This special edition of Wrongful Conviction highlights the updates from two episodes recorded from Behind Bars. Since airing the Season 4 premiere about Lamonte McIntyre’s case, which was recorded while Lamonte was awaiting a new trial, he was finally freed on Friday, October 13th, 2017 after serving more than two decades behind bars in a Kansas correctional facility for a double murder. Season 2, Episode 5 featured a behind bars interview with Jon-Adrian Velazquez. “J.J.” was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life for the 1998 shooting death of Albert Ward, a retired police officer who owned and operated an illegal gambling spot in Harlem. Ward was shot and killed in the course of a robbery. Following the robbery, witnesses provided a description of the gunman as “a light-skinned black male with dreadlocks,” which prompted the search for “Mustafa,” a known drug dealer who fit the description. After learning that he was being sought by the police, J.J. attempted to vindicate himself of the allegations by voluntarily subjecting himself to a lineup. Out of nine eyewitnesses present at the scene of the crime, three identified him at the lineup. Despite being a light-skinned Latino who had never had dreadlocks and despite providing phone records which corroborated his alibi and showed that he was talking to his mother during the time of the crime, J.J. Velazquez was sentenced to 25 years to life even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Since then, two of the witnesses have recanted, and the other eyewitness has expressed serious doubts. J.J. and his alibi witness have both taken lie detector tests and have passed them. He is currently in his 21st year at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
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This is a hard one for me to even talk about because John Agrian Alasquez is someone who I consider well more than a close friend, I consider him extended family. I hate to report that nothing much has changed since the episode I recorded with him behind the walls of maximum security prison sing Sing Correctional Facility on March sixth, twenty seventeen. He's still there. I mean, just think about that's two and a half years ago, and he's been in for well over two decades now. The bad news is that, even with a tremendous amount of effort from so many great advocates, his motion for new trial based on a Brady violation was denied. I'm not really sure how that could happen. The Brady violation would seem to be obvious to almost anyone, but this judge.
Didn't see it that way.
So JJ is anyone making the best of a terrible situation.
And I will say this sinxing.
Correctional hosts some wonderful events called Choices, which are focused on helping children of inmates follow their own past in life and not make the mistakes that their fathers may have made. In JJ's case, so John Adrien's case he didn't make any mistakes, but many of the men who are incarcerated there certainly did things that we want to help steer their children away from so in April twenty seventeen. In December of twenty eighteen, JJ John Adrien organized, fundraised and was the massive ceremonies of the Choices events.
I was there. It was a powerful presentation.
In October of twenty seventeen, he organized, coordinated, and co moderated NYCHEPS. That's nychep's second annual conference. Nychep's collective goal is to increase access to higher education for those impacted by the criminal justice system and to pool resources in order to create seamless access to quality education so a prison and beyond. In October twenty seventeen, he also organized and facilitated the first ever job Readiness and re Entry initiative. It's sing SING for individuals in the Singing population who have eighteen months or less until they're to be released. It's designed to prepare them for re entry so important. While imprisoned, John Adrian has been a teacher Fellow for Columbia University and the Psychology Course from September to December twenty eighteen, and he's still an administrative program assistant for Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, a position he's held since twenty fifteen. His accomplishments behind bars are above and beyond the accomplishments of so many people in free society, and I just want to get him home.
With the police banging on the door, open up.
The choice to be in that lineup was the last choice I made as a free man. A year later, I ended up writing the system. I'm going to be one of those people who everyone in the world is going to think as a monster or suspect is a monster for the rest of my life, and I'm just going to have to come to peace with that. Somebody was able to look at my picture in the database and say that I was somewhere where I definitely wasn't. I overheard three of the jailers discussing what part they might have to play in my hanging. They had been told that two prison officers would have to participate in my execution. Now I walked back inside that prison for the last time. Man all help broke loose.
But welcome to another edition of Wrongful Conviction. Today's a very special day because This is the debut of wrongful conviction behind bars, and our guest today is my dear friend, an innocent man stuck in a nightmare here at Sing Sing prison.
John Adrian Velasquez, also known as Jay.
John Adrian Belasquez, convicted of killing a retired New York City police officer during a botched robbery and Harlem. Fifty nine year old Albert Ward was killed. Blaskaz was found guilty of second degree murder JJ. Velaskaz was thrown in a lineup been fingered for murdered by a drug dealer who the police threatened with the rest with no physical evidence.
Valasquez was prosecuted for murder.
This sentence twenty five years to life.
Valaskaz remains in prison.
JJ. Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
You're hearing a lot of background noise today, and there's a very simple reason for that, which is that we are inside of Sing Sing correctional facility and it is a noisy place and there's really no getting away from it. I apologize for any distractions that you're going to experience during today's show. We've highlighted the cases of over a dozen people so far, who've been exonerated, and my hope is that in bringing more exposure and light to your situation, that this will be another part of the process of getting you out. Because JJ is just as innocent as any of the people who've been on the show, but as of yet, he has not been able to win his freedom. So that's what we're here to talk about today. But before we even get into that, I want to go back. Let's go back to how you grew up, where you grew up. You know, we like to always give a little context.
Sure, I'm a native New Yorker, grew up in a middle class family home. My mother was a healthcare worker and eventually she went through training and became a union organizer for eleven ninety nine. My father is a former was a former US Army veteran who later became an Amtrak police officer. By the age of ten, things changed in my household. I started to realize a lot of arguments and fights were happening between my parents, and it was because my father was actually living a double life. He had two families. I found out for the first time that I had a younger brother that was five years younger than me. Half brother from another mother. It was kind of ecstatic to have a brother. At that time, I was young and I was naive, and I didn't really get to see what was about to happen because everything changed. The dynamics of my household changed. My father wasn't around as much anymore, and he made it his business to remain present in my life. But it's impossible to be two places at once, and eventually I started to fill that void that I missed with my father by spending more time in the Devil's playground. And for those that are listening that may not understand what the devil's playground is, the streets of New York are harsh, and when you go out there and you start to experience and be exposed to the streets, you start being overwhelmed by certain environmental factors. And in my particular neighborhood, there was a lot of negative peer influence and that kind of changed the dynamics of my thinking. It changed the trajectory of my interests where at one point all I cared about was school, sports, and home, And then a time came where I lost interest in home in school, but I still had that interest in sports. I had this dream because I was good. Baseball was really where I was at a lot of people believed in my talent. I had gotten hit by a bus at the corner of my school when I was sixteen, days after my sixteenth birthday, and when the doctors told me that I would never be able to compete at the same level that I was used to. That changed my life. That was a crossroad at that point when school went out the window, or when sports went out the window. Rather, school went out the window with it, and I started cutting class, and before you knew it, I became so rebellious. There were so many arguments in my household with my mom's and I would try to play my father against my mother and my mother against my father. And eventually I just got tired of it all and I ran away from home and in search of my independence. In pursuit of my independence, I found my self homeless. I've had many nights where I went to sleep hungry, and I know what it is to live off of a dollar a salami and a dollar cheese and a stolen loaf of bread. And that's basically where everything started for me as a whole different aspect of living in New York because I was on my own and I didn't have working papers, I didn't have an ID, I was a high school drop out. I'm running for my mother and my father, so I can't I got to stay away from police, I got to stay away from anybody who can officially report me to my family. And it was a matter of pride, like I left and I didn't want to go back. And then there was also a matter of fear where it was like I'm going to be judged when it gets scolded, you know, So there was shame. There was a lot of different factors playing in and it just made me go deeper and deeper. And it was like, I've realized now that that was the worst choice in my life, because all I did from that point forward was continued to make worse choices that dig the deeper grave.
