#155 Jason Flom with Marilyn Mulero

agreed to meet in the park to hang out. It turned out that these two men were members of the Latin Kings. Jackie lured one of them into the bathroom to make out, and when he stopped to urinate, she shot him in the back of the head. When she emerged alone, the other man asked about his friend, and Jackie shot him two. Marilyn and her friend were caught.

Completely unaware and panicked, they fled the scene. Then the case fell into the hands of two of Chicago's now most infamous detectives, who used incentivized snitches, false eyewitness testimony, and coercive interrogation tactics to pull Maryland and her friend into a case that should have rested squarely on Jackie Manton as his shoulders. Then Maryland's hired attorney inexplicably advised her to plead guilty while getting nothing in return from

the prosecutors, sending her directly to death row. News of this case would reach then twenty nine year old law professor Justin Brooks, and it drove him to uproot his life and begin a two and a half decade long quest to expose the misdeeds of those detectives and have the evidence of Maryland's innocence finally heard. She was released on April eighth, two thousand twenty. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Block. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom.

Today we have an episode for you that is deeply person and all to me, but it's even more personal to our second guest today, Justin Brooks. He is the founder and director of the California Innocence Project. Justin Welcome back to Rowful Conviction. Always a pleasure, Jason, thank you. And I'm about to introduce one of the most extraordinary

people and stories that I've ever met or heard. And when I say that, Marilyn Mallara, who I'm going to introduce in a second was sentenced to death in the nineties in Illinois after pleading guilty to a crime she didn't commit. So her attorney did such a terrible job that he actually resigned from the bar after the trial and became a priest. Marilyn, I'm so sorry that you have to be here because of what you went through, but I'm so happy you're here. So welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me. So this whole insane story began around midnight on May eleventh and into May twelve, two members of the Latin Kings were shot and killed in and around a bathroom in Chicago's Humble Park. But Maryland, I want to go back even before that. You were just twenty one years old. What was your life like before all of this happened. Well, I was a mother of two. I used to work two jobs, live with my brother. I saw drugs at the time to help

pay for the bills. I mean, a single woman of mother too. It's very difficult to pay for bills on your own, so I had to choose another method to bring some sort of income, and spelling marijuana and um cocaine was one of them. So you really had three jobs, two legal ones and one in the shadows. But no

judgment here. I'm not a religious person, but let them who was without sin cast the first stone, and Justin, can you take us back to what happened and how the hell they decided to focus on an innocent woman when in fact they could have and probably did know all along who the real perpetrator was of this awful crime. Yeah. So I mean, this case, Jason, and we can get into each one of these elements as we go along, involved every cause of wrongful conviction that you discussed on

this podcast. This case involved the false confession, false informant testimony, a bad identification, a bad lawyer, bad judges, and bad cops. So pretty much all the causes of wrongful conviction occurred together. It was the perfect storm, um which led Maryland to spend twenty seven years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. This case was such an insane injustice that it actually led you to give up your life as you knew it and found an innocence project. Right. Yeah,

this this case changed my life. This UM I had heard about it. I was at the time in Michigan teaching law school, and I read in the newspaper about this young woman, Marilyn Mollarro, who had been sentenced to death on a plea bargain. And when I read that, I thought, how could she possibly been sentenced to death on a plea bargain. It's it's a plea, but it's

certainly not a bargain. And you know there's supposed to be some kind of negotiated result where you get a lesser sentence as a result of you giving up all the rights that you have to give up in a plea agreement, and you're giving up your right to trial, you're giving up a lot of your pellet rights, and you know you're going directly to jail. And with her, she went directly to death row. And uh, I was so shocked by it that I've found out more about her case. I ended up meeting with her um on

death row. She was a scheduled for execution, and I remember the day vividly, um one twenty five years ago, sitting across from Maryland and saying, how did you end up here? And she told me this remarkable story about how this lawyer, who had never handled a case like this in the past, had no training on death penalty litigation. Um never negotiated anything that the prosecution pled her straight up to the homicide case, and the result was she was sentenced to death. And then she said the most

