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Marty Tankleff, Exoneree, Criminal Justice Advocate on Long Island Backstory — Transcript

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0:00so what we're going to do is we're here
0:02to expose it let people tell their story
0:04and let them let everybody in the public
0:06see the horrors of the court system and
0:08suff County New
0:09[Music]
0:18York um our next guest is Marty T trying
0:21to get Marty to speak for a while
0:23because we know that he's an advocate
0:25and like Jeff he's trying to change the
0:26world and make the world a better place
0:28but he's been busy uh with law school
0:30and he just took the bar so this is prob
0:32probably a week ago that he took it so
0:34we're really appreciative that he's
0:35taking his time to come out and spend
0:37the evening with us um Marty was
0:39convicted of killing his parents in June
0:42uh of 1990 and was sentenced to two
0:45consecutive terms of 25 years to life in
0:47prison a 2003 appeal presented new
0:51evidence from 20 Witnesses and an appell
0:53Court ultimately overturned his
0:54conviction after Marty served 17 years
0:57in prison the incident and subsequent
0:59trials with the subject of a criminal
1:00Injustice a true crime and false
1:02confession and the fight to free Marty
1:04tankes uh which is a published uh book
1:06in 2008 on January of 2014 uh Marty got
1:11a financial award uh after settling for
1:13his wrongful cision lawsuit Marty
1:15graduated from law school at Torah law
1:17Center in 2014 and just recently took
1:21the uh New York State bar exam and we
1:23all wish him good luck in that but we
1:25know he's going to do it and he's going
1:26to be a great attorney so I don't want
1:28to take up much of mar because like our
1:31other two guests condensing this into a
1:33half hour is very is very difficult to
1:35do so welcome uh welcome to the show
1:37Martin to the show I'm not doing my show
1:44this sure I'm not a fan of mics because
1:47I like to walk around uh but let me just
1:50touch on one thing Gary said uh most
1:53locations where I've ever spoken I get
1:56very little feedback questioning my
1:58innocence or guilt I can tell you though
2:01that there was one occasion where my
2:02lovely wife Lori was there I think you
2:04were there that one Nas I spoke at Nasa
2:06Community College and at the very end I
2:09usually do a Q&A and I actually really
2:11encourage Q&A CU I find it brings out
2:12the best in people and sometimes the
2:14worst in people because it shows how
2:17uneducated individuals can be so there's
2:19an individual who came up and he said
2:22you know Mr tank I think you're
2:24guilty so I'm used to that so I said sir
2:28why well Tom spoke said
2:31so so as you can imagine you know if
2:34anybody's been to National Community
2:36College it's a room full of hundreds of
2:38people uh and you know most of them were
2:41there to hear me speak or my supporters
2:43and there was a little bit of an uproar
2:44and I said Relax you know it's it's okay
2:48so I just said to I said so why well Tom
2:51spot have said so I said are you telling
2:53me you're basing your entire opinion
2:56about my guilt or innocence because the
2:59suff count district attorney said so he
3:01goes said yes I said well do me a favor
3:05I said let's re-evaluate this I said
3:06there's this book a criminal Injustice
3:08and I actually had a copy with me I said
3:11do me a favor I said take the book home
3:13with you read
3:16it if you have the exact same position
3:19that you do contact me I'll give you my
3:22phone number my cell phone my email
3:25let's talk about it obviously I've never
3:27heard from him okay and that's because
3:30very
3:33simply anyone who looks into the facts
3:36of my case not a media hype which
3:40existed back in 1988 and 1989 and 1990
3:44the
3:45facts okay
3:47and I don't like to talk about the case
3:50that much because it's kind of been
3:52expounded on in the media time and time
3:54again but I'm going give you kind of an
3:56abbreviated version my father was
3:59partner with Jerry Sturman who owned a
4:02bagel store my father loaned him a large
4:05amount of money Jerry stewman's son Todd
4:08stman was a drug dealer on Long Island
4:12we believe in the summer of 1988 my
4:14father came to realize what the business
4:17was about demanded to get out that
4:21summer Jerry stewman threatened to cut
4:23my father's tongue out uh and there were
4:25some other threats that existed on
4:28September 7th my father held a high
4:31stakes poker game at the house which was
4:32common my father was in a regular poker
4:35group and one of the men was happened to
4:38be Jerry Sturman because my father was
4:40this guy who grew up in Brooklyn nothing
4:43was going to stop him nothing was going
4:44to intimidate him and as the evidence
4:47came out we learned that Jerry stewman
4:50wasn't the last one to
4:53leave which he should have but at that
4:56point my father had already started to
4:58call in money
5:01I wake up the next morning discover my
5:03father had been attacked I call
