Jamal Trulove Survived Kamala Harris's San Francisco DA Office After Wrongful Murder Conviction and Prison

[00:01] -Never in a million years I would have thought

[00:03] that they were gonna charge me for Seu's murder.

[00:07] I never talked to no detective, no police officer,

[00:11] no D.A., nobody.

[00:14] -Just arrested and then charged.

[00:15] -Arrested and charged -- that's it.

[00:17] -Was the first time you saw Kamala Harris in person

[00:22] the day that the verdict was issued?

[00:24] -She showed up at the two most pivotal times

[00:27] in this first trial

[00:29] in me being convicted and me being sentenced.

[00:33] She wanted to be present for a celebration of a conviction.

[00:37] -That's what it felt like, a celebration?

[00:38] -A celebration, that's what it felt like.

[00:40] The reactions I get when I tell people my story

[00:43] is they say it's the worst nightmare, you know?

[00:47] It's the closest thing to dying.

[00:50] ??

[00:55] -Jamal, I'm going to read you a quote real quick.

[00:57] "The job of a progressive prosecutor

[00:59] is to look out for those overlooked,

[01:01] to speak up for those whose voices aren't being heard,

[01:05] to see and address the causes of crime,

[01:07] not just their consequences,

[01:09] and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness

[01:12] that lead to injustice.

[01:13] It is to recognize that not everyone needs punishment,

[01:16] that what many need, quite obviously, is help."

[01:19] Kamala Harris wrote that

[01:21] in her book "The Truths We Hold."

[01:24] Does that sound consistent with the kind of --

[01:26] with the brand of justice that you saw administered

[01:28] by offices that she was running?

[01:30] -It definitely sounds like Kamala Harris

[01:33] right now as a senator,

[01:35] but at the time of her being

[01:37] the head District Attorney of San Francisco,

[01:41] that is almost polar opposite of what I felt

[01:44] and what our community felt in San Francisco.

[01:48] ??

[01:50] -So, Jamal, where are we?

[01:51] -Right now we are in Sunnydale Projects,

[01:54] where I was born and raised at.

[01:56] This isn't a place that you --

[01:58] you would want to bring outsiders into

[02:01] and a place that they don't want to go.

[02:02] This ain't a place that feels comfortable.

[02:05] It feels like you might get robbed, you might get shot.

[02:08] -Police were keeping files on you and your brothers

[02:12] and other people who were living in Sunnydale

[02:15] from a very young age.

[02:16] -They already had me labeled

[02:18] because I'm in this community as a potential gang member,

[02:22] potential killer, potential drug dealer.

[02:27] You got to wake up to the fact

[02:29] that, you know, things are set up against us.

[02:31] -There's is a conspiracy. -Yes. There --

[02:33] -It happened to you. -Exactly.

[02:34] There is a big -- -It was proven in court.

[02:36] -Absolutely.

[02:37] Places like this

[02:38] have been developed

[02:39] for predominantly African American people

[02:43] to not be able to succeed beyond it.

[02:47] -Yeah.

[02:48] What did you know about Kamala Harris?

[02:50] What did you know about

[02:51] San Francisco having a Black D.A.?

[02:53] -Nobody in the hood ever worried or focused

[02:57] on the D.A. position in general,

[03:00] but people did focus on it just a tad bit that it was Black

[03:04] and feeling like, "Okay,

[03:07] this Black lady in office, Kamala Harris,

[03:10] she's going to understand where we come from", you know,

[03:15] and have more of a sympathetic way

[03:18] of prosecuting people that come from our communities

[03:23] who have been plagued with no opportunities.

[03:29] This is Hunter's Point,

[03:32] where these different projects and communities

[03:38] used to really war with each other.

[03:42] -Jamal, in July 2007,

[03:44] what's going on in your life at that point,

[03:46] and then what happened on July 24th?

[03:48] -I had recently just came off of "I Love New York,"

[03:52] and also that's when my friend Seu Kuka got killed.

[03:58] -More than a year goes by,

[04:00] and no one's been arrested in the case.

[04:01] You hadn't even been questioned.

[04:03] -Haven't even been questioned, no.

[04:05] The police was still, you know, trying to get a conviction

[04:11] by all means necessary.

[04:13] When I was arrested for it,

[04:15] the community knew I didn't do it,

[04:18] and it was a, "Here we go again.

[04:21] See, this is why we don't trust, you know, law enforcement"

[04:24] because it gets to a point

[04:27] where somebody who didn't do something

[04:29] goes to jail for it.

[04:31] I don't have no history of crime.

[04:34] What's up, boy? [ Indistinct conversations ]

[04:36] I have a history of being around in the community,

[04:39] but that doesn't mean that I'm a suspect.

[04:42] I'm like, "Aw, man, I'll be out within 72 hours.

[04:44] They're gonna figure this out.

[04:45] They're gonna clear this up."

[04:47] -Then when you found out what the evidence was

[04:49] that they supposedly had you on, can you --

[04:51] There wasn't much there.

[04:53] Can you describe what it was?

[04:55] -They had a woman saying that she seen me kill Seu.

[05:03] The second witness that they had really wasn't a witness at all.

[05:07] She said anything

[05:08] that the police officers wanted her to say,

[05:11] and they said that her recollection of the event

[05:17] was extremely credible,

[05:20] so that's what ultimately got the arrest warrant.

[05:23] -The District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala Harris,

[05:25] appeared in the courtroom during your trial twice.

[05:28] -Yeah.

[05:30] The two times that Kamala Harris showed up to my trial

[05:33] was the -- when I got convicted

[05:38] and also when they laid down the sentencing.

[05:42] -When you saw her on the day

[05:44] that the verdict was handed down,

[05:46] did you take that as a bad sign?

[05:48] -It felt to me that she was well aware about my case,

[05:53] and she was there to set her presence,

[05:56] almost take pride in getting a conviction.

[06:04] [ Indistinct conversations ]

[06:08] When I put in my appeal,

[06:09] the people that's fighting against my appeal

[06:12] to keep the conviction is the Attorney General office.

[06:16] I learned it reading, you know, their reply to my appeal,

[06:21] and you see Kamala Harris' name at the bottom,

[06:24] and now it's starting to feel a little personal.

[06:27] -When you win the $13.1 million,

[06:30] it's a massive settlement.

[06:31] Did you feel like that was enough?

[06:33] -There's not an amount that can get back those 7 years that --

[06:38] well, 6 1/2 years that I spent in prison.

[06:41] But instead of me coming home feeling like I was a victim,

[06:45] I wanted to prove that I'm a survivor,

[06:48] and I will not let my story go unheard.

[06:53] You know, I'm not necessarily saying

[06:55] I'm looking for an apology,

[06:57] but some acknowledgment from her that she could have messed up

[07:00] would be -- of course, that'd be huge.

[07:03] You could have made some mistakes.

[07:04] You could have missed some things.

[07:06] For me, it was a big miss.

[07:08] You know, I had life in prison.

[07:10] I met people in prison that was wrongfully convicted.

[07:15] I want my story to be out to provoke reform, ultimately.

[07:22] Beyond that, I want to be able to be who I want to be.

[07:25] I'm an actor, you know.

[07:27] I'm a musician. I'm a father.

[07:29] I'm more than this person that was framed.

[07:32] I'm more than this person that was wrongfully convicted.

[07:36] ??

[07:43] ??

[07:49] ??