You somehow or other, managed to survive very difficult circumstances, a lot of disappointments, a lot of things that no child should have to go through and end up on the streets. But you turned it around to the extent that you met a great woman, right and you had a couple of kids. Yeah, So how did you go from a sixteen, seventeen year old kid on the streets to being a twenty two year old man with a couple of kids and a wife and more of a stable situation.
So basically what happened is being in the streets. I met Vanessa. I met her at sixteen turning seventeen. Eventually I started living with her, and her family took me in and I was still trying to survive and I was moving too fast for my own good. Before you knew it, I was a father, and that made me start to take life a lot more seriously. And I'm trying to figure out my way and say, all right, and I need to do something, and I need to do something to ensure that my family's going to be all right. Tried to look for jobs, but again my high school drop out. At that point, I didn't know what skills I may have had that were employable. I was a child trying to find my way. Before you knew it, I was a father with another child on the way, and it was rough. I was basically living off of Vanessa because she was getting welfare, and it's all social service, you know, SSI. I mean, the rent was under one hundred dollars, so it was affordable, you know. But at the same token, they don't know I'm living there. And it's crazy because, yeah, I got arrested a few times, no charges ever, you know, stuck. I've gotten arrested for loitering. I've gotten arrested for all kinds of little nonsense that happens in the neighborhood. They gave me a trespassing for going to see a friend in the projects because I don't live in the projects. What people need to realize in New York and all over the world is that all it takes for you to be in my shoes is to get arrested, for them to take a picture, for them to take a name and put it in a system, for them to take your fingerprints. That's what starts everything. That's what started for me. Somebody was able to look at my picture in a database and say that I was somewhere where I definitely wasn't.
And I want to talk about that for a second, JJ, because I'm very well aware of the fact that in the poorest neighborhoods like the one that you were residing in, they do these sweeps and they'll pick people up for riding a bike on the sidewalk, or like you said, visiting a friend. I mean, I'm not sure how that's a crime, you know, trespassing, You could call trespassing anything. I mean, you might as well arrest somebody for breathing. It's you know, it's almost a fada complee that a young person like yourself, especially a person of color, is going to end up in the system in some form or another for doing the same type of thing that other people in other parts of the city or other parts of the country would not get arrested for.
As you said, that starts.
A chain of events that can only have negative consequence and in your case, tragic consequences.
When I tell these.
Stories to people, they go, but that can be like, you can't convict somebody with no evidence, but you can absolutely. So there you were, you have your two kids, You're turning your life around, doing the best you can.
At the time, yeah, I was actually a student at TCI Technical Careers Institute trying to learn about computer programming, trying to get a skill that would be employable.
And to your credit, it's interesting because I think for some people, the responsibility of fatherhood, of having become a father at such a young age causes them to run. But in your case, you took it seriously, and you took it as actually has an opportunity to turn your life around.
Absolutely, So one day everything changed.
It's almost like a blink of an eye. I receive a phone call. It was a Saturday morning, and it's from my brother's mother, Carmen, who I also have a very close relationship with. And basically my license, my driver's license was addressed to my father's address and that's where Carmen and my brother Jason lived. So they went to that apartment at Life four in the morning Friday night going into Saturday morning, and they were looking for me. You have police officers looking for me, and they tried to even grab up my little brother. Now, at the time, I was twenty one years old, so my little brother being five years younger than me, it's sixteen years old. The description was given of two male blacks from twenty five to thirty years old. Why are you trying to grab up this child? Clearly he looks like a child. Clearly he doesn't look like me either, and neither one of us appear to be two black men, right, But they're trying to grab him, thinking that he's me for whatever odd reason. And then Carmen just makes a big stink and says, do you understand that this is the house of an officer who died within the last ten months. Do you understand what you're doing. You're violating the children of somebody who served this country just like you. And that's when they were like, they eased up a little bit. They didn't have a warrant for arrest, so they gave her a card and said, listen, and you get in touch with mister Velaskis. Please have him get in touch with us. We're trying to help him. I was living in the Bronx with Vanessa and I get this call from Carmen and it's a startling call because she's like, listen, you know the cops are looking for you. They're saying something about you shot a police officer and that you need to call them. They're making it seem very serious. They came in here deep and I'm like, listen, Carmen, what's going on? What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about. Slow down, And she's like, yo, listen, all I know, here's a number they want you to call. I'm like, what precinct did they come from? You know, where's this coming from. Listen, here's the name. His name is Joseph Latrenta. Here's his phone number. They told me the precinct. At the time, it was a twenty eighth precint. I don't think I even registered.
That was this four in the morning.
She called me about nine in the morning. She waited until a decent time I guess to call me. At that point, I started to kind of like panic, and I was frantic. And I have two children. One is a child that's only a few weeks old. I have Vanessa there. Vanessa realized from the phone call that something serious is going on. But she's like, what's going on? And I'm like, yo, just wait a minute. I gotta process this, Like I really don't even know what's going on, Like, let me call my mother. So I called my mother and I'm like, yo, ma, you know they're saying the police are looking for me. She started getting hysterical on phone what happened? And I'm like, listen, I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened. This is what I know. I know the police are looking for me. I know it's the weekend. I know it's not a good time to get into contact with the police because I can't see a judge or anybody else until maybe one day if they come for me. They're saying this is serious. It's saying I shot a cop. I have no idea what this is about, but I'm scared and I need your help. What are we going to do? So she's like, stay there, I'm coming. My mother lives upstate at the time, and she came and picked me up, and she took me to the church that we used to attend together regularly on the weekend. It's called Love Gospel Assembly. We went to the church and there were a few people there and we started to tell what was going on, but everything was so limited, like didn't have any real knowledge. And they're saying, listen, the first thing you got to do is get an attorney and contact the precinct. So we try to figure out, you know, who would be a good lawyer. So I try to speak to a couple of my friends that I know have been involved in the system. Do you know any good lawyers? They tell me a name. His name is Franklin Gould may rest in peace. At this point, I've learned that he has passed away recently, So I'm trying to get in touch with Franklin Gould.
Bad part about this.
