00:00:00
Speaker 1: Doctor told me yesterday, I gotta lose some weight, so I gotta started eating health there else he ain't tell me it gonna be this damn expensive to eat healthy. Got this placed by my house called whole Foods. They should call it whole ass because that's what if you're gonna spend food booty chips and as just gonna sit that on the.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Counter when you go in there.
00:00:22
Speaker 3: They trying to send me a nine dollars long and I'm like, I gonna have this.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: A little light stroke.
00:00:25
Speaker 4: I'm not.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spend on nine dollars on a blowna. I'm gonna make nine dollars blning best off and forehead me just you and the car lips, y'all here setup you gonna be this s meat the chicken high, like my chicken high, I said, because chicken free rain and the free rain.
00:00:47
Speaker 3: So you know we were looking chicken walk around, you know, you let walk around live.
00:00:51
Speaker 5: They like, you know what it sounds like, y'all promoting up in the chicken.
00:00:55
Speaker 2: That's what it's trying to do. I like my chicken with low seven stain.
00:00:58
Speaker 6: Your comedian Marvin Hunter up Man Brady the County Special.
00:01:04
Speaker 7: He rich wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait better crime may Rock, he said, dawful forehead.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Meat, unicorn lips.
00:01:17
Speaker 7: Man.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: Where did y'all find that clue?
00:01:20
Speaker 6: Hey man, y'all can catch your special on TV right now.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: The stupid Chelly punished.
00:01:26
Speaker 2: That's comedian Marvin Hunter.
00:01:28
Speaker 3: Catch him on TV right now.
00:01:31
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I can't Brie, what what are we doing this?
00:01:36
Speaker 8: I don't even know, Jery, I help you to the TV Garante Gerald hells the tea in the color of other Day.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: You're ray Good morning, Ricky, good morning to you. Is Thursday?
00:01:52
Speaker 7: A beautiful, beautiful there in the neighborhood. And here's what's happening in celebrity news, y'all. Non you norwood. If you all don't know who this lovely lady, she's the ray j a and Honey, the beautiful brand, y'all. She recently shared a heartfelt video updating fans y'all on what's really going on with her son ray J.
00:02:10
Speaker 9: Now.
00:02:10
Speaker 7: At the start of the tip Now, she revealed y'all that ray J went to the hospital in early January for what they initially thought was pneumonia. And here's what missus nor would have to say.
00:02:21
Speaker 4: And I start off by saying that never in my lifetime what I had thought that there would be someone as close to us who would experience some type of heart condition. So then the quest was to find out what was wrong with him. They did an Angrea Graham and the Injuria Graham indicated that he had a serious heart disease. So they determined that he had cardiomyopathy. It was not enough blood pumping into his heart. It was so scary and serious that every other word that was explained to us was this is life threatening.
00:03:00
Speaker 7: Yes, so y'all, let's continue to pray for ray J honey, because Miss Toni is letting you all know that this is not a flukes. People were saying, Oh ray J just baking and blah blah blah. Huney he was not, Miss Sonia said, So we're gonna keep him lift up in prayer and prayfully that y J make a quick, speedy recovery for whatever he's going through. All right, moving on in unther celebrity news, y'all, while we're praying, y'all, let's continue to pray y'all for Stepan Diggs. I don't know if you heard the shocking news, but it's being reported y'all that the New England Patriots are releasing this wide receiver, honey, after just one season. Now, they're saying, y'all, with the movie expected to become official on March d eleven, so mark your calendars for March d eleven. The decision, y'all is financially motivating. Some people saying, hey, maybe car to be called to people and told them to let him go, and some people.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: Saying, you know, maybe not.
00:03:47
Speaker 7: But they're saying, honey, that this is going to allow the team y'all to avoid a six million dollar guarantee and say only roughly sixteen point eight million dollars against the salary cap. So despite his belief, they're saying that things did have a good seas and what happened. But some people saying that now that he's going to be released, he may be able to move to the beautiful city of Atlanta, Georgia and get with Offset and then they could probably collparent their kids because you know, Cardy has a child with him, and she also has kids with off Set, So this would be a great move for this man to move to Atlanta the thousands that the football team, they could pick him up and he could be in the city with his children and with his beautiful former girlfriend Gary.
00:04:28
Speaker 3: You can replace him at the New England papers. You would great at that position.
00:04:33
Speaker 2: Sure what, honey, I was trying to I'm gonna.
00:04:35
Speaker 8: Be on it.
00:04:41
Speaker 7: He used to be also play tailback.
00:04:52
Speaker 2: All right, then that's a position tailback.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Tail back, Yes, yeah, to be the ball boy.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: Too much? Oh my, you sure damn did hit me off the radio on the radio.
00:05:10
Speaker 7: I'm calling hr right now unless y'all signed some checks heading to make up of what y'all just say?
00:05:15
Speaker 2: I care be right that girl cash out? I said, where did that k used to be? Making the day?
