WEBVTT - #295 Jason Flom with Ricky Kidd 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.080 Late in the morning on February sixth, nineteen ninety six, 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:08.399 George Bryant and Oscar Bridges were at Bryan's Kansas City home. 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.240 According to four year old Kayla Bryant, her father invited 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.920 in three men dressed in black, whom she had seen 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.840 at the house two days earlier. It's believed that they 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.439 were there for a drug deal. While the men were 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.840 in the kitchen, Kayla hurt a gunshot, her father fell, 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.439 and Oscar Bridges ran into the basement, where he was 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.960 later discovered bound, gagged, and shot twice in the head. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.520 While the men searched the house, George tried to run, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:37.360 was shot and bled out in the snow. The three 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:41.760 men sped off in a white Oldsmobile. Police received anonymous 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.640 tips naming ten men as suspects, including men who knew 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.879 George Bryant, Gary Goodspeed Senior and Junior, Marcus Merrill, and 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.240 Ricky Kidd, with an alibi that included a trip to 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.880 the Sheriff's office and not being identified by Kayla. Ricky 0:00:56.000 --> 0:01:00.280 was released after recording a video lineup. Weeks later, allience 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.840 neighbor Richard Harris was arrested while on parole in exchange 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.320 for leniency, he offered a description of the crime that 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.679 was inconsistent with all other witnesses, along with an ever 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:14.440 growing confidence in his identification of Ricky Kidd. Despite evidence 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.240 that mostly pointed toward Merrill and both Good Speeds, authorities 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.600 decided to prosecute Ricky on the strength of an incentivized 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.160 informant and against the protest of the four year old witness, 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:30.679 sending Ricky away for life without parole. This is wrongful conviction. 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.120 Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. Today. You are going to 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:52.520 hear from a guy who I'm really actually in awe of. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.720 I've heard him on the radio, on podcasts, I've heard 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:01.400 him on different platforms. I've read about him. He's somebody 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:06.680 that everyone in the innocence movement respects and admires. He 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:11.040 carries himself in a way that I think is just inspiring. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.239 I don't know how else to say it. And I'm 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.239 going to introduce the man right now, and so Ricky Kid, 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.000 welcome to Rafel Conviction. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.079 Thank you, Jason, appreciate it. 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.480 I'm so glad you're here. Of course, I'm sorry you're 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.080 here because the reason you're here is the miserable nightmare 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:29.040 you had to live through. But before we get into 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.120 all of that, Ricky, let's go back like they do 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.200 in the movies when it gets all foggy and it 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.120 was time traveled back. What was your life like growing up? 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:37.720 What do you call it? A happy childhood? 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.560 Unfortunately, like many of the individuals who find themselves on 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:44.680 the wrong side of the law, wrongfully convicted, there was 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.440 some poverty issues. I grew up smart. I was always 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.240 two grades above and reading and math. I was innocent 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.320 of the woes of the world, the eels, the injustices 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.160 of the world at that time, and I was a 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.600 mama's boy. My name is Ricky, my mother's name is Vicky, 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.040 and my sister name is Nicki, so it was Nicky, 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.480 Ricky and Vicki. My father never showed up, Jason. He 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.240 for one reason or another, he decided not to participate 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.400 in my life. And then in nineteen eighty eight nineteen 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:17.480 eighty nine, my mother fell into crack cocaine addiction, and 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.919 my sister, who had different fathers, so she went and 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.240 stayed with her father's family, and my mother went into 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.560 her addiction in the streets, and I was left essentially homeless. 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.440 Well that's actually quite the opposite of a happy childhood. 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.160 And it's my understanding of the situation you found yourself 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.520 and led you to come to know both the eventual 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.880 victims and the assailants in this case. In fact, you 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.280 knew the good Speed so well that people confused you 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:43.040 for family. 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.200 I grew up next door to Gary Goodspeed junior. We 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.560 became friends and did start calling each other's cousins. As 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:51.800 we got older. Then I would call his mother auntie. 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:55.040 I will call his daddy uncle. Essentially, when my mother 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.400 went a wall and went into her addiction, his family 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.440 actually took me in. I had an ultimatum from the 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.520 good Speech was you're gonna have to find a way 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.760 to pay your way. So at a young age, I 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.480 was introduced to selling crack cocaine, and the older guys 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.120 would give me one hundred dollars pack five twenty dollar rocks, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.240 and if I sold all one hundred of them, I 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.920 could to keep twenty. The idea was, little Ricky, if 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.120 you get caught, see you a juvenile, you can't get 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.760 into any trouble. So it just made sense to me, 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.680 with the cards that my life had dealt me at 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:34.159 that time, to do so thirteen fourteen, fifteen sixteen, I 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.560 was still this, you know, small time drug dealer. As 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.680 we became older and I began to find my own 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.080 way in this world, our passways began to go in 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:49.240 different directions. When it came to February sixth, nineteen ninety six, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.000 the good speech would not have been considered friends. They 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.240 would not really have even been considered associates. