Summary: Man exonerated after 10 years in prison earns law degree.
If you’d been sentenced to 28 years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit, you might be a bit bitter towards the entire legal field, at least for the remainder of this lifetime. It was different for Jarrett Adams; he was arrested and charged in 1996 for rape on a college campus, which despite not having much witness and no evidence ended him in prison.
“When they said, ‘Guilty,’ it was shocking. It was a numbing experience,” he said.
While in prison he played basketball and chess, and was finally challenged by his cell mate to fight the case.
“He was like, ‘Sit down. I’m here for the rest of my life for something I did do. You are here for some absolute bull crap with no evidence, and you’re not going to fight to get out?” Adams said. “And so it really woke me up.”
The Wisconsin Innocence Project helped him secure his freedom, after spending 10 years behind bars. Since then he has earned his law degree from Loyola.
“I couldn’t have imagined this day,” he said.
He is looking to serve as a public-interest fellow to U.S. Circuit Judge Ann C. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit – the appeals court that reversed his wrongful conviction. Since the position is unpaid, he has set up a GoFundMe page, and gained $10,000 of his $60,000 goal from Loevy & Loevy, a public-interest law firm where he worked as a clerk.
News Source: The Root