Convicted and freed. Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres josh mankiewicz. Sing sing correctional facility. The maximum security prison in new york. This is the big house. Home to some of the worst of the worst. Killers, rapists, drug dealers. Good morning. Thank you. It is not where youd expect to find this gentle woman. In sing sing, they call me grandma. Grandma is sister joanna khan, a nun. I began working at sing sing more than 12 years ago. This is the battle about general. Grandma volunteers at the prison. Working with inmates in a she even teaches them chinese. Through the years, grandma has helped dozens of men. But she says this inmate here on stage, a convicted killer, has changed her. He is just so brave. Watching him all these years, i took such courage myself watching him. Sister joanna remembers the first time she met this inmate. He was sitting alone eating. He said, my family send me 30 pounds of food. So i said, your family must love you very much. And he said, yes, because they know im innocent. And thats how the whole story began. A story that began with the unlikely friendship between a nun and a convicted killer would grow into a quest that would shake the faith of ep those sworn to uphold the law. I thought the people innocent, god has to see him through. Murderer . He issen mate 97a7088. 38yearold eric glisson. We first met him in the spring of 2012 when a dateline producer working on a different story in sing sing met eric in the cell. Youre going to film me . He had been locked up for 18 years. You want to see what its like to live in here . I can touch the walls with my hands. Eric told us he didnt belong here. My story is that im unjustly convicted for a crime i didnt commit and from february 3rd of 1995 until the present date ive been sitting in here lingering every day wondering whether this mistake will be corrected. Weve heard that before. Many times. But what if he was telling the truth . So, over time how are you doing, snan. We began visiting eric. Whats up . And listening to his story. When i got arrested i was always under the impression people who are guilty actually go to jail. I didnt believe that i would be convicted of a crime that i didnt do. When police put the cuffs on him in 1995 eric was 20 years old. The brand new father of a 1weekold baby girl. Since then, their only time together has been spent in sing sings visiting room. I have a family who i love. And who love me. My daughter, i need to get home to her and be a father. Eric often shared his story with sister joanna. Over time, she felt compelled to do something, anything for him. So she called the only lawyer she knew. The first person i could think of was mr. Peter krauss. I trust her judgment. Attorney peter cross agreed to see if theres truth to erics story but there was still one problem. This is not the law you normally practice. Im a corporate lawyer. I do corporate litigation. I dont do criminal work. Shar main was his assistant. Out of the blue one day i get this call. You have a collect call from an inmate at sing sing correctional facility. Like, okay. Soon she found herself spending hours on the phone with the inmate. At first, it was all, you know, business, case, case. By the time you talk to somebody every day, personal things start to slip in. Friendship. Friendship. In the meantime, her boss was checking out erics xlams of innocence. Did you believe at the beginning . Im not going to say i didnt disbelieve. Im practicing law for a listening time. Okay . And people law. They certainly color the truth. This is a man who was convicted of murdering someone. So, of course, i approached it with some skepticism. Once cross learned the facts, no charge. Representing a man who didnt seem hardened by prison but almost frightened. Its terrifying because you can just be walking in the yard and then you could be shanked. Thats the life of prison. A life hes lived for nearly two decades. A story he was telling us if true was as explosive as it was tragic. It turns out that the police and the District Attorney had all the evidence that they disclosed to solve this crime from the beginning. Not only was eric insisting he was wrongfully convicted, he said others were, too. All of them locked away for life for the same crime. Five other people, five other people was also convicted of this crime. Six people. Could all of them actually be innocent . Time now is approximately 7 15. To find out, well go back hard look at how it all began. Is it possible to get something so important, so wrong, about so many people . When we come back, we investigate what the police didnt to find out what witness really saw from her window the day of the murder. Hows the detectives could have decided to run with this still shocks me today. Ing a hot new deal at mcdonalds that starts with you. Now, get 2 delicious tastes for just 2 dollars. 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Theyre proven to give you comfort. Which helps you feel more energized. All day long. I want what he has. Performance. Reimagined. Style. Reinvented. Sophistication. Redefined. Introducing the allnew lexus rx and rx hybrid. Agile handling. Available 12. 