The lead starts right now but first where disinformation prevails and democracy fails, putin celebrates a resounding when cementing another six years power, the lies that got him here, and the threat it could pose to the World Order Plus Chaos On America as doorstep, haiti collapses into a gang, stayed in get cnn is in their capital to capture how violence is now the law of the land. And we start with a moment to give us hope i finally got to meet Cj Ricin Person as he finally tastes freedom after more than 12 years behind bars for a shooting, he insists he could not have committed welcome to the lean. Im jake tapper in philadelphia and im going to start with some good news for once. Im in philly because there are major developments here and a legal case that weve been following for years here on the lead involving cj rice who is now a free man as of this morning, the Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania officially considers ej rice to be legally innocent of the crimes he was convicted of in 2013, District AttorneyLarry Krasner dropped all charges and exonerated him today. Now, you might remember me talking about this case on cnn and in an land iq magazine cover story in october 2022. Cj rice was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, 30 to 60 years for 2011 shooting in which no one was seriously injured i know about the case because my dad, dr. Theodore tamper was cj rices pediatrician at the time and testified at court that it was medically impossible for cj rise to have carried carrying out this crime, shooting the victims and running away because cj rice at that time was recovering from surgery since he had been shot three weeks before. And his pelvis had been shattered. He could barely walk at the time much less run. Now it became clear from investigating this case for the atlantic and cnn that cj rice had an incompetent defense attorney. That Court Appointed counsel, sanjay weaver, who failed to bring up his medical records or pull his Cell Phone Data that would have confirmed his alibi who didnt challenge the complete concoction of conjecture that was the supposed motive for the shooting and on and on and on bad decision after bad decision. Now after following cj rices case and Fighting For Tj Races Conviction to be overturned for years with my father leading the way and an incredible legal team chat alleging the conviction i am happy to report that cha was finally released from prison in december jake. How about it . Its gone now. How about a its good to see todays ruling brings even more good news for cj, because not only is he out of prison, judge James Eisenhower granted him a Habeas Petition which overturns his conviction, drops all charges against against a cj rice forever clearing his name. His attorneys will now filed to have that criminal record expunged. If you want to help cj rice as he begins to rebuild his life, you can check out the Gofundme Set Up by dream. Org. All of the money goes right to cj rise, so he can go to school and buy groceries and start or to rebuild his life. Here is a look now at Cj Races Story and how we got here finally, cj rice is free and exonerated and in the eyes of the Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, innocence of the crime for which he served more than 12 years in prison. It has been a journey for years. My dad pediatrician, dr. Theater tapper, has been telling me about cj rice as former patient doing 30 to 60 years in prison for a crime. My father insists rice could physically not have committed. There was impossible in 2020, i took a look into the case and wrote this 2020 to cover story for the atlantic magazine, arguing that cj rice, it had inadequate counsel, attorney, who acted so in competently cj did not get the fair trial guaranteed him under the us constitution. The piece was called, this is not justice a philadelphia teenager and the empty promise of the sixth amendment. And today, the Court Granted the motion offered by philadelphia District AttorneyLarry Krasner, agreeing with Cj Rises Attorneys carl swartz and emilia max field, that rice was denied his Sixth Amendment Rights to effective counsel it would be a violation of my oath to retry a case. When we know that if you put all of the reliable evidence forward it doesnt establish proof beyond a reasonable well now krasner is office has acknowledged that the case handled by prior prosecutors was week from the start, that there wasnt much evidence at all no dna, no weapon, no footage no solid unimpeachable witness tying rise to the September 2011 nighttime shooting and wounding of four people this is the position where one of the shooters was the one that was aidid as cj rice the night of september 25, 2011 . The eyewitness testified that he was 20 feet away 20 feet away, however, for what actually put them like here this is 20 feet away where i was before although over there. Thats more like 50 feet away, witnesses said they saw the gunman running, but my dad had examined these 17 cj rice just five days earlier and he insisted cj was in no condition to run he had staples and his abdomen over a approximately at eight or nine inch surgical incision from his breastbone straight down. As far as you could go . Thats because three weeks earlier cj rice had been shot three times in a case cj says was mistaken identity. There was no way this young man five days after i saw him was running anywhere, let alone walking fast. The one eyewitness who fingered cj had known him for years she initially and repeatedly told police she could not identify the gunman as one of rice is attorneys jason kadesh told me, i think it was approximately 20 hours where she had spoken to at least i think it was three different officers and he never said this is somebody thats in my neighborhood, but overnight police claimed are confidential informant, told them that rice may have been involved so at the then showed this photo array to the eyewitness and she then fingered rice. When rice was named as a suspect, his mother, crystal cooper, met him at the Police Station so that he could turn himself in and then detective two goods arm to help them walk up