How I help free innocent people from prison | Ronald Sullivan

51,584 views ・ 2017-08-30

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
So, imagine that you take a 19-hour, very long drive
0
12510
6993
00:19
to Disney World,
1
19842
1320
00:21
with two kids in the back seat.
2
21186
1504
00:24
And 15 minutes into this 19-hour trip,
3
24076
5132
00:30
the immutable laws of nature dictate
4
30351
2714
00:33
that you get the question:
5
33089
2056
00:35
"Are we there yet?"
6
35169
1364
00:36
(Laughter)
7
36557
1257
00:38
So you answer this question a hundred more times, easily,
8
38369
3457
00:41
in the negative,
9
41850
1159
00:43
but you finally arrive.
10
43033
1400
00:44
You have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trip.
11
44457
2773
00:47
You drive 19 long hours back home.
12
47254
4777
00:53
And when you get there,
13
53358
1537
00:54
the police are waiting on you.
14
54919
1617
00:57
They accuse you of committing a crime
15
57041
2388
00:59
that occurred while you were away in Florida.
16
59453
3267
01:03
You tell anybody and everybody who will listen,
17
63684
2882
01:06
"I didn't do it!
18
66590
1463
01:08
I couldn't have done it!
19
68077
1351
01:10
I was hanging out with Mickey and Minnie and my kids!"
20
70502
2788
01:14
But no one believes you.
21
74504
1319
01:17
Ultimately, you're arrested,
22
77104
1841
01:19
you're tried,
23
79624
1243
01:20
you're convicted
24
80891
1300
01:22
and you are sentenced.
25
82215
1293
01:24
And you spend 25 years in jail,
26
84098
3004
01:28
until someone comes along and proves --
27
88054
3378
01:33
has the evidence to prove --
28
93384
1424
01:34
that you actually were in Florida
29
94832
3644
01:38
when this crime was committed.
30
98500
1769
01:41
So.
31
101626
1160
01:43
So, I'm a Harvard Law professor,
32
103651
1654
01:45
and the last several years, I have worked on
33
105329
4141
01:50
winning the release of innocent people
34
110105
2539
01:53
who've been wrongfully convicted --
35
113193
2193
01:56
people like Jonathan Fleming,
36
116041
1752
01:58
who spent 24 years, eight months in jail
37
118582
3289
02:01
for a murder that was committed in Brooklyn, New York,
38
121895
3598
02:05
while he was in Disney World
39
125517
3483
02:09
with his kids.
40
129024
1273
02:10
How do we know this?
41
130966
1150
02:12
Because when he was arrested,
42
132702
1651
02:15
among his property in his back pocket
43
135108
2791
02:18
was a receipt --
44
138686
1241
02:20
time-stamped receipt
45
140865
1817
02:22
that showed that he was in Disney World.
46
142706
2861
02:26
That receipt was put in the police file,
47
146142
3125
02:29
a copy of it was put in the prosecutor's file,
48
149291
2626
02:31
and they never gave it to his public defender.
49
151941
3232
02:35
In fact, nobody even knew it was there.
50
155197
1942
02:37
It just sat there for 20-some-odd years.
51
157163
2739
02:40
My team looked through the file, and we found it,
52
160746
3551
02:45
did the rest of the investigation,
53
165227
1722
02:46
and figured out someone else committed the crime.
54
166973
2287
02:49
Mr. Fleming was in Disney World,
55
169284
3140
02:52
and he is now released.
56
172448
1939
02:54
Let me give you a little bit of context.
57
174971
1952
02:57
So about three years ago, I got a call from the Brooklyn District Attorney.
58
177622
4138
03:01
He asked whether I'd be interested in designing a program
59
181784
4083
03:05
called a "conviction review unit."
60
185891
1978
03:07
So I said yes.
61
187893
1281
03:09
A conviction review unit is essentially a unit in a prosecutor's office
62
189198
4667
03:13
where prosecutors look at their past cases
63
193889
3117
03:17
to determine whether or not they made mistakes.
64
197030
2611
03:20
Over the course of the first year,
65
200285
2032
03:22
we found about 13 wrongful convictions,
66
202341
3094
03:25
people having been in jail for decades,
67
205459
2535
03:28
and we released all of them.
68
208018
1635
03:29
It was the most in New York history.
69
209677
2678
03:32
The program is still going on,
70
212379
1492
03:33
and they're up to 21 releases now --
71
213895
3267
03:37
21 people who spent significant time behind bars.
72
217186
4356
03:42
So let me tell you about a couple other of the men and women
73
222077
5454
03:47
that I interacted with in the course of this program.
74
227555
3284
03:50
One name is Roger Logan.
75
230863
2375
03:54
Mr. Logan had been in jail 17 years
76
234019
3103
03:57
and wrote me a letter.
77
237146
1480
03:58
It was a simple letter; it basically said,
78
238650
2143
04:00
"Professor Sullivan, I'm innocent. I've been framed.
79
240817
3054
04:03
Can you look at my case?"
