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Time.
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00:00:56,583 --> 00:00:58,917
This is the strangest one.
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00:01:00,083 --> 00:01:04,374
Do you know that the worst part
4
00:01:04,458 --> 00:01:07,124
and yet the best part of being
in solitary confinement
5
00:01:07,208 --> 00:01:12,333
is time can be a blisteringly fast thing,
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00:01:12,417 --> 00:01:14,916
where in the blink of an eye,
you can look,
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00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,041
and ten years are gone from your life,
8
00:01:18,125 --> 00:01:20,000
but the next week is agony?
9
00:01:21,833 --> 00:01:25,083
It’s like you look at your wristwatch
10
00:01:25,167 --> 00:01:29,416
and instead of there being a face,
there’s a calendar,
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00:01:29,500 --> 00:01:31,333
and it flips.
12
00:01:31,417 --> 00:01:34,166
But then if you look out the window,
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00:01:34,250 --> 00:01:37,375
it takes all day for that sun to go down.
14
00:01:38,375 --> 00:01:40,166
[exhales]
15
00:01:40,250 --> 00:01:42,667
I always wanted to tell somebody that.
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00:03:53,792 --> 00:03:56,667
YARRIS:
We got into the prison about 11:00 a.m.
17
00:03:57,583 --> 00:04:00,208
They took all the other prisoners
off this bus,
18
00:04:00,292 --> 00:04:02,583
and then four men came on.
19
00:04:03,375 --> 00:04:06,042
They lined me up
against this red brick wall.
20
00:04:07,250 --> 00:04:09,500
And here comes Lieutenant Warner.
21
00:04:11,583 --> 00:04:14,499
He walked right up to me,
right up to my face.
22
00:04:14,583 --> 00:04:16,583
He was very quiet.
23
00:04:17,583 --> 00:04:19,833
“There’s no speaking in my prison.
24
00:04:19,917 --> 00:04:22,416
Dead men do not speak
in my prison especially.
25
00:04:22,500 --> 00:04:24,458
Do you understand me?”
26
00:04:24,542 --> 00:04:27,374
Just like that. Same tone of voice.
27
00:04:27,458 --> 00:04:29,875
Nothing raised, nothing threatening.
28
00:04:30,917 --> 00:04:32,833
And that lured quietness.
29
00:04:32,917 --> 00:04:35,458
I did. I went to answer. I was like...
30
00:04:37,125 --> 00:04:39,375
Backhanded me right in the mouth.
31
00:04:40,083 --> 00:04:42,208
It stung like you wouldn’t believe.
32
00:04:42,292 --> 00:04:44,250
[prison gate closes]
33
00:04:45,542 --> 00:04:50,499
Then I was thrown into this world
where there’s no sunlight,
34
00:04:50,583 --> 00:04:52,833
and it’s deadly silent.
35
00:05:00,458 --> 00:05:04,792
The Pennsylvania prison system
was developed by the Quakers.
36
00:05:06,583 --> 00:05:10,833
The doors were cut low so you had
to stoop and bow to go into them.
37
00:05:12,375 --> 00:05:15,333
While you were in the cell,
you were meant not to communicate.
38
00:05:15,417 --> 00:05:17,958
It was part of your punishment.
39
00:05:19,250 --> 00:05:25,124
It was eerie because out of almost
140 men at the time in “B” Block,
40
00:05:25,208 --> 00:05:27,333
no one spoke.
41
00:05:27,417 --> 00:05:30,458
You’d hear them cough,
or urinate and flush the toilet,
42
00:05:30,542 --> 00:05:32,542
but there was no real sound.
43
00:05:34,458 --> 00:05:36,166
That was the worst for me.
44
00:05:36,250 --> 00:05:39,000
Especially the first couple of months.
45
00:05:42,125 --> 00:05:44,916
You still can hear your mother
crying at the trial.
46
00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,291
You can still smell the aftershave
on the witnesses, man.
47
00:05:49,375 --> 00:05:52,958
It’s just every little detail
is just eating you alive
48
00:05:53,042 --> 00:05:55,249
because you’ve just been put here.
49
00:05:55,333 --> 00:05:58,541
The door was still ringing in your ears
’cause of the slam.
50
00:05:58,625 --> 00:06:01,667
You’re just left there and you’re like--
[inhales]
51
00:06:03,792 --> 00:06:08,083
Yet you don’t come to your door
and talk to a neighbor
52
00:06:08,167 --> 00:06:10,708
’cause if you broke the speaking rule,
53
00:06:10,792 --> 00:06:13,625
you were struck or beaten by the guards.
54
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,541
In level five,
you were allowed to exercise
55
00:06:24,625 --> 00:06:27,166
in these dog kennel-like cages.
56
00:06:27,250 --> 00:06:30,083
Nineteen feet long, ten feet wide.
57
00:06:32,833 --> 00:06:37,375
You got an hour to exercise by yourself
’cause you’re a death-row prisoner.
58
00:06:37,917 --> 00:06:40,416
But the guards, being pricks,
59
00:06:40,500 --> 00:06:45,792
if you had a problem with another guy
and they knew you were enemies,
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00:06:46,583 --> 00:06:48,374
they’d put you in the cage together
61
00:06:48,458 --> 00:06:51,624
knowing that as soon
as they’d walked off a few steps,
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00:06:51,708 --> 00:06:53,624
you two are gonna go at it.
63
00:06:53,708 --> 00:06:58,208
If that didn’t work, they picked out
two big guys and put them in together.
64
00:06:59,042 --> 00:07:00,917
And had some fun.
65
00:07:01,708 --> 00:07:04,124
Usually it was a white guy
with a black guy,
66
00:07:04,208 --> 00:07:06,249
Spanish guy with a black guy,
67
00:07:06,333 --> 00:07:08,167
Spanish guy with a white guy.
68
00:07:09,792 --> 00:07:12,167
“Gladiatoring,” they called it.
69
00:07:16,750 --> 00:07:18,750
[metal squeaking, water running]
70
00:07:23,125 --> 00:07:26,292
The shower was the most vulnerable time.
71
00:07:27,250 --> 00:07:30,666
If you’re gonna get somebody,
that’s the place to get them.
72
00:07:30,750 --> 00:07:36,000
You got access to them,
there’s no handcuffs, and they’re naked.
73
00:07:41,583 --> 00:07:45,958
I had only been there a few days
and I walked into the shower.
74
00:07:46,042 --> 00:07:49,166
Just as I turned the corner,
there was a Puerto Rican boy,
75
00:07:49,250 --> 00:07:51,166
and he had sharpened the pork chop bone
76
00:07:51,250 --> 00:07:54,374
and then stabbed this man
in the back of the liver with it.
77
00:07:54,458 --> 00:07:59,124
The guy started flopping,
and then they just cut all the water off
78
00:07:59,208 --> 00:08:03,042
and just beat all six of us senseless
and drug us back out of the shower.
79
00:08:08,583 --> 00:08:10,666
Then they served food.
80
00:08:10,750 --> 00:08:14,458
They got everything cleaned up
and began serving lunch.
81
00:08:14,542 --> 00:08:17,083
It went on as a routine day.
82
00:08:17,167 --> 00:08:19,500
[men chattering]
83
00:08:21,542 --> 00:08:24,999
Two guys were arguing ’cause one guy
didn’t get enough bread on his tray.
84
00:08:25,083 --> 00:08:27,208
I’m like, “This is crazy.
85
00:08:27,292 --> 00:08:30,708
You’re so whacked out of your mind
that you’re gonna call to the guard,
86
00:08:30,792 --> 00:08:33,791
‘Hey, man, I only got
one slice of bread on my tray,’
87
00:08:33,875 --> 00:08:36,375
when a human being just died.”
88
00:08:48,333 --> 00:08:52,667
I lived in silence for two whole years.
89
00:08:53,417 --> 00:08:55,250
The first two years.
90
00:08:56,750 --> 00:09:00,166
That’s when the drugs
were discovered in the choir room,
91
00:09:00,250 --> 00:09:02,417
and everything changed.
92
00:09:04,500 --> 00:09:07,333
These prisoners from the choir
were locked up with us
93
00:09:07,417 --> 00:09:09,917
in empty cells on death row.
94
00:09:10,917 --> 00:09:16,499
Because none of them were going to tell
where the drugs came from,
95
00:09:16,583 --> 00:09:21,542
they were going to ship all of them
to individual different prisons.
96
00:09:22,792 --> 00:09:26,292
To the other eight members of the choir,
it really didn’t matter.
97
00:09:28,125 --> 00:09:31,041
But two of the men had a bond
that was special.
98
00:09:31,125 --> 00:09:32,958
Wesley and Butch.
99
00:09:33,750 --> 00:09:38,791
Wesley was this fair-skinned,
green-eyed, beautiful black guy
100
00:09:38,875 --> 00:09:42,708
who just exuded this eloquence
and sweetness about him.
101
00:09:42,792 --> 00:09:44,667
Everyone liked him.
102
00:09:45,750 --> 00:09:49,583
He had a voice
that was gravelly and wondrous.
103
00:09:51,500 --> 00:09:54,958
He had met Butch when they were
children at a church in West Philadelphia
104
00:09:55,042 --> 00:09:57,458
where Butch was a foster child.
105
00:09:58,500 --> 00:10:00,999
Obviously, Wesley was gay,
106
00:10:01,083 --> 00:10:05,124
and they formed this bond
that seemed to be invulnerable.
107
00:10:05,208 --> 00:10:06,999
And then,
108
00:10:07,083 --> 00:10:09,666
Butch began stealing
and getting in trouble.
109
00:10:09,750 --> 00:10:12,666
He was arrested and thrown
into county prison in Philadelphia.
110
00:10:12,750 --> 00:10:14,708
Wesley went nuts without him.
111
00:10:14,792 --> 00:10:17,458
He was the only thing in his life
that protected him
112
00:10:17,542 --> 00:10:20,166
from the scorn of his parents,
the bullies in the neighborhood,
113
00:10:20,250 --> 00:10:22,833
the people who knew
he was weak without Butch.
114
00:10:23,833 --> 00:10:27,708
So he began committing deliberate crimes
and getting arrested
115
00:10:27,792 --> 00:10:30,083
so that he could be with Butch.
116
00:10:30,167 --> 00:10:34,583
They found out prison
is the one place they could be normal.
117
00:10:35,333 --> 00:10:38,208
They got themselves put into the same cell
118
00:10:38,292 --> 00:10:41,708
and, together in the setting of a prison,
119
00:10:41,792 --> 00:10:45,208
where homosexuality
is an accepted form of expression
120
00:10:45,292 --> 00:10:47,374
or just life,
121
00:10:47,458 --> 00:10:49,250
no one bothered them.
122
00:10:51,208 --> 00:10:55,083
That’s when the drugs were discovered,
and the guard on duty at nine o’clock
123
00:10:55,167 --> 00:10:57,333
started tormenting Wesley,
124
00:10:57,417 --> 00:11:01,458
“Hey, faggot, you’re going!
Your boy’s going to Western.
125
00:11:01,542 --> 00:11:03,333
I just looked on the transfer sheet.
126
00:11:03,417 --> 00:11:07,083
You’re going to Dallas, opposite ends
of the state of Pennsylvania.
127
00:11:07,167 --> 00:11:08,917
Bye, nigger!”
128
00:11:11,208 --> 00:11:14,833
I guess Wesley went crazy in that cell.
129
00:11:15,917 --> 00:11:18,833
’Cause about 40 minutes later,
just before ten o’clock,
130
00:11:18,917 --> 00:11:22,458
there was like 20 minutes left
before shift change at 10:00 p.m.,
131
00:11:23,417 --> 00:11:26,833
this voice took over.
132
00:11:26,917 --> 00:11:32,167
♪♪ [falsetto voice vocalizing]
133
00:11:32,625 --> 00:11:36,499
MAN:
♪ Oh, yeah, I have dreamed the dream ♪
134
00:11:36,583 --> 00:11:39,166
♪ Of every common man ♪
135
00:11:39,250 --> 00:11:42,833
Every man on that block just stood still.
136
00:11:44,083 --> 00:11:48,083
♪ I have sworn by my blood
as your man, my love ♪
137
00:11:48,167 --> 00:11:49,749
We knew the penalty.
138
00:11:49,833 --> 00:11:54,916
♪ That one day, I promise one day
all of your hurting would stop ♪
139
00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,999
Then you heard the keys. [clicking sound]
140
00:11:58,083 --> 00:12:00,083
Footsteps behind it.
141
00:12:00,500 --> 00:12:04,333
“What the fuck are you doing, singing
in my block? I will beat your head in.
142
00:12:04,417 --> 00:12:07,749
If you don’t stop that singing right now,
I will beat your head in!”
143
00:12:07,833 --> 00:12:10,416
♪ But, oh ♪
144
00:12:10,500 --> 00:12:12,791
♪ Thanks to you, baby ♪
145
00:12:12,875 --> 00:12:14,083
[laughing]
146
00:12:14,167 --> 00:12:15,874
♪ For just loving a common man ♪
147
00:12:15,958 --> 00:12:17,041
More keys.
148
00:12:17,125 --> 00:12:19,041
♪ I want to thank you
this evening, honey ♪
149
00:12:19,125 --> 00:12:21,499
[clicking] Here they come.
150
00:12:21,583 --> 00:12:23,167
Everybody knows what’s coming.
151
00:12:24,083 --> 00:12:25,583
♪ I thought that I’d failed you ♪
152
00:12:25,667 --> 00:12:28,416
The lieutenant came running down,
and he was this militant asshole
153
00:12:28,500 --> 00:12:32,249
with the brush cut and the uniform
that was pressed to precision.
154
00:12:32,333 --> 00:12:36,166
He ran down and he ran down
and he said, “Hold it,” like that.
155
00:12:36,250 --> 00:12:38,083
And even Wesley stopped.
156
00:12:38,167 --> 00:12:41,583
’Cause we know when Lieutenant Norris
raised his hand, that was it.
157
00:12:41,667 --> 00:12:45,791
He said, “I leave in 20 minutes.
158
00:12:45,875 --> 00:12:50,083
If there is a noise on this block
from anyone
159
00:12:50,167 --> 00:12:51,999
when I leave this unit,
160
00:12:52,083 --> 00:12:55,667
we will beat every man’s head in,
do you understand me?”
161
00:12:56,417 --> 00:12:57,917
Silence.
162
00:12:59,083 --> 00:13:01,625
“Finish that song, inmate. Let’s go.”
163
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,458
The guards looked at him
like he had lost his friggin’ mind.
164
00:13:05,542 --> 00:13:07,708
They were stunned.
165
00:13:07,792 --> 00:13:11,083
“Let’s go. You! You got 20 minutes.”
166
00:13:11,167 --> 00:13:12,958
And walked off the block.
167
00:13:13,042 --> 00:13:15,458
[clicking]
168
00:13:15,542 --> 00:13:18,333
They even had an argument
on their way out the door.
169
00:13:18,417 --> 00:13:20,624
-When the gates shut...
-[gate door slams]
170
00:13:20,708 --> 00:13:22,833
...that big, wide “B” Block gate,
171
00:13:22,917 --> 00:13:25,083
when they left the block alone,
172
00:13:25,167 --> 00:13:28,624
we were like, “Oh, my God.
173
00:13:28,708 --> 00:13:32,917
We are totally and utterly unsupervised.”
174
00:13:33,708 --> 00:13:38,333
He came back, right in mid-lyric,
like he had never stopped singing.
