0:00

The Innocence Network is an informal collective

0:02

of independent organizations that advocate

0:04

on behalf of the wrongfully convicted, and

0:07

every year they gather along with a growing number

0:09

of those whom they've helped free. Our

0:12

team was honored to join them for their twenty

0:14

two gathering in Arizona. The stories

0:17

we heard were both heartbreaking and

0:19

inspiring, and some of those incredible

0:21

people were willing to record with us. On

0:25

January tenth, nineteen seventy five, there

0:27

was an open house party in Suffolk County, Long

0:29

Island, attended by seventeen year old Keith

0:32

Bush and fourteen year old Sharis Watson.

0:34

Over twenty alibi witnesses confirmed

0:37

that Keith Bush was with them in the house

0:39

around one thirty am, which Sharise was

0:41

believed to have gotten into a red sedan, never

0:43

to be seen alive again. The following

0:46

day, Terize's parents frantic search for their

0:48

daughter included a visit to Keith Bush, who had

0:50

told them about how he last saw her inside

0:53

the house party. Later that evening,

0:55

her body was discovered in the field near that

0:57

house, having been strangled to death. Her

1:00

us were partially on zipped and there were multiple groupings

1:02

of small puncture wounds on her back. Curiously,

1:05

the wounds had not bled. Biological

1:07

material and clothing vibers were gathered from

1:09

her fingernails, and hair pick was found

1:11

near her body. Two witness statements

1:13

emerged alleging that Keith was the last person

1:16

scene with Charisse. Ignoring

1:18

a more promising lead, investigators instead

1:20

tortured Keith in the police station until

1:22

he relented and signed a statement he

1:25

hadn't even read. It was a false

1:27

confession riddled with inconsistencies,

1:30

including an impossible hair pick

1:32

stabbing scenario that said

1:34

Keith away for twenty years to life.

1:37

DNA testing, independent autopsies

1:39

and witness recantations proved Keith's

1:41

confession was false, Yet Suffolk

1:43

County authorities and the Parole Board were

1:45

not so easily convinced. This

1:48

is wrongful confection. Welcome

2:02

back to wrongful conviction. Here we're

2:04

recording at the Innocence Network conference

2:06

in Phoenix, and what you're

2:08

about to hear combines junk

2:11

science. A false confession,

2:13

police and prosecutorium is

2:16

conduct on a scale that is

2:18

staggering, lying witnesses,

2:20

incentivized witnesses. It involves

2:23

so many of the causes

2:25

of wrongful convictions that we see again and again,

2:28

all wrapped up into one. Keith

2:30

Bush, Welcome to wrongful conviction. Thank

2:33

you, Thank you for having me. You know, I

2:35

always say I'm sorry you're here because well,

2:37

the reason why we're interviewing it today. But I'm

2:40

very honored to have you here. I

2:42

appreciate being here. And your story

2:44

is important for us to tell because a

2:46

lot of the reasons that I've already laid out. But before

2:49

we do that, what I really want

2:51

to do is talk about the young and

2:54

Keith Bush. The young teenager Keith

2:57

Bush growing up in Long Island.

3:00

Well, I was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

3:03

I was kind of raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

3:05

My mother and my father they separated

3:07

when I was young. My mother

3:09

has her roots in Long Island.

3:13

Her grandparents were born

3:15

on the Indian reservation. So

3:17

she used to take us back and forth

3:19

to Long Island from Bridgeport, Connecticut,

3:22

and then she eventually moved to Belport,

3:25

New York. Got it. And from what

3:28

I understand, you were a

3:30

fine young man. You weren't in any sort of

3:32

trouble. Would you say that you were on the right track

3:34

growing up? I was basically like most

3:36

kids. I played sports, you know, I went

3:38

to school, went to parties and did

3:41

basically what you know kids normally

3:43

do growing up. Sounds like a nice

3:45

childhood right in the ferry, back and forth. Everything

3:50

was fine more or less right. Everybody

3:53

has their ups and downs, but everything was fine

3:56

until this terrible incident that

3:58

happened at a party in Suffolk

4:00

County, Long Island. And we know the Suffolk

4:02

County unfortunately has

4:05

been a hotbed of police

4:07

corruption and misconduct for generations.

4:10

Of course, we've covered the Marty Tankliffe story

4:12

on this podcast, but your story

4:15

is as powerful as any,

4:17

so let's get right into it. So this

4:20

crime we're talking about January

4:22

eleven, the

4:24

middle of the winter, and

4:27

on that fateful day, the parents

4:29

of a young girl named Sharie Watson

4:32

called the Suffolk County Police Department and they

4:34

were worried because their daughter hadn't come home from

4:36

a party in a friend's house just a few blocks away.

4:38

This would be a cause for concerns. She's fourteen, it's

4:40

the wee hours of the morning, and

4:42

they began looking for Sharis. Now, about

4:45

a hundred people had attended this party, and

4:47

you were one of them. Right Saturday,

4:50

the eleventh of January,

4:54

Terise's mother and her effort of trying to

4:56

locate her daughter. She was trying to go around

4:59

finding all the people that her

5:01

daughter had come into contact with. They

5:03

came to my home and she had quiet

5:05

about, you know, Charice Watson, did

5:08

she come home with me? Did she leave with anybody

5:10

or whatever? And I told her,

5:12

I don't know, because the last time I talked

5:14

to her, she walked out the front

5:16

door and said I see you later, But she didn't

5:18

indicate that she was going home or even

5:20

coming back. And she said, well, if you hear anything, could

5:23

you give me a call. Later on in the evening,

5:25

they came back Terise's mother

5:27

and her father to my house. That's

5:29

when they came with the police officer. And

5:32

this time they obviously

5:35

hadn't you heard from her? And you're

5:37

talking about five or six o'clock in the afternoon.

