#201 Jason Flom with Dewey Bozella

against Dewey and fifteen year old Wayne Moseley. When police tried to turn the minor on his alleged accomplice, Wayne Moseley refused to lie, and the Smith brother's word was

not enough for a grand jury indictment. Six years and two eerily similar crimes later, one of which was properly attributed to brothers Donald and Anthony Wise, the d A continued his relentless pursuit of Dewey Bosella for emeric Crabser's murder, despite compelling evidence to the contrary, including Donald Wise's fingerprint at the scene. Finally, with Lamar Smith and Wayne Moseley and custody for separate crimes. The d A had the leverage he needed to coerce testimony and send Dewey Bosell

away for over twenty six years. However, the fight this boxer proved to be just too big, a fight that would one day see the inside of a professional boxing ring. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. That's me. I'm your host, and today I am so excited because we have a guest. We have a lot of first today. Our guest is Dewey Bozella, and Dewey is our only guest who speaks besides English, Arabic and japan Ease. He's the only one

who has won an sp Award. He's the only one who won a professional boxing match in his fifties. After he was released from prison after twenty six years of wrongful incarceration. Without further ado, let me introduce to you my friend Dewey Bozzella. Dewey, Welcome to Wrongful Conviction. Dewey.

I have to say if and I know you have your own book and we'll talk about this, but if I was going to write a book about your life, I would probably call it unbreakable, because you have been through experiences even beyond your wrath incarceration, that would have broken almost any mere mortal. From the time you were a kid, you experienced extreme hardship. I mean, can you talk about your upbringing in Brooklyn? It was me and my folder brothers in one system. As we were growing up,

things were pretty good except for my father. My father was just booty at the age of eight years old. My father turned my whole life around, as well as my brothers and my one sister at that particular time. One day, he was in the backyard and we were playing, and I came inside the house and I heard a lot of holler and screaming, and my father was beating up on my mother and my is beating up by my mother. Did the best I could do as a kid.

I ran over and grant him around the leg. He took me and threw me across the room like I was a piece of trash and continued to beat up on my mother. My mother went to the hospital, Me and my brothers we went in the foster homes and group homes, and things were never the same. Yeah, I'm sure they weren't. And your mother died and you witnessed that as an eight year old boy. Your father abandoned all six of you and went to live with your

half siblings. Did you didn't even know you had, one of whom Tony became important later on down the line. But first you and your five full siblings were shuffled between put foster homes and group homes until you were all finally placed together again a few years later with the Coleman family. Then, after all that, you've moved to Queens. You all moved to Queens and spent a good five or six years together with just at least a shred

of normalcy. But in high school I understand you started drinking, smoking, hanging out with some not so great people, and pretty soon you ended up dropping out and moving up state, just after another tragedy struck. Yeah. I was sixteen years old and I got into a fight with a guy. My name was Sandy Jackson. But I got into a fight with Standy Jackson. I got the best of him.

He didn't like that. Him and a guy by name of Barty driving a bicycle and seeing my brother at a party, and in the Jacksmon High School, and Stanley wouldn't stab my brother to death. He stab him in the heart and in the back and then murdered my brother. So, uh me, you know the coded streets I've won to get him. I wanted to get him from what he did in my brother and because of that, my older brother Tony, So he said, listen, man, when you come up here to upstate New York. You know I can

see where you're going. Man, if you stayed out in New York, you don't mind it, you know, in a bad situation. I said, okay, I'll give it a try. Because my true intent, Sir, I wanted to kill him, but what he did to my brother, he should have came after me. Shouldn't have came right to my brother. So when I moved up to Poughkeepsie, New York, my older brother he said to me, when't you go back to school? I said, Tony, don't waste your time. I'm not going back to school. He said, you know, do

something if you don't want to do something. I side went and I got involved into a program to where I became a carpenter and I got a job in Pokeepsie, New York massa square park and Pokeepsie was to hang out for everybody that was supposed to be hit at that particular time. So I just turned seventeen, I'm hanging out and everything that I did in New York was in that park. So one time I got into a fight and not beat the dude. I whipped the dudes. But they be called to me whipping the dudes, but

everybody said, yo, they do ain't happening. And so that's when I started getting around guys who was supposed to be you know, thugs and all that stuff. Coincidentally, you're up there in the area where Floyd Patterson, the heavyweight champion of the world, had recently converted a barn an Old Barn and New Path which is nearby, into a center for at risk youth. Floyd Patterson that first met him, moves to be called of a dare. God dared me.