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.520 And earlier on, your connection to drugs put you in 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.039 touch with the victim in this case, George Bryant, who 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:05.520 was also involved in that same lifestyle. And while your 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:10.080 path diverged from the good speeds, you had three children, Jasmine, 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:14.480 Raven and Austin. Now you were supplementing your income still 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.400 selling drugs, and eventually that put you on the radar 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:18.440 of the local police. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.880 Yeah. I would have been known to the police. So 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.680 the idea that you can be a street guy, the hustler, 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.440 it was good enough for them to say, you might 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.680 as well be a murder. It's all the same to them. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.839 That's what you do, right, you sell drugs, you kill 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.279 each other, you Robin, But that just wasn't the case. 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.880 I wasn't violent at all. I had a drug conviction. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:44.919 I was arrested in October of nineteen ninety five. Drugs 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:47.360 was found in a rental car, and so I popped 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:52.039 on the radar there just months before the commission of 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.600 the homicide in February of nineteen ninety six. 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:57.880 Just in time, of course, for your mugshot to be 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:01.240 available for a photo lineup. So let's talk about the 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:05.599 crime itself. So, like you said, it's February sixth, nineteen 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:08.640 ninety six. This happened just before noon, and from the 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.360 account of George's daughter Kayla, who was watching TV and 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:16.640 having a happy meal. Ironically, it looks like George had 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.200 invited three men into the house. We believe to make 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.880 some sort of a drug deal. Kayla had seen the 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.720 men though two days before, when they had come by 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.920 the house. She described one as fat and another skinny. Now, 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:31.360 on the day of the crime, the men had come 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.480 through the garage. They were dressed in black, and now 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.680 they were all in the kitchen with George and a 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:39.640 guy named Oscar Bridges. Kayla heard a gun go off 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.240 and her father fell to the ground. Then Oscar ran 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.479 down to the basement. One of the men followed Oscar, 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.840 whose body was later discovered bound, gagged and shot twice 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:52.680 in the head. The other two men searched George's pockets, 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:54.960 and while they searched the rest of the house, George 0:06:54.960 --> 0:07:00.159 tried to run but was shot. He tragically bled out, 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.040 laying in the snow outside like a horror scene. Kayla 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.840 said the quote. Fat one came back in and told 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:08.640 her it was going to be all right. Then the 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.520 three men got into a white sedan and peeled off. 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.160 Police arrived at eleven fifty am and found Kayla still 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.840 on the phone with the nine one one dispatcher. Police 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:23.280 received various anonymous tips naming ten different suspects, including Marcus 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.720 Merrill and then also Darry Goodspeed Senior and Junior, and 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.920 then of course you, Ricky. So investigators put together a 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:35.000 photo lineup for Kayla that included you, Meryll and good 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.720 Speed Junior. And get this, Kayla only picked out Meryl. Now, 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.800 like you said, you were no longer associated with these guys, 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.560 but you were still listed with the police as known associates. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:51.160 And so when the double homicide had taken place, unbenoath 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.440 to my lawyers and I at the time that the 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.120 real killers good Speed Senor Junior and Merrow had not 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.120 only committed the crime and fled, but to buy them 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:05.080 some time in some space. They called Chips hotline and 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.480 said that Ricky Kidd had something to do with this homicide. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.840 And so that's how I ended up popping up on 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:14.080 their radar in the first place. They picked me up 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:20.480 on February fourteenth, nineteen ninety six, interrogated me for about 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.440 five or six hours. I participated in a photo lineup, 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.160 a video lineup, and. 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.760 They arrested Monica, your girlfriend at that time, as well. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.840 They separated you and interrogated you both, and your stories 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:37.360 matched perfectly correct and the stories are pretty compelling. They 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.040 could have easily verified these stories right, Which was that 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.280 on the morning of the crime, you had agreed to 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.320 watch your nephew, right well, your sister was at work. 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.040 And then that same morning that this crime took place, 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.079 you and Monica and the little guy DJ had gone 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.880 to Nikki's office to pick up your car and then 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.840 stopped at McDonald's and went to the Jackson County Sheriff's office. 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.439 Imagine that, I mean, how. 