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https://goo.gl/d1jB4m

Attorney Jarrett Adams recently helped overturn an innocent man's conviction
— in the same state that, years ago, had sentenced him to prison for a crime
he did not commit.

Jarrett Adams律師最近幫忙一個無辜的人逆轉了判決--
一個好幾年前也是誤判Adams他沒犯的罪的州，
而送他進監獄的判決。

The case was Adams' first professional win. But it was also deeply personal
for the 36-year-old, who spent nearly 10 years behind bars after being
wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in a case that Adams, who is black,
believes was tainted by racism.

這個案子是Adams的第一個職業生涯的勝利。但是是對這個36歲，花了接近十年在監獄過活，
就因為被誤判性侵害的Adams來說很重要的一個勝利。因為Adams是個黑人，所以當時的判決被認為是有種族歧視的關係。


"This is a storybook," Adams told NBC News' Lester Holt. "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."

「這真的是說來話長。」Adams跟我們NBC的記者說，
「這個故事真的只有你親眼看見才會相信...一個被誤判的判決在我被誤判的州法院逆轉並且洗刷我的冤獄。」

Adams was only 17 when an encounter at a party, an accusation, and a
court-appointed attorney put his life on hold.

Adams被抓的時候只有17歲，在一個派對上發生這件事情，並且法院公設辯護人將他的生死交給法院。

He had just finished high school on Chicago's South Side and decided to go to
the University of Wisconsin for a party, where he and his friends met a young
woman and had what he describes as a "completely consensual encounter from
beginning to end."

他當時剛從芝加哥南城的高中畢業，並且決定前往威斯康辛大學的一個派對。他跟他朋友在那裏遇到一個女生。
根據他們的說法，那個女生從頭到尾都是完全同意性行為的

Three weeks later, as Adams was getting ready to start junior college in the
fall of 1998, he was arrested. An officer informed him that the woman said
she was raped, and that he was being charged with a group sexual assault
along with two other teenagers.

三個禮拜後，1998年秋天，當Adams準備開始社區大學的生活時，
一個警察跟他說有女性通報她被Adams和他朋友們強姦。
Adams和另外兩個青少年一起將被以集體性侵的罪名被起訴

Adams had never been arrested before. He denied the crime from the start, and
thought the misunderstanding would get resolved quickly.

Adams從來沒有被逮捕過，他從頭到尾否認該罪名，並且以為這個錯誤應該很快就會被釐清。


Instead, he was extradited to Wisconsin, where he couldn't afford legal
assistance. A court-appointed attorney chose not to put on a defense, even
though there was a witness who could have helped clear Adams: a student
living in the dorm who could corroborate Adams' timeline of events.

但是，取而代之的是，他被引渡到威斯康辛州，一個他負擔不了律師費的地方。
而公辦辯護人在就算有其他證人可以幫忙Adams作證的情況下選擇不辯護-----
這名證人是一個住在宿舍的人，他能夠幫忙Adams作證當下的情況。

"This guy is telling us, 'We know you didn't do it. They haven't proven their
case. The best defense is a no-defense strategy,'" Adams said. "We're like,
'Yeah, sounds good,' because we didn't know any better, right? But in
reality, it was a horrible idea to not call any witnesses, not to
investigate, and to put this in front of an all-white, racially charged jury.
We didn't stand a chance."

『這個公設辯護人跟我們說
「我們知道你沒有犯罪，他們沒有證明。最好的辯護，就是不要答辯。」
Adams說
「我們聽完就覺得，好喔，聽起來不錯，畢竟我們不是專家阿」
但是實際上，不召喚證人，不調查案件，把全案交給白人，
那些用種族來判決的陪審團來執行判決是一個非常錯誤的決定，
我們根本沒有任何勝算。』

The result was a conviction with a stunning 28-year prison sentence for
Adams; 20 years for another teen who couldn't pay for representation; and an
acquittal for the third, who had hired a private lawyer, and called the alibi
witness.

結果就是他被判了驚人的28年，他一個負擔不起律師的朋友被判了20年，第三個朋友，因為有私人律師，他請來了證人而得到無罪釋放。

"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.

「我唯一對刑事法庭的認識就是『法律與秩序』，那麼多的廣告跟主題音樂之下，你只會這麼覺得，
你根本不會知道會有人被誤判然後要打進大牢28年。」Adams說。

Inside prison, Adams met a cellmate who worked for the prison law library and
encouraged him to try to get his conviction overturned.

在監獄中，Adams遇到一個室友在監獄的法律圖書館工作，那位室友鼓勵他嘗試逆轉這項定罪。

"He said, 'Listen. I go over hundreds of inmates' cases, and all of them say
the same thing: I'm innocent.' He said, 'I've never seen a case like yours
before. You're in here for some racist bull crap, and you've essentially
waved the white flag,'" Adams said.