5:07911 follow the 911 operator and then
5:10what I would call kind of the roller
5:12coaster ride of turmoil
5:14erupted uh I was brought into custody I
5:18was
5:19interrogated and what's very interesting
5:20about suffk County which most people
5:23don't know is that they have had on the
5:26books a policy procedure for interviews
5:30interrogations especially in homicide
5:32investigations from way back
5:35when they chose not to do it so when my
5:39case came to
5:41trial it wasn't let's play the videotape
5:44or let's play the audio tape it was a he
5:46said she said game it was a conscious
5:49decision they made not to record the
5:53interrogation and I can remember I was
5:55at an event where someone raised the
5:59issue of well it costs too much to
6:01record
6:03interrogations uh this was a few years
6:05ago and I kind of looked at the
6:07individual who was in law enforcement I
6:08said really I said how many hours can I
6:11record on
6:13this I said so you trying to tell me the
6:17low cost of recording an interview
6:19interrogation is more valuable than 17
6:23and 12 years of my
6:25life I mean I'm sure Jeff and I can both
6:28attest that if our interrogations were
6:31recording audio tape videotape which is
6:34the best every individual could have
6:37observed what took place in that
6:40room uh you can go online because some
6:43people say well come on what what really
6:45goes on interrogation rooms go online
6:48and watch the Michael Crow interrogation
6:51to get an idea of what law enforcement
6:54does in interrogations of youthful
6:57suspects lying to the them deceiving to
7:00them physical abuse verbal abuse um just
7:04tell us what we want to hear and you can
7:05go home and the sad thing about this is
7:10most people think I would never confess
7:12to a crime I didn't do so when I hear
7:16that I've learned that you kind of have
7:18to break it down in the most simple form
7:20how many people in this room have
7:23siblings how many people remember when
7:25you were kids and you and your siblings
7:28were home alone and your parents went
7:30out and let's say a lamp broke and your
7:34parents came home and said until we find
7:36out who broke the lamp we're not going
7:38out for ice
7:39cream it's as simple as that and how
7:41many of you who didn't break the lamp
7:43Okay I broke the lamp let's go you just
7:47confessed you know and when people
7:50understand it really is that simple okay
7:53to understand that's a confession you've
7:55just Li you know you just committed
7:57something now magnify what I I would say
8:00a million times a trillion times beyond
8:03that where you're helding into an
8:05interrogation room it's not an interview
8:07room no matter what Law Enforcement
8:08wants to say okay they don't have
8:11interview rooms that have no windows no
8:14working telephones closed do soundproof
8:17they don't have that those are
8:19interrogation rooms so I was eventually
8:22charged with the murder of my parents
8:25and we ended up having 12 weeks of
8:27trial um
8:30but just so you understand how what I
8:33would say is inept and how deceitful and
8:37this honest law enforcement can
8:40be if I told you that there was an
8:43individual who owed my father a half a
8:46million
8:47dollars he cleaned out a joint bank
8:50account within 24 hours he changed his
8:55appearance he told his family to be
8:57swimming with the fish he faked his own
9:01death he had five
9:05aliases he fled the jurisdiction going
9:08from New York to New Jersey up to
9:12California he had a hair weave and he
9:14belonged to a club and when he was in
9:17California he went to not his Club some
9:20other place paid in cash got his hair
9:22done and was found hiding on a
9:25psychiatric
9:27Retreat now I've asked said I've given
9:30that same set of facts from elementary
9:32school children all the way up to adults
9:36and I said would you consider him a
9:39suspect and you know I get the same
9:41response well why wouldn't you I go well
9:44imagine that happened in real life they
9:46said he hasn't been consider I said well
9:48it happened to my case and he wasn't
9:51considered a
9:52suspect wasn't he a friend one police
9:54officers wasn't he a friend yes yes uh
9:59it ended up coming out um that Jerry
10:03Sturman and K James mccre who was the
10:07lead detective in my case were
10:09friends this is not me making this up we
10:12had Witnesses conf fored testify in
10:16postconviction
10:17hearings now what also we came at
10:20afterwards is that law enforcement
10:24knew about Todd stromman and his drug
10:27dealing they never disclosed a lot of it
10:30subsequent to my conviction we got
10:32access to certain records which included
10:34confidential police reports where
10:37tipsters had called called in and said
10:40oh Todd and Jerry are running a drug
10:42dealing business maybe you should look
10:43into it that was never to slow but in
10:471990 after a 12we trial I was found
10:50guilty uh and within days of me being
10:54found guilty all of a sudden some new
10:55information started to develop and we
10:58follow post
