Derrick Hamilton Spent Over 20 Years in Jail Over False Murder Conviction — Transcript

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1. 0:00the jurogan experience
2. 0:02well it's an honor to meet you derek
3. 0:05especially after such high praise so
4. 0:07tell me your story like how did what
5. 0:09happened to you
6. 0:10well thanks for having me and josh
7. 0:12thanks for the accolades
8. 0:13um you know i was 17 year old kid
9. 0:16running around brooklyn at a time when
10. 0:18brooklyn was uh terrible
11. 0:20and i was a product of my environment i
12. 0:22was doing little robberies and you know
13. 0:24a little stump stuff that adolescents do
14. 0:27and i got on the
15. 0:28radar police department
16. 0:30uh they used to search me all the time
17. 0:32pat me down you know throw me up on the
18. 0:33car regular stuff that happened in that
19. 0:35community um one day
20. 0:38uh a man was killed about 5 a.m by some
21. 0:41older guys in the neighborhood
22. 0:43the police had the identification of the
23. 0:45car
24. 0:46they called the guy in and he
25. 0:49somehow told them he rented me the car
26. 0:52and that i was the one that bought the
27. 0:53car back and told him that i had
28. 0:55committed the crime and that i had shot
29. 0:57the guy by accident
30. 0:58um and that was my first real experience
31. 1:01with the criminal justice system because
32. 1:03it was a murder
33. 1:04um i'm like murder you know i did a
34. 1:06couple of robberies i you know i did
35. 1:08some petty stuff but murder that's not
36. 1:10me
37. 1:11so um you know what was amazing to me is
38. 1:14number one
39. 1:15um nobody would have gave me their car
40. 1:16at 17 years old right any cop would have
41. 1:19known that this guy would have gave me
42. 1:21his car
43. 1:22um but they arrested me and they charged
44. 1:23me with murder
45. 1:25and i was convicted
46. 1:27by a jury because they admitted grand
47. 1:30jury testimony of a witness who came
48. 1:32before the court and said i never seen
49. 1:34this guy at all the police made me lie
50. 1:37in the grand jury and say that i seen
51. 1:39this guy i'm not testifying i refuse to
52. 1:41testify i'm not going to get up there
53. 1:42and purging myself
54. 1:44uh the judge told the prosecutor that
55. 1:46day that they were dismissing the case
56. 1:48that if they don't get another witness
57. 1:49this case is going out of here um
58. 1:51judge's name was lombardo back then this
59. 1:53was 1983.
60. 1:54um i went back to righteous island that
61. 1:56day we came back the next day and the
62. 1:59judge said that he thought about this
63. 2:01all night
64. 2:02and he felt that the only person would
65. 2:04benefit from this witness not testifying
66. 2:06would be me
67. 2:07therefore he was going to allow the
68. 2:09prosecutor to admit their grand jury
69. 2:11testimony as evidence in chief at my
70. 2:13trial and i would forfeit my right to
71. 2:15confront the witness and let the jury
72. 2:17hear the truth that she never saw the
73. 2:19crime so that was my first real
74. 2:21experience i was a young knucklehead the
75. 2:23lawyer that i had at the time candace
76. 2:24kurtz said look young man get your head
77. 2:26out your ass and you better read these
78. 2:28cases and you better see what's going on
79. 2:30like they arrowed you she took the stand
80. 2:32and told the judge what the witness told
81. 2:34her
82. 2:35um and and i was convicted i was
83. 2:36sentenced to 25 years life
84. 2:39um and it was
85. 2:40at that moment that i know that i had to
86. 2:42study law that i had to really dig deep
87. 2:44in in the books and i did it new york
88. 2:46state uh thank god had
89. 2:48a law library they had all the books in
90. 2:50the world all you had to supply yourself
91. 2:52and i spent the next five and six years
92. 2:54working on my case
93. 2:56uh in 1987 the appellate division in
94. 2:58that case found that the judge had no
95. 3:00evidence whatsoever that me or anybody
