On April Twenty Five, Robert mcclendon saw his biological daughter for the first time in five years, just walking down the street. They stopped and spoke. Later on that same day, the ten year old girl was allegedly abducted blindfolded, driven to an abandoned house and raped. According to the victim, she was later able to escape from the assailant's car when he had stopped at a convenience store. The following day, the victim's mother noticed that she was acting and walking strangely.
When asked, the victim alleged that her father, Robert mcclendon, had attacked her. She was taken to the hospital where a rape kit was performed. Siemen was not detected, so for now no DNA testing was done, but her underwear would later become a key piece of evidence. According to a polygraphic Examler, the final test of five that were done was ruled to be inconclusive and could have been
quote a deliberate attempt at deception. With this dubious result and the testimony of the ten year old victim, Robert was ultimately con nearly two decades passed, while Roberts are fifteen to life for the kidnapping and rape of his biological daughter, before advances in DNA testing made it possible to develop a male profile from the victims underwear. The Ohio Innocence Project, the Columbus dispatch and eventually the PROJECUTOR's
office worked diligently to ascertain the truth. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction this episode. There's a lot of things in this case that are typical the state that had happened in Ohio, the crime that was committed, but there's a twist in this case. It's uh, you're you're just gonna be scratching your head like I am, because it's crazy. and to tell this story we have
Jennifer Berger on an amy'll recognize. She is a professor of clinical law and the director of operations at the Ohioly business project. And actually, this, Jennifer, this was your first case, right, so I'm sure this is gonna be exciting for you and, of course, the man himself who lived through this nightmare, Robert mcclendon. Robert, I had a pleasure of meeting you recently and, listen, I'm sorry for what you went through, but I'm so glad that you're
here to share your story. Thank you and I'm really glad to be here. So, before we even get into the actual crime itself, which is a horrific crime. Yes, sir, what was your life like growing up? Well, I want to say it was a normal life. I didn't have
a traditional mom. I come from a family of alcohol drug apiece, but my mom tried the best, says she could, raising three boys were kind of like stairs step kids, and me and my mother we had a lot of disagreements because I've never smoked, drink or these drugs and because I will speak up to my mom and asked her, why don't you cooked like other moms, and things like that.
So my mother would get on me and she would she would whoop me, and so I went to the left and I would stayed live by Martha, who who basically raised me from a teenager all the way up. But I was very good at school, made good grades in school. So you still managed to perform well in school despite everything else. And then, I understand, you had three daughters by three different mothers. Not Too long after high school. There was Robin, Nicole and then your youngest
ended up being the victim in this case. But before we get into what happened to her, can you talk a little bit about your kids? Uh, I was young and I was standing at Robin and Nicole's life. I didn't really get to know the victim in this case because me and her mom that broke up and I hadn't seen her since she was five years old up until the time, and I saw her when she was ten years old. The mom kept me away from her
and that's just how it was. But there was a time before the mother ever became pregnant, before your relationship had gone sout right. Yeah, I had my own apartment, but I was found myself standing over there a lot with her and she had two kids, two boys, and we were seeing each other and she, you know, she became pregnant and at some point during that pregnancy she decided that she didn't want you and your daughter's life.
And at that time you were already helping to support your other two daughters while working for the Columbus Parks and recreation department. Yeah, city of Columbus, but you became a known entity to police with your side Hustle, right, selling drugs to supplement your income. No, judgment here. Back then, that's what you did because the money was so good, good and fast, and I felt that, because I wasn't using drugs, I was all in and I did very,
very well until I got called. I was put on probation. I think the judge saw that I was not a bad person, but when he gave me that probation, that there were certain people back then on the police department in the eighties that did not like me and did I like other guys that did what I did, and it made it very difficult for me and other guys. And there was one officer in particular who played a pivotal role in your case, officer Nardella. There was a detective.
