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Previously on The Burden, we

0:29

get on the.

0:30

Plane take off, and the plane

0:32

it's air pockets.

0:34

Holy Christ, gotta take your shackles

0:36

off because.

0:37

We may go down and you gotta swim.

0:40

He confessed this

0:42

guy named Derek Hamilton, who was an ex con

0:44

kind of like a jail house lawyer. So

0:47

he gives me shabacca chaqueurs.

0:50

For forty information

0:52

that would substantiate that he was a crooked cop.

0:55

I believe everybody wants to confess.

1:08

Y'all understand I didn't commit a crime. So

1:10

in my mind, I'm like, this is going

1:12

to be worked out. I

1:18

came into the precinct. You asked me where I

1:20

was. I told you where I was. You asked me

1:22

if I had any proof. I gave you the numbers

1:24

of the people who I was with. You call

1:27

these people so and you have

1:29

no witnesses, saying that they saw me shoot anybody,

1:31

so I should walk out the priestinct.

1:33

Right there incomes

1:36

Detective Lewis Scarsella.

1:39

He was young, hat, you know, his hair

1:42

like one of John Travolta type looking.

1:44

You know what I'm saying.

1:46

He just struck me as somebody really

1:48

flamboyant. He

1:51

immediately comes in aggressive

1:53

towards me, telling me I know who you are.

1:55

I know you're a drug dealer. I know they're drug

1:57

dealers. I know all y'all involved together,

2:00

and you killed them. I

2:03

immediately was offended. I

2:06

lost my temper and I cursed him out, told

2:08

him fuck you, and he started banging

2:10

on the table, saying I came here

2:13

to help you, but you're gonna go up state

2:15

now. You're gonna be in jail for the rest of your life

2:17

because you're an asshole. Just

2:19

remember I gave you this chance to help

2:22

yourself. I ignored

2:25

it, and he left. The

2:33

first time I'm before the judge, the

2:35

lawyer says, well, because

2:39

I was saying, Joe, we need to explain, and he's like,

2:41

no, no, no talk because we already

2:43

have a confession. And I said, I don't

2:45

have no confession and he

2:47

said, you made a statement to the

2:50

police.

2:50

I said, yeah, I told the police where I was.

2:52

I told him I wasn't there. I never confessed

2:55

him no murder.

2:56

And he said, oh no, no, not

2:58

the first police, but the second police. You confess

3:00

to him. And I was like, are

3:02

you crazy? I

3:05

never made no confession.

3:08

Shabaka Chakor was found guilty

3:10

of a double homicide and received

3:12

two terms of twenty

3:15

to life to run consecutively.

3:23

Feel your body shaking.

3:26

You're gonna

3:29

turn me on. I'm

3:31

gonna turn on you.

3:35

Welcome to the Burden. I'm Dax

3:37

deln Ross.

3:39

And I'm Steve Fishman.

3:47

In this episode the Actual

3:49

Innocence Team.

3:52

So what's the detective's.

3:53

Job to do everything he can

3:55

under the law with the tools

3:57

he has given to get to confession.

4:03

He could be a gentle soul, he

4:05

could be an understanding soul, and he could

4:07

be a gorilla too. It takes

4:09

a hell of a detective to know how to do that, yore.

4:15

Imagine if all of us was

4:17

in the law library together, Imagine

4:19

what we could do. We'd be able

4:21

to run it like it's a real law firm.

4:25

And that's when it hit me, we got

4:27

to expose him.

4:29

You gotta hold old time.

4:51

There's a jail house

4:53

folklore right that says

4:55

that the best jail

4:58

house law clerks or lawyers can

5:00

never get themselves out. They

5:02

will get everybody else out, but

5:04

they can never get themselves out right.

5:07

And it's true. That was one

5:09

of those myths that I wanted

5:12

to break. I was like, I bet I gotta be able to get myself

5:14

out.

5:17

Schabacca Chakor had a problem. He

5:20

was twenty three years old and on the hook

5:22

for two life sentences for a double

5:24

homicide. He insists he didn't commit. For

5:27

him, studying the law would become

5:29

a necessity.

