- Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian,
and today is Monday, which means... It's Murder, Mystery & Makeup Monday! (theme song) Theme song still going strong. If you are new here, hi! How are you? That's great, okay. Every Monday I sit down
and I talk about a true crime story that’s been heavy on my (tongue click) Noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime,
and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you subscribe. I'm here for you every Monday, baby. Last week we talked about Jim Jones,
and the Jonestown situation. Wow! Yeah. It's really all you can say about that story. Today I’m going to talk about Rocky Myers. It's sad, but hopefully, I’m praying,
it will have a happy ending. So let’s get into it. Actually, if you’re curious to know
what I’m using on my face, I do list the products down
in the description box, so check that out. But other than that,
I will shut my dirty little trap and get right into it. Okay, so, on the night of October 4th, 1991, a woman by the name of Mamie Dutton, she was asleep in a bedroom at her cousin’s
house in Decatur, Alabama. So Ms. Dutton, she was staying
at her cousin’s house, her cousin, her name is
Ludie Mae, and she lived, in what was considered to be
a run-down neighborhood that struggled with a lot of crime. It had been dubbed “crack town” by the locals. At around midnight, she heard
somebody ring the doorbell. Dutton, she like looks out
the window to see like, who’s here at midnight? Y'know? And she sees her cousin, Ludie Mae,
talking through the window blinds with a man that was on the porch. Now he seemed to be really irritated. This is according to Ms. Dutton. She could hear that he was telling her cousin
that he had been in a car accident, and he needed to use the telephone to call
his family and get some help. Ludie Mae, she offered to
dial the number for him. Dutton was still in her room,
and she could hear that whoever was outside had come into the house. I believe it said that like, she kinda just
had this iffy, weird feeling about it all, but she heard Ludie Mae, her cousin,
say that her husband was in the other room, which at first, she thought that’s such
weird comment to say, because she wasn’t married. And then after just like a few minutes, she hears
Ludie Mae scream at the top of her lungs. Now Dutton was still in the bedroom,
and said she was just frozen with fear, like she couldn’t move. She heard the screams, she knew
something bad had happened, but she just was paralyzed with fear,
and she did not leave the room. So the man, he runs into now
Dutton’s room, stabs her in the side, and then he runs out of the house. She didn’t manage to get like
a really clear look at him, but she did note that
he was wearing a “light looking shirt”, that was really all she could make out. The man runs out of the house,
she’s been stabbed in the side, and she comes out of her room and that’s
when she sees her cousin, Ludie Mae, was laying on the couch
bleeding with her phone in her hand. And she sees that she’s been
stabbed four times. But she had managed to dial 911,
and was on the phone with police. She was still alive. There was an officer who had been
patrolling the area nearby, so he was able to get there pretty quickly. Once the police arrived, I mean
Ludie Mae was obviously hysterical, as any of us would be. She was still conscious, and she was able
to describe her attacker to the officers. She said the attacker was a
male, a black male, he was stocky and short,
and he was wearing a “light colored shirt that looked like it had blood on it.” An ambulance rushed her to the hospital, but the stab wound to her chest
had pierced her heart, and not long after arriving,
she was pronounced dead. Yeah, I know, I just kinda like came out,
right out the gate with just, awfulness. Okay, hi. So after Ludie Mae’s murder,
detectives searched her home for any forensic evidence
that they could find, right? As I hope they would do. They lifted a number of fingerprints,
including one partial palm print, and they had determined a VCR was missing,
that’s what was stolen okay? Oh, also I forgot to say,
this is quickly a side note, I’m gonna be throwing a lot of
names at you, get ready. Get ready to catch it. Then the day after Ludie’s murder, a local man handed over
to the police department a VCR that was matching the description of the one
stolen from Ludie Mae’s house. Now, this man said that
he found it at his sister’s house. Now his sister had lived just a few blocks
up from Ludie Mae’s home. This sister was running
the property as a “shot house”, where people could come and buy
whiskey, and beer. A local drug dealer named “Butch”
sold drugs from the porch. Butch over here, his whole operation was no
secret to law enforcement. They knew of one another, okay. And it was said that police worked with Butch. There were rumors that he’d been given a
de facto license to sell drugs in exchange for information and other favors
