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Wrongfully Convicted Death Row Inmate-Nick Yarris — Transcript

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0:01I have the distinction
0:04of having begun life twice
0:08in my first version of life I was born
0:11in southwest Philadelphia
0:13in a family that had
0:16eventually six children
0:18my mother and father had menial work
0:20jobs in the area and my grandmother who
0:24lived in the house with us
0:26ran the household and took care of the
0:28chores in the house while my parents
0:29worked
0:32I was born in 1961 so I experienced a
0:36lot of the developmental changes in the
0:38city of Philadelphia throughout my
0:40childhood
0:43at first
0:44we had the pleasure of being part of a
0:48city that took pride in its
0:50neighborhoods
0:51having blocked captains and Gardens and
0:55everyone made an effort to make their
0:58part of Philadelphia beautiful
1:03and then it all seemed to change during
1:06the aftermath of the 1968 assassination
1:10of Martin Luther King
1:13I was seven years old
1:16in a connective way
1:18this was the most tumultuous year of my
1:21life as well
1:22because
1:24I remember
1:25[Music]
1:27everything was still golden and
1:30beautiful in my childhood
1:33until the spring of 1968
1:36when I was left off from school one day
1:39because I had a dental appointment
1:42my mother cautioning me to leave the
1:45house and not ruin my school clothes
1:49yelled her usual warnings to me
1:52but I was off on an adventure with my
1:54little dog Jocko a black poodle who
1:57never left my side
1:59and I went down to the local
2:02wooded area behind my neighborhood back
2:06behind 74th Street
2:09and I encountered a young man
2:11who is off from school himself older
2:14than me by about 10 15 years
2:18and
2:20he was just I guess
2:23in the moment
2:24of whatever he was doing
2:28I remember being very terrified of him
2:30having seen him in the neighborhood
2:31beating up adult men this is a very
2:34violent chaotic person and
2:37I timidly didn't know what to do
2:39I was just a little boy
2:42he was smoking a cigarette and he took
2:45the cigarette out of his mouth and he
2:46made me take a puff of the cigarette
2:49I became intoxicated and lightheaded
2:52from the inhale
2:54as I choked and sputtered I felt him put
2:57his hands on my neck and pushed me
2:59backwards and knocked me to the ground
3:02and then he hit me in the head with a
3:04field stone that was in his hand
3:06I only heard the wet smack of the stone
3:09on flesh I didn't realize it was my head
3:12the four state of low had done so much
3:14damage
3:19the next remembrance I have of that
3:22occasion was
3:24I was coming too and he was putting his
3:27clothes right after having sexually
3:29assaulted me
3:31and
3:33he was formulating some kind of plan
3:36he either wanted me to not be a witness
3:40or he was
3:42thinking of what to do you could see it
3:44in his face
3:47and in a moment he started shouting at
3:50me you tell your parents you were
3:52pushing a shopping cart on that wall
3:54over there you tell your parents that
3:56your shopping cart fell over and hit you
3:58and that's how you got that lump on your
4:01head and when he said it I put my hand
4:02up
4:03and I had a massive
4:05contusion on my head
4:10I didn't say anything that I can
4:12remember
4:14I waited for him to leave
4:18and I looked around for my dog and I
4:20couldn't find Jocko and I started
4:21screaming for him
4:23I remember running up the street and the
4:25lady on the on Wheeler Street saw me
4:29and she oh my God look at you get home
4:31boy get home
4:34I made it up to my land Street where my
4:37family lived at the time
4:40and my mother looked at me and she said
4:42oh my God I can't believe what happened
4:45so I was taken to The Wills Eye Hospital
4:48in Philadelphia
4:50and I was diagnosed
4:53um
4:54with
4:56my optic nerve damage to my eyes from
5:02the swelling
5:04and they had hoped that in time the
5:06swelling would go down without damaging
5:08it to the point that I would go blind
5:12I don't know
5:14seven years old
5:18I had to wear corrective glasses after
5:20that I went from being a left hand a
5:22right-handed child to a left-handed
5:25child
5:26everything in my brain was scattered
5:29I had night terrors and I remember
5:34I would go down to my parents basement
5:37and punch my legs
5:39so that
5:40I wouldn't be afraid of pain so that if
5:44I went outside and he attacked me I
5:46wouldn't be afraid
5:50I started acting out
5:52I remember when I was
5:55early on
5:57trying to deal with this
6:01I would make a Fantastical stories for
6:04my father at dinner about owning a farm
6:08and I would tell them about these
6:10tragedies on the farm
6:14opening in some confused way I could
6:17tell him what happened to me
6:20I never did
6:24once I told the LIE
6:27and lived with the lie and I was bound
6:29by the LIE
6:31and I hated myself
6:35when you let someone off the hook for
6:37doing that to you you hate yourself
6:39inside
6:41for knowing that you're you're letting
6:43them get away with it you're letting
6:45them hurt you
6:46I couldn't deal with it
6:49I was at a family function when I was 10
6:51years old and
6:54I had my first bottle of Pabst Blue
6:57Ribbon beer
7:00and by the time I got done with that
7:02beer I wasn't afraid anymore
7:07I was like
7:08oh
7:10there's another side to dealing with
7:12this
7:14by the time I was 14 I was an alcoholic
7:17with my friends on the weekends and
7:20every night smoking pot drinking
7:23then pills came along and they're very
7:25popular with Quaaludes and
7:28second all and two and all and Valium
7:30and
7:31I took every kind of pill because when I
7:35was high
7:36I had courage
7:39to not be afraid not courage to fight
7:42others I always
7:45oh God I gravitated towards violence
7:48but I I wasn't afraid inside I didn't
7:52have this omnipresent fear
7:55that there was something about me that
7:57would make men want to do that to me
8:03so I emulated all of the bad behaviors
8:06that you can
8:08becoming really aggressive really nasty
8:12and I got hooked on methamphetamine
8:17at the age of 18
8:20I stole a car I went to Florida I threw
8:23furniture out of a hotel room because I
8:26lost my mind and I was put into the
8:29south Florida State Mental Institution
8:31for my own protection
8:33it was there that I was diagnosed with
8:36aphasia I had no clue what this meant
8:40but the doctors actually did brain scans
8:43on me and showed me
8:45that I had a physiological distortment
8:51to my cognitive process of language
8:56and associative abilities to connect
8:59with others because of this blockage
9:03they explained to me that the one drug
9:06that you didn't want to do
9:09with speed because it evaporated any of
9:14what they called the proteins that were
9:17protecting my brain from going into
9:20Aphasia shutdown
9:22a lot of people have recently heard
9:24about Aphasia because of Bruce Willis
9:26but I'll explain what it is
9:29have you ever woken
9:32were just about woken from a nap
9:36all around you are recognizable sounds
9:39but you're lost to the dream state
9:42you can't help it you
9:45you want to break free of it but you're
9:48stuck there
9:49and you don't want to let go
9:52imagine your whole day is stuck there
9:55and you can't get out of it
9:57that's what aphasia is
10:00you have an awareness of what's going
10:03around you but you're so deeply delved
10:06into this other realm of consciousness
10:09of either memory or reptitudes of songs
10:14or all these things you can't break free
10:16of it
10:18I had to work so hard because my Aphasia
10:23was so bad I would become monocited in
10:27times of stress and I couldn't see out
10:29of my left eye
10:31and I would invariably sit with my thumb
10:34pressed against my head like this
10:37for as long as I could cut off the
10:40pressure from the pain of my eye just
10:42pounding and pounding
10:47I was sober
10:49everything was good
10:51I came back to Philadelphia I had some
10:54minor charges I was let go
10:59I got a job at Spencer's Gifts in
11:02downtown Philly
11:03it's 20 years 19 years old 20 years old
11:07for the first time since I was 14 years
11:09old I was actually sober a little bit of
11:12weed nothing else because I was afraid
11:14of what they explained to me in that
11:15hospital it really scared me
11:18this is Cuban Doctor Who took a real
11:20good time to explain to me exactly how
11:23my brain was damaged and I still didn't
11:26tell him why
11:29I go back to Philly I get a job
11:32I'm dating this girl named Terry
11:35and she's working downtown in the center
11:37city area Philly
11:40and
11:42I was doing okay for a couple months but
11:44then I'm hanging out with everybody I'm
11:46living in my parents house I'm fighting
11:49with my brothers
11:51everything's chaos again it's all the
11:54dysfunction in my family pressurizing me
11:56and I start doing meth
12:01I bought a gram of meth and I started
12:05getting high
12:06and then sure enough
12:08I want it more so I stole a car
12:12I stole a car I drove down to see Terry
12:14at her work