00:05:28
Speaker 1: Hurt?
00:05:29
Speaker 6: Oh?
00:05:30
Speaker 3: Man, I freeliz you're not laughing? Well, of course, friend, you talking about you?
00:05:44
Speaker 2: Yes, I am Finn to go to the clude. You ain't get strong any participants anyway.
00:05:53
Speaker 7: The colude today, honey, in front of my favorite coloe, my colude to day, y'all Spike Nord on the hand, you say, Smike, no, you know the Lord, just say beautiful lavender, that's your color for the day.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: And that hyena over what you damn h why you call y'all, give it up a Gary with the th.
00:06:22
Speaker 3: Did you see that?
00:06:23
Speaker 2: Posts?
00:06:24
Speaker 3: People are talking?
00:06:26
Speaker 6: Here's what's training on the Lucky Smiley Morning Shows.
00:06:30
Speaker 9: Mount of Morning Show A the time right now twenty six minutes after the all y'all today, we are joined by a renowned criminal defense attorney, advocate, and public speaker who has a new book out called Redeeming Justice. Y'all please welcome Attorney Jared Adams. Hey, man, thank you for getting up, sir, her and they thank you for joining us.
00:06:52
Speaker 5: Oh, look, thank you for having me. Man.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: I was either going to be on the day or listening to y'all today. What yeah, man, man, God, and man, let's jump right into it.
00:07:02
Speaker 9: Because you was wrongfully convicted and spent ten years in prison for a crime you did not commit at seventeen years old, and you was finally exonerated.
00:07:11
Speaker 3: But during those ten years, how did you continue to hold hope and you know that would that you would finally be free?
00:07:18
Speaker 8: Yeah?
00:07:19
Speaker 5: Well, thank you again for letting me share my story. But look, I got a tip my cap and get a huge shout out to black women man, because my mother and my auntie continue to breathe life in me man in a dark situation. So I'm sitting up here, locked up. I'm a kid and a maximum super maximum security prison. I'm getting letters from my friends who had all been going off to the HBCUs and colleges, and I'm there and I'm fighting for my life. So one of my aunts who passed away, we called us Sugar. So I'm from the South side of Chicago. So like, if y'all hear these names in terms, we'd be calling our auntie esis. It's a shy thing. And I'm sure we got to focus in families too.
00:07:56
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:07:57
Speaker 5: So my aunt Sugar was a she was in a woman and one of the things that she would do is she would send me the newspaper. Then the newspaper would get that lad. It would be expensive. And I told her, I'm like, look, just stop sending and I'll find something else to read. So she says, no, I'm doing this for a reason. Gonna We're gonna acknowledge that they got your body confined, but we never gonna let them incarcerate your mind, your dreams, your hope. You're gonna stay up with the world until you get back in the world.
00:08:21
Speaker 10: Wow, that's awesome. You know them Chicago women ain't no joke, especially them unteasing them older ones. Man, Man, we really appreciate them. My mom or my grandmother's everybody. We all from Chicago.
00:08:32
Speaker 3: And I know this man felt like rock bottom.
00:08:34
Speaker 10: But looking back on your trial now as a lawyer, is there anything you would have done different to protect yourself? Because I know things are different today because when I got locked up, my trial was crazy, and it's a lot of things that I would have changed that went down that I know now that I didn't know before.
00:08:49
Speaker 5: I mean me, I say this oftentimes. I was speaking to I was speaking at the juvenile facility the other day, and I was telling them that I can remember vividly. You know, I could repeat every lyric to the Tupac DOUBCD in nineteen ninety eight, but didn't know not one constitutional right to shut up when you're up and there, right, And so I get this advice to everybody listening. I get this advice to little Daryl too. Man, I'm going there and the police station's talking. You know what I mean, just ask for an attorney. Don't believe that you're gonna be able to outsmart anyone. And I think also in our community. I think that as I was raising Brett, maybe you can relate to this as well. So when you raised black families, specifically South Side of Chicago, they raise you to respect authorities, respect this, and respect that. A lot of times when we have interactions, our kids have interactions with authorities, they're going they're operating off autopilot to respect it toward authorities, to do this and do that.
00:09:40
Speaker 3: That gets us in trouble.
00:09:42
Speaker 5: We need to teach our kids the law, and the law is we should ask for an attorney and be represented it by an adult or an attorney, and that's how we protect ourselves the most.
00:09:50
Speaker 10: Hot So you start talking absolutely absolutely, that is amazing, such a powerful story.
00:09:56
Speaker 11: Let me ask you what advice would you get to families that are already fighting to prove their love doing senticence.
