Joe Berlinger & Jason Baldwin

0:09Americans possibly based on innocent until proven guilty, but in this case, it's the other way around, and you're guilty until proven innocent. I never would have dreamed anything like this could have happened to me. My life has been defined by extremes. At one point, it's extreme prejudice and deprivation. And here it is now, extreme love and joy and exorbitance. It's amazing. That's my favorite part about being on this side of the fence, is thanking people in person, shaking hands, getting, giving hugs, and looking people in the eye. And I'm like, hey, thank you for that postcard. Thank you for that film. Thank you for putting that website together. Thank you for designing that shirt. Or whatever the case may be, whatever it is, that's my favorite part.

0:59I mean, what I love about this whole, or love and hate, we have seen the absolute worst in humanity over the last two decades covering the story and the absolute best. The worst being putting people away based on rumor and in UNDO, and then not admitting they've made a mistake when the evidence just becomes clearer and clearer, and just protecting jobs and protecting their interests and allowing people to sit in prison. I just couldn't imagine doing that. So that's the worst. But the best is literally tens of thousands of people. And though you hear about the Eddie Vettors and the Johnny Deps and the Peter Jackson's, and that's great. Certainly not knocking that. But there have been tens of thousands of people

1:47around the world, the regular people, who have banded together, who have fundraisers to show up at appeal hearings, to demonstrate, to just show their support. And I really think at a certain point, it got to a place where the state of Arkansas could not ignore the deafening cries of people asking for justice. I understand that they hate us, you know, hate me. But I didn't do it, you know? I didn't have anything to do with it. I'm sorry that your kids are dead. I'm sorry about that. But all I ask is, y'all go back and look at the evidence. Just stop and think and don't let your emotions about it all. Get to your head and just stop and think and look back at the evidence and look where the evidence does point.

2:33When a person went down, you know, they were waiting on me to arrive in prison, you know, to their minds. They thought, you know, I was a child killer, so they were waiting to do their worst to me. I mean, I've got the bones in my body literally broken. You know, I got on team scars and, you know, it was hell, you know? But along the way, people, you know, began to respect me and to start to believe in my story. And then Bruce and Joe's film came out and people were able to see what a what a came-room court it was. We were put there and those beatings turned into hugs. And those curses turned into prayers. And the whole prison was literally crying, tears of joy when we left, you know? Like just hoves all the way down the hall, you know? One of the things I did is I had like 30, 35 bucks on my commissary account that last day.

3:22And I thought I was like, how many ice creams can I get, you know? Because it's August, it's August. And I think there was like 110 heat in there except, you know, it's high. You know, like how many ice creams can I get there? Like, I'm 21. I like charge 21 ice creams to the count. And I'm going to go down the hallway and whoever comes ask them for one of my ice creams give it to them. So I just went down the hall and they'll be like, man, I'm glad you're going home, man. And we've been praying for this. I'm like, thank you. Go down to the commissary and tell them to give me one of my ice creams. That's fantastic. I love that story. Yeah. Hi, my name is Jason Ballinand. I want to thank all the supporters, all the people out there who have written me over the years, who have researched the case, did their, you know, whatever it is, it means they did your best, you know,

4:10let me, Damien and Jesse and our families know that, you know, what's happened to us. We'll not be forgotten in it. We made right. As horrible as that place was, you know, I didn't deserve to spend a single minute there, but I was willing to stay there as long as it took, you know, to eventually prove that there was no real innocence and Damien's innocence and Jesse's innocence. But just because I'm willing to go through that doesn't mean I should make that decision for Damien or make that decision for Jesse. Even outside of that room, you know, their families, our families have been aging, you know, at one point Jesse's father came and seen him every single weekend. Never missed a visit. And then this past year has helped at a complete 180, you know, Damien's mother, Pam, you know, she was a young woman when all this began.

4:57Now she hasn't, you know, breathed through oxygen, you know, so it's taken us total. It's been a long time. We didn't deserve a single minute there and, you know, spending today free, you know, or instead of being there, you know, with Damien worried about him, you know, killing you, you know, I'd make that decision again.