WEBVTT - #479 Jason Flom with Eric Brown 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.520 On August twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four, sixteen year old 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.600 New Orleans native Eric Brown spent the night at his 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:15.600 friend Carmelo's apartment along with some mutual friends. Early the 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.959 next morning, Eric drove home in Carmelo's car, which wouldn't 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.680 have seemed out of the ordinary until one of their 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.800 mutual friends reported that Carmelo had fatally shot and that 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.360 his safe had been stolen. In addition, she told police 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.240 that Eric was still there when she left for work, 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:40.640 implying that he and he alone had the opportunity. Then 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.760 the missing safe was discovered near the home of two 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:48.680 other mutual friends, who also implicated Eric, sending him away 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.120 for the rest of his life. But this is wrongful conviction. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.840 Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison, 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.520 and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.800 at eight three three two oh seven four six sixty 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.200 six and tell us how these stories make you feel 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.800 and what you've done to help the cause, even if 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.639 it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.960 on social media, and you might just hear yourself in 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.520 a future episode. Call Us eight three three two oh 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:26.319 seven four. 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:38.839 Six sixty six. Welcome back to wrongful conviction for yet 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:43.080 another case out of Louisiana, this time involving a child 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.800 tried as an adult, convicted by a non unanimous jury 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:52.480 verdict in a state that wasn't and isn't to this day, 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.280 trying to hide the direct connection and the transition from 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:01.280 plantation to penitentiary. And the man who's so somehow survived 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:06.600 this harrowing ordeal is joining us today, Eric Brown, thank 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.000 you for being here and sharing your story with me today. 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:10.720 Thank you, Veram. 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:12.639 Would you say all that's accurate? 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.600 Absolutely, Prison is a big business, especially in Louisiana. As 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.720 one of the sheriffs said, they called prisons their honey holes. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:23.440 When Louisiana told these full profit prison facilities that if 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.880 they build their prison in Louisiana, they would give them 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.760 tax breaks, etc. And they will guarantee that they would 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.480 keep their bids eighty five to ninety percent field to capacity. 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:36.680 How do you make a guarantee like that if you're 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:38.440 not infringed upon people's rights. 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.960 Those non unanimous jury verdicts have wrecked havoc in Louisiana 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.959 since the era of reconstruction, all the way until twenty eighteen. 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:48.560 Or even later. 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.760 I believe that now unanimous Jewry vertical law was only 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:57.080 enacted in the eighteen hundreds explicitly assided to perpetuate Slater. 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.960 Louisiana and Oregan was the only two states out there 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:01.360 union that allowed this. 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.720 And we're glad to finally have that law off the books. 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.720 I mean, all a prosecutor would need to do was 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:12.080 eliminate enough black jurors to make a conviction and near certainty, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:14.360 you know, with what the fact it's still an all 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.359 white jury, and that hadn't changed much even as late 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.840 as nineteen ninety four when Eric was just a sixteen 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:22.480 year old kid. 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.520 Well, I'm a native of New Orleans. We stayed in 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.640 various different parts of New Orleans, across the river, Kenner, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:34.200 Jefferson Parish, et cetera, et cetera. My upbringing was pretty moderate. 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.680 I had a father in my life taught me the 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.200 essence and the definition of a man. Taught me about 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.560 having principles and morals and honor, dignity, integrity, keeping your word. 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.680 I had a great mother, she's still with us today. 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.040 They did their best to raise me right. However, as 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:53.200 kids become mischievous, sometimes I had an incident when I 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.680 was thirteen years old. Three years prior to this crime, 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.360 there was a guy that was shooting dice and I 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.119 want his jet come to find out. He went home 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.880 and told his daddy, who was a police officer, that 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.280 I robbed him for his jacket, and they arrested me 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.680 for armed robbery. So they made a big scene, came 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.040 arrested me in front the whole school and everything. And 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.159 my dad had just bought me one of those staughter jacks, 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:17.919 so I had enough brand new and so it was 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.240 no need for me to rob. They searched my home, 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.240 didn't find any gun, didn't find any weapons. I got 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.120 adjudicated for armed robbery. They gave me six years probation. 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.080 So when I come home, you know our officers are 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.280 they they have this pride about themselves. Whether he believed 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.320 the son or whether he knew the truth, I was 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.360 public in him. A number one my brothers, they had 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.280 run INDs with officers as well, went to prison. So 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.240 I guess it was like he's going to follow in 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.679 their footstep, He's going to be the same way, etcetera, etcetera. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.320 One of those officers that arrested me in that case, 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.520 was one of the lead investigators in this case. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.360 In addition, at the time of the crime, Eric had 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.400 begun selling weed for a guy named Carmelo Salmonin, who 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.320 it turned out was the grandson of a well connected 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:07.120 organized crime boss named Carlos Marcello, and Carmelo, the grandson, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:09.479 became the victim in this case. 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.400 He was a good few years older than me, pretty 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.760 much meant to a mutual friend. He was looking for 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.360 a way to supply we the things of the nature 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.240 into the neighborhood, and so a lot of people knew 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:25.120 me and respected me in the neighborhood, so he recruited me. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.320 That's why I said, kids could be mischievous sometimes, but 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.480 that don't lead to the capital punishment, you know what 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:31.839 I mean. 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.760 So Carmelo and Eric sold weed together along with a 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:40.120 young lady named Valencia Peabody and two brothers, Charles Pitts 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:42.880 who was also sixteen years old and William Griffin who 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.800 was a little over eighteen, and their group were all 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.919 at Carmelo's house on the faithful night of August twenty fourth, 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:50.880 nineteen ninety four. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.480 It's something that we've done many times with smoke weed, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:56.599 get high and pass out. And then in that morning 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:58.760 I get up and lead. It was a normal thing. 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.480 And when I do lead, I take the vehicle, I 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.760 go drop off things of that nature. And so it 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.800 was real early when I left. Hours later, I wake 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.159 up my sister's coming and talking about hey man, the 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.680 police looking for you to talk about Carmelo's dead, this, 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:13.440 and then like what. 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.719 At this point, on August twenty fifth, police had already 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.360 spoken to a neighbor named Ruth McKennis, who told them 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.240 that she hadn't seen or heard anything, as well as 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.560 Valencia Peabody, who had alleged that Eric and the car 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:27.880 were still at Carmelo's when she left for work, but 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.719 when she returned on her lunch break, she allegedly discovered 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.279 Carmelo's body, saw that Carmelo's car and the safe were gone, 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:35.839 and called the police. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.719 She just started saying my name automatically. Every did everything 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.640 like what Me and Camello. We never had augument, We 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:44.840 didn't have a disagreement, We didn't have a falling out 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.719 of anything, she said. She came home from work, she 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.400 said she noticed the top lock of the bottom lock 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.040 was unlocked up like that. Then she said she noticed 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.160 something about the sliding glass door was opened or whatever. 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.040 So she said, she's calling his name, she don't hear anything. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.560 She goes up the stairs, gets in the bed with him, 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.040 and then that's when she notices blood coming out of 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.799 his head, his ears and stuff like that. Right, However, 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.880 when you look at the photographs that the police took 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.720 of the crime scene, you're gonna see blood splat on 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.280 the headboard, you gonna see blood all over the pillow. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.720 How does she get in the bed when photographs of 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.120 the crime scene gruesomely shoes what's going on? We're standing 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:23.640 at that door. 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.680 Valencia, Peabody's supervisor at work, also said that he hadn't 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.840 seen her that morning, but the police were unaware of 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.000 that detail or any of the other holes in Valencia's 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.280 story when they went and arrested Eric and began looking 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.440 for the murder weapon and Carmelo's missing safe. 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.640 Because of this guy's connections, who is grandfather or whatever 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.640 the bloodline was with them, law enforcement shook down that 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.480 whole area. While I'm in jail, people telling me, man, 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.880 they're all in the sewers, drain dumpsters and stuff like 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.200 that looking for the safe and things that you mentioned 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.080 right now. There's two other guys. They're two brothers. One 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.960 was a juvenile Charles Pitts and the other one was 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.680 an adult William Griffin. So they found his safe in 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.560 the dumbster in front one of those guys house. There 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.160 are two brothers. Guy said he got the safe from me. 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:16.360 At some point, for some unknown reason, the police reinterviewed 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:18.040 the neighbor, Ruth McKennis. 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.760 Ruth McKinney's has the IQ of sixty, equivalent to a 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.080 six year old child, so on the scene, she said 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.960 she didn't see anything, didn't hear anything. Two weeks later, 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:34.160 after talking with Valencia Peabody, all of a sudden, she 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.520 mysteriously remembers me coming out of the apartment. As later 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.240 they don't know me from Adam and Eve. I don't 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.400 know her. All of a sudden, now she knows me. 