Bob Bennett Interviews his former client and Texas Exoneree Anthony Graves — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:09thank you for tuning in and listening to
2. 0:11bob bennett
3. 0:26today listen in as bob bennett
4. 0:28interviews anthony graves aka death row
5. 0:31exoneree 138 as he tells his story of
6. 0:34lies and legalized deceptive justice
7. 0:40my name is anthony graves better known
8. 0:42as death row exoneree number 138
9. 0:45i was wrongfully convicted i spent 18
10. 0:47and a half years in prison 12 and a half
11. 0:50on texas death row and i had two
12. 0:51execution days
13. 0:54amnesty and i partnered up together
14. 0:56around my story
15. 0:59to share with the rest of the world
16. 1:01i think the world needs to know about
17. 1:03what's going on our criminal justice
18. 1:05system the inhumanity of it
19. 1:07i didn't understand why would this
20. 1:09happen to me you know i didn't bother
21. 1:10nobody i wasn't a criminal
22. 1:12and so when i got out and i started
23. 1:15telling people my story i seen the
24. 1:17impact that it was having and people
25. 1:19actually wanted to get involved after
26. 1:21hearing about the injustice
27. 1:25we don't wake up thinking about the
28. 1:27death penalty over here whether it's
29. 1:28right or wrong you know until it knocks
30. 1:30on your door you really don't even have
31. 1:31a conversation about it
32. 1:33brandon dudley uh who's with senator
33. 1:36ellis was supposed to introduce our
34. 1:39speaker but he called in sick uh late
35. 1:43and he's
36. 1:44he's okay but he couldn't make it
37. 1:47so
38. 1:48at the last minute
39. 1:50we reached out to kim og
40. 1:52who's our candidate for paris county
41. 1:54district attorney to introduce our
42. 1:56speaker
43. 1:57and as it turned out
44. 1:59that she said she was in court
45. 2:02may or may not make it will try to make
46. 2:05it she's here
47. 2:06so we reached out to judge overstreet
48. 2:10who also agreed to introduce our speaker
49. 2:13and as i realized both of them are
50. 2:16in the same
51. 2:17race
52. 2:18so please do not consider it as my
53. 2:23my vote for either of those you decide
54. 2:26and i'd like to invite kim off to
55. 2:28introduce anthony grace
56. 2:36i'm kim
57. 2:37welcome everyone you know it's no
58. 2:39surprise to lawyers that 27 of us were
59. 2:42signed up and 77 of us showed up for
60. 2:45lunch we're flexible crowd
61. 2:47we've got court i wanted to take a
62. 2:49minute to introduce you
63. 2:51today our speaker somebody who i've come
64. 2:54to know in the last year and a half
65. 2:56somebody whose story
66. 2:59shocked and appalled me as a
67. 3:01professional especially as a former
68. 3:03prosecutor
69. 3:04and somebody who i think can bring great
70. 3:07change
71. 3:08through the suffering and the experience
72. 3:10that he had to a system that is broken
73. 3:12and sadly in need of reform so let me
74. 3:15tell you a little bit about anthony
75. 3:17anthony was prosecuted in burlington
76. 3:20county by a fellow named charles sebesta
77. 3:22who's no longer a lawyer mr sylvester i
78. 3:25knew him he was active in the
79. 3:26prosecutors association
80. 3:29talked a real hard game
81. 3:31unfortunately anthony's conviction was
82. 3:33secured with perjured testimony
83. 3:36with undisclosed deals
84. 3:38and it brought to the public's attention
85. 3:41the idea that the prosecution
86. 3:44if they have information that would show
87. 3:47somebody could be innocent and
88. 3:49especially information that shows they
89. 3:51aren't innocent then there's a basic
90. 3:54premise that they ought to share that
91. 3:55with the defense and they ought to do it
92. 3:58timely they ought to do it before the
93. 4:00man spends 18 and a half years
94. 4:03on death row
95. 4:04which is exactly what happened to
96. 4:06anthony graves
97. 4:08and so
98. 4:09as you listen to anthony's story
99. 4:10remember this is the story of a man who
100. 4:13was convicted on virtually no
101. 4:16physical or direct
102. 4:17evidence
103. 4:18a man whose life was held in the hands
104. 4:21of a prosecutor one prosecutor
105. 4:23exclusively
106. 4:24who got to decide if he lived or died
107. 4:26and who was able to convince a jury
108. 4:29with
109. 4:30improper evidence with
110. 4:33perjury testimony that anthony was not
111. 4:36only guilty but anthony should be
112. 4:39killed
113. 4:40by our state by our society the death
