#379 Jason Flom with Keith LaMar Pt. 1

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Listen to "You're the Problem" with Yamanika on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Easter Sunday, 1993, in May, it's at Lucasville, prison in Ohio, took control of an entire cell block. The crisis that became known as the Lucasville prison riot lasted 11 days and claimed 10 lives, including one of the prison guards. When the cell block was finally surrendered, an investigation ensued aimed at bringing the riot leadership to justice. After several rounds of interviews, five names emerged, including a man who lived on that cell block named Keith Lamar. Now, according to the state, Keith had allegedly commanded a team of men who murdered four supposed snitches before heading out to the prison yard where the authorities ushered all the inmates into another block that was still under state control. Then, while confined in a cell with nine other men, he allegedly ordered one more death. The other inmates weren't telling this particular story in their initial interviews, but by the time of Keith's capital trial, they were all somehow singing the same tune. And that had to count for something. But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today's guest is somebody I've been waiting for for a long time. His story is terrifying, as it is. It's also the stuff of legend because this is a man that Keith, I'm talking about, I'm talking about you, I'm talking about you in the third person. I'm going to talk directly to you now, Keith. You have had a life that if somebody wrote it into a movie, nobody would believe it. And this is a guy now back to talking about the third person who has performed concerts all over the world from inside of yourself on death row. It sounds bizarre, what not here you say it, you know. But yes, it's been a hell of a journey, man. It's a place in this situation that I'm currently facing. It has only focused me more on trying to get as much life out of my life as I possibly can. Yeah, I mean, despite fighting for your very life from death row, which is literally hell on earth, your pursuit of art and life seems to have only gotten stronger. And like I just mentioned, you've put on this spoken word and jazz concert series called Freedom First. And if that wasn't enough, you also put out an album by the same name, but there's even more. You know, there's books, documentaries, book clubs, and so on and so forth. I'll just wake up and try to do as much as I can with the time that I have, you know, which is where we all should be going, right? Yeah, I mean, I don't even know a lot of people out here in the free world who are living as much as you are inside the literal living hell of Ohio death row. And we're going to get into all of that in more detail later on. And we're also going to be hearing from one of your attorneys, Keegan Stefan, as well. But now I just want to turn around first and start from the beginning of your life. You were born and grew up in Cleveland, right? Yeah, I was born in 1969. I'm only east side of Cleveland, Ohio, in this small little enclave called the village. You know, that old saying that takes a village, I think, for the people who founded this little place took that seriously my grandfather, Harry Lamar, brought his own home in this little enclave. It was made up of people who were in one form or another related. And you know, doing dinner time, you've been walking through any number of houses. And you know, people were left to sit down and eat dinner where there was no distinction about the economic and status because everybody was pretty much on the same level. And that's where I really grew up. I had some baby until I was around seven or eight. I'm a mother, met and married, a man and Larry Morris. And shortly after we moved out of the village into the inner city basically. I mean, the village sounds pretty amazing. It seems like an odd choice to leave. What were the circumstances? Well, my grandmother, she was the major of our family, pretty much said what went and what didn't go in our family. And my stepfather didn't like that. And so he moved so he can kind of run his own household. But he was a sad older chef at a conference club, working for me the way. And so that was the first time in my life that I ever remember being home free. And sometimes the lights would be off, the gas would be off. And we had the heat house with keeping the oven door open and whatnot. And we weren't allowed to tell my grandparents about this. It all kind of happened between nine and two years old. And that is where I kind of marked the change in my life, becoming aware of the poverty. You know, you go to school to learn a written bit, but your peers teach you other things. We couldn't afford polo and guest change in all these different things that meant so much to my peer. So I take it. You wanted to fit in. What did you do to make that happen or to try to make that happen? I worked at two paper routes, cutting grass, shoveling snow, did all those things. Pants might cost $50, $60. And this would be for air Jordan came my opportunity. It was just out of my range as a kid trying to do it the legitimate way. And you know, kids are brutal, man. You saw with some knock off Jordan Z's and you mass work came to school, but neck it, you know, the ridicule