Archie Williams: I never let my mind go to prison — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:14Freedom is of the mind.
2. 0:16It's all about how we view life. I never
3. 0:19let my mind go to prison. My body was
4. 0:21put in this prison on a slave
5. 0:24plantation. They have always had the
6. 0:26peace
7. 0:27to be able to go through this ordeal.
8. 0:29Thank God for that.
9. 0:31Given the circumstances in which my
10. 0:35incarceration happened, freedom means to
11. 0:37me the ability to hold my head up
12. 0:40with my dignity intact.
13. 0:48That right there.
14. 0:51Breathe.
15. 0:53Feel.
16. 0:55Um.
17. 0:57Don't answer to no one.
18. 1:00Do as you want to, as you feel is best
19. 1:03for you.
20. 1:04Freedom means that I'm free to serve God
21. 1:07within the parameters that he has
22. 1:09provided for me
23. 1:11and that always will bring the best
24. 1:12results.
25. 1:14It kind of opens the floodgates, you
26. 1:16know, when you uh
27. 1:20continue to encounter it,
28. 1:22so to speak.
29. 1:24Life is good. Baby wife.
30. 1:28I'm doing good.
31. 1:31I haven't dreamed in such a long time.
32. 1:33It's That's a difficult question.
33. 1:36My vision is just to help as many people
34. 1:40as I can before I die.
35. 1:43My race of people, the kids, that's you
36. 1:45know, our future. Making sure that they
37. 1:47can be productive in life. I want to be
38. 1:49a access to that as much as I can
39. 1:51possibly be.
40. 1:53I want a family, you know.
41. 1:55Marry one day. Have kids.
42. 1:58I want a bunch of them.
43. 2:01I don't know I'm going to I guess I'm
44. 2:02too old to have so many now, but
45. 2:06I would have
46. 2:08I dream to have a normal life.
47. 2:10You know, that's all. Just be happy
48. 2:13with everything that come along with.
49. 2:16Bills, taxes, all of that.
50. 2:19Struggles.
51. 2:21Yeah.
52. 2:23I'm one of the fortunate ones that
53. 2:25actually got an opportunity to prove
54. 2:27that I wasn't responsible for the crime
55. 2:29I was in prison for, but there are
56. 2:30thousands, literally tens of thousands
57. 2:33more people in this country that are
58. 2:34wrongfully imprisoned, whose voices are
59. 2:37being silenced. When you are served
60. 2:39papers, they have Lot versus the state
61. 2:43of Oklahoma.
62. 2:45And that's what it really means.
63. 2:47It's not a misprint. It's you, by
64. 2:50yourself, against the entire state.
65. 2:54All the state's resources, all the
66. 2:56state's men will try their best to make
67. 2:59you fall off that wall, just like Humpty
68. 3:02Dumpty.
69. 3:03And no one can put you together again.
70. 3:08But the Innocence Project has a solution
71. 3:11for that, to combat that beast that we
72. 3:14call the state.
73. 3:16Can you imagine 19 years on the inside,
74. 3:18then you come out, and these people
75. 3:20embrace you, and
76. 3:22they treat you like you're human. I
77. 3:23fought hard for myself because I was
78. 3:25fighting for me.
79. 3:27But to have somebody come alongside you
80. 3:30and believe what you say,
81. 3:34and to act on it,
82. 3:35that's a whole 'nother monster.
83. 3:38It represented
84. 3:40people,
85. 3:42a mindset that were just committed to
86. 3:45fighting and
87. 3:46helping me
88. 3:48restore truth and restore justice.
89. 3:51Innocence Project, it means everything
90. 3:53to me.