12:16had something of hers I was going to
12:18return
12:19and I got stopped by the Philadelphia
12:21Highway Patrol a notorious unit in
12:23Philadelphia and they chased me about
12:25nine blocks and I got caught by other
12:28police officers who held me so they
12:30walked up and this one officer hit me in
12:34the mouth with a beaver tail Blackjack
12:37and he split my mouth
12:39for 86 stitches
12:44that was December 4th 1981. I went home
12:48and I hid in my bedroom
12:51I kept sipping beer because the beer was
12:53helping the cauterize the sutures
12:56that were falling apart and my blood my
12:59mouth kept bleeding for about two weeks
13:04I was so despondent that I had lost
13:08control again
13:11but I couldn't stop wanting to get high
13:13so on December 19th
13:16I went out and another stolen car and
13:19got high with my friend and dropped him
13:21off and I was driving in the city of
13:23Chester Pennsylvania when I got stopped
13:26by officer Dan uh Benjamin Wright
13:30it's two o'clock in the morning
13:32I'm high as [ __ ]
13:35but I can't respond
13:38I am so terrified of getting another
13:40beating I didn't get out and run this
13:43time I sat Frozen in the car gripping
13:46the wheel while my brain is shutting
13:49down from Aphasia and I can't see out of
13:50my left eye he's walking up to the car
13:54the music in this 1973 orange Camaro is
13:59blasting it was
14:02um bad companies
14:04um song
14:05silver blue and gold had just finished
14:08and now Wildfire woman is blaring I
14:12don't know
14:14I'm so out of it I can't hear anything I
14:17can't see anything I'm shut down next
14:19thing I know he rips the door open and
14:21grabs me by the shirt front and rips me
14:24out of the car and starts yelling at me
14:26but it's all gibberish then he put his
14:29forearm against my for my throat and
14:32pushed my head back against the roof of
14:34the car and I'm choking and in one Fell
14:38Swoop smash knocked his arm away from me
14:42he reaches into his belt and takes the
14:45night stick out but I'm on it and I take
14:48the stick out of his hand and went like
14:50that I was like what the [ __ ] are you
14:51doing like I'm I remember just yelling
14:53them why and then he went for me and
14:56then he stopped and he went down like
14:58this with a gun and I was like whoa and
15:01I reached out and I put both hands on
15:05his wrist
15:06and I swear to God all I wanted was to
15:10just stop everything
15:12but the gun went off
15:15now we're stuck
15:17in that moment as soon as the gun went
15:20off and I felt it percussed all around
15:22my body
15:24I let go and I just started yelling okay
15:27okay okay he put the pistol under my
15:31mouth put me into the back seat of the
15:33car a while yelling you stupid son of a
15:35[ __ ] you could have got us both killed
15:37slams the door
15:40he gets in the front seat he closes the
15:42door we're sitting on top of the I-95
15:46overpass
15:47there's cars going underneath and he's
15:49in the car and he looks at me in the
15:52mirror
15:53and he's Furious man like he was when he
15:56ripped the door open
15:58he grabs the microphone and I'm waiting
16:01for him to tell what happened
16:03and he goes into actor mode shots fired
16:06shots fired officer assists I'm under
16:09attack help help and then he drops the
16:11mic
16:12I'm like what the [ __ ] what's this guy
16:15doing
16:17got out of the car and he paced back and
16:20forth a Paddy Wagon came with officers
16:23in another car
16:24I hear him outside the car this
16:26[ __ ] tried to kill me I got my
16:28gun back off him I should have shot him
16:30in his head and all this I'm like oh no
16:34like this ain't what happened like
16:37I'm 20 years old man I'm a junkie from
16:41Philly I just got caught in another
16:43stolen car
16:45nobody's going to believe [ __ ] I got to
16:47say
16:49they open the back seat of the door Up
16:51drag them out of the cop car beat the
16:53[ __ ] out of me put in the wagon took me
16:57down
16:58and they put in the county jail in
17:00Chester
17:01there was a African-American Sergeant on
17:04duty name red a big mountain of a man
17:09he told them they were not going to hang
17:12me like right in front of them oh no you
17:15ain't hanging this boy
17:17I don't care what you said he'd done
17:19y'all don't got him good they beat my
17:21ass real good
17:23he said but you wait
17:25you let him go before the court you get
17:27his photographs you don't do nothing you
17:29don't touch this boy
17:32Benny right was the son of the former
17:34mayor so he was well connected
17:38I stood next to skip to Mario public
17:41defender at 3 45 A.M
17:44according to my paperwork
17:46and was read the following charges of
17:48attempted murder kidnapping of a police
17:51officer aggravated assault possession of
17:54a firearm by a convicted felon
17:57um and uh reckless endangerment
18:01I was told that I was going to be held
18:04with one hundred thousand dollars bail
18:06and placed into the Broad Meadows prison
18:08and the high security unit
18:10and that I would be facing life
18:13imprisonment if I was convicted of these
18:16charges
18:17it was three days before Christmas man I
18:21lost it
18:24I went to Broad Meadows prison and the
18:26euphemism that they had back then was
18:29drug treatment was three days of
18:31intensive cell therapy
18:34they put you in a cell and they lock the
18:38door and they let you detox
18:40and I crashed and I crashed hard
18:43in my cell the only thing I had was that
18:46December 15th Delaware County newspaper
18:49with the front page missing and on page
18:52three
18:53the headline that kept bugging the hell
18:56out of me for some reason because I
18:58couldn't avoid reading it over and over
18:59like we do when we're stuck in a toilet
19:01we'll read the sign over and over
19:08missing woman
19:10police have mystery I'm looking at this
19:13case for some reason I don't know why
19:15I'm sitting there facing life
19:17imprisonment from a lie and in my head I
19:20stupidly concoct this idea
19:23well if the game is all based on Who
19:25Lies the best I'ma make up a lion get
19:28out of this I'm gonna concoct a story
19:30and say somebody did this crime like in
19:35this newspaper and then when I get out
19:38I'm out of here I'm running
19:40this is the stupid mentality of a 20
19:43year old drug addict
19:45so
19:46a year before all of this happens
19:49I was abducted by a couple of guys in
19:52Philadelphia beaten with my own pistol
19:55rolled up in a rug and driven around in
19:58a pickup truck until they decided to
20:00dump me behind the old Westinghouse
20:01Warehouse down by the Delaware River
20:05oh
20:06I had heard that the man who
20:08orchestrated the attack Jimmy had died
20:11of a drug overdose but it wasn't it was
20:13his brother Joseph
20:14the guy telling me the story was telling
20:18me as a Grace to have me not obsessively
20:21keep hunting for this guy Thinking by
20:23telling me Jimmy's dead I'd give up
20:25because that's all I talked about
20:31I went to the police and I told them
20:34that Jimmy had committed the murder and
20:36confessed it to me after he was out
20:38stealing cars
20:41the police initially believed me they
20:43took me out of solitary confinement and
20:45they told me that they'd spoken to
20:46officer Wright who was willing to drop
20:49my charges down to resisting arrest and
20:52I would be prosecuted for the stolen car
20:54in Philadelphia if all of this was true
20:57that I was telling them to help solve
21:00this enormous case
21:02I went from sitting in solitary
21:04confinement on D Block in broadmeadows
21:08prison to be taken to the warden's
21:10office and told I had a deal on the
21:13table I could be released in three days
21:16all they had to do was verify what I
21:19said
21:20I was like so close to believing this
21:22myself
21:25three days later the police came back to
21:27me and there was no Smiles no free soft
21:30drinks no accolades about me doing good
21:33community service
21:36they wanted to know why
21:39and when I told him I lied because of
21:41what our officer Wright lied about they
21:43said no no no no no no no
21:45we don't want to hear that [ __ ]
21:48officer writes pressing charges to the
21:50fullest amount you're going to be put
21:51away for life
21:53and
21:54we're going to strap you into the
21:56electric chair for killing that woman
21:57because we know you did it and you came
22:00to us to tell us it but you just didn't
22:02have the courage
22:04we know you have a troubled childhood
22:06and you've been in and out of the
22:07juvenile system for years we know it was
22:09you
22:13I couldn't believe this
22:20[Music]
22:39I couldn't believe in an instant
22:42the detectives
22:44had formulated this idea that it had to
22:48have been me
22:49I had made this one detective Randy
22:52Martin so angry that when they took me
22:55out and interrogated me for 13 hours
23:00and I refused to tell them anything
23:03other than I was sorry I lied
23:06I was messed up
23:09they brought me back to the Delaware
23:11County Prison
23:13and he gave me a hug in front of the
23:15Pagan motorcycle prisoners who were in
