[inaudible conversations] good evening, everyone. I work with the events if you could take a moment of silence your cell phones and make sure they are not audible during the presentation, that would be great. We will have about an hourlong event have to bee given to the r and the other half to questions. Please use the microphone when you have a question once we get to that portion of the event. We are recording so that helps. Before you get in line for the signing, if you could fold up your chairs and set them against a shelf, that would be helpful. Im pleased to welcome brian to discuss his book facing justice on death row. This is a deep and intimate look on an innocent man on death row. And intimate and close witness of this man on death row to get him exonerated. Weve heard this kind of tragic scenario time and again in this modern era. A review of the book msnbc news anchor says grace and justice on death row isnt just about how a broken system almost broke another decent man. More than that it is a moving story of a brotherhood of a corporate lawyer with his face to get to this story will make you a better person. Brian is a criminal defense attorney working with prominent firms in new york and dc and has received federal work for his service such as the 2014 aboard, the highest honor awarded by Catholic Charities in recognition for his work for the oppressed. In the District Court in colombia and the district and maryland and also a member of the Alumni Council of the Catholic University in america and a member of the board of directors of texas Defender Service. He was in alexandria with his wife who is also a former prosecutor and their three children into this is his first book so please help me welcome Brian Stolarz to politics and prose. [applause] thank you so much for those words. I almost cant believe im here. I love this place. I used to come here on dates with my wife was here and dream of being a published author and now its happened. I think i could retire now. Do you have any openings . D. Is for certain times that we are in and its even more important because its only a place we can be free to speak about our ideas and beliefs and thoughts. Freedom of speech and assembly are alive and well and im glad to be here with you tonight. Thank you to my family that came from new jersey. Its a long drive. My cousins, my lovely wife who is here with me, my neighborhood friends in the back, thank you. Representatives of Catholic Charities, jim bishop, one of my friends who i love. Chris, thank you so much. Im honored to represent the charities and a lot of work for them. Danny clark is over here and does a lot of work with the Death Penalty and wants to abolish it like everybody else in the room, while me anyway. She does work with the current death row inmates, too. You were sitting in the room with a living legend. I wrote a book and thats great. But right here in the front, the director has been fighting the Death Penalty and corrupt criminal Justice System for decades. His Group Gathers exonerates for annual conferences to advocate for changing the different system and i am in view of that and they put you in my book. Thank you for being here. [applause] so, when i was a thirdyear law student at the Catholic University, we were able to represent individuals charged with crimes into my first client was charged with stealing a bike. I go to court and the court examined and argued forcefully. I fight hard for this and he gets found guilty. I go downstairs and say im sorry. I thought really hard for you. He says dont worry about it. I stole the bike. [laughter] did what he said next stuck with me. Thank you for standing up for me. No one has ever done that before. And so, that feeling shocked right through me. I feel it everyday when i go to court and represent a client. A public defender of brooklyn representing thousands, guilty, innocent, misunderstood, mentally ill and everybody in between. I developed a pretty good meter and can spot a criminal from a mile away. And a scan of the room says most of you were just fine. [laughter] some of you im not so sure. But all of this brought me to death row in march, 2007. I left the office and went to a firm in washington and got the call from a senior part of that said do you want to work on a Death Penalty case . I said absolutely, its a dream assignment. 60 miles north of houston and livingston texas i met Alfred Dewayne brown at the second i saw him i knew this man was innocent. He shot right through my heart. Its like when you meet your wife for the first time come up with your child for the first time, something inside you knows its true. I walked out that they and i threw up right next to the rental car. I flew out of houston and got that disgusting airport chinese food that when you needed it makes you sick and i got a fortune and this is you love challenge. And i looked up and i said this is the challenge that you are giving me. So i went back to houston and its released. I went back to the same place looking for closure they go to the chinese food place and he gets the fortune that says you did good, justice is served. It said pam those are cute and its affects no one can deny that it wa he was the closer loi was hoping for. There was a double murder in South Houston supposed to be an inside job. A legendary score. The store clerk was murdered and the officer that responded. It was a quick trial, three da days. I tried cases where the amount was 100,000 believed and three days he was frustrated with