Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. In addition to talking to recording artists and talking to famous authors, I decided this year I wanted to talk to ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things or have overcome extraordinary odds. So, in addition to having people like Michael Buble and Josh Grobin on the podcast series, I wanted to talk to people that fascinate me, people that are changing the world for good. And I ran across a little news story that I it blew my mind. I couldn't believe what I was reading, so I had to dig a little deeper and do a little more research. But there isn't a whole lot of information out there. But the information that I found on a man named Richard Phillips ah broke my heart, but at the same time encouraged my heart. I felt like I was in a boxing ring Richard as I was reading about you and reading everything you had been through, and it really made me wish that I had studied in school and got a lot degree so I could advocate for you, or or sue somebody or put somebody behind bars for you on your behalf. And then I figured maybe the Lord had me in the right place in talking to you. So welcome to love someone with Delilah Richard Phillips. Thank you for having me. You know, I'm just glad to be here. Really for you. Well, you have an amazing story, a heartbreaking story, but a story of hope. So start at the beginning. You were incarcerated for how many years? Forty seven years? Forty seven years for a crime that I did not do. And the whole time you said I didn't do it. What I actually told everybody and anybody that would listen, Look, I didn't do this. And even when I went to prison, there was actually you believe it or not, there were actually counselors that would actually say, well, you're here now, so you might as well admit that you did it. And even if you didn't do it, if you want to try to get out of here on parole someday, then what you should do at least say that you did it and just say that you're sorry. Otherwise they're going to think that you're just trying to get out of prison. So they want you to admit to something, even if you didn't do it, in order to at least think that, you know, we're making the right decision and letting you go. At least they can justify it that way. So, Richard Phillips nineteen thousand, seven hundred days ago, what were you in prison for? What were you accused of, found guilty of, and railroaded into prison for the actual case for the murder? Believe it or not, this story is so remarkable that there are people, even in Oakland County that refused to admit the fact that I didn't commit the crime that they originally locked me up for, which was armed robbery. But it doesn't matter whether they admit that or not. I know what happened. So how old were you when all this started? Years old? Yeah, I have been working at Chrystler's for about I don't know, about seventeen years seven, No, about seven years, and I think I hired him when I was about nineteen. So you were working at Chrysler a young African American man living where I was living in the city of Detroit. I had a wife and two kids, and as it I all ended up once I got arrested. I never see any of them again. In forty seven years, you were arrested and originally charged with armed robbery. How did that turn to murder. Well, they convicted me of an armed robbery. That the actual guy that committed the murder and did the armed robbery, they actually convicted me of a crime that he had done. And so when I went to prison, they came to me about four months later, after I was already in prison for something that I didn't do, which was the armed robbery. They came to me about four months later and said you're gonna have to go back to Wayne County to face charges of murder. And that was a shot. And so I'm saying, what who was I supposed to murder and what was it who in my accused of murdering? They said, well you would find all that out when you get back to Wayne County and that was Listen. The guy said, well you're going back for murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and that was pretty much. I just well, I just went had had to ride with it from there. So who who was murdered? Who really committed what crime? Well, that was a friend of mine that I was really good friends with from childhood. And he wasn't such a what you would call a good guy. He didn't wear the good hat. He didn't wear the white hat. So there's a lot of things that he did wrong. And you know, I'm not here to cast dispersions on nobody else because nobody is perfect. But yetn't. Still he was into more or less criminal activity, and he was still one of my friends from childhood, and I started hanging with him just to be around him, and we would all be together as friends. But if they was going to do anything wrong, I'd be on my way. Don't do what you do, I'm gone. And this was the guy that actually when he was in he was already in prison for murder that he had already done. And when he got for that murder, he realized that his mother told him something about his brother in law had stole some money out of her purse, and even when he was in prison, his mother wrote him and told him that, and he was telling people in prison that he was gonna get out and get that guy, and eventually that's what happened. And then when he's one of his home boys, Italian guy named Richard Blombo, when he got out, that got together and then the story went on from there and they just obviously went and did what they did. But I wasn't there I was not even in the area, didn't play no part in it, didn't even play no part in the conspiracy, and you spent forty seven years locked up first for armed robbery and then for murder, and then for murder. It's almost like it's a historic situation. How is it possible. Well, here's here's what you also got to realize. This was nineteen seventy one, and this was a time right after the riots when the relationship ships between people weren't that good. The Civil Rights Bill had just been passed in nineteen