A plea for the innocent
Fans of the blog should know about my love for Pearl Jam. I’ve written about it before in Work hard, play hard – a blog about how the band helped me find balance between work and life when I was getting burnt out as a young lawyer. I detailed my travels in 2024 to see 10 of the 31 shows I’ve gone to over the years. But I feel like I did some injustice to the band in those posts for leaving out perhaps the most important part of why this band has been so meaningful to me for 35 years.
Sure, at first, it was pure grunge that hooked me. When I started college in 1992, their iconic debut album, Ten, was on repeat in my dorm room. It was the first of many transformative albums the band released, most of which I was in line for on the day the CD came out at the record store. The band was young, powerful, and emotional. They gave me everything from the reckoning of a confusing relationship with my biological father in Release to the raw energy of Jeremy which tackled the story of a school shooting at a time when those tragedies were far more unimaginable. Ever since the beginning, there was deep meaning in the music that struck a chord of social consciousness and self-awareness.
As the band grew over the years, so did I. And I did so often with their guidance and inspiration. Where I did not do the band justice in prior blogs is in failing to convey perhaps the most important reason for following them for four decades – they make me want to be a better person. (No, I was not going to say a “Better Man” since that song is really about someone who is anything but.)
In the late 90’s, the band became actively involved in helping to free the West Memphis Three – three men wrongfully convicted in 1994 of murdering three eight-year old boys – who were released from prison in 2011 following exculpatory DNA evidence.
For all the debates in the 90’s over whose lead singer had the best voice, there truly was no contest. The best voice belongs to those who use it for good. And for over 30 years Pearl Jam – including the bands’ families – have been using their voices to fight for justice and bring about social change.
During my impressionable years, the band made an impact on me to be better. They have continued to do so for most of my life.
In my work life, one area where I get to carry forward the lessons I learn from Pearl Jam about righting injustice is through my pro bono work. I work to protect immigrant victims of torture in asylum cases. I volunteer to provide non-partisan election protection assistance. And recently, I have been focusing on cases for the Innocence Project in New York to overturn wrongful convictions.
The work is inspiring, but never easy. The basis of it is a tragedy in the lives of others – whether the victims or the wrongly convicted. While grateful for the ability to use my professional skills to help, each case fills me with sadness, grief, and anger. Sadness for the lives of the innocent that were forever altered. Grief for the victims who never received justice. And anger at a system that reveals its vulnerability to corruption, hate, and racism from those who are supposed to protect us. The music of Pearl Jam’s W.M.A. (White Male American) speaks to me, as I struggle with the privilege from which I benefit in this world.
But while the band has continued to blaze its trail of promoting social justice and reform and I simply do my best to follow their lesson and pursue my own path for the same goal, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that these worlds would collide – as they did last week.
As I mentioned above, it’s not just the members of the band that inspire. It extends to their families as well. In this case, Ashley OConnor McCready, the wife of lead guitarist Mike McCready, is a lawyer who dedicates herself to providing post-conviction support to those are unjustly incarcerated. She is the Board President of the Washington Innocence Project – a separate organization from the national Innocence Project in New York with which I was familiar. And both Ashley and Mike are friends of a partner in my firm’s Seattle office who invited me to join them at a dinner to support this cause. OMG!
First, I must admit, I was nervous. While I always imagined how comfortable I would be in the presence of any member of the band that has been such a big part of the past four decades of my life, it’s always been from the perspective of knowing them with at least the rail at the front of the general admission pit separating us. I’ve always felt a belonging amongst the fans, but did I belong with the band? But then I remembered a lesson that I learned through my fitness journey when I felt like I had no place at a gym where others looked the part, but I did not – invite people in who may not feel like they belong because they are most often the ones who most belong there.
Second, I was mindful of the weight of the moment. As important as Pearl Jam’s music has been in my life, and as deep as the scars are in my soul that it has helped heal, nothing compares to the cause for which we gathered. It seems like it should be easy to overturn a conviction when exculpatory evidence exonerates the wrongly accused. Yet, I have repeatedly seen that this is far from reality. Take the case of Cody Kloepper which is currently handled by the Washington Innocence Project. Cody was convicted of a brutal attack in 2010. DNA testing completely excluded Cody and identified the actual perpetrator through the FBI database. Shockingly, his conviction was upheld, demonstrating how exceedingly difficult it is to undo a conviction once it has been secured. The Washington Innocence Project did not give up, uncovered a critical report that was withheld by the state, and is now pursuing a new case that will hopefully end Cody's 16-year nightmare.
And lastly, how does one meet their hero? They say never to do so. I say “they” know not of which they speak. And this evening turned out not just to be about meeting one of my heroes, but about him meeting me as well. I went in with no expectations. I was there to support innocence. I was there to thank Ashley and Mike for doing the same. And I hoped to let Mike know how grateful I am for what the band’s music and social consciousness has done for my life.
From left to right: Ashley OConnor McCready, me, and Mike McCready at a gathering to support The Washington Innocence Project
But in my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined what this experience would mean to me. I will keep much of it to myself, as I’m not here to gush over all we got to discuss, but I will share one moment that connected Mike’s journey with mine in the ways I’ve written about throughout the two years of Legally Fit.
One of Pearl Jam’s most powerful songs, Inside Job, was written by Mike. It is about his story of overcoming addiction, and I’ve always listened to it by trying to put myself in his shoes. When I was at a show at Wrigley Field in 2016, and his friend Steve Gleason came on stage to introduce the song as his favorite song, I learned a deeper meaning that others could take away from it as they faced their own battles – in Steve’s case, it is living with ALS. But still, for whatever reason, I never related it to my journey – until Mike did during our conversation. As he told me, “It’s like your journey in losing the weight, it comes from the inside.” Never have I understood this song like I do now, as the words “How I choose to feel, is how I am” so intensely describe the mindset I carried while overcoming my own struggles and addictions. Which brings me back to the wrongfully convicted . . .
I’ve had the immense privilege of meeting a few exonerees. Every time I do, I am overwhelmed by the love they display and the peace that fills their hearts. I am the one who gets angry at a system that stole decades of their lives while they show nothing but gratitude. How do they seem so at peace when so much has been taken from them? Again, “how I choose to feel, is how I am.”
Each exoneree seems keenly aware that not every innocent incarcerated person gets to have the same outcome. In fact, one of my clients died last year in prison. They also know that many never even have someone to take on their case. Which is why we need to do all we can to support the cause of innocence.
At the dinner with Ashley and Mike, I learned something about the Innocence Network that I had never realized. Each “Innocence Project” throughout the country relies on separate funding. As I mentioned above, The Washinton Innocence Project is not the same as the first Innocence Project in New York with whom I have worked. The Washinton Innocence Project was founded in 1997 by Professor Jacqueline McMurtrie as part of the University of Washington School of Law, and today it is an independent 501(c)(3) organization that relies on funding to support its increasing requests for help. So, as I have learned from Pearl Jam, their families, and the many others who support the band to change the world, right a wrong, and save a life, I will plea to the fans of this blog for your support. The cost of the work to fight the uphill battles embraced by the Washington Innocence Project is overwhelming, and the few who carry the burden of taking on the challenge need our support. Please show your support here as Pearl Jam continues to make us all better people.
Aaron