BACKGROUND: Death Penalty Information Center: June 23, 2023: 'Lamont Hunter released from death row on plea agreement amid review of new evidence.'…"On June 15, 2023, Ohio death-sentenced prisoner Lamont Hunter (pictured) was released after serving nearly 18 years for allegedly causing the death of his 3-year-old son, Trustin Blue. To obtain his freedom, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Prosecutors agreed to offer a plea deal after Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christian A. Jenkins set bond for Mr. Hunter and dismissed prosecutors’ request to deny his bond. Mr. Hunter was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 on charges of aggravated murder, child endangerment, and rape in the death of his son who suffered fatal injuries after accidentally falling down the stairs. In his appeal, his attorneys argued that newly discovered evidence cast doubt on the prosecution’s theory that Mr. Hunter caused Trustin’s injuries. In March 2023, the prosecutors agreed to a new trial and vacated his capital convictions because the deputy coroner who initially ruled the death as homicide changed her opinion in a 2021 deposition. Based on her review of evidence that she was not previously given at trial, she testified that the cause of death was undetermined and the injuries she had attributed to sexual assault were accidentally inflicted at the hospital. During last week’s hearing, Judge Christian A. Jenkins imposed a sentence of time served that was agreed upon as part of the plea deal. Mr. Hunter’s attorney, Erin Barnhart, said, “Trustin was in his care. He accidentally fell down the stairs. Lamont knows that, in a way, he’s responsible − he was the caregiver. But he never harmed Trustin. He loved Trustin.” Assistant Prosecutor Seth Tieger appreciated Mr. Hunter’s accountability by stating “that went a long way with us.”
PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: " So once we got the prosecutors file, we noticed that they withheld exculpatory evidence and exculpatory for your viewers who don’t know what exculpatory mean, it’s, it’s evidence favorable to the defendant, and they had it in their file, which and they never talk turned it over to me. But the evidence that I’m speaking of was medical records that they had got from the hospital, Trustin’s medical records, and it showed because, let me — I have to jump back and forth here. I hope I’m not too confusing. Like as, like I mentioned, I’m gonna go back. Why I mentioned when I first heard about the rape charge, that was one of the things that they dug in on because of the fact I couldn’t explain it. I could not explain the three puncture wounds to Trustin’s rectum because I had no, I had no awareness of, I had no idea that it existed. And so they figured that I was lying and that I did it adnd I use something sharp like a pencil was what, was their exact words, to rape him. And that I shook him in hitting against the head was something or the wall or whatever, was their theory, to shut him up from crying. And it made no sense to me.
——————————————————————
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "So once we got — okay, now I’m gonna fast forward back to we got in federal court, and we get discovered, and we find these medical records. And then and this, this nurse documented her attempts three times to take Trustin’s temperature through his rectum, through his anus, in his rectum, she punctured him because it was so chaotic in ICU, she was just trying her best to do her job and, you know, just, you know, ham-handedly, you know, created those three puncture wounds. And so once we’ve seen this, we like, wait, this explains the rape, this explains the injuries. And they had this in their files, so they, they didn’t turn it over to me so that we could present it at my trial, which would have hopefully, convinced the jury or judges that I didn’t do this."
—————————————————————————————
PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "And then, we had an expert to explain trauma, head trauma, from short distance falls in children. There’s been so many studies that have been peer-reviewed around the country. And the Shaken Baby thing Syndrome-thing is just being debunked constantly, now. They’re changing the name to, I forget the name of it, but it’s just the people on the other side over there, who’s just you know, the child advocacy groups, God bless them, but they just, they just, too suffer from tunnel vision, I guess and think that every, everything that happens to a child that can’t be explained, is just abuse. And it’s not."