He said, you're always fighting in all this, man, but you you you ain't gonna go up no dead mon, Floyd Patterson camp. I said, what, So I went up to Floyd, passing camp on it there. When I got up there, the first thing I did is, you know, I lied to Floyda, and I told Florida had three fights, and I didn't have three fights. You know. I was talking about fights out in the streets. I thought I knew everything. And Floyd put me out there. He put

me up with a guy my name of Danny. Here it is, I'm weighing like close on hunter ninety hounds. You know, he's a waterway. And I didn't know who Danny was. I went out there and I kicked Danny with a lucky punch and I rocked him. And right behind that, Floyd said, cut loose. He hit me with a body shot. The body shot knocked the mopiece out of my mouth, and then hit me with another shot in my chest and he hit me to the face yet and I called, you know, because the wind was

knocked out of me and the bell rang. When the bell rang, I got out out of the ring. I said, hey, I'm no, that's what I'm out of here. So floy that was wrong, was wrong? Was wrong? Was wrong? I said, Now I'm might right, I'm right, I'm right. I take the clubs off, take the clubs off, the gloves off. So you took the glove where you're going, Where you're going? Where you going, I'll be back for where but I'll be back. I'll be back. When I got up out

of there. That changed my whole life. Why because all he did was in with the body punch, in the chest shot. He didn't even go to the head. Yet. I'm a hundred ninety pounds and he under forty seven or a little bit more. At that particular. I didn't know at that time he was ready number one in the world. Floyd came up. I mean, he said, do you know you? No, he said, he's been number one in the world. Man never app that day forward, at that experience, took boxing as a joke. No, that would

wake anybody up. And what an introduction it was. But now just when things you know may have been taking a turn for the better, as your first exposure to boxing, which became such a huge part of your life, and which you excel that and have been recognized. Now finally, all these years later, June n seventy seven, this is the night when two year old Emma Crapser was brutally murdered in her apartment. She was tied up and suffocated.

She had linen stuffed in her mouth and down her throat, and this was a crime that obviously horrified local residents and for which there was a lot of pressure on the authorities to make arrests. And the police came up with a theory, right They said that Mrs Craps had had walked in on a burglary in progress and paid

with her life. So they went around and picked up some kids they knew were tough kids or whatever that hung out in the park Manasion Square Park and they were well aware of you do We, obviously because coming up from the city and everything else. They decided they would focus their investigation on the new kid in town who they knew was a bit of a brawler and a tough kid. And they started by questioning two brothers, Lamar and Stanley Smith, and originally they denied any knowledge

the crime. The interrogators told them though, that you do we had identified them as the murders. But that wasn't true, was it. No, it was far from the truth. I had no knowledge of the crime. And what made them even say something like that was the beginning of them framing me. Right, So Lamar Smith told the cops that he saw you and another guy named Wayne mostly was just fifteen years old on Mrs Crabser's porch trying to break in. So they're just coming up with stories out

of thin air. Stanley Smith told police that he saw you, Wayne Moseley, and a third guy together in the park on the day of the murder, and then you and Wayne Moseley were arrested for the burglary and murder. But Moseley was a minor. He was, like I said, it was only fifteen, so he wasn't gonna be They weren't gonna be able to charge him as an adult, so they wanted to get him to plead guilty right and testify to your involvement. But to his great credit a

fifteen year old kid, he refused to do that. And there was no evidence whatsoever linking either of you to the crime other than the word of the Smith brothers. So and the grand jury. They always say a grand jury will die to ham Sandwich. The grand jury refused to indict you. That says a lot, right. Yeah, you remember when they arrested me. I was both only both been home for three days, but they kept me for

twenty eight days to win. A judge told the protest attorney, you got let him go, and so I was releasing what they're calling the not bound belt, which means there was no evidence, nothing pointing to me at all. And for the next five and a half, close to six years,

nothing happened on the case. And then the case was reopened in Wayne Mosley and Lamar Smith were in Downstay correctional facility for crimes that they have committed, and the project attorney he said, listen, I make a deal with both of y'all to testify against duty was over and Wayne, this is what I'll do for you. I would get all your charges dropped and get you out of jail. Lamar,