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.520 Good of an alibi do you need? And this is 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.000 the Sheriff's office at Late Jakomo where you applied for 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.440 a gun permit, so I mean it. That's it, right. 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.600 No more investigation is necessary than to just do those 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.800 very basic things and go check the videotape at McDonald's. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:18.320 Go check and see if in fact you were at 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.480 the sheriff's office. They would have a record of that. Obviously, 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.800 if you applied for a gun permit. Now you agreed 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.440 to stand at a videotape lineup, allowed police to search 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:27.439 the car and belongings. And I got to go back 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.400 to the fact that you and your and Monica, your 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.800 story's matched exactly. Now, if you were lying since you 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.680 were separated, there's no chance that those stories would. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:36.440 Have matched none at all. 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.760 It seems like initially when they first arrested you, they 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:40.720 basically acknowledged that you weren't the. 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.199 Guy and they had let me go. They said it 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.920 at the time, it appeared that somebody was throwing my 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.959 name in a hat, trying to shuffle things around, and 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.520 they released me February fifteenth. In my mind, there was 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.480 no frame of reference at that time, in nineteen ninety 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.600 six for me to even understand that I was in trouble. Ay, 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:04.360 I'm in it. You can clearly go verify that I'm 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.680 in a set and might whereabouts at the time of 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:08.720 the crime. And they did not pursue that. 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.360 Now they go and they decided they're going to test 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:15.360 six pairs of your shoes, and they compared them to 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.360 shoeprints that were found in the kitchen. There was one 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.480 shoeprint that was found on a piece of bread, and 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.520 the other one was in blood on linoleum. And your 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.400 shoes as well as the shoes of the victims were 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.600 excluded as the source of the prince. You don't have 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:35.040 to be Sherlock Holmes here, ladies and gentlemen, right. So 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.400 they also, at the same time, though, began to investigate Meryl, 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.640 Goodspeed Junior, and Good Speed Senior. All of them, interestingly enough, 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.880 lived in Georgia, where Meryll and Good Speed Junior shared 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.760 an apartment. Now get this. Airline records showed that the 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.240 three men had flown from Atlanta to Kansas City a 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.880 few days prior to the murders and stated that Adams 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.000 Marcotel before returning to Georgia after the murders Alamo rent 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.080 the car records showed the Good Speed Senior rented a 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.480 You guess that a white Oldsmobile which fit the description, 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.000 the real descriptions of the getaway car and good speed. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.840 Senior's fingerprint was found on a Carmex lip bomb wrapper 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.080 with a price tag from a good to ghost store, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:17.840 one of which was a block and a half from 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.440 Brian's home. Again, these are clues that are starting to 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:22.560 really add up. I mean, that would be a crazy 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.960 set of coincidences could happen. But okay, So then on 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:29.120 March eleventh, nineteen ninety six, Richard Harris, who lived near 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:31.839 mister Bryant, was arrested on a parole violation. I want 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:33.440 to take us through this part, Ricky. 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.120 Yeah, this individual you're talking about, Richard Harris, was an 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.480 alleged witness to the commission of the crime and he 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.240 had a parole violation. He was brought in and detectives 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.440 had already received a call that he might have some 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.920 information as it related to the double homicide. And so 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.640 when he go into the police station for his parole violation, 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:00.560 homicide brings him down. They began to enter it him 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:06.280 and that's where they received their first cooperating or what 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:11.360 I like to call cohersed witness. And so the opportunity 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.840 was ripe for him to receive some type of favor 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.800 in exchange for information, even if it was inaccurate information, 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.720 to get himself back out of the trouble that he 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:27.280 found himself in. And so what detectives done to help 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.880 facilitate that was they showed Richard Harris a single photo 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.320 of me first, and Richard Harris said, I cannot say 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.240 that was him. Then they showed him a five man 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.560 photo spread and lo and behold, who's the fifth man? 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.400 And the five man photo spread the same guy he 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.000 just saw on a single photo. So then he said, 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.840 I think I think that's the guy. They said, but 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.120 you can't be sure. He said, no, I can't be sure. 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.880 So they said, okay, let's go into this other room 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.679 where they show him the video lineup. All the faces 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:03.240 changed except up for Ricky Kidd. So at this stage 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.959 he went from the single polar warid, I'm not sure, 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.760 the five man photo spread it maybe number five, to 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.840 the video lineup. He became two thousand and one percent 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.080 sure that Ricky Kidd was the guy that he saw, 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:22.960 despite describing everything contrary to what the police began to 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.480 collect or report on the evidence. For example, all witnesses 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:30.480 said that there was three men. They hopped in a 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.720 white late model OS mobile. They backed down the street. 