175
00:13:38,417 --> 00:13:41,749
♪ He said I love you, baby ♪
176
00:13:41,833 --> 00:13:46,041
♪ I love you
for just being a common man ♪
177
00:13:46,125 --> 00:13:48,416
♪♪ [vocalizing]
178
00:13:48,500 --> 00:13:51,083
You hear them. Here they go.
179
00:13:51,167 --> 00:13:53,708
The other members
that had a little bit of guts
180
00:13:53,792 --> 00:13:55,708
were blowing, you know?
181
00:13:55,792 --> 00:13:59,999
They were giving bass,
and it was wonderful, these voices, yeah?
182
00:14:00,083 --> 00:14:01,749
♪ I thank you, baby ♪
183
00:14:01,833 --> 00:14:05,499
♪ Yeah, for respecting me, yeah ♪
184
00:14:05,583 --> 00:14:08,499
-♪ I want to thank you, baby ♪
-♪♪ [voices harmonizing]
185
00:14:08,583 --> 00:14:11,666
♪ For every time you love me ♪
186
00:14:11,750 --> 00:14:15,833
♪ I want to thank you for respecting me ♪
187
00:14:15,917 --> 00:14:18,958
♪ Every time we meet ♪
188
00:14:19,042 --> 00:14:21,333
♪ Thank you for calming my troubles ♪
189
00:14:21,417 --> 00:14:26,250
-♪♪ [vocalizing continues]
-[fingers snapping]
190
00:14:27,250 --> 00:14:29,666
[fingers continue snapping]
191
00:14:29,750 --> 00:14:31,749
Then out of nowhere...
192
00:14:31,833 --> 00:14:34,666
♪ Ooh ♪
193
00:14:34,750 --> 00:14:37,250
...we heard this woman’s voice.
194
00:14:38,500 --> 00:14:41,708
Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue.”
195
00:14:42,542 --> 00:14:45,249
♪ Ahh ♪
196
00:14:45,333 --> 00:14:47,124
I thought, I swear to God,
197
00:14:47,208 --> 00:14:50,499
somebody had gotten a radio
in on “B” Block.
198
00:14:50,583 --> 00:14:53,125
♪♪ [vocalizing]
199
00:14:54,125 --> 00:14:56,541
♪ Looks like I’d get you off my mind ♪
200
00:14:56,625 --> 00:14:59,083
No one really knew
who it was that was singing.
201
00:14:59,167 --> 00:15:01,583
Then I figured it out.
202
00:15:02,208 --> 00:15:04,958
Butch was 6’4”
203
00:15:05,042 --> 00:15:08,166
and 240 pounds.
204
00:15:08,250 --> 00:15:11,833
He had a big jagged scar
that ran down the side of his face,
205
00:15:11,917 --> 00:15:15,583
like from someone trying
to cut his head open.
206
00:15:16,125 --> 00:15:18,166
I was terrified of this man.
207
00:15:18,250 --> 00:15:21,250
♪ Ah ♪
208
00:15:22,792 --> 00:15:25,708
♪ Just the mention of your name ♪
209
00:15:25,792 --> 00:15:28,666
To hear him sing
in this beautiful voice...
210
00:15:28,750 --> 00:15:32,499
♪ Turns the flicker to a flame ♪
211
00:15:32,583 --> 00:15:35,208
...as his way of showing love for someone
212
00:15:35,292 --> 00:15:38,833
who was being taken from him
the next morning,
213
00:15:38,917 --> 00:15:44,666
made me want someone to care for me
in that place so much
214
00:15:44,750 --> 00:15:46,999
that they would sing
215
00:15:47,083 --> 00:15:51,208
knowing that singing
would have gotten their head beat in.
216
00:15:53,208 --> 00:15:55,792
♪ Misty blue ♪
217
00:15:58,583 --> 00:16:01,625
[Yarris inhales, exhales deeply]
218
00:16:03,458 --> 00:16:06,833
They shipped Wesley
that morning at 3:55 a.m.,
219
00:16:08,500 --> 00:16:10,958
but the next day,
220
00:16:11,042 --> 00:16:14,874
a few guys were talking outside
of their cells to each other,
221
00:16:14,958 --> 00:16:18,208
like a normal conversation,
and when the guard went by?
222
00:16:18,292 --> 00:16:21,166
He didn’t tell them
they was gonna beat their brains in.
223
00:16:21,250 --> 00:16:24,667
He just simply said, “Keep that down.
The lieutenant doesn’t like it.”
224
00:16:25,875 --> 00:16:28,542
They weren’t going to torture us
with silence anymore.
225
00:16:35,625 --> 00:16:38,374
[keys jangling, gate door opens]
226
00:16:38,458 --> 00:16:39,958
[buzzer sounds]
227
00:16:44,958 --> 00:16:48,208
Joe Bullen, my first appellate attorney,
228
00:16:48,292 --> 00:16:49,958
God bless him,
229
00:16:50,042 --> 00:16:52,833
got the attention
of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
230
00:16:53,417 --> 00:16:57,833
He didn’t like me,
but he filed the appeal nonetheless
231
00:16:57,917 --> 00:17:01,333
and got us the hearing scheduled
for February 20.
232
00:17:05,167 --> 00:17:07,875
I was excited to go to court, you know.
233
00:17:12,792 --> 00:17:15,583
Two Delaware County sheriffs
were waiting for me.
234
00:17:16,292 --> 00:17:18,875
They come up.
They put the handcuffs on me.
235
00:17:19,792 --> 00:17:21,916
Both men were in their 60s.
236
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,958
Two sweetheart guys
were already bullshitting
237
00:17:25,042 --> 00:17:28,791
about basketball and football
and all this stuff into Philadelphia.
238
00:17:28,875 --> 00:17:32,749
They’re giving me updates on things
that I haven’t caught up on
239
00:17:32,833 --> 00:17:36,583
and people back down in the county jail,
who’s going up to the state prison.
240
00:17:39,500 --> 00:17:41,499
We’re talking about how damn cold it is.
241
00:17:41,583 --> 00:17:43,624
It was bitterly cold.
242
00:17:43,708 --> 00:17:47,083
In fact, it was the coldest day
of the year that year.
243
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,499
[turn signal clicking]
244
00:17:54,583 --> 00:17:57,874
I’m sitting in the back,
and we’re driving along.
245
00:17:57,958 --> 00:18:01,499
We get down there
four and a half hours later.
246
00:18:01,583 --> 00:18:07,083
It’s now about 4:30, almost 5:00 p.m.
and nearly pitch dark.
247
00:18:12,333 --> 00:18:14,750
We pull in to go to the bathroom.
248
00:18:15,708 --> 00:18:19,458
The driver drives past it
by, like, 25 yards.
249
00:18:21,250 --> 00:18:25,250
We get out of the car
and we’re hit with that blast of cold.
250
00:18:26,708 --> 00:18:30,666
We run right over, the three of us,
to the cubicle,
251
00:18:30,750 --> 00:18:34,958
and I go in, and the door’s
being held open by the taller officer.
252
00:18:35,042 --> 00:18:39,750
He stands there while I urinate
and watches me.
253
00:18:41,333 --> 00:18:43,333
I’m peeing, minding my own business.
254
00:18:43,417 --> 00:18:46,083
I’m thinking about getting back
in that warm-ass car.
255
00:18:46,167 --> 00:18:48,666
It’s freezing. I turn, I look up.
256
00:18:48,750 --> 00:18:52,124
He’s got his hand up.
I put my head under his arm.
257
00:18:52,208 --> 00:18:55,374
I make the left turn
to go back to the car.
258
00:18:55,458 --> 00:19:00,666
What I did not know
is that the officer who was driving
259
00:19:00,750 --> 00:19:04,333
went back to the car and waited.
260
00:19:04,417 --> 00:19:08,666
I came out of the cubicle
and started trotting towards him.
261
00:19:08,750 --> 00:19:12,791
He looked past me,
and he didn’t see his partner.
262
00:19:12,875 --> 00:19:15,249
He doesn’t know
if I’ve killed his partner or not.
263
00:19:15,333 --> 00:19:18,458
He just knew he was seeing
a death-row prisoner
264
00:19:18,542 --> 00:19:20,999
running at him unescorted.
265
00:19:21,083 --> 00:19:23,499
That’s when he pulled his gun.
266
00:19:23,583 --> 00:19:26,999
When he did that motion
of sticking his hand on his hip
267
00:19:27,083 --> 00:19:29,541
and pulling the weapon from the holster,
268
00:19:29,625 --> 00:19:31,666
I just turned and started running.
269
00:19:31,750 --> 00:19:35,416
He fired that weapon,
and it was like this huge percussion.
270
00:19:35,500 --> 00:19:37,417
[gunshot]
271
00:19:38,917 --> 00:19:42,666
At 2,700 feet per second,
272
00:19:42,750 --> 00:19:45,833
that bullet went past my ear,
273
00:19:45,917 --> 00:19:50,000
and so did anything else
that I was looking behind me for.
274
00:19:53,625 --> 00:19:57,999
I went down and I hit the ground
and ripped all the skin on my hands,
275
00:19:58,083 --> 00:19:59,874
and it just like, ooh!
276
00:19:59,958 --> 00:20:02,416
It started this attitude, you know.
277
00:20:02,500 --> 00:20:04,917
That’s it. I’m gonna do what I gotta do.
278
00:20:05,708 --> 00:20:09,333
So I just got up and I ran towards
the big plate glass window
279
00:20:09,417 --> 00:20:11,791
of the restaurant next door.
280
00:20:11,875 --> 00:20:16,250
I figured if I’m running directly
at the window, he can’t shoot me.
281
00:20:17,750 --> 00:20:21,624
I ran about a hundred yards
across the road
282
00:20:21,708 --> 00:20:23,333
and I circled back,
283
00:20:24,625 --> 00:20:27,374
and I came right back
to where I had escaped.
284
00:20:27,458 --> 00:20:31,333
Now I’m lookin’ at them
as they’re yelling at each other
285
00:20:31,417 --> 00:20:34,041
who was the bigger idiot
for letting this happen.
286
00:20:34,125 --> 00:20:37,333
-Then I hear them.
-[sirens wailing]
287
00:20:37,417 --> 00:20:40,833
All the sirens in the world are coming.
288
00:20:40,917 --> 00:20:42,833
There was cars coming from everywhere.
289
00:20:42,917 --> 00:20:44,917
[sirens continue]
290
00:20:46,292 --> 00:20:48,666
They had
an escaped death-row prisoner alert.
291
00:20:48,750 --> 00:20:51,333
They pulled out all the stops.
292
00:20:53,667 --> 00:20:55,374
So I took my eyeglasses off,
293
00:20:55,458 --> 00:20:58,833
pulled the plastic
off the end of the eyeglasses
294
00:20:58,917 --> 00:21:02,624
and I stuck the eyeglass pin
into the handcuffs
295
00:21:02,708 --> 00:21:05,291
and I picked the handcuffs.
296
00:21:05,375 --> 00:21:07,833
I could see the buildings off to my right.
297
00:21:07,917 --> 00:21:11,375
One of them had a flag.
That’s a police station.
298
00:21:12,417 --> 00:21:15,083
I said, “Man, I’m gonna hide
behind the police station.”
299
00:21:15,167 --> 00:21:18,333
So I navigated down behind this alleyway.
300
00:21:18,417 --> 00:21:21,499
I got down in this recessed area
301
00:21:21,583 --> 00:21:24,583
and I just huddled and I just waited.
302
00:21:24,667 --> 00:21:26,667
[sirens continue wailing]
303
00:21:27,167 --> 00:21:28,874
It was so cold.
304
00:21:28,958 --> 00:21:32,416
When I lost my core temperature
like an hour later,
305
00:21:32,500 --> 00:21:36,166
I was shivering. I was like,
“Oh, my God. This is killing me.”
306
00:21:36,250 --> 00:21:39,499
Like I was going into these bends.
It was hurting.
307
00:21:39,583 --> 00:21:45,499
My ribs were aching from going
into these convulsions like that.
308
00:21:45,583 --> 00:21:49,416
So I was hurting so bad.
I’m gonna get up and get out of here.
309
00:21:49,500 --> 00:21:53,249
I came flying out of that parking lot,
and they saw me.
310
00:21:53,333 --> 00:21:54,583
[helicopter whirring]
311
00:21:56,792 --> 00:22:00,374
This guy came out of nowhere
and just hovered above me.
312
00:22:00,458 --> 00:22:04,917
And blinding candlelight
of this magnitude I can’t even describe.
313
00:22:05,917 --> 00:22:11,208
He circled, and he had the whole area lit.
He came back and lit me up and lit me up.
314
00:22:11,292 --> 00:22:15,625
This guy chased me for literally
three hours with this helicopter.
315
00:22:16,458 --> 00:22:18,249
My feet split open.
316
00:22:18,333 --> 00:22:21,000
My calves erupted.
My hamstrings were pulled.
317
00:22:22,083 --> 00:22:24,583
But I got lucky, didn’t I?
318
00:22:25,125 --> 00:22:29,958
The helicopter had a FLIR,
forward-looking infrared camera,
319
00:22:30,042 --> 00:22:33,499
and it wasn’t working
because it was so cold,
320
00:22:33,583 --> 00:22:35,083
it malfunctioned.
321
00:22:38,417 --> 00:22:40,417
[bell dinging]
322
00:22:41,625 --> 00:22:44,416
I ended up on a pair of railroad tracks
323
00:22:44,500 --> 00:22:48,291
where I walked on broken feet
for five miles.
324
00:22:48,375 --> 00:22:49,333
[horn blows]
325
00:22:49,417 --> 00:22:52,208
Until I got to Frazer, Pennsylvania,
where I stole a car.
326
00:22:52,292 --> 00:22:54,125
[glass shatters, car door opens]
327
00:22:54,917 --> 00:22:57,583
It was a 1965 green Mustang.
328
00:22:57,667 --> 00:22:59,541
[engine revs]
329
00:22:59,625 --> 00:23:03,124
I found a quarter.
I went over to the coin box.
330
00:23:03,208 --> 00:23:05,249
I called a family member.
331
00:23:05,333 --> 00:23:07,333
[buttons depressing]
332
00:23:07,417 --> 00:23:10,958
I drove over to their house
and they gave me a hundred dollars,
333
00:23:11,042 --> 00:23:13,416
a handful of bandages and gauze
334
00:23:13,500 --> 00:23:18,749
and a Philadelphia green Eagles ski cap,
335
00:23:18,833 --> 00:23:21,750
like that wasn’t going
to give away my city location.
336
00:23:24,417 --> 00:23:26,499
I drove to New York City,
337
00:23:26,583 --> 00:23:31,333
and I got a hotel room in the Bowery
in a flophouse in the Lower East Side,
338
00:23:31,417 --> 00:23:33,541
seven dollars a night.
339
00:23:33,625 --> 00:23:36,208
I paid for a whole week in advance,
340
00:23:36,292 --> 00:23:40,541
and then I went to a little bodega
and got a box of Epsom salt,
341
00:23:40,625 --> 00:23:42,625
and went up to my room.
342
00:23:45,167 --> 00:23:46,916
Oh, my God.
343
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,999
I literally had institutional sock
344
00:23:51,083 --> 00:23:54,916
all threaded
into the torn tissue of my feet.
345
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:58,416
I just soaked in it
and I started pulling it out
346
00:23:58,500 --> 00:24:02,333
and it was like... I would just cry, man.
347
00:24:02,417 --> 00:24:05,916
The first three days,
that’s why I didn’t even venture out.
348
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,500
I literally couldn’t walk.
