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When They Saw Them: Yusef Salaam, Jim Dwyer Talk NY News Media, Racism, and the CP5 — Transcript

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0:07I want to welcome everyone here to
0:12today's event when they saw that the New
0:15York news TV air racism in the Central
0:18Park five this is a collaboration
0:21several offices on campus just a speaker
0:32series colloquium Joan mikela got would
0:35normally be introducing us today for
0:37city and humanities but he's stuck in
0:39traffic and so I'm here I really want to
0:42welcome everyone to this important event
0:43and I'm going to turn the mic directly
0:46over to the chair of the journalism and
0:49Media Studies department who will get
0:50the ball rolling thank you thank you for
1:00being here today
1:01we're going to be engaging in a very
1:03important discussion today as a
1:06journalist looking back thinking about
1:08the impact of journalism and the glory
1:12of getting it right and the consequences
1:14of getting it wrong and all of the gray
1:16areas in between sorting it out is so
1:19critical to society certainly we see
1:23examples of it now and we've seen
1:25examples of it in the past which we'll
1:27be exploring more today because these
1:29are issues that have a lasting impact in
1:32all of our lives so without any further
1:34delay I'd like to hand things over to my
1:36colleague professor Eileen Markey
1:39[Applause]
1:45hi everybody I'm glad you're all here I
1:49see an empty seat in the third row and
1:54they're in the fifth and over here so if
1:59you want to see the really the simplest
2:01thing to do would be if you are sitting
2:02next to an empty seat move over and the
2:06little one rolled over and the next one
2:08rolled over right like move in so that
2:10we end up with an empty seat on the end
2:11if you're sitting next to an empty seat
2:13get up and move into it and have that
2:15domino down much easier than having
2:18somebody climb over you I'm gonna say it
2:21one more time if you are sitting next to
2:22an empty seat or three empty seats move
2:25over and let somebody else sit in them
2:28good morning I'm very bossy my name is
2:31eileen Markey I'm a professor in the
2:33journalism department and I'm really
2:35happy that we're all here today I want
2:39to welcome you on behalf of the social
2:40justice speaker series which is an
2:43initiative of the office of the College
2:44Provost and this series works to bring
2:48contemporary issues of justice before
2:50the college community so that we can
2:52struggle together intellectually and
2:54personally to understand and tackle the
2:57problems and the potentials of our time
2:59the story of The Exonerated Five is
3:02imprinted deep in the minds of most of
3:05us over the age of 35 or 40 I think for
3:08many it represents something of a modern
3:10scottsboro boys case an indication of
3:13how weak much of white America and the
3:15institutions that govern civic life are
3:18how weak we are before a disastrous
3:21racial mythology baked into the
3:24collective consciousness of the nation
3:26we keep repeating these awful pantomimes
3:30with real lived horrible consequences
3:34those of us of a certain age remember
3:37the case the arrests the fear the
3:40howling newspaper headlines for many of
3:43you my age and older the Central Park
3:45jogger case as it was initially called
3:47reordered your relationship with the
3:49city you limited your time in groups or
3:53you created self ed
3:55from the paths and tree shaded groves of
3:57your Central Park lest you be accused of
4:00something you didn't do for a younger
4:03generation the story of the exonerated
4:05five Central Park five came into your
4:07consciousness because of the Netflix
4:09series when they see us the title of
4:12today's discussion takes its name from
4:14that dramatization turning the lens on
4:17the New York news media that was a
4:19crucial and central actor in the frenzy
4:22that sent five innocent teenagers to
4:24prison a profession that prides itself
4:27on its reverence for the truth its
4:29commitment to accuracy and its
4:32skepticism in the face of power dropped
4:34all that when it covered the first years
4:36of this case the press was the
4:39irrational passion driven wolfpack why
4:43how did it go so wrong we're here today
4:47to look closely at those questions
4:49because we want to draw lessons for the
4:51next time we want to learn something
4:54about the fragile nature of truth
4:55seeking and about the possibility of
4:57journalism to right wrongs a class I
5:01teach on the role of race and racism in
5:03US media has as one of its central goals
5:05the task of teaching students to
5:08understand the role race ethnicity
5:10Nativity and other aspects of who we are
5:12shape how we see the world and therefore
5:15how we're likely to report the news in
5:18unexamined professional life is one in
5:21which the journalist is at grave risk of
5:23replicating and amplication what is
5:25already wrong in this society that she
5:27covers New York's press corps in 1989
5:31was party to a crime the crime of
5:33sending innocent teenagers to prison
5:35because they could only see them through
5:37the particular deeply racialized lens
5:40the reporters in the editors and the
5:42headline writers brought their own
5:43identity as people shaped by writing
5:46about a tremendously violent City which
5:48it was at that point and in newsrooms
5:51that were mostly white to how they
5:53covered the story in my class we talk
5:55about how how maybe the students see the
5:57world and how that would shape them as
5:59reporters here was a different
6:00demographic shaped by who they were and
6:02how they saw this story that class spent
6:05last month examining this case parsing
6:08the choices in the daily news articles
6:10from 1989 and 1990 reading media
6:12criticism and sociology that looked
6:14closely at the media's role there's some
6:16excellent books discussing the
6:18difference between the fictionalized
6:20when they see us docudrama series and
6:22the documentary PBS film and reading the
6:25self examination of journalists
6:27replaying their role in the story
6:29today's interview with Yusef Salaam and
6:32Jim Bob choir conducted by our
6:34journalism students Sadia saya and
6:36Jackie Hamilton is the fruit of that
6:39class scholarship today's presentation
6:42was made possible because of support
6:43from commitment from the social justice
6:45speaker series the Office of the provost
6:47the leadership of the student Ron Lehman
6:50chapter of the Society of Professional
6:51Journalists the Student Government
6:53Association and the Office of Student
6:55Life and with help from City and
6:57Humanities in the department of
6:58journalism and Media Studies thank you
7:00very much for being with us to learn and
7:02to hope
7:09and now we have brian ramos to read an
7:12introduction here we go
7:18jim dwyer
7:19a native New Yorker and two-time
7:21Pulitzer Prize winner has been most of
7:23his professional life covering the city
7:25as a reporter columnist and author a
7:28master of the Stiletto sentence who
7:30holds memory for a city that has always
7:32rushed to pave over its past Dwyer
7:35embodies the new tradition of a big-city
7:36Bard reporter poets whose work is
7:39distinguished equally by hard-nosed
7:41meticulous reporting and by a finely
7:44crafted lyrical beauty that gives voice
7:46to hope and tragedy potential and horror
7:48of daily life in New York he covered the
7:51central pipe 5 story in 1989 and the
7:54quest for exoneration a decade later in
7:56a long piece about the case the ava
7:58duvernay series when they see us and and
8:02the persistence of racism Dwyer wrote
8:05time has taught us that the radical
8:07tropes of our past were not abandoned in
8:09ancient boneyards were reported to the
8:11concrete that modern America was built
8:13on Dwyer joined the New York Times in
8:16May 2001 after stints at The Daily News
8:18in New York Newsday his work for this
8:20times has included coverage of 9/11 the
8:23Iraq war presidential campaigns and law
8:25enforcement surveillance of political
8:27activities he is the author and
8:29co-author of six books including actual
8:31innocence when justice goes wrong and
8:33how to make it right about wrongful
8:35convictions and DNA exonerations we're
8:38delighted to have Jim Dwyer with us
8:39today
8:46good morning good morning oh good
8:50afternoon sorry I had the distinct
8:53pleasure of introducing mr. Yusuf Salaam
8:57use of wa salaam as one of the
8:59exonerated five has committed himself to
9:02add risk advocacy and education
9:05he speaks widely on the issues of false
9:07confessions police brutality race and
9:09law and these disparities in American
9:12criminal justice system as well as media
9:14ethics and bias he was 15 years old when
9:18he was arrested and convicted for a
9:19crime he did not commit the vicious rape
9:21and near murder of a young woman jogging
9:24in Central Park the crime was pinned on
9:27five boys four of them black and one
9:29Latino even though no DNA linked them to
9:32the woman in a frenzied case that rocked