A lot of people don't understand that these were hard times. Everybody was looking at everybody with cross eyes, so, you know, not that far away from all kinds of racial tensions and stuff at that time. And people were in desk too, tearing up the cities. None of that stuff did any good for the black population because they destroyed their own neighborhood. But yet, and still they were so frustrated at that time with the way they were being treated, with the way they've been actually just demeaning the public and politics, not being able to have jobs and opportunities like everybody else should be having. That's I mean, the world is not perfect. I keep telling people that what you have to do is do the best you can to get through life however you can. That's what I've done. I've accepted all my racial problems. I've accepted my educational problem. I've accepted my prison problem. I've been through a lot. But do God guidance and strength, because obviously he must have put a whole lot of strength in me, because I've been able to survive all that. I was so impressed when I read the story and then did a little more research to see your countenance and your your true grace. I'm just trying to be strong. How did you stay sane? Well, he is one thing that I did. I applied myself by first getting my g D because I dropped out when I was in the tenth grade, which is probably the stupidest things I've ever did in my life. Education is the most important thing that you can do. First, you got your g e D while you were locked up. And then what Well, once I got my g D, the principle told me said, well, you did pretty good on on your g e D. And I said, well, what do you mean by that? She said, well, you kind of rated in the high percentile. Maybe you all think about going to college. I said, oh no, I would here here. I am just dropping out of high school not too long ago. Why would I be trying to think about college. But I said, well, I ain't doing nothing else at this time. I think it was maybe like a dy mm hmmm, probably around five, And I said, well, I wasn't really doing anything. I might as well occupy myself with something constructive. And so I said, okay, we'll signed me up for it. So when you were sentenced, Richard h how many years were you given? What was your original sentence? The first the first sentence for the arm Robbie was seven to twenty two years. The second sentence for the murder was life without the possibility of parole. Wow, so you're in prison, your think and I'm not going anywhere anyway. Let me start studying. When did your artistic abilities emerge? Probably around five years old, so before you were ever locked up. Listen, I can remember back as going to kindergarten. All my pictures, everything that I did, Flowers, Superman, whatever was better than the other kids. That made me gave me a little incentive to it. So, well, maybe there's something that I can do, because no kid in the class could out draw me, or out crayon me, or out build stuff out of clay creatively. I was on top of my game. So the thing that caught my attention when I first stumbled upon your story, Richard Phillips, was your beautiful artwork. And we're going to talk about that and explore that and how you got it out of prison and where it's at today when we come back. We're going to take a break here and then we're going to come back and continue our conversations as we continue our podcast, Love Someone with the lineup with Richard Phillips, a man who was incarcerated nineteen thousand, seven hundred days for crimes he did not commit back in just a moment. So Richard Phillips, who spent nineteen thousand, seven hundred days locked up, his sentence was life without the possibility of parole for committing a murder and a conspiracy to murder that you had no part in whatsoever. How did the truth finally come out, Richard? Well, it's coincidentally, Uh, the guy that actually assisted Fred Mitchell, who was the guy that actually did the murder, was sitting in the back seat and that was his buddy, coach, conspirator, or whatever you want to call it. And he finally went to a commutation board after about thirty seven thirty eight years, and when he went to the commutation board, they asked him about me and what part did I play and so forth, And at that point, I don't know what it was. Through some grace of God or whatever or whatever power got into it, he decided that he tells the truth. And what he told him was that he didn't even know me when the crime was committed, that we hadn't even met. It was probably two or three weeks later after the crime had been committed that we met, and he admitted that him and the guy that was already dead at the time, the one guy that testified on us at trial, that they only had one witness, and that was the guy that actually did the murder. He got away. You never heard. I was saying that you can't get away with murder. That guy got away with murder by taking the murder and putting it on somebody else. And that was pretty much how it came to light because he admitted to the commutation board that he was involved, that I wasn't involved. And the guy that actually was involved with name Fred Mitchell. And once they did all their researched, criminal Integrity Unit, the prosecutor's office, my attorneys, my investigators, thirteen fourteen, fifteen law students, they all realized that he was telling the truth and that what you had been saying all along was the same thing I've been saying all along. I wasn't even involved in it, even though it reread with my buddy from childhood. I was not even in that same area whenever they did what they did. So that was how pretty much it came to light that they told him that if you don't tell the truth, you're not going to get commuted, simple as that. And that was why he probably broke down and told the truth, because he said, well, look, if I tell the truth, I'm probably going on. Then they once he told the truth is the leather part. Once he told the truth, there was some member of the Attorney General's