00:10:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I get a lot of requests and we can't represent everyone right, and so what I would ask folks to do is have family meetings, band together. One of the things that plagued me in my situation was, and I understood my mother for doing this, was it was so embarrassing to talk about what had happened because no one hears past, but they like Jared locked up but right, but no one hears past that. So my mother kept us inside and a lot of that she couldn't get help as a result of that. So one of the things that I'm encouraging folks to do is open up, you know, have family meetings discussing it, everybody being together. The best thing to do is to be able to retain someone, but not everyone is able to afford to do that. But I'm telling you, if we get together, man, I don't care if it's fish fries or or cod washers, whatever. The lives of our babies are important right now. That is the biggest thing that we're dealing with. We're losing it used to be a lot of just boys. They are locking up women increasing more and more in our society to.
00:11:04
Speaker 6: That now, Jared, this stuff happens in our community a lot. I actually have a friend who did thirty two years ye unlawfully.
00:11:11
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker 6: Now I want to ask you, was there ever a formal apology from the state or did you get compensated for the ten years that you did spend?
00:11:20
Speaker 8: Yeah?
00:11:22
Speaker 6: Undeserved.
00:11:23
Speaker 5: So look, a lot of people ask me that question, and I you know, I do civil rights mainly now moving away from criminal defense. The civil rights is the chapter where you're able to sue if you can to recover for damages. A lot of people believe that just because someone is wrongfully convicted, they are immediately entitled to compensation.
00:11:43
Speaker 7: They are not.
00:11:43
Speaker 5: Over ninety percent of the people who get their convictions reversed they never have a remedy to recover because of things like qualified immunity. A lot of times, cases like you know, Breonna Taylor will bring up the topic qualified immunity. But I'm just gonna tell y'all in layman terms what that means. If something happens to you with your interaction with the authority, every loophole imaginable will be explored before you are compensated. Period. It's a loophole. So what I'm saying is that I've never gotten a dime. I've never been compensated at all. I remember when the conviction was reversed and going into the courtroom with a judge, the same judge who sentenced me had to order the dismissal of the charges and everything. And this is the same courtroom where I'm being paraded around as a rapist and all that type of stuff in front of my mother and my aunt two raised me, and in a matter of three minutes, the prosecutor was like, yeah, we're gonna dismiss the charges. The judge slammed the gavel, turned around, everybody disappeared, and it wasn't nobody but me and my mother in that room. And when I turned around and I seen them wrinkles and creases of language on the forehead, it pissed me off to come and do what I'm doing right now.
00:12:56
Speaker 9: Why the wrong for conviction convictions happened more often than people think.
00:13:00
Speaker 5: I think Number one, there is low hanging fruit in our criminal justice system that needs to be addressed and it will help. We need to start doing preventative measures when it comes to this. I think that we need to start. Number One, black folks, people of color period in general, people of like mind in general. Man go to jury duty, Okay, y'all, because we need 'all to be on that jury pool. Because y'all understand, you know why we wouldn't say this, to say that in a certain way, while things that can be construed as our language will be damning to other folks who don't come from where we come from. We need black and brown folks to show up for jury duty. That's number one. Number two, we have to find a way to tilt the scales evenly. For our public defense systems. Ninety or eighty percent of the society today they are defended by the public defense system because they can't afford an attorney. So if you have public defenders and public defense systems that are managing fifty to seventy five cases at one time, it's going to be many people who slip through the crack.
00:14:00
Speaker 7: Right before you ask your question, no, turn out, I have a question. I'm just help me because I don't know how this goes. So now you were wrongfully convicted. I'm a crime Now I always know. Was it a felony? No? Well, yeah, all of yes it was because I always thought did you had a feeling? They say, hell, you couldn't do nothing. So now you became an attorney. Yeah, after going through all that, So how does that work?
00:14:21
Speaker 5: It works because I don't have a record, because my record, my conviction was reversed, all the charges were dismissed. But let me say something to you. That's a great question. Although I don't have a record, the charges were dismissed. The tentacles of that wrongful conviction will forever reach me through life. Really whatever, Look, let me let me give you an example. When I was coming in here, I was speaking with my team and I was just talking about, Man, how for me in the early nineties, we would come down to Atlanta and do like family reunions and stuff like that. It was nostalgia, right, you know what I mean, Like you coming down to the HBCU capital of the world, and I was looking forward to partakeing in that right. Didn't get the opportunity to that. So now you know, I'm meeting folks, and I'm asking folks about how they know this person that person, what they knowing from going to school together. I'm missed out on that chapter. I'm locked up from seventeen. I didn't get out until I was twenty six, twenty seven years old.
00:15:13
Speaker 9: Yes, and you pretty much playing ketchup. Hey, listen, hole, that are we going to bring you back on the other side? Y'all? He's a defense attorney telling them, telling this incredible story in his new book, Redeeming Justice. And let me just ask you, what does redeeming Justice really mean to you? And why, you know, why was now the right time to tell your story?
00:15:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, redeeming justice for me is my politically correct way of saying I'm gotting my lick back, you know what I mean. So that's really what that was about.
00:15:46
Speaker 4: Man.