I'll get you early parole. And both of them agreed. However, because to them being by law what they considered accompasses and saying that they were there at the scene of the crime, and in another collaborating witness, which was Stanley. But Stanley had no involvement of the crime at all. So that's what made his testimony so pure than the other two. And because Standy Smith collaborated with his brother, the Moss Smith, that was the beginning of I got

sent his twenty years to life. But something happened at your trial that should have certainly placed enough reasonable doubt in the States case, if not actually completely obliterated and knocked down this ridiculous house of cards. Now, for contexts, between nineteen seventy seven and your trial in there had been two incidents that were eerily similar to Emma Crabser's murder, and I say incidence because a victim and one of them survived to identify Donald and Anthony Wise as the perpetrators.

Anthony Wise's girlfriend, Madeline Dixon South, testified at your trial that she witness Donald and Anthony Wise heading into Emma Crabser's house and testified to how they said that they had gained entry through a window. She said that they told me that the jam m christ from murder. And because of what she said, the Federal Brewer Investigation went back inside the house and found the stringerprint of the

inside windows. And what's so completely fucking nuts doing, and it's just sad, is that despite all of this, the prosecutor was still able to cloud the juror's minds enough with Wayne Moseley Lamar and Stanley Smith and a bunch of other non evidence bullshit that the jury was somehow able to just gloss over ignore whatever you wanna call it, Madeline Dixon South's testimony and Donald Wise his fingerprint. Before I got sentence, the prosecutity attorney did everything that he

wasn't supposed to do. He took evidence and put it inside the jury room. When the judge told him not to do it, he did it anyway. All the things that that showed that I was innocent, you know, he made sure never made it inside the jury room. That's how bad he wanted me. So six years they spent putting together this false narrative just in order to get a conviction of the guy who they just sort of decided one day I was picked out of a hat. I was gonna take the fall for this murder rap

and that was you. How long did the trial take? First of all, No, one of two weeks, So you're a two weeks trial. The jury goes out. Did you think, Dewey, that they were going to come back and that the justice would be served and they would see the truth. At first, yes, in my mind, I didn't see anything that pointing to me. So when they came back with the verdict of guilty, I fell to the flaw slide of crime. How can you convict me. It was nothing,

nothing pointing to me, you know. So it took another turn on my life to where I had to, like, you know, I had to become like another person because now I'm sending twenty years of life and I'm wondering how one I'm going to deal with twenty years of life or crime I didn't commit. You know, I looked at the jury and jury seven five women, they all started crime. I said, it's too late. It's too late. You convicted. You know, it's too late. It's too late.

The Pacers Foundation is a proud supporter of this episode of Ronval Conviction with Jason Flam 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 that are dedicated primarily to helping

young people and students. For more information on the work of the Pacers Foundation or the Last Mile program, please visit Pacers Foundation dot org or the Last Mile dot org. I was inedian needing there a week and I watched the guy get stabbed in the eye and his eyeball came out in front of my face, and I was like, holy shit, I thought riot and b black. Not only that the guy but I knew by the name of Slim.

I wasn't leaving there, like I said. A week he got murdered, and I was like, what the fuck did I get myself into it? How the funk am I going to deal with this? And so my whole attitude changed. You know who attitude was don't touch me, don't put your hands on me, don't be around me. I'm not trying to get cut. I'm not trying to get stabbed. I'm not gonna let nobody hurt me. And from this day forward, I don't give a damn who you are. If you try to hurt me, I'm gonna dude, I

gotta do the spot. And that is my attitude. And I lived like that for over twenty six and a half years. Whoa I mean, it's I mean, that's a hell of a first week in a place that could just easily be called hell. And you were at New York's infamous Sing Sing correctional facility where you needed to be hard to survive, but you also underwent a really

incredible transformation while inside. What happened with me when I was inside sing Sing State Penitentry One day I come from the yard and I finished working out, and a guy my name is you Re, walked up to me and he said that I was fronting and fronting inside the state penitentry. Almost it's like a call out, you know, like you know, you're pumped, all these other things that go along with it. But he didn't mean it like that. You know. I took it the wrong way. And I said, yo,

you you're what was going on? You know? Um, it's not man, I just need to talk. I need to build. I said, okay. So the correctional officer said, all knocking, knock in, lock in another man, you know. He said, you keep locked, keep locking me And I'm inside myself for twenty three hours were one hour wrecked. So I mean, I mean the twenty four hours a day. And it was just this one keeplight that turned my whole life around.

