US exoneree and attorney Jarrett Adams on helping other wrongfully convicted prisoners — Transcript

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1. 0:00it's time now for perspective my guest
2. 0:02today is jarrett adams a man who while
3. 0:04still a teenager was sentenced to 28
4. 0:07years in prison in the united states he
5. 0:10always maintained his innocence and
6. 0:11after almost 10 long years in jail with
7. 0:14the help of the wisconsin innocence
8. 0:15project he was exonerated determined to
9. 0:18put his ordeal to good use he trained as
10. 0:21an attorney specializing in criminal
11. 0:23defense and civil rights cases and he's
12. 0:25now also written a memoir called
13. 0:27redeeming justice jarrett adams thank
14. 0:29you so much for speaking to us on france
15. 0:3124 today now you were sent to jail for a
16. 0:34crime that you didn't commit what does
17. 0:36that do to a person psychologically
18. 0:40psychologically it's hard to describe
19. 0:42into words i did my best by putting it
20. 0:44into a book but what it does is it it
21. 0:47affects more than just the person itself
22. 0:50its effects is on the community of the
23. 0:52wrongfully convicted as well as the
24. 0:55family as well for me at a 17 year old
25. 0:58it was even tougher because most of the
26. 1:01important maturation years of my life
27. 1:04were right there in a maximum security
28. 1:06prison for a crime that i did not commit
29. 1:09is that something you still feel keenly
30. 1:11those lost years of your youth you had
31. 1:13to spend in prison
32. 1:16you know i i oftentimes am reminded of
33. 1:19why it is that i picked up this this
34. 1:21battalion to fight um in this legal
35. 1:24field by the simple things i could be
36. 1:27over my mother's house and join dinner
37. 1:29with the family we all pull out the
38. 1:31pictures everyone has a photo album book
39. 1:34well some pictures of folks may continue
40. 1:37all the way through
41. 1:38and oftentimes when i get to the picture
42. 1:41where
43. 1:42right after high school
44. 1:43there's no pictures of me
45. 1:46it reminds me of just how much was taken
46. 1:48from me
47. 1:50and how did you come to the decision to
48. 1:52try to enroll in law school was that
49. 1:54something you spent a lot of time
50. 1:55thinking about while you're inside
51. 1:58you know i just thought about how much
52. 2:01this had impacted me and my family i
53. 2:03thought about how much life had been
54. 2:05lost and i thought about the
55. 2:06conversations over the years that my
56. 2:08mother and i my aunts had had and they
57. 2:10were telling me about the history and
58. 2:12about how this isn't just jared adams
59. 2:14this is a thing in the united states
60. 2:17that has yet to be addressed and so i
61. 2:19started to educate myself and when i
62. 2:21came home after getting much needed
63. 2:24therapy i thought that there is no
64. 2:26better way for me to put a bow on what
65. 2:28happened to me in my life
66. 2:30by giving and dedicating my life to the
67. 2:32others who are in similar situations and
68. 2:35what role did the wisconsin uh innocence
69. 2:38project play in that realization of
70. 2:40yours how much did they help you realize
71. 2:42that there was uh a path for you
72. 2:44after exoneration
73. 2:47you know the professor who who
74. 2:49who actually exonerated me
75. 2:51his name is keith finley and this is one
76. 2:53of the most you know thoughtful
77. 2:56compassionate guys who never
78. 2:58failed to
79. 3:00point out that it was me who helped in
80. 3:03so many ways and exonerating myself and
81. 3:05so it gave me the courage to get
82. 3:07involved and also it just so happens
83. 3:10that one of the first cases that i was
84. 3:12involved with exonerating was with the
85. 3:15wisconsin innocence project and the guy
86. 3:17who reversed my conviction 10 years to
87. 3:20the month that i was in the wisconsin
88. 3:22court we were now co-counsel and we
89. 3:25exonerated another man richard buranik
90. 3:27in 2017.