5:40

I think it's every parents worst nightmare, right

5:43

missing it's a young girl. I think that

5:45

adds a layer of fear, you

5:47

know. But her body was found in the

5:49

field nearby where the party had

5:51

been. Helped brace yourself for this because

5:54

it's it's hard to hear but she was faced

5:56

down, her pants were partially unzipped, and

5:59

there were numerous small punctures on her

6:01

back. That's an important detail, as we'll see

6:03

as we go along, And autopsy would

6:05

later say that she had been strangled with enough force

6:07

to snap the hyoid bone in her throat

6:09

near her body, another important detail

6:12

which becomes the subject of misconduct

6:14

of a type that would be comical

6:17

if it wasn't so terrible and

6:20

so serious. But near her body, police

6:22

also found a black plastic hairpick

6:24

and a white hat. You know, it's important

6:27

to note that that night

6:29

they found Sherris Watson, my cousin,

6:31

and another friend that came

6:34

to my house with this elder gentleman Vietnam.

6:37

That this guy named Robert Stewart,

6:39

and I didn't know him, but my cousin, George

6:42

goldsonnew him, and he seemed

6:44

to be a concerned person in the community,

6:46

and we were talking about what happened, and

6:49

he wanted to try to help, like a lot of people

6:51

in the community, to find out what happened to Cheris.

6:53

So he had asked us, if you know, we were

6:55

willing to help find out. Some of the people who

6:58

was at the party really find out who

7:00

did this, and so I agreed that,

7:02

you know, I wouldn't help in any way that I couldn't

7:05

and um, we had met over to this guy's

7:07

house two nights. He had said

7:09

that, you know, there was having some problems with the names

7:12

of people who was at the party. They didn't know how to

7:14

connect the names to the faces,

7:16

and that may be that we can kind of help connect

7:18

them because these people can probably provide

7:21

some information about what really

7:23

happened. The only thing we knew at that

7:25

time was that Terse Watson

7:27

had came out the house and got into a

7:29

car, a stolen red car with three

7:32

individuals, and drove

7:34

off. We heard that these individuals

7:37

were from Riverhead in

7:39

Suffolk County, which is another town over,

7:43

but I never knew who these persons were,

7:45

and no one would really revealed it at that

7:48

time. So there's this whole red sedance

7:50

scenario right and compelling alternate

7:52

suspects. In fact, in Man,

7:55

which was a few months after the murder, but critically

7:57

before You're wrong for conviction, a

8:00

guy named John Jones had given a statement

8:02

the police which placed him at the crime seed

8:05

and he admitted that the hair pick at the

8:07

scene was his. Now we

8:09

can only speculate that

8:11

Jones wasn't pursued any further and

8:14

the state was hidden from over four decades

8:16

simply because police had already decided

8:18

that you were the guy. Right, of course,

8:21

that had dire consequences and not

8:23

just only for you, But we'll get to

8:25

that in a minute. But back to the mediate

8:27

aftermath. So you knew shereise, and

8:29

you had joined Robert Sewart's effort with

8:32

your cousin George Golson and your friend Chuckie

8:34

Corbin. Um, my understanding is you told

8:36

police what you told Teresa's mother write

8:38

the same thing, that you had seen her walk

8:40

out of the party sometime around one am.

8:43

Now, over twenty alibi witnesses

8:45

placed you at the party before you left

8:48

around three in the morning. Now, police

8:50

claimed to have learned that Therese

8:53

had left the party around one thirty am,

8:55

and that a little while later people heard screaming

8:58

and shouts of rape coming from the field

9:00

near the party where her body was eventually bound.

9:02

So on its face, it

9:04

seems very weird that no one from

9:07

the party looked into these alleged shouts of

9:09

rape. And then I also say that

9:11

police claimed to have learned this because

9:14

wasn't Sharisse said to have left in a red Sudan

9:17

Now. Police also interviewed a girl named Brenda

9:19

Carlos, who said that she had last seen Sharie

9:21

talking to you around one fifteen am, but left

9:23

the party before Sharise, so it

9:26

doesn't seem like her statement is very

9:28

relevant. Brenda Carlos was

9:30

introduced to me by Shterise Watson

9:32

that night. For my understanding, Brenda Carlos

9:34

was a little older than Sharis and she was supposed

9:37

to walk her home and make sure she had got home.

9:40

And Brenda Carlos had

9:42

said that she was going home

9:44

and Sharise Watson told her that

9:46

she wasn't going to go home, so

9:49

she said, okay, I'll see you later and she left.

9:51

That was her statement to police,

9:54

which was kind of insignificant in terms

9:56

of the crime itself. But

9:58

at trial when she testified, she

10:01

kind of altered that statement, and

10:04

the pivocal part of her testimony

10:06

then became when she asked her where you're

10:08

going home? She said no, Kippy

10:11

was going to walk home, and Kippy was

10:13

supposed to be me Keith Bush. Even

10:15

still, this would be circumstantial

10:19

evidence, even if her second

10:21

story was true. Right. What they

10:23

were doing is kind of painting a picture.

10:26

Her statement might not have been relevant

10:28

within itself, but her statement becomes

10:31

relevant when she's mentioning my name,

10:34

and then there's other evidence of suggestion

10:36

that kind of points to me now.

10:39

Police interviewed a teenage girl,

10:41

fifteen year old girl the vaccine Bell. She

10:43

had recently run away from her foster home. I was

10:45

living in an abandoned building. She knew Charise

10:48

as well as you, Keith right, and many

10:50

other people at the party from

10:52

when I guess she had attended the same school as you did

10:55

at one time. So the statements

10:57

she gave police, she

11:00

said that she was standing outside the party

11:02

for several hours and had seen you and

11:05

Cherise leaving together quote unquote hugged

11:07

up. That's what she later

11:09

testified, with your arms cradling

11:11

Charisse around the neck. I wonder

11:13

if somebody told her to say that, I'm just saying,

11:16

what can you tell us about this young girl? They

11:18

had got two statements from him. But in that

11:20

first statement that Monday,

11:23

which was the thirteen of

11:25

January nine, she

11:27

alleges that Terise

11:30

Watson comes out the house with

11:32

me, and when the Carlos.