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:46.560 But the whole collusion was those two guys in Valencia Peabody. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.320 And we're not sure if the police recognized Valencia's potential 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:54.160 involvement or how convenient it was that Ruth McKennis had 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.600 a sudden realization. But something certainly seems off with how 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:04.559 they so readily accepted pitt and Griffin's explanation for the safe. 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.080 The William Griffin guy. He said in the statement, bro, 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:09.080 I'm just saying what y'all want me to say to 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:10.800 get out of here. So then they said, well, look 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:12.640 we need you to take the sting. Like what you mean? 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.040 I already said what you wanted me to say? You saying, 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:16.040 did Eric did? He say? 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.280 I don't know, never mind how the sausage was made. 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:23.320 They had four people implicating Eric, who awaited trial for 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:26.719 nearly two long years in jail, and. 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.880 I couldn't afford the attorney. I had to go with 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.160 the state attorney, which is just a prosecutor and defense 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.600 attorney clothing. He kept trying to get me to take 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.040 thirty years forty years, and I'm like, I'm not taking 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.040 her thirty years or now forty year for something I 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:40.400 didn't do. 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.520 Meanwhile, as Eric said, his older brother was already in prison. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.200 He had been convicted of armed robbery, a crime he 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.160 actually did commit, and he reached out with some advice. 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.320 It was a blessing and occurse to actually have a 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.800 brother that was inside the institution. He already knew what 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.000 the fight was going to be for me, so he 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.840 was the right middle in the jail, say error, go 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.720 to the law library, read this case. Go read this case, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.400 go read that. Go shepherdize this sort to teach me 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.480 about what shepherdized me with different legal turnsment, I've been 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.760 studying law even before my conviction, because the first motion 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.280 that I filed my motion for a bond reduction. When 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.200 they first arrested me, they had me on the first 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.320 degree murder, so you don't have a bond, but we 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.679 don't have no murder weapon like witnesses. We don't have 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.120 to nate, no powder, burn, no fingerprints. So there was like, well, 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.280 we got to reduce the charge to second degree murder. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.360 Then now they had to give me a bond. So 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.480 the DA said, okay, a million for the murder and 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.320 five hundred thouars for the own rap. So he tried 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.560 to set a bond at one point five million dollars. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:38.640 So what the judge did was he said, well, I'm 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:40.760 not even going to hit his motion and I'm not 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:42.760 even going to set the bond because mister Brown has 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.120 an attorney and his attorney was supposed to file this. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.040 So I'm like, obviously, why havn't my attorney filed this yet? 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:49.280 For me. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.040 It appears he was just too busy communicating plea deals 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.800 for thirty to forty years rather than building a defense 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.520 like investigating Valencia Peabody. 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:01.600 I had my attorney so peanup her record and they 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.920 said that hell supervisor never even seen it at work 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.920 all that day. So requested to have the supervisor come 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.720 take the stand. They had the manager come, like what 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.000 you're sitting in The manager is the supervisor that's in 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.280 this report, and the manager wasn't able to provide us 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:17.280 with any information. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:22.320 Peabody's alibi appears just as shady as Ruth mckinnis's memory 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.320 of who she said she saw that morning. 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.960 Now, at the Motion for Discovery, they tell her do 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.160 not come in this courtroom until we call you. So 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.239 I'm sitting in an orange jumpsuit with all the other prisoners. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.000 She came into that courtroom three times when they looked 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:38.760 in the box. So finally when they called for it 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.240 to stand, my atturny asked her, do you see the 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.360 person that you claim that you've seen coming out of 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:47.959 the house. So she's looking around and still couldn't identify. She's, oh, yeah, 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.760 that's him right there. I see him. My Atturny asks, well, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:52.959 is this the first time you seen him since that? 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.760 She said yeah, She said, now you sure that's what 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.559 you want? To continue with that statement, didn't we tell 0:11:58.559 --> 0:11:59.880 you not to come in here? And didn't you come 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:03.000 in three times prior to you get on his stand? 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.280 It seems like she was trying to figure out who 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.280 to identify, since she didn't appear to be too familiar 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.440 with what Eric actually looked like. Nevertheless, Eric Brown was 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.120 taking a trial for second degree murder in April of 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:17.120 nineteen ninety six. