Randy Roth
Appearances
THREE
Inconclusive | Chapter 5
Yeah, the Dana Ireland murder was horrendous. And what I remember, there was just so much news coverage, as one would expect, certainly appropriate, over a long period of time because it took them a while to zero in on the people that they said had done it. I thought I was keeping up with it, but I very much got the impression that people that they had said did it, including Ian Schweitzer.
THREE
Inconclusive | Chapter 5
The mental impression that I formed from the news coverage was that these are some troublemakers. For whatever reason, I've always probably thought more highly of police and prosecutors than the average person. I've kiddingly told students that I think half of my students were wired to be prosecutors and I think as much as
THREE
Inconclusive | Chapter 5
what the reporters were reporting and their spin on all of this, I was, I think, shame on me, ready to believe the worst because why would the police lie? Why would the prosecutors lie? And even if they weren't lying, why would they be so badly mistaken if they deal in this world every single day?
THREE
Family Feud | Chapter 3
He had been working as a nurse, which once we got to know him just seemed like a perfect occupation for him.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
We said it right after Ian got exonerated to the press on the courthouse steps that we were not going to stop trying to find out who unknown male number one was.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
Ian had a hard struggle mentally coming out because of his age. And then, you know, he told me when he first got out, he's living back at home. So he's at home with his parents. Sean's been gone out the house for years. So it's just Ian and his parents, and now he's living in the house. And he feels useless, you know? So he's waking up at night, you know, doing dishes and stuff like that.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
And I think it was just very stressful kind of figuring out Do I fit in? How do I fit in?
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
Where's their help? And so most people, when they see the news clips, they say, oh, he's free. The judge just freed him and all that. They go, oh my God, he's just going to be, it's over. Don't realize that another journey started now. And you get used to being in that environment to where even if you're innocent, right, you get used to
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
a routine because you had to find a routine or that would drive you crazy. So you do a routine. So, you know, so whether it's, you know, like Ian and I, you know, work out a lot, right? So, you know, you go to the gym at a certain time, you go to the library at a certain time, you do this at a certain time. And so he's doing all that. Now all of a sudden he's out after 25 years of doing that.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
You're sleeping in a certain bed. One thing he said, he's like, you know... So Judge Friesen, we go to the hotel. We have a hotel room for him on the Big Island. He doesn't know how to check in. He doesn't know how to use the key. You know, because back then they just had to, you know. And so we tried to get him an iPhone.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
We had to take him to the iPhone store and sit there for a couple of hours while they teach him how to use an iPhone.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
I think almost every state has a wrongful conviction compensation statute. Hawaii statute, Bill Harrison and I sat on the committee to help develop the statute, and most of the things that we thought would be in it were cut out by the Attorney General at that point.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
But anyway, nevertheless, the statute is to allow anybody that was incarcerated and is actually innocent to receive $50,000 a year for each year that they were in prison. But in order to be entitled to that $50,000 a year, you have to show that when a judge vacates your conviction, he or she did so because you were actually innocent.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
And so because there are a lot of people who may have confessions taken falsely like that, you know, or whatever. And then they may be guilty. But because the confession was taken illegally, it gets thrown out and their conviction gets vacated. They still guilty. You ain't innocent. You may be free, but you ain't innocent. Right. We're talking about.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
So because our system and the prosecutors start talking about beyond the reasonable doubt. You get charged for a crime in the United States, despite what you see in the news, right, where they say, well, the jury came back and found him innocent. That never happens. It cannot happen. There's no verdict for innocence. It's only guilty or not guilty. And not guilty can have many meanings.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
It could mean that you're not guilty, or there wasn't enough evidence to prove it, or it could mean that you're innocent as a driven snow. but you would never be found innocent. And so when the judge vacated the conviction, in order to file the petition to get these young men compensated, we had to have him say, because no other judge can say it. They didn't do it. He did it.
THREE
Unknown Male #1 | Chapter 6
So we have to have this judge say, the reason why I vacated your convictions is because I found sufficient evidence to find by clear and convincing standards.