Standing Tall in Times Square

<p>It all started on June 27 1979 when approximately seven detectives banged on my door guns drawn. When my common-law wife Jackie answered the door they burst in yelling “Where is Herbert Murray?” When I came into the room they grabbed me threw me against the wall put a gun to my head and told me I was under arrest for murder. In the background I could hear my thirteen-month-old daughter Taneé crying like crazy. Those detectives didn’t have any regard for our lives—not my daughter’s Jackie’s or mine. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life. When I asked them what they were talking about they told me to “Shut up.” </p><p>I was taken to the eighty-eighth precinct located on DeKalb and Classon Avenues. They took me to the interrogation room where they questioned me about a murder that took place two weeks before on June 13 1979. Can you imagine how confused I was? I was being charged for a murder I had no clue about. It seemed absolutely crazy. They were putting so much pressure on me that I couldn’t even think. I had to think about two Wednesdays ago. When the detectives asked me where was I on June 13 I told them I was with a housing police officer and four others: Vincent Brown Ronnie Cook Junior Washington and Andrew Lambus. When I told him I was with a police officer the detective left the room and came back about ten minutes later. </p><p>See the author in the video: “The ‘Innocent Prisoner’s Dilemma’” on NYTimes.com (2010).</p>