96. 3:03acting on my behalf had threatened this
97. 3:05witness did anything improper and that
98. 3:07the judge was right there was no
99. 3:08evidence that that can prove that so
100. 3:10they reversed the conviction and i was
101. 3:12able to get out of prison
102. 3:13uh after six and a half years
103. 3:15unbeknownst to me there was a rogue cop
104. 3:18by the name of louis scarcella
105. 3:20who felt that i didn't do enough time
106. 3:22for this conviction he didn't like the
107. 3:23appellate division decision
108. 3:24eight months later
109. 3:26i was in new haven connecticut at a
110. 3:28unisex line that i had on at the time
111. 3:30he came in that store and arrested me
112. 3:32told me i was going back to brooklyn for
113. 3:34a murder
114. 3:35um and i'm like murder like this can't
115. 3:37be true like again like how many times
116. 3:40has happened i went to new york
117. 3:42um i was processed uh about a year later
118. 3:46i went to trial i was convicted they
119. 3:49brought a witness in by the name of jew
120. 3:51smith who said that she was present at
121. 3:53the murder when her boyfriend was killed
122. 3:55that i was a gunman i had a gun in my
123. 3:57hand and i shot this individual several
124. 3:59times with this gun
125. 4:01but her original statement to the police
126. 4:02said she wasn't there
127. 4:04that she never saw this crime she was
128. 4:06around the corner at a store when she
129. 4:08came back her boyfriend was dead the
130. 4:09jury never heard that statement but in
131. 4:11any event
132. 4:12the ballistics evidence proved
133. 4:14that this guy was shot with two
134. 4:16different guns that he wasn't shot in
135. 4:18the building when she said he was shot
136. 4:19at but he was shot outside in the street
137. 4:22despite this evidence i was convicted
138. 4:25after i was convicted was when i learned
139. 4:28that she had first told the cops at the
140. 4:30crime scene she never saw the crime but
141. 4:32she had told her to a different
142. 4:33detective so i made a proceeding motion
143. 4:35to set aside the verdict and in the
144. 4:37motion i argue that this detective that
145. 4:40never came in that she gave the
146. 4:41statement to could prove my innocence
147. 4:44and the judge ordered a hearing for a
148. 4:45year he said i can't give this guy a day
149. 4:47in jail
150. 4:48let alone
151. 4:49uh 15 years which is the minimum i want
152. 4:52this witness to come back the prosecutor
153. 4:53said i'm not calling him and the judge
154. 4:55said if you don't call her back
155. 4:57this case is going to a new trial right
156. 4:59they called the bat and she admitted
157. 5:01that she never saw the crime that the
158. 5:03detective louis scott stella told her
159. 5:05what happened and told her that if she
160. 5:06didn't get up here and say that i
161. 5:08committed the crime she was going to
162. 5:09jail she was on parole her boyfriend was
163. 5:12a felon that just got out she had kids
164. 5:14they said you're going to jail she said
165. 5:16what was i supposed to do here's the
166. 5:17system telling me this that if i don't
167. 5:19come in and say this i'm going to jail
168. 5:21and i came in and said it
169. 5:24the judge ruled a year later that
170. 5:27again he felt that i was
171. 5:30he said there was a common thread of
172. 5:31strings i manipulated this evidence
173. 5:33again i called the detective
174. 5:35the detective came in and said exactly
175. 5:37what the witness said
176. 5:38that she told him she didn't see the
177. 5:40crime that she was beat up
178. 5:42and took to the priest and then told she
179. 5:43was going to jail now had that jury
180. 5:45heard that there'd have been different
181. 5:46results
182. 5:47at the at the trial they told the jury
183. 5:49that her first statement was the most
184. 5:51important statement in this case and
185. 5:52then when the police arrived on the
186. 5:54scene she didn't hesitate she said
187. 5:55derrick hamilton somebody i know my