———————————————————------------------------
PASSAGE FOUR OF THE DAY: "So let me get back to the discovery process. So we found that explained everything and we had an expert. We also did depositions with my previous attorneys, my trial attorney, my previous appellate attorneys in state court, and also we did a deposition with the coroner, who did Trustin’s autopsy. And, and during the, during the dep-, deposition with her, God bless her, when we presented this evidence to her, she just was so amazed that she she changed her opinion right there under oath in the deposition, and changed it from a matter of homicide to um, you know, undetermined, because it’s everything is explained to her. She, she had information available to her that we presented to her that the police detectives, that the police department didn’t present to her, the prosecutor’s office didn’t present to her. And she said had she known this, her findings would not have been homicide at my trial."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTERVIEW: Discussions with DPIC: "Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Lamont Hunter, the former Ohio death-sentenced prisoner who was wrongfully convicted of causing the death of his three-year-old son." Revised: June 3, 2024.
Anne Holsinger 0:01
Hello and welcome to Discussions with DPIC. I’m Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Our guest today is Lamont Hunter, who was convicted of causing the death of his three year old and sentenced to death. After serving nearly 18 years, Mr. Hunter was released from Ohio’s death row on June 15, 2023. To obtain his freedom, he pled guilty to lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Since his release, he has spoken widely about his experience and the dangers of wrongful convictions. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Hunter.
Lamont Hunter 0:33
Oh, you’re welcome. It’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Anne Holsinger 0:36
To start with, could you please briefly tell our listeners about the circumstances of your case? And what led to your eventual release?
Lamont Hunter 0:43
Oh, sure. So January 2006. I was home. The day got started the normal day, like it always did. I was home, it was the winter months and the work that I did was sealcoating. It was seasonal work. It was a during the spring and summer and fall months. So I was on, what is it? Unemployment. So I was lat- I was on unemployment at the time, so I wasn’t working. But my girlfriend, she still worked. So I was home with the kids. She got up early that day, like she always do. She worked right up the street, just a block up the street at this speedway. So she got up and started getting ready and I got up naturally to help and not usually warm the car up or the children was home. The two older boys were home as well as a three year old, Trustin. None of the, none of the boys were my children, but I loved them the same and was raising them as my own. Their fathers wasn’t in their lives. So I had a nine-month old, though, with with their mother [unclear], Trinity she was home as well. So my girlfriend gets up and get ready for work and get off to work and, and I’m responsible for getting the kids up and getting them out the door for school. They walked a couple of blocks up the street to the school they was going to so they get up, everybody wakes up. Trinity my baby girl, she was woke too, yeah. The boys, the old the two older boys, Tyree and Terrell, they get out the door around eight ish, eight o’clock. And it’s just me, Trustin, and my baby girl Trinity. We were home. So naturally, my day starts by doing chores around the house, and you know, straightening it up and cleaning up and preparing food for the kids and stuff. So that’s what I started doing. But before I did, I got Trustin situated in our living room, in my chair. When I say I got him situated, I just gave him some food and some drink in a sippy cup and put his favorite, one of his favorite movies on which was Jurassic Park. He loved dinosaurs and trains. So I get him situated, Trinity is situated, as well. I’m getting her bottle fit. So I decided to finish what I was doing the day before, which was laundry in our basement. And so Trustin was situated in chair watching this movie and I take Trinity in our basement with me to put a load of laundry in and take a load of laundry out, put it in the dryer. And while I was down there, Trinity, I had, I had a man cave down here, which was kind of nice. So I had Trinity set up over there so that I know she won’t fall off the couch or not like that. So I’m doing like I’m getting the laundry out of the washer and putting it in the dryer. And I hear Trustin run across the floor over my head, he’d run across the floor of the the living room, the dining room, towards our kitchen and where the basement door was at. And after I heard him run across the floor, I just heard him tumbling down stairs. And I seen the last of it, the way our the way our basement is situated. You can’t see the top of the steps from where the washer and dryer is. So I just heard