KXAN- Anthony Graves Interview — Transcript

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1. 0:00I've only been out 2 months and
2. 0:03I find myself sometimes still using the
3. 0:05prison
4. 0:07lingo out here for things such as
5. 0:11when it's time to
6. 0:13eat, you know,
7. 0:15instead of us saying a
8. 0:17plate, I still call it a tray because
9. 0:20that's what you served out there. You
10. 0:22served on a tray. So I have to think and
11. 0:24my family they think it's so funny.
12. 0:26They'd be like, you need to get rid of
13. 0:28that, you know.
14. 0:30So
15. 0:32it's just I've only been out 2 months
16. 0:35and I was incarcerated 18 years.
17. 0:38You know, my most of my adulthood was
18. 0:41down there
19. 0:43and I just had been so used to certain
20. 0:46things
21. 0:47being done a certain way that
22. 0:49the adjustment is kind of
23. 0:52is slow. It is slow but it's coming
24. 0:55along.
25. 0:56What do you find to be the toughest
26. 0:58things that face you?
27. 1:01Well, just
28. 1:06the basic things such as getting ID and
29. 1:11trying to rent a a place to live is very
30. 1:14tough. It's
31. 1:15it's unbelievably tough, you know, so
32. 1:19that's been tough trying to just
33. 1:21just get the basic things in my life.
34. 1:25What about I know when we had had a
35. 1:27reporter here before that you had talked
36. 1:28about um
37. 1:32technology being a
38. 1:34Yeah, technology is crazy
39. 1:38with the cell phones. Also,
40. 1:40you have a computer on it. You have
41. 1:43I mean, you can go all over the world
42. 1:45just on your cell phone.
43. 1:47That is crazy because before I was
44. 1:50incarcerated,
45. 1:51you know, cell phones really weren't
46. 1:53popular.
47. 1:54They had just come out with the big ones
48. 1:57that you plug in your in your car and
49. 1:58it's it's like a
50. 2:00regular receiver and you know, with a
51. 2:02backpack, you know, and now it's a
52. 2:04little old small phone you can put in
53. 2:06your pocket and yet you can reach out
54. 2:07and touch people all over the world.
55. 2:09It's amazing. Are you struggling with
56. 2:11that? I mean, is it hard to learn it? I
57. 2:13mean, it's so far out.
58. 2:14It's not hard to learn.
59. 2:17I just have to have patience with it.
60. 2:19You know,
61. 2:22I feel like I'm
62. 2:24I can catch on.
63. 2:26But there's a lot of things that I'm
64. 2:28like
65. 2:32I don't know how to use them. I don't
66. 2:33know how to use it but I feel eventually
67. 2:35I'll catch on. But yeah, it's it's it's
68. 2:37fascinating. Really, it's just
69. 2:39fascinating. Cuz before you went away
70. 2:41there really wasn't an internet. No, it
71. 2:43wasn't. Not here in not in this part of
72. 2:46the country. So when you hear of things
73. 2:48like Facebook, email,
74. 2:50Yeah. How do you what's your what's your
75. 2:53reaction to that? I mean, how are you
76. 2:55handling that? Well, I mean, it's like
77. 2:58I see someone emailing each other or
78. 3:01text messaging each other, right? And
79. 3:03I'm thinking, why you just can't pick up
80. 3:04the phone and call?
81. 3:06You know, it used to be you pick up the
82. 3:07phone and you call each other. Now
83. 3:10they have a phone right at their
84. 3:11disposal but yet they're sitting here
85. 3:13texting each other. It's weird.
86. 3:15Is there anything else that's
87. 3:17when you I mean, right now you wake up
88. 3:19and you can do whatever you want. Yeah.
89. 3:25Yeah, that's great. I mean, being given
90. 3:28back my choices
91. 3:30is is really great.
92. 3:32Um
93. 3:34but my choices are still limited because
94. 3:38I'm still struggling to get the basic
95. 3:40things in my life.
96. 3:41Um
97. 3:43as I say, I I I can't right now I've
98. 3:45been trying to
99. 3:46rent some place to call home
100. 3:49and no one will rent to me.
101. 3:51So
102. 3:52it's just uh
103. 3:53it's still my choices are limited. Even
104. 3:56though you've been exonerated. I was
105. 3:58just turned down last week. Some real
106. 4:01estate company turned even though I had
107. 4:02a guarantor.
