being recorded. >> certainly johnson's secretaries new because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. in fact they were the ones from each of the conversations were taped as johnson was signaled to them through an open door through an open office and there's brickwork to authors and blunt talk. >> i know the number of people assigned the day he died : :

to hear about this excellent book. my name is kenneth fraser and i'm the director emeritus of the uw madison libraries and serve on the board. proud to be one of the sponsors for the book festival in tonight's presentation. we provide small grants to scholars that use university libraries to do research and write books. we strive to improve the campus

including the library and archives at the historical society which as you know is located onon the campus and we support the university's efforts to consider careers in academic libraries and archives. if that sounds interesting to you and it might because you are here tonight, we invite you here to join us. by describing and injustice done to two young black men in 1998 who would eventually become clients and who were still unjustly imprisoned 20 years later. 1998 is the same year jarret adams himself was convicted of rape at age 17, a crime which he

was innocent of committing. he writes with remarkable empathy for others like these two men and even for the individuals that dulled him great harm. the book could have been all about himself, his remarkable odyssey from being a teenageren sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison and now practicing law in threee soon-to-be four states. mr. adams book is a fast, compelling read but his is a long story. he was released from prison in 2007 on bond, not yet exonerated and that incarceration took much longer. from the university in 2015 he

now leads the offices in chicago and los angeles. mr. adams is also the cofounder of life after justice a nonprofit organization just to dedicated to helping eggs honorees -- exonerate -- people that have been unjustly imprisoned to help them rebuild their lives. please join me in welcoming jared adams to the podium. [applause] i'm tied to the seat to buy seay electronic wire but i want to thank you. it's a pleasure to be here.

i hope you are not expecting a scholar type of lecture because that's just not me and you can tell that's how i wrote the book and with that, i won't take over because i know my good friend is ready to go with questions. welcome, everyone. i am an associate clinical professor at the university and former director of the institute. it's my honor to be here today but i am mindful as i read his story that in 2020 alone there were exonerations in the united states and about 1700 years of people sacrificed to the criminal justice system. in 2019 that number was about 143 individuals. 50% of those cases involve some type of state misconduct whether

it'sf police or prosecutors. we are also mindful of the national reports that wisconsin incarcerates at a higher rate than any other in the union. black men in particular are all times more likely than white men to go to jail or prison in the state of wisconsin. although african-americans make up about 6% of the states population, we represent about 42% of the population of individuals who are incarcerated. unfortunately it is very common. he's rightfully received a great deal of attention. what more did you have to share?

>> there is a long answer behind it. they mail you a diploma. i remember when a diploma came and i remember running to my mother. i wanted to give itan to her. she started to cry and i said i thought we were done crying. she said no, i'm crying because i know you are not going to go off and do the big law and forget about what it was like to be isolated on that island in a courtroom with no help. you're going to practice law and do things to help other people out.

so i run off with this degree and very early i realized i wasn't going to save every black kid with his one law degree. so i had to come up with something different. i continue to read books. that's another wrongful conviction book. so whatth i did is spent as much time with my aunt that was still alive and for the first time i learned history and was important to write the book

because how often does the article portray black men as if they were born at the scene of that accusation, just a picture and you get ripped into the use thesestigma and the depictions. so i wrote the book from a perspective of look at what it does to the community. the victim in the story is the community, and here's why. just like the one in milwaukee and in turn the criminal justice system that have been warehoused for decades were more so when i started to write the book it was a call to action. it was a call to action to say

how do we mobilize and take this book that i believe is acr manuscript to the sympathy and empathy that we need to get the attention of the folks that have the power to make these changes. that article that just came out, it's funny i started writing the book two years ago.k that's one of the first things i because i metk these men that came to prison as boys, grew up there and said okay, let me write this in a way that number one, anybody with a child could look at this and say this isnd god awful and if i get there let me take you to these communities and the predominant number they come from so that's why i wrote the book. it's a call to action. di said this before when i heard the accomplishments many will

press upon you the importance because that's how you get to safety and security. wisconsin has proven that byin e numbers. let's get into a little bit more about the wrongful conviction and one of the things that sort of impressed me in the power of the emotion in the book. you explain to folks that thereis a fair amount of solita. one was 460 days straight. >> it was 360 days into than itt was 800 the second time. >> so, that being alone in that

space helping people and they are going to punish them for that. to say what it was like and compare, lock a puppy up for days at a time and let somebody tell on you andnd you will see what happens. so if it's not okay to do it to a pet, how is it okay to do it to a human being in any capacity. the time i was incarcerated they opened up the secure program. at the same thing that got us here now, jeffrey dahmer was killed in prison and they took that and waged a political war

and they did it out of fear. when i started to realize that, i became interested in the prison system. so i had the ignorance of believing that these people were just making choices and that wasn't the case and what i also realized was there's a difference between reading and what you'reg reading. some who were pleading guilty just simply didn't understand.