9:35the city they became known collectively
9:37as the Central Park five and spent
9:40between 7 and 13 years of their lives
9:42behind bars in 2002 their convictions
9:45were overturned and Selam and the others
9:47exonerated after the actual rapist
9:49Matias Reyes confessed to attacking the
9:52jogger in 2013 the PBS documentary the
9:56Central Park five told the story of how
9:58the false confessions and wrongful
10:00convictions occurred with a focus on the
10:03role of New York news media in 2014
10:07salaam and the others received a
10:08multi-million dollar settlement from the
10:10New York City for the I apologize in
10:182014 in 2014 so that's better in 2014
10:26Salaam and the others received a
10:27multi-million dollar settlement from the
10:29city of New York for its grievous
10:30injustice against them Yusef Salaam was
10:33awarded an honorary an honorary
10:35doctorate that same year and received
10:37the president's Lifetime Achievement
10:38Award in 2016 from President Barack
10:42Obama he was appointed to the board of
10:44the Innocence Project in 2018 and was
10:47involved in the flick series when they
10:49see us produced by it produced with Ava
10:52Duvernay
10:52Oprah Winfrey and Robert De Niro we are
10:55honored and delighted to welcome use of
10:57salons Lehman College
10:59thank you
11:18I just want to say thank you for that
11:22it's faux it's funny because you know
11:23what I came home from prison I just want
11:25to maybe start just with this real quick
11:26thing when I came home from prison it
11:30was surreal it was the it was like this
11:32weird like am I really out am I really
11:36here
11:36and the first place we stopped was IHOP
11:42and you know we I didn't know what to
11:45order of course I haven't been I hop in
11:47years and I was just following everyone
11:49else's lead and my sister ordered
11:51Belgian waffles I'll say I said I'll
11:53take Belgian waffles as well the Belgian
11:55waffles came and they were kind of you
11:57know overcooked you know but this was
12:03this was like real food right and I
12:07remember you know looking at the waffle
12:10my sister looked at the waffle she said
12:12this is unacceptable and I said no it's
12:14all good you know just you know this
12:15weed is easy and she said no they need
12:19to make my waffle over at hers was a lot
12:21more overcooked than our Mars was they
12:25took a waffle back scraped off the
12:28bottom and put it back on the plate
12:31and of course as you can imagine my
12:34sister became very upset and we left
12:37that establishment but when the person
12:39in the back said we can't hear you it
12:41just reminded me of that because yeah no
12:47it's quite all right but when I when I
12:49heard that it was it was it was like wow
12:53I'm home that that was New York that was
12:57the New York that I had been missing you
13:00know the New York that says we we were
13:03we're paying for this and we deserve
13:05this and so I appreciate that you just
13:08you just took me back in time in terms
13:09of that whole reality so I just want to
13:11say that thank you for that right Joe I
13:13appreciate that
13:15having breakfast you know I don't I
13:18don't remember but that exact memory has
13:20lingered as my first memory of leaving
13:24prison and that was a great memory
13:27[Laughter]
13:34yeah okay we're gonna start off with the
13:38first question it's for both of you can
13:41you tell us about the role the media
13:42played in this case Wow
13:48so I think maybe I should just start so
13:51in 1989 one of the realities that we
13:54faced was that we were we were faced
13:57with an onslaught of media over 400
14:00articles were written about us within
14:02the first few weeks of this case and as
14:04you can imagine it was a tsunami that we
14:07weren't supposed to survive nobody came
14:09to us and said to us hey you know what
14:12would your lives like what you know how
14:14how did you all end up here
14:16people began to just tell the story of
14:19what they assumed about us what they
14:22assumed about the neighborhoods that we
14:23came from nobody asked me or my mother
14:26about the fact that she was a professor
14:28at Parsons University about me getting
14:31into LaGuardia High School one of the
14:33most prestigious high schools in New
14:35York they basically just began to brush
14:38broad brush stroke our lives and paint a
14:41picture so that as we can imagine now as
14:46we look back at American history we see
14:49that there was two separate Americas
14:51divided and unequal we see in America
14:55where if you're black and brown you're
14:59seen as guilty and you have to prove
15:01yourself innocent and it was it was a
15:04disservice and a really tragic thing
15:08because we rely on media to tell the
15:11story and to make sure that when we turn
15:14it on we see the facts we see honest
15:17information you know good thing about
15:19media too is that I found out they have
15:21something called the the the correct
15:23it's like a place inside of the
15:26newspaper for what happened the day
15:28before so like let's say they misspelled
15:31Barack Obama's name it'll be a place in
15:34there that says oh we missed felt Barack
15:35Obama's name here's the correct spelling
15:36of his name I didn't know that that
15:38existed until recently I'm looking
15:40through the papers and I'm like wow they
15:41have like actual corrects a correction
15:44area for
15:46things that they have gotten wrong most
15:49of my articles are there ah yes indeed
15:54hey you know what I I just got to say I
15:56appreciate Jim for all that he's done
15:58because one of the things about the
16:00media is that the media I think was the
16:02first to step up and say we got this
16:06story wrong you know there's there's
16:09been challenges with maybe the post not
16:12the post the post yeah the post there's
16:14been some challenges with the post but
16:16that's to be expected you know I
16:18remember when I when I was sentenced and
16:21I did my rap song I might me do it today
16:25I'm not sure but I did my rap song and
16:29one of the reporters ran up to the front
16:31and said can I take a picture of your
16:33rap song and I said yes I felt so good
16:35about it I felt like wow I finally made
16:37it I wanted to be a hip hop artist since
16:39I was 12 years old and you know they
16:42take the photo and then the very next
16:44day my rap song is in the front of the
16:50New York Post and in big bold headlines
16:53it says Salaam baloney yeah yeah there's
17:03a an old saying called
17:05that goes like this freedom of the press
17:09belongs to the person who owns the press
17:11and that was certainly the case in 1989
17:19because this is a world today in 2019
17:25what are we now thirty years later there
17:30was no internet in 1989 there was no
17:35Twitter no Facebook no Instagram no
17:37snapchat no alternative platforms for
17:44other versions of reality to come along
17:47the people who control the flow of
17:52information
17:55mending them diligent people diligent
17:59journalists were limited there were four
18:02daily newspapers in New York there were
18:06I guess three four or five
18:10television stations here and and then
18:14you have radio but there was no
18:16multiplicity of viewpoints or voices
18:19there were weekly papers the Amsterdam
18:22news a City Sun Village Voice and others
18:28but the dominant coverage was
18:31concentrated in the hands of relatively
18:35few people and it is a much different
18:38picture today so I think that's part of
18:42understanding the ability for groupthink
18:47to take hold as it did in 1989 there
18:51just were not enough voices and not
18:55enough people out there telling the
18:58story differently obviously as you can
19:05see it's very important for all of us
19:07here in order to continue the event we
19:09do have to clear the fire exits so those
19:11of you that unfortunately have not been
19:12able to grab seats we are gonna have to
19:14ask you to clear the fire exit and our
19:16public safety department is going to
19:18assist with that now this will be
19:20available on the Lehman College website
19:22later today so hopefully you'll be able
19:24to see it all then but in order to
19:26continue right now we do need to clear
19:27the exit so that the event can continue
19:29otherwise we would have to shut it down
19:30thank you for your understanding and
19:32again thank you for being here and for
19:34bringing this important message to our
19:35campus
19:38can I can I uh can I possibly go out on
19:43a limb here and and I want to maybe you
19:48know cuz this I feel I felt like this is
19:50family I feel like I mean I'm at home I
19:52feel like that close so I want to maybe
20:00do something a little bit different if
20:02it's okay
20:03for the folks that are in the Isles
20:07if we can just maybe come up here as
20:09well and just anyway right you just come
20:16on up cuz I understand that you know if
20:18anything happens you know as a person
20:20who was in prison I'm already thinking
20:22about where and how I'm gonna get out of
20:23here just in case it hits the fan but
20:28come and join us come on up and let's
20:30make this a nice intimate setting you
