Ricky Jackson Exonerated After 39 Years in Jail — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:05the feels extraordinary I'm needless to
3. 0:09say you know words can't express how I
4. 0:11feel right now just glad to be out glad
5. 0:13to be a free man what are you going to
6. 0:15do what are you going to go wow I mean
7. 0:18you know you sit in prison for so long
8. 0:19you think about this day but when it
9. 0:21actually comes you don't know what
10. 0:23people you just want to do something you
11. 0:24know besides what you've been doing for
12. 0:2639 years okay when you heard the judge
13. 0:29say an hour ago you're a free man
14. 0:32goodbye talk about what you were feeling
15. 0:34what was going on that we couldn't see I
16. 0:37mean it it was like an emotional roller
17. 0:39coaster you know it's just I mean the
18. 0:40English language doesn't fit what I'm
19. 0:43feeling right now you know it's just I
20. 0:46mean I'm just on the emotional high
21. 0:47right now well the case happened in
22. 0:501975 I was uh 18 years old at the time
23. 0:54and uh there was a neighborhood store
24. 0:56that was robbed by three asants and um
25. 1:01somehow Edward Veron became involved in
26. 1:03the case apparently he went to the
27. 1:06police and told them that he was a
28. 1:08witness and that he uh eventually
29. 1:12identified myself Ronnie Bridgeman and
30. 1:14Wy Bridgeman as the as
31. 1:17salance um a couple of days later we
32. 1:19were arrested taken downtown in the rain
33. 1:22held before a lineup and um we weren't
34. 1:26picked out in the lineup but unbowed to
35. 1:28us we didn't know this we thought we
36. 1:30were you know everything was okay nobody
37. 1:32came out and said that you guys are
38. 1:35being charged or anything so we assumed
39. 1:38we was getting our uh obligatory phone
40. 1:41call after you arrested and um we
41. 1:44thought we were going home but that
42. 1:46didn't turn out to be the case and a few
43. 1:49months later we all went on trial we
44. 1:51were charged with uh capital
45. 1:53crimes and uh subsequently we all lost
46. 1:56our uh
47. 1:58trials we were sent to death row we were
48. 2:01sent to die in a high electric chair we
49. 2:03were all s sent to death row where we
50. 2:06stayed and lingered and wondered and
51. 2:10worried for two and A2 years uh my
52. 2:13attorney here Mr uh Brian how um he came
53. 2:17to me one day and he said listen Ricky
54. 2:20um this is the situation uh there's a
55. 2:23deal on the table you can walk out of
56. 2:26here now a free
57. 2:28man if you'll plead guilty to the
58. 2:31charges you're presently incarcerated
59. 2:33for I mean and I have to admit that it
60. 2:36was a tempting offer at that time I've
61. 2:38been in prison so long I didn't I didn't
62. 2:40even know what the sky looked like
63. 2:42anymore but you know it was just
64. 2:45something inside of me that said you
65. 2:48can't do this you know you've gone too
66. 2:50long you struggled too hard you can't do
67. 2:54this you're innocent you know don't
68. 2:58admit this something you didn't do
69. 3:00you're innocent and that was the
70. 3:02decision I made it was the right
71. 3:03decision was and really it was the only
72. 3:05decision that I could have made
73. 3:08[Music]