Man falsely imprisoned for 10 years, uses prison library to study law and have his conviction overturned. Becomes a lawyer and is now helping overturn other false convictions.

Jarrett Adams, a 36 year old Attorney overturned an innocent person’s conviction in the same Wisconsin court where he was wrongly charged for sexual harassment twenty eight years ago.

That has been his first professional win. Regarding this scene Adams has said to NBC News' Lester Holt that, "It's a storybook tale that you wouldn't believe until you saw it. To have a conviction overturned and in a court, in a state, that I was wrongfully convicted."

Adams was arrested along with two other teenagers for a group sexual harassment case that happened when he was seventeen years old.

 Adams denied the crime and stated it was a peaceful encounter with a woman in a party at Wisconsin university: as "a completely consensual encounter from beginning to end.”

One week after the party, Adams and his two friends was arrested. Adam was extradited and could not afford legal assistance. He was charged with a 28 year of imprisonment.

I"My only encounter with the criminal court system was 'Law & Order.' And at the end of those commercials, and that theme music comes on, you don't see guys who are wrongfully convicted go to prison and get sentenced to 28 years, Adams said in an interview to nbcnews

Meanwhile in the prison cell, Adam befriended a cellmate who was from the prison library. His cellmate encouraged him not to give up but to fight back against the injustice. Adams read many law related books. He encountered with a Supreme Court case and found out that, there is a constitutional requirement provided for accused to seek assistance counseling. Adams studied the case well with the help of then attorney of Innocent Project Keith Findley and overturned the conviction after ten years of imprisonment. He was freed in 2007.


Adam earned his bachelor’s degree in a community college. Later he attended law school and  became an attorney.

In his first professional work he overturned the conviction of another innocent convict named Richard Beranek, who was falsely charged for a rape case in 1990. Working hand in hand with then attorney of Innocent Project Keith Findley, Adams dedicated his time to help Richard out of jail. Adams says he wants to fight back against the racial segregation that wrongs people like him, and doing so makes him victorious: "Nothing pays me back more, or my family, than me walking in the same court, in the same state, where they didn't even look at me when they gave me 28 years,"[..]But now they have to acknowledge me as 'Attorney Adams.'"