Redeeming Justice: From Defendant to Defender: My Fight for Equity on Both Sides of a Broken System, by Jarrett Adams
Keith Findley, keynote speaker at ESTHER’s 20th Anniversary Banquet on November 16, is a key figure in this 2021 book by Jarrett Adams. You can support ESTHER’s work on transformational justice and hear from the co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project by attending ESTHER’s 20th anniversary banquet on November 16.
Adams was seventeen when an all-white jury in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, sentenced him to twenty-eight years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. In this unforgettable memoir, Jarrett recalls the journey that led to his exoneration—and inspired him to devote his life to fighting the many injustices in our legal system. With time running out for him to file his appeal, the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School offered to represent him, both in drafting his appeal and representing him in court.
Without the dedication of Professor Keith Findley and his team of law school students, Adams would likely still be in prison today. He describes in the book the race against time to file the appeal in Federal court, working with the students and Professor Findley. His appeal was delivered to the court on the very last day the law allowed.
In the same vein as Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, Adams’ Redeeming Justice helps shine a light on the inequities rife in our criminal justice system. It is an action-call to each of us to work hard to reform that system until it is in fact one of justice, and not one of injustice.