amazing thing, which is and I'm innocent. And so I went back to the law school where I was teaching, and I told my students her story, and I said, you know who wants to help me out on this case? And four brave souls raved their hands and we started investigating it, and everywhere we looked, we found out that she was innocent and that her case was a complete fabrication. Yes, of course, you know when you first told me about

this case. Where however I learned about it, I became obsessed with it as well and kept me up many nights, and um, I was so thrilled when it finally resolved. Um it, you know, it was nice for you and I'd have something else to talk about. Okay, So let's go back to Maryland's out driving around with Jackie Montez and another friend around midnight or something that the night before a mutual friend's funeral who had been killed by

the Latin Kings. They were near Humboldt Park and they met two guys who knew Jackie, Jimmy Cruise and Hector Yas you know, these guys saw these three girls and they started chatting at the light, and all three women went to Humboldt Park with these two guys who remembers the Latin King. Jackie went into the bathroom with one of the men. They were making out in the bathroom. He turned around to urinate and she pulled a gun out and shot him in the back of the head.

She then leaves the bathroom. And then there's two stories. The story that convicted Maryland, which we ultimately proved to be false, was that Jackie walked over handed the gun to Maryland and then she shot the second victim. What we now know happened was Jackie came out of the bathroom, the other guy said, you know, where's my homeboy? She makes a joke about it. She laughs and says he's taken a ship. He turns around, and she walks over and shoots him in the back of the head in

the exact same manner. Wait, so I have a couple of questions, but let's just start with this. How did they all not hear the gunshot from inside the bathroom. Yeah, we we actually had a hot former homicide detective go to the park because I never understood why the guy outside wouldn't be fully alerted to what happened, But apparently because it was low caliber bullet um and it was a contact killing, meaning the gun was actually on the

back of his head. His head actually acted as a sort of silencer, so there wasn't a lot of noise even though it was a tiled bathroom. Do we know why Jackie did what she did? So? What Jackie has has said over the years is her motivation was a friend of theirs was killed by the Latin Kings, but there's also been a lot of talk about that she was doing it to rise up in the gang, to be seen as someone who would do something like this.

So what did Marylyn do when the shooting happened, Well, Marilyn and the other girl are in shock, they see what happened, They run, and of course you know when you run, it's going to be equated to guilt. Neither Marilyn nor her other friend knew what Jackie Martinez was up to that night, and then ultimately they're arrested walking out of this funeral um that we've been talking about for their friend who had been killed by the Latin Kings and Maryland. Can you give us just from your perspective.

So here, you were a mother of two, you're snatched off the street after this funeral, and you and fifteen year old Jackie Monton is the woman, the girl really who actually committed this crime were brought down to the Latin Kings and detected. I can't believe they did this. And detectives tell them, quote unquote, these are the two girls that killed your homeboys, which put you at immediate and grave risk. It threatens to make your kids into orphans.

And then the cops bring you down to the station. Then now your legal representation interrogate you for around twenty hours without any sleep, and ultimately you signed a statement that they had prepared. It was a terrible moment. We had just left the funeral. The detectives just came straight and arrested Montanez and myself. Then they parked. They received a phone call. Once they hung up with the phone call,

they took us to Humble Park. We sat there for like a good ten minutes and they were questioning us. I did not answer anything. After the ten minutes. They took us the Beach and Spalding. They displayed us before the Latin Kings, and that must have been terrifying in and of itself. At that moment, all I thought it was My ending was right there. You know, somebody's gonna pull the trigger and kill us both. Then they took us to Grant and Central, placed us in separate rooms,

and from then on that's where the interrogation began. They took turns Detective Gorvera Halverson and kept questioning me over and over, trying to get me to admit that I've committed one of the crimes, which I kept telling him I did not, So the interrogation kept going back and forth between Guava and Halverson. They wanted me to say

something that I could not say. You know, they wanted me to lie, and I didn't want to lie, but they kept pressuring me and pressuring me, and it's just, you know, it becomes to where you're like, what the hell, Just leave me the hell alone. And you know, I spend time just crying, and it was like they didn't care. It's they didn't care about the tears, they didn't care about how I felt. They didn't care about, you know, how they were pressuring me, you know, and so mentally, emotionally,

and physically. It was very draining. So justin why was Marylyn in their sights and and how did they come to focus on her. So this case started for Maryland with a combination of some corrupt detectives detective Guivara and Halverson, who by the way, have been linked to now dozens of exonerations in Chicago and more than fifty million dollars

and settlements for wrongful convictions. So you have a couple of corrupt detectives and a snitch who's just making stuff up and gave three separate statements that kept changing in order for them to be consistent with the detective story. And it started with her saying that Jackie Martinez had been bragging about these killings. Then once they got Maryland into the mix, then she changed the story and said that Jackie just took credit for one of the murders.