23:18the process unit and told me thanks for
23:21that information Nick we're going to go
23:22kick some doors in boy and I was stunned
23:25I was like what what do you they set me
23:27up
23:29I go back to b d block in Broad Motors
23:32prison and the next morning I get bleach
23:36and urine thrown in my face a guy tries
23:39to put my eye out with a sharpened broom
23:41and there's four Dudes outside my cell
23:44trying to kill me
23:45call me a rat
23:47saying that they saw me with the CID and
23:50that they know it's me
23:52I can't believe that they did this
23:54Sinister thing where the police set me
23:57up to be pressurized inside the prison
24:00knowing I have a mental disorder knowing
24:04that I'm weak and vulnerable and for a
24:07week I got abused every time I came out
24:10myself I fought just one thing
24:13I was getting in the shower
24:15see dudes was going buying gas in me man
24:18throwing milk cartons of urine and feces
24:21at my cell I had to put my mattress up
24:24against the door and block it for as
24:26long as I could stand up and then when
24:27they kicked my door whoever was outside
24:30I was [ __ ] them up
24:33I don't care if you did anything to me
24:35or not I was getting somebody
24:36because I had to send a message to these
24:39guys
24:40and I go in the shower and wash off and
24:43go back to my stinking cell and lock the
24:45door I did that for a week and then I
24:47hung myself the guard caught me
24:50hanging from the radiator cut me down
24:52and said no no no no no you're not
24:55cheating the state of Pennsylvania
24:57we don't allow that
24:59they took me to the hospital and
25:01strapped me down on all fours and let my
25:03mom visit me and while I was getting a
25:05visit from my mom guys were going by
25:07getting her medication and they were
25:09touching themselves and saying all kind
25:10of lewd things about me and my mother
25:14my mother at that time said to me Nikki
25:17I don't know
25:20what you're doing
25:23but I do know this I need you
25:26to never hurt yourself
25:29you you're my gift
25:31to life
25:33everything that you are is a gift
25:39so I swore her I wouldn't kill myself
25:40after that
25:43they went back to the block
25:45and they put a guy in a Cell next to me
25:47from one night named Charles catalino
25:50Charles was convicted of burglarizing
25:53the prosecutor's home of Delaware County
25:56where we were at
25:58he was convicted of a jury and he was
26:00facing 20 years in prison for this
26:02conviction
26:04one night he was in a Cell next to me
26:06then they moved me out of the jail and
26:08put me in Chester County Prison and I
26:10was charged with the rape and murder of
26:12Mrs Craig a woman I never met I only
26:15read about a newspaper
26:17Charles said that I confess to him of
26:20the rape and murder
26:21so that I was worried about my blood
26:23being found on the on the scene
26:26and um
26:27that I I did it all because I was
26:30despondent over me and my girlfriend
26:32Terry breaking up
26:34the police used this as the onus to
26:37charge me no weapon no murder weapon no
26:40Witnesses
26:42a jailhouse confession
26:45another lie
26:48I was given a trial for the Benny Wright
26:50charges for the attempted murder and I
26:52was acquitted by the jury after only 20
26:55minutes of deliberation why it was
26:58simple
26:59Benny Wright just made up a story and he
27:02had this notion that by getting at me in
27:06court
27:06by expounding upon and lying further
27:12he could get at me in the courtroom
27:15he saw me get upset when he first
27:17started telling the lion he got so much
27:19schadenfreude enjoyment from it he kept
27:22lying
27:23he told the jury that when he pulled me
27:26over I jumped out of the car before he
27:29had a chance to look up from his log
27:31book
27:32and rip him out of the car punched him
27:35in his face broke his eyeglasses then I
27:38took the gun out of his holster and beat
27:40him with it and I was holding the gun up
27:42ready to blow his brains out when he
27:45heroically reached up and took the gun
27:47off me and subdued me
27:50that's the story Benny Wright told the
27:53jury
27:55my lawyer only asked him a few questions
27:57and one of them was
28:00you took a photograph of your hand
28:02showing where you were cut where Mr
28:05Yaris took the gun off of you
28:08then he hit you in the face with it
28:10after punching you and breaking your
28:12eyeglasses
28:14you were so astute to take that
28:15photograph of your hand
28:17why didn't you photograph your face
28:19where you did all the damage with a
28:21pistol
28:22and he froze
28:24officer Wright knew right then and there
28:26at that moment The Jig was up because
28:28how do you answer that and he had no
28:31answers so he said look I'm a good
28:33looking man I don't have to answer that
28:34I didn't want to see I didn't want
28:36people to see me with bruises on my face
28:38okay
28:39but Jerry's like nah you went out of
28:43your way to make a photograph of that
28:44man taking a gun off you by a scratch
28:48but you didn't want nobody to see where
28:51he hit you you would have wanted us to
28:53see that so that's why they acquitted me
28:55of all the charges of attempted murder
28:57and everything
28:59the case was being prosecuted by a man
29:01by the name of Barry gross assistant
29:03prosecutor he went berserk in the
29:06courtroom
29:07he took the case File and threw it
29:09against the wall
29:11he turned right as I was leaving and he
29:13said [ __ ] you'll never leave
29:15this County alive
29:19Barry gross had nothing to do with the
29:21homicide prosecution it was being
29:23handled by someone else at that time but
29:26after the acquittal by the jury he took
29:29over the murder prosecution that I was
29:31charged with of Linda May Craig and then
29:34for the first time ever began seeking
29:36the death penalty
29:38the judge took over the trial as well
29:43Robert F Kelly wasn't even supposed to
29:45be my trial judge but he took that over
29:47too so
29:49he privately told
29:52my lawyer he blamed himself for my
29:54acquittal because they didn't mention I
29:56was in a stolen car as if that had
29:58anything to do with this man lying on
30:00the stand
30:01they were going to put me up against the
30:03death penalty because they knew when you
30:06select a death-prone jury you're 90
30:08percent more likely to get any kind of
30:10conviction instead of missing out again
30:15at the age of 21 I was given a three-day
30:18murder trial in Delaware County
30:20I knew it was a three-day murder trial
30:21because his honor opened and remarks to
30:23the jury and told them listen
30:26I know you all have a Monumental worry
30:29before you
30:31that this weekend is the Fourth of July
30:33holiday weekend
30:35but I got good news for you all I'm
30:38gonna have this trial over and you will
30:41be home to celebrate with your family
30:43this week and I'm not going to sequester
30:45you
30:47it was Tuesday when he told him that
30:50they were trying to get out of there by
30:52Friday
30:55the trial really hinged only on he said
30:59she said words
31:01but one factor
31:04there was photographs taken Where Mrs
31:06Craig was found in the snow after she
31:08was abducted in the state of Delaware
31:11where she had been kidnapped
31:14driven into Pennsylvania where she was
31:16sexually assaulted and then stabbed and
31:19dumped in the snow where she was
31:20discovered by two young boys the next
31:22day
31:24the photograph was black and white
31:26[Music]
31:27and the horror of it was
31:30you could see the children's footprints
31:32right next to where the body was were
31:34deep red
31:36eventually fading out
31:38and in Terror they ran in different ways
31:42so for all the world it looked like an
31:44angel
31:46laying in the snow from above where they
31:48photographed it
31:51they showed that photograph after
31:53showing Mrs Craig on the autopsy table
31:56and they got away with it all by saying
31:59that since the photographs were black
32:00and white that would not excite the
32:02passions of the jury to show them the
32:05disfigurement of a woman laying there
32:07with six visible stab wounds
32:11all I knew was that the jury couldn't
32:13look at me after they looked at those
32:15photographs
32:17prior to that they did
32:20in fact everyone stopped being able to
32:23look me in the eye
32:24I kept challenging people I was so
32:27indignant I'm like what are you doing I
32:29didn't kill anyone
32:32but when you're 21 years old no one has
32:34any time for you
32:37the jury
32:38took the time to go to the Wagon Wheel
32:40restaurant
32:42after convicting me of murder and rape
32:47to have dinner
32:49they were making sure they was getting
32:50us over
32:53the Eerie thing was there was a huge
32:56storm that came through the Delaware
32:58Valley and a boat of lightning
33:01hit the courthouse and knocked the power
33:03out
33:05it was like my Marley moment
33:11I couldn't believe that I was being
33:13escorted through these clig lights up to
33:15a holding cell and I was watching people
33:18out in the courtyards of the building
