ABC Coverage of Fernando Bermudez Press Conference — Transcript

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1. 0:00for most Thanksgiving is about being
2. 0:03thankful for Fernando Bermudez it's
3. 0:07about being free it's been a year of
4. 0:10mixed emotions and unforeseen
5. 0:12challenges since I left Sing Sing
6. 0:15Bermudez was imprisoned for 18 years
7. 0:18serving someone else's time for a murder
8. 0:20he didn't commit I can forgive but I
9. 0:24can't forget in jail they called him the
10. 0:26professor now almost a year after being
11. 0:28exonerated Fernando berm took his
12. 0:30teaching skills to Columbia University
13. 0:33the crime of wrongful
14. 0:34convictions begins like a water torture
15. 0:39dripping cold reality minute by minute
16. 0:43day by day year to year in 1991 Bermudez
17. 0:48was sent to prison for murdering a teen
18. 0:50outside of a club in New York City after
19. 0:53five witnesses misidentified him he was
20. 0:55sentenced to 23 years to life such a
21. 0:58situation can erode a person's
22. 1:03self-esteem it can erode your personal
23. 1:06dignity if you don't try to maintain it
24. 1:09after bermes was convicted the witnesses
25. 1:11who put him behind bars recanted their
26. 1:13testimonies revealing that prosecutors
27. 1:15and police had pressured them into
28. 1:17pinning Bermudez as the killer the trial
29. 1:19was so lopsided the stories that
30. 1:22Witnesses gave a trial did not make
31. 1:24sense they were inconsistent with each
32. 1:26other in my
33. 1:28situation the legal identification
34. 1:30procedure coupled with the witnesses
35. 1:33allowing to speak with each other made a
36. 1:35bad situation worse but per munz is not
37. 1:38alone eyewitness misidentifications are
38. 1:41the number one cause for wrongful
39. 1:43convictions in the United States bmun
40. 1:45as's case is an example of how difficult
41. 1:48it is to overturn convictions without
42. 1:50forensic evidence we have 261 DNA based
43. 1:54exonerations how many more do we have
44. 1:56that are non DNA based like myself but
45. 1:58besides his legal message berun hopes
46. 2:01his story serves as an inspiration for
47. 2:03the students I want to encourage
48. 2:05everyone that whatever happens in life
49. 2:08you can overcome adversity now a free
50. 2:11man brunz is determined to bring Justice
51. 2:13to the judicial system that took 18
52. 2:15years of his life for ABC News I'm Julie
53. 2:18Strauss