Because I asked the guy who was supposed to have been my friend for a cigarette, he said he didn't have it. Listen, man, there it is right there, and you're cocket man. Why are you acting like that with me? Man? You know how I am? Man? You know what kind of person I am. Man. So he reached inside his pocketing the way he gave it to me, the way he gave it to me. I didn't I didn't like it at all, but I took it because I needed it. And when I took the cigarette, my whole life changed.

That was my minimorphis. That was the beginning. I wasn't even in Sincing, no more than a year and a half at the most. And and I looked at the cigarette, and I looked at my life, and I should look at you. Man, Let's fucking looked at you. You became with savage that they were talking about. You became exactly the person they were fucking talking about it. You got mine under it. If your bed there reef on top of your fucking goddamn bump. What what is wrong with you? Man?

As at least out in the streets you were trying to go to school, you ain't doing ship in here. You're doing absolutely nothing with your life. Man, Let's look at you. And then I asked myself one question, lisaid, if they able to let you go right now, what would your life be like and I ain't like to answer. The answered was I would be a bum. And so I just turned my life around. I just okay, said, damn, man, you know you lost your mother, your father, don't in

this family, don't give a shit about you. You don't know what none of your brothers and sisters is that. What are you gonna do? Man? I took the reef I had and I gave it away. The people thought I fucking flipped. They thought I bugged out. I took the wine hunderneath my bed. I started getting it away. I mean you are right, you are right. I mean you want it if you don't want it. I was dumped into the fucking Torley bo that day forward. I just never looked back. That was back in nineteen eighty

five September twenty seven. So I hang it out with your reef, and that day four ward, I got involved in every different program you could think about. I got fitted two certificates, I got my back has done my masters degree at the twenty six and a half years behind the prison alls. It's pretty incredible transformation. And do we I'm gonna talk about you in the third person.

Do we also became the boxing champion at Sing Sing and he became such a legendary fighter, and that that they brought in a guy who went on to become the w B A champion of the world to fight him. If he didn't come, I was gonna win, man. I had cracked the rivers in the second round. The tough son of a gun. Lula Valley was a guy man that I had almost respect for. I'm glad that he went on him and went they had him won the

championship fight. What it was like was an experience to make me really truly understand that the potential was there, the understanding of what I could have done with my life if I chose to take a deal later on

down the line, I could have done that. Finally, in you were granted a new trial on the grounds that the prosecutor had used his remptory challenges, which is, for those people who maybe new to the show, the prosecutor is allowed to exclude certain jurors off for no reason, just because he wants to exclude them from serving on the jury, and he had used these challenges to systematically remove all black jurors, ending up for the all white jury,

hardly a jury of your peers. So you were granted a new trial, and they came to you and offered you a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter for seven or fourteen. You've already done six and a half. But that was not even a consideration for you, was it. Hey? No. First, and for almost during my first tile, Stanley Smith got understand testified against me. I think that was what really got me convicted. You gotta remember he was helping his brother and he told the judge, I want you to

not committed perjury. I testified against this man. I want to get my brother out of jail. Now I got my brother out of jail. I want you to know that that committed perjury. And he said the same thing in my second trial in n You know, I still got prosecuted. It. This trial is so bad that nothing, absolutely, not one single shred of evidence pointing to me. The way the judge told the prosecute the attorney, he said, listen, the jury should be back on one album with a

not guilty verdict. That's when a project of the attorney said, listen, Mr Mosel, will give you seven and fourteen for manslaughter, or you gotta do is mentor in the nature of the crime. You see the board in six months with the possible to going home. I said, no, okay, Mr Mosland. They came back on the second day. We give you what we called time served. All you gotta do is mention the nature to crime. You go back the same

single and you re released to go home. I said no. So then at the jury was about to come back with the verdict the project with the attorney, he said, listen, well give what we call scenario awful plea or you gotta do is to sign a piece of paper. We look out the courtroom right now, I said, no jury walks in. I get resent this for he years to life. I mean wromptly convicted twice, yes, with no evidence, and