5:31

But being in jail is not generally

5:34

conducive to the contemplation of

5:36

a subject as complicated as

5:38

the law.

5:40

I went through Rikers Island in the eighties and the

5:42

nineties, it was like

5:44

could you even survive full

5:47

to capacity? It might be a week before

5:49

you got to a cell. In between that time,

5:51

you were sleeping on the bullpen

5:54

on the floor, because if

5:56

you didn't know how to fight, you wasn't gonna get a bench.

5:58

So the dment was extremely

6:02

violent.

6:04

Shebacca was sent to Auburn Correctional Facility,

6:06

a maximum security prison in upstate

6:08

New York where only the most dangerous

6:11

criminals are sent. He was put in

6:13

solitary, but for Shabaka,

6:15

it was a blessing in disguise and

6:18

actually gave him the chance to work on his first appeal.

6:21

I really believed on my first

6:23

appeal, I was going to get out.

6:26

But at that time, Sabaca just didn't

6:28

have what it took.

6:30

After I blew my appeal, I

6:32

felt like, Okay, they

6:35

don't want to let me go. They're gonna keep me

6:37

here. I'm gonna be a territory. You

6:39

see how Rodney King got beat

6:42

that. That's an everyday occurrence

6:44

in prison. I'm not

6:46

gonna be a victim to that. From

6:49

the very first time that an officers struck

6:51

me, I

6:54

retaliated immediately.

6:58

I swung back.

7:00

I just went ballistic, swinging on everybody,

7:03

trying to disarm them.

7:04

Take their stick, swing back.

7:06

Instead of wanting to beat me up, they just wanted

7:08

to put me in a cell. Like put in the cell

7:10

and close the door, like this guy's crazy.

7:13

Like I wanted them to have that fear,

7:16

and it worked. I

7:21

purposely was just angry

7:23

at the world that I was here, I

7:25

felt like I had been red roady, which

7:28

I had, but I also felt like helpless.

7:38

Time passed, things calmed

7:40

a bit. Shebaki's reputation

7:42

as a fighter, it got around everyone

7:45

left them alone, including the guards.

7:48

But fighting that's only one side of Shabaka.

7:52

Really, He's an intellectual, an

7:54

introvert, kind of a bookworm.

7:58

When I was a solitary, I read fantasy

8:00

books, novels, technical books.

8:03

So I was always good by myself.

8:07

Shechbacca was in solitary for a while, but once

8:09

he got out, he did what anybody does.

8:11

He started to build a life for himself. He got a job

8:13

in the mess hall, he joined the boxing

8:16

and football teams, and he even made

8:18

some friends. I mean, after

8:20

all, even when you're in prison, you

8:22

still have to live a life. But

8:25

then one day, another prisoner

8:27

just a few cells down, struck

8:29

up a conversation with.

8:30

Him, and

8:32

so I'm talking to him and I'm like, hey, what's up?

8:35

He said to yo, man, I'm getting ready to go home. Right.

8:38

Of course, part of me is

8:40

happy for him, but part of me is miserable

8:43

for me.

8:45

Dax.

8:46

At that moment, Chebacca's been in prison how.

8:48

Long ten years.

8:51

I don't know what if the word jaded is right,

8:53

but because here are guys

8:55

who actually committed a crime and

8:58

are going home and I'm a guy

9:00

who didn't commit a crime and

9:02

I'm not going home. And he kind of like left

9:06

me feeling

9:08

a little depressed, feeling like, how

9:11

do I beat this? How do I get out?

9:15

It was around this time that Schabacca remembered

9:17

the conversation he'd had about a decade

9:19

before with another prisoner. His

9:22

name Derek Hamilton. You

9:25

met him in episode one.

9:27

Derek was one of the first people that I met

9:30

when I first got arrested.

9:32

When Derek and Shobacca met, Derek started

9:34

making one point very clear.