20:33know a nice fireside chat so to speak
20:35yes absolutely we can come we can come
20:39in the back we can you know just like
20:41some of those concerts we've seen where
20:43people have been you know we're kind of
20:45in the sea of everyone you know
20:53oh this is fun no this is fine hey my
21:08pleasure my pleasure and the cool thing
21:13about this too is that this is gonna be
21:15a great photo but we can look back at
21:19this we're gonna be really proud of this
21:20moment yes indeed
21:25this is a question to use of so long how
21:28did you how did you survive mentally
21:30psychologically did your faking out I
21:32hope you survive this ordeal I actually
21:35love that question because I just came
21:38back from Puebla Mexico and the day
21:43before that I was in Wisconsin it was
21:46eight degrees in Wisconsin and then I
21:47get on the plane and it's like balmy and
21:49sunny and wonderful and I was like wow I
21:52could I could I enjoy this this is fun
21:55but unbeknownst to me as I was giving my
21:57presentation in Puebla I became an
22:01instant celebrity as soon as I left the
22:03stage everyone wanted to take photos
22:05with me people were in the audience and
22:07everybody had translators and they were
22:10listening to my speech through these
22:12translator devices and I was like wow
22:15this is pretty cool you know everybody
22:16you know they I mean it was like I could
22:18not move and eat or do anything and
22:21everybody just wanted to celebrate me a
22:24reporter comes up to me and she says to
22:26me do you know what the number one
22:29killer is in Puebla and I said no and
22:32she said suicide I said wow she said you
22:37don't know what you've done to the folks
22:39in Puebla by telling you a story you've
22:42given so many people hope and tremendous
22:44ability to understand that if you could
22:47have gone through that as a person
22:49condemned we could get through anything
22:52and I looked at that I said wow this is
22:54so important because it talks about the
22:57narrative of what happened to me in
22:59prison and how I was able to survive
23:01that how do you go through something
23:03where you are physically in bondage
23:06but you have to remain mentally free and
23:08of course I had to pray all the time and
23:11they say prayer is you talking to God
23:12and also had to couple that with
23:14meditation and they say meditation is
23:17God talking to you and so allowing those
23:20two realities to take hold of my life
23:22gave me this ability to take these
23:26lemons that life had given me and make
23:29some lemonade look cool doing it and
23:32start juggling at the same time you know
23:34come out of there and almost look in a
23:37pier as if nothing happened the fact of
23:42the matter is that we all have indelible
23:44scars going through something like that
23:45the prison industrial complex is I would
23:50say maybe a gateway to the 13th
23:54amendment which states that for the
23:56punishment of a crime they can turn you
23:58back into a slave and so you have to be
24:01able to refuse to go and become a slave
24:05of whatever it is that they're trying to
24:06make you a slave of and as you rise
24:09above that now I'm looking at my life
24:11now and I look back and I say wow I'm so
24:13thankful that I was able to survive the
24:16way I was able to survive but I have my
24:18mind fully intact but I can talk about
24:21this story in a way that it merges and
24:23shapes and connects with others so that
24:25they can see that they too have to have
24:28the ability in the in the immortal words
24:31of the great philosopher cardi B she
24:36said she said and I hate she's a Bronx
24:39native right so you know she said fall
24:42down nine times get up to him and that's
24:45what it's all about
24:46you got to get up
24:54the next question is for mr. Dwyer when
24:58do you and your colleagues know that the
25:00news media have messed up
25:13I can't speak for anyone but myself
25:20and so I'll just say that in 1990 when I
25:27covered the trials and cover them every
25:32day but I covered both of them
25:36sporadically there was other people
25:38there doing it every day from my paper I
25:41was shocked
25:44sitting in the courtroom to hear some of
25:49the testimony that was supposed to be
25:52evidence of guilt I remember in
25:56particular the detective talking about
25:59the testimony given the the alleged
26:03confession given by Raymond Santana now
26:08Raymond Santana was a scrawny little 14
26:13year old kid he's a big guy now great
26:17man now
26:17but he was a little guy as you remember
26:20back then and the detectives read out
26:24this statement that he claimed to have
26:26taken from from Raymond he said and I'm
26:31paraphrasing a little bit this is a
26:33memory we did all together jointly the
26:3840 of us or the 34 of us proceed north
26:41into the park and then turned Southwest
26:44and I said there is no 14 year old in
26:48the history of the world who ever said
26:51anything like that and so I was pretty
26:55shocked by that part of it and now I may
26:58be conflating in my memory two different
27:01days of the trial but it may be the same
27:05day it may have been a later day when
27:08the lab people came in and one of the
27:14elements of this crime that was so
27:20heart-rending was that injuries that the
27:24victim the woman
27:26Patricia Miley suffered her skull was
27:31caved in she lost 70% of the blood in
27:33her body she had been raped it was just
27:36a nap it was a miracle that she lived
27:39and and some people say it was a mercy
27:44that she couldn't remember anything of
27:45what happened to her but the scientists
27:50came in and they said well okay yeah we
27:53tested this part of her clothe and we
27:55tested that part of her shoes we tested
27:58the rape kit we test did you find any
28:01matches for any of the defendants no no
28:05no and what about on the clothing of the
28:11boys who were arrested no no no there
28:15was one what turned out to be phony
28:17piece of evidence about hair but there
28:20was in this incredibly gruesome crime no
28:25exchange of biological tissue between
28:28the people accused of doing it or the
28:32victim and that to me was a kind of a
28:37startling moment how could you have such
28:42a violent crime and no physical evidence
28:45whatsoever so years go by and then you
28:53asked when did people start to think
28:57about this differently years go by and
29:01five boys come men they leave prison and
29:06all but one of them leave prison and a
29:11man in prison decides to own up to what
29:14he did and he knows everything that
29:17happened and he was a serial rapist a
29:22predator killed a woman after he
29:25attacked the jogger in Central Park
29:27he raped four other women while the boys
29:31were being locked up for his crime he
29:34was on a rampage through the Upper East
29:36Side of Manhattan and T Starling
29:39and he came forward and he gave an
29:41account of the crime that fit a lot of
29:45the facts that the guys when they were
29:49tried had not been able to really
29:51provide so then they did the DNA tests
29:55and lo and behold the one and only
29:57person who matched it was this man
29:59Matias Reyes and I think that shocked a
30:07lot of people who had covered the case
30:10in the first place and who hadn't looked
30:14back at it at all
30:15so 2002 when that guy came forward was
30:19the beginning of when people started to
30:21turn around and I think then but it took
30:24a long time it took a long time to get
30:25that story straight and I think a film
30:29by Ken Burns and Sarah burns and David
30:32McMahon was a very important moment in
30:34that as well that didn't come out though
30:37for another decade so it took a long
30:40time for the truth to make its way out
30:42you know I just want to say too
30:44one of the craziest things that happened
30:46was the the feeling that we had as
30:49members and as victims in this case as
30:52well we kept saying many gonna do
30:55something gonna they're gonna they're
30:56gonna try to trick us and we just didn't
30:59have any hope right and sure enough from
31:02the DA's office
31:04Linda fair Steen says this was the sixth
31:08man
31:11and we we were like oh my goodness
31:14they're gonna they're gonna they're
31:15gonna vilify us again this is never like
31:19the truth is never gonna come out and I
31:21think that the groundswell of the
31:24grassroots folks that wanted to make
31:26sure that this story didn't go away that
31:27the truth of it came out I think that's
31:30what helped keep it alive as well and
31:32then the reporters that started saying
31:34hold on for one second
31:36we've been duped like our careers are on
31:39the line as well because now people are
31:41looking at the stories that we wrote
31:43that we contributed these big bold
31:45headlines that would say things like DNA
31:47evidence and then when as you said the
31:50DNA came back and it didn't match any
31:51one of us it was in a very smaller
31:53looking headline and part of the
31:57technology that happened is that that
31:58residue the negative residue of seeing
32:00those big bold headlines dwarfed the