him and I seen him tumbling down the stairs and he hit the concrete floor and so I panicked, I’m scared. I rush over to him grab him and yell his name and try to, you know, he was he hit his head which he ultimately died from — the head trauma that he sustained from the fall. He, his, his eyes were like a lot of fluttering in the back of his head and it freaked me out. I didn’t know what to do so I swooped him up, I grabbed him off the floor and run up the steps with him and, you know, yelling his name, Trustin, Trustin, Trustin, and he just wasn’t responding he was labored trying to breathe. Once I got him upstairs and his teeth, his teeth were clenched, like, you know, they were they were clenched, and I tried to splash water on his face to shock him to wake him up or something, and it didn’t work. And he’s like I said, he was the labored like he couldn’t get a breath. And I don’t, I’m not, I’m not a professional paramedic, or nothing like that. I don’t, I hadn’t been trained in CPR training. So I understood the gist of it. So I attempted to perform CPR on him. And I held his head, held his nose, and I went to blow in his mouth and I noticed his teeth were still clenched. So I opened his mouth, unclenched his mouth, and I noticed sausage, a piece of sausage was still in his mouth, kind of like, lodged in the back. So I pluck it out and I started my attempt at performing CPR on him. And I don’t know if it was effective or not. But so I immediately grabbed the phone, call his mother and say, hey, Trustin just fell, something’s wrong. He’s unconscious or something, he hit his head. And she immediately sped home, which was a block up the street came right home. And I, you know, left my daughter Trinity in a basement, I ran down here and got her left Trustin, on the floor in our living room carpet. And she she came home, and she panicked, she seemed to be called paramedics, and one of the worst days of my life. So go to the hospital and she, we get to the emergency room, and they started working on him. And it was, it was just traumatic. So from there, it was a lot going on with our family. They were kind of contentious. So I let her be, went home. And call, kept calling and checking in and kept calling and checking in, and he was on life support. And they he had he didn’t have brain activity. And so they trached him and had him on life support. Like a day later, she eventually allowed them to take him off of life support and harvest organs from him, unfortunately, well, fortunately, that they harvest organs, but unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries. And while they were working on him in the hospital the day after or later on that evening, they were doing assessments of him and actually, this is what saved my life from death row — the assessment that they were doing on him in the ICU, you know, he had these trauma doctors working on him, got to love them for trying to save his life and there was a nurse, which is protocol in the room with the doctors getting her assessments. And one of them is body core temperature and she attempted three times to get since he was trained and stuff she had, the protocol is to go into their anus and try to get a body core temperature. And she tried three times unsuccessfully, because it was, it was chaotic in the trauma room, in the ICU room, while the doctors was working on him, I mean he’s a three year old little baby, little boy and it was hectic in there and they shooed her out of their and said, Just stop. Just stop trying to get a temperature and get out of here. Fortunately, she documented every time that she tried to get a core temperature from Trustin. And so a day later, I get a message that detectives, homicide detectives, well I didn’t know they were homicide detectives. I just know that detectives wanted to speak with me since I was the only person with Trustin when the accident, tragic accident happened. So I turned, I go, I call my attorney, my attorney tells me you know, don’t talk to him just wait to get there but go head down to the you know, police station and you know, I’ll be there. So, I do that, I show up and they, they want to talk and they, they thought that I was going to talk to them and I told him I can’t until my attorney get there so the charges were a child endangerment and what was it, another charge or so. I didn’t speak to them, my lawyer never showed up, I don’t know what happened, but they let me in the room for hours, chained me to a chair, handcuffed me to a chair, and just sat and then eventually processed me over to the county jail. And once I got to the county jail, I learned that my charges were aggravated murder and child endangerment and it blew my mind and traumatized me. And so while I’m being processed through the jail, their protocol is to put you in a suicide watch. For seventy-, I mean, for overnight to make sure that you’re stable. And while I was in there, they let you use the phone before, while are you being processed. And wh-, when I got my phone call, I called my house. And my girlfriend’s best friend answered the phone and, and