And then once they got a confession out of Maryland after keeping her for nearly twenty four hours in custody and keeping her up all night, then they built this new story where now this snitch claims to have seen these girls before the shooting and had said that they were going to go do the shooting in you know gang vernacular, which was that apparently they said We're going

to roll on some flakes. And by the way, this snitch had been charged with a drug crime that night, which of course was later on dropped after they used her testimony. And all this was to build in the evidence they needed to make their case and they were just literally just making up their case as they went along. Um So it started with corrupt detectives and a snitch

and then it went downhill from there. Now, Maryland, you've now gone through this unbelievable ordeal, no sleep, twenty something hours in the police station, and you signed a statement prepared by the police. At that point you probably would have signed anything to make this torture stop, right, But did you understand what this meant? I mean, you were implicating yourself in both murders, one is the shooter and

the other as a conspirator. Right. Well, that was not explained to me at that point, and at that time I did not know the difference. You know, when they're telling you, well, if you want to grow old and see your kids and this is your best bet that you take the blame from one of the murders and Jackie Montaness will take the blame for the other. So it's like they leave you with no choice because you're going to put your children's before anything. So I just

went ahead and signed that statement. And of course there's more insanity coming our way, right because there's a witness who ends up testifying to seeing the murders from her apartment window, even though we find out later, right, I guess just in your investigation on coverage of interesting things about that. Sure, so after they know use this snitch testimony to get to Maryland, they now have to build the case up. And this woman claimed to see the

shooting from her apartment. And the first weekend I was working on this case, I drew to Chicago with my students and stood right in front of her apartment building. And it was crazy because all you had to do is go to the park to realize that she was lying. And when I measured it off, the distance between her apartment and the bathroom with a shooting occurred in front of it was four eight nine ft and she claimed at night, in the dark, with hardly any lighting, she

saw Jackie hand this gun to Maryland and do this shooting. Now, this is like saying you were sitting in a football stadium behind one end zone in the dark, and you saw someone hand somebody a hot dog behind the opposite end zone. I'm gonna take your analogy one step further because four d eighty nine ft is closer to two football fields, and it's dark, and there was foliage in the way, right, So I mean, they don't even have that in a football state. I've never seen one with foliage.

So there you go with your law students, and it takes you five minutes to realized that this whole thing is complete horseshit. It was factually impossible for her to see what she said, and nobody investigated it. Now when we finally tracked her down. Coincidentally, the one person who said they saw this shooting, the one person in the city of Chicago, was in a relationship with one of the victims, and none of that stuff was ever reported

or investigated. So that's the bad identification portion of this case. So now we have bad cops, bad snitch testimony, and bad identification. And then there's this lawyer. This lawyer in quotes Jeremiah Lynch. So he was hired to represent Maryland. There were friends who hired him. Um, he was paid a retainer. I don't know if he capitulated his role in this case because he figured there was no more

money coming, so why not just plead this out? Uh, you know, a death penalty cases takes a lot of time and energy and doing a trial very expensive and

time consuming. Um. But he took this ten tho dollar retainer and as a result, he had a couple of meetings with Maryland, short meetings, and he didn't meet with the district attorney, and he didn't go to the crime scene, even though later on when he was questioned he wasn't that far away his office from the crime scene and he'd claimed that maybe he jogged by there one time. Just basic stuff wasn't done and he had no training in this and this was his final case as a lawyer.

