Lisa Hopewell had some trouble with drugs back east; she tried taking the geographical cure by moving back to Cupertino.  There, she was murdered in her condo on Jan 10, 1991 by a drug dealer.  In court, the dealer fingered Rick Walker, an East Palo Alto mechanic.  Walker was convicted on the testimony, as well as some circumstantial evidence. Due to the work of lawyer Alison Tucher, Walker was sprung from 12 hard years at San Quentin, Pelican Bay and other prisons…but his career as an item of controversy had only begun.  Democratic state Assemblyman Joe Simitian, now a California state senator, did his best to get Walker the legal compensation the unfairly imprisoned man was owed—$100 a day.  But the gridlocked assembly of 2003, insurmountably broken over party lines, refused to pay up even that amount…Santa Cruz filmmakers Gwen R. Essegian and Mark Ligon take something we’d think of as the absolute quintessence of boredom—the state assembly—and make it exciting by highlighting its workings against a personal quest for justice.  Interviewees include Walker, who recalls seeing one DA paying another a nickel in accordance to a bet they had going on whether Walker was going to be convicted.  Former speaker of the Assembly Herb Wesson here recalls telling Simitian the Walker case was “a dead stick”.  Jerry Uelmen of SCU Law School briefly explains how the injustice was done; and former Santa Clara County DA George Kennedy calls the Walker case “one of the worst things that ever happened” under his watch.  $100 a Day is a sharp and strangely touching lesson in how justice is done.   (Disclosure: in the early 2000s, my TV show CinemaScene was produced at AT&T Broadband in Scotts Valley, where Essegian and Ligon worked.)  (Oct 31 at noon at Stanford’s Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education Building, 485 Lasuen Mall.)

Story of wrongly convicted East Palo Alto man on KTEH tonight

By Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco Chronicle
11/5/09

We receive a steady stream of DVDs with smaller films and local documentaries at the Chronicle, and many of them fall through the cracks. I especially hate it when I discover something good, but it's too late to pitch the story to my editors, report it and write something in time for our Datebook section deadlines.

That's what happened with $100 a Day, which gets its television premiere at 6:30 p.m. tonight on KTEH, and then at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 27 on KQED. The documentary follows Rick Walker, who was falsely convicted of murder in 1991 and served more than a decade in San Quentin and Pelican Bay penitentiaries. After he was exonerated and released in 2003, he found it nearly impossible to collect the $100 per day that is due by law to wrongly convicted inmates of California State Prisons. Mark Ligon and Gwen R. Essegian's film follows Essegian's former boss Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto and his attempts to get Walker his due -- in the middle of a partisan battle where Republicans had pledged not to support such bills while budget negotiations were ongoing.

There's a surprising amount of drama on the legislative end, and Walker's story is fascinating. Working as an auto mechanic now, he's left most of his bitterness behind. The trailer for the documentary is above and Ross MacGowan's interview with Walker from KTVU's "Mornings on 2" is below. Check out the entire documentary tonight if you get a chance.

TALK ABOUT double jeopardy. In 1991, Rick Walker, an independent auto mechanic living in East Palo Alto, was wrongfully convicted of murder, mostly on the basis of questionable testimony. Years later, the witness confessed, and Walker was exonerated. Having spent 12 years in San Quentin, Pelican Bay and other hard-core prisons, Walker was punished again by a quirk in the law. While the average prisoner is given some money and assistance upon release, an exonerated prisoner must wait for special legislative appropriation bills to receive the paltry $100 a day for each day of wrongful imprisonment mandated by California statute.

The documentary $100 a Day charts the efforts made by then–state Assemblyman Joe Simitian (now a state senator) to persuade his legislative colleagues to fund recompense for Walker. The 2003 budget hearings, however, were mired in a game of partisan chicken, with the Republicans refusing to vote on any bills requiring a two-thirds majority to pass. Down to the last moments of the session, Simitian made a heartfelt plea for the Assembly to put aside its differences to help one aggrieved man.

The 30-minute-plus documentary by Santa Cruz–based filmmakers Gwen Essegian (who worked for Simitian after his election to the state Senate) and Mark Ligon, includes interviews with Walker; Alison Tucher, the Stanford law student and lawyer who worked tirelessly on his case; Sacramento Bee reporter Jim Sanders, who covered the story; and even former Santa Clara County DA George Kennedy, who remarks soberly upon a case gone very wrong (Walker eventually won a judgment against Santa Clara County). But the meat of the film comes in the footage of the legislative session, as politics threaten to override simple justice. Simitian shows an admirable streak of perseverance in the face of considerable odds, and the final roll-call vote is a real nail-biter.