33:21that had been emptied after the court
33:23been struck by the lightning
33:26they looked up and they saw me
33:29some of them waved some jeered
33:32I knew some
33:34I waited
33:37I knew that the jury had gone off to eat
33:39they asked me if I wanted something
33:41myself and I said no
33:44they said Well when the jury comes back
33:47they'll have
33:50gotten things done
33:52and the sheriff said I can't believe it
33:55and he kept saying this to me I can't
33:57believe and I said to him what do you
33:58mean sir that they found me good he goes
34:00no
34:01when they were over there
34:04deliberating for you to be convicted
34:07they were having dinner
34:08and some of them had the nerve to ask
34:11the waiters to hold on to their desserts
34:14so that after they came back and read my
34:16verdict they could go back and
34:18deliberate whether or not to put me to
34:20death while they had to deserve
34:25I don't know
34:27I went back in the courtroom and I
34:29waited for someone to look in my eye
34:31and the judge when he sentenced me to
34:34death
34:34couldn't look me in the eye
34:38he said to me are you finished when I
34:41told him look you know it's obvious I
34:44didn't kill anyone I was home with my
34:46mother my father and my sister having
34:49dinner
34:5128 miles away from the murder scene
34:54there's no possible way with a bank
34:57receipt at 3 pm that day that this
35:00murder happens at 405 that I I'm
35:02anywhere near Delaware killing this
35:05woman
35:05but he couldn't look me in the face
35:08and he said do you have anything else to
35:10say I said yeah you can go to hell look
35:12at me you can't even look me in your eye
35:14and you're about to sentence me to die
35:15and you can't look me in the eye you can
35:17go to hell
35:19that's all the newspaper group
35:21defiant murderer tells judge go to hell
35:26oh man when they got me into State
35:28Penitentiary oh
35:31I was the second youngest person ever
35:34sentenced to die in Pennsylvania there
35:36was only 27 of us
35:38and
35:40I made the mistake of getting into an
35:43altercation with a correctional officer
35:46who was teaching me about Christianity
35:49by strip searching me with his fellow
35:52officer sticking his fingers in my anus
35:55and then rubbing them on my face and
35:57telling me about Jesus
35:59so I punched them
36:02hard as I [ __ ] could to
36:05and it was worth the beating and getting
36:07locked up but they blamed that as one of
36:10the reasons they locked down
36:11Pennsylvania's death row so I had no
36:13friends on death row they sent me to
36:15Huntington prison
36:17Huntington State Prison
36:20in the early 80s was the only prison
36:23ever condemned by the United Nations for
36:26its active practices of torture
36:31if you spoke in your cell and you broke
36:35the silence rule four Burly guards in
36:39riot gear rush into your cell with a
36:43nurse who's wearing a helmet and a black
36:45vest
36:47she's got a needle in her hand full of
36:50Thorazine 1 000 milligrams she rushes in
36:54when they got you down and Jabs you in
36:56the ass and says it's done
36:58and you're left like a drooling monster
37:02you just oh my God so for a week of your
37:05life you can't even talk because you're
37:07so high off of Thorazine it takes
37:10forever for that drug to get out of your
37:11system
37:13now if that didn't work they upped the
37:16next level
37:17so they had a
37:20a cell built out of glass bricks
37:26the object was keep the light on 24
37:29hours a day put you in that cell because
37:33they got tired of hitting you with the
37:35Thorazine
37:37and make you do a head count every 15
37:39minutes for a week
37:41that means you have to get up stand at
37:45attention and be counted every 15
37:49minutes
37:51after about a week of that you go into
37:54white out
37:56white out is when you no longer have
38:00consciousness of your surroundings and
38:03this is what they were doing to
38:04prisoners at Huntington when I got there
38:07they took everybody else off the bus
38:09they lined me up against the wall and
38:12the lieutenant explained the rules to me
38:14that I wasn't allowed to speak of myself
38:16and when I stupidly broke the rules by
38:19saying yes sir
38:21he backhanded me
38:24he went on to tell me that I was dead
38:27and that everybody I knew or loved was
38:29dead and dead men didn't speak in his
38:32unit
38:34snapped his fingers and said 30 seconds
38:37and that's when they pounced they beat
38:39me for 30 seconds with clubs hold your
38:42breath for 30 seconds that's a challenge
38:44hold on to your sanity while men are
38:46ripping it into your legs with Riot
38:49sticks professionally whacking you
38:52all right
38:54throw me in a cell and the nurse comes
38:57up and by wrote starts reading off the
38:59process unit intake paperwork that I
39:02need to use to see a doctor
39:04a dc-138
39:07-8 medical form would be provided to me
39:11if I needed to see a doctor I'm standing
39:14there willing this lady to look at me
39:16just look at my face lady look at the
39:18blood look at what they just did to me
39:20she had her head down she would not look
39:23up so I refused to answer her hoping to
39:27get her to look at me and she knew the
39:30routine
39:32the guard would wait and say inmate
39:35makes no response and she'd read off the
39:38next thing and make makes no response
39:41then I was finally at the end of that
39:43handed a form of where to put my where
39:46to send my body or
39:49put my body when I was done after they
39:52executed me
39:54I'm 21 years old I'm thinking how the
39:57hell can I live where I can't talk
39:59and
40:01it's all a joke
40:04so I used to sit in my cell and beat my
40:06head against the wall
40:08I thought at first
40:11if I stayed on it if I stayed Street
40:13angry ain't no [ __ ] gonna break
40:16me like that
40:18stupid mentality
40:23I remember they'd have to patch my head
40:26up
40:27take me to the triage
40:30for all the times I beat my head open
40:34and I was taken there by a guard an OG
40:37guard been there for a long time and he
40:39kind of took pity on me
40:42we were coming back past a cell that was
40:45empty from a man that killed himself by
40:47jumping off the top tier
40:49and he said boy go in that cell get some
40:51of them books that'll stop you from
40:53being angry
40:55so I walked in hurriedly grabbed five
40:58books that weren't urine stained or
41:01ruined and I ended up with an amazing
41:04treasure
41:07and I went back to my soul
41:10and I began working as best as I could
41:13on my own
41:15because of one thing
41:18I was tired of being humiliated by not
41:21being able to process language and
41:23having people speak over to my
41:26intelligence level
41:29words flew past my ears at my own trial
41:33and it was devastating to have your life
41:35decided when you were
41:38guttural you spoke an ugly form
41:46it took me a long time to start off and
41:49I had so many headaches
41:52having aphasia
41:55I also discovered that I have a a weird
41:58form
41:59of Dyslexia where I can't visualize
42:03numbers
42:05how the hell am I going to deal with
42:07this like if
42:09I know it's described to me you know six
42:12with the three or you know six times
42:15three people can do the calculation in
42:17their head they can see it you know it's
42:1918 right
42:21when I had to take middle blue and
42:24second red
42:25put them together and times them because
42:28I had to contrive
42:30an ability in my brain to do math
42:35by coming up with number systems at one
42:38three five
42:39seven and nine are all various types of
42:42red
42:43and two four six and eight are various
42:47types of blue
42:49with the zero being black I can come up
42:53with math in my brain so I knew I wasn't
42:56stupid I I knew I was kind of bright
43:02I also had the devastating
43:06thing of being assigned public defenders
43:09to defend me on appeal
43:11who didn't believe in me
43:13my first attorney told me he was an
43:16ex-military officer and he supported the
43:17death penalty but he was filing my
43:20appeal
43:21perfunctory
43:23he didn't care about me and he didn't
43:25want me to waste his time trying to tell
43:26him I was guilty I mean not guilty
43:29because he had gone through the records
43:32and he thought it was a solid conviction
43:35the best he had hoped for is just to get
43:37me a life sentence so I could live out
43:38my remaining years in prison and not
43:41rape and kill anybody else he said
43:43[Music]
43:45I couldn't believe that I had waited
43:48through two years of Silence to meet my
43:50first lawyer and he tells me all this
43:52crap
43:54I knew I had to become clever I had to
43:58educate myself because
44:01Not only was the system willing to
44:03squash me like a bug and play with me
44:05but anybody they gave me for help was
44:09going to be a joke
44:13I started
44:15I tried
44:17and then
44:20the appeal was filed and I'm being taken
44:23to court in 1985
44:25I can't believe that this guy filed the
44:27appeal the state supreme court said he
44:29was right that I should have never been
44:31convicted of rape I mean kidnapping rape