she put my girlfriend on the phone and my girlfriend was like, you know, crying and, you know, she was, you know, hysterical, naturally so. And I was just trying to get a conversation in with her and let her know that you know, what was going on. She knew what was going on because I found out that she told me that the detectives were there. I think the prosecutor was as well, at our house, and I heard him in the background like is that Lamont? Is that Lamont? And so she was like, yeah, yeah, she was like, yes, this is him, and the phone just hung up. So I tried to call him back no answer. So eventually, they called the county jail and told the county jail to take my phone privileges, because I was harassing a witness, which I don’t understand how I’m harassing somebody and it’s my house I’m calling, I’m calling my house to check on my family. And so anyway, they did they put me on, on administrative segregation, which is basically the hole, the next day. And while I was in the hole, there’s like, while I was in the cell, you can go to the window, the door, and look out the window. And out in the unit, the pod, there’s a TV mounted to the wall. And other guys, you know, you come out for hour day, and everybody take turns coming out. And it was a guy out on the range and he had the news on the TV, and I’m at the window, you know, just just checking out my surroundings, seeing you know, I’m traumatized. And I see the news on and here my face come up on the news. And I’m like, what, and the charges that they said I had on the news was aggravated murder, child endangerment and rape. And I’m perplexed, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what rape? What is the rape what it is rape? I’m just confused. I don’t know what’s going on. So fast forward. I stayed in the county jail, ultimately, 21 month before I was sentenced to death and sent to death row. And it was a worst time of my life, it was horrible. I was eventually, eventually went to trial, eventually convicted and sentenced. Yeah. And I’ll stop right there for any pause right there for any questions or anything.
Anne Holsinger 13:12
Sure. Thank you for sharing that. You, you tell it with such detail and emotion that you can really feel how traumatic that was for you. And I appreciate you taking the time to share it, I’m sure that’s difficult. So maybe we can move to the more positive part of your story. What was it that led to your eventual release from prison last year?
Lamont Hunter 13:35
Oh sure. So, you know, after you’re sentenced to death, you go to death row, of course. And you have like, appeals, you start to appeal process. And the appeal process is like, it’s hard to kind of it’s hard to explain, you have two-. Your appeal started in the state courts. So I had a direct appeal, and a post conviction appeal. The direct appeal goes first and I was eventually denied. In 2008 or nine, the Ohio Supreme Sourt denied my appeals. So, my post conviction appeal gets started and we ask for discovery and because during direct appeal, you can’t, you can’t present anything outside of the record, meaning anything that’s on the trial record, anything that’s happened during your trial is the only thing you can raise as issues in your appeal — and that’s direct appeal. And so when you, once you get into post-conviction, appeal, then you can go outside of the record and ask for discovery and kind of expand the record, add to the record, things that like was missed during trial or pre-trial, evidence that wasn’t presented, you can ask it to be presented and so I went through that. And it’s still the state court, it just starts at the trial court and then works his way to the Ohio Supreme Court, and they denied me there, too. Then there’s another set of appeals that you get as a death row inmate, and that’s a habeas corpus, which is a federal court. Once we crossed the threshold from state court, into federal court, now, it’s a big difference in the environment. Habeas Corpus in state court, federal court and state court. I’ll start by pointing out that state judges, they are elected. So they have to campaign for their seat on the bench in a courtroom. So, politics is rears its ugly head into the fold, and it gets ugly, and no judge wants to, I don’t want to be too harsh on judges, they have a job to do, but when politics gets involved, they are not going to show any fa-, you know, give any death row inmate, anything that they have coming or not. So, they just naturally just kicked, kick the can down the road, deny you and, and let the next court handle it. And that’s what happened because no judge wants to appear soft on crime, while they’re campaigning, campaigning, for their seat on the bench. And that, and then you have these prosecutor’s offices who donate to their campaign and help them win their seats on the bench. So it’s a lot of, I won’t say quid pro quo, but there’s a lot of scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, sort of, you know, in politics. And so that’s the difference. I had to point that out to to highlight the difference from a federal judge, which