Ray Krone, Wrongly Convicted/Sent to Death Row — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Ashley our next speaker is one of the
2. 0:03most fascinating uh speakers I've ever
3. 0:06heard uh I had the uh honor of uh
4. 0:09interviewing Ry uh for my radio show a
5. 0:12couple of weeks ago uh Ry was exonerated
6. 0:16from Death Row in Arizona he was freed
7. 0:18in 2002 with the help of DNA evidence he
8. 0:21was the 100th at the time he was the
9. 0:23100th person exonerated from Death Row
10. 0:26in the United States since
11. 0:281973 any anyone who hears his story I
12. 0:31think has to pause and and really
13. 0:34consider whether the death penalty is
14. 0:36appropriate in light of the fact that a
15. 0:39situation like rise can occur and uh I'm
16. 0:42I'm very honored he's here today and I'm
17. 0:44very glad you're here today R because
18. 0:46you know it didn't have to be this way
19. 0:48and uh you know uh with that I give you
20. 0:50Ray
21. 0:52cron thank you I I really do consider it
22. 0:55a great honor and privilege to be here
23. 0:57again considering where I was not so
24. 0:59long ago that's a great honor to be here
25. 1:01and support of this bill I'm a
26. 1:03Pennsylvania native Pennsylvania
27. 1:06resident I grew up just south here in
28. 1:08York County little town called Dober I
29. 1:10was in the Boy Scouts the church choir
30. 1:12played Little League baseball Little
31. 1:14League PE League football graduated the
32. 1:16top 15% of my high school I went in the
33. 1:19Air Force served six years in the US Air
34. 1:21Force had a top secret clearance for the
35. 1:23job I did when my six years were up I
36. 1:25was stationed in Arizona Phoenix Arizona
37. 1:27I like that I stayed there sunny and
38. 1:29warm beautiful days lots of nice people
39. 1:32lots of work things to
40. 1:34do and about after about 11 years of
41. 1:37living
42. 1:38there owner of a local neighborhood bar
43. 1:40found his night manager murdered in the
44. 1:42men's bathroom and the police were led
45. 1:44to believe that I was a boyfriend so
46. 1:46they questioned me they noticed I had
47. 1:47crooked teeth and just two days after
48. 1:49the murder I'm
49. 1:50arrested I never been in trouble before
50. 1:53never had any runs with all I actually
51. 1:54believed in the death py but I had
52. 1:56nothing to worry about cuz I didn't do
53. 1:57anything I was home in bed I have a
54. 1:58roommate that knew I was home in bed de
55. 2:01nevertheless just six s months after my
56. 2:03arrest I couldn't afford to hire an
57. 2:04attorney the hundreds of thousands of
58. 2:05dollars it takes to hire an attorney for
59. 2:07capital murder case the courts granted
60. 2:09me an
61. 2:10attorney $5,000 he was paid to represent
62. 2:13me in that case and that trial lasted
63. 2:15three and a half days and the prosecutor
64. 2:17used a bite mark expert a man that was
65. 2:20paid over $50,000 to testify against me
66. 2:23and I was convicted based on that bite
67. 2:25mark and when it came time for sensing I
68. 2:27was supposed to show remorse I was
69. 2:29supposed to show regret
70. 2:31apologize how do you show remorse for
71. 2:33something you didn't
72. 2:34do I told him you had the wrong person I
73. 2:37didn't kill her so I was labeled as a
74. 2:39coldhearted nor remorseful murderer a
75. 2:41monster by the prosecutor and I was SED
76. 2:45dead spent three years on death throw to
77. 2:47the Arizona Supreme Court return my
78. 2:49conviction because prosecutor misconduct
79. 2:51and by now my family and me both knew
80. 2:53that this was serious that this was not
81. 2:54going to go away that they didn't care
82. 2:55if you were guilty or innocent they just
83. 2:57wanted somebody to pay and so my family
84. 3:00more Easter at home cashed into
85. 3:01retirement funds and we hired an
86. 3:02attorney out of Southern California to
87. 3:04represent me that trial lasted 6 and 1/2
88. 3:06weeks and we found the DNA evidence DNA
89. 3:09on the right Mark that I'm supposed I
90. 3:11made did not match
91. 3:12me nevertheless the prosecutor was very
92. 3:15persuasive told the jury to ignore that
93. 3:16DNA that she was a waitress that was
94. 3:18just transferred here by accident from
95. 3:20somebody else's glass or bottle and I
96. 3:22was found guilty again and this time the
97. 3:24judge after hearing 6 and A2 weeks of
98. 3:26testimony ruled there was lingering
99. 3:28residual doubt of my guilt he said said
100. 3:29he wasn't sure that I'd done it so I
101. 3:31sentenced to 25 to Life
102. 3:34instead my family continued to support
103. 3:36me and believe me and after 10 years
104. 3:39three months and 8 days we finally had
105. 3:40DNA testing was done and I was released
106. 3:43a free man at the age of 45 start my
107. 3:45life all over again to reunite with my
108. 3:47family and friends and to thank those
109. 3:49people that supported me here in
110. 3:50Pennsylvania and around the country
111. 3:52those people that believe that there
112. 3:53were we're a higher civilization that we
113. 3:55have to kill our citizens people that
114. 3:57recognize we make mistakes we're human
115. 4:00the measure of our worth is is not only
116. 4:02recogniz that we make mistakes but what
117. 4:03we do when we make those mistakes what
118. 4:05actions we take to correct them if they
119. 4:08can do it to me they can do it to any of
120. 4:09us folks to any of our families our moms
121. 4:11our dads our brothers our sisters our
122. 4:13uncles I don't think any of us would
123. 4:15stand for that while we all believe in
124. 4:17in something we stand strong in
125. 4:18something we also have to unite in
126. 4:19things we we are against things we want
127. 4:22change you don't take your car or garage
128. 4:24to say what's right with my car you take
129. 4:26your car to garage to fix what's wrong
130. 4:28I'm here to hopefully be a part of
131. 4:29helping fix what's wrong with the death
132. 4:30penalty in our state and in our country
133. 4:33we're going to recognize that it is
134. 4:35fruitless
135. 4:36mean-spirited Prejudice biased and D
136. 4:40darn right impractical because the way
137. 4:42we handle it now it's a luck of the draw
138. 4:44it's a roll of the dice and nobody's
139. 4:46life should be hanging into balance on
140. 4:47those type of terms thank you