44:34and robbery altogether as the underlying
44:38aggravating crimes that led to me being
44:41sentenced to death because those crimes
44:43happened in the state of Delaware
44:46she was abducted in the state of
44:48Delaware I could not be convicted of
44:50kidnapping in Pennsylvania
44:53I was going to get off of that floor at
44:56least at a minimum
44:58I'm going to be given an evidentiary
45:00hearing on all 33 pages of the homicide
45:03file that disappeared when I became the
45:06prime suspect and all of the material
45:08related to the actual suspect is gone
45:12I'm so eager to get the court I can't
45:15believe it in February of 1985
45:19I'm being transported from Death Row to
45:22court
45:23and we stopped to go to the toilet
45:26and in a series of Hazard
45:29crazy
45:31unpredictable circumstances
45:34I escaped from death row and I end up on
45:36the FBI's most wanted list for the next
45:3925 days
45:41this is crazy
45:43I'm going to take a piss at a gas
45:46station in Sub-Zero temperatures the
45:51coldest night of the year I'm wearing
45:52prison shoes prison trousers a prison
45:55shirt
45:57I ain't thinking about anything but
45:59going into the cubicle and urinating and
46:02getting my ass back in the car
46:04while I was taking a piss
46:06the officer who went over with me
46:10stood and held the top of the door open
46:13so he could watch me
46:16but standing there his bladder gave away
46:19and he had to go so bad he made a
46:22decision to let me just go back to the
46:24car by myself
46:25he was too far away to say anything to
46:27his partner
46:29I came out I went under his arm I ducked
46:32down
46:33I went back to the car and I'm doing
46:36that weird thing because my hands are
46:38cuffed
46:39and he's not behind me but I don't know
46:42it the officer in front of me who was
46:44smoking a cigarette looked up and saw me
46:47trotting at him in the dark doesn't see
46:51his partner and freaks and he pulls the
46:53gun like that and when he went with the
46:55gun pulling out I said what are you
46:57doing and
46:58bam like no warning no halt none of that
47:03television bam the first shot went off
47:05and I turned and I ran
47:07oh my God
47:09I ran but my arms are cuffed I can't get
47:14the normal Locomotion that we do when we
47:17run and I'm going downhill and I fell
47:20when he fired the second shot I went
47:23down and I lost all the skin off my
47:25hands and it was so painful it jolted me
47:28awake like wait a minute man this is it
47:31go
47:32I ran
47:34just like a street kid a hundred yards
47:37to the right there was a gas station no
47:40cars available I ran another 100 yards
47:43to the right I ran another 100 yards to
47:47the right and I ended up right behind
47:49the cop car that I just got out of and
47:51escaped and I watched them shouting at
47:54each other and going back and forth
47:57while I was laying in the grass no more
47:59than 40 yards from them
48:02I took off my prison eyeglasses I was
48:04hyperventilating I started vomiting I
48:06couldn't stop vomiting from the shock
48:09and then I got myself together I took
48:12the end off of my eyeglasses and I took
48:14the handcuffs off
48:17having worn a handcuffs for years I
48:20learned how to get out of them
48:22I took my cuffs off I put them in my
48:24pocket
48:25and I looked up and there was a flag on
48:28a building and I I knew it was a
48:30municipal building and it was a
48:33police station so I actually went and
48:37navigated around the gas station in the
48:40woods and the weeds and I crawled behind
48:42the police station I hid there but it
48:45was so cold that where I was hiding was
48:48water that was frozen and I was hiding
48:52down in this recessed area by the
48:54building
48:55and I just kept getting the body shakes
48:58and freezing and freezing I couldn't
49:00take it anymore
49:01when I was convulsing from the cold so
49:04badly that it was breaking my ribs
49:06almost I jumped up and I took off to the
49:09parking lot and someone in the building
49:11saw me and they called in the helicopter
49:13and for the next five hours I was chased
49:16by this very dedicated pilot
49:20at one point
49:22I was running
49:24and
49:25it was the end of a parking lot there
49:28was so much snow
49:30that when the plows had been pushing the
49:33snow they made a gap in the fence
49:36I didn't know this I was running
49:39full on as fast as I could with the
49:42helicopter blades down on me down on me
49:46like that as soon as I hit the back end
49:49I slid for like 20 yards and I saw the
49:52fence come on at me and I put my arms up
49:55and I dropped because it had been so
49:58much of a gap I didn't even hit the
49:59fence and I slid down and I ended up
50:02jumping up and running to the right and
50:04hiding under this tractor trailer and he
50:07kept circling and circling and he
50:09couldn't find me and I made it out of
50:11there and I went across this parking lot
50:14and I found some railroad tracks
50:16and I walked on broken feet with both
50:20hamstrings strings pulled
50:23and I couldn't believe it I made it five
50:26miles to Fraser Pennsylvania
50:29where in the parking lot there was a
50:311965 green Fastback Mustang I hot-wired
50:36the car
50:37I drove to Darby Pennsylvania
50:40and I got a coin out of the car seat and
50:44I called a family member and I asked
50:46them for help
50:48I got some money off of them some
50:51bandages and a hat from the Philadelphia
50:54Eagles football team
50:57and I drove to New York City in that car
51:01right away leaving the area
51:05I went up to New York
51:06and at the time you could get a flop
51:08House hotel room for fourteen dollars in
51:11the Bowery
51:13I got a room
51:15I got a loaf of bread some lunch meat
51:18and a box of Epsom salt and I sat in
51:20that room for days picking institutional
51:23clothing out of my ripped up flesh
51:27my face and everything was just torn up
51:31so bad from just running blind Terror
51:34through the woods
51:36[Music]
51:37a couple days later I came out of my
51:39hotel and I was walking on Madison
51:43and I saw all the Macy's display windows
51:46with televisions and I saw the news
51:48reports of me on some of the channels
51:51and I started freaking out and I was
51:54wondering if everybody was like able to
51:55just look at me and say hey that's you
51:57but nobody even was looking you know
52:00so I I went down to the West Village and
52:03I was walking around and I saw this two
52:06men in the window
52:08of a uh hair salon
52:12and they were talking amicably and
52:14nicely
52:15and in an instant it just came to me
52:18I burst into the door and I was like
52:21please please can you help me can you
52:23help me he keeps beating me look what
52:25he's done to me and they were like oh oh
52:27my God who's doing it I said my
52:29boyfriend look what he's done to me they
52:31sat me in the chair
52:33they they permed my hair dyed it black
52:37taught me how to put makeup on in two
52:40and a half hours after I did that stunt
52:42I walked out of there without paying him
52:44a penny and I looked completely
52:47different
52:49I was gone
52:51I had black curly hair
52:53different eyeglasses for fifty dollars
52:56from a shop they recommended me to
52:59I couldn't believe it
53:01I went to Laguardia Airport after I
53:04stole a guy's coat that had his wallet
53:07in it and I got on an airplane with no
53:10photographic identification anything
53:12needed back then
53:14and I flew to Orlando Florida and I went
53:17looking for a pawn shop so I could sell
53:20this fur coat that I stole in New York
53:21City out of a a restaurant and I'm
53:24thinking get out of America man just go
53:30I don't know
53:32it was too hard
53:34like I I was I was complexly blown away
53:37at one point I met this girl and I hung
53:42out with her at her mom's a little like
53:44business
53:45and we had amazing time together and she
53:48invites me to her house the next day and
53:50I I say yeah but when I get there it's
53:51dinner like I thought go get you know
53:54pick her up I ended up while on Escape
53:57being a dinner guest for a family who
54:01later on when they found out who I was
54:03her mom said I was still the most polite
54:05boy she had ever brought home man it was
54:07that kind of crazy I can't explain it
54:09but like I was trying not to get caught
54:12up in being normalized I was trying to
54:14also not think about any minute they're
54:17going to catch me they're going to blow
54:18my brains out and all this you know
54:20oh
54:22I'm sitting on the one in Florida and
54:26there's a Navy Army Navy Store
54:30and it's got the big rubber yellow raft
54:32in the window
54:34and I had a plan
54:36I was going to go in that store
54:39and I was going to buy that raft
54:42and then I was going to get all my
54:44favorite treats and I was going to
54:46paddle out into the shipping lanes
54:48I was going to have one amazing meal
54:50watching the sunset in Florida
54:53then I was going to cut my wrist wait
54:56for the Sharks to show up I was going to
54:58blow my brains out because I didn't want
