- 2 days ago
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00:00We have a homicide in 4-2 Precinct.
00:22I've identified male.
00:23We'll work all night through this.
00:26It was right after 9-11.
00:28The NYPD were the heroes of the city,
00:31the rock stars of the country.
00:33And I thought, maybe I can have access to the NYPD
00:36to follow these detectives as they investigate homicides.
00:41I was embedded with Bronx homicide detectives.
00:44Why don't you come down and open the door?
00:46Bobby Adelarado and his partner, John Schwartz.
00:49This is a crime scene.
00:50So you've been a cop a long time.
00:52Almost 20 years.
00:53This is the twilight of your career.
00:54It's plausible.
00:55I walked into that building so young, eager,
01:00so unbelievably naive.
01:04These were tough guys, and I was ready, you know,
01:07to see how they solved murders.
01:08That's why I was there.
01:09That's Dan the man on patrol in Lower Manhattan.
01:13I didn't bang in today.
01:14You'll see.
01:19More importantly, let's go eat.
01:20We were out at dinner one night,
01:27and I said to Bobby,
01:30you must bring this job home with you,
01:32everything that you see.
01:33And he says, I really don't,
01:35except this one case.
01:36This one case has been bothering me for about a decade.
01:39And I said, what's that about?
01:40You told me that this is going to haunt me.
01:43It's going to haunt you.
01:44You think?
01:45Oh, without a doubt.
01:46Because it's not only going to haunt you,
01:48it's going to haunt you until there's closure.
01:51And even after the closure,
01:53it's still going to haunt you.
01:55Why?
01:56Right.
01:57Stop.
01:57Stop.
01:58Stop.
02:00beat e
02:15be
02:47Thanksgiving night of 1990, there was a shooting at the Palladium nightclub.
02:58One man is dead and another injured after a shooting at a Manhattan hotspot.
03:02It happened early this morning at the Palladium after some customers were thrown out for fighting.
03:07Police say some customers were thrown out, but they returned shooting.
03:11Marcus Peterson, a bouncer, was shot and killed.
03:14Another bouncer was wounded.
03:18Witnesses identified a couple of guys, David Lemus and Omado Hidalgo.
03:24They were arrested, tried, and convicted for the murder of Marcus Peterson.
03:32But they convicted the wrong guys.
03:35You think they had nothing to do with this crime?
03:37I know they had nothing to do with this crime.
03:39And they still sit in prison.
03:40Bobby told me he knew who really committed the murder.
03:45These two other guys by the name of Spanky and Joey.
03:48And that really, really aided him.
03:50And that's when I said to him, well, let's make this our story.
03:53Let me follow you as you reinvestigate this.
03:54Where are we going, Bobby?
04:00Well, we're going down to the 9th precinct to dig through the record room.
04:03Let's see if we can come up with the original case folder from 1990.
04:061931 to 1960.
04:13Get the hell out of here.
04:14I don't know what I said.
04:15I feel like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
04:27It seems to be missing, huh?
04:29Seems to be extremely hard to locate.
04:31This case, it's about who committed the homicide of Marcus Peterson.
04:50They're convinced that they got the right guys.
04:53Yeah.
04:54And I guess it's up to me to put together the best presentation I can put together
05:01based on all the facts I have to try to change their minds.
05:06And hopefully, this will replace that.
05:11At that point, David Lemus and Elmedo Hidalgo had been locked up for more than a decade.
05:18It was hard for me to wrap my mind around.
05:21If they were innocent, why were they there?
05:25David Lemus apparently bragged to a woman he was having an affair with,
05:29that he had been involved with the murder.
05:31Elmedo Hidalgo is a bit of a mystery.
05:34A confidential informant gave a tip to police that he had been involved with the Palladium shooting.
05:40From the beginning, David Lemus and Hidalgo claimed that they did not know each other.
05:46Had you ever been at the Palladium?
06:13I went to the Palladium one time in my life.
06:18In your entire life?
06:19My entire life.
06:20It wasn't Thanksgiving night?
06:21No, it wasn't Thanksgiving night.
06:22This was like maybe a year before.
06:24Were you at the Palladium on Thanksgiving?
06:26No.
06:28Have you ever been to the Palladium?
06:33He says he doesn't even know where the Palladium is at.
06:37The shooting happened at the Palladium on Thanksgiving night at one o'clock in the morning?