Documentary tells the story of Simitian bill for the wrongly convicted

When most people think of movie stars in Sacramento, it’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who comes to mind. But Tuesday will see the Sacramento premier of a documentary featuring Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and his effort to pass a bill on behalf of the wrongly convicted.

“$100 a Day” was made by Gwen Essegian, who worked as a district staffer for Simitian for a year in 2004 and 2005. It tells the story of Rick Walker, an East Palo Alto man who spent 12 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

The 35-minute film is also a procedural drama about the bill Walker inspired. State law has long called for the wrongly convicted to be compensated $100 for each day they spent in prison. But this money is approved in special bills only about twice a year. Simitian felt that Walker’s case was so egregious, and his situation on release so dire, that he deserved to be paid right away rather than waiting several months. The bill, needing a two-thirds vote, was threatening to go down to the wire on partisan lines.

“They did a good job with a subject that frankly doesn’t always lend itself to an engaging treatment,” Simitian said of the film, which was shot and co-produced by Mark Ligon.

“It’s fairly timely,” Simitian added when reached while driving back to Sacramento for a budget vote (yes, he was using a hands-free set). “The irony is part of it is about how the budget debate tends to foul everything else in its vicinity.”

The film features other faces familiar to those around the Capitol: then-Speaker Herb Wesson; Sen. Jenny Oropeza, who became a leading supporter of the bill; and longtime Sacramento Bee reporter, Jim Sanders, who wrote several stories on Walker’s case.

After serving 12 years in facilities that included Pelican Bay and San Quentin, Walker was found on appeal to have been convicted by false testimony. He eventually won a $2.75 million settlement against Santa Clara County. But when he was first freed in 2003, he was put on the streets with no services and no money-not even what is given to actual parolees. Under Simitian’s bill, he would have been due $400,000 right away.

Essegian came to the story after the fact. When Simitian left the Assembly and won election to the Senate in late 2004, he took over a district that includes Santa Cruz. He brought in Essegian, a Santa Cruz native, to spend a year setting up his local district office and teaching him about the area.

Her resume includes a combination of public policy-she spent years doing outreach for the Armenian Assembly of America-and television experience. From 2000 to 2004, she was the producer and host of “On Topics,” a public affairs show in Santa Cruz.

After leaving Simitian’s office, she and Ligon began piecing the story together from interviews and legislative footage. They conducted hours of interviews with Walker, who admitted that his prison experience had changed him for the better.

“He went into prison a very bitter man,” Essegian said. “He said that while he was in prison, it was just starting to kill him, literally. He was getting sick, having stomach problems. He turned his life around and walks out of prison a very forgiving person and not bitter at all.”

She added that this perspective is common among the wrongly-convicted: “These guys all lost so much time when they were in prison, they just didn’t want to waste any more of their time now that they’re free.”

The Commonwealth Club hosted an early showing of the film, with Walker speaking, at Santa Clara University in February. It will show Tuesday at 6 pm at Sacramento’s Crest Theater as part of the Sacramento Film and Music Festival.

Next month, it will show as part of the DocuWest documentary film festival in Golden Colorado. They’re also working on a slightly shorter cut to air on public television. Essegian and Ligon have also signed a distribution deal with Films Media Group, which will get the film into libraries and universities.

“Getting in into schools and using it as a teaching tool was really one of our goals,” Essegian said.

Simitian praised the film for not making it “a partisan story.” But the partisan politics certainly came into play, as he asked then Assembly Republican leader Dave Cox to break a pledge to not let any of the 60 or more bills needing two-thirds to pass in the midst of budget negotiations.

Cox refused, Simitian said, noting that if he made an exception, other authors would want the same and he would lose leverage. But ultimately two Republicans broke with their party, Alan Nakanishi and Shirley Horton, now both termed out, opening the way for the bill to slip through. Simitian said Horton’s vote was particularly courageous.

“In Shirley’s case, she was a freshman and had one of the toughest re-election races in the state facing her,” Simiatian said. “She knew she was going to need help from her party and her party leadership."

