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Speaker 1: My interview with Tony Wright originally aired on April third

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Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen, and since his full exoneration and declaration

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Speaker 1: of actual innocence, he started working in the mailroom behing

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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia's largest law firms, Pepper Hamilton in July twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 1: Tony and I have done a number of appearances together.

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Speaker 1: He's always full of life, full of wisdom, and just

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Speaker 1: a great, great guy to be around, sort of a

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Speaker 1: gentle giant of a man. And I'm proud to call

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Speaker 1: him my friend. And here's the good news. A lot

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Speaker 1: of exgneries never get compensated, and we'll talk about those

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Speaker 1: reasons in the course of the different episodes. But happy

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Speaker 1: to report that in twenty eighteen, Tony Wright received a

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Speaker 1: settlement of almost ten million dollars from the state of Pennsylvania.

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Speaker 2: I came from a beautiful neighborhood, had a beautiful life.

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Speaker 1: I went to sleep because September seventh was the first

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Speaker 1: day of my high school year.

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Speaker 3: I was gonna be a senior.

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Speaker 2: At twenty two, I was set to start college.

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Speaker 4: I woke up and my wife was never the same again.

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Speaker 5: Cops came out with guns drawn and I never saw

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Speaker 5: freedom ever since after that.

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Speaker 2: It's like roach mode, Tom, once you get in and

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Speaker 2: I can't mount.

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Speaker 1: This is wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Welcome to another

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Speaker 1: episode of Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. Today, I am

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Speaker 1: particularly honored to have the co founder and co director

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Speaker 1: of the Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld, as well as our

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Speaker 1: most recent I believe our most recent exgnery Tony Wright.

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Speaker 3: A man jail for twenty four years.

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Speaker 6: As we tried again today he was found not guilty

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Speaker 6: of his crimes, and.

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Speaker 2: I walked back inside that prison for the last time. Man.

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Speaker 2: All hell broke loose.

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Speaker 6: But Tony Wright was victed of the rape and murder

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Speaker 6: of Luis Talley in Philadelphia back in nineteen ninety three,

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Speaker 6: a crime he's always said he didn't commit. Lots of

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Speaker 6: emotion today as the jury read its verdict in the courtroom,

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Speaker 6: audible gas as they declared Anthony Wright not guilty.

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Speaker 1: Peter, Tony, welcome to the show. Thank you. So let's

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Speaker 1: get right into it. Peter came out well, sort of.

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Speaker 1: We can only say he came out of retirement to

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Speaker 1: if he hadn't actually tried a case in about twenty

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Speaker 1: years prior to this one.

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Speaker 4: This was the first, my first criminal trial more than

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Speaker 4: two decades, and probably first criminal trial where I was

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Speaker 4: a sort of a principle in more like twenty five years.

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Speaker 1: And it's sort of counterintuitive because people wouldn't have thought

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Speaker 1: of that, right But the fact is that in almost

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Speaker 1: all the cases where we find DNA that truly proves

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Speaker 1: that the person who's incarcerated convicted falsely but everyone to

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Speaker 1: call it is actually innocent, the charges get dropped. But

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Speaker 1: not here. This was a unique case in that sense,

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Speaker 1: right now.

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Speaker 4: This was the first case in the twenty five year

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Speaker 4: history of the Innocence Project where after the overwhelming evidence

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Speaker 4: of innocence produced by the DNA testing was certainly enough

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Speaker 4: to get the conviction vacated, Whereas in almost every other case,

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Speaker 4: the prosecutors would then dismiss the chargers. Here the Philadelphia

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Speaker 4: DA said, no way, we're going to back up our detectives,

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Speaker 4: frankly who framed Tony and make you go through another trial.

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Speaker 4: So Tony, even after the DNA evidence came back exonerating him,

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Speaker 4: had to stay in prison another two and a half

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Speaker 4: years awaiting the retrial.

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Speaker 1: It's extraordinary and it's horrifying. Tony has sort of become

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Speaker 1: almost like a face of the innocence movement because of

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Speaker 1: the incredible coverage and Rolling Stone Magazine which ran a

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Speaker 1: phenomenal story focusing of course on the misconduct of the

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Speaker 1: Philadelphia police and prosecutors and on this case. In that story,

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Speaker 1: it was very poignant when they said that in this

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Speaker 1: century or whatever they however they phrased it, a black

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Speaker 1: man has a better chance of getting justice in Philadelphia,

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Speaker 1: Mississippi than he does in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And that's really

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Speaker 1: a terrible indictment of a city, a Northeastern city where

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Speaker 1: people would think that the justice system would function much

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Speaker 1: better than it would in the Deep South. But Tony,

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Speaker 1: I want to get to you. So let's go back

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Speaker 1: to the beginning.

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Speaker 2: You grew up.

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Speaker 1: You were in Pennsylvania, born and bred right, yes, And

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Speaker 1: so you grew up in Philadelphia proper, yes? And what

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Speaker 1: was that like?

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Speaker 2: I was raised by just my mother. My father wasn't

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Speaker 2: there because he didn't want to be there. He wasn't

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Speaker 2: there because at that time my mother wouldn't allow him

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Speaker 2: to be there. I mean, he's a great guy, he's

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Speaker 2: he's president in my life every day now and has

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Speaker 2: been for a very long time. I grew up in

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Speaker 2: the worst part of the city with my mom.

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Speaker 1: And you had a very difficult childhood with I guess

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Speaker 1: it was your stepfather, right, who was very violent.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very beautiful, I mean very It was more so

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Speaker 2: to my mother, but you know, you know I had

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Speaker 2: to endure that as well. You know, as a small

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Speaker 2: child growing up. That's hard.

