Hed been behind bars for nearly two decades. Lost his last appeal. Maybe a nun could help get him into heaven. But could she help him get out of prison . What she helped him do was get a lawyer, and together they hunted for the truth. This is the one case that kept me up at night for six years. He says, i know youre innocent. I know the guys who committed this crime. Tonight, will justice finally arrive . Oh, my god. Grandma. Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres josh mankiewicz. Reporter sing sing correctional facility, the maximum security prison in upstate new york. This is the big house, home to some of the worst of the worst killers, rapists and drug dealers. It is not where youd expect to find this gentle woman. In sing sing, they call me grandma. Reporter grandma is sister joanna chan, a maryknoll nun. I began working in sing sing more than 12 years ago. Reporter grandma volunteers at the prison, working with inmates in a theater program. She even teaches them chinese. [ s
And he said yes, because they know im innocent. And thats how the whole story began. A story that began with the unlikely friendship between a nun and a convicted killer would grow into a quest that would shake the faith of even those sworn to uphold the law. I thought that he was innocent. God has to see him through. So who is this convicted murderer . He is inmate 97a7088. 38yearold eric glisson. We first met him in the spring of 2012 when a dateline producer working on a different story in sing sing met eric. He had been locked up for 18 years. Want to see what it is like to live in here . I can touch the walls with my hands. Eric told us he didnt belong here. I was unjustly convicted for a crime i didnt commit. From february 3rd, 1995 to the present day, i been lingering every day, wondering whether this mistake will be corrected. Weve heard that before many times. But what if he was telling the truth . So over time we began visiting eric. Youre looking good. And listening to his s
Eric will say, grandma, i think this is all happening for a reason. Hed been behind bars for nearly two decades. Lost his last appeal. Maybe a nun could help get him into heaven. But could she help him get out of prison . What she helped him do was get a lawyer, and together they hunted for the truth. This is the one case that kept me up at night for six years. He says, i know youre innocent. I know the guys who committed this crime. Tonight, will justice finally arrive . Oh, my god. Grandma. Im lester holt, and this is dateline. Heres josh mankiewicz. Reporter sing sing correctional facility, the maximum security prison in upstate new york. This is the big house, home to some of the worst of the worst killers, rapists and drug dealers. It is not where youd expect to find this gentle woman. In sing sing, they call me grandma. Reporter grandma is sister joanna chan, a maryknoll nun. I began working in sing sing more than 12 years ago. Reporter grandma volunteers at the prison, working w
she was friends with miriam tavares, who spoke only spanish. so you served kind of as a translator? yes. but by the time she had walked out of the police station, kathy gomez had become the key witness in the investigation of the fed-ex murder. gomez had signed a sworn statement claiming she overheard the same suspects talking about details of both crimes that only the killers or the cops would know. tell me if you recognize your signature on that document. yeah, that s my signature. here s the problem. it s a crime kathy now says she knew nothing about. i even told them i didn t see nothing like that. what s more, gomez says she could hardly read or write english. i couldn t read it. they just wanted me oh, you have to sign this. don t worry about it. you don t have nothing to do with this. kathy gomez told me that entire statement was prepared by the police and she signed it without knowing even what was
eric says he had a brief sexual relationship with miriam that did not end well. you have a fling with a girl and then you just cut it off abruptly. she may feel slighted. slighted enough to make you a murder suspect? i guess so. whatever her motivation, the question is how reliable was she as a witness? all these years later eric finally had someone to take another look at miriam s story. attorney peter cross. there s no doubt this woman was lying. i went out to the crime scene and she could not possibly have seen what she said occurred. so what could miriam tavares really see? here s the problem with miriam s story. from that police video, we know this is where the cab came to rest. we also know the shooting happened a couple of car lengths back, sort of where that red suv is. we know a man in that building called 911 when he heard the