349
00:24:09,917 --> 00:24:12,708
[car horns honking]
350
00:24:17,333 --> 00:24:20,499
After four days, I went out one evening.
351
00:24:20,583 --> 00:24:22,999
It was excruciating to finally go out.
352
00:24:23,083 --> 00:24:26,333
Macy’s had this long display window
353
00:24:26,417 --> 00:24:30,458
of all the electronic products,
and there were all these televisions.
354
00:24:30,542 --> 00:24:32,708
On them were all these different channels.
355
00:24:32,792 --> 00:24:34,624
On some of them were the news.
356
00:24:34,708 --> 00:24:39,416
There was the video footage
of me obviously being hunted.
357
00:24:39,500 --> 00:24:44,499
In that one moment, I was hit
by the reality, I’m not free.
358
00:24:44,583 --> 00:24:46,458
Not by a damn shot.
359
00:24:46,542 --> 00:24:48,916
I am just temporarily out on a leash.
360
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:51,458
If they catch me,
I’m going to catch a bullet.
361
00:24:51,542 --> 00:24:53,875
It was so terrifying in that moment.
362
00:24:57,583 --> 00:25:01,208
In 1985, you didn’t need
to even show photo identification
363
00:25:01,292 --> 00:25:02,999
to get on an airplane.
364
00:25:03,083 --> 00:25:06,374
You didn’t have to show
who you were or anything.
365
00:25:06,458 --> 00:25:09,249
So I went to this upscale restaurant.
366
00:25:09,333 --> 00:25:11,124
♪♪ [piano: jazz]
367
00:25:11,208 --> 00:25:12,708
I just waited.
368
00:25:12,792 --> 00:25:15,958
I just waited by the men’s room.
Waiting, waiting.
369
00:25:17,292 --> 00:25:21,291
Soon as I saw a guy go in the bathroom
without a jacket on,
370
00:25:21,375 --> 00:25:24,666
I walked over to his table
and I stole his jacket.
371
00:25:24,750 --> 00:25:27,000
He had his wallet in his jacket.
372
00:25:27,792 --> 00:25:33,499
Then I went to the cloakroom
and grabbed a fur coat, and I left.
373
00:25:33,583 --> 00:25:35,917
[airplane passing]
374
00:25:47,250 --> 00:25:49,416
So I simply just used a credit card,
375
00:25:49,500 --> 00:25:52,833
bought last-minute tickets to Orlando.
376
00:25:52,917 --> 00:25:55,583
When I got to Orlando,
I told the taxi driver
377
00:25:55,667 --> 00:25:59,375
to take me to the pawnshop area.
378
00:26:06,625 --> 00:26:09,916
When I went into the shop,
the guy behind the counter,
379
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,583
the owner, was obviously a criminal.
380
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,999
So I told him,
“I don’t have any identification,
381
00:26:17,083 --> 00:26:19,167
but I want to sell you this coat.”
382
00:26:22,750 --> 00:26:27,874
So I negotiated with him to give me a gun
and a hundred dollars for the coat,
383
00:26:27,958 --> 00:26:30,041
which was worth, like, $5,000.
384
00:26:30,125 --> 00:26:32,417
A very nice fur coat.
385
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,917
And so after he gave me the gun,
he refused to give me bullets.
386
00:26:40,083 --> 00:26:44,666
So he asked me if I was willing to rob
this guy that he knew, Anthony Manilla,
387
00:26:44,750 --> 00:26:49,083
who had a collection of gold coins
that were worth $350 each.
388
00:26:49,167 --> 00:26:53,167
He said there was at least a hundred
of these coins in this guy’s house.
389
00:26:58,250 --> 00:27:01,333
I met Anthony Manilla
just outside of his house.
390
00:27:01,417 --> 00:27:04,749
I was driving by on a bicycle
I had bought at a flea market.
391
00:27:04,833 --> 00:27:08,083
So when I rode by, I pretended
that I recognized him from prison.
392
00:27:09,125 --> 00:27:13,291
Anthony knew he didn’t know me,
but he pretended he also recognized me
393
00:27:13,375 --> 00:27:15,375
in that fake way some people do.
394
00:27:16,583 --> 00:27:18,499
He asked me what I was up to.
395
00:27:18,583 --> 00:27:22,666
I told him I had these pills for sale,
but I couldn’t find anybody to buy ’em.
396
00:27:22,750 --> 00:27:26,792
So he told me he could get me
seven dollars each for ’em if I waited.
397
00:27:27,708 --> 00:27:32,291
I knew and he knew
that each pill was worth $30 each.
398
00:27:32,375 --> 00:27:35,666
The cops in the area know
he doesn’t have a valid license.
399
00:27:35,750 --> 00:27:38,542
-[engine starts]
-So he actually gave me the wheel.
400
00:27:49,875 --> 00:27:53,792
We drive towards where I tell him
I have the drugs stashed.
401
00:27:55,792 --> 00:27:58,999
I pulled the gun out and I said,
“Okay, freeze. I got you.”
402
00:27:59,083 --> 00:28:01,083
He was like, “Okay. Just take it easy.”
403
00:28:02,667 --> 00:28:06,041
I pulled over and demanded
that he give me the knot of money
404
00:28:06,125 --> 00:28:07,791
he had been bragging with.
405
00:28:07,875 --> 00:28:09,333
He gave me that.
406
00:28:09,417 --> 00:28:13,542
He had a Rolex watch and he had
all this diamond jewelry all over him.
407
00:28:14,417 --> 00:28:18,208
I said, “I gotta tie you up
’cause I gotta go back into your house
408
00:28:18,292 --> 00:28:20,041
and get that money.”
409
00:28:20,125 --> 00:28:21,708
He flat-out refused.
410
00:28:21,792 --> 00:28:23,666
I said, “What do you mean, no?”
411
00:28:23,750 --> 00:28:26,499
This is like a 140-pound person.
412
00:28:26,583 --> 00:28:29,041
So I grabbed him
and I said, “Please hold still.”
413
00:28:29,125 --> 00:28:33,583
I tied his hands up, put him in the trunk.
I slammed the trunk deck down.
414
00:28:33,667 --> 00:28:37,874
I don’t know that the trunk deck clasp
has gone through the rope
415
00:28:37,958 --> 00:28:40,749
and is now just stuck, but not locked.
416
00:28:40,833 --> 00:28:44,499
Because three red lights later,
he jumps out.
417
00:28:44,583 --> 00:28:47,749
When he jumps out, he looks
like a mummy who’s unraveled.
418
00:28:47,833 --> 00:28:51,083
He runs up to the car behind him
and knocks on the window and says,
419
00:28:51,167 --> 00:28:53,666
“He tried to rob me!
He’s trying to rob me!”
420
00:28:53,750 --> 00:28:55,333
Then he ran off.
421
00:28:55,417 --> 00:28:58,291
The two women in my rearview mirror
were looking at each other
422
00:28:58,375 --> 00:28:59,833
and looking at me.
423
00:28:59,917 --> 00:29:04,291
I just gunned it across the red light
and went flying across this station road
424
00:29:04,375 --> 00:29:06,583
and went right up the middle of Orlando.
425
00:29:07,542 --> 00:29:09,708
I didn’t go back to his house.
426
00:29:13,583 --> 00:29:16,250
So I drove all night.
427
00:29:17,500 --> 00:29:22,333
And 2:30 in the morning,
I get to Daytona Beach, Volusia County.
428
00:29:22,417 --> 00:29:25,375
It’s Bike Week, March 10.
429
00:29:27,833 --> 00:29:31,250
I’ve been an escaped prisoner tor 25 days.
430
00:29:32,208 --> 00:29:34,458
I’m sitting there,
431
00:29:34,542 --> 00:29:37,958
and I’m, like,
I can’t get a hotel room anywhere.
432
00:29:38,042 --> 00:29:40,416
It’s booked, everything solid.
433
00:29:40,500 --> 00:29:44,874
My eyes were all gravelly
and I was just so exhausted.
434
00:29:44,958 --> 00:29:48,458
So I just put the seat back
and went to sleep.
435
00:29:51,625 --> 00:29:53,416
The next thing I know,
436
00:29:53,500 --> 00:29:54,708
[knocking]
437
00:29:54,792 --> 00:29:56,999
three sharp raps right on the window.
438
00:29:57,083 --> 00:29:59,375
There’s a cop right there.
439
00:29:59,875 --> 00:30:01,833
Fuck, my heart’s pounding.
440
00:30:02,833 --> 00:30:04,499
He’s making the motion like this.
441
00:30:04,583 --> 00:30:07,958
So, I put the window down.
He said, “You hear anybody screaming?”
442
00:30:08,042 --> 00:30:11,249
I said, “What?”
He said, “Some woman screaming.
443
00:30:11,333 --> 00:30:13,333
There’s been a call, a domestic dispute.
444
00:30:13,417 --> 00:30:15,916
Is there a problem?”
445
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,291
I was like, “No.”
446
00:30:19,375 --> 00:30:23,624
I was talking to him and I was just
focusing on him, trying to answer him.
447
00:30:23,708 --> 00:30:26,833
That’s when I heard
from the passenger side,
448
00:30:26,917 --> 00:30:29,917
the other officer yell out,
“Hey, Burke, there’s a gun!”
449
00:30:30,750 --> 00:30:34,583
He immediately pulls his weapon out.
I said, “Hold on, hold on. What’s up?”
450
00:30:34,667 --> 00:30:38,874
I didn’t know this,
but about that much of the pistol
451
00:30:38,958 --> 00:30:41,583
was laying out under a blanket.
452
00:30:41,667 --> 00:30:43,374
[handcuffs ratcheting]
453
00:30:43,458 --> 00:30:46,874
So, I got out of the car.
I had my hands up.
454
00:30:46,958 --> 00:30:49,000
I gave a false name.
455
00:30:50,083 --> 00:30:52,792
They put handcuffs on me.
They locked me up.
456
00:30:54,583 --> 00:30:57,500
I’m sitting in prison. I’m waiting.
457
00:30:58,542 --> 00:31:00,166
I said to hell with this.
458
00:31:00,250 --> 00:31:02,667
[ringing]
459
00:31:04,500 --> 00:31:06,999
-My father immediately picked up.
-MAN: Hello?
460
00:31:07,083 --> 00:31:12,874
I said, “Dad, I need you to call the FBI
and tell them where I’m at.
461
00:31:12,958 --> 00:31:16,791
If they don’t come and get me, I’m gonna
go before this judge in the morning
462
00:31:16,875 --> 00:31:18,916
and bail out and get out of here.”
463
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:20,666
-[receiver settles in cradle]
-[dial tone]
464
00:31:20,750 --> 00:31:22,374
He hung up the phone.
465
00:31:22,458 --> 00:31:25,499
He called an agent by the name Bud Warner,
466
00:31:25,583 --> 00:31:28,374
Philadelphia FBI office.
467
00:31:28,458 --> 00:31:31,458
Man, the doors came open,
they came flying in there.
468
00:31:31,542 --> 00:31:32,541
[running footsteps]
469
00:31:32,625 --> 00:31:34,625
[prison door slams]
470
00:31:38,750 --> 00:31:43,250
They added 35 more years
to my sentence for that robbery.
471
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:46,167
Put me on death row in Florida
472
00:31:47,417 --> 00:31:50,917
and left me there to swelter
all through that summer.
473
00:31:53,458 --> 00:31:55,874
By the time they came
and got me in September,
474
00:31:55,958 --> 00:31:58,833
I was so eager to go back to Pennsylvania,
475
00:31:58,917 --> 00:32:03,250
even though I knew I was going
to get some serious beatings.
476
00:32:07,625 --> 00:32:10,417
I had made an enemy
of every guard on shift.
477
00:32:11,333 --> 00:32:14,750
I was gonna go through
some extreme punishment.
478
00:32:16,875 --> 00:32:18,708
Man, it was hard.
479
00:32:18,792 --> 00:32:20,292
[blow lands]
480
00:32:37,667 --> 00:32:41,333
I stewed and I seethed.
481
00:32:44,125 --> 00:32:47,250
I was so angry,
I was beating my head on the wall.
482
00:32:49,750 --> 00:32:53,083
So every couple of weeks,
they’d take me out, patch my head up.
483
00:32:58,417 --> 00:33:02,083
And... this one officer,
484
00:33:02,167 --> 00:33:05,124
when he was escorting me
back from the nurses’ station,
485
00:33:05,208 --> 00:33:09,583
stopped by this cell and he said,
“Go in there and get them books.”
486
00:33:10,208 --> 00:33:13,999
So this guard--
Nice guy, too, turned out to be.
487
00:33:14,083 --> 00:33:18,166
He lets me go into the cell,
and I get these books.
488
00:33:18,250 --> 00:33:22,250
Some of them were just too hard to read.
You know?
489
00:33:33,750 --> 00:33:36,917
You see, by the time
I reached the eighth grade
490
00:33:37,875 --> 00:33:39,833
at the age of 13,
491
00:33:39,917 --> 00:33:43,083
school was just an area
to meet up with your friends
492
00:33:43,167 --> 00:33:47,292
to go swimming or fighting, you know?
493
00:33:49,750 --> 00:33:55,000
So, my reading comprehension level
was basic, to say the least.
494
00:33:58,292 --> 00:33:59,999
But patience--
495
00:34:00,083 --> 00:34:02,667
and I had all the time in the world.
496
00:34:04,250 --> 00:34:06,833
So I started working with these books.
497
00:34:10,208 --> 00:34:14,666
In the front of the general education
development booklet
498
00:34:14,750 --> 00:34:16,583
was a note:
499
00:34:16,667 --> 00:34:18,124
tips of learning.
500
00:34:18,208 --> 00:34:22,708
It said, “If you take a word
and write out its spelling ten times
501
00:34:22,792 --> 00:34:25,208
while covering each previous one
502
00:34:25,292 --> 00:34:29,499
and then apply each of those
to ten sentences, using that word,
503
00:34:29,583 --> 00:34:31,499
you will not forget that word.”
504
00:34:31,583 --> 00:34:33,041
The ten times rule.
505
00:34:33,125 --> 00:34:35,499
So I sat there with a pen
506
00:34:35,583 --> 00:34:40,333
and every word I didn’t understand,
I did the ten times rules to it.
507
00:34:40,417 --> 00:34:44,541
I remember, I would go through a day
508
00:34:44,625 --> 00:34:48,458
where I would have 50-word days,
40-word days.
509
00:34:48,542 --> 00:34:52,166
I counted days sometimes
on the accomplishments
510
00:34:52,250 --> 00:34:56,917
of being able to sit down
and to orally go and say,
511
00:34:58,000 --> 00:34:59,999
“Robert is a triskaidekaphobic.
512
00:35:00,083 --> 00:35:02,458
Robert is afraid of the number 13.
513
00:35:02,542 --> 00:35:06,166
Robert does not understand
that it’s just an illusion
514
00:35:06,250 --> 00:35:08,166
that 13 can harm him.”
515
00:35:08,250 --> 00:35:11,208
I would just talk to myself
until I had that one down.
516
00:35:11,292 --> 00:35:13,666
Then I would move onto “phantasmagoria,”
517
00:35:13,750 --> 00:35:17,166
and I would understand that phantasmagoria
was the fear of ghosts.
518
00:35:17,250 --> 00:35:19,208
I’d like, “Boo!” Ah.
519
00:35:19,292 --> 00:35:21,666
I was just... I would just play with it.
520
00:35:21,750 --> 00:35:27,499
It became like this stupid image
of this kid sitting in a room by himself,
521
00:35:27,583 --> 00:35:29,999
entertaining himself with words.
