Students may have come to John Jay’s theater expecting a heartening story of justice prevailing in the criminal justice system. What they received was a first-hand look at the work to be done and a call to empathy and action wherever their lives took them.
“Be an agent of change,” Dateline producer and 2024 Pulitzer finalist Dan Slepian said to the students. “Be the person right now who does the right thing. The world needs all hands on-deck. Stand for something larger than yourself.”
Slepian, creator of the "Letters from Sing Sing" podcast, is also a Katonah resident and father of John Jay alumni. He visited the school on February 28 with friend and exonerated individual Eric Glisson. The powerful presentation was arranged by English teacher Vicky Weiss as a way to support student voice and agency. It was open to all students and many teachers brought their English and social studies classes.
The presentation began with a viewing of the Dateline episode that Slepian produced about Glisson. The two met in Sing Sing where Glisson was serving 25 years to life for the murder of a cab driver in 1995. A detective had told Slepian that Glisson was innocent; he followed the lead. Footage shows Glisson working from his cell to find evidence that would reopen the case.
He did.
Glisson eventually secured records from the victim’s cell phone that linked the murder to gang members—who had already confessed. After 18 years in prison, Glisson’s conviction was overturned. He was released in 2012.
After watching the episode and seeing Glisson behind bars, it was heartening to see him walk out and take the mic. Slepian and Glisson both addressed the students.
Slepian described his baptism into the world of wrongful convictions. Since that Dateline episode, he has worked to exonerate five other wrongfully incarcerated people.
He gave students the numbers and they did the math. If there are two million people in prison, and 5% are wrongfully convicted, 100,000 people are wrongfully incarcerated.
“Most people need a bolt of lightning to get the court to open the jailhouse doors,” Slepian said. “If I walked away from Eric, I am as guilty as the DA who put him there.”
Glisson, who went on to gain his GED, graduate from college and become an entrepreneur, told the students that he took time in prison to review his life.
“I want to leave you with something that helped me,” he said. “Forget what everyone thinks. You have your life to live. Think for yourself and be accountable. Try to become a better person every day. Remember: Every problem has an expiration date.”
One student asked about the rehabilitation programs in prison.
Glisson said that he took advantage of everything. He enrolled in the high school and college programs, learned several trades, and acted in Sing Sing’s theater—a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts, which is the subject of the Oscar-nominated movie "Sing Sing." “Interacting with volunteers from the outside helps rebuild norms that will help you reacclimate,” he said.
When asked how he could not be consumed by bitterness, Glisson spoke to the joy of being a father to three young children. He also shared a new business venture. “The water in prison is terrible,” he said, and held up a water bottle. “I bought a water plant in the Dominican Republic. I want to bring this clear, clean water into prisons.”
Before students gathered around the speakers, after the program ended, Slepian left them with a vision to hold.
“See yourselves as lanterns, shining light wherever you choose to go in your lives."