was severe. It's all of a sudden we bore shit, but you know, know that when you were kid. And my brother, when I was 10, who was 12, he was hanging out with older kids. And you know, he had undergone the same ridicule as I did and had quickly off to become a thief. Once I just made the decision to become a thief myself, he kind of showed me how to go about stirring clothes and how to remove the alarms from the jeans and all this. But then the reward of coming and walking into the school build with some Jordan's jeans and a polo shirt, the reception that I received from my peers. I mean, all of a sudden girls who wouldn't speak to me a year ago are putting notes in my locker. I think I got addicted to that. And so that ultimately became my life. And started hanging with a group of older kids in a neighborhood. And these were the guys that your older brother was friends with, right? Yeah, it was a couple of guys like legends in the neighborhood that lived in. So bloodler, Joe Bruce, Darryl Daniels. I was 13 by the end. And they were like 15, 16 years old. And my older brother, Nelson, he had already been sent to the way to juvenile. And so I was pretty much by myself. And I fell in with these guys one day. And we all pounced into a stolen car. And we was going to drive out to the adjacent suburb. As soon as we crossed over into checker heights, police officers got wrapped behind us. And we was in this high speed chase, like going to 80 miles an hour down a residential district. And I was actually relieved when I got caught like, "Thank God, you know, because this was extreme situation for me in my life. And we went before these judges. And he lined us all up. It was about six levels altogether, not families." And he went down the line. He was giving guys six months for each offense that they've had. And he said, "Joe Bruce, this is the third time in front of me 18 months." Joe Butler, this is the second time in a year. And he got down to me and he said, "Who, Keith Lamar?" So what are you doing hanging with these bad boys? Not, you know, trying to look weak and, you know, hanging my head and hunched my shoulders, you know. And he gave my mother and my parents the option. So I tell you what I'm a through parents. You take them home and deal with them. Or I deal with them. And you know, a stepfather told them, "You deal with them and 15 minutes later, I was sitting in the jail cell." So given the choice, your stepfather effectively threw you away. Yeah, because to him, my brother and I, we were just too extra miles to feed. And your mother didn't have anything to say about that? You know, ideally, that's what you would have hoped for somebody to intervene. But see, he had already been broken to the point where she accepted somebody like this as her husband. You know, any man is better than no man. And as a child. He was like a monster. He was you know, they were very juicy to have. So now you're going from the boiling pot into the sizzling frying pan, so to speak. How long was your stint in Juvee? Six months, but I was 13. So it felt like six years, believe it or not, compared to the situation that we didn't wasn't so bad. I had pre-squared meals a day. I was an structured environment. I came out of it. I was on an honor roll in terms of my academic portion of my life. And who knows? Maybe you could have kept going in that direction. Had you returned to a more stable, you know, home and life? When I came home, I came home. My parents had moved into a two bedroom department. As if my brother and I had went off to the army at something that we weren't coming back home. And so we moved up into this uninsulated attic was freezing cold in the winter squashing hot in the summer. And we were pretty much put on notice that we were on our own beyond our bare necessities that we would not be provided for. And I was 13. When I came home, I think I might have started to have a marijuana week. I bought two ounces of marijuana. And I didn't look back, man. That was beginning other information. Yeah. But what about your brother? My brother had found a means of escape. He met this girl named Paula, who lives in suburbs and her mother took a Latin to my brother and allowed him to move in with them. And he was going to school in suburbs. So it was neat basically by myself. Now, 14 years old, I'm selling marijuana. I'm so serious about it too, because I figured this is my only way out. And I became very good at that. Had about five or six guys working for me and everything. Young guys, 14, 13 years old, selling marijuana on street corners and whatnot. And I came home one day and discovered that my stepfather had been up in my room and I found one of my stashes of money. I bought me a safe and not long after that, my stepfather kicked me out. Now, 15 years old. And I moved into the projects. This was a apartment where we were selling drugs out of there. And this was around 85, 86 right around the time crack cocaine started circling into the ghetto. Nobody really knew what it was. How dangerous it was. So the time had just seemed like a easy way to make money. The profit margins are better than they are with weed, right? Yes, that's right. But the danger increases too. And at first, everything was co-ocented. I was snored in cocaine by the time I was 16. I had a Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, Driving