#239 Jason Flom with Johnny Berry

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On August 10th, 1994, a man and a woman were in a van in West Philadelphia, when two males approached. One blocked the passenger door, while the other shot the man before he could get out of the van. The witness identified 16 year old Johnny Berry from a photo, but rescinded the ID at a preliminary hearing. Inexplicably, Johnny was re-arrested and sent back to juvenile detention, where he met Tauheed Lloyd who had admitted to being one of the assailants. When Lloyd refused to clear Johnny's name, they fought. Months later, Lloyd was arrested in an unrelated incident, and his gun matched the murder weapon. Unaware of this evidence, Lloyd thought Johnny had snitched. In turn, he gave false testimony for leniency and out of spite, sending Johnny away for life without parole. Years later, Lloyd's attempted recantation was silenced by threats of perjury and another murder prosecution. It took a slew of Supreme Court rulings on juvenile life sentences and the Philadelphia CIU to right this wrong. To learn more and get involved, visit: [email protected] https://lavaforgood.com/with-jason-flom Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co No1.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On August 10th, 1994, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 78-year-old Leonard Jones and 27-year-old
0:09.5	Michelle Brooks at an apart car, when one male blocked the passenger door and another
0:14.4	demanded that Jones get out before shooting and killing him.
0:18.5	The two males fled.
0:20.1	Michelle Brooks initially chose 16-year-old Johnny Berry from a photo lineup, but when she
0:25.4	rescinded that ID at a preliminary hearing, the charges were dropped.
0:30.4	Within a few weeks, Johnny was inexplicably re-arrested for the crime of what he had just
0:35.6	been cleared, and while in juvenile detention, he met 15-year-old Tahit Lloyd, who admitted
0:41.3	that he was one of the two attackers of the Jones killing, but when he wouldn't agree
0:45.7	to clear Johnny's name, the two boys fought.
0:48.9	Lloyd was later arrested on an unrelated charge, and a gun in his possession was linked
0:53.2	to the Jones murder.
0:54.7	However, Lloyd mistakenly believed that Johnny had implicated him, and as retribution,
1:00.5	falsely named Johnny Berry as his accomplice and Jones's shooter.
1:04.5	At trial, Michelle Brooks' testimony was shaky at best, but with Lloyd's testimony, Johnny
1:10.2	was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.
1:13.6	Years later, Lloyd admitted his lies, but at a hearing when the prosecution threatened
1:18.5	to charge Lloyd with perjury and retry him for the murder, Lloyd refused to officially
1:23.5	recant.
1:24.5	It took a slew of Supreme Court rulings on juvenile life sentences and a review by Philadelphia's
1:30.2	conviction integrity unit to finally set Johnny Berry free after nearly 25 long years behind
1:36.7	bars.
	...

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