Exonerated

Barry Gibbs — Exonerated

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My story goes like this. I was a mailman. I worked 20 years, postal service, delivered route. I delivered mail over here at Sutton Place South. I met very influential people. I enjoyed my job. It didn’t pay enough, but I enjoyed my job. 

One day I was having a friend pick me up at my house. He was going to come at 12 o’clock, and I went about 10 minutes earlier, and I went up the street. I figured I’d wait for him to come down, and he never came. I walk back to my apartment building and I get thrown against the car. And they tell me, ​“Empty out my pockets.” And they say to me, ​“You shouldn’t have anything in your pockets that don’t belong there.” I didn’t know what he meant by it, but that’s — So, I put everything back in my pockets, I says, ​“What’s this about?” He throws me in the back of the car and he says, ​“I’m Detective Louis Eppolito,” who was the mob cop who’s right now going to go on trial next month. He says, ​“When we get into the precinct, I’ll tell you what it’s all about.” 

I get into the precinct, I go to sit down on a chair. He goes to a locker at the doorway and he pulls out a Polaroid camera and he takes photos of me, takes a front photo of me and he takes a side photo of me. And then he comes over to me with a photo of a deceased body, a woman by the name of Virginia Robertson. I never knew Virginia Robertson, other than the fact that Eppolito, when I said that, he smacked me in the back of the head. I said, ​“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. What’s that about?” He says, ​“You know who that is.” I says, ​“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He smacked me again. I said, ​“What are you doing?” He smacked me again. He hit me about four or five times in the back of my head. 

After that, another officer, detective came in and had to pull him off of me. All right. He pulled him off of me. And I said, ​“What’s wrong with this guy? What, is he out of his mind? Is he crazy or what? I don’t understand what’s going on.” He said to me– ​“do you mind?” Mr. Eppolito came back. I shouldn’t say, Mr.– Detective Eppolito. Crooked cop Eppolito. Yeah, that’s the guy. He came back and he says to me, ​“Do you mind standing in the lineup?” I says, ​“What do you mean? I’m not standing in a lineup. Why, you got an eyewitness?” He says, ​“Yeah, I have an eyewitness.” I says, ​“How reputable is he?” He says, ​“He’s reputable. He’s an ex-MP Marine. He was in the police– You know, the Marines for five years.” 

And he says to me, ​“That’s his credentials.” I says, ​“Well, do you feel he’s reputable?” He says to me, ​“Yeah.” I says, ​“All right, then. Why not? If you feel he’s reputable, I’ll feel he’s reputable. An innocent man has nothing to hide.” Says to me, ​“You want a lawyer?” I says, ​“What do I need a lawyer for? I didn’t do anything.” The next thing I know, he says to me, he’s going to bring in the eyewitness for a lineup. They bring me in a bathroom. I go into a bathroom and I come out of the bathroom. And lo and behold, I go to sit down. He says to me, ​“Take any number you want.” I took number two. He says to me, ​“You got a problem with the lineup?” I says, ​“Yeah, I got a problem with the lineup. Nobody in the lineup looks like me.” 

He’s got a problem. Of course, I got a problem. He says to me, ​“All right. Anything else?” I says, ​“Yeah, they don’t look like me.” We’re sitting down, you know, the description of the perpetrator was 5’3” to 5’7”. I didn’t know that until later on, but that was the description. So, I realized why I was sitting down. It didn’t take them more than a minute. They brought me back to the bathroom. I came out of the bathroom. I says, ​“Can I go home now?” He pushes me up against the wall, he says to me, ​“You’re wanted for the murder.” I says, ​“Are you serious?” He says, ​“You’re wanted for the murder.” I said, ​“I’m getting out of here.” He pushed me into a holding cell. 

I says to him, ​“Do I get a phone call?” He says to me, ​“Yeah.” I says, ​“Okay, fine.” Now you got to remember I’m an innocent guy. So the first thing I want to do is cooperate. Why wouldn’t I want to cooperate? You know what I mean? I’m innocent. When they took me out in the lineup, I knew I had a problem. The wind up was I had a phone call. I called up my ex wife who was my best friend. She was a real sweetheart. I went to say something to her and Eppolito grabbed the phone away from me. As he grabbed the phone away from me, he started cursing to my ex-wife, ​“I don’t know what you’re doing with him. He’s a murderer. I don’t know what you see in him. I don’t understand what– ” 

I says, ​“Eppolito, is that phone call for you or is it for me? Give me the phone.” He give me the phone. [audience laughter] I says, ​“Hello? Vicki, do me a favor. They got me for murder. I need an attorney. [audience laughter] You know, I need an attorney. You got to help me out.” I go to trial, I have Ira London as my attorney. He didn’t want me to take the stand. He figured it was a slam dunk with circumstantial evidence. I wind up losing. The jury finds me guilty. 