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Speaker 1: You know, No, I'm getting the chills thinking about it,

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Speaker 1: because that's almost I would imagine for those of us

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Speaker 1: who have an experience that we can't imagine it. But

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Speaker 1: the fact is, not being able to defend your own

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Speaker 1: mother from a violent predator like that is a terrifying

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Speaker 1: scenario for any child. And I want to fast forward

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Speaker 1: a little bit, Tony, So you ended up getting in

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Speaker 1: some trouble, but then really turning your life around. We

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Speaker 1: were diverted as a young adolescent, really fifteen years old, right,

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Speaker 1: You were diverted to a program for troubled use as

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Speaker 1: opposed to being sent to prison.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: The program was called Vision Quest at that time. I

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Speaker 2: believe Vision Quests saved my life and helped me put

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Speaker 2: things back in perspective because as an alternative to actually

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Speaker 2: lock an use up. I mean, you know, no handcuffs,

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Speaker 2: no nothing. So you know, as a structured environment, very disciplined, right,

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Speaker 2: no picnic either, No no pick, definitely not no picnic.

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Speaker 2: I mean it was hard, but you know, it instilled

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Speaker 2: so much discipline in you, patience, and back then it

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Speaker 2: was a great place place for me to be. I

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Speaker 2: was there three years. I built some relationships with people

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Speaker 2: that really took care of me. I mean, so you know,

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Speaker 2: a lot of kids was up there for not going

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Speaker 2: to school and shoplifting that, and I was up there

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Speaker 2: for a sat with the police and which was very serious.

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Speaker 2: And you know, the people told me, you know, if

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Speaker 2: I do came there and did what I was supposed

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Speaker 2: to do, they'll take care of me. And they did

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Speaker 2: just that.

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Speaker 1: Man, And you really did turn your life around. And

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Speaker 1: that's what makes this story particularly tragic because when we

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Speaker 1: get to the point of when you were arrested for

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Speaker 1: a crime you had no knowledge of. It had nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with a brutal crime, the rape and murder

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Speaker 1: of a seventy seven year old woman. You know, you

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Speaker 1: were on the right track, right, You were working a

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Speaker 1: full time job in construction. You had a young son.

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Speaker 1: We were still very young, twenty years old, right, So

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Speaker 1: let's go back to that. And you know, the facts

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Speaker 1: of the case are well known and have been well documented,

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Speaker 1: so let's go through that. You're twenty years old. You're

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Speaker 1: sitting at home. It's a Sunday afternoon, right Sunday afternoon,

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Speaker 1: very normal, everything cooking, getting ready for the football game.

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Speaker 2: When I'm ready for the football game. October twentieth, you

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Speaker 2: never forget it, man, it was the worse day of

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Speaker 2: my life. I was staying with my mother at the time,

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Speaker 2: me and my girlfriend and my son was over my

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Speaker 2: mother's house and my mother and my girlfriend was in

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Speaker 2: the kitchen cooking brunch, and they just woke me up.

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Speaker 2: And I was laying on a couch and my son

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Speaker 2: was sitting underneath me, playing with his toys. And it

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Speaker 2: was a knock at the door, and almost simultaneously, the

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Speaker 2: phone rung. I grabbed the phone and answered the phone,

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Speaker 2: and my mother came in the living room and answered

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Speaker 2: the door. And when I asked the phone, it was

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Speaker 2: my son's grandfather on the phone, who lived down North

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Speaker 2: Philly at the time, and he said, the police just

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Speaker 2: left here looking for you. I said, well, they just

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Speaker 2: walked in in the house. I'll call you back soon

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Speaker 2: as they leave, let me see what they want. And

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Speaker 2: when I got off the phone, you know, they said

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Speaker 2: they wanted to take me down to the station and

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Speaker 2: asked me some questions. So, you know, growing up, we

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Speaker 2: taught that the police is the people that protect you

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Speaker 2: and serve the community. Again, I didn't do anything wrong,

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Speaker 2: so I didn't have a problem with going with them

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Speaker 2: to ask whatever questions they had for me. And when

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Speaker 2: I got to the station, instead of asking me questions,

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Speaker 2: they told me that they know I committed this murder.

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Speaker 2: They got evidence to back it up, and they also

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Speaker 2: had witnesses.

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Speaker 1: Right, And this is I mean, we're talking Peter, going

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Speaker 1: back to you know, this is twenty five years ago

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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia.

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Speaker 4: Right, October nineteen ninety.

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Speaker 1: One, October ninety one. And back then, the culture in

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Speaker 1: Philadelphia was so I mean, it was as backwards as

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Speaker 1: it could be, is that right.

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Speaker 4: It was during the time when the police had declared

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Speaker 4: war on drugs, had declared war on black youth, and

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Speaker 4: the combination of the two obviously would come down heaviest

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Speaker 4: on people like Tony and his peers, and they didn't

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Speaker 4: really care about staying within the rules. That was the

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Speaker 4: main thing they wanted to close these cases. There were

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Speaker 4: a number of homicides. They just wanted somebody to be

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Speaker 4: held accountable. And you had a situation here where the

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Speaker 4: people who were in fact were part of the real

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Speaker 4: group that were responsible for the rape and murder of

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Speaker 4: this woman. Decided that Tony was the person that they

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Speaker 4: would name because it would deflect attention from themselves, and

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Speaker 4: it was somebody who the police would like to get

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Speaker 4: because of that prior run and that Tony had had

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Speaker 4: with the police that sent him to vision quest a

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Speaker 4: few years earlier. So that was the situation, and once

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Speaker 4: they decided to go with Tony, rules didn't matter anymore.