Forces, BMW, Rolex watches, but running year or two about 1988 was like the height of the epidemic. And all that detrimental effects of crack cocaine really started to become clear. The communities were being decimated by the stroke and guys I grew up with were becoming dope scenes and young women were selling their bodies. And it was just a real horrifying period to live through. As the crack epidemic wore on, the community became increasingly desperate, affecting even Keith's childhood friend Kenyatta Collins. You know, he and I grew up together. We used to walk the school together, play basketball together. By the time 1988 rolled around, he was hooked on a crack cocaine pretty significantly and had fell in with a group of guys called Stick Up Kids. You know, they used to go around riding drug development. So I became one of the targets. And on December 2, 1988, Keith was at the apartment that served as the base of his drug operation when Kenyatta and the Stick Up kids showed up. And I'm back at the back bedrooms, counting money. And I hear a commotion in the front. I come to the front of the door. And guys were forcing they way into the apartment. You know, I had the gun in my hand. I was shot twice myself and in the legs. You know, I shot a Kenyatta twice and he came through the door. I woke up in the hospital and I was right next to Kenyatta Collins. I heard the doctors when they pronounced them dead. And he's not going to he's not going to make it. And you know, I woke up again and I was saying to us, but you know, so it was gradually that it began to die on the magnitude or normally I would have had a curve. And once I was able to walk again, I went to the county jail and I bonded out at an attorney. I mean, this is not a legal opinion, but your actions in this incident sure sound like self defense and the pure sense of the word. But I didn't have access to the old self defense laws because I was a drug. My ass weren't playing right. So what was your attorney's plan? This attorney was a friend of a family. And I gave him like 10,000 in cash. I gave him a Mercedes Benz and 1983. Savage, Cavalier. So again, two cars in cash to represent me. And he came to me on the evil trial with the scare tactics. And told me, you know, that they were going to try to put me on death row. I was 18 19 years old at the time. And since I was so ignorant, I didn't know how to hold them to account. And I played guilty. You know, he convinced me that that was in my benefit to do that. And I didn't find out to let her own that he himself was strung out on cocaine at the time. It's not ironic enough that you ended up giving the proceeds of your successful drug operation to a attorney who was one of the consumers of those same drugs who then ended up selling you more or less down the river. You know, the thing that I didn't know that I know now that they elevate the crime in order to entice you with the taking the deal. I can't give you to murder. But really should have been manslaughter, you know, out of the state of defending myself. No forethought of malice or anything when it to us. Oh, it was manslaughter. I cost out to murder. It gave me 18 years of life. And I remember the just saying, you know, don't worry about a son. It's on the Twitter year six months to the pro board. You know, that was 19 at the time. But of course, he didn't tell me about the danger I was waiting into. 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They sent me to Lebanon, 11 on Ohio. It's the purpose of building kind of racism that I had, you know, the inward you heard it constantly bringing around the clock. In word is inward and I'm talking about staff. That's just by the prisoners, you know, Mr. Downhill, white guards and predominantly white prisoners down in this place, you know, black people from inner city were the minority and everybody was hopping upon these weights. That's getting steroids and after hearing all these four stories that young guys like me being on rate, you know, I kind of fixed my mind that that wouldn't happen to me. I didn't know how I was exempt from happening to me. Yeah, I understand that it's not uncommon for people to join a prison gang for protection. Yeah, it was three gangs, the black guys, the disciples sending most of them off though they don't consider themselves a gang and the Anne Brotherhoods, three major factions that kind of controlled the resources, the mega resources since the after prison, since we were down in southern Ohio, the Anne Brotherhood would be an armed by the guards who worked in some of whom were in the Anne Brotherhood and swastikers on a next and all of this Anne Brotherhood, they had real knives, not the makeshift knives, the shanks that you see on television, all kinds of things that would be brought in by the guards. But you didn't join the Sunni Muslims or the black gangster disciples, right? You presume I wasn't in the air in brotherhood. Oh my God, how rude of me not to. I mean, I'm sure they're in by God lost somehow. I never got in bright. But the first thing I did when I came to Lebanon, I joined the boxing team. That was one of the best things I could have done. Once, twice a year, you have a boxing match in front of the whole prison. You could show everybody what you made of and people perform that opinion after that as to whether or not