Summary
Transcript
Man was released from prison after eleven years for a murder he did not do. New here at 430, exonerated, a Chicago man is now free after spending eleven years behind bars for a murder that records show there is no way he could have committed. Christian Farr has more now on Anthony Robinson’s road to freedom and what’s next. It feels good. It just, you know, it just don’t feel.
It still don’t feel real. Anthony Robinson spent eleven years in prison for a murder that the now 31 year old could not have committed. And it was this x ray that led to his release from Stateville Correctional center on Monday. It felt good to hug my sister. Like, hug all my family members. In 2013, at the age of 20 years old, Robinson was sentenced to 55 years in prison by a judge for murdering Kelvin Jemison, a crime that had been captured on security video.
Prosecutors told the judge that Robinson had been spotted on that same video running from the crime scene. But from the beginning, Robinson told police, the judge, and even his own attorney that a previous shooting injured his leg and foot, which made it impossible for him to run from anything. When the judge found me guilty, I just went back in the bullpen, told my lawyer, like, you should have told him my leg was broke.
He probably never found me guilty. He said, oh, well, he’s gonna fight the appeal. It’s been ten years since that when we got these x rays in our minds, there was no question that he couldn’t have done it. The exoneration project took on Robinson’s case and tracked down his original x rays, which had not been done during Robinson’s original trial. Attorney Lauren Myerskoff Muller says an orthopedic surgeon reviewed them and said it would be impossible for Robinson to have committed this crime.
No one listened to Anthony. And I think that is part of what causes these wrongful convictions, is that no one listens to, especially young men on the south and west sides. I’m still trying to figure everything out, but it’s about me. Like, I’m just trying to be successful in my life now. Robinson now is trying to move on with his life, and the next step in his case is to apply for a certificate of innocence, which his attorney says could take years to become a reality.
I think our justice system is just absolutely broken, 100% broken. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So it’s already bad enough that the man spent eleven years, it was a possibility that he was gonna do his whole life, 55 year, 55 years in prison, for a crime that he did not commit. It’s bad enough that, that. And then it could take years in order for him to be able to get a certificate of innocence.
A certificate of innocence. It could take years. I bet you he had a jailhouse attorney. Hey, man, just plead guilty, bro. Hey, bro, bro. But my leg was broke. There’s no way that I could have ran and did all of that. So now it take you eleven years just to be able to get out of jail, man, you wouldn’t believe the amount of people that’s convicted, convicted of crimes or take a plea deal or scared and all of this stuff and they innocent and they wind up taking this deal.
It’s so many people, so many people that go to jail, suffer for things that they didn’t do and they be acting like we get like extra lives or something like that. That’s crazy. That is so crazy. So, man, listen, I like to highlight the stories, bring visibility to different things on this platform. And it’s so many people that’s a part of the innocence project that if it wasn’t for technology advancing to the way that it is today, you would never even see this or you never hear from these people again.
And they would just become a part of the system even though they are innocent. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. This man is only 31 years old. He looked like he, about 49, probably lived a rough life, suffered in prison. God knows what didn’t happen to him up in there. But thank God for his release and now he’s exonerated. And hopefully he can go on to live his life and be a little bit more successful.
Also, check this out. So a gang member was sentenced in the death of Amir Griffin. Check it out, y’all. We begin tonight in Queens, where the family of Amir Griffin faced his killer, Sean Brown, in court. Griffin was shot and killed by Brown in 2019 while playing basketball. A case of mistake identity Brown, a known gang member, mistook Griffin as a member of a rival gang and shot him multiple times.
Today, Brown tried to throw a twist in the case at the last minute. Eyewitness News reporter Kimberly Richardson is in Kew Gardens, Queens. Kimberly? Well, Joe, Amir Griffin never got to graduate from high school, go to college, or one day have a family. Yes, the 14 year old was shot and killed in 2019. Brown pulled the trigger and today here in court tried to pull off a legal maneuver, but the judge wasn’t having it.
A vicious individual who in 2019 was deeply involved in a bloody gangborn. South Jamaica, Queens. Judge Kenneth Holder calling the area at the time a shooting gallery where Sean Brown did his dirty work. It’s where, on October 26, Amir Griffin was simply playing basketball when a bullet fired from Brown’s gun meant for somebody else. Instead hit and killed the 14 year old. Took my soul from me. I haven’t slept for 45 years.