Again, it's the weekend. How do you get in touch with a lawyer over the weekend? Right? And we're waiting for frank Gould to get back to us, and in that time, the range of emotions that we went through as a family picture us being in a car driving around aimlessly. It's my mother, me, Vanessa, JJ, which is my son, right, I don't want to confuse nobody and Jacob, and JJ is three years old at the time. Jacob is a few weeks He was born December twentieth, and this is Jane, where he maybe thirtieth, so he's a little bit more than a month. And we're driving around aimlessly and aimlessly, and every time I see a police car it's like I get this little chill and I don't know what's going to happen here. Eventually we get in touch with this lawyer. We were outside of a restaurant and I remember I spoke to him briefly. I didn't have any information for him. I didn't know what to tell him. He's asking me for information, like I'm supposed to know certain things. I don't know nothing.
All you know is that the cops are looking.
For Well, no, I didn't even know there was a murder at the time. At that point, all I was told was that a cop was shot. But I just want to address this and get it over with because the longer I'm out here, the more my life is in jeopardy.
And he wants you to give him details, which you would.
Have to have them. I'm trying to tell him, I'm hiring you so you can get the details, right, That's just why I'm calling you. So he said that he had contacted the precinct but that they weren't giving any information. They just wanted me to turn myself in. But I left him on the phone my mother, and when my mother came back, I was so upset. I was scared, but I was so upset that I decided there's no way I want to deal with this guy. Because this lawyer told my mother that if we were to get pulled over by police, that I should put my head down in the ground and that my mother should throw her body over me to make sure that nothing happens to me, because I could get shot and I didn't like that. You know, if anything, he should have said that to me while I was on the phone. You don't see that to my mother had a frantic you know.
That's a strange thing for a lawyer to say. I mean, I understand he was in a certain way trying to prevent it. Looking that's a little bit hysterical. Yeah, and yeah, and you're absolutely right. I mean he should have addressed that directly with you, right, So you ended up not engaging.
I didn't engage with him. We ended up dealing with an attorney. I believe his name is Goldstein. I don't know his first name. And he told us to go to a hotel and we got a hotel. We called him from the hotel, gave me the address, and everything is crazy. At this point, Vanessa and my mother go get the hotel room. I'm sneaking in through the back. I'm afraid, and I'm staying in the hotel room. I'm waiting for this guy. So this the lawyer comes. He comes to the hotel and he meets me and he's like, all right, how you're doing this is what's going to happen. I contacted the precinct. I told him that I'm arranging to turn you in on Monday, right because it was Saturday still, so he says, I'm going to turn you in on Monday. Until then, I want you to stay in this hotel room. I do not want you to leave this hotel room. I want you to shave your face. I want you to be clean shaving. We're going to walk into that precinct early in the morning on Monday, and we're going to deal with this situation. I want a thousand dollars right now. I want one thousand dollars the day that you turn yourself in on Monday, and then you'll be locked up and Friday you'll be going to an arraignment. And at that point, I want five thousand dollars. And I'm like, what are you not getting I didn't do anything. What are you talking about that? I got to give you money? Now, give you money again, then give you money on Friday. And you're saying them, spend five days in jail. What do you represent me for? And he's like, listen, I'm just telling you these are some serious charges. This was going to happen. You want me to be real with you or not. So I give him the money. I gave him the first thousand dollars, and I'm just frantic. I don't know what's going to happen. This guy's telling me now that I'm going to jail, like it doesn't matter what I did or didn't do. I'm going to jail.
And let's go back for a second. I mean, we're talking twenty years ago. That was a lot of money. I mean there's a lot of money now. Yeah, there's a lot of money.
Absolutely.
Yeah. He actually said that the case was going to cost fifty thousand dollars before everything was said and done, because I would be going to trial on this case. So he basically convicted me before we even got to the precinct. So this is the mindset that I'm dealing with. Already, two lawyers have rubbed me the wrong way, and at that time, I'm not measuring if maybe it's because of the emotions that I have something inside of me, maybe it's not them. I'm not thinking like that. I was twenty one years old, and eventually, you know, I'm just sitting there and I keep staring at my children, I'm staring at for us, and I'm staring at my mother, and I'm saying, this might be the last time I get to see my children, This might be the last time I get to see my mother. How did this happen?
It's literally everybody's worst nightmare. Everybody's out to get you. You didn't do anything, and it's the most terrible thing that you could be accused of. The murder or the shooting of a police officer is right at the top of them the list of things that you don't want to be wrongly accused.
And bear in mind you're talking to the son of a police officer. I was raising a police officer's household, right, I mean, what sense would it make for me to go out on a rampage and shoot a police officer.
That's crazy, And you had no history of violence, and none of it adds up. The nightmare is growing as you are encountering these people who are supposed to be on your side and people who are supposed to be helping you. Right, your only chance is to get a lawyer that's going to represent you. Monday comes actually the step back just a second.
Sunday, I get a call from Frank gould and Frank gould Man. There's something about this guy. He's a real smooth talker. He made me feel comfortable and he said, Yo, listen, don't worry about that guy Goldsting. I'm gonna see if I can get the thousand dollars from him. If not, don't worry about it. We're not even talking about money right now. You're in a serious dilemma. And guess what, I want to meet you outside that precinct. We're gonna meet in the morning time. I'm gonna walk in there with you. We're gonna see what's going on. You wait for my phone call. After my phone call, you meet me in front of the twenty eighth precinct and we'll deal with this situation. He made me feel a thousand times better. I mean, he knew how to talk to me. He's talking to me like, all right, you're innocent. We're gonna see what's going on, and we're gonna play this by ear not you're going to jail, you're gonna get shot. That's not what somebody wants to hear. And I really respected that, and eventually Monday came and that's exactly what happened. We had found out that the apartment in the Bronx thirteen forty four University Avenue, the door to our apartment was hanging off the hinges with a police lock on it, which means that the police had gone into the building, went into my apartment, knocked down the door. They've been in it. They said it was trash. These were neighbors that ended up calling. They got in touch with Vanessa, I believe. So we sent Vanessa home and my mother took me to the Priescst to meet my attorneys. So now we get to the front and Frank Goule's there with another attorney. Her name is Susan Walsh. We're on the steps. My mother's like, you know, you want me to stay and wait for you out here. I said, listen, I don't know what's going to happen. Just go home. If anything, I'll take a cab. Just go home. And she's like, all right, And I mean, that was the last time I got to touch my mother as a free person. It's kind of crazy. And we walked into the precinct and when we went in there, Frank said, give me a minute. He left me there with Susan. I remember him coming and saying, let's go. I said, what you mean let's go? He said, let's get out of here. They don't got no waran for your arrest. So we're walking out, and I'm like, listen, Frank, you really have to make me understand what's going on. I've been frantic for an entire weekend, running around with my family, staying in hotels, being threatened by lawyers, and you're telling me we could just walk away from this. And he's like, they don't have a warman for your arrest. So I want you to go home. I said, and then what happens when I go home? I got a door hanging off a hinge. What happens when I go home? Is this over? He said, no, it's not over. I said, what do you mean it's not over? He says, they want to put you in a lineup. I'm not going to let them put you in a lineup. I said, what happens if I don't get picked in that lineup? He says, then you're free. I said, so I'm going in that lineup? He says, no, you're not. Let us do our job, let them do their job. Okay, I'm like, no, it's not okay. I want to go in that lineup. You're telling me that the only way that this is going to be over is if I go in that lineup and I don't get picked, telling you I didn't do this crime. So I'm going in that lineup. He says. If you get picked in that lineup, your life is going to change forever. But you're going to jail, I said, and what happens if I leave? What do they go pick me up, put something in my pocket or do they shoot at me? Do you realize what I've been through this weekend? I'm going in that lineup. And that's exactly what we did. We walked back in that precinct and I volunteered for that lineup. I stood in a bullpen, like the outside area of a bullpen, sitting in a chair with Susan wallsh for a couple of hours while they went and got some phillis.