He was what you call a dirty cop. He would arrest guys and take their money and their drugs, plant drugs, very corrupt and he took a very special interest in you, eventually arresting you while you were on probation, alleging that he had found drugs in your car, and this was in the lead up to your trial for the crime that we're here to discuss today. But I also want to make point out that once I was put on probation, I did not indulge in selling drugs anymore. I think
that's important, but it wasn't important to Nardella, though. As we so often see, a prior connection to drug deal and can make someone a target from carceration by any means necessary, even though that past does not make you in any way guilty of another crime like murder or, in this case, a rape, and especially the rape of your own daughter. So let's get to the day of
the incident itself. Robert, after the birth of your youngest biological daughter, you had only seen her twice, once at age five, and then, curiously, you saw her earlier in the day that this horrendous rape occurred, and it was is that accurate? That is accurate. I was going down Huston's street, going over to a lady friend's house, and this young girl came up to me and said are you Robert? I think you're my daddy. She says she remembered me from the pictures of her mother had on
her metal piece. So I said well, I'll tell your Mama said hi and I asked how she was doing in school. She said good, and I said we'll keep doing good in school and take your Mama. Said Hi. Two days later, my attorney called me and told me I needed to turn myself in because I was accused of rape in his chowel. And we don't know the
exact machinations behind you being accused of this rape. Perhaps because you had seen her, maybe there were resentments, maybe her mother had something to do with the blame being placed and you were really not sure, but we do know for a fact it was not you. I said it again, it was not you, and as we go along here, perhaps motivations become more clear. Now, make no mistake, this little girl absolutely did suffer a horrible sexual assault
that day. According to a statement, it wasn't until the next day, though, that her mother confronted her about how she was acting or walking strangely, and at that point she told her mother that her biological father, you Robert, had abducted her from her backyard in Columbus Ohio, tied a sock over her eyes and drove her off to some abandoned house somewhere where you allegedly raped her on a couch inside the house, ejaculated on her and then drove to a convenience store and she was able to
escape while you were allegedly inside this store. Now, the victim was taken to a hospital and a rape kit was performed and no seamen was identified on her underwear or unvaginal swamps. So no DNA testing was done as a result. But remember, this is and DNA testing approved over time, and this evidence became relevant again later. However, back in when asked if she could identify the attacker, the victim said, quote, I think it was my dad, but I may be wrong because my eyes were covered.
So at that point things were not looking good for Robert. Well, yes, I mean when we first looked at this case, it was very perplexing. I mean, Robert has been very steadfast and his innocence from day one and you know, I wanted to believe what he was saying, but I was also kind of perplexed by why would this young girl
makes something up against her own father? That could have been something manufactured in her own head, maybe completely innocently, or it could have been something that was planted in her head by someone from her family. I don't know. Then things take another tragic turn, right, which is that you, Robert, were arrested and charged with kidnapping and rape of this child. Robert, take us back to that awful day when you were arrest did, falsely accused and in fact charged with this
horrendous crime. My attorney didn't believe it. I thought it was some type of mistake. I was given a very low bond of a thousand dollars and was released. Wait, a thousand dollar bond? That's like what they give somebody for, like riding their bike on the sidewalk. I mean, this seems really way off for this horrible crime that we're
discussing here, but we're gonna come back to that. No, let's just say for now that it doesn't seem like your attorney was the only one who didn't believe these allegations. This judge, Judge Johnson, what's the same judge that put me on probation for aggravated trafficking during the time when they were a war on drugs, the police department was
hated by goods. Okay, okay. So now you're out awaiting trial and some people in the police department feel some kind of, you know, way about that, and that's when Nardella pulled you over. I had a beautiful red Mercedes that was customized, and there's a code when you are dealing drugs or selling drugs. You never ever do it. When you're driving your prize car, you don't carry you don't do anything wrong. Anybody is selling drugs. When you're
driving your show car, you're not working. There's never nothing wrong. There's no drugs, there's no illegal activities, no guns or anything in these cars. Well, that makes sense as a practical matter because in theory they could the car. Yeah, so, I mean he arrested me and put drugs in my car because I was on probation and he knew that I would go to chill and not be able to
get out because I was on probation. So now you're locked up for over a year awaiting trial, unable to fight the case from the outside, ineligible for bail, and now I need to go back to how bail was originally set at a thousand dollars. I mean, if they actually believed you to be the kind of sick bastard that would rape your own ten year old daughter, that just it doesn't add up. It makes no sense. What was the prosecutor did not want to take this case
because he didn't think he could win. That's why he opted for me to take a polygraph test and if I passed a polygraph test would not even go to trial. Sir. And the polygraph test, we know that they're not accurate. Even if they examiner is a true expert at reading the results, there's still only approximately accurate. So it's a little better than guessing. My attorney gave me a pre polygraph test. I passed it with flying colors. They gave me four polygraph tests. We now know that the guy
that did the polygraph test was corrupt. They were looking for a failed result and they got what I think was close to it when it came back inconclusive. So a state highway patrol examiner found, which is again subjective, that your answers, quote unquote, could be a deliberate attempt
at deception. That could apply to any polygraph test. You could literally be you could have the best polygraph test in the history of the world right, the equivalent of getting eight hundreds on your s a t s. You could nail it right and they could still go that copy and know maybe I don't know something look like you might have tried to say. I mean, that's a ridiculous I have to laugh because if I don't, I'm
gonna cry or I'm going to break something, you know. Okay, so you've got this polygraph examiner saying that this could be a deliberate attempt at deception, which could be something a corrupt polygraph examiner would testify to, and then you've got the victim saying that it was you and you decided to go for a bench trial. They chose to go with a bench trial because of the nature of
this crime. It was such a horrendous crime and there was going to be testimony from a ten year old girl and I think it's very hard for nature to hear the testimony of a ten year old who went through this and a quit, even if it's the right thing to do. My attorney said a jury would think that if you're a drug dealer, that you're a child molester.