I didn't we didn't mention this before. But the fact is in a crime like this, a violent crime that involves up close contact, right, it's not a shooting from across the street or across the room. Even this is a woman who was brutally suffocated. There was so many pieces of evidence collected at the crime scene. I heard even close to a hundred pieces of evidence, and none

of them matched you. There was no nobody even ever claimed had your fingerprints or your blood, or your hair or your suraliva or anything was at the crime scene, and they managed to convict you twice based on the evidence of incentivized witnesses. This ship goes on in courtrooms across the country all the damn time, and it happened to Dewey Bozella. And that's what we're here talking about now. So back to prison you go. And I got back

to see since d pen A gentry. The bottom of day, I went down to what they're going to chap area. I was trying to find some peace when I walked in. Guess who I see? I see the guy with murder, my brother, Stanley Jackson. I said, oh him, No, you got to be kidding me. Man, I want inside myself for three days and I thought everything Now, I said,

you took a turn into the violence. You took behavior awareness, you took all these classes then and with violence now at a time of adversity, can you really live this out? Can you really you know, deal with this? Because cold in the streets said, Kim, you gotta kill him. You gotta bust him in the head, you gotta stabber, you gotta whip his ask you gotta do something otherwise you're a coward, you're a pump, You'll assisted and everything that's that go along with it. So I had to deal

with all these things in my mind. So after three days, I come up out of my cell and there's Stanley on the flats and a block and people are looking So you got three cheers, people looking down and the people are looking at like, oh shit, oh hell about the break loose. Now. You gotta remember I was in the New York Day New centerfold for boxing, and people know I'm the champ in sing sing, they know I'm not a Trump. And then a none of them know

that there's the guy who murdered my brother. So I walked to him and I said, you know, I'm gonna talk to you for a minute. He said yeah, So we go around the corner. Man, why do you murder my brother? He said, when I was young with something just happened, and loved him down in the face, and I looked him up and down. The first thing that came to my mind was then let this ship go, then move on with your life. And I've reached him and I shook his head at the young man. You know, man,

I forgive you. My man went off, Yo man, what he murdered your brother, you ain't gonna do ship me wanted to chat with your man back up, yo member. But I said, yo man, you ain't got nothing to do with this mess between me, him and dog. But he murdered. I said, you know, like I said, you didn't do with this, let it go. So when I did that, the world got out in the penitentiary. Man, I don't know if I gotta did what you did. I said, it doesn't matter what the funk you think,

what madness is, what between me, him and God. Man, that's what I wanted to do. How the funk am I asking able to forgive me? If I can't know how to forgive him, how I'm going to ask anybody to let my life move forward. If I can't let his life move forward, it begins with me. So I made the final decision. This is my decision, not your decision. And I don't give a damn about the coldest streets.

And I damned you don't give a damn about the cold dealing with the penitentiary because this is the ship that got me in there. Anyway, this cold ship. I'm done with it, and that was my attitude. Yeah, it was a code of a penitentiary that you didn't belonging in the first place, and somehow or other you transcended the environment and and and really lifted yourself up out of those walls, even while you were still behind those walls.

And that's incredible. And then it's almost as if you were rewarded, right because well in so many ways, because now we come to the point where you're in the visiting room one day and there's a beautiful young woman named trein a boone who's there? And how did this interaction take place? Because I've been there. I don't know how the hell you could even, you know. I was like a robottom of the I was involved with they called the jay cs and me being about in the

j c's um. I was there for about a couple of years to where they allowed me to go down to their visiting room and take pictures. And her brother came up and he introduced me. Say this is so so so. He's a boxer, you know, and he's a good guy. So after that we started talking and she liked boxing. One thing led to another. I was prayed up with her. I didn't lott punches. Actually, I'm looking for a wife, you know, I'm not looking for somebody

who just want to be a friend. Um, if they had the chance, you know, if you want to talk to me, you know, that would be cool. If you don't, it's so good, you know. And I asked her brother, can I get her phone number? And he gave it to me, and I made the phone calls. He was a little mad at him, but I made the phone call and then you know, that's how it all got started. And sure enough you ended up well finding exactly what

you're looking for with was a wife. And she became a huge part of your life and a big supporter of yours, so much, a part of the beautiful documentary that I watched, the ESPN films the twenty six years, the Dewey Bozzella story. She is, uh, obviously it almost like the I mean, she has a big roll there. Let's just say that. So now things are gonna take another few twists and turns. How did you first learn

about the Innocence Project? I know you started writing and it took used to write the same letter every day from what I read? Is that true? Yes? While I was at old library, still fighting my case. I wrote to them. I said I got blood samples in the hand samples and I didn't hear no answer. And then I wrote them every freaking week until I received the answer. A guy by named A leave and listen, don't write us no more. We're gonna put you on the list.