After Maryland was sentenced to death, he actually went took off out of the courtroom and it took me a year to find him, and usually lawyers are easy to find that when I found him, he was studying to be a priest at University of Detroit and he now is a Catholic priest, and uh, you know, if this was a movie, we'd have to change his name because it would be too corny that his name was father Lynch. And he literally did lynch Maryland in this case due

to his incompetence. The Pacers Foundation is a proud supporter of this episode and of the Last Mile organization, which provides business and tech training to help incarcerated individuals successfully and permanently re enter the workforce. The Pacers Foundation is committed to improving the lives of Hoosiers across Indiana, supporting

organizations dedicated primarily to helping young people and students. For more information on the work of the Pacers Foundation or the Last Mile Program, visit Pacers Foundation dot org or the Last Mile dot org. This episode is sponsored by a i G, a leading global insurance company, and Paul Weiss Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison, a leading international law firm.

The A i G Pro Bono Program provides free legal services and other support to many nonprofit organizations and individuals most in need, and recently they announced that working to reform the criminal justice system will become a key pillar of the program's mission. Paul Wise has long had an unwavering commitment to providing impactful, pro bono legal assistance to the most vulnerable members of our society and in support of the public interest, including extensive work in the criminal

justice area. So Maryland's lawyer, this ex lawyer who's now a priest, gave her terrible and that's not even stronger forward counsel, because when you plead guilty, there's almost always some sort of a deal made and leniency given. But in this case, there was no deal on the table,

so she doesn't even get a trial. And on top of that, her right to present evidence of innocence at that time and into the appellate process had been waived, So she went straight to a sentencing hearing in front of a jury, and it's just the prosecu cution telling twelve normal everyday people what a terrible, violent, evil person she is. And then there's the question of whether she

gets death or whether she gets life in prison. Now, the reason there was so incompetent it's because you could at least make an argument if the sentencing was being done by a judge, that the judge had sort of off the record indicated this isn't going to be a death case, but when it's a jury, you have no

assurances of anything. So the jury now gets to hear everything that the prosecution wants to put on, crime scene photos of dead bodies, testimony from the victims family, all these things in the sentencing phase of a death case,

and Maryland ends up getting sentenced to death. And it's worth noting that Illinois, Um, I don't know how long ago, it was more than ten years ago, there was a professor at Northwestern who assigned his students to find innocent people on death row, and the students on the eleven innocent people on death row students, by the way, and at that point, the governor Ryan, at the end of his term, commuted the death sentences of everyone on death

row in Illinois because he realized that during his term they'd executed ten people and hear these students had found eleven innocent ones, so his you know, they weren't even batting five hundred, even if they got it right on the ones they executed, and it's extremely unlikely that they didn't execute some innocent people along the way, so you know, they were maybe getting it right about three out of

ten times. And we're talking about the death penalty for Christ's sakes, So Maryland, can you give us some insight into what it was like on death Row as a young mother now separated from her children, thrown into this twilight zone nightmare. Well, when I first arrived to um Dwight, and I was taken to Cottage fifteen, where it's basically segregation, and they have a wing where they held the death Row inmates, and it's basically glass where segregation inmates can

see the death Row inmates. And they put me past that glass into a cell and I went in the room. They had brought me some boxes with clothing, all my beddings and everything that's required from the institution to give to you. And I wouldn't make my bed. I just sat there and started praying. And I just kept praying and praying out on my knees, and I'm like, Lord, just take the reins, whatever, you know, whatever you want me to do, I'm here and I'm gonna do it.

You know, Just let me be at ease, let me be at peace, let me be right by you, and let me get through this as fast as I can. You know, it was a beginning of a new start for me. Away from everybody and getting to know new people. And the officer came back and saw me praying and kind of disturbed me. It's like, hey, Ms Malarro, would you like the chuckhole open? And I'm like, sure, left

the chuckhole opened. The girls came by, introduce themself to me, and they sat there and they pray with me, you know, through the chuckho and so, you know, it was like an experience being back there on death Row. I try to stay as active as I possibly could back there. You know, you're not allowed to be with other offenders, but the people they were back there, so we had moments to where we were able to come out at hour at a time, or two people at a time.

