The Presumption of Innocence - Episode 52

Legal Listening: The Fox Rothschild LLP Podcast

Episode 52 Engineered for Injustice: How Coerced Pleas Trap the Innocent Rodney Roberts was given a total of 25 minutes to make a life-altering decision. In custody, isolated from family and advised by a public defender to plead guilty to lesser charges in a crime he did not commit, Rodney succumbed to fear and pressure, and agreed to the terms. In this wrenching episode, Rodney joins host Matt Adams and defense attorney Tim Gumkowski of the Innocence Project to share his personal story of coercion into a guilty plea and the years of his life he lost as a result, trapped in a system that refused to acknowledge its mistake. Now a reentry coach with the Innocence Project, Rodney was ultimately exonerated after serving 18 years — including 10 years civilly committed in a facility after the attorney general filed a petition citing delusion and psychosis in response to Rodney’s repeated assertions of innocence. You’ll hear Rodney explain his emotional turmoil as he was coerced into the guilty plea and how his experience drives his work today with the Innocence Project. Matt and Tim also dig into the structural flaws of the criminal justice system that fuel this fire of coerced plea agreements and explore whether ways exist to extinguish them.