office that kept saying, no, no, tell her the truth. It was Richard Phillips, wasn't it. And he said, no, it wasn't Richard Phillips. Here, this man here knows that his life is on the line, his freedom is on the line, he still refused to let this Attorney general talk him into saying that it was me. I don't know how to express to him or how to thank him, because I haven't even talked to that man, and probably over thirty or five years, I haven't even seen him. But whatever it was, it got into my show. Do appreciate the fact that he got me out of the madhouse, because now life is good. I said before the break, we were going to talk about your artwork. While you were in prison. You started painting and started drawing, and your paintings were wonderful, Richard, what everybody says that, but I don't see it because when you're involved into something and you're actually doing something, you don't really see it in the same sense that other people see it. I mean, I could draw something into a little child or somebody that has an eye for creativity would look at it and say they loved it. But to me, it's just something that I do all the time, so it's almost like I'm accustomed to seeing my own work, so I don't really see the value in it. So, Richard, do you know people have you seen artwork from West Africa? I think I've seen some some different styles. The thing that fascinated me. Your artwork has movement. It's got rhythm, and you can feel the characters moving when you look at your And I know that sounds funny to somebody who's not an artist, but just like Van Gogh's painting story Storry Nights, you can you can look at it and feel the wind blowing the stars. When I look at your artwork, I've done that. I can feel the movement of the things that you're painting and creating. Well, I'm very happy that you get that kind of feeling, because everybody gets different feelings from different things that they see. They always say that beauty is in the eye of the behovior, and there's a lot of truth to that. How did you you weren't allowed to keep the paintings you did in prison, How did you get them out of You can't keep them. You can't keep They call that excess property. If you've got excess property is either gonna get destroyed or throw it away. And you and if you've got something any value, your best bet would probably be to send it out to a relative or a friend or somebody. And in my situation, by me not having any relatives of anybody to send my artwork too. I actually started a communication with a pen pile and through God's grace, through her honesty and through her caring about having a relationship with us. You know, sometimes you have females that would converge with guys in prison just to keep them, you know, motivated, and which is a wonderful thing because it does a lot for a guy's spirit to know that somebody else cares for him. In this world, when you don't have nothing, you're reaching on to anything that you can grab to, no matter what it is. So you had a pinpal that you sent your artwork too, Yes, I did. And how many paintings do you think that you sent to this pinpal over the years. I think it was a total of about four hundred and fifteen over long period of time. And this pin held onto them or sold them. She did pretty much what she said she would do. She would hold them for me in the event that I got out. She knew I had a life, bit she could have sold them, but she believed in you. She obviously had to believe in the fact that I was was not guilty. How many years were you pinpals? Oh? Lord, that's probably about thirty years relationship. That was a wonderful relationship with a wonderful woman, and she's still a wonderful woman. And I definitely appreciate the fact that she did what she did by holding onto my paintings. I cannot thank her enough. And some day, in the event that I ever get some financial stability, I just made hollow back at that lady and do something real special for her. So four hundred, four hundred and fifty paintings that you now have, are they available for people to buy? Yes, they are. There's a website up called Richard Phillips art Gallery dot com Richard R I C H A R D Phillips p H I L L I P s I P S ARM. So if somebody wants to purchase some of your beautiful, expressive, passionate paintings, well, listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not a businessman, and so I've kind of taken that out of my hands and putting in some hands of the people that actually know how to run website, sell art, value art, all of that. I know nothing about that. I'm just an artist, and so whatever the prices rangers are. I don't even know what the price range gonna be, but I do know that there's probably gonna be some sales, and there's probably going to be some prints that would be much more financially for people would be able to afford your artwork, would make such beautiful prints and such beautiful cards. Well, I've done greeting cars. That's that's that's one of the ways that I was allowed to purchase art material in prison because I've done greeting cards. I actually painted small cards with beautiful artwork, flowers, you know, Happy Birthday, Happy on Ary, Merry Christmas. I made all of those cards over the years. There's probably people all across the country right now that's got some of my cards in there in the foot lockers or wherever they keep stuff that they've had around for a while. A lot of especially females, they hate to throw stuff away. Oh yes we do, Oh yes we do. I got my baby's teeth, That's what I'm saying. So it's a lot of those people right now probably got one of those cards and they don't even know. Yeah, they don't even know it. All right, hold on, Richard, We're going to take another break and we'll be back with Richard Phillips coming up in a moment. This is the time of year. You must include the word flat or flats in a sentence like this. I was in the home depost garden apartment yesterday and bought two flats of the most beautiful flowers for my garden, and that you'll find in your