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Speaker 4: And as you can appreciate, the very first thing is

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Speaker 4: when they bring him in to question him. If you

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Speaker 4: believe the police version, they bring Tony in and within

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Speaker 4: a minute and a half, Tony simply gives a detailed

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Speaker 4: confession to the rape and murder, without any interrogation, any

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Speaker 4: questioning anything. It's not tape recorded, it's not videotape, it's

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Speaker 4: not even in Tony's words. It's simply written out. As

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Speaker 4: they said of verbatim Q and A by the police.

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Speaker 4: It was idiotic. There's no way any of that happened.

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Speaker 4: It was disproved that it could have happened during our trial.

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Speaker 4: But that's how they did it, and they got away

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Speaker 4: with it in those days.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it was systematic, and it was really part of

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Speaker 1: a culture that had been created by a Rizzo, right

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Speaker 1: who was the former police chief and a high school

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Speaker 1: dropout who rose through the ranks to become one of

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Speaker 1: the most brutal police chiefs in the history of this country,

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Speaker 1: and he openly endorsed violence.

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Speaker 5: Domestic battery, aggravated assault with a handgun, child endangerment. Officer

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Speaker 5: Richard Rizzo's arrest record by his own department reads like

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Speaker 5: a launder list of bad police behavior. The seventeen year

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Speaker 5: veteran has been investigated twenty nine times for rules violations,

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Speaker 5: has been suspended seven times, and still has three disciplinary

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Speaker 5: cases pending.

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Speaker 1: So this was really not really out of the even

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Speaker 1: though out of the ordinary.

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Speaker 4: Well, in fact, to be very very specific, the precinct

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Speaker 4: with this incident occurred the thirty ninth that in that

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Speaker 4: year or the year before, a number of officers in

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Speaker 4: that precinct were indicted by the federal government for corruption

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Speaker 4: and convicted and sent to prison. Wow, so it's not

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Speaker 4: just an abstraction. It was going on right there.

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Speaker 1: So back to you, Tony. So there you are in

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Speaker 1: the police station. You're twenty years old, and we know,

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Speaker 1: we have research that shows how common it is for

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Speaker 1: a false confession to be elicited or coerced from a minor. Right,

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Speaker 1: often it's teenagers. But at twenty you're still not fully developed. Right,

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Speaker 1: You're not a child, but you're not really a grown

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Speaker 1: up yet. But in your case, there was a real

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Speaker 1: threat of physical violence, right if you were handcuffed to

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Speaker 1: a chair. I mean, walk us through that terrifying situation

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Speaker 1: that you were in.

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Speaker 2: I was waiting for somebody to come and said it

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Speaker 2: was a joke, man, But it just kept going on

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Speaker 2: and on and on and on and wouldn't stop. Man.

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Speaker 2: And at twenty years old, you know, I wanted my mother, man,

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Speaker 2: I wanted to see my mother bad. You know how

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Speaker 2: I've never been in that type of situation. Man. It

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Speaker 2: was crazy.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: You know, they handcuffed me to a chair in the

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Speaker 2: middle of between both of my legs and the chair

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Speaker 2: that I was sitting in. They made me sign the paper.

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Speaker 2: They actually told me if I signed and I can

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Speaker 2: go home.

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Speaker 4: What the detectives specifically say to you when he got

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Speaker 4: in your face.

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Speaker 2: Oh, he said he was gonna poke my eye and

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Speaker 2: skull fuck me.

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Speaker 1: Right, Well, that's I mean, at that point, you'd sign anything,

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Speaker 1: right in fact, and you didn't know what you were signing,

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Speaker 1: because if, as Peter was saying, if we were to

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Speaker 1: believe the police version of events, you walked in and

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Speaker 1: said basically volunteered to be executed. Right, You're like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna sign this thing. You guys, go ahead

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Speaker 1: and execute me and I'll see you later. But in fact,

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Speaker 1: you were there. You didn't have a lawyer, right, you

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Speaker 1: didn't have a guardian or a parent. Right, yet you

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Speaker 1: were all alone against overwhelming odds and the threat of

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Speaker 1: extreme physical violence, which was a real threat. We know

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Speaker 1: from those days that was they weren't kidding.

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Speaker 2: Oh man, you just said, Man, that whole regime down there,

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Speaker 2: and at the time, twenty five years ago.

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Speaker 1: Man, and we know that it's I mean, it's improved,

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Speaker 1: but there's still a lot of work to be done

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Speaker 1: to fix the system. I mean, there's still a lot

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Speaker 1: of this stuff going on around the country in Philadelphia, right,

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Speaker 1: and Peter.

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Speaker 4: Well, you know what's going on, because in fact, you know,

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Speaker 4: these cops did frame Tony. And yet in twenty fifteen,

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Speaker 4: the DA's office said, we're going to back up those cops, okay,

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Speaker 4: because we don't want the public to know that our

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Speaker 4: cops are framing innocent people for crimes. So the DA's

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Speaker 4: office was complicit, right with the cops, except they're doing

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Speaker 4: it in twenty fifteen, not nineteen ninety one.

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Speaker 1: So victed of a crime you know nothing about, and

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Speaker 1: sent to prison where you're there pretty much in an

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Speaker 1: impossible situation, separated from your son, separated from your family,

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Speaker 1: in a terrible prison.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. I just think the one thing you may want

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Speaker 4: to mention is that when he's convicted, he's convicted of

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Speaker 4: capital murder. So he was facing the death penalty and

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Speaker 4: probably would have been executed but for the fact that

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Speaker 4: his mother came in during the sentencing phase and just

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Speaker 4: begged the jury to spare my son, who's a decent

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Speaker 4: human being and wouldn't have done something like this. And

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Speaker 4: so the vote was seven to five to execute Tony.

