A Murdered Cop and a Mishandled Mugshot – JJ Velazquez’s Wrongful Conviction

Episode Notes

Transcript

Michael Semanchik:

In 1998, a New York City police officer was gunned down inside an illegal gambling operation within hours. NYPD zeroed in on a man, John Adrian, JJ Velazquez, a 22-year-old father who was at home with his family. What followed was a textbook example of tunnel vision, unreliable eyewitnesses, withheld evidence, and a system determined to close a high profile case no matter the cost. JJ was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, despite no physical evidence tying him to the crime behind bars, JJ refused to give up. He spent more than two decades fighting to prove his innocence, becoming a powerful advocate for criminal justice reform. Along the way, his persistence eventually caught the attention of journalists and innocence advocates who joined his call for justice. This is the story of how one man found purpose in the face of injustice and what it took to finally come home. I’m Michael Semanchik, and this is for the innocent

William Michael Dillon:

Spent most of my life in prison, chasing our dream, call justice, chasing our dream, chasing a dream. Want somebody, please hear my peace. Want somebody, please set me free.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

I’m the same man today than I was many years ago. Just much more evolved. Why I say the same is because I still carry the same principles that my parents embedded in me. Family is number one, and family was the number one thing they took from us when they incarcerated me for a crime I did not commit.

Dan Slepian:

JJ is a kid of the city of New York, Queens, Bronx, Manhattan. He lived in all three boroughs.

Michael Semanchik:

That’s Dan Slepian, an award-winning journalist known for his work. As producer on NBC’s Dateline, an author of the Sing, sing Files. Today, he’ll be helping us tell JJs story.

Dan Slepian:

JJ grew up with a loving father and a loving mother. His dad was an Amtrak police officer. His mother was a union organizer for the 1199 Union. He was an only child until his dad and mom split up, and he has a half brother, but really he grew up for the most part as an only child with a lot of love around him.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

When you talk about who I am, I was a person trying to fill big shoes. My father, when he was young, because of the time that he lived in, was drafted to the army, became a police officer, not by choice, but he was drafted, right? So he had to do this as a civil duty to society. He becomes a military police officer, finishes his duty as a member of the army, and then comes home and realizes I need a job. I have a woman. I want to start a life. That woman happened to be my mother, and so he decides to become a police officer. I would love to tell you that I was just being a kid, but unfortunately that wasn’t my story. I made some bad choices when I was a kid. At the age of 16, I decided that I was a man and I wasn’t going to listen to my mother and father anymore.

They were basically separated two different places. So I came from this home that was filled with love, that broke right before my eyes, and I couldn’t understand why my father wasn’t coming home. And so when I looked for a father, I found the street and I started hanging out out there and people started realizing, oh, this guy, jj, he’s a cool dude. He’s like captain of the baseball team. He brings in X amount of points. He wins games for the school. Everybody loved me. But that magnetism led me down the wrong path, particularly because I had a void at home and I don’t blame him. He didn’t know what he was doing, and I don’t blame my mother. They couldn’t get along. I realized as an adult, sometimes separations are necessary, but as a child, I couldn’t understand that. I couldn’t grasp that. And so that impacted me. And the only reason why I share it is because that same impact is real amongst multiple children throughout our world, and we don’t realize how our children get lost in the system. But the reason why I’m convicted for almost 27 years was because I didn’t understand the system. I allowed them to bring me into the system, take a mugshot and keep it there when it didn’t belong there, and they utilize that to violate the rest of my life.

Dan Slepian:

On January 27th, 1998, at about noon, a man knocked on the door of an illegal gambling parlor owned by a former and retired New York City police officer by the name of Albert Ward. He said he wanted to place a number to gamble. The guy at the door said, we don’t know you. He writes the name TTEE on a vetting slip, and he leaves. An hour later, he comes back and he knocks on the door. Another guy answers the door, we don’t know you. The guy before who took the bet said, oh, he was here an hour earlier. He played a number, and this time the shooter, who was that guy? T has another man with him who later describes as a dark-skinned black man. They come in, they announce a robbery. The dark-skinned man starts duct taping people in the front room, there’s two rooms in the front room.

