On January 11, 1988, shortly after 10 p.m., Fitzgerald Clarke and Steven Hewitt were fatally shot in Brooklyn, NY outside of a building where they sold drugs. Shabaka Shakur, a friend of both victims, was brought in for questioning after a witness told officers that Shakur harbored a dispute over money he owned Hewitt. Another witness told police that Shakur admitted to committing the crime before he was arrested, but this witness never testified and recanted in 2014.
In Detective Phillip Mahony’s initial interview with Shakur, he denied any involvement in the crime. But after Mahony, Shakur was interviewed by the now disgraced Detective Louis Scarcella, who claimed that Shakur confessed to shooting the victims. Detective Louis Scarcellais an infamous, retired NYPD detective who rose to prominence in the 1980s and 90s due to his unmatched ability to get suspects to confess.
As of May 2018, there have been 13 exonerations connected to him. Despite all of the exonerations and criticisms of his tactics, Scarcella maintains that he has“doneabsolutely nothing wrong.”
Shakur was convicted on two counts of second degree murder and he was sentenced to 20 years to life.
After 27 years–and in large part to his determination–Shakur was exonerated. Since his exoneration, alongside fellow exoneree and Scarcella victim Derrick Hamilton, Shakur has opened“718Live,” a restaurant and event space in Brooklyn.
Shakur is joined by his defense attorney, Ron Kuby. Kuby is the star of a new series“WrongMan” on STARZ. The series follows a team of esteemed experts as they re-investigate the cases of three inmates who have been locked up for decades and claim they're innocent. The series is available hereand through the STARZ app.
Connect with Shabaka Shakur:
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "ed29ff8a-1e87-4f19-8b88-df96eaece218" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/ed29ff8a-1e87-4f19-8b88-df96eaece218.mp3" } [1]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(75) "S6E5: Misidentified: The Story of Guy Miles’ Fight To Prove His Innocence" ["datetime"]=> string(13) "July 09, 2018" ["description"]=> string(2213) "
In 1999 Guy Miles was convicted of robbery and sentenced 75 years to life. He was placed at the scene of a crime by eyewitness identifications. According to the California Innocent Project, stranger eyewitness identifications are the single leading cause of wrongful convictions in the world. Despite a high rate of error(roughly1 in 4 stranger eyewitness identifications are wrong), they are still considered the most powerful evidence against a suspect. It was exactly these kinds of misidentifications that sent Guy Miles to prison.
On June 29, 1998, three men committed an armed robbery at a Fidelity Financial institution in Fullerton, CA. Two bank employees chose Mr. Miles from faulty photo arrays and later testified that he was one of the robbers in court.
But Mr. Miles could not have been involved with the robbery because he wasn’t even in California when it happened. Mr. Miles had six alibi witnesses at trial who all testified that he was in Las Vegas–an almost four-hour drive away–when the robbery occurred.
With the help of the California Innocence Project, Mr. Miles was freed after 18 years in prison. Their investigation found the three men responsible for committing that crime: Jason Stewart, Harold Bailey and Bernard Teamer. After admitting to the robbery, they cleared Guy and said that he was not involved.
Mr. Miles is joined by his lawyer, Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project. In 2013 Mr. Miles identified 12 clients with strong claims to exoneration: the“California12.” Mr. Brooks walked 712 miles from San Diego to Sacramento to deliver clemency positions to Gov. Jerry Brown on behalf of the“California12.
Connect with Guy Miles:
Connect with Justin Brooks, Director of the California Innocence Project:
Donate to the California Innocence Project here.
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "eed858e4-b9b0-45ed-b8be-72f808e68ac9" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/eed858e4-b9b0-45ed-b8be-72f808e68ac9.mp3" } [2]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(116) "S6E4: Conviction: Murder, Shooting With the Intent to Kill, Use of a Vehicle to Facilitate the Discharge of a Weapon" ["datetime"]=> string(13) "July 02, 2018" ["description"]=> string(2358) "De’Marchoe Carpenter and Malcolm Scott were 17-years-old when Tulsa police arrested them in connection to a gang-related shooting that killed 19-year-old Karen Summers, the mother of a 4-month-old baby, outside a house party in 1994. Neither teen was found with the murder weapon or the getaway car and no DNA linked either of them to the crime scene. Days after the murder occurred, a Tulsa homicide supervisor visited Michael Lee Wilson, a known member of the Bloods, who had the murder weapon, the car, and the motive. Prosecutors offered Wilson a plea deal in exchange for testifying against De’Marchoe Carpenter and Malcolm Scott, and Wilson was released on $5,000 bond. While he was free, he brutally butchered Richard Yost, a night clerk at a Tulsa convenience store in February 1995. That crime was so heinous that Wilson and his co-defendant Billy Alverson both received the death penalty. Two eyewitnesses who placed Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Scott at the scene, and who provided inconsistent statements to investigators, later recanted and claimed detectives had coerced their testimony by threatening them with charges. After their three-day trial, Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Scott were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on the murder conviction, plus 170 years for two counts of shooting with intent to kill, and one count of using a vehicle to facilitate the discharge of a weapon. Days before Wilson was set to die by lethal injection in 2011, he provided a videotaped confession to the Oklahoma Innocence Project. In the footage, he claimed that he was the one who killed Summers, and that he’d allowed cops to suspect Mr. Scott and Mr. Carpenter. Almost 22 years later, on May 9, 2016, a judge finally vacated their convictions and declared them factually innocent.