is not, which is appointed to their seat for life time tenure and they don’t have to campaign ever for their seats after they are appointed by the President. And so naturally, they don’t have to worry about political pressure, like state judges do. And so, a federal judge, federal courts are more likely to listen to your argument and if your argument is valid, grant you the relief that you deserve to have. And so that’s where, ultimately, I got my relief, because in federal court, the judge granted me discovery. And during discovery, a lot of new evidence was discovered. And I’ve always maintained my innocence and that’s always been my claim in my appeals that I’m innocent. This is just a tragic accident that was pursued by overzealous prosecutor’s office. And they just, you know, they, they live and breathe by seeking and gaining convictions. That’s the that’s the status quo and these DAs and prosecutor’s offices around the country, but we’re here in Ohio, and it’s no different and they just want to maintain and seek and get convictions, conviction rates, is what they’re mainly about. So, I’ll fast forward to during the discovery process in habeas corpus in federal court. Like I said, new evidence was found like, we found that the judge granted us subpoena power to go get anything that any any any department, when I say department, such as that had anything to do with this case, such as Job and Family Services Department, the law enforcement department, prosecutor’s department, the hospital, all their records, the judge gave us subpoena power to pursue them. And with the subpoena, those those departments have to turn over their records and their files. So once we got the prosecutors file, we noticed that they withheld exculpatory evidence and exculpatory for your viewers who don’t know what exculpatory mean, it’s, it’s evidence favorable to the defendant, and they had it in their file, which and they never talk turned it over to me. But the evidence that I’m speaking of was medical records that they had got from the hospital, Trustin’s medical records, and it showed because, let me — I have to jump back and forth here. I hope I’m not too confusing. Like as, like I mentioned, I’m gonna go back. Why I mentioned when I first heard about the rape charge, that was one of the things that they dug in on because of the fact I couldn’t explain it. I could not explain the three puncture wounds to Trustin’s rectum because I had no, I had no awareness of, I had no idea that it existed. And so they figured that I was lying and that I did it adnd I use something sharp like a pencil was what, was their exact words, to rape him. And that I shook him in hitting against the head was something or the wall or whatever, was their theory, to shut him up from crying. And it made no sense to me. First of all, if anybody knows me, I love children, I have six children, seven children of my own, and 11 grandchildren and now, after being gone so long anyway. So that was one of the things that they dug their heels in on because they knew I couldn’t explain those injuries. So once we got — okay, now I’m gonna fast forward back to we got in federal court, and we get discovered, and we find these medical records. And then and this, this nurse documented her attempts three times to take Trustin’s temperature through his rectum, through his anus, in his rectum, she punctured him because it was so chaotic in ICU, she was just trying her best to do her job and, you know, just, you know, ham-handedly, you know, created those three puncture wounds. And so once we’ve seen this, we like, wait, this explains the rape, this explains the injuries. And they had this in their files, so they, they didn’t turn it over to me so that we could present it at my trial, which would have hopefully, convinced the jury or judges that I didn’t do this. And then, we had an expert to explain trauma, head trauma, from short distance falls in children. There’s been so many studies that have been peer-reviewed around the country. And the Shaken Baby thing Syndrome-thing is just being debunked constantly, now. They’re changing the name to, I forget the name of it, but it’s just the people on the other side over there, who’s just you know, the child advocacy groups, God bless them, but they just, they just, too suffer from tunnel vision, I guess and think that every, everything that happens to a child that can’t be explained, is just abuse. And it’s not. And so, I’m getting off topic a little bit. So let me get back to the discovery process. So we found that explained everything and we had an expert. We also did depositions with my previous attorneys, my trial attorney, my previous appellate attorneys in state court, and also we did a deposition with the coroner, who did Trustin’s autopsy. And, and during the, during the dep-, deposition with her, God bless her, when we presented this evidence to her, she just was so amazed that she she changed her opinion right there under oath in the deposition, and changed it from a matter of homicide to um, you know, undetermined, because it’s everything is