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.199 Once Day syduced to charge the second degree murdered, it 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.440 was easier for the prosecutor to convict me because now 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.240 he don't have to present those of it. He could 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.440 just present a theory. And whoever does the best magic 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.520 trick in court is going to win. And you see 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.400 who I got as attorney repositional, he's a bad magician. 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.040 He's not going to perform well. 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.520 But when the autopsy evidence was presented that Carmelo had 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:41.720 in fact been shot in the back of the head 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.559 at very close range, from two to five inches away, 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:49.320 Eric's attorney did point out that Carmelo was laying on 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.160 his side facing the wall near the opposite side of 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.439 a king sized mattress from where the shooter must have 0:12:56.520 --> 0:13:00.199 been standing. While Eric, who stood five foot one one 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.360 at the time, okay, he did not have the reach 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.320 to get within too the five inches of Carmelo's head 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.560 without leaning onto the mattress, potentially alerting Carmelo. 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.880 So he was kind of making a valid point on that. 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.440 But when he was saying that, the DA literally jumped 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.520 on top of the desk in front of me. Put 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.640 your finger in my head, mister Brown, put your finger 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.600 to my head like trying to get me to show that, oh, 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:25.920 I could reach this fall. But yet he wasn't in 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.760 the actual range and the bed is a king sized bed. 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.199 It wasn't making sense. And that was another thing that 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.720 there was no powder burns on me on my clothing, 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.440 the same clothing that Blinsa said she seen me in 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.520 that day, with the same clothes that they arrested me in. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.880 Which brings us to our star witness, Valencia Peabody and 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:45.880 another performance from the DA. 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.440 He showed her photograph of father way then nearer and 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.880 then closer, and every time he did this, he said, 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:55.120 you identify this picture here, and she was like, yeah, 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.200 that's him. I almost I don't see them more. So 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:59.319 that was just cue. Then he showed another one, and 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.440 then he showed another. She literally jumped up out the chair, 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.240 not the chair, over in front the whole entire court 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.200 room and ran out the courtroom hollering a scream and 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.760 how to get out of here? My trial was who 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.160 put on the best performance? 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.800 And it didn't stop with to Lindsaya Peabody. They brought 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.080 in an assault rifle that had been pulled from a 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.880 lake that didn't appear to have any relevance or connection 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:21.880 to this case at all. 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.920 This particular assault rifle, it was so rusty they couldn't 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:27.680 check the serial numbers and anything to see that. It 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.080 was just even actually camellous because he owned all kind 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.600 of guns. So when they found this particular weapon in 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.360 the water, to us a story saad a mother and 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.000 a child was walking to the child almost stepped on 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.120 the gun. But they already concluded that it's not the 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.400 word of weapons. So it's like, what is this weapon 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.160 even being presented for? But just to inflame the jury. 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.400 Yet not all the theatrics played out so well. Since 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.560 William griff had appeared to have given his statement under duress. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.400 The only one they could put on the stand was 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.000 the juvenile Charles Pitts. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.640 Charles Pitts, I told the people that he got the 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.720 safe from me in nineteen ninety five. So that was 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:06.920 impossible because I had been in court for Rader since 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.760 nineteen ninety four. And so then the DA realized, like, 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.120 hold on, man, that's not looking good for his case. 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.840 So the DA he got up and scared him and 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.160 it was not at Ford did you say? Nine at 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.880 fod Oh, I got it in ninety four. So he 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.280 prompt him into saying he's seen the safe over in 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.040 my police over the midy Times. 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.560 But the safe was stolen on the exact same day 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.360 that Eric was arrested. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.600 The same day, just a few hours later. Not only that, 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.520 he said that I gave it to him so he 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.120 could collect baseball cars. But my attorney didn't properly a 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:42.280 fully cross examiner. 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.760 Now, perhaps since Pitts and the DA had embarrassed themselves 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.080 so effectively and thoroughly with this exchange, he felt like 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.120 he didn't even have to, even though he probably should 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.240 have pointed out the glaring inconsistency to the jury, let 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:00.840 alone that Pitts's explanation didn't effectively deflect playing away from 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.880 him and his brother, and then Eric's attorney once again 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.920 failed to point out how Ruth mckinnis had changed her 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.920 story from her original statement to say that she had 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.000 seen you leaving the house. But what sticks out even 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:19.000 more than the inconsistency's improvable falsehoods was that fabricated as 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.200 it was, no one went so far as to definitively 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:24.360 say that you were the assailant. 