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Wrongful Conviction

#097 Jason Flom with Jimmy Dennis

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.65.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2019

⏱️ 71 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On October 22, 1991, when 17-year-old Chedell Williams and a friend went to Fern Rock subway station in North Philadelphia, two men approached them and demanded Chedell’s earrings. She refused and ran, and one of the men chased her to nearby 10th Street and Nedro Avenue, where he snatched the earrings, and shot her in the throat. Her friend was left unharmed. The two men were joined by a third man who was waiting in a 1978 Chevy Malibu. Chedell died at a hospital less than an hour later. The pressure was on the police and prosecutors to solve the crime, when some local “stick-up boys” named 21-year-old, burgeoning R&B vocalist Jimmy Dennis as a potential culprit. Hearing of this, Jimmy went to the police to confront the rumors, maintaining that he was on a bus miles away at the time of the murder with eyewitnesses to corroborate his claim. No forensic evidence tying Jimmy to the crime was ever developed, and evidence and eyewitness accounts that proved his innocence were suppressed. In this emotional interview, we hear the story of a promising musical career curtailed and a 25-year-long battle with a wrongful conviction from death row.

https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I had the privilege of interviewing Jimmy Dennis on April 1st of 2019, shortly after he was released from death row in Pennsylvania.

0:11.0

He served 25 and a half years and had two execution dates actually scheduled.

0:16.8

I mean I'm talking about they asked him what his last meal was going to be, where

0:20.7

he wanted his remains to be taken. It's unbelievable. 25 and a half years he

0:26.2

lived in a tiny cell on death row with the lights on. They never turned him off.

0:30.3

And yet he came out joyful with a bounce in his step, ready to get back, you know,

0:38.8

as much as he could of what he had lost. And here's the incredible thing he was a singer when he was

0:45.4

wrongfully arrested when he was 18 years old he was you know on the verge of

0:48.6

getting a record deal with his group and the good news is that a few months ago he made his on-stage singing

0:56.2

debut in New York City at the Church of Rock and Roll event at Gospel.

0:59.5

He sang Hallelujah and he killed it. I gotta be honest with you. Now he's in the process of launching a dog-grooming business with his wife.

1:07.8

The business plan is set and I think they're gonna make it a real success. He's also been the subject of the first

1:16.0

now this video documentary of the wrongful conviction podcast and it is a beautiful beautiful piece. He's a beautiful, beautiful guy and

1:26.7

Jimmy if you're listening I hope you're smiling and sleeping well too because you deserve nothing but the best of

1:35.4

everything and we're here to share your story. Please sit back and listen to

1:42.4

Jimmy Dennis.

1:44.6

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1:47.2

is the greatest murder mystery in American history.

1:50.6

That's Rob Briner.

1:52.1

Rob called me, Soledad O'Brien, and asked me what I knew about this crime.

1:56.0

We'll ask who had the motive to assassinate a sitting president.

2:00.0

Then we'll pull the curtain back on the cover-up. The American people need to know the truth.

...

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