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The Case of Rodney Roberts
📻 Episode #54
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Apr 23, 2018
About This Episode
Rodney Roberts was arrested in 1996 in Newark, NJ, after an altercation with a friend. After several days in custody, he found himself charged with the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old girl. His court appointed attorney advised him to plead guilty or spend the rest of his life in prison. Rodney had a good…
The Case
Rodney Roberts was arrested in 1996 in Newark, NJ, after an altercation with a friend. After several days in custody, he found himself charged with the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old girl. His court appointed attorney advised him to plead guilty or spend the rest of his life in prison. Rodney had a good job and had recently moved with his young son into a new apartment. Hoping to get back to his son as soon as possible, Rodney pleaded guilty to the crime in exchange for a seven-year sentence. He would end up spending 18 years in custody before DNA evidence excluded him as a perpetrator and he was exonerated and released in 2014.
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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.
00:06:22“Speaker 5: you're going because you're blinded, right because you're thinking that Speaker 5: you're in with the cool squad or whatever. Speaker 3: So what happened, Well, what happened was, first I hid Speaker 3: this from my family. I wanted to add that part. Speaker 3: They didn't know what was going on. So I separated”
00:24:28“Speaker 3: I felt my arm being pulled back around me. But Speaker 3: then they felt they threw me, grabbed me and threw Speaker 4: For you what I was in my cell. Speaker 3: I was standing in my cl I freshed myself off, Speaker 3: and I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, at least I”
00:42:54“Speaker 3: and me doing other work with them. And Jeffrey Desker Speaker 3: had the Jeffrey Desker found brought me in and helped Speaker 3: me school me in a way with you know, this Speaker 3: is what you need to be saying, and this is Speaker 3: how you should present and this is we're gonna give”
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Also on the podcast: #102 Rodney Reed · #250 Rodney Lincoln · #561 Rodney Roberts