on people, or anything they needed. So police call in Butch, they want him to
come so they could do some questioning, right? Butch also brings along one of his partners,
who went by the name “Roadrunner”. I know, okay, just listen. After questioning, the two men signed statements saying that a regular customer of the shot house, who went by the name Anthony “Cool Breeze”, had traded the VCR for drugs on the night
of Ludie Mae’s murder. Butch would go on to say that
this guy, Cool Breeze, had showed up to his home,
on the night Ludie Mae was murdered, and when he showed up, he had a VCR with him,
he was sweating and shaking, and he seemed extremely paranoid. So who's this guy Cool Breeze? Well, Cool Breeze over here, was known, well he's well-known in the neighborhood. He was a heavy drug user,
but his family was well respected in town, I mean they had been around forever,
so everybody just knew the family. But then Police got
another phone call, or another tip, from a woman who lived in the neighborhood,
and said she also had seen Cool Breeze, run into the alley near Ludie Mae’s house
on the night of the murder, and this person, she thought
she saw Cool Breeze, was wearing a white shirt
and it was stained with blood. So then, detectives then put out a warrant
for Cool Breeze’s arrest, they end up picking him up
at his place of work, at that time he’s working
at an aluminum plant. They bring him in. Now, then the governor issued a reward for
further information about the murder to see if they could strengthen their case. A few weeks later though, a local man who also
knew Cool Breeze for nearly 30 years, came forward to claim the reward. He was saying that he’d seen someone,
wasn’t Cool Breeze though, nay nay, no. He said that he was near Ludie Mae’s house,
and he saw somebody with a VCR on the night of the murder. Also this person who came forward
to say it wasn’t Cool Breeze, well guess what? Of course. This person worked alongside Cool Breeze's
father, for years, so. Okay. So then detectives call back in
Butch and Roadrunner, they come back into the station
to give another interview. This time though, both men
recanted their statements. Roadrunner claimed
he said it was Cool Breeze, because he was angry over
an argument they had had, and Butch said he backed up
Roadrunner’s statement because “I just figured that’s what
everybody wanted to hear”. Now, they said the story they originally told
was still mostly true: A man had come to the shot house,
asking for drugs on credit, the night of Ludie Mae’s murder, who then
returned later with a VCR to trade. They now were saying,
a man named Rocky Myers was the one who came
to the shot house with the VCR. Okay, so who’s Rocky Myers? Well, Rocky Myers grew up in New Jersey,
he was one of 10 children, and his relatives would describe his life
as just a “hard life.” His father was an alcoholic,
his mother battled with depression, after having her first child
at only 14 years old. When Rocky was young, it was apparent that
Rocky had a really hard time keeping up with other kids his age,
and at the age of 11 years old, he was diagnosed with intellectual disability. It was said that Rocky was very kind,
but he was just very misunderstood. He didn’t excel like his brothers did in school. He struggled big time, and Rocky never learned
how to read above a third-grade level. At the age of 16, he still couldn’t tell time. Rocky, later on in life, he would
go onto get married, and he would have four children of his own. Now Rocky's children, who are now adults,
they would go on to say that he was a good dad, he was very loving,
he had his struggles with drug abuse, but never left their lives or abused them. Now Rocky and the family,
they would find a house. and eventually settle down across the street
from where Ludie Mae lived. Rocky would do little odd jobs, by helping his friends and family with
whatever they needed, while his wife worked at a local restaurant. At the time of Ludie Mae’s murder,
Rocky was a regular drug user, and while he’d been arrested before, for theft, he’d never been charged with a crime
involving any type of violence. When Rocky did have money, he would
walk up a narrow alley that ran three blocks up from his house to
Butch’s shot house, remember Butch? And he would go there to buy
$10 or $20 worth of drugs. Homicide detectives turned
their focus now onto Rocky, who was on probation
for receiving stolen property. Detectives called Rocky in, and they had him
do a drug test, like a urine test, Rocky ended up failing,
which was a violation of his probation. So because of this, violated his probation,
he was then sent to jail, and while he was there, he was
now interrogated by police officers. Now normally interrogations are filmed or
recorded, but of course, two detectives, who were questioning him,
did not film or record their interrogation. So we don’t really know like