9:36

And I'm telling him, fuck your lawyer, man, these

9:38

guys don't work hard.

9:41

Derek was known as that genius when it came

9:43

to the law, Completely self

9:45

taught and very motivated.

9:48

At that moment, he's fighting his own

9:50

murdered conviction.

9:52

And Derek he had some words of advice

9:54

for Shabaka.

9:56

You gotta go to loyal library, you gotta study.

9:58

You got to be the most smartest guy that court. When

10:00

where you're going, you better work on you better

10:02

worked you better worked.

10:04

I remember him telling me you

10:06

can't trust lawyers. Lawyers

10:09

are doing a job.

10:10

They don't care whether you

10:12

get out or not, because they're going to get paid either

10:14

way.

10:15

You are the only one who cares if you're getting

10:17

out.

10:19

As Clearing director, as Derek's message was, it

10:21

still took a while for it to sink in, But

10:24

now years later, Sabacca

10:27

is ready.

10:29

I said, Okay, I want to get out of jail,

10:32

so I'm going to work in a law library where

10:34

I can be around a bookst all the time.

10:36

And lucky for Shabaka, every New

10:38

York prison has to have a law

10:40

library. It's a state mandate. So

10:44

Shabacca became a law clerk at

10:46

Auburn.

10:47

Every morning Shobacca went off to

10:49

study. On his way to the law library,

10:52

he would walk through the yard wearing his state

10:54

greens, carrying his papers in a net bag.

10:57

Eventually he even enrolled at Cornell

10:59

univer It wasn't long before

11:02

as professor took a liking to him. One of

11:04

them even offered him a teacher's assistant position.

11:07

But for Shabaka, there was always only one

11:09

goal. Freedom.

11:12

I always thought I was with a couple home, even

11:14

when everybody else gave up. And

11:17

I remember writing people and

11:19

they was like, when you come at home?

11:22

And I said, probably another two years, because

11:24

I always felt like I'm right on the

11:27

verge of getting out.

11:32

The fact remains that with all of his appeals

11:34

denied, he's running out of

11:36

legal options. And it just so happens

11:39

that at that exact moment, whispers

11:41

start to spread through the yard, Whispers

11:44

if someone knew who's arrived, someone

11:46

special.

11:48

That's when Derek came to Auburn.

11:54

Derek Hamilton, that's the guy

11:56

who urged Shabaka to take the law into

11:58

his own hands.

12:00

Even before Derek arrived at Auburn,

12:02

he had quite a reputation among the inmates.

12:05

Nelson Cruz, he'd heard of Derek.

12:09

This guy is like God when it comes to criminal

12:11

law.

12:12

Nelson's another prisoner at Auburn.

12:15

Everybody love him and knows him, and people that don't

12:17

know him hears about him, and everybody want to

12:19

just work with him because all they think about is

12:21

freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, and especially

12:23

if you're here for crime to day commit.

12:26

So Nelson's thinking freedom, but

12:29

I imagine that Shabaka he's got

12:31

to be thinking relief. At

12:34

last, he has a partner as

12:36

devoted to the law as he is.

12:39

The Lord was my girlfriend.

12:40

It was all I had, was all

12:42

I had.

12:42

I had to love it.

12:44

This is the only way to freedom.

12:48

Coming up, Shabaka and Derek

12:50

reunited at Auburn busy

12:52

in the law library.

12:54

Stay with us.

13:12

Okay, Steve, let's pause for a moment.

13:15

Shebacca, as we've learned now, is

13:17

adamant about his innocence. But

13:20

let's take a moment and look at the crime he says

13:22

he didn't commit.

13:23

Here are the essentials. So

13:26

Chebacca was convicted of a double homicide.

13:29

There were no fingerprints, no murder weapon.

13:32

There was supposedly an eyewitness, but

13:34

his story turns out to be a bit changeable.

13:37

Still, the cops aren't backing off.