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Speaker 4: And in Pennsylvania, unlike a place like Alabama, you needed

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Speaker 4: a unanimous vote to execute somebody. So but for those

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Speaker 4: few votes, Tony would be dead now, despite the fact

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Speaker 4: that he was factually innocent.

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Speaker 1: So there you are in prison. But you didn't give up, hope, right.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people would and no one

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Speaker 1: could imagine what it's like. But you didn't give up.

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Speaker 1: You worked in the law library, you wrote letters right

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Speaker 1: and then and then what happened? How did all this

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Speaker 1: turn around?

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Speaker 2: My family? My family first, man, my family.

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Speaker 1: For your family, stuck by you, which is fantasy.

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Speaker 2: Me always, I didn't feel sorry for myself, man. I

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Speaker 2: just wanted out of there. Yeah, I mean, I just

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Speaker 2: made sure my business and did anything I was supposed

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Speaker 2: to do. Wrote letters, and I wrote sent letters to everybody,

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Speaker 2: and surprisingly almost every letter was responded to. Everybody wrote back,

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Speaker 2: and everybody referred me to the Instance project over New York.

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Speaker 1: How many letters did you write? Was it one a

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Speaker 1: week or one a month? Day?

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Speaker 2: Ten at a time. I put ten in the box

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Speaker 2: all the time to day, No, ten, about ten a week,

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Speaker 2: ten a week? Yeah, I mean I just sent them

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Speaker 2: to everybody, everybody that had some type of legal facility,

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Speaker 2: you know, I just wanted some feedback from the people,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of people was interested in my case,

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Speaker 2: and everybody kept it. I guess it was out their jurisdiction.

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Speaker 2: And everybody kept referring me back to the Essence Project

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Speaker 2: over New York City. And I had written the Nocent

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Speaker 2: Project first, and as you know, when they'd written me back,

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Speaker 2: they sent me a question there and then they said,

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Speaker 2: you know, don't send no additional information, don't call, and

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Speaker 2: we'll contact you as we felt we need some information

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Speaker 2: from you. And during the time just waiting to hear

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Speaker 2: from the Essence Project, I just kept sending letters and

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Speaker 2: letters and letters, and as an Edison Project was doing

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Speaker 2: this investigation until my case, and finally they accepted it.

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Speaker 1: And then one day you get a letter from the

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Speaker 1: Niscence Project. It's almost like getting a letter from the

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Speaker 1: lottery commissioned, like, hey, we find your ticket or something.

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Speaker 2: Right, you have no idea, man. When I got that letter,

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Speaker 2: I read the letter and I thought I was seeing

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Speaker 2: something that I wasn't seeing, or I was reading something

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Speaker 2: that wasn't there. I thought I was dreaming. I got

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Speaker 2: the letter and it was a ut of saying that

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Speaker 2: they accepted my keys. I put the letter down and

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Speaker 2: put it in the cell, shut the door to the

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Speaker 2: long walk down a jail block, and walk back. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean a couple of deep breaths, went back in

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Speaker 2: and read it. Man, it was it was. It was unbelievable.

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Speaker 3: It was unbelievable, Peter, let's talk about that.

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Speaker 1: So we get a lot of letters, right, I mean,

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Speaker 1: we have boxes, you know, it's an amazing thing to see. Right,

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Speaker 1: we have the intake department, as we call it. Right,

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Speaker 1: we get letters from all over the country, hundreds a

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Speaker 1: month actually, Right, And so how did it come to

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Speaker 1: be that Tony's case was was accepted? And let's let's

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Speaker 1: explain the process, because I think it's interesting.

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Speaker 4: So, I mean, one of the problems at the Innocence

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Speaker 4: Project is obviously there's an overwhelming demand for our representation.

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Speaker 4: And so so the way we work, and it's almost

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Speaker 4: like an emergency room in an urban hospital, is you

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Speaker 4: deal with the most critical cases first. So obviously anyone

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Speaker 4: who sentenced to death goes to the top of the list,

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Speaker 4: and we'll look at those cases first. Otherwise, Tony's case

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Speaker 4: comes in and it goes online and when people get

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Speaker 4: to it, they get to it and that can take

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Speaker 4: a couple of years to evaluate the case, to pull

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Speaker 4: out old transcripts, to look at police reports, lab reports,

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Speaker 4: and see whether or not Tony's case is the kind

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Speaker 4: of case that we could take at the project. And

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Speaker 4: that's very simple. If it's a case where biological evidence

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Speaker 4: was collected during the initial investigation, if DNA testing could

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Speaker 4: demonstrate that this individual was innocent or likely to be innocent,

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Speaker 4: and that biological evidence still existed, we would take the

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Speaker 4: case irrespective of what other evidence was used to convict somebody,

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Speaker 4: as long as the individual was saying I didn't do it.

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Speaker 1: And in this case, it was like the trifacta right

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Speaker 1: because all of the it matched up on all of

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Speaker 1: those criteria. And of course, in Pennsylvania particularly, we know

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Speaker 1: that race is a factor in wrongful conviction. So Tony

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Speaker 1: had it all stacked against him, right, he had the.

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Speaker 4: Except for two things, okay. One is when the case

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Speaker 4: was litigated by our staff attorneys in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia

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Speaker 4: DIA's office said, this is not a case involving who

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Speaker 4: was there. It's not an id issue because Tony write it,

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Speaker 4: confessed to the cops, all right, He signed a confession

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Speaker 4: and once you sign a confession, you're no longer eligible

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Speaker 4: for DNA evidence under Pennsylvania law. So the Innocent Project

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Speaker 4: lawyers had to litigate the case for eight years up

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Speaker 4: to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court before they remanded it back

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Speaker 4: to the trial court, saying no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 4: Wait a second, just because you say there was a

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Speaker 4: confession doesn't mean it's a reliable confession. And if this

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Speaker 4: biology and the biology could be determinedive, you have that

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Speaker 4: right to DNA testing. So years were wasted by the

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Speaker 4: stubborn resistance of the Philadelphia DA's office just to do.

