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The Case of Lorenzo Johnson
📻 Episode #36
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 09, 2017
About This Episode
Lorenzo Johnson served 22 years of a life sentence after he was framed twice for a murder that happened in Pennsylvania while he was in New York. On December 15th, 1995, Tarajay Williams was murdered outside of a bar in Harrisburg, PA. For several months after the murder, police detectives threatened Lorenzo with a murder…
The Case
Lorenzo Johnson served 22 years of a life sentence after he was framed twice for a murder that happened in Pennsylvania while he was in New York. On December 15th, 1995, Tarajay Williams was murdered outside of a bar in Harrisburg, PA. For several months after the murder, police detectives threatened Lorenzo with a murder charge unless he falsely accused a friend of committing the murder and dealing drugs. When he refused, Lorenzo and his co-defendant Corey Walker were convicted of first-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit murder and were sentenced to mandatory life in prison on the murder conviction, and concurrent five to ten years on conspiracy conviction. Lorenzo won his freedom in an October 2011 federal court of appeals decision stating that his conviction was based on insufficient evidence and he was released on bond in 2012. However just four months later, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and reinstated his murder conviction and Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily surrendered himself and was re-incarcerated. After Lorenzo’s re-incarceration, he and his legal team began investigating the police and prosecutorial misconduct that led to his wrongful conviction, and on July 11th, 2017, Lorenzo finally won his freedom. He has since been advocating for other wrongfully convicted prisoners.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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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.
00:05:01“Speaker 1: and a group of friends came to New York and Speaker 1: we left Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, between three and four o'clock in Speaker 1: the afternoon, and we didn't come back until four or Speaker 1: five in the morning. This murder took place at twelve Speaker 1: o'clock midnight in Harrisburg, so when I came out at”
00:19:13“Speaker 4: then take the wrath of the authorities. We're going to Speaker 4: put you in this solitary confinement hole that you know Speaker 4: you may never recover from. But at the same time, Speaker 4: you don't really have any choice, you know. So how Speaker 4: long were you in solitary confinement, for I.”
00:34:02“Speaker 3: I had to go through that. Speaker 1: And that's a big problem that's going on, that's being Speaker 1: swept under the rugs. It's a lot of innocent people Speaker 1: that's being forced to take. Speaker 1: Yeah, because I've been forced to take a no contest”
Listen to the Episode
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Also on the podcast: #64 Calvin Johnson · #94 Messiah Johnson · #103 Bobbie Jean Johnson