Kirk Bloodsworth on WHCU Radio — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00It is 8:19 on this Tuesday morning news.
2. 0:02Watch and it's my pleasure to welcome to
3. 0:04the program Kirk Noble Bloodsworth who
4. 0:06is speaking at Cornell University today
5. 0:07and Kirk uh was uh was put on death row
6. 0:11for what was it two years sir? Yes
7. 0:13indeed two years for a crime you never
8. 0:15committed uh back in 1984. First tell us
9. 0:17a little bit about that. Yes. In uh
10. 0:191984, a little girl by the name of Dawn
11. 0:22Hamilton was found brutally murdered in
12. 0:24a wooded area near our home in Fontana
13. 0:28Village
14. 0:29Apartments
15. 0:30in the suburbs of
16. 0:34um Essex,
17. 0:35Maryland in Baltimore. She was brutally,
18. 0:39savagely beaten.
19. 0:41Um her throat was stepped on. It was a
20. 0:44god awful crime. Uh Dave, it was
21. 0:47absolutely horrendous. Um there was a
22. 0:50search um that ensued um obviously after
23. 0:54she was found murdered. And the person
24. 0:56who was described by two little boys who
25. 0:59happened to see this individual is um uh
26. 1:02right before um a few hours before Dawn
27. 1:05was found. And his description is as
28. 1:08follows. Now for your listeners, it's uh
29. 1:11I I I'll explain in a minute. The
30. 1:14description was
31. 1:156'5, curly blonde hair, bushy mustache,
32. 1:19tan skin, and skinny. Well, I am not
33. 1:236'5. I'm I'm about 6' tall. I had my
34. 1:26hair at that time was red. And to say
35. 1:29I'm skinny would be a compliment.
36. 1:33Um, obviously I I'm not I wasn't as
37. 1:36robust as I am today, but back in 1984,
38. 1:39I weigh 230 lbs. I was pretty solid.
39. 1:42Former Marine uh right out of the Marine
40. 1:44Corps. I was in good shape, but um I
41. 1:47don't tan, I burn. Worked on in and
42. 1:51around the water all my life. And there
43. 1:53was obvious, you know, obvious things
44. 1:55going on with uh with the witness
45. 1:57identification, which is
46. 2:0078% of the reason why wrongful
47. 2:03convictions happen is because of
48. 2:05identification problems. Now, your case
49. 2:07was one of the first, in fact, the first
50. 2:09capital conviction to be overturned
51. 2:10based on DNA testing. Have we come a
52. 2:13long way with DNA testing? Is this
53. 2:14helping out a lot more? I I think it is
54. 2:17Dave, but you have to understand that
55. 2:19out of the 127 death row inmates that
56. 2:22have been exonerated in the United
57. 2:24States, only uh 15 or 16 of those um and
58. 2:29it I'm sorry if I'm not accurate on it
59. 2:31on the exact number because it changes
60. 2:33every day that
61. 2:36um that's you know that's DNA just shows
62. 2:39that we have a problem and I think that
63. 2:41um the the the real special nature of
64. 2:44DNA has shown own us this this thing and
65. 2:47systemically you know we have to change
66. 2:49some of these things that occur which
67. 2:52cause wrongful conviction like ID
68. 2:53problem well that obviously is an
69. 2:55important issue but we've also seen sort
70. 2:57of a uh step back if you will from the
71. 2:59death penalty because of these wrongful
72. 3:01convictions certainly Illinois one of
73. 3:03the states that led that and here in New
74. 3:04York even though technically we have the
75. 3:06death penalty on the books uh you know
76. 3:08our supreme court our our court of
77. 3:10appeals which is our supreme court
78. 3:11essentially in the state has essentially
79. 3:13said you know legislature has to go back
80. 3:14and work on this before anybody uh would
81. 3:16be executed. Is this a sign that the
82. 3:18states are paying more attention to this
83. 3:20at least at their level? Well, I I I
84. 3:23think so. I mean, you know, you have to
85. 3:25understand that uh when it comes to the
86. 3:28death penalty, this is this is something
87. 3:30that uh you know is the ultimate
88. 3:32punishment. And at the end of that uh uh
89. 3:36proverbial rainbow, you would have a
90. 3:38person's death. Now, if I'm not
91. 3:41mistaken, if you know, 127 people, I
92. 3:44think that gives a lot of pause to a lot
93. 3:45of people and and uh although, you know,
94. 3:48I work for the Justice Project in
95. 3:49Washington DC and um we're a nonprofit
96. 3:53organization. We take no stance on the
97. 3:54death penalty one way or the other as
98. 3:56far as you know, partisanship, but
99. 3:59obviously this is a very big problem and
100. 4:02everybody, every state in the country
101. 4:04and um should take note. All right. So,
102. 4:07how can we possibly improve uh the
103. 4:09eyewitness, you know, identification
104. 4:11process? How how can that be done? Well,
105. 4:13there's several ways. Um, one is blind
106. 4:17sequential, double blind sequential
107. 4:19testing, and that is showing one person
108. 4:22at a time versus like six or seven or
109. 4:24how many is in a regular lineup, right?
