Wrongfully Jailed For Rape As A Teen, He Now Helps Others Falsely Convicted | Megyn Kelly TODAY

so imagine everything you have ever worked for your education your family your future gone in the blink of an eye it happened to brian banks when he was just 16 years old take a look football star brian banks dominated the field as a high school linebacker and had accepted verbally a full scholarship to usc but then the unthinkable happened when he was accused and convicted of raping a classmate i was a 16 year old boy taken away from my mom my freedom my football team my family july 25th was the first day that i stepped foot in chino state prison that's how i spent my 18th birthday although brian always maintained his innocence he says his lawyer advised him to take a plea deal brian spent five years in prison and another five years as a registered sex offender when his accuser tried to reconnect on facebook nearly a decade later she confessed to brian and his legal team that she had lied [Music] please welcome brian banks his story [Music] makes my heart ache it makes my heart ache yeah still hurts mine too you served five years in prison for a crime you did not commit yeah and you the future was so bright for you when she made that false allegation yeah when she contacted you after you'd served your time you'd already gotten out when she contacted you what do you think she wanted you know that's still something that i can't really put a finger on i know that when she initially reached out her words where she was hoping that we could allow bygones to be bygones that she was very immature at the time that she made these allegations but could assure me she was much more mature now wanted to hang out wanted to try and rekindle something that never really existed it was as if she was oblivious to what had actually happened and what her lies caused in my life back when you were in high school you had a consensual sexual encounter with this woman in a stairwell which she later said was rape right then not only did she accuse you criminally but her mother and she sued the school right and and won a 1.5 million dollar judgment it was a settlement the school district made many attempts to contact my attorney to join in in the fight to prove my innocence uh and they were unsuccessful at that and that led them to having to settle for a 1.5 million settlement do you think i know you can't get into her head but do you think the whole thing was a scam for money i don't think that originally it was a scam for money i think that right after my arrest her mother saw an opportunity to turn this into a money situation you're sitting in prison you took the plea deal because your lawyer said you're facing 40 years in prison yeah i can get you around 5. the lawyer didn't didn't do enough in your view not only did she say she could get me to a deal of five years it was a deal for probation that was the initial deal that i was proposed that i promise you if you take this deal you will get probation at the most you'll get about three years you've already served a year you'll do about 18 more months you'll still be young you can get out and play football but if you don't take this deal and you walk into that courtroom you're probably going to have an all-white jury you're a big black teenager they're going to automatically assume you're guilty based off your offer your looks and you will get the 41 years to life in prison so i was pretty much at the age of 17 placed in a room and to this day i'm 32 years old i have never made a decision harder in my life do i walk into this courtroom and take a deal for a crime that i didn't commit or do i walk into this courtroom and risk my entire life in prison for a crime i didn't commit i realized after a year of fighting this case i wasn't going home you had to be careful it's a bet you couldn't afford to lose when you were sitting you know an innocent man sitting in prison knowing he didn't do it and you went to prison on your 18th birthday on his 18th birthday describe that for you for us the feelings you had there helpless um fear every negative emotion you can think of all the way down to anger and and revenge and and wanting people to be held accountable for what had happened to me paranoia not knowing who really to trust and not knowing where my life was going to be going now that i'm i'm 18 years old and i'm headed to prison for a six year sentence it felt like the end of the world for a very very long time when we come back we're going to hear about the apology brian wanted and whether or not he ever got it my only dream in the world was to just be free and to have the same opportunity as everybody here [Music] that was my guest brian banks at 27 years old celebrating his freedom and his exoneration of rape charges that landed him in prison for over five years when he was just 16 brian was wrongfully accused of raping a classmate in the stairwell of their high school a crime he did not commit he spent five years in prison five years on parole as a registered sex offender and he is back with us now he's joined by justin brooks the director of the california innocence project who helped to exonerate brian thank you both so much um the the critical moment was her contacting you coming to see you at work to talk about the fact that she had lied you actually weren't at work you were at an office you set up with cameras because you were getting smart about what was going to be needed to clear your name and how did you get her to say on camera that it wasn't true yeah um i knew that it was imperative that she came forward the only way that the california innocence project was able to help me in my case was if the witness in my case came forward and recanted the only witness was her because there was no dna there was never anything to really support this charge other than her words there had been no dna to start with so it's very hard to unring the bell when there's been a criminal conviction and brian's case there was no evidence except for her word which was conflicting even back then there were there were conflicts completely stories there should have been dna it wasn't a late report case wasn't like someone coming to the police a week later and saying they were raped it was the same day so rape kit was done and there was no dna so she agrees to speak to a man you identified as a private investigator and just comes right out with it yeah did your jaw hit the floor my jaw hit the floor the moment she made contact on facebook she was very adamant about wanting to hang out as if nothing had ever happened and so i said well if you want to hang out how about you come meet me at my job during my lunch break and we can talk which really was a private investigation firm i had contacted a pi and told him you know i need this girl to come forward and admit what she lied about and this could risk my me going back to prison by coming in contact with her so at least let me have everything recorded so that if something goes wrong on my end i can protect myself that way he'd been walking around