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The Case of Jofama Coleman
📻 Episode #464
🎙️ Hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco
📅 Jul 15, 2024
About This Episode
In 2003, 20-year-old Jofama Coleman was just getting his life together - he had a stable job, a nice place to live, a girlfriend, and a baby on the way. After a tumultuous childhood, things were finally going well. Then one day the police came to his workplace to question him about a murder in…
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
In 2003, 20-year-old Jofama Coleman was just getting his life together - he had a stable job, a nice place to live, a girlfriend, and a baby on the way. After a tumultuous childhood, things were finally going well. Then one day the police came to his workplace to question him about a murder in his Los Angeles, CA neighborhood. Due to faulty eyewitness testimony, Jofama was ultimately convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
17 years later, mom and educator Jessica Jacobs got obsessed with true crime documentaries during the pandemic. She was inspired to get involved in the fight against wrongful convictions, eventually joining forces with legendary defense attorney Ellen Eggers to help Jofama argue his case. Their friendship is built on their shared belief in education, persistence and the power of self advocacy.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jofama-colemans-justice-after-freedom?qid=dc334dfea004ee8a055ef2f9ec03f1b1
https://www.ditchschool.org
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.
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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.
00:06:04“Speaker 2: literally believe that if you're innocent, you'll be fine. I Speaker 1: There's no way to find an innocent man guilty. Speaker 2: Yeah, I was naive. And then when it happened and Speaker 2: I realized how many other people it was. I was Speaker 2: dumbfound it. I was like, really says the system was”
00:23:54“Speaker 4: board hearing. One was his wife and one was his Speaker 4: wife's sister, and they said he did a better job Speaker 4: raising his daughter from prison than most men do on Speaker 3: And I saw that. Speaker 4: I mean I saw that right away when Jofama and”
00:39:53“Speaker 4: reason to think that I shouldn't have thought that, but Speaker 4: I did and so I thought, well, it can't hurt Speaker 4: to ask him, And so I asked Ellen if she Speaker 4: would go with me because I couldn't go into a Speaker 4: prison on my own. And she reluctantly agreed, and I”
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← #463 Ashunte & Willie Smith #465 David Ayala →
Also on the podcast: #214 Troy Coleman · #273 Troy Coleman - NEW EVIDENCE