I enjoyed it for the most part, not that I enjoy being on death row, but the way I was treated. I was loved and cared for. I was tend to. They would always constantly pray for me. We had lieutenants and officers, you know, kind of stay back there with us, keeping us company and praying with us. And because you get to know these officers, if they are a part

of you, you know, they no longer become officers. You know, some of them are compassionate and their heart goes out to you, and they try to spend as much time as they possibly can, you know, keeping you on a positive note. And majority of the times I would stay in my room and I would try to sleep my days away, and the officer were like, miss Miller, get up, get up, let's go, let's go to the yard or whatever. And I would go just to you know, stay motivated.

I tried to do some schooling. I enrode in myself for college. Within three months, they came back and told us back there that we were not worthy enough to take any schooling because we were deaf ral inmates. We were you know, about to be executed, So they took the schooling from us. And one of the ladies back there decided that, hey, okay, so let's get some sponsors. Let's write the church and see if they would you know, sponsor us and pay for some schooling for us. And

that's what we did. We started writing several churches organizations to try to see if we got sponsors. You know, I was blessed to get two different sponsor serves to get some of my education. You know, I have diploma certificates, right now and I have like four more modules left before I attain my Associates degree on theology. And it hasn't been easy. It's been kind of a rough time in prison because prison is not designed for you to

be comfortable. It's assigned for you to be uncomfortable, for you to stay in trouble. But it all determines on the individual one side, and what is it that you want to do and accomplish while you're there. So I was determined to do the right thing, not just by me, but for my children and my family and from my attorneys who were fighting hard to get my release. So I owed it to everybody, not just myself. So I pretty much stayed busy trying to stay focused on a

positive note while I was there. Do you think they knew you were innocent? Yes, they did. They knew from the moment that I got there, because before my arrival, Montanez was already at Dwight Correctional Center and she was always bragging about, you know, killing these guys, So they already knew that I was innocent. And justin Jackie signed Affid David's ad admitted verbally numerous times that she alone planned and executed the murders. So these are the arguments

that we made for years and years and years. But the problem was no one was willing to listen to them as long as that police stood, and Maryland never had an opportunity to present this evidence in a trial. So the process of how the hell this thing finally unraveled itself, it took god a better part of two and a half decades, really, right, yeah, twenty five years

I was working on it. I mean when I started this case, to put it in context, I was twenty nine and Maryland was twenty four, and now I'm fifty five, and I won't say how old Maryland is, but it's

been a long journey. So um. Now, that death sentence got reversed by the Illinois Supreme Court because the prosecution got greedy in the sentencing phase and in the prosecution's closing argument to the jury actually said, you know, ladies and gentlemen, miss Millaro filed emotion to suppress her confession in this case, that show she has no remorse, and

that's another reason to sentence her to death. Now, the problem with that argument is you're basically saying, because somebody asserted a constitutional right they should be executed based on that, and when it went in front of the Illinois Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Maryland's favor to reverse the death sentence, saying like, you cannot use a constitutional right as an aggravating circumstance, and also we don't

even see a logical connection between a lawyer filing emotion and then a person not having remorse. So then we went back to a new sentencing. UM. I handled that sentencing along with the Chicago Public Defender's Office. I first tried to get in all the innocence evidence, but it was very different cult because they didn't want to hear it because they said, this isn't about whether she's innocent or guilty, this is about whether she gets sentenced to death.

Because the court refused to withdraw her play, so Maryland has always been stuck with this play. She then gets sentenced to natural life, which was the best case scenario out of that proceeding, and then we start this two decades long odyssey trying to get her out of prison or get her a new trial. I took the case up on appeal. From there, we went into federal Court. We argued the ineffective assistance a council Federal Court. The

oral argument with it was really frustrating. One of the justices kept saying, well, it was her decision to plead, and I said, your honor, this is like going to a doctor's office and they say you're gonna be dead in ten minutes if you don't have open heart surgery, and you're saying, okay, you're right to effective assistance a council means getting good advice, and there was no way

this advice was good. But I lost. I petition the U. S. Supreme Court, lost petition the Governor's office three separate times for clemency. I follow a petition in the United Nations trying to declare Chicago's justice system as a human rights violation. Would they allow people to plead guilty and get death on a plea bargain? And due to all the incompetence in this case, the United Nations has still not ruled

