Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Reporter Discusses Innocent Man Freed After 17 Years in Prison
Aired August 26, 2002 - 11:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, weve got the latest on a story that -- really recent developments, just within the last few minutes, as a matter of fact. A man who spent some 17 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit is now free this morning. And were just getting word about this now, just moments ago. A judge has overturned the murder conviction -- murder and rape conviction, I should say, of Eddie Joe Lloyd after a DNA test showed that he was the wrong man in the case.
"New York Times" Chicago bureau chief Jodi Wilgoren worked on the -- worked with the Innocence Project to break this story. She joins us now live from Chicago to tell us some more about it.
Good morning, how are you?
JODI WILGOREN, "NEW YORK TIMES": Good morning, Leon.
HARRIS: Now, as I understand, the judge has just ruled just shortly, a short time ago in this particular case, correct?
WILGOREN: Thats right. It was a 9:00 hearing. I was here in Chicago, so I was not at the hearing, but I am told it went sort of without a hitch. And that Mr. Lloyd, after the judge overturned his conviction, simply told the judge who had -- when Judge Townsend sentenced him back in 1985, the judge lamented that there was no death penalty, because he thought Mr. Lloyd deserved it. And Mr. Lloyd just looked at the judge and said, thank you.
HARRIS: And the reason why the judge thought he deserved it was because this man, allegedly, actually did confess. He had submitted a written confession, and which also detailed some of the gory information that perhaps only the killer or the police inspecting the case would have known, correct?
WILGOREN: Thats right. That is what is remarkable about this case, is there is both a written statement taken by the police that he signed, as well as an audio tape that is played in court and in it, Mr. Lloyd told all of the disgusting things that he supposedly had done to this teenage girl, Michelle Jackson. In fact, Mr. Lloyd said that what he was doing was doing a ruse with the police that he hoped would smoke out the real killer. He said he was trying to help them, that if he confessed, maybe the real guy would slip up, and you know, tell somebody what he had actually done.
HARRIS: Well, then, where did he get the information? I am sorry, then where did Lloyd get the information in the first place that actually went in the confession? WILGOREN: I think thats the key question right now. The lawyers of Mr. Lloyd have asked that there be a federal investigation into just that question. Mr. Lloyd, who had been in contact with the police on other cases, and who had some mental illness, wrote to the police back in 1984, and in his letter asking about the Michelle Jackson case, he included a detail that the police had not revealed to the public about a green bottle that had been inserted into the victim.
Thats what started this whole interrogation process. Now during the interrogation, the police said that Mr. Lloyd gave them all sorts of other details. Mr. Lloyd says that the police gave him the details. That the detective would ask him a question, you know, what kind of jeans was he -- was she wearing? He would say, I don't know, I wasn't there. And the detective would eventually tell him what kind of jeans and then write it down as part of the confession.
HARRIS: So the detective is writing down, is giving the man the information, and then he writes it down as if this man gave it to him. And what is more shocking to me is to find out that this was -- Eddie Joe Lloyd was actually a mental patient at the time, correct? He was actually living in a mental institution?
WILGOREN: Right. Well, he was -- he had been committed to the mental institution for observation. He wasn't, you know, a long-term resident there. He hadn't been clearly diagnosed. He still hasn't been clearly diagnosed. His lawyers are hoping that he will get some assistance from the county as a mentally ill homeless person.
But its not entirely sure what is wrong with him. He is very bright. Hes a bit off. And you know, it seems crazy to us that he would believe that the police were cooperating with him to try to smoke out the real killer when in fact they were just trying to get him to confess to the murder. So its hard to know exactly what kind of illness he has, but he was being interrogated in a mental hospital at the time, so the police should have known that something was up.
HARRIS: So what happens next? I mean, this man has lost 17 years of his life. Theres a police detective out there that may have actually tricked up this confession, that kept this man behind bars this long. What happens next?
WILGOREN: Well, for Mr. Lloyd, he will get out of prison, probably today. He is looking forward to meeting his grandchildren who hes never met. And he has two sisters in the area. And he may, as I said, get some help from the county through a homeless program.
For the police department, there are bigger question, I think. The detective who was the lead in this case, Thomas DeGallon (ph), is retired. So theres no internal discipline that he would face. Some have suggested he should be investigated for potential criminal action. I don't know what will happen with that.
The defense attorneys are clearly saying that they think the whole matter should be investigated by the federal government, which is already investigating the police department for other civil rights violations. They want to look into the prosecutor, as well as the sergeant who oversaw the case, and the whole department. The current prosecutor, the Wayne County prosecutor, Michael Duggan, has said he is satisfied that there was no misconduct in the case. He says he thinks anyone would have thought that Mr. Lloyd was guilty and that the prosecutors who recently interviewed Mr. Lloyd still think, you know, not that he is guilty, because the DNA evidence has proven him not to be, but that he is convincing in his story. So the local prosecutors, you know, don't think there is necessarily anything wrong, but the defense attorneys are going to ask that the federal government look into this.
And the Justice Department people who are investigating the Detroit Police Department told me last week that they certainly would be interested in checking this out and seeing if it forms any kind of pattern of coerced confessions in the department.
HARRIS: Well, I can tell you one thing. We are very interested in continuing to watch this, to see how this unfolds. And we'll have more on this story as it does develop throughout the week. Jodi Wilgoren, thank you very much. We appreciate that and the report you just gave.
WILGOREN: Thank you, Leon.
HARRIS: Thank you. Good luck.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