you are easy game or whatever, you know, but I got my GDD and then they're rolling into the college program. So I was on the trajectory in terms of preparing myself for this this parole date and staying out of a prison gang was part of that plan, which continued after Keith was transferred from Lebanon to Lucasville in 1991, which was arguably a more difficult and violent situation because of a truly tragic incident involving an adult education teacher who worked at the prison. Beverly Taylor was a name and she was murdered by a black prisoner. The 1990 calls for the guy to be executed were being put forth by the community. But the guy was mentally handicapped and was deemed uneligible for the destiny. So they didn't get what they wanted. And so, ultimately, a new warden was appointed. A guy named Arthur Tate. I think while 1991, and so Arthur Tate instituted this thing called Operation Shake Down. And he started kind of turning the screws, tightening up on everything. You know, you have to have your shirt tucked in at all times. You've got to walk on the right side of the hallway. It was more or less like a military camp now. You know, something that happened overnight. He set up this PO box if he wanted to drop the dime on somebody who wanted to become a smist. You just put an anonymous note in the mailbox on your way to the child and he would act on it. So it was a very contentious environment. Art of various factions for being pitied against each other. And you can kind of cut the tension with a knife. And there was one incident in particular that kind of pushed the whole thing over the edge. They came up with this purple osu test and apparently had an alcoholic system called the Pinox. That the Muslims are spinically objective too. And the Wharton Tate gave them awesome news. And you need to take the test. Are we going to make you take it? You know, they took advantage of the two days that they had been given to form like this plan. You know, April 11th. They carried it out. So April 11th, 1993, was Easter Sunday and Wharton Tate planned unforcibly injecting the SUNY Muslim population on Monday, April 12th. So the SUNY's devised a plan to seize control of an entire cell block by taking advantage of the skeleton crew that worked on the holidays when the staff of prison guards would go from around 130 strong down to only 80. Now to give you a lay of the land, Lucasville prison sprawled out in four directions like a wheel with four spokes, one spoke encompassed maintenance, the hospital and dining hall. Walking from there toward the center, you'd meet up with the other three spokes. J-block to the right, K to the left and L-block straight ahead. Now K and L both consisted of a long hallway with a gym at the end and eight wings to the sides, L1, L2 and so on. Keith lived in L6. It was about 3 p.m. when Keith and the other prisoners were in the yard between K and L-block when the SUNY Muslims saw their chance and struck. The evacuation was just about to end. Everybody started lining up to come back inside the prison and while we were standing in line, a guard ran out with blood screaming down his face and he was followed by a mask in the care of the night stick. We were taking over, we were taking over, I never forget it. It was so real because you would literally know, "Oh shit, this is serious." Whoever this person is, but it's mask, they don't kill him. You can see inside and you don't know that it's the whole SUNY Muslim organization. I didn't know that standard on sidewalk and it was just around 30 minutes or so. They took over the whole airside under person. They later barricaded themselves into L-block and held it for 11 days. But at this point, Keith was still out on the yard and had no idea what was going on or what was to come. They started to circle out that they were ramming, sacking the cells and everything. What was actually happening, they was going from cell to cell, accumulating food, telling people that they had to donate whatever food stuff that they had so they can administer it during the ensuing days. But the word that reached us on the yard was that they were robbing the cells. So I wanted to go in and obscure my property. But I didn't know it was a life of death situation. I thought it was just a situation where some guys had to hold us in keys and nine cells were being rummaged through. And so it was with that misinformation that I against my better judgment decided to go inside and check on my personal belongings. And this decision to go inside L-block was how eventually Keith's name got dragged into what happened on L-6. When I went in, I kind of immediately understood that this was something more involved than just one prisoner attacking the guard because they were breaking windows. Fire alarms was going off. I mean, it was pandemonium. And I made my way to my assigned to cell block L-6 and contrast to the chaos that was going on in corridors. It was very, very quiet. You know, guards were already locked into the shower stalls. And there was different prisoners inside of the cells who later learned what I said. But I didn't know that at the time. I came in and not really understanding. I ran down to myself. There was a person inside of myself. And so I think to be able to run up to the control panel trying to unlock my doors so I can get this person out of my