conversations of conviction

Ex-prisoner, Mark Rokita Jr., after serving 12 years for his role in drug trafficking and organized crime, kept in contact with his friends in prison, whom nearly all are serving life for murder. The judicial system took advantage of their financial inability and lack-of understanding their rights to put them in prison forever. And though some are guilty of murder, they deserve a second chance at society and can demonstrate that they have rehabilitated themselves in an environment saturated with violence, drugs, corruption and rape. Others never committed the murder but are still sentenced to life without parole. The courts have put in place corrupt walls to prevent them from appealing, and until now, have kept them silenced behind the steel bars of injustice. Nearly everyone you see and hear from is charged with and or convicted of murder. Their details may be upsetting to many. And what you thought you knew of the murder may have been all wrong. viewer and listener discretion is advised. A personal apology to the families of the deceased, but I feel you should know the truth, too. These are the conversations of their conviction.

Episode 8. Q & A prison talk 06/02/2025

Episode 7. The Stephen Poaches story 05/27/2025

Episode 7. The Stephen Poaches story I met Stephen Poaches several years ago in the law library at a prison in Pennsylvania. Like most people in prison, he said that he was innocent. My response was always, "I can't believe you're innocent until I see it for myself (It just didn't seem likely that all of these people professing their innocents' was true after going through our judicial process - of course, later I learned how flawed our judicial process is, and that there are too many innocent people incarcerated to do nothing about it. He allowed me to read through his court papers and I did find it interesting that things the district attorney had said, and the media, didn't match up to what was on his arrest papers. Then I read that his guilt was established by his words that were spoken after being held in an interrogation room for nearly two days, without food or water and the light was left on. I had spent time in a cell under those same conditions, and it does something to your mental health. In fact, I still feel that I have trauma from that. Stephen told me that he was put on a medication called "Thorazine," which is a common medication prescribed in county jails and State prisons. They prescribe it to pacify us so that we don't act out. If you're familiar with the medication then you know that you cannot make any rational decisions while on it. I read enough of his court papers to conclude that he should be entitled to a new, and fair trial. In Pennsylvania, as many other States, there is a time limit on appealing, and Stephen is beyond that limit. People should have an opportunity to appeal regardless of any time-limitation. If there is a posibility that you're innocent what does a clock matter. So many people in our prisons have been found to be innocent many years later. Now that we know that it's a posibility, shouldn't we allow anyone the ability to appeal, even those that didn't know how, or had the money for an attorney. Thomas Jefferson stated at the inception of the composition of our Constitutional rights that he would rather see 100 guilty people go free than 1 innocent person go to jail. He and the composers of our judicial system had confidence that our courts would protect our rights. we know that has been lost now for many years. It's time we fix this, and it's time we give these men and woman a platform to speak, to let us know what happened to them.----I don't mean to resurrect emotions for the family and loved ones of the woman and her unborn child who was killed. I do believe though, I would want to be certain that the person being punished is the right person, and that the person who did this doesn't do it to anyone else. It is also interesting to note, that this was the first case that the FBI used celluar-phone data to pin point a persons location. /episode/index/show/53b98a4a-4d7c-4783-833b-8b256139b9b9/id/36738810

Episode 6. Addiction (a conversation we need to have) 05/20/2025

Episode 6. Addiction (a conversation we need to have) The reason for mass incarceration stems soley from addiction. From any angle you look, the majority of crimes committed were a direct result of drugs. It was only recently that I was introduced to Medication Assisted Treatment, ie., M.A.T., and I believe it has not only saved my life, but the lives of so many others. I also am certain that the ignorance of this treatment is leading to the deaths of thousands. Prison is a perfect place to begin addiction treatment and it is something that the DOC has negated to do. Until recently, and not because they had wanted to, but they were forced to by lawsuits like mine, See; Rokita v. Pa. Dep't of Corr., 273 A.3d 1260, 1272 (Pa. Commw. 2022). The following is a conversation with my friend McCamey. He's serving a life without parole prison sentence as a result of a drug deal gone wrong. We'll get to his story later, but for now you only need to know that he is good person and the only thing that has held him back in life, like many of us, is addiction. I want to explain to you how important it is that all inmates have access to treatment for addiction during their incarceration, and before they're released. It only makes sense to have a person addicted to drugs find which treatment works for them prior to being released. I had personally watched many be released and believed that they were not going to relapse because their words were spoken with such conviction, "I'm done with drugs, and I'll never come back to jail." I watched them return too quickly, and those I didn't see come back, I learned later that they had died. I personally sacraficed two years of my life, and spent many years in solitary confinement to see to it that this treatment began, i.e., The prison and it's staff retaliated for my lawsuits and tried to silence me. This is not a comfortable conversation but it is a conversation that we need to have. If you know someone who is suffering from addiction, set aside judgment with these words, "it's okay, just tell me what I can do to help." You may save a life. /episode/index/show/53b98a4a-4d7c-4783-833b-8b256139b9b9/id/36636955

Episode 5. Matthew Garcia (sentenced to LIFE w/out taking a LIFE) 05/19/2025

Episode 4 Juvenile lifer 05/13/2025

Episode 3 The story of Samuel Haper 05/05/2025

Episode 2. Chaney charged with the death of his two year old son 05/04/2025

It begins 04/29/2025

It begins Mark Rokita Jr. was recently released from prison after serving more than a decade in Pennsylvanias toughest prisons. He struggled to adjust back into society and his only friends are those that remain in prison for the rest of their lives for murder, some of whom he believes did not commit the murder but was charged with murder because of a Pennsylvania law that state when a person is near the event and friends with the person who killed another they too get charged with murder. And in Pennsylvania, murder equates to a life without the possibility of parole. Rokita was apart of a group of log-time and lifers in prison who have dedicated their time to fighting for reform. These conversations may have details of a murder unknown to the public and even the deceased family and loved ones. Rokita recorded his conversations in the hopes to get these stories out to the public and after learning about podcasting he decided to turn these recordings into epidodes and continued to create new ones. Allowing those behind bars to have a voice and to tell the world what is truly going on behind the walls that have been built by corruption and greed. This is episode one and though not the first recorded conversation, a taste of what's to come. Rokita talks with long time friend Stephen Poaches, who is serving life without parole for the alleged murder of his preganant friend who happened to be a relative of a political figure in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. His story had been featured on television stations and the reenactments you'll learn got it all wrong. For more than twenty years people believed that Poaches was caught red-handed, standing over the dead body with a shovel in one hand and a body bag in another. But you will learn that the arresting papers tell a different story. Sit back and learn what it's like to become a prisoner and fight for your life and freedom, by people who had spent a vast majority of their lives in prison, because it could certainly happen to anyone. "you find our lives so entertaining, so here it is, from us." /episode/index/show/53b98a4a-4d7c-4783-833b-8b256139b9b9/id/36332745

conversations of conviction

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