11:35

Later, she backtracks. She testifies

11:37

that Terise Watson came out the house

11:39

with me hugged up, and she asked

11:42

her that you know you want me to walk you home,

11:45

and then Terise allegedly told and know that

11:48

you know I was going to walk her home, and

11:50

she alleged that she left

11:52

us standing there. That was the last time, you

11:55

know, she had seen Cherise, and

11:57

she had holitude that I'll call you tomorrow

12:00

and she said, okay. That

12:02

was her testimony, and that made

12:05

me, according to the police,

12:07

a suspect in the case because

12:09

that testimony, it was

12:12

inconsistent with the original

12:14

statement I gave to police about

12:17

my activities on the night of the party.

12:19

Right, what you've always maintained about your activities

12:22

on the night of the party was that you stayed inside

12:24

the party when Sharise left. And again

12:27

over twenty alibi witnesses did

12:29

confirm that, and some of them later even

12:31

testified despite pressure from the police,

12:34

But police used this statement from Maxian

12:36

Bell, alleging that you were the last person

12:38

seeing with Sharisse in order to establish

12:40

probable cause. Now, she tried to

12:42

recant this statement as early as nine eighty

12:45

and eventually admitted into two thousand sixteen Davit

12:47

that the statement was made out of fear of the police

12:50

and that she chose to just confirm

12:53

what they already believed. And

12:55

when our audience, here's what happens next to you,

12:58

we can only imagine

13:00

what kind of pressure and terror was

13:02

brought down on Maxine Bell, this

13:05

young female at risk runaway,

13:07

in order to evoke that false statement. So

13:09

on January fourteen, things started

13:12

to spiral even further downhill. You were

13:14

at school and detectives

13:17

were with your investigative Chucky

13:20

Corbin, George Golson and the Vietnam

13:22

vet Robert Stewart, and

13:24

the cops didn't just come and grab you first.

13:26

The two younger guys were sent to get you from

13:28

school, but when the school said that they needed an adult

13:31

to come and get you, Robert Stewart came

13:33

instead. You were released to him and he brought

13:35

you to his house where you thought that you were still just

13:37

helping with this lead on the stolen red Sadan.

13:39

Now apparently there was a guy named Michael Christian

13:42

who might have known something about the guys in the red

13:44

car, and you thought you were just going to look

13:47

at some pictures and help the police in any way that you

13:49

could. So you got back to Mr

13:51

Stewart's what happened next. That's

13:53

when the police officers came in and they

13:56

started interviewing us about

13:58

you know what we knew a novice league. I was the

14:00

one that was at the party. George Gholston

14:03

wasn't Chucky Corbin had leupt earlier.

14:06

So they were mainly asking the questions towards

14:08

me, and then they asked if

14:10

I can show them where Michael

14:13

Christian lives. And this was a

14:15

guy that supposed to had heard

14:17

something from these guys the next day

14:19

that was in that red car. That was something

14:21

that's supposed to be incriminating. I know Michael

14:24

Christian and I knew where he lived. But now

14:27

actually what they did is when

14:29

I showed him where he lived, they rolled past the house.

14:31

So I asked them where they were going, So

14:33

they said, oh, we have to go. We're going to the precinct

14:35

to get the list of names. We thought we had them, but we

14:38

don't have them. To that you can look at them and go

14:40

over. But before they got there, and they had spoke

14:42

to two detectives that was in another

14:44

car behind them, got back in the car.

14:46

They took me to the fifth

14:49

Precinct and patch you all,

14:52

which is the town over, and then they

14:54

brought me down into a basement. When

14:57

it brought me down to the basement, they

15:00

walked out, and two detectives walked

15:02

in, Detective Dennis Rafferty

15:04

and Detective August Stall. They

15:07

walked in and took over the investigation. And

15:10

that was the last time I've seen the outside world.

15:13

Yeah, and this interrogation,

15:17

it probably won't surprise people who are regular

15:19

listeners to the podcast, but disinterrogation

15:22

resulted in your false confession after

15:25

they punched and kicked and

15:28

abused you in ways

15:30

that had to be beyond terrifying.

