Darryl Hunt Luncheon - April 20, 2009 - The Art of Innocence — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:08today's today's program however is
2. 0:10focusing on two guest
3. 0:13exonar uh absolutely remarkable stories
4. 0:17the first I'm going to call is Daryl
5. 0:20hunt and I and I have to tell you that I
6. 0:23have for the past year and a half and
7. 0:25those people who know me know this have
8. 0:27become extraordinarily passionate about
9. 0:30the Innocence Project and about the
10. 0:31issues of wrongful convictions two
11. 0:34things got me really going one was
12. 0:36visiting the Innocence Project website
13. 0:38which is a which has a wealth of of
14. 0:40personal and wonderful narrative uh
15. 0:43anecdotal information as well as
16. 0:46statistics uh the other was seeing two
17. 0:49films one of them was the out of
18. 0:51Innocence I'm sorry was at um after
19. 0:54innocence but the one that really moved
20. 0:57me was a film called the trials of Daryl
21. 1:00hunt this is one of the most incredible
22. 1:04documentaries you would not believe this
23. 1:06was happening in America you really
24. 1:09wouldn't uh this is a a film that
25. 1:13documents the 20 years of Daryl Hunt's
26. 1:17uh case and I would highly recommend
27. 1:19that any in
28. 1:211985 Daryl was convicted for the first
29. 1:24degree murder of a 25-year-old woman
30. 1:27Deborah syes uh who was a copy editor
31. 1:30for the Winston Salem North Carolina
32. 1:32newspaper after serving 5 years his
33. 1:36conviction was overturned his first
34. 1:37trial was just riddled with legal error
35. 1:41he was then offered a plea bargain plead
36. 1:45guilty to murder and he would be
37. 1:47sentenced to time served after 5 years
38. 1:50darl could get up take off the handcuffs
39. 1:53and walk out of the
40. 1:55courtroom darl refused to admit to a
41. 1:58crime that he had not committed and
42. 2:01rejected the offer he was tried again
43. 2:04convicted and sentenced to uh life in
44. 2:09prison he spent the next 15 years in
45. 2:12prison before being
46. 2:14exonerated this is a story of a man who
47. 2:17is a hero in my eyes let me introduce AR
48. 2:21h
49. 2:25[Applause]
50. 2:32good it's a pleasure and honor to be
51. 2:34here this evening um and especially to
52. 2:39be
53. 2:41around Steve and Roy who has really
54. 2:46um I understand the struggles that that
55. 2:52you have going through
56. 2:54and it's it's a blessing that so many
57. 2:58people can be here
58. 3:00and really
59. 3:02understand how this problem that we have
60. 3:05um there's so many there 234 exames in
61. 3:11in this country and there are lots more
62. 3:15innocent men and women that's still in
63. 3:19prison and the things that drive us and
64. 3:25drive me is to make sure that that what
65. 3:29happened
66. 3:30to myself to Roy to Steve to Kurt don't
67. 3:34happen to someone else and and that's
68. 3:38what keeps us going and I know
69. 3:42um when I was released in in 2003
70. 3:47Christmas Eve of 2003 the one thing I
71. 3:50wanted to do is be able to give back and
72. 3:52to help others and so I started the
73. 3:56their project freedom of Justice um
74. 3:59where we help worked with other
75. 4:02innocence cases around the country uh
76. 4:04trying to help free them and we also do
77. 4:07reentry work which is so critical to
78. 4:10both Exon and people coming out of
79. 4:13prison period um help them get
80. 4:16established you know what started before
81. 4:21the the DH project started I have to
82. 4:23tell you the
83. 4:24story I went to apply for a job and it
84. 4:29was a job and
85. 4:31re-entry and I went in filled out the
86. 4:34application we talked and I had all the
87. 4:38expertise but I was missing one thing it
88. 4:41say I was missing 19 years on my
89. 4:44resume
90. 4:46and I could see if I was from another
91. 4:49state coming in and applying for the job
92. 4:52but this was my home state everybody in
93. 4:55W Salem North Carolina knew what had
94. 4:57happened to me and I denied that job and
95. 5:01that made me realize that if people
96. 5:05knew that I was falsely accused and in
97. 5:08prison for 19 years and I couldn't get a
