The Shamgod Story: Inside a Gutter Justice Investigation

On this episode of LFTG Radio, we step into serious justice work with a case that exposes how wrongful convictions are built — and protected.

Shamgod Jay joins us to tell the full story of how he lost 25 years of his life after a manipulated photo array, coerced witness statements, racial bias in a rural jurisdiction, ineffective counsel, and suppressed exculpatory evidence combined to secure a conviction that should never have stood.

What began as three separate photo arrays that did not identify him changed when his image was moved into the “gunman” position. Years later, buried documentation confirmed that the original identification did not point to Shamgod at all. Add to that documented hand injuries — splints and severed tendons that made it physically impossible for him to commit the crime as alleged — and you’re left with a case riddled with red flags that were ignored at trial.

We’re also joined by Derrick Hamilton, Deputy Director of the

👉🏾 Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,

a center dedicated to reviewing wrongful convictions and addressing forensic misuse and systemic misconduct. Hamilton, who himself was wrongfully incarcerated for over two decades before being exonerated, discusses the active review of Shamgod’s case and the broader structural issues that allow wrongful convictions to persist — including absolute immunity protections that shield prosecutors and police from accountability.

In this episode, we break down:

• How eyewitness identifications become contaminated
• The role of “serial informants” testifying across multiple counties
• What Brady violations mean in real life
• How suppressed evidence and procedural blocks shut down innocence claims
• Why accountability in wrongful conviction cases remains rare

This conversation is part of the work connected to The Gutter Justice Project, LFTG’s division focused on wrongful convictions and systemic accountability.

If you want to connect directly:

📘 To reach Shamgod Jay, connect via Facebook:

👉🏾 Shamgod Jay on Facebook

📸 To reach Derrick Hamilton / Top Notch Legal, connect via Instagram:

👉🏾 Top Notch Legal on Instagram

Listen. Share. Stay informed.

Transcript

Opening And Mission: Gutter Justice

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Reporting live from the gutter. It's your boy Elliott Carter on the live with Sham Guard. Today we're pushing the gutter justice project. Today we're pushing the gutter justice project. And uh we're gonna do a little bit of talking on wrongful convictions. Y'all know to tap in on the YouTube LFTG Radio, tapping on the IG at LFTG News, and the TikTok, of course, at Elliot Carter. Shamgar, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself? Let the people know where they can follow you.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Alright. This is Shamgar Jay. Um I did 25 years in prison for a wrongful conviction. Um recently released, came home. Um since then, I've been doing a lot of coaching, intervention, protesting, and pursuing um my wrongful convictions legally. Um I'm on Facebook. I'm also at um a website called um justice uh denied for Shamguard Thompson. And um I plan on initiating real soon um an outlet on uh Kickstart at um a couple other wrongful conviction um platforms.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

Okay, so where where are you based out of?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Um I'm originally from Brooklyn, Brownsville, and um I caught my case in upstate New York, um, a rural town where um unfortunately uh traditional implementations of law take place, and the percentage of wrongful convictions are extremely um pervasive, to say the least, in these small areas in in different um states, really, because it's just not New York State. But um pertaining to the subject subject of um wrongful convictions, I just want to be um clear that this is um a very important issue, right? There has been a quiet conversation about wrongful convictions in America um because of the fact that we hear about them in piecemeal. So the effects have been shockingly um dumbed down. But the real truth is that there's a large majority of states, so this isn't an issue of just one state, and there's uh a systematic uh legal system in place that's taking black and brown men and women and sometimes poor uh Caucasian uh brothers and sisters, and um they are racking up thousands of years against these individuals, and they've been confined, incarcerated, etc. And um it seems the problem seems not to go away, but the problem is related to the same components in every state, in every district. So it's definitely a systemic issue.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Talk to us a little bit more about your wrongful conviction and the circumstances that led you there.