with an ankle bracelet i mean he was in prison behind bars and then he was in prison in his home right i mean he actually brought it with me look at that thing i keep it on my desk ever since the day i cut it off his leg and this is the reason why i took on brian's case the the california innocence project is a law school clinic at california western school of law in san diego and we actually only take on cases where people are incarcerated because california has more incarcerated people than anywhere in the united states brian is the only client i've ever taken on who wasn't actually in prison and it was when he showed me this on his ankle and said i will be in prison the rest of my life i'll be a convicted sex offender i won't be able to get work i won't be able to live where i want to live and it was just such a compelling story that we took it on because not only did you lose your freedom and the you know emotional state you had with of hope and optimism going into your aspiring nfl career but you lost that career i mean who knows how much money you could have made what your life would have looked like you did however have somewhat of a happy ending on that front can you tell us what you did so after you know she came forward and the california innocence project helped me regain my freedom get my life back i made a plea to the the press that i'd been training for a shot at the nfl and there was a team that wanted to give me a shot to call me and right away pete carroll from the seattle seahawks gave me a call followed by a number of other coaches i went on tryout for a number of nfl teams before signing with the atlanta falcons [Applause] it's unbelievable and the the amount of grit that it must have taken for you to come back i will say the lawyer who encouraged him to take that plea deal um ever apologize no haven't had any contact since think of that but it's not but it's not just about that lawyer and this plea no it's about much more than that and that and that's what they're doing here today is to explain how they're using this experience to help others that's after the break brian banks was a high school football star when he was wrongfully convicted of raping a classmate he spent five years in prison another five as a registered sex offender before being exonerated with the help of the california innocence project he is joined by justin brooks who's the director of that project and brian's now teaming up with former prosecutor lonnie combs coombs i knew i was going to screw it up lonnie coombs to examine potential wrongful convictions of those behind bars it's a series on oxygen our sister network and it is called final appeal welcome back to you all lonnie thank you for being here as well you're a former prosecutor yes working with the innocence project yes to do what what is your goal with this you know this show final appeal was an extraordinary opportunity and experience for brian and i because we took four cases four people who have been convicted of killing someone and have been in prison for years up to 30 years sometimes always maintaining that they were wrongfully convicted and been fighting for their freedom but wait you know everybody in prison maintains they were wrongfully convicted how did you figure out which ones were worth spotlighting so we looked at a lot of cases we had a lot of people going through them and deciding these are worth looking at and they were all pending a hearing or some type of review so there was some urgency to it like there could have been a decision made they could have had this opportunity of freedom so what we were doing when we were looking at it and investigating it we actually had the opportunity to perhaps impact that in a way that could really help them or not we went in with an open mind we didn't take sides we looked at all of the evidence that had been presented the case against them the trial everything they've done since their conviction and then we went and hit the ground and looked at everything that we could do today we talked to people we went to the crime scene we redid investigations to see what we could the thing is it's not it's not easy to get something like this overturned or to get a man exonerated even when you have a woman on camera justin you said even once you had this accuser on camera it wasn't like okay it's done he's innocent yeah we always have the problem of what evidence can we present in a courtroom so there's all the stuff we know in the real world but will it pass all the tests we need to get it in and there were problems with the video in that a judge could have ruled that it's inadmissible and then by the time we got to the hearing the young lady had recanted her recantation when she realized she was going to pay the money back that she got from the county so fortunately the los angeles district attorney's office joined us in a joint investigation in the case they became convinced that brian was innocent and they walked into court and said the words i never hear and dream of which are we concede wow what you have a life motto yes and it's if you can maintain it after all you have been through you know maybe it'll help some of our viewers tell us what it is yeah um simply the power of choice it's not what you go through but how you allow it to affect you and what you choose to do moving forward there was a period of my life where i felt like i said i had every negative emotion you could think of and one day i had this epiphany that i'm not in control over the things that have taken place in my life but i am in control of me while going through these unwanted situations and so that was the way that i made my way out of hell was to know that i wanted more for me than anybody else wanted and i knew my truth i was going to stick to it and it was all the power of choice how i chose to look at things how i chose to respond what i chose to do moving forward and it has me here today working with lonnie coombs on final appeal and helping people who can't help themselves i am in control of me if nothing else around me i am in control of me good for you thank you so much thank you all the best to you yes thank you good luck with the show and again it's called final appeal it airs on our sister network oxygen sundays at 7 p.m hello today fans thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking that button down there and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives

Channel: TODAY

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Keywords: The TODAY Show, TODAY Show, TODAY, NBC, NBC News, Celebrity Interviews, TODAY Show Recipes, Lifestyle, TODAY Show Interview, Ambush Makeover, Kathie Lee and Hoda, KLG and Hoda, California Innocence Project, Brian Banks, potentially wrongful convictions, Final Appeal, innocence, innocence project, justice, justin brooks, san diego, project, prison, wrongful conviction, california western, wrongful convictions, innocent, exoneree, exoneration, the innocence project, innocent project

Id: NOxUVBrXtzk

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 09 2018