11:00proceedings um but I wasn't sentenced so
11:02in New York state they're called CPL
11:0433030 hearings and those hearings lasted
11:08months eventually judge Alfred Tish
11:11denied all the motions and I was sent to
11:1450 years to
11:15life so imagine being 19 years old white
11:20Jewish Long
11:22Island
11:24uh privileged spoiled great
11:28looking
11:30my wife thinks so that's what counts um
11:34going to prison for 50 years to life and
11:38the strangest things would happen is
11:40that you'd get those strange looks going
11:43through the system and I later learned
11:47by speaking to some of the correction
11:49ERS who as strange as it would be I'm
11:52still in contact with some of those
11:54correction officers that they were
11:56troubled seeing me and it wasn't because
12:00they thought I was guilty it's because
12:02they knew I was
12:03innocent and there's nothing they could
12:05do about
12:07it and it really was one of the
12:09strangest things that I've had to deal
12:11with is having contact with these
12:13correction officers after the fact and
12:15knowing that they said to me they were
12:17honestly you we kind of look out for you
12:20but there was nothing we could really do
12:22our job was safety security you know we
12:25couldn't give you preferential
12:26treatment so here I was 19 years old 50
12:30years to life going up State saying
12:33what do I
12:34do and you know anybody who's young Not
12:38educated in the
12:40law would figure out and kind of go
12:42really what the hell do I do you know
12:45you know you have this belief that the
12:47system doesn't incarcerate innocent
12:49people now especially Back in ' 88 '89
12:5390 when we really didn't have the DNA
12:56Revolution uh and back then
12:59uh most reporters didn't really
13:02understand the system they had a utmost
13:05Reliance and faith in law enforcement in
13:08the prosecutor's office and it really
13:11wasn't until we started seeing this DNA
13:14Revolution that even a lot of people in
13:17the Press started saying okay guess what
13:18we we may have made a mistake all these
13:20years and I remember uh in
13:242004 uh after my postc conviction
13:27proceeding started I remember asking all
13:28the reporters I go where were you and I
13:32can't tell you how many of them said we
13:35failed and I AC them said well how many
13:38of you are going to willing to admit
13:40that um and they really and I know I'm
13:43jumping around a little bit because I
13:44think it's important to understand the
13:47press back then is not the Press of
13:51today and throughout the 90s the Press
13:54changed and I'm just going to mention
13:57one reporter Carolyn gusoff um many of
13:59you know her she was the news2 reporter
14:03who covered my case um she's
14:05transitioned over the years and she
14:07actually wrote a piece where she
14:10admitted her faults uh and she was one
14:13of the only Records who covered the case
14:15from the very beginning who publicly
14:17came out and
14:19apologized uh admitted her mistakes and
14:21she and I are friends now and people
14:23would say how could you do that um she
14:27was part of a big picture of the system
14:30but she was like everyone else you know
14:33you don't convict innocent people
14:36individually uh the system is a big
14:39machine everyone is a little cognant so
14:42you have to start from the officers that
14:44arrest you the detectives that
14:46interrogate you the technicians that
14:49somehow fail to turn the power on the
14:51recording
14:52devices um to the prosecutors who
14:56prosecute the case who many times may
14:59not challenge what's given to them to
15:03the judges who are hearing the cases to
15:05the jurors who are hearing the cases and
15:08may not understand every aspect of the
15:12case
15:14so here I am in prison 50 Years to Life
15:18first appeal
15:201993 and if anybody's ever argued a case
15:24the Appel division it's normally for
15:25judge panel and my uncle mik Cali
15:29said what happens if it goes
15:3222 and I had Mark comrad who is one of
15:35the most respected well-known
15:39impeccable former US attorney lawyer
15:41said ah come on it never happens in New
15:43York never
15:45happens well it happened to Marty Tank's
15:48case and what ended up happening was is
15:51a fifth judge was brought on unbeknown
15:53to anybody and the Court ruled 3-2
15:55against me so I had two judges who were
15:58voting dismiss the advance against me in
16:011993 through voting to affirm um as you
16:05can imagine some of the affirming judges
16:07had some connections or allegiances to
16:09suffa
16:10County um I was granted leave to appeal
16:13to the New York state court of appeals
16:16they affirmed I appealed to The District
16:19Court The District Court denied relief I
16:22appeal to the second Circuit Court of
16:23Appeals and the second Circuit Court of
16:26Appeals issued a very interesting ruling
16:29one aspect was they said Mr plank your
16:31state constitutional rights were
16:33absolutely violated you should have been
16:36arrested you should have been confound