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.680 Nobody that took the stand really gave any type of 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.840 factual evidence to put me there at the time of 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.680 the murder or to say that they seen me do 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.280 the murder. And the DA told the jury, we don't 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.120 have no other physical evidence against mister Brown. But y'all 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:45.160 got to use common sense, Like I wish I could 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:47.320 add some more stuff and highten it up and make 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:49.880 it seem more But the reality of it is to 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.640 show you how the lack of evidence they have, man, 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:54.480 they could still throw you away for the rest of 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.080 your life or something that they knew you didn't do. 0:16:57.280 --> 0:16:59.320 If I would have been in any other state in America, 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.640 I never would have been convicted. It was two jurors 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.640 that found me not guilty and no word of weapon, 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.520 no eyewitnesses, no DNA, no fingerprints, and two juris found 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:09.960 me not guilty to get out still sentence to life 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.680 of our parole plus thirty years at sixteen years old. 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.280 You're listening to Wrong for Conviction. You can listen to 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.880 this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.200 early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:37.600 Plus on Apple Podcasts. 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.240 Just getting on that bus, shackled up on that bus, 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.639 it had to have those hot jumpsuits on in the 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:46.840 middle of summer like that. It was so hot, man, 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.600 it was packed in like sardines on their bus because 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.360 everybody that shallowed up is money for them. They had 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.680 us working in the field in over one hundred plus 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.000 degree heat, whether the horses was falling out or the 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.439 horses are shaking. Gun gard because you had gun guards 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.439 where they had to sit on the horse back with 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.760 guns and they called it the gun line. If you 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.400 go outside their gun line, they'll shoot you. And now 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.600 the only you think of a complete year prior to 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.600 me going to Angola, they shot and killed my brother 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.440 in front of Angola, shot him in the bat. We'll 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.639 never really know the full truth of what happened. They 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.160 say he tried to escape. So there was a saying 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.720 throughout the institution, if you're black, you don't come back. 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.160 So if a white guy escapes, they bring him back. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:33.360 If a black guy escapes, they kill him. Immediately when 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.159 I got there, people started like hearing my name. It 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:38.760 was like, hold up, man, that was your brothers that 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.280 they killed. Man, And so a lot of people was 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.800 messed up about that. That was inside, even some of 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.560 the guards. You gotta remember a golda with me. When 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.640 I got there. It was considered by National headline news 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.439 the blood is prison in America at that time. So 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.119 you couldn't just go there and just be happy, go lucky, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:57.879 he or you couldn't just go there and just be 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.800 a key. I had to grow up fast. So I 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:03.080 had to conduct myself in a certain manner to earn 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.200 my respect in that place. And so by doing that, 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.119 some people they observed me, and they've seen that, and 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.119 they gravitated toward like, man, if I can help you, 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.760 look man, he bro no, this is information or this 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:15.639 is how you get to the law libarial And so 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.520 from day one, I just started reading just reading law. 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.120 Just reading it might sound corny in it, but studying 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.639 law and educate myself is what kept me sane throughout 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.000 them whole nine and twenty five days. 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.280 After relying on state appoint to the Pellet Council, his 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.720 initial appeals were denied, and now he began to apply 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.000 what he'd been learning in the law library, leading to 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.920 the discovery of a great deal of the state's witnesses 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:43.119 provably inconsistent statements. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.080 I found out that the prosecutor allowed witnesses to take 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.960 the stand and say something other than what they said 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.400 in their original statements. And if I would have had 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.240 that information, I would have been able to properly cross 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.040 examine them and show the jury that they lied. What 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.119 they're saying shouldn't be taken at. Some of it I 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.359 tried to present on my own because I had no help, 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:05.680 no attorneys, so I had to present it on my own, 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:07.840 and they refused me a right to a hearing. 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.480 Eric was relentless in his pursuit of freedom, but he 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:14.640 was thwarted by procedural issues and time bars, which kept 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.480 the full weight of his innocence claim from ever being heard. 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.960