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Speaker 2: In the test.

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Speaker 4: Forget the consequences of the test, Let's just do the test.

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Speaker 1: They were opposed to it, which is incredible, right, because

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Speaker 1: a DNA test. The only thing that can happen with

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Speaker 1: a DNA test is that it can find the truth. Right,

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Speaker 1: it's going to find the truth. It might be turned

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Speaker 1: out that the guy's guilty on that, and that happens

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Speaker 1: in some of our cases too.

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Speaker 4: It certainly happens, right.

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Speaker 1: And if it is, it is. But I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: so odd that somebody would be opposed to finding out

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Speaker 1: the truth.

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Speaker 4: Well, it's odd if your purpose as a prosecutor or

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Speaker 4: as a court is the search for the truth and

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Speaker 4: justice if, on the other hand, as was the case

401
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Speaker 4: with the Philadelphia DA's office, that they thought their primary

402
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:54,240
Speaker 4: responsibility was to defend convictions. In fact, when they initially

403
00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:58,080
Speaker 4: set up a conviction integrity unit at about the same

404
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Speaker 4: time that we were fighting to vacate Tony's conviction, the

405
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Speaker 4: individual assigned to be in charge of that unit said

406
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Speaker 4: not that his job was to get to the truth

407
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 4: and we look at old cases, but his job was

408
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 4: to defend the integrity of all old convictions. It was

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Speaker 4: like something out of nineteen eighty four.

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Speaker 1: So, Tony, So now you're languishing in prison. You know

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Speaker 1: the Innocence Project has got your case. You know they're

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00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,119
Speaker 1: on your side. You know you have a lot of hope.

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Speaker 1: But it's got to be a tortuous process. And then

414
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:32,040
Speaker 1: things get even crazier, right because twenty two years into this, right,

415
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Speaker 1: it's a lifetime that you've been in prison, and the

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Speaker 1: DNA test comes back and shows, well.

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Speaker 2: That Tony right committed.

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Speaker 1: This crown shows that you were telling the truth all along,

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Speaker 1: other than the false confession which was obtained basically under torture. Absolutely, right,

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Speaker 1: so now you're like, I mean, and people at the

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Speaker 1: Inniss Project got to be high fiving, right, and everybody's like, Okay,

422
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Speaker 1: we're good. We're going to get this guy home and

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Speaker 1: go back and try to rebuild your life. But as

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00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:05,479
Speaker 1: Peter was representing before, that's not what happened, because in

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Speaker 1: this case, they were more interested in standing by the

426
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,520
Speaker 1: conviction and protecting what they now knew was a false

427
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,200
Speaker 1: conviction than they were in any type of justice for

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00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:16,399
Speaker 1: a guy who they now knew was innocent. And so

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Speaker 1: how the hell does that work? Because anybody would say, well,

430
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Speaker 1: wait a minute, don't they have to let him go now?

431
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Speaker 1: So how did they get around now?

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Speaker 4: So the way it works is, okay, there are two

433
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Speaker 4: parts to the exoneration process. The first thing you have

434
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 4: to do is you have to get them to vacate

435
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:39,280
Speaker 4: the original conviction. Once you vacate the original conviction, then

436
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Speaker 4: it's up to the district attorney whether they want to

437
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:45,359
Speaker 4: dismiss the charges or whether they want to retry the case.

438
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:48,960
Speaker 4: So in this instance, initially they even fought us on

439
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,199
Speaker 4: vacating the conviction, and we were about to have a

440
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:56,080
Speaker 4: one week hearing in court when the Philadelphia Inquirer came

441
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:59,320
Speaker 4: out with an editorial saying, this is crazy. You have

442
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,160
Speaker 4: to vacate the conviction based on the new DNA evidence.

443
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 4: You can't go forward. And once that story appeared, and

444
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,840
Speaker 4: that editorial appeared the day before the hearing was to commence,

445
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,440
Speaker 4: the prosecutor threw in the towel and vacated the conviction,

446
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:15,879
Speaker 4: but then announced they were going to retry him, and

447
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 4: they were going to retry it as a capital murder.

448
00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,200
Speaker 1: Right, And now this is particularly I mean, it's as

449
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 1: disturbing as it is fascinating. Right, So it was a

450
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,880
Speaker 1: rape and murder of a seventy seven year old woman, Tally, right,

451
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: Louise Tally was her name. And so now we've got

452
00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:34,639
Speaker 1: the DNA that proves with absolute scientific certainty that Tony

453
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 1: couldn't have been the guy that did it, So they

454
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: had to come up with something like what kind of

455
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,720
Speaker 1: crazy theory could you possibly concot.

456
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:44,359
Speaker 4: So, just to appreciate the setting, So it's the rape

457
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 4: and murder of a seventy seven year old widow who

458
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,679
Speaker 4: lived alone in a modest house in North Philadelphia. She

459
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 4: stabbed to death repeatedly after being raped. The DNA testing

460
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,760
Speaker 4: and it was always the police understanding that there was

461
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:05,359
Speaker 4: a single perpetrator crime. So the DNA testing on the

462
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:09,639
Speaker 4: seamen a collective from the rape kit, excluded Tony Wright

463
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:13,480
Speaker 4: as being the source. Okay, that's number one. Number two.