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.040 That they all had on ski masks and black trench coats. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.800 Richard Harris described one of them without a coat on 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.440 at all, one with a brown coat, and that they 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.240 didn't back up, they actually went forward. And they was 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.640 not in a late model osmobile. They was in a 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:54.120 Nissan Stanza. And so early on, he's getting key facts wrong. 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.480 This guy obviously didn't see it. But nonetheless, on May 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.880 twenty second, nineteen ninety six, a few months after this 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:01.640 awful crime, were arrested again. 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.440 They came and they pulled their guns as I was 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.680 driving away from my apartment, made me stop the car. 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.559 I was surrounded by squad and police and detectives. My girlfriend, 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.400 Monica Gray at the time, she was with me, made 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.880 us put our hands up and they slapped those cold 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.240 handcuffs on us and took us down to the police station. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:26.600 And I'm thinking, in my mind, what didn't they understand 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:31.080 the first time? It's gonna be yet another inconvenience because 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.160 I'm moving, you're gonna make I'm just gonna be late. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.600 I'm gonna be late. I'm not gonna go to prison. 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.160 Innocent people don't go to prison. I'm just about to 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:43.560 be hastled, let go, and they once again realized that 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.280 they have the wrong person. I had no previous experience 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:48.480 with our justice system. 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:53.040 You told Detective Jay Pruding that you were with Monica 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.680 all day and that whoever identified you must have confused 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:01.440 you with somebody else, quite possibly your uncle, Gary Goodspeed Senior. 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.119 But nonetheless you and Merrill were charged with the murders. 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.440 Take us to what happens over the next month. When 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.640 you reached out to this detective, right. 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.040 I was letting them know through the whole time that 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.280 I was in the county jail. I had no bond, 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.400 that I was innocent. First, I did not know why 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.280 they would think I would be guilty, so I had 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.680 to wait for my discovery. Once I was able to 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.880 receive the police reports, about six hundred pages, maybe one 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.760 hundred and fifty of them was keeping everything that they 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:40.120 collected together. Maybe about fifty or sixty pages was related 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.720 to me, but the rest of the six hundred pages 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.760 were all related to the good Speed and those clues 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.520 and the dots that connected them to being involved in 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:50.880 the commission of this crime, and so as I received 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.040 my discovery in the county jail, I was smart enough 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.440 as a novus, as a regular citizen, to see that 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.880 you are barking up the wrong tree, and how can 0:15:59.920 --> 0:16:05.000 you possibly not see this, as seasoned detectives unless you 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.680 are purposely trying to send the wrong person to prison. 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.120 So I would reach out, my sister would reach out. 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.080 I would get on the phone. My lawyers would tell me, 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.880 might I advise you don't talk to the detectives? And 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.600 I heard her. I was smart enough to understand the 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.320 basis of that. But in my mind, I'm thinking an 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.920 innocent man could never get itself in any trouble. He's innocent. 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:29.960 So I would not listen, and I would call the 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.000 detectives and I would wrestle with them over the phone 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.200 till they one day came and picked me up and 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.760 brought me over to headquarters, and I had about twenty 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:44.720 five thirty minutes to articulate their case back to them. 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.080 And man, you are to seen they I wish that 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.840 was recorded. You are have seen their faces. I mean, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.240 I was a young Perry Mason, if you will, and 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.920 I'm kind of being funny but serious, I was really 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.080 laying out like this is how you're making a mistake, 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.960 and answer why this and why that. Gary Goodspeed Junior 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.720 was picked up by the detectives and asked what time 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:14.159 did George Bryant die? And Gary Goodspeed Junior says, in 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.000 this police report he died at eleven forty seven or 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:23.800 eleven forty six. Who else would know that other than 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.600 the killer? It was never reported in papers, It was 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.359 never reported in the news, It was never reported anywhere else. 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.399 In fact, the detective asked them, how do you know that, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:39.320 good Speed Junior, he said, my dad told me so. 