what they said, or what happened, but the detectives said that-- (scoffs) Because you can trust them all the time! But the detectives said that
they just asked Rocky some questions, and that Rocky ended up
admitting to using crack, but denied knowing anything
about Ludie's murder. Rocky then went on to say that he had never
met this guy Roadrunner, and also, he had never met Butch before. People who were questioning him
asked Rocky if he knew a person by the name of Marzell,
Rocky said he did. So this guy Marzell was an associate of Butch, who in his own words, “sold drugs, watched houses, and did basically
anything he needed at the time". During the interrogation, they tell Rocky
that this guy, Marzell, had made a statement saying that,
he had seen Rocky give a VCR to Butch the night Ludie Mae was killed,
and in the following hours, he admitted knowing
Butch and Roadrunner, and said that he had indeed traded a VCR for crack at the
shot house on the night of the murder. Rocky denied that he had been
at Ludie Mae’s house that night; he claimed he’d found the VCR
stashed in the alley that runs between his house
and the shot house. When the person who was
questioning Rocky, told him that he needed to confess, because he was
facing the electric chair, it was said that Rocky started crying and
asked to speak with his mother. But to the detectives, the fact that
Rocky had initially lied, and the statements they had
from Butch, Roadrunner, and now Marzell, saying that they saw Rocky
with the VCR, was all they needed. And Rocky was charged with the capital murder
of Ludie Mae Tucker. Two years later, Rocky’s trial begins. The prosecutor told the jury: Rocky’s drug
addiction had overwhelmed his judgment, and after Butch refused
to give him crack on credit, he broke into Ludie Mae’s house
and killed her for her VCR. But there were parts of the prosecution’s
story that just simply didn’t add up. Multiple witnesses described Rocky’s attire
that night when they saw him at the shot house, and he was wearing black or dark brown clothing,
rather than the light-colored clothing that Ludie Mae and her cousin
said that the man was wearing. Roadrunner he had testified Cool Breeze had also been at the shot house
on multiple occasions that night, and at one point he was sweating really hard, and he was wearing a white
shirt with blood on it. Also, Rocky had terrible eczema, even the
detectives who were interrogating him, had noted that Rocky had
very flaky, rough skin, and this was important because
the prosecution was saying that Rocky had been in a violent struggle
with Ludie, if that was the case, then why wasn’t there any
dry, flaky skin found at the scene? There wasn’t any. There was nothing. Like if you’re in a violent struggle, you might have flaky skin
left behind I would imagine. Also, this biggest evidence would be that
there was prints found inside Ludie’s home, there was a palm print, there was
some fingerprints they had found, and none of them, none of them, none of them in the house,
had matched Rocky. Also, Roadrunner. (slight chuckle) I’m sorry. Roadrunner, mhm. He testified, saying that the alley that was
leading to the shot house was a well-known stash spot, saying that he
himself had gone there often, and would find hidden
stolen goods, and drugs there, which, police had arrived to Ludie Mae’s home,
just minutes after making her 911 call, making it possible that whoever did it,
could have stashed the VCR in the alley, once they heard like the sirens approaching. So, in fact, there was no evidence that
Rocky had even been at the scene of the crime, aside from the fact that he had a VCR. During Rocky's trial, he actually took the stand, and he testified, on the afternoon
of Ludie Mae’s murder, he had indeed bought drugs from Butch,
and then he went back to his home, and he decided to smoke it there. Rocky said that he had planned to go to a
club with his in-laws, but when he arrived at their house,
they had already left. So he decided to just walk back home, and
that’s when he spotted a VCR, that was hidden under a bush
in the alley, so he took, and then he takes it to the shot house,
and he traded it for drugs. But he was adamant he had nothing to do with
Ludie Mae’s murder. So years later, Mamie Dutton, the cousin that
was there the night of the murder, well she told a lawyer working on Rocky’s appeal, that she and Ludie Mae had seen Rocky across
the street earlier that day. Ludie Mae she had mentioned that she knew him
from the times that he'd come over and knock on her door, and ask for ice, and that Rocky surely knew that
Ludie Mae lived by herself, but if you remember, on the night of the murder,
Ms. Dutton said she heard her cousin tell her attacker that her husband was in
the other room. Remember? Mhm. So during the jury selection,
one of the jurors said that if a suspect made it through a grand jury, he was “automatically guilty”, and an
investigator assigned to the case, interviewed another juror who openly used
