STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It is Friday, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. And we start in Cleveland in 1975, when a shopkeeper at a small grocery store was murdered. The main witness in the case was Eddie Vernon, who was 12 years old and had not actually seen anything. Vernon says police pressured him into testifying and then used his account to convict three innocent people. One was a teenager named Rickey Jackson, who served almost four decades in prison. At last, in 2014, witness Eddie Vernon, then aged 52, came forward with the truth. Rickey Jackson was released and reached out to Vernon. And they spoke for StoryCorps.
RICKEY JACKSON: I went through 39 years of incarceration because of some things that you put in motion.
EDDIE VERNON: Right.
JACKSON: Throughout the years, did you ever think about me?
VERNON: Yeah, I wanted to trade places because I said, it should be me instead of them. As I grew up, I was depressed, suicidal. It ate me up so much inside, man.
JACKSON: I used to think about you a lot - hatred, loathing. I even used to fantasize about where it is that I was going to kill you. We didn't have any physical evidence to bring back into court. It was just you.
VERNON: When I came forth, I was tired. I couldn't live no more like that, Rickey. I know that so much was taken away from y'all, so many years. Y'all deserved our freedom.
JACKSON: In court, I hadn't seen you...
VERNON: Since the trial.
JACKSON: 1975.
VERNON: Right.
JACKSON: So when you walked in that courtroom, I saw the little 12-year-old kid in you. But I also saw the strength of a man who had come there to do something. And the next thing I know, I'm a free man. It was a very courageous thing that you've done. So I talked to my lawyer and asked him if there was any chance that you and I could hook up. And when I saw you, all that stuff I used to think about you - the animosity - I could hardly remember. And it might have been my imagination, but when we embraced, it felt like you just got lighter in my arms.
VERNON: It took a whole lot off of my shoulders - the weight I've been carrying for all these years.
JACKSON: I don't know if I ever told you this, but you did your part when it counted most. You know that? You hear me talking to you, man?
VERNON: Yes.
JACKSON: You did your part when it counted most.
VERNON: OK. Thank you.
JACKSON: People still find it hard to understand that I forgive you. And I think people confuse that with forgetting. I'm not going to ever forget.
VERNON: Right.
JACKSON: But if forgiveness is my way out, I'll gladly take it.
VERNON: And I thank God for that, man. I really do, Rickey.
JACKSON: You know, after all that we've been through, to finally be sitting here face to face, talking about what happened, I'm saying one man to another, I wish you nothing but the best always.
INSKEEP: That's Rickey Jackson with Eddie Vernon for StoryCorps in Cleveland. Now, after Eddie's testimony, the two other men convicted in the case also had their sentences overturned. The murder itself remains unsolved.
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