WEBVTT - Update on Curtain & Reed, Plus Trump's Execution Spree 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:02.160 Good. 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:06.840 Just before nine o'clock last night, the jury returned guilty 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.840 verdicts against all three defendants. It was absolutely shambles, to 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.440 tell you the truth, just actually really hating blood on 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.480 his clothing the day after the alleged a. 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:17.320 Top on a shallow mud bank and it fits through 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:17.720 a river. 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:19.880 Basically, I think most of the people are used to 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:21.360 me are good people. 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.040 I think a really important question we need to ask 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.120 is how many Indigenous prisoners in Australia are innocent. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.639 This is Curtain, a podcast where we pulled back the 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.199 blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.000 our justice system and ask who are the victims. I'm 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.360 Amy Maguire and. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.880 I'm Martin Hodgson, a senior advocate for the Foreign Prisoner 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:47.240 Support Service. And a warning, this series contains the names 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.600 of deceased peoples and has distressing content that might upset 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:52.440 some listeners. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.560 Welcome to Curtain the podcast. This week, I'm going to 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.960 bring you a couple of updates. It's about Kevin Henry's 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.360 case and where we're up to with that. Also going 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.280 to update you on the case of Rodney Reid in 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.759 Texas in the United States, and also just talk briefly 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:18.440 about what is happening in the US with the executions 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:21.080 that are ongoing at the moment, and of course there 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.199 was one in the news today that we've seen well 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:30.080 publicized first in regards to Kevin Henry's case and where 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:34.200 we're up to. So we've had a few people messaging, 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:40.240 emailing and contacting me and asking what's happening with Curtain's case. 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.840 As we discussed in previous episodes, Kevin is out of 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:51.360 prison and doing very well. And the final step we 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:57.920 have is preparing and submitting Kevin's application or petition for 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:02.160 a pardon to the Governor General. And I just want 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.920 to give a little bit of clarity because not many 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:11.160 people understandably know about the pardons process in Australia. There's 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.880 been very very few, and even less in the State 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.239 of Queensland. For those who would like to look into 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.840 it further, you can go on to Google and if 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.760 you search the State of Queensland and the Criminal Code 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.639 of eighteen ninety nine, the section that deals with pardons 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.960 is section six seven to two A. And I'll just 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:38.359 give you a quick rundown of what that says, which 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.760 is that it basically bestows upon the Governor the ability 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.079 to refer the whole case to the Court of Criminal 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.919 Appeal and the case shall be heard and determined by 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.880 the court, as in the case of any person who's 0:02:54.960 --> 0:03:00.840 been convicted who has submitted an appeal alternity. What we 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.720 saw in the case of Billy Kipper that was well 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:11.440 publicized is that the Governor can also seek the assistance 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.600 of the Crown Law Officer and so that is the 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:21.160 Crown Solicitor Office in the State of Queensland, and they 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.480 sort of act like a private law firm, except that 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:32.560 they work for the State of Queensland independently and provide 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:41.040 advice to the Queensland Government, the government's agencies and other 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.400 areas where the government has responsibility, and they also are 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:50.120 able to provide advice to the Governor General on issues. 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.560 So we we're up to basically is ensuring that we 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:59.360 have all the evidence that shows Kevin's innocence and that 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.760 that's present, dinner, easy to read, easy to understand way 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.240 for the Governor and for the Crown Solicitor if they 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:13.480 should need further advice. So that includes everything from all 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:20.080 the forensic material, the witness statements, the issues in regards 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.080 to the trial itself as well as the appeal and 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:29.599 also as regular listeners would know the conduct of Queensland police, 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.320 and we hope in the future to also discuss more 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:39.840 about forced confessions and coersion. And anyone who's watching all 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.960 these new true crime documentaries on Netflix listening to the 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.719 podcast will be hearing that this is becoming a bigger 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.520 and bigger issue, and just in the state of Queensland. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:56.280 In recent weeks we've heard of an Aboriginal man who 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.960 was convicted of a crime even though there was CCTV 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.600 showing he didn't do it. Now thankfully he has been released. 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:09.560 But again you have serious police misconduct leading to the 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.960 imprisonment of Aboriginal people and this is something we'll go 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:18.039 into further. So I hope in the next month to 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.120 six weeks i'll be able to give you an update 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.520 as to exactly what the petition says and that it's 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.960 been submitted to the Governor. But in the meantime, Kevin 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:33.039 is doing very well and once again we want to 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:37.479 thank everyone for their support of his continuing struggle to 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.040 completely free his name, and I also want to pay 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.680 my respects to the elders of his family and of 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:52.479 the Rockhampton and Worabinda communities. In a case that we've 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.000 spoken about previously on the podcast and number of times. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.200 That's the case of Rodney Reid, who's on death row 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.719 for a crime didn't commit in Texas. And I should 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:07.400 also mention that both Kevin and Rodney are aware of 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.359 one another and ask how each other are doing and 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:18.359 aware of each other's cases. Obviously very similar circumstances, police corruption, complete, 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.080 no evidence against either of them, and yet they've lost 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.839 years of their lives in prison for crimes they didn't commit. Now, 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.279 Rodney read, as you will know, is still on death 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:35.000 row in the US, and he was due for a 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:42.440 new hearing in September of this year. Now, unfortunately, that 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.840 appeal hearing was then pushed back to February next year, 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.960 and today we've just had the news that the twenty 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.880 first District Court has now pushed that appeal hearing back 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:59.240 to May seventeen. Now, the court's reasoning behind that is 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:04.520 because of the COVID nineteen pandemic. And what I need 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:08.920 to explain to people is that given the sheer numbers 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:13.080 of COVID deaths and infections in the United States, it 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.720 shouldn't come as a surprise that this has spread like 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:21.080 wildfire through the prisons right across the United States, and 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.640 hundreds and hundreds of prisoners have died as a result 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.720 of this mismanagement of the pandemic in the United States, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.400 and the prison where Rodney is held is no different. 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.280 Many prisoners have died and Rodney's just doing his very 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:44.400 best to stay well and stay positive. Now again, Kim Kardashian, 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:49.280 who I think everyone will know, has been providing support 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:55.000 to Rodney and keeping his case known. And in the 0:07:55.080 --> 0:08:02.200 United States. Today Friday, we are the eleventh of December. 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.600 The ABC program called twenty twenty, which is in a 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:13.400 current affairs style program and an investigative program, will spend 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:18.960 their entire episode looking at Rodney Reid's case and what 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.320 exactly has happened to Rodney Now. To give you an 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:26.160 idea of how popular that show is in the United States, 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:32.320 previous hosts have been people like Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.960 John Stossel, Chris Cuomo, who you might have seen on 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:43.960 CNN now who works for CNN, Katie Couric, the news anchor, 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:52.000 Heraldo Rivera, Chris Wallace who's a well known journalist, Martin Basheer, 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.600 who is known you would have seen him do interviews 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.080 with people like Lady Die before she passed away. So 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.440 this is a very big program in the United States 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.040 and we do believe that it will be repeated in Australia. 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:13.080 So when that happens, I'll post to the Curtain the podcast, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.160 Facebook page and Twitter account and get the word out 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:22.280 so that you can see that program for yourselves. And 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.640 I'll also find a link where it's available to watch 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.800 online for those who aren't able to see it as 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.880 it goes to air. So this is going to be 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:37.200 a really important time for Rodney's case where you have 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:42.280 tens of millions of Americans tuning in, and once again 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:49.600 the evidence will point to Stacy's fiance, the ex police 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.360 officer who was already found guilty of kidnap and sexual assault, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.800 the man who was with Stacy when she was murdered, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:04.160 and as we've mentioned before, all the forensic evidence, the DNA, 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:09.080 everything points to him, and there is no forensic evidence 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:14.080 whatsoever pointing to Rodney Reid and this police officer who 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.920 was in a relationship. There's now more witnesses have come 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.040 forward to say that he'd threatened to kill Stacy in 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.960 the past that he'd lied about his whereabouts, and as 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.720 we've exposed on this podcast before, he also had assistance 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.720 of other police officers to help him cover up the crime, 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.760 and this again will be shown in the documentary. One 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:44.000 of those police officers, it's believed, was going to blow 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:49.600 the whistle on what happened, and it's alleged that he 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.960 killed himself and took his own life and his family 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:57.400 believes that that was a result of this case. And 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.800 the other officer who was investigating the matter was mysteriously 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:06.600 killed in Texas, and the Texas authorities say that it 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:11.520 was a Mexican drug cartel who killed him, even though 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.720 at the time he was looking at other avenues of 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.679 who might have killed Stacy because it was obvious Rodney 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.880 didn't do it. So you make your own mind up 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.920 whether you believe the police version of events, and if 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.240 you want to know more about this case, please feel 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.199 free to go back through the archives of Curtain, whether 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:37.360 it's on the Apple podcast app, on Spotify, on our website, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.800 and you'll see the episodes with Rodney Reid's name in 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.880 the title, and you can excuse me, and you can 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.280 hear all of those episodes and all of the information 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.080 that shows the police corruption and the evidence of Rodney 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:58.600 Reid's innocence. Finally, in this update episode, I just want 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.200 to touch on the execution that took place in the 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:09.120 United States today of Brandon Bernard. Brandon was forty years old. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.560 He was eighteen when the crime he was involved in 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:21.040 took place. Brandon was an African American man, again from Texas. 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:26.320 He never denied that he was there when the crime happened, 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.120 but that he didn't commit the crime. And there's two 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:36.800 things pointing towards his innocence, Both that he didn't carry 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:39.680 out the murder and there was no direct evidence to 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.840 show that he did, and that he also had a 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:48.680 terrible defense attorney who failed to call expert witnesses, who 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.079 failed to examine areas of appeal that were open at 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:57.480 the time, who failed to analyze some of the evidence 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:02.360 that was available to show that Brandon wasn't involved in 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:07.960 the murder itself, and didn't call the appropriate witnesses that 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:14.480 were available and were as obvious as anything. Unfortunately, as 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.600 I say, Brandon was only eighteen years old when this happened. 