there was one called manufacturing a weapon. especially for black men because they would take the razor and break off the tip. men were pleading guilty to this manufacturing a weapon so i started to tell them stop pleading guilty to that. so i started and all of a sudden they are accusing me of stuff that made no sense. suddenly from the wisconsin innocence project there were

students assigned and so as stuff was going on you could see what was going on and essentially people stopped pleading guilty to these and started doing little and couldn't fill up the bed space in the unit so just think about it, this is segregation, it's dead. it happens in real time inside of these institutions so let's jump in. the book is two parts, the first discusses your experiences asd a victim and your journey to become an advocatean within the system. >> i don't know quite where to begin talking about the chapter

but what stands out to me at least is the way the criminal justice part happened. the background is you have gone to a party despite witnesses and a litany of evidence showing you were not guilty, you were falsely accused. the accuser has a lot of problems that judges say this doesn't sound credible to me. let's start at the point you don't know what's going on and you're 17. you don't have a lawyer and you go and think that telling the truth about what happens will be

the solution and they will understand and go home. so, that's exactly what i thought. the number one reason i started the book and explained how i was raised because it lets you understand how easy it is and how easily things can happen. i mentioned about my grandmother and grandfather and the reason why is because there's a lot of us. a lot of family. my grandmother was a lady from cleveland mississippi. when you talked about her you would believe she was a 7-foot tall. the police and the school wasn't calling the house. it was always that you do what you're supposed to do, tell the

truth and that's how we were taught. black kids should be taught a little bit morett than that. when i saw that cardin might a overcome i had graduated high school when you're trying to hold onto friends we knew it was coming to an end. making a little bit of extra money so when i get home, i'm now graduated, it's like homicide. i knew bse they had the wrong g.

he said how old are you and i said 17. they said to just come on down. get this over with and the entire interview i remember being called kid, boy, son. we were the three black men from chicago, just that fast. i remember every word from tupac's cd. when i went i didn't know one amendment to the constitution. i didn't know i could to say i want a lawyer and things would bebe over. i thought if i told the truth, they would wake up.

from wisconsin and down, also it was very much in the book the interrogating officer didn't come with an open mind in the foregoneor conclusion. at what point did you know that and sort of lose the optimism that telling the truth and standing up would not get you outwo of this problem? >> in all craziness, they didn't arrest me right there. let me tell you what they were doing, now i know what they were doing.

so, they knew all three of us but decided to interview me first and here's why because we went up to the room staggered. i stayed playing video games and if they took a statement from me, three-page statement. they kept trying to figure out this kid is saying this -- when they were talking to me, the conversation was you know you want to save yourself. you see how easily it could have been, someone trying to save themselves not knowing what's right to do.

they are just poking around, telling the truth, your good. boy oh boy. when a caravan of police show up, they took that interview and so this caravan of police i will embarrassmenthe in my families face.

my mother was already mad. when she saw the name of the campus, as naïve as this may sound, i never thought that things would not be okay. what sort of extraordinary about it when you get here to wisconsin you go through a pulmonaryow hearing and the jude at that hearing said this is a really bad case. he looked at the case and this is something that i want to make sure i say as well. you know what the facts of the case are, they are the police

report. sometimes people become confused. the facts of the case of a police report, so the police report was written. no conversation at all and meanwhile, they had the witnesses statement so i am dismayed because i didn't know until the preliminary hearing. that was the worst mistake ever.

not only that, it's very rare to get a judge that hasn't been a prosecutor or somewhere from high collar that has no understanding not everybody is guilty of what they are accused of. you could tell the atmosphere in the air shifted. i kept asking at the time like where are the native people out, no asians here? the only thing of color is the judge's robe.

how do you get these 40 people and not one person of color. at the nightmare journey in the book, that's what it is. that's most of the people that go through the system. i didn't realize how much of a kid i was. i thought i knew it all, i was ready to go out on my own, all this stuff. i had no idea what they were talking about and one of the most important forks in the road came when there was a mistrial and a retrial and me and my

codefendant demetri realized his own family was able to hire an attorney. you know what the conversation is and it's not going to be good. we want to go ahead and proceed. we would try twice the first ended in a mistrial because again the police report wasn't

testified to so the state moved to the charges before we went to the jury and we asked and requested a mistrial. a. >> they said i know i can't winr with, but it wasn't. so we tried again. this didn't make any sense. where's your defense, for what facts? he was a panelist attorney you

could see the incentive for wanting to get it over with. i think the mistake could be over with. i'm looking across i knew he wasn't making any sense about the trial strategy. i was responsible for that and i was going to pay it back. i thought if i could get it over with and get my act together so

we went to trial, never impeached. the trial strategy was a no defense strategy. at 17, 18 they couldn't prove the case. going into ain trial like that e case is sort of a study on the money and jobs. one of you gets a private attorney and in the first case the state appointed attorneys let the private attorneys do all

the work. they questioned and our attorneys didn't even get an opening. let's stop this, this isn't right. i believe i know that. the prosecutor knew his evidence had nothing to m do with any allegation of the crime and you've got the right accuser.