3inch navigation screen and panorama glass roof. Never has luxury been this expressive. Within the walls of sing sing a convicted murderer has convinced a nun and a corporate lawyer that theres been a terrible miscarriage of justice. Eric glisson is in the 18th year of a 25 to life murder sentence. He claims hes innocent. You ever been in prison before this . Prison . Its hell. 7 22, brutal killing of a recruiter is under investigation. Nightmare began on the night of january 18th, 1995. The new york city detectives lining this hallway in the bronx were entering a crime scene as chilling as it was violent. She had three pairs of handcuffs on her wrists. The victims name was Denise Raymond. She was an executive with fedex. Cops videoed the entire scene and anything that might seem important. Detectives are mystified over the vicious killing of a successful executive. The case went to detective time ioell. He led a team of detectives who worked through the night knocking on dorrs and collecting evidence. Then as the sun rose the next morning, some of the cops turned third attention to another murder, another bloody crime scene. This is the video police recorded of that second murder scene. Just a half mile away in the same precinct. This was a busy night for the murder business in the bronx. Time now is approximately 7 15 a. M. On january 19th, 1995. This time, a liver ri cab driver of bath diop slumped over the Steering Wheel shot multiple times. The victim of an apparent robbery. The drivers money and cell phone were missing. The investigation of the cab drivers murder would be headed by 31yearold detective mike don nolly working alongside detective aiello. The two detectives ended up putting their heads and their cases together concluding the same group of several people committed both murders. Did you know the other people . I knew two of them. These are good friends of yours . Acquaintances. February 4th, 1995. First suspect arrested. I have one thing to say, though. Im innocent. I didnt do it. I wasnt there. Eric was also questioned at the precinct where he adamantly denied knowing anything about either killing. Please dont blame me for something i have not done. Why is this happening to me . I dont know whats going on. I just want to be with my daughter. If i knew what took place that night, if i knew who did anything, i would tell you. Ill give you the rights one more time. Detectives did not believe him. Eric glisson and five others were arrested for both murders. Originally you were charged with both murders, Denise Raymond murder and cab driver murder. Yes. But by time the time eric went to dril, prosecutors dropped charges against in the Denise Raymond case citing lack of evidence. So what evidence was there against him in the cab driver case . There was a witness against him. Her name miriam tavares. She told the cops she looked out the window and saw it all. Eric and the others smack in the middle of the robbery that ended in murder. Is it possible that miriam saw you commit a crime . No. Not any crime . I wasnt there. Bad blood between you and miriam . Yes. Bad blood. She said she had a brief sexual relationship with miriam that didnt end well. You have a flung and cut her off abruptly, she may feel slighted. Slighted enough to make you a murder snekt. I guess so. Whatever her motivation, the question is, how reliable was she as a witness . All these years later, eric finally had someone to take another look at miriams story. Attorney peter cross. Theres no doubt that this woman was lying. I went out to the crime scene seen what she said occurred. So what could miriam really see . Heres the problem with miriams story. From that police video, we know this is where the cab came to rest. We also know the shooting happened a couple of car lengths back, sort of where that red suv is. We know a man this that building called 911 when he heard the shots and he said he saw only one person running away from the scene. Now, a couple of weeks later, miriam comes forward. She lives in that building over there. Now youre looking at me from just outside the window through which miriam said she saw all of this happen. This has to be easily 100 yards away. And she says she saw six people from the neighborhood commit the crime. She says she heard what they said and she saw what they stole. And she said she saw all of it looking through this bathroom window. The only problem is, if you go back to where the shooting actually happened, its pretty clear miriam couldnt have seen she said from the bathroom window she heard these conversations going on inside the car. I mean, its just incredible testimony. But what disturbed cross even more, detective don nelly never looked at the crime scene from the perspective you just did. Wouldnt that sort of be Standard Operating Procedure to check out what witnesses say . You would think so. I think they got on the horse early on in this case and they rode that horse and they werent going to change direction. We wanted to speak with miriam tavares. She died of a Drug Overdose in 2002. Other than her testimony, tlefs no prince r prints, nothing, that tied eric or the others to the cab drivers murder. Eastbound so, detectives don nelly and aiello went with what they had and closed both murder cases. Within three weeks, they arrested their suspects and the bronx District Attorney tried them. In all, six people were well call them the bronx six. Five men and a woman. All sent away facing 25 to life. One of them was eric glisson. Whats it like to hear that verdict read . It is like a shot in the chest. It is like your heart just melts. Just dissolves. You actually think that, you know, they read the wrong verdict. That this cant be true. The nypd was quite proud of detectives don nelly and aiellos work. So proud that five months after the arrests the department allowed the detectives to be featured in new York Magazine about how they amazingly cracked the cases. How the detectives could have believed that and decided to run with this and send them to jail for the rest of their lives on the basis of this garbage still shocks me today. All these years later, attorney cross knew his opinion of the detective work in this case wasnt going to free eric i think the only kind of evidence thats going to sway a court is if we can point to who the real killers are. That was quite a lot to hope for. But from behind bars, eric glisson was already on the trail. I got some documents and so i see this guys name keeps coming up. A surprise visitor and an answered prayer. He said, im sorry. I know youre innocent. I know the guys who committed this crime. When dateline continues. At olive garden, starting at 12. 