32:04smaller headlines that people may not
32:05have caught later on and so that you
32:08know things like that lingered and it
32:10painted this picture that the system
32:17couldn't have got it wrong and so now we
32:21have to figure out well the reason why
32:23we didn't oh this was the sixth guy we
32:27used to be called the Central Park seven
32:29and that's the part this is even funnier
32:31like all of that stuff is there and then
32:34they come out and say this is the sixth
32:35man Raymond Santana Kevin Richardson
32:38they both get arrested that evening that
32:40this crime happens and the amount of
32:44blood as you say that she lost would
32:46have been on Raymond Santana or and/or
32:51Kevin Richardson they had not a drop of
32:53evidence on them yeah the other
32:58interesting thing too is when you other
33:00revealing thing and I feel like this was
33:04a place where really we're journalists
33:08who had an open mind could have done a
33:09better job and didn't was in looking at
33:12that can what we call the confessions
33:15the statements given by the boys four of
33:18them videotaped and if you compared it
33:23to what actual
33:24happened it made no sense they were what
33:29I remember in 2002 going back and
33:31reading I guess 15,000 pages of trial
33:34transcript at BRE trial it was just and
33:36I went through and said wait a minute
33:38these guys didn't know where the crime
33:41happened they didn't know when it
33:43happened they didn't know how it
33:45happened
33:45so how the hell are they in prison hmm
33:49yeah but that reality did not get put on
33:56the head of a pin in 1990 when the
34:00trials were held right and it didn't get
34:02put on a pin and I think until many
34:04years later exactly and it needed to be
34:06on the out of it pin because it is such
34:09a sprawling story someone needed to
34:14assemble all of that unreality and
34:18compare it to reality yeah yeah is a
34:22question to you so so long how did the
34:24police gets gonna make a false
34:26confession so that's an interesting
34:28question because I never made a false
34:30confession you know what happened in my
34:33case which is really really telling is
34:35that they they had this narrative and
34:39said what use a statement was made and
34:47we need to go to the DA's office and did
34:48the police officer in the DA's office
34:50needed to go together weeks later and
34:52collaborate on what it was that was said
34:54and then say this is what he said and my
34:58mother always says well they should have
35:00signed their name to that because the
35:02reality is that I always maintained my
35:04innocence
35:05I had always stood my ground before I
35:07even know what stand your ground was all
35:09about you know that scene and when they
35:12see us where you see my mother coming
35:14into the interrogation room almost like
35:16a superhero she comes in you know and at
35:20that point I was I was already cowering
35:22under the pressure and the weight of the
35:24read technique this technique that the
35:27the region of the read Institute
35:28you know they sued netflix and they sued
35:33Ava Duvernay
35:34for they're revealing of their technique
35:37you know how they give these false
35:39confessions to happen you know I was
35:43cowering under that pressure and then my
35:46mother comes in and she saves me and she
35:49didn't really come in and have a lot of
35:52time with me because what happened was
35:53they actually took me to another room so
35:55that she could talk with me they've been
35:57telling her all along we're not
35:59interrogating you sir we're just looking
36:01for a place for you all to talk and when
36:05I was in the room with my mother my
36:08mother said to me stop talking to them
36:12she didn't say baby how are you doing
36:15are you okay he goes some hot chocolate
36:18she say no she said stop talking to them
36:22she said they need you to participate in
36:27whatever it is that they're trying to do
36:30do not participate refuse and I think my
36:34mother's portrayal in the film is such a
36:37powerful presence of what we can do as
36:39parents and how we can move and operate
36:42and understand that we have rights that
36:44we have agency that we have the ability
36:46to assist our child when it comes to
36:51these types of egregious acts and I
36:54think it's a it's a it's an important
36:59thing to understand however how false
37:02confessions happen people often say man
37:05I would never confess to a crime I
37:07didn't commit
37:08but then you look at films like safe
37:10house and I used safe house in
37:12particular because I haven't unlike the
37:13Denzel Washington he's a pretty cool guy
37:14you know saying but in safe house
37:16there's this scene like 15 minutes I
37:19think into the film he gets caught you
37:22know like what kind of film was this
37:23like he's supposed to be the guy that's
37:25you know beating people up and don't you
37:27like you know I was a little bit let
37:28down but then in that moment they take
37:33him and they've taken to this safe house
37:35and they strapped him to a chair and
37:38they began to interrogate him and they
37:40try to get this information out of him
37:42and he's refusing
37:45and then they nod to each other and say
37:46okay we got to do we got to step it up
37:48we got to wrap out our interrogation
37:51practice and they started saying what I
37:54even say this but they began to get the
37:57the equipment to start waterboarding him
38:00he looks at what they have and he's like
38:02that looks like 300 count you need such
38:04a counter I know what he was talking
38:05about now that I got a few dollars just
38:08a little bit of dollars maybe $1.00 over
38:10what I had before I know what thread
38:12count is and he was essentially saying
38:15that if the conditions are right I will
38:18fold under the pressure but you have
38:20inferior product I'm not followed
38:25another nothing sure enough they begin
38:28the waterboarding and then he mocks them
38:31after he is brought back up and he spits
38:34the water out and axes them how long was
38:36that and see the thing about it is that
38:39we have to figure out that this thing
38:42that we have which which allows us to be
38:45afraid has to be understood in the
38:49context of fear is false evidence
38:50appearing real and so as we move in our
38:54own god-given life rights to life we
39:00don't got to be afraid we can know like
39:02we know that we can stand our ground and
39:04refuse to say things that we are not a
39:07part of and just stick to it you know
39:10but what happened with the Central Park
39:12jogger case was such a tragedy that
39:18continued to unfold that even to this
39:20day folks are beginning their printing
39:23they're presenting the story to us as if
39:27it's an anomaly you know this is not
39:30it's not how the criminal justice system
39:32operates this was just a one-off we got
39:35it messed up this time
39:38you know we we we know far too often
39:43that the truth of the matter is that
39:45this is this is the system this is why I
39:50call it the criminal justice of them.the
39:52the criminal system of injustice I want
39:58to be able to call it the criminal
39:59justice system I want to be able to go
40:01back to that but the reality of the
40:03matter is that we live in two separate
40:05Americas divided and unequal and the
40:09great thing about being in front of
40:10college students and people who are
40:12looking at their lives and trying to
40:14figure out how they can add value to
40:15society you are the ones that are going
40:18to change everything you're going to
40:20absolutely be the one you see you are
40:22the answers to the question and I'm so
40:25happy to be in front of you I just got
40:26to say that again you know I'm
40:28surrounded by family and friends
40:39the next question is for mrs. Dwyer
40:42false confessions are actually very
40:44common Kings explain why that is you can
40:52corner a person physically and you can
40:55corner their mind and the younger the
40:58person is or the more vulnerable in
41:02other ways sometimes people are
41:05overtired the longer they're held the
41:09more inclined they are to say whatever
41:13the person who is interrogating them
41:16wants to hear or they think that person
41:18wants to hear so if you look at I mean
41:23we have a flesh and blood example here
41:27not of a man who made a false
41:29confessions but of an entire case that
41:31was built on false confessions if you
41:34look at that case it's it's really not
41:36that uncommon but people had a hard time
41:39really in 1989 believing that it was
41:43possible by 1990 DNA evidence was
41:49starting to enter the courts and that
41:52process is continued and what it is
41:54shown is that people time and again have
41:57confessed to things that they didn't do
41:59they've been proven beyond any doubt to
42:02be innocent and so you have to then say
42:06well what led them to confess were they
42:08some kind of inferior human being and
42:11the answer is no they were just people
42:14making what seemed in that moment to be
42:16a rational decision to get the pressure
42:19off of their back the other interesting