464
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 4: Once they get a single male profile, it goes off

465
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:22,320
Speaker 4: to the CODIS national DNA database of convicted felons that

466
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,359
Speaker 4: was established by the FBI. It goes off to the

467
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:28,680
Speaker 4: database and boom, they get a hit. They get a

468
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 4: hit on a guy named Ronnie Bird who at the time,

469
00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,800
Speaker 4: Tony Wright had never known this person, have met this person.

470
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 4: Tony Wright was at the time, in nineteen ninety one,

471
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,360
Speaker 4: was twenty years old. This guy, Ronnie Bird was forty

472
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:49,320
Speaker 4: twice Tony's age, but half the age of Missus Tally,

473
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,439
Speaker 4: the victim in this case. And we find out that

474
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:56,920
Speaker 4: Ronnie Bird was a crack addict at the time who

475
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,159
Speaker 4: lived as a squatter in an abandoned half house that

476
00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 4: was adjacent to the backyard of Missus Tally's home.

477
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,160
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's amazing, right, right, So.

478
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 4: It's obvious Missus Tally wasn't romantically involved with anybody. Obviously,

479
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 4: Ronnie Bird is the person who raped her and murdered

480
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 4: her and stole her TV sets, because the TV sets

481
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,359
Speaker 4: were seen the very next day being sold on the

482
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,399
Speaker 4: street by one of Ronnie Bird's friends, who was a

483
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 4: crack dealer who lived a few houses down. Remember, Tony

484
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 4: didn't even live in the neighborhood, so it was obviously

485
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 4: Ronnie Bird. So what are they going to do. They

486
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 4: have no evidence to connect Tony Wright to Ronnie Bird,

487
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 4: so they invent an insane theory. And the theory is

488
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,080
Speaker 4: that based on the confession, you should believe that Tony

489
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 4: Wright raped and killed this woman, and that when he

490
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,199
Speaker 4: fled the house, he left the front door Ajar, and

491
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 4: after he left, this crackhead who lived as a squadron

492
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 4: nearby row the door Ajar, wandered into the house and

493
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:10,320
Speaker 4: vaginally raped and anally sodomized a corpse. Literally, what they

494
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 4: were saying is that Ronnie Bird was the unindicted necrophiliac,

495
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 4: and that was the theory they put forward to the

496
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:20,880
Speaker 4: second jury this summer in Philadelphia to try and get

497
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:21,360
Speaker 4: a conviction.

498
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 1: Not just any corpse, a bloody corpse.

499
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 4: Right, And also it wasn't just that we got to

500
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 4: remember in terms of where Ronnie birds seamen was found

501
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 4: what they had to acknowledge was that Ronnie Bird vaginally

502
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 4: raped this woman and then Italy sodomized this corpse. It

503
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 4: was ridiculous, it was offensive, it was mean spirited. But

504
00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:46,960
Speaker 4: because it was an office and a leadership in the

505
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 4: Philadelphia DIA's office that cared more about defending corrupt cops

506
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,959
Speaker 4: than getting to the truth. Unfortunately, Tony Wright had to

507
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 4: endure another trial where if he lost, he would face

508
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,159
Speaker 4: the rest of his life in prison without parole.

509
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 1: And this is this whole case is so there's so

510
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 1: many problems with it. There's evidence we haven't even talked

511
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:11,360
Speaker 1: about from earlier, from the first trial, right where they

512
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,880
Speaker 1: invented theories about him about Tony having had her clothing

513
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,199
Speaker 1: in his home, which was not true. They brought in

514
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 1: the shoes that were the wrong side. They claimed that

515
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,399
Speaker 1: her TV set was in his house, which it wasn't.

516
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 1: There were so many lies, and then they just kept

517
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 1: building this house of lies higher and higher, right until

518
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,120
Speaker 1: eventually it had to topple. But it took another two

519
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: and a half years, testing Tony's patience and will even further.

520
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:40,440
Speaker 1: And then here comes Peter Neufeld and the Innocence Project

521
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 1: team down to Philadelphia, Tony, they bring you back to court, right,

522
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 1: but now your roll in not only with conviction, not

523
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: only with scientific evidence, but also with a team of

524
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: lawyers that is ready to take on the toughest challenges.

525
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:57,520
Speaker 4: I should add that the team from the Innstance Project

526
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,679
Speaker 4: was our senior staff returning in Arrison who've been working

527
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 4: on Tony's case trying to get DNA testing for eight years,

528
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 4: and myself, and then we teamed up with two fabulous

529
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:15,920
Speaker 4: lawyers at the Schneider firm in Philadelphia, Sam and Rebecca,

530
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 4: and they were just wonderful. And so Tony had four

531
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 4: lawyers who were going to the mat Forum and.

532
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:26,280
Speaker 1: We did, rolling in like the fucking Avengers. I like it.

533
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 1: So let's go to the you know, the verdict. So

534
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,879
Speaker 1: there you are in court, twenty five years later, twenty

535
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 1: five years in prison, you're back in court. The evidence

536
00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 1: has been read, the jury goes out. That must be

537
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:41,960
Speaker 1: an incredible amount of pressure. And I mean, you've already

538
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: been through this, You've already been through everything. There's nothing

539
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 1: they can throw you haven't seen already. But nonetheless, what happens,

540
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 1: they don't deliberate, they didn't deliver it. For very long,

541
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: did they.

542
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 2: Well further and form. Well, I've never felt so sure

543
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 2: comfortable about anything in my life. Very comfortable with the

544
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 2: men and women we selected to serve on this jury.

545
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 2: I felt very comfortable with my team. I just wanted

546
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 2: my day in court. I was looking forward.

547
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: To It was your family there. Everybody was there, so

548
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: you had a whole you had a whole contingent there.