cell. Because as far as I was concerned, that confirmed what I already can't have figured that somebody was rightfully through my things. But you know, he was a hostage. I went up to the control panel and was turning the knobs randomly. You know, not really understanding how to work the panel and opened up a few other doors inadvertently. And you know, that alerted the Sunday Muslims who were inside the pod. And they accosted me and told me, you know, on certain terms that, you know, this is what's going on. You're the winner. So you get the fuck out of here. And, you know, I chose to leave. I left and came back onto the yard. Keith was ultimately accused of killing four men during his short trip inside L-block, the hostages being held on L-6, who, according to the state, were snitches. At this point, I want to bring in one of the authorities representing Keith. He's an associate at Bell Dock, Libyan, and Hoffman. Keegan, Stefan, welcome to the show. Thank you. So Keegan, the state's narrative of what happened on that awful Easter Sunday in 1993, obviously diverges from Keith's version of events. But let's start with where they are the same. You know, Keith was not in L-6 when the riots started, even by the state's theory and narrative of events. Second, you know, this riot was very deliberately planned by a group of people that Keith was not a part of. And again, the state concedes that, which seems like a very important point. Right. But now the state disagrees with what we've already heard from Keith. Yeah. So that's where their story is diverged. Keith goes in to get his belongings and leaves. That is what numerous alibi witnesses say. The state says that he goes in and then forms a death squad and executes the people that have been locked in their cells. And this death squad was allegedly made up of Keith and four or five others who brutally murdered four alleged snitches that were being held hostage on L-6. Darrell Dupina, Albert Steyano, Williams-Vettie, and Bruce Vitale. But what did they say was Keith's motivation for this? The state says that it's effectively a bargaining chip that if he forms this death squad and executes these alleged snitches, then he can get out of L-6. He can leave. People who staged the uprising have said that Keith would not have had that power, that they wouldn't have let that happen, that this wouldn't have been a bargaining chip to let people leave. So it's inconsistent with what was going on in the prison and it's inconsistent with what Keith was doing. It's inconsistent with numerous alibi witnesses. It's only consistent with the stories of the people who testified against Keith who were obviously highly motivated to testify in that manner. And later on, we'll get into the testimonies of those receiving either leniency, shorter sentences, immunity, a transfer, or most of the above. But first, let's get back to the story from Keith's perspective from when he returned to the yard and the prison was in full crisis in chaos mode. I mean, helicopters were flying up above over the prison and they gradually the National Guard showed up, the Ohio State Patrol showed up and they took up stands outside the perimeter fence and they, you know, machine guns out and riot gear, they riot helmets and everything. And so we're thinking, just only about a time before they regain order. And I will go by two hours, I will go by, then the body start coming out, you know, a group of mass inmates will come out of the building, waving what it does like to be of a machete. And it was so real that the body on the yard, 15 minutes ago by and someone from the administration, a medical, whatever coming, we clear the body and take it back through the case side area, 30 minutes ago by another body, then another body, another body. Then it started getting dark outside, started getting cold and eventually, guys started setting bomb fires, you know, I front of the world, from the boxing ring. And you have to stand, you know, the boxing ring was my sanction really. This was a place where I went because you can't, you know, make peace with all the bullshit that I've been through in my life. You know, I'm tearing the boxing ring up, trying to get full, so I can start a fire because it's chilly, it's April, but it's chilly at night, time. So if we stand in the round of fires and everything, know what is happening to highway patrols and National Guard just standing there watching. And now I don't know, I have a six bodies that have been brought out to the yard most of them dead. The people who's job is to stop me from being one of those dead bodies. I've been on the outside of the fence and it's inevitable that you take in the notion that one of these bodies could be monitoring. Hey, Portlandia fans, Carrie Brown, CNN, Fred Armason here. You know us or rather you know them, Tony and Ken. Nena and Lance, Spike and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the back stories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Kreisel, the mayor himself Kyle McGlockwyn, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. You fully improvised not just words, but a song about it. I thought he was going to write, I thought you were all going to write a song. Listen to Podlandia, AO Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Nick Tutorial. You probably know me from NYPD Blue, the