We opted for a trial with judge Johnson because he felt that Judge Johnson will follow the law, and that seems like a very rational decision with the circumstances as you described. Every person knows why they were found guilty. There's two cosses of while I was found guilty, the testimony of the child and the inconclusive results of the polygraph test that I believe the prosecutor, so to the judge,
more powerful than what my attorney did. If my attorney dropped the ball any time, it was with he did not convince the judge that inconclusive results of the polygraph test means you did not feel it and you did not pass it. Yeah, they gave it to you four times and probably have given it to you forty times. And eventually, you know, I mean because they were you know, if you kept passing, we're gonna keep doing it, and
because we know how inaccurate these things are. Eventually, the law of averages, as you gotta either fail one or be inconclusive or whatever it is. So yeah, I mean this is important because, as anyone in our audience could end up on a jury at a criminal trial, please be aware that these things, well, he's not even allowed to be introduced as evidence. That's how that's how inaccurate these things are. They're not even allowed to be introduced
as evidence. But it's not like your lawyer did nothing. I mean he did present alibi witnesses. I mean there was a cable guy, but who would have no agenda, I mean, and then it was your friend Laverne, who you had been with all that day, and I understand that they were very rough with her. But, like you said, your lawyer didn't do enough to combat the bogus polygraph evidence. And, of course, what can be said to combat the tearful
words of a ten year old victim? There's nothing more powerful than a beautiful child on stand that points of finger at you and say that you did something. I have family members in the audience and they told me that we are your family, we love you, but if we did not know you and the way that girl pointed their finger at you and said you did it,
we would believe it. Take us back to that moment, that awful, awful moment, when the judge declared you, and correctly declared you, guilty of this rape and kidnapping and sentence you the fifteen years of life in prison. I remember Judge Johnson even to this day. He said the testimony of the child was powerful. I believe that you're guilty and I shook my head and I said, Judge Johnson, I did not do this. He shook his head and he looked down and he said son, I think you're guilty.
Never Forget it. When I walked into that sale, it was like I was being closed out of the whole world, like the whole world was was over. No, prison is a nice place. I think you have to be adaptable to it and I adapted to it. I helped a young guys, gang beggers, get their G D S. I'm very proud of that. And I did most of my time at Ross and in the last year I was transferred to chillicothe and Jennifer, how did Robert's case become the first case that you ever worked on and how
did you end up prevailing against all odds? Yeah, so I came here almost fifteen years ago and there was a project underway already that the high witnisen's project was doing with the Columbus Dispatch newspaper and the reporters had realized that prisoners across the state of Ohio had been asking for postconviction DNA testing in Ohio and the vast, vast majority of times they asked for testing it was just either summarily denied or in a lot of cases
the judges never even ruled on the applications. So they teamed up with US and reviewed the several hundred pieces where individuals had asked for postconviction DNA testing and had been denied or nothing had happened, and they ended up choosing thirty cases and Roberts was one of those. There was a whole series of articles in the Clumbus dispatch that came out in two thousand eight called test of convictions. So the Ohio innisence project and the Ohio public defender
did a few of the thirty cases. So I had a handful of those and Roberts was one of them. We filed for DNA testing in I think, February of two thousand and eight and much to my surprise, the Franklin County Prosecutor's office actually agreed to do the testing, which, based on the responses we were getting from others across
the state, was shocking. Always theorized that at the time they did it because they were so convinced he was guilty that it would just come back and prove it and that would be fine, which is fine with me because then it would show the system worked. I didn't care why they were deciding to agree, I was just glad they were. But that was that was my theory. So as a result of that, we ended up entering an agreed order to have items tested. The rape kid
was searched for, but that was long since gone. But fortunately they had the victims underwear still in storage at the prosecutor's office. When off Alpha DNA testing, three times they said the underwear was missing or he couldn't find them, but when an Ohio innocent project and a Columbus spatch got involved, wail the underwear. That reminds me of the Alan Newton case in New York where for over twenty
