Letters from Sing Sing · NBC News Studios

Friendship

March 20, 2023·40 min·2 clips

JJ says the withheld report could mean a new chance at a hearing.

Maria drives to Sing Sing on November 11, 2015, to see JJ on his 40th birthday. She says she never expected to spend the day visiting her son in jail, but she usually tries to be with him on his birthday. The visit comes one year after JJ sent her a devastating letter, written at four in the morning in despair after a judge denied his request for a hearing. Maria says that letter changed things between them. Reading it left her afraid for him. Her Dateline story about JJ had already aired by then, and even though there wasn't another one planned, she felt even more committed to keep going. After the judge's denial, JJ's lawyers filed an appeal, and the case settled into another long wait. By his birthday, JJ had been locked up for nearly 18 years. Maria says it has gotten harder over time to visit him. She says she doesn't like seeing him there. He has gotten old, and every time she sees him, it hurts. When she thinks about all the years he's lost, she tries not to dwell on it, but it keeps coming back. A prison call brings JJ back into the story. He says he is trying to come to terms with the court decision and what it has done to him. He says they don't want to hear the facts. He says they don't even want to hold a hearing. He says he doesn't know how much more of this he can take. It's been two decades. He and his attorneys keep asking what's next. From inside prison, he says he lives in a cage. The episode closes on Maria's belief that justice will still come and on her certainty that her son doesn't belong there.

As heard by us

A quiet prison story about appeals, time, and a mother who keeps showing up.

A birthday drive to Sing Sing becomes a plainspoken look at what an appeal can cost a family. Maria is on her way to see JJ on his 40th birthday, and the piece keeps its attention on the years between his devastating letter, the judge's denial of a hearing, and the appeal that…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A birthday visit to Sing Sing becomes a hard look at JJ's stalled appeal.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Letters from Sing Sing