He starts duct taping people, and in the back room is this heroin dealer, Augustus Brown, selling heroin to Lorenzo. Woodford, a 45-year-old man. T the shooter goes into the back room and gets those guys to come in the front room and get on the floor with the rest. At that point, Albert Ward takes out his own weapon and is about to fire. He actually does get off a shot, and the dark skin guy says to his accomplice, he’s got a gun. And then the light-skinned man with the braids takes out a gun, shoots Al Ward once in the head killing him and they take off. So the whole theory of the crime was that it was a botched burglary. And it’s important to note that there was enormous pressure because Al Ward was a former NYPD officer. Whether he worked and ran an illegal gambling parlor or not is irrelevant. If you’re a cop, you’re a cop. And he worked within the confines of the precinct that investigated his homicide. So there was immediately a huge group of officers that showed up and it was a rush to find the killer. So what happened was is that jj, first of all, JJ knew nothing about this crime when it happened. He hadn’t heard about it. He knew nothing about it. About a year earlier, sometime in the prior year before the arrest for this case, JJ had been shopping at the gap in Manhattan.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

They said that I was double parked at a fire hydrant, which I mean now that I’m a certified paralegal, and I know the law very well, that is called a traffic citation. But they utilized that to say that they wanted to search my vehicle, and they said that on top of the fact that I was double parked at a fire hydrant, that I had about 10 bags coming out of a store. And so they thought that I was a shoplifter. But what they realized when we got to court in front of the judge was that there was a receipt for every item that were in those bags that went in my car, which didn’t give you access to search my vehicle. And so they charged me with marijuana and cocaine that they found in my glove compartment inside of an eyeglass case, but it was later dismissed on a legal search and seizure because I had receipts for every item that was in my car that you thought that I was shoplifting. And if I was double parked, then simply give me a traffic ticket. It doesn’t give you the right to just violate my vehicle. But the arrest of that day was the picture that they utilized. We’re talking about fruit of the poisonous tree for anybody who understands the law, a case that was thrown out by the courts certificate of disposition by the prosecution was unsealed without any legal authority and utilized to identify wrongly erroneously identified an innocent man.

Dan Slepian:

A year later when the shooting happens, there were eight or nine eyewitnesses. All of them initially described the shooter as a light-skinned black man with braids. There were two witnesses that ran off after the shooters took off, the shooters took off, then they took off. They didn’t want to be involved because it was a heroin addict and a heroin dealer in the back room. The heroin dealer was a 20-year-old kid named Augustus Brown. So as police are searching for their light-skinned black man shooter with dreadlocks or braids, they’re also searching for these two witnesses and they find Augustus Brown, 20 years old, he has 10 bags of heroin in his underwear. They bring him to the precinct, they sit the heroin in front of him on the table. They question him for hours. He describes the shooter as a light-skinned black man like the others, and he looks at mugshots of people who have been arrested in the area. He looks at 230 pages of mugshot, six photos per page, more than 1800 mugshots until he finally says, that’s your guy. But his eyes look different in the picture, which is a red flag for anyone who knows anything about eyewitness misidentification. And he picked a Latino man who never had braids, and his name was John Adrian Velazquez. After he was picked, Augustus Brown was allowed to leave the precinct uncharged with his heroin.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

The day I was arrested was the worst day of my life. The day that I was arrested, I could never forget the day that I was arrested. My mother drove me and escorted me to the precinct. And you know what I found out later? I didn’t know. Then. You know what I found out later? My mother made two stops on that trip, and she was hoping that I would run because she had a better idea about what was about to happen to me than I did. I went to the church first, believe it or not, because I was a man of faith, and the church said, this is beyond our assistance. We will be here for you spiritually, but you really need an attorney. And so we searched for an attorney and we got an attorney, and then the attorney was contacting the police precinct to find out what took place.

And the minute they talked about it was a murder or a police officer, I knew I was innocent. Like, okay, so why don’t we just go in there and talk to them because this is not what’s happening. But instead, a lawyer told my mother this, and I can never, this, I’m a suspect for the murder of a police officer. I know I had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t there. I don’t know when it happened. What the hell is taking place right now? And then my mother hears this and she’s like, what? Right? This is the mental state that we’re in. And he tells my mother, if you get stopped by police, tell your son to lay on the floor and lay on top of him because his life is in jeopardy.

