that had been presented to his jury. reporter: after nine years in prison adams case reached the top federal court in the mideast. in a unanimous vote, the justices ruled he didn t receive an adequate defense. the day they overturned my conviction, i was taken down out of my cell to a phone room. they said, jarrett, you won. and hearing that brought tears to my eyes. this is a human system. it s fallible. it s bound to make mistakes but when we make mistakes they re catastrophic. reporter: with adams maintaining the innocence, prosecutors decided not to retry him. he was free but he was a 26-year-old man with a life paused at 17. when i went to prison, there was no google. there was no e-mail. there was none of this stuff. so i had to figure out a way to
i could be duplicated and me being here, being able to have this coverage, should be reason and motivation of enough to never give up. jarrett adams, a pleasure to have you here. ari, thank you for bringing his story to us. thank you. we appreciate it. if you have any questions for jarrett or for ari, you can join the twitter chat today 5:00 p.m. eastern. use #jarrettadams. the slide everybody s talking about. we are live at the stadium. and this actually happened. take a look. would you hang from a helicopter by your toes? i ll talk to the wife of a famous high-wire artist about the jaw dropping stunt dangling above a nascar race. to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits but there s a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice.
catch up with the world to be able to just have a shot at life. reporter: he set a lofty goal. law school and public service. jarrett adams. reporter: he earned that law degree this past spring. jarrett has a passion for using his legal education and his talents to right wrongs in society. reporter: and his mission didn t stop there. adams won a fellowship to clerk on the 7th court of appeals, the very court that overturned his conviction. we asked former federal prosecutor if he s ever seen that happen. no. i never have. i mean, jarrett is remarkable. for someone to argue before that court is a really big deal. for someone to clerk for that court is an even bigger deal. i m very proud of him. i m as proud as if i was his mother. reporter: adams says his story is just getting started. i said to myself the story of jarrett adams won t be
chicago who spent 25 years of his life on death row for a crime he did not commit. didn t get the support that this gentleman has. and the disproportionate number of african-american males who are sentenced more harshly and then when they get out, in cases where they were rightfully convicted they re not given an opportunity to get a job as the president has discussed with as you say, it runs so deep. we do these reports. it touches so many things, you don t have time to get to it. the burke case. dean yellen picked several loyola students to go through those cases. jarrett adams was one of them. one of those cases has been overturned. african-american man who spent over 25 years in prison, including work that jarrett and others did, they found out it was torture that led to the false confession. that man was 19 when that happened. as for jarrett s case, i spoke to a former federal prosecutor, someone tasked with putting
commit. the conviction was overturned. we ll speak with jarrett right here on set in a moment. but first, here s my report. we can get started. reporter: for jarrett adams, leading a clinic on criminal justice goes beyond the professional. it s personal. when he was 17 years old, he visited a college campus with two friends where they were accused of sexual assault. i maintained my innocence from the beginning because i was innocent. reporter: but adams court-appointed lawyer did not offer a defense at trial. i m looking at myself in the courtroom, you know, while the train is coming down the tracks. you know? getting ready to hit me head on. reporter: living behind bars, a cellmate told him to stop playing basketball and to fight for his freedom and justice instead. adams taught himself case law and wrote to the wisconsin innocence project. we got letter from jarrett in time to allow us to do a federal appeal. we had powerful, new evidence