Valentino Dixon: Imprisoned for 27 years for a murder he didn't commit — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:01Golf is a game often associated with
3. 0:04privilege and patience but only patience
4. 0:10was common between golf and an innocent
5. 0:13man serving life for murder in one of
6. 0:16the toughest prisons in the United
7. 0:18States
8. 0:21Atticus one of the roughest prisons in
9. 0:24the world you know is known for famous
10. 0:27riot article rights the prisoners
11. 0:30threatened to kill the 38 hostages they
12. 0:32were holding
13. 0:33[Music]
14. 0:35and yet it was his jail cell
15. 0:37preoccupation with a game he's never
16. 0:39played which led to Valentino Dixon's
17. 0:42exoneration 27 years later I've never
18. 0:48golfed before you know and I come from a
19. 0:50place where Golf is not even accepted
20. 0:52yes I mean it's certainly unlikely that
21. 0:55a fairly underprivileged black man from
22. 0:59Buffalo especially one in the penal
23. 1:01system would develop an interest with
24. 1:04golf Buffalo New York 1991 it was a hot
25. 1:13August night I was a typical kid living
26. 1:17in a ghetto inner cities you know drug
27. 1:20infested you know very violent
28. 1:22neighborhood an anonymous tip-off
29. 1:25falsely pointed the finger at Valentino
30. 1:28Dixon for the killing of teenager
31. 1:30toreano Jackson in a street gunfight
32. 1:34astonishingly at the time Dixon's friend
33. 1:37Lamar Scott was taped making this
34. 1:40confession opened fire back on him the
35. 1:45reason he died because I didn't have any
36. 1:47control of the automatic weapon at all
37. 1:50the more Scott confessed to the crime
38. 1:53two days after I was arrested they
39. 1:55allowed him the goal they didn't arrest
40. 1:56him by the authorities pursuit Dixon and
41. 2:00locked him up for life as the years
42. 2:08dragged on with Valentino's appeals
43. 2:10exhausted he picked up his colored
44. 2:12pencils and began to draw
45. 2:16the warden who's who's the
46. 2:18superintendent of the prison the top guy
47. 2:20he came by and asked me could I draw a
48. 2:23golf course for him because he everybody
49. 2:24know me as an artist I've been drawing
50. 2:28golf courses ever since I can't explain
51. 2:30it but it's a very peaceful thing for me
52. 2:32is it's a serenity the greens the
53. 2:35peacefulness of nature you know and I
54. 2:38come from a place where it's not that
55. 2:40peaceful I think the the subjects of
56. 2:47grass and sky and trees and contour and
57. 2:51these sort of the the peace and
58. 2:53possibilities that come with golf
59. 2:55architecture just kind of spoke to him
60. 2:59max Adler of the Golf Digest I send him
61. 3:03a couple drawings you know and I wrote a
62. 3:05letter explaining it to him my situation
63. 3:07that I was innocent but at the time you
64. 3:10know when you tell people that you're
65. 3:11innocent you know they don't believe it
66. 3:12so I opened the letter and inside was
67. 3:15this tiny little beautiful colored
68. 3:17pencil drawing of a little golf green I
69. 3:23ended up going to Attica Correctional
70. 3:24Facility a couple of times and it is a
71. 3:29grim and gruesome place Valentino Dixon
72. 3:34he's a very charismatic person he's very
73. 3:39articulate he's very positive and so you
74. 3:43know that's an immediate conflict with
75. 3:46all the ways you might imagine a
76. 3:48murderer to be well let me just say this
77. 3:51you know you know max is the white guy
78. 3:53and I'm a black guy and he took a chance
79. 3:57on the black guy you know and that means
80. 4:00everything that chance
81. 4:03was an article which drew Meteor
82. 4:05attention to Dixon's case ultimately
83. 4:08leading to a successful appeal last week
84. 4:11golf writing or golf journalism it's
85. 4:14it's not the hard-hitting variety so
86. 4:17people could be surprised that we could
87. 4:19do something that was impactful or
88. 4:21serious and 27 he is lighter on
89. 4:25condition of a guilty plea for a lesser
90. 4:27charge of firearms possession Dixon was
91. 4:31a free man the greatest feel in the