522
00:35:30,083 --> 00:35:33,166
It was quiet because
I was in the back of the “B” Block,
523
00:35:33,250 --> 00:35:35,666
and I was just quietly just doing it.
524
00:35:35,750 --> 00:35:39,667
Triskaidekaphobic, you know?
The fear of 13.
525
00:35:42,792 --> 00:35:44,583
And it worked.
526
00:35:45,750 --> 00:35:50,292
For some reason, that small gesture
of humanity by that guard
527
00:35:50,875 --> 00:35:53,583
just changed everything for me.
528
00:36:01,833 --> 00:36:05,583
I loved it.
I was hooked on dime-store novels.
529
00:36:05,667 --> 00:36:08,374
Series. Detective series.
530
00:36:08,458 --> 00:36:12,250
Jack Higgins, Robert Ludlum,
Elmore Leonard.
531
00:36:13,208 --> 00:36:17,499
The first thousand books, I remember
I was so proud of the accomplishment.
532
00:36:17,583 --> 00:36:20,999
I had written down a thousand titles
of a thousand different books
533
00:36:21,083 --> 00:36:22,999
that I had personally read.
534
00:36:23,083 --> 00:36:25,083
It took me three years.
535
00:36:26,792 --> 00:36:28,916
I loved Rudyard Kipling.
536
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:30,874
I loved tales.
537
00:36:30,958 --> 00:36:37,249
I loved storytelling of tales
like Sinbad and Homer and...
538
00:36:37,333 --> 00:36:43,458
Like, true storytelling
is the telling of life, isn’t it?
539
00:36:44,458 --> 00:36:46,292
Oh, I love it. I love it.
540
00:36:47,417 --> 00:36:50,541
I’m so glad I was a drug addict
in one way.
541
00:36:50,625 --> 00:36:55,042
I was addicted to books,
and I got hooked on them in the worst way.
542
00:36:58,167 --> 00:37:02,333
Meanwhile I was reading law books,
studying serology.
543
00:37:02,417 --> 00:37:04,124
I went to college.
544
00:37:04,208 --> 00:37:08,208
I really just opened up all this time
and structure for reading.
545
00:37:10,250 --> 00:37:13,249
With every new book,
546
00:37:13,333 --> 00:37:16,333
I found something wonderful about myself.
547
00:37:16,417 --> 00:37:17,917
I found...
548
00:37:19,792 --> 00:37:23,042
I found myself. Like, it was wonderful.
549
00:37:24,167 --> 00:37:28,666
I was happy on death row, at times,
when I shouldn’t have been,
550
00:37:28,750 --> 00:37:31,666
and it was only
because I became comfortable
551
00:37:31,750 --> 00:37:34,874
with being who I was, finally, in life.
552
00:37:34,958 --> 00:37:36,749
[lock slides]
553
00:37:36,833 --> 00:37:38,833
[buzzer sounds]
554
00:37:38,917 --> 00:37:41,417
[chattering in distance]
555
00:37:44,458 --> 00:37:46,583
That’s when I met Jacqui.
556
00:37:47,833 --> 00:37:53,499
Jacqui Chaffer was a 31-year-old woman
living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
557
00:37:53,583 --> 00:37:57,958
who was going to visit
some death-row prisoners
558
00:37:58,042 --> 00:37:59,999
with her friend, Pamela Tucker,
559
00:38:00,083 --> 00:38:03,375
who was the organizer of
an abolitionist group from Pennsylvania.
560
00:38:04,417 --> 00:38:07,499
They went monthly
to prisons around Pennsylvania
561
00:38:07,583 --> 00:38:10,499
and visited death-row prisoners
to check on their mental state
562
00:38:10,583 --> 00:38:13,249
to see if there was issues
they could get involved with
563
00:38:13,333 --> 00:38:16,166
to help the better treatment
of the overall population
564
00:38:16,250 --> 00:38:18,583
of death-row prisoners.
565
00:38:18,667 --> 00:38:21,416
They came to the prison
and they visited five men.
566
00:38:21,500 --> 00:38:23,624
I was the fifth one.
567
00:38:23,708 --> 00:38:27,624
The preceding prisoners all went out there
and lamented how terrible it was.
568
00:38:27,708 --> 00:38:31,458
The things they were encountering,
the conditions and all that.
569
00:38:31,542 --> 00:38:35,874
I walked in, I sat down
and said hello to my friend Pam.
570
00:38:35,958 --> 00:38:38,124
I asked her about her daughters.
571
00:38:38,208 --> 00:38:40,124
We interacted about a few things.
572
00:38:40,208 --> 00:38:42,958
I turned to Jacqui
and started flirting with her.
573
00:38:43,042 --> 00:38:46,124
I started being gregarious and open and...
574
00:38:46,208 --> 00:38:49,749
It was completely unlike
all the other men who came out
575
00:38:49,833 --> 00:38:52,333
with little lists of things to talk about,
576
00:38:52,417 --> 00:38:55,250
while I simply was myself.
577
00:38:56,583 --> 00:39:01,500
She came back the next week by herself,
scared to death.
578
00:39:03,583 --> 00:39:07,083
So, in this four foot
579
00:39:07,708 --> 00:39:12,042
by, literally,
five-and-a-half-foot walled room,
580
00:39:13,083 --> 00:39:15,083
she would walk in
581
00:39:15,167 --> 00:39:17,499
and sit down with a notepad,
582
00:39:17,583 --> 00:39:19,666
and we’d talk.
583
00:39:19,750 --> 00:39:21,667
Week after week.
584
00:39:22,958 --> 00:39:26,499
She drove 275 miles
from Pittsburgh to Huntingdon
585
00:39:26,583 --> 00:39:30,333
through these mountains, each way,
586
00:39:30,417 --> 00:39:32,583
and we would start talking.
587
00:39:32,667 --> 00:39:34,583
And it was weird.
588
00:39:37,292 --> 00:39:39,958
I started to find out
589
00:39:40,042 --> 00:39:42,458
one true thing about myself.
590
00:39:42,542 --> 00:39:48,666
I think this is true for every prisoner
who goes into prison at the age of 20
591
00:39:48,750 --> 00:39:52,042
and is ready to exit in his 30s or 40s.
592
00:39:53,083 --> 00:39:56,666
You can only grow so far as a man
593
00:39:56,750 --> 00:40:00,666
until a woman teaches you
enough about yourself
594
00:40:00,750 --> 00:40:03,166
that you can further develop.
595
00:40:03,250 --> 00:40:08,166
It’s only through the eyes of that person
that you give yourself openly to
596
00:40:08,250 --> 00:40:12,041
that they teach you so many things
about yourself
597
00:40:12,125 --> 00:40:16,374
that are qualities that you rely upon
and like and respect
598
00:40:16,458 --> 00:40:20,833
because you’ve been shown from afar
something no mirror--
599
00:40:20,917 --> 00:40:22,874
believe me, I didn’t have a mirror--
600
00:40:22,958 --> 00:40:24,792
could show you.
601
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,417
But at the heart of it,
I kept feeling dirty.
602
00:40:31,458 --> 00:40:37,083
I did not want to be that prisoner
603
00:40:37,167 --> 00:40:40,958
who’s serving life,
who lets a woman fall in love with him,
604
00:40:41,042 --> 00:40:43,583
knowing he’s gonna suck
the life out of her.
605
00:40:44,875 --> 00:40:47,749
I had the death penalty plus 105 years.
606
00:40:47,833 --> 00:40:49,833
I wasn’t going anywhere.
607
00:40:54,917 --> 00:40:58,208
Then I get a newspaper.
608
00:41:03,417 --> 00:41:07,583
It’s funny how my whole story
and life and this journey
609
00:41:07,667 --> 00:41:11,750
has all been changed
by either photographs or newspapers.
610
00:41:15,333 --> 00:41:17,083
But there it was,
611
00:41:17,167 --> 00:41:21,167
five months after I had met Jacqui,
four months.
612
00:41:22,667 --> 00:41:28,333
“Newly developed DNA science
makes a big splash in the crime world.
613
00:41:28,917 --> 00:41:31,875
Criminal convictions being reversed.”
614
00:41:33,333 --> 00:41:37,333
People were walking out left and right
and left and right.
615
00:41:39,250 --> 00:41:40,874
Whoa.
616
00:41:40,958 --> 00:41:44,791
I write a letter to Jacqui.
I cut the article out. I send it to her.
617
00:41:44,875 --> 00:41:46,792
She came back on that visit.
618
00:41:48,333 --> 00:41:52,042
As soon as the door was closed,
I said, “I didn’t kill that woman.”
619
00:41:54,875 --> 00:41:57,833
Like that was the first thing I shout.
620
00:41:57,917 --> 00:41:59,958
That was the first time I told her.
621
00:42:01,583 --> 00:42:04,083
I was like, “I got two things to tell you.
622
00:42:04,750 --> 00:42:07,666
One, I didn’t kill Mrs. Craig,
623
00:42:07,750 --> 00:42:11,833
and two,
I think I’m in love with you too.”
624
00:42:11,917 --> 00:42:15,416
She’s like,
“Let’s handle the first one first.
625
00:42:15,500 --> 00:42:19,000
You know what I mean?
Let’s deal with the difficult one first.”
626
00:42:19,792 --> 00:42:21,542
I was like, “Oh, man.”
627
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:26,500
[car door closes]
628
00:42:29,042 --> 00:42:32,166
-[engine revving]
-MAN: All right, Randall! Way to go, man!
629
00:42:32,250 --> 00:42:33,417
All right!
630
00:42:39,750 --> 00:42:43,374
In the 1970s, a lot of the vehicles
631
00:42:43,458 --> 00:42:46,708
still didn’t have locks
on the steering column,
632
00:42:46,792 --> 00:42:49,499
so you could just stick a screwdriver
into the key slot
633
00:42:49,583 --> 00:42:52,917
and literally just turn the ignition.
634
00:42:54,167 --> 00:42:58,000
So, my friend Eddie and I
used to steal the early Fords.
635
00:42:58,875 --> 00:43:00,875
Then we would joyride.
636
00:43:03,333 --> 00:43:06,666
This man knew we were 15-year-old kids,
637
00:43:06,750 --> 00:43:09,833
knew we didn’t own the car
and knew that it was stolen.
638
00:43:09,917 --> 00:43:12,583
He’s like, “Come here.
I’ll give you $200 for the car.”
639
00:43:12,667 --> 00:43:15,541
We looked at each other.
$200 was an enormous amount of money.
640
00:43:15,625 --> 00:43:17,375
We figured we just hit the jackpot.
641
00:43:18,583 --> 00:43:22,583
We knew he owned a collision center
that fixed and repaired cars.
642
00:43:22,667 --> 00:43:25,166
So we said, “Can we get you another car?”
643
00:43:25,250 --> 00:43:30,166
He told us what one he would need,
when he needed it,
644
00:43:30,250 --> 00:43:32,166
and we’d go out and look for it.
645
00:43:32,250 --> 00:43:33,917
[airplane passing overhead]
646
00:43:35,167 --> 00:43:37,833
[engine cranking]
647
00:43:38,708 --> 00:43:42,499
So, usually, my friends and I
would go to the Philadelphia airport
648
00:43:42,583 --> 00:43:45,374
and wait for what we called “vics.”
649
00:43:45,458 --> 00:43:47,583
[tires squealing]
650
00:43:48,417 --> 00:43:50,499
Which was somebody who walked up,
651
00:43:50,583 --> 00:43:53,458
took their luggage out
of the rear of the car
652
00:43:53,542 --> 00:43:57,499
and then walked inside
with their family members to see them off.
653
00:43:57,583 --> 00:44:01,250
-[tires squealing]
-And never got a car when they came out.
654
00:44:03,417 --> 00:44:06,708
I’ve had several people, you know,
in the rearview mirror,
655
00:44:06,792 --> 00:44:11,083
chasing behind you
as you drove off with their car.
656
00:44:14,125 --> 00:44:16,749
You dropped the car off, got $200, $300,
657
00:44:16,833 --> 00:44:19,583
and then you took that money
and you bought drugs.
658
00:44:19,667 --> 00:44:21,833
By the time I was 17,
659
00:44:21,917 --> 00:44:25,083
I was really, really getting hooked
on methamphetamine.
660
00:44:25,833 --> 00:44:28,917
My favorite vein was right there
on the outside.
661
00:44:30,625 --> 00:44:33,166
I can still feel the hole in my arm.
662
00:44:33,250 --> 00:44:35,958
I can still taste the drug in my mouth.
663
00:44:36,833 --> 00:44:40,374
When you inject methamphetamine
into your arm,
664
00:44:40,458 --> 00:44:44,166
you get the burning, numbing sensation
shoot up your arm,
665
00:44:44,250 --> 00:44:49,500
and then you get the taste
of ethanol in your mouth.
666
00:44:50,625 --> 00:44:52,499
It’s like a cough.
667
00:44:52,583 --> 00:44:54,333
[exhaling]
668
00:44:54,417 --> 00:44:56,042
Just like that.
669
00:44:58,750 --> 00:45:01,250
Then the other Nicky came out.
670
00:45:04,042 --> 00:45:06,750
The one I didn’t cringe
in the mirror from.
671
00:45:07,542 --> 00:45:12,416
The one who wasn’t weak.
The one who wasn’t afraid.
672
00:45:12,500 --> 00:45:15,417
[panting]
673
00:45:46,500 --> 00:45:50,500
I wasn’t just hooked on one drug.
674
00:45:51,417 --> 00:45:56,083
I was a mess
of multiple drugs and alcohol.
675
00:45:57,917 --> 00:46:02,124
By December 20, I had already
been homeless on the streets
676
00:46:02,208 --> 00:46:03,708
for about most of that year.
677
00:46:05,875 --> 00:46:08,291
That’s when I stole two cars in a row.
678
00:46:08,375 --> 00:46:13,083
I got $500 each, and I went out.
I started partying again.
679
00:46:14,792 --> 00:46:16,791
I was on the binge.
680
00:46:16,875 --> 00:46:18,750
“Burning it,” they called it.
681
00:46:22,875 --> 00:46:28,417
Every time I think of that night,
I smell wet, burning leaves.
682
00:46:31,125 --> 00:46:33,042
It’s almost sweet.
683
00:46:34,583 --> 00:46:37,833
I was driving around
in another stolen car.
684
00:46:37,917 --> 00:46:39,833
♪♪ [stereo: rock, faint]
685
00:46:39,917 --> 00:46:43,999
MAN: ♪ And it seems
nobody’s interested in learning ♪
686
00:46:44,083 --> 00:46:45,624
♪ But the teacher ♪
687
00:46:45,708 --> 00:46:48,208
-The radio was blasting.
-[siren wailing]
688
00:46:48,292 --> 00:46:50,917
He must have heard the radio
before he saw me.
689
00:46:52,458 --> 00:46:54,874
♪ Obligation to our nation ♪
690
00:46:54,958 --> 00:46:57,833
When he flew out,
I knew he was gonna stop me.
691
00:46:57,917 --> 00:47:01,375
I just felt it coming right at me.
692
00:47:02,083 --> 00:47:04,208
And I...
693
00:47:04,292 --> 00:47:06,250
-[pounding chest]
-The adrenaline.
694
00:47:12,833 --> 00:47:15,125
His hand’s on the butt of his gun.
695
00:47:18,250 --> 00:47:19,666
Here he comes.
696
00:47:19,750 --> 00:47:24,917
Now I’m like, “Oh, I can’t stop it.”