06:40Right.
06:40Where were you?
06:42I was home.
06:43Because I was with my girlfriend Janice.
06:45So then after you spent the night with your girlfriend, you go and spent that night with Dolores a couple days later.
06:50A couple days later I spent the night with Dolores.
06:52And I said, listen, you know, something happened last night and I was in the club and a shooting had broke out and I was involved with that shooting.
07:00Based on what you saw on the news?
07:02Based on what I saw on the news.
07:03That's the dumbest thing I ever heard anybody do in my life.
07:06It's ridiculous.
07:06Why would you do that?
07:09I was trying to portray somebody, portray an image that wasn't me.
07:12You know what I mean?
07:13And I figured, well, if I come at her like some kick-ass type of guy, she might think differently of me.
07:18I was trying to fill those shoes without actually being a part of it.
07:22And I just made it like one of the biggest mistakes of my life and admitted to something I didn't do.
07:26How did you get involved in all this?
07:34He says he doesn't know to this day he still asks himself the same question.
07:38Describe to me the day the verdict was read for you.
07:40How did it feel?
07:46He said his life was crushed at that.
07:47He said his life was crushed at that.
08:17Nobody wants to live in a cage like an animal.
08:23It's harder to accept being in the air when you know you didn't do anything.
08:29You understand?
08:31And that's not a day that goes by that I'm going to say to myself,
08:38why, no matter all the things that you could have told Dolores that day,
08:45why the palladium?
08:47It eats you up.
08:50I was born in the Bronx.
09:08I was raised by a single mother.
09:12Whenever you wanted to find me, all you had to do was go to the handball court, the baseball field, basketball court.
09:18I had my childhood friends where we were always together.
09:20You know, we were like Charlie Brown, you know, the little Rat Pack.
09:23My life was torn from my 20s where I want to get out of prison, I want to clear my name, I want to be free again.
09:34There are always going to be people out there that say, innocent people don't go to jail, innocent people don't get arrested, he had to do something wrong.
09:43But these two detectives, Bobby Alorado and John Swartz, truly believed that Hidalgo and I were innocent.
09:49Bobby just happens to have Dan Slepian, producer at Dateline NBC that's going to be following him around.
09:58He was young, eager, and green, but he was also hungry.
10:02So I was willing to take my chance with him because I had nobody else to take a chance with.
10:08We're already in here for 25 years.
10:11We have nothing to lose because we're already lost.
10:13We have nothing to lose because we're already lost.
10:43So what is that?
10:45This is a DD5 prepared by a detective with Crimestomers.
10:50What it says, caller overheard two individuals talking about being thrown out of the Palladium and then coming back to retaliate.
10:56They bragged about shooting two of the bouncers.
10:59The caller describes and identifies the males as follows.
11:02Spanky, male Hispanic, 28 years old, 5 foot 8, light skin.
11:06Second male is Joe, male Hispanic 20 to 23, 5 foot 6, medium beard, mustache, earring and ear, tattoo on the arm.
11:13The guy describes these guys to a T.
11:16When this got called in, Lemus and Hildago hadn't even been arrested yet.
11:20Bobby told me there was a decade's worth of information that made a very, very strong case
11:27that David Lemus and Elmedo Hildago were actually innocent and these two other guys, Joey and Spanky, were actually guilty.
11:36The Palladium case was not my case.
11:38It was another borough.
11:40But in 93, I arrested a guy named Joey Palat.
11:47And he admits that he participated in the Palladium homicide.
11:51Palladium shooting in a Manhattan hotspot.
11:54So we went to corroborate Joey's story.
11:57And then we find several more witnesses.
12:02The Manhattan district attorney's office was notified.
12:05But they already had two guys locked up.
12:08Eventually, in a hearing, Joey Palat testified that he and Spanky were the shooters.
12:14But the judge, he finds Joey Palat to be not credible and denies the motion for a new trial.
12:24And David Lemus and Omato Hildago are still sitting in jail for a crime they did not commit.
12:30So, John and I decided that there were definitely leads we could follow up on.
12:42So, here was David's problem.
12:45Janice Katala is a girlfriend of David Lemus.
12:51When she was originally interviewed by the case detective,
12:55she said they were at the Palladium.
12:57And then she turned around and said that they were home.