Small-Town Bias And Systemic Patterns

The Case Setup: Coercion And Arrays

Switched Photo Arrays And Withheld Evidence

Judicial Bias And Counsel Failures

Medical Disability Ignored At Trial

Brady Violations And Serial Informants

SPEAKER_01 4:04

All right, so in 2000, March to be exact, um I had came upstate um from New York, and um I was in the town maybe 60 to 90 days. Um there was a spree of uh robberies that took place, a home invasion, and um during that time there was an issue of association. So the the offices in the town of Geneva, and there's another town called Lions that's that's right adjusted to it. Um they had came across some information that was connected to someone that I was in contact with, that I had dealings with, and um they basically started uh started their investigation. But unbeknownst to my to myself and them at this point, um there was an issue with I had I had a got an apartment in Geneva, New York. Um there was a landlord there who was an older lady. I was younger, I was about 20 at the time, and um me and her had some dealings, and um I didn't know that she was actually married to a police officer. So there was some of that in the back of it, and then there was the back, there was the fact that I was new in the area, and um when they when they finally got my name and looked into me, I had a criminal uh record from from New York City or whatever. And um in these small rural areas, um being from New York City, being black, being young is is considered a problem or whatever. So I wasn't aware of all these other collateral factors that played a part in them pursuing me. But what happened is is that um they went and identified two individuals um that they was told was a part of these robberies. And um these individuals, one name is Robert Johnson, and the other one name is um Kevin Hobbs. So during this time that they um they went to see these individuals, they were considered to be suspects based on based on the evidence that that came out later on. So when they talked to these individuals, they told them, well, they talked to one of them initially. From the inception, they talked to somebody named Um Kevin Hogs. He told them that he wasn't involved in the robberies, and he also told them that he had met some people from New York City, and um the officers, he couldn't identify, he couldn't identify them, the individuals that was involved, that took that he was around during the time before this this robbery took place. So what he did is um he went to the precinct and they coerced him into making a statement. He made two statements, one on April 12th, and then he made another one on May uh 23rd, I believe it was. These statements are extremely different, and they they indicated that there was some coaching, there was some coercion, etc. But during this time, he was given three arrays, three photo arrays. It was a RAID one, a RAID two, and a RAID three, and each of the alleged culprits, suspects, was identified inside these separate arrays. And um he identified one of my code affinits in array two, picture four. Um I was in a raid number one, picture six, I wasn't identified. And my other code defendant was in a raid three, picture five, and he was identified, he wasn't identified. He identified another light-skinned brother named Um Brantley, I believe it is, and he was in array number three, picture six. So what they did is they um eventually switched the photo array. So they took me from array number one, picture six, and put me in array three, picture six, at the person that was identified as being the gunman in the crime. And then he created a second uh deposition um where he X'd out array number one, and he put the arrays was two, three, and four. Um at the time we didn't notice. We wasn't given the photo array. The district attorney refused to turn over the fillers, the people that was in each photo array. So um so we had no idea of realizing that from the inception of this this this uh criminal case, the police had a personal agenda. Um like I said, I was only in the town for 60 to 90 days the most, and um it turned out to be a bad situation. Eventually, um I was taken to court in 45 business days. Um I had sued the judge for slander and discrimination. During this time, I was uh arrested in Wayne County, and um I had gone to an eye doctor appointment and ran into the judge. So during the time I ran into the judge, we saw each other, and he told the clerk in the I doctor place that I was a valiant nigga from New York City and that my worst day hasn't came yet. So once I heard that, I asked him what he said. He didn't respond. Long story short, during that time, I explained to them from the beginning that I was innocent. So I was looking into the law. I was studying the law and I was looking into the law before my case was even really started. So what I did is I filed uh uh uh 1983 against this judge for slander and discrimination, um, racial discrimination and slander. I submitted it to the Western District under 1983, and I tried to get him to recuse himself because I didn't know where the anger was coming from, outside of the fact that I was a black man, Afro-American, I was um from New York City. Outside of that, I didn't really have a long history in that town, and I didn't put together the