#074 Jason Flom with Rafael Madrigal

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.4 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On July 5, 2000, Ricardo Aguilera was shot and wounded in a gang related drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California. Several witnesses identified 25-year-old Rafael Madrigal Jr. in a photo lineup as either the shooter or driver of the car involved. Those witnesses testified against Rafael at trial.

Rafael, who maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal, had been at work at Proactive Packaging, a 50-minute drive away, at the time of the shooting. A co-worker could have confirmed his alibi, and his boss could have testified that he was certain Madrigal was at work because he was the only one who knew how to operate one of the machines in the production line. But Rafael’s defense attorney only called a single co-worker to the stand at the trial, and did not present a recording of Rafael’s co-defendant admitting that Rafael was not involved.

On January 18, 2002, a jury convicted Rafael of attempted murder and he was sentenced to 53 years to life in prison.

Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I've never been in trouble in my life. I didn't even have a parking ticket. I was brought up like cops or the good guys.
0:09.0	I didn't know what was going to happen, but I do know that everything was stacked against me. Everything, like everything.
0:17.0	This isn't supposed to happen this way. I'm innocent. I know I'm innocent. I know I had nothing to do with this. How is this possible?
0:28.0	I grew up trusting the system. I grew up believing that every human being should do the right thing.
0:33.0	And that's why even though I knew I was dealing with corrupt people, I wasn't going to brave anyone to get me out of prison.
0:39.0	Because I wouldn't live with the fact that I brave my way out of my wife's death.
0:44.0	I'm not innocent to prove guilty. I'm guilty until I prove my innocence and that's absolutely what happened to me.
0:51.0	Our system since I've been out 10 years, it's come a little ways, but it's still broken.
0:56.0	I totally lost trust in humanity after what happened to me.
1:02.0	This is wrongful conviction.
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	...

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