13:03So, I'd like to talk to her about exactly where they were that night.
13:15Proceed, David.
13:16Sergeant of 4-0-1.
13:23Hey, how you doing? What's up?
13:25Don't worry.
13:25How's it going to do with David?
13:27David Lemus.
13:28We're reinvestigating that case.
13:30You spoke to a detective, Feist.
13:32And I don't know if you're going to remember who that is.
13:34I remember that.
13:35Okay.
13:35I remember that very clearly.
13:37At the precinct, that's when they told me, well, he's here for murder.
13:42He's for murder.
13:43That night, we didn't go anywhere.
13:45We were home.
13:46We ate.
13:47We did what we had to do.
13:48We watched TV.
13:49And that was it.
13:49We went to sleep.
13:50So, they kept on badgering me.
13:51And I mean, they were the ones telling me, you guys went to the Palladium.
13:55Okay.
13:55From what you're telling me is, they told you this story about being at the Palladium.
14:01At the Palladium.
14:02You never volunteered any of that information?
14:04No.
14:05Were you there that night?
14:06No, I wasn't there that night.
14:07Was David there that night?
14:08No, he wasn't there that night.
14:09Okay.
14:10Did you sign a written statement?
14:11No, I didn't sign anything at all.
14:12Okay.
14:13You didn't write a statement?
14:14I didn't write a statement.
14:15I didn't, you know.
14:16They didn't ask you to sign anything?
14:17Mm-hmm.
14:18Okay.
14:19Were you ever called to testify at a trial?
14:22Never.
14:22Never.
14:22Okay.
14:23Never.
14:24When he was convicted of this murder, what was your feeling?
14:29I couldn't believe it.
14:30I really couldn't believe it.
14:31And I kept on saying, there's no way.
14:33He was with me.
14:34I kept on telling him, but that can't happen.
14:36It's supposed to be a lousy spot.
14:46This is the position that all those bad cop movies are.
14:50Right.
14:51And we like to think that stuff like this doesn't go on.
14:54Right.
14:55But I have no reason to think she's not going.
14:57No.
14:58She's not.
14:59No, not at all.
15:03We had somebody telling us that one of our brother officers
15:06had basically perjured himself in a police report.
15:14The foundations of everything that I believed in at that point
15:17was starting to shake.
15:19As part of his reinvestigation, Bobby wants to speak with Joey Pallott.
15:44who had confessed all those years ago
15:49that he and Spanky committed the crime.
15:58NYPD, for a one o'clock visit.
16:01He came to visit me.
16:15He just dropped the whole bar and shot me,
16:17because I thought these kids went home.
16:19No.
16:20Hey, bro.
16:20Well, you know what, Joey?
16:24Run through the whole thing, man.
16:26We're hanging out in the club.
16:28Rodriguez had a little problem with his girlfriend.
16:31He walked outside.
16:33The bouncers started beating up on him.
16:35Mm-hmm.
16:36That's when the shooting started.
16:37I never got to let off a round for my gun.
16:39For what reason, I don't know.
16:41I cocked the gun back.
16:42You jacked a slide?
16:43Yeah.
16:43Round come out?
16:44Yeah, I did.
16:45Okay.
16:45Who had what gun?
16:47I had a 9mm.
16:49What did Spanky have?
16:5238.
16:52Everything was hectic.
16:54The shots happened, and we drove back to the Bronx.
16:56They know the truth.
16:58Not that they don't want to believe it.
16:59They know the truth.
17:00And they just don't want to let the kids go home.
17:03I don't know if they told you that I meant both of them.
17:07No, when?
17:08When I went for the hearing.
17:10You told me you did it?
17:11Yeah, I was handcuffing Mr. David.
17:13Oh, really?
17:14He told me he stole me on the bus.
17:15And he didn't know who he was?
17:16He didn't know who I was.
17:17Did you tell him?
17:18Yeah, I called him a jackass.
17:20Why?
17:21I'm trying to impress her.
17:23He was a young kid.
17:23Right.
17:24I know that.
17:25The other kid, I don't know how he got involved with it.
17:27They just went and snatched him off the street.
17:29He's a mystery.
17:30The system sucks, man.
17:31They should have let those kids go home.
17:32I'm trying.
17:34I know that.
17:35John and I, we've been working this.
17:37We ain't gonna stop.
17:39We know the truth.