42:21part of this is to see how the
42:24interrogators make the mistakes of talk
42:27themselves into believing it so if you
42:30look at the whole body of false
42:32confessions that's command of the DNA or
42:35you find that most of them the people
42:40who confess actually told the cops
42:43things that only the criminal
42:46mmm-hmm and how did that happen either
42:50accidentally inadvertently or on purpose
42:55the cop said well after you went to the
42:59CVS and bought the mouthwash you know
43:05what did you do then with the victims
43:08money I said oh well you know first I
43:11bought the mouthwash
43:12and then I went to the Chinese food
43:14store and people spit back details that
43:19have been given to them sometimes
43:22completely accidentally so one of the
43:26big reforms that I think has been sought
43:31by the Innocence Project where use of
43:33this associate is a member of the board
43:37it is to record the entire interrogation
43:41so if you look at the videotapes from
43:44the Central Park case it is the end of a
43:48long process that was not filmed that
43:51was not taped after many hours of
43:55persuading pressuring threatening
43:58cajoling the kids okay okay I was
44:02walking in the park I did this I think
44:04and that's they say okay now you go
44:07write that down we're going to say in
44:08front of the counter so the answer one
44:12of the answers is to turn on the video
44:14recorder from the moment you start
44:16interrogating someone so you see the
44:20process by which that information is
44:22collected and I think that's important
44:27too because as you you know one of the
44:29most telling things too especially in
44:30the when they see us retelling of this
44:33this truthful story is that you have
44:36that you have things like that where
44:38they're saying okay you went to the CVS
44:40of CVS yeah yeah okay how do you spell
44:43that
44:43c SP c BN okay cool okay I went to the I
44:46went to the CVS and we need to be able
44:49to see that yeah we need to be able as a
44:51as a public who you know when they say
44:53that you're going to be judged by a jury
44:55of your peers the joke in the black and
44:58brown community has always been
44:59I don't know these guys with my man Bobo
45:01am i hey man what's going on here
45:04because that at the end of the day the
45:06public is the one that is going to make
45:09what they think are informed in proper
45:12decisions I remember when they went to
45:14the juror one of the I think his name
45:16was his last name was gold
45:18Michael gold and I go gold he was on CNN
45:21with Raymond Santana and he he revealed
45:24almost the inner workings of what
45:26happens in the when the jury gets the
45:29the case and they began to deliberate
45:31and even build something which was
45:33really interesting he said you know cuz
45:35the Central Park five as we were known
45:37back then we kept on saying the pressure
45:39here they didn't give us anything to eat
45:41they didn't give us anything to drink
45:43Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson
45:45have been interrogated since April 19th
45:47of 1989 Cory Weis and myself were picked
45:51up the very next evening they were being
45:54interrogated from that whole time and
45:56through the time that Raymond in the
45:59time that Cory and myself were picked up
46:00you know and so when you deny a person
46:03something to eat at that age when you I
46:07mean we're in college right so think
46:09about you not having a snack man
46:12somebody's at home but right now right
46:14you begin to become delirious in that
46:19delirium you want you want that thing to
46:21stop anything that will allow you to get
46:25out of this nightmare you are willing to
46:28do and I think that that's the other
46:30part that's important too you know we we
46:33look at these things and in the in the
46:35in the Central Park five documentary one
46:41of the things that was so painful to see
46:42was Cory wise looking at his false
46:45confession tape Cory is looking at his
46:49false confession tape and he says that's
46:54me
46:56they're using me against me we didn't
47:02know anything about Miranda
47:04but the Miranda first Miranda warning
47:06says you have the right to remain silent
47:08if you fail to remain silent part two
47:11kicks in anything you say can and will
47:14be used against you in a court of law
47:15he's looking at this false confession -
47:18not even knowing that that but how did I
47:22even get me to say that I heard them
47:26beating him up in the next room I talked
47:29about that at my sentencing the fact
47:32that they were beating him up and that's
47:35that's the thing that the public needs
47:37to be able to see they can't turn those
47:38cameras off after they start rolling you
47:41need to be able to see everything how
47:43this person is saying no I I wasn't
47:45there that's not what happened to
47:47finally them saying okay this is what
47:48happened first and then the next and the
47:50next and the part that's unfortunate is
47:54that these detectives especially from
47:57Manhattan Manhattan's homicide squad you
48:01could not become a member of this squad
48:05unless you had 20-plus years on the job
48:0920-plus years means that you are an
48:11expert you knew and they knew that they
48:16were getting false confessions they knew
48:19that these stories weren't matching they
48:22knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt but
48:24the problem is that they wanted to
48:26appease the fears of the public and by
48:29them doing that they dropped the ball in
48:31the worst way as we heard earlier the
48:33real perpetrator was left to commit more
48:36crime imagine if they did their jobs the
48:40collateral effect of them not doing
48:42their jobs is that that young pregnant
48:45Latino woman who in his own words Matias
48:49Reyes said that he went into her own at
48:51home and brandished a knife she was
48:54there with her other children she asked
48:58them to she pleaded with them can I
49:00please put my children in the next room
49:02and he allowed her to do so she came out
49:06and then he raped her
49:07and then his mo kicked in his motorcycle
49:13window he used to give his victims a
49:15choice his own words he said I used to
49:19tell my victims your eyes or your life
49:23he did not want to be identified in a
49:26court of law
49:27and if you wanted to live he would cut
49:29your eyes out and if you couldn't live
49:31without your eyes he would kill you and
49:33at this point he was just killing all of
49:35the people that he was trying to kill
49:37all of the victims that he came in
49:38contact with when he started stabbing
49:42Lourdes Lourdes Lourdes miss Lourdes
49:45yeah mrs. Lourdes miss Lord we got to
49:47say her name you know you know because
49:49that family is now without a mother
49:52those children are without a mother that
49:54birthed them when he started stabbing
49:56her to death in her last cries of help
49:59the people in her building came out of
50:02their apartments and held him for the
50:04cops that's how he got caught and that
50:08was well after the the event in the
50:12Central Park yeah you know so he'd been
50:15out for a couple of months by the time
50:17they caught up with him yeah there's a
50:22question to both Dwyer and so long
50:30do you think the news media is better
50:32now could this happen again I would say
50:38yes to both I think it's I think it's
50:41better and I think it again and and you
50:46know to echo that I think that that's a
50:48truth that we have to understand too
50:49because part of what happens with media
50:52is that the media is not the one into in
50:53that they're not the ones investigating
50:55and interrogating the suspects the
50:58police officers are now then giving
51:00false information over to the media in
51:02order to science ill and deliver a
51:04conviction you know in the Central Park
51:06jogger case two weeks after we were
51:08accused this guy that you know y'all
51:11heard of this hundred this guy we got an
51:19echo Watney reads name but no not that
51:21guy Rodney Ronnie's a good guy I'm just
51:24trying to just trying to
51:30[Music]
51:35okay okay
51:41in 1989 when you were arrested Donald
51:47Trump took out full-page ads in the New
51:50York newspapers calling for your death
51:52he said and wanted you to be afraid
51:55people might remember this from when
51:57they see us they're not well so you know
52:02so what I wanted what I want to say is
52:04this Donald Trump is not he is he
52:12represents an idea right and so when we
52:16talk about white supremacy white male
52:18dominance we're talking about an idea
52:21that's out there that's walking around
52:22in real life right now where folks are
52:26saying you know states rights they're
52:28walking around with the tiki torches are
52:29saying states rights and no one is axing
52:32them or they're not saying states rights
52:35to what the complete statement of states
52:38rights is states rights to own slaves
52:40and so this good old boy is going back
52:44to the good old days of what America
52:46became was that we needed to have that
