Former inmate graduates from law school
Photo of Jarrett Adams by Wayne Slezak.
One graduate of Loyola Law School in Chicago has seen the justice system from another angle.
Law grad Jarrett Adams–who spent 10 years in prison before his rape conviction was overturned–received his law degree on Saturday, CBS Chicago reports. Adams was profiled as part of a feature on exonerees in this month’s ABA Journal. The Root also notes Adams’ graduation and links to a story about Adams published last year in the Chicago Tribune.
Adams will serve as a public-interest fellow to Judge Ann Williams of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Court of Appeals, the same court that reversed Adams’ conviction because of his trial lawyer’s constitutional deficiencies, the Root says.
Adams says he initially spent his days in prison playing basketball and chess until a fellow inmate challenged him to fight the conviction. “He was like, ‘Sit down. I’m in 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 told CBS Chicago. “And so it really woke me up.”
Adams began researching his case and won his freedom with the help of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. The 7th Circuit said Adams’ lawyer failed to find and call a crucial witness who would have supported claims that the sexual encounter was consensual.
“I couldn’t have imagined this day,” Adams told CBS Chicago. As a lawyer, he hopes to represent low-income defendants and the wrongfully accused. In his interview with the ABA Journal, he said that his intention is “to do the exact same work that got me home.”
“I want to be the opposite of what my [trial] lawyer was, in so many ways,” he told the Tribune.
Related article:
ABA Journal: “These JD-carrying exonerees are using their experiences to right wrongs”