55:00my family to see me in handcuffs ever
55:02again
55:06then part of me said man
55:09then you're always going to beat it in
55:12history that murderer that's all you'll
55:14ever be man
55:16from coward that ran
55:19so I turned myself back in they couldn't
55:21believe it
55:23the Volusia County Jail had me under the
55:25charges of a stolen car and I had to
55:27bail money I was ready to leave I got
55:29tired of I couldn't do this no more
55:32I called my dad I said poppy do me a
55:35favor
55:36I need you to call the FBI and tell them
55:38I'm in the Volusia County Jail I'm under
55:41the name Daniel Joseph Corbett I'm being
55:44held for 500 I've got fifteen hundred
55:46dollars on me I can get out of here
55:48right now
55:49I want to come home I want to fight this
55:51thing
55:53he said you sure
55:54I said yeah he said all right hang up
55:57next thing I knew all the guards in the
56:00prison ran to get me man strip me naked
56:03chained me up and walked me through the
56:05female wing of the prison to get to the
56:08high security unit
56:10I was holding my junk rattling and
56:13rolling man it was crazy
56:16so I get put on Florida's death row
56:20and end up next to coward asked Ted
56:22Bundy for eight months in the heat
56:24there's no matches in Stark Florida
56:27prison
56:28they were blowing each other's heads off
56:31with handmade shotguns by taking sulfur
56:35and Flint from the striker of books of
56:39matches until you had enough to make
56:41powder and then getting Pebbles and
56:43glass and taking a metal pipe and
56:47crimping off one end melting a spoon
56:50around the hole that you've managed to
56:52dig into the pipe so sticking an
56:55electrical cord into that hole and
56:58wrapping the other one around the
57:00exterior of that pipe and then when
57:02someone walks past your cell you plug
57:04the cord into the wall
57:07and the electricity ignites the charge
57:10and you blow someone's head off
57:13I was on top of Q wing three stories
57:17above Yellow Mama the electric chair
57:21and I had to
57:24The Misfortune of sitting there
57:27listening
57:29through the vents to [ __ ] Bundy cry
57:32about anything he could [ __ ] about
57:35while no one had any time for him
57:38because he had made it known that he had
57:41sex on a visit they took all the dudes
57:43visits off of death row so everybody
57:46on the wing wanted to kill his little
57:48[ __ ] ass
57:52I went back to Pennsylvania I ruined my
57:54appeals everything was screwed up bad
57:59there was no such thing as death row
58:02Florida added 35 years to my sentences
58:05so
58:07in 1987 I was sitting in Pennsylvania's
58:11death row with 105 years of sentences
58:15plus the death penalty
58:17and I had no hope that was it I was done
58:23so the strangest thing happens is this
58:27whole case began with a newspaper left
58:29in a cell that I was initially arrested
58:32in and
58:34a convicted serial rapist by the name of
58:37Dennis Sheffield is throwing away a
58:39newspaper
58:40and he asked me if I wanted it and I had
58:43the guard pass it to me and it was the
58:45Philadelphia Inquirer and on the front
58:47section of the
58:49Science and Technology was a photograph
58:53of Sir Alec Jeffries and his invention
58:56of DNA science and how courts in Florida
59:01had just convicted a man by proving it
59:04was his DNA
59:06based on the work of Sir Alec Jeffries
59:09back in England solving the Colin
59:12Pitchfork murder case in leicestershire
59:15by gathering all the blood samples of
59:18men between a certain age in the village
59:20and showing it was Colin that did the
59:24murder
59:25I was like oh my God are you kidding me
59:28they gotta now this is the craziest
59:30thing I was partially convicted because
59:33whoever killed and then raped Mrs Craig
59:36had B positive blood
59:39I have B positive blood and I'm a
59:42secreter of that antigen but in the 19
59:44early 80s that didn't really do you know
59:48Define it DNA changed everything I was
59:51shaken with joy I was so sure I could
59:53prove my innocence I was the very first
59:57prisoner
59:58in America to seek DNA testing from
1:00:01Death Row in 1988.
1:00:04no other prisoner on death row at that
1:00:07time had ever sought DNA testing no
1:00:10other convicted prisoner at that time
1:00:12had filed anything in February 88
1:00:16I had the honor and horrible distinction
1:00:19of being the first man to try and prove
1:00:23his innocence with DNA
1:00:26I didn't know right at that moment it
1:00:29was going to take me 15 agonizing years
1:00:32from that moment for DNA to be relevant
1:00:36in my life
1:00:38I only knew that they were going to
1:00:41orchestrate an effort to Murder Me by
1:00:45destroying evidence
1:00:49my first lawyer Joe Bullard told me to
1:00:53that the the coroner was so eager to see
1:00:56that this would be done his office would
1:00:58be part of the first case in America
1:01:02and that I should call him back on a
1:01:03Monday morning so that they could they
1:01:06could discuss which laboratory the
1:01:09evidence would be shipped to because he
1:01:10just got off the phone remember with the
1:01:12coroner who said they had all of the
1:01:15autopsy material from the Linda May
1:01:17Craig homicide available for DNA testing
1:01:22I got on the phone Monday
1:01:25and it was a different Joe
1:01:29he said I spoke to the corner just 15
1:01:31minutes ago ignoring what I'm saying
1:01:33about this or that
1:01:37and the coroners found out that all of
1:01:39the evidence has been destroyed sorry Mr
1:01:41Harris
1:01:43they don't know what happened to it
1:01:44they've gone through all their files
1:01:46I said how can I be on death row if
1:01:48there's no evidence to prove me guilty
1:01:50then because it doesn't work that way
1:01:52they had the evidence to convict you
1:01:54they don't need to keep it I said this
1:01:57doesn't make a decision
1:01:58so I was starting to yell I wanted to
1:02:01get upset but
1:02:02I'm in a unit where
1:02:05if I raised my voice the guard standing
1:02:08behind me are just going to lash into my
1:02:10thighs with those like those sticks
1:02:14I let it go man I
1:02:16hung the phone up I went back to my cell
1:02:19you know I was
1:02:20so angry that all the evidence was gone
1:02:27and I kept saying be positive
1:02:30who got me here right
1:02:32be positive
1:02:35well
1:02:38I picked up my trial notes and I started
1:02:41reading them
1:02:43and in what's called sidebar where the
1:02:46defendants never present
1:02:49conversations were had prior to
1:02:52Witnesses and this one little footnote
1:02:56Dr Muhammad Tahir
1:02:59National Medical Services
1:03:02Willow Grove Pennsylvania
1:03:05before he testified
1:03:07about the B positive blood groups
1:03:09because they were asked to do the
1:03:12serological work
1:03:15he said he had numerous well-preserved
1:03:17slides at his lab
1:03:20and I went oh
1:03:22I wonder if he still has them
1:03:24so I wrote him a personal letter
1:03:26and I said dear doctor to hear I'm
1:03:29convicted of the Linda May Craig a
1:03:31homicide I hope you remember me but I
1:03:33was wondering did you keep the evidence
1:03:35from that case
1:03:36he wrote me back and said yeah I have it
1:03:38I was like wow he wrote me back on death
1:03:41row and said I do indeed have well
1:03:44preserved slides that have numerous
1:03:48well-preserved spermatozoa visible to
1:03:51the eye
1:03:52on them
1:03:54two detectives from the prosecutor's
1:03:56office went there without a court order
1:03:58and took that evidence and put that in
1:04:00her desk for the next three years
1:04:02when I finally got it back
1:04:05I couldn't believe in 1992 I got the
1:04:08federal court to finally listen to me
1:04:10and when the evidence came from Delaware
1:04:12County District Attorney's Office of the
1:04:15CID
1:04:16there was nothing left on those slides
1:04:19a detective named David Pfeiffer
1:04:22tried to murder me I knew right then it
1:04:25was going to be hard I knew I had no
1:04:27chance but I had to become seriously
1:04:29strong
1:04:30at that time I had just met a woman
1:04:32named Jackie
1:04:35I was so humiliated by being on death
1:04:38row by my own
1:04:41stupid making up of a story
1:04:44I was more embarrassed by that and I
1:04:46would rather have her think I was guilty
1:04:49that I didn't tell her I was innocent
1:04:51for six months
1:04:54imagine having feelings for someone
1:04:57and caring about them and they come and
1:05:00visit you and yet you don't have the
1:05:02courage to tell them you're innocent
1:05:05a because it would have been a huge
1:05:06emotional burden on them to know I was
1:05:08suffering all this for no reason and B
1:05:12you put yourself there by making up a
1:05:15stupid story
1:05:16huh
1:05:18I only told her because of the DNA
1:05:22and I thought
1:05:23this would work you know
1:05:25we contacted the Sally Jesse Raphael
1:05:28Show we tried to do the show together I
1:05:31kept contacting
1:05:33journalists and all of these
1:05:35organizations
1:05:37all these innocence projects and
1:05:40everyone turned me down
1:05:42it went on for years
1:05:45and Jackie
