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The Case of Joaquin Ciria
📻 Episode #499
🎙️ Hosted by Guest Host Earlonne Woods
📅 Dec 05, 2024
About This Episode
On Wednesday November, 27, 2024, the night before Thanksgiving, Governor Gavin Newsom of CA granted a a “full and unconditional” pardon to Earlonne Woods, co-host and co-creator of the award-winning podcast, Ear Hustle. Earlonne helped create Ear Hustle while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. In recognition of Earlonne’s achievement, we are sharing with you…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On Wednesday November, 27, 2024, the night before Thanksgiving, Governor Gavin Newsom of CA granted a a “full and unconditional” pardon to Earlonne Woods, co-host and co-creator of the award-winning podcast, Ear Hustle. Earlonne helped create Ear Hustle while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. In recognition of Earlonne’s achievement, we are sharing with you an episode of Wrongful Conviction where Earlonne appeared as a guest host. Congratulations Earlonne. We are eager to hear more from you in the future.
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On March 24, 1990, Felix “Carlos” Bastarrica was shot and killed on the street in San Francisco, CA. Following the shooting, Candido “Peter” Diaz, started rumors that one of Felix’s friends, Joaquin Ciria, was responsible. Relying on the rumors, police immediately targeted Joaquin and coerced 18-year-old George Varela – the man who drove the actual shooter to the crime – to falsely implicate Joaquin. Based primarily on this, and despite the complete lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime, Joaquin was convicted of murder and sentenced to 31 years to life in prison. Earlonne Woods talks to Joaquin Ciria and Paige Kaneb, Joaquin's attorney.
https://ncip.org/
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:05:06“Speaker 2: You know, a lot of young people escape because we Speaker 2: don't want to do that, you know, to go fight Speaker 2: to some other country, like a lot of Joonts in Cuba, Speaker 2: they were saying to Angola to fight a lot of Speaker 2: all these young people got killed, you know. So me”
00:19:44“Speaker 3: whatever you said, and then he repeats the story that Speaker 3: they have now fed to him, and that's it. Speaker 1: So I guess subsequently later you end up getting arrested. Joaquin, Yes, Speaker 1: and you end up getting arrested based on a confession Speaker 3: Or at least from George saying exactly what the police”
00:34:25“Speaker 3: stakeholders who all agreed Joaquin is fully innocent. And in Speaker 3: my experience, usually when that happens, the courts are pretty Speaker 3: willing to go along pretty quickly, right. But unfortunately we Speaker 3: had the exact opposite experience here, and I can only Speaker 3: imagine some of that was the politics going on in”
Listen to the Episode
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Also on the podcast: #371 Joaquin Ciria