188. 5:57entire life committed a crime which
189. 5:58wasn't true in fact she said the truth
190. 6:01was she didn't see the crime that she
191. 6:02was somewhere else
192. 6:03um i was sentenced to 25 years of life
193. 6:07i found numerous post-conviction motions
194. 6:09after post-conviction motions every time
195. 6:10a judge gave me a hearing every time he
196. 6:12said he can throw the case out every
197. 6:14time he said he was troubled by this
198. 6:16conviction uh the prosecutor would come
199. 6:18in and tell him a bad guy that this is
200. 6:20not somebody you want to release that
201. 6:21you know they put imagine harms that
202. 6:23make a judge think that i was the most
203. 6:24terrible person in the world and he was
204. 6:26denied emotion every single time
205. 6:28um you know i felt numerous emotions
206. 6:30numerous post convictions i did
207. 6:31everything you could imagine
208. 6:33to prove my innocence but to no avail
209. 6:36i began going to parole board around
210. 6:382009
211. 6:40it was a very traumatic experience for
212. 6:42me because at that time the parole board
213. 6:44wanted me to admit guilt and i wasn't
214. 6:45going to do that i'm not gonna come in
215. 6:47and say i killed somebody didn't kill
216. 6:49i'm not doing that i don't care what you
217. 6:51say and i had to challenge them and
218. 6:52fight them for two years
219. 6:54uh and then my family went out and
220. 6:56protest and we got a daily news article
221. 6:58put out that said that i would be free
222. 7:00if the court would just basically give
223. 7:02me justice if they just give this guy a
224. 7:03fair shot he'd be home so it changed the
225. 7:06the mentality of the parole board they
226. 7:08looked at all of my evidence and they
227. 7:09said you know based on the evidence that
228. 7:11you presented here um we believe in your
229. 7:13innocence like this evidence speaks for
230. 7:15itself even the judge said you was
231. 7:16innocent i don't know what you're doing
232. 7:17here all these years and they released
233. 7:19me and at that point i began a crusade
234. 7:22because when i was in prison there were
235. 7:23several guys we built something called
236. 7:25the actual innocence team guys who i was
237. 7:27working in the library so i would read
238. 7:29god's case and check them out so what i
239. 7:31had to do was
240. 7:33get families together get people to come
241. 7:35together and bring their families and
242. 7:36say look let's send these people to city
243. 7:37hall let them know there's a lot of us
244. 7:39in here it's not just me it's white
245. 7:41there's black there's a bunch of us in
246. 7:42here that got the same issue that
247. 7:44they're procedurally borrowing us
248. 7:46they're not looking at our case just
249. 7:47kicking it into the garbage we don't
250. 7:48want to hear it get out of here right
251. 7:50because they can they had the power so
252. 7:52we started bringing attention to these
253. 7:53cases it changed the whole dynamic so
254. 7:55when i got out i joined that group
255. 7:57family and friends of the romans
256. 7:59convictions uh we had the pr guy by the
257. 8:01name of lonnie suri who was helping us
258. 8:03keep it together and we just began
259. 8:05blasting the prosecutors we began
260. 8:06protesting outside the offices and
261. 8:08getting rid of them while the first one
262. 8:10we was able to get rid of was charles
263. 8:11hines in brooklyn the prosecutor that
264. 8:12sent me to prison he was able to remove
265. 8:14him and put a progressive prosecutor in
266. 8:16that agreed that he would look at
267. 8:18these convictions if he was elected so
268. 8:21he got in and in two years he examined
269. 8:2322 people
270. 8:24and he found that it was a systemic
271. 8:26racist problem in brooklyn that was
272. 8:28convicting the wrong people
273. 8:30uh fortunately for me uh the new york
274. 8:32times reporter called me and i believe
275. 8:34it's 2012.