longest shot, or Spike Lee's Black Plansman, but I'm also from Queens, which means I know pizza. And on my new podcast, Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutorial, I deliver pizza from Prince Street, Pizza, to a new guest. Are you delivering pizza now? Then we sit down for a real conversation. I've shared a slice with everyone from Seth Rollins, what are you doing, my belt, to Alex Rodriguez. Just let you people know we're talking to one of the goats here. To Bill Burr. I don't think I've ever met somebody so exactly out of their mind. It's I am. And now we even have more great guests coming up, including the great John Tutorial. This gold happiness, delivering happiness. Mariano Rivera. And many, many more open your free high-hard radio app. Search Delivering Happiness with Nick Tutorial. And listen now. What's up fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up y'all? It's your girl Sam Jay. And we're the host of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together in iHeart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's Sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo roe to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments to take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. She beat. Sublinca. Shout out to you Naomi. You get the palm Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. On the iHeart radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. About three o'clock in the morning, a highway, a state patrol, okay, my guns, strong and border all of us to line up to indicate sad gymnasium. Once we got inside of there, they took all of us naked to go all our clothes and made us sit down in the middle of a gymnasium floor. About 400 people or something. And we stayed there like that and in total, start nakedness for hours of same life. Eventually they started taking us random groups to TN and escort us to the single man sales. And they put 10 naked individuals in these sales the size of a closet. That's my recollection is right. I'm a K2 36 with nine other naked individuals. And in that cell, the fifth murder happened and the state says that Keats ordered the murder. You know, Keats says that there was a confrontation and then he had nothing to do with it. When it finally came around, the game was jumpsuits. Not long after that, those sandwiches in the sale, which was the first time many of us had eaten since the whole day of starting. It was like a feeding frenzy. Some guys took more than they share and then it's weaver. He was one of the older prisoners in the sale. And he held onto the dignity to his credit. And as you can't be talking afraid, he made the mistake of saying something about it. So this guy William Boland got named Sebastian. And Sebastian and then he's got it to the obligation. Sebastian put them in a chokehold and these two other prisoners held his feet down. You know, because he was struggling to try to free himself. And when the authorities came to remove dinner from the sale and tried to question us, I along with most of the guys in the sale said that we were asleep, which was our way of saying that we didn't want to be involved because that's one of the things you learn in prison to avoid violence by mining your own business. And we don't know at the time that by not saying anything, we allowed the guy who actually committed to murder to shift the blame. You know, he said he was forced to kill Dennis by me and several other individuals. You know, it's a pretty wild leap to go from someone not telling you the complete truth. From someone saying that they were asleep to saying that they ordered a murder. It's also obviously hard or impossible to order a murder when you don't have a weapon or the cloud of a prison gang behind you, but that's what the state and its cooperators ended up saying Keith did once the riot thus settled and many rounds of interviews began. But that didn't start until Wednesday, April 21st. And Dennis Weaver's body had only joined the others from L block on the second day of the Lucasville riot April 12, 1993. At this point, the instigators of the riot were barricaded into L block armed with the prison's hostage negotiation handbook and aid hostages, making demands while anticipating the authorities' moves. On Wednesday, April 14th, a sheet was hung from a window, threatening the death of a hostage if their demands were not met. Among those demands were food, water, electricity, access to the news media, a stipulation regarding any future medical testing, the hiring of more black guards, the relaxation of day-to-day restrictions, and various quality of life improvements, as well as the removal of Arthur Tate. Now early Thursday morning April 15th, the body of one of the hostages, 40-year-old prison guard Robert Flandingham, was produced from L block. He had been strangled to death. The negotiations continued, a few hostages were released, and finally on Wednesday, April 21st, a list of 21 demands were met to solidify the surrender of L block. These included that news media and religious leaders would witness the surrender, that there would be no retaliation on any inmate or group of inmates, and that disciplined or criminal proceedings would be carried out fairly and impartially. In the end, 10 men had died. Earl Elder, Franklin Farrell, Bruce Harris, David Summers, Darrell