so we would divide and conquer at that point and i will never forget, part of the reason it's exhausting but i never took a timeout and i will never forget i remember how sunken in her eyes wereer into her head. she looked like my grandmother in the middle of this. this isn't about the truth for you.

you asked me the question. that's when i realized it wasn't looking good. the attorney that's the one where the prosecutor at the very end basically says i am not going to win so you are allowed toto be retried. they want to appeal the codefendant's case. your attorneys don't figure that out. >> they made the decision.

most if you have the same attorneys they wrote the coattails for. they just sat there. there was no reason why they shouldn't have joined the appeal. so it was directly at the heart of what the issue was. it was inexcusable. it seems like it's a constitutional violation one after another. we learn later not all evidence.

we of course know they exclude the people that come to the jury and the state and one of the things i'm surprised by. we were the three black men through chicago. it's like that is how obvious it was going on and that was the

thing they kept saying and he was screaming at the end of the first trial. on top of that, i can't go past that without mentioning this. create a fund where you can assign experienced attorneys and pay a different rate. it's not incentivizing good representation but it's pushing it away.

that's not going to get you the constitutionally affected representation all the time so you think about what that is if we really wanted to make sure we got it right, why aren't the scales leveled for the civil suits to get the funding. i don't want to come across as being this brilliant science major or anything like that, but i've watched and i'm telling you right now we could fix this thing. but there are people that are not affected by you that are eager to fix it.

in the prison system and the jobs that it creates not to do what is right to save the lives of folks and many folks that may be innocent. a part of the reason that you were able to vindicate yourself is businesses at the party that no one talked to and they should have talked to them but they haven't handed over the documents. >> they had all the elements but i cannot use that word enough,

historical, historical because that is how we get to a better place. we can't block out history and be afraid to hurt people's feelings. from the first time that this took place in 2007. i remember asking the attorney about an investigator and about him saying something about a budget.

[inaudible] it's a process of going to the court and again it's not conducive. do we want to get it right is the question then you don't give public defenders the resources they need. you don't give the state defenders the opportunity to pay attorneys to provide representation. this is about want and desire in the fixable issues in the book. so i want to move on to those that are convicted.

what struck me, the judge said something like i was going to give you 20 years but i didn't like your attitude so i'm going tooi give you 28. >> that was real. the second trial i knew what time it was and i looked atbu my mother and i just knew what was going on. i just couldn't have my aunt and my mother sitting up in this courtroom and hearing me be depicted as someone they didn't raise. so my mom, everybody in this room but i'm not going to apologize for something that didn't happen.

the judge overheard this and when i came back after sentencing, she told me exactly whatat you just said, aid to moe additional years because she said i wasn't remorseful. i didn't know that was on the penal code and against the law but apparently she was able to do so. it saved the trajectory. there was no consideration. i am with this older white dude that had been there for a long time and it was him that gave me a wake-up call. they locked everyone down and

i'm trying my best at the chicago public school trying my best to explain because they kept saying how does someone never arrested get this many years in prison and then using the presents as the element. so i can't answer these questions and my family is saying let me talk to you. he was just like i don't understand what you're doing. and all this type of stuff. so we read it and he mentioned the witness thatti came up and

got thereimony never and wrote the statement so he had like a three sentence note that i never paid attention to [inaudible] that's when it later came out this statement and the thing about it when the statement came out, the prosecution almost immediately dismissed the charges. >> the paid attorney was able to hire an investigator and when they brought this attention to the court and prosecutor the

prosecutor said we are done you can go. so now i thought that if the evidence was strong enough to garner the business it was strong enough for a new trial. the strategy didn't include the witnesses and essentially made us go the long way and he appealed seven years more. there is no doubt the same if issues i pointed out to the

innocence project so i pointed out the issues and its two issues, first of the elements but the subject of the council there is no doubt in my mind that had it not been for the name of the wisconsin innocence project, and i know this based on the work that we are doing now in the state of wisconsin it's too easy for folks sitting in their seat to just say no.