And this is a bizarre part of the story too, because at this point it's interesting and it's important that you highlighted that you just spent the weekend like a fugitive hiding out. It's exactly when you come to find out they don't even have a warm for your arrest. Now you're volunteering for a lineup, which you would be a little nuts if you were actually guilty to go and do that. Absolutely, that doesn't add up. And then you know, you don't have to be a professor of criminology to understand that, right. And then on top of that, you didn't know this at the time, but the suspect they were looking for was a guy named Mustafa. Is any part of your name Mustafa?
Absolutely?
And the suspect they were looking for was a black male with dreads, right, right? Have you ever been a black mail or had dreads?
Maybe in another life?
Right, So it would be pretty much it would seem like an open and shut situation. And there were numerous witnesses who all agreed on this description. It wasn't like it was one that said this and one that said that. There were numerous witnesses who all said that the suspect that the police were looking for was a guy whose.
Street name was Mustafa.
And I want to encourage people to watch the show on JJ Coule Conviction, because in it you'll see the actual police sketch, which it doesn't look any more like you than it looks like me.
It's a guy. It's a black guy with dreads.
Had you known that, it would have been perfectly logical for you to go into the lineup. And I think people can identify with the idea that you're going in there and saying, well, I mean you grew up as the son of a police officer.
You're going to say to yourself, well, the system is going to work.
Absolutely right.
I mean that was my belief, right, You're going to go in there and there's no way that somebody's going to pick you out of that lineup, even not knowing what we just talked about, right, But had you known that, you would have been one hundred percent sure that if you go in there, they can't pick you out of that lineup. So finally, now you're going into the lineup. Yes, And got to be a surreal experience too. It was like kind of right out of a movie, right, so for this time you're not watching, you're actually in it.
Well, that was my second time ever being in a lineup. The first time I was a student at Martin Luther King High School and they had this little bus coming around and they were offering us five hours to appear in a lineup, and I took it five hours, you know, take that, and I went to a lineup. So it wasn't the first time I was in a lineup, but it was the first time I was in the lineup as a suspect. And you know, I don't know what's going on on the other side if there's a mirror there, and I don't know what's going on the other side, but I do know that Susan Walsh is on that side. So what happened was when Frank Goule finally realized that I was determined to go into that priest and volunteer for the lineup, he said, listen, if you're going in for the lineup, you're going to stay here with Susan. I have to leave because it would be a conflicent interest for me to be your witness and your attorney. So she's an attorney and she is your witness. And that's basically where I still felt comfortable, because I was like, she's there, and I'm going to be all right. And sure enough, at some point told number three to stand and approach the mirror, and then they told him to sit down. Then they said number two. We need you to stand up and approach the mirror. And I did that and I sat back down. They said, everybody said thank you. Here it's like a speaker somewhere in the room and he's like, thank you. Be there. Shortly, somebody comes and opens the door and says everybody can leave. I start to get up. He's like, no, you stay. So I don't know if I have to fill out some paperwork or something before I leave. I said, all right, I sit down. Eventually they take me around back to the same room and Susan's there and she's like, Jay, I'm sorry, but you're gonna be staying. I said, what are you talking about. I'm gonna be staying. She said, you know you were picked, but there's some serious problems with your lineup. They made me wear a hat. I don't know that that's a problem then, but they made us all wear these black pullover hats, winter hats, ski hats. They had a problem with fillers. But at the end of the day, there's an existing affidavit from Susan Walsh. She's admitting that my lineup was manipulated on that day, and unbeknownst to me, what she's saying is that she had an argument with the police officers about my position. She wanted me between number five and number six, and they said, nah, we're not doing that. Here he's sitting right there, he's number two.
They didn't want you to be between five and six, They wanted you to be number two.
What is the significance of that?
Even towards trial, I really didn't understand the significance of it. But now in all my studies, it's supposed to be kind of a random process. And there's a lot of studies going on now about sequential lineups and double blind lineups. By putting me in a certain position, it can be inferred that you have already told these witnesses that an individual that committed the crime is going to be sitting in a particular position, right, So that will they enable the identification? Right?
Of course, they could say up front, you know, take a real close look at number two, right, they could say, And that's why a double blind And for those of you listening, a double blind means that the person conducting, whether it's a police officer or anyone else conducting the lineup, should not know cannot know who the suspect is because even if their intentions are pure, they subconsciously can steer a witness absolutely to just sort of take another I mean, you're doing good. I know this is very difficult for you, but you know you got to really try hard. Because we've seen it many times. A witness will say, I don't know, I don't I don't think I see the person in it. Go well, listen, I mean, we really need your help. You know, this is a brutal crime, this is a we've got to get this guy off the streets. What they should be saying is, we don't know whether the actual killer, the actual perpetrator is in this lineup, absolutely, but if you see them, then we need your help.
But they don't do that.
They don't typically they they and.
They may in many cases, and we don't know, but in your because we don't know what was going on in that room. But it's entirely possible that in your case, that your suspicions are true. That they said we think we got the guy. We think it's number two. Take a look. Let's see if you agree.
Right.
Anything like that, even something much more subtle than that, can really terribly mess up the process and eliminate objectivity, but even then, memories far from perfect.
Because that's that's what a lineup does. Who looks most like the individual? It's not who looks most like the individual who did it right, That's why we're here. And I was selected by three individuals, Philip Jones, Robert Jones, who were both brothers, and Augustus Brown. Later learning that Augustus Brown had actually been the person who selected my photo, which made me a suspect, so there was really no need for him to come and identify me again. So if you look at it in a realistic manner, at the lineup, there were only two people who really identified me because Augustus Brown had already made me a suspect. But technically all three of those individuals out of five individuals, had identified me.
And we know that Augustus Brown had a very good reason to want to identify you because Augustus Brown was a heroin dealer. Yes, he was so not somebody you would consider to be a top notch witness or a reliable witness necessarily, and he had a motivation which was that when he was picked up, correctly, if I'm wrong, when he was picked up, he was in possession of ten bags of heroin. Yes he was, and the cops weren't letting him leave until he identified somebody they wanted this case soft.