Dapino, Bruce Vitale, Albert Steyano, Williams-Vettey, Dennis Weaver, and of course the prison guard, Robert Flandingham. And so the guardsmer really drove the prosecution. The riot was decided over awesomely by the black against disciples to sunny Muslims and the Anne brothershood. The goal was to put the leadership on death row. Well, the Anne brothers years represented on death row to sunny Muslims, I represent here on death row to only people who are not represented here. On death row, there's a black against disciples. Guess where they were at now walking the street because they testified against the leadership of his other games. And I'm the Philan for the black against disciples. Never been in the game, but I had a prior record for murder. I was inside of the L6 pod. When I came in for that brief time, I wasn't wearing a mask. People identified me, said, "Keep them always inside the pod, they pulled my record." And recently when we did a four-year request, we found out that the prosecutor had written his name on my file. Like, this is significant. This is somebody we can use. I was dropped out of school in sixth grade, shoplifting when I was 13, 14 years old, selling weed, and these other things that the state tried to use as leverage to get me to cop out the crimes I didn't commit. But the state had to come up with witnesses to corroborate this narrative. It's remarkable the number of interviews that took place and the number of times the same incarcerated people were interviewed and how much their stories changed. Most of them did not identify Keith in their early interviews and even affirmatively said that Keith was not involved. And then at a certain point in that arc of giving statements, they all started identifying Keith. Something shifted there and he became a very easy scapegoat. He was already facing a sentence that maxed out at life. Everybody sort of thought he would take the plea. But as everyone who's talked to Keith knows, he's a remarkable individual with the utmost principles and he was not going to plead guilty to a bunch of murders he did not commit. You know, one of the things that you don't see on long order and those different police shows on television is that, you know, the real informant in five, they call you by your first name and you know, add like, "Yo, buddy, it's like Keith, come on, we've passed that time. We're gonna need you to cop out to this and you be doing your separate favor. Otherwise, we're gonna put your back ass on death row. cop out to murder and we're running the time concurrent with the time you're already doing to be like you getting off scot-free. I said, "But I'm innocent, though. I might get off scot-free when you talking about, for longer, my stay in prison, beyond my parole day, to have done anything." You've just heard about how a riot and a rushed defeat a community sense of vengeance put Keith Lamar in a position where his past was leveraged against him in service of those who chose to escape their crimes by cooperating with the state. Listen to part two where we'll explore who those individuals were, what they stood to gain by sending Keith to death row, and the sham trial that put him there, as well as where we're at in his fight for justice and his very life. Find and listen to the second half of this very important episode, available now if you're an Apple+ subscriber or you can listen next week in the free feed. Thank you for listening to Ronful Conviction. You can listen to this in all the Lava for Good Podcasts one week early by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team, Connor Hall, Andy Chelsea, and Lila Robinson as well as my fellow executive producers, Jeff Campler, Kevin Wartus, and Jeff Clyburn. The music in this production was supplied by three time Oscar nominated composer, J. Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all social media platforms at Lava for Good and @RonfulConviction. You can also follow me on Instagram @it'sjsonflom. Ronful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company number one. Hey Portlandia fans! Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armasson here. We're launching Podlandia AO rewatch, our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters, and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Christel, the mayor himself, Kyle McGlockland, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Listen to Podlandia AO rewatch on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up fam? And we're the host of Everyone Watchers Women Sports, a new podcast from Together and iHeart Women Sports. We're breaking down the biggest headlines. Shout-out to you now. The viral moments. Out of the obsessed with Koshan Rock's boxing journey. She looks good. And you can watch the video app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Brennan. And on my podcast, Discrease Land. I tell the stories behind music's biggest names. Like how the story of the food fighters isn't just about music. It's about grief, shock, and the moment everything changed. Imagine that. You're in the biggest band on the planet. As Dave Grohl was in 1994 in Nirvana. In the phone rings. And you learn that you're singer, your friend. The reluctant voice of a generation, Kurt Cobain, is dead. Listen to Discrease Land on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.