13:40

They like Sabacca for the crime. After

13:43

all, he had a rap sheet, he'd been

13:45

a drug dealer, he'd been in prison for

13:47

a violent crime. You don't

13:49

need to be Sherlock Holmes for the

13:51

cops. Sabacca fit the profile.

13:55

And Steve, there is another key

13:57

piece of evidence against Schabacca. Remember

14:00

Scarcella claimed that Shabaka

14:03

did confess to him.

14:05

That's right.

14:06

It turns out It's not exactly

14:08

a confession, but it is a very

14:11

incriminating statement, and it

14:13

is possible that's what sealed

14:15

his fate. Here's

14:18

what Scarcella claimed, Shabaka said

14:20

to him, You know what

14:22

happened, You have it all. They

14:25

were going to kill me. They

14:27

deserve to die.

14:32

That would be what would convince

14:35

me if I now know that

14:37

this person was a drug dealer who's

14:39

already served time for a violent offense.

14:42

All I would really need to hear is

14:44

a statement provided to me by a

14:46

very reputable detective. And this is

14:48

it.

14:49

They are really powerful words.

14:50

Listen, they provide a motive,

14:54

and yeah, maybe that sealed his fate. What

14:57

we know for sure is that nobody

14:59

gets up to present Shobacca's side.

15:01

Schebacca doesn't testify his

15:03

alibi, witnesses don't testify, but

15:06

Scarcela does testify, and

15:09

he reads that incriminating

15:11

statement to the jury. Of

15:13

course, from Schebacca's point

15:15

of view, it's all nonsense. Remember,

15:17

Shabacca claims he never made

15:19

any statement. He didn't even know there

15:22

was a statement until his lawyer told him.

15:26

And that was the first time that I realized

15:29

that there was a statement from Scarcelo

15:31

because I had never made any statement to him.

15:39

It's now twenty years into his sentence in

15:41

Schebacca. He's at Auburn and

15:43

still insisting that he never gave

15:46

a statement that he's innocent.

15:49

Meanwhile, word has gotten out that Auburn now

15:51

hosts brilliant legal minds.

15:54

Another prisoner, Danny Ringcone.

15:56

He immediately sees the potential we

16:00

all.

16:00

Had something in common, which was that we

16:02

were wrong by a system.

16:05

Danny was convicted of four murders, which

16:07

he says he didn't do. One

16:09

day in the yard, he approaches Shabaka.

16:12

So Danny says, Yo, imagine

16:15

if all of us was in the law library together,

16:18

Imagine what we could do.

16:21

We'd be able to run it like it's a real law.

16:23

Firm,

16:27

a real law firm

16:29

in prison. Well,

16:31

the firm's office, that's the law

16:33

library. Let me set

16:35

the scene for you. Steve, a corrections

16:38

officer, sits on a raised platform

16:40

looking down over the prisoners, not unlike a judge

16:43

surveiling them. There are a few

16:45

worn out computers, no Internet, of course,

16:48

and then there are the legal books,

16:51

and there are lots of them. They line

16:53

the walls. So what happens

16:56

is when they come into the law library. These

16:58

convicted murderers push together

17:00

four wooden desks and they huddle

17:03

around this makeshift conference

17:05

table and they get to work. They've

17:08

got their own filing cabinet, a whiteboard,

17:11

and lots of open law books scattered

17:13

all around them. And joining

17:15

them at the table a young man named

17:18

Nelson Cruz, the one who called Derek

17:20

a god when it comes to criminal.

17:22

Law man, you gotta be serous.

17:24

This is servious. There's no game there, this is freedom

17:27

here.

17:30

Like everyone else around that table, Nelson

17:32

is also in for murder, and

17:34

like everyone else, he claims

17:37

he didn't do it.

17:38

And of course the firm's intellectual leader

17:40

is there at the head of the table, Derek

17:43

Hamilton.

17:48

Don't tip the kool aid.

17:49

They're gonna come back in August, some ridiculous,

17:51

stupid stuff.

17:52

Don't go at it.

17:54

I can imagine Derek scribbling

17:56

rules of procedure on that whiteboard.

