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The second part of a NewsOne Now conversation with wrongfully convicted minor league baseball player Jimmie Gardner revealed more of his decades-long ordeal to seek freedom for a crime he didn’t commit. In the latest conversation, Roland Martin let Gardner have the mic to explain the process he underwent to reexamine the erroneous evidence that landed him in prison. The arduous task was years in the making with Gardner gaining a break five years ago.

Finally in 2012, I take a leap of faith. Throughout the judicial system, you have to be capable of exhausting all your remedies. If you don’t exhaust your remedies in state court, you can’t proceed to federal court. Well, I petitioned to the federal court, trying to get around this here mandate. And in my attempt to get around the mandate, I understand I didn’t have deniable issues going into federal court because I went into federal court on denial to due process, equal protection, and access to the court for a period of 23 years in state court,” said Gardner.

Gardner explains that a federal court judge allowed his case to come through the courts due to an “egregious inordinate delay of 23 years” without a hearing. Gardner goes on to share that the West Virginia State Supreme Court granted him three hearings dating back to the 1990s that never came to pass as a lower court judge ignored the case.

Watch the rest of this fascinating tale of injustice and the eventual triumph of Jimmie Gardner and the discussion with Roland Martin with NewsOne Now in the clip above.

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