Innocent Man Released After 16 Years in Prison | Jeffrey Deskovic — Transcript

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1. 0:01so
2. 0:02on september 22nd uh 2006 the conviction
3. 0:06was overturned and i was uh you know i
4. 0:08was released i went back to court
5. 0:10november 2nd 2006 at which point all the
6. 0:12charges were dismissed against me on
7. 0:14actual innocence grounds
8. 0:16and uh
9. 0:17stephen cunningham was um subsequently
10. 0:19arrested and arrested and uh convicted
11. 0:22of of the crime wasn't he already in
12. 0:24prison though he was already in prison
13. 0:25but they still charged him with the
14. 0:27murder that he did so he went back to
15. 0:28court yeah he went back to court yeah he
16. 0:30was still in prison but he went back to
17. 0:32court yes and he got yeah and he was
18. 0:33sentenced to um additional 20 years
19. 0:38what was that like for you when you
20. 0:40first when they when they read when they
21. 0:42found the dna and it matched him and you
22. 0:44started going okay this this is going to
23. 0:46be a process of being released back into
24. 0:48the free world
25. 0:50sure so i found out that i was going
26. 0:52home the day before i went home so my
27. 0:55wow yeah so my attorney came to see me
28. 0:57so they opened my cell i'll take a
29. 0:58second or two because again this is a
30. 1:00longer uh podcast so they general rule
31. 1:02of thumb the guards open your cell
32. 1:04you're supposed to go down and you know
33. 1:05see why they opened yourself see what's
34. 1:07what's going on right so
35. 1:09they opened my cell
36. 1:11and i stick my head out and look down
37. 1:13there and the guard just yells visit
38. 1:16and i'm like well that doesn't make
39. 1:18sense
40. 1:19who has come to see me so i
41. 1:21went down there and had him double check
42. 1:23and call the visiting room confirmed
43. 1:25yeah i have a visit so then i run back
44. 1:27to my cell and uh get a shirt they had
45. 1:29like a routine most prisoners do we have
46. 1:31like a like a visit shirt like a shirt
47. 1:33we keep really nice just for that
48. 1:35because that's the closest we're going
49. 1:36to come to making a public appearance
50. 1:38yeah i'm i make a good impression right
51. 1:40exactly so i'm hurrying up the visiting
52. 1:43room is quite a distance from my cell
53. 1:44because i don't i don't want to get
54. 1:46caught in the counter if i don't get
55. 1:47into the visiting room by like 5 to 11
56. 1:50i'm going to be stuck they're going to
57. 1:52do the count i'm not going to get in the
58. 1:53visiting room for another two hours
59. 1:56so i'm hurrying up so as i'm hurrying up
60. 1:58and buttoning my shirt as i'm her and
61. 2:00i'm thinking to myself well who the hell
62. 2:02came to see me
63. 2:03so when i get in there there's this
64. 2:04woman and she's waving to me like this
65. 2:07and i wait i don't recognize her and but
66. 2:09i just i wave back and i think well you
67. 2:11know maybe she's mistaking me for
68. 2:13somebody else or maybe she knows me from
69. 2:15the visiting room like you know in
70. 2:17elmira
71. 2:18so i asked the guard uh who who who came
72. 2:22to see me and the guard looks at me like
73. 2:24i'm nuts and uh you know and and she
74. 2:27says that person and she said well don't
75. 2:29you know who came to see you
76. 2:31and you know and i just i lied to her
77. 2:33and just said well yeah of course of
78. 2:35course sure i know i didn't want her to
79. 2:37cancel the visit you know
80. 2:39so i walked over to this woman
81. 2:41and she says to me you know she
82. 2:42identifies herself as nina morrison
83. 2:45who's um you know my attorney at the
84. 2:46innocence project
85. 2:49and she says
86. 2:50you know the the um the uh items have
87. 2:53been tested
88. 2:54and so like my antennas are already up
89. 2:56for anything out of the ordinary because
90. 2:58i've already had experiences with out of
91. 3:00the ordinary and it
92. 3:01with disastrous results like when when
93. 3:03the
94. 3:05when the wrong information was given to
95. 3:07my attorney and every you remember the
96. 3:08technicality we covered so i'm on the
97. 3:10lookout for anything amiss is what i'm
98. 3:12getting at and when she said the items
99. 3:15were tested you know that was something
100. 3:16that kind of set off those alarms and i
101. 3:19said to her what do you well what do you
102. 3:20what do you mean the items have been
103. 3:21tested they're not they're not supposed
104. 3:23to have been tested for another month
105. 3:25and she said well the district attorney
106. 3:27um
107. 3:27pulled some strings and got the lab to
108. 3:29expedite the testing a little bit faster
109. 3:31and uh you know the results match the
110. 3:34actual perpetrator you're going home
111. 3:36tomorrow
112. 3:39and i said no i'm not
113. 3:42and when she said you're going home
114. 3:44tomorrow and i said i know i'm not and
115. 3:47the third time she said you're you're no
116. 3:48you you really are you're going home
117. 3:51tomorrow
118. 3:52and i again said no i'm not
119. 3:54so i had this like three and a half
120. 3:56hours of like a mental paralysis so
121. 3:58uh my mind starts
122. 4:01racing all these thoughts start coming
123. 4:03into my head one one thought after
124. 4:06another and one thought has nothing to
125. 4:07do with the other and none of it has
126. 4:09anything to do with what she just told
127. 4:10me so she's sitting there like literally
128. 4:12holding my hand and i'm articulating all
129. 4:15these things that are going through my
