As I write this post, there are multiple protests going on across the country for police reform and redress to social injustices to the lives Africa-Americans. Black Lives Matter has become a movement that’s taken on urgent energy and its themes and goals have made the whole world take notice. A couple of years ago an excellent documentary called 13th by Ava DuVernay was released that chronicles how black people in America were exploited for labor even after the end of slavery by the use of unjust criminal justice systems and laws, perpetuating in a different form a terrible cycle thought to have been abolished by the 13th Amendment.
A couple of months before the death of George Floyd and the recent Black Lives Matters protests, ABC TV released a show called “For Life”. It told the fictional story of Aaron Wallace, a successful entrepreneur who is railroaded through the criminal justice system on drug charges and sentenced to life in prison, despite being innocent. Aaron Wallace, the character, is Black and although fictional, his story would sound familiar to too many people in the Black community.
I had not heard of either of these stories before until recent protests. I do recall seeing billboards for “For Life” as I drove around the city, but I had no idea about DuVernay’s “13th” – until a friend recommended I watch. As I did, it reminded me of the billboards and I did some more research. What I found was that although the character Aaron Wallace is fictional, his life is actually based on a real person. That real person is Isaac Wright Jr. And I want to bring his story to your attention.
Mr. Wright is now a lawyer in New Jersey for the firm of Hunt, Hamlin, and Ridley but he didn’t start out in law. He was a music producer until one day in 1991 when he was arrested and charged with being a drug dealer. A corrupt and overly ambitious prosecutor names Nicholas Bissell orchestrated Mr. Wright’s conviction and put him away for life in jail. But in jail, Isaac Wirght didn’t lose hope and didn’t give up. He worked as a paralegal, working on his case, all the while helping other inmates with their legal troubles. By the mid-nineties, Bissell’s corruption caught up with him and he himself became an outlaw before taking his own life in a cheap motel. But that didn’t necessarily mean freedom for Isaac Wright. He would spend 7 years in prison before his charges were dismissed and ultimately became a free man. But his struggles weren’t over. His experiences led him to study law and received a law degree in 2007, passing the bar a year later. But the New jersey bar investigated him 9 years and wouldn’t admit him into the bar until the case was decided in his favor by the NJ Supreme Court in 2017. Now he practices law, as he puts it “To slay giants for a price. And if the giant is big enough and the cause is important enough, I’ll do it for free, especially when it involves helping those who cannot help themselves.”
For more information, check out the following links:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-03-31/for-life-abc-50-cent-isaac-wright-jr
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a30857774/for-life-true-story-isaac-wright-jr-inspiration/