15:33

I mean, on top of the fact that it was sort

15:35

of a surprise attack because you weren't even

15:37

brought there as a suspect. Now

15:40

all of a sudden, you're in the basement. That's scary

15:42

enough, right, like kind of almost like a dungeon

15:44

scenario. Right. As we find

15:46

out later, at least one of these detectives

15:49

was so racist that he was throwing

15:51

the N word around. So tell

15:53

us about the interrogation itself. Let

15:55

me just say, um,

15:59

you know, in the forty four years, I've been battling

16:02

with this effort to exonerate

16:05

myself the encounter in

16:07

the precinct, particularly

16:10

with the physical abuse, the

16:12

psychological. Of

16:15

all the efforts that I made to exonerate

16:19

myself, the

16:21

most painful part of that whole experience,

16:24

at least sits there. What

16:26

they did to me was

16:30

something I would have never imagined from

16:33

a person of that status,

16:35

because obviously,

16:37

when you're young, you're taught to believe that law

16:41

enforcement represents an authority

16:43

that's equivalent to your parents. So

16:46

when they begin to question me,

16:48

in spite of the fact that I maintained

16:50

my innocence, they didn't really want to hear

16:53

that. They were only concerned

16:55

with trying to get me to confess to the

16:57

crime and to sign a confess

17:00

and you know, with promises that they can help

17:02

me. You know, I was a young kid, you

17:04

know, things happen. I

17:06

just wanted to get laid. And then they started

17:08

to tell me about this statement they had

17:10

from this witness, which is why they

17:13

said they know that I committed the crime

17:15

because I was the last person to be

17:17

seen with her alive. And

17:19

they went on and on with this for maybe about

17:21

an hour and a half and

17:23

then they decided to move me to Hogpog,

17:27

which is the headquarters for homicide

17:29

squad. Now, I constantly

17:31

asked them could I call

17:34

my mother. I

17:36

felt the pressure of confinement,

17:38

of being trapped. Today I can articulate

17:40

it as in Communicato. There

17:43

was no way, you know, they

17:45

was letting me out of here, and I had to figure out how

17:47

to get out of there. You know. I

17:50

found out that my cousin and

17:52

Mr Stewart and Chucky Corbin had

17:54

came to the precinct two to four times

17:56

looking for me, and they told him that I

17:58

wasn't there. So obviously

18:02

they had no intentions of it ever

18:04

letting me get past that phase. No,

18:07

they wouldn't have let Jesus and if he showed up to

18:09

try to help you at the right and their intentions

18:12

was clear. They wanted me to confess to

18:14

this crime. And once they took me

18:16

to Hogpop they kept drilling

18:18

me, one officer coming in after another,

18:21

and you know, they kept going through that

18:23

whole process, the good guy, bad guy

18:25

tactic, and I kept telling them

18:27

over and over I didn't commit the crime. I wanted

18:29

to call my my mother, called

18:32

somebody, but you know, they just continue

18:34

the process until all of a sudden, six or seventies

18:37

guys came running in and grabbed me from all

18:39

over and just started pounding

18:41

me, hit me upside the head with the phone book

18:43

and stop and trying to make me sign

18:45

a confession. And I kept telling

18:47

him I didn't do it. Then they would start back

18:50

up, stop, start. You

18:52

know they're fretting, and know we're gonna make you still

18:54

you'll never have kids, and you

18:57

know you're not going nowhere to you sign this bill,

18:59

beat you to f and you know they're going on and

19:01

on, and at some point, you

19:03

know, I just you know, I got scared. I

19:05

lost my focus and

19:08

um, when I

19:10

signed that confession, I

19:12

mean I signed my life away. I

19:32

know I signed something. I didn't

19:34

know what the confession said or

19:36

what what I signed said. I

19:39

never set it out my mouth. I

19:42

just signed the paper. When I

19:44

first came to the County jail, I was

19:46

in sick Bay for maybe the week to

19:48

two weeks, and that's when I first you know, read

19:51

and found out what I had allegedly

19:54

said to them do the signing of

19:56

the confession. You quickly

19:58

recanted your confession and saying that

20:00

the detectives wouldn't accept your denials

20:03

or even let you call your mother. And importantly,

20:05

this confession said that when she pulled

20:08

your hand away from her pants, that she had

20:11

refused your sexual advance to them. When she pulled your hand

20:13

away, you started stabbing her with her hair pick,

20:15

and that when she screamed and strangled her to

20:17

keep her quiet. So they provided the narrative,

20:19

but even what they said was obviously

20:22

provably not true and not possible

20:24

scientifically, because the

20:27

victim didn't bleed, which means

20:29

of course that she was dead before

20:32

whatever it was that punctured her skin

20:34

punctured her skin. That was a fabricated

20:37

confession constructed by them before

20:40

the facts were cleared. Them, whatever

20:42

they had at that particular time, they

20:45

used to try to paint a picture

20:47

of me committing this crime, and they got

20:50

it wrong. Now, the hairpick is so

20:52

important in this scenario. First of all, it's a ridiculous concept.

20:54

The hairpick, unless it's made out of steel,

20:57

is going to break if you start stabbing somebody

20:59

with it. And you don't have to be the scientist

21:01

to figure this out, or an expert in plastic did

21:03

you even carry a hairpick at the time, Keith is

21:05

ball these days, so I don't know what your hairstyle

21:07

wars back then. Yeah, I wore an afro. Back

21:09

then, we all carried picks. They were popular.

21:12

During the interrogation, they had showed

21:14

me a black plastic pick that

21:17

wasn't a plastic bag. And I

21:19

didn't know that the pick that they found was from

21:21

the crime scene. And they asked

21:23

me, was that my pick? I said, no, that

21:26

wasn't. But I don't I don't know what's going on.

21:28

I didn't know what she had puncture wounds

21:30

in a lower back. How would you know? You weren't there.

21:33

Yeah, I don't know none of this now. They executed

21:35

a search warrant on your house on January fourteenth,

21:37

and they recovered or claimed to recover several

21:40

items, including a metal hairpick that would be introduced

21:42

to trial as the weapon that left the punctures on Charies's

21:45

back, but it would later be revealed,

21:47

against surprise surprise, that the pick

21:49

the police seized didn't belong to

21:52

you. They wasn't going to leave my home until

21:54

they found a metal pick. That it didn't

21:56

matter what kind, what style, or whatever,

21:58

and when they didn't have my pick. They

22:01

called my cousin, George. He came

22:03

over and he gave them his pick because

22:06

my brother to him, they ain't gonna leave until they get

22:08

a pick. But the detective try to testify

22:11

that they got to pick from

22:13

my brother, and my brother said it was my

22:15

pick, which was a lie. There's

22:18

no real way to describe

22:20

this other than that they planted the evidence.

22:22

They didn't even bother the planted themselves. They

22:24

had to have somebody else come and bring me

22:27

so incredibly twisted so

22:29

that pick that they alleged

22:32

was used to create those

22:34

puncture wounds on a lower back that when

22:37

clusters of threes, four and five, and

22:39

they had one that went

22:41

so deep that it almost hit the liver.

22:44

And you know, obviously today we

22:46

have these medical experts sore saying

22:48

that it's impossible for that pick to

22:50

have caused those puncture wounds. You

22:53

don't have to be an expert to know that that's

22:55

not possible. It's not possible because it's

22:57

not possible. It's plastic and it's dull.