his defense and what told you right now he was home and made a phone call to his girlfriends work. They put on no evidence, not a single witness for the defense and was sentenced to death and i got the case on appeal called habeas corpus. I go ti voted to throw a bunch f times. Its a dreary prison on a country road 60 miles north of houston. I hated it. We pulled up to the gate and the sheriff would come out and look in your pockets and as a talk show radio host im a jokester. The sheriff came up and pulled the hood open and i said while youre in there can you check the oil for the . He didnt laugh. The next time i brought him some food because the only good thing about that houston little thin death row is there is a taco bell before the turn. I am in my 40s and i still love taco bell. I might go tonight actually Come Celebrate by getting taco bell. So i got tacos to the sheriff and i said here are some tacos. He said i dont want your talk goes and threw them back in the car. The next time i left hand he said okamura trunk and i said no. I said i will not. He said opened the trunk. He said why not. I said because my guy is in the trunk and im breaking him out. Finally he looks at me like really . No, come on. Thats when he smiled, i finally broken. He called me a yankee lawyer which was affectionate to. Execution day sucked. I would be there and a the condemned would be ready to die. They shut down around 12 00 and ship them about 100 miles where they carry the procedure. I was sitting there with Alfred Dewayne brown and see his family and lawyers and pastor running in and i felt sick and they knew that he needed read the transcript where is the evidence, so what we did on the ground as habeas corpus is going back and talking to witnesses. We began to figure out something shocking to me. Pressure and corruption by the district attorneydistrict attod the police. One witness who claimed she saw him that morning over the football field away. I said you could see him from there and he said no i couldnt see him. Why did you say so and she told me to follow him. I felt pressure. I didnt want to go to jail and lose my children. I said we were up against it and that began and happened t each witness that i talked to in the intimidation to take your vouch. Nowhere was th that more criticl than his girlfriend. Shhe was living at his girlfriends house and as i told you he made the phone call and testified in the grand jury for the complete alibi. When i left for work that morning he was there and he called me at the time of the murders. If he was home at the time of the murders that could never happen but she was badgered by the great jury. Also threatened and found out he was brought to a locked room in the back and if you dont tell me what i want you will be the codefendant and get the needle just like your boyfriend but she held firm. Yes he was home when i left and made that phone call. Realizing he didnt have the case he wanted he decided to charge her with perjury. For four long months he said i couldnt take it anymore. I chose my kids over Alfred Dewayne brown and she changed her story. No he didnt make that phone call from my house he made it from somewhere else. That is the evidence that convicted him and put him on death row. We also found out something even more troublesome to me as a lawyer the grand jury which you all have heard now in ferguson in the baltimore and new york they investigate the crimes and theres enough evidence to go for a charge. They were badgering her saying we will take your kids away, say what we want. We later found out from lisa of the chronicle that was pretty cool i thought. I was the source for all that work. She got a pulitzer for finding the following the grand jury was investigating the shooting before person was in active duty police officer. That shocked me and i realized i was up against something really big. Texas had this system where the judge on the case would appoint a commission or ended and they go to the grand jury. That method was abolished in texas. [applause] i like to say the best day of my life is when i married my wife. I say that when shes here and when shes not here. Two, three, four, the birth of my kids, when the mets won the world series. [applause] number six after that not only did i know that he is free with future defendant to be treated more fairly. Another aspect is troubling hes got some intellectual disabilities and in this country executed them a pretty straightforward quality expert in this case hired by the state gave Alfred Dewayne brown an extra four points for his iq and said he was stressed out at the time of testing. I am not a doctor and im barely smart enough to be a lawyer and i will tell you you cant give somebody for planes on their iq because they are stressed out. They all said that this wasnt cool and that doctor was fined 5,000 cant do that through evaluations anymore. [applause] so the judge granted a sentencing phase. His girlfriend was impossible to find. She was the critical witness and said that the truth eventually so i would go back to texas and fly all the way back from dc. Incredibly depressing times. Finally in a moment of grace and any who some of you know called me up one day and said your guy is innocent. Just go talk to the girlfriend and see if she will talk and she did and she told me she chose her kids over Alfred Dewayne brown yes he was there and made the phone call. I went back to texas to the District Attorneys Office with all this evidence and i said he is innocent