17:39You know the truth.
17:40I believed you back then.
17:42That's why I'm still here.
17:49Joey repeated something critically important.
17:52His gun jammed.
17:54Well, a live 9mm round was found at the scene of the crime.
17:59That's physical evidence that matched what Joey was saying.
18:04I became fully convinced that there was a real problem here.
18:20Is that a heavy burden?
18:22Yeah.
18:23It's a heavy burden.
18:24Bobby pulled in attorney Steve Cohen to get legal advice.
18:28Steve also believed that the wrong guys were in prison.
18:34He was one of the U.S. attorneys assigned to work with Bobby years earlier when Joey Pallott confessed that he and Spanky committed the crime.
18:41Steve was now in private practice and had been working pro bono to help Lemus and Hildago.
18:54In the year 2000, Steve got a reporter to write a New York Times article about Lemus and Hildago's plight.
19:02That article led a new witness to come forward who said, I was there that night.
19:08Spanky committed the Palladium murder.
19:10But what came of that?
19:14Nothing.
19:14Nobody ever deals with the fact that at the time at least, Lemus did not speak Spanish and Hildago at the time at least didn't speak English.
19:23This is a much better case against Rodriguez than they ever had against Lemus and Hildago.
19:28You have two eyewitnesses who know the guy.
19:31You have three admission witnesses who said after the fact they admitted it to them.
19:36And then you have a co-conspirator who's confessing to it.
19:39I don't get this amount of evidence in a normal prosecution.
19:42Now, if you look at him and you look at him with Lemus, it's possible.
19:49Yeah.
19:50You know, the witnesses mis-ID him.
19:51The next step for Bobby was to go down to the Manhattan DA's office to make his case about Lemus and Hildago's innocence.
20:07We actually don't know what we're walking into.
20:09The DA himself in petition to vacate the conviction.
20:14I mean, we're going in telling the truth here.
20:17I mean, if they don't take our word for it, then you know what?
20:19It just means that the defense attorneys then have to file their papers and make their motions.
20:24All right, boys.
20:25And there's more time these guys are going to have to spend in jail while the wheels of justice grind slowly.
20:43Bobby.
20:47I'm not going to comment right now about what I feel right now.
20:50I was expecting to have them look at the evidence and have a discussion about it, which didn't happen.
21:19Somebody's got to listen.
21:24And if it's not going to be the DA's office, it'll have to be a judge.
21:27In prison, you're just a number.
21:44They can tell you when to eat, when to sleep, when to shower.
21:48But they can't take away your hope.
21:55My mom, at that time, had moved to Florida.
21:59Mom didn't want to leave New York, obviously, because I was incarcerated.
22:01And I, like, literally had to force my mom, like, hey, you got to go.
22:06Go live your life.
22:08I'll be good.
22:08Come see me once a year.
22:16I'll be glad just to have you there.
22:18I'm going to make it festive, that's all.
22:27Hi, honey.
22:28Hello.
22:29Hi, how are you doing?
22:32How are you?
22:32All right.
22:33We're just having here dinner.
22:35Listen.
22:36Yes.
22:37You know I have to make the food list, you know?
22:39All right.
22:39Because I want everything.
22:40You want everything?
22:41Nothing's going back.
22:42Don't worry about it, honey.
22:44You want me to make you arroz con gandule?
22:45I want everything.
22:47I want a roco gandule.
22:48I want that deal.
22:48I want turkey.
22:49I want steak.
22:50I want it all.
22:51Okay.
22:52That's it.
22:52This is going to go on forever.
22:53How many weeks do we have?
22:55I don't know.
22:56Like 42 days.
22:57But who's counting?
22:5942 days?
23:00For who's counting?
23:0142 days, but who's counting?
23:0342 days and how many hours?
23:05I don't know.
23:06Okay, baby.
23:07All right.
23:08All right.
23:09Okay.
23:10We'll be fine.
23:11Yeah.
23:12Mm-hmm.
23:15I had to dye my hair.
23:23Are you kidding?
23:24My son sees me like this?
23:27And really, I only had an hour and a half sleep.
23:29Here I am, okay?
23:32I have so many things in my head.
23:35I'm excited because I'm here to see my son.
23:37But at the same time, this gets me very depressed.
23:43It's good to what it is.
23:44I'm going to see him.
23:45And I'm really happy.