[gasping]
697
00:47:25,958 --> 00:47:29,083
“I know. I can’t do anything.”
698
00:47:30,583 --> 00:47:33,750
I remember looking, just like that.
699
00:47:34,750 --> 00:47:39,124
[mouthing words]
I don’t understand whatever he’s saying.
700
00:47:39,208 --> 00:47:41,208
His hand’s going-- [mouthing words]
701
00:47:43,833 --> 00:47:47,541
-The door pops, and the vacuum now...
-♪♪ [rock]
702
00:47:47,625 --> 00:47:51,166
When the door comes open,
and there’s all that quiet on the street,
703
00:47:51,250 --> 00:47:54,166
and the noise on the radio’s
still going “bam, bam, bam!”
704
00:47:54,250 --> 00:47:56,499
That’s when I realized
the radio was still on.
705
00:47:56,583 --> 00:48:00,333
♪♪ [rock]
706
00:48:00,417 --> 00:48:03,708
“You didn’t stop for that light.
Didn’t you see the stop sign?”
707
00:48:03,792 --> 00:48:08,458
All those things,
but I’m panicked, you know?
708
00:48:08,542 --> 00:48:12,041
I remember I did that, like, stand up.
709
00:48:12,125 --> 00:48:14,458
And he was right against my throat
710
00:48:14,542 --> 00:48:19,333
with his forearm, back against the car,
when he shoved me back like that.
711
00:48:19,417 --> 00:48:23,333
I remember coming up
with my left arm, like that.
712
00:48:23,417 --> 00:48:26,458
And it was like going right for the stick,
713
00:48:26,542 --> 00:48:29,666
and I just followed it along,
grabbed his arm.
714
00:48:29,750 --> 00:48:32,083
He had the stick come out.
715
00:48:32,167 --> 00:48:35,583
I take it right out like it was nothing,
716
00:48:36,083 --> 00:48:37,583
right out of his hand.
717
00:48:37,667 --> 00:48:39,166
He was furious!
718
00:48:39,250 --> 00:48:42,124
And that’s when the right hand came up.
719
00:48:42,208 --> 00:48:43,999
I saw that gun.
720
00:48:44,083 --> 00:48:46,166
I grabbed and I reached out.
721
00:48:46,250 --> 00:48:48,333
I just pushed his arms straight down.
722
00:48:48,417 --> 00:48:50,999
You felt the percussion of the blast.
723
00:48:51,083 --> 00:48:53,124
-[whooshing]
-And then you heard the pop.
724
00:48:53,208 --> 00:48:54,999
-[gunshot blast]
-[gasps]
725
00:48:55,083 --> 00:48:58,333
“Okay! Okay! Okay!”
726
00:48:58,417 --> 00:49:01,749
He stuck the gun like right there.
He said, “You son of a bitch!
727
00:49:01,833 --> 00:49:04,583
You almost got us killed!”
He’s like, “Get in the car!”
728
00:49:04,667 --> 00:49:08,749
And he slammed me in the back
in the cage area, shut the door.
729
00:49:08,833 --> 00:49:11,458
“Shots fired, officer assist.”
730
00:49:11,542 --> 00:49:15,542
I remember he said it four times.
731
00:49:19,375 --> 00:49:23,249
I remember
I was just sitting there like this.
732
00:49:23,333 --> 00:49:28,124
I-- “What the hell happened?”
733
00:49:28,208 --> 00:49:31,417
-[keys jangling]
-[door slams]
734
00:49:32,917 --> 00:49:36,250
They threw me in the intake unit,
735
00:49:37,292 --> 00:49:40,083
and I crashed.
736
00:49:40,167 --> 00:49:43,208
I must have slept at least 16 hours.
737
00:49:43,292 --> 00:49:45,542
[lock clicks]
738
00:49:52,500 --> 00:49:55,917
I was so scared. They pulled me out.
739
00:49:57,417 --> 00:50:01,583
I’d been arrested enough to know
this one’s scary, this is serious.
740
00:50:01,667 --> 00:50:03,583
This one’s bad.
741
00:50:05,417 --> 00:50:09,833
The public defender was this young kid.
And he turned to me.
742
00:50:09,917 --> 00:50:14,333
He said, “Mr. Yarris, do you understand
the serious nature of these charges?
743
00:50:14,417 --> 00:50:18,124
If you’re convicted of these charges,
you face life imprisonment.”
744
00:50:18,208 --> 00:50:19,791
I said, “What’s my charges?”
745
00:50:19,875 --> 00:50:24,083
He said, “Kidnapping of a police officer,
746
00:50:24,167 --> 00:50:26,833
attempted murder of a police officer,
747
00:50:26,917 --> 00:50:30,541
reckless endangerment,
possession of a firearm,
748
00:50:30,625 --> 00:50:33,541
robbery, resisting arrest,
749
00:50:33,625 --> 00:50:35,833
possession of a stolen vehicle.”
750
00:50:37,875 --> 00:50:39,750
I started crying.
751
00:50:43,542 --> 00:50:45,542
They take me back to the cell,
752
00:50:46,833 --> 00:50:48,958
and there was the newspaper.
753
00:50:51,208 --> 00:50:56,750
The December 16
Delaware County Daily Times.
754
00:50:59,542 --> 00:51:04,375
The front page was missing,
so the front page on it was page three.
755
00:51:08,833 --> 00:51:14,042
And right there was the story
of Linda Mae Craig.
756
00:51:26,375 --> 00:51:28,916
And I swear...
757
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:32,292
something about that newspaper
kept calling me.
758
00:51:46,250 --> 00:51:50,833
On December 15, 1981, at 4:05 p.m.,
759
00:51:50,917 --> 00:51:54,000
Linda Mae Craig left work.
760
00:51:54,875 --> 00:52:00,041
She was knocked out of her shoes
in the car park of the Tri-State Mall,
761
00:52:00,125 --> 00:52:02,708
drug into a car that she owned
762
00:52:02,792 --> 00:52:04,833
and then driven into
the state of Pennsylvania
763
00:52:04,917 --> 00:52:06,791
about two and a half miles away,
764
00:52:06,875 --> 00:52:10,583
where she was taken behind a church,
765
00:52:11,750 --> 00:52:17,000
where she was stabbed after being raped,
and dumped in the car park.
766
00:52:19,917 --> 00:52:21,999
The next morning,
767
00:52:22,083 --> 00:52:27,124
two children... walked up
to what they thought was a mannequin
768
00:52:27,208 --> 00:52:30,708
that had been covered
in the newly fallen snow.
769
00:52:32,500 --> 00:52:36,416
One of the boys walked up
and kicked the snow
770
00:52:36,500 --> 00:52:38,124
from the face of the mannequin
771
00:52:38,208 --> 00:52:41,875
so they could see if it was
a boy or a girl mannequin,
772
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:48,000
only to discover the disfigured face
of Mrs. Craig.
773
00:52:56,167 --> 00:52:59,166
I lived 20-some miles
from the murder scene,
774
00:52:59,250 --> 00:53:02,499
and I said, “Man, if I had knowledge
775
00:53:02,583 --> 00:53:06,791
about a crime this big,
I can get out of this.
776
00:53:06,875 --> 00:53:12,374
I’ll bet you, they would let me out.
Then I could get out on bail and I’d run.”
777
00:53:12,458 --> 00:53:14,333
Like the stupid mind of a child.
778
00:53:16,542 --> 00:53:20,499
So I sat in my cell
and I started making up a story,
779
00:53:20,583 --> 00:53:25,374
and I said I would tell ’em
that somebody did the murder, right?
780
00:53:25,458 --> 00:53:29,792
I had to find out who I could blame.
The only one I could think of was Jimmy.
781
00:53:33,958 --> 00:53:37,166
I had met Jimmy Brisbois in 1980,
782
00:53:37,250 --> 00:53:40,666
when I was doing drugs,
and I stole some coins
783
00:53:40,750 --> 00:53:44,249
from a car that I had gotten
from the airport.
784
00:53:44,333 --> 00:53:48,167
1,000 coins--
there was a lot of coins in this big bag.
785
00:53:49,583 --> 00:53:51,708
I made the mistake of showing Jimmy,
786
00:53:51,792 --> 00:53:57,333
and out of nowhere,
his friend hit me with this .357 Magnum.
787
00:53:57,417 --> 00:53:58,666
[blow landing]
788
00:53:58,750 --> 00:54:03,542
I still got a chip out of my eyebrow
that I can rub at this time.
789
00:54:06,750 --> 00:54:10,666
And they had an old carpet
in the front room that nobody used
790
00:54:10,750 --> 00:54:13,333
in this house we were living in
on Woodland Avenue.
791
00:54:13,417 --> 00:54:15,583
So, they rolled me up in the rug,
792
00:54:16,625 --> 00:54:18,666
threw me into this pickup truck
that Jimmy had,
793
00:54:18,750 --> 00:54:22,208
and they took me
behind the Westinghouse warehouse.
794
00:54:22,292 --> 00:54:25,416
And I heard this “spwoof.”
[imitates gunshot] Like that.
795
00:54:25,500 --> 00:54:29,749
One of them took a .22-caliber pistol
and shot the rug.
796
00:54:29,833 --> 00:54:32,041
But being drug addict idiots
that they were,
797
00:54:32,125 --> 00:54:36,499
they shot it where the folded part over
the rug was about two feet above my head,
798
00:54:36,583 --> 00:54:38,917
way out of range of anywhere I was.
799
00:54:40,750 --> 00:54:42,250
I was enraged.
800
00:54:44,333 --> 00:54:46,250
I went looking for Jimmy.
801
00:54:46,750 --> 00:54:49,499
“Hey, Michael, what happened
to your buddy Jimmy?”
802
00:54:49,583 --> 00:54:51,916
’Cause he knew Jimmy.
803
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,666
“What happened to your old rat bastard
Jimmy? I ain’t seen him for a while.”
804
00:54:55,750 --> 00:54:59,124
That’s when he told me the story.
Jimmy and his friends were in Jersey.
805
00:54:59,208 --> 00:55:00,999
Jimmy had an overdose.
806
00:55:01,083 --> 00:55:03,458
They weren’t taking him
to the hospital to get arrested,
807
00:55:03,542 --> 00:55:05,458
so they dumped him, stole his drugs.
808
00:55:05,542 --> 00:55:08,792
“And he’s dead, so you don’t
have to look for him no more.”
809
00:55:10,083 --> 00:55:14,083
[fizzing]
810
00:55:14,167 --> 00:55:18,041
All I wanted them to do
was lower my bail enough
811
00:55:18,125 --> 00:55:23,208
that I was allowed out temporarily,
at which time I could abscond.
812
00:55:24,125 --> 00:55:27,458
Jimmy was dead. They were going
to find out eventually, right?
813
00:55:29,583 --> 00:55:31,708
They took me to the warden’s office.
814
00:55:31,792 --> 00:55:34,041
They brought me in, took my handcuffs off.
815
00:55:34,125 --> 00:55:37,291
The warden goes, “Hey, get him a drink.
Get him a cold drink.”
816
00:55:37,375 --> 00:55:40,916
They went out, got me a Coca-Cola.
I’m sitting in a lounge chair.
817
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:42,833
No longer in a prison setting.
818
00:55:42,917 --> 00:55:45,124
I’m sitting there, and he’s got my file.
819
00:55:45,208 --> 00:55:48,333
He’s like, “Ah, man, you’re--
you’re-- you’re a young guy.
820
00:55:48,417 --> 00:55:50,499
What are you charged with all this for?
821
00:55:50,583 --> 00:55:53,333
You don’t have any violence
on your records. What’s this bullshit?
822
00:55:53,417 --> 00:55:56,416
Attempted murder? That doesn’t
sound like you, Nick. You’re a car thief.
823
00:55:56,500 --> 00:55:58,083
What’s going on here?”
824
00:56:01,375 --> 00:56:03,083
I tell him my story.
825
00:56:05,250 --> 00:56:08,083
Like a proud parent,
everyone’s praising me.
826
00:56:08,167 --> 00:56:12,166
In just a few hours,
I went from sitting there
827
00:56:12,250 --> 00:56:13,833
with a hundred thousand dollar bail,
828
00:56:13,917 --> 00:56:16,333
waiting to go to prison
for the rest of my life,
829
00:56:16,417 --> 00:56:20,124
to being told I was gonna have
a hearing set up next week
830
00:56:20,208 --> 00:56:23,916
in which I would possibly be released
on my own recognizance,
831
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:28,750
and my charges would be reduced
to nothing more than resisting arrest.
832
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:33,291
When they found James Brisbois alive,
833
00:56:33,375 --> 00:56:36,250
you could have knocked me over
with a feather.
834
00:56:38,333 --> 00:56:42,541
Jimmy had gotten off of drugs,
gotten his life together.
835
00:56:42,625 --> 00:56:44,624
I was screwed.
836
00:56:44,708 --> 00:56:47,166
When they came back to me,
they knew two things.
837
00:56:47,250 --> 00:56:51,124
One: James Brisbois
had nothing to do with that crime,
838
00:56:51,208 --> 00:56:54,874
and I had more information
than anyone else.
839
00:56:54,958 --> 00:56:57,917
It was all guesswork,
but it didn’t matter to them.
840
00:56:59,292 --> 00:57:01,583
-[footsteps]
-[keys jangling]
841
00:57:01,667 --> 00:57:03,583
-[lock clicks]
-[door opens]
842
00:57:10,292 --> 00:57:13,083
I was charged with the abduction,
843
00:57:13,167 --> 00:57:17,750
rape and murder of a woman
I had never met in my life.
844
00:57:21,250 --> 00:57:22,999
I was already sitting in prison
845
00:57:23,083 --> 00:57:25,833
for the attempted murder
of a police officer.
846
00:57:26,917 --> 00:57:30,499
I’m a 20-year-old drug addict
847
00:57:30,583 --> 00:57:35,458
who’s been thrown out of his own house
onto the streets by his own family.
848
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:39,166
What chance do I have?
849
00:57:39,250 --> 00:57:41,333
No one’s gonna believe me.
850
00:57:42,750 --> 00:57:45,833
[chattering]
851
00:57:45,917 --> 00:57:48,249
[gavel rapping]
852
00:57:48,333 --> 00:57:51,874
In April, the trial for
the attempted murder and kidnapping
853
00:57:51,958 --> 00:57:54,833
of Officer Benjamin Wright
was to be given.
854
00:57:54,917 --> 00:57:58,166
By then I had already been charged
with the murder of Linda Mae Craig,
855
00:57:58,250 --> 00:58:02,041
so the media was having a field day
with stalker stories
856
00:58:02,125 --> 00:58:04,917
and making me out to be
a complete deranged lunatic.
857
00:58:05,458 --> 00:58:10,499
So my trial began,
and Officer Wright testified.
858
00:58:10,583 --> 00:58:13,583
He got up on the stand and started telling
a completely different story
859
00:58:13,667 --> 00:58:15,041
than what actually happened.
860
00:58:15,125 --> 00:58:18,333
He said when he pulled up to the car,
I had opened the door,
861
00:58:18,417 --> 00:58:22,499
got out and punched him in the face
and knocked his glasses off his face.
862
00:58:22,583 --> 00:58:26,708
He then said he was trying to flail
and defend himself while I pummeled him
863
00:58:26,792 --> 00:58:29,541
a couple more times in the face
before I reached down
864
00:58:29,625 --> 00:58:31,999
and grabbed his gun
and took his gun from him.
