piers. and we are by his side as he experiences all of it. oh! i seen this in the magazine. eric s first few hours of freedom hello? are part exhilaration hello? part discovery. hello? he s never actually used a cell phone. yeah. where s cynthia? hello? you have it upside down, eric. hello. no, no, upside down. like this. hello? huh? can you hear me now? like the commercial? his first meal? lamb chops. wow. it s like jumping up out of a coffin and walking, you know. it s like being read your last rites, and all of a sudden a miracle happens. you re back out in society an you re wondering, you know, will they accept you? yeah, you see?
release glisson and watkins if they wear monitor bracelets as the d. a. s office continues to investigate. we have made a decision to take this unprecedented as you know, judge, and exceptional step that we are going to consent to the conditional vacating of the conviction for these two defendants, and the condition being that the defendants do wear those electronic monitoring bracelets. all that s left now is for the judge to make it official. the record will reflect that the conditional vacater of the conviction as to mr. glisson and miss watkins is granted and each defendant is released on their own recognizance. [applause] eric s friends and family and the news media are waiting for him outside. and now, for the first time in nearly two decades, eric glisson is about to take his first steps as a free man. eric, what is your emotion
her claims all these years later wouldn t help him. to have any chance at having another day in court eric knew he d need powerful evidence. evidence of actual innocence. he started thinking, if he and the other five co-defendants had nothing to do with the two murders, then who did? after more than a decade of trying finally some of eric s requests for documents in his case began trickling in. i came across one document which had my name, as well as my other co-defendants, but one name stood out, it was an individual i found out was part of a gang called sex, money, murder. eric was on to an important lead. sex, money, murder. even veteran cops knew those three words meant danger. a notorious gang from the soundview section of the bronx. 1997, october, sex, money, murder became my assignment. pete forcelli was an nypd
finally had evidence showing who the real killers were. it took me 16, 17 years to get those through freedom of information. they were never provided to the defense? no. it turns out that the police and the district attorney had all the evidence at their disposal to solve this crime from the beginning. so he wrote a letter to the u. s. attorney proclaiming his innocence and detailing the information he d found out about the sex, money, murder gang. it was a hail mary pass. in an amazing stroke of luck, eric s letter landed on this man s desk. his name, john o malley, an investigator for the u. s. attorney in new york. days after reading eric s letter, o malley made a personal trip to see eric in sing sing. immediately, john o malley just stood up and he asked me. did you write this letter? i said, yes. he shook my hand and he said, i m sorry. i said,
office. we know your client is innocent. that was such an emotional moment for me. i was like, tears welled up in my eyes right in front of the teller. i thank god every day for john o malley. when i looked in that man s eyes, you know, i see a man who has integrity. i seen a man who was honest. o malley s affidavit was enough for the bronx d. a. to reopen the case and to get in front of a judge. but that would take time. two more months. this is my wall of hope. everyone here has been unjustly convicted and freed. on august 5th, 2012, eric s lawyer goes to court. this is our first appearance to try to get the judgment vacated. cross is joined by his assistant charmaine chester. by now, they have worked on the case for six years. i want to see him out. i told him the last time i went up to sing sing, i m not visiting you here again. this is it. finally, cross argues his case to the judge. my client has spent 17 years