C. J. Rice was first arraigned in 2011 on the eleventh ground of 1301 Filbert Avenue, a towering, steel-framed criminal-court advanced two miles from the South Philadelphia neighborhood the place he’d grown up. In 2013, on the fifth ground of the identical constructing, Rice was tried on 4 counts of tried homicide, discovered responsible, and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in jail. For 3 years, he appealed the sentence, showing on the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth flooring. After every try failed, he was shuttled again to a state jail in rural Coal Township, Pennsylvania.
This morning, on the eighth ground, the Philadelphia District Lawyer’s Workplace introduced that it now not considers Rice a viable suspect within the capturing for which he had been discovered responsible. His conviction had already been overturned by a federal court docket in November, on the grounds that his lawyer had been constitutionally poor. In right now’s choice, the D.A.’s workplace formally dismissed the costs towards him. The D.A.’s choice absolutely exonerates Rice. He’s now a free man. He had been imprisoned for greater than 12 years.
Rice was the topic of my November 2022 cowl story for The Atlantic, “Good Luck, Mr. Rice,” which investigated his trial and the shortcomings of Sandjai Weaver, his court-appointed lawyer. The case towards Rice was at all times weak. No bodily proof tied Rice to the capturing for which he was arrested, and the one sufferer who recognized him had informed police 3 times that she didn’t know who had shot her earlier than finally altering her story. But Weaver failed to assemble exculpatory proof and repeatedly missed alternatives to problem the state’s case towards her shopper. A supply with the D.A.’s workplace informed me that Rice’s conviction doubtless resulted from his illustration being so dangerous.
Rice had compelling proof of his innocence: Three weeks previous to his alleged crime, he had been shot in a separate incident that had left him hospitalized for days. When he visited his pediatrician for follow-up care, he might barely stroll. That pediatrician was my father, Theodore Tapper. Six days later, the Philadelphia police introduced that they sought his affected person as a suspect. My father was dumbfounded. Witnesses had seen the perpetrators of Rice’s alleged crime operating from the scene. “I don’t assume it’s bodily attainable,” he informed me.
My father campaigned for Rice’s launch for greater than a decade, testifying at his trial and appeals, even marshaling a staff of specialised attorneys to his protection and—after lobbying by me—permitting me to report on the story. As we speak’s announcement is the vindication of his efforts, the end result of an 83–year-old doctor’s dedication to a affected person whom everybody else appeared to have forgotten.
For Rice, now 30, it’s an opportunity to lastly dwell an grownup life, set his personal schedule, select his personal garments, flip lights on and off at his leisure. When he first visited 1301 Filbert for his arraignment, Blockbuster was nonetheless renting DVDs and America was nonetheless at battle in Iraq. This morning, when the announcement got here, Rice wasn’t even within the constructing. He’d spent sufficient time there. “That’s behind me now,” Rice stated.
On his final day in jail, Rice obtained one thing of a send-off: His cellblock at State Correctional Establishment–Chester, the medium-security jail to which he was transferred after my story was revealed, was placed on lockdown and he was strip-searched. Rice stood compliantly as guards and German shepherds scoured his room. He was used to the invasive process, however he was nonetheless irritated.
Garments off, arms straight out, then up. Behind one ear, then behind the opposite. A guard made him open his mouth, carry his tongue. He ran his fingers by Rice’s hair after which his beard. Rice knew the drill by then: carry his penis, then his scrotum, flip round, squat, cough.
Rice had been by a whole lot of those searches through the years. Throughout lockdowns. Earlier than and after each in-person go to. The searches had been humiliating, degrading, but additionally routine. Nothing discovered. His day proceeded as ordinary. He went for a stroll within the yard along with his fellow inmates, then made a cellphone name to his brother.
Earlier than lengthy, he was interrupted by a correctional officer.
“Mr. Rice!” she stated. “Mr. Rice!”
Rice made eye contact, his brother nonetheless on the road.
“Mr. Rice!” she continued, insistent.
Rice stated goodbye, hung up the cellphone, and approached her desk.
“Mr. Rice, do you’ve got lots of property and stuff?”
“No,” he stated.
“Properly, pack your stuff, since you’re going house right now.”
It was December 19, 2023. After Rice’s conviction was overturned in federal court docket, his attorneys organized his launch from jail because the D.A.’s workplace weighed its subsequent transfer within the case.