110. 4:27And with the caveat that the suspect may
111. 4:31or may not be in the the lineup itself.
112. 4:35I think given that question uh you know
113. 4:37people assume I think make a lot of
114. 4:39assumptions when it comes to criminal
115. 4:41justice that the person is probably in
116. 4:43the lineup or so forth and then they
117. 4:45must pick somebody given that um given
118. 4:48that caveat to it and that's saying to
119. 4:50uh you know it may or may not be in
120. 4:53there it gives it a a better chance for
121. 4:56to pick the right one. Also having uh
122. 5:00the different people do the lineup. you
123. 5:02wouldn't have the the same homicide
124. 5:04detectives or or uh robbery uh
125. 5:07detectives doing the line per se. It's
126. 5:09been it would be run and done by another
127. 5:12person. And photo lineups would be the
128. 5:15same way. You would show one picture at
129. 5:17a time. Um and and also say that the
130. 5:20suspect may or may not be in the
131. 5:22photograph or photo array. In your case
132. 5:24back in 1984 and with many cases now,
133. 5:26the issue is prosecution or bad
134. 5:28lawyering if you will on either either
135. 5:30table really. uh how do you how do you
136. 5:33improve something like that when you're
137. 5:34dealing with uh you know different human
138. 5:36beings obviously in each case? Well, you
139. 5:38know um we have to really start thinking
140. 5:42about our system of justice and it's
141. 5:44adversarial in nature and and also
142. 5:47thinking about that it cannot and it
143. 5:49should not ever be adversarial to the
144. 5:52truth. I mean you shouldn't try to
145. 5:54convey a message to a jury or somebody
146. 5:57else that's not factual. I mean, I
147. 6:01think, you know, a good prosecutor could
148. 6:04probably get 12 people to believe uh
149. 6:06some, you know, anything, but it's not
150. 6:08about that. It's about justice and about
151. 6:10putting the right person behind bars. I
152. 6:13think we need to really start training
153. 6:15them. And with the Innocent Protection
154. 6:17Act, which really afforded which is law
155. 6:20now, which has really afforded um
156. 6:22training for capital defense, we need
157. 6:24lawyers on both sides to have some
158. 6:26training in these um death penalty cases
159. 6:28and and to really do the right thing and
160. 6:31make sure that um every eye is dotted
161. 6:35and every tea is crossed when you make
162. 6:36this decision because, you know,
163. 6:38obviously the end of that is um
164. 6:40somebody's death. And you know, Kirk, I
165. 6:42got to ask you because I'm sure you get
166. 6:44this question all the time. What was it
167. 6:45like the moment you realized that you
168. 6:47were going to get off of death row and
169. 6:49uh really have another chance at life
170. 6:51here? Oh, I got to tell you, it's um I
171. 6:54don't know. It's I I told somebody one
172. 6:57time it was like um you know how you are
173. 6:59a kid at Christmas and um you want to go
174. 7:02out and um you know, open your presents
175. 7:04up, but it's just like the world was I
176. 7:06was born again and uh came back out into
177. 7:09a new world. Although it was short-lived
178. 7:11um you know with the back when I did
179. 7:13this thing people a lot of people
180. 7:15thought that DNA was shaman science it
181. 7:18wasn't until 10 years later after my
182. 7:20released that by my own efforts u
183. 7:23forcing the state to test the DNA in a
184. 7:26database that they caught the real
185. 7:27killer in Dawn Hamilton's murder and put
186. 7:31him away for life. Um that is my shining
187. 7:35moment. Very interesting. Okay. Well, I
188. 7:37appreciate you being on with us. Justice
189. 7:38Project, of course, uh working uh
190. 7:41constantly on this issue. And you'll be
191. 7:42speaking at Cornell Law School today.