52:49reality still here and so you know I'm
52:53often I've often pondered what I would
52:57do if Donald Trump somehow mysteriously
53:00called me
53:05said hey hey hey hey you said mr. Donald
53:09its the Donald did you know we're gonna
53:11do a parody I guess right now right hey
53:16listen I want you to come down to the
53:18White House and we want to we want to do
53:19we just want to formally apologize to
53:21you and and other members of The
53:23Exonerated five can you come down and so
53:28so I've had just I've had this awesome
53:31opportunity lately to go around the
53:34country and in part of the world to
53:37share the story and to to really paint a
53:40picture of what happened to us and of
53:43course all of y'all are invited if that
53:47happens there's not gonna be a
53:49closed-door meeting and I think the
53:52reality of what that would mean would be
53:54tremendous of course that's not going to
53:55happen you know and of course if it did
53:59happen he would never want the cameras
54:01to be in the room but we have to
54:04understand that the the tragedy of this
54:08the tragedy of Donald Trump two weeks
54:12after we were accused we hadn't gone to
54:14trial yet we were just accused he calls
54:18for the death penalty specifically for
54:20our case and he calls for it in such a
54:23way that inside of this this this ad he
54:26says criminals must be told that their
54:30civil liberties in when an attack on our
54:34safety begins this divided America that
54:38we've been living in the them and us
54:42when he says our safety and the
54:45criminals it's clear that he's talking
54:48about if you are black and brown if you
54:52are other then you are of the criminal
54:54element as a matter of fact once he did
54:57this other folks begin to chime in I
54:59never forget this was like the wow this
55:01thing in the world
55:02a guy named Buchanan Pat Buchanan
55:10he listened he in the post he writes in
55:14the post why don't we just take the
55:17eldest one which was core lives why
55:22don't we just take the eldest one and
55:24hang him from a tree in Central Park
55:27let's take the others and strip them
55:29naked and horse with them maybe this
55:32will make the city's Park safe again it
55:35was on the heels of all of this as you
55:38can imagine we received death threats we
55:43received death threats in such a way
55:44folks always ask me what I love carry
55:46stuff like this in my bag but I carry
55:49this because we have to move unafraid
55:52this is an actual letter that someone
55:55wrote to me no this is before this was
55:59after we were accused this letter says
56:03to Yusef Salaam this letter is to let
56:06you know that your name has been placed
56:08on the list of enemies of society by the
56:11citizens armed new york city branch you
56:15made a decision when you became one of
56:16the pack that decided that central park
56:19was your arena and decided to attack and
56:22violate honest citizens who happen to be
56:24in the park so just remember this is the
56:27part that's really disturbing so just
56:29remember that even twenty to thirty
56:32years from now some people will never
56:35forget that may be the one time that you
56:38don't check your back is the one time
56:40that somebody might just be there to say
56:44hello
56:47you know you look at you look at these
56:50cases and you can really only truly
56:54understand it by looking at the founding
56:56documents of this country right there in
56:59the Constitution you have the Thirteenth
57:01Amendment and then that amendment it
57:03clearly states that they can even though
57:05slavery is abolished they can turn you
57:08back into a slave for the punishment of
57:10a crime anybody can read that document
57:13but when black and brown folks read that
57:15document they're talking about a reality
57:16that happened they're talking about
57:19something that taught me about our
57:20ancestors and then you look at the
57:23prison industrial complex and the
57:25overwhelming landscape looks like people
57:28that look like me and it's unfortunate
57:32because one of the beautiful things
57:34about the Central Park jogger cakes as
57:36if there could be anything beautiful
57:38about it right but when you look at it
57:41from a different lens just focus it a
57:43bit differently you realize that the
57:46Central Park jogger case is actually a
57:48love story between God and His people
57:51it's actually a story of a criminal
57:55system of injustice put on trial and
57:57turned on its side in order to produce a
58:00miracle in modern time it's a story of
58:03how a people can be brought low only to
58:07rise because the truth can never stay
58:08buried it's a story of a people buried
58:11alive and forgotten the system forgot we
58:14were seeds and the most amazing thing
58:17about their story is that instead of
58:21having a social death we'd be we'd be
58:25we've been allowed to emerge from the
58:27ashes like the Phoenix because they
58:31built you know they say man plans and
58:38God plans and God is the best of
58:39planners because see as they've built a
58:42fire to consume us they forgot the owner
58:45of the heat
58:47this is the this is a different type of
58:49story and there's so much that can be
58:52gotten from it there's so many ways that
58:55we can move into the future and I think
58:56that you know what we're seeing with
58:59this story in particular the outrage
59:01that has been rolling around the world
59:04as folks are getting acquainted with
59:06this story for the first time you know
59:08dr. Angela Davis said we as a people
59:11have historical amnesia but the truth of
59:14the matter is that we don't
59:15we've been socialized not to know we've
59:20been socialized to forget our stories
59:23are not as important but this story
59:25right here is changing lives this story
59:30unknown figure we were in California I'm
59:31not going on on on for a while but I
59:33just want to say this we were in
59:34California a few years ago this when the
59:37doc was out and we were having some
59:40technical difficulties we were trying to
59:41get the film rolling and a young girl
59:43jumps up and says listen I know we're
59:46gonna have Q&A later she said that I'm a
59:48cadet and I want to become a cop what
59:52advice can you give and uh looking for
1:00:00i'ma just use your phone for a second so
1:00:02I was looking for my phone which is
1:00:05somewhere here but
1:00:09so y'all get a hopefully y'all know
1:00:12where I'm going with this one so she
1:00:13says what advice can you give me I want
1:00:15to become a cop
1:00:16and I was looking I didn't do this at
1:00:18the time but when I do this in
1:00:19presentations now I do this looking for
1:00:22my phone trying to Sparkle with the get
1:00:26out with the get out phone you know but
1:00:32you know what but you awareness you know
1:00:34what happened which was beautiful what
1:00:38happened was I realized that I was
1:00:40talking to the future I realized that in
1:00:44my travels throughout the nation all of
1:00:47the cop cars that I've seen have some
1:00:49variation of the words to serve and
1:00:51protect in a New York City it goes a
1:00:54step further and it says courtesy
1:00:56professionalism and respect and the
1:01:00truth of the matter is that bad policing
1:01:04under the microscope and the spotlight
1:01:07of all of the police seems huge it seems
1:01:12magnanimous it seems like this is a
1:01:14daunting task
1:01:15they all are heaped into the barrel with
1:01:19these bad apples but the truth of the
1:01:21matter is that bad cops only represent a
1:01:23stain on this total stage the rest of
1:01:27the cops are good I've experienced good
1:01:29cops
1:01:30and so as I was telling this young lady
1:01:32what I was thinking about I said my
1:01:35advice to you is to do your job if you
1:01:37could give us courtesy treat us with
1:01:42respect and provide us with
1:01:45professionalism you'll be one of the
1:01:47best cops out stepping up to be a person
1:01:50who is saying I want to add security to
1:01:53the world by being a good cop is one of
1:01:56the most noble things that a person can
1:01:58do if you marry that with purpose we're
1:02:03gonna be alright but see if your name
1:02:05happens to catch a hashtag when we all
1:02:09saw it right here in this in this in
1:02:11this state in the borough's there was a
1:02:15young man who we all saw expire on TV he
1:02:19kept saying I can't bro
1:02:20I can't breathe I can't believe became
1:02:23it became a man trust all throughout the
1:02:25nation I can't breathe we couldn't
1:02:27breathe because when you look at the
1:02:31side of those car so those police
1:02:33that came to arrest him when he said I
1:02:37can't breathe they didn't even they
1:02:39didn't even give him the first letters
1:02:41off of the cop car they didn't give him
1:02:44CPR this is where we are this is what's
1:02:49at stake and a beautiful thing about
1:02:51this story is that this story is really
1:02:53galvanizing and changing the minds and
1:02:55hearts of people not only to know that
1:02:58we got comeback power but as we move
1:03:00into the future how do we move how do we
1:03:03make sure that we hustle for the - in
