01:13
Jarrett Adams Highlight
Close your eyes and picture something you want, no matter what is in front of it, that you would do anything humanly possible to get to...all you have to do is keep fighting until you figure out a way to get to that other side.
About Jarrett
- Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago by a single mother.
- When he was 17 years old, he was falsely accused of a rape while attending a college party with some friends.
- He couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer, so the court appointed him one—the lawyer failed to call some key witnesses or enter a defense, which resulted in him receiving a 28-year prison sentence.
- He had served almost 10 years of his sentence before the Innocence Project took his case, got his conviction reversed, and had his record expunged.
- He was released in February of 2007 and was back in school by April of that year—says that he knew getting an education was the key to getting himself reacclimated into society.
- Started at community college and eventually went on to graduate with his law degree from Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law.
- His first job out of law school was working as a clerk in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago—the same court that overturned his conviction.
- He now works closely with the Innocence Project, in addition to running his own law office and continuing to act as an advocate for criminal justice reform.