a racial slur to refer to Rocky, and then also constantly called him a “thug”. These jurors shouldn’t of
been picked in the first place, is what I’m trying to get at. Anyways, at least three other jurors didn’t
believe there was enough evidence to actually convict Rocky,
but as hard as they tried, they couldn’t get the rest of the jurors
to change their mind. 11 of the 12 jurors were white. 11 of the 12 were white,
and most were set on voting guilty. They decided to vote for a guilty verdict,
which is just-- (scoffs) Then Rocky was then convicted of capital murder, and the jury provided their recommendation
of life without parole to the judge. The verdict was shocking to Rocky,
because he was convinced that his trial would end with his acquittal. A few months later, let me tell you this part,
'cause this is real cherry on top, baby. A few months later, the judge who
was in charge of the case, had exercised his option of “judicial override”, you know, what is judicial override? Well. (sarcastic laugh) Let me tell you. What that means is the judge had the power
to get rid of the Jurys recommendation of life without parole, and instead, this
Judge sentenced Rocky to death. From the bench, he said the jury
had been too “emotional” in choosing not to recommend the death penalty
and described Rocky as a “threat to society”. Only three states have ever allowed the practice
of “judicial override” in death-penalty cases: Florida, of course, sorry. Delaware, oh I always forget about Delaware. And Alabama. But in 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled that
Florida’s judicial-override statute was unconstitutional, and soon
Delaware Supreme Court banned the practice in their state as well. Alabama’s use of judicial override was probably
the worst out of all of them. Before the practice was banned in 2017, an organization called the Equal Justice Initiative, calculated that more than 20%
of inmates on death row in Alabama, had their sentences imposed
through judicial override. In Alabama, state judges are
elected by popular vote, and they often emphasize their “tough-on-crime”
record or stance while campaigning. According to Alabama being "tough-on-crime"
means locking up innocent black people. I said it According to another
Equal Justice Initiative study, the use of judicial overrides to hand out
death sentences in Alabama, often spiked, it went up during election years. Of course it does. In Rocky’s case, the judge who imposed his
sentence was facing reelection. Make sense, it’s all adding up,
it always does. Now the practice is now no longer allowed,
great, we love that. But anyone who was on
death row by the judicial override has stayed there, despite the acknowledgement
that the practice was unjust. So why are they still there? After his conviction, Rocky was transferred
to Holman Correctional Facility, where Alabama carries out
its death sentences. His trial lawyers actually filed an appeal,
which was unsuccessful. Once the appeal of a death-row inmate’s
initial conviction is denied, there is a lengthy process
that can last for decades. There’s another process,
called the habeas corpus process, which offers inmates the chance
to present new evidence. This is the stage in the death-penalty process
where many sentences have been overturned, on the basis of poor
representation by counsel at trial, the recanting of witness testimonies, or new evidence of misconduct by
prosecution, police, or juries. So it’s a very important process, especially
if its for somebody who didn’t have a fair trial. So in 1998, a young Tennessee-based lawyer,
named Earle Schwarz. This man, Schwarz, he worked on Rocky's case
for over five years. And In 2003, he received notice that Rocky’s
petition for a post-conviction appeal had been denied. That’s not good. So the next step was to prepare to file a
federal habeas petition. I know it’s getting really
confusing, it’s okay. So federal habeas corpus review, extremely
important stage in a death penalty case, because it allows death row prisoners to bring
federal constitutional claims that were heard in court,
but were not successful, and in federal court, their judges
are appointed and not elected, so they’re not trying to impress anybody with "Look at how many people
I put on death row!", you know? It gives you some hope. But by then, Rocky’s new lawyer,
this Schwarz guy, he actually started working at a new law firm. Good for him. But here's the problem, yeah, he didn’t tell Rocky that
his state appeal had been denied, Rocky wouldn’t even
find out for another year. Now this is important because
you have a limited time to file the next step in order to move forward,
so not letting Rocky know about this, he dropped the ball, big time. So this Schwarz guy, he decided that he could
no longer represent Rocky, but here’s the thing, he failed
to tell Rocky this. He just didn’t tell anybody,