00:15:46
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I can't tell you that that, you know, had I not went to prison, that I wouldn't be an attorney. But I can definitely tell you had I not, you know, went to prison, I still would have been something right. And so I think that that now out more than ever. I think that there's a lot of distractions that are keeping us from the main problem we've had since this inception. And then this is a criminal legal system. And I think that me writing this book. On the cover of it, there's a picture of my booking photo as I'm seventeen, and then there's another picture like twelve thirteen years later and I'm an attorney. I think I would argue this. I think that is it is easier, if you can fathom this, to go through what I went through, go out get a law degree, become a lawyer, than it is to be a number one pick in any sports.
00:16:34
Speaker 4: Right.
00:16:35
Speaker 5: So I argue that we have a backup plan, and I think that our education is key. There was a reason why, you know, in the days of Jim Crow slavery, they were trying to keep us from reading and access to education, because it is one of the many keys that can open doors and pave a way for our generations to come.
00:16:58
Speaker 10: Now, you help free Terance Richardson and Foraron Claiborne, who were convicted of killing a white officer back in nineteen eighty eight. It was known as the Waverley Burning, and you helped get them pardoned by President Biden and later on exonerated.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: How'd you do all of that?
00:17:13
Speaker 5: So this was a teen year journey, and right now there was a President Biden commuted their sentence. But right now their case is still in front of the Virginia Supreme Court to grant their actual innocence. And it's a case that I asked many people to look up. If you just google Waverley Burning, you will see the YouTube videos. I'm trying to make this story go from the small town in Waverley to a national story to help these brothers vindicate themselves and clear their name. It was my organization that I created. Life After Justice is a nonprofit organization where we have a legal department and where we use resources that are donated to represent people who are claiming actual innocence but they just can't afford to get representation. So Terrence and Faran are two men that I met years ago, and I met them through their mother man when I was just telling you all about them wrinkles and creases of anguish. So I'm doing the speaking event in Virginia and a lady, you know, was standing in the line of folks coming up to shake my hands, and I spotted her out the crowd because she had a Manila envelope in her hand, and she just looked worried, just look worried, just reminded me of my mother with the wrinkles over her forehead. She handed me the envelope and the envelope contained a letter from Terrence and Faran asking for some help and saying that they were innocent. So took the case litigated. Over the years, we were able to get them out. They're now out. But now the focus right now is we got to help provide them with the reintegration tools that they need, and mental health care therapy is one. There was a segment that just came out on these guys. Like I said, if you go look it up, you'll see a Richmond reporter did a segment on it, and one of the things that Terrence was saying was that every day he got to get up and look in the mirror as a free man with the gray hairs that he didn't have when he went in there.
00:19:00
Speaker 11: Oh my gosh, this conversation is so necessary. I'm going home and having another conversation with my boys today. Thank you so much for reading on the show. But let me ask you, you went from inmate to attorney. When did you realize the law was going to become like your weapon for justice.
00:19:18
Speaker 5: So I'm sitting in a super maximum security prison and I'm, you know, a tutor, you know, to past time. I'm a h sed you know ged tutor, and I'm starting out to help folks as I'm sitting in this library. And then what I realized was this, I'm gonna tell you a cold reality, man. I was helping this guy with his recentizing and it was a guy who just got out. He was back in there for drugs. And I'm reading and I'm like, man, why you don't you keep on selling drugs. Fold Man looked at me and was like, fool, you think I want to be selling drugs out here. I ain't got no other way. So he started to tell me his family history and story, and then I realized how much of a cycle that that it is, and how sometimes we just don't pay attention to it because we're actually living in it, and until it happened to us, we don't really know how to how to respond to it. So I think that that was one of the ways that that I believe that my calling was was starting to be to start to grow. I mean, I really felt like I was I was helping, I could help. I felt like that, you know, I was able to articulate but with the same passion and the same energy as as the boy on the South side of Chicago sitting on the stoop eating an icy cup.
00:20:30
Speaker 3: You know, right, hey man, we really appreciate you coming on.
00:20:36
Speaker 9: Let everybody know how they can follow you on social media, so when you do your lives, you know, people could really, you know, get into some of the things that you have accomplished and things that you're talking about without having to go to commercial break.
00:20:50
Speaker 3: Let everybody know how you can follow how they can follow.
00:20:53
Speaker 5: You follow Jared Adam's Law on literally all social media handles, and some of the videos that I've been putting now, you guys should check them out. It talks about how to explounge your record. It talks about how to obtain a pro bono attorney because it's hard man a look. Attorney's got to eat as well too, so not everybody gonna be able to take your case pro bono. But let me tell you how they will take your case. If you come prepared with all of your stuff, you make it easier for folks to review it. More than likely they'll take the time to look at all.
00:21:22
Speaker 9: Right, y'all, thank you so much for Jona this morning and sharing your story. Everybody, please give it up a Jared Adams
Speaker 1: Doctor told me yesterday, I gotta lose some weight, so I gotta started eating health there else he ain't tell me it gonna be this damn expensive to eat healthy. Got this placed by my house called whole Foods. They should call it whole ass because that's what if you're gonna spend food booty chips and as just gonna sit that on the.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Counter when you go in there.