years they were denying the existence of the evidence. They said it had been lost and when the innocence project got involved they found it in exactly the place where it was supposed to be, in a vow with his name on it. And it's like US Christ like. This sounds like some banana republic, Third World country type of stuff, and this was New York City. So it's a miracle. I mean you know that there was evidence left to test and it's a travesty that there isn't a national
standard for the preservation of this type of evidence. That literally turns out to be the difference between dying in prison, quite possibly, and living life. Yeah, that was one of the unfortunate discoveries. From thirty cases, there were several where, I mean I can think of one person in particular where I do believe they're innocent but all of the
evidence was gone. and Um, this was for Marion Reynolds. Yeah, his wasn't the only case, but yeah, there was just a complete lack of any sort of uniform standards anywhere across the state. Fortunately, due to legislation that came into effect, I believe, in two thousand ten. That's changed in Ohio by statute, although unfortunately I don't think all of the law enforcement agencies are are following it at this point. But theoretically they should be now maintaining evidence in a
more uniform way. But fortunately for Robert at least they had the underwear. It had been looked at way back at the time of trial and they had determined that there wasn't any seaman or sperm on it, which is partially why I thought they figured either they weren't going to get any results or if they did, it would
come back and show Robert. But in any case they agreed, which was great, and we wanted to do y str testing on it because at this time that was the best way to find any male DNA, since we figured most of the DNA would be from the victim, who
was female, and ultimately they agreed to that. So we ended up sending it to a private lab here in Fairfield that is certified by the State of Ohio, and D D C, the private company in cooperation with the clumbus dispatch, had agreed to do the testing in all of these cases, all thirty of them, for free, and Robert's happened to be the first one. The results come back and sure enough it proves that what Robert had been saying from a one was true. He had nothing
to do with this. Jennifer, what was that moment like? You must have been ecstatic. Yeah, I happened to be on vacation at the beach when the results came in and, you know, I was trying not to think about work, but then I get the information about this and it just blew my mind. I mean it was amazing. I remember we went out to dinner that night. I was out with my family and I was just kind of like in a daze of like wow, this, this really happened, and it's it's not him, and then you know this
was the first case I had worked. So the first time, you know I had received results. So then my head was spending with okay, now what do we do? Of course you know Robert didn't know right. So that's the thing I'm dying to know. So there you are at the beach, you're celebrating, you're probably almost in a state of shock, like I love my job, and you're like, I can't all the emotions right. How did you communicate this to Robert? And then I want to get to
Robert's reaction. I gotta know everything. Tell me well, because the dispatch was involved, the two reporters, Jeff Dutton and Mike Wagner, really wanted to be there to document US giving the results to Robert, and I can let him tell the story about meeting these two reporters, but he knew them and they kind of had a good relationship going. So they definitely wanted to be there. So they worked it out with the prison so they had a camera
crew there. I mean, I felt bad for Robert having not told him ahead of time, but I promised the reporters I wouldn't and also, obviously we knew it was good news. They have alerted my people that the results were in, but they never said anything about what the results was. My people are going crazy. What is it? What? So I'm in the Hallway and the attorneys are walking by and no one's looking at me at all. It makes me think about you know, when the jury, the
jury comes in. They say they don't look at you, you're guilty. So I'm looking at the body language. I'm looking for eye contact. Okay, what Jennifer walks in. I'm looking at Jennifer. She don't look at me. I think a couple of the students walked by. I'm looking at them. They don't look at me. Now I remember a conversation with me and Mike Wagner had because he played basketball and he said if I ever got out that we was gonna go to the Y and play basketball together.
So then he walks by and I'm looking for some type of reactions from him. He's looking straight on the floor, but he says you ready for that basketball game and I just say yeah. That's when I knew otherwise what was going on. And they must have came back inconclusive. You know, inconclusive have worked out too well for me. Everyone's keeping a poker face and he's spills. To be I guess he could have resist, I mean. And then I read that you said Hello Truth. I never ever
raped anyone. Is that an accurate quote? The first words I said after Jennifer gave me the results was hello truth. I have a card, my business card is a picture of me receiving my DNA results from Jennifer. It's my favorite. So seventeen, almost seventeen years in prison, you were freed. Tell us about that day when you finally came home. When I got out, when I first got out, I went out and I said Hello Truth and hello freedom.