22:59

With the experts are saying today is like, you

23:01

know, even an expert back then should

23:03

have drawn that same conclusion. They said,

23:06

I confessed it to a crime that was

23:08

impossible to have happened. But the

23:10

medical examiner testified

23:13

in his opinion that these

23:15

pick calls those punctual wounds. But

23:18

you're not only the medical examiner who was either completely

23:20

wrong or lying. You have a Suffer

23:23

County detective who's there saying that the

23:25

victim who fought for her life scratching

23:28

her assailant had your jacket

23:31

under her fingernails, as if they

23:33

test eavy jack that was ever made and

23:35

determined, you know, the the particularities

23:38

of those fibers or whatever. But there

23:40

was no science to back it up. Right,

23:42

when we talk about junk science again, I have to

23:44

laugh to keep from crying. I mean, it's so ridiculous

23:47

that a fourth grader should be able to figure out

23:49

that this was not possible. But of course a jury

23:52

is going to be susceptible to testimony

23:55

from people like this who are supposedly

23:57

quote unquote experts. So on

24:00

April eighteen, this is important. There's

24:02

not a logical suspect. I'm talking about

24:04

this guy John Jones. A few months after

24:06

the crime, they arrested a guy named John Jones

24:08

on a charge of unauthorities of a vehicle. Now, no

24:11

one really knows how he came to the attention of the

24:13

homicide detextas, but he was questioned about Teresa's

24:15

death and given a polygraph

24:17

that was said to be inconclusive. He

24:20

was interviewed again on May nine, short

24:22

time after, and this time he gave a

24:24

more expansive statement. I

24:27

got another red flag. He said he was at

24:29

the party, got drunk and

24:31

started to walk to his sister's house, even

24:33

though she lived east to the party, and the body

24:35

was found to the west. Red Black number

24:38

two Jones. This character

24:40

said that he stumbled over Charies's body

24:42

in the field and in the process dropped his hair pick. He

24:44

said he didn't know that the girl was dead until he

24:46

heard about the death on the news. Keep him out. We

24:48

never knew nothing about this guy to

24:51

like forty years later. You

24:53

know, at the time they interviewed him, they kept

24:55

this hidden. We do know that

24:57

the district attorney was intimately involved in

24:59

it, be because when they did the polygraph tests,

25:02

it was sent to him and the person

25:04

who took the statement from him was Detective

25:06

Rafferty. John Jones also

25:09

admits to the guy that when

25:11

that showed him the black pick. He said,

25:13

yeah, that looks like my pick, and he

25:15

places himself at the crime scene

25:18

around the time frame that the

25:21

experts estimate the cause

25:23

of death. But they had already

25:25

threw the crime on me. They had

25:27

already claimed that I voluntarily

25:30

confessed to the crime, and they didn't

25:32

have the integrity or dignity

25:35

to step back and say we made a mistake

25:38

and open up that avenue of investigation.

25:41

So they protected this guy, who they

25:43

had every reason to believe was a

25:46

vicious killer of a young child.

25:48

They allowed him to ring free. On In February sixteenth

25:50

of nineteen seventy six, he was arrested

25:53

in charge with third degree rape after he impregnated

25:55

a fifteen year old girl. But two

25:57

weeks after Jones's arrest,

26:00

ronically, two weeks later, on March first, nineteen

26:02

seventy six, your trial began in the Supreme Court of

26:04

the State of New York for Suffolk County. You had a paid

26:06

attorney named Harold Selligman, the prosecutor

26:09

was Gerald Sullivan, and the judge was Mervin town

26:11

Abound. The state's case, of course, was built

26:13

around Bell's testimony your false confession

26:16

immediately recanted and the quote

26:18

unquote forensic and physical evidence, which

26:20

we now know was just a pack of lies.

26:22

So Dr Edelman of the Suffolk

26:25

County Medical Examiner's Office, as you mentioned,

26:27

he said that the punker wounds on Teresa's back

26:29

were consistent with the arrangement of the times

26:31

on the hair pick found at your house, but the

26:33

plastic pick was not entered into evidence of trial.

26:36

Wow, there's a lot of lies just in that sentence alone.

26:38

There's like three or four lies. It's incredible. A

26:40

Suffol County detective predictably testified

26:42

that the three fibers recovered from beneath Teresa's

26:45

fingernails quote did contain unquote

26:47

fibers taken from a denim jacket that you

26:49

wore. That would be laughable

26:52

if it wasn't so serious. And

26:55

when this sick fuck Raperty

26:57

testified, he denied any wrong doing

27:00

during your interrogation. Also predictable,

27:03

he claimed that you freely and

27:05

voluntarily gave your statement. Seligman

27:08

had no knowledge your lawyer, right, had

27:10

no knowledge of John Jones, as you mentioned,

27:12

Keith or his statement to the police when

27:15

he crossed examined Rafferty. He said to the

27:17

detective quote, Officer, was there other

27:20

suspects on the day you interviewed my client? Sullivan?

27:23

The DEA objected and the jury was excused

27:25

while the two sides had a conference in the judges

27:27

chambers. According to investigation by Newsday,

27:30

Sullivan said there were no other suspects.

27:32

He told the judge that quote there was nobody else

27:34

who was connected with the crime with any evidence

27:37

end quote. That is an incredibly

27:39

bold lie. Sullivan

27:41

said that if Seligman took Raffrey down that

27:43

path, that would open the door to him asking the detective

27:46

about all sorts of raw evidence that might be damaging

27:48

to you, Keith, and Seligman

27:50

backed off. He was preventing my lawyer

27:52

from opening up lines of questioning

27:55

as to other suspects in this case.

27:58

Detective Rafferty was the one who took

28:00

the statement from John J. Jones, and

28:02

this was three weeks after

28:05

he's sitting at a Huntly hearing determining

28:08

the voluntarily or involuntarily

28:10

nous of the confession. This guy

28:12

has given testimony and

28:14

he's pretending like I'm the only person

28:17

of interest. So now

28:19

when he testifies that trial, when

28:21

we did not question him in that

28:23

area, we did not get an opportunity

28:26

for him to go on the record, and

28:29

I mean obviously been lying all throughout, but

28:31

to continuously lie by concealing

28:34

exculpatory evidence, and the existence

28:36

of Jones as an ultimate suspect was hidden

28:38

from us, you said, Keith for four decades, forty

28:41

long years. And you also had

28:43

multiple albi witnesses. Some

28:46

of them testified again under oath, that

28:48

you would stay at the party until three am, an hour and a half

28:50

after the murder took place. Others testified

28:52

that they never saw a bell outside the

28:54

party, But several alibi witnesses

28:57

didn't testify, And of course it comes out

28:59

later and they say at this an affidavis that

29:01

the police threatened them with the rest if

29:03

they helped you with your defense.

29:06

So that's what the police were doing. While they

29:08

were letting this Jones guy

29:10

walk the streets. They were out

29:12

there paying visits to the

29:15

people who wanted to do their duty, who

29:17

wanted to be honest and

29:19

forthright and come to your defense,

29:21

as they knew you weren't the guy that did it. You

29:23

did testify in your own defense denying

29:26

killing her, of course, but when you

29:28

testify about the brutal being

29:30

that you endured in the

29:32

interrogation room, the prosecution attacks

29:35

you. Tell me if this is wrong, Keith. They asked how

29:37

many times you had been hit, and when you responded,

29:39

I don't know. I wasn't counting, but

29:41

I know it was a lot of times end quote.

