He Served the Longest Sentence of Any Innocent U.S. Inmate (360°)

deaf bro is like a prison within a prison you get two hours of rec a week and the rest of time you're just stuck in your cell you know trying to figure out not to go crazy they kept us so isolated guys usually intensely make themselves sick guys would eat so whatever just so they could walk to the infirmary to be outside [Music] the things that does to you mentally especially being in my position knowing that I had no reason I'm right to be here I didn't kill anybody I didn't do anything I never broke the law in my life nobody cares or believes that you're innocent in prison you're here you're one 4406 one and your killer [Music] what makes it so hard flying is that you can't tell them what happened because you had no party and so you're trying to defend yourself with no ammunition you know all I can tell you is what I did that day but nobody wanted to believe us wanted to hear us they just pretty much snatched our lives away based on a bunch of lies yeah I'm just 21 year old god I spent two and a half years on death row I get off death row and give up indefinite prison sentence I could be in here forever first few years in prison man I was a terror I fought at the drop of a hat I didn't care I mean I cussed out prison guards the warden anybody that made me madder pissed me off you know got it the weight of the world was on me and I was being terribly wrong so everybody was at fault and that's how I treated people [Music] over the years I saw a lot of guys bought into that personality even though they might have been guilty initially that doesn't mean you're that person you made a terrible mistake he made bad decisions but prison has a tendency to turn you into that person there was a struggle every day to maintain being Ricky Jackson to sustain Ricky Jackson and not be this other person that everybody has elected me to be and you had to like have a place inside your head where you could go and nothing could penetrate the outside rigors of prison life every day you know you had to be you had to have that skate room that safe room where you could go in a locked door I credit my mother with always giving me a central core value about who I was you have a choice about kind of person you want to be and that's what she will always tell me you went in there as Ricky Jackson you better come out of there as Ricky Jackson I tried to live by that you know and remember that and keep that inside me because I never ever consider myself a criminal when you're in prison and they said you got a phone call you know it's usually bad news you don't get phone calls in prison today they told me my mother died it was like telemeter they ran out of mashed potatoes that's how removed our walls from it emotionally because I couldn't express the emotion I couldn't even grieve for my mother you know and I desperately wanted to I just wanted to let the floodgates go but I couldn't being in this place so long and being on guard about your emotions you got to keep all that stuff in check at all times I feel really bad I feel guilty about that for a long time I mean I really thought I was damaged you know and that I could never feel anything for anybody in here but that's not true my lawyers told me from the onset this is just a hearing there's no guarantee I was riding down the highway going back to court I hadn't been out of prison in like 20-some years I mean just outside the prison gates and that bright even though I was in the back of a police fanned it just like man this is what life and freedom feels like I was like God please I don't want to go back the other way you know whatever is gonna happen there to happen today it's gotta happen today cuz I don't know how much longer I can continue to do this you know I question it you know because it doesn't seem real you know like I'm gonna wake up any minute and I'm gonna be back there it's just hard to bridge that gap it feel like I want to sleep at 18 and I woke up at 60 that brings home more than anything you know the left the time I've been going how much I've been gone how much I missed you know but I'm here now you know and I'm creating my own set of memories [Music] everything I could possibly want in life I have right now you have a beautiful wife I have a family you know having actually kids of my own but these kids are like my own I don't want to miss a second of the day man you know I get up at 5:30 every morning I have my coffee take the dogs out let them do their thing Vito if it's school I get the kids up you know I love getting them up they hate me that's my revenge they aggravate me all week but in the morning it's my turn yeah you know kids don't like getting up and go to school Clarissa I'll sit around in the morning she'll have coffee sometimes she'd make breakfast and then I'm out the door come back here cut my grass I love cutting grass it helps me meditate now you know I tell everybody this but when I was in prison I had a vision this was the dream I had not necessary this house but something similar with this amount of land I was in my garage washing my car I had a black car in a white car and I had a dog a black-and-white spotted dog and this is crazy but I was in the yard one day actually watching my car in a black car in a white car it was like deja vu like damn I did I do this did I do this before I can't describe the feeling you have when it's Eureka I guess I don't know but you had that moment of clarity like it was that a dream or was it actually real was this a dream and that was real [Music] [Music] a lot of people don't get to do this you know a lot of people don't get to do it they don't get the breaks I got it took 39 years to be exonerated and probably be innocent of this crime we tout ourselves as being the champions of Human Rights it seems callous to say something like oh well out undred people we execute at least maybe wanted to our innocent that's not acceptable it's unacceptable to think that we killed an innocent person how do we how do we live with that [Music] I'm just grateful to be alive and to be here you know and had this opportunity minded and live out some of my dreams you know [Music] in the long run I choose this forgive you know [Music] my time is the most precious thing I got [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Views: 1,268,254