80
243895
1355
04:06
At first blush, the case seemed like it was open and shut,
81
246099
3144
04:09
but my research had shown
82
249267
2033
04:12
that single-witness identification cases
83
252312
2623
04:14
are prone to error.
84
254959
1278
04:17
It doesn't mean he was innocent,
85
257197
1799
04:19
it just means we ought to look a little bit closer at those cases.
86
259020
3317
04:22
So we did.
87
262361
1310
04:23
And the facts were relatively simple.
88
263695
2001
04:25
The eyewitness said she heard a shot,
89
265720
3082
04:28
and she ran to the next building and turned around and looked,
90
268826
3051
04:31
and there was Mr. Logan.
91
271901
1581
04:34
And he was tried and convicted and in jail for 17-some-odd years.
92
274252
4284
04:38
But it was a single-witness case, so we took a look at it.
93
278560
2814
04:41
I sent some people to the scene, and there was an inconsistency.
94
281398
3120
04:44
And to put it politely:
95
284542
5137
04:49
Usain Bolt couldn't have run from where she said she was
96
289703
3659
04:53
to the other spot.
97
293386
1188
04:54
Right?
98
294598
1152
04:55
So we knew that wasn't true.
99
295774
2417
04:58
So it still didn't mean that he didn't do it,
100
298745
2097
05:00
but we knew something was maybe fishy about this witness.
101
300866
3984
05:05
So we looked through the file,
102
305454
2034
05:07
a piece of paper in the file had a number on it.
103
307512
2339
05:09
The number indicated that this witness had a record.
104
309875
2966
05:12
We went back through 20 years of non-digitized papers
105
312865
3808
05:16
to figure out what this record was about,
106
316697
2576
05:19
and it turned out -- it turned out --
107
319297
2487
05:21
the eyewitness was in jail
108
321808
3508
05:25
when she said she saw what she saw.
109
325340
1919
05:29
The man spent 17 years behind bars.
110
329538
2213
05:33
The last one is a case about two boys,
111
333296
4767
05:38
Willie Stuckey, David McCallum.
112
338087
1821
05:40
They were arrested at 15,
113
340822
1585
05:43
and their conviction was vacated 29 years later.
114
343140
4200
05:48
Now this was a case,
115
348685
1794
05:50
once again -- first blush, it looked open and shut.
116
350503
2804
05:53
They had confessed.
117
353331
1272
05:55
But my research showed that juvenile confessions
118
355570
2751
05:58
without a parent present
119
358345
1489
05:59
are prone to error.
120
359858
1435
06:01
The DNA cases proved this several times.
121
361317
2266
06:03
So we took a close look.
122
363607
1374
06:05
We looked at the confession,
123
365528
1849
06:07
and it turned out,
124
367401
1164
06:08
there was something in the confession
125
368589
1862
06:10
that those boys could not have known.
126
370475
1968
06:12
The only people who knew it were police and prosecutors.
127
372467
2731
06:15
We knew what really happened;
128
375222
2271
06:17
someone told them to say this.
129
377517
1559
06:19
We don't exactly know who,
130
379100
1869
06:20
which person did,
131
380993
1467
06:22
but any rate, the confession was coerced,
132
382484
2895
06:25
we determined.
133
385403
1354
06:27
We then went back and did forensics
134
387242
1832
06:29
and did a fulsome investigation
135
389098
1686
06:30
and found that two other,
136
390808
1396
06:32
much older, different heights, different hairstyle,
137
392228
2859
06:35
two other people committed the crime,
138
395111
2334
06:37
not these two boys.
139
397469
1270
06:39
I actually went to court that day,
140
399161
2045
06:41
for what's called a "vacatur hearing,"
141
401230
3542
06:44
where the conviction is thrown out.
142
404796
2111
06:46
I went to court; I wanted to see
143
406931
1702
06:49
Mr. McCallum walk out of there.
144
409281
2507
06:51
So I went to court,
145
411812
1154
06:52
and the judge said something that judges say all the time,
146
412990
2769
06:55
but this took on a really special meaning.
147
415783
2209
06:58
He looked up after the arguments and said,
148
418513
2620
07:01
"Mr. McCallum,"
149
421157
1203
07:02
he said five beautiful words:
150
422928
1889
07:05
"You are free to go."
151
425414
3451
07:10
Can you imagine?
152
430359
1614
07:11
After just about 30 years:
153
431997
2378
07:15
"You are free to go."
154
435135
1529
07:18
And he walked out of that courtroom.
155
438545
1779
07:21
Unfortunately, his codefendant, Mr. Stuckey,
156
441415
3179
07:24
didn't get the benefit of that.
157
444619
2129
07:27
You see, Mr. Stuckey died in prison
158
447297
1858
07:30
at 34 years old,
159
450000
2088
07:32
and his mother sat at counsel table in his place.
160
452112
3392
07:36
I'll never forget this the rest of my life.
161
456718
2558
07:39
She just rocked at the table, saying,
162
459300
2977
07:42
"I knew my baby didn't do this.
163
462301
1960
07:44
I knew my baby didn't do this."