Yeah. Sugustus Brown is an interesting character all to himself. He has a rap sheet that we can stick on the wall and drop to the floor, but in reality, he was actively on probation at that time. We come to find out a trial that he wasn't reporting, so he had already abscounded from probation right this, which is why he fled before any police would arrive. When he gets picked up, because he didn't come to the priestsint voluntarily. They he was sent multiple messages to come to the precinct. He was arrested on a street corner that he sold drugs on. He did get caught with ten bags of heroin on him. He was brought to a precinct and he spent hours in that precinct. He came about three o'clock and he wasn't let go until about eleven o'clock at night from a different precinct. He has stated on multiple occasions that he was wrong and that he was forced to do what he did, and there's layers to this so when he was at the prestinct, they were trying to time in as an accessory to murder. They told him, we got you in possession of drugs. I violated your probation and you fled the scene, and we have witnesses who think that you were a part of the team. So you're gonna be charged with accessory to murder if you don't help us do something. He looks at thousands of photos. It's supposed to be eight photos per page, and he looked at a total of one hundred and fifty six pages. But if you look at the description that he initially gave to the police, which was consistent and unanimous in the descriptions provided by all witnesses, that stated that two black males came into that place and victimized these individuals. One was dark skin and one was light skin. The light skin individual had dreads or braids. I don't know which one. Some of them said break, some of them said dreads.
By the way, it's also arguable that your picture shouldn't have been in there in the first places.
You're never convicted of anything.
Freedom Agenda is a proud sponsor of this episode of wrongful conviction Freedom Agenda is led by people directly impacted by incarceration, and they're organizing to get Mayor Eric Adams to follow the law and shut down Rikers Island. Right now, thousands of people are awaiting trial there in life threatening conditions. Freedom Agenda is committed to creating a safer and more just city by winning investments in long neglected communities, protecting the rights of people involved in the criminal legal system, and ending the cycle of violence that Rikers perpetuates. To learn more about the campaign to Close Rikers and to sign up for Freedom Agenda's mailing list, go to Campaign to Close Rikers dot org, slash, get involved, or follow at Freedom Agenda.
And Why on social media. Back to where we were at. You're now in this Kafka esque and.
I always say that, but it's true nightmare where you're ready to leave the police station. You know they must have identified somebody else or nobody because you didn't do anything and you don't even know it. But you don't match the description, not even close.
But they tell you to day.
Yeah, so they tell me to stay. Susan says, listen, we'll see you in court tomorrow. You'll be arraigned and we'll take it day by day, take it one step at a time. In the meantime, before I leave, I want you just to be conscious of something. We told these offices that we took pictures of you and your underwear in a hotel and that if they touch you, they will be losing their job. So you should feel safe, you should be all right. Do not speak to them about anything. And from that point I was escorted into this small cage that had a concrete slab and a bunch of bars, and I stood theify I don't know how long, and you know, it was real. It was a real surreal experience where it was just like, you know what, you gotta realize at this point, you just have to block everything out and deal with the situation, you know what I mean. Don't talk to them, don't ask them no more questions, don't provoke them, just deal with it. And that's what I did. Eventually we got to Central Booking, and Central Booking is like another zoo, right, they heard you from one place to another, you shackled up on a chain gang, You got shackles on your feet, and you go from one bullpen to another bullpen, and it's twenty thirty of you moving at the same time people are sitting on the floor. You have homeless people in there. The smell is crazy. Some of these places. The plumbing is all messed up, so you might have some feat season and toilet or some urine, and the toilet might have urine on the floor because it might have flowed out, you know. And it's just a bunch of people around and you're lucky if you get a bench to sit on or whatever. And they kept moving, moving the chain, moving the chain, and eventually you get to this place and they start taking your stuff out of your pockets and they're searching you on the wall. And that's when I had my first serious experience with corrections officer. Just out of nowhere, towering officer, big hits me in the back and I never knew that you can get your wind knocked out from getting hit in the back. Knocks me, knocks me down. I'm conscious, but I'm just like blown away, and he's just wailing at me, and I'm just covering up. Officers that brought me in. They were still around and they had stopped them. They say, oh, listen, leave them alone. You can't do that. He's like, yeah, but he killed a cop. He thinks he's a tough guy. I michaelle him a tough guy, and I'm like, yo, I don't know what's going on. And what ended up happening at that point was they moved me and I got separated from the rest of the prisoners and I got put in a bullpenp by myself. I can still see prisoners in a bull pit adjacent from me right across. They got bullpens everywhere, but I'm by myself now, so I definitely have all the room to stretch out and lay down and do whatever on a bench. That wasn't the problem, but I start to realize the fear of what that lawyer was talking about that first time when he told my mother that this is serious, and I'm wondering how much more do I have to go through? And he had before I'm able to get out. Fortunately for me, I never had that problem again. But that's where I first got a taste of reality. The next day came and I go into another bullpen where they have these windows that you can have attorneys come visit you, so they call your name. So eventually my name gets called and I go in there, and it's another attorney. It's not frankl it's not Susan Waash, nobody I never met in my life. His name is Norman Rima. And Norman Riema comes and he tells me. He says, listen, mister Velaskaz, we're about to go in front of the judge and you're going to be arrainged. But I just want to put you on point to a few things that are important. You're being charged with capital murder. I said, what is that? He says, you're facing the death penalty. I said, what the death penalty? I mean, I don't understand what's going on. And everything is spinning. The walls are spinning. Norman Reema is talking. It's incoherent. I don't know what you're saying. I don't hear you. I block everything out, and I just I don't know how I got to that point. And at that point, I don't even know how I coped with that, how I dealt with that, I don't know. I went into some short sense of trauma and I became numb. I do recall him saying, don't worry about the death penalty, which was didn't do any good, right, But he said, don't worry about the death penalty because Robert morganhal has never pursued the death penalty in New York. So within six months they'll probably drop that and you'll be facing natural life in prison. And I said, Norman, I didn't commit this crime. Why are we talking about death? Why are we talking about natural life? Why aren't we talking about freedom? Why aren't we talking about restoring my status as a citizen. And he's like, listen, you just have to stay strong. But you're not going nowhere. You're not getting bail. You're gonna have to go through this process. I said, well, how long is this process going to take? And he said anywhere from six months to a year, maybe two years, there's no telling. You just gotta stay strong and talk about turning point in life. Everything changed from there. I got sent to Rikers Island. Ryk As Island is a war zone. You know, they call that the school a hard Knocks, but it's more like Vietnam or going to Iraq because everywhere you go there's blood. And that's all that happens is humans shedding other human's blood. And you see it everywhere. There's no way around it to fight after fight. I mean, I don't know how is it able to navigate through a lot of that, But I made it through. I have no scars, I'm still safe. I'm in one piece, and I'm blessed. Eighteen months I did on Rykers Island. Eighteen months I was able to navigate through the bullshit, and eventually I went to trial. And