This episode covers the wrongful conviction of Antonio Jerido in Alabama and the mountain of misconduct that occurred in his case.
On the evening of January 18, 2009, police were called to the site of a shooting of two people, Cornelius Gibbs and Daryl Benson, outside of a home in Watumpka, Alabama. When police arrived, Gibbs was found deceased from two gunshot wounds to the chest, and Benson was critically injured and transported to a local hospital.
Benson, the sole survivor, gave a statement to police that at the time of the shooting it was dark and he did not see the perpetrators and he had absolutely no idea who shot him and Gibbs.
A couple of days after the shooting, other people came forward to state that yet another person, Keon Butler, had been involved in the shooting. During police questioning, Keon claimed that he had never been in the area that evening and that Antonio had called him that night and admitted to doing the shooting.
Cell phone records later showed that Keon lied about his whereabouts that evening, and was in fact in the area. Two other people who quickly became co defendants - Roderick Foster and Tremont Turpin. Both of whom also made conflicting claims to police about what happened that night. However, they both admitted to being in a car with Keon Butler and another person.
Foster and Turpin told police they stopped the car in the neighborhood of the shooting. Keon and another person got out. They heard shots fired. Then Keon got back in the car holding a gun and told them to drive to another city. Along the way, they stopped and threw the gun in the river.
After these initial statements were made to police, Antonio's story becomes a nightmare that he is still living to this day, chock full of police and prosecutorial misconduct. His case should have never gotten to where it did, let alone resulting in a sentence of life without parole in an Alabama prison.