landlord issue and the fact that the older lady was the brother of a police officer that worked out of Geneva. I didn't connect these dots at that time. So now once I asked for um, I put the lawsuit again in against the judge, I asked that he be removed based on what's called the appearance of impropriety, because the situation happened in an extrajudical factor, which is required by law um to be the case if you're asking to have a judge excused. So um he didn't recuse himself. And um, since he didn't recuse himself, he stayed on my case and he basically um rushed my case through. Um, there was several issues in reg um in regards to my lawyer. So the lawyer was a real estate lawyer, he had never been to trial, he had very little information about um just practicing legally from a criminal standpoint. So I used to give him um motions to put in. I tried to remove him, the judge wouldn't allow me to remove him. So at that time, my mother had hired a lawyer named Gary Bettetti from Rochester, but um the judge he had a federal case, and the judge didn't want to give us a postponement. So he he basically forced me into taking this this lawyer that um was a real estate lawyer. So I continue to put motions in by myself and acts to to represent myself because I I felt from the beginning that there was more involved in why they had a reason to um not allow me to exhaust my remedies when it came to the law. Everything that I was putting in, all the different things that I read about the law at the time um that I wanted to um bring forth, like witnesses, et cetera. I had like three other witnesses, and um I had four different medical doctors that also would have testified that um I couldn't have committed this crime, and all these things was pushed to the wayside. In addition to that, um there's several issues that um that stand out the most in my case, right? That makes this a crucial, wrongful conviction situation. So there's the issue of the identification where I was switched and changed from array number one, picture six, into array number three, picture six. And then there's the false identification of the deposition. He wrote this intentionally um under law, and um he falsified identification and he committed perjury, especially because of the fact that during the proceeding, there's a portion of this called the wait hearing. And during the wait hearing, it primarily deals with identification. So this um police officer, who whose name is investigator John Klingelman, he handled all the documents in regards to the identification. He established that on record, and he also established that um he believed that the identification was a confirmatory ID, which means that there's no possibility of suggestiveness, trickery, etc. They know who they're picking out, and this is what the witnesses said, and that's that. But that wasn't the case. That wasn't the case because um six years into my sentence, I found a Brady document that proved that there was um there was an interview note where it tracks the the photo array and it shows you that the initial witness in a solely circumstantial case, meaning that there was nothing that put me on the place of this crime, there was nothing that tied me to the to this crime, and um he understood that. And what he did is he switched the photo of the raise and um he changed documents, and the prosecutor didn't intervene, and um so I was subjected to that, and I didn't find out until six years later when I put in a FOIA, and after two FOIO not revealing any new information, they sent me the document which proved that um there was an interview, and the interview shows the initial identification, um, how Kevin Hobbs um told him something completely different and identified another person involved in the crime, which I believe was based on his coercing this individual who was also young at the time. And um so that was the the identification issue. Then there was a medical issue where unbeknownst to these people, because I wasn't from this area, they didn't understand that I had a physical disability that basically removed um me from having the capacity to um be a gunman during this time. At the time I had splints on both of my hands, my tennis was cut in both hands, and um I didn't wear my disability on my sleeve. I had individuals that assisted me to do things, but the district attorney, at one point he said that he didn't know who the gunman was in the crime, and then during summation, he changed his theory and said that I was the gunman. So during this time, I was giving um this real estate lawyer named Doug um Douglas Jablonsky. I was giving him places where he can find my medical records to establish um what I told him was the truth. Um one of these places was um the disability office, social service, social security, excuse me. Um so during that time, he was supposed to reach out and get these documents. Now you can't get documents, you can't just call a social security office and get documents. He was supposed to issue what's called the subpoena dust text from and he never did that. And then there was the fact that when I was incarcerated at um the Wayne County jail, I told the judge and the lawyer, and it's on record, that um my medical record established that what I told you it established, and I told him that