this theres cj racist family could not afford Legal Counsel so Court Appointed private attorney sanjay weaver, took his case and weaver, who died in 2019, did not provide cj with an adequate defense. A source in the das office tells me that the witnesses testimony would not stand up to any competent defense attorney. She stated that mr. Rice had grades hanging down around im just face with a hoodie tied up around it when we looked at the arrest photo for mr. Rice, he actually had cornrows, so there was no way that he would have been able to have Braids Hanging down the side of his face, though perhaps tellingly it had been in long braids in the photo from the Police Lineup that the witness was shown from a previous drug charge. Another part of the das review that help them arrived at this decision. Cj had told weaver over and over to get the location data for his cell phone. It would prove that he was at the time in west philadelphia, not the South Philadelphia site of the shooting. But sanjay weaver never got that data nor did the police after the trial. Cj started telling me, oh, she should have did this. I told it to do this. She didnt listen to me. The das office reviewed old recorded Courthouse Phone Conversations and heard Cj Rice Begging his mom to push sanjay weaver, his attorney, to get those Phone Records to prove his alibi if this case had occurred yesterday, it is very likely that it wouldnt be so marquee that we would have Phone Records that would geolocate to exactly where mr. Rice was are pretty close to exactly where he was. There were any number of hideous omissions in Sanjay Weavers in competent defensive cj rice, attorney Carlos Schwarz zeroed in on weaver, allowing into evidence the concocted motive that this was a retaliatory shooting for when cj rice was shot, Though Neither The Da nor the philly police had any evidence connecting the two shootings. The case has consumed my fathers life for the better part of the last decade. And though both he and cj rice are celebrating today they believe that the prisons are packed with others just like him. There are probably ten or 20 or 40,000 people who were serving time behind bars or not guilty of the crime for which they are serving time. I sat down with cj oneonone. If you days ago for the First Time Since hed been released, we talked about what it felt like to finally be free and the letters he exchanged with my dad while he was behind bars its good to see you because it cej youve spent almost 13 years in prison. Has it feel to be out . Amazing he said the air tastes sweeter. Air tastes sweet are the sunshine different as a different Warmth Affiliate A sudden, as a free man, as can put it in a worries. So these ladders from my dad, did you look forward to getting them . I did. Yeah, i did. Like a lot, really. Yeah. Because its a constant. So you get used to constants in jail most of them are demeaning or not so personal but a letter with ink on it from somebody on other side of the wall thats personal. That makes you feel human. The care and concern as a father had for me, it was genuine my dad always says that we dont have a Justice System. We have a legal system, but theres no justice necessarily i can attest it. It i can attest it. It you can see much, much more of this story. This sunday night, were going to tell it all documentary style on Anderson Cooper coopers, the whole story. Its called justice delayed. The story of cj rights 08 00 p. M. On sunday, 08 00 p. M. On sunday only on cnn. So what comes next receipt j. And how hard will it be to get his record expunged . Cjs lawyers, the two main ones are gonna join me live next to discuss that. And how many other innocent people might it has been wrongly convicted. Plus, cnns david culver is one of the few journalists whos been able to get inside the capital of haiti where Machete Wielding militias are battling gangs for control of the streets is going to join us live from portauprince. Thats next United States of scandal with jake tapper. 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And with me now are both Harlow Sports and Amanda Max Field to both of you . Congrats graduations on what you achieve today, emilia, let me start with you. You were with the Innocence Project. Youre now with the exoneration project. Cj is out of prison. His conviction has been overturned. How does this moment feel for you as an attorney . It feels great. I think the primary thing im feeling right now is relief, honestly, but i am really thrilled for cj, as you know, as well as anyone, jake cj has been fighting for this for more than 12 years for almost 13 years. He has really kept this fight alive and been at the center of all of this. So im just its really happy for him that hes gotten this outcome and that he can move on with his life now. And karl, youre the captain of the ship here. That got his Habeas Petition filed and granted. Cj can now pursue having his record for Attempted Murder expunged. What is that process like . How soon . Nor are you going to start doing it . How quickly going to be expunged but its pretty straight. You know what jake you know, it was a big ship a credit is also due to nail them, sank v of the pennsylvania Innocence Project and don varelli former solicitor general, and Ginger Angeles and anders and we shouldnt forget them. This was very much attached to the expunged absolutely. Expunged should be should be pretty straightforward and fairly routine and certainly warranted and we will go about the business of getting that done as quickly as possible. Its not terribly involved amelia, today at the District Attorneys press conference District Attorney krasner he would not say for certain whether cj was innocent or not innocent. Is that typical of this type of thank yeah. I think you know, obviously, i cjs advocates as his attorneys, we have a very different perspective on this this is typical legally as a legal matter, cj has been exonerated. He is innocent and also factually, he is innocent as well. The das office in deciding not to retry this case, did a very thorough reinvestigation, perhaps the investigation that should have been done from the b