Jarrett Adams, Wrongfully Convicted at 17, Discusses Criminal Justice System — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00good afternoon this is Joel forward
2. 0:02legal writer for the State Bar of
3. 0:03Wisconsin and today I'm with Jarrett
4. 0:06Adams he many of you have likely heard
5. 0:11his story he was wrongly convicted as a
6. 0:1517 year old and served about ten years
7. 0:19in prison before his release through the
8. 0:22Wisconsin Innocence Project and today
9. 0:25he's a lawyer and I'm here to chat with
10. 0:27him about his experience and to get his
11. 0:32views on what's happening right now in
12. 0:34terms of protesting and black lives
13. 0:36matter and and calls for reform in a
14. 0:41criminal justice system Jared thanks so
15. 0:43much for being with us today and thank
16. 0:46you for having me I appreciate being on
17. 0:48so Jared for those who may not know your
18. 0:52story can you can you tell the listeners
19. 0:54and the viewers about your wrongful
20. 0:57conviction and take us through what
21. 0:59happened there yeah so I seventeen year
22. 1:02old kid me and a couple friends grew up
23. 1:05born and raised on the south side of
24. 1:07Chicago and you know I know a lot of
25. 1:09people who have similar stories like
26. 1:12myself you know they start and they say
27. 1:14well you know look I was and come kid or
28. 1:17I was in the streets or we none of us
29. 1:20ever had that store right
30. 1:21we all had structured families get all
31. 1:24attended high school to the to my
32. 1:27friends that I came up with you know
33. 1:29they were both a one who was on his way
34. 1:30to college the other one was working a
35. 1:32job looking at college and I was just
36. 1:34graduating high school getting ready to
37. 1:36enter into junior college myself we
38. 1:39would oftentimes get in the car and go
39. 1:41out of our neighborhood to go party and
40. 1:43stuff like that because we weren't
41. 1:46gangbangers we weren't drug dealers but
42. 1:48trouble finds you all the time in the
43. 1:51city of Chicago and I'm sure that people
44. 1:53looking and listening right now can just
45. 1:56take a look down at the news in Chicago
46. 1:58and see the violence the shooting and
47. 2:00how just seems like it's just all over
48. 2:03the place so we got in the car drove the
49. 2:05Wisconsin we use the classic alibi
50. 2:07defense that everyone is used as a kid I
51. 2:10told my parents I was spending the night
52. 2:12your house and may told their parents
53. 2:14they would spend the night over miles go
54. 2:16to a party you know the things that this
55. 2:19party that was going on have been going
56. 2:20on at college campuses with drinking and
57. 2:23underage kids forever right and it's
58. 2:25still going on we ultimately was falsely
59. 2:27accused of a sexual assault that the
60. 2:31police and investigators never wanted to
61. 2:33believe that we were innocent which was
62. 2:35really the biggest deal about it I mean
63. 2:37also it came down to the representation
64. 2:39I along with one co-defendant was given
65. 2:42a public defender
66. 2:43my other co-defendant was able to hire
67. 2:45an attorney he never spent the day in
68. 2:48jail after we were able to go through
69. 2:50the case and realize that police and
70. 2:53investigators were withholding an alibi
71. 2:55statement that undermine the entire
72. 2:58accusations in a case after being
73. 3:01sentence working on my own case I was
74. 3:03able to get the assistance of the
75. 3:05Wisconsin Innocence Project
76. 3:06they came argue my case all the way up
77. 3:09to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
78. 3:10where the Court unanimously reversed my
79. 3:13condition and I was released after
80. 3:15almost 10 years of prison
81. 3:17Wow so as a young african-american man
82. 3:23in going through the justice system what
83. 3:26was that like I mean what what was your
84. 3:27perception as a seventeen year old kid
85. 3:29going through that the system like that
86. 3:31and and how did that shape you know who
87. 3:34you are now so it's had a profound
88. 3:37effect on on Who I am I mean I liken it
89. 3:40to a car crash if several people are in