29:44

That was enough for them to say, well,

29:46

see that he doesn't even know how many times he was hit. What

29:49

the hell are they talking about. That's

29:51

the position they try to take. But everybody

29:54

should have seen through that you were acquitted

29:56

of intentional premeditated murder, but convicted

29:59

of second agree murder, an attempted sexual abuse

30:01

and sentence the twenty years to life in prison. I

30:04

was withdrawn. I was in

30:07

a state of confusion, and

30:10

it threw me into a deep state of

30:12

shame of hurt

30:16

because I was ashamed

30:18

at myself for allowing

30:20

them to do that to me, like

30:23

I trapped myself in hell.

30:40

Obviously, I've seen the world looking down upon

30:43

me, and the hate

30:45

fit that people had for me was

30:47

the direct result of me

30:49

allowing those

30:52

detectives to do that to me, and not bothered

30:54

me to the extent that I

30:57

hated them, I hated the system.

31:01

I just felt the sense of anger,

31:04

almost like it was borne out of me, like

31:07

an entity on my back. I had a

31:09

sense of anger that may

31:11

have served as a few and

31:13

all I wanted to do was fight back. And

31:17

for forty four years, I just kept fighting

31:19

back in every way I could, and

31:22

fight back you did. So let's

31:24

talk about the appellate process and how you

31:26

got here. So initially,

31:29

you didn't go after all of the issues of innocence

31:31

that we've already laid out so far. Rather,

31:33

the first appeal was focused on

31:35

whether or not it was legal for them even

31:38

to have detained you in the first place, and a Supreme

31:40

Court decision had come down in the nineteen

31:42

I believe, called Dunaway versus New York, which

31:45

addressed issues relating to the Fourth

31:47

and fourteenth Amendments. Now, the fourth Amendment

31:49

prohibits unreasonable searchers or seizures

31:52

and sets the guidelines for the issuing of warrants,

31:54

and importantly here that warrants

31:57

must be justified by probable cause.