114. 4:43penalty that he was actually worthy of
115. 4:46in possession of in
116. 4:47that he was actually worthy of being
117. 4:51executed by our society that's what
118. 4:52charles sebastian did he had that much
119. 4:54power and
120. 4:57he was actually scheduled he had two
121. 5:01separate execution dates
122. 5:04and so i don't know how we repay or
123. 5:07apologize
124. 5:08or thank someone for the changes that
125. 5:11that suffering brought but all i can
126. 5:13tell you is i respect it
127. 5:15and i do want to share with you just a
128. 5:17minute more the result that it had
129. 5:20in our practice of criminal law in the
130. 5:23field that that i primarily practice in
131. 5:26as a young prosecutor i've got to tell
132. 5:28you in the 80s i was taught
133. 5:31that there were no such things as
134. 5:32wrongfully convicted
135. 5:34people in texas i was taught as a
136. 5:37prosecutor by our association that there
137. 5:39had never been
138. 5:40a wrongful conviction uh proven
139. 5:45in texas not just on death row not just
140. 5:47a capital but that there were no
141. 5:48wrongful convictions based on actual
142. 5:51innocence i mean that was that was the
143. 5:53party line and so when you're young and
144. 5:55impressionable you may not necessarily
145. 5:58believe it's all true but that was what
146. 6:01we were being taught
147. 6:03and so
148. 6:04as
149. 6:05technology changed with the advent of
150. 6:08dna with the improvements and the
151. 6:10debunking of so many junk sciences
152. 6:13and then with the not the flood but
153. 6:15but to us what seemed like almost a
154. 6:17flood of exoneration with anthony's
155. 6:20being as prominent as they come a man on
156. 6:22death row
157. 6:24michael morton served 25 but he wasn't
158. 6:26on death row
159. 6:27uh these are horrific cases they happen
160. 6:30to our fellow
161. 6:32friends neighbors uh
162. 6:35our peers
163. 6:36anthony is everyone
164. 6:38it could happen to us and the only good
165. 6:41thing about anthony's story is that it
166. 6:43motivated lawyers
167. 6:46and our legislature to change the law
168. 6:48and to force prosecutors not just to
169. 6:51have an open file but to be held
170. 6:53responsible under the law for giving
171. 6:56every piece of information that could
172. 6:58lead to somebody's
173. 7:00innocence or or finding not guilty we
174. 7:03have to give it to the prophet we have
175. 7:05to give it to the defense now and we
176. 7:07have to under
177. 7:09under the law and that is a huge
178. 7:12huge change we just recently saw a case
179. 7:14where a prosecutor said it's not brady
180. 7:17material if i don't believe it
181. 7:21that's the temple case and that's
182. 7:22quoting kelly siegler and that's
183. 7:24just wrote it in his opinion and that's
184. 7:26what you're dealing with you now have
185. 7:28generations of lawyers who've come to
186. 7:30believe
187. 7:31that if we don't somehow believe it even
188. 7:33if it might show his innocence we don't
189. 7:35have to turn it over and that's just
190. 7:36nonsense it's not constitutional it's
191. 7:38not american it's bad for our democracy
192. 7:41and
193. 7:42i am so
194. 7:44honored to call anthony graves my friend
195. 7:48i think you'll learn a lot from what
196. 7:50happened to him and if his story doesn't
197. 7:52motivate you to go out and change our
198. 7:54criminal justice system
199. 7:56i don't know what will you've changed it
200. 7:57a lot anthony and i'm looking forward to
201. 7:59you changing it a whole lot more
202. 8:02i am who i am because of what's going on
203. 8:05in my life and i give thanks to god for
204. 8:06that
205. 8:07back in 1992 when a horrible crime had
206. 8:10taken place
207. 8:13six people were murdered
208. 8:15they were shot
209. 8:16stabbed
210. 8:17blunted to death
211. 8:19house set on fire i guess an obvious
212. 8:22attempt to
213. 8:23hide the crime
214. 8:27six bodies
215. 8:28four with children
216. 8:30one was a teenage daughter
217. 8:32one was a grandma
218. 8:35can you imagine the outrage because this
219. 8:37happened in a small
220. 8:38town ferguson county somerville texas
221. 8:42it's never happened like that before and
222. 8:44they were outraged matter of fact i mean
223. 8:46the mayor came out in the paper the next
224. 8:48day and said that
225. 8:49whoever had done this crime
226. 8:51she didn't even deserve a new trial they
227. 8:53should just be caught in hank