home depot garden department these days. Beauty, full flowers, color that brings your gardens, your flower beds to life. The home Depot has flats full of new flowers, just waiting for you to bring one or two, or three or four or five home. Put your hands in the dirt and bring your flower beds, your gardens to life. The home Depot, more saving, more doing with me in the studio is a fascinating man who has lived a very sad life. But through all that, how is it, Richard, that you kept such a positive attitude. And what would you say to somebody right now? Maybe they're not in a real prison. Maybe they are because a lot of listeners listen to me in prison, But maybe they're in a prison of their own making. Maybe they're imprisoned by drug addiction. Well, mine is a simple problem. I mean, mine is a simple statement. You just got to get good with God home. And that's what the one thing that I would advise anybody and pray for guidance. And now that you're free, now that you're out, you said you you don't have family. So the wife and the two children, you've never seen them again, Well, I've seen them. I've seen my son, and I've seen my ex wife and we've got good relationships. The only person that I haven't seen is my daughter because she's in France, and I'm I'm I'm expecting maybe at some point in life between nine before I die, that I have the opportunity to at least see her because I haven't seen her in over forty seven years, probably going on maybe forty eight or forty nine now, because i've been out about a year in four months or something like that. And any of your biological family, any siblings, cousins, I'm sure, aunts and uncles. I have heard. I have actually heard from one or two of them when I first got out. They're they're like in their eighties or something. I can remember them from from childhood, so they're up in age. So before we started the interview, you said you're trying to integrate into a couple of families. Well those are you know. I don't want to throw nobody's names out there. I'm not asking for names. I'm just saying, do you have a special someone? No, as far as a female is concerned. As far as yeah, fallen in love, no, no, I have that has I haven't got that lucky yet. And maybe I'm too old to be in no, no, no, no, no no. I'm telling you hey here, I am an old black man. I'm just basically trying to get through life and be happy. That's all I won't So do you have plenty of art supplies? Now? Yes, I do? And do you have a studio that's all yours that you don't have to leave and share the room with somebody? You can paint any time you want. Yes, I do. I have a feeling that even when you were locked up, Richard, you were happy. I bet you were kind to people. Well I listen, listen. I've never tried to be a despicable person, you know. I try to give out respect. We're respect do There's a lot of people out there that just show so much disrespect that you have to just weed yourself through those people. Get around them, no matter who they are, what color they are. If they're disrespectful and won't treat you with the same respect that you give them, leave them, get away from him, and go another way. How did you do that while you were locked up? It wasn't that difficult, believe me. There's times when I had to actually bite the bullet. Believe me, I've actually had to bite the bullet quite a few times, but I kept thinking about the bigger picture. No, I can't do that, because if you do that, you're burying yourself. So you have to be smart no matter what you do in life, even if you're doing prison time, you gotta be smart because if you don't be smart, you'll never make it out of there. Many years ago, I fell in love. I was twenty one and I was that last week I married my first love and he was a funny, smart, charming, handsome young black man. When we were first married, we were down, we were on vacation, and we were in Reno, Nevada, at a table playing roulette, and this white man came in and started making very disparaging, very racist comments to us, and boy, my temper just went nuts and I was ready to flat out deck this guy, and my husband came and grabbed my arm and said, excuse us, sir, we're just leaving. We'll see. He was trying to be practical and he said, I'm sorry, sir, my wife, We're just we're leaving. We got outside and he said, I never forget these words. He called me Pop. That was his nickname for me because I was a kid. He said, Pup, you gotta rise above it. He said, in this life you are going to get assaulted with all sorts of stuff, and you've got to rise above it. You know it. And it sounds like that that that that wisdom from George Harris lives in your heart in all things, I would hope. So you certainly have the ability, Richard, to rise above circumstances that I can't imagine having to get through. I'm still rising today. I'm still trying to be a better man than I've been yesterday or the day before that or the day before that. So if there's something that I can do, just like talking to you today that has also gave me such an invigorating feeling that now I feel I can step outside and breathe the fresh air and do better than I did yesterday. Well, I hope we can sell some of your artwork. I pray that whatever families have opened their hearts and their homes to you, that uh that they just love you completely. And if you ever want to be a part of our family, please know that you are welcome. My kids could use a grandpa like you in their life. Well, listen, I actually take that as an honor and I appreciate you saying that. And if they ever come a time when I can get out that way, believe me, I'm going to look you up and we're going to get together and we're going to go to Disney World or wherever we have to go in order to have a good time. For me to have a good time, all I have to do is go out and sit on the patio with a couple of you pretty much like me. Richard Phillips, thank you for spending this time with us. Thank you too. The best is yet to come, my friend, I hope, So slow down and love someone. It's

Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. In addition to talking to recording artists and talking to famous authors, I decided this year I wanted to talk to ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things or have overcome extraordinary odds. So, in addition to having people like Michael Buble and Josh Grobin on the podcast series, I wanted to talk to people that fascinate me, people that are changing the world for good. And I ran across a little news story that I it blew my mind. I couldn't believe what I was reading, so I had to dig a little deeper and do a little more research. But there isn't a whole lot of information out there. But the information that I found on a man named Richard Phillips ah broke my heart, but at the same time encouraged my heart. I felt like I was in a boxing ring Richard as I was reading about you and reading everything you had been through, and it really made me wish that I had studied in school and got a lot degree so I could advocate for you, or or sue somebody or put somebody behind bars for you on your behalf. And then I figured maybe the Lord had me in the right place in talking to you. So welcome to love someone with Delilah Richard Phillips. Thank you for having me. You know, I'm just glad to be here. Really for you. Well, you have an amazing story, a heartbreaking story, but a story of hope. So start at the beginning. You were incarcerated for how many years? Forty seven years? Forty seven years for a crime that I did not do. And the whole time you said I didn't do it. What I actually told everybody and anybody that would listen, Look, I didn't do this. And even when I went to prison, there was actually you believe it or not, there were actually counselors that would actually say, well, you're here now, so you might as well admit that you did it. And even if you didn't do it, if you want to try to get out of here on parole someday, then what you should do at least say that you did it and just say that you're sorry. Otherwise they're going to think that you're just trying to get out of prison. So they want you to admit to something, even if you didn't do it, in order to at least think that, you know, we're making the right decision and letting you go. At least they can justify it that way. So, Richard Phillips nineteen thousand, seven hundred days ago, what were you in prison for? What were you accused of, found guilty of, and railroaded into prison for the actual case for the murder? Believe it or not, this story is so remarkable that there are people, even in Oakland County that refused to admit the fact that I didn't commit the crime that they originally locked me up for, which was armed robbery. But it doesn't matter whether they admit that or not. I know what happened. So how old were you when all this started? Years old? Yeah, I have been working at Chrystler's for about I don't know, about seventeen years seven, No, about seven years, and I think I hired him when I was about nineteen. So you were working at Chrysler a young African American man living where I was living in the city of Detroit. I had a wife and two kids, and as it I all ended up once I got arrested. I never see any of them again. In forty seven years, you were arrested and originally charged with armed robbery. How did that turn to murder. Well, they convicted me of an armed robbery. That the actual guy that committed the murder and did the armed robbery, they actually convicted me of a crime that he had done. And so when I went to prison, they came to me about four months later, after I was already in prison for something that I didn't do, which was the armed robbery. They came to me about four months later and said you're gonna have to go back to Wayne County to face charges of murder. And that was a shot. And so I'm saying, what who was I supposed to murder and what was it who in my accused of murdering? They said, well you would find all that out when you get back to Wayne County and that was Listen. The guy said, well you're going back for murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and that was pretty much. I just well, I just went had had to ride with it from there. So who who was murdered? Who really committed what crime? Well, that was a friend of mine that I was really good friends with from childhood. And he wasn't such a what you would call a good guy. He didn't wear the good hat. He didn't wear the white hat. So there's a lot of things that he did wrong. And you know, I'm not here to cast dispersions on nobody else because nobody is perfect. But yetn't. Still he was into more or less criminal activity, and he was still one of my friends from childhood, and I started hanging with him just to be around him, and we would all be together as friends. But if they was going to do anything wrong, I'd be on my way. Don't do what you do, I'm gone. And this was the guy that actually when he was in he was already in prison for murder that he had already done. And when he got for that murder, he realized that his mother told him something about his brother in law had stole some money out of her purse, and even when he was in prison, his mother wrote him and told him that, and he was telling people in prison that he was gonna get out and get that guy, and eventually that's what happened. And then when he's one of his home boys, Italian guy named Richard Blombo, when he got out, that got together and then the story went on from there and they just obviously went and did what they did. But I wasn't there I was not even in the area, didn't play no part in it, didn't even play no part in the conspiracy, and you spent forty seven years locked up first for armed robbery and then for murder, and then for murder. It's almost like it's a historic situation. How is it possible. Well, here's here's what you also got to realize. This was nineteen seventy one, and this was a time right after the riots when the relationship ships between people weren't that good. The Civil Rights Bill had just been passed in nineteen