he ended up ultimately missing a deadline for the federal pbs. so i go through for the interest of justice in front of the same judge, quote on quote, she said it is clear the court didn't have all the evidence in front ofai it so we are going to overturn the conviction. the prosecutor doing our case that now elevated to the attorney general's office appeal the case to the appellate court and reinstate the conviction

said because he missed a deadline. never said anything about innocence, guilt, none of that just simply said you missed the deadline and the circuit court didn't have the authority to grant the interest of justice. the court said you've got to ask yourself why are we giving these kind of opinions and getting relief in the postconviction system because again when they impress upon you it's the same thing we've been asked before. i'm a lawyer, not a scholar, but

until we address this thing for real answer to address inequality, we are not going to get past this at all. if there were someone on that bench or someone's on the bench that could have solved this for what it was, they would have done with the thurgood marshall quote said sometimes you've gote to do what's right and left the law catch up. this speaks volumes we can't keep relying we've just got to keep changing. it's important we use the book to mobilize what good it could have done. every county criminal court that you live in, there needs to be a pocket to hold judges accountable.

it's important that we know who we are electing, who people are because we have to change the people that are making the decisions. i am of the notion or the belief that there are other innocent people in the system. if you look at the per capita you know there've been mistakes made so now the people [inaudible] to replace them becauseth they are the oppressos of the quality of justice and we need to be able to move forward. i think we have about ten minutes. the microphone over here i'm

told. that's how you know you did a good job. [laughter] >> let's talk about your life sentence and your passion for helping other men that haven't been able. >> first i had a strong family structure. my mom, my aunt and people in the community that reached out and extended. i had a a former state attorney who took me under his wing when i got to chicago.

i wanted the presence but i wanted to try to start something that would tackle that article to be known for locking up the most black men, that can't be what it is so you have to go from having a conversation so that's why i wanted to have the prisons here. back to the state of wisconsin

and we are doing a good job of it but then the treasurer over 50, 60% have had experience in the system before. so let me use another example. imagine there's a car company that has 60% back to the production line after two or three years. congress would have a national debate to shut this company down because of the danger and risk to the community. so i go back to the human rights movement back in society. the scariest thing i saw [inaudible] so it's like okay how do we find the value and at

thetime to shut down a corporatn when it's product keeps coming back and no one wants to have a conversation and more importantly giving the resources it needs. the only way to fix it is to empower the community. think about what you use every day at home, the tv, whatever it is. but it's comingg down to do you have the resources, the glue, the tape -- now you look at that and say to yourself okay now let's fix this thing. we build the community is as

strong as we can and we can't do that if we continue the political talking about the criminal justice reform and we are over in iraq fighting with people. >> we have a question over here. >> i noticed in the reality of the crime you were accused of was it that there really was an assault and they got the wrong guy is that perpetrated or the victim was lying about the whole thing, did you ever find out? >> you didn't read the book. [laughter] >> you've got to read the book. with all respect and sincerity you've got to read the book, that's what you've got to do. it was a false accusation and an

embarrassing and counter, you've got to read the book. >> i will, however since you say it is a false accusation the question i have is there any sense of justice the person that made the false accusation basically just walks off and lives her life? >> this isn't just my case, this is with all cases that i'd know of when someone is lying as a witness of the state there are no repercussions. they can tell you all they want to tell you but if they start to prosecute people that are lying they run the risk of all the nonsense. i will say this, we were kids. i know for a fact this lady made this false accusation because

someone was calling her names. that's what kids do. sometimes when kids are pressed with their backs up against the wall they don't make the best ondecisions but from day number one and especially after that statement they knew what the truth was they just decided this is a male we are not going to miss this opportunity. a. >> i thinkrt that is a good plae to end. thank you very much. [applause] thank you for your questions and all of you for coming tonight. i'm the director of the wisconsin book festival. this is the first day to celebrate the festival in two full years. the last celebration date was the 23rd, 2019 so it's really wonderful to welcome you all back. especially for evenings like this and important books like

this this is the 20th time madison wisconsin the world has gathered to celebrate the book festival so thank you for participating in that tonight. up to its neck in debt.

they are striving to provide equal opportunity for all citizens. >> ski stands a student can documentary competition 2022. students across the country are giving a behind-the-scenes look as they look with the hashtag student cam. middle or high school students can join the conversation by entering the c-span student cam competition. create a five to six minute documentary using c-span video clips and answer the question how does the federal government impact your life. >> be passionate about what you're expressing and express your views, no matter how large and know that in the greatest country, your view does matter. >> the content is king, and just remember to be as neutral and impartial as possible in your portrayal of both sides of an issue. >> c-span awards $100,000 in

cash prizes and you have a shot at winning the grand prize. entries must be received before january 20th. for competition rules, tutorials or how to get started, visit the website and student cam.org. .. o he is also the author of numerous folks in the circle finalistst. war is a force that gives us meaning. the new book we will be discussing tonight. drama, literature philosophy and history and the college degree program oed