#023 Jason Flom with Johnny Hincapie
Wrongful Conviction
Lava for Good Podcasts
4.4 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2017
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Johnny Hincapie was convicted as part of a gang that murdered 22-year-old tourist Brian Watkins, even though he himself was not charged with the act and neither the victim’s family nor the other attackers identified him as a perpetrator. In 1990, Brian Watkins and his family were attacked on a New York City subway platform by a group of 6 to 8 teenagers when they were in town for the U.S. Open, resulting in the death of Watkins as he tried to defend his parents. Johnny was only 18 years old at the time, and he did not have a lawyer present during his interrogation. He falsely confessed to the crime, after being tortured by police who threatened to kill him. After spending 25 years in prison, Johnny’s conviction was overturned based on the statements of several witnesses who testified that he was in fact not a part of the group of attackers. He was formally exonerated in January 2017.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think we have the best legal system. It's just the people that implement it. They get |
| 0:08.5 | lost along the way and forget what their job really is. |
| 0:13.2 | He just kept on trying to remind me that who was in authority, who was in control, and |
| 0:18.1 | how easy it was for my body to be found in any alley of New York City. |
| 0:25.9 | It's a tough prison when you have the guards going against you because they are the biggest |
| 0:30.9 | gang in the prison. They do that. They'll give a guy a life sentence and go home and |
| 0:36.1 | espagetti like it was nothing. And anybody that would say, well why would you confess |
| 0:41.0 | to something that you didn't do? My question to them will be why wouldn't you confess |
| 0:45.5 | when somebody's threatening to kill your life? |
| 0:48.8 | The judge said, how you feel? I said, I'm okay. He said, well the day is your lucky day. |
| 0:54.6 | Go home. This is wrongful conviction. |
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