um he can use these experts to um to establish my point for my case. Just before trial, this lawyer told me that he wasn't gonna present a case at all. And that caused um a problem between me and him. So he decided to call just one of my alibis, right? And in regards to the medical witness, um there was a hearing held like three days before I went to trial where I asked for a subpoena of four different doctors that would have confirmed that I couldn't um use my hands during that time of this um this case, right? And um he and the judge said it was material and necessary to my defense that I had um medical testimony, right, introduced during trial for the jury. However, just before trial, they changed their position and the judge denied me the subpoena, a subpoena du tectrum of the documents, and they basically they basically um didn't present the information that exonerated me from these charges. After they wrote and document, and they documented it that um it was material and necessary to my case. So then um another highlight would be there was five different Brady issues um involved in my case. So one was the fact that it was a solely circumstantial case, meaning the evidence was tenuous against me, right? But what happens here is that one of the witnesses that they had, named Robert Johnson, he had a case for a robbery where um he was a youthful offender, but he was also testifying. So the fact that he was testifying means that I should have had the opportunity to impeach him about his prior convictions. The district attorney never turned over the fact that this man had a a robbery years before, right? So that was one Brady issue. The other one was the fact that the misidentification and the prosecu and uh the police misconduct was never disclosed by the district attorney. But he knew about it. And there's there's there's a uh there's a theory and a pattern that shows that he knew about this this misconduct, right? And then there's the fact that his his head witness, um, well one of his head witnesses, Robert Johnson, he's testifying for four different counties. He's testifying in four different counties on four different charges, including a murder. And they portrayed the murder charge to be a gang of stall. They never put us on notice that he had a murder and he was testifying against four other individuals out of what's considered to be Tompkins County, right? So what they did was he was identified in a store robbery, and the clerk identified him. The district attorney in that county, and that was Ontario County, um, basically did that identification, they pushed him through the grand jury, and they used his testimony to um to line up me and my code of fence basically. But what happens is that the the store clerk identified him as being the gunman during the crime. And this crime happened an hour before the alleged crime that the district attorney set out to convict me of with no evidence, right? So now he was identified in that crime. So what they told him is that if he don't testify against us in the other in the other case in Wayne County, then they would charge him in the in the case in Ontario County. So what they did, we we complied and he testified falsely uh against us. And what they did is they gave him a misdemeanor and he ended up not doing any time. And then he had another case in Elmira for a robbery where during the the the calloquy and the sentence, um he the judge admitted that they was giving him a break of favor for his testimony, and none of these favors were ever presented during my trial. So they they held all these different Brady materials. And Brady, for the record, people may not be aware of that terminology, legal terminology, but Brady is exculpatory information. It's information that proves either you weren't a part of, you didn't have anything to do with the crime, or it's information that impeaches the the uh the prosecutor's witnesses. And um so throughout the whole course of this trial, they continued to make error after error intentionally, right? And there's there's no legal authority, especially these people being established figures um in law, there's no there was no legal authority for whatever they did, they knew what they was doing, and it was definitely intentional, right? And on the subject matter of witnesses, I consider uh Robert Johnson to be what's called a serial informant. And serial informants is involved in 60 to 70 percent of wrongful conviction cases. These are the individuals that get caught up and they uh decide to testify for the district attorney, and he gives them a favor. It's usually not on record, or it's usually intertwined it into one or two or three different counties. So this documentation is is extremely hard to come across. And um they send these individuals away, and there's nothing, there's not a system, a part of the judicial system that sort of checks the balance of when you're dealing with somebody that says from the inception of a proceeding that they haven't committed a crime, or that they're innocent, or that there's they've been wrong, they've been wrongfully convicted. And is is extremely sad. And there's uh thousands of people um that's being subjected to these crimes by the district attorney office.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