17:59

You want to know how to do it, I'm going to show you.

18:02

This is how you write emotion. This is how you respond

18:04

to something, This is how you tack something. This

18:06

is how your mindset be. How do you get a

18:09

heerent how you don't get a hearing.

18:10

We would sit there like we was in class, going over

18:13

everything. We

18:16

analyzed every piece of evidence, We

18:18

analyzed cases. This is

18:20

how I know derek cases. How know

18:22

Danny's case, This is how they know my case,

18:25

because we.

18:26

Would pick it apart.

18:31

Then Chobacca recalls that one day

18:34

they had a visitor with his own legal

18:36

problem.

18:36

He was a guy from upstate who natural

18:39

life with no possibility to parole, so he was never coming

18:41

home.

18:42

Schobacca, Danny, and Derek, they

18:44

all liked e.

18:46

We sat down with him and we said,

18:48

okay, let me see you paperwork. And we looked at me, said wow,

18:50

this has to be in in three days,

18:53

and you don't have nothing done. He

18:56

had three issues argued on his appeal,

18:58

so we each took it issue.

19:00

Danny did one, Derek did one,

19:02

and I did one.

19:04

And it took us probably all

19:06

day and all night, or one day, and then the next

19:08

day all day and all night.

19:10

But by the third day we

19:12

all came in.

19:14

We clamped it all together into one

19:16

appeal, put a table of contents with it,

19:18

and say here, here's your emotion. Because

19:20

we knew if he didn't get that in his chances

19:23

of getting out was forever going

19:25

to be closed.

19:26

You can hear the excitement in Schebacca's

19:28

voice. Maybe they could really do

19:31

this, Maybe they can use the

19:33

law to fight the law. It's

19:36

like they realized at that moment

19:38

they have skills, maybe

19:41

even power. This

19:44

case didn't work, he lost his appeal,

19:46

but it's like this is an inspiration

19:49

to these budding law partners.

19:53

And that's when I really started to say, like, wow, we

19:56

didn't even plan that. So I

19:58

knew that if we did plan we

20:00

would get a lot more done. And that's when we

20:02

really started saying, Yo, look we

20:04

can do this actual innocystem.

20:08

Let's start really put us together.

20:10

This actual innocence thing. So

20:13

the team's timing extremely

20:16

lucky. Shebacca has all

20:18

but exhausted in his state appeals in

20:20

terms of getting out of jail. He's

20:23

basically in a hopeless situation. But

20:25

then Derek files Emotion and

20:28

the appeals court rules

20:30

in Derek's favor. It says

20:32

that a credible claim of

20:35

actual innocence can't be ignored

20:38

even if all appeals are exhausted.

20:41

The ruling gives Shabaka one last

20:43

shot in state court if he can

20:45

make a credible claim of actual

20:48

innocence, the merits of his case

20:51

must be heard.

20:52

Look, man, this is our team right here, just the AI

20:55

team. We're gonna work these cases and we're gonna get

20:57

out.

20:58

Let's think about what's happening here. You've

21:00

got this ragtag group of convicted

21:03

murderers, not a college degree

21:05

among them, and they're fighting

21:07

the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

21:10

This is in office with an entire division

21:14

devoted to beating back any

21:16

appeal and inmate makes. It's

21:18

in office with five hundred highly

21:21

trained prosecutors.

21:23

And this AI team. They don't have

21:25

much in the way of technology, they don't have

21:27

Google, but what they have is something

21:29

you cannot buy. They are a

21:32

group of people who are dedicated to a

21:34

singular cause to win their

21:36

freedom, and this is a life or

21:38

death situation for them. So

21:40

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't count

21:42

them out.

21:46

So back to the AI team. Everyone

21:49

naturally found their role. Derek,

21:52

he was the law professor.

21:55

Stick to what your burn The proof is everybody

21:58

knows how.

21:58

To make emotion.

22:00

How many times do you really know what your burden is?

22:02

Schabacca was a natural an

22:04

expert at drafting legal documents.

