Page 8 - Will Eric Glisson News Today

About how detectives donnelly and aiello connected the two murders. it was through this witness. her name is kathy gomez. >> kathy, were on the record. >> cross tracked her down and videotaped his interview with her. >> you know im here today because eric glisson -- >> gomez, who was 16 at the time of the murder, says she first came in contact with the detectives for only one reason. she was friends with miriam tavares, who spoke only spanish. >> so you served kind of as a translator? >> yes. >>...

Is only a few hundred yards from the prison but to eric it might as well be in china. how many times you look at that bench? >> every day. >> and thinking ill be on there one day? >> i want to see what it looks like from that bench to the window because all i know is what it looks like from the window to the bench. >> finally, on october 22nd, 2012, four months after a federal investigator vouched for erics innocence, his day in court has come. erics been transferred from sing sing and is waitin...

Happens. youre back out in society an youre wondering, you know, will they accept you? yeah. you see? >> on his first night of freedom, erics lawyer treats him to a hotel room. >> i have a key thats a plastic card. wow. i used to sleep on a metal frame and now im on a comfortable bed. >> but the real joy for eric is reuniting with his daughter cynthia. >> cell phone towers. >> ready, set, go. >> she was just a week old when he was arrested. >> dont get too excited. you cheated.

>> and that degree he began working on behind bars? eeric started taking classes again two days after his release. and finally received that long-awaited diploma from mercy college. today, a fully exonerated eric glisson became a businessman, an entrepreneur. >> im doing everything single handedly. all of the reconstruction of the ceiling. >> theres going to be four tables. >> on the one-year anniversary of his release, eric opened a fresh juice business that he built himself named fresh take. >...

>> apparently -- >> its also been a long, painful road for lawyer peter cross. >> this is the one case that kept me up at night for six years because i knew we had to find like the one-armed man to get him out of jail. >> eric walked into the courtroom. >> numbers four and five on the calendar, eric glisson and kathy. >> standing next to him is kathy watkins. the only woman of the bronx six. >> like eric, she was tried only for the cab drivers murder and in 1997 they went on trial together. >> e...

>> her office believes there may have been an injustice, but only agrees to release glisson and watkins if they wear monitoring bracelets as the d.a.s office continues to investigate. >> we have made a decision to take this unprecedented, as you know, judge, an exceptional step that we are going to consent the conditional vacating of the conviction of these two defendants and the condition being that the defendants do wear those electronic monitoring bracelets. >> all thats left now is for the j...

Him outside and now for the first time in nearly two decades, eric glisson is about to take his first steps as a free man. [ cheers and applause ] >> eric, whats your emotion right now. >> this is a major pivotal point in my life, and i worked hard. i persevered, and with effort and determination, im standing here before you. >> now its his co-defendant kathy watkins turn! >> oh, my goodness. >> >> also wrongfully convicted. >> 17 years. >> almost 18 years. >> she was 29 when she went away. >> l...

Stood up and asked me did you write this letter and he said yes. he shook my hand and he said im sorry. >> i said sorry for what? >> he says, you know, i know youre innocent. when he said that i said, what are you talking about, sir? he said, listen. i know the guys who comitted this crime. >> how did omalley know? it turns out omalley worked with detective forcelli on that gang case ten years earlier and back then, those two gang members, jose and gilbert actually confessed the cab driver shoot...

♪ >> but unfortunately, for eric, a month later hes still behind bars. >> these people just dont want to let me go. they want to continue to hold me and torture me. the mental trauma im going through right now because of this, im wondering whether they may renege on this agreement. >> but as excruciating at these hours are, eric shares with us something beyond that wall of hope thats helped him wake up every morning. >> there is a bench by the water that each time i go to the barbershop and i ...

One of them was eric glisson. >> whats it like to hear that verdict read? >> its like a shot in the chest. its like your heart just melts, just dissolves. you actually think they read the wrong verdict, that this cant be true. >> the nypd was quite proud of detectives donnelly and aiellos work. so proud that five months after the arrest the department aloud the detectives to be featured in "new york" magazine about how they amazingly cracked the cases. >> how the detectives could have believed t...