All right. The jury finds me guilty, and I get sentenced to 20 to life. When the guilty verdict came back, I was sitting there, I was in shock. Ira London put his hand on my shoulder, says to me, ​“Barry, did you hear what they said?” I didn’t answer. I couldn’t answer. I was in shock. He says to me again, ​“Barry, did you hear what they said?” I still didn’t answer him. He said, ​“Barry, I’m talking to you.” I says, ​“Ira, did they just say I’m guilty?” He says, ​“Yeah.” I says, ​“Well, I can’t believe this.” I said, ​“I can’t believe this. Unbelievable.” Next thing I know, I’m being brought out of the courtroom in the back way, and I’m sitting in a holding cell, and I start gathering my thoughts. The next thing you know, I am devastated. I break down, I start crying, and it was uncontrollable. I’m there all by myself. The next thing I know, I’m on my way to prison.

It’s the middle of the night. We’re pulling up Attica Prison. Pitch dark, walls are about 40 feet high. We walk through the entranceway. I get into prison, and they slam the doors. What a frightening feeling. What a revolting development this is. I got a problem. I really got a problem. [audience laughter] You know what I mean? So, I go over and I got a few things I have to do. One is I have to work on my case and try to prove my innocence, which I did for 19 years. Every day I could. I went to the law library and I worked on my case. I made calls, I did whatever I could. 

Second thing was, I had to learn how to live in jail. Very difficult situation. Whatever you learn out here, whatever is normal for us, you know, with relationships, how we talk to people, how we talk about people is completely opposite from inside. It’s a 360-degree turnaround. It took me over two and a half years to learn how to live in jail. It might take me another two and a half years to learn how not to live in jail. It’s a hard thing. It’s a very difficult situation. 

The other thing I want to say is, according to the parole board, if you have no remorse, when you go to the parole board, they’re going to hit you every two years. I had no remorse. I was a victim. I want you to listen closely. I was a victim here. I had no remorse. So, I knew I was going to get hit every two years. So, I decided I better do one thing. I better start making plans to die in jail, which I did. I had a cemetery plot out in Long Island. I had a life insurance policy. I had a friend of mine who’s here tonight. I made him power of attorney over my life, because in the event that I die, I needed somebody to talk up for me. 

And the other thing was, I had the rabbi from the facility, because I’m from the Jewish faith. I had him go over and put down on my chart that they couldn’t perform an autopsy on my body, because it’s against the religion. So, I was already prepared to die. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we go to the auditorium on the weekends. They have movies. And one day I’m looking on a movie. I’m going to show you how this Eppolito really haunted me. This Detective Eppolito, boy, he haunted me. I’m looking at the movie and I see Detective Eppolito’s face in a movie, Lost Highway. I said to myself, ​“Look at him. He’s in Hollywood, and I’m over here for a crime I didn’t commit.” 

The next thing I know, about a year later, I’m turning the television and I come to a program, Sally Jessy Raphael and I see Detective Eppolito’s face on that program. I said to myself, ​“This son of a bitch, look at this guy now.” I didn’t know what he was saying on his show because I only broke into it maybe middle or near the end of the show. So, I waited for the credits and I sent away for the transcript because I wanted to see what he was talking about. I read the transcript, I read what he was talking about. 

And then one day, 10 years later, it’s 10 years later, now I’m listening to the news. I’m a news junkie and I hear two prominent detectives, high ranking detectives from New York, get arrested in Las Vegas on drug charges. I couldn’t believe it. When I heard that, I called up the Innocence Project, which was working on my case. They had it for about seven years. They said to me they would look into it. Apparently, what they found there was enough to release me to get my conviction reversed and my indictment dismissed. However, on a 20 year to life sentence, I did serve 19 years. 

They took 19 years of my life. They took my identification, they took my ID, they took my Social Security card, they took my driver’s license, they took my identification. They took everything from me. I lost my son. I lost my family. I lost my friends. Not my good friends. My good friends stuck with me, but I lost my friends. And I lost my dignity and I lost my honor. And the man destroyed me. Totally destroyed me. I want to say this, and I want you people to listen to me good. I always believed in the criminal justice system. I always thought it was correct. I always thought if I helped and tried to give them whatever they could to prove that I was innocent, it would help. But it doesn’t help. What I believe is: whatever happened to me can happen to anybody out here, and it’s a very frightening feeling what’s going on. And I got to say thank you.