A lot of people don't understand that these were hard times. Everybody was looking at everybody with cross eyes, so, you know, not that far away from all kinds of racial tensions and stuff at that time. And people were in desk too, tearing up the cities. None of that stuff did any good for the black population because they destroyed their own neighborhood. But yet, and still they were so frustrated at that time with the way they were being treated, with the way they've been actually just demeaning the public and politics, not being able to have jobs and opportunities like everybody else should be having. That's I mean, the world is not perfect. I keep telling people that what you have to do is do the best you can to get through life however you can. That's what I've done. I've accepted all my racial problems. I've accepted my educational problem. I've accepted my prison problem. I've been through a lot. But do God guidance and strength, because obviously he must have put a whole lot of strength in me, because I've been able to survive all that. I was so impressed when I read the story and then did a little more research to see your countenance and your your true grace. I'm just trying to be strong. How did you stay sane? Well, he is one thing that I did. I applied myself by first getting my g D because I dropped out when I was in the tenth grade, which is probably the stupidest things I've ever did in my life. Education is the most important thing that you can do. First, you got your g e D while you were locked up. And then what Well, once I got my g D, the principle told me said, well, you did pretty good on on your g e D. And I said, well, what do you mean by that? She said, well, you kind of rated in the high percentile. Maybe you all think about going to college. I said, oh no, I would here here. I am just dropping out of high school not too long ago. Why would I be trying to think about college. But I said, well, I ain't doing nothing else at this time. I think it was maybe like a dy mm hmmm, probably around five, And I said, well, I wasn't really doing anything. I might as well occupy myself with something constructive. And so I said, okay, we'll signed me up for it. So when you were sentenced, Richard h how many years were you given? What was your original sentence? The first the first sentence for the arm Robbie was seven to twenty two years. The second sentence for the murder was life without the possibility of parole. Wow, so you're in prison, your think and I'm not going anywhere anyway. Let me start studying. When did your artistic abilities emerge? Probably around five years old, so before you were ever locked up. Listen, I can remember back as going to kindergarten. All my pictures, everything that I did, Flowers, Superman, whatever was better than the other kids. That made me gave me a little incentive to it. So, well, maybe there's something that I can do, because no kid in the class could out draw me, or out crayon me, or out build stuff out of clay creatively. I was on top of my game. So the thing that caught my attention when I first stumbled upon your story, Richard Phillips, was your beautiful artwork. And we're going to talk about that and explore that and how you got it out of prison and where it's at today when we come back. We're going to take a break here and then we're going to come back and continue our conversations as we continue our podcast, Love Someone with the lineup with Richard Phillips, a man who was incarcerated nineteen thousand, seven hundred days for crimes he did not commit back in just a moment. So Richard Phillips, who spent nineteen thousand, seven hundred days locked up, his sentence was life without the possibility of parole for committing a murder and a conspiracy to murder that you had no part in whatsoever. How did the truth finally come out, Richard? Well, it's coincidentally, Uh, the guy that actually assisted Fred Mitchell, who was the guy that actually did the murder, was sitting in the back seat and that was his buddy, coach, conspirator, or whatever you want to call it. And he finally went to a commutation board after about thirty seven thirty eight years, and when he went to the commutation board, they asked him about me and what part did I play and so forth, And at that point, I don't know what it was. Through some grace of God or whatever or whatever power got into it, he decided that he tells the truth. And what he told him was that he didn't even know me when the crime was committed, that we hadn't even met. It was probably two or three weeks later after the crime had been committed that we met, and he admitted that him and the guy that was already dead at the time, the one guy that testified on us at trial, that they only had one witness, and that was the guy that actually did the murder. He got away. You never heard. I was saying that you can't get away with murder. That guy got away with murder by taking the murder and putting it on somebody else. And that was pretty much how it came to light because he admitted to the commutation board that he was involved, that I wasn't involved. And the guy that actually was involved with name Fred Mitchell. And once they did all their researched, criminal Integrity Unit, the prosecutor's office, my attorneys, my investigators, thirteen fourteen, fifteen law students, they all realized that he was telling the truth and that what you had been saying all along was the same thing I've been saying all along. I wasn't even involved in it, even though it reread with my buddy from childhood. I was not even in that same area whenever they did what they did. So that was how pretty much it came to light that they told him that if you don't tell the truth, you're not going to get commuted, simple as that. And that was why he probably broke down and told the truth, because he said, well, look, if I tell the truth, I'm probably going on. Then they once he told the truth is the leather part. Once he told the truth, there was some member of the Attorney General's