They did the camera crew there and they asked me what I want to eat, and of course I said wings and did not old pizza. They brought stacks of pizza and stacks of wings over to my daughter's mom's house and I was just like in the days. It's still surreal. It's so many people are talking to you and everything and you just realized you just walked out of hell into heaven, basically, and you're in a zone
where you're there but you're not there. It was special being around loved ones and friends and people that have been there with me through the journey the Ohio innocent project in the Columbus Dis Patch. Were there for hours, all the way until nighttime. It was wonderful, one of
the best days of my life. It is wonderful and it's actually really important that we not leave out the fact that for those seventeen years of your own full incarceration, no one was looking for the guy that actually did this and we owe it to ourselves as a society to make the system better and fairer for everyone, you know, to get justice for the victims and justice for the for the innocent person, and to get the real perpetrator
off the streets. Sir Robert, did did we? Did they ever find out who the real perpetrator was in this particular case? Yes, yes, Ronald' Brian, the prosecutor, the county prosecutor in Columbus Ohio, who has work very closely with the innocent project, where he wanted to do his own DNA tests a follow up. Of course, I was going crazy Google for Coco pops. Okay, yeah, this is while you were still in, before you got out, while I was still in, because I thought there was a fixing.
I thought there was something going on. They're getting ready to undo this somehow so, how innocent project and told me that the science is a science. Roberts gonna come up the same. So the results come back again. It was not me, but this time, sir, they came back with a hit. A known suspect, the seventeen year old son, had molested her at the age of ten years old. They continue to have a consentual relationship while she was a teenager and then continue to have a consensual relationship
into their adult life. Ronald Ryan told me when he presented the evidence to the mom, she did not even seem surprised. I asked Ron can we take this guy to court to prosecute him? He said, Robert, we can't do it because during the consentual relationship she would never take the stand against you. Now, how wicked is that? Guys, I'm rarely at a loss for words, but I don't have any words to say. It's gonna take me a minute. Sorry, I'm to apologizing to on. This is the first I
learned of this. Yeah, did they not know this before the DNA proved it, or was this known to some people in positions of authority at the time of your rawful conviction? I'm not sure everything that happened to this child. I always empathized, guys. I always empathized with this child because I knew and believed that something happened to this child and I was very empathetic as a result of that.
It just was not me, and I was even empathetic until we always thought it might have been a family member, but I stopped being empathetic. There's this child, when I found out that they was in a relationship while I was sitting in jail right and all this time, knowing that I was in prison, and her mother coerced her into saying all that stuff on the stand. Her mother knew all along. M There's a layer of evil in that. That is um there, there is, there is, sir, I'm
glad you said that were because that's exactly how it feels. Sir, I've been hearing a lot of amazing things that you've been engaged in the behalf of other axonorees and the community and I would love to hear about that. I've been an advocate for the Ohio intercent project since I've been out during speaking engagement schools, colleges, universities, getting the word out, talking about. You know what happened to me
and what happened to others. We all go to court when some of the other asutaries are out to support for their families and the other axonaries. is nothing more powerful than being there for one of your own when they get out to the free world. And then once they're out in the free world, they need help. We all need help. Some of these guys come out with issues,
as myself, PTSD and such financial problems. Uh, me and dean were kind of like the O G S of their high innocent project, and you guys should talk being him. His story is powerful too, that lawyers can't talk about the things that me and dean can talk to other xunaries that you well know. Me and dean, we were there to talk to these guys. We're on call seven to these guys when they have problems. We're real with it. You know, they tell us everything. They come to us.