22:07

I really understood the law, like I can

22:09

interpret it and say, okay,

22:12

this is right.

22:13

But look at this, and you might

22:15

call Danny the public relations

22:17

officer. He was reaching out to anyone

22:20

who might help reporters, lawyers,

22:22

family members.

22:23

If I'm not going to coward, I'm not gonna

22:26

sit down and cry, because I'm gonna rise up.

22:28

And if I said I.

22:29

Didn't commit this crime, and then

22:31

there's Nelson Cruise. Nelson

22:33

did whatever was necessary, sort of

22:35

like an intern. He was the youngest.

22:38

He drew crime scenes. He also

22:40

made the coffee in his cell,

22:44

and to do it, he used to

22:46

sock as a strainer.

22:47

I got a brand new stock. Right. What

22:49

I do is I pulled a coffee in it, and then I

22:52

bought a water inside the sock. And

22:54

after I make the coffee, I'll call it. I'm like yo, Bush,

22:56

I'm done.

22:57

Bush is Derek's nickname. Together

22:59

he and Nelson, they mcguiret a pulley

23:01

system to deliver the coffee back and forth.

23:04

A line is made out of our bad sheets. We throw

23:06

the line and then we I'll grab it and the hook

23:08

hook the coffee onto it, real nice and be careful,

23:11

he don't spill it, and he'll be pulling the line

23:13

easily into his cell.

23:15

So Nelson, the intern, his

23:18

job is to keep Derek fueled. Picture

23:20

it Derek midnight in

23:23

his cell. He rolls up

23:25

his mattress, puts it on the floor,

23:28

sits on it like it's a chair,

23:30

and he places his typewriter on the

23:33

metal frame of his bed and

23:35

he starts typing his motions. He

23:37

types his own motions and one

23:39

for Nelson.

23:41

We had to be drinking all night, no shugar,

23:43

nothing, this straight black cowboys stown.

23:45

Yet the

23:49

AI team, it was now like a brotherhood,

23:52

and they made a promise to one another. Nobody

23:55

from the team was going to be left behind. They'd

23:58

all fight for each other's freedom.

24:00

And that's going to be very important to one

24:02

team member, Nelson Cruz.

24:05

The team was growing, flexing its muscles.

24:08

They even started a clinic on the DL.

24:11

The administration had no idea what they were

24:13

up to. People were dying to get in the class.

24:16

We had twenty five and a wait unless of seventy

24:18

five more. Administration

24:20

was like, what kind of class

24:23

is this? They never have weight lisses like this.

24:25

Derek, Danny Shebaka. They

24:28

analyzed the student's cases. One

24:30

person Shabacca helped was his friend

24:32

Tone.

24:33

Tone was always getting extra time for minor

24:36

infractions. Once, when

24:38

he was on parole, he was fifteen

24:40

minutes late for curfew. That landed

24:42

him back in prison for two years.

24:45

And when he was almost done with those two years,

24:48

he got into a fight and he got

24:50

two more years.

24:52

This guy did two years for being fifteen minutes

24:54

late on a curfery like that makes no

24:57

sense, and now he's got another two years

24:59

for a fight.

25:00

Remember, Danny is the firm's pr rep.

25:03

He's also an expert in writing letters.

25:06

I said, Danny, write it up. He wrote a nice letter

25:08

to this guy, sent it to the superintendent.

25:11

The superintendent dismissed the ticket. Right,

25:14

So I said, this is step one, Tone watch.

25:16

And then I took that letter and sent

25:18

it to his parole officer and said

25:21

there's no more basis for the two years. He shouldn't

25:23

be in jail. The parole

25:25

officer that I was cool with, he said, you're right,

25:27

he gotta be released. Probably a month

25:29

after we started doing his thing, he

25:32

was released and Tom came in and

25:34

crying.

25:35

He's like, yo, I can't believe it. They gonna let

25:37

me go.

25:39

The prison law firm was starting

25:41

to get results.