office that kept saying, no, no, tell her the truth. It was Richard Phillips, wasn't it. And he said, no, it wasn't Richard Phillips. Here, this man here knows that his life is on the line, his freedom is on the line, he still refused to let this Attorney general talk him into saying that it was me. I don't know how to express to him or how to thank him, because I haven't even talked to that man, and probably over thirty or five years, I haven't even seen him. But whatever it was, it got into my show. Do appreciate the fact that he got me out of the madhouse, because now life is good. I said before the break, we were going to talk about your artwork. While you were in prison. You started painting and started drawing, and your paintings were wonderful, Richard, what everybody says that, but I don't see it because when you're involved into something and you're actually doing something, you don't really see it in the same sense that other people see it. I mean, I could draw something into a little child or somebody that has an eye for creativity would look at it and say they loved it. But to me, it's just something that I do all the time, so it's almost like I'm accustomed to seeing my own work, so I don't really see the value in it. So, Richard, do you know people have you seen artwork from West Africa? I think I've seen some some different styles. The thing that fascinated me. Your artwork has movement. It's got rhythm, and you can feel the characters moving when you look at your And I know that sounds funny to somebody who's not an artist, but just like Van Gogh's painting story Storry Nights, you can you can look at it and feel the wind blowing the stars. When I look at your artwork, I've done that. I can feel the movement of the things that you're painting and creating. Well, I'm very happy that you get that kind of feeling, because everybody gets different feelings from different things that they see. They always say that beauty is in the eye of the behovior, and there's a lot of truth to that. How did you you weren't allowed to keep the paintings you did in prison, How did you get them out of You can't keep them. You can't keep They call that excess property. If you've got excess property is either gonna get destroyed or throw it away. And you and if you've got something any value, your best bet would probably be to send it out to a relative or a friend or somebody. And in my situation, by me not having any relatives of anybody to send my artwork too. I actually started a communication with a pen pile and through God's grace, through her honesty and through her caring about having a relationship with us. You know, sometimes you have females that would converge with guys in prison just to keep them, you know, motivated, and which is a wonderful thing because it does a lot for a guy's spirit to know that somebody else cares for him. In this world, when you don't have nothing, you're reaching on to anything that you can grab to, no matter what it is. So you had a pinpal that you sent your artwork too, Yes, I did. And how many paintings do you think that you sent to this pinpal over the years. I think it was a total of about four hundred and fifteen over long period of time. And this pin held onto them or sold them. She did pretty much what she said she would do. She would hold them for me in the event that I got out. She knew I had a life, bit she could have sold them, but she believed in you. She obviously had to believe in the fact that I was was not guilty. How many years were you pinpals? Oh? Lord, that's probably about thirty years relationship. That was a wonderful relationship with a wonderful woman, and she's still a wonderful woman. And I definitely appreciate the fact that she did what she did by holding onto my paintings. I cannot thank her enough. And some day, in the event that I ever get some financial stability, I just made hollow back at that lady and do something real special for her. So four hundred, four hundred and fifty paintings that you now have, are they available for people to buy? Yes, they are. There's a website up called Richard Phillips art Gallery dot com Richard R I C H A R D Phillips p H I L L I P s I P S ARM. So if somebody wants to purchase some of your beautiful, expressive, passionate paintings, well, listen, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not a businessman, and so I've kind of taken that out of my hands and putting in some hands of the people that actually know how to run website, sell art, value art, all of that. I know nothing about that. I'm just an artist, and so whatever the prices rangers are. I don't even know what the price range gonna be, but I do know that there's probably gonna be some sales, and there's probably going to be some prints that would be much more financially for people would be able to afford your artwork, would make such beautiful prints and such beautiful cards. Well, I've done greeting cars. That's that's that's one of the ways that I was allowed to purchase art material in prison because I've done greeting cards. I actually painted small cards with beautiful artwork, flowers, you know, Happy Birthday, Happy on Ary, Merry Christmas. I made all of those cards over the years. There's probably people all across the country right now that's got some of my cards in there in the foot lockers or wherever they keep stuff that they've had around for a while. A lot of especially females, they hate to throw stuff away. Oh yes we do, Oh yes we do. I got my baby's teeth, That's what I'm saying. So it's a lot of those people right now probably got one of those cards and they don't even know. Yeah, they don't even know it. All right, hold on, Richard, We're going to take another break and we'll be back with Richard Phillips coming up in a moment. This is the time of year. You must include the word flat or flats in a sentence like this. I was in the home depost garden apartment yesterday and bought two flats of the most beautiful flowers for my garden, and that you'll find in