Right behind that, in the year two thousand and three, I went to my Bruce Pal roll board and I got hit with two years. And from what I understand, the pro board came back at you over and over

again with two year extensions despite your impressive transformation. Meanwhile, the Innocence Project took your case in two thousand five, but when they found out that the Pokeepsie Police Department had destroyed all the biological evidence, they passed your case onto Wilmer Cutler Hale, who took the case pro bono, and upon your request, they looked into the arresting officer,

a lieutenant named Arthur Regular. Something beside me told me to tell them go see the lieutenant, and when invested me in nineteen seven, no one wants to believe me. He told me when I as a kid, maybe he was gonna get me. Go by and see him he might have a change of heart. That's the only that came to my head. So they asked him a question, do you have any regulation about Mr three his a location? Yes, I do. Would you mind telling us? He said, I want you to know, like kept Mr bolls Ollas personal

files at my house for the last nineteen years. Are you supposed to keep any case at your house? He said no. When I retired, I took his files hold with me and I had him for the last nineteen years because I always knew that one day someone would come talk to me about this man case. I believe that he was innocent. Here are his files inside of the powers of what they called his arian material, braining material, newly discovered evidence, four pieces of evidence that said that

I did not commit the murder. One of the witnesses that said that they heard the garage from her house, the back of the house where they heard the garbage kids being moved by the women, seeal where the wise brothers had boasts that went in. Where bring the principal file and the two ladies who said to listen, we were sitting outside, and we know Wayne Moseley and the other guys who said they were in front of the house. They were not there because we were sitting out there

from seven o'clock eleven o'clock that night. There was a taste statement that was made that said I did not commit the murder. So a lot of things started pointing to a different direction, and so all this was born before the judge. Judge said, this is overwhelming accidents. And if we had had this in nineteen eighty three or in nineteen ninety, I believe that Mr Mozelle would not have been convicted. There's an attorney had to Mr Case

right there on the spot. October twenty nine, two thousand nine. So do we tell us what you were doing when you first got out of how you got the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the SPS in two thousand eleven and eventually got your shot. I'm getting the chills as I say this. As a professional boxer. I came out. I was fifty years old, and I was going doing volunteer and work at the River River's Gym. I was working with kids. I was also working at two ninety

Broadway on Main Street in Newburgh, New York. I was transforming people who came from the penitentiary all we in peace skills to see their role offices and stuff like that. So I was, you know, still communicating with the people, was in the inside. And then one day I don't know anything about the All Dance Courage Award. Hot happened. People said that they had recommended me and that I

was gonna receive the award. I wasn't excited and excited because I didn't know anything really about the Dance Courage Award. I get all the way out to l A and I started to see as old as ship, this is way bigger than what I thought it was. So I get out here. You know, I was going to be in front of like five to seven million people. I thought it would be seven thousands or something like that. So I gave a speech. I gave a speech listening.

I know Oscar DIDOOI heard about it right. So then Bernard Hopkins and Oscar de Lahoya took an interest in you and supported you in training. But in order to fight professionally, you had to take a number of grueling physical tests to be clear for fighting. And those wouldn't be easy for anyone at any age, but at fifty or fifty one, that's a big challenge. But as I saw, as everyone saw the movie knows, you worked your ass

off to get into fighting shape. Burnoud Hopkins. He said, bring him over the mine camp, bring him up to Philly. Then I'm gonna work with Danny and also get him a conditioning coach. Rick was the guy who actually would get up and train with me and work with me and run with me, you know. And Danny he did pad work and everything to get me in good shape and now comes to fight. Right. This was, yeah, the it is funny, man, what the hounds funny about it?