25:43

But the question is can they

25:45

beat the curse of the jail house lawyer

25:48

and get themselves out of jail.

25:50

Which means can they beat

25:52

Scarsella.

25:55

That's after the break.

26:13

All right, Dax, Let's go back in time.

26:20

Long before the AI team was formed. Robert

26:22

Hill was transferred to Auburn Correctional

26:25

He's another important character. You met him

26:27

in episode one. It's from talking

26:29

to Robert Hill that Schabaca learned

26:31

a crucial piece of information.

26:34

Robert Hill had been charged with two murders

26:37

committed on two separate occasions,

26:40

but there was just one witness, one witness

26:43

for both murders. Her name

26:45

Teresa Gomez.

26:46

The same witness that Frenchy discovered

26:48

in that online cigar form, the

26:51

same witness that Louis used

26:53

over and over.

26:55

A prosecutor wrote that Teresa had

26:57

a terrible drug addiction actual

27:00

words quote. It would be near folly

27:03

to believe anything she said, let

27:05

alone that she saw two murders

27:08

in two different places. Schebacca

27:11

is shocked by his discovery and

27:13

he turns to Robert Hill.

27:17

And I tell him I said, Scarccella's the officer in your

27:19

case and he's like, yeah. I said, that's the same officer

27:21

in my case and he said yeah. That said he's

27:23

in my brother's case too. So I said, oh

27:25

what, I said, your brother's your coat of finn

27:27

He said no, no, no, no, my brother got his own

27:30

case, but Scarcella was also

27:32

the cop in his case. So I said,

27:34

you know he's a crooked cop. He said, you ain't got to tell me.

27:37

He used the same witness in

27:39

my case and my brother case and in

27:41

you know what I'm saying. So I was like, you gotta

27:43

be kidding me. At

27:48

the time, I still didn't

27:50

know what to do with the information. It

27:53

really wasn't until me and Derek

27:55

had the conversation.

27:57

That's when Derek dropped a bomb. He

28:00

had been reading Shabaka's legal papers when

28:02

he noticed that Detective Louis s. Garcella

28:05

had played a crucial role.

28:11

Damn man, it's the same fucker

28:13

that frame me.

28:19

After all the time they'd known each other, Schabaka

28:22

and Derek had no idea that

28:24

Louis Scarcella was in each

28:26

of their cases the

28:28

same cop.

28:33

In the bottom of the report, that has Detective

28:35

Scarcella, Louis Scarsella.

28:41

It turned out that Scarcella was also a

28:43

detective in Nelson's case.

28:47

And the stuff that I read it was kind

28:49

of like day job voos

28:51

all over again, like damn, this

28:53

guy doesn't stop.

28:56

And Derek said, well, I know about this case.

28:59

In that case, he started naming cases,

29:02

and that's when it hit me we got

29:04

to expose him.

29:07

And that's when Derek said, Yo, you might be right.

29:13

Going after any cop is delicate,

29:16

but when you've got one like Scarcella, who's

29:18

high ranking, who's got accolades,

29:20

who's really got a reputation citywide,

29:24

that's even more delicate.

29:27

I said, look, we can't attack

29:30

him directly, because of course, don't

29:32

like when you just call a cop a crooked

29:34

cop.

29:35

So Scheabacca devised a different

29:37

strategy. In his four to forty motion,

29:40

he denied that he made the confession is Scarcella.

29:43

But remember Scarcella was widely

29:45

respected for getting confessions. It

29:47

was kind of considered like his superpower.

29:50

So Schobacca couldn't just come out and call

29:52

him a liar.

29:54

So I said, he isn't worthy

29:57

of credibility, and I

29:59

started showing

30:01

a pattern of his misconduct.

30:04

I showed that anything he said had to be scrutinized.

30:08

Chabacca put together evidence gathered

30:10

from his AI teen colleagues. He

30:13

cited the cases of Derek and the case

30:15

of Robert Hill, and for the first

30:17

time he showed what he called

30:19

a pattern and practice of

30:22

corrupt police behavior.