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.280 He was a changed man by the own words of 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.400 the governor of the prison he was in. He was 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:29.480 a reformed individual and doing a lot of good work 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:36.120 with other inmates and helping others to reform and change 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.360 and turn their lives around to But what's quite different 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:44.600 about this case is that it was a federal crime 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:49.160 in the United States. Now, not to complicate issues too much, 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:54.080 but the vast, vast majority of executions that are carried 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:58.080 out by the hundreds over the last few decades in 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:02.520 the United States are carried out by individual states, predominantly 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:10.240 places like Texas and Florida. Brandon's execution, being a federal crime, 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:16.280 was carried out by the federal government. And what makes 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:21.840 this both appalling and interesting for people and important for 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:28.080 people to know is that since nineteen sixty three, only 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.480 a handful of Americans have been executed by the federal government. 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:41.520 So we went the entire terms of Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Ford, 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:47.000 Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:51.280 Clinton with not a single American citizen being executed by 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:58.200 the federal US government. Then under George W. Bush, three 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:03.400 people were executed, and they included Timothy McVeigh, who carried 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.880 out the Oklahoma bombing that killed one hundred and sixty 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.640 eight people and injured more than six hundred and eighty others, 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:16.120 and there was absolutely no doubt about his guilt. One 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:20.520 of the others executed by George W. Bush was a 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.840 serial killer who had taken countless lives. It's believed more 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:30.920 than ten. That was early on in the presidency of 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.240 George W. Bush, and he didn't execute anyone in his 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:41.160 second term. Throughout both terms of President Obama, nobody was executed, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:48.920 and then until recently under President Trump, nobody had been 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:54.240 executed either. So there'd only been three executioners until this 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:59.000 year since nineteen sixty three, and as I say, they 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:04.760 included the real killers and the White Supreme White supremaist 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:09.640 terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who killed over one hundred and sixty people. 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.960 Since then, Donald Trump has been on an executing spree 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:20.640 this year, primarily since the polls drifted against him and 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:25.800 since he lost the election, and he has executed eight 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.360 people and plans to execute at least five more. So 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:37.600 he is executing more individuals than George W. Bush ever 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.160 did by a long margin. And as I say, no 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.880 one else had ever been executed since nineteen sixty three. 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.120 It won't come as any surprise that all of these 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:54.760 prisoners are either black, Native American or poor white people. 0:16:56.000 --> 0:17:00.560 These are all people who had very poor defenses. Now, 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.040 some of them are guilty, some of them are innocent, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.639 but the fact that these cases are being rushed through 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.919 should be alarming to anyone. The fact that presidents Democrat, 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:17.080 Republican of all different stripes, and we know the records 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:21.280 of those other presidents, they were not good guys. So 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.280 you can see what sort of extreme crime you had 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.359 to commit for decades and decades and decades to be 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.840 executed by the federal government in the United States. And 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.800 now Donald Trump, having lost the election, is ordering the 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.800 mass execution of federal prisoners. There is never in the 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.080 history of the United States since the Civil War been 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:48.600 so many scheduled federal executions and executions having already taken place. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.399 As I say, there's already been eight and there's many 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:57.080 more planned. So this is something I would encourage everyone 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:02.480 to keep an eye out and share information about. This 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:08.600 can't just happen under this media frenzy around the election 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:13.240 and Donald Trump claiming that it was rigged. The coronavirus 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:18.399 pandemic that's got a lot of people understandably glued to 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.960 their TVs. And it's under this cover that Trump is 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:27.320 using to execute people who are not getting the appeals 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.040 and the revisions of their cases that they are due. 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.119 And by no means is he executing the worst of 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:38.560 the worst. He has not executed a single serial killer 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:44.480 under these planned executions, and yet he's happy to carry 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.280 out executions of black men who committed crimes when they 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:53.879 were eighteen years old, barely adults, who are reformed and 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.320 testified to that fact by the governors of the prison 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.040 they're held in, and they are being excuted without the 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:06.760 Supreme Court having any time to really look at their convictions. So, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.159 as I say, please keep an eye out for future 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:14.639 updates on Kevin Henry's case, make sure you're supporting the 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.560 Black Lives Matter movement in Australia, make sure you're supporting 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.119 the families of those who have lost loved ones to 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:26.600 deaths in custody in Australia, and look out for the 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:31.080 Rodney Reeds special on ABC twenty twenty. And as I say, 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:34.040 it's also really important to keep an eye on what 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.840 is happening in the United States, because, as we've spoken 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:42.479 about in the past, whether it's interrogation techniques, whether it's 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:45.520 the kind of weapons that are used, whether it's the 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:50.720 behavior of police, our police forces in Australia are heavily 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:55.400 influenced by the United States. In fact, much of the 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.960 everything from the chokeholds they use to the interrogations techniques 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.600 they use as well come directly from the US and 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.280 the FBI, So this is really important stuff for everyone 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:10.680 to know. Thank you for tuning in to this update 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.960 and look out for an all new episode of Curtain 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:15.840 the podcast coming very soon.