1:05:47came to visit me
1:05:48after nine years
1:05:51when I finally got the federal court to
1:05:54investigate and find the victim's
1:05:57clothes my mother recalled at the end of
1:05:59the trial they tried to give her the
1:06:00victim's clothes so we had a hearing and
1:06:03my mom was the hero of the day and found
1:06:06the evidence
1:06:09the evidence was being shipped to
1:06:11California so Dr Blake could test the
1:06:13evidence
1:06:14and it burst open in shipping and he
1:06:17refused to do the testing
1:06:19so all the evidence was officially
1:06:21deemed
1:06:23distorted or destroyed
1:06:27and Jackie God bless her
1:06:29came to see me I was up in Pittsburgh
1:06:31Penitentiary I was actually in the cell
1:06:34right next to the original Buffalo Bill
1:06:38Gary heidnick A Man Who Loved to abduct
1:06:41women and put them in the basement of
1:06:43his house and torture them
1:06:46I was surrounded by all these Mad Men
1:06:49like Gary and Jackie walks in and tells
1:06:52me
1:06:52you can't take it no more
1:06:54her mom was dying of emphysema she's got
1:06:58a house full of legal book boxes of my
1:07:00work
1:07:01and this ain't going nowhere and all the
1:07:04evidence is gone
1:07:05and she met someone named Bob and she
1:07:07thought she wanted to be happy
1:07:10and she had to go
1:07:14I was 39 years old
1:07:17I had just spent 18 years on death row
1:07:22nine of which I was deeply in love with
1:07:24this woman
1:07:27so
1:07:29I went on a mad journey of finishing my
1:07:33education
1:07:35and meanwhile I circumnavigated the
1:07:39planet by sending Snippets of my hair to
1:07:41pen pals all over the world thinking I
1:07:44would never
1:07:49see the ocean again
1:07:52and when I found out about DNA I thought
1:07:57[ __ ] it
1:07:59if I Gotta Die in here
1:08:03I'm gonna get some friends of mine to
1:08:06send my DNA all over the world
1:08:16but but I wasn't done with this journey
1:08:20and
1:08:21I started getting sick
1:08:25at one point in prison six two 240
1:08:29pounds I was working out on this amazing
1:08:32kundaliga yoga program taking care of
1:08:35myself
1:08:37I was doing good man I had a hustle I
1:08:40got two guys off a death row by doing
1:08:41their legal work for him
1:08:43I was well respected people who actually
1:08:47knew who I was and trusted who I was
1:08:52but I was I was diagnosed with Hepatitis
1:08:55C after a couple others on the unit died
1:08:57of it
1:08:59foreign
1:09:01when I came back from Escape in 1987 in
1:09:05Pennsylvania they beat me
1:09:07for four minutes and they broke my teeth
1:09:10and
1:09:11the dentist
1:09:12didn't change the suction return sleeves
1:09:17and he infected
1:09:2012 or 15 of us with this very viral
1:09:23strain of Hepatitis C
1:09:25so
1:09:27the euphemism name that we had for him
1:09:30was Doctor death because so many guys
1:09:31died in the dentist chair but here was a
1:09:33new level
1:09:34he gave us all hepatitis C
1:09:38now
1:09:40I listened in Greene County prison in
1:09:442002
1:09:46as Dale Carter convicted of rape and
1:09:49murder like me
1:09:50died in his cell
1:09:52[Music]
1:09:53the nurses would come to his soul
1:09:56and facetiously mock him Mr Carter
1:10:00would you like an aspirin would you like
1:10:02something for your pain
1:10:04and he would scream out [ __ ] you know
1:10:06I'm dying I need some morphine
1:10:09help me please don't let me suffer like
1:10:12this well you should have thought about
1:10:14that when you killed that woman Mr Miss
1:10:16Carter
1:10:17I bet you she suffered too
1:10:19and he'd walk on
1:10:22and I'm thinking no man don't let them
1:10:25do this to you Nikki
1:10:27you fought too hard to be somebody that
1:10:32you can respect and love don't
1:10:34[ __ ] let them do that to you
1:10:39watching Carter die
1:10:41gave me an idea
1:10:44you see the very first man in
1:10:47Pennsylvania's history in the modern era
1:10:49to be put to death was Keith zettelmeyer
1:10:52an absolute passive soul of a man they
1:10:56broke his hip up in Huntington prison
1:10:57where he did time with me up there by
1:10:59throwing him down a flight of metal
1:11:02steps
1:11:05Keith killed his Beth's friend
1:11:08they were doing burglaries together they
1:11:11got caught his friend told on a turn
1:11:14States evident
1:11:16Keith took his friend down to the river
1:11:18and shot him in the head
1:11:21other than that Keith wasn't no criminal
1:11:23he was a nice guy he was so sorry for
1:11:26what he did I never seen a man pray and
1:11:30worship God and
1:11:32seek forgiveness but he couldn't take it
1:11:34no more so he asked to be executed and I
1:11:37watched him be walked to his death just
1:11:39like I watched the real Buffalo Bill
1:11:41Gary heidnick
1:11:43seeking Glory do the same thing
1:11:50I was going to use that example to take
1:11:53control of this I was not going to go
1:11:55out with the nurses and others standing
1:11:58at my door mocking me
1:12:03so I wrote a letter to the federal court
1:12:06and I asked to be executed after sitting
1:12:09in my cell
1:12:11blind for three solid days because
1:12:15this is how the medications are
1:12:18distributed in Pennsylvania prisons at
1:12:20the time
1:12:21they have inmate workers
1:12:23who sometimes are in charge of the
1:12:25scripts
1:12:27so I was being given three
1:12:30horse pills
1:12:32of interferon
1:12:35and being jabbed would interfere on
1:12:37these cancer-fighting jobs uh injections
1:12:41three times a week
1:12:44so nine pills a day I was supposed to be
1:12:47taken turned into 12 pills a day because
1:12:52I was given the medication too much
1:12:56it toxified my system shut my kidneys
1:12:59down and blinded
1:13:00I was so
1:13:02distraught
1:13:04that it happened out in the exercise
1:13:06yard and they beat me
1:13:08I'm like this is insane so if I get sick
1:13:12and I'm in the yard it's a move on you
1:13:14oh my God leave me alone with this
1:13:16because it's getting too much
1:13:18so I sat down in December of 2002 and I
1:13:21asked to be executed
1:13:23the federal court knowing that I had
1:13:26been a DNA
1:13:28effort prisoner for 15 years
1:13:31decided to have Dr Edward Blake do the
1:13:36remaining tests
1:13:39in February of 2003
1:13:43the Killer's gloves that were left in
1:13:45the automobile that were never tested
1:13:48that were hidden from my defense council
1:13:51at my trial yielded DNA from an unknown
1:13:55male number one
1:13:57they also revealed DNA from a second
1:14:00possible female victim
1:14:04now at that time I heard he dismissed my
1:14:07appeals and asked to be executed I was
1:14:09brought to a hearing and my fidgeting
1:14:11hands lawyers were telling me look we
1:14:14have one shot left these are consumptive
1:14:17tests if you want these tests done on
1:14:21the victim's underwear and other items
1:14:24that Dr Blake has in his possession you
1:14:27have to agree that if they are not proof
1:14:31positive of your innocence that that's
1:14:33it
1:14:34I said go I don't have time to argue go
1:14:37like I didn't fight this fight this long
1:14:40and then there's a question and I'm like
1:14:41oh well I better stop go
1:14:45July of 2003
1:14:49um I was sitting in Graterford prison
1:14:52having been brought to the Philadelphia
1:14:53area for court when the phone was
1:14:56brought to my cell
1:14:58it was like Garris got a phone call so I
1:15:00was hoping it was my mom or something
1:15:02you know so pick up the phone get on it
1:15:05wait through the mechanical process to
1:15:07click through and it's Michael Wiseman
1:15:09of the federal defender's office and
1:15:11he's like Nick just got the paperwork
1:15:13faxed to us from Dr Blake I was sitting
1:15:17there reading it I want you to go
1:15:18through it with his um so the DNA that
1:15:21was found in the Killer's glove of
1:15:23unknown male number one
1:15:26matches DNA from spermatozoa of
1:15:31which was found in Mrs Craig's underwear
1:15:35and he starts slowing down I'm screaming
1:15:37oh my God oh my God don't you see it
1:15:40proves me innocent his sperm and the DNA
1:15:44from his gloves that was left at the
1:15:46crime scene and he's like oh my God
1:15:50it actually yeah this proves you're
1:15:53innocent he goes oh Nick I gotta tell
1:15:56you man you don't know how many times we
1:15:58were sitting around saying what if he's
1:16:00actually and I'm like no I don't have
1:16:02time for your [ __ ] reminiscent about
1:16:04how you as counsel thought I was insane
1:16:09and you held on and did this for me
1:16:13gratis
1:16:15um so I hung the phone up for him and I
1:16:17clicked it back and I got some time left
1:16:19I called my mom
1:16:21I was like Mom listen
1:16:24they got the DNA back from Dr Blake and
1:16:27I'm innocent she goes oh thank God I
1:16:30knew it was going to come out but Nikki
1:16:32I can't take this call right now Mikey's
1:16:35laying at my feet he's having a grand
1:16:38mal seizure he's off his medication he's
1:16:40been drinking again I gotta go
1:16:45talk about the worst possible scenario
1:16:48it broke me it did
1:16:51the guard came back to get the phone and