30:24

It was a breakthrough.

30:26

He was particularly proud of the way he expressed

30:29

his concerns about Scarcelo.

30:31

Detective Scarcella's ability to procure

30:34

inculporating evidence may

30:36

not be entirely the result

30:39

of pristine police work.

30:42

I gotta say that's impressively understated.

30:48

Schabacca's motion claimed actual

30:50

innocence, and it worked. The

30:53

court granted him a new hearing. Sabacca

30:56

was going to have his day in court, but

31:03

there is still a huge challenge

31:05

in front of him.

31:06

Being a jailhouse.

31:07

Lawyer, even one as good as Shabaka is

31:09

one thing. Standing up in a courtroom

31:12

with confidence and arguing the

31:14

intricacies of courtroom procedure,

31:17

that's quite another.

31:19

My only shit was that

31:22

I didn't know courtroom etiquette.

31:24

So Shabaka needed help. But

31:26

he wasn't going to engage just any

31:28

lawyer he demanded one who

31:30

degree to a key point.

31:33

I came in there telling them, I

31:36

don't care who you are, I.

31:38

Know my case, and we're going to do this my way. You

31:41

know what I'm saying.

31:42

And what he meant was that there was one

31:44

thing that he wasn't going to negotiate with

31:46

anyone about. Scarcela

31:49

needed to be confronted with evidence. It had

31:51

taken him years to a symbol of

31:53

his past misdeeds.

31:55

Were going to cost scarsella life.

31:57

He needs to be.

31:58

Put on a stead.

32:08

Shebaca would have to show that Scarcella

32:10

is not worthy of credibility, that

32:12

he had a quote unquote pattern and

32:14

practice of cheating, and

32:17

he had ammunition to

32:19

start with. Remember the witness who

32:21

had been Scarcella's secret weapon in so many

32:24

cases, the witness who claimed she

32:26

saw Robert Hill commit two different murders.

32:29

I mean that sure did seem fishy,

32:32

and then suddenly it seemed even

32:34

fishier. Turned out she witnessed

32:37

a lot of murders, or said

32:39

she did.

32:42

She was telling the truth.

32:46

What more do you want me to tell you? This

32:48

would have been eleven murders.

32:52

That's next time on the burden.

32:56

Here you about her Sacred, I'm.

33:09

The Burden is created by Steve Fishman.

33:11

It's hosted and reported by Steve Fishman and myself,

33:14

Dax Devlyn Ross. Our story editor

33:16

is Dan Bobkoff. Our senior producer

33:18

is Simon Rittner. Our producer is

33:21

Sonam Skelly. Our associate producer

33:23

is Austin Smith. Our fact checker

33:25

is Sona Avakian. A production

33:27

coordinator is Davon Paradise. Mixing

33:30

and sound design is provided by Mumble

33:32

Media. Our executive producers are Fisher

33:34

Stevens, Steve Fishman and Evan

33:36

Williams. Additional production help has

33:38

been provided by Josie Holtzman, Isaac

33:41

Kestenbaum, Naomi Brauner, Lucy

33:43

Souchek, Drew Nellis, Micah

33:46

Hazel, Priscilla A labby Saxon

33:48

Baird, Katie Simon and Katie

33:51

Springer. You want to give us special

33:53

thanks to Ellen Horn, Zach Stewart,

33:56

Pontier, Lizzie Jacobs, Nathan

33:58

Tempe, to Buy a Blast, Rachel

34:00

Morrissey, Mark Smirling and

34:03

Lila Robinson. Special thanks

34:05

to Marcy Wiseman. We want to thank our agents,

34:07

Ben Davis and Marissa Horowitz. Legal

34:10

support has been provided by Mona Hook at

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MKSR ll P, and a

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very special thanks to Evan Williams, one of our

34:17

executive producers and the person who made this

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podcast possible. We are

34:22

honored to feature the song black Lightning

34:24

from the Bell Rais is our theme music. The

34:27

Burden is a production of Orbit Media

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and association with signal Company

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Number one