So did you want to add your man?

Enter Derek Hamilton: Legal Strategy

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Um yeah, the brother. Um he actually I so Derek Hamilton has also been um, he's a paralegal. He has an organization called Wrongful Convictions. He also um works for the Cardozo Law School, which is a prestigious um law school. And um he's um actually turned over his own wrongful conviction um many years ago. And since then, he's been helping a lot of individuals um get justice for um these blatant crimes that's that's being committed by the Justice Department.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

Hey, how you doing, brother? Okay, what's going on, Derek? Nice to meet you. Okay, so you want to tell us a little bit about what you got going on with your wrongful convictions and uh the brother Sham got here.

Accountability, Immunity, And Reform

SPEAKER_00 29:01

Hi, so you know, my name is Derek Hamilton, as you know. I'm a deputy director of the Pearl Mother Center of Legal Justice at Cardozo School of Law in New York. Uh primarily uh our clinic works on wrongful convictions. We also teach forensic science to students. Uh we identify them the proper application in science and how to uh identify when it's being applied in the wrong way. Uh and we also kind of like highlight uh field clinics that work on wrongful conviction cases. Shamgard's case uh is in this wrongful conviction clinic right now, being reviewed by an attorney and some students. Uh basically, we've identified uh areas of problems for us, uh, which mainly consists of the identification, uh, also the fact that there's a doctor that has uh certified that he was unable to use his hands at the time of the commission of the offense. Uh we find that very problematic uh because if he couldn't use his hands, how did he then uh brandish his weapon and commit the crime as he's accused of? Uh we also have evidence that uh the police uh changed the identification process by changing photographs in the photo array. Uh we have recantation for witnesses, people who were involved in the crime, basically Sam Shem got absolutely nothing to do with it. Uh so we definitely uh investigating the case very hard. Uh we intend to submit an application to Geneva Superior Court, also to the prosecutor's office uh once the investigation is complete and the document is drafted that presents uh a credible claim of his innocence. Uh so you know that's who we at. Um we look forward to have something submitted sometime this year. Uh and just, you know, challenge the prosecutor, Geneva County, uh, on the ethics, man, to do the right thing and overturn this conviction. Yeah, definitely, and hold someone accountable. Uh that's the biggest prop with the system, man, holding people accountable. I mean, when you talk about uh black and Hispanics and poor people, man, it never happens. Uh even though you exonerate somebody, uh nobody has ever held accountable. People will continue to move on with their license and move on with their lives. Uh, in fact, uh, they're able to exploit the situation and make money off of wrongly convicted. So, I mean, this system, as we know, uh is is a is a slave system that's embarked and embanked on uh uh, you know, the modern-day slave trade, you know. White people making a lot of money, if I can use that. Uh, and black people too, it depends on uh what size you look on it. But it's definitely exploiting poor people, man, in every sense of the word. It's modern-day slavery. Uh we do what we can to abolish it, we do what we can to change laws, and and that's a part of the sinner as well. We change policies and and and try to right some of the wrongs. But until you abolish the system like that and create one that's based on justice, not just convictions or arrests, uh holding people accountable is almost impossible as long as you got the 11th Amendment uh that give prosecutors absolute immunity, uh, they get away with with with the devil's work here, brother.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Yeah, definitely. Well, a question for both you and Shamgard uh before we conclude, what what do you guys uh what conclusion do you guys have for this ongoing problem we have with wrongful convictions?

Messages To Youth And Community

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Well, like like like I told you um I think we were speaking before. I think that if we look at wrongful convictions, right? I mean this is not just uh a county issue, uh state issue. It's systemic within the system, right? And the sit inside of the system that we find all these wrongful convictions, you find the same components. It's either the serial informants who testify for the district attorney office, and they're allowed to do what they want. And again, there's no accountability with them doing what they want, and then there's the subject matter of just the district attorney being immune to this there's really no way of holding them account accountable, even though their rules and regulations and their agenda is supposed to be formulated to um create justice, that never happens. So um some of the things that I came up with is that these law clerks in the appellate process, I think that once an individual says that they're innocent or there's proof of wrongful convictions, there should be an undergrad, uh prestigious law law school that's put in place to argue against these law clerks that's formulating some of these agreements for these opinions for these judges to answer up to somebody else. Because this system is, I mean, they're in cahoots with each other. The mind state, the agenda becomes one way. And if you don't have something that seconds that, or if you don't have a wrongful conviction organization like Derek Hamilton have, where you can identify when someone is is has a meritorious issue of innocence or wrongful conviction and put them on the team to really fund and argue because it's it's causing the states and the counties more to continue with with not holding anybody accountable. So them are like two fundamental things that I think would be necessary and helpful towards changing this this this system of of locking individuals up wrongly and not providing them the proper um um demonstration of law.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