23:47I can't wait.
23:48I just really can't wait.
23:53Our Thanksgabings were awesome.
23:54You know, you're in different modular units.
23:57Our mothers would be there cooking food.
23:59It was like, oh, man, my mom is making turkey, and my mom's making penlin, and we have rice
24:04and beans, and you're stuffing.
24:07That was the one thing that I had to look forward to.
24:12He's a man.
24:14You see pictures of him when he first started.
24:18It was, uh, he was so young.
24:20But he's going to be 35 years old, has no life, no children, no nothing.
24:37It hurts more knowing that he's not guilty.
24:50In my heart, I know that this poor lady on the other side of the wall, that's never given
24:58up on me, that always believed in me, you see her suffering, and you can't help but feel
25:10that that could have been avoided.
25:20The chimes, that's the chimes of freedom.
25:45I was hoping they'd be out by Christmas.
25:47Come here and light a candle for hope.
25:50You know, and light a candle for David and Omato, and for Marcus Peterson.
25:55Try to seek some strength to carry on and get this job done.
26:05Lemus and Eldago remained in prison.
26:08Several months later...
26:10Is this on?
26:11Can you hear me?
26:12In the spring of 2003...
26:14Look at this.
26:14The tree is a-blomin'.
26:16The Manhattan DA's office says, okay, we're going to reinvestigate the case.
26:19Start it over.
26:20You have to have our input on this, but let's search for the truth.
26:24The box of tormented souls.
26:27Prosecutor Dan Bibb took over the reinvestigation and assigned two Manhattan detectives to work
26:33on the case.
26:34A couple of Manhattan detectives want to talk to you.
26:36Bobby and John were asked to go down to Manhattan for a month to get the new detectives up to speed.
26:43I think it's a great thing, because I think anybody who looks at this is going to come to the same opinion.
26:47That's why I'm more than happy to do this.
26:49And the case file that he had never been able to find was there.
27:00We found information that we believed never got to the defense attorneys.
27:04One was Spanky's sister-in-law, who called up, and she says Spanky was responsible for the Palladium murder.
27:16Photo arrays were done.
27:17Identifications were made.
27:19And Spanky was identified by their own witnesses.
27:22They find more evidence, more information that the defense attorneys never got that implicated Spanky and Joey.
27:35So I called the legal division.
27:37The lieutenant in Manhattan South found out, and we were reprimanded.
27:42I was told point blank, this is a DA's investigation.
27:46This isn't a police department investigation.
27:48If they wanted me to do something, and they disregard that order, they could fire me.
27:53They're still in jail.
27:54You know what?
27:55So am I.
27:56I'm in jail in my own city.
28:00You know?
28:00I've been stripped from my power to investigate a case.
28:05We've been treated like we're not able to make a difference.
28:08And that's what this job has always been to me, making some kind of difference.
28:18Let's talk about how the DA's office has stripped me of my dignity.
28:35Bobby was no longer allowed to speak with anyone about the case, including defense attorney Steve Cohen.
28:40But Steve was speaking with the DA's office, who had implied to him months earlier that the reinvestigation was weeks away from being done.
28:52So Steve reached out to prosecutor Dan Bibb to find out what the progress was.
28:59Message?
29:00It is not my job to keep you up to speed and on exactly what we're doing.
29:09What I can tell you is that the investigation is proceeding.
29:13There are interviews happening every day of people with information relevant to the investigation.
29:20I can also tell you that the investigation is not going to take weeks.
29:26It's going to take months.
29:27That's unfortunate for you.
29:30I apologize.
29:31But I have other obligations in the office besides this case.
29:39It's pathetic.
29:41I believed a month ago that they were operating in good faith.
29:45I want to believe it now.
29:48If this is a crock, if there's nothing there, why is the district attorney's office investigating anything?
29:56And why is it going to take months?
29:57It's about whether the district attorney's office, in obtaining those convictions, complied with their legal duties.
30:07Did they violate the law?
30:10At the end of the day, if I am able to prove that we are right and they are wrong,
30:18what conclusion are you going to draw about them?
30:22This whole case seems so obvious to me.
30:29But after hearing that message, it started to give me a real education about how the system really works.
30:36I wanted to speak with the Manhattan DA's office, and I reached out to them many times for an interview, but they never agreed to give me one.
30:45Last day?