and she coughed and said all of you lawyers come down here to texas saying they are innocent. This is texas and we know better, good luck. I didnt like that very much and i said to her you dont know me but i will be back. I still wasnt sure that i would be able to get him out. He kept telling me i made the phone call from her house. Subpoenaed the phone company and they didnt have it. I was angry and sad. I would go down there to see him and i would be crying and cursing. I couldnt believe i couldnt find this phone record and he would tell me its okay. I believe in you. Thank you for standing up for me, like the guy with the bike in solitary confinement he gave me peace and grace, the first part of the book. I was encouraged when i left there. In may of 2013 the received an email some of my former colleagues and said the following the officer in charge of the case recently found a box of documents regarding the trial in his home garage. We said why dont you send us what was in there come anyone want to guess what was in there, phone records. One piece of paper. A single piece of paper. Just literally a piece of paper sitting in the garage. You know whats worse was attached to it was the subpoena from the trial showing that he subpoenaed the phone company the day after he testified in the grand jury about the call to see if he was telling the truth or not and guess what she was in here just to prove it. I encourage you to buy my book of course because youre here for book signing but i also encourage you in the non va case this wasnt. I still cant believe that a piece of paper found saved a mans life in texas and u thats what it took. What if there was a fire, give her that stuff in the garage. So my colleagues called him such remember that while we are back and to their credit they agree to a new trial without a hearing which is incredibly rare. The judge i judge in the case sd agreeably found a new trial and heres something that made me really mad. After this they had to say yes have a new trial and they waited 17 months to do it so we had a piece of paper showing he was innocent and thats when i was the most depressed and sad and angry. Opinions came out on wednesday. Every wednesday was the same, no ruling and then we realized something from our people on the ground that we were told they would never grant a new trial for 17 months think of everything you have done in 17 months blown before an election. Eight months later in june of 2015, june 82015, the da agreed to dismiss the charge and Alfred Dewayne brown walked out of the throw. [applause] i like to say this is not a true crime story. Its a journey story, its a love story, a brotherhood story of what one person would do for another. We tell our kids never give up. In this case i wanted to give up so many times, but i believed in him and his innocence and he believed in me. Okay i promised myself i wouldnt cry and derided. This is one of those chapters about that struggle as i was driving on a back road through houston on my way to prison in livingston i was overcome with a deep sense of pessimism about the case. The judge put us on the back burner. I felt like the mountain was too big to climb and then came a divine intervention. Suddenly the melody Amazing Grace how sweet the sound. My mother died of lung cancer in 2008. My mother knew how important the case was to meet. I met with him and my doubts were swept away. His innocence reminded me of why i was defending him and he probably something i havent had in a long time, peace. He was in solitary confinement and gave me hope. I told him he would find some motions and they didnt work. He showed me Three Drawings of sports cars he traced from magazines. Artistic talent was part of his work. He talked to someone in the unit about where he would go if he wawas held in cuba to quebec to livingston with his daughter. He thought about her every day. He became emotional, not crying but the closest i ever saw from him. I stared right at him. I put my face close to the glass and i said listen to me, i will get you out of here i promise you. I know you didnt do it. He looked up with a small smile, put his head back in his hands. I kept my hand back on the glass and he said i didnt do it. I will put everything i love on it and i dont love much. He put his hands down. I cried and repeated my promise, told him to get his hand on the glass and he finally put his hand on mine. We eased up the seriousness, i bought us some food and he told me someone on the unit had an orange juice and butterscotch, i hollered all night long. He thought it was funny and we laughed like old friends. I felt his pain as a father so i made sure i took care of myself and i met where the mother was with four other children including one with cerebral palsy. Theres the corner store, i let her pick out whatever she wanted. To her credit i made sure she got something for each sibling and her mother. I took her hand and said to her i will do my best to bring your data back to you. She smiled and ran off to the apartment to show her siblings s with the bath. When i got home i was very emotional. I had a hard time sleeping because i was thinking about him constantly. I woke up and cried. My oldest daughter was almost three at the time asked me then i told her id visit him in prison. I said he was put in timeout for something he didnt do. I said that is not fair. I told her that i agreed it was going to be very hard. I was going to keep trying. When she handed it to me she said you are brave. Told