Exonerated: Jarrett Adams On The Trauma Of Being Wrongfully Convicted & Similarities To Emmett Till — Transcript

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1. 0:00Jerry you have a really interesting
2. 0:02story from a historical point of view
3. 0:04because as you said you were 17 years
4. 0:06old you were accused of sexual assault
5. 0:09in Wisconsin and you were accused of
6. 0:12assaulting a uh white woman
7. 0:15which we know the history behind that uh
8. 0:19black men I I was covering lynchings on
9. 0:22my social media last month and so many
10. 0:25of those lynchings was because a black
11. 0:27man was accused of assaulting a white
12. 0:30woman if this would have been a
13. 0:33different time you would have not only
14. 0:34been wrongfully convicted you would have
15. 0:36been lynched so I just wonder for you
16. 0:39how do you navigate that trauma and just
17. 0:43the day-to-day of love and relationships
18. 0:46considering that yours was a certain
19. 0:48kind of uh horrible heinous accusation
20. 0:52yeah most certainly clay
21. 0:54um and look in speaking to what you're
22. 0:56saying so I remember talking with my mom
23. 1:00and this was before
24. 1:02like like the verdict it came out and
25. 1:04stuff like that my mom was like look I
26. 1:06can't go into courtroom
27. 1:08and I said why you know what's going on
28. 1:10you know I didn't do anything she said
29. 1:12that ain't the point baby I know who I
30. 1:14raised I know you didn't do anything but
31. 1:16it's a lot of men historically who ain't
32. 1:19done nothing where we were from in
33. 1:21Mississippi and they were killed they
34. 1:23were lynched and she told me every time
35. 1:26I lay down and think about you and what
36. 1:27you're going through I think about
37. 1:29Emmett Till and this was back in 2000
38. 1:32when she said that and I'm gonna tell
39. 1:34you this my prison experience was
40. 1:36different of the the eight something
41. 1:38plus years that I spent I spent almost
42. 1:41four years in segregation
43. 1:43and they kept putting me in segregation
44. 1:46because I was litigating against the
45. 1:49Department of Corrections handbook and
46. 1:51they said that I was exhibiting riotous
47. 1:54inciting behavior and so
48. 1:57I I'll tell you this when my conviction
49. 2:00was reversed unanimously by the seventh
50. 2:03circuit
51. 2:04we were ordered back in court and we
52. 2:06realized that shortly after they were
53. 2:08going to dismiss the charges so when I
54. 2:10made it into court
55. 2:12I am ecstatic that my mom my aunts are
56. 2:16going to get a chance to hear how
57. 2:18innocent I was because they heard all
58. 2:21the lies that were going on when I was
59. 2:23wrongfully convicted in a matter of a
60. 2:26couple minutes the prosecutor says look
61. 2:28we following and dismiss all the charges
62. 2:30the judge agrees Slams are gave
63. 2:33disappears five minutes
64. 2:35and I turned to that woman with them
65. 2:38sane wrinkles the creases of Anguish in
66. 2:40her forehead that she had during that
67. 2:43trial
68. 2:43and I told her we was done crying
69. 2:46don't get our [ __ ] leg back
70. 2:48so when you talk about being angry I'm
71. 2:52still angry but it's a controlled anger
72. 2:55through therapy just like what Jimmy is
73. 2:57talking about so part of what my
74. 3:00non-profit does we get people out of
75. 3:02prison as well in life after justice but
76. 3:05we spend 50 percent of our funding to
77. 3:08help and provide mental health care
78. 3:09because it's essential when people come
79. 3:12home I I liken it to this analogy
80. 3:16you're not going to see a runner
81. 3:18race without first time their shoes
82. 3:22for people who are wrongfully convicted
83. 3:24or not coming from the prison systems
84. 3:27that we have
85. 3:29they need to tie their shoes before they
86. 3:31can properly reintegrate back into
87. 3:33society so it's it's huge and and I'm
88. 3:36talking about I'm reminded of what was
89. 3:39stolen from me every step of the way you
90. 3:42know you you ever you ever went home
91. 3:45during the holidays
92. 3:47and y'all all got you got your coffee or
93. 3:50your Beverages and cocoa and y'all going
94. 3:52through the photo album
95. 3:54you haven't started flipping through the
96. 3:55pages
97. 3:56and you see yourself as a toddler
98. 3:59Pre-K
99. 4:018th grade
100. 4:02high school and then you come up missing
101. 4:06out the photo album
102. 4:08for the next 10 years
103. 4:10hell yeah I'm still mad and each and
104. 4:13every day that I go in that courtroom
105. 4:15and they gotta call me attorney Adams
106. 4:17I'm getting my link back for my mama for
107. 4:20my aunts for all the people who
108. 4:22supported and believed in me so no I'll
109. 4:24play I'm not gonna sit up here and say
110. 4:25well you know I got over hell no I'm mad
111. 4:27and each and every day I'm exhibiting
112. 4:29that
113. 4:31you know one of the things that always
114. 4:33uh gets to me when I do these interviews
115. 4:36is that
116. 4:38when you all have brought up your your
117. 4:40mother on your father
118. 4:42I mean you think about the wrongfully
119. 4:44convicted and you think how it impacts
120. 4:46Families how it tears families apart
121. 4:49apart how I I interviewed one exoneree
122. 4:53where he said his mother turned to drugs
123. 4:55when he was incarcerated I mean it's
124. 4:59such a domino effect on how it can kill
125. 5:03a person's family