A Rape That Wasn't: The Wrongful Conviction of Jarrett Adams — Transcript

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1. 0:00My name is Jared Maurice Adams. I'm from
2. 0:02the south side of Chicago. In 1998, when
3. 0:05I was 17 years old, I was falsely
4. 0:08accused and ultimately wrongfully
5. 0:10convicted of a sexual assault that I did
6. 0:12not commit. I spent almost 8 years in
7. 0:14prison before I was exonerated with the
8. 0:17help of the Wisconsin Innocent Project.
9. 0:25The case against Jared Adams as
10. 0:27presented to the jury as as the case was
11. 0:29tried was a was a really thin case.
12. 0:32Really, most of the evidence, virtually
13. 0:35all of the evidence of what happened
14. 0:37both before and after uh the sexual
15. 0:40encounter was entirely consistent with
16. 0:42this consensual encounter and really
17. 0:45inconsistent with the non-consensual
18. 0:47encounter. And it really it really
19. 0:48looked very much like what I think is
20. 0:50the reality here, which is that this
21. 0:52young woman um spent an evening of
22. 0:55drinking and engaged in in consensual
23. 0:57sex that she later regretted and as we
24. 0:59have seen in other occasions um
25. 1:03decided to turn it into a claim of
26. 1:04sexual assault. My family and I had
27. 1:07absolutely no knowledge of the law. I
28. 1:09had never been in trouble before and
29. 1:11never really had any experience or no
30. 1:13one close to me had an experience with
31. 1:15the law at this level. So, we trusted my
32. 1:18courtappointed attorney that the
33. 1:20evidence against me was so weak and so
34. 1:22thin that, you know, he would come up
35. 1:25with a strategy called a no defense
36. 1:27strategy. The thing with this theory
37. 1:29that my lawyer chose was this no defense
38. 1:31strategy kept me from calling the one
39. 1:34witness that would have proved my
40. 1:35innocence. I guess my lawyer lost sight
41. 1:38of the fact that this case had very
42. 1:40little to do with the false accusation
43. 1:42of the sexual assault. It had more to do
44. 1:44with the issue of race. In many ways,
45. 1:46this case was sort of the classic uh
46. 1:49racially tinged story of a a young white
47. 1:53woman who claims to have been sexually
48. 1:56assaulted by oversexed black men. Um,
49. 2:00and it's one that is very very difficult
50. 2:02when cast in those terms, very difficult
51. 2:04for the jury uh in this white community
52. 2:07in in southern Wisconsin to to look at
53. 2:10this uh victim who's claiming these
54. 2:13black men have attacked her and
55. 2:14assaulted her. Very difficult for them
56. 2:16to disregard her testimony or to say
57. 2:18they don't believe her uh and to instead
58. 2:20accept the defendant's claim of consent.
59. 2:23My trial lasted two days and I have to
60. 2:25say that it was like an out-of- body
61. 2:27experience for me. I really didn't know
62. 2:29what was going on. I didn't know any of
63. 2:31the legal language that was being spoke.
64. 2:34I was ultimately convicted and once I
65. 2:36was convicted, I went on to go to
66. 2:38sentencing about a week later. When I
67. 2:40was sentenced, the judge originally gave
68. 2:42me 20 years, but I was given an
69. 2:45additional 8 years because when I got up
70. 2:47to speak, I addressed the court and I
71. 2:49told them that I was innocent and did
72. 2:50not commit the sexual assault.
73. 3:00In prison, I survived only by the grace
74. 3:02of God and my will to fight. I took it
75. 3:05personal because I knew I did not commit
76. 3:07this sexual assault. So, I wanted to
77. 3:09prove my innocence. It was so many
78. 3:12things in prison that can get you
79. 3:14sidetracked and get you in trouble, even
80. 3:16get you killed. So, what I did was I
81. 3:18focused on my case. Every day I would go
82. 3:20down to the law library and I would read
83. 3:22books and I would try to understand what
84. 3:25was going on in the courtroom that I
85. 3:27didn't understand when I was 17 years
86. 3:29old. At this time I started to
87. 3:31understand the law a little bit. So I
88. 3:33started to write letters. I wrote
89. 3:35letters every week to different
90. 3:37organizations. Ultimately one day I
91. 3:39wrote the Wisconsin Innocent Project and
92. 3:42they took my case. So Jared's basic
93. 3:44claim in this case uh was primarily one
94. 3:46of ineffective assistance of counsel.
95. 3:48And essentially what that means is it's
96. 3:50a it's a claim that his lawyer did not
97. 3:53perform adequately up to the
98. 3:55requirements imposed by the sixth
99. 3:56amendment of the constitution. That's
100. 3:58the uh the right to counsel provision in
101. 4:00the constitution. What was so important
102. 4:03that was missing in this case the
103. 4:04defense council didn't present was the
104. 4:06testimony of a third party, a neutral
105. 4:09witness who was friend to neither the
106. 4:11defendant nor the complaining witness
107. 4:13and who um who had seen in events prior
108. 4:17to and immediately after the alleged
109. 4:19sexual assault and could in very
110. 4:21powerful terms corroborate Jared Adams
111. 4:23claim uh of of how things went down and
112. 4:26significantly undermine the credibility
113. 4:28of the of the complaining witness's u uh
114. 4:31testimony.