tell Alfred Dewayne brown to the brave. When i would go to houston i had an angry mix on my ipod, public enemy, bring the noise, death row was the brother knows, rage against the machine, songs of freedom, anger is a gift and i would be so amped up and angry on the way to houston and then i would have to come home and be a husband and father and friend. I would rely on david is a relay him dearly and sent the book to. He was in concert a couple years before. I met him and he signed my book. So this is now my lucky book. You can look at this but you cannot have this. As if it were faith, we saw david gray in concert. We walked along the bridge of the theater looking behind us and saw a beautiful sunset. During the concert i felt like he was serenading me personally. I think him for his songs and giving me the strength to work on the case. Saying and jumped around with a total fool. I looked up at the stars and cried and cried. I walked out of the concert and saying one of the best lines dont come down to nothing except love in the end. Love and justice prevailed. I posted his exoneration life had begun. Thank you. [applause] theres apparently a question microphone, so popup. [inaudible] first, i know you are promoting your book tha but i want to thak you for being here. Its an honor to hear you speak and i want to thank you even more for the buck that you wrote which is i cannot say shocking that is inspirational. Most of all, i want to thank you for what i consider the greatest thing that a man can do, which of course is saving another mans wife. And i hope after the session at yothat you and i together can figure out a way that you can sign my kindle. [laughter] [inaudible] my question is i would hope and expect you received nothing but praise for saving an innocent man from death. So my question is if you were working on timothy mcveigh, my understanding is if you were his lawyer defending a part of the trial my recollection is she wanted to die would you still [inaudible] imed the privileged ones who have returned the book but so many people worked on the case and i didnt credit chris tate. I thought it was something the world wanted to see but its not a oneman show. It took over a million dollars. I defended people charged in crime. I wouldve advocated for him not to die. Hes been fighting this challenge for years. Talking about the book, dewayne was wonderful. Its not a client attorney relationship, its like brothe brothers. A that is a good question. Do you have an estimate or approximation on how many people there are that are possibly innocent or probably innocent texas has a bad record. He is later found to be innoce innocent. People smarter than me that you research have said that 4 of people on death row are innocent, 260 texas. People in the know case more like 10 . Somewhere between four and 10 . The tragedy though is not everyone has a champion. I get a lot of letters and cal calls. I cant do another one. It took too much out of me. I would say that there is four to 10 . There was a low number of executions in 96. It was seven or eight. The Research Study came out and more agreed with it. The recent election that was upheld as o so the votes dont correlate but i believe we are at the end here. We would have been close to the end and a certain democrat would have won the election. A my father was incarcerated and i hear a lot of interesting stories from your perspectivelegal perspectives and others. I have a question that is related perhaps more to the current events. But as you were talking about dishonesty from Police Officers and support, i cant help but think about whats happening today on Standing Rock and with the senseless murder of black bodies and police dishonesty. Im wondering as a citizen, as someone who doesnt have the legal expertise, what sort of a path forward is there Challenging Police dishonesty from his workplace as a Police Professional and also people like myself bu that are not in r shoes. Cynics think you are coming up to talk about your father. Im happy to send him a book if you like. He should read it for some hope. Your question is excellent and topical. Dewaynes life was one that didnt matter if he would have been executed and everyone would have gone on thinking justice was done. The Younger Generation is a good thing not standing up for this. Watch the documentaries if you havent already to see the evolution of the incarceration. We cant do this anymore. My view is to advocate and support those groups that are doing advocacy. Texas Defender Service which i Member Committee co you, places that dont stand up for this stuff and we as a people shouldnt stand up for it. Think about it for a second. A co cop at a disco record in hs possession, that is a moral hazard. I want to get this highprofile conviction. I wont stand to be executed. I want to stand there with the family and to say i did justice for your family but i have something that shows hes innocent. What do i do . No one is looking. Whatever the story is, i dont know, all i know is we found it. But to remain ever vigilant than a superhero type vigilant. Thank you and give my best to your father. This will sound very simplistic. You mentioned that regardless of innocence or guilt you do your best to defend your client. This is a personal question which is how you feel when somebody you know is guilty is acquitted. A my grandmother that just passed away asked the same question. My answer to her and to you if the constitution were upheld and everybody did their job