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.040 He would have been better off saying I read it 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:43.800 in the newspaper, and we could try to find that 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.919 newspaper that did not exist. But the news at that 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.000 time had not reported the time of death, so how 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:52.359 would you know? So it was these things. It was 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.960 these glaring facts that I was challenging the detectives with, 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.800 and they got so frustrated. You know, usually they put 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:00.800 us in a pigeon box to speak when they get 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:02.679 us in there. But I had them in the pigeon 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.440 box so much so that they called it off. One 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.160 of the leadings Sargeant said, get him out of here. 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:10.919 And don't bring you back over here again. 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:24.880 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.680 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.520 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.240 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.080 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:41.159 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:45.199 the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.960 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.400 The prosecutor, Amy McGowan, wanted to talk to Gary Goodspeed 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.879 Senior and wanted to talk to Gary Goodspeed Junior. I 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.560 was making too much of a fuss that I was 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.680 innocent and that they were guilty according to the evidence 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.199 that they have in their possession. And so the prosecutor's 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.320 office worked to get Gary Goodspeed Senior and Gary Goodspeed 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.760 Junior too participate in sworn depositions. And by the way, 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:23.520 Gary Goodspeed Senior and Gary Goodspeed Junior was Marcus Murrell's 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.520 alibi witness. Marcus Merrill and I were charged. Marcus Merrill 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.119 is saying I was not with Ricky Kidd. I was 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.560 with Gary Goodspeed Senior, and I was with Gary Goodspeed Junior. 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.520 And Gary Goodspeed Senior and Junior is saying, yeah what 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:38.880 Marcus Merrill said, We was with him and we were 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.359 not with Ricky Kidd. And so they reported to Amy 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:47.359 McGowan's office for a sworn deposition. Marcus Merrell Lawyers was there. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.280 Detectives were summons to be there to read them their 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.879 Miranda rights. Why would you be reading these law abiding 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.639 citizens of them Miranda rights if you did not have 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:02.000 an indication that these were your guilty men? And so 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:08.120 everybody was there except for Ricky kidds representation Teresa Andison. Now, 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.480 by law, since this was a joint trial, all parties 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.480 must be summons together. You cannot take a deposition outside 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.639 of the presence of the other parties of individuals that 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.520 was involved. We was unaware that good Speech Senior and 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.600 Junior were being deposed of in Amy the Prosecutor's office. 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.879 During the deposition, they swore under oath that they was 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.600 not with Ricky Kidd, further proof that I was innocent, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.720 and that they were indeed with Marcus Merrill and with 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.439 each other, And they further went to collaborate evidence that 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.120 suggested they did it. So police already had this five 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:46.719 hundred page of police reports that some of the spots 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.320 and dots were already there. And what these two individuals 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.080 did in a sworn deposition in the prosecutor's office is 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:57.640 basically connect themselves to those spots and dots. What happened 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:01.320 was Amy McGowan. She would have had to realize that she, indeed, 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:06.399 at this point emphatically is holding the wrong person in 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.320 the Jackson County jail across the street, and the real 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.600 killers is sitting in her office. What did she decide 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.320 to do? She'd said, escort these individuals out of here 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.919 and let them go and proceed it knowing that she 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.200 was sending the wrong person to prison. And just one 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.400 more little caveat to add to that, not only did 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.320 she not invite my legal team to the depositions, but 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:33.280 she also hid the fact that it even existed in 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:37.480 the first place. Those transcripts of those depositions were printed, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.199 were created, and they was buried, buried as if it 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.000 never exists. It was only years later that Professor Sean 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.280 O'Brien in the Midwest Centistnce Project was able to find 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:51.000 those hitting and buried depositions, and we was able to 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.639 present them to a court and prove emphatically to the 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.639 court that Amy McGowan with hell key evidence and she 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:57.560 did it maliciously. 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.560 What the fuck is wrong with you people? You're absolute right. 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:03.000 They should have put the cuffs on them right there. 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:04.919 They should have assigned somebody to go across the street 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:07.800 and say we're sorry, mister kidd. This was a big misunderstanding. 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:11.239 We wish you well. At a minimum, that's what they 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:14.680 should have done. Yeah, but they were like, Nah, let 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:17.600 these guys go and hope they don't go and murder 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:18.320 anybody else. 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:19.480 Imagine that. 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.159 That's a level of evil that I think is hard 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.240 for most people with any sort of a conscience to understand. 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.080 But it's real because you're here to tell this story, 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:30.520 which is a miracle in itself. You know. 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.200 The National Registry of Exoneration have noted in their report 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:37.120 that fifty four percent of wrongful convictions has a direct 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:42.600