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? on his first night of freedom, eric s lawyer treats him to a hotel room. i have a key that s a plastic card. wow. i used to sleep on a metal frame and now i m on a comfortable bed. but the real joy for eric is
every day, personal things start to slip in. friendship. friendship. in the meantime, her boss was checking out eric s claims of innocence. did you believe it at the beginning? i m not going to say i didn t disbelieve him. it s just i m practicing law for a listening time. okay? and people lie. they certainly color the truth. this is a man who was convicted of murdering someone. so, of course, i approached it with some skepticism. but once cross learned the facts, he agreed to take eric s case at no charge. representing a man who didn t seem hardened by prison but almost frightened. it s terrifying because you can just be walking in the yard and then you could be shanked. that s the life of prison. a life he d lived for nearly two decades. a story he was telling us if true was as explosive as it was tragic. it turns out that the police and the district attorney had all the evidence at their
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 cell. it would take years for the truth to come out. but would it be enough to set him free? here s josh mankiewicz with a bronx tale. sing sing correctional facility. the maximum security prison in new york. this is the big house. home to some of the worst of the wor worst. killers, rapists, drug dealers. good morning. thank you.
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
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 right now? this is a major, pivotal point in my life. and i worked hard. i persevered. and with effort and determination i m standing here before you. now, it s his co-defendant cathy watkins turn. also wrongfully convicted.