Why did that lawyer say that to her instead of me? Maybe perhaps that lawyer was trying to protect me. But what you did was you made my mother hysterical. You created a space where my mother felt that I was unsafe. And I’m not saying that I wasn’t unsafe. It’s not his place to put that burden on my mother. Lay on your son in the street. If your son gets pulled over by police as if he’s going to be murdered in front of you. People don’t understand the level of trauma that my family went through with this case. This is not just about me. This is not just about the innocent people who are wrongfully convicted, wrongful convictions destroy people, families, and communities.

Dan Slepian:

When I tracked Brown down a decade after the crime and I spoke with him at a maximum security prison with a hidden camera, what he basically said, and he has maintained, is that the cops were threatening to arrest him to be part of the conspiracy to the murder if he didn’t pick somebody out. And that he basically picked JJ out at random. When he did pick JJ out, the prosecutor went to the court to have that photo unsealed. It was sealed, and that’s why they were able to show it to other witnesses, all of whom said the shooter was a light-skinned black man. And so the only key, the only reason JJ is linked to this crime is because a heroin dealer picked JJ at random after 1800 mugshots according to his own words.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

That is the case in a nutshell, what they’re saying is that I was the black individual, light-skinned black individual with dreads. And then when it came time to trial, they realized after interviewing me personally, oh yeah, he doesn’t look like a light-skinned black guy with dreads. So we’re just going to tell the witnesses to say Puerto Rican. And so you never heard Puerto Rican until trial, and you heard it repeated and repeated and repeated again, and that is the result of prosecutorial coercion. They didn’t call me a Mexican, they didn’t call me a Dominican. They didn’t call me a Colombian. They didn’t call me anything Salvadorian, any other type of Latino mix. They knew I was Puerto Rican

Dan Slepian:

J’s co-defendant, the dark-skinned man, his name is Gary Daniels. JJ claims to this day, he’s never met him, never spoken a word to him neither. I, over two decades, nor the Manhattan DA’s office has ever put those two guys together. Dairy Daniels pled guilty. He had a long rap sheet including the robbery of an illegal numbers parlor, and he got offered a deal right away for 12 years. He took it instead of going to life, and he went away. In his plea allocution, he claims that he and JJ did the crime together. And it’s like four lines of the plea allocution. He doesn’t even say J’s name. It’s the district attorney saying, did you do this? Yes. Did you do it with JJ Velasquez? Yes. What was your role? I was duct taping. What was his role? He was the gunman. Thank you very much. That’s the one and only time they’ve ever been connected. The guy never even testifies at J’S trial. So whether he’s innocent or not, I don’t know. He pled guilty as far as the shooter goes. The police and prosecutors had a primary target for the first 48 hours. His name was Mustafa. Three different sources said that Mustafa committed this crime. They ran nickname searches for Mustafa. They write in their memos, primary target, Mustafa. The search for Mustafa ended the moment. Augustus Brown looked at 1800 photos and picked JJ at Randall.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

There never was any evidence to convict me. We’re talking about a case that placed its conviction on five witnesses, but each of these eyewitnesses, along with others who did not conform to their story, said that two black males were responsible for this crime. And it’s important to express that the five individuals we’re referring to were all black individuals, four of the males, one female. The one female. Let’s exclude her early. She was an elderly female who pointed out juror number six as the gunman. And you know that I couldn’t have been the juror and the defendant in the same trial. So she actually pointed somebody else out in the court as the gunman to the jury. I mean, there was laughs. It was like comical. But to an individual whose life is on the line, it hurt that you couldn’t see past that It hurt that the individual who was pointed out himself could fathom the audacity to find me guilty when he could have been in my shoes had he been in a lineup instead of in court.

It’s that simple to be wrongfully convicted. I mean, how is it that people are able to get away with this because they’re in a position of authority? Just because you’re a prosecutor doesn’t mean that you can say anything to the world and we’re supposed to believe it. And so we need to realize as a society, as members who could potentially be a jury and impact somebody’s life, that wrongful convictions are a blatant betrayal of public trust. And so knowing that you should know that if you’re on a jury panel, you really need to listen to the facts because whether it’s a civil decision or a criminal decision is going to impact somebody’s life, but the reality is you’re in control of that. And so people don’t realize the gravity and the weight of being a juror in a case, you’re put in a position to be a judge. And for those few moments or those few days or those few weeks, whatever it was that you were called to do, realize that it’s your purpose to do it right.