going to trial was the first time I get to learn how everything unfolded and took place, because for all those months I still couldn't underst then what's going on? How did it happen? What took place? Why am I here? Those questions weren't answered. They weren't answered by my lawyers. They just stay strong, John, We're gonna make it through and worry about it when we get to trial. We mean, don't worry about it. Life continues, It doesn't stop for anyone. My children are growing. I watched Jacob's first steps. We're in a visiting room on Rikers Island. For me, the first time I seen my son come to me. He's daddy walking. He's smaller than the table. I raised my children in prison. That wasn't easy, and looking back at it now, I can't even take credit for raising my children. Actually, So I go to trial, and during the trial I start to learn things. I learned that this cop tried to interfere with the robbery that was taking place because he owned the establishment. And I knew that relative earlier as a retired police officer who owned the gambling place. He also owned the Basket Robbers one hundred and twenty fifth Street. He also owned some print shop and another bar. Own a lot of establishments for police officer or a retired police officer rather. And he had this legal gambling spot and somebody came in. They're saying to shoot him, this light skinned guy with this with these braids or these dreads, and he came in. He tried to place a bet. And this spot is one hundred and twenty fifth Street between hundred twenty fifth and one hundred twenty six and eighth Avenue. So this guy comes in, it's broad daylight, somewhere around noon, and he comes in, he places a bet. So when he comes into place to bet, the guy's like, YO, listen, we don't do that here. You're a stranger. Get out of here. He's like, I ain't no stranger, man, I'm not a cop. From the Projects. He said, yeah, I'm from the Projects. I played my number on the east side. Man, I'm not trying to go down there. Let me just play my number. So they like, all right here. So he goes to fill out the betting slip. They said, he filled out the wrong slip. This is Robert Jones testifying, right, because I learned everything through testimony. So now Robert Jones says he filled out the wrong betty slip. He takes it, throws it out, and fills out the right slip for him. So then he leaves it said. Forty five minutes later to an hour later, this guy comes back, knocks on the door. The numbers about to come out. They're not taking more bets, they said, Yo, let him in. Let him in, worry about he was here earlier. So he's like, yo, want to place another bet? He said, Yo, be BET's a closed, but the numbers about to come out. Just stick around. Next thing, you know, another knock comes on the door, and then the doorman's at the door and he's like, yo, there's another guy here. Man, we can't keep letting these guys there. Next thing, you know, they said, this light skinned guy pulls out a gun. He's like, you know what it is, let my man. The guy comes in. Next thing, you know, they tell everybody get on the ground, and I don't know what happened, but there was an exchange of fire and eventually the officer or the retired officer, wound up dead on the ground.
So pandemonium inside the book He Joint or the Illegal Numbers Joint is total. You've got people being tied up, you've got people jumping over things, you've got gunshots ringing out, you've got people fleeing, and in the process a retired police officers killed.
So here you are at the trial and you're being represented by Norman Reamer, Norman and Frank Goulden, and now you've been in the system for eighteen months.
At that time. Yes, to be precise, I turned myself in February second, nineteen ninety eight. I walked into that precinct. The choice to be in that lineup was the last choice I made as a free man. I was on trial in October of nineteen ninety nine.
Right, so over a year and a half in the most dangerous prison in New York State, which is Rikers Island.
So the trial at the trial This is where I get the revelation of what occurred. You have several witnesses who come and they testify. What people need to realize is that everybody that was at this illegal gambling spot was engaging in criminal activity. Every single one of those people could have been arrested in charged with a crime where the murder of a retired police officer occurred, so it was serious for all of them. They were all under pressure. And then you have to think about the response. You're talking about the center of Harlem in broad daylight, a retired officer who worked that area, who owned the basket Robbins in that area, was shot and killed. There has to be a response so that the people in that neighborhood, the residents of Harlem, understand that this is not tolerable. There has to be a response for that the people in the residence of Harlem can understand that this is still a safe environment. And that's why there's so much pressure to bring somebody to jail.
And you bring up another interesting point, which is that everybody involved had a very strong motive. I want to identify you because it takes the heat off of them, right. I mean, it's just straightforward as it could be. I mean, these are all people who were engaged in the various activities of various different degrees, and the situation provided them a very convenient way to make this problem go away. And that opportunity was sitting right in front of them. All they had to do was point to you and say that's the guy who did it. Now you go through the trial, all the evidence has been presented, Prosecutors do their.
Thing, the defense does its thing.
As we know, the defense did a very competent job in your case, but they were hamstrung by the fact that they didn't have the money to do the proper investigations leading up to the trial. And the fact is that's where the real stuff happens, right, That's where you can't go into a.
War with a toy pistol. Right.
In fact, that's kind of what happens in these cases when you have a defense team that isn't given access to the evidence, that isn't even the resources or the time because they're so busy to properly investigate the situation. And then they're going in there and they're doing the best job that they can and presenting the best arguments of the camp, but they don't have the information that they need that. Actually, in your case, had they been able to do that, it's almost impossible to imagine that a jury would have convicted you. But that's exactly what happened, and that's why we're sitting here right now, and let's talk about that. So the moment comes when all the evidence has been presented, the jury goes out, and they didn't go out for a short time either.
They were out for a long time.
They started getting their instructions Monday, and they started deliberating Tuesday, and from Tuesday from ten in the morning to ten at night, Wednesday from ten in the morning to ten at night, Thursday from ten in the morning to ten at night, and to Friday, where the judge is telling them in the evening, if you do not come back with a verdict, you will be sequested. That means that they were going to be held and they weren't going to be able to go home over the weekend. Probably about another hour later, hour and a half later, they came back with a verdict and they found me not guilty of murdering the first degree.
Right.
That was the first ruling. Right, So you had reason to be optimistic. Now all of a sudden, you're like, okay, so not guilty.
Murder, not guilty in a first degree, and then guilty, guilty, guilty. I just kept hearing it over and over again. For every other charge. They were charges of robbery, charges of attempt murder, another charge of murder for the same exact crime that I was just acquitted of. Right, The only reason why it was murdering the first degree was because of the occupation, the former occupation of the person who got killed, right, because he was a police officer. I was facing the death penalty, but I wasn't facing the death penalty at that particular phase. I was actually facing the same charge one twenty five, twenty seven murdering the first degree, natural life in prison, no opportunity for parole, never to be released again. And that's what they acquitted me of. See, but the jury doesn't understand what's going on. In fact, through investigations in another film that's taking place now, I found out that several jurors in that jury room, in that deliberation room, had an impression that I might be able to go home in two years as long as they acquitted me of the top charge and found me guilty of the lesson, and they figured that I was young enough to be able to bounce back from that and continue with my life. I have no idea where they got that impression, because two decades have passed and I'm still in prison.
