Killer. Several different individual officers that brought me to the interest of a Murder Investigation. They put me right in a loop of a Murder Investigation with no evidence, no investigation whatsoever. It was just from a personal conflict between me and one San Francisco Police Officer that led the whole conviction. And you were sentenced to life in prison . Yes. I was sentence today 27 years to life for the crime. You had a lawyer represent you. Do you feel that your lawyer did i didnt have a public defender. I needed a lawyer that that african guy had up there. Every lawyer that i interviewed. I had a lawyer, even some of the public defenders, i went with a lawyer that wasnt going to just sit down with the truth. I wanted someone who was going to get in a courtroom. I needed somebody with that authority. My family paid a lawyer to fight my case and throughout my whole case this lawyer didnt investigate, he didnt go to the crime scene, he didnt subpoena witnesses. None of that. Ev
There telling people that public defenders matter. [ applause ] believe me, its always a struggle. I see my budget analyst telling me right here. You talk about reaching policy makers and politician and elected officials, how do we reach them . You can be the best lawyer in the world, but if you dont have an investigator and you dont have the resources you are not going to be able to do a competent job. I understand that we can train individual defenders to be better defenders but how do we get those resources . How do we get the resources . There is not one answer to this question. I absolutely agree with karen and don that these stories move people and we have to use these stories in books and movies to get legislators who are human beings to recognize that there is a real injustice out there. I think we need to push for more funds and more resources. I think all of that is really important. The piece we bring to it is in the meantime our lawyers represent 300 people a year. The most
Was like it was overwhelming and every time i got in contact with somebody that i thought could help me or even interest in my case there was hope. If i can write a letter to a person and they can listen and read my letter that was hope to me that maybe they can react and even write me back. So in prison, it was like, without hope in prison, and without, i wanted to say something. I jumped around. I want to say, jeff, the Public Defenders Office was something that really helped me because it was jeff that opened the door to my investigation and to the office in San Francisco for innocent project. I was one of the persons that was able to get lawyer from that innocent project but then not having a lawyer for a time, the project and his office had to let it go because they had too many cases. So they referred my case to the santa clara innocent project with linda star and from then off thats where fate came in. I didnt have anymore hope. Hope died out. Now im here. [ applause ] you know,
With that authority. My family paid a lawyer to fight my case and throughout my whole case this lawyer didnt investigate, he didnt go to the crime scene, he didnt subpoena witnesses. None of that. Even with the homicide inspectors knew about the crime, they knew somebody else committed the crime but due to my character and my uprising, i was the one to take the fall for it. Once you are convicted of a crime. Its almost impossible to get it reversed. How did you do that . Hope. You know in society you dont know what hope is until you are in a critical situation and you are saying i hope this and wish that. My hope was just fail, you know everyday i was hoping and praying that i would get out. My story would be not just heard because the story was heard, somebody would believe me and not look at where i come from and my bad character and understand that i didnt commit the crime. So hope to me was like it was overwhelming and every time i got in contact with somebody that i thought could
Website is gideons promise. Org. Can you tell us about your personal story . My personal story came in 1991. I was convicted of Second Degree murder of shooting into an occupied car and attempted murder. It all erupted from the area i was from. I was from the projects in San Francisco off the i forgot the highway, but i was a very interesting person of character from that projects. I was no angel but no killer. Several different individual officers that brought me to the interest of a Murder Investigation. They put me right in a loop of a Murder Investigation with no evidence, no investigation whatsoever. It was just from a personal conflict between me and one San Francisco Police Officer that led the whole conviction. And you were sentenced to life in prison . Yes. I was sentence today 27 years to life for the crime. You had a lawyer represent you. Do you feel that your lawyer did i didnt have a public defender. I needed a lawyer that that african guy had up there. Every lawyer that i