explained to her. She, she had information available to her that we presented to her that the police detectives, that the police department didn’t present to her, the prosecutor’s office didn’t present to her. And she said had she known this, her findings would not have been homicide at my trial. And so with this information, we filed a motion for a new trial, you know, to be, you know, back in trial court. And so once we filed our motion for a new trial with this new evidence, the prosecutors came to death row and offered me a plea deal, you know, and I naturally turned it down. I didn’t want to take the plea, I wanted the judge to weigh in on my new trial motion. So they just they said, okay, we’re not going to contest the new trial motion, the prosecutor said, we’re not going to contest the new trial motion. In fact, they joined my, our new trial motion and said that this case does deserve a new trial and they support it. And so they moved me from death row, back to the county jail here in Cincinnati, to Hamilton County Justice Center. And while I’m there, they were, asked kept asking me do I, do I want to take a plea of a lesser, a lesser charge and gain my freedom immediately. You know, no probation, no parole, no nothing, just walk out the door a free man. And I told him, let’s wait because I was entitled to a bond hearing and I wanted to get out on bond and make that decision, you know, without having the pressure of being stuck in jail and facing a new trial for and, for 12 months to 18 months, you know, for a new trial. I at least wanted to be out on bond so that I can enjoy you know, some time with my family. So they, they were upset that I didn’t take the plea and so they contested the bond motion, which we beat them on there, too. We joint, we, the judge granted me bond. But unfortunately, he, the prosecutors were asking for stipulations on the bond that I’d be on 24-hour lockdown at my mother’s house, I couldn’t be around children under the age of 18. And at that time, I had nine, nine grandchildren, and that I’ve never got to meet or hold well, I met them over Zoom, video calls and stuff like that just not in person. And not the younger ones. I’ve never hel them or nothing like that, so that was like a bummer. And so the judge granted their stipulations, but he also granted me bond, but unfortunately, the bond was $500,000 and we couldn’t make $50,000, 10%, and we couldn’t get it. So I had a decision to make after you know, contemplating my life, and everything I lost. I lost my father in 2018. My mother, thank God is still with us, you know, our my, my siblings are still with us, my children and I just, you know, had conversations with my family. And this, it was obvious that the state dropped the ball, wrongfully convicted me, and they knew I was innocent, but they didn’t want to compensate me, therefore, that’s why they pushed the the plea, the plea deal on me. And so but and the judge, trial judge, he he knows that, he made mention of that he, he made the prosecutors come on the record, and admit that, you know, their arguments in court is that I’m a danger to society, I should not be let out and to be around children and I should be stay, you know, I should be held in jail, you know. And so he waited, he said, so, so just, you know, was wasn’t buying it and he said, well, wait a minute. Tell me about this, plea agreement that, that’s I’m hearing about so that the prosecutor had to admit to the judge that, yes, they indeed, and still are offering me a plea, but I just didn’t take it. And they they may mention, they let the judge know that they still do want to enter plea negotiations with me. So the judge said, wait, you, so that’s talking out both sides of your neck because first you’re saying this guy’s a danger to society, and that I should not let him out to protect the community. But on the other hand, he’s not a danger as long as he accept the plea agreement. And so the prosecutor honestly said, you know, what, yeah, we, we the plea agreement is still available to Mr. Hunter, if he you know, wants to take it, so. So anyway, after contemplating it and considering the there’s just unfairness of not being compensated for being wrongfully convicted in the chance of getting home, and putting that physically behind me, and some hard conversations with my family, I just decided to take the plea agreement, just to get back to my life, and try to as best I could put my life back together in some shape or form, you know, it was amazing, you know, coming out after you know, being on death row all those years and wrongfully convicted and the torture that is — it was torture, because I like to tell people, you know, the state, they were malice in their actions, they was malicious. Because I like it, I like to point out that they put my life in jeopardy twice. First, they they seek the death penalty and sentence me to death, which jeopardizes putting my life in danger. And secondly, the charges that they stuck on me, you know, being a being a child murderer and a child rapist is the worst thing a human being, of a person can, in