130. 4:17mind you know and she's not responding
131. 4:19she's just listening to all this madness
132. 4:22and periodically she breaks in and says
133. 4:25are you ready to talk about tomorrow
134. 4:28and i'm like no no no let's just get
135. 4:31that away from me no
136. 4:33not talk i'm not we're not talking about
137. 4:35tomorrow not going home not entertaining
138. 4:39that don't play with me like that no
139. 4:42and it's so i go back to the rants again
140. 4:45and this and that and and every now and
141. 4:46then the same sequence happens and
142. 4:48finally towards the end she says look um
143. 4:51there's only like a half hour left in
144. 4:52the visit we've been here all day
145. 4:55and there's a ton of things to do with
146. 4:57the media i also have to
147. 4:59get your sizes for you your clothing
148. 5:01side sizes and everything you know so
149. 5:03you can get a suit for for your
150. 5:05appearance in court and that's what made
151. 5:07it real
152. 5:08and then i felt better
153. 5:10for about five minutes
154. 5:13and then a different thought came in my
155. 5:14head
156. 5:15uh
157. 5:16my the fear that popped into my head was
158. 5:19that
159. 5:20something was going to happen
160. 5:23between that day and the next then and
161. 5:26the district attorney was going to
162. 5:27change her mind
163. 5:29and then they were going to do what they
164. 5:30always did which was uh fight me and win
165. 5:35so that was how i learned that i was
166. 5:37gonna be released the next day wow
167. 5:41and when you finally got released
168. 5:43what was that like going back into the
169. 5:46real world after 16 years had the world
170. 5:48had i mean i'm sure like tech like
171. 5:50technology had advanced you know phones
172. 5:54had evolved you know
173. 5:56sure so i i got up to was the iphone out
174. 5:59yet it would no it was it was it was not
175. 6:02no okay so i get up to leave i'm gonna
176. 6:04explain all of that to you great great
177. 6:05question so i get up to leave the courts
178. 6:08finished i got up to leave and then kind
179. 6:10of like the enormity of the moment hit
180. 6:12me kind of like a
181. 6:14ton of bricks you know and i sat back
182. 6:16down and you know my attorneys are
183. 6:18talking to me but i'm kind of hearing
184. 6:20them and they're not hearing them and
185. 6:22eventually the bailiffs just kind of
186. 6:23like clear the whole
187. 6:25court out and so after about 20 minutes
188. 6:27i i just kind of felt ready so i got up
189. 6:29and i put as i put one step in front of
190. 6:32the other walking towards the end of the
191. 6:36court and no one's stopping me with each
192. 6:38step it kind of like gets more real and
193. 6:40then there was this uh bailiff who's um
194. 6:42standing up and she's trying to be
195. 6:44professional but you know i can see the
196. 6:47waters running and i looked up and made
197. 6:49eye contact with her and um you know and
198. 6:51she says good luck and i said thank you
199. 6:54so i go outside i remember the sky was
200. 6:56blue the sun was out i didn't see a
201. 6:58cloud anywhere you know um many members
202. 7:01of the innocence project and also
203. 7:03cardozo law school which they've been um
204. 7:05affiliated with
205. 7:07you know they're all like it's they're
206. 7:08all like clapping because you you
207. 7:10survived you overcame the system
208. 7:12you know and uh
209. 7:14go to this press conference and when
210. 7:16it's finally my turn to speak after um
211. 7:19you know nina and barry scheck spoke
212. 7:21uh my first words were
213. 7:23you know is this really happening
214. 7:26like i couldn't believe that i was still
215. 7:27actually there i thought i was just
216. 7:29still in the prison and and uh you know
217. 7:32it was all just a dream and i'm gonna
218. 7:33wake back up and see the cell bars and
219. 7:35the prison walls and everything
220. 7:38and i spoke there for
221. 7:40um three and a half maybe like two two
222. 7:42and a half hours i'm just doing an off
223. 7:44the cuff presentation like everything
224. 7:45i'd ever wanted to say in 16 years but
225. 7:47could never get anyone to hear me
226. 7:50about came out and just when i thought i
227. 7:53was wrapping up a different
228. 7:54a different thought
229. 7:56came came and came out so that was that
230. 7:58day you know and then from there the
231. 8:00other thing i'll mention about that day
232. 8:01and then i'll like go to the overall
233. 8:03um is we went to i went to uh my aunt's
234. 8:06house um because my mother had moved
235. 8:08away so i went to my aunt's house and
236. 8:10was sitting around this table i remember
237. 8:12sitting around the table and this other
238. 8:13family member that hadn't been able to
239. 8:15get to the court camp came over and
240. 8:18they're all sitting around and you know
241. 8:19they're having coffee and cookies
242. 8:21they're talking about what happened and
243. 8:23i just remember feeling out of place i
244. 8:26remember like not being able to relate
245. 8:28to them
246. 8:29and so i
247. 8:30just went outside to just sit down just
248. 8:33you know in elmira they would always
249. 8:35close the yard when it would get when it
250. 8:37was dark
251. 8:38and i wanted to be able to just sit
252. 8:39outside and stay outside
253. 8:42so i did that so that was that and
254. 8:44taking a bath for the first time in 16
255. 8:46years was kind of like the
256. 8:49highlights i mean i'd like to say we had
257. 8:50a raucous party that lasted to the crack
258. 8:53at dawn but in reality
259. 8:55you know i had lost track with everybody