92. 4:33world is undescribable and we've been
93. 4:36waiting 27 years with this moment
94. 4:39I can't really describe what it's been
95. 4:42like all I can say is this I've been
96. 4:44home about four days and I've had about
97. 4:46six hours of sleep
98. 4:48Valentina Dixon's story is already one
99. 4:51in a million it has all the themes of a
100. 4:53Hollywood movie
101. 4:54you've got murder crime and punishment
102. 4:56even long standing wrongs finally being
103. 4:59righted but there is one other theme
104. 5:02here and that's love not love of golf
105. 5:05but love of another kind because for
106. 5:08about half of Valentino Dixon's 27 years
107. 5:11on the inside his daily ritual was to
108. 5:13make a phone call to his wife an
109. 5:16Australian woman who lives here in
110. 5:18Western Sydney I love you more than
111. 5:24anything I love you more than anything
112. 5:27in the world you might every thought so
113. 5:30how does a girl from Western Sydney end
114. 5:32up meeting and marrying a man serving
115. 5:35life for murder in a US prison well it's
116. 5:38what we're talking 17 years ago so
117. 5:40online wasn't all that but his mother
118. 5:43did actually set up
119. 5:45he's artwork on a website and I happened
120. 5:49to be just cruising for art she wrote me
121. 5:51and we became friends pen pals you know
122. 5:54and we wrote for quite a bit time and
123. 5:57we'd be you know and she decided that
124. 5:59she wanted to come meet me
125. 6:00curiosity gets the better of you so you
126. 6:02start going through these things and you
127. 6:03start looking and you just like wow you
128. 6:06know like maybe he's telling the truth
129. 6:09[Music]
130. 6:10the minute I met him I really knew that
131. 6:14everything he had written me everything
132. 6:16he had said it was just genuine you know
133. 6:20and from that moment forward I was just
134. 6:23like just on for the ride
135. 6:28we got married in 2002 in the visiting
136. 6:32room of Attica Correctional Facility
137. 6:34what was your wedding day like when
138. 6:37you're walking down the aisle in a US
139. 6:40prison to a man accused of murder
140. 6:43see when you say that I had never looked
141. 6:47at Valentino as a murderer ever we were
142. 6:50together for four years we were able to
143. 6:52spend some time together the prison
144. 6:54allows for couples to be together if I
145. 6:57if I can complete a certain amount of
146. 6:59programs and stay out of trouble we were
147. 7:01together as man and wife we had that
148. 7:03opportunity
149. 7:06Valentino's artwork has even included
150. 7:09Royal Melbourne Golf Course I can see
151. 7:11here Louise overstayed her US visa while
152. 7:15supporting Valentino and was deported
153. 7:18back to Australia the pair have now not
154. 7:21seen each other for 12 years
155. 7:24she can't visit the US and he might not
156. 7:27be able to visit Australia on account of
157. 7:29his guilty plea to get back his freedom
158. 7:32you can't be there he can't be here we
159. 7:36don't know yet will it be different now
160. 7:38he's out of prison that guy does not
161. 7:41know when to quit okay even if I wanted
162. 7:44to quit he wasn't gonna let me you know
163. 7:46I'm he'd always said to me you know if
164. 7:48you can't do this I understand I'll
165. 7:50totally you know he'd remind me
166. 7:52throughout the years and I'd be like be
167. 7:54quiet man well I'm staying hi this is it
168. 7:56we're going home together they are
169. 7:58destined to find a way maybe even to
170. 8:02meet up on a golf course
171. 8:03summer in Sydney she sent me a ton of
172. 8:06pictures you know I've seen the Opera
173. 8:08House you know I know about Bondi Beach
174. 8:10I've seen pictures of that it's a
175. 8:13beautiful place you know I just look
176. 8:14forward to you know having an
177. 8:16opportunity to be over there this is
178. 8:18what happens when you have hope faith
179. 8:21and
180. 8:22persistence determination you know
181. 8:25coming together and when it arrives this
182. 8:27is what happens
183. 8:28[Music]
184. 8:39you