your home depot garden department these days. Beauty, full flowers, color that brings your gardens, your flower beds to life. The home Depot has flats full of new flowers, just waiting for you to bring one or two, or three or four or five home. Put your hands in the dirt and bring your flower beds, your gardens to life. The home Depot, more saving, more doing with me in the studio is a fascinating man who has lived a very sad life. But through all that, how is it, Richard, that you kept such a positive attitude. And what would you say to somebody right now? Maybe they're not in a real prison. Maybe they are because a lot of listeners listen to me in prison, But maybe they're in a prison of their own making. Maybe they're imprisoned by drug addiction. Well, mine is a simple problem. I mean, mine is a simple statement. You just got to get good with God home. And that's what the one thing that I would advise anybody and pray for guidance. And now that you're free, now that you're out, you said you you don't have family. So the wife and the two children, you've never seen them again, Well, I've seen them. I've seen my son, and I've seen my ex wife and we've got good relationships. The only person that I haven't seen is my daughter because she's in France, and I'm I'm I'm expecting maybe at some point in life between nine before I die, that I have the opportunity to at least see her because I haven't seen her in over forty seven years, probably going on maybe forty eight or forty nine now, because i've been out about a year in four months or something like that. And any of your biological family, any siblings, cousins, I'm sure, aunts and uncles. I have heard. I have actually heard from one or two of them when I first got out. They're they're like in their eighties or something. I can remember them from from childhood, so they're up in age. So before we started the interview, you said you're trying to integrate into a couple of families. Well those are you know. I don't want to throw nobody's names out there. I'm not asking for names. I'm just saying, do you have a special someone? No, as far as a female is concerned. As far as yeah, fallen in love, no, no, I have that has I haven't got that lucky yet. And maybe I'm too old to be in no, no, no, no, no no. I'm telling you hey here, I am an old black man. I'm just basically trying to get through life and be happy. That's all I won't So do you have plenty of art supplies? Now? Yes, I do? And do you have a studio that's all yours that you don't have to leave and share the room with somebody? You can paint any time you want. Yes, I do. I have a feeling that even when you were locked up, Richard, you were happy. I bet you were kind to people. Well I listen, listen. I've never tried to be a despicable person, you know. I try to give out respect. We're respect do There's a lot of people out there that just show so much disrespect that you have to just weed yourself through those people. Get around them, no matter who they are, what color they are. If they're disrespectful and won't treat you with the same respect that you give them, leave them, get away from him, and go another way. How did you do that while you were locked up? It wasn't that difficult, believe me. There's times when I had to actually bite the bullet. Believe me, I've actually had to bite the bullet quite a few times, but I kept thinking about the bigger picture. No, I can't do that, because if you do that, you're burying yourself. So you have to be smart no matter what you do in life, even if you're doing prison time, you gotta be smart because if you don't be smart, you'll never make it out of there. Many years ago, I fell in love. I was twenty one and I was that last week I married my first love and he was a funny, smart, charming, handsome young black man. When we were first married, we were down, we were on vacation, and we were in Reno, Nevada, at a table playing roulette, and this white man came in and started making very disparaging, very racist comments to us, and boy, my temper just went nuts and I was ready to flat out deck this guy, and my husband came and grabbed my arm and said, excuse us, sir, we're just leaving. We'll see. He was trying to be practical and he said, I'm sorry, sir, my wife, We're just we're leaving. We got outside and he said, I never forget these words. He called me Pop. That was his nickname for me because I was a kid. He said, Pup, you gotta rise above it. He said, in this life you are going to get assaulted with all sorts of stuff, and you've got to rise above it. You know it. And it sounds like that that that that wisdom from George Harris lives in your heart in all things, I would hope. So you certainly have the ability, Richard, to rise above circumstances that I can't imagine having to get through. I'm still rising today. I'm still trying to be a better man than I've been yesterday or the day before that or the day before that. So if there's something that I can do, just like talking to you today that has also gave me such an invigorating feeling that now I feel I can step outside and breathe the fresh air and do better than I did yesterday. Well, I hope we can sell some of your artwork. I pray that whatever families have opened their hearts and their homes to you, that uh that they just love you completely. And if you ever want to be a part of our family, please know that you are welcome. My kids could use a grandpa like you in their life. Well, listen, I actually take that as an honor and I appreciate you saying that. And if they ever come a time when I can get out that way, believe me, I'm going to look you up and we're going to get together and we're going to go to Disney World or wherever we have to go in order to have a good time. For me to have a good time, all I have to do is go out and sit on the patio with a couple of you pretty much like me. Richard Phillips, thank you for spending this time with us. Thank you too. The best is yet to come, my friend, I hope, So slow down and love someone. It's