00:00:22
Speaker 3: They trying to send me a nine dollars long and I'm like, I gonna have this.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: A little light stroke.
00:00:25
Speaker 4: I'm not.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna spend on nine dollars on a blowna. I'm gonna make nine dollars blning best off and forehead me just you and the car lips, y'all here setup you gonna be this s meat the chicken high, like my chicken high, I said, because chicken free rain and the free rain.
00:00:47
Speaker 3: So you know we were looking chicken walk around, you know, you let walk around live.
00:00:51
Speaker 5: They like, you know what it sounds like, y'all promoting up in the chicken.
00:00:55
Speaker 2: That's what it's trying to do. I like my chicken with low seven stain.
00:00:58
Speaker 6: Your comedian Marvin Hunter up Man Brady the County Special.
00:01:04
Speaker 7: He rich wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait better crime may Rock, he said, dawful forehead.
00:01:12
Speaker 2: Meat, unicorn lips.
00:01:17
Speaker 7: Man.
00:01:19
Speaker 2: Where did y'all find that clue?
00:01:20
Speaker 6: Hey man, y'all can catch your special on TV right now.
00:01:25
Speaker 3: The stupid Chelly punished.
00:01:26
Speaker 2: That's comedian Marvin Hunter.
00:01:28
Speaker 3: Catch him on TV right now.
00:01:31
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I can't Brie, what what are we doing this?
00:01:36
Speaker 8: I don't even know, Jery, I help you to the TV Garante Gerald hells the tea in the color of other Day.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: You're ray Good morning, Ricky, good morning to you. Is Thursday?
00:01:52
Speaker 7: A beautiful, beautiful there in the neighborhood. And here's what's happening in celebrity news, y'all. Non you norwood. If you all don't know who this lovely lady, she's the ray j a and Honey, the beautiful brand, y'all. She recently shared a heartfelt video updating fans y'all on what's really going on with her son ray J.
00:02:10
Speaker 9: Now.
00:02:10
Speaker 7: At the start of the tip Now, she revealed y'all that ray J went to the hospital in early January for what they initially thought was pneumonia. And here's what missus nor would have to say.
00:02:21
Speaker 4: And I start off by saying that never in my lifetime what I had thought that there would be someone as close to us who would experience some type of heart condition. So then the quest was to find out what was wrong with him. They did an Angrea Graham and the Injuria Graham indicated that he had a serious heart disease. So they determined that he had cardiomyopathy. It was not enough blood pumping into his heart. It was so scary and serious that every other word that was explained to us was this is life threatening.
00:03:00
Speaker 7: Yes, so y'all, let's continue to pray for ray J honey, because Miss Toni is letting you all know that this is not a flukes. People were saying, Oh ray J just baking and blah blah blah. Huney he was not, Miss Sonia said, So we're gonna keep him lift up in prayer and prayfully that y J make a quick, speedy recovery for whatever he's going through. All right, moving on in unther celebrity news, y'all, while we're praying, y'all, let's continue to pray y'all for Stepan Diggs. I don't know if you heard the shocking news, but it's being reported y'all that the New England Patriots are releasing this wide receiver, honey, after just one season. Now, they're saying, y'all, with the movie expected to become official on March d eleven, so mark your calendars for March d eleven. The decision, y'all is financially motivating. Some people saying, hey, maybe car to be called to people and told them to let him go, and some people.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: Saying, you know, maybe not.
00:03:47
Speaker 7: But they're saying, honey, that this is going to allow the team y'all to avoid a six million dollar guarantee and say only roughly sixteen point eight million dollars against the salary cap. So despite his belief, they're saying that things did have a good seas and what happened. But some people saying that now that he's going to be released, he may be able to move to the beautiful city of Atlanta, Georgia and get with Offset and then they could probably collparent their kids because you know, Cardy has a child with him, and she also has kids with off Set, So this would be a great move for this man to move to Atlanta the thousands that the football team, they could pick him up and he could be in the city with his children and with his beautiful former girlfriend Gary.
00:04:28
Speaker 3: You can replace him at the New England papers. You would great at that position.
00:04:33
Speaker 2: Sure what, honey, I was trying to I'm gonna.
00:04:35
Speaker 8: Be on it.
00:04:41
Speaker 7: He used to be also play tailback.
00:04:52
Speaker 2: All right, then that's a position tailback.
00:04:55
Speaker 3: Tail back, Yes, yeah, to be the ball boy.
00:05:03
Speaker 2: Too much? Oh my, you sure damn did hit me off the radio on the radio.
00:05:10
Speaker 7: I'm calling hr right now unless y'all signed some checks heading to make up of what y'all just say?
00:05:15
Speaker 2: I care be right that girl cash out? I said, where did that k used to be? Making the day?