1:16:54he found me laying on my bed huddled
1:16:58crying incredibly because I'm innocent
1:17:04all the guards on the unit were in on
1:17:07why I was there
1:17:09the inmates next to me are shouting get
1:17:11the [ __ ] out Nick get out and do
1:17:13something with your life
1:17:15he took me down the hall and he put me
1:17:17in the shower and he put a plastic chair
1:17:20in there because I was so shaky
1:17:22he said just go in there it's too hot
1:17:25it's July get under there
1:17:28and he smacked the button and left me
1:17:31under the shower
1:17:33and I started
1:17:35I cried because
1:17:38my little brother Marty died the year
1:17:40before the drug overdose in my parents
1:17:42basement
1:17:44my father got fired from over so many
1:17:46jobs or mistreated my
1:17:49parents would tell me how people would
1:17:51bring them up in the middle of night
1:17:53tell them what scumbags they were for
1:17:55being my parents
1:17:57right
1:17:59and I knew
1:18:02this wasn't somehow
1:18:04it wasn't over man
1:18:07you don't beat me like this and beat me
1:18:09like this and then you stop it's over
1:18:14the administration came to me
1:18:17they said Dear Mr Yaris like we're so
1:18:20happy for you what's happening in the
1:18:22news is wonderful but if till it becomes
1:18:25official and they walk you out of the
1:18:28prison
1:18:29we're keeping you in level five Maximum
1:18:31Security Prison cell because you're one
1:18:34of the most dangerous prisoners we've
1:18:36ever held and we're not going to trust
1:18:38you
1:18:39I said wait a minute whoa whoa whoa
1:18:43you broke my hands you beat me you
1:18:47you
1:18:48beat me
1:18:50I I haven't heard anyone
1:18:54you made me fight other men but I didn't
1:18:56choose to do that
1:18:58like what's wrong with you they said
1:19:00look
1:19:02with your history and what we've done to
1:19:05you
1:19:06we don't believe that anybody could go
1:19:09through what you've gone through
1:19:11and not be angry
1:19:13and as such we think that you you would
1:19:16get revenge on one of us if given the
1:19:19opportunity so until they open the door
1:19:21and let you out you're going to sit in a
1:19:23level five maximum security so
1:19:27and we're taking everything off you
1:19:30so you can't make no weapons
1:19:32so over the last eight months they put
1:19:34me in an empty cell with two towels
1:19:38a sheet
1:19:40pillowcases like that's it nothing a
1:19:43plastic cart and milk carton a drink on
1:19:46them
1:19:48they thought by taking all of my
1:19:51paintings or my books and everything
1:19:54I don't know maybe they would force me
1:19:57to just break mentally I don't know what
1:19:59they were thinking
1:20:00but it became this beautiful opportunity
1:20:03for me to sit in my cell
1:20:06and start drainage daydreaming about the
1:20:09type of person I wanted to try and find
1:20:11Within Myself
1:20:14at the very beginning I told you I had
1:20:19the utter distinction of having started
1:20:21my life twice
1:20:24the second time I began my life was
1:20:27January 16th 2004
1:20:30[Music]
1:20:32I was 42 years old and I was standing in
1:20:35front of a prison
1:20:38and I had just gone through the horror
1:20:42of having my release botched earlier
1:20:44that morning
1:20:48and I had to stay calm and speak for the
1:20:51men who were innocent in the prison
1:20:54behind me
1:20:55I had to get in a car with my parents
1:21:00and drive across Pennsylvania
1:21:04in the front seat I watched them hold
1:21:07their hands together
1:21:13I knew
1:21:15this was going to be the onset
1:21:18of the hardest challenge of my life
1:21:22somehow
1:21:23I knew this was going to be bigger than
1:21:26death row
1:21:30at the age of 42
1:21:33I stood in front of my parents house
1:21:37on the evening of my release
1:21:40and I spoke to the Press
1:21:43then
1:21:45I went inside with everyone
1:21:48and I was
1:21:51I hate to say this
1:21:53I was allergic to hugging human beings
1:21:57you see
1:21:59if I held someone all of their energy
1:22:03would impact me so much it would make me
1:22:06shiver
1:22:07and I was vibrating with so much life
1:22:11that if I hugged or touched others they
1:22:13were getting shocks
1:22:15and that I couldn't explain it
1:22:19I sat there and we waited around and the
1:22:2310 o'clock news came on and then the 11
1:22:26o'clock news
1:22:29purposefully pushed myself back as far
1:22:31as I could away from everyone in the
1:22:34room
1:22:35because
1:22:37unlike them
1:22:38I didn't know what I looked like
1:22:43I didn't have a mirror in myself
1:22:46I had a scratched up piece of metal on
1:22:49my wall for so long
1:22:51and I never saw photographs to myself or
1:22:54anything
1:22:57I wondered what I look like
1:22:59so I sat back in the corner
1:23:01and I waited
1:23:03and I looked on screen
1:23:06I didn't make the connection
1:23:09who was this man
1:23:11prison eyeglasses a baseball cap
1:23:15standing there with these people
1:23:20that's not me
1:23:24I'm over here to Nikki
1:23:29like that's not that's a that's
1:23:31a fully grown man
1:23:35it was so deep
1:23:38I've been shot stabbed strangled run
1:23:41over by an automobile
1:23:43two drug overdoses I hung myself in a
1:23:46prison cell I lived through 23 years of
1:23:50solitary confinement that included two
1:23:52prison riots
1:23:55and I'm saying
1:23:58the only thing I can derive from all of
1:24:03that
1:24:04is that
1:24:06what a wonderful chance to be somebody
1:24:10what a wonderful chance to have meaning
1:24:13to people and show them that you don't
1:24:16have to capitulate to your ego you don't
1:24:19have to go seeking validity by blaming
1:24:22others shit's gonna happen you're going
1:24:24to get the shitty end of the stick
1:24:26you're going to get beat down things are
1:24:27going to go bad but you define who you
1:24:32are in the aftermath of that
1:24:34you define
1:24:37what you deserved of it what you didn't
1:24:40deserve of it and your actions
1:24:43and more importantly
1:24:46never let anyone steal your kindness
1:24:50It Is What Makes You uniquely Who You
1:24:52Are
1:24:56I've gone through this enormous thing
1:24:59of having two distinct starting points
1:25:03in life
1:25:04the first one I had no control over this
1:25:08one I do
1:25:09as such
1:25:12I'm going to continue on trying to do
1:25:15something to make meaningfulness
1:25:18out of all of this
1:25:22My Hope
1:25:24is that I continue on using my efforts
1:25:27as an author
1:25:29to write things
1:25:34and actions in life as well
1:25:38so that my daughter
1:25:39who haven't seen who's now 16 years old
1:25:43soon to be 17 in April
1:25:49will have a lasting lingering memory of
1:25:51the good that I was
1:25:55I don't have anything else left
1:25:58I have been
1:26:02tested
1:26:05but not broken
1:26:12otherwise
1:26:14I am so grateful to be here
1:26:17I feel like
1:26:19this would be the last time I ever speak
1:26:21in America
1:26:24that's a great sense of accomplishment
1:26:27that I have made here
1:26:29and now I'm free to go on and seek
1:26:32happiness again
1:26:34I'm still in love I'm still alive I'm
1:26:37still a good person
1:26:39so I should have those dreams
1:26:41just as all of you should have
1:26:45I want to thank Mark
1:26:46bringing me here to share all this with
1:26:49all of you
1:26:51I'm eternally grateful to know
1:26:55before you heard my voice today
1:26:58you felt alone but you now know
1:27:01we share that same commonality and I
1:27:04love you I love you for being the decent
1:27:06person that helps others
1:27:08I love you for being the thankless
1:27:10person who doesn't do things to be
1:27:13thanked but it's nice to have them
1:27:18I want to take time at the conclusion
1:27:21here to say
1:27:23I believe so much in good
1:27:25that I was willing to walk out of death
1:27:28row
1:27:29and believe in all of you
1:27:32and yes the truth is
1:27:37the 19 years that I have been free
1:27:40have been harder than all the death row
1:27:43days that I've done
1:27:45that's incredible
1:27:48it's more immediate
1:27:50and profound
1:27:51and Lasting the things that I've
1:27:53encountered out here
1:27:55people have been exceedingly cruel
1:27:57without any punishment notion behind it
1:28:01but
1:28:02I've also found
1:28:05there's so much Beauty and good out here
1:28:10I have to continue believing it all has
1:28:12meaning
1:28:14because
1:28:16I realized
1:28:19the people I've given courage to
1:28:22see me falter I steal from them the
1:28:25grace that I've given them
1:28:27I dare not do that
1:28:29though I shared tears today they're
1:28:31really just expressions of letting out
1:28:34so much that I've waited three years to
1:28:36talk about
1:28:38I'm really honestly at this point
1:28:42feeling like I can let all of this go
1:28:46and if this is my last interview here in
1:28:49the United States
1:28:52I share a beautiful smile knowing that
1:28:54it won't be sad and that things are
1:28:57going to be better in the future
1:29:00thank you for your time
1:29:03I really am grateful goodbye and take
1:29:05care
1:29:07incredible story thank you

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