91. 3:30and what did that feel like that huge
92. 3:32u-turn in your life personally but also
93. 3:34professionally
94. 3:36it meant it meant a lot for me
95. 3:38personally um you know i looked at how
96. 3:41far i traveled it just was so daunting
97. 3:44of a task it took so much out of me and
98. 3:45my family it meant a lot because it told
99. 3:48me that
100. 3:50there are opportunities for me to
101. 3:52inspire kids to do exactly what i did
102. 3:56without having to go through what i went
103. 3:58through a lot of times in these inner
104. 4:00cities sometimes the goals and dreams
105. 4:02and aspirations of the kids are no
106. 4:04further than the playground or the
107. 4:07microphones being a rapper i pray to god
108. 4:09that my story and that this book will
109. 4:11allow an opportunity to inspire other
110. 4:13youth to pick up a law degree because
111. 4:16that's how we get to true ecology in the
112. 4:18united states
113. 4:19and as you pursued your studies in law
114. 4:22was there anything about the us justice
115. 4:24system that you learned that shocked you
116. 4:26or do you think that you'd experienced
117. 4:28everything already firsthand in jail
118. 4:31no i you know i i continue
119. 4:34to see
120. 4:36the the systematic things
121. 4:39that disproportionately affect african
122. 4:42americans in our criminal justice system
123. 4:44here in the united states and i came to
124. 4:46the realization like so many others who
125. 4:48who know as well that are in this field
126. 4:51this this is not by mistake
127. 4:53this is by a design and it was designed
128. 4:56by folks who were not equal in
129. 5:00representation there were no black
130. 5:02people at the table when they were
131. 5:03creating a criminal justice system so
132. 5:05how on earth do we expect it to protect
133. 5:08and treat equally african americans and
134. 5:11so a part of this going to go get this
135. 5:13law degree creating this story was not
136. 5:16to impress people it was to impress upon
137. 5:18people the importance of us truly
138. 5:21reforming the criminal justice system
139. 5:23and not just talking about it and do you
140. 5:25think that reform concrete reform is a
141. 5:28foot
142. 5:31i think that we have a lot
143. 5:34of work to do
144. 5:35and i think that until we put people who
145. 5:38are closely affected in leadership
146. 5:41positions
147. 5:42then we're we're really doing nothing
148. 5:44more of a political banter in in talking
149. 5:47if we could look at the criminal justice
150. 5:49system and the people who go in it
151. 5:51as valuable people no matter what their
152. 5:53color is and contributors to society
153. 5:56then i think that we will start to treat
154. 5:57the people who go there and come in and
155. 6:00come out like human beings and it's
156. 6:02something that we just haven't gotten to
157. 6:04because the leadership
158. 6:06has to become diverse
159. 6:08now you're also a co-founder of life
160. 6:11after justice which is a non-profit
161. 6:12organization that works to help people
162. 6:15navigate their lives post-exoneration
163. 6:17what in your experiences are the largest
164. 6:20challenges faced by people once they're
165. 6:23freed after being found not guilty of
166. 6:25the crimes they were committed of sorry
167. 6:26they're convicted of
168. 6:28yeah i i could you know i started life
169. 6:30after justice with another exoneree and
170. 6:33me and this exoneree uh antoine day we
171. 6:36met in 2007 when i was released that was
172. 6:39released in february of 2007 and i
173. 6:42remember him having a conversation with
174. 6:43me because i was the youngest exoneree
175. 6:46at this conference this year and i
176. 6:48remember him saying how he had been out
177. 6:51eight years at that point and he had
178. 6:53still been struggling he had came home
179. 6:56to taking care of his his mother who was
180. 6:59now you know ill
181. 7:01she had you know been visiting him for
182. 7:03over these years so we created this idea
183. 7:06of how do we
184. 7:08battle injustice and help reclaim the
185. 7:11lives of those who are affected by the
186. 7:13criminal justice system and so we we
187. 7:15came up with this idea and we used
188. 7:18exactly what we had went through and
189. 7:20started to attack those things for
190. 7:22example when we come home there's no
191. 7:24mental health care at all there's no
192. 7:27health care at all and it's just
193. 7:29something that that shouldn't be and i
194. 7:31think many people are confused when you
195. 7:33see cases overturned you instantly think
196. 7:37that's it the cavalry has come but
197. 7:39that's not true when the lights stop
198. 7:41flashing the cameras stop clicking men
199. 7:44and women are faced to put their lives
200. 7:46together on their own or if they have a
201. 7:48family if they're fortunate to have one
202. 7:51and let's just go back to the other side
203. 7:53of that story the beginning of that
204. 7:54story what is it that prevents so many
205. 7:56people from seeking or from acquiring
206. 7:59decent legal representation when they
207. 8:01find themselves accused of a crime in
208. 8:03the united states
209. 8:06in the united states there's no better
210. 8:07way for me to say this justice is for
211. 8:10sale
212. 8:1180 percent of the people who are accused
213. 8:14of criminal crimes
214. 8:15are usually people from inner cities
215. 8:17impoverished and they cannot afford an
216. 8:19attorney and it's not to say that our
217. 8:22public defense system in america is just
218. 8:25in shambles but they are overwhelmed
219. 8:27they cannot handle the weight of people
220. 8:29coming in and out so many people are not
221. 8:32pleading guilty because they're guilty
222. 8:34they're pleading guilty because they
223. 8:35can't afford to prove their innocence
224. 8:37and that is a robbing
225. 8:39of everything that makes a person
226. 8:41american
227. 8:43jarrett adams i'm so sorry we're going
228. 8:44to have to leave it there a fascinating
229. 8:46conversation extraordinary work uh jared
230. 8:48adams exoneree attorney and author now
231. 8:50thank you very much for speaking to us
232. 8:52here on france24
233. 8:54thank you