00:05:28
Speaker 1: Hurt?
00:05:29
Speaker 6: Oh?
00:05:30
Speaker 3: Man, I freeliz you're not laughing? Well, of course, friend, you talking about you?
00:05:44
Speaker 2: Yes, I am Finn to go to the clude. You ain't get strong any participants anyway.
00:05:53
Speaker 7: The colude today, honey, in front of my favorite coloe, my colude to day, y'all Spike Nord on the hand, you say, Smike, no, you know the Lord, just say beautiful lavender, that's your color for the day.
00:06:03
Speaker 2: And that hyena over what you damn h why you call y'all, give it up a Gary with the th.
00:06:22
Speaker 3: Did you see that?
00:06:23
Speaker 2: Posts?
00:06:24
Speaker 3: People are talking?
00:06:26
Speaker 6: Here's what's training on the Lucky Smiley Morning Shows.
00:06:30
Speaker 9: Mount of Morning Show A the time right now twenty six minutes after the all y'all today, we are joined by a renowned criminal defense attorney, advocate, and public speaker who has a new book out called Redeeming Justice. Y'all please welcome Attorney Jared Adams. Hey, man, thank you for getting up, sir, her and they thank you for joining us.
00:06:52
Speaker 5: Oh, look, thank you for having me. Man.
00:06:54
Speaker 3: I was either going to be on the day or listening to y'all today. What yeah, man, man, God, and man, let's jump right into it.
00:07:02
Speaker 9: Because you was wrongfully convicted and spent ten years in prison for a crime you did not commit at seventeen years old, and you was finally exonerated.
00:07:11
Speaker 3: But during those ten years, how did you continue to hold hope and you know that would that you would finally be free?
00:07:18
Speaker 8: Yeah?
00:07:19
Speaker 5: Well, thank you again for letting me share my story. But look, I got a tip my cap and get a huge shout out to black women man, because my mother and my auntie continue to breathe life in me man in a dark situation. So I'm sitting up here, locked up. I'm a kid and a maximum super maximum security prison. I'm getting letters from my friends who had all been going off to the HBCUs and colleges, and I'm there and I'm fighting for my life. So one of my aunts who passed away, we called us Sugar. So I'm from the South side of Chicago. So like, if y'all hear these names in terms, we'd be calling our auntie esis. It's a shy thing. And I'm sure we got to focus in families too.
00:07:56
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:07:57
Speaker 5: So my aunt Sugar was a she was in a woman and one of the things that she would do is she would send me the newspaper. Then the newspaper would get that lad. It would be expensive. And I told her, I'm like, look, just stop sending and I'll find something else to read. So she says, no, I'm doing this for a reason. Gonna We're gonna acknowledge that they got your body confined, but we never gonna let them incarcerate your mind, your dreams, your hope. You're gonna stay up with the world until you get back in the world.
00:08:21
Speaker 10: Wow, that's awesome. You know them Chicago women ain't no joke, especially them unteasing them older ones. Man, Man, we really appreciate them. My mom or my grandmother's everybody. We all from Chicago.
00:08:32
Speaker 3: And I know this man felt like rock bottom.
00:08:34
Speaker 10: But looking back on your trial now as a lawyer, is there anything you would have done different to protect yourself? Because I know things are different today because when I got locked up, my trial was crazy, and it's a lot of things that I would have changed that went down that I know now that I didn't know before.
00:08:49
Speaker 5: I mean me, I say this oftentimes. I was speaking to I was speaking at the juvenile facility the other day, and I was telling them that I can remember vividly. You know, I could repeat every lyric to the Tupac DOUBCD in nineteen ninety eight, but didn't know not one constitutional right to shut up when you're up and there, right, And so I get this advice to everybody listening. I get this advice to little Daryl too. Man, I'm going there and the police station's talking. You know what I mean, just ask for an attorney. Don't believe that you're gonna be able to outsmart anyone. And I think also in our community. I think that as I was raising Brett, maybe you can relate to this as well. So when you raised black families, specifically South Side of Chicago, they raise you to respect authorities, respect this, and respect that. A lot of times when we have interactions, our kids have interactions with authorities, they're going they're operating off autopilot to respect it toward authorities, to do this and do that.
00:09:40
Speaker 3: That gets us in trouble.
00:09:42
Speaker 5: We need to teach our kids the law, and the law is we should ask for an attorney and be represented it by an adult or an attorney, and that's how we protect ourselves the most.
00:09:50
Speaker 10: Hot So you start talking absolutely absolutely, that is amazing, such a powerful story.
00:09:56
Speaker 11: Let me ask you what advice would you get to families that are already fighting to prove their love doing senticence.
