Brian Banks - What Set Me Free (The Story That Inspired the Major Motion Picture Brian Banks): A True Story of Wrongful Conviction, a Dream Deferred, and a Man Redeemed

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Copyright 2019 by Brian Banks

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

First Atria Paperback edition July 2019

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Interior design by Wendy Blum

Cover design by Jonathan Bush

Cover photograph courtesy of the author and Shane Glick

Author photograph Heidi Cruise

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-9821-2131-0

ISBN 978-1-9821-2132-7 (ebook)

I have chosen in writing my book to name only the heroes. (In most instances, Ive simply omitted the names. In the case of my accuser, I have changed her namein part, I will admit, because I dont care to see her name in my book.) I did this because this is the story of what set me free, not who wronged me. And whats most important in my story is not the false accusation or the action of any individual in the criminal justice system. Even those who may have been trying to do the right thing couldnt, because of the deeply flawed American criminal justice system that was primed to convict me and destroy my life, even after I left prison. It is this system that deserves the blame, but more important is that we focus on the reforms that will ensure that it does provide justice for all those who are not yet free.

Thanks.

F reedom.

I was just beginning to taste it.

In that summer of 2002, I was sixteen years oldand I was finally about to start driving.

Id taken the drivers education course at my high school, and Id just passed the test to get my learners permit. I wanted it so bad that I kept checking the mailbox every day after school, just waiting for that permit to arrive so I could start driving for real.

It was more than that, though.

I was in summer school, like I was pretty much every summer, working hard to get my grades up so I would be ready to rise up and meet the possibilities that were right in front of me. I hadnt even started my senior year and I had already made an early commitment to the University of Southern California. USC! My dream school. My dream football team. Hell, I could hardly imagine something as big as playing for USC when I was a kid, but Id worked hard and played my best and now here I was, ranked eleventh in the nation as a linebacker, getting personal calls from USC head coach Pete Carroll, and all kinds of attention from local media along the way. All I had to do was keep playing hard and keep my grades up and Id be off to college. Me! And who knows what could happen from there! If I kept playing like I was playing, everybody told me Id for sure be a top draft pick out of USC. Id make it to the NFL. Make some money. Lift my mom and my brother and sister and our whole family up to a whole new life !

I still had a long way to go. I knew that. I knew that. But I couldnt help but feel as if everything was finally going rightand I wanted to celebrate.

July Fourth was coming up. I knew we had the day off from school, and I mentioned to my mom that I wished I could throw a party.

Well, as long as you promise to be responsible, I dont see why not, my mom said.

Are you serious right now? I asked her. I could hardly believe those words came out of my mothers mouth.

Yeah, why not? Just a few friends, though.

Most definitely. But like, youre not gonna be here. You said you were going out of town that day. I mean, I was thinking of inviting some girls, too

Brian, my mom said, looking me right in the eyes, I trust you.

Whoa . That was something. My mom had never let me or my little brother have girls over to the house, especially if she wasnt going to be there. Its not that she didnt trust us; it was just that shes way too much of an old-school Southern Baptist to let anyone think there might be any kind of impropriety going on in her home. The only partying we did at home was for birthdays and Christmasfamily partiesand she went all out for those. I remember shed decorate the whole house, and our uncles and aunties would all show up carrying presents and all kinds of food, and my uncle Stanley would man the barbecue. The family parties my mom threw were always over-the-top. And I swear every year she told us she couldnt afford the presents we wanted. We knew she meant it, too, so we never got our hopes up, but somehow she managed to surprise us with exactly the gifts we wanted when the big day came. I still dont know how she did that on a schoolteachers salary, but she did. She even did it before she started teaching, when us kids were real little and shed just gotten divorced from our dad, and laid off from her job, and she was putting herself through school trying to get her degree so she could get a job teaching in the first place. Even then she did it. Every time.

I love my mom. Everybody loves my mom. But the overprotective thing could be frustrating sometimes. I know she did it for our own good. I knew it even then. I understood where she was coming from because I saw what happened to some of our neighbors and friends. I heard stories. I read the news.

Raising kids in a city like Long Beach, California, was challenging. There was temptation all over the place, and the dark side of the city was like a magnet that sometimes sucked kids in and trapped them. A lot of kids went in the wrong direction, got stuck right where they were and never saw anything beyond the city. My mom wasnt having that. She wanted more for her kids. She wanted us to get an education. To go places. She drilled it into our heads nonstop that we could accomplish whatever we wanted if we stayed on the right track. If we worked hard. And it looked like she was going to see her dreams for our possible futures come true.