and just disappeared on Rocky. So all this time, Rocky's sitting on death
row thinking that, you know, this lawyers still working for him, and hopefully
making some progress, you know? A year later, Rocky received a letter from
the state attorney general’s office saying that he’d missed the deadline to
file any further habeas corpus petitions, and notifying him that Alabama would be moving
forward to set an execution date. Now again, don’t know if you remember this, but Rocky could only
read at a third-grade level, and he had to ask a fellow inmate
to read the letter aloud to him, so he could understand it. Fellow prisoner, who read the letter to Rocky,
was represented by the Equal Justice Initiative, and he reached out to the organization to
ask for help, for Rocky. Attorneys working at
the organization wanted to help, and immediately filed a
habeas petition, but it was too late. The state of Alabama argued that Schwarz’s
failings were irrelevant, saying that Rocky should have been
on top of his own case, and it’s not Schwarz’s fault,
it's Rocky's fault. In an interview rocky said, “a lot of people think that people
on death row know the law," "they know this or that, but I don’t." "I give all my trust to my attorneys and stuff." "If I could read the law in the books and
learn and study," "I would but I am not able to do that." "I’m not a learnable type of person”. Now new lawyers are working on Rocky’s case, they hear something that’s just shocking,
and this story from a guy named Marzell, Marzell was Rocky’s acquaintance, who had testified seeing him
trade a VCR in the shot house. We mentioned him earlier, it’s okay if you
don’t remember, there’s a lot going on. Marzell, he was arrested
while driving a stolen car in Decatur. And Marzell told the attorneys that, one detective
had offered to make the arrest disappear if he would say that he’d seen Rocky bring
the VCR to Butch at the shot house. Marzell stated in his testimony
in Rocky’s trial, he was “not truthful", and that he did not see who brought the
VCR to the shot house that night. Marzell went on to say that “Detective Boyd told me that he would take
the stolen car I had been driving" "and leave it by the side of the road”. So they look into this, and they’re looking
at police reports and whatnot, and they see that there are
police reports out there that actually support this timeline,
or Marzell’s story. Two suspects were indeed
arrested in a stolen vehicle, matching the one described
by Marzell, on October 28th, 1991, the same day the police notes
indicated they first interviewed Marzell. A federal judge determined that
this new statement from this guy, Marzell, it wasn’t enough to override Rocky’s failure
to meet the habeas corpus deadline; even with the new evidence,
the case was effectively closed. Okay, so, where are we now? Rocky Myers is still on death row,
in an interview Rocky said "When I’m praying,
I tell the Lord I’m terrified,” “I just don’t show it because it don’t
do any good to other people." "But inside, in my mind
and heart and stomach, I’m scared”. Well let me tell you, there really
isn’t any options for him, because his options have been denied. So what are we gonna do? Well, let me say. (lip pop) I don’t quite know all the laws, there’s
so many, there’s a lot of laws, different states have different laws. How the death penalty works,
it’s just weird, it never makes sense, it’s like people just sit on death row forever,
I don’t know, I don’t fully understand it, but I do know this, Alabama loves the death
penalty, like they really enjoy it, it seems. The state of Alabama decided to offer
like a new way of execution, which was going to be asphyxiation by nitrogen
gas, as an option for execution. They’re currently working on the protocol,
or a protocol, for a new method, so once they do so, then Rocky
will be given a new execution date. Take your time Alabama, take your time. Rocky has said in an interview that it’s
been sad and frustrating to watch other prisoners get breaks in their
cases and be released, while he’s been pretty much
shut out of court. Rocky said, “There’s a lot of people who
support the death penalty,” “but to know that there
are people on death row," "that (...) could be innocent,
how can you support that?” The only chance for Rocky to avoid execution,
is a grant of clemency from Governor Kay Ivey. Now I don’t know much about
this lady, Governor Kay Ivey. I do know that she is 74 years old, and she's
part of the Republican Party. She stepped in to replace Alabama’s previous
Governor, Robert Bentley, who quit in 2017, when information came to
light that he was using campaign money for personal use, and he had been having an affair with his
senior political advisor. Which honestly, I hate it when
people bring up affairs, because I really don’t think
that’s anybody’s business, but like, he was being, it was intense. So he stepped down, and so
that’s when Governor Ivey stepped in, and I’m sure she’s done