98. 5:11job then just imagine how many other
99. 5:14people who less fortunate than myself
100. 5:17could not get a job so the project
101. 5:20started from that point on and I pulled
102. 5:23all my time and energy into building the
103. 5:25project to help other people um
104. 5:30everybody wants a second chance
105. 5:32everybody deserves a second chance and
106. 5:36one of the things that kept me going in
107. 5:39prison that kept me alive was the
108. 5:43understanding of
109. 5:46forgiveness I hold no grudge for
110. 5:48goodness against anyone that had
111. 5:52anything to do with me being in prison I
112. 5:54don't forget it but the one thing I
113. 5:57understand is that in order order for me
114. 6:00to ask God to help me or to forgive me
115. 6:03for anything I first must be willing to
116. 6:06forgive others for what they do to me or
117. 6:08else I don't have the right to go to God
118. 6:10and ask God to help me or forgive me and
119. 6:15in that same
120. 6:17sense is what we strive at the project
121. 6:20to help to make sure that each person
122. 6:25understands that the responsibility of s
123. 6:30that you have to be willing to forgive
124. 6:33and move on because regardless of what
125. 6:37happened to
126. 6:38me Steve Roy Curt we all had a big tree
127. 6:45on
128. 6:45us and then it was
129. 6:50lifted and I say by the grace of God it
130. 6:52was
131. 6:55lifted and now we're free so to carry a
132. 6:58burden of hatred or bit bitterness would
133. 7:01only put that tree back on our
134. 7:04back so that's why we are so
135. 7:07forgiven because we really understand
136. 7:11and we really want to give and we really
137. 7:13want to help others because we know what
138. 7:16it what it feels like to be in Hell
139. 7:20Lally prison is is just that bad and
140. 7:25when you're
141. 7:26innocent is 10 times worse
142. 7:30because you can you cannot justify being
143. 7:33in
144. 7:34prison and to come out and to be able to
145. 7:39live and a lot of people say well you're
146. 7:44free you should be the happiest person
147. 7:47in the world but nobody knows the
148. 7:52nightmares that we still suffer from
149. 7:55prison the psychological effect of
150. 7:57prison
151. 7:59nobody knows that every night I wake up
152. 8:03at 3:00 in the
153. 8:05morning sit on the side of the bed cuz I
154. 8:07have to use the restroom but I'm waiting
155. 8:09on the officer to tell me that I can go
156. 8:11use the
157. 8:13restroom nobody talks about that nobody
158. 8:17talks helps us with the psychological
159. 8:20effects of what prison has done to
160. 8:24us and that's why what I do at the
161. 8:27project we try to work
162. 8:30and talk with each other so we can work
163. 8:33out these problems and we try to educate
164. 8:38more people
165. 8:40about what we go through as
166. 8:43exes and I'm sure Kurt when kurk speaks
167. 8:47we talk more about it but I just wanted
168. 8:50to give you an idea of of some of the
169. 8:53things when you see Steve and you see
170. 8:57Roy just understand
171. 9:01that it's a whole lot that's going on
172. 9:04inside of
173. 9:05us that we don't talk about that we
174. 9:08can't talk
175. 9:10about but help
176. 9:13us if you really truly want to help help
177. 9:17us figure this out so we can make sure
178. 9:19that this don't happen to someone else
179. 9:22and this is the most important part of
180. 9:25our
181. 9:27life so
182. 9:30with that I'mma close with
183. 9:35um speaking about the project you going
184. 9:37to pass out we're going to pass out some
185. 9:40leafl on on the uh St project Jus but I
186. 9:45want to thank you for inviting me to
187. 9:47come here and I hope uh was able to say
188. 9:50something to
189. 9:53help you and your fight because I
190. 9:56believe that everyone is here is here
191. 9:59because they believe in
192. 10:01innocence and they believe in doing the
193. 10:03right thing and in doing the right thing
194. 10:07I hope you continue to go out and fight
195. 10:10for someone else that's in prison or on
196. 10:15the way to prison for a crime that they
197. 10:17didn't commit and stand up for thank you
198. 10:21[Applause]
199. 10:29than