Dan Slepian:

JJ was angry, obviously, I mean, but he tried to make the most of his life and I think that the first year or two he went away. It was like what a lot of guys do when they go to prison. It was figuring out the ropes, walking around the yard, talking nonsense, lifting weights.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

Prison is a definitely different world and a lot of people would not volunteer to live it. It’s inhumane. The conditions that you have to adopt just to survive are not conditions that we want to introduce to the human experience.

Dan Slepian:

There was a bunch of older guys there who saw something in him and they said to him, why don’t you come and join our programs? And that was the beginning of a journey for him where he realized that he was going to do what his mother told him to do. Plant yourself where you’re put and they can take your body, but they can’t take your mind. And he took that to heart. And what he did is he became a transformative figure in the years to come.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

So for me, the rehabilitation through the arts program as well as other programs that are important to mention, I mean, I created voices from within when I was inside, and now we’re still utilizing. That’s why that’s important. But Hudson Link for higher education helped multiple individuals, hundreds of individuals at this point. Thousands of individuals get degrees. And so we know that these degrees and these positive programs unequivocally bring the recidivism rate down. When we look at the national recidivism rate, we’re talking about a 67 to 70% recidivism rate over the course of five years, which means that within five years, individuals that are released from prison are going to commit a crime and go back to prison. And if they commit that crime, what society needs to realize is that another person of our civil society has been violent. And so we don’t want recidivism programs like RTA.

You know what the recidivism rate is for RTA 3%. So the return on an individual’s investment in the social contract that we have with society, right? Society pays a levy to the government for protection and services. It’s called a social contract. People don’t want get that deep into the law, but this is exactly what it is. It’s a contract. And so when we pay these taxes, we have expectations. Those expectations are to be protected, to be able to have access to medical attention if it’s an emergency, and to have a fire put out if it’s in my house and it is destroying my property. And those are just some of the implications of this contract. But for any agency of the state to go into an individual’s house and to take him out of that house and to leave that family fending for themselves without anybody checking on them to say, are you okay?

Are you all right? What is it that you’re going through? Nobody ever checked on my children. Nobody ever checked on my mother. And then my oldest son became a victim of intergenerational incarceration and my mother ended up having a heart attack. Are we seriously not looking at the implications of what wrongful convictions do to a community? If you don’t care about me, I’ll accept it. I’m a grown man. I’m tough. I can handle it. 27 years of prison, I can handle more. But what happened to my children? What happened to my mother? That’s uncalled for?

Dan Slepian:

So in 2012, after we did the Dateline report, both of us thought there was going to be some movement in the case. I mean, it was hard not to think that after watching it, there was nothing, nothing happened. What happened was is that there was a new da. Robert Morgenthal had been the DA in Manhattan for 35 years. He retired at the age of 90. That was the office that convicted jj. There was a new DA that came in by the name of Cyrus Vance, and he started what was the first conviction integrity unit in Manhattan. So it was the same year that my Dateline show aired in 2012 that that unit said they were going to reinvestigate his case. They said to his attorneys, don’t even file a motion, let us finish. So they didn’t. It took them 16 months, I think, and they came back in 2013, the Conviction Integrity Unit, and they said to the judge in an affirmation, swearing, we did a fair thorough objective reinvestigation of this case.

We put all of the resources of our office behind it and we don’t think there’s enough to disturb Mr. Velazquez’s conviction. And when I read that, I was so surprised I didn’t know what they were saying that I didn’t. But then I got to what they didn’t do, and it was so brazen to me. It was almost the manifestation of the definition of the arrogance of power. I don’t even think they even thought about it. What they didn’t even do, not only did they not interview, they didn’t even call on the telephone. His alibi witnesses, when you do a fair thorough reinvestigation, you talk to everybody, right? You talk to witnesses, alibi, witness, right? They never called anybody on his behalf. Then it took another year for JJ to file a motion because they told them to wait and he was denied a hearing. So in 2016, after he was denied a hearing, his lawyers were saying to me, that’s the end of the road.

