In the 70s, Ron belonged to a motorcycle gang. He was stabbed and shot before he was 16, so he joined the gang for protection. His childhood was violent, and not much changed as he grew up. He decided he wanted more in life, so himself and a friend in his motorcycle gang decided they were going to leave and see the country. They ended up in California, and joined "the baddest motorcycle gang." After some time, they decided to go back to Detroit to visit. They got a van, loaded it with bear and went back on the road, and picked up two hitchhikers in Arizona. The hitchhikers started stealing from them, so Ron and his buddies roughed them up and let them back out on the road. Unknown to Ron and his friends, the hitchhiker's got picked up again by another car and they called the police.
Ron and his friends got pulled over in Oklahoma by the cops. They had guns pointed at them, screaming at them to get out of the van. They got arrested for armed robbery. The hitchhikers told the cops that Ron and his buddies beat them up and robbed them. However, they dropped the charges. Somehow, there was another armed robbery that they were being charged with. They received a court appointed attorney. They were charged with armed robbery at a gas station, however that gas station had burned down two years before. Instead of being set free, they were then being held for a murder charge in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The four men were extradited back to new mexico. In jail, they got a court appointed attorney named Hank. Hank informs the guys that he is four months out of law school and this was his highest profile case. They were sure everything was okay, because they knew they didn't kill anyone. At arraignment, they all pled not guilty. The judge accepted their plea, then sent them immediately to death row. Without a trial, without being questioned. Weeks went by, then months. Eventually, they went to trial. The trial lasted two weeks. The prosecution brought in a forensic science/autopsy person who said the victim was shot, stabbed, and had his genitals removed and put in his mouth. The prosecution brought in another star witness named Judith who is a hotel maid. She testified to the murder, calling out Ron and his buddies by their nicknames. The men were confused cause they had never seen her before. The prosecution towed the car, ripped it apart, but couldn't find anything. Not a drop of blood in the van or on their clothes. The prosecution then brought up two prison snitches who claimed Ron admitted to them that they did the murder. Their story, however, did not match up with the maid's. Ron wanted to know where the two snitches lived. This was important because the men were living in death row, and the snitches were not. There was no way Ron could leave his cell in death row to find these guys in protective custody in order to confess to the murder.
A few people from the club in California testified that Ron and them were in California at the time of the murder, and there was even a traffic ticket for one of the defendants from California at the time of the murder. Defendants wanted to subpoena the cop that gave out that ticket, but the judge denied the motion they needed to pay the cop to go to the trial.
As the trial is ending, the prosecutor brought up two surprise witnesses. These witnesses said they saw Ron and one of the guys in the bar in Albuquerque that night. Despite all of this, the men were still not worried. They knew they didn't do it, and they figured innocent people don't go to jail. The jury found them guilty, and they were sentenced to death. The men didn't talk to each other for three days. The justice system failed them. No one believed them when they said they didn't do it. Despite that, they still had hope that the real murderer would of been found.
Ron was preparing to die. Nine days before his execution date, a man walked into a church and confessed to the murder. The priest took him to the police, where he wrote his confession out in detail. He brought in his girlfriend as a witness, who helped him move the body. The man was working as an undercover cop, and said it was a drug bust gone wrong. Hearing this, the men's attorney's got a stay of execution and eventually a new hearing. This is when the prosecutor's argument fell apart. The star witness for the original case, Judith, admitted she lied. She testified that the cops and prosecutor told her everything to say. The forensic scientist from the first trial got up and admitted he lied, and that he never actually saw the body. The two last minute witnesses turned out to be related to the original prosecutor, and not actual witnesses to the crime. It turns out that the whole reason the four men were being charged with the crime was to help cover the undercover cop who actually committed the crime. They spent so much time and money destroying these four innocent men's lives all to save the real murderer from punishment.
After 22 months of being on death row, the four men were finally set free. Ron's record was expunged, but the damage had already been done. He went everywhere trying to get a job, but he couldn't because of the case being so publicized. Even though he was free, he ended up with a life sentence that followed him wherever he went. It didn't matter that he never committed the crime. He couldn't find a job, and even his kids were getting bullied and harassed because they were his kids. Of the four men, he is the only one still alive to tell the tale. His best friend commited suicide not long after they were free, and the other two were murdered by gang violence. Ron now works with www.witnesstoinnocence.org, traveling and telling his story. This man was almost executed for a crime he didn't commit because of a corrupt justice system that would rather put innocent people away than punish the person responsible for the crime, regardless of their job.
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