SOCIAL:
Connect with Malcolm Scott:
Instagram: @ MrSwaggah764
Connect with De’Marchoe Carpenter:
Instagram: @BuriedAlive22
In 1998, Peter Ouko was taken to Kamiti Maximum Prison in Kenya and was sentenced to death in 2001. His sentence would later be commuted to life imprisonment by Kenya’s former President Mwai Kibaki in 2009. Instead of bitterness, Mr. Ouko decided to forgive his tormentors and make the best of his time in prison, becoming the first inmate to graduate with a University of London Diploma in Law while behind bars. He is currently in his final year as an LLB student in the same University. Peter later won his freedom in October 2016 and continues to support and advocate for those individuals who remain on remand. In his dual role as an Ambassador of the African Prisons Project and Founder of the Youth Safety Awareness Initiative, Pete Ouko today champions access to justice for inmates and the indolent in society while using social enterprise to advocate for a crime free world.
Connect with Peter Ouko:
Pete’s personal website
His organization Crime Si Poa
His twitter
His Facebook
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "0d6734a7-0f2e-4ae3-8626-347a33566986" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/0d6734a7-0f2e-4ae3-8626-347a33566986.mp3" } [4]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(142) "S6E3: A Crime Against Humanity, An Epic Struggle For Survival & Two Decades Of Devastating Loneliness: The Unimaginable Story Of Steven Barnes" ["datetime"]=> string(13) "June 18, 2018" ["description"]=> string(608) "
In March 1988, Steven Barnes was arrested and charged with the rape, sodomy, and murder of 16-year-old Kimberly Simon in upstate New York. He was tried by a jury in Utica beginning on May 15, 1989. Questionable eyewitness identifications and three forms of unvalidated forensic science were used against Mr. Barnes at trial. He was convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Nearly two decades later, on November 25, 2008, DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project proved his innocence and Steven Barnes walked out of the Utica courthouse a free man.
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "1c10ff7e-cae1-47b4-9a16-35fd932a70f7" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/1c10ff7e-cae1-47b4-9a16-35fd932a70f7.mp3" } [5]=> array(6) { ["title"]=> string(96) "S6E2: The Story Behind Empire On Blood: Calvin Buari’s Trial By Ambush And Two Decades In Hell" ["datetime"]=> string(13) "June 11, 2018" ["description"]=> string(2299) "Calvin Buari served 22 years for a double murder in the Bronx, even though someone else confessed to the crime. In the early 1990s, Calvin Buari was a well-known crack cocaine distributor in the Bronx, and authorities blamed him for a spasm of bloodshed there; the press reported that he practiced "black magic" and was a murderous thug. In 1992, a disgruntled drug associate who had recently shot Mr. Buari implicated him in the murder of Elijah and Salhaddin Harris, who were parked when a gunman walked up and fired about a dozen rounds into their car. Mr. Buari was charged with the double murder and six rival drug dealers testified against him at his 1995 murder trial. No physical evidence connected him to the crime. A jury took only two hours to convict Mr. Buari of murder, and he was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Calvin Buari never stopped fighting for his freedom, and the case took a turn with a 2003 affidavit from the key witness against him, Dwight Robinson, who confessed to the crime, stating that he “pinned this double murder on Calvin Buari because of a dispute between Calvin and me, and because I wanted complete control of my drug spot.” Journalist Steve Fishman followed Mr. Buari’s story for seven years and eyewitnesses, first interviewed by Fishman, testified in court in 2015 that Mr. Buari was not the murderer. By May 2017, a judge overturned the conviction and ordered 46-year-old Mr. Buari freed. In this episode, Calvin Buari is joined by Steve Fishman, who chronicles his journey for justice in the hit podcast Empire on Blood.
Follow Calvin Buari and Steve Fishman on social media and check out their businesses:
Steve on Twitter: @stevemfishman
Calvin on Facebook: Teambuari
Calvin on Instagram: @ryderz_van_service, and @teambuari.
Company websites:
www.ryderzvanservice.com and www.blackmagicstudio.com.
Read more on Cal's new business at this article
" ["episode_id"]=> string(36) "2fe9dbf0-303d-4ba1-88df-a884fae86950" ["show_id"]=> NULL ["episode_audio"]=> string(70) "http://rss.art19.com/episodes/2fe9dbf0-303d-4ba1-88df-a884fae86950.mp3" } }Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom
About the Show
Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom is a podcast about tragedy, triumph, unequal justice and actual innocence. Based on the files of the lawyers who freed them, Wrongful Conviction features interviews with men and women who have spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit – some of them had even been sentenced to death. These are their stories.
Recent Episodes
Jason Flom
Jason Flom is the CEO of Lava Records and Lava Music Publishing. Flom previously served as Chairman and CEO at Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and Capitol Music Group and is personally responsible for launching acts such as Kid Rock, Katy Perry, and Lorde. He is a nationally recognized philanthropist and an expert on criminal justice issues. Flom is a founding board member of the Innocence Project and serves on the boards of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, The Drug Policy Alliance, The Legal Action Center, the NYU Prison Education Program, and VetPaw.