The Worst Criminal Defense Lawyer in History | Jeffrey Deskovic — Transcript

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1. 0:01so in terms of the trial itself
2. 0:04you know i i couldn't afford an attorney
3. 0:06my family couldn't afford an attorney so
4. 0:08we had we went with uh westchester
5. 0:10county legal aid so my the the public
6. 0:12defender i had assigned to me was uh
7. 0:14peter encero and he supposedly was their
8. 0:17best trial lawyer
9. 0:20so he essentially didn't defend me he
10. 0:23rarely met with me when he would meet
11. 0:25with me and i tried to explain to him
12. 0:27that i was innocent and what happened in
13. 0:28interrogation room he was always
14. 0:30shutting me up one time he told me he
15. 0:32didn't care if i was guilty or innocent
16. 0:35he never interviewed my alibi i told him
17. 0:37i was playing with football with uh
18. 0:39jason he never he never interviewed or
19. 0:41calls a witness my alibi
20. 0:43he never explains to the jury the
21. 0:45significance of the dna not matching me
22. 0:48he never uses that to
23. 0:52to challenge the confession and argue
24. 0:53that the confession is coerced or false
25. 0:56speaking of the confession sometimes
26. 0:58he's arguing to the jury that confession
27. 1:00never happened other times he's
28. 1:03uh arguing that it uh happened but that
29. 1:06it was coerced and still other times he
30. 1:08was saying that it happened but it was
31. 1:10false
32. 1:11so by adopting this uh throw mud against
33. 1:14the wall
34. 1:15type of uh
35. 1:17approach he had to have been standing
36. 1:18there with no credibility at all in
37. 1:20front of the jury and when it was time
38. 1:22to cross examine this medical examiner
39. 1:25uh you know it would have it's obviously
40. 1:26would have been important to to attack
41. 1:29his credibility because he's the one who
42. 1:31came up with this consensual sex thing
43. 1:34um but instead he stood up in open court
44. 1:36and with a
45. 1:37uh big smile on his face like if him and
46. 1:39the medical examiner were great friends
47. 1:41from back in the day said to him
48. 1:44you're going to be pleased to know that
49. 1:46i don't have a single question for you
50. 1:50now the last thing is that i wanted to
51. 1:52testify at the at the trial so that i
52. 1:55could put the
53. 1:57threat and false conflict of threat and
54. 1:58false promise on the record so when you
55. 2:01defend a case where there's a false
56. 2:02confession you have to answer that
57. 2:04confession you have to explain that
58. 2:06confession you have to disprove that
59. 2:08confession in as many ways as you can
60. 2:10you bring it all together in your in
61. 2:11your closing argument
62. 2:13you know but he didn't he didn't do he
63. 2:15didn't do any of that he wouldn't allow
64. 2:17me to testify there either
65. 2:19and
66. 2:21that was the you know so all those
67. 2:22things i got a terrible defense and a
68. 2:24real terrible defense now there were a
69. 2:25couple of other irregularities about the
70. 2:27trial but you want to ask me something
71. 2:28first do you think the lawyer
72. 2:31was just incompetent or do you think
73. 2:33that he was working with the other side
74. 2:36you know i
75. 2:37i kind of feel he was working with the
76. 2:39other side because i mean some of these
77. 2:41mistakes i mean even like a third year
78. 2:43law student would know not to do that
79. 2:46and when i've met with defense lawyers
80. 2:48in westchester that know my story and
81. 2:50i've had lunch with them they've often
82. 2:52asked me well who who who is your trial
83. 2:54lawyer and when i mention his name to
84. 2:55them they're quite surprised because
85. 2:57they've tried cases with and against him
86. 2:59and they thought that he was pretty good
87. 3:01so he's still practicing today no he's
88. 3:03he retired now he retired now
89. 3:07so here's the other irregularities that
90. 3:09happen at the trial
91. 3:11so firstly
92. 3:12the polygraph results they're not
93. 3:14admissible in court because it's not
94. 3:16it's not scientific you know in fact
95. 3:18even like intelligence agents in the
96. 3:20field they're trained to beat the
97. 3:22polygraph
98. 3:23right so it's not scientific you know um
99. 3:25and the whole premise of the polygraph
100. 3:27by the way is that when somebody the
101. 3:29theory is that if somebody lies you'll
102. 3:31get nervous your nervousness will result
103. 3:34in an increased pulse rate and it's the
104. 3:36pulse rate that's actually measured by
105. 3:37the machine right people can control
106. 3:39that people can control that yeah so
107. 3:42because of that polygraph test results
108. 3:44are not
109. 3:45are not admissible in court right so
110. 3:48despite that general rule this judge
111. 3:50comes up with this back door rule where
112. 3:52he says that because the confession
113. 3:55happened while i was attached to the
114. 3:56polygraph he lets the polygraphists
115. 3:58repeatedly tell the jury that i failed
116. 4:01the polygraph
117. 4:02while prohibiting my attorney from
118. 4:04questioning him
119. 4:06about the methods that he used to arrive
120. 4:08at his opinions
121. 4:10so that was one irregularity that was
122. 4:12definitely prejudicial against me
123. 4:15second thing is that
124. 4:17the victim's clothes including the bra
125. 4:20the jury has to see it that
126. 4:23co-related to one of the statements that
127. 4:25was coerced out of me in which i said