115. 4:32Um, and I suppose the common
116. 4:34understanding is probably that if your
117. 4:37lawyer screws up, if your lawyer doesn't
118. 4:38do a good job, you get a new trial. Uh,
119. 4:41the reality is not quite that simple and
120. 4:43it's not quite that easy. And that's
121. 4:45largely because the courts have
122. 4:47established a fairly ownorous standard
123. 4:50um that one has to meet in order to be
124. 4:52granted a new trial based on a claim of
125. 4:54ineffective assistance of counsel. Um,
126. 4:57as the courts like to say, the Sixth
127. 4:58Amendment provides a right to an
128. 5:00adequate defense attorney or an adequate
129. 5:03trial, not a particularly good or
130. 5:05perfect defense lawyer or trial. Because
131. 5:08that standard is so high, uh, so
132. 5:10difficult to meet, the vast majority of
133. 5:13claims of ineffective assistance of
134. 5:14counsel are routinely denied. Uh, so
135. 5:17this looked like a very high mountain
136. 5:19that we were going to have to scale to
137. 5:21to obtain relief for Jared. Legally, I
138. 5:24knew that I had a very slim chance of
139. 5:27getting my case in the court and getting
140. 5:28it thrown out and getting my conviction
141. 5:30overturned. But I couldn't think like
142. 5:32that. In order for me to survive in
143. 5:34prison, I had to live each day like I
144. 5:37was going home the next. And I have to
145. 5:39tell you, I was um I was always
146. 5:41impressed with Jared that here he was,
147. 5:44this young man hadn't gone to college,
148. 5:46hadn't certainly had no legal training,
149. 5:48and he understood the law. He understood
150. 5:51it really well. um he understood it
151. 5:53better than a lot of lawyers out there
152. 5:55and in fact he was advising us about
153. 5:58this claim ought to be included. Look at
154. 5:59these cases. I was convinced that I
155. 6:01would win my case but I continued to get
156. 6:04different results from the court after
157. 6:06appeal after appeal after appeal was
158. 6:08denied and finally my case was heard in
159. 6:10the seventh circuit and that's where I
160. 6:11won. This case made a really significant
161. 6:13statement in part because we won relief
162. 6:16in the United States Court of Appeals
163. 6:18for the Seventh Circuit. That's the
164. 6:19federal appellet court for the region
165. 6:22that covers Wisconsin, Illinois, and
166. 6:24Indiana. This is this is a court that's
167. 6:27known as a tough court. It's a fairly
168. 6:29conservative court. It's hard to win
169. 6:31criminal uh cases in this court. And it
170. 6:34was a real long shot to get any kind of
171. 6:36relief from the Seventh Circuit. But not
172. 6:39only did the court reverse Jared Adams
173. 6:40conviction, it did so unanimously. It
174. 6:43concluded that in fact the state court
175. 6:45decisions were not only wrong, but
176. 6:47unreasonably wrong. And in the course of
177. 6:49so doing, the the court uh expressed in
178. 6:52in no uncertain terms their its
179. 6:55conclusion that the evidence against
180. 6:57Jared Adams at trial had been very very
181. 6:59thin evidence indeed and that this
182. 7:02therefore this new witness who would
183. 7:04have corroborated Jared's claims and
184. 7:06undermined the complaining witness's
185. 7:08allegations. uh it did indeed uh
186. 7:11undermine their confidence in the
187. 7:12outcome of the case and lead them to
188. 7:14conclude very firmly that a different
189. 7:16outcome was was quite quite likely upon
190. 7:19a retrial.
191. 7:23My wrongful conviction is just part of
192. 7:25the story. The real story is what I'm
193. 7:27doing now with my life. I was released
194. 7:30in February of 2007. In May of 2007, I
195. 7:34enrolled in South Suburban College. And
196. 7:36in the spring of 2010, I'll be
197. 7:38graduating with honors with my
198. 7:40associates in liberal arts. I'm now
199. 7:42applying to four-year universities, and
200. 7:44I'm happy to say that I'm be the first
201. 7:46male to walk across the stage in my
202. 7:48family. After I obtain my bachelor's
203. 7:50degree, my next step will be law school,
204. 7:52so that way I can fulfill my dream of
205. 7:54becoming a lawyer. You know, every
206. 7:56exoneration is unique. Everyone is
207. 7:58powerful. Uh this one is is really
208. 8:00special in in in its own way. um
209. 8:04everything ranging from the fact that
210. 8:06when we first took it, it was one that I
211. 8:07had really very little hope that we
212. 8:09would succeed on it and then to see
213. 8:11Jared get out of prison. Uh ultimately
214. 8:13the state dismissed all the charges as
215. 8:15was was appropriate, the only thing they
216. 8:17really could and should have done. And
217. 8:18then to see him get out, go back to
218. 8:20school, um do really well in school, set
219. 8:24his sights on going to a a first class
220. 8:27university and ultimately becoming a
221. 8:29lawyer. He will be a fine lawyer. He
222. 8:31will be a really fine lawyer. You know,
223. 8:33people often ask me, you know, are you
224. 8:34upset? Are you mad? Are you angry? Yeah.
225. 8:37Yeah, I'm mad. I'm angry. Yes. But this
226. 8:39is my fuel. This is the fuel that drives
227. 8:42me to become a lawyer, to open up as
228. 8:44many eyes as I can. And to be able to
229. 8:47defend against the same thing that
230. 8:50ultimately got me convicted, not having
231. 8:52a defense.
232. 8:56[Music]