1:03:06between our birth and our death that we
1:03:09don't leave this world without a trace
1:03:11but we leave this world saying that we
1:03:12were here then we look at our lives like
1:03:15a Nipsey Hussle right I mean he said
1:03:19clearly said who's gonna ride for me if
1:03:20they take me out the marathon continues
1:03:23because he was able to look in the
1:03:25communities that he was living in and
1:03:27instead of the downtrodden is that they
1:03:29wanted him to see he saw beauty and an
1:03:31opportunity he saw purpose he saw a
1:03:34place where he could plant his seeds so
1:03:36that those trees that will grow although
1:03:38he will never be able to sit under the
1:03:41shade of those trees we thank him for
1:03:43what he did because his children will
1:03:45his community will generations down the
1:03:48line we'll be able to appreciate all
1:03:50that he did and they'll also get the
1:03:53baton to continue that work
1:04:11there's a question - Dwyer I've heard
1:04:15you have a piece of hate mail from Donna
1:04:17trunk 10 in a bucket that's at the New
1:04:18York Times Wow New York has a long
1:04:21relationship with Donald Trump his ashes
1:04:24in 1980 in our bill something essential
1:04:26about him
1:04:27thank you party this his ashes in 1989
1:04:30will go something essential going here
1:04:32in his actions were very something
1:04:39essential about his action to build
1:04:41something essential about him over bill
1:04:53not compatible you know I don't know how
1:04:57you guys were following the impeachment
1:04:59case but yesterday there was an
1:05:02ambassador who testified his name was
1:05:04Sandlin and Salman was a guy a month ago
1:05:09Trump said he's a very good man a really
1:05:13good fellow you can really rely on him
1:05:14and then yesterday someone said yeah
1:05:17this whole thing was a quid pro quo
1:05:18Trump was running and he told Giuliani
1:05:21and so Trump then tweeted out about the
1:05:24guy who said there's really good guys so
1:05:29there's nothing mysterious about Donald
1:05:33Trump ever why he is that he is true to
1:05:36himself and you know you're looking at
1:05:43the rock and every show I do turn it's
1:05:47the same rock Wow Wow but sometimes
1:05:51people hope that we gonna get it
1:05:52different you know I was so we're
1:05:59well-acquainted we're very well
1:06:00acquainted with him but I think that in
1:06:02the in in this new presidential run
1:06:06there's been a push where even down in
1:06:09Georgia he's come and said you know he
1:06:10wants the one that he did something
1:06:11about the black vote in something like
1:06:13that
1:06:13he's trying to black for blacks with
1:06:15Trump or something like that you know
1:06:17and I think that there's this notion and
1:06:18idea that he's going to somehow morph
1:06:21into this different person but he is
1:06:25what he is
1:06:26yeah I think that that's something that
1:06:28folks need to remember and understand
1:06:30that that was as true of him in 1989 as
1:06:35whatever he uttered today I don't mind
1:07:10staying a little while longer to you
1:07:13know entertain and help with the crowd
1:07:15yes okay here's the last question
1:07:19it's for mr. Dwyer can the media's can a
1:07:22medium be a force for good yeah I mean
1:07:32it's the truth of force for good sure
1:07:36and that's what one of the days when we
1:07:41get it right that's what we are and you
1:07:46need that truth to keep going whether
1:07:50it's a story like ran inside the
1:07:53newspaper yesterday of The Times about
1:07:57two children of the 114,000 in New York
1:08:01City who don't have permanent homes and
1:08:07what their life is like and taking the
1:08:13truth of those two and making a sea of
1:08:18much for your world is I think
1:08:23and I think it's going to do some good
1:08:26for those kids not just those two
1:08:31[Applause]
1:08:57[Applause]
1:09:13okay
1:09:42you know when you when you look at when
1:09:44you look at the opportunity of being
1:09:46able to build your career off of a case
1:09:48like the Central Park jogger caves it
1:09:51begins to become very powerful that you
1:09:54don't think about will fall so you think
1:09:57about politics you know and I think that
1:09:59that's seen in the series whether one of
1:10:02the attorneys comes to the assistant
1:10:04district attorney and says can you at
1:10:07least give them a fighting chance and
1:10:10she says this is not about law anymore
1:10:13this is politics the problem is that
1:10:16they've built their careers off of our
1:10:17backs and the whole thing that they've
1:10:20built their careers off of his being is
1:10:22crumbling right now in front of their
1:10:23faces
1:10:24Elizabeth lettera was an adjunct
1:10:26professor at Columbia Law and she did
1:10:28that for years you know when when the
1:10:30doc first came out the center part five
1:10:32there was a petition started out of town
1:10:34we got hold of the petition they may
1:10:37have needed like maybe ten more
1:10:38signatures before they meet they met
1:10:40their goal but when when they see us
1:10:42came out what we had hoped for happened
1:10:46and she was able to really move from
1:10:49that position in a similar way elizabeth
1:10:52lettera she built her career off of walk
1:10:54back so much so that she was able to
1:10:56retire from the head of Manhattan's Sex
1:10:59Crimes Unit and start writing sex crimes
1:11:02novels on similar things that she had
1:11:05been doing while she was in her
1:11:07profession she was just recently dropped
1:11:09from her publisher and I think that we
1:11:12have to understand is like those
1:11:14incentives of being able to live a good
1:11:19life you can never take away the ability
1:11:23for you to live a good life when you're
1:11:25doing good but when you're doing evil
1:11:28you're always looking over your shoulder
1:11:30because karma is a but y'all get
1:11:39yeah I don't know if we're gonna be
1:11:41choosing but Oh
1:12:28[Music]
1:12:46[Applause]
1:13:23and I and I appreciate that you know one
1:13:26of the things that one of the things
1:13:28that I've seen which is really a
1:13:31beautiful thing is that it
1:13:33this this this specialness that
1:13:36sometimes people attribute to me it's
1:13:40actually not unique to me and I say it's
1:13:43not unique and I'm gonna I'm gonna give
1:13:44you my book I'm gonna sign my book for
1:13:45you and I'm gonna give you a copy of my
1:13:47book I'm gonna make sure that you get a
1:13:55signed copy of this book this is my book
1:13:58of poetry that I wrote most of these
1:14:00poems were written while I was in prison
1:14:02and one of the things about this is that
1:14:05I wanted to write this in particular and
1:14:08I'm just gonna share with you the last
1:14:10paragraph of the introduction I say most
1:14:14of the poetry that was written in his
1:14:15book was written while I was
1:14:16incarcerated between 1989 and 1997 there
1:14:21are pieces that were written after that
1:14:22but the bulk of the material took shape
1:14:24while I was in prison I've always called
1:14:26his body of work words of a man because
1:14:29the social and justice systems weren't
1:14:31treating me like a man from the
1:14:33unbelievable accusation from the start
1:14:35to the wild convictions of the media to
1:14:37Donald Trump's full-page ad calling for
1:14:40the state to kill us to the final
1:14:42judgment and imprisonment the system
1:14:44wasn't treating me as if I was a man and
1:14:47so because I knew I was a human man a
1:14:49human being and a son of God I had to
1:14:51remind myself and these words were a big
1:14:54part of that here I was at the beginning
1:14:57of this whole bid and I had to grow up
1:14:59very very fast but I wanted to share
1:15:01this work specifically because I wanted
1:15:04people to know that when you find
1:15:06yourself in so-called dark places
1:15:07there's always a light somewhere in the
1:15:10darkness and even if that light is
1:15:12inside you you can illuminate your own
1:15:14darkness and shine your light on the
1:15:16world
1:15:21now get this thing
1:15:23don't leave what I'll give it an
1:15:26assignment and yes this is D
1:15:49and that was kind of like the turning
1:16:18I've been seeing God all throughout this
1:16:21story and I look at Corinne let me just
1:16:24start with him for it for it forward
1:16:25just as just to really paint the picture
1:16:27so that folks can understand what's
1:16:28going on here Corey as we all know was
1:16:34not a suspect
1:16:37he wasn't even a person that they were
1:16:39looking for he came to support me and
1:16:43they separated us and they got they got
1:16:46him to make false confessions to a crime
1:16:50that he didn't commit he actually made
1:16:52more than one false confession in one of
1:16:55the confessions he says that the woman
1:16:56was stabbed up and somebody was just
1:16:57cutting her up they checked her body she
1:17:00had no cut marks like that in the series
1:17:04and this is this is the part that's so
1:17:06beautiful about this story Matias Reyes
1:17:09had been saying that he had been going
1:17:12to church and trying to atone for all of