00:10:02
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I get a lot of requests and we can't represent everyone right, and so what I would ask folks to do is have family meetings, band together. One of the things that plagued me in my situation was, and I understood my mother for doing this, was it was so embarrassing to talk about what had happened because no one hears past, but they like Jared locked up but right, but no one hears past that. So my mother kept us inside and a lot of that she couldn't get help as a result of that. So one of the things that I'm encouraging folks to do is open up, you know, have family meetings discussing it, everybody being together. The best thing to do is to be able to retain someone, but not everyone is able to afford to do that. But I'm telling you, if we get together, man, I don't care if it's fish fries or or cod washers, whatever. The lives of our babies are important right now. That is the biggest thing that we're dealing with. We're losing it used to be a lot of just boys. They are locking up women increasing more and more in our society to.
00:11:04
Speaker 6: That now, Jared, this stuff happens in our community a lot. I actually have a friend who did thirty two years ye unlawfully.
00:11:11
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:11:12
Speaker 6: Now I want to ask you, was there ever a formal apology from the state or did you get compensated for the ten years that you did spend?
00:11:20
Speaker 8: Yeah?
00:11:22
Speaker 6: Undeserved.
00:11:23
Speaker 5: So look, a lot of people ask me that question, and I you know, I do civil rights mainly now moving away from criminal defense. The civil rights is the chapter where you're able to sue if you can to recover for damages. A lot of people believe that just because someone is wrongfully convicted, they are immediately entitled to compensation.
00:11:43
Speaker 7: They are not.
00:11:43
Speaker 5: Over ninety percent of the people who get their convictions reversed they never have a remedy to recover because of things like qualified immunity. A lot of times, cases like you know, Breonna Taylor will bring up the topic qualified immunity. But I'm just gonna tell y'all in layman terms what that means. If something happens to you with your interaction with the authority, every loophole imaginable will be explored before you are compensated. Period. It's a loophole. So what I'm saying is that I've never gotten a dime. I've never been compensated at all. I remember when the conviction was reversed and going into the courtroom with a judge, the same judge who sentenced me had to order the dismissal of the charges and everything. And this is the same courtroom where I'm being paraded around as a rapist and all that type of stuff in front of my mother and my aunt two raised me, and in a matter of three minutes, the prosecutor was like, yeah, we're gonna dismiss the charges. The judge slammed the gavel, turned around, everybody disappeared, and it wasn't nobody but me and my mother in that room. And when I turned around and I seen them wrinkles and creases of language on the forehead, it pissed me off to come and do what I'm doing right now.
00:12:56
Speaker 9: Why the wrong for conviction convictions happened more often than people think.
00:13:00
Speaker 5: I think Number one, there is low hanging fruit in our criminal justice system that needs to be addressed and it will help. We need to start doing preventative measures when it comes to this. I think that we need to start. Number One, black folks, people of color period in general, people of like mind in general. Man go to jury duty, Okay, y'all, because we need 'all to be on that jury pool. Because y'all understand, you know why we wouldn't say this, to say that in a certain way, while things that can be construed as our language will be damning to other folks who don't come from where we come from. We need black and brown folks to show up for jury duty. That's number one. Number two, we have to find a way to tilt the scales evenly. For our public defense systems. Ninety or eighty percent of the society today they are defended by the public defense system because they can't afford an attorney. So if you have public defenders and public defense systems that are managing fifty to seventy five cases at one time, it's going to be many people who slip through the crack.
00:14:00
Speaker 7: Right before you ask your question, no, turn out, I have a question. I'm just help me because I don't know how this goes. So now you were wrongfully convicted. I'm a crime Now I always know. Was it a felony? No? Well, yeah, all of yes it was because I always thought did you had a feeling? They say, hell, you couldn't do nothing. So now you became an attorney. Yeah, after going through all that, So how does that work?
00:14:21
Speaker 5: It works because I don't have a record, because my record, my conviction was reversed, all the charges were dismissed. But let me say something to you. That's a great question. Although I don't have a record, the charges were dismissed. The tentacles of that wrongful conviction will forever reach me through life. Really whatever, Look, let me let me give you an example. When I was coming in here, I was speaking with my team and I was just talking about, Man, how for me in the early nineties, we would come down to Atlanta and do like family reunions and stuff like that. It was nostalgia, right, you know what I mean, Like you coming down to the HBCU capital of the world, and I was looking forward to partakeing in that right. Didn't get the opportunity to that. So now you know, I'm meeting folks, and I'm asking folks about how they know this person that person, what they knowing from going to school together. I'm missed out on that chapter. I'm locked up from seventeen. I didn't get out until I was twenty six, twenty seven years old.
00:15:13
Speaker 9: Yes, and you pretty much playing ketchup. Hey, listen, hole, that are we going to bring you back on the other side? Y'all? He's a defense attorney telling them, telling this incredible story in his new book, Redeeming Justice. And let me just ask you, what does redeeming Justice really mean to you? And why, you know, why was now the right time to tell your story?
00:15:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, redeeming justice for me is my politically correct way of saying I'm gotting my lick back, you know what I mean. So that's really what that was about.
00:15:46
Speaker 4: Man.