16:37guilty but we're a federal court we can
16:40only Grant Federal relief what they did
16:43do though is they remanded my case on a
16:45Batson hearing which was a jury
16:47selection process so the second circuit
16:50remands it back to the district court
16:53The District Court remands it back to
16:54the state court and the state court
16:57judges so whole responsibility was to
17:00assess The credibility of the prosecutor
17:03of why he excluded certain jurs and at
17:07this hearing unbe known to us uh the
17:11judge's daughter worked in the DA's
17:15office and her boss was the
17:18prosecutor and after the judge W against
17:21us and we discl we uncovered all this we
17:23filed a motion to kind of reopen the
17:25hearing say okay there's a little of a
17:27conflict here was the judge had to
17:30assess The credibility of essentially
17:32his daughter's boss um so as you can
17:35imagine you know this was one appeal
17:38another appeal another appeal we even
17:40took the second circuit's decision when
17:43back to the Appel Division and the New
17:45York state court of appeals and said
17:46listen you have the second circuit
17:48saying the state constitutional rights
17:50were violated you know you guys have to
17:53do something they did
17:55nothing so finally my lawyers who who
17:59were working C obono who were primarily
18:01from out of state said what has never
18:04been done in my
18:06case and the key thing was an
18:11investigation s County focused on Marty
18:14tankleff and that's it even though there
18:17was Jerry Sturman and everyone else so I
18:21went on a letter writing campaign and
18:24ended up finding a private investigator
18:26who said if you're innocent hire me he
18:30goes I will work to get the truth out
18:33there so I said where do I sign so JL
18:37Peter started working on the case and he
18:40did what generally any good investigator
18:42does they follow the money and they file
18:45criminal Associates so he went back to
18:48who else Jared Sturman Jerry stewman's
18:52son Todd was a drug dealer who committed
18:55violent acts Todd stewman had criminal
18:58Associates
18:59so Jerry so Jay went out and tracked one
19:03of those Associates down Glen Harris who
19:06said when Jay finally spoke him said
19:08I've been waiting 11 years 12 years
19:10whatever it was for this and J said what
19:12do you mean I was the getaway driver
19:14that
19:15night so that first meeting kind of
19:18opened up Pandora's Box where Witnesses
19:21came forward identifi Joseph ceden Peter
19:24Kent Glenn Harris and a number of other
19:27individuals who who were involved in my
19:30parents
19:31Mur the problem was in New York state
19:35generally speaking especially back then
19:37you had to file 440 hearing to bring
19:40these facts out what we did though is
19:43that back then we thought the proper way
19:45to do it was give the DA's office 45
19:48days to investigate some of the stuff so
19:5145 days before I was filing the hearing
19:53we gave them all the information they
19:54did nothing with it till the 45th
19:57day shocking
19:59uh we ended up having 18 months of
20:02sporadic
20:04hearings and the last witness was Joseph
20:07cen's
20:09son who said My Father Joseph ceden
20:13admitted his involvement in the murders
20:15so
20:16we Common Sense people would think that
20:20after 20 Witnesses had come forward and
20:23basically said it was CED and Kent haris
20:25all these individuals that I would have
20:28given some really
20:29uh unfortunately I was denied relief in
20:31sou County we had to appeal to the Appel
20:34division the Appel division granted me
20:38relief I was freed on December 21st
20:432007 within days the state of New York
20:46announced that they were investigating
20:48suffa County uh within days of that
20:51suffa County uh de Tom spot announced
20:54that he was going to dismiss the
20:56indictments on a particular dates uh
20:58unfortunately for some reason there was
21:00no prosecutors available in the entire
21:02office to go to court to actually have
21:05the indictment dismissed so by the time
21:08the next court appearance came about um
21:11somehow the former illustrious Governor
21:13Elliot Spitzer had appointed a special
21:16prosecutor um and what's very
21:18interesting about this is that the
21:20special prosecutor's office ended up
21:22dismissing everything and then Elliot
21:24Spitzer in a news week I think it was
21:26news week said one of the top things 10
21:28things of the year was Mar T up getting
21:30out so it really was kind of an odd
21:33thing so in the summer of 2008 all
21:37counts were
21:38dismissed uh we still have ongoing
21:42investigations I have a federal civil
21:44rights law going and I really hope that
21:49the depositions that were taken because
21:51we an opportunity to question
21:53individuals like mccy and Ron come out
21:57uh I actually got to see the men that
21:59tried to kill me because I I tell people
22:02I said you know the the detectives
22:05really were the
22:07executioners
22:09because they did everything they could