But that's extremely important because now with that information, you can sort of see into the mind of some of the jurors where they're sitting there and you have whatever number of them, two, three are going, the.
Guy didn't do it.
The guy didn't do it, and the other guys are going, I want to go home, and he's only going to be in for two years. Just go along with us. Maybe he did it, maybe he didn't. We can't sit here all weekend. I got things to do with my kids. I got to get back from whatever the hell they're saying.
Right, absolutely, and it's obvious that this occurred because it took four days to come back with a verdict, so there was obviously some dissension in that room.
Yeah, if it was a clear cut case, it would have been out in an hour. They would have stayed for lunch. So now you're found guilty on all these charges, you end up in this unbelievable situation. And here we are right now inside the walls of sing Sing, almost twenty years later. How did you manage to cope? Where does that spirit come from?
It was an organic process, so it wasn't a methodical process. It wasn't thought out. It just kind of occurred. Basically, how I saw life was once I got out the fog, because it took me a few years to get out the fog. What I realized is that life is about balance. So I'm at a low, the lowest I could possibly be to be alive on earth. I consider my circumstances being buried alive. I say that a lot. I still believe that, And I have this philosophy about time, and I said, I've been sent to twenty five a life. I wasn't even twenty five years old when that happened, So I was looking at a portion of time that I hadn't even lived yet, under the circumstances that I was in, and I couldn't see that. So I had to start lying to myself, and I didn't realize they were lies. Then for twenty years. Lady, you look back and you say, every year I told myself it would be my last in prison. I did that for nineteen years and I'm still here. So I was lying to myself, not knowing. But it was that sense of hope that allowed me to rise from the ashes of oppression into this resilient spirit that I've acquired. And the balance was about how do I reach beyond the boundaries of prison and become a person who's felt outside of those boundaries. How can I help others live? And that's where I started to acquire a love for writing, because my letters can reach outside the walls. My voice wasn't out yet, but I utilized writing. And you can change your life in prison. So instead of just taking time, the way I look at it is this My philosophy personally is that life is precious, There's no doubt about that, and time is priceless. And why is time priceless Because our lives as humans are being measured by the time that we spend a life on this earth. And if I'm going to be spending all this time in prison where I don't have particular responsibilities to anything except for my children and my mother, then I can utilize this time to learn because I have access to read, So I start reading and I start listening, and I start watching, and I start observing, and I start to realize that there's an untapped pool of resources in prison that exist. What I'm around is a compounded environment that's actually a microcosm of society. And the majority of the individuals that I'm around are the people who took the wrong path in life. So by sitting down and speaking to them and learning what caused them to come across this path, I've found answers that we can utilize as preventative measures. So now I've learned to take the tools that are around me and utilize them to spread the word, become a voice for the voiceless, and try to create healthy communities from the inside out. And that's how these projects started to take place. We have a project called Voices from Within right now. Voices from Within are a group of individuals or are using the power of their testimony, guilty individuals that are using the power of their testimony to reach out to the youth and tell them you don't want to do this.
And I've seen the Voices from Within and I recommend anybody check it out. It's so powerful because there are people who shot someone, killed someone, they've taken life.
They've taken life.
And they have such an incredible sense of remorse and responsibility for their actions, and they're channeling into a need to help others not make those same mistakes. There's one that sticks.
In my mind.
The guy who you know, was in the movie theater right and you know what, think a rival gang or something like that started shooting and he shot back in the dark and shot an innocent person. And you know, you almost put yourself in that situation, and it's so vivid when you see him talk about it and the pain that he feels of having taken away, as he says, the son of somebody or the brother or the It's a very very powerful thing and a very positive thing that's turning a negative intory positive. Aside from the voices from within, there's a number of other things that you've accomplished in prison. Absolutely, Why don't you just run through some of the laundry list of things?
For me, these weren't tasks. This was a lifestyle that I've adopted. So in running through them, a lot of them are vivid. But I never realized how much I've actually accomplished until I was tasked with putting this together for clemency. It all started with a think tank in an inmate organization, and before you knew it, I became the community organizer of the facility and I started getting involved at anything that's positive or if anybody needed help how to put something together. I had this tenacity that was inherent to just be able to put things together, and we started doing it. When I came to this facility, there were a lot more options available. Sin Sing is the big House of New York. It's the prison right but it has been redubbed into sing Sing University and a documentary about Hudson Link that has been on HBO. So I started to go to college right. I started to acquire a degree in behavioral science, and I started to apply what I was learning between that and what I've learned on my own and what was happening in organizations. And then I found like minded individuals and we called ourselves the Forgotten Voices, and we said, you know what, we need to reach out to people who can make and affect change. So it's teaching children, and we're working with the children of incarcerated parents because they're the closest ones to us. But we're trying to work with all children, and we're trying to reach out to organizations to help children choose better options in life and utilize the experiences of those who have choosed bad options in life as a platform of experience to learn from, saying you don't have to come here to learn this, you can be better.
And it's so important because we know that number one factor that determines whether a child will end up in prison is not education or race or socioeconomic factors. It's whether or not they've had a parent in prison. So the idea that you're able to interfere and intervene, i should say, and helped to prevent that from happening is so critical and stopping that pipeline because those kids deserve as much of a chance as anybody else.
