Ricky Jackson Exonerated After 39 Years in Jail — Transcript

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1. 0:04Alan fields extraordinary behind the
2. 0:10words can't express how I feel right now
3. 0:12described to be out later beautiful what
4. 0:14are you going to do where are you gonna
5. 0:16go wow I mean you know you sit in prison
6. 0:19for so long you think about this day and
7. 0:21when it actually comes you don't know
8. 0:23what people you just want to do
9. 0:24something besides what you've been to 39
10. 0:27years when you heard the judge say an
11. 0:30hour ago you're a free man goodbye talk
12. 0:33about what you were feeling what was
13. 0:35going on that we couldn't see I mean if
14. 0:37it was like an emotional rollercoaster
15. 0:39you know just I mean English language
16. 0:41doesn't pick what I'm feeling right he
17. 0:44knows just I mean I'm just on the
18. 0:47emotional high well the case happened in
19. 0:491975 I was 18 years old at the time and
20. 0:54there was a neighborhood store that was
21. 0:57robbed by three assailants and somehow
22. 1:01every burning became involved in the
23. 1:04case apparently he went to the police
24. 1:06and told them that he was a witness and
25. 1:09that he eventually identified myself
26. 1:13Ronnie bridgeman and Wiley Britain as
27. 1:15the assailants a couple of days later we
28. 1:19were arrested taking downtown in the
29. 1:21rain held before lineup and we weren't
30. 1:26picked out in the lineup but I'm being
31. 1:28out to us we didn't know this we thought
32. 1:30we were you know everything was okay
33. 1:32nobody came out and said that you guys
34. 1:34are being charged or anything so we
35. 1:38assume we was getting our obligatory
36. 1:40phone call after you arrested and we
37. 1:44thought we were going home but that
38. 1:46didn't turn out to be the case and a few
39. 1:49months later we all went on trial we
40. 1:51were charged with capital crimes and
41. 1:55subsequently we all lost our trials we
42. 2:00were sent to death row we will sense the
43. 2:01dining a high electric chair we'll all
44. 2:03since sent to death row where we stayed
45. 2:06and lingered and wander and worried for
46. 2:11two and a half years
47. 2:12I'm my attorney here mr. Brian how he
48. 2:17came to me one day and he said listen
49. 2:19Ricky uh this is the situation there's a
50. 2:23deal on the table you can walk out of
51. 2:26here now a free man if you plead guilty
52. 2:30to the charges you're presently
53. 2:32incarcerated for I mean and I have to
54. 2:35admit that it was a tempting offer at
55. 2:37that time I've been in prison so long i
56. 2:39didn't i didn't even know what the sky
57. 2:41looked like anymore but you know it was
58. 2:45just something inside of me that said
59. 2:47you can't do this you know you've gone
60. 2:50too long you struggle too hard you can't
61. 2:54do this you're innocent you know don't
62. 2:58admit to something you didn't do you're
63. 3:00innocent and that was the decision I
64. 3:02made it was the right decision was and
65. 3:04really it was the only decision that I
66. 3:06could have made