99. Choose 3 of 10 favorites to enjoy on one plate. Plus unlimited salad and breadsticks. The best tour of italy is the one you create. At olive garden. [ coughing ] [ sneezing ] a cold can make you miserable. Luckily, alka seltzer plus cold and cough liquid gels. Rush liquid fast relief to your tough cold symptoms. Fast, powerful liquid gels these are the people were calling the bronx six, five men and a woman. All convicted and sent away for 25 years to life for committing murder. All insisted they were innocent. We met one of them, eric glisson, in sing sing, where from behind bars hed been trying to get answers ever since he was locked up. Ive been fighting these people for years. Asking for documents which they deny me at every turn. Theyre not going to convict me for something that i didnt do and just expect me to accept it. Im going to fight to the end. Im a fighter. I die on my feet, not on my knees. As the years passed, eric took College Courses offered by the prison. He learned about the law and fought his case. How did he get that evidence in his possession . The courts denied all his appeals. I dont i dont have any appeals left. It was a lonely fight and then in 2006 he met sister joanna khan in one of the prisons programs, the woman he calls grandma. Theres particular dark time. He would say, grandma, its really hard. I just lost my last appeal. I dont know what im going to do. I always say lets keep the faith and lets go and pray and i said, we have many, many sister praying with you. Sister joanna offered more than just her prayers. Thats when she brought in peter cross who was now fighting for eric on the outside. So you have detective don nelly as the officer assigned. Yep. With eric as his guide, cross got up to speed. To have any chance of having another day in court eric knew hed need powerful evidence, evidence of actual innocence. He started thinking. If he and the other five codefendants had nothing to do did . After more than a decade of trying, finally, some of erics requests for documents in his case began trickling in. I came across one document which had my name as well as my other codefendants and one name stood out, it was an individual i found out was part of a gang called sex, money, murder. Eric was on to an important lead. Sex, money, murder. Seven veteran cops knew those three words meant danger and notorious gang from the foundview section of the bronx. 1997, october, sex, murderoney, murder became my assignment. This was all sex, money, murder territory . Yeah. We are in the heart of it. While investigating the gang, an informant told him details of a crime the gang members had committed. There was a cab driver who had been killed in the vicinity of soundview. The story. Early 1998, walked in the precinct. Went up stairs, walked into the detective squad room. You say what do you know . Soundview. And the response . Nothing that fit that description. But the informant insisted the murder did happen. You didnt only make one trip to the 43rd precinct. Made two. Nothing that fits that description description. Any reason the Police Department bouldnt tell you the truth . I thought about that. He said the answer might be simple. As far as the nypd was concerned, this homicide was solved. Closed. The detective may have looked only in the open homicide drawer and never bothered to even look to see if theres anything other than an unsolved homicide that fit that description. As far as you know, thats he soon retired from the nypd not knowing six people had already been convicted. Meantime, eric was stuck in prison. It wasnt until 2012, 14 years later, he pit paydirt and it came in the form of cell phone records. Remember, the cab drivers cell phone had been stolen by whoever killed him. I found hundreds of calls after his death. The records showed the first call was made from the victims phone minutes after the shooting. The numbers called traced back to relatives of two sex, money, murder gang members of Jose Rodriguez and gilbert vega. Eric believed he finally had evidence showing who the real killers were. Took me 16, 17 years to get those through freedom of information. They were never provided to the defense . No. It turns out that the police and the District Attorney had all the evidence at their disposal to solve this crime from the beginning. So he wrote a letter to the u. S. Attorney proclaiming his information hed found out about the sex, money, murder gang. It was a hail mary pass. In an amazing stroke of luck, erics letter landed on this mans desk. His name, john omalley, an investigator for the u. S. Attorney in new york. Days after reading erics letter, omalley made a personal trip to see eric in sing sing. Immediately, john omalley just stood up and he asked me. Did you write this letter . I said, yes. He shook my hand and 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 guy that is committed this crime. How did omalley know . He worked with detective forselli on the gang case ten years earlier and back then the two gang members, jose and gilbert actually confessed the cab driver shooting to omalley. Letter, everything just came back to me from that day. I put it altogether. When these guys confessed to me. Omalley didnt want to appear on camera but told us he also checked with the nypd after the confessionings in 2002 and like the detective before him, omalley was told there was no record of the crime. After getting erics letter in 2012, omalley addressed the court in a sworn affidavit stating that eric glisson and the others were innocent of the cab drivers shooting. Armed with that kind of statement, youd think eric would be literally home free. Youd be wrong. Coming up, eric glisson isnt giving up. This is my wall of hope. Everyone here has been unjustly convicted and freed. Will his own picture ever be tears welled up in my eyes. So since you have at t and directv you can get our new unlimited data plan. Unlimited data . So were like rich . youre data rich. Data rich we hear t. I. s whatever you like i think we can get used to being data rich. Get d