The Rape That Wasn’t:
The Wrongful Conviction of Jarrett Adams by John Maki
Case Summary
In 1998, Jarrett Adams and Dimitri Henley, African
American teenagers from the South Side of Chicago, were falsely accused
of raping a white woman while they were visiting Whitewater,
Wisconsin. The case against them was so weak that their
public-appointed attorneys decided not to call a single witness in
their defense, including a person who would have completely undermined
their accuser's account. That turned out to be a significant
mistake. After a two-day trial, the two were convicted and
sentenced to 20 years in prison. At sentencing, the judge gave
Jarrett an additional 8 years when he protested his innocence. While he was incarcerated, Jarrett began to study the law and became his own best advocate. Through his efforts, he got the attention of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, who decided to take him on as a client. In 2007, Jarrett's lawyers took his case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In a unanimous opinion, the Court reversed his conviction, finding that his original lawyer had deprived him of his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Soon after the opinion was issued, the prosecution dropped all charges against Jarrett. During this same period, things looked bleak for Henley. It was too late for him to file a federal habeas, so he filed a state habeas, in Wisconsin called a § 974.06 (which is a reference to the statute authorizing it). In Wisconsin, there is no time limit to filing a § 974.06, but the defendant must have new evidence that is probative, relevant and not cumulative, and which was not known to the defense or discoverable by the defense at time of trial. Obviously, Henley met that burden -- not that many defendants are able to do so -- because in January 2008, a Wisconsin County Circuit Court Judge ordered a new trial for Henley based on the ruling in Jarrett’s case. He was released on $1,000 bond. The prosecution appealed the Circuit Court’s Judge’s ruling, and the case is now pending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. After his release, Jarrett immediately returned to school. This Spring, he will graduate with honors from South Suburban College with an Associate’s Degree. He is currently applying to universities. After he earns his Bachelor’s, he plans to go to law school, so that he can fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer and, in his words, “defend against the same thing that got [him] convicted: not having a defense.” |
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