Rice had simply turned 30. He had been 17 in 2011 when he turned himself in to the Philadelphia police, having heard they wished to speak with him. Now he was being informed that he can be signing out of the Division of Corrections. “I’m prepared,” he informed himself.
As Rice gathered his issues, Amelia Maxfield, a lawyer then working with the Pennsylvania Innocence Venture, waited within the jail foyer. When she visited purchasers, guards weren’t usually effusive. As we speak was totally different. The assistant superintendent chatted together with her casually. She sat by a shift change, and numerous staffers made a degree to inform her how comfortable they had been for Rice, what an important individual he was. Some even waited previous their shift to say goodbye to him.
Rice had written to Maxfield and the Innocence Venture asking for assist, and the group grew to become concerned in his case not lengthy after my Atlantic story was revealed. They labored with Karl Schwartz, a Philadelphia protection lawyer, to file a writ of habeas corpus on Rice’s behalf, a petition in federal court docket difficult the legality of an individual’s incarceration. Quickly, Rice’s staff had grown to incorporate Nilam Sanghvi of the Pennsylvania Innocence Venture; Ginger Anders, a seasoned protection lawyer of the regulation agency Munger, Tolles & Olson; and Donald Verrilli, a solicitor normal below President Barack Obama. Verrilli grew to become concerned after I bumped into him at a restaurant, received his cell quantity, and texted him my Atlantic story. Washington, D.C., is a city the place a lot of folks make well-meaning however in the end empty guarantees about serving to folks with numerous tasks. This was not a type of cases.
In his petition, Schwartz argued that Weaver had fallen wanting the Sixth Modification’s assure of a proper to efficient counsel. She’d made numerous inexplicable blunders whereas representing Rice: She by no means subpoenaed his cellphone data, which Rice stated would show that he wasn’t on the scene of the crime; she additionally didn’t problem the sufferer who recognized Rice on why she had modified her story. In his petition, Schwartz selected to deal with one significantly egregious error: Weaver’s choice to permit the prosecution to introduce a idea that one of many victims of the capturing had shot Rice earlier that month. That narrative had no evidentiary foundation, but it surely urged that Rice had had a motive to retaliate.
Habeas petitions are lengthy photographs, succeeding in simply 0.3 % of circumstances, in line with one 2007 examine. Ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims are maybe much more troublesome to determine, owing to a excessive burden of proof set within the 1984 Supreme Court docket case Strickland v. Washington. However on September 22, 2023, the Philadelphia District Lawyer’s Workplace conceded that the retaliation idea was “prejudicial” and that Weaver’s choice to permit it was “objectively unreasonable.” It agreed, in different phrases, that she had been ineffective. On October 23, a U.S. Justice of the Peace decide affirmed Schwartz’s habeas petition. The choice then went to Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro, a district decide for the Jap District of Pennsylvania. She formally overturned Rice’s conviction on November 27.
That put Rice’s destiny again within the fingers of the Philadelphia District Lawyer’s Workplace. Larry Krasner, elected D.A. in 2017, might both retry Rice or drop the entire expenses. Within the meantime, Rice was again to a authorized state akin to pretrial detention. He might go away jail below a bail settlement.
Rice walked out of SCI-Chester that night with an enormous smile on his face. He gave Maxfield a heat embrace.
“Amelia!” he shouted.
“Hey!” she stated.
He carried a bath of his authorized work, paperwork he’d amassed through the years as he’d tried to show his innocence. They walked to Maxfield’s rental automotive. He appeared delirious, in disbelief. He saved saying “Wow!”
“Do you wish to change your garments within the waiting-room lavatory?” Maxfield requested. Rice was nonetheless carrying his orange jail sweatshirt and hat. Maxfield had introduced a change for him from his girlfriend, Shawna, however the final place he wished to go was again into SCI-Chester. So that they received within the automotive and drove to an area diner, the place Shawna was ready.
“C.J. is an unimaginable individual, and his willpower over the previous 12 years has been outstanding,” Maxfield informed me. “The issues that led to C.J.’s wrongful conviction—unreliable eyewitnesses, ineffective help of counsel, and a poor police investigation—infect so many circumstances in Philadelphia and throughout the nation.” Maxfield now works for the Exoneration Venture, a company that gives free authorized companies to the wrongfully convicted. “We’re so comfortable that C.J. is house and free, and we look ahead to persevering with the battle for many who usually are not.”