I think what's important to discuss when we discussed the projects and what I've accomplished with these projects, is to talk about how it really came to where it is today. Right, So what ended up really occurring was in two thousand and two, an individual came into my life. His name is Dan Slepian. He's a producer of NBC and he did the documentary Conviction he did the investigation that proves that I am an innocent man. And February twenty twelve, when that documentary aired, I was already heavily active in positive endeavors in prison, but when it aired, so many people reached out to me. And I'm talking about young people, old people, all kinds of people all over the world, but in particular, there were young people reaching out to me and telling me that my story changed their lives. Some of them were actively involved in the street life and realized that if an innocent man can come to prison, then I'm really getting there and I might be the next one. And what that did was because in going back Again, we're going to go back and forth. In two thousand and four, I was the captain of Youth Assistance program in green Haven and I used to deal with youth and we give them tours of the prison and we deal with them on a therapeutic manner. So from seeing how film works and seeing that for years, I've been trying to get my voice outside the boundaries of this wall, to reach people, to enact change in these communities and to change people's lives, I realized that the media is a tool to be able to get us to them because the problem we had when I was Upstate in the Youth Assistance program was the resources to get the children to the prison so that we can speak to them. We were having an effect on them, but if we only saw them one time, we would never see them again because the resources to get them up there that one time was hard enough. To get them to come back and do a reinforcement project was even harder. But I realized that we can bring the Youth Assistance program to them by doing this. And in the same time, other individuals in prison were reaching out to me and saying, I'm innocent too, I need help. I need the type of help that you have. And I started passing names on to Dan Slepian right, and these individuals have gotten out of prison. Eric Glistened served seventeen years for a crime he didn't commit. He was featured on Dateline a Bronx tale that was our work Johnny Kopier. His case was just dismissed last week in Manhattan court. Another individual we have, Richard Rozario, a very dear and personal friend of mine, as is Eric Glisten, twenty years for a crime in commit shot him down in the courts all the way through. Six months later, the influence of media and a new prosecutor going into the bronx became the perfect storm. And now he's a free man. And these are individuals I've been around. I've been around so many individuals who have been released over this time. This is like a whole nother life that I've lived in. Here. The ability to affect change in others' lives, and to see innocent men become free men based upon work that we've done together, To see prisoners who have taken lives trying to give back to life. To see all of these things taking place in the most unlikeliest place is amazing. And it's the driving force that keeps me vigilant, that keeps me alive, and that keeps me resilient today despite my circumstances, despite the devastation and the trauma that we've had to go through. Just think about this. My children for the first ten years of my incarceration, remember one was just a month old, was three years old. They spent five days in school and one day in prison because my mother brought them up religiously. Every week, my mother worked hard as a union organizer, five days working, coming up one day, bringing two young children to prison. What kind of social life did they have? They've experienced severe trauma, Vanessa, Her and I were together, We were going to raise our children together. We're not together anymore. But I don't blame her. I was facing twenty five years in prison. We weren't twenty five years old. I left her with an unfair burden of having to raise two children in a broken home, a home that was broken by an egregious miscarriage of justice. The trauma just continues to spread throughout the community. When an innocent man is convicted, he's not the only person who experiences the trauma as a result. The entire community will be affected because of the children, because of everything. You ask me, what the worst thing that I've experienced in prison. The worst thing that I've experienced in prison is that my son became a victim to prison. My son came to prison because I wasn't there to guide him. Okay, he's not innocent, but he if he had me, he would have had a different life. And in that sense, he was innocent. Whatever he got charged for he did, but he shouldn't have had to be in a position to be raised without a father and a role model in his life to teach him what's right, to guide them to see. Yo, listen, I see you going wrong. I'm not gonna let you do that to pull him up. I don't get that. I get two three hours of his life on a visit every once in a while. You think he's given me what he's going through. Nah, I'm going on to visit. He's telling me I'm fine. Meanwhile, he has to go back and face those demons in the Bronx. It's very unfair getting off the negative note and going to some of the more positive things. Besides the people that I've been able to touch. The thing I was proud about throughout this entire ordeal, it's my mother. My mother. She's carried my weight in a devastating way. She's the strongest person I know. She's been a father to my children. She's been amazing. I don't know anybody who has the strength that she has and the drive and the determination to carry the burden that was left by this miscarriage of justice. My mother is old man. She was young, and she was vibrant. She deserves to have me. They are taken care of I'm a holy child not been in prison. She's been taking care of me since I was born. That's not fair. Forty one years old. She deserves better, and she's been through way too much. Trauma is different for different people. And while I'm in the experience, prison has taught me that in order to survive, you have to become numb. And I've become numb to my environment and the circumstances in it so that I can deal with it. But in some regard, I haven't dealt with it yet, and I don't know what I'm going to and I don't know what's going to happen as a result. But I hope what has happened to others won't happen to me. David Ranter served twenty four years for a crimean commit and within a week of his release he had a heart attack. Within that same year, he had two more. Anthony Yarborough served twenty two or twenty three years for a crime in commit They said he killed his own sister and mother. DNA exonerated him. He died within a year of his release. Willie Lopez, personal friend of mine we worked together, got out of prison after about twenty two twenty three years, and he died within a year of his release. I'm forty one years old. My father died at forty nine and he wasn't killed. People need to understand how serious raw andful convictions are. I've been told that eleven million people cycle through the American penal system angrily. Even if we were too imagine a ninety nine percent success rate in the accuracy of convictions. One percent of that eleven million cycle through prison for crimes they don't commit. That's one hundred and ten thousand people on an annual basis. And if they come through for a serious offense, think about the type of time that they have to face. Fernando Bermude is a personal friend of mine seventeen years. Jeffrey Dskovic personal friend of mine sixteen years. David limis the person who introduced me to Dan Slepian from the Palladium murder fourteen years. Eric Glisten an individual I helped get out seventeen years. Richard Zario an individual helped get out twenty years. Johnny and Capyer an individual help get out twenty five years. The list will continue to go on the years go into the thousands.
People are hearing this story. It's an outrageous miscarriage of justice. It's gotta be fixed. I'm sure people are wondering what can they do to help? What can they do to help you? In particular. We've talked about things that people can do in general on the show. Is there anything they can do to help in this particular situation and as concise a manner as possible? Is there something that you would have people do to help, as you've helped so many other people reverse their wrong for conviction.
I always think that we can't make change, but we have demonstrated that we can, and I believe in the power of people. I think I need people, particularly the listeners of this show, to believe in the power of themselves. There's a website being utilized to advocate for my freedom. It's called free John Adriavealaskis dot org. J O N A D R I V E l A Z qu easy. If, however, many people listen to this show were to go and get ten people to sign that petition, we would have thousands. I'm a stamp away from anybody who cares. I'm sitting in sing sing correctional facility. My number zero zero a twenty three oh three reach out. I'll tell you how you can help. Go to the website, They'll tell you how you can help.
I think that's the most important thing is go to the website. It's free John Adrewandlasquez dot org. And again that's j O N A D R I A N V E l A Z que Z and then of course dot org, so free John Adrewandalasquaz dot org. Go there, learn how you can help. John has generously offered to have people write to him, and like I said earlier, you should expect a letter back that you're going to think he must have had help from a great novelist or a professor of English at an Ivy League university.
But he writes beautiful letters.
You have already somehow reached society because over the time of December and Christmas I got a stack of mail about this big I appreciate that. Thank you. I want everyone to know how touched I am by their humanity and their opportunity to say, you know what, somebody cares about you. And that's some of the energy that I utilize to basically catalyze my drive. So I appreciate it. I want people to be patient. I've been working on a petition for clemency. I've been working on my appeal, but I will try to get back to everyone, and upon my release, I guarantee that I'll be available somewhere on social media and we'll get to everyone.
Yeah, we'll have a big party, but everybody's going to have to sign some petitions to get in, that's for sure.
JJ. I want to thank you for being on the show.
I want to thank Revolver Productions for having me. I want to thank you Jason for having me and for doing everything that you have. You're an amazing individual. Thank you.
You've been listening to the first episode of Wrongful Conviction Behind Bars, and it won't be the last. I think it's very important that we bring these stories to light from inside the maximum security prison, in this case Sing Sing. I want to thank the Tuberintendent Capra for allowing us to film with Ja inside the prison walls. And again our guest today, John Adrian Velasquez. John, I'm looking forward to seeing you as I saw Felipe the other day on the outside with your family, and it's going to happen because we're not going to give.
Up until it does thank you.
Don't forget to give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts.
It really helps. And I'm a proud donor.
To the Innocence Project and I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocenceproject dot org to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis. The music in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
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