30:46Last day?
30:58Last day?
31:00This police department, it's been good to me.
31:02I have no problem with the police department, but I have a problem with everything else that's going on.
31:05How's it?
31:06How's it feeling?
31:07Like, before you get on a rollercoaster, it's scary.
31:09Like, you don't know what's, uh, you don't know what's coming.
31:12You know, it's...
31:13That's it, huh?
31:31That's it.
31:32You're retired.
31:32I felt I needed to leave after what happened last year.
31:41What do you mean, what happened last year?
31:43Uh, the fact that the case, the Palladium case, was taken away from me and, you know, basically I was told I couldn't investigate that case.
31:52It's...
31:53It's unbelievable.
31:54It's unbelievable.
31:56Not the way you wanted to go out?
31:58No.
32:02Not long after Bobby retired, the defense filed a motion for a new hearing.
32:08I thought the right thing was to go to the DA's office, tell them what I knew, tell them that I thought the wrong guys were in jail again.
32:14They then said to me, give us six weeks.
32:17They asked us to delay as they investigated this case.
32:2119 months is what it actually took.
32:27Steve Cohen got two new attorneys to work pro bono to represent Lemus and Hildago.
32:32The DA's office denied it.
32:34Morales was identified as an additional participant.
32:36The defense was arguing that there was evidence that wasn't turned over.
32:54That could possibly exculpate them.
32:58The DA's office denied it.
32:59Morales was identified as an additional participant.
33:02The prosecution's theory of this case was, oh yeah, we know about Spanky.
33:09We've always known about Spanky.
33:11He's a third shooter with Lemus and Hildago.
33:13The one person who both the prosecution and the defense agree was indisputably involved in the shooting, has never been arrested, and remains scot-free.
33:24Mr. Bibb, I must say it, there is something that's puzzling to the court.
33:32It is the subject of continuing discussion within my office.
33:36The point counsel makes is trouble.
33:41In other words, if your theory is correct, why is that person unprosecuted?
33:48That also is the subject of continuing discussions in my office.
33:53By this point, Dan Bibb had been speaking with me, telling me that he believed that Lemus and Hildago were innocent.
34:00Yet here he is, standing up, protecting the convictions.
34:04I was shocked.
34:07When we see you standing up in court, at that point, do you believe that the conviction should have been overturned?
34:16Yes.
34:18It's not like I can jump up in a courtroom and say, let's set aside these convictions.
34:25I had a client. My client was the people of the state of New York, as represented by the elected district attorney.
34:35So he was calling the shots?
34:37He was aware of what was going on.
34:40It becomes fairly, I guess, obvious that Spanky had something to do with this.
34:45It's obvious to me when I read the file that Spanky had something to do with it.
34:55Both prosecutors and the defense agreed that Spanky was involved with this murder.
35:07Yet Spanky remained a free man.
35:09I felt a responsibility to get to the truth.
35:13And that's when I found Spanky.
35:17This is Lemus and Hildago.
35:18I just came on my own to fix a little problem with what they're saying that I know of these guys.
35:46I'm not hiding from nobody. They know where I'm at.
35:49They're saying that they got an abundance of evidence that I have something involved with this thing, you know.
35:54And I just want to make it clear in the record that I don't know these guys.
36:00I produced a Dateline Hour about the case in 2005.
36:04We put Spanky on TV, and a couple of months later, he was finally arrested.
36:08Thomas Spanky Morales, an admitted former gang member from the Bronx, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Marcus Peterson.
36:18Two of the bouncers who were there that night saw the shooter, saw the show, and said they were absolutely certain that Spanky was the gunman.
36:27And that's what they testified to at the hearing.
36:28There was a mistake of identification to where the guy that had the altercation with me was Spanky.
36:36It was neither one of these guys. I've never seen either one of these guys in my life.
36:40Meanwhile, Lemus and Hildago are in hell.
36:45They're living in Rikers Island, going back and forth to court for these hearings over the course of nine months or so.
36:51Regarding the defendant, Alameda Hidalgo, only the court accepts the people's recommendation.
37:05The charges are dismissed against Mr. Hidalgo.
37:08No one could believe what just happened.
37:24After years and years of fighting, prosecutors walk into the courtroom and say,
37:28OK, we agreed to vacate Hidalgo's conviction.
37:32But Lemus, they said he was still the shooter.