164
464285
2219
07:46
And her baby didn't do this.
165
466528
1383
07:48
Two other guys did it.
166
468633
1238
07:50
If there's anything that we've learned, anything that I've learned,
167
470937
3286
07:54
with this conviction integrity work,
168
474247
3188
07:57
it's that justice doesn't happen.
169
477459
2939
08:01
People make justice happen.
170
481599
3829
08:08
Justice is not a thing that just descends from above
171
488261
3895
08:12
and makes everything right.
172
492180
1380
08:14
If it did, Mr. Stuckey wouldn't have died in prison.
173
494422
3983
08:19
Justice is something
174
499576
1723
08:21
that people of goodwill make happen.
175
501323
3098
08:25
Justice is a decision.
176
505705
3595
08:32
Justice is a decision.
177
512212
1728
08:35
We make justice happen.
178
515281
2340
08:38
You know, the scary thing is,
179
518126
1919
08:40
in each of these three cases I described,
180
520069
2617
08:42
it would have only taken just an extra minute --
181
522710
2602
08:45
an extra minute --
182
525336
1615
08:46
for someone to look through the file
183
526975
2143
08:49
and find this receipt.
184
529142
1488
08:51
Just one -- to look through the file, find the receipt,
185
531624
3056
08:55
give it to the public defender.
186
535504
1867
08:58
It would have taken someone just a minute
187
538702
2542
09:01
to look at the video confession and say, "That cannot be."
188
541268
4647
09:06
Just a minute.
189
546999
1286
09:09
And perhaps Mr. Stuckey would be alive today.
190
549524
2980
09:13
It reminds me of one of my favorite poems.
191
553271
3381
09:16
It's a poem that Benjamin Elijah Mays would always recite,
192
556676
4283
09:20
and he called it "God's Minute."
193
560983
1713
09:22
And it goes something like this:
194
562720
1573
09:24
"I have only just a minute,
195
564317
2117
09:26
only 60 seconds in it,
196
566458
2027
09:28
forced upon me, can't refuse it,
197
568509
2275
09:30
didn't seek it, didn't choose it.
198
570808
2266
09:33
But it's up to me to use it.
199
573098
1554
09:34
I must suffer if I lose it, give account if I abuse it.
200
574676
3438
09:38
Just a tiny little minute,
201
578995
2254
09:41
but eternity is in it."
202
581925
2480
09:45
If I were to charge
203
585723
1550
09:47
each and every one of us,
204
587297
1633
09:49
I would want to say something like,
205
589754
2409
09:53
"Every day,
206
593782
1152
09:55
every day,
207
595688
1151
09:57
take just one extra minute
208
597755
2064
10:01
and do some justice.
209
601620
1376
10:04
You don't have to --
210
604752
1402
10:06
I mean, some people spend their careers and their lives,
211
606178
4013
10:10
like public defenders,
212
610215
1238
10:11
doing justice every day.
213
611477
1240
10:14
But in your professional lives, whatever you do,
214
614026
2320
10:16
take time out
215
616370
1690
10:18
to just
216
618084
1164
10:20
do some justice.
217
620396
1287
10:21
Make a colleague feel better.
218
621707
1714
10:23
If you hear something that's sexist,
219
623903
2551
10:27
don't laugh, speak up.
220
627208
2157
10:30
If someone is down, lift them up,
221
630217
2320
10:32
one extra minute each day,
222
632561
2694
10:36
and it'll be a great, great place.
223
636073
2322
10:38
I want to show you something.
224
638419
1796
10:41
Now, above me is a picture
225
641777
2975
10:44
of David McCallum.
226
644776
1421
10:47
This is the day he was released from prison.
227
647173
2880
10:50
After 30 years, he got to hug a niece
228
650077
3057
10:53
he had never been able to touch before.
229
653158
2792
10:57
And I asked him then,
230
657198
1357
10:59
I said, "What's the first thing you want to do?"
231
659383
2699
11:02
And he said, "I just want to walk on the sidewalk
232
662106
2379
11:04
without anybody telling me where to go."
233
664509
2181
11:07
Wasn't bitter,
234
667290
1705
11:09
just wanted to walk on the sidewalk.
235
669019
1906
11:11
I spoke to Mr. McCallum about two weeks ago.
236
671655
3007
11:15
I went to New York.
237
675189
1174
11:16
It was on the two-year anniversary
238
676387
2763
11:19
of his release.
239
679174
1570
11:21
And we talked,
240
681100
1640
11:22
we laughed, we hugged, we cried.
241
682764
2464
11:25
And he's doing quite well.
242
685855
2205
11:28
And one of the things he said when we met with him
243
688084
3886
11:31
is that he now has dedicated his life
244
691994
3130
11:35
and his career
245
695148
1369
11:36
to ensuring that nobody else is locked up unjustly.
246
696541
4159
11:41
Justice, my friends,
247
701771
2002
11:45
is a decision.
248
705416
1249
11:47
Thank you very much.
249
707346
1207
11:48
(Applause)
250
708577
4140
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7