108. 4:05They
109. 4:06I thought me myself personally that when
110. 4:09they did the background check and seen
111. 4:10that I had been incarcerated for 18
112. 4:12years,
113. 4:13that did it. Even though I was
114. 4:15incarcerated for something I did not do.
115. 4:17So Is that off your record now though?
116. 4:20It should be off my record. Mhm.
117. 4:22Okay.
118. 4:24Uh
119. 4:25but I think I'm still being
120. 4:28discriminated against because of it.
121. 4:30Of what I've had to go through.
122. 4:32You know. Anthony, what about in terms
123. 4:34of money and paying for a place? I mean
124. 4:37Well, no, I don't have a job or
125. 4:39anything.
126. 4:41I'm in the process of getting all of
127. 4:42that.
128. 4:43But I have I have some great attorney
129. 4:46that was trying to help me.
130. 4:49You know, just trying to help me get
131. 4:51started.
132. 4:52And even they are kind of just
133. 4:55blown away at how hard it is.
134. 4:57Even though they're
135. 4:59they're an attorney with a with a
136. 5:02decent salary, still when it comes to
137. 5:05rent renting Anthony Gray is a place to
138. 5:07stay,
139. 5:09I don't know, there's a glitch.
140. 5:11There's a hangup. So what are you doing
141. 5:13now for housing? Are you just jumping
142. 5:14between There's my suitcase right there.
143. 5:17I'm just jumping back between my family.
144. 5:19I'm living out of a suitcase. You know.
145. 5:22The only difference between me and a
146. 5:24person on the street is
147. 5:26I can go to a family member right now
148. 5:28but I'm living out of my suitcase.
149. 5:31You don't have many possessions, do you?
150. 5:33Those are my possessions right there.
151. 5:36No, I don't have many.
152. 5:38What are you doing for clothing? Well, I
153. 5:40have
154. 5:42family and friends that they'll donate.
155. 5:45You know.
156. 5:47I really can't do anything.
157. 5:49But
158. 5:52one thing I can do is just hope that you
159. 5:53have good people out here, good
160. 5:55humanitarians that says, you know,
161. 5:57this guy deserve a break.
162. 6:01That's about it.
163. 6:02Are there anything I think would
164. 6:04fascinate me is just being in a home
165. 6:06that's very odd to you? Is that odd?
166. 6:08Yeah. Yeah, I was in a little old cell
167. 6:11that you could barely turn around in and
168. 6:13now I'm I'm living in
169. 6:15in a home that I can open up doors. I
170. 6:18can open up a refrigerator. I can get
171. 6:20ice off the refrigerator. I mean, I can
172. 6:24cook something to eat when I when I'm
173. 6:25hungry. All that is just so, you know,
174. 6:28I'm still getting used to it. You know,
175. 6:30because because for 18 years I had to
176. 6:34bring in me a tray through a slot like a
177. 6:37dog.
178. 6:38You come up there and you get this get
179. 6:40it out of a a slot like you would give a
180. 6:43dog caged up and then you, you know, and
181. 6:46now I'm able to just reach up and grab a
182. 6:48plate and fix my own food. Yeah, it's
183. 6:53I mean, I'm enjoying it. I love it but
184. 6:55it's just it's
185. 6:57I it's going to take some getting used
186. 6:58to.
187. 6:59I'm still getting used to it. You know.
188. 7:02How was it being at home for the
189. 7:04holidays?
190. 7:07It was good because
191. 7:09I was around my family and we're still
192. 7:12reconnecting and trying to build this
193. 7:15build up our relationships. So it was
194. 7:17good. But when people talk about
195. 7:19holidays, I'm like
196. 7:21I don't know what to expect. I haven't
197. 7:22celebrated a holiday in 18 years. So I
198. 7:25really didn't know
199. 7:27I didn't know what to expect or how to
200. 7:29really feel because I I just got out of
201. 7:32prison and I was on death row.
202. 7:35So I'm still humbled by everything.
203. 7:38And I didn't the celebration part, I
204. 7:41just couldn't feel it in my spirit
205. 7:43because I know that there
206. 7:45probably many other men and women
207. 7:48that are incarcerated perhaps are on
208. 7:50death row that are innocent that
209. 7:52probably going to get executed or never
210. 7:54get out.
211. 7:55So it wasn't nothing for me to really
212. 7:57celebrate this early, you know.