my eyes, my view that a person could be accused of so and child rapists and child murderers do not get smiled upon in prison. I’ll put it that way. But I never had any problems with it, though, thank God, but yeah they put my life in jeopardy twice. And then on top of that, wouldn’t even you know consider the end fact, the prosecutor was adamant that the charges that, excuse me, that I had that they wanted me to plead to had to be substantial enough to account for the 17 and a half, almost 18 years, day for day that I was that they that I was wrongfully incarcerated so that I can’t file a civil lawsuit against them and the state. So I made the decision to do it, just to somewhat, you know, just, you know, get my freedom and like I said it was it was tough to do. In coming home, the world, this world has changed so much, it has just ran off and left me. But when I went in January, of ‘06, there wasn’t any smart technology, there wasn’t any smartphones and things like that. Now, in this age and world, it’s just everything is smart technology. And ah man, it has been a task trying to navigate this stuff, but and you know, just just just living, just trying to, you know, support myself. I just had a knee surgery last month on the 23rd, a full knee replacement surgery. It was scheduled for December at first, but my blood sugar level was too high, so we had to postpone it and my knee was born on bone, so I couldn’t work. And I’ve been struggling, it’s been a real hard struggle, just trying to pay rent, trying to pay bills trying to eat every day, you know, it’s just, it’s just so unfair, but you know, I just try to keep my head, you know, up and keep moving. You know, my attorney, and my daughter set up a GoFundMe account, and there’s been donations to help me. And I’m thankful and grateful to God that, you know, it’s been helping, it’s been helping since September, October of last year, when I had to walk away from my job. Because when I got out in June, let me see, yeah, June, I got out in June. So July, the next month, I was on a roll, I had gotten my driver’s license, healthcare, my cousin gifted me a vehicle, I got a job working for Tyson Foods, and I got an apartment. And so you know, I kind of you know, was was on a roll there. And then my knee gave out on me and I couldn’t work no more. And so I’ve just been having to lean on people and you know, survived the best way I could, I can still to this day, because five weeks into after my physical therapy after surgery. So I’m just now getting back to walking a little bit without my walker. But it’s still painful. But that’s what we, that’s where I am now.
Anne Holsinger 32:08
So you describe some of the challenges you faced since your release almost a year ago, what are some of the resources that you think should be available for newly released prisoners like yourself?
Lamont Hunter 32:20
Oh, my God, so many. So many needs, so many unique, different needs. Like, fortunately, I was able to stay and live in my mother’s house, she had plenty of room for me. You know, but a lot of people don’t have that. They just need housing, need health, health insurance, they need financial, mainly assistance to either just to just to navigate, just get a ID, a social security card, birth certificate, all this stuff, you have to have financial assistance to get and navigating. For a person like myself, come back, coming back to the city I was born and raised in is a lot of changes, streets, buildings, a lot of things are different. And I just, you know, I was having trouble. Thank God, I had a sister who drove me around to the different places but you know, transportation, health insurance, housing, clothes, food, all of these things, you know, cost money. There’s there’s some organizations out here, but they’re so overwhelmed that they just can’t help everybody. I went to St. Vincent DePaul, which is an amazing organization. They helped me with health insurance, and they helped pay my rent one time, which I was so thankful for. So, you know, just it’s just need, these organizations need funding to help people in situations as reentering society after you know, serving their debt to society if they’re guilty or if they’re innocent and exonerated and don’t get compensation, like myself, are still in need of these resources. So I would say help highlight the need for these organizations to have funding to help people like myself.
Anne Holsinger 34:17
To put your case in a broader context in our newly released report Broken Promises: How a History of Racial Violence and Bias Shaped Ohio’s Death Penalty, Tiana Herring noted that Ohio’s black exonerees collectively spent nearly 200 years on death row for crimes they did not commit. With 11 exonerations, Ohio is among the top 10 states with the most exonerations. And really those numbers are incomplete in a sense because they don’t include your case or similar ones where a prisoner, even with strong evidence of innocence, is forced to accept a plea in order to be released. What do you think that this number of innocent people says about Ohio State penalty?