I mean, it was just that I know my qualifications. And he had four pro fights and then he had twelve MC Martial arge fights as a pro. So that's five team proved fights to my none. And I said, man, I'm not I'm taking this fight. I don't give a damn what he got. He wanted to win so bad he didn't care old I was. He wanted with my butt. And and so the first round he won. After he won the first round, the first thing I said to myself was doing what the hell are you're doing? You

know you're a sticking move fighter. Do what you do best, man. So I won by none of this decision. That's when I said, okay, doing this is it called the quiz. I was off with two other fights and I said, now I'm done. I said, I'm not trying to get hurt. You know, I prove. I proved to myself. You know, the quality was there. Everything I needed to know was right there. I'm satisfied. I'm good and I never went by.

So your life hit you with some of the hardest punches that anyone has ever been hit with, losing your mother, abandoned by your father, losing three brothers, spending twenty six years, and one of the toughest prisons in the country or maybe even the world. And still you remain unbroken and undefeated. And for our audience, if you want to learn more, you can with Dewey's book as well as the ESPN film. Both of them will be lengked in the bio. But Dewey,

your story isn't over yet. I heard you're living down in Atlanta, Georgia. Now what I'm doing right now, I'm down in Atlanta, Georgia, juvenile toad the centers. I'm going around and I'm doing volunteer work and get around and let people know, you know that, you know you can't turn your life a brown if you just make the right decision. Don't let nobody tell you what you can do. You you hold the key to your own life. You know, you make the final decision. You know. People may say

what they want to say. You know, but at the end of the day long you can go to your bed and you can wait or wake up in the morning and say, man, this is what I'm going to do and mean it on the heart. You're good. So you've been listening to the story and the voice of the man himself. Do we Bosella and Dewey, this is the part of the show where I turned my microphone off, kicked back in my chair and close my eyes and just listen as you share your final thoughts for closing arguments.

The night before the fight for Resident, Barack Obama gave me a call and he said, hello, how you muppose all? I said, the good President? I said wow, And he said how you doing. I said, I'm doing pretty good, man, that I'm feeling pretty good. He said, I heard a lot about you or that you know, you do a lot of things, you know, getting back to the community and everything he said, I just want to wish you well on your fight. I said, yeah, man, I appreciate

that a whole lot. And he said, you should just gonna be your person to last fight. I said yes. Then after that evening hung up. I had tears in my eyes and I said, Wow, this is bigger than me. Let's because here, this is the man that wanted to be a basketball player. He woind up being a president of the United States. And I said, everybody who gave up, you know who actually just like life don't mean nothing to him no more, or just lost hope, or just

like I don't care. You know, this fight is for them. It's not only for me. This this fight, this fight is to let them know, don't give up, don't let nobody tell you what you can do, don't give up on yourself, don't make yourself feel like you know you're You're not worthy. This is the fight that I'm fighting. I'm not fighting this a normal fight. More more, I'm fighting for the people men who actually just like said I don't care effort, you know, I don't want them

to feel that way. I I hope that I can be that sponsor to let them see that you can make it. If I can do it, you can do it. And Pipot two years old, this guy is thirty years old. You know, if I can do it at this age, what excuse to you have? You know, especially if you're young. Don't let nobody tell you what you can't through. And that was my mission after that, So I didn't. That's the reason why I was laughing. You know, I didn't care. You know about the fight. I don't. You can't do

nothing with me. You can't break me, you can't hurt me. Already went through all the difficulties, already been hurt. I already been let down. Already know what it's like that everything you're taken from. I really know what it's like that people turn it back on you. I already know it's like that people just like to give up and there's nobody there, and you feel all alone and you

buy yourself. I know. It's like man, you're just like, you know, just go through all the difficulties, you know, and and and and then not once, not twice, but three times, you know, and then have all the hurt in opinion and and and the deaths you know, put right in fro your face. You know and then to go out there and do what I did. You can't break me, man, and that's what I wanted. That's the

message that meant again, don't give up on yourself. Don't feel like man, there's nothing that in life, because the moment you are alive, you said that you're alive. God has something special for you. And if you don't believe in God, whatever it is that you believe in, you know there's something special for you because you're not done yet. It's that's your choice, your decision. You have a decision.

I made all the rights choices that a that made all the bad choices, and that's what this was about. Thank you for listening to Wrong for Conviction with Jason Flamer. Please support your local innocence projects and go to the link in our bio to see how you can help. I'd like to thank our production team Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburne and Kevin wardas. The music on the show, as always, 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