“I’m glad to see this unsuitable righted,” Rice texted me as soon as he was out. Nonetheless, his expertise had destroyed his confidence within the authorized system. “Can’t name it a mistake. As a result of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s judicial system had at the least 5 separate occasions to right this particular state of affairs, and selected to not act within the curiosity of justice,” he continued, referring to his trial and subsequent appeals. Both the Pennsylvania court docket system failed to significantly evaluate his case, he stated, or it did evaluate it and “selected to permit a transparent injustice to face.”
Rice is aware of Weaver was dangerous at her job, however he sees many different systemic the explanation why he ended up in jail unfairly. He appears motivated to hitch the authorized system and assist others like him. He’s whip sensible. He ought to be a lawyer.
On Sunday, February 4, my father traveled from his house exterior Philadelphia to fulfill up with Rice, who is way from town, attempting to construct a brand new life.
My father was anxious about how this reunion would go. Although releasing Rice had grow to be one of many nice causes of his life, my father hadn’t been inside arm’s size of him since September 2011, when Rice got here to his workplace and he inspected the greater than two dozen staples holding his torso collectively after Rice had been shot. Since then, they’d spent years corresponding by mail.
When my father arrived on the diner the place they’d deliberate to fulfill, he emailed Rice from the car parking zone, telling him he was there. A second later, Rice appeared at his window.
“I received out of my automotive,” my dad recollects. “We stared at each other briefly after which gave one another an enormous hug.”
My father took in how a lot Rice had modified since they’d final met. Along with rising two or three inches, he’s placed on about 80 kilos of muscle.
My dad ordered French toast and sweetened raspberry tea. Rice had tea and a Mexican wrap. As had been their observe through the years that they had exchanged letters, Rice shared a few of his writing. He had left behind the college-ruled paper he utilized in jail for a brand new iPhone. These had been his reflections on being free:
It was a shock to the senses, in each a figurative and literal approach. The straightforward act of a hug is so warming and appreciated, one thing I’ve grow to be so disadvantaged of for over the previous dozen years or so. Wonderful how hugs make you’re feeling human. On the identical time it feels actual however I assume that’s the place I ask somebody to pinch me so I do know I’m not dreaming. Ouch. That’s as a result of it’s actuality. Wow. Quite a bit to soak up … like I got here out of the twilight zone. Overwhelmingly humble. I assume that’s one of the best ways to attempt to describe the sensation. Many individuals who I didn’t get to see once more, guess that’s part of life and must carry on holding on.
After about 90 minutes, my dad and Rice stood, hugged, and returned to their respective houses.
“The ruling this morning was the right one—besides C.J. by no means ought to have been charged with any crime within the first place,” my dad stated right now. “The authorized system churns by itself merry approach, and justice is seldom discovered. Twelve years of C.J.’s life had been taken away from him with none compensation.”
That stated, a number of the photographs from my dad reuniting with Rice present an enormous, relieved smile on his face, a pleasure that isn’t a typical sight.
When Rice was first arrested, in 2011, his niece Promise was only a month previous; he might maintain her by cupping his fingers collectively. She’s now 12. After they speak after faculty, Rice says, he peppers her with questions on what’s occurred throughout her day, what she’s discovered. “You’d be stunned by how actual life is out right here,” he stated. He’s been fascinated by food-delivery apps, streaming companies.
Since his launch, he’s tried to spend as a lot time as attainable along with his household. Two cousins and a nephew had been born whereas he was incarcerated. Earlier than he was transferred to SCI-Chester, in 2023, a three-hour in-person go to required 5 hours of driving, spherical journey, from Philadelphia.
This previous weekend, Rice was sitting by a river, removed from town the place he was discovered responsible and despatched to jail. He counted seven seagulls flying overhead, watched a father race his three kids down the riverbank. “There’s a lot house out right here,” he stated. It was simply previous 4 p.m.; if he had been nonetheless in jail, he famous, he’d be locked in his cell till “nighttime rec” at 6 p.m., looking at a chilly, grey wall.
“I’m gonna sit right here for about 40 minutes and simply get it collectively,” he stated. Sooner or later, there will probably be faculty, a profession, a household. For now, he’s content material to let the time go.
