Jarrett Adams Is Helping Others Wrongfully Convicted After Exoneration | NBC Nightly News — Transcript

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1. 0:00attorney Jared Adams wants to write
2. 0:03wrongs I can shake your hand they can't
3. 0:05keep me from doing that in a Wisconsin
4. 0:07jail he meets with his client whom he
5. 0:10believes was wrongfully convicted of
6. 0:12rape he hopes the judge will now free
7. 0:14him after 30 years behind bars we hope
8. 0:18everything will go well and uh we're
9. 0:20able to just see you walk out of here
10. 0:23tomorrow as Jared is not your typical
11. 0:25defense attorney in fact you could say
12. 0:28he knows the law from the ins side out
13. 0:31although I received my diploma from
14. 0:33lyola law school in Chicago I started
15. 0:36Law School in Green Bay Correctional
16. 0:38Facility Jared was wrongfully convicted
17. 0:41himself he was 17 when he was arrested
18. 0:44accused of sexually assaulting a student
19. 0:46at the University of Wisconsin a crime
20. 0:49he denied from the start in these cases
21. 0:51there's always that moment of this will
22. 0:53get cleared up very quickly you know my
23. 0:58only encounter with the criminal court
24. 1:00system was Law and Order and that theme
25. 1:03music comes on you you don't see guys
26. 1:06who are wrongfully convicted go to
27. 1:08prison but Jared did a 28-year sentence
28. 1:12convicted after his courta appointed
29. 1:14attorney chose not to put on a defense
30. 1:17even though there was a witness who
31. 1:19could have helped clear him when this
32. 1:21guy is telling us look we know you
33. 1:23didn't do it they haven't proven their
34. 1:25case the best defense is a no defense
35. 1:27strategy we're like yeah that sounds
36. 1:30good cuz we don't know any better right
37. 1:32but in reality it was a horrible idea a
38. 1:35cellmate convinced Jared to keep
39. 1:37fighting Jared spent his days in the
40. 1:40prison Law Library he wrote letters and
41. 1:43finally caught the attention of the
42. 1:45Wisconsin Innocence Project Keith Finley
43. 1:48took up his case he had done his
44. 1:50homework he knew the case factually
45. 1:52better than anybody and he knew the law
46. 1:54he said look the C the issue we're going
47. 1:56to win on is that ineffective assistance
48. 1:58of council claim you got to lead with
49. 1:59that you got to argue that Jarrett was
50. 2:02correct it was the argument that caused
51. 2:04the seven Circuit Court of Appeals to
52. 2:06overturn his conviction after nearly 10
53. 2:10years in prison Jared was free reminded
54. 2:13though by a family photo album of what
55. 2:16he'd lost I started to just look at the
56. 2:18evolution of me as a kid just you know
57. 2:20growing up prek kindergarten graduation
58. 2:24birthdays and then I turn the next page
59. 2:27and I didn't see another picture of me
60. 2:30until I was 26 27 years
61. 2:33old it's like a piece of your life just
62. 2:36was erased just forever gone but Jared's
63. 2:39remarkable and at times ironic Journey
64. 2:42was just beginning he went to college
65. 2:44graduated law school and clerked at the
66. 2:47same court that tossed out his
67. 2:49conviction and then last summer was
68. 2:51hired as a lawyer by the Innocence
69. 2:53Project in New York the same
70. 2:55organization that successfully argued
71. 2:57his appeal what must it be like for you
72. 3:00to walk in these doors every day as an
73. 3:02attorney there is no uh sweeter Joy than
74. 3:06to be on this side of the law his to-do
75. 3:09list freeing other wrongfully convicted
76. 3:12inmates this is
77. 3:15hopeful and this is just filed which
78. 3:19brings us back to Wisconsin and Jared's
79. 3:21client serving time in the same prison
80. 3:24Jared once did his name is Richard banic
81. 3:28he's not simply Pres assumed innocent of
82. 3:31these crimes he is innocent in June his
83. 3:35conviction was overturned based on new
84. 3:37DNA testing Jared's first win as a
85. 3:41lawyer what's up man you where the
86. 3:43handcuffs at you look
87. 3:46free and completing this improbable
88. 3:49Circle Jared's co-counsel on the banic
89. 3:52case was Keith Finley the lawyer who
90. 3:55helped free Jared 10 years ago this his
91. 3:58story book Tale uh that that that you
92. 4:01wouldn't believe until you saw it and
93. 4:03Keith you're part of the story Bo too I
94. 4:04mean do you just shake your head
95. 4:06sometimes to watch the the full circle
96. 4:09that that Jared has been on it's
97. 4:10incredible I mean I've been amazed at
98. 4:13every step of the journey nothing pays
99. 4:16me back more or my family more than me
100. 4:19walking in the same court in the same
101. 4:22state where they didn't even look at me
102. 4:25when they gave me 28 years but now they
103. 4:27have to acknowledge me as attorney Adams
104. 4:31Attorney Jared Adams is the first
105. 4:32Innocence Project exonary that the
106. 4:34organization has hired as an attorney
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