Project Profile: Exit 9: Free Tyree

Exit 9: Free Tyree

For the last five years, filmmaker and Rutgers University Professor John Hulme has documented the story of Tyree Wallace, a wrongfully incarcerated man serving a life sentence in Pennsylvania for a murder he didn’t commit. No physical evidence tied Tyree to the shooting of deli-owner John Young Su Kang in 1997, but the police and prosecutor used a host of unreliable witnesses (all of whom later recanted) to convince a jury he was involved. The fact that Raheem Shackleford, confessed killer of Mr. Kang, was released from prison in 2019, only underscored the injustice. But despite having a dedicated team of friends and activists fighting for his cause, Tyree’s case was stuck in bureaucratic mud for over two decades.   

To help alter the case’s trajectory, Hulme invited student filmmakers at Rutgers to get involved. They began by recording a series of remote interviews with Tyree, exploring both his fight for freedom and the positive impact he was making on fellow prisoners. These conversations were then edited into YouTube videos, social media posts and podcasts, drawing countless new followers to the Free Tyree movement. Teams of students also brought their cameras to a Philadelphia courtroom for crucial hearings, holding the judge and district attorney’s office accountable, and demanding they explain why an innocent man was still locked away.   

On June 10, 2024, Tyree’s life sentence was vacated, after Mr. Shackleford finally came forward and admitted Tyree had nothing to do with Mr. Kang’s murder. Five months later, on November 4, Judge Scott DiClaudio officially granted Tyree his freedom. Hulme and a dozen students were there to document the celebration, from the moment Tyree emerged from prison to his reunion with longtime supporters. All told, over 300 Rutgers students were directly involved, all of whom serve testament to what’s possible when we choose to make a difference. As Tyree said during his last classroom Zoom, “Your voices can demand, and will demand, change.”   

Thanks to their efforts, the next time Tyree visits Rutgers, it will be in person, as a free man.      

Please join us on Thursday, April 3, on the Rutgers New-Brunswick campus at 6pm as we host Tyree Wallace and Professor John Hulme for our signature event and public talk. 

Register here. 

** 

Free Tyree is the first episode of Exit 9, a docuseries exploring social justice-oriented stories in New Brunswick, NJ and its surrounding communities.  Hot button issues such as race, immigration, mass incarceration and gentrification are interwoven with tales of personal triumph and heartbreak to create a unique tapestry of the American experience.  The series is being created entirely by student filmmakers from Rutgers’ Writers House and the Documentary Film Lab at Mason Gross School of the Arts.