549
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 2: You had that everybody, my family, friends, people I didn't know,

550
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:18,719
Speaker 2: so many people was down there to support.

551
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:20,959
Speaker 1: And then and then the jury went out and they

552
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,360
Speaker 1: came back unbelievably quickly, really right, I mean there was

553
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 1: a long trial.

554
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,040
Speaker 4: Well it was a two and a half weree trial,

555
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 4: and the jury went out at noon, and the clerk

556
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 4: had ordered sandwiches for them, and it's our understanding that

557
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 4: they actually reached a verdict within five or ten minutes,

558
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 4: but they stayed there because the sandwiches have been delivered,

559
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 4: and so they finished the sandwiches and then told the

560
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 4: courtroom deputy that they were ready to render their verdict.

561
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: And they didn't just render their verdict. This was a

562
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 1: particularly powerful thing, didn't didn't some of them cry as.

563
00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 4: They crying as was part of the defense team and

564
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 4: Tony all at the same moment when the verdict was delivered,

565
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 4: which was basically not guilty on all counts, And it

566
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 4: was not only an extraordinary moment which Tony should describe,

567
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 4: but the only thing I will say, which is really

568
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 4: a continuation of the bad faith of the Philadelphia DIA's office.

569
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:31,640
Speaker 4: They immediately issued a statement saying just because they voted

570
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 4: not guilty doesn't mean that he's innocent. In fact, it

571
00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 4: just means they have a reasonable doubt, to which the

572
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 4: jurors responded on their own, told the press, that's ridiculous, Okay,

573
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 4: They said, the evidence of his innocence was overwhelming, and

574
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,480
Speaker 4: that's what contributed to the verdict that we delivered. Had

575
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:55,840
Speaker 4: nothing to do with reasonable doubt, and it had to do

576
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 4: with the fact that we unanimously concluded within minutes that

577
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,720
Speaker 4: ton Right was completely innocent of these crimes.

578
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: And then there's more still to the story, because here's

579
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: these jurors who had been there for two and a

580
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:25,719
Speaker 1: half week, the serious imposition in anybody's life. But they

581
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: didn't leave, right, They stayed. And why did they stay?

582
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,080
Speaker 2: They wanted to see me, Well, they wanted to see me.

583
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 2: They was out there with all my legal team, all

584
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 2: my family.

585
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: They wanted to meet the family. And then, and then,

586
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: and then, I love this part of the story, Tony,

587
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 1: So in just one more little sort of fuck you, right,

588
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: I mean, in any other situation. And I'm sure people

589
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:49,840
Speaker 1: are thinking as they're hearing the story, well, now it's triumphant.

590
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 3: You're free.

591
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: They take off the handcuffs, you walk out of the

592
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: court room into the sunshine, there's balloons, ribbons, whatever the

593
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,200
Speaker 1: hell there is. But that's not they didn't even do that, right,

594
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 1: But there was this over lining.

595
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:01,320
Speaker 3: So they took you.

596
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: Back to jail right just because they could, which seemed

597
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 1: so ridiculous.

598
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 4: Well it wasn't just that. What happened was when the

599
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 4: jury returned the verdict of not guilty, we explicitly on

600
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 4: the record, then asked the judge to set him free

601
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 4: so we could walk out of the courtroom into the

602
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 4: arms of his son and all his aunts and the

603
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 4: rest of his family. And the judge refused to do it,

604
00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,040
Speaker 4: just refused to do it. So the jurors were all

605
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,560
Speaker 4: waiting downstairs expecting that Tony will be released momentarily from

606
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 4: the courthouse and they could hug him which is what

607
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 4: they wanted to do, and the judge said no way,

608
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 4: and so Tony had to go back to the Philadelphia jail,

609
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:47,440
Speaker 4: which was about fifteen miles away from the courthouse, and

610
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:50,000
Speaker 4: we had to get a court order. We then had

611
00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 4: to go out to the county jail to get Tony,

612
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 4: but the jurors said they wanted to come back. They

613
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 4: wanted to see him. And so the next day the jury,

614
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 4: though they had been discharged, they were no longer part

615
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,959
Speaker 4: of this case, they took off from work whatever they

616
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 4: were doing, and they all went up into town to

617
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 4: the Schnada firm and waited just so they could have

618
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,960
Speaker 4: a moment to embrace Tony Wright, who they knew had

619
00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 4: endured so much adversity for so many years for something

620
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:22,120
Speaker 4: he clearly didn't do.

621
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 1: Right. They wanted to embrace, and they wanted to apologize

622
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 1: for what the city of Philadelphia had done to their

623
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,120
Speaker 1: fellow citizen. Right. But here's the such a happy moment,

624
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 1: and I could tell you really lit up when you

625
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: were talking to me about it before, Tony. So they

626
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,000
Speaker 1: take you back to the jail, right, But you're on

627
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: cloud nine, right because you know you're going home and

628
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,720
Speaker 1: you've been vindicated, and you've been pretty much. I mean,

629
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,080
Speaker 1: you can't be you can't be more powerfully vindicated than

630
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,560
Speaker 1: by this particular jury, and so quickly. It's such an

631
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 1: indictment of the of the prosecution who had wrongfully persecuted you.

632
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,320
Speaker 1: So you go back to the jail and then what happens.

633
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 1: You walk in and what happened.

634
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,880
Speaker 2: You got a high profile case and you're going back

635
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 2: to court. Everything that's happening, you know, I mean going

636
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 2: and coming. The jail is always aware of it. I mean,

637
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,240
Speaker 2: just for the safety of that and made the safety

638
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,120
Speaker 2: of the institution. You don't know how it's gonna go.

