was too

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Speaker 6: heavy for me, so they never gave it to me again,

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Speaker 6: and so what they had me do was peel vegetables

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Speaker 6: in the kitchen.

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Speaker 1: The media is following all of this. A PBS Frontline

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Speaker 1: episode had been made questioning Hamid's conviction. A written piece

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Speaker 1: in the Intercept did the same thing, and while the

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Speaker 1: hearing was going on, an episode of the Netflix series

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Speaker 1: The Confession Tapes also pointed to Hammid's innocence. His case

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Speaker 1: was attracting supporters, momentum was building fast. So what does

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Speaker 1: the government do. They offer Hamid his freedom, but he's

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Speaker 1: got to plead guilty.

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Speaker 6: As a lawyer, robl to go to Calient and say,

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Speaker 6: the government is still talking about potentially helping you out

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Speaker 6: if you provide him with information about Pakistan, and he said,

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Speaker 6: I have nothing to provide them with.

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Speaker 1: Now we've heard the story way too often. As soon

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Speaker 1: as a case starts falling apart, the government offers a deal.

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Speaker 1: It lets prosecutors say face and it's pretty hard for

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Speaker 1: any defendant to turn down. But Hamad, he.

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Speaker 6: Said, I've gone through all of that and I am

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Speaker 6: not going to stand up and say that I did

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Speaker 6: something I didn't do. And we said, you know, we

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Speaker 6: have a very strong case, but there's no way we

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Speaker 6: can guarantee you that it will succeed, and he said,

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Speaker 6: I'm prepared to see this through.

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Speaker 1: Years ago, he refused to go to a camp when

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Speaker 1: a scene pressured him. Now he refuses to say he

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Speaker 1: went to a camp. He turns down the deal. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he bets that the truth will set him free.

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Speaker 2: Turns out he was right to take that bet.

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Speaker 6: You just see before you click on it, there's an

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Speaker 6: order of the District Court, and you know you're talking

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00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 6: about ten seconds of absolute terror. And then I clicked

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00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:12,239
Speaker 6: on it and the conviction is overturned. I'll admit it.

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Speaker 6: I wept, I really did.

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Speaker 1: On July thirtieth, twenty nineteen, after fourteen years behind bars,

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00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: hamit Hyatt's conviction was thrown out based on his trial

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00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:28,359
Speaker 1: attorney's ineffectiveness. If Hamid's lawyer had called those alibi witnesses,

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00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 1: the court found, he would have been acquitted.

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00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 2: So where's Hamid today?

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00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: Laura Hamid was freed on August ninth, twenty nineteen, and

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00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 1: formally exonerated just a few months ago. On Valentine's Day

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00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:47,320
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, the government dismissed all charges against him. He's

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00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: the first post nine to eleven international terrorism defendant to

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Speaker 1: be officially cleared of any wrongdoing.

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Speaker 6: And his family knew that he had been freed, but

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00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,840
Speaker 6: they didn't know what was the next step family was

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00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 6: brought to the Council on American Islamic Relations, not knowing

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00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 6: that he would be there, and the video of his

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00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:15,720
Speaker 6: mother seeing him for the first time in fourteen years

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00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 6: because she was never able to visit him, and then

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00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 6: the same with his father.

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00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 4: Jeremy Jeremah Jeremah.

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Speaker 6: It was extraordinary. Everyone wept just watching it.

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00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 1: Since his exoneration, Hama's been taking life one day at

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00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,439
Speaker 1: a time. He's living in California, although not in Lodi,

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00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,440
Speaker 1: and he's reconnecting with his family, including nieces and nephews

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00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 1: who were born while he was locked up. But like

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00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 1: all exoneries, he's struggling to navigate a world that's really

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00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,520
Speaker 1: different than the one he was taken from in two

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00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,960
Speaker 1: thousand and five. When I saw him a few months ago,

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00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: I asked him if he was okay. He looked at

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00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: me for a long time and simply said, no, I'm not.

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00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: Hammed's got a lot of healing to do. But the

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00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,400
Speaker 1: good news He's got an enormous number of supporters who

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00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 1: believe in him, and Hamad, we're here to support you too.

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00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:23,960
Speaker 6: Hey, Hammed, is that you?

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00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 2: Hey? Laura? How you doing? Good?

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00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 1: Good?

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00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 5: What are you up to today?

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00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:29,640
Speaker 4: Not much? Where are you stand the day you sand

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00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,639
Speaker 4: with your family? Yes, I'm with my family.

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00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:32,880
Speaker 2: Yes.

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00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 5: What's it like to be back with your family after

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00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 5: so many years away?

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00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 4: Surely a blessing.

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00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 5: They always believed in you.

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00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 4: My family was there, my legal team was there, all

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00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 4: my supporters. That was my hope, my parent.

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Speaker 1: Where do you see yourself five years from them?

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00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 4: I just want to go back to school and get

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00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 4: my ice school the phone line did, and go to

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00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 4: college after that. I hope you'll find a good job.

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00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 1: I see you on social media posting pictures of you

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00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:58,400
Speaker 1: with your nieces and nephews.

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00:28:58,520 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 4: It's amazing.

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00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 5: You've been out since August and you're already way better

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00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 5: than me at Instagram. So the checks.

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00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 2: And balances in our criminal justice system failed miserably in

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00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 2: this case. And I think it's not because these are

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00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 2: bad people or they were trying to frame Hamid Hyad

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00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 2: and his father. I think it's because they were operating

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00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 2: in the panic and fear that everybody in this country

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00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,920
Speaker 2: was living under in the wake of nine to eleven,

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00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 2: And in that context, I think standards for what a

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00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 2: good case is sometimes get ignored.

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00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: Standards start being cut short and the results is the

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00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:54,000
Speaker 1: taking of more innocent life right, in this case fourteen

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00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: years from the life of Hamed Hyad. When Hamad was released,

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00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: he said, I still think this is a dream. I

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00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: wake up and I still think I'm in prison. I'll

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00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 1: never be able to pay back my sisters and brothers,

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00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 1: none of my supporters. I'm your servant until the day

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Speaker 1: of judgment. Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions is a production of

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00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,959
Speaker 1: Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One.

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00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: Special thanks to our executive producer Jason Flamm and the

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00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 1: team at Signal Company Number one. Executive producer Kevin wardis

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00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 1: Senior producer and Pope, and additional production and editing by

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00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: Connor Hall. Special thanks to Jogi Hammer for additional script

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00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,160
Speaker 1: editing and for wrangling and writing like a mad woman.

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00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 1: Our music was composed by Jay Ralph. You can follow

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00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: me on Instagram or Twitter at Laura Nywriter, and you.

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00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 2: Can follow me on Twitter at s Drisen.

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00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 1: For more information on the show, visit wrong Conviction podcast

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00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: dot com and be sure to follow the show on

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00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 1: Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast,

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00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: and on Twitter. At wrong conviction