276. 8:35and they said why are people afraid of
277. 8:37the police
278. 8:38i just said are you kidding me why are
279. 8:40they afraid of the police
280. 8:42and i told them names of guys that i
281. 8:44knew that was in prison that this cop
282. 8:46set up
283. 8:47and a lawyer had contacted me and said
284. 8:49that he was working on a case which this
285. 8:51cop framed another guy by the name of
286. 8:53david ranta and he said in two weeks
287. 8:55there's going to be an article in new
288. 8:56york times that exposed this cop and i
289. 8:59told the new york times reporter that
290. 9:01and i said look two weeks if it comes
291. 9:03out you come back to me and i'll take
292. 9:04you to these guys and she came back
293. 9:06francis roberts she came back and i took
294. 9:08it to these guys she got the prosecutor
295. 9:11to agree to look at 50 of these cops
296. 9:13cases
297. 9:1450 of them and um you know 20 was
298. 9:16exonerated so far those guys and i was
299. 9:19exonerated in 2015. in 2014 for the
300. 9:23first time in uh new york history the
301. 9:25appellate division second department
302. 9:27ruled in my case that a free standing
303. 9:29action innocence claim can be recognized
304. 9:32under post-conviction motion and they
305. 9:33said that anybody that's innocent the
306. 9:35courts could no longer procedurally
307. 9:36bother you they got to reach the merits
308. 9:38of your contentions they just can't say
309. 9:40well you should have raised this before
310. 9:42or your lawyer failed to do this before
311. 9:44or you should have did you got to reach
312. 9:45the merits of it get to the bottom line
313. 9:47this guy innocent or not and when they
314. 9:49gave me that opinion it kind of like in
315. 9:52itself exonerated because the prosecutor
316. 9:54now had to hear my witnesses i had
317. 9:55alibis i had police officers who said
318. 9:57look this guy was in new haven
319. 9:58connecticut not brooklyn when this
320. 9:59murder happened we know because we've
321. 10:01seen him there he was at a party with
322. 10:02him at a hotel receives i had many
323. 10:04witnesses that could verify where i was
324. 10:06that on the day that daniel cash was
325. 10:07murdered the courts were just throwing
326. 10:09the evidence in the garbage we in fact
327. 10:10proved who committed the crime
328. 10:12the real murderer was present when the
329. 10:14cops arrived he was on parole for
330. 10:16manslaughter they took his name down but
331. 10:18never even investigated who he was so we
332. 10:20had a lot of we had a witness who was
333. 10:22there who identified who was there
334. 10:24identified why the guy was shot there
335. 10:26was a 911 caller said three male blacks
336. 10:28fleeing in the red car he admitted they
337. 10:30were in the red car so they were just
338. 10:31overwhelming evidence of my innocence
339. 10:33but quartz was just throwing it in the
340. 10:34garbage because of the prosecutor lied
341. 10:36to them and said he's a bad guy so my
342. 10:39experience has taught me that you know
343. 10:40there's a lot of innocent people i was
344. 10:42in prison man look one thing about
345. 10:44prison and i tell people they say hey
346. 10:46everybody says the innocence that's not
347. 10:48true right they may tell a lawyer that
348. 10:50but they're not going to tell a guy in
349. 10:51the neighborhood with them that i know
350. 10:52you're guilty you know i was with you i
351. 10:54know what you did you told me everybody
352. 10:56tells me from the same neighborhoods so
353. 10:58it's a small minority of people that's
354. 11:00in the law library every single day
355. 11:02if you go to the yard guys is working
356. 11:04out in the way pal right they're playing
357. 11:06basketball but the innocent guy is in
358. 11:07that law library every single day trying
359. 11:10to find a way out and that was me
360. 11:12um every single day and i studied every
361. 11:14book in there i taught law classes um
362. 11:17and i became very good at it i mean i
363. 11:18was surprised that i mean i didn't go to
364. 11:20college right when the lawyer gave me
365. 11:22the first two cases and i read them i
366. 11:24was surprised how well i knew the cases
367. 11:25i was surprised how i comprehended him
368. 11:27and it was because of that um that i
369. 11:29kept going and i found the civilian who
370. 11:31liked me uh he was working a little
371. 11:32library and the first test i got was a
372. 11:3444 and he said look man i'm not going to
373. 11:35waste my time you got to explain what
374. 11:37that is what a 44.