639
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 2: You know, I've been on trial for two and a

640
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:19,600
Speaker 2: half weeks and everybody's you know, since I got damned,

641
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 2: myself was vacated. Everybody had been paying attention to everything

642
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 2: that was going on with me. News reporters outside the

643
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:28,640
Speaker 2: court every day, you know, trying to talk to one

644
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:31,239
Speaker 2: of my attorneys or all my family, and you know,

645
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 2: they reported on the news every night. I was on

646
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 2: the front of the paper every.

647
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:37,760
Speaker 1: Day, every day, going back and forth.

648
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,680
Speaker 2: Every Monday through Friday, whatever happened to court that day.

649
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 2: They had editorial about it in the Philadephia Deli News

650
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 2: every single day. I was on the front of the

651
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 2: punt of paper for two and a half weeks every

652
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,880
Speaker 2: day as long as the trial went on. So everybody

653
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 2: the institution, you know, the inmates or the papers and

654
00:34:56,640 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 2: you know, pass them around word of mouth, so everybody

655
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,399
Speaker 2: was really playing a closer tend to what was going

656
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 2: on with me. And and unbeknown to me, uh, when

657
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 2: a verdict came in, I guess it was pronounced on

658
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,360
Speaker 2: the radio that they have a verdict. So you know,

659
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:11,280
Speaker 2: they said they locked the jailing down at that point,

660
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 2: and the guards was everybody hollowed around the TVs and

661
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,440
Speaker 2: and and and they computers and and and when the

662
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 2: verdict came in, now guilty, they said. The s guards

663
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 2: first was screaming, hiling, running around things, saying he they

664
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:28,440
Speaker 2: just acquitted him, you know what I mean? So uh,

665
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:32,759
Speaker 2: and not knowing you know I I you just said

666
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:35,239
Speaker 2: that I was on cloud nine. I didn't even care

667
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 2: that I had to be shadowed one more time and

668
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 2: take that last ride back up to the prison because

669
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,239
Speaker 2: the judge refused and signed off and let me walk

670
00:35:43,239 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 2: out the court room with my family and my attorneys.

671
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 2: And when I walked in and when I bought me

672
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,360
Speaker 2: off that bus and I walked back inside that prison

673
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 2: for the last time, Man, all hell broke loose. Man.

674
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,759
Speaker 2: Everybody was so guards was jumping up and down. Who

675
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:58,839
Speaker 2: came and got me off the bus first? And then

676
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,320
Speaker 2: when I went to the houses you know where I

677
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:05,240
Speaker 2: was housed, that everybody it was so much noise, scream

678
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 2: and everybody was hugging me and high five. I mean,

679
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:11,800
Speaker 2: it was beautiful. It was beautiful.

680
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a scene that really, I mean, I wish

681
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:16,480
Speaker 1: it was on film, right, we would show it every

682
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: chance we got.

683
00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:18,879
Speaker 4: Well, the one thing we did get to see, which

684
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:22,280
Speaker 4: was pretty cool. Two things. One is when the legal

685
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:26,359
Speaker 4: team came out with his family to get him. They

686
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:30,279
Speaker 4: brought us into the reception area and they closed it

687
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,480
Speaker 4: off to everybody else, and the superintendents and all the

688
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:38,840
Speaker 4: top brass of the jail came out and stood in

689
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:41,960
Speaker 4: the line. They all had big smiles on their faces

690
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,600
Speaker 4: and they all wanted to watch. They all wanted to

691
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:51,560
Speaker 4: watch Tony Wright reunited with his family. They all congratulated him.

692
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,080
Speaker 4: There were hugs there. It was really quite extraordinary to

693
00:36:56,120 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 4: see all these people. They were all thrilled for Tony,

694
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 4: for his family. And then when we took Tony on

695
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 4: the walk outside the jail for about i'd say, three

696
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 4: hundred yards to get back to the parking lot where

697
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 4: the press was, You're walking alongside the jail, tier after

698
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 4: tier after tear, and the noise was incredible. Everybody was

699
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:23,839
Speaker 4: banging pots and pans against the window, yelling good luck

700
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 4: and all that the entire jail and we heard it too,

701
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 4: and it really did send chills through my spine. And

702
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,600
Speaker 4: it's a sound, it's a wave of sound that I'll

703
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 4: never forget.

704
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's something you couldn't even make up right, It's

705
00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:39,600
Speaker 1: just it's something that happened.

706
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 3: It's real. You're real, you're here.

707
00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 1: You're in New York. That's sun is shining. You're one

708
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,360
Speaker 1: of the most positive people that we know. And he

709
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,880
Speaker 1: spoke so eloquently last night at an event in New York.

710
00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: And I'm really thrilled that you were able to come

711
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 1: and be here on Wrongful Conviction and I want to

712
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,319
Speaker 1: thank you and Peter Neufeld. This has been a very

713
00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 1: special episode of Wrongful Conviction, and Tony, I hope you

714
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: enjoy the rest of the day and the rest of

715
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: your life, because you deserve every great blessing that could

716
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 1: come your way.

717
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:20,120
Speaker 7: Thank you, don't forget to give us a fantastic review.

718
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,440
Speaker 7: Wherever you get your podcasts.

719
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 1: It really helps. And I'm a proud donor to the

720
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: Innocence Project and I really hope you'll join me in

721
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future

722
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 1: wrongful convictions. Go to Innocenceproject dot org to learn how

723
00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:37,920
Speaker 1: to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our

724
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 1: production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis. The music in

725
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 1: the show is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.

726
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:47,840
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction

727
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 1: and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with

728
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 1: Jason Flamm is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts

729
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,720
Speaker 1: and association with Signal Company Number one.

730
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,359
Speaker 2: During the Wine in the Way, Ny