on that petition. So there's been a lot of proceedings and ultimately the most successful one occurred just a few months ago, and that was finally another petition to the governor asking for her release. Laying the case out that evidence had never really seen the light of day. It's madness. I mean, the idea that she was prevented from presenting overwhelming evidence of innocence is not It's absolutely nuts. It's a terrible indictment of our system. There should be some

mechanism for justice to see the light of day. Of course, the last resort this case was clemency from the governor. And by the way, it wasn't just me that petition for that, it was the Exoneration Project, the Illinois Innocence Project. As you said, there's been a lot of innocence work in Chicago over the past few decades since a lot of great lawyers and organizations. They were doing it. I know, I called so many people trying to uh get this

on the governor's desk. That's probably people listening were like, you bother crap out of me on this case for so long. But anyway, it doesn't matter because the point is that it finally worked. So Maryland, So October nineteen, there's a clemency hearing, and then there's a got almost seven months go by, almost to the day until April six. How did you find out that the governor had granted

you clemency. I had surgery not too long ago, and one of the officers that sat with me at the hospital ended up working with internal affairs and she comes to my room. She's like, hey, Marylyn, I need to see you. And I'm like yeah. Everybody's like, oh shucks, I ace here. Hi, your contrabant, you know. So she's like, no, come here, I need to speak to you. I'm like okay, and she's like do you know. And I'm like, oh my god, you're leaving me too. And she's like, oh,

you don't know. I'm like, don't know what. She whispered in my ear and she's like, no, you're going home. I'm like, stop playing with me. And she's like, un for real and like, stop playing with my emotions. This is not funny. I love you. You're good to me. You were good to me then, but right now you're kind of, you know, working a little nerve. She's like, no, no, I'm for real. She's like, Officer Dorothy, it's up there at the business office right now, shutting down your account

doing or your paperwork. The people for the parole Board is coming to see you. You need to sign the paperwork the governor sending you your release form. You need to sign it. I said, I believe it when I see it. And I looked at her and she's like, hum for real. I'm like, Okay, I believe you. So then there's two officers who are just they go above and beyond. They're very compassionate and I'm very fond of them because they break their neck to help women in there.

And Lamar and Hardison were like Ms. Malaro, come to the day room right now. And I'm like, oh shucks. And they were like, we're about to announce it on the intercom that you're going home. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, please do not do that just yet. They were like why, because I don't want the girls to be in an uproar because once they find out that I was going home, because they've been waiting and waiting impatiently. We were on lockdown,

difficult situation to where we couldn't see each other. I felt like maybe a riot would have kicked out in the on the unit, you know. So what we did was we waited till next morning. So I woke up about four o'clock in the morning and started packing my things and giving everything I had a way. I didn't care. I didn't want to take nothing home but my bible, my pictures, my school were and my legal work. That's all. I walked out of there with everything else was left behind,

and the lieutenant came with the paperwork. I signed it. Parl Board came. I signed it. At seven o'clock in the morning when count was clear. They're like, we gotta get you out the institution so you won't be on our eight o'clock count. I'm like, okay, So we went to the b A. I took my picture, took the fingerprints, took my stuff to property, and was headed out the front gate and right at the sally port where the

visitors come in. Outside at the gate is where my brothers were waiting for me, and all the wardens were there. The administration was there, Heidi Brown and other people, and they, you know, hugged me. We knew we didn't have it the coronavirus. We hugged and said our goodbyes, you know, shed tears, and everybody was kind of mad that I

didn't say bye to the latency institution. But I couldn't because we were on lockdown, you know, so I mean when the girls found out, the officers blasted it, Hey, Malari's going home, and everybody started hollering out the window trying to let the other ladies on other units know that I was going home, and you know, they were hollering and screaming, don't forget about us, don't forget about us. I tell you, Maryland. When I got the call that

that you were getting out, I couldn't even speak. It's just it's just been so long, and uh, yeah, it's heartbreaking. I'm glad it's over. But I really hope we can learn from the story, and I hope some changes are made. Did you get a chance to see your children while you were in prison or how what was that communication like? Over all those twenty six years, I was pretty blessed. I had a family who would take turns bringing my kids see me constantly. So in that perspective, I, you know,

it was very grateful for my family. So throughout my home incarceration, I was able to see them. It was heartbreaking sometimes because my oldest son will always try to undo the handcuffs to release me and stuff, you know, and he will always be like my mom, let's go let's go. And I'm like, no, baby, i gotta stay here in school. He's like, Mom, You're not in school, You're in jail, you know. So they pretty much knew.