90. 3:43a car crash people come out with
91. 3:45different ailments right my back might
92. 3:47hurt someone else's neck might hurt
93. 3:49someone else might not be physically
94. 3:50hurt but they might just be fearful of
95. 3:52ever getting in the car again I left too
96. 3:55with those elements of going through
97. 3:57this experience but through therapy
98. 4:01through family I've been able to sit
99. 4:04down and find a way to channel my
100. 4:07frustration and anger and to the Buhl
101. 4:09thats driving me to do what I'm doing
102. 4:12now
103. 4:13I had a limited experience with the law
104. 4:15which was basically law and order as a
105. 4:17kid most kids and people from
106. 4:21impoverished areas fail
107. 4:25real experience with the law until it's
108. 4:28too late it's not being taught as a
109. 4:31curriculum inside of our schools most of
110. 4:33the kids come from this area like my
111. 4:35area we don't we don't get the ships
112. 4:38with the judges and stuff like that
113. 4:40inside of our neighborhoods and our only
114. 4:41interactions with authorities are
115. 4:44harmful ones and so when when I was
116. 4:47going through this I had the the
117. 4:50unrealistic naive expectation that the
118. 4:54criminal justice system would give me
119. 4:56the same presumption of innocence as it
120. 4:59does my counterparts and that's just
121. 5:01simply not the case right and so and so
122. 5:05now as a lawyer how has your experience
123. 5:08shaped who you are as a lawyer in terms
124. 5:11of how you represent people in the cases
125. 5:12you choose to take I mean how is that
126. 5:17experience impacted your your practice
127. 5:20so I'm able to see the I'm able to see
128. 5:25the courtroom from both sides of the
129. 5:27table if that makes sense
130. 5:29I understand what it's like to be a
131. 5:31client having no knowledge about what's
132. 5:34going on and and and wanting to
133. 5:37understand but too afraid to look dumb
134. 5:40by hacks in a question so I take the
135. 5:42opportunity to break down everything not
136. 5:44just to my clients but also when we're
137. 5:47given the ethical permission to break
138. 5:49you down so my my clients family as well
139. 5:52one of the scariest things you're
140. 5:53dealing with the criminal justice system
141. 5:54is not knowing that outcome right not
142. 5:58knowingly not having an understanding
143. 5:59about how things will work and so I can
144. 6:02remember you know looking in the
145. 6:05courtroom hearing things and looking at
146. 6:08my attorney during trial wanting the
147. 6:10explanation only for him and telling me
148. 6:12don't worry about it
149. 6:13so it's stuff like that but I think that
150. 6:15is very harmful and so within my
151. 6:17practice I make sure that I'm very
152. 6:19painstakingly thorough and explaining to
153. 6:22people what it is because you I don't
154. 6:25have other cases you only get one life
155. 6:29right and so when we talk about what's
156. 6:35currently happening in America you know
157. 6:39how does that you know house reform what
158. 6:45does it look like to you what do you
159. 6:46think needs to be done I mean how do you
160. 6:48view what's going on right now you know
161. 6:51the best way the best way for me to to
162. 6:54analogize this Joe is this imagine there
163. 6:57being something with your faucet right
164. 7:02and you keep changing the faucet and
165. 7:06it's still not working so that means
166. 7:09what Joe that means you got to tear up
167. 7:11the floor and replace the pipes we
168. 7:13continue to put pretty faucets on an
169. 7:16issue that we know desperately we need
170. 7:18to tear up the floor replace the pipes
171. 7:21make sure it's working before we put the
172. 7:23floor floor back together and put
173. 7:25another shiny faucet on so when I look
174. 7:27at what's going on right now what we're
175. 7:29dealing with right now is the leaky
176. 7:32faucet for years because of what was
177. 7:35been going on with it with the piping
178. 7:36system so here's a perfect example with
179. 7:38that for years the the economically and
180. 7:43educationally poor neighborhoods have
181. 7:46been liquid let's just be honest with
182. 7:48that when we look at the violence on our