We have a lady by the name of Donna Meyerson who who does a lot of work in regards to our counseling, mental health and things like that, somebody that we trust who's there for us. It's just giving back. That's a really beautiful thing. And you mentioned dean. That's Dean Gillespie and I remember meeting him at the Innocence
Network Conference this year. I met him several times before in the past and it sounds like the work you're doing just keeps the spirit of the conference, you know, the Camaraderie alive all year and just being a witness, being a part of that incredible energy. I wish I could bottle it and share it with people and just take a sip of it whenever I need the inspiration, because it's it's almost impossible to describe, but anyone who's been there knows what I'm talking about and you're doing
that every day. So Kudos to you. So I also understand that you've been active in getting some much needed legislation passed, which is incredible. I mean, can you fill us in on what you've been up to? House Bill Seventy seven? I was there. We helped do that. I'm gonna let Jennifer talk about the four part Bal where
she can describe it better than immediate. Boy, you're putting me on the spot for the four parts, but basically there was the last big overhaul of the Ohio DNA post conviction statute, and it did things like put into the statute the right to have codus upload of any DNA results, and it also addressed recording of interrogations and
preservation of evidence. It was for the first time put in statewide standards on what evidence in what crimes needs to be kept in for how long, so that we could stop running into the issues of not being able to do testing because it was gone. And Photo Up, Oh yes, thank you, and changing the way photo lineups are supposed to be done in Ohio so that it's not the six packs but is done with what they called a folder method, so it's done one at a
time to try to decrease the amount of mistaken identity. Yes, so Robert was very helpful with going around and meeting with a bunch of legislators to just tell them his story firsthand, and I think, you know, hearing from him and others who had been through similar situations really helped
the legislators understand why the legislation was important. And Mark, because of that legislation, mark has me talking to someone here in New York when your guys in about social security because, as you won't know when you're in prison, you don't get to pay in social security, retirement or nothing, and when you get out, the conversation that they give you, trust me, after you've become a victim of being used
by your family. Black idea. It's just not enough. Some agonaries end up with nothing, some Asonnoris end up being in financial tragedies, natural straits, is say it, because we just don't have the income to to make it, and so security would help out here. That some people, we could probably get it under PTSD, because all of us suffered from some forms of PTSD when we get out. But we need powerful people that's gonna get together and put your haste in your efforts together to make this happen.
You know, this idea has been floating around in the Zeitgeist lately and I feel like it's finally starting to grow some wings. So well, let's work together. Let's amend the thirteenth amendment or make a new amendment to the constitution that closes the slavery loophole in the Thirteenth Amendment. And, by the way, it's on the ballot this November in five states, Louisiana, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont. So again, Louisiana, Alabama, Oregon,
Tennessee and Vermont. If you live in one of those five states, you have an opportunity to make your voice heard and to help abolish slavery once and for all. And eventually we get all fifty states. I mean, if you think it would be a no brainer that there would be no slavery anywhere, regardless of your legal status. But who knows? In our current political climate, I shudder
to think. Anyway. With all of that said, I want to thank both of you for joining us here today and sharing this incredible story and just for being who you are, and thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you, Jennifer. I want to say thank you again. I don't know if I how many times you privile and, of course, please support the Ohio Innocence Project. Their work is saving lives to this very day and they need all of
our support. We'll put a link in the bio. And of course that brings us to closing arguments, where I just turned my microphone off, kicked back in my chair and listen for whatever you feel is left to be said. So, Jennifer, please go first and then Robert Close it out for us. Well, I just want to say thank you again for having me on and for putting a spotlight on these stories that are important and need to be shared, and I
also want to thank Robert. It's the fourteenth anniversary of the day I was there with you when you were able to walk out of jail, and it was one of the most memoral days of my life and I've just enjoyed watching you over these last fourteen years and seeing all the good that you've been doing too, to pay it forward to all the other men and women who have been in situations similar to you. So thank you for your work with them and also for helping
us out over time. Appreciate it. I just want to say that the worst day of my life was when I was wrongfully convicted and sentenced fifteen years of life. We're raping, kidnapping, but the happiest day on my life was when I was free to help it on how innes, the project and Glumbus dispatch, because it's free me to to where I'm at now, where I've been able to be there for other people to, as you say, pay
it forward with the WIO innocent project. I think it's important that I don't regret to the one who gets out. They want to just go their own way and do their own thing and they have people do that. But I feel like I've never had a job since I've been out because I feel like this is my job.
This this is my job and I'm on board. I'm serious about it and it means it means the world because I know that there's other people in there that should be out and I'm just doing my partners just help and bring the attention to so I want to thank you all. I want to thank you, Jennifer. I want to thank you, Jason. I want to thank Connor for the opportunity. Thank you for listening to rob for conviction. I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall, Jeff
Claver and Kevin Wardis, with research by Lila Robinson. The music in this production was supplied by three time Oscar nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be Sure to follow us on Instagram at wrongful conviction, on facebook at wrongful conviction podcast and on twitter at wrong conviction, as well as at
lava for good. On all three platforms, you can also follow me on both Tiktok and instagram at it's Jason Flom wrongful conviction is the production of lava for good podcasts in association with Signal Company Number One