37:34Do you think the justice exists in the United States?
37:41I think no.
37:43Why not?
37:46Because they do the law and they pass it over.
37:49Maybe they never know because we were paying for something that they told me.
37:58That's crazy.
38:01Two months after Hidalgo's release, Judge Hayes was finally prepared to make a ruling in David Lemus' case.
38:14He's coming.
38:15He's walking.
38:15Hopefully this is the day that all our lives begin again.
38:39Yes.
38:39Mr. Lemus, your motion to vacate your convictions of murder and attempted murder based on newly discovered evidence is granted.
39:02Home.
39:04Oh, my baby.
39:32Oh, my baby.
39:32Okay, everything is about quiet.
39:44Good luck, baby.
39:45Good luck.
39:47Do something good with your life, man.
39:49You're my life.
39:51You're my life.
39:52You're my mum.
39:53Take care of yourself.
39:54Take care of your family, okay?
39:59Bobby, how do you feel?
40:00I honestly feel like a weight has been lifted, man.
40:07I really do.
40:08I ever feel like something just lifts off you?
40:11I have that feeling right now.
40:13This was the highlight of my career.
40:16How are you feeling at this moment?
40:17I feel great.
40:19Today is a very good day.
40:21How does Mama feel right now?
40:22I really can't express the joy that I feel at the 14 years.
40:28I just want to just watch this and fade off into the sunset.
40:40After Spanky was arrested, he made an argument to the court that you, the prosecutor, had
40:48so much evidence that I was guilty at the time of the crime.
40:53It is a violation of my constitutional rights to arrest me a decade and a half later because
41:00I can't get a fair trial.
41:01And he won.
41:03And the case was dropped against him.
41:06It was all too much for Prosecutor Dan Bibb.
41:09He retired from the DA's office.
41:11Disgusted, he told me, by how it handled the Palladium case.
41:15But the DA's office maintained that Bibb was never asked to protect the convictions of
41:21anyone he believed to be innocent.
41:24Then, the Manhattan DA's office retried David Lemus for murder.
41:31Spanky got on the stand and said he was the gunman and he had no idea who David Lemus was.
41:39Why did it need to get to that?
41:42In the end, David Lemus was acquitted.
41:46Were you surprised at the verdict?
41:47Oh, come on.
41:48Absolutely not.
41:50Once they found me not guilty, the prosecutors immediately stood up and walked out the courtroom.
41:56They take lives.
41:58And they never look back.
42:00And then, they're not held accountable.
42:04There are hundreds of thousands of people incarcerated.
42:07If you have one that's innocent, that's one too many.
42:13During my incarceration, I met a lot of people that said they were innocent.
42:17But with J.J., it was different.
42:19And what I saw in J.J. was what I saw in my reflection and mirror.
42:25When he spoke about his case, you see that hurt, that pain.
42:30You know, to just feel it in my gut like, this guy is telling the truth.
42:36And this guy is me in another form.
42:39He became a friend.
42:40And his family became my family.
42:42I would give my life for him.
42:49I spoke to Dan.
42:50I was like, hey, you really need to talk to this guy.
42:54I visited J.J. a few times.
42:57But I was busy working on the Palladium case.
43:03So, after David Lemus' release, I went to Sing Sing with my camera to visit J.J.
43:12I need you to be honest with me every step of the way.
43:29Good things, bad things, everything.
43:31You have my honesty, Dan.
43:35You know, when I bring this up to people on the outside,
43:39so I think there's another case.
43:40Right?
43:42Yeah, right.
43:43Sure.
43:44Everybody's innocent.
43:46All I can do to anybody that doesn't believe me is to challenge me.
43:49Go out there and find the facts of my case.
43:51And prove me guilty.
43:53Because when you do that, you'll find that I'm innocent.
43:59I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.
44:03Or how unbelievably deep this problem goes.
44:10Do what I was getting murdered.
44:21I had deliberately bananas.
44:23I had with a couple of ACLs.
44:23I had to do that, but I had to do it.
44:27I had to do it.
44:30I did not do it.
44:31I had to do it.
44:32But if I told him, I wasn't that Untersuchumbledore.
44:34I told him.
44:35I ended up having the fight here
44:35and I had to wait until nobody看 behind me now.
44:36I have to do it.
44:37But I had to really feel good.
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