31:59

Now, after hearing your arguments, the

32:02

Pelic Division found the police used deception

32:04

and trickery to illegally to team you,

32:06

but if there were significant evidence to show probable

32:08

cause, it would cure, so to speak, the

32:11

illegal detention. Your defense

32:14

was ready to argue that police

32:16

did not have probable cause

32:18

even with the statement of Maxine Bell was

32:21

just about to recant. Maxine

32:23

Bell had left Bell put after

32:25

my conviction because she was having problems

32:28

with kids in the community, and it was how

32:30

did you lie on him? And so anyway,

32:33

um, to our surprise, the

32:35

prosecutor had sent Maxine Bell a

32:37

plane ticket from Alabama to come back

32:40

to testify. But when she came back,

32:42

she had told the district attorney

32:45

that she's going to tell the truth that she lied

32:47

and none of this really happened. That kind

32:50

of like knocked out the key argument of probable

32:52

cause. But instead of the judge

32:55

ruling in favor of

32:57

the defense based on the recantation

32:59

of Maxine l and the fact that there wasn't

33:01

sufficient evidence to support the illegal

33:04

detention, he concluded that Maxine

33:06

Belt's trial testimony is chewing,

33:09

that her recantation is false, and

33:11

he rendered in the determination that

33:14

from the trial she was a sympathetic and appealing

33:17

figure. Now she has grown into an

33:19

immature adult, but the extent

33:21

of her disturbance is not fully

33:23

described. So he denied the

33:25

probable cause hearing, so I had

33:27

went back on a clatter attack to

33:30

argue against the judges fact

33:33

findings. And I argued

33:35

that pro se. So I argued that

33:38

obviously she had matured into a disturbed

33:40

a doubt. But this girl, after she

33:43

testified against me I was convicted, she was

33:45

home crying thinking about what she did during

33:47

trial. She was pregnant and she had

33:50

a baby boy, and three months

33:52

after her baby was born, the baby just

33:54

died. So she thought God was

33:56

punishing her for what she did to me. She

33:59

tried to commit suicide. She

34:01

had to seek psychiatric care. So

34:04

I said, obviously there is

34:06

some disturbance in this girl, but

34:08

all that disturbance relates to her given

34:10

false testimony against me. And

34:12

I asked the judge if he would order

34:15

that a professional in

34:17

that psychiatric field can examine

34:19

her and assist the judge in his fact

34:21

finding determination, because this judge

34:24

concluded that her disturbance is

34:26

not fully described. He denied

34:28

that too, and you received

34:30

denial after denial, first as a pro

34:32

sayltic in filing and federal habeas and

34:34

then even with the help of since you're in ministries,

34:37

and the denials continued through, which

34:41

is when you became eligible for parole. Of course,

34:43

the Parole board denied you I think it was five

34:46

times because you refused to admit

34:48

guilt and register as a sex offender. And

34:50

later the Department of Corrections went so far as

34:52

to impost policies that further punished

34:55

you for your refusal to admit guilt, and

34:57

in response to that, you took them to court with

34:59

a pelling argument, which was that since

35:01

you swore on the Bible and proclaimed

35:04

your innocence at trial, for them to penalize

35:06

you and discriminate against you if you didn't

35:09

break that oath, that sounds like a violation

35:11

of your right to religion, and a

35:13

judge determined that you had a constitutional

35:16

question of law that was entitled to review. It's

35:18

actually brilliant. Meanwhile,

35:20

you had also been pursuing DNA

35:22

testing, and in two thousand and six Secn County

35:25

DA started a DNA review project to

35:27

look at old cases that had biological evidence

35:29

that previously couldn't be tested. And

35:31

so it finally looked like

35:33

this could get you around the Borough Board

35:36

entirely. They tested my d

35:38

n A against the finger nail

35:40

scraping is that they found there was a

35:42

male profile and two female

35:45

but the male profile did not match

35:48

me. But at that time

35:50

they didn't tell me that. And

35:52

when my attorney Held Seligman, looked

35:54

into it for me, they wrote me a

35:57

letter telling me that they

35:59

haven't got decision yet. They haven't heard

36:01

nothing yet, but when they do, they would notify me

36:04

and that I go to the parole board and I will be

36:06

released in two thousand

36:08

and six. Now

36:11

I go to the parole board and I maintain

36:14

my innocence. I refused

36:16

to take a sex offend. My stance don't

36:18

change. They released

36:20

me from prison, but

36:22

they labelized me as a

36:25

sexual predator, and they sent

36:27

me back to the community with

36:29

that stigma. Then

36:32

they make my life twice as hard to

36:34

transition because

36:37

of that stigma for the next

36:39

twelve years. All

36:42

that time, my

36:44

release from prison wasn't nothing but a transfer

36:46

to another institution like

36:50

a bigger prison's a bigger picture of my

36:52

life was institutionalized. I

36:54

read an incredible quote from you, Keith. Somebody

36:57

must have asked you about why you refused me up guilt

37:00

and probably would have opened the prison doors and set

37:02

you home right, I would have you would

37:04

have been paroled earlier, and you said,

37:06

I refuse to let them do to me as a man what

37:08

they did to me as a boy. I mean that

37:10

that hits hard. So there

37:13

you are out in the quote unquote

37:15

free world, but unable to use the internet, to

37:17

live within a thousand or feet

37:19

of a school, even try to rebuild

37:21

your life, try to get meaningful employment.

37:24

All those doors are totally closed to you. So

37:26

the punishment continues, and

37:28

then it gets worse again because, on

37:31

top of all the other indignities, that you

37:33

were supposed to pay a monthly fee to allow officials

37:35

to monitor your online activities. Okay,

37:38

so with the money that you can't make because they won't

37:40

let you really get a job because you're registered sex

37:42

offender, you're supposed to pay them to do

37:44

the job that they're supposedly doing, monitoring

37:47

your your online activities.

37:49

Okay, there's a whole lot wrong with that, but we're gonna jump

37:51

to the next. So, during an

37:53

inspection of your home, officials

37:56

found that you had been working on your

37:58

niece's computer writing your memoirs.

38:01

Right, not doing anything wrong the farthest

38:03

thing from it, but the computer had

38:05

Internet access. Sure enough, they use

38:07

this as an excuse to send you back to prison

38:09

for a freaking year because you

38:11

were trying to write your memoirs on a computer that had

38:13

Internet access. When you're living under

38:16

these types of stringent regulations,

38:19

you basically live in the life

38:21

of a slave Ereegarless

38:25

to whether they would have violated me or not.

38:28

You know, it would have made no different because

38:30

I wasn't going to stop fighting for my innocence.

38:33

No, you would not, And you were able to

38:35

get one of the one of the real

38:37

grades in this field to take your case. I'm

38:39

talking about it, dal Bernhardt from the Innocence Clinic

38:42

at Pace Law School and later New York Law

38:44

School's Post Conviction Innocence Clinic as

38:46

well. So she was able to get the courts

38:48

to allow DNA testing and to confirmed with suff

38:50

and County already knew that your DNA was

38:52

excluded from the fingernail scrapings

38:54

and the plastic pick bounded the scene. That,

38:57

along with the report criticize

39:00

and the tactics of Detective Rafferty and others,

39:02

should have been more than enough to overturn the conviction.

39:05

But Subfolk County still had the confession,

39:08

the false confession that was signed

39:10

under torture, police torture, and

39:13

they argued that the report was

39:15

little more than a quote unquote fishing

39:17

expedition, and that the fingernail

39:19

scrapings could have been contaminated, and

39:21

somehow that that was enough to

39:23

get your motion denied. And then next

39:25

you went after the false confession, and in order to

39:28

prove that it was false, A Dell got the renowned

39:30

forensic pathologist Dr Michael Bodden

39:32

to assess the autopsy and other physical

39:34

evidence to show that the statement they

39:36

wrote for you to sign did not match

39:38

reality. That the pattern and

39:40

spacing of the pick did not match up to the puncture

39:43

wounds. The punctures were in groups

39:45

of three rather than ten like

39:47

the pick. And in addition, some of the wounds

39:49

were too deep to have been made by the pick without the

39:51

neighboring wounds being equally deep. Now,

39:54

how the wounds were made, we have no idea,

39:56

and according to this alleged statement, needed

39:58

did you. But anyway, By also

40:00

pointed out that without bleeding around the wounds,

40:03

they must have been made posthumously, which

40:05

contradicted the statement in which

40:07

the stabbing happened before she was strangled

40:09

to death. Now you already had

40:11

the two thousand sixteen AFFI David from Vaccine

40:13

Bell recanting saying that quote, I was

40:15

scared of the police. This is a direct quote. I

40:17

was scared of the police. I believed

40:19

I was doing the right thing by confirming what

40:22

they already believed and

40:24

quote. Then in two thousand seventeen,

40:26

that's when you found out about this insane

40:28

Brady violation, with John Jones having admitted

40:31

in nineteen seventy five, before your trial

40:33

and before a rape. The Jones committed in nineteen seventy

40:35

six that he admitted to being at the scene

40:38

and that the pick was his. Adele

40:40

also obtained Affidavid's from witnesses at the

40:42

party, stating that they had been discouraged

40:45

from helping you. And discouraged that's

40:47

not a strong enough word, because we know what these

40:50

motherfucker's were doing. I mean, I forget my language,

40:53

but this is it's it's just sick.

40:56

Then in two thousand eighteen, Adele

40:58

presented all of this to the new DA

41:00

in Suffolk County, Timothy Cinny,

41:02

who had just opened a Conviction Integrity Bureau,

41:05

And when the Suffix c IB did

41:07

their own investigation, they agreed with

41:10

Dr Boden's findings, as well as that the detective

41:12

testimony about the fibers was also unsubstantiated.