I think that, you know, to add on, I think you have to get rid of immunity, right? I don't think that judges and prosecutors should be immune. Um, you know, I was on a symposium years ago uh with a guy by the name of uh Thompson, uh erratically, uh out of Louisiana, uh, and he said to the prosecutors something I would never, never forget. He said, I was on death row and the prosecutor tried to kill me. If I went out and tried to kill somebody, I would go to jail. Right? Um there's no accountability, right? The prosecutors can wrongfully convict somebody, um, and there's no accountability. The police can wrongfully arrest somebody, there's no accountability. So, you know, my perspective is that there should be some type of licensing, right, to order to be a police officer. Forget the civil service because there's no accountability. And when they do something and arrest the wrong person or convict the wrong person, their license should be removed. They should be out of there, right? There should be some accountability. Same thing with prosecutors, right? When you take somebody's life wrongfully, or when you think that a trial is a sporting game where you can hide evidence or you can get one up on the defense and sheet, you should be removed from service. Uh, that's not happening here. Around the country, we got people being uh promoted when they do wrong. There's no accountability whatsoever. And until we get serious accountability, removing people who are the ones that's committing these offenses, uh, you're gonna continue to perpetrate this. We've got to have accountability. We got to get rid of all the immunities, and we got to hold people accountable.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Yeah, I definitely agree. I definitely agree.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Well, Mr. Hamilton, did you have any closing comments or any messages you wanted to give to the youth before we concluded this interview?

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Uh, you know, in closing, I would definitely like to say to the youth that, you know, you have to understand, you know, that this is a prison industrial complex, man, modern-day slavery that's designed to arrest you and get cheap labor, uh, the same thing we did to your ancestors, man. So when you're out there, and when you're out there and you are, you know, committing a crime or you're doing something that you think will bring you fast money, you have to understand the consequences that it was designed to make you think you're not worthy enough to go out and work or get a job or do something to make money legitimately, so they can put you on these plantations and exploit you. Um, so you know, my my message to the youth, man, is be aware of what you're up against, man. This system is out to enslave you, uh, to use you as nothing but that, uh, what they've done to your ancestors on a modern day level, man. So my prayers to the youth, man, is that you be smart, you wise enough, uh, and you don't fall trap, man, to the system that's their design, man, to put you in one of those cages, man, and use your labor for the exploitation.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

Absolutely. Sham, Shamkar, do you have a message you want to give to the youth as well?

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Why not? Um, of course. Um, I think it's important that that brothers understand that abuse and injustice runs all the same. It's the same mind state, um, is the same agenda. And more importantly, I think that dudes need to understand, although we we have been isolated, um, and those that come from disfranchised communities have been um subjected to less. The bottom line is that we have to put as much energy into hip hop and material things. We gotta put that same energy into education. And um, I think that education is extremely important, and I think that the other side of that is that communities, the elders, have to open up doors and not um become despondent about our conditions and and deal with um open up opportunity that speaks to the people in their own in their based on their own circumstances. Because, like the brother said, they definitely their agenda, this is big business, basically. And it's it's never gonna stop being big business. It's definitely not about justice. And um they have they they have they've done worse of things to um they went worse, they've done worse of things to people that that um that never was considered criminals, they they treated this way. So I just think that we have to get in more involved, and the youth have to be constantly, it has to be replicated to them to um do things different. They have to see that the people in inside of their communities also want different. And and and that's basically that, bro.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Definitely. I think we had a very powerful conversation about your wrongful conviction today. And um I think uh what you said about community is very important. And uh we can end that there. You guys want to share your Instagrams and let the people know where to follow you or your social media again?

Closings And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Well, right now I'm on I'm on Facebook primarily, but um, I told you I got the free Sham Guard website that's being worked on right now, and um I definitely plan on doing more and exposing this wrongful conviction. And I appreciate your time as well, bro. You doing you doing a good job. You you you you creating a platform that brothers don't have, brothers in the system um don't have in regards to a voice, and it and and that's appreciated, bro.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

Well, Amanda's Top Knox Legal on Instagram. Uh, I look forward to hearing from your audience, man. We here, we fighting, man. The love of the race. Thank you, brother. We appreciate what you're doing. Peace.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

And that's that. LFTG signing out.