「他說『聽著，我遇到好幾百個室友的案子，他們都跟我說一模一樣的說詞『我沒有罪』
但是你的案子是我完全沒遇過的，你因為一堆種族歧視的狗屎而進來的，而你當下舉了白旗。』」

The cellmate urged him not to give up: "It's only going to take a second
before you have tattoos on your face and have given up and completely don't
care at all. You need to go down swinging," he told Adams.

這位室友鼓勵他不要放棄，「我跟你說，你只需要幾秒鐘就可以開始刺青然後放下然後不在乎。但這不對，你要站起來。」

So, Adams started reading law books and found a Supreme Court case that
stated that the Constitution required defendants be provided effective
assistance of counsel. He got in touch with attorney Keith Findley with the
Wisconsin Innocence Project, a state chapter of the nonprofit devoted to
justice for wrongfully convicted people.

所以Adams開始閱讀法律相關的書，並且找到一個最高法院的判例，憲法規定辯護人需要提供有效的支援。


Findley知道這是一場很難打的硬仗，但是他接受了。

"He had done his homework. He knew the case, factually, better than anybody,
and he knew the law, so that he was engaging with us, discussing legal
issues, strategy," Findley said.

「他做了功課，他知道這個案子，事實上，比任何人都知道。而且他懂法律，他跟我們一起討論案件，
討論策略。」Findley說。

Adams' sentence was eventually overturned and the charges dropped, for the
exact reason that he had found in the prison law library books: ineffective
assistance of counsel.

Adams的案子最後被逆轉了。逆轉的原因就是因為他在監獄的法律圖書館找到的法條
----無效的律師協助。

A month after he was freed in 2007, Adams enrolled in community college, went
on to earn his Bachelor's degree and attended law school, graduating in 2015.


attorney by the organization.

去年暑假，他成為第一個被無罪專案成功釋罪的人加入成為被該組織的律師。

"What I wanted more than anything was this: I wanted my mother, when she went
to church and people asked about her son, for her not to duck her head in her
Bible and cry. And I wanted her to be proud," he said.

「我所想要的莫過於這個:我想要我媽去教堂時，當人們詢問她的兒子，她不需要把頭埋在聖經裡並且痛哭。
我只想要成為他的驕傲。」Adams說。

Recently, Adams found himself back in a Wisconsin courtroom, this time
working side-by-side with his former attorney Findley, to free another man
they believed was wrongfully convicted.

最近Adams回到威斯康辛的法庭，跟他之前的律師Findley一同作戰，目的是幫助另外一個他們相信是被誤判的男人逆轉判決。

Richard Beranek was convicted of rape in 1990. Although he had alibi
witnesses that put him in another state at the time of the rape, the jury
found the testimony of an FBI expert tying him to the scene through a
microscopic hair analysis convincing enough to deliver a guilty verdict.

Richard在1990年被判性侵，雖然他當時的證人有不在場證明，但是FBI的專家做了頭髮檢驗後認為他當時是有在現場無誤的。

Adams — who served time in the same correctional facility as his client —
 was dedicated to freeing him, Findley said.

Adams，這位也是因為類似情況而被誤判而送進大牢的男人，用盡全力想要保他出來。

"I can talk to Richard about what I've seen other exonerees go through, what
the experience looks like from the outside, but I couldn't do what Jarrett
can do. I couldn't speak with the authenticity of knowing what it feels like,
that Jarrett can speak to," Findley said.


但是我不能做到Adams所能做的，我沒辦法像Adams一樣告訴他這到底是什麼感覺。」



In June, a Dane County circuit judge overturned Beranek's conviction, citing
DNA evidence that proves the FBI hair analysis was wrong. Beranek is now a
free man, in large part thanks to Adams' tireless work.

六月，丹尼縣巡迴法院逆轉了Richard的案子，以DNA的檢驗證明FBI的頭髮分析是錯誤的。
Richard現在是一個自由之人，這有一大部分要歸功於Adams的不眠不休的努力。


"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," Adams said. "But now they have to acknowledge me as 'Attorney
Adams.'"

「沒有什麼事比我能夠在相同的法庭，在他們連看都不看我一眼就判我28年的相同的地方走來走去更讓我(或是我家人)覺得有所報答了。」
「而他們現在都要叫我Adams律師。」


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備註

1.這篇新聞全部是手翻的，翻得不好請指教
2.美國種族歧視還有很大的問題需要被解決。
3.希望更多人看到，但是沒有太多P幣，所以五樓跟十樓各發150P 一共300P 感謝

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