865
00:58:32,083 --> 00:58:35,958
And afterwards, he said, I had the gun
pointed directly at his face
866
00:58:36,042 --> 00:58:39,749
when he heroically reached out
with both hands and grabbed the gun
867
00:58:39,833 --> 00:58:42,833
and pulled it from me
as it discharged right next to his face.
868
00:58:46,250 --> 00:58:48,499
And he had a photograph of his hand,
869
00:58:48,583 --> 00:58:51,499
with the two and a half
centimeter scratch on it,
870
00:58:51,583 --> 00:58:54,458
to prove all of the things that he said.
871
00:58:55,125 --> 00:58:57,083
[chair scraping floor]
872
00:58:57,167 --> 00:59:00,083
-And Sam Stretton, my defense lawyer,
-[feedback from mike]
873
00:59:00,167 --> 00:59:05,291
got up and calmly walked over
with a photograph in his hand,
874
00:59:05,375 --> 00:59:08,583
placed the photograph down
on the bar of the witness box
875
00:59:08,667 --> 00:59:11,166
in front of Officer Wright and said,
876
00:59:11,250 --> 00:59:15,124
“Is it your testimony that Nicholas Yarris
877
00:59:15,208 --> 00:59:19,666
punched you in the face three times,
breaking your eyeglasses?
878
00:59:19,750 --> 00:59:23,874
He then took this pistol--”
And held it up and said,
879
00:59:23,958 --> 00:59:28,792
“Hit you in the face with it,
a seven-pound metal object, twice.
880
00:59:30,917 --> 00:59:33,292
Why didn’t you photograph your face?”
881
00:59:34,417 --> 00:59:36,999
Officer Wright knew that the jig was up.
882
00:59:37,083 --> 00:59:41,374
He said, “I’m a good-looking man. I didn’t
want the jury to see my face scratched up.
883
00:59:41,458 --> 00:59:44,041
I don’t have to show that.”
He got all defiant.
884
00:59:44,125 --> 00:59:48,041
The jury made this snorting,
scoffing kind of noise.
885
00:59:48,125 --> 00:59:52,041
Everyone saw in that one moment
that his story was really a lie.
886
00:59:52,125 --> 00:59:53,666
[feedback]
887
00:59:53,750 --> 00:59:57,833
The jury deliberated tor a very short,
very, very short time
888
00:59:57,917 --> 01:00:01,374
and came right back:
“Not guilty of attempted murder.
889
01:00:01,458 --> 01:00:04,374
Not guilty of kidnapping
of a police officer.
890
01:00:04,458 --> 01:00:06,208
Not guilty, aggravated assault.
891
01:00:06,292 --> 01:00:08,083
All charges, not guilty.”
892
01:00:09,375 --> 01:00:12,833
And then Barry Gross, the prosecutor,
who was really pissed off--
893
01:00:12,917 --> 01:00:15,166
He was so angry, he tells the jury,
894
01:00:15,250 --> 01:00:18,083
“You just let a murderer go.
You let him go, you know?”
895
01:00:18,167 --> 01:00:20,833
The jury foreman was this woman
who stood up and said,
896
01:00:20,917 --> 01:00:23,666
“Excuse me, we didn’t try that case.
897
01:00:23,750 --> 01:00:26,833
We tried this case, and your case stinks.”
898
01:00:26,917 --> 01:00:30,375
And my mom said, “Yeah!
That’s right. Tell ’em again, lady.”
899
01:00:31,458 --> 01:00:34,166
And it was the worst thing.
900
01:00:34,250 --> 01:00:35,792
Oh, my God.
901
01:00:37,583 --> 01:00:41,999
The very next week, Barry Gross
takes over the murder prosecution
902
01:00:42,083 --> 01:00:44,333
and begins seeking the death penalty.
903
01:00:48,625 --> 01:00:52,624
I went from April,
when I was acquitted of all charges,
904
01:00:52,708 --> 01:00:55,917
to the June trial
for the murder of Mrs. Craig.
905
01:00:58,083 --> 01:01:00,208
I was so scared.
906
01:01:05,083 --> 01:01:08,875
Arthur Craig, the victim’s husband,
was asked to testify.
907
01:01:11,792 --> 01:01:14,417
-That first click in the rotation--
-[imitates slide machine]
908
01:01:16,417 --> 01:01:19,166
and there it was, the portrait photograph.
909
01:01:19,250 --> 01:01:21,541
Mr. Craig, Mrs. Craig
910
01:01:21,625 --> 01:01:25,083
and their three adopted children
in a family-type setting.
911
01:01:25,167 --> 01:01:29,291
And the prosecutor asked Arthur Craig,
“Is that your wife?
912
01:01:29,375 --> 01:01:31,874
Can you identify the people
in the photograph?”
913
01:01:31,958 --> 01:01:34,374
He did, along with his wife as well.
914
01:01:34,458 --> 01:01:37,083
And then-- [imitates slide machine]
915
01:01:40,417 --> 01:01:43,666
There was Mrs. Craig
laid out on the autopsy table.
916
01:01:43,750 --> 01:01:46,791
Six stab wounds clearly visible,
917
01:01:46,875 --> 01:01:50,374
and her broken teeth
and everything visible.
918
01:01:50,458 --> 01:01:54,417
There was a gasp almost.
919
01:01:55,625 --> 01:01:57,875
And people were looking away.
920
01:01:58,667 --> 01:02:01,583
[imitates slide machine] The next one.
921
01:02:09,500 --> 01:02:11,625
The photograph was white and black,
922
01:02:12,875 --> 01:02:15,124
but for when you got closer
923
01:02:15,208 --> 01:02:19,125
towards that figure
that was covered in snow,
924
01:02:20,417 --> 01:02:23,583
you could see the children’s footprints
925
01:02:24,750 --> 01:02:26,999
in white snow,
926
01:02:27,083 --> 01:02:29,458
and then they scattered.
927
01:02:31,208 --> 01:02:35,999
The first steps were dark,
and then lighter,
928
01:02:36,083 --> 01:02:39,917
so you had to imagine
929
01:02:40,708 --> 01:02:42,999
it was bloody,
930
01:02:43,083 --> 01:02:45,833
and that they must have been horrified
as they looked down
931
01:02:45,917 --> 01:02:48,166
and saw the treads of their own feet
932
01:02:48,250 --> 01:02:52,833
blood-soaked
as they ran in different directions.
933
01:02:52,917 --> 01:02:57,750
And the jury,
they looked up at the screen,
934
01:02:58,583 --> 01:03:00,958
they looked at me,
935
01:03:01,042 --> 01:03:06,083
and like uniform animals
in one of those documentaries
936
01:03:06,167 --> 01:03:09,292
where they all do an alike thing,
they all went...
937
01:03:13,000 --> 01:03:16,583
And it was the last time
any one of them could look at me.
938
01:03:25,750 --> 01:03:28,167
I had just turned 21,
939
01:03:29,292 --> 01:03:31,917
and they were gonna take my life.
940
01:04:03,708 --> 01:04:07,166
The only science that was available
941
01:04:07,250 --> 01:04:09,541
in the early ’80s
942
01:04:09,625 --> 01:04:10,999
was blood type.
943
01:04:11,083 --> 01:04:15,666
That was the cutting edge of technology
as far as identifying someone.
944
01:04:15,750 --> 01:04:17,583
That was it.
945
01:04:17,667 --> 01:04:20,499
And there was no real evidence
at my trial.
946
01:04:20,583 --> 01:04:24,749
Not a signed confession,
not a eyewitness testimony,
947
01:04:24,833 --> 01:04:30,292
no murder weapon-- nothing but
speculation and circumstantial evidence.
948
01:04:31,667 --> 01:04:36,291
But unfortunately, I shared
the same blood group as the murderer.
949
01:04:36,375 --> 01:04:41,291
And at the time, that made me
a near slam dunk for being,
950
01:04:41,375 --> 01:04:43,500
probably, the person who did it.
951
01:04:45,125 --> 01:04:47,833
And then in February of 1988,
952
01:04:47,917 --> 01:04:51,500
there’s this newspaper article
about DNA testing.
953
01:04:52,417 --> 01:04:55,916
And... I’m blown away.
954
01:04:56,000 --> 01:04:58,958
I can’t believe I have the key
to my cell in my hands,
955
01:04:59,042 --> 01:05:00,958
because I know I didn’t kill that woman.
956
01:05:01,042 --> 01:05:04,417
I know none of my biological material
is anywhere near her.
957
01:05:05,583 --> 01:05:07,791
I wrote to Joe Bullen, my lawyer,
958
01:05:07,875 --> 01:05:12,292
and I asked him
to begin the process of the DNA.
959
01:05:13,250 --> 01:05:15,667
And the phone call, I can still recall--
960
01:05:16,917 --> 01:05:19,166
All weekend I was just on pins
and needles,
961
01:05:19,250 --> 01:05:22,666
and then Monday morning
I get taken downstairs at 10:00 a.m.,
962
01:05:22,750 --> 01:05:25,541
which is a bad time
because they’ve got all the food going.
963
01:05:25,625 --> 01:05:28,333
They brought in the food trucks
and they’re banging and clanging
964
01:05:28,417 --> 01:05:30,333
these metal plates that they put food on,
965
01:05:30,417 --> 01:05:33,499
and they put ’em in these racks
and run ’em up these stairs,
966
01:05:33,583 --> 01:05:35,333
and it’s just noise and it’s all going.
967
01:05:35,417 --> 01:05:39,583
I get ahold of the secretary first,
then Joe Bullen, and he says,
968
01:05:39,667 --> 01:05:42,999
“I got news for you. You gotta slow down.”
I was like, “What, what?”
969
01:05:43,083 --> 01:05:46,958
He says, “The coroner has explained to me
970
01:05:47,042 --> 01:05:50,583
that they’ve lost
all of the autopsy material.”
971
01:05:53,125 --> 01:05:56,374
And there was just banging and yelling.
972
01:05:56,458 --> 01:05:58,291
I didn’t hear him. I was like,
973
01:05:58,375 --> 01:06:00,708
“Slow down. Say that again.
What do you mean?”
974
01:06:00,792 --> 01:06:04,499
And I’m like, I wanted to turn around
and yell out, “Just please shut up.”
975
01:06:04,583 --> 01:06:06,749
But I knew that would get my ass whupped.
976
01:06:06,833 --> 01:06:10,833
So I just stood there shaking
with the phone in my hand, and I said,
977
01:06:10,917 --> 01:06:14,333
“What do you mean the autopsy materials?
That’s the stuff they used at my trial.
978
01:06:14,417 --> 01:06:19,291
Is that what you’re trying to tell me?
All the evidence has been thrown away?
979
01:06:19,375 --> 01:06:23,499
What do they-- How am I still
on death row if after your trial--”
980
01:06:23,583 --> 01:06:27,958
And I start talking like this,
and he’s yelling into the phone,
981
01:06:28,042 --> 01:06:32,208
“I said, shut up for a minute
and I’ll tell you.”
982
01:06:32,292 --> 01:06:36,833
In this very supercilious voice he said,
983
01:06:36,917 --> 01:06:39,499
“The coroner’s office has looked
all weekend,
984
01:06:39,583 --> 01:06:43,333
and I just got off the phone
with him at 9:28 a.m.,
985
01:06:43,417 --> 01:06:47,541
and he’s informed me
they’ve lost all the autopsy material
986
01:06:47,625 --> 01:06:48,999
from the Linda Mae Craig--”
987
01:06:49,083 --> 01:06:52,416
And he’s reading from something,
like his notes or his crib notes
988
01:06:52,500 --> 01:06:55,208
of what his conversation was,
and it was very deadpan.
989
01:06:55,292 --> 01:06:57,291
And I started getting angry. I said,
990
01:06:57,375 --> 01:07:00,208
“Do you remember when you
came to first visit me,
991
01:07:00,292 --> 01:07:03,874
you told me I was guilty
’cause of all the overwhelming evidence?
992
01:07:03,958 --> 01:07:07,416
Well, where’s the overwhelming evidence
when I want DNA, Joe?”
993
01:07:07,500 --> 01:07:10,958
-[line clicks, dial tone]
-He hung up.
994
01:07:14,167 --> 01:07:17,666
I go back up in my cell, and I’m furious.
995
01:07:17,750 --> 01:07:21,833
I wanted to fucking kill somebody,
I was so angry.
996
01:07:24,958 --> 01:07:27,416
I was out of visits for the month.
997
01:07:27,500 --> 01:07:31,999
That meant I had to wait until March
to see Jacqui again
998
01:07:32,083 --> 01:07:35,708
and explain to her
that the evidence was lost,
999
01:07:35,792 --> 01:07:39,083
and... we had no hope.
1000
01:07:45,417 --> 01:07:48,375
So, uh,
1001
01:07:49,792 --> 01:07:53,792
I went like completely blank.
1002
01:07:57,250 --> 01:08:00,374
But then, after a while,
1003
01:08:00,458 --> 01:08:03,624
I started to think,
like, that’s not possible,
1004
01:08:03,708 --> 01:08:05,666
’cause at my trial they went on and on
1005
01:08:05,750 --> 01:08:09,749
about how “the killer had
B-positive blood, didn’t he?”
1006
01:08:09,833 --> 01:08:14,833
I said to myself, “Well, wait a minute.
Who did the test on that?”
1007
01:08:14,917 --> 01:08:18,208
I started reading the trial transcripts,
then I found out
1008
01:08:18,292 --> 01:08:21,583
some material was sent to
a laboratory at the time of my trial.
1009
01:08:22,417 --> 01:08:24,916
I wrote to the lab director
and he wrote me back.
1010
01:08:25,000 --> 01:08:28,166
He said, “Dear Mr. Yarris,
I have searched my files,
1011
01:08:28,250 --> 01:08:32,833
and we do have two slide preparations
that are unstained,
1012
01:08:32,917 --> 01:08:36,833
and they have high weight
visible DNA, from sperm.”
1013
01:08:36,917 --> 01:08:38,749
And I was like, “Oh, my God!”
1014
01:08:38,833 --> 01:08:43,708
If this DNA works,
I not only can prove my innocence,
1015
01:08:43,792 --> 01:08:46,750
but I can be outta here in a few years.
1016
01:08:47,500 --> 01:08:52,625
And it was like opening up this
floodgate to this woman, Jacqui.
1017
01:08:54,625 --> 01:08:57,166
I married her on July 1, 1988,
1018
01:08:57,250 --> 01:09:01,417
six years to the day
that I was sentenced to die.
1019
01:09:04,750 --> 01:09:08,583
I was so in love. Oh, my God.
1020
01:09:08,667 --> 01:09:11,000
Oh, my God.
1021
01:09:13,542 --> 01:09:16,666
Like I was into this thing
1022
01:09:16,750 --> 01:09:19,708
where music was beautiful.
1023
01:09:20,208 --> 01:09:24,499
If it rained outside and I caught
the smell of it through my window,
1024
01:09:24,583 --> 01:09:28,291
even though I couldn’t actually
see the rain, it was beautiful.
1025
01:09:28,375 --> 01:09:31,875
Like every little nuance in life
was magical.
1026
01:09:32,875 --> 01:09:36,416
And I loved this person
in my life so much.
1027
01:09:36,500 --> 01:09:39,833
And I was like offering this person
not only hope
1028
01:09:39,917 --> 01:09:43,249
that I could prove myself innocent
and get off death row,
1029
01:09:43,333 --> 01:09:46,875
but I could be home,
and we could be beginning a life.
