Top 48 Quotes & Sayings by Isaac Wright Jr.
Explore popular quotes and sayings by Isaac Wright Jr..
Last updated on September 19, 2024.
When I went through what I was going through in prison, one of the things that was very distracting was the issue that it's a very dangerous environment. Moving through that process, I had to develop such an intense focus that I had to change my character and be someone else.
I got over 20 people out of prison, some with life sentences and others based on getting their sentences reduced.
I graduated from college in 2002, and then I went to law school at St. Thomas University in Miami in 2004.
It is the people who are running the system that's the problem, and if you deal with that aspect of the system, you will eventually get the system to work for you.
You know, one of the disappointments about - for me, personally about being released - is that I left thousands of people behind. Now that 'For Life' is here, and here for everyone, it gives me the ability to touch millions at the same time.
My parents came from the south. So their ancestors were actually slaves in this country.
Once I made the decision to represent myself, I knew that I was very, very far behind in learning, understanding and in skills. I just went on a quest and spent 16 to 18 hours every day teaching myself the law.
In order for New York to not only get back to where we were, but to finally fulfill our potential as the greatest city on Earth, we need people in charge who are going to fight for the working class, and not the corrupt institutions that have taken advantage of a broken system.
It's obviously an incredible feeling to come from where I started to where I am right now. Having this show has been a very enlightening and therapeutic process. It allows me to watch what I went through in the third person.
I was walking down First Avenue, heading to CVS. And two police cars pulled over and stopped, and rolled down the window and one of them asked, 'Are you Isaac Wright?' When I said yes, they immediately got out and asked me to take pictures with them in front of the police car.
The biggest thing is separation from family. It's a huge burden to carry and destructive in a lot of ways.
I'm going to ensure justice, where justice is shaky.
I am going to live and die in the trenches.
For me, patience is a virtue and the result is much more important than the road.
Just a look at the face of the officer kneeling on George Floyd's neck is indicative of the cause behind what he was doing. His face showed no concern.
I knew early on that I was going to prison for the rest of my life and that there was nothing that no one was going to be able to do to help me.
Well, 50 was a made man before I met him. So that alone - you walk into a room, and there's an immediate respect.
The only changes that we can make as people is changes in leadership. But as a people, it's very, very difficult once those people get into those positions for us to make any changes.
You plead guilty you get 20 years, you plead guilty you get 15 years. That's the lowest time I heard and I said I'm no kingpin, I didn't do this. I decided at that moment that I was going to prison and I wasn't going to pay someone to send me to prison. I decided to put the gloves on, string up the boots, and get into the fight.
Aside from my own fight, I was continuously engaged in the fight for others. So, for decades, all I did was fight. What that did to me is it didn't give me the time to reflect on my own feelings.
I'm a part of the system now and I am helping people within that system and, so, it would be hypocrisy to be part of a system that I don't believe in.
I think one of the things that happens with, especially in the criminal justice system, is that the prosecutor is able to control the narrative from the very, very beginning. The moment an arrest is made, they put out a press release to the media and the media follows that narrative.
In major industrial countries, it is a requirement that the students in grade school learn English. The financial instrument of choice internationally is the American dollar. And so that represents the kind of power and influence we have all across the world. But for some reason, we cannot stop the culture of brutality that we're facing.
It didn't matter whether I had a penny or whether I had a billion dollars. There was nothing that was going to keep me out of a courtroom, and there was nothing that was going to keep me from helping others.
I had to do four years of undergraduate. I went to Thomas Edison State University in Trenton.
I understood law enforcement in such a way that I was able to get a law enforcement officer, a veteran, to actually come clean and admit fault, even though he was facing prison time.
I got sentenced in 1991. It's 2020, and my family and I have not discussed what happened to me.
Once I understood what was going to happen - that I was going to prison for life - my end goal was making sure they wouldn't be able to keep me there.
I went to law school for one reason and one reason only. 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.
I became so disenfranchised, I dropped out of school and I moved to New York.
When slavery was over, those atrocities that were done by slave owners was passed over to law enforcement, and law enforcement took up that task.
In my mind, there was never a thought that I wasn't going to find a way to get myself out of prison.
From the day I got out, it was an evolutionary process. I was sick for, like, two years - that's the best way I can describe what was happening with me. But as time went by and I finished law school, it became clear to me that I needed a platform.
I don't consider myself a true activist, in the sense that I don't like to do a lot of talking. I'll ask once or twice, and then it's time to fight.
I take a lot of pro bono cases, and I always have to balance my pro bono cases with my paying clients because this is a law firm - this is a business.
My contract is directly with Sony. Everybody was very fair with me. I kept my movie rights. I only gave my rights to a TV series.
I was sentenced in 1991 to life in prison.
The first time I picked up a law book, it was like I had done it all my life. There was just something that happened to me when I did that, and I realized there was a hidden gift there I didn't know I had.
That's the core of my makeup: to fight for what's right.
If I had a billion dollars, that's not going to keep me out of the courtroom.
You can scream, you can holler, you can protest - which are all good things, because we have to be heard - but no real, significant changes occur without rolling up your sleeves and getting into a fight.
I know the air of hopelessness and what people in prison go through.
What people can't see, they can't understand.
I'm speaking for everyone who has ever been incarcerated, especially those who are innocent or have been overly charged.
Sometimes when a thing hits you, it hits you in levels, and the reality of what's happening has been a progression for me.
Even on the witness stand at trial, there were people up there and I had no clue who they were. I had never seen them a day in my life and they were pointing the finger at me saying that I was their boss.
In my experience in life, nothing good happens, most of the time, without a fight.
I spent so much time fighting that I didn't take the time to reflect on what I was actually going through.
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