and that happened, then that happened to read all i can tell you if i fight the government every day to make sure they uphold their end of the constitutional bargain and if i do the same thing and that happens, then thats okay because the Playing Field was fair for all. It happens less than you think. I will tell you that much. They are guilty of something and usually get convicted and justice shapes up the right way. I found it in my time my wife was a prosecutor. If everybody plays fair, the innocent walk and my job is to humanize the very seldom have i walked out of the courthouse saying we got away from this one. Thank you. Its an honor listening to you. There are two issues i walk away with. One is obviously the tremendous greatest sin that can be committed obviously on death row, the murder of an innocent man. We can sit here and talk about death row and so forth, but more importantly, there seems to be probably thousands of people that get the 20 or 30 year sentence. I think the greater injustice is perhaps maybe one of the roots here this idea of quid pro quo we will give you a lesser sentence if you testify that it seems to somebody that isnt in law so wrong to make a deal with someone and that is the cornerstone of the case perhaps of all these people whove attended ththreatened the deal a threatening one were favorable and is there ever going to change . Thats the first point, it doesnt change. I pled somebody out the other day but that is how the system works unfortunately. Your point about the intimidation and pressure, it isnt cool and not something that should have been done and we found out through the diligence of our team. People testifying against others i see a lot of the federal court cases where a midlevel person testifies for a lower sentence and thats how the system will continue to go. To. 97 of the cases end up in federal police. There are so few federal trials. 97 of the cases plead out. Im going to ask for five years and take the deal for two. It takes a rare client, the heart, the stomach into the wall at. If you have all three things will be all right. Thank you very much. Ive just come back from being outside of the u. S. [inaudible] ive been getting more involved with what hes doing and supporting a lot of his efforts and one of the curious things i want to know now that hes free to thing that stood up to me as ive gotten to know the eggs on her knees before exoneration doesnt mean were innocent. It means on the record you are still required to say you were arrested, committed for a felony, you cant find a job, you dont have a clean record and i dont think people know that because they think exoneration means your life is fine now. Im wondering your thoughts on that. He is exonerated and innoce innocent. I understand your point. Now theres a book about him and you can find the records. He has had challenges. But what is beautiful about him is when he walked out of prison he said i dont have hate in my heart for what they did to me. He spoke with words of love and empathy. He said you just have to love everybody so thats how he lives his life every day. My wife and i and my church, we told him out financially at times. Im sure one of you will ask whether hes going to get paid. We are still fighting that battle so until that time, hes peaceful. When we do speeches together i get jacked up like tonight. Hes a wonderful man, probably better than some of the economies. Still a young man, 34. A lot of them put in 30, 40 years of their life is broken like glenn ford, came out they gave him 20 a matrox card and he died penniless with lung cancer after someone took 30 years from his wife but fortunately that isnt what happened here. The point is they are innocent but the system has not said they are innocent and that is important for people to understand. It follows them forever, there is no doubt but my hope is that his piece continues. Another one, to more. Did you buy him his house . Not yet theres no doubt about it. We are brothers for life. Theres a picture we have matching tattoos, totally true. If you buy multiple copies of the book i will show it to you. [laughter] after the cameras stop rolling i will take my shirt off and show it to you. [laughter] we are brothers, he slipped in my house, my wife loves him, my kids love him, hes stuck with me forever and we will take care of him forever. Second, what is your experience in the Justice System in terms of how they handle people with Mental Illness and that difficulty in the police force not having proper skills and how the system that judges were doesnt judge from their. There are many people that dont believe to be in prison and theres a lot of people that have serious Mental Illnesses and needed treatment. I would try to get as many people as i could to go back to the traditional routes of punishment but if they have an issue lets try to fix them or get treatment. Coming back for another one. Most people here have not read your book and i would encourage everybody to read the acknowledgments because the last sentence where you mentioned him brought tears to my eyes. I should bring you to one of my speeches. Thank you all for being here. [applause] if you could fold up your chairs, that would be great and we will have the signing area up here. The awardwinning scientist and author of the madhouse of fact how Climate Change denial is threatening the planet, destroying politics into driving us crazy. What led you to team up with the
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