Today was time for Brown to face the music. Under a plea deal, served 30 years behind bars. But at the last second, his attorney announced her client wanted to withdraw the guilty plea he had just signed off on in March. I told me, saying the plea deal was gonna bond me more time to get another lawyer. The judge called it a stalling tactic, pointing out the 21 year old had been part of each and every step of this process for this and another separate case.
This is the second time that you have attempted to say, well, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do that, and I’m not going to go out. The judge sentenced the reputed gang member to three decades in prison. The only way we can close, can close to a mir now is by visiting his grave where we clean it off, flex flowers, balloons, and shed tears.
I wonder how much we miss it. Before leaving the courtroom, the judge told Brown Amir had the right to go to school, get a job, live and die naturally without violence. Amir’s mom urged others not to get caught up in the violence. You have way more things out there that you could be doing besides shooting someone. My son is no longer here. He was a basketball player, not a gang member.
And Judge holder left Sean Brown with something else to think about while behind bards, telling him, even though he is part of this violent culture, that hopefully maybe one day he will come to terms with what he has done and help others. Now, that young man did not look like he was somebody that was remorseful. He looked like somebody that felt okay with doing 30 years. Honestly, imagine your kid goes out to play and they go on to play basketball is some unknown gang war that’s going on, where people is fighting over something that don’t even mean anything.
And your son is gone in the instant because a bullet that was meant for a known gang member just so happened to hit him. It’s always the good ones that die early. It’s unfortunate. And then last but not least, this is an interesting one. And I thought that I’d throw a curveball at y’all this morning. This is an interesting one. And that a principal is being charged because a teacher was shot by a six year old.
I’m not making this up. Hear me out again. The principal, the assistant principal, is being charged with eight counts. Felonies because a teacher was shot with a gun by a six year old. Six. A six year old. Check it out. It’s believed to be the first case of its kind in the country. According to court documents. A special grand jury in Newport News, Virginia, has indicted doctor Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at rich Neck elementary school, on eight counts of felony child abuse.
The charges stemming from the 2023 school shooting involving a six year old boy who opened fire on his teacher, Abigail Zwerner. Savannah interviewed Zwerner last year. I just will never forget the look on his face that he gave me while he pointed the gun directly at me. That’s something that I will never forget. It’s changed me. It’s changed my life. In a $40 million civil lawsuit, Zwerner alleges that on the day of the shooting, Parker was warned at least three times that the child had a gun.
And while the child’s backpack was searched and no weapon found, Zwerner’s lawyers alleged Parker ignored the warnings. A student out in the playground saw the boy take the gun out of his pocket. That student went to a teacher and said, I saw him with a gun. That teacher ran down to the assistant principal’s office and said, I now have a student who has seen the gun. And that teacher requested permission to search his person, and the assistant principal said no.
What should doctor Parker have done? She should have called the police after multiple warnings that a child may have a gun. NBC News attempts to reach doctor Parker and the school for comment were unable to. Experts say this indictment is not only unprecedented, but represents a potential change in who can be held legally responsible in school shootings. Cases like these are about sending a very clear message that school shootings are so horrible, we’re willing to depart from the traditional rules and hold people responsible that really historically had not been held responsible before.
How do you even make sense of something like this? You can’t. You can’t. I know. I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away because of just how surreal it was. I mean, Aaron, is there, is there a chance beyond this that some others could also be charged at some point? You know, Craig, it is possible. Just last year, the prosecutors launched a grand jury to look into that very question, whether any, quote, acts or omissions by school officials warrant possible criminal charges.
It’s also worth noting that the six year old boy’s mother is now serving a two year sentence on state felony child neglect charge, and the boy is currently being cared for by his great grandfather, the great grandfather telling our affiliate that he has switched schools, that his grades have improved, and that the little boy understands that this was a terrible, terrible mistake. So many thoughts. So many thoughts, man.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what the appropriate response to this whole thing is. Six years old. Let’s put this in perspective. First of all, the great, great. The great grandfather, which means that the father don’t have them. Who knows who the father is? The grandfather? We don’t even know if he’s alive. The great grandfather is taking care of this boy that pulled out a gun and shot a teacher when they was off of the playground.
That’s crazy. That is absolutely insane. I. I just don’t even know how to put this in perspective. You know what I’m saying? Like, ah, man, a six year old. What? And I mean, it’s principled. Like this assistant principal, I mean, it just sound like her life is completely over 100%. .