1030
01:09:49,583 --> 01:09:52,167
[sighs]
1031
01:09:57,458 --> 01:10:01,374
[footsteps]
1032
01:10:01,458 --> 01:10:06,000
And then one year became two and three.
1033
01:10:08,333 --> 01:10:11,417
It took us five years
to get to the DNA test.
1034
01:10:12,667 --> 01:10:15,167
And the results came back inconclusive.
1035
01:10:16,708 --> 01:10:19,917
“Inconclusive results due to degradation.”
1036
01:10:30,792 --> 01:10:33,499
But then, in a miracle of miracles,
1037
01:10:33,583 --> 01:10:39,417
the victim’s clothing was located
in a clerk’s office at the courthouse.
1038
01:10:42,458 --> 01:10:45,624
My mother had recoiled in horror
at the end of my trial,
1039
01:10:45,708 --> 01:10:50,666
when my parents were almost accidentally
given a box marked “Yarris,”
1040
01:10:50,750 --> 01:10:53,999
and inside of it
was the victim’s blood-soaked clothing.
1041
01:10:54,083 --> 01:10:56,499
And she remembered that
and she told the custodian,
1042
01:10:56,583 --> 01:10:59,916
“Don’t you remember how you almost
gave me the victim’s clothing?”
1043
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:01,666
And he said, “Oh, that’s right.”
1044
01:11:01,750 --> 01:11:05,083
And he went off
and found the victim’s clothing.
1045
01:11:08,292 --> 01:11:12,499
Those clothes yielded sperm
from the victim’s underwear.
1046
01:11:12,583 --> 01:11:16,250
And it was high weight
and there was a lot of it.
1047
01:11:17,750 --> 01:11:19,666
Cuttings were placed into these tubes,
1048
01:11:19,750 --> 01:11:23,749
and then they were sent
to Germantown, Maryland for keeping.
1049
01:11:23,833 --> 01:11:28,166
It took me from 1993 to 1997
1050
01:11:28,250 --> 01:11:30,958
to finally get court approval
1051
01:11:31,042 --> 01:11:35,583
for the foremost authority of DNA
in America to do the DNA testing.
1052
01:11:35,667 --> 01:11:37,999
Hallelujah, I got Dr. Blake.
1053
01:11:38,083 --> 01:11:40,041
He already did the O.J. Simpson case.
1054
01:11:40,125 --> 01:11:43,042
He’s very famous, very well respected.
He’s the man.
1055
01:11:49,042 --> 01:11:52,999
They take the new evidence
and they send it out to California,
1056
01:11:53,083 --> 01:11:57,917
and they improperly package it,
and it burst open in transit.
1057
01:12:00,833 --> 01:12:03,791
And Dr. Blake says,
“We’re not gonna test it.
1058
01:12:03,875 --> 01:12:07,999
All it will do is produce results that
would be contested by the prosecution.
1059
01:12:08,083 --> 01:12:12,042
I’m not gonna test it.”
And he just put it on the shelf.
1060
01:12:13,667 --> 01:12:17,166
It killed a part of my marriage
and it killed a part of Jacqui
1061
01:12:17,250 --> 01:12:19,500
and it killed a part of me.
1062
01:12:21,458 --> 01:12:25,916
She fought with me for nine years
to get DNA,
1063
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:29,292
and she just said,
“Nicky, I can’t do this anymore.”
1064
01:12:31,625 --> 01:12:34,417
I said, “Man, go.”
1065
01:12:40,417 --> 01:12:43,874
I went back to my cell
and was sitting, listening to the radio
1066
01:12:43,958 --> 01:12:47,875
and this song came on-- and I was
listening to the lyrics, you know.
1067
01:12:49,375 --> 01:12:53,999
“They say that you’re leaving,
and it comes as no surprise.
1068
01:12:54,083 --> 01:12:58,333
And still I like this feeling
of being left behind.”
1069
01:12:58,417 --> 01:13:00,624
MAN:
♪ You say that you’re leaving ♪
1070
01:13:00,708 --> 01:13:03,999
And I was listening to the lyrics
and I was thinking,
1071
01:13:04,083 --> 01:13:06,291
“You always do that to me.
1072
01:13:06,375 --> 01:13:09,166
You always torment me with words
from someone else’s song,
1073
01:13:09,250 --> 01:13:13,500
and suddenly they’re my words
and they’re ingrained in my thoughts.”
1074
01:13:17,750 --> 01:13:21,958
Even though I was being told that I--
that they were leaving,
1075
01:13:22,042 --> 01:13:25,917
I still kinda liked that feeling
of being left behind.
1076
01:13:27,750 --> 01:13:31,749
It’s a strange phenomenon
when you felt good for their leaving
1077
01:13:31,833 --> 01:13:36,208
because you knew all along
you had stolen a lot of their life away.
1078
01:13:36,292 --> 01:13:40,374
♪ Well, it’s just like going home ♪
1079
01:13:40,458 --> 01:13:43,124
And on a December night,
1080
01:13:43,208 --> 01:13:46,500
on a snowing night,
just like the lyrics said,
1081
01:13:47,750 --> 01:13:49,750
I just started writing this letter.
1082
01:13:51,833 --> 01:13:54,208
I wasn’t crying or upset or anything.
1083
01:13:54,292 --> 01:13:59,833
I simply sat down and tried
to tell somebody why I loved them
1084
01:13:59,917 --> 01:14:04,292
and why saying good-bye to them
was this wonderful gift.
1085
01:14:04,958 --> 01:14:07,624
I knew she didn’t have to fight
for me anymore.
1086
01:14:07,708 --> 01:14:10,666
I knew she didn’t have to make copies
of my legal documents
1087
01:14:10,750 --> 01:14:15,208
and send them back to me,
call lawyers, chase up new DNA.
1088
01:14:15,292 --> 01:14:17,791
She didn’t have to go and chase up my mom
1089
01:14:17,875 --> 01:14:19,541
or any of these other things.
1090
01:14:19,625 --> 01:14:23,333
She could just be free. One of us.
1091
01:14:23,417 --> 01:14:25,708
♪♪ [continues]
1092
01:14:29,958 --> 01:14:31,499
♪ The same snow is falling ♪
1093
01:14:31,583 --> 01:14:33,916
You see, at the end of that wonderful gift
1094
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:36,999
that was given to me for so long,
I didn’t cling,
1095
01:14:37,083 --> 01:14:41,333
trying to hold onto what
wasn’t mine anyway, ’cause it was a gift.
1096
01:14:41,417 --> 01:14:43,749
It was like a ten-year confirmation
1097
01:14:43,833 --> 01:14:46,499
that I was becoming
that person that I liked.
1098
01:14:46,583 --> 01:14:48,750
I was so proud of that, like--
1099
01:14:50,208 --> 01:14:52,333
I woke up to a different person.
1100
01:14:52,417 --> 01:14:55,375
♪♪ [man vocalizing]
1101
01:15:03,708 --> 01:15:05,458
♪♪ [ends]
1102
01:15:08,125 --> 01:15:12,541
By now, I had been in prison for 18 years,
1103
01:15:12,625 --> 01:15:14,333
and that’s when I got sick.
1104
01:15:14,417 --> 01:15:17,999
I lost 31 pounds in a month and a half.
1105
01:15:18,083 --> 01:15:19,708
And I was really feeling poorly.
1106
01:15:19,792 --> 01:15:23,458
And then I had blood work done
and they told me what it was.
1107
01:15:23,542 --> 01:15:26,624
I’m infected with this strain
of hepatitis C
1108
01:15:26,708 --> 01:15:30,625
that all the men who had dental work
at Huntingdon have contracted.
1109
01:15:31,583 --> 01:15:36,083
Fifteen other men got this hepatitis.
1110
01:15:38,292 --> 01:15:43,249
So the first guy that died was
D.C., Del Carter.
1111
01:15:43,333 --> 01:15:46,874
And he died in the vents
underneath me, screaming in agony.
1112
01:15:46,958 --> 01:15:49,166
Oh, my God. So when I found out,
1113
01:15:49,250 --> 01:15:52,333
I immediately said,
“Yeah, I’ll take the drug treatments.
1114
01:15:52,417 --> 01:15:53,749
I’ll sign up for it.”
1115
01:15:53,833 --> 01:15:56,999
But the years of drug abuse
had damaged my kidneys,
1116
01:15:57,083 --> 01:15:59,958
and after about seven months,
1117
01:16:00,042 --> 01:16:02,708
I started suffering
all the side effects of this drug.
1118
01:16:03,792 --> 01:16:07,958
I was peeing this horrible
coffee-colored urine.
1119
01:16:08,042 --> 01:16:11,417
[inhales deeply]
Everything tasted dead in my mouth.
1120
01:16:12,167 --> 01:16:14,583
I was just not right.
1121
01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:24,124
And then, it was August,
I was out in the exercise yards.
1122
01:16:24,208 --> 01:16:29,708
I was so weak.
I was looking directly up at the sky.
1123
01:16:31,125 --> 01:16:32,916
-And then--
-[snaps fingers]
1124
01:16:33,000 --> 01:16:36,500
I couldn’t see anything. It went blank.
1125
01:16:38,125 --> 01:16:42,750
I know what darkness is,
but this was black.
1126
01:16:46,667 --> 01:16:49,167
And that’s when I found out I was dying.
1127
01:16:53,125 --> 01:16:56,499
I was so afraid that, like, I was shaking.
1128
01:16:56,583 --> 01:16:58,083
I really was.
1129
01:16:59,000 --> 01:17:03,499
And so, I remember, I stuck to my ritual.
1130
01:17:03,583 --> 01:17:06,499
I stood over the top
of the toilet bowl and I bathed.
1131
01:17:06,583 --> 01:17:10,374
And I was doing the same ritual
of bathing three days later,
1132
01:17:10,458 --> 01:17:13,124
and I saw these swirls around my thighs.
1133
01:17:13,208 --> 01:17:15,083
And I realized I was seeing swirls,
1134
01:17:15,167 --> 01:17:18,167
so if I was seeing swirls,
then I was seeing.
1135
01:17:21,417 --> 01:17:23,333
[exhales] Okay.
1136
01:17:24,458 --> 01:17:27,583
The very first thing I did
later on that evening
1137
01:17:27,667 --> 01:17:30,333
is I sat by a very bright light
at my desk,
1138
01:17:30,417 --> 01:17:33,250
and I wrote a letter to the judge
handling my appeals.
1139
01:17:36,042 --> 01:17:39,625
And another song--
Patty Griffin’s “Gonna Let Him Fly.”
1140
01:17:41,417 --> 01:17:44,416
And it’s so strange, because the lyrics
are obviously a love song,
1141
01:17:44,500 --> 01:17:46,999
but to me it was all about me, you know.
1142
01:17:47,083 --> 01:17:51,750
“Ain’t no talking to this man.
Ain’t no pretty other side.”
1143
01:17:56,417 --> 01:17:58,083
It’s so true.
1144
01:17:59,750 --> 01:18:03,292
There is absolutely no pretty side
to hope for anymore.
1145
01:18:04,083 --> 01:18:05,833
No Jacquis, no loves.
1146
01:18:05,917 --> 01:18:09,749
None of those things that you can have
a pretty other side to hope for.
1147
01:18:09,833 --> 01:18:13,666
WOMAN:
♪ Ain’t no talking to this man ♪
1148
01:18:13,750 --> 01:18:16,750
♪ Ain’t no pretty other side ♪
1149
01:18:18,167 --> 01:18:21,416
♪ Ain’t no way to understand ♪
1150
01:18:21,500 --> 01:18:26,292
♪ The stupid words of pride ♪
1151
01:18:27,417 --> 01:18:31,416
♪ ’Cause it would take an acrobat ♪
1152
01:18:31,500 --> 01:18:34,958
♪ I already tried all that, so ♪
1153
01:18:35,042 --> 01:18:39,333
♪ I’m gonna let him fly ♪
1154
01:18:39,417 --> 01:18:41,750
♪ I’m gonna let him fly ♪
1155
01:18:43,292 --> 01:18:46,583
♪ Things can move at such a pace ♪
1156
01:18:47,583 --> 01:18:51,916
♪ The second hand just waved good-bye ♪
1157
01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:55,750
YARRIS: “Dear Judge Giles,
As a criminal plaintive,
1158
01:18:56,833 --> 01:19:00,499
I ask that one right
that I have remaining to me
1159
01:19:00,583 --> 01:19:04,166
as a condemned prisoner be recognized.
1160
01:19:04,250 --> 01:19:08,041
And that is a condemned man’s right
to be executed.”
1161
01:19:08,125 --> 01:19:11,708
♪ I said, “I’m gonna let him fly” ♪
1162
01:19:11,792 --> 01:19:15,666
“I hereby ask that counsel be dismissed,
1163
01:19:15,750 --> 01:19:20,999
that my record be then transmitted
to Governor Edward Rendell
1164
01:19:21,083 --> 01:19:25,999
for my execution date to be set
within 60 days of receipt of this letter.”
1165
01:19:26,083 --> 01:19:28,833
♪ It took a while to understand ♪
1166
01:19:28,917 --> 01:19:34,333
♪ The beauty of just letting go ♪
1167
01:19:34,417 --> 01:19:38,333
“I hereby swear that I am sane
at the time of this writing.”
1168
01:19:38,417 --> 01:19:41,166
♪ I already tried all that ♪
1169
01:19:41,250 --> 01:19:47,916
“Signed, Nicholas James Yarris,
August 2002.”
1170
01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:50,333
♪ Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh ♪
1171
01:19:50,417 --> 01:19:54,166
♪ I’m gonna let him fly ♪
1172
01:19:54,250 --> 01:19:59,374
♪ Fly, fly ♪
1173
01:19:59,458 --> 01:20:03,249
♪ I’m gonna let him ♪
1174
01:20:03,333 --> 01:20:07,667
♪ Fly ♪
1175
01:20:15,375 --> 01:20:17,833
When the letter was received
by Judge Giles,
1176
01:20:17,917 --> 01:20:22,499
he ordered that my lawyers
come to a conference hearing,
1177
01:20:22,583 --> 01:20:26,333
and he wanted to know why someone
1178
01:20:26,417 --> 01:20:29,499
who had been asking
for DNA testing for 15 years,
1179
01:20:29,583 --> 01:20:33,667
claiming that they’re innocent,
would now ask to be executed.
1180
01:20:34,125 --> 01:20:38,791
And he was really hard-pressed to
get them to give up any answer, I guess,
1181
01:20:38,875 --> 01:20:41,083
because I didn’t
copy them in on the letter.
1182
01:20:41,167 --> 01:20:43,333
They didn’t even know
I wrote to the judge.
1183
01:20:43,417 --> 01:20:45,333
They were hearing this for the first time.
1184
01:20:45,417 --> 01:20:49,791
So the judge, by law,
really was hamstrung in the fact
1185
01:20:49,875 --> 01:20:53,791
that he was gonna be required
to transmit my record to the governor,
1186
01:20:53,875 --> 01:20:58,624
as law required, for me to be executed
within 60 days from that point.
1187
01:20:58,708 --> 01:21:03,749
Instead he said, “All right, whatever
DNA testing is remaining in this case,
1188
01:21:03,833 --> 01:21:06,208
I’m ordering it now tested.”
1189
01:21:06,292 --> 01:21:08,583
That was April.
1190
01:21:09,667 --> 01:21:13,375
April turned to May, May turned to June.
1191
01:21:14,250 --> 01:21:18,374
July 2, 2003.
1192
01:21:18,458 --> 01:21:20,666
I wasn’t expecting the results.