41:15

They furthermore suggested that John Jones, who died

41:17

in two thousand six, appeared to be quote and

41:19

again I'm quoting directly the most viable

41:21

suspect in Sharie Watson's murder and

41:24

quote. And while they couldn't

41:26

confirm the physical abuse during the interrogation,

41:29

they agreed that even in absence

41:31

of that, the tactics were psychologically

41:33

coercive enough to produce a false statement

41:35

from a scared teenager. And while

41:37

Rafferty would only communicate through his lawyer,

41:40

his partner August Stall, sat down

41:42

for an interview in which he stated, quote

41:45

that fucking blank did

41:47

it. So I don't think we need

41:49

to say anymore about what Unfortunately, it is

41:51

not a surprising statement for Detective Stalled.

41:54

So finally, it took forty four years of fighting,

41:57

forty four years, but the Suffolk

41:59

County the I issued in order to vacate your

42:01

conviction on May nineteen,

42:04

rightfully, so you then filed

42:06

suit against them and the State of New York settling

42:09

in Now

42:12

no amount of money could ever be enough for what

42:14

they put you through. But I'm glad that at least you can

42:16

live out the rest of your days and some you

42:19

know, reasonable physical comfort

42:21

and the comfort of having your name cleared.

42:24

Now, I'm sure members

42:26

of our audience would like to keep up with you, like I

42:28

already do. So what's a good way for them

42:30

to do that? You know, I'm not really

42:32

on the social media. I got on TikTok

42:35

as a little you know, so we did.

42:37

I did a couple of little skids on the plan

42:39

on taking some of my own poems and

42:41

then tournament to skits and threw

42:44

them out there. Amazing. Well, I'm

42:46

already following him at Katie Bush

42:48

five. That's Katie Bush,

42:51

like the plant five number five. We'll

42:53

have that linked in the bio. And by

42:55

the way, you mentioned your poetry, and I understand

42:58

that you have a few books out, so

43:01

what can you tell us about all that stuff? Now?

43:03

I just I had did a book, a poetic

43:05

book, um Poetic

43:07

Rays, Visioneer and Magnetic, and that

43:10

was some of the poems that I kind of wrote when I

43:12

was in prison, and it represents, you

43:14

know, different stages of my development,

43:16

the transitions I went through, the

43:19

anger, parts. There were amicable parts,

43:21

you know, just the different phases that I went through.

43:24

But I'm in the process so completed the memoir.

43:27

I just got to get it published. And then

43:29

there's another book that I had wrote

43:31

on the African American self reparation

43:34

concept that I had kind of developed.

43:36

But um, I want to try to get these two books

43:38

out this year and you know, probably

43:41

within months. Okay, we'll, we'll,

43:43

We'll put a link to it in the biou. And now,

43:45

Keith, we have a tradition here at

43:47

Wrong for Conviction. We closed the show the

43:50

same way every time, and

43:52

it's my favorite part of the show. And

43:54

here's why, because it works like this. It's called closing

43:57

arguments, and it

43:59

works like this. Again.

44:02

I thank you for being here, taking

44:04

your time and sharing your story.

44:06

And then I'm gonna turn my microphone off,

44:09

leave yours on. I'm just gonna kick back in

44:11

my chair and listen for any

44:14

final thoughts you want to share with me and

44:16

our amazing audience. Okay,

44:20

first of all, I you know, I gotta give

44:23

the highest praise to my mother. You

44:26

know she is you know, she's my Earth goddess

44:29

and no one has

44:31

fought on my side with

44:34

me all the way, persistently,

44:36

even when I got tired, that

44:40

she had motivated me

44:43

and she was there to see me exonerate

44:47

myself. And I

44:50

also know that my brothers

44:52

and sisters never

44:55

they never doubted my innocence

44:58

and it was always there for me. And

45:00

there are family members who

45:03

also supported me, friends and

45:05

a lot of people in the community.

45:08

But doing prison

45:10

time also

45:13

changed the way I see the world, and

45:16

there were some of them prisoners who were my teachers

45:20

inspired me to grow, and

45:23

I engaged myself and movements

45:26

that led to educate

45:28

a whole lot of other prisoners

45:31

by teaching them what they

45:33

need to learn in order to improve

45:35

themselves. Because it's

45:38

not only the innocence that's a victim

45:40

to the criminal justice system, but it's

45:43

the perpetrators who victimized

45:45

that create the feeding

45:47

of the criminal justice system, and it eats

45:49

or victimization. And I

45:52

spent my time in prison wisely by

45:55

investing in my personal development and

45:58

giving back and helping some of

46:00

these guys to change their lives

46:02

around so that day can return

46:04

home as an asset as

46:06

opposed to a liability. But

46:09

my journey, it's a difficult

46:12

journey, and it is not

46:14

one worth living again. But

46:17

one thing I can say that

46:20

once I place my faith in

46:24

God, which is very

46:26

important to my

46:29

spirituality, then

46:31

I was able to

46:33

draw those things

46:35

that represents god like righteousness

46:38

right people to me

46:41

and they helped me to open this door. So I'm

46:43

eternally grateful not

46:45

only to the innocent projects

46:48

with a down and all the

46:50

other people who fight for the innocent,

46:52

but for the integrity units who have the

46:55

dignity to stand up when

46:57

something is wrong and say that it's wrong,

46:59

and to on you in that fight

47:01

for your generation. That makes

47:03

it easier. So you

47:05

know, there is a debt that I paid. My debt

47:08

to the righteous, all those who

47:10

do right things and help

47:12

us create a better world

47:14

for ourselves in spite of the

47:16

things that we go through. Because our

47:18

world is balanced on polarity

47:21

good and evil, and there's always

47:23

going to be a battle. So

47:25

I'm glad to be on that right side.

47:33

Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. I'd

47:36

like to thank our production team Connor Hall,

47:39

Jeff Claver, and Kevin Wardis. With research

47:41

by Lila Robinson. The music in this production

47:44

was supplied by three time Oscar nominated

47:46

composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to

47:48

follow us on Instagram at Wrongful

47:50

Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful

47:52

Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at

47:55

wrong Convictions, as well as at Lava

47:57

for Good. On all three platforms, you

48:00

and also follow me on both TikTok and

48:02

Instagram at it's Jason flam

48:04

Rainval Conviction is the production of Lava for

48:06

Good podcasts in association with Signal

48:08

Company Number one