1:17:14the crime and the sins that he had
1:17:15committed and there's a scene in the
1:17:19series where Cory is in his cell and
1:17:21he's working out and the officer comes
1:17:23to get him and says hey get dressed come
1:17:25with me and he says where we're going he
1:17:27says it's time for your parole hearing
1:17:29Cory says oh I'm not going he said
1:17:32you're not going
1:17:33the officer said well you know you're
1:17:36not gonna go he said no he said if they
1:17:38don't want to hear my truth I don't want
1:17:41to waste my time knowing what we know
1:17:45about Cory's life what we don't know is
1:17:49that when we as members of the
1:17:52exonerated five were watching it in
1:17:54Netflix studio in California every
1:17:58Dubonnet before we saw the the fourth
1:18:01part she said do not leave this room go
1:18:03get your snacks take your bathroom break
1:18:05it will be very disrespectful
1:18:07if you leave during part four we didn't
1:18:10know what we were prepared to see
1:18:12because having watched part one through
1:18:14three
1:18:15deck that tours down then she pulled me
1:18:18aside and she said you sir this is the
1:18:23TV version so I want you to understand
1:18:27that the version of when he see us that
1:18:30you all have seen is the TV version of
1:18:34Cory's Cory's life imagine how bad it
1:18:37really was Cory at this moment when the
1:18:41officer is coming to get him and he says
1:18:43I'm not going
1:18:45imagine if he would have gone
1:18:47and said you know what I'm just gonna
1:18:49say anything to get up out of this hell
1:18:52we would not be here today but look at
1:18:56God he gets hit with another two years
1:18:59and then somebody says to him man why
1:19:02don't you just put in a transfer so you
1:19:04can get closer to your home so that your
1:19:06mom and your family can visit you and in
1:19:09his mind he says something to the effect
1:19:10I didn't used all my bad luck oh it
1:19:14can't get no worse than this instead of
1:19:17getting closer to home he gets sent
1:19:19further from home man plans and God
1:19:25plans and God is the best of planners
1:19:27God wanted him to be right in the path
1:19:32of Matias Reyes who had been working on
1:19:37himself and needed to do one last thing
1:19:40I need you to see Cory and when he saw
1:19:43Cory he said oh my gosh
1:20:04it was written it was written in such a
1:20:07beautiful way that he saw him and said
1:20:14wow he's still here
1:20:16I got to tell the truth Cory wasn't a
1:20:22suspect and he became the magic that
1:20:25freed us
1:20:27[Applause]
1:20:44it's okay
1:20:57yes shout it out please so forgiveness
1:21:12and healing I always get asked that
1:21:15question and I want folks to understand
1:21:16that it's not for the person who harmed
1:21:18you is for yourself it's for you to be
1:21:21able to cut yourself away from the the
1:21:24ball and chain that's holding you back
1:21:27I remember reading the words of Nelson
1:21:29Mandela who became the president of
1:21:31South Africa after he came home from
1:21:33prison he said I had to leave bitterness
1:21:36and anger into prison because if I took
1:21:39it out with me it would have caused me
1:21:42to be destroyed and then I remember
1:21:44reading the words of dr. Maya Angelou
1:21:46who said you should be angry because
1:21:50anger changes things it allows you to
1:21:51move out of your condition but you must
1:21:54not be bitter she said bitterness is
1:21:56like a cancer it eats upon the host it
1:21:59doesn't do anything to the object of his
1:22:01displeasure so use that anger you dance
1:22:04it you March it you voted you voted you
1:22:10voted
1:22:11you voted you do everything about it
1:22:16then I felt like she was talking
1:22:18directly to me she said you talk it
1:22:22never stop talking it when you're able
1:22:25to move out of the the pit of of the
1:22:30hell that you're in the magic happens
1:22:33you know when I was going through trial
1:22:36and I know that that was the last
1:22:37question and I wanted to just say this
1:22:38when I was going through trial I kept
1:22:40looking over at the DA and the jurors
1:22:43and everybody that that were castigating
1:22:46us and I kept saying why are they hating
1:22:47us so much I couldn't understand what
1:22:50they were looking at and then when we
1:22:52launched trial I was told that I would
1:22:54be able to say something and people were
1:22:56saying throw yourself on the mercy of
1:22:58the court try to seek the least amount
1:23:00of time possible but at the same time I
1:23:03was going to school I was coming home to
1:23:04a parallel education my mother was
1:23:07telling me about folks like Assata
1:23:08Shakur like Denmark Vesey like Toussaint
1:23:11L'Ouverture like the world dr. Martin
1:23:13Luther King jr. and Malcolm X and
1:23:15countless others and so when they said
1:23:18at the sentencing do you have anything
1:23:22to say before we sentence you I said yes
1:23:25and I realized for the first time what
1:23:28they were looking at they were looking
1:23:30at my future self they were trying to
1:23:32stifle and kill what I was to become and
1:23:35as I rose and I said these words I had
1:23:42just turned 16
1:23:49and this is what I said
1:24:02I said I'm not gonna sit here at your
1:24:05table and watch you eat and call myself
1:24:08dinner sitting here at your table
1:24:11doesn't make me dinner just like being
1:24:13here in America doesn't make me an
1:24:15American let us begin
1:24:17stress is the anger that is built up
1:24:20inside rage is the anger that is no
1:24:22longer built taking on a sucker that
1:24:25soon you have killed America free world
1:24:27doesn't mean you can kill and take
1:24:29another person's life you live your life
1:24:31trife I'm a skill builder so on skills I
1:24:33do build created giving knowledge to
1:24:35this wise black man soon to enhance my
1:24:38words across the land I'm a smooth type
1:24:41of fellow cool calm and mellow I'm kind
1:24:43of laid-back but now I'm speaking so
1:24:44that you know got used and abused and
1:24:46even was put on the news without Clues
1:24:48some gave who selling out like fools no
1:24:50check-in who did what and who did who in
1:24:53put in a situation that you don't know
1:24:55what to do in some brothers go wild and
1:24:57we're not down with them who would have
1:24:59thought I'd have to lock in I stand
1:25:01accused chuck in the scene from how the
1:25:05situation was instead of getting facts
1:25:07the media made you blurred now the
1:25:09people don't know all they see is the
1:25:11media never hear the blame cuz they're
1:25:13constantly deceiving us the DEA is wrong
1:25:15this is a master plan this case is not a
1:25:17cases just to crack the Sham yo instead
1:25:20of trying to get your name made its
1:25:22reconstructing the crime that really
1:25:23pays Islam la ilaha illa llah
1:25:27being supreme over satan but no man as a
1:25:29large your summer science dropping on
1:25:31the righteous path' so how the hell
1:25:33could I take a rapist path think about
1:25:36that and then think about this all my
1:25:38friends it was me they dis they're
1:25:40dismissed cuz I don't really need any
1:25:42friends like that like when I really
1:25:43needed you where were you at I'm not
1:25:46dissing him all but the ones that are
1:25:47called that went and dissed me like I
1:25:49was an inch small like a rat a mouse not
1:25:52even the man who only accused like the
1:25:55knife's in my hand
1:25:56how does it look me o'clock now I'm
1:25:58shook but like Matlock soon the accused
1:26:00gets off the hook it's real when she
1:26:03remembers and says damn the cops did you
1:26:06win I stand accused you people stop this
1:26:11racial dispersed hey yo you seen that
1:26:13kid Benson he's in a Hearst and so we
1:26:15take it to the bench
1:26:16and hers feels why said bulletproof
1:26:18vests we had no kinds of shields
1:26:20how does it look they killed the black
1:26:22man being black it's time we take a
1:26:24stand in our situation
1:26:26you saw our faces clear but not mine not
1:26:29because of fear it's because the black
1:26:31race was disgraced and for the Muslim
1:26:33they must have felt shamed but I'm not
1:26:36to blame with the words you bought the
1:26:38media took our words to paper the ones
1:26:41the cops distorted I told the cops truth
1:26:44like this and then boom they were
1:26:45smacking my man quarry wise in the next
1:26:47room now I know why the Rastas can't
1:26:50stand the Barbie lon they never help
1:26:51they just babble on I used to think the
1:26:54people and cops were cool but who
1:26:56protects us from you I stand accused
1:27:07thank you
1:27:17so for any in true form and tradition I
1:27:22usually let me see if I can get my
1:27:24camera to work
1:27:25I usually go live real quick so you're
1:27:30gonna be no I'm not live live but this
1:27:32will be posted to my Instagram and this
1:27:35is looking I'm just on video right now I
1:27:37live in college in the BX
1:27:42this is the Hickey he don't understand
1:27:45this is great this is amazing we in here
1:27:52yesterday yes indeed thank you all thank
1:27:56you

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