228. 8:56it took me six thousand six hundred
229. 8:59and forty days to come back home
230. 9:01along with two execution dates
231. 9:04and i got to i got to witness many many
232. 9:07of the young men that our state
233. 9:10is murdering down there
234. 9:12i got to know them
235. 9:14and they want these bad actors as we all
236. 9:16like to portray them
237. 9:18okay they some of them had made one
238. 9:20mistake five minutes of their life
239. 9:23and we killed them
240. 9:24because the citizens want to believe in
241. 9:26you they want to believe in our system
242. 9:28and if you're bringing somebody in there
243. 9:29they want to believe that you got it
244. 9:30right you know that
245. 9:34but you got to be responsible for it
246. 9:36and we got to hold you all accountable
247. 9:40too many innocent people are losing
248. 9:41their freedoms in their lives
249. 9:43because we do not want to look under the
250. 9:44rock anymore
251. 9:46it costs too much
252. 9:48well it costs that mother her child
253. 9:51it cost that child his father
254. 9:53it cost more than any dollar you can
255. 9:55ever put on
256. 9:57it don't cost too much
257. 9:59it saved lives uh anthony bob bennett
258. 10:02good to see you again good
259. 10:03and on behalf of lone star college we
260. 10:06thank you for the speech you gave and
261. 10:08one of the things that i wanted to ask
262. 10:10though
263. 10:10for the young people at lone star what
264. 10:13is your opinion about what they should
265. 10:15do to help further either your
266. 10:17foundation or to make sure that justice
267. 10:20is done in other cases what would be
268. 10:22your recommendation i think my first
269. 10:23recommendation is that for students
270. 10:26students that really want to make a
271. 10:27difference that they should get involved
272. 10:28with volunteer work volunteer work with
273. 10:30these organizations that's really
274. 10:32getting out there trying to uh i guess
275. 10:34you know equal our justice system i
276. 10:36think that like like innocent projects
277. 10:38my foundation
278. 10:40they need people who are passionate
279. 10:42about reform to get involved on a
280. 10:44voluntary basis also i think that what's
281. 10:46most important is you got to use your
282. 10:48voice in this in this state in this
283. 10:49nation in this country and that is you
284. 10:51have to show up at the ballot box and be
285. 10:54a voice with your vote it is so
286. 10:56important that we show up and revoke the
287. 10:58people that we feel like would have our
288. 11:00interests what is one of the problems is
289. 11:02we don't think our vote counts but i
290. 11:03always try to tell students that if your
291. 11:05vote didn't count why you think they
292. 11:06spent so much money to keep you from
293. 11:08voting your vote do count you can make a
294. 11:10difference at that ballot box and i
295. 11:11would say get involved in those ways
296. 11:14what else would your foundation
297. 11:16provide or information to the students
298. 11:19or what else could they do for your
299. 11:20foundation well right now my foundation
300. 11:23we are reaching out
301. 11:25guys that are wrongfully convicted calls
302. 11:27write to me all the time that's what
303. 11:28helps so what we're trying to do is
304. 11:29we're trying to get students law
305. 11:30students in particular do some research
306. 11:32on their cases and put together like a
307. 11:34summary of facts for us and then we're
308. 11:36reaching out to law firms trying to get
309. 11:37those law firms to get involved in these
310. 11:38cases so that's the process right there
311. 11:41so what i would need basically again
312. 11:42i'll need some volunteer researchers to
313. 11:44help me do some research on these cases
314. 11:46that are coming to me and some people
315. 11:47who are interested in communicating with
316. 11:49these uh
317. 11:51offenders that are writing to me and
318. 11:52kind of keeping them abreast of what
319. 11:53we're trying to do with their cases so
320. 11:55that's kind of what i would need in
321. 11:56terms of volunteer work so at the bottom
322. 11:58of this video we'll put your name in the
323. 12:01foundation's name and the telephone
324. 12:03number they can call they can get in
325. 12:04touch with your foundation and start the
326. 12:06process that way yes sir i appreciate it
327. 12:09okay anthony good to see you thank you
328. 12:10so much bob
329. 13:25you