An amazing talk by Anthony Graves, a former death-row inmate who was exonerated after 18 years — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00they did sins to death and now I'm
2. 0:04headed to death row man come on
3. 0:08this is where they say the worst of the
4. 0:10worst meal I'm not a criminal so I'm
5. 0:13headed to death row I'm scared I'm 26
6. 0:16years old I get to death and they're
7. 0:23walking me down the hall two young
8. 0:25officers they got me shackled and
9. 0:27handcuffed and they're both walking them
10. 0:29with their nice steaks you have general
11. 0:32population that was in the hallway and
12. 0:34one of the young officers shouting at
13. 0:37them get against the wall
14. 0:39turn your head don't look at it so I
15. 0:42became the next dead man walking
16. 0:44and they were walking me to my cage
17. 0:46that's your family - please help me save
18. 0:49my life I wrote letters all over the
19. 0:51world
20. 0:51give me Germany France Switzerland
21. 0:54Sweden you name it and I started an
22. 0:57organization for justice and I started
23. 1:02in Paris friends I'm the first in my
24. 1:04life at that time I'm sitting on Texas
25. 1:07death row in other words what I'm saying
26. 1:09to you you say you are the only person
27. 1:13doing what you need to do to succeed in
28. 1:16life
29. 1:17you are the only person because
30. 1:19regardless of the fact that I was behind
31. 1:21bars I was not gonna give up I was so
32. 1:24determined that I became very creative
33. 1:26in this organization stemmed from all
34. 1:29those countries that I just named Oh
35. 1:31everybody started coming together and
36. 1:33start making a loud voice chorus was for
37. 1:35my innocence that's how the United
38. 1:38States
39. 1:44and I talked about my case to her about
40. 1:473-4 hours afterwards she went tune in
41. 1:49some project and she said so
42. 1:55David I'll professor David dollar-euro
43. 1:57Bates was holding the clinic innocent
44. 1:59training in this lady named Nicole
45. 2:00cashless who was a journalist professor
46. 2:03in her students attending class that day
47. 2:06and it so happened that he was talking
48. 2:08about my case that day talking about how
49. 2:11this case like the investigation was on
50. 2:14a fast track to execution and he wanted
51. 2:17to know who wanted to look into the case
52. 2:18and Nicole as she told me her students
53. 2:22see nobody raised their hand and already
54. 2:25hands were women that became greatest
55. 2:28blessing because when they decide they
56. 2:31was going to look at to my case they
57. 2:32didn't tell me I mean the one came to
58. 2:34visit me and say hey we're gonna get to
59. 2:36your case they looked into my face for
60. 2:38two years without saying anything to me
61. 2:40I didn't know so finally they came down
62. 2:42to visit me in the cold when she came up
63. 2:46to me she say hey is there anything you
64. 2:49wanna tell us
65. 2:49I said yes ma'am I want you to do your
66. 2:56job hey we gotta get on the stage get my
67. 3:09picture taken go through the whole thing
68. 3:12so yeah we want to give me in 2012 I
69. 3:15have it at home on my mantle I'm very
70. 3:17proud of that because it represents my
71. 3:20life story even it you can believe in it
72. 3:23all day but you don't believe in killing
73. 3:25innocent people so does the death
74. 3:30penalty work that's what we need to know
75. 3:33and if it doesn't work because I feel
76. 3:35about it
77. 3:36I don't want nobody else um executed
78. 3:38just because I believe it I can believe
79. 3:41in it and still say it's a bad thing it
80. 3:43doesn't work but yeah I still believe in
81. 3:46it right but do I believe in it no
82. 3:49because
83. 3:50know that we can't be 100% sure they're
84. 3:53engaged right