So at that point I knew that I had to keep it real with them and be like, yeah, I'm I'm us in jail, you know, but not for long, and I'll be home with you guys. You know. It took them to be grown man now, but I'm blessed to be here with them and be able to spend

time with them and my grandkids and my family. Since I've been out here, I've been on a movement trying to focus back on those ladies that are still there, that are also innocent, that no one knows about, because like myself, I've been fighting and it's been falling on deaf ears and the same thing with the women that are in there. So I am fighting hard with the Exoneration Project to make these ladies known. So that's what

I'm working on right now. You've really hit the ground running, and it's awesome to see that your spirit is beyond and all I can say about that is welcome home. And of course there was another development, which is that in May of this year, the Cook County States Attorney's Office began a comprehensive review of now retired Detective Ronaldo Guevera's cases and what has now been called one of

the biggest policing scandals in US history. And let me just say that again, one of the biggest policing scandals in the US history. This is the detective, were the two detectives that we're responsible for your wrongful conviction. But but justin what about Ernest Halverson. Yeah, he's been tied into these cases as well. Um, you know, as usual, it's not one bad apple. There was a lot of bad things happened in Chicago back then, and there's still

problems now. And fortunately we have organizations like the Exoneration Project in Chicago, the Illinois Innocence Project Center Wrongful Convictions, it's a it's a real hotbed of wrongful convictions in Chicago, and they're not just letting these laid down. You know, for a long time it's been about just getting our clients out of prison. But we need real reform and we need to examine these cases after they happen and look for the people responsible and hold them accountable, and

then look at their other cases. I've been talking for years about how Detective Gravara was part of Maryland's case because people have been looking at him for a long long time. But the problem is in our system. Getting the truth into a format that then can get presented within our judicial system and have a result is very,

very difficult. It's the greatest frustration of my life is that often we know the truth and we have the facts, but for some reason, the system won't allow those facts to be presented or won't give you an opportunity to get the right result. And and that's taken away twenty seven years of Maryland's life. It's so remarkable to sit here and listen to Maryland, and you know, it just dawned me. She hasn't had one negative thing to say. There hasn't been any trace of and maybe I'm just

not hearing it, but I don't think it's there of bitterness. No. I mean, she's focused on during this interview, on the things, the bright spots, the positive things that happened while she was on death row, while she was in prison, in maximum security prison for twenty six years, or something she didn't do. So all I can say is you are a blessing and it is an honor to be able to talk to you and to be a part of your story in some small way. Well, I kind of

knew that eventually. You know, I've always believed in God, and I've always placed my faith in Him, and that allow me to see me through that it's going to be okay. That I was going to come through this if I kept believing and maintaining my faith in Him. It takes a lot to maintain faith after everything you've been through, but more power to you. And she is extraordinary. You know you said about how a positive an upbeat

she is. I've had times over the last couple of decades where Maryland has tried to cheer me up about the case, and you know, that's a very strange thing. She's she's been a believer. She's an incredibly strong woman. And that's what we see with a lot of exonorees. They are different, and they are survivors and they are fighters, and that's why they make it through this nightmare. Well said, and it is um, justice delayed, But at least in

this case, justice was not denied. And um, there's still fighting left to be done on Maryland's behalf, and I know she's in the best possible hands with you and the California Innocence Project, as well as all the other great people that have been involved in helping to get

you home, Maryland. And I want to put a plug into you've heard today about the work of the California Innocence Project as well as the two other organizations that helped free Maryland, the Illinois Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project. And we're gonna have a link in our bio to all of those wonderful organizations. Please go click on the link and learn more and join us and get involved.

So this is a part of the show where I first of all get to thank both of you for um coming on and and sharing your thoughts and your perspective and your spirit. And then I turned my microphone off and kick back in my chair with my headphones on, close my eyes and just listen to whatever else you have to say. Maryland. We're gonna save you the best for last, UM, and I'm really looking forward to that.