22:12to incarcerate me and I I've come over
22:15the last year to to stop calling what
22:17happened to me and many wrongful
22:20convictions because there really was
22:22nothing wrongful about this you know
22:25this was intentional this was
22:27preventable um so why would you call it
22:29a wrongful conviction were we wrong yes
22:32but this really was an intentional
22:35conviction um and to be able to sit in
22:38the room and look at those detectives
22:41while they were on the hot seat while
22:44they were being interrogated by my
22:47lawyers why the truth is being
22:51exposed was really one of those moments
22:54my wife can tell you was she said you
22:57know you came home with this kind of
22:58swagger and this little smile and I said
23:01well I got to kind of say good morning
23:02to dick mccre because he had to come to
23:05the office where I was working so now he
23:07was on my
23:09turf so it really was one of those
23:12moments um so let me just fast forward a
23:15little bit since I've been out I got my
23:17bachelor's degree a law degree I married
23:20my lovely wife here um I adopted my
23:24daughter um but one of the questions I
23:27was asked was about a post exoneration
23:31adjustment every single day is a
23:37challenge even to this day there are
23:39little things that are
23:41challenging so for people think that you
23:44can kind of really assimilate and
23:46reintegrate easily that woman over there
23:49will tell you I was like a 40-year-old
23:53kid at times you know some of the early
23:56experiences were going to a supermarket
23:58market so imagine for 17 years you have
24:02access to three types of
24:05cereal that's it all of a sudden you go
24:08to a supermarket oh my God there's an
24:10entire
24:12aisle okay or imagine the only color
24:16pair of pants you have are green pants
24:19when you go into a clothing store you
24:22want to see overwhelming overload that's
24:25overload there were times my wife would
24:27Dro me off at the supermarket said I'll
24:28see you in 3
24:31hours in January of 2008 though I did
24:35probably one of the
24:37craziest and smartest things my family
24:39pushed me to go back to college so here
24:42I was maybe 3 weeks out and I was going
24:46back to college now I already had an
24:47associates degree but I wanted to get my
24:50bachelor's degree and I remember the
24:52first class I
24:54took okay Pretend This is the classroom
24:57and that's the door
24:59I took this seat over
25:00here and that's because I was the
25:03goldfish in the sea of
25:05sharks and I wanted that the closest
25:09seat to the door so I could run because
25:12I said to myself how the F am I going to
25:14survive this I'm twice their
25:18age I've never used computers before
25:22never sat my ass in a college
25:25classroom but I can tell you kept that
25:28seat the whole semester but I started
25:30taking my jacket off after a few weeks I
25:32said I'm going to
25:34survive and I eventually ended up living
25:37on
25:38campus uh and my wife laughs about it
25:40now uh but it really was kind of
25:44a necessary thing to kind of relive my
25:47youth a little bit um and a year after I
25:51was released I did something even
25:54crazier I did a semester abroad in
25:57Venice and and for me it really was kind
26:00of a defining moment when I was over
26:02there because I can remember walking
26:04around and I remember walking on
26:06somebody's
26:07property and not really it was personal
26:10property and here I am halfway across
26:12the world I end up sitting on some bench
26:15looking at the war and I
26:19go I'm
26:22freid and I'm in
26:24Venice and it really was almost like is
26:27this
26:29possible and since then I don't think
26:32I've really turned back much um because
26:35I said you know what if I can survive
26:37that I can survive
26:40anything but survival really is more
26:44than just
26:45existing uh to me you know a lot of what
26:49Jeff and I do is very similar we've done
26:51advocating um the most important one of
26:54the most important things I've done
26:55though is I regularly get call up on by
26:58the Innocence Project who testify before
27:00the Senate the assembly City Hall about
27:05one thing that's very impassionate for
27:06me is the electronic recording of
27:08individual
27:09interrogations and I've said this since
27:132008 why can't you put it in
27:17place okay year after year other states
27:21keep passing legislation where they're
27:23getting recordings how is it New York
27:26State home of the Innocence Project home
27:30of probably do you know were we number
27:32three in exonerations number three in
27:34exonerations in the country we can't
27:37pass legislation that places like New
27:40Orleans
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This page contains the full transcript of Marty Tankleff, Exoneree, Criminal Justice Advocate on Long Island Backstory by LONG ISLAND BACKSTORY®, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,324 words across 652 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

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