He’s out of legal options. And I refused to accept that because I knew the truth. What I got the impression was is that that office seemed to be acting in something other than good faith. So I went to the US Attorney’s Office, federal government and said, what would happen if a district attorney’s office wasn’t acting in good faith? Theoretically, who would look into them? So they started looking into the case, and it was through that process that in 2017, four years after, there was nothing else to see. A yellow envelope shows up in my mailbox with 44 police reports that had never been turned over to him. One was a bombshell that basically said the co-defendant’s father was interviewed before JJ was even a suspect saying that his son came over the night before the murder with a friend he owed money to. He didn’t let the friend in.

He described him as a light-skinned black man with braids, said he could identify him. And nobody went back to talk to him. No one went even with a picture of JJ to say, was that the guy? So that led to a Brady violation. Hearing the judge, the same judge had denied him in 2014, denied him again in 2018. So the legal history, it was curious to a lot of people because there seems to be very subjective. There was so much more evidence in J’S case pointing to us his innocence than in other cases I’ve done. More people have been exonerated. There was blood actually a smudge of blood on the door. There was duct tape that they collected. There was that petting slip. I said that the killer touched and not a single piece of forensic or physical evidence matched JJ at all. In fact, DNA was not really developed as widely back then as it is now. And what they found was is that there was DNA on the betting slip that didn’t match any of the witnesses. So it was JJ from prison who wrote a memo and did all this research and made this betting slip an issue

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

2015, late 2014, I had first heard about what they call L-C-N-D-N-A, which is low copy number as opposed to high copy number for layman’s response. It’s a difference between touch DNA and what we know as the normal DNA. And so the DNA that we knew for years and the time that I had been convicted was based on either semen, saliva, or blood. Those were the only traces that we knew at that time in the nineties that you can get DNA extractions and evidence from. And so I was not even considered in that situation, even though I argued about the potential for blood at a scene with crime scene photos that validity that. But the reality is I was pushing this DNA because I had come across an article that was published in Europe talking about the credibility of touch DNA over 10 years being at a higher rate than 95%.

And so I said, wow, touch DNA for years, I was trying to convince my lawyers and prosecutors that the shooter was a right-handed individual based on evidence. Not that I know the shooter is a right-handed individual, and I am an unequivocally a lefty. The first thing I thought about was a righty and a lefty because I’ve been writing with my left hand, dragging it across ink all this time, getting little marks on my fingers when I use markers and stuff like that, right? First thing popped in my head, a righty and a lefty right from different angles. And so we should be able to determine if they’re saying that the person who killed this retired police officer filled out a betting slip, then should be able to determine through the handwriting whether the individual was left-handed or right-handed. And during the trial, I caught onto it and I had told my attorney, please ask this witness.

Did they have the gun in their left hand or their right hand? And he asked and they said the right hand. And so I said, I want a handwriting analysis done to this betting slip that they said the shooter filled out because I was never there. I did fill out that slip. That is not my handwriting. I never touched that slip. I want a fingerprint analysis and I want a handwriting analysis. And everybody looked at me like I was a nut. I was crazy. I was just desperate looking for anything to create an issue. The one part they had about that was right was that I was desperate. I was desperate to get out of prison for a crime I didn’t commit. And that is a human reaction to the tragedy that I experienced. But I was right. They didn’t want to do it. And you want to know why they didn’t want to do it?

Because they knew the truth. They knew the truth. And so when I told them about the DNA, they didn’t want to hear me. That’s what Europe does. Why should we accept that as our standard we’re America? And so that made me dig deeper. And then I had to find over 105 cases in the state of New York and a particularly questionable case in Kings County of New York, Brooklyn. And I brought all that to everyone, including federal prosecutors, state prosecutors, my attorneys, any person with a legal mind that was willing to look at it. Because essentially what I did was I taught myself how to read DNA charts through alleles and all the different aspects of it, and I was able to demonstrate that my chart was not consistent with the individual who touched that bedding slip. Why do I say that? I’m lucky. I was in front of massive press saying that I was the luckiest man alive when I first got indicted.

A lot of people don’t realize this, John Adrian and JJ Velazquez was facing the death penalty. And so it’s through our loss that we realize what we need to be grateful for. I’m grateful for the fact that I’m still alive and able to speak this message and share it with the world because if the system had their way, I would’ve been dead in my twenties. I’m a 48-year-old man with children and a family. They would’ve killed me when I was in my twenties. And now DNA exonerates me. What would the world have said? Damn, that’s a sad story. Oh man, that’s messed up that JJ had to go through that I feel for his mother and his children. What does that solve for anybody in this world? When are we going to realize that real things are happening to real people and that we have an obligation to be a part of the change?