1193
01:21:20,750 --> 01:21:23,458
For some reason, when he brought
the phone to my cell,
1194
01:21:23,542 --> 01:21:27,666
I really wasn’t expecting to talk to
my lawyers about Dr. Blake.
1195
01:21:27,750 --> 01:21:30,916
But he gave me the phone and said,
“Your lawyer wants you to call.”
1196
01:21:31,000 --> 01:21:32,499
So I dialed the number,
1197
01:21:32,583 --> 01:21:35,833
and I’m waiting for the collect phone call
process to ring through,
1198
01:21:35,917 --> 01:21:39,499
and it does, and on the other end
was Michael Wiseman,
1199
01:21:39,583 --> 01:21:42,750
a lawyer who had been
representing me for seven years.
1200
01:21:44,583 --> 01:21:48,333
When I heard Michael Wiseman say,
1201
01:21:48,417 --> 01:21:51,125
“I just got off the phone with Dr. Blake.
1202
01:21:53,917 --> 01:21:57,791
The gloves that were left inside
the victim’s vehicle
1203
01:21:57,875 --> 01:22:02,833
were found to have DNA from unknown male,
1204
01:22:02,917 --> 01:22:04,999
DNA from Mrs. Craig
1205
01:22:05,083 --> 01:22:07,916
and DNA from the sperm
matching the killer’s gloves.”
1206
01:22:08,000 --> 01:22:10,250
That was--
I didn’t have to hear anything else.
1207
01:22:11,250 --> 01:22:16,333
I knew. You didn’t have to tell
Nick Yarris what those results meant.
1208
01:22:16,417 --> 01:22:20,208
I started screaming, “Oh, my God!
It proves me innocent, don’t you see?”
1209
01:22:20,292 --> 01:22:24,708
[heavy footsteps]
1210
01:22:26,583 --> 01:22:31,208
The guard came back to collect the phone
and he saw me huddled,
1211
01:22:32,125 --> 01:22:37,583
crying on the bed, in a fetal position.
1212
01:22:39,417 --> 01:22:44,167
And he said, “Nick, what’s up?”
1213
01:22:44,917 --> 01:22:49,249
And I lifted my head up,
and I just shook my head
1214
01:22:49,333 --> 01:22:52,250
’cause I didn’t even have the strength
to say anything.
1215
01:22:54,667 --> 01:22:57,417
He said, “Go down to the shower
and take a shower.”
1216
01:22:59,000 --> 01:23:01,208
I got up, put on my shower shoes,
1217
01:23:01,292 --> 01:23:04,999
and I started trudging towards the shower,
1218
01:23:05,083 --> 01:23:08,458
and he opened the gate
down on the end of the block,
1219
01:23:08,542 --> 01:23:12,041
and he walked into the shower
and he put a chair in there,
1220
01:23:12,125 --> 01:23:16,125
and as I got the last few steps there,
1221
01:23:17,125 --> 01:23:21,166
he grabbed my arm gently
and he sat me down,
1222
01:23:21,250 --> 01:23:25,499
and he just pushed the button
and he left me there.
1223
01:23:25,583 --> 01:23:27,374
[shower running]
1224
01:23:27,458 --> 01:23:29,250
And I cried.
1225
01:23:31,792 --> 01:23:34,999
I cried like you wouldn’t believe, man.
1226
01:23:35,083 --> 01:23:38,083
I waited 15 years to cry.
1227
01:23:55,333 --> 01:23:58,500
[rain pattering]
1228
01:24:08,583 --> 01:24:11,333
The happiest memory I ever had
1229
01:24:12,083 --> 01:24:17,291
is that we lived at 2439 Milan Street,
1230
01:24:17,375 --> 01:24:19,667
just like Italy-- Milan.
1231
01:24:21,958 --> 01:24:25,958
There was a fiberglass awning
1232
01:24:26,042 --> 01:24:28,250
attached to the front of our roof,
1233
01:24:29,542 --> 01:24:33,666
and whenever it rained, it gave off
this hollow drumming sound
1234
01:24:33,750 --> 01:24:38,292
that just drew me out of wherever I was
and whatever I was doing.
1235
01:24:39,375 --> 01:24:41,249
And I would get a blanket
1236
01:24:41,333 --> 01:24:45,249
and Jocko, my dog,
who was a little black poodle,
1237
01:24:45,333 --> 01:24:48,166
and we would go out
and sit on this lounge chair
1238
01:24:48,250 --> 01:24:50,833
that was set up like a deck chair.
1239
01:24:50,917 --> 01:24:55,542
And there, under this tattered
old green blanket,
1240
01:24:56,250 --> 01:24:58,541
I would listen to the rain
1241
01:24:58,625 --> 01:25:01,374
and play out all of these daydreams
in my head
1242
01:25:01,458 --> 01:25:03,542
of adventures I would have.
1243
01:25:04,667 --> 01:25:08,250
And it was like this... cocoon.
1244
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:13,666
All I had was that blanket and a dog
1245
01:25:13,750 --> 01:25:17,624
and this... feeling
1246
01:25:17,708 --> 01:25:19,833
that I was on a journey.
1247
01:25:19,917 --> 01:25:24,458
[boy breathing heavily]
1248
01:25:31,667 --> 01:25:35,208
I remember,
as I ran out the door with Jocko,
1249
01:25:35,292 --> 01:25:37,833
the last thing Mom said was,
1250
01:25:37,917 --> 01:25:41,083
“Don’t you dare
get those school clothes dirty!”
1251
01:25:41,167 --> 01:25:44,666
[breathing heavily]
1252
01:25:44,750 --> 01:25:47,916
It was still early, early like April.
1253
01:25:48,000 --> 01:25:52,499
And in Philadelphia in the springtime,
it’s just beautiful.
1254
01:25:52,583 --> 01:25:54,999
Like 67, 68 degrees,
1255
01:25:55,083 --> 01:25:58,083
and you just get these very nice days.
1256
01:25:58,958 --> 01:26:02,624
Jocko and I were just throwing the stick
1257
01:26:02,708 --> 01:26:05,250
and doing the things that we loved to do.
1258
01:26:08,083 --> 01:26:11,999
I was walking along,
deeper into the woods,
1259
01:26:12,083 --> 01:26:13,917
when I saw him.
1260
01:26:14,417 --> 01:26:18,167
I said, “Damn.”
Like, I was so afraid of him.
1261
01:26:21,750 --> 01:26:25,291
Hobnail boots, denim jeans,
1262
01:26:25,375 --> 01:26:28,166
white T-shirt, armband rolled up
1263
01:26:28,250 --> 01:26:30,917
with a pack of Lucky Strikes
in the sleeve.
1264
01:26:33,375 --> 01:26:36,499
And he said, “The fuck are you doing?”
1265
01:26:36,583 --> 01:26:38,417
Like that, you know?
1266
01:26:41,375 --> 01:26:42,875
“Take it.”
1267
01:26:44,000 --> 01:26:48,458
I looked up towards the houses,
then I went like that.
1268
01:26:48,542 --> 01:26:51,083
And he said, “Now puff.”
And I went-- [puffs]
1269
01:26:51,625 --> 01:26:53,874
And I just got--
1270
01:26:53,958 --> 01:26:56,999
[groans] My head went crazy.
1271
01:26:57,083 --> 01:27:01,458
And like I heard like this sound--
1272
01:27:01,542 --> 01:27:03,291
[loud slap]
1273
01:27:03,375 --> 01:27:07,917
And it was the stone
that was in his hand that he hit me with.
1274
01:27:09,542 --> 01:27:14,166
And then I felt him bend down,
and he turned me,
1275
01:27:14,250 --> 01:27:17,458
so that our shoulders were parallel
1276
01:27:17,542 --> 01:27:22,374
and my leg was on his arm there,
and he was raping me.
1277
01:27:22,458 --> 01:27:26,666
And he was making this guttural sound.
1278
01:27:26,750 --> 01:27:29,666
And I started, like, whimpering.
1279
01:27:29,750 --> 01:27:32,708
And he’s like, “Shut the fuck up.
Shut the fuck up.
1280
01:27:32,792 --> 01:27:36,874
I’ll fucking kill Jocko and your whole
family if you say anybody. You understand?
1281
01:27:36,958 --> 01:27:40,083
I’m not a fucking faggot.
You understand me?”
1282
01:27:43,417 --> 01:27:45,749
Then he left. And I screamed.
1283
01:27:45,833 --> 01:27:48,208
I was like, “Jocko!” [sobs]
1284
01:27:49,125 --> 01:27:51,167
I kept screaming for Jocko.
1285
01:27:55,833 --> 01:27:58,166
One of the things that he said to me,
1286
01:27:58,250 --> 01:28:00,583
when he was putting his pants right--
1287
01:28:02,750 --> 01:28:05,499
He looked at me.
“You tell everybody you fell off a wall
1288
01:28:05,583 --> 01:28:08,625
with that shopping cart over there,
you hear me?”
1289
01:28:12,042 --> 01:28:16,250
He gave me this quick rundown
of what to say.
1290
01:28:18,000 --> 01:28:22,083
And as soon as I’d told the first lie,
1291
01:28:22,167 --> 01:28:26,833
it was like once it was believed,
it was so hard to undo.
1292
01:28:28,250 --> 01:28:29,917
It spiraled.
1293
01:28:31,125 --> 01:28:35,583
And then everything changed.
1294
01:28:41,083 --> 01:28:42,833
[shower shuts off]
1295
01:28:50,000 --> 01:28:53,916
From that day I found out
I was proven innocent from science,
1296
01:28:54,000 --> 01:28:57,291
it still took me seven more months.
1297
01:28:57,375 --> 01:28:59,708
I went back to death row,
1298
01:28:59,792 --> 01:29:04,083
and I found out they took everything
out of my death-row cell,
1299
01:29:04,167 --> 01:29:06,792
and then they took me to this unit.
1300
01:29:08,625 --> 01:29:13,874
I was beside myself. They took me
to “H” Block, the mental ward.
1301
01:29:13,958 --> 01:29:17,499
“What are you doing to me?”
I didn’t understand.
1302
01:29:17,583 --> 01:29:20,583
I went over and saw Major Lockett,
the major of the guards.
1303
01:29:20,667 --> 01:29:23,874
I said, “Yo, Major, what’s going on?
Why am I here?”
1304
01:29:23,958 --> 01:29:27,333
And he said, “Mr. Yarris,
1305
01:29:27,417 --> 01:29:30,249
after the experience that you had,
1306
01:29:30,333 --> 01:29:32,999
we don’t want to risk any of the staff
1307
01:29:33,083 --> 01:29:36,374
being murdered by you in a rage,
1308
01:29:36,458 --> 01:29:40,125
in recognition
for what we’ve done to you.”
1309
01:29:43,792 --> 01:29:46,499
I went back to my cell,
1310
01:29:46,583 --> 01:29:50,708
and I had a plastic milk carton,
and that was it.
1311
01:29:50,792 --> 01:29:53,833
A plastic mattress,
two sheets, two towels,
1312
01:29:53,917 --> 01:29:57,750
a pillowcase for that plastic pillow,
and that was it.
1313
01:29:58,958 --> 01:30:02,833
They took every book.
They took my artwork.
1314
01:30:02,917 --> 01:30:05,125
They took every comfort.
1315
01:30:07,583 --> 01:30:09,875
And I sat down on my bed,
1316
01:30:10,917 --> 01:30:13,333
and I-- I said,
1317
01:30:14,083 --> 01:30:16,542
“Oh, my God, they did me a favor.”
1318
01:30:18,667 --> 01:30:23,333
I folded my legs,
I sat straight in my yoga position,
1319
01:30:26,625 --> 01:30:30,333
and I started to dream
of the life I was gonna have.
1320
01:30:30,417 --> 01:30:32,333
I was gonna have a great life.
1321
01:30:32,417 --> 01:30:35,083
I’m gonna meet me a girl,
I’m gonna fall in love.
1322
01:30:35,167 --> 01:30:39,500
I’m gonna have a family and, best of all,
I’m gonna be a great dad.
1323
01:30:40,333 --> 01:30:41,833
That’s what I’m gonna do.
1324
01:30:41,917 --> 01:30:46,208
If you’re gonna take everything
from me-- okay.
1325
01:30:46,292 --> 01:30:47,833
Then instead,
1326
01:30:49,500 --> 01:30:52,750
I think I’ll give myself everything.
1327
01:32:11,083 --> 01:32:13,083
MAN:
♪ Gray ♪
1328
01:32:15,875 --> 01:32:18,000
♪ Gray ♪
1329
01:32:20,500 --> 01:32:27,208
♪ The color of a cloudy day ♪
1330
01:32:28,333 --> 01:32:30,999
MAN, WOMAN:
♪ On the wind I heard you ♪
1331
01:32:31,083 --> 01:32:33,083
♪ Call my name ♪
1332
01:32:33,167 --> 01:32:37,916
♪ On the wind I heard you call my name ♪
1333
01:32:38,000 --> 01:32:42,541
♪ On the wind I heard you
call my name ♪
1334
01:32:42,625 --> 01:32:45,750
♪ On the wind I heard you ♪
1335
01:32:49,083 --> 01:32:50,791
♪ Gone ♪
1336
01:32:50,875 --> 01:32:53,291
♪ And everything I did wrong ♪
1337
01:32:53,375 --> 01:32:56,792
♪ It don’t add up to this ♪
1338
01:32:58,083 --> 01:32:59,958
♪ Lost ♪
1339
01:33:00,042 --> 01:33:06,125
♪ And I measure the cost in years
without a kiss ♪
1340
01:33:07,042 --> 01:33:11,250
♪ Entire lives I’ve missed ♪
1341
01:33:12,250 --> 01:33:14,583
♪ Red ♪
1342
01:33:17,083 --> 01:33:20,292
♪ Red ♪
1343
01:33:21,250 --> 01:33:24,749
♪ And I thought those ♪
1344
01:33:24,833 --> 01:33:29,583
♪ Old questions were dead ♪
1345
01:33:29,667 --> 01:33:34,499
♪ But every night I saw you
close your eyes ♪
1346
01:33:34,583 --> 01:33:39,208
♪ Every night I saw you close your eyes ♪
1347
01:33:39,292 --> 01:33:43,916
♪ Every night I saw you
close your eyes ♪
1348
01:33:44,000 --> 01:33:47,333
♪ Every night I saw you ♪
1349
01:33:50,500 --> 01:33:52,500
♪♪ [continues, instrumental]
1350
01:34:13,833 --> 01:34:15,417
♪ Dee ♪
1351
01:34:18,708 --> 01:34:21,500
♪ Dee ♪
1352
01:34:22,708 --> 01:34:27,166
♪ I used to visit you ♪
1353
01:34:27,250 --> 01:34:31,041
♪ In my sleep ♪
1354
01:34:31,125 --> 01:34:36,166
♪ Now I can never find you
in my dreams ♪
1355
01:34:36,250 --> 01:34:40,708
♪ I can never find you in my dreams ♪
1356
01:34:40,792 --> 01:34:45,416
♪ I can never find you
in my dreams ♪
1357
01:34:45,500 --> 01:34:50,166
♪ I can never find you in my dreams ♪
1358
01:34:50,250 --> 01:34:54,916
♪ I can never find you
in my dreams ♪
1359
01:34:55,000 --> 01:34:59,666
♪ I can never find you in my dreams ♪
1360
01:34:59,750 --> 01:35:04,374
♪ I can never find you
in my dreams ♪
1361
01:35:04,458 --> 01:35:09,167
♪ I can never find you ♪
108059
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