So now again, UM. Justin Brooks, founder and director of the California Innocence Project, law professor and human rights fighter, extraordinaire. Thank you again for being here with us today. You know, this case changed my life. Maryland changed my life. I was teaching law school and a nice quiet life and the middle of Michigan with a nice little Victorian house. And UM, I'd been a criminal defense attorney for a number of years in Washington, d C. But when I

got involved in this case, I was shocked. I was shocked at the United States of America, a twenty one year old individual could be sentenced to death on a police bargain with no investigation into our case. UM, a conspiracy between the police and the lawyers and the judges. Everybody let this happen. They let this twenty one year old fall through this giant crack. And it shocked me. And I didn't think I could be shocked as a chrmal defense attorney. And so it just changed my life.

It caused me to leave my job in Michigan, moved to California, start the California Innocence Project, and and this case is the inspiration for the more than thirty people we've been able to free in California. I don't think any of that would have happened without without Maryland. Um. And now even a few months after she's out of prison, it's still not real to me because it's been part of my life for so long. It's almost like I don't know who I am if I'm not representing Marilyn

Molero and trying to get around of prison. So UM, I'm really happy we could tell her story today. It's an important story and it's certainly a big part of who I am. Amen to that. And Wow, Carlyn, that must be an amazing feeling to hear justin say those words and to know that you are a key element in the free of so many others who were wrongfully convicted of thirty encounting so and now what we've all

been waiting for. UM, no pressure. Thank you again, Marilyn Monaro for being here, for being so strong, and uh will turn it over to you for closing arguments. I want to thank you. I want to thank everybody who's been involved in my case throughout my twenty seven plus years.

I've had a lot of good people working on my case, and some of them are still in contact with me, and that's a very you know, emotional thing knowing that these people can still stay in contact, which they didn't have to, but they are, you know, so I take that to heart. Prison life was has not been easy for me. You know. I've had some struggles, my ups and downs, you know, my downfalls, you know, and it's

part of the struggle while you in prison. And sometimes you have to set up a mechanism so that people won't, you know, I think that you're vulnerable or take the best of you. So I always had my head up and always stay positive. I've always tried to do my best to help other women. Um my experience with my situation in my case had helped me to deal with other women in their situations as well and help them cope with, you know, their pain and suffering and being

able to be away from their families. And you know, while I've been incarcerated, I've helped create different programs, different groups and joined the Phoenix Rising, and as soon as a week within joining Phoenix Rising, which is a program from long term prisoners, I was voted in to become a committee member, and you know, I was honored by that because a lot of women had respect for me and a lot of my ideas and we've always succeeded in everything that we've tried to accomplish, and the wardens

would allow me to partake in a lot of the things and be a part of what they would do in the institution. And they asked me and tell me fight if we would create a program for the elderly and the disabled. And we took a whole unit, which was the House Unit six, and we created that which became a safe haven for those women so they would not be mistreated, you know, and misled and extorted and beat down in whatever other case could have taken place

with these women. And we've created various programs, groups, activities. You know, we constantly always pray for the unit so that the women's could get along together and not create a lot of chaos. And I'm very grateful that I'm here now. I'm grateful for Justin. You know, Justin always told me, hey, Maryland, I'm never divorcing this case and you get home. But like I told Justin, I'm home, but you're still not divorcing me. You're stuck with me for life. So you know, now he's got to deal

with me. So, you know, and Lauren and the other Lauren and you know, Cindy, the all these people, so I'm very grateful and at this small men I'm trying to do me. I'm still at piece. I'm happy with the women I've became while I was incarcerated, and I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing, and that's helping people while I'm out here and reaching back out to the women that are still in there as well

as to the men. You know, I'm in supportive of all the Gravarra victims and I'm just going to continue to be me and be positive, and one day I hope to put together my work release center to help somebody's women that don't have places to go. And that's my story as my life, and that's my dream, and I believe I was designed to do this. Don't forget to give us a fantastic review wherever you get your podcasts.

It really helps. And I'm a proud donor to the Innocence Project, and I really hope you'll join me in supporting this very important cause and helping to prevent future wrong for convictions. Go to Innocence Project dot org to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin wardis the music in the show is by three time OSCAR nominated

composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flam is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one