128. 4:27that i um ripped her bra off the jury
129. 4:30asked to see the bra and that's
130. 4:32important because some bras you can't be
131. 4:34the way that they're designed you can't
132. 4:36rip them off of a body so the jury has
133. 4:37to see the bra
134. 4:39and that's when the judge said
135. 4:41that the evidence included victim's
136. 4:44clothes including the bra had been left
137. 4:46in the courtroom over the weekend
138. 4:48and that apparently the janitors
139. 4:51thought that it was garbage and so they
140. 4:53threw it out and that the bra is not
141. 4:55available anymore and he substituted the
142. 4:58uh the uh a photo
143. 5:01in which he said you can almost see the
144. 5:03bra in the photo he substituted that
145. 5:06from the with the actual bra
146. 5:10and that's wild
147. 5:12right
148. 5:13he refused to declare a mistrial he
149. 5:15refused to strike any testimony
150. 5:17pertaining to the bra and the last thing
151. 5:20was that
152. 5:21on the third day of the jury
153. 5:23deliberations they sent out a note
154. 5:25asking
155. 5:26well if we don't
156. 5:28if we can't come up with a verdict are
157. 5:30we going to be sequestered over the
158. 5:32christmas holiday
159. 5:34and and the judge said yes and so i've
160. 5:37learned since then that at that point it
161. 5:39was 1101 for a conviction there was one
162. 5:41hold out juror
163. 5:43who
164. 5:44uh thought that i was innocent but he
165. 5:46said that they were all pressuring him
166. 5:48and they all he also said that when they
167. 5:50sent out the note and we got the answer
168. 5:52back
169. 5:54that the pressure ratcheted up and that
170. 5:56nobody wanted to be there over the
171. 5:57christmas holiday and so based on that
172. 5:59he switched his vote even though he he
173. 6:02was not convinced that i was guilty
174. 6:04and so when you add all those things up
175. 6:06you know i guess it's not that
176. 6:08surprising that i was found guilty
177. 6:11i mean i i never forget the day i was
178. 6:13found guilty i mean it felt like i was
179. 6:15kind of in like a nightmarish
180. 6:16alternative reality because
181. 6:18it's my way of thinking at least
182. 6:20happened to that point in time i thought
183. 6:22that only you know guilty people were
184. 6:24convicted
185. 6:25but they said what they did and i was
186. 6:27taken into custody i remember just
187. 6:29sitting there kind of stunned not
188. 6:32not
189. 6:32you know i couldn't believe my own
190. 6:34hearing i mean the first three charges
191. 6:35that they read i was found not guilty of
192. 6:37and then the fourth
193. 6:40the fourth you know fourth count they
194. 6:42they read then i they said guilty and i
195. 6:44mean well wait a minute i mean that that
196. 6:47that can't be right today did i miss
197. 6:48something that i missed the word not you
198. 6:50know but i heard that then they read
199. 6:52guilty and then uh guilty so i was kind
200. 6:54of like in a stunned disbelief i was
201. 6:56kind of beside myself
202. 7:00wow what what were you where were your
203. 7:02parents during this whole trial were
204. 7:03they or your mother your mother rather
205. 7:05was she there yeah my mother my mother
206. 7:06was in the courtroom and and um and so
207. 7:08was my aunt janet yeah
208. 7:11and when they read that you they
209. 7:13sentenced you to 15 years was it 15 16
210. 7:16in life i was it was yeah i was
211. 7:17sentenced to 15 well that was when i was
212. 7:19convicted i went back you come back to
213. 7:21court
214. 7:22after that a different proceeding for
215. 7:24the sentencing okay
216. 7:26yeah so i remember the day of the
217. 7:28sentencing that uh well i mean my mother
218. 7:30and aunt could have couldn't believe it
219. 7:32either i mean they totally believed in
220. 7:33the system and they thought that i was
221. 7:35you know going to be found so did they
222. 7:36believe that you were the murderer at
223. 7:38that point no they did they did not no
224. 7:40they did not no they believed that i was
225. 7:42innocent
226. 7:44so we went so on the day of the
227. 7:45sentencing i begged you know i made the
228. 7:47judge to overturn the verdict because i
229. 7:48was innocent and
230. 7:50i referenced a dna to support my
231. 7:52contention and uh you know judge
232. 7:54calabello actually told me on the record
233. 7:56he said maybe you are innocent
234. 7:59but you know he didn't you would think
235. 8:01that he would overturn the conviction
236. 8:03then right that but instead he took
237. 8:05which he could have done by reversing
238. 8:07any number of the procedural rulings he
239. 8:09made against me in the course of the
240. 8:10trial including the
241. 8:12evident throwing out of the evidence
242. 8:13issue that i went into a minute ago
243. 8:16but instead he took the easy way out he
244. 8:18gave me a 15 a life sentence so i had
245. 8:20been charged as an adult tried as an
246. 8:22adult and i was there for a sentence as
247. 8:25an adult and i was
248. 8:27sentenced to i was given i was sent to a
249. 8:28men's maximum security prison
250. 8:31so my sentence was 15 to life and what
251. 8:33that means is you have to do 15 years
252. 8:35minimum before you then see the parole
253. 8:37board
254. 8:38and the life part of it means that there
255. 8:40was never going to come a point in time
256. 8:42where
257. 8:43they were legally obligated to release
258. 8:45me it was just going to be up to their
259. 8:47discretion
260. 8:49yes
261. 8:59i