It has been my experience that because of institutional and individual racism

and Gilbert Montegut
,
 
and Leonard Turner wasn’t there—all
contradicting what Jackson said. Anything that diverged from his tale, he
didn’t seem to “remember.” When Garretson asked if my body or Herman’s
or Montegut’s touched Miller’s body while we were stabbing him, Brown
said he didn’t know. When asked if there was a lot of blood he said he didn’t
know because he “wasn’t paying attention to no blood.” (There was no blood
on Brown’s bed, where Brown said Miller was seated while he was being
stabbed, and the blanket and sheet weren’t ruffled.) In trying to determine the
time of death, Garretson asked Brown if the sun was up when he walked out
of the dorm. Brown replied he didn’t know.
Brown unwittingly gave a small detail supporting our contention that we
were framed that hadn’t come up at my trial. He had testified at my trial that
when he was questioned by authorities during his second interrogation “they
told me what happened.” At Herman’s trial Brown let slip that the night he

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was pulled from his bed at midnight and brought to a room to be interrogated
a second time, “select” prisoner “files”—presumably mine, Herman’s, and
Jackson’s—were already on the table when he walked in and they were given
to him. At Herman’s trial Brown also implied that he added Gilbert Montegut
to his statement later under duress. “I knowd if I said no, I didn’t know
nothing about it then . . . I’m going to get punished behind it,” he testified.
“I’m going to get throwed in one of them cells, and I . . . stayed in one of
them cells on Death Row . . . I couldn’t stand that no more.”
Another witness for the state, a prisoner named Howard Baker,
contradicted Chester Jackson 
and
Hezekiah Brown. Baker testified he was
walking by Pine 1 when he saw Herman come out the door of Pine 1 “with
blood on his sweatshirt and down the front of his pants” and “enough to
become, you know, readily visible if you would look at it,” and that upon
exiting Pine 1 he saw Herman turn 
right 
toward the dining hall. Baker also
testified he did not see me, Chester Jackson, or Gilbert Montegut, but he did
see an inmate named Pedro follow Herman out of the dorm, “two or three
seconds” after Herman, “around 7:55 or 8 a.m.” Baker also testified he didn’t
see Hezekiah Brown, Leonard Turner, Paul Fobb, or Joseph Richey that
morning. He only saw Herman and Pedro. Nobody had ever mentioned Pedro
in any statement or testimony before this.
Baker went on to state that after Herman—still covered in blood—turned
right exiting from Pine 1, he walked past the clothing room and through the
snitcher gate, which was manned by a security officer, and then past the
dining hall to another security gate, which was manned by a different security
officer, to get to the tag plant, where he worked, with no questions asked. At
the entrance to the tag plant he checked in with a guard, giving his ID number
and housing assignment—a requirement for all prisoners. About “six minutes
later,” Baker testified, he entered the tag plant and Herman, still wearing his
bloody clothes, asked him for a key to a box containing work clothes. Baker
said he gave him the key and Herman changed into clean clothes and placed
his bloody clothes “on top of the box.” Then, Baker said, Pedro entered the
tag plant in his bloody clothes and talked to Herman. He said Herman then
picked up his bloody clothes and carried them to a furnace in the front of the
plant and burned them.
Baker didn’t come forward with this story until after he’d been living in
the brutal conditions of cellblock B for several months. Prison records our
attorneys obtained years later showed that after he gave his statement against

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Herman, Howard Baker was moved to a dorm at Camp A, where he served as
“clerk of security.” After that he was moved to the dog pen, the same highly
prized, low-security area that housed Hezekiah Brown. On the witness stand
Baker said he came forward to tell his story months after Miller was killed
“because of my conscience.” Years later he would recant his testimony,
saying he didn’t think anyone would believe his statement against Herman
because there was no furnace in the tag plant; there was no place to burn
clothes in the tag plant and “everybody knew it.”
When Joseph Richey took the stand, he repeated that he saw Leonard
Turner come out of Pine 1, followed by me, Gilbert Montegut, Chester
Jackson, and Herman. Only this time instead of saying I bumped into the
trash wagon (which was not on the walk, according to Herbert “Fess”
Williams, who testified at my trial) Richey testified that as we left the dorm
the door “hit the garbage buggy” and the door was stuck open so Richey
could see into the dorm, and he saw a body lying on the floor inside Pine 1.
He said after Hezekiah Brown left the dorm, Richey entered it and walked up
to Brent Miller’s body and then left, waiting outside for the body to be
discovered.
Herman had five alibi witnesses. One of them, Gerald Bryant, worked in
the kitchen and testified he not only saw Herman in the dining hall at 7:30 or
7:45 that morning but also gave Herman some books. Another inmate,
Clarence Jones, who testified he served Herman a breakfast tray that morning
while working in the dining hall, said he saw Bryant give books to Herman.
There were witnesses who testified they walked with Herman directly to the
tag plant from the dining hall. Garretson showed the judge and jury the roster
from the tag plant, proving Herman had signed in for work before eight a.m.
on April 17. Prisoner Henry Cage testified that when he arrived at his job in
the tag plant, around eight a.m., Herman was already there, working.
As for Gilbert Montegut, several witnesses, including a captain, testified
they saw him in the hospital, nowhere near Pine 1, before and after breakfast
the morning Miller was murdered. Captain Wyman Beck’s testimony saved
Montegut. Assigned to the hospital that day, he testified he saw Montegut
there around the time Miller’s body was discovered. Beck also testified that
prison officials had called him that morning and told him to send Montegut
back down the walk. A prison worker testified that he saw Montegut in the
hospital between 7:30 and 8 a.m. and corroborated the captain’s testimony
that a warden telephoned the hospital that morning asking for Montegut to be

---

sent to the walk. No explanation was given as to why Montegut was
summoned.
The same forensics information that came up at my trial was conveyed to
the jury. In summary: no clothing, no weapon, no physical evidence
whatsoever linked any of us to the murder of Brent Miller. There was a clear,
identifiable bloody fingerprint that didn’t match me, Herman, Montegut, or
Jackson.
Back in CCR, Robert King and I were following Herman’s trial in the
newspapers. When I read that Chester Jackson turned state’s evidence against
Herman I felt disgusted by his betrayal. I thought back to the first meeting the
four of us had with our lawyer, nearly two years before. I remembered
thinking there was something wrong with the way Jackson acted. He wasn’t
animated; he sat back in his chair. At the time, I wondered if it was nerves, or
if he’d been broken. Now I knew. He lied on me and Herman, knowing we
were innocent, to save his own ass. He also lied to all of us and our lawyer
for two years. The all-white jury didn’t deliberate long. Herman was found
guilty of the murder of Brent Miller. Gilbert Montegut was found not guilty.
In exchange for his testimony, Chester Jackson took advantage of the plea
deal offered and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Herman was sentenced to life in prison and sent back to CCR, but not to
my tier. By now we understood they would never put us on the same tier in
CCR again. That year, and for decades, they tried to come between me and
Herman. They tried to break our connection. What they didn’t realize was
that with every action they took against us, the stronger we became; the more
united it made us. After being railroaded and lied about, after our unjust trials
and wrongful convictions, we knew we were in this for life. That knowledge
gave us a new determination, a new strength, and a new sense of dedication
to our cause. There was a very strong loyalty and devotion between us. We
had an expression we got from the TV show