scene. six people were convicted, including eric glisson. you actually think they read the wrong verdict. then divine intervention through a nun he called grandma. eric would say, grandma, i think this all happening for a reason. maybe a nun could help him get 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 has kept me up at night for six years. he says i know you re innocent, i know the guys who committed this crime. will justice finally arrive? hello and welcome to dateline. eric glisson was just 20 years old when he was convicted of a murder that sent hello and welcome to dateline. eric glisson was just 20 years old when he was convicted of a murder that sent shockwaves through his neighborhood. a crime he insisted he did not commit. to clear his name eric would have to find the real killers, following clues from the confines of his cel
someone he met when he he was still locked up. he s become my brother. it s charmain chester. his lawyer s assistant. i call him my bratty little brother and i m the annoying older sister. they opened their store in late 2013. pivotal point in my life. it gave me a lot of tools. on this day, we had a little surprise for him. he hadn t seen sister joanna chan since he was released. a woman who put eric on a quest for freedom all those years ago. oh, my god! oh my god! oh my god! grandma. oh my god. congratulations. thank you. oh my god. they
i need to get home to her and be a father. eric often shared his story with sister joanna. over time, she felt compelled to do something, anything for him. so she called the only lawyer she knew. the first person i could think of was mr. peter cross. i trust her judgment. to me it was worth investing my time in. attorney peter cross agreed to at least see if there was some truth to eric s story. but there was still one problem. this is not the kind of law you normally practice. no, not at all. i m a corporate lawyer. i do corporate litigation. i don t do criminal work. charmaine chester was peter s assistant. this was also new territory for her. out of the blue one day, i get this call. you have a collect call from an inmate at sing sing correctional facility. i m like, okay. soon she found herself spending hours on the phone with the inmate. at first it was all, you know, business, case, case. by the time you talk to somebody
it is not where you d expect to find this gentle woman. in sing sing, they call me grandma. grandma is sister joanna chan, a marinol nun. i began working at sing sing more than 12 years ago. this is the battle about general. grandma volunteers at the prison, working with inmates in a theater program. she even teaches them chinese. through the years, grandma has helped dozens of men. but she says this inmate here on stage, a convicted killer, has changed her. he is just so brave. watching him all these years, i took such courage myself watching him. sister joanna remembers the first time she met this inmate. he was sitting alone eating. he said, my family send me 30 pounds of food. so i said,
for committing murder. all insisted they were innocent. we met one of them, eric glisson, in sing sing, where from behind bars he d been trying to get answers ever since he was locked up. i ve been fighting these people for years. asking for documents, which they deny me at every turn. they re not going to convict me for something that i didn t do and just expect me to accept it. i m going to fight to the end. i m a fighter. i die on my feet, not on my knees. as the years passed, eric took college courses offered by the prison. he learned about the law and fought his case. how did he get that evidence in his possession? the courts denied all his appeals. i don t have any appeals left. nothing. it was a lonely fight and then in 2006, he met sister joanna chan in one of the prison s programs, the woman he calls grandma. there s particular dark time. he would say, grandma,