Rating: 4.8214779 out of 5

Keywords: true crime documentary, ricky jackson, lonelyleap, immersive film, 360 video, Cleveland Museum of Art, prison industrial complex, crime and punishment, 360 documentary, Rickey Jackson, prison, locked up, law enforcement, short film, true crime, criminal justice, solitary confinement, prison system, solitary, short documentary, premiere, wrongful incarceration, after pirson

Id: cQgn9TYeejs

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 07 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/LinuxF4n]

Correction: It's 39 years in prison, not 40.

He got 1 million dollar settlement from the city

That seems like nothing though for what he went through.

Correction: 1 million figure isn't correct. He will get another million + fees incurred + lost wages. I didn't properly read the article.

Based on that formula, Jackson ultimately will receive another $1 million or so. The total amount is based on the following calculation: $142.20 per day, or about $51,900 per year, for the 14,178 days he was held in state prisons, Berry said. That money will be added to an as-yet undetermined amount of money for lost wages, attorney's fees and other expenses incurred during his time in prison, Berry said.

[u/rednrithmetic]

I'd like people to know about: The Innocence Project, who helps get innocent people out of the system:

https://www.innocenceproject.org/

[u/jyhzer]

I'm sure there are people that served longer, they were just never proven innocent.

[u/scott3387]

This is why Blackstone's ratio is supposed to exist.

"It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

Too bad it rarely ends up as such.

[u/Jakem8058]

I mean this in the best way possible... but what a waste of human life.

[u/[deleted]]

You don't grow up the first 18 years of your life expecting that you'll spend the next 4 decades in prison for no reason.

Absolutely heart-breaking.

[u/Spartan1849]

With technology as it is today, the truth is becoming more and more evident when it comes to determining what actually happened with a crime that had been committed.

Whether that truth matters or not is a whole different story. Unfortunately, the judicial system in the United States of America as a whole is built around not finding the truth but telling a better story, factual or otherwise. Facts are compelling and it is easier to tell the truth than it is to tell a lie; but, if a lie puts people at ease or gets someone powerful out of jail or lines your own pockets, which is the better choice?

Ethan Couch, the 'Affluenza' teen who killed four in a drunk-driving incident was given ten years probation. He skipped out on reporting to his probation officer. After a while, he and his mother were discovered in Mexico. He was extradited and was given a two year sentence for breaking his probation. Two years... despite the truth being that he killed four people and injured others.

Davontae Sanford, a young kid at the time who was partially blind and had problems with learning, was convicted and was slated to serve 37 to 90-something years for murder in a Detroit prison. Problem is, he didn't do it. Police fabricated evidence and used his low mental functioning to their advantage, telling him how he committed the crime. He was released after serving nine years when the real killer was caught.

Another example of someone having their life ruined is a man in Denver named Steve Talley. He was suspected of being a bank robber and was raided by SWAT where he was brutally attacked during and after being detained. Suffering many injuries that can't be recovered from, he lost his kids, wife, job, his life... only to have clear alibis and physical evidence that undeniably shows he didn't commit the crime. Though he wasn't convicted, the arrests were enough to ruin him; from a financial adviser to a member of the homeless community, he's fallen far.

If you're interested in finding out more about these three individuals, you can find videos of them on Youtube; I found out about them through True Crime Daily's channel, aka Crime Watch Daily.

[u/vortexlovereiki]

I would’ve def killed myself.

[u/TheOneTruBob]

Sad. 40 years in solitary will do some shit to you, and you can't just give someone their life back. This is THE reason that I'm anti death penalty. We have and likely will kill more innocent people, and I think that's unconscionable. At least in this case, he got to walk away with his life, such as it'll be.