The Trail Went Cold - Episode 127 - Shareef Cousin

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2019

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

March 2, 1995. New Orleans, Louisiana. After leaving a restaurant with his date in the French Quarter, 25-year old Michael Gerardi is fatally gunned down by a trio of robbers. Weeks later, 16-year old Shareef Cousin is implicated in the crime and charged with first-degree murder. Even though Shareef seems to have an airtight alibi, Michael’s date identifies him as the shooter at trial. Shareef is found guilty and becomes one of the youngest people to ever be sentenced to death, but the verdict is surrounded with controversy. It turns out the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office committed egregious acts of prosecutorial misconduct, which included withholding exculpatory evidence, doctoring a tape-recorded interview, and illegally detaining defence witnesses. After nearly three years on death row, Shareef’s conviction is overturned, but Michael Gerardi’s real killers are never found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we chronicle a senseless murder which led to one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice you’ll ever find. Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareef_Cousin https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3126 http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,138469,00.html This episode of “The Trail Went Cold” has been sponsored by GreenChef. To enjoy your own wholesome and high-quality meals from GreenChef, please visit GreenChef.us/cold75 in order to receive a total of $75 off. “The Trail Went Cold” will be appearing on podcast row at CrimeCon 2019 from June 7th-9th at the Hilton Riverside hotel in New Orleans. Listeners can receive a 10% discount on the purchase of a standard badge by using the promo code “COLD19”. “The Trail Went Cold” will also be appearing at True Crime Podcast Festival 2019 on July 13th at the Marriott Downtown in Chicago. Please visit their website for more details. The Trail Went Cold will be appearing at the event, “True Crime Podcasts: Live in Toronto”, being held at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, August 18. For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, please visit this website. “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin the episode, we would like to send out a special thanks to Green Chef,
0:04.7	a USDA certified organic company for supporting the trail went cold.
0:09.4	Please visit Green Chef. US slash Cold 75 to receive a total of $75 off.
0:17.0	That's $25 each off your first three boxes of Green Chef meals.
0:21.8	Once again, that's Green Chef. US slash Cold 75.
0:26.8	Thank you and enjoy the show.
0:29.6	March 2nd.
0:31.3	1995 New Orleans, Louisiana.
0:35.0	After leaving a restaurant with his date in the French quarter,
0:39.0	25-year-old Michael Gerardi is fatally gunned down by a trio of robbers. Weeks later, 16-year-old
0:46.0	Shreve-Kuzan is implicated in the crime and charged with first-degree murder.
0:51.2	Even though Shreve seems to have an airtight alibi, Michael's date identifies him as the shooter at trial, and he is found guilty and sentenced to death.
1:00.0	However, it turns out the district attorney's office withheld exculpatory evidence and committed prosecutorial misconduct.
1:07.8	After nearly three years on death row, Sharif's conviction is overturned,
1:12.4	but Michael Gerardi's real killers are never found.
1:16.0	After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, yeah. Oh, uh, uh, uh,
1:34.0	uh,
1:35.0	uh, uh, uh,
1:36.0	uh,
1:38.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh uh uh... Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode of the Trail went cold.
1:58.0	I'm your host Robin Warder and we've got a truly jaw-dropping story to cover today, the 1995 murder of Michael Girardi and the subsequent wrongful conviction of Sharif-Kusen.
2:10.0	As you probably know, only a few days after the release of this episode, I will be appearing on podcast row at CrimeCon in New Orleans, which is why I decided to select a New Orleans themed case this week. In the end, I wound up falling down a rabbit hole and exploring one of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice you'll ever hear.
	...

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