375. 11:39uh a 44 was my grade on the test
376. 11:43um i particular test the first test he
377. 11:45gave me was on the constitution of the
378. 11:47united states i had to learn the fourth
379. 11:48fifth sixth eighth and fourteenth
380. 11:50amendment um and i i failed i was
381. 11:52playing and he said look you're not
382. 11:54gonna waste my time you're smarter than
383. 11:55that he challenged me next time i came
384. 11:58back i got a 97. so from that point on i
385. 12:00just started studying i started start
386. 12:02you know gravitating to the older guys
387. 12:04that knew more than me uh because i was
388. 12:06young they was willing to teach me and i
389. 12:07was like a young sponge and i just i
390. 12:09just loved what i did i became
391. 12:10passionate about it and that's why i'm
392. 12:12here now derek what kind of
393. 12:14repercussions are there for cops that do
394. 12:16things like this none i mean
395. 12:19in our case
396. 12:21uh the statute of limitations that ran
397. 12:22out on this cop and let me just tell you
398. 12:25about this cop he didn't just do it in
399. 12:27the police department he left the police
400. 12:29department went into the d.o.e
401. 12:31department of education and he did it
402. 12:32there he framed the gun and the doe
403. 12:35they later found out the guy did nothing
404. 12:37wrong he had to reinstate him this is
405. 12:39just his nature and his character um and
406. 12:41he just gets away with it he gets away
407. 12:43what's his name louis scarcella and he's
408. 12:45out there still he's out there he's
409. 12:47still getting the pension the city is
410. 12:49still paying this guy we still got cases
411. 12:51today that we are fighting in court for
412. 12:53him james jenkins nelson cruz are they
413. 12:55still actual cases that we litigating
414. 12:57how many people do you think that guy
415. 12:59wrongfully put in prison you know i'll
416. 13:01tell you something did i even tell you
417. 13:03josh about this one and it's gonna
418. 13:05this guy
419. 13:07worked on over 200 cases
420. 13:09my father was killed in 1988.
421. 13:11he was the detective on that case
422. 13:14um and i'll tell you something about
423. 13:15that um
424. 13:17he said that one of the guys
425. 13:19snatched a confession on his hand and
426. 13:21ate it
427. 13:22i didn't believe that
428. 13:23i said as much as i want people who may
429. 13:26be responsible for my father i can't
430. 13:28trust this guy
431. 13:30i can't take nothing he say to be truth
432. 13:33right just recently that case was
433. 13:35overturned samuel edmondson case because
434. 13:38of his
435. 13:39sloppy police work
436. 13:40so i he says 200 cases he worked on i
437. 13:43would like to believe at least half of
438. 13:45those guys
439. 13:47uh are innocent well a lot of them have
440. 13:49been exonerated how many scarcell
441. 13:51exonerations have there been 20 today
442. 13:55how does a guy not just get locked up
443. 13:58immediately for that
444. 14:00and when he testifies and when he
445. 14:01testifies he has two lawyers with him
446. 14:03now
447. 14:04right i've never seen a witness come to
448. 14:06court
449. 14:07and have two lawyers standing with him
450. 14:09we object to it all the time
451. 14:11but i mean this is how much a criminal
452. 14:12he is he had two lawyers standing with
453. 14:14them all the time
454. 14:15um trying to protect his rights and he
455. 14:16don't remember anything now like he
456. 14:18don't remember you know of course you
457. 14:19don't recall nothing uh you got to bring
458. 14:22the police reports to him and says
459. 14:23that's your singing did you do this
460. 14:24but he don't remember anything of course
461. 14:26selectively you don't even need
462. 14:32you