Dan Slepian:

I grew up believing, look, I’m a kid from Westchester County, New York. I grew up believing that the justice system worked just the way it should.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

I believe in the system because my father was a component of the system. And when my father passed away, the system showed me that they do not believe in us. And I’m not talking about me as an individual, I’m talking about us as a society.

Dan Slepian:

It was only through the prism of being embedded with detectives and prosecutors who couldn’t get their own people to listen that I said to myself, something is wrong here. And what that did for me, that baptism, what it did is it poked a hole in Pandora’s box. And since then, I’ve ripped it open and I’ve looked inside. And what’s inside is not just innocence. There’s a ton of innocent people in prison

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

Ton. I mean, we’re at a state of reality where the most conservative estimates are saying that 5% of our incarcerated population may be wrongfully convicted. And so we’re talking about 5% of 2 million. A lot of people don’t realize that 5% of 2 million do the math. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people, and I don’t agree with the conservative estimates. Those are the estimates that are promulgated by big level finances. Prosecutors across the nation who have unlimited resources, they’re able to keep it at 5%. And so if we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people that are incarcerated for crimes that did not commit, let’s start worrying about whose children those people are. Let’s start worrying about whose parents those people are. Let’s start worrying about who they impact in their daily lives before they were incarcerated. And now let’s look at the collective impact of what that’s doing to communities around the

Dan Slepian:

World. What was really in Pandora’s box is what you call the criminal legal system. It’s the pathology and irrationality of this system by every metric makes us less safe and it costs more money. It’s inhumane. It doesn’t work. I don’t know if it’s working just the way it was built to work, but what I can tell you objectively, what we are doing, if we’re looking for public safety, we should be incarcerating people to make our communities more safe. 95% of everybody in prison is coming home, period. End of story. Whether we like it or not,

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

Besides my mother, Dan is my hero. Dan took a chance on me because there are people in this world who will tell you that they’re wrongfully convicted and maybe the evidence doesn’t add up. And so when I approached Dan initially, he had already been following a case of wrongful conviction, and that was through David Lemus. And so David Lemus had introduced me, Dan, Ian, and I was able to do a letter that I shared with my mother to give to him. I was able to get him to have enough interest to come visit me and look into the situation. And when he came into that situation, he came into it skeptically. But as a reporter, you’re supposed to expect that objectivity, right?

Dan Slepian:

Prior to me meeting him, I feel like he was a bit lost, hoping for someone to listen. I met him in 2002, and I keep a rigorous detachment between me and my subjects of my stories. I mean, you need to as a journalist. And that was true with JJ too until we got on the air. But as the years went by and the letters kept coming, and the more I learned about his case, there weren’t any two sides of his story anymore. There was only one reality. And what I saw through his case is how the system subtly and not so subtly are encouraged to act in ways that are irresponsible without them even knowing it. And that’s what happened in J’s case

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

To them. The system works based on wins and losses. It’s more important to win than to lose because the minute you lose, you’re losing credibility. But when you lock up people for 20 and 30 years, what do you think that is? Why isn’t it that they lose their credibility there? Why isn’t it that they’re being held accountable? How is it that I could do 27 years and the person who basically created my crime, how is it that he faces no repercussions and gets to continue accepting money? He’s getting a pension. He’s retired, but he’s getting a pension.

Dan Slepian:

After we aired our story in 2012 on Dateline, it was nominated for three Emmy awards. And the reason I bring that up is not to pat ourselves on the back is because the world of journalism saw it as an act of journalism. And when you watch it, you’d understand why he spent another decade in prison after that. And so I think most of those years was focused on getting himself out, being better for other people. I can’t tell you how many times, I mean, I visited him more than 250 times over 20 years, just him. So he was as much a crutch for me as I was for him in many ways. But we ended up working together in there to work on programs, and I think we lifted each other up. He is one of the closest people to me now. And so people often say to me, look at what you did for him. And it makes me uncomfortable because he’s done so much, if not much more for me.

Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez:

My life now compared to what it was is amazing. I can’t try to hide that, but I’m on an upward trajectory. I was on that when I was in prison, but it was limited. And so now, fortunately for me, there are no barriers. I know that a lot of people look at me sitting down with the President and having this discussion is a big thing, but the President couldn’t exonerate me. I needed permission from my parole officer to visit the president to get an apology on behalf of society, which to me told me that what the system is saying is that my parole officer was stronger than my president. I mean, I don’t have much more to say about that visit. Our world is twisted. We need to change it. But in terms of my future, I’m fortunate enough to have found a woman that I love and adore, and I propose to her in public and I plan to live the rest of my life with her.

So that’s the first thing, right? Because since I’ve been incarcerated, I haven’t done anything for myself. I’m talking about even since I’ve been home three years, I haven’t done anything for myself. My sacrifice has been for my people and my family and my people are the people I left behind incarcerated. I need the world to understand that for 27 years, my support system that kept me alive and kept me sane enough to share this message with you came from people that you fear. And what I want the world to understand is that you should fear the people who make you fear them because those people do not hate you. Those people do not want to hurt you. They think it’s the other way around. And until we sit down and become proximate and start talking with each other and saying, I don’t have any animosity against you.

In fact, I actually like you and I like what you said. Until we start having those conversations, we’re not going to be able to see each other eye to eye. We’re not going to be able to see each other heart to heart, and we’re not going to be able to make the change that this world needs because we are okay with being divided. And so we need to educate society. We need to let them know that things are not okay in the common world today, and that we can actually raise our voices to make a change in this world. We have the power of voting. We have the power of just speaking, but we need the world to understand the conversation that we’re having has real implications on real people who are breathing just like us, who deserve justice and fairness just like us.

Dan Slepian:

It’s enlightening for any audience to hear these stories. There’s no doubt about it. And I got to say, there’s something magical about how JJ and I crossed. I’m telling you, I said to him two decades ago, I said to him, you’re walking through this suffering for a reason and you’re chosen. I’m telling you, you’re going to come out and do great things. And he’s taken off semi’s in the movie Sink Sing. He’s met the president, he’s done all sorts of stuff, and he’s my brother. He’s a brother to me. We were fishing last week, and the only best way I can describe it to you, this is what it’s all about. I had my thing and they were on this big boat with 50 people and my line in, and there’s a big drift that’s going down the water, and there’s a guy like four feet down from me, a guy named Lauren, and four feet down from him is JJ like 10 feet away, so I’m not catching anything.

Finally, I feel a little bite, Lauren, Ron, I got a bite. So I start rolling it in, and then I see my cord is tangled. I said, Lauren, my cord is tangled with your cord. He’s like, bro, that’s not my cord. And I look and I see JJ rolling in a line and my line is tangled with his line, but we both are tangling up and up comes this little fish and wouldn’t, J’s Hook was on this side of the fish’s mouth and my hook was on this side of the sister’s mouth. It bit both of our hooks. So we looked at each other and said, you know what we got to do with this little fish? I said, send that motherfucker free. Yeah, we send it free. But the point is of that story that really happened, but it’s poetic for me because that little fish knew what I knew 20 years ago that he and I were meant to be like Ivy. And we have been since him with lived experience, me with helping elevate his voice. And he’s taught me more than anybody in the world. I’ve learned more from him than I’ve learned from anybody.

Michael Semanchik:

After 23 years behind bars, JJ Velasquez walked out of prison a free man, not because the system admitted its mistake, but because JJ and Dan refused to stop fighting for the truth. Today, JJ channels his experience into advocacy using his voice to expose the flaws in the system that stole decades of his life. J’s Freedom is proof that persistence, community and courage can overcome even the strongest walls. If you like what you heard, share with your friends, leave a comment or review the show in Apple Podcasts and tune in next time as we are joined by J’S fellow members of the Rehabilitation through the Arts program, and actors from the Oscar nominated film Sing Sing. I’m Michael Semanchik, executive director of the Innocence Center. Thank you for listening to JJ Velasquez. On For The Innocent. For the Innocent is produced by myself and Adam Lockwood. Our assistant producer is Ally Kvidt Music in this episode provided by Sounds Stripe. Our theme song is by exoneree William Michael Dylan For the Innocent is a proud part of the Legal Talk Network, an InfoTrack company.