Lamont Hunter 35:00
Clearly it says, something’s wrong here. Well I’ll start right here in Ohio, in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The prosecutor’s office is, is are just uninterested in justice, they’re interested in maintaining convictions seeking, getting and maintaining convictions, and therefore, their conviction rates. That’s all they’re interested in, by any means necessary. And that demeanor, is the problem, such as myself, you know, being a victim of that, and, and anytime human error is possible and a life is taken, ultimately, because of that, is a huge problem. I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on, you’d have to admit, executing an innocent person is just so wrong, you know, it’s nothing right about it. And the number of exonerees proves that that’s possible. You know, who knows the number of cases that are out there that may have been, that went to full on execution that may have had evidence afterwards, or that the evidence was suppressed, that they actually couldn’t have been in and said. You know, the other side likes, they like to say, w,ell, the number of exonerees prove that the system works, no. What’s what’s working about taking a person’s life, ultimately killing them? Or just, you know, putting them on death row for almost 18 years? What’s right about that? You know, so it’s just proof that it just needs to be done away with, you know, this this country don’t need the death penalty anymore, strongly against it.
Anne Holsinger 36:56
A report from the Ohio Attorney General repeatedly called Ohio’s capital punishment system broken. And currently the state legislature is reviewing a bill to abolish the death penalty. What would you like voters in Ohio to know about the death penalty based on your experience?
Lamont Hunter 37:12
It’s overly politicized, it’s weaponized against innocent people, and it’s flawed. It should be dismantled, those, it’s two bills in the legislature that’s been in committees and having hearings. I think think one of them is going to pass. They need to be supported. They need your support. Anybody that can support those bills, please do so. Call your legislator, call your congressmen and senators, and support those bills. Or if you could, if you possibly make it to Columbus, to those hearings, and speak on them. Do so, please.
Anne Holsinger 37:51
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our listeners?
Lamont Hunter 37:55
I’m just excited that you guys invited me to speak with you guys. I love sharing my story. One thing I want to mention before I do a shut up here is what the prosecutors are protected by. It’s something that’s called absolute immunity and they are protected by it and their job duties and they do things like hide evidence. And I believe that they know that they’re protected by it, it incentivizes them to cheat and hide evidence and stuff like that. That needs to be dismantled as well, absolute immunity, and they need to be held accountable when they’re caught withholding and hiding evidence against the defendant. Secondly, I say one thing, but I can’t, I’d be remiss if I get off of here without plugging my- I’m available for talks. I had the pleasure and the honor of speaking to quite a few laws, law schools and I enjoy it, sharing my story and bring awareness, bringing awareness to the flawed system that were governed by, so I wanted to mention that I am available for anybody who wants to invite me. And secondly, I have a GoFundMe page that I need, really I really need assistance. You’ll see my GoFundMe page and you see it’s raised $20,000, but that’s since last year that I’ve been living off of everyday and I don’t have $20,000 in the bank, I really still need help. So I wanted to mention that if you don’t mind.
Anne Holsinger 39:31
Of course, yes, thank you. And we appreciate you joining us today and sharing your story. If our listeners would like to learn more about the death penalty, they can visit the DPIC website at deathpenaltyinfo.org. And to make sure you never miss an episode of our podcast, you can subscribe to Discussions with DPIC on your podcast app of choice. Thanks again for joining us today. Mr. Hunter.
Lamont Hunter 39:50
Of course. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you have, a wonderful day.
Anne Holsinger 39:53
You too. Thanks."
The entire verbatim interview can be read at:
—————————————————————
PART ONE:
https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/1993726688957365919
-------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
---------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
———————-------------------------------------------------------
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
---------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
———————-------------------------------------------------------