00:15:46
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I can't tell you that that, you know, had I not went to prison, that I wouldn't be an attorney. But I can definitely tell you had I not, you know, went to prison, I still would have been something right. And so I think that that now out more than ever. I think that there's a lot of distractions that are keeping us from the main problem we've had since this inception. And then this is a criminal legal system. And I think that me writing this book. On the cover of it, there's a picture of my booking photo as I'm seventeen, and then there's another picture like twelve thirteen years later and I'm an attorney. I think I would argue this. I think that is it is easier, if you can fathom this, to go through what I went through, go out get a law degree, become a lawyer, than it is to be a number one pick in any sports.
00:16:34
Speaker 4: Right.
00:16:35
Speaker 5: So I argue that we have a backup plan, and I think that our education is key. There was a reason why, you know, in the days of Jim Crow slavery, they were trying to keep us from reading and access to education, because it is one of the many keys that can open doors and pave a way for our generations to come.
00:16:58
Speaker 10: Now, you help free Terance Richardson and Foraron Claiborne, who were convicted of killing a white officer back in nineteen eighty eight. It was known as the Waverley Burning, and you helped get them pardoned by President Biden and later on exonerated.
00:17:11
Speaker 3: How'd you do all of that?
00:17:13
Speaker 5: So this was a teen year journey, and right now there was a President Biden commuted their sentence. But right now their case is still in front of the Virginia Supreme Court to grant their actual innocence. And it's a case that I asked many people to look up. If you just google Waverley Burning, you will see the YouTube videos. I'm trying to make this story go from the small town in Waverley to a national story to help these brothers vindicate themselves and clear their name. It was my organization that I created. Life After Justice is a nonprofit organization where we have a legal department and where we use resources that are donated to represent people who are claiming actual innocence but they just can't afford to get representation. So Terrence and Faran are two men that I met years ago, and I met them through their mother man when I was just telling you all about them wrinkles and creases of anguish. So I'm doing the speaking event in Virginia and a lady, you know, was standing in the line of folks coming up to shake my hands, and I spotted her out the crowd because she had a Manila envelope in her hand, and she just looked worried, just look worried, just reminded me of my mother with the wrinkles over her forehead. She handed me the envelope and the envelope contained a letter from Terrence and Faran asking for some help and saying that they were innocent. So took the case litigated. Over the years, we were able to get them out. They're now out. But now the focus right now is we got to help provide them with the reintegration tools that they need, and mental health care therapy is one. There was a segment that just came out on these guys. Like I said, if you go look it up, you'll see a Richmond reporter did a segment on it, and one of the things that Terrence was saying was that every day he got to get up and look in the mirror as a free man with the gray hairs that he didn't have when he went in there.
00:19:00
Speaker 11: Oh my gosh, this conversation is so necessary. I'm going home and having another conversation with my boys today. Thank you so much for reading on the show. But let me ask you, you went from inmate to attorney. When did you realize the law was going to become like your weapon for justice.
00:19:18
Speaker 5: So I'm sitting in a super maximum security prison and I'm, you know, a tutor, you know, to past time. I'm a h sed you know ged tutor, and I'm starting out to help folks as I'm sitting in this library. And then what I realized was this, I'm gonna tell you a cold reality, man. I was helping this guy with his recentizing and it was a guy who just got out. He was back in there for drugs. And I'm reading and I'm like, man, why you don't you keep on selling drugs. Fold Man looked at me and was like, fool, you think I want to be selling drugs out here. I ain't got no other way. So he started to tell me his family history and story, and then I realized how much of a cycle that that it is, and how sometimes we just don't pay attention to it because we're actually living in it, and until it happened to us, we don't really know how to how to respond to it. So I think that that was one of the ways that that I believe that my calling was was starting to be to start to grow. I mean, I really felt like I was I was helping, I could help. I felt like that, you know, I was able to articulate but with the same passion and the same energy as as the boy on the South side of Chicago sitting on the stoop eating an icy cup.
00:20:30
Speaker 3: You know, right, hey man, we really appreciate you coming on.
00:20:36
Speaker 9: Let everybody know how they can follow you on social media, so when you do your lives, you know, people could really, you know, get into some of the things that you have accomplished and things that you're talking about without having to go to commercial break.
00:20:50
Speaker 3: Let everybody know how you can follow how they can follow.
00:20:53
Speaker 5: You follow Jared Adam's Law on literally all social media handles, and some of the videos that I've been putting now, you guys should check them out. It talks about how to explounge your record. It talks about how to obtain a pro bono attorney because it's hard man a look. Attorney's got to eat as well too, so not everybody gonna be able to take your case pro bono. But let me tell you how they will take your case. If you come prepared with all of your stuff, you make it easier for folks to review it. More than likely they'll take the time to look at all.
00:21:22
Speaker 9: Right, y'all, thank you so much for Jona this morning and sharing your story. Everybody, please give it up a Jared Adams