“I think ultimately the film raises a very intriguing question,” Simitian added. “Was the outcome on that night a case for optimism because the legislature managed to put its partisan differences and do the right thing for at least one Californian? Or should it be a source of concern that is so hard to get the right thing done just once for one person?”

New documentary details wrongfully convicted East Palo Alto man

A new documentary detailing an East Palo Alto man's struggle to get compensation from the state after serving 12 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit raises questions about the treatment of exonerated convicts after their release.

The 40-minute film, "$100 a Day," premiered Wednesday night on Santa Clara University's campus at a joint Northern California Innocence Project and The Commonwealth Club of California event. Rick Walker, the film's subject, spoke at a panel discussion after the screening, along with his lawyer Alison Tucher and Sacramento Bee reporter Jim Sanders.

"It kind of made me cry," Walker said of the film. "It's a very emotional piece, and I think it should be a civics lesson in school."

Walker, an auto mechanic who lives in East Palo Alto, served 12 years for the 1991 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Hopewell, in a Cupertino condominium. There was little evidence against Walker aside from the false accusation of a drug dealer and co-defendant who cut a deal with Santa Clara County prosecutors in exchange for his testimony.

"I was a black man from East Palo Alto during the time when East Palo Alto was the murder capital of the world per capita. I must have done it," Walker said.

In 2003, authorities cleared Walker of the crime and released him from prison, in large part because of Tucher's tireless work on the case for a decade. During Walker's imprisonment, his father died and his son became an adult.

"I knew he was innocent but getting the justice system that had already convicted him to the same place was far and away the biggest hurdle," said Tucher, now a partner at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco.

Another challenge awaited Walker upon his release. As he struggled to rebuild his life in East Palo Alto, Walker still hadn't received $421,000 -- or $100 a day for every day he spent in prison - - that the state owed him.

It's a problem that isn't unique to Walker, said Kathleen "Cookie" Ridolfi, director of the Northern California Innocence Project.

Between 2001 and 2007, nine people received reimbursements from the state for wrongful imprisonment ranging from $17,200 to $756,900, according to data compiled by the innocence project.

Exonerated prisoners often struggle to get state reimbursement and don't receive the same job placement benefits and financial help that normal parolees get, Ridolfi said Wednesday, while moderating the panel discussion.

That was true for Antoine Goff, a San Francisco man who spent 14 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit -- and then saw his claim for state reimbursement denied.

"Everybody assumed we were going to get it, and, boom, they denied us," Goff said.

"I was hurt because you keep messing over me, and you know that I'm in prison for something I didn't do," Goff said of the judge's decision.

In September 2003, it appeared the state Legislature would table Walker's claim until the following year -- a move that would have compromised his efforts to get back on track after years behind bars.

As a last resort, Tucher called state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, for help. The then-state assemblyman ended up pushing a bill to award Walker the money through the Legislature at about 3:30 a.m. during its last hours of session.

That was no small feat because Republican leadership had told party members not to vote on any bill requiring a two-thirds majority until they reached a satisfactory agreement on the state budget. Simitian knelt down before every Republican Assembly member's desk, urging them to support the measure. It passed 73-0.

"The work of government can seem distant and remote, and I thought the film did a wonderful job of communicating just how real and immediate and personal the consequences of our decisions can be," Simitian said Thursday by phone. "While the film certainly highlights the shortcomings of our system, it also holds out hope that the system can be made to work."

Simitian noted that he had planned to attend the screening Wednesday but couldn't -- ironically, because of the all-night session in the Capitol during which senators approved the state budget after months of partisan bickering.

"The timing, in some ways, could not have been more on point," Simitian said. "Once again, we're struggling to get two-thirds because of people's polarized views on budget matters."

Santa Cruz-based filmmakers Gwen Essegian and Mark Ligon said they don't have official plans for the documentary's distribution or future screenings but hope to show it in schools.

"We would like to see it in high schools so classrooms can use it as a discussion piece," Essegian said.

As for Walker, he is now engaged to be married and working as a mechanic. His next battle? Fighting to get money put into his Social Security retirement fund for the time he spent in prison.

"We faithfully worked for the state of California -- I did for 24 cents an hour," Walker said. "I want my Social Security instated for those 12 years I was incarcerated for nothing."

Walker added that he continues to work for the rights of wrongly convicted people.

"We each have an obligation and a duty to get at the people we put in power and make sure they're doing their job," Walker said. A prosecutor is given "a license to kill, and when you give somebody that much power, he should be living next door to God."