some great things, maybe, but when I googled her,
you know what came up? (chuckle) In 2017, she signed into law, the Alabama
memorial preservation act, which prohibits moving
or changing memorials, including the numerous memorials
to the confederacy around the state. So she did that, that was like one of the
first things she did. (claps) And then guess what? I scrolled, I went to page two on Google,
guess what I found there? Well, oh, in 2019, Governor Ivey
was in the middle of a scandal, when information came out that in 1967, she wore black face for a skit
she participated in. Now I understand, 1967,
that’s 20 years ago, oh fuck math. You know, this came to light a year ago, and she came out and offered
her heartfelt apologies, for the pain and embarrassment she caused,
and Governor Ivey said "I will do all I can going forward to help
show the nation" "that the Alabama of today is a far cry from
the Alabama of the 1960s". So you guys-- This is my microphone. So you guys, I’m thinking,
hey we hold her to this. (chuckle) Okay? Right? Yeah? So here’s what I’m gonna do, and here’s
what I need you to do, okay? Down in the description box and my pinned
comment, I’m going to leave a link, where you can sign a petition
to help save Rocky Myers. Unfortunately, Governor Ivey has to be one
to grant Rocky clemency. Which is like... (sighs) But, hey, hi I’m Bailey, I’m just some
random girl on YouTube, talking about true crime and
doing her makeup, I know it’s ridiculous, I’m ridiculously, but... There’s a big but here. Yeah, okay. We, and I say WE, have power. I need you to sign that petition. Rocky's innocent, he doesn’t
deserve to be on death row. And there are many, many,
many more stories similar to this, of people on death row
who don’t deserve to be there. Let’s try, let’s try and do something. Can we? Great. I don’t ask much from you guys,
I ask you to make good choices and to stay safe, sometimes I ask
other things, I don’t know, but please sign this petition. And I also need you to do something else. (laughs) I also need you to register to vote. I know, annoying, but when you register to
vote, not only do you get to vote, but listen, you also can
be picked for jury duty. And I know, a lot of you guys are right now
rolling your eyes, or exiting this video, but listen to me right now. Listen. We need to get out of the mindset that jury
duty sucks, it does suck. BUT, and it’s a big but, it’s important
to remember that our country needs juries to check the work of our representative,
and judges, and assure that justice is done. But also, it's fair. Without our participation,
that’s when abuse of power happens. I know that’s a little random for me to
sit here and talk about jury duty, but I think people forget
how important it can be, and the jurors should be
a broad spectrum of the population, a mixture of race, national origin, and gender. Rocky had a 99% white jury, in Alabama,
do you think that’s gonna go-- Rocky was set up to fail from the start,
like so many others, so that’s why I’m saying,
we need to participate more, okay? We need to do that, and I also
need you to sign the petition. So I hope we can help get Rocky out,
and if that doesn't work, then we can make
a lot of noise to Governor Ivey. Which I am more than happy to do. Let me know your thoughts down below. I love and appreciate you guys so much. Make good choices. Please be safe out there. And I’ll be seeing you guys later. Bye. Oh P.S, before I leave,
I just feel like I need to say this, I don’t believe that like all people in
Alabama are bad, I just think the people in charge
are pretty shitty. I just have to say that, 'cause people are
always mad at me over something I said. Okay thanks, bye! (suspicious music)
The fact that his post-conviction efforts are ruined because of one dumbass law that should have never been passed, known as AEDPA, is so asinine to me.
here’s the link to the petition! it’s surpassed the goal but I feel like every bit still counts.
In Bailey’s new Mystery & Makeup Monday video she discusses the wrongful conviction of Rocky Myers. At the end of the video she encourages her subscribers to sign a petition to demand that Governor Ivey do the right thing and grant Rocky clemency., register to vote and to serve as jury.
Bailey is one of the few youtubers I'd like to hang out with.
Here are the links Bailey included for the petition & more info on Rocky’s case (sorry for the formatting, I’m on mobile):
https://action.aclu.org/petition/save-rocky-myers
clemencyforrockymyers.wordpress.com
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/police-education-community-control/
i am loving how she's using her platform for good here
I signed! Plus I love her.
Here to leave my weekly comment about how much I love Bailey
Just watched this and signed the petition too. It’s sickening how many people get totally screwed by the US justice system and on the flip side how many victims never get true justice.