183. 7:49TVs they happen in certain areas only
184. 7:53and when they don't happen in those
185. 7:54areas it's winning a big deal to us as a
186. 7:56society like oh my god how did this
187. 7:58happen that same outrage should have
188. 8:01been taking place in these impoverished
189. 8:03areas so now that we're here we have to
190. 8:06do the work and not try to gloss over we
191. 8:09have to repair our educational system in
192. 8:12these areas we have the place to
193. 8:14emphasis on the Department of
194. 8:16Corrections rehabilitating people and
195. 8:19not simply just warehousing them because
196. 8:21what is creating is a merry-go-round of
197. 8:25people who are picked up in impoverished
198. 8:27areas spending decades in prison and
199. 8:31being released it will prepare for
200. 8:33society back in those same impoverished
201. 8:35areas and so if we're looking to find a
202. 8:39way to fix this thing is gonna start
203. 8:41with that educational
204. 8:42system and our financial systems within
205. 8:45these areas that's really what we're
206. 8:47talking about when we talk about
207. 8:49systemic racism and on equality this
208. 8:52isn't just people out here making
209. 8:53excuses and if you believe that you're
210. 8:56not ready that how to educated
211. 8:57conversation about the historical
212. 9:00historical neglect that has taken place
213. 9:02for people of color in impoverished
214. 9:04areas inside of not just Wisconsin but
215. 9:07the entire United States
216. 9:10right and then lastly Jarrett um what
217. 9:15role do attorneys play in and and
218. 9:18changing things what how can they play
219. 9:21their part and making sure there's real
220. 9:23change yes you don't know that's a great
221. 9:26way to ask me that question because I
222. 9:28for woman I put this all on attorneys
223. 9:32and I'll tell you why our country was
224. 9:36founded on litigators by litigators
225. 9:39through litigation the laws that are
226. 9:41that are affecting us both negatively
227. 9:46and positively they were all litigated
228. 9:49they were all looked at they were all
229. 9:51placed on the books for a reason
230. 9:53so the problem that we have is we have a
231. 9:56system that is set up when I talk about
232. 9:58systemic it's set up all the way
233. 10:01throughout different buckets in life not
234. 10:02just a criminal bucket so when you look
235. 10:04at the big law firms name me one big law
236. 10:09firm that is of color you could probably
237. 10:13make me some attorneys but you're not
238. 10:15gonna be able to make me the big boys
239. 10:18I'm talking about you know one of these
240. 10:19what it is big scatman you know when
241. 10:22these big firms as you think about there
242. 10:24isn't one right and when you don't have
243. 10:27that you don't have true equality don't
244. 10:30don't come out and send donations with a
245. 10:33checkbook but then when you go back in
246. 10:35your partner meetings none of them look
247. 10:37black or brown that's the true issue the
248. 10:39true issue is this you have people who
249. 10:42have the power to change but they're not
250. 10:45the closest to the problem it is those
251. 10:47who are closest to the problem who are
252. 10:49furthest away from the resources to
253. 10:51change the problem and that's truly
254. 10:53falling on a doorstep of attorneys
255. 10:56and sometimes attorneys won't take the
256. 10:58case on my stairs money there sometimes
257. 11:00attorney take-take-take a pro bono case
258. 11:02when it directly affects someone in and
259. 11:04around them but what about the young
260. 11:06african-american male on on on the east
261. 11:09side of Milwaukee who knows that there
262. 11:14is housing discrimination who knows that
263. 11:16there are financial banking
264. 11:18discriminations that won't allow them to
265. 11:21revitalize their own community they
266. 11:23don't have the power to litigate it
267. 11:24because they cannot afford it and if you
268. 11:26look at the criminal justice system
269. 11:27itself it is a direct result of not
270. 11:31being able to afford justices for sale
271. 11:36Jared Adams thanks so much for speaking
272. 11:39with us today
273. 11:47you