Marked for Life, with Isaac Wright, Jr.

the scene for our listeners. By the late 80s, you were a talent manager and owned an independent record label, while your wife, at the time, was a member of the platinum selling group, which you co founded, called the Covergirls. This all ended in 1989 when you were charged with being the mastermind behind one of the largest drug distribution networks in the country and

convicted to life in prison, but you didn't do it right? First of all, tell us what it was like to have your life just broken down in the blink of an eye, just like that.

before the expediency in which you lose everything. I mean, there's just saying that, you know, it takes a lifetime, you know, to build a legacy and only five minutes to, you know, to tear it down, but when that is the result of the actions of someone else, it's hard to express the devastation that you experience, because you're not only experiencing your devastation, you're experiencing the devastation of the people around you, the people that love you, the people that you love.

Well, what happened? So what's important to explain is how things were like in law enforcement and in criminal justice during those times. By the time the 1980s came around, you had a number of programs starting from probably the 40s

or 50s, and they glorified police culture. You know, if you go back and you look at cops in the 80s and 90s, you will see on TV some of the most egregious violation of constitutional rights right there in front of you, but people didn't think about it at that time, because cops were so glorified, it became a culture of glorification through the media.

And so they could tell no lie if a cop said at that time that the sky was yellow, the general public believe that the sky was yellow, and so during the time that this happened to me, I lived as a young man at the apex of that culture, and I was in the music business. Hip hop has always been the foundation of hip hop as a street and one of the things that makes hip hop a national phenomenon, something that that wows the world, is its

connection to violence, its connection to the street. Even though these rappers are are telling stories about themselves. Most of the is not true, but they're telling true stories about others. What happens when you're in hip hop is you're not disconnected to that element. You know, if you have a if you have a hip hop artist that has an entourage of 15 people, I can guarantee you that five of those guys are criminals. What happened is, is that we're out in a skate rink.

I have an entourage with me. Police were investigating another individual that was actually friends of someone that was in my entourage, who I who I knew loosely. I didn't really he wasn't a close friend of mine, but I knew him loosely. The police is following him, and the police sees an indication of our wealth. You know, the jury, the whole thing I was, you know, I was very successful of selling a lot of records with making a lot of money. So they're taking pictures. They're taking

pictures of everybody there. When they they follow this guy, they're taking pictures of everybody he's associating with. The prosecutor saw that, and I became his target. That's how I came under the radar. And at that point, my fate was sealed. Even even after I was arrested, they tried to distort me out of a half a million dollars. It was the moment when they they didn't find any money, and I refused to cooperate, when it was like, okay, then we're going to send you to prison for the rest of

your life. And it was from that moment forward where they started accumulating false evidence against me.

inmate legal Association. They knew of me because of, you know, I tried my own case. I mean, it was, it was. Big news. They came to visit me, and they asked me to join the organization, and I agreed, and I went through the selective courses that I needed to take, and the warden had to approve me. But what that did was that gave me unfettered access to the Law Library. It also gave me unfettered access to the entire prison. I was even able to go on death row. So in my case, the prosecutor that

prosecuted me, he was a head prosecutor. He was chosen by the governor, so my case was very political. The guy that actually prosecuted me was the governor's choice. I knew that when I put my appeal in, it was going to get rubber stamped, denied. That did two things while I was helping other inmates get released from prison, some of the ones that were wrongly convicted or and some of the ones that were that were

overcharged and over sentenced. While I was helping them get out, I was also looking for an inmate that was charged with the same thing and that went to prison with the same crime that I went to prison for. I developed the legal theory that the statute was promulgated against legis was enforced against legislative intent. I didn't want to use it in my case. I wanted to use it in somebody else's case because I

thought they had a better chance of winning. So I ultimately found this person as I was helping other people, I found the person that came in had the same charge, same amount of time, he had life, and I asked him, I said, Listen, I know you have a lawyer, but let me work with your lawyer. I have this legal theory I could put in your case. Guys got life so he don't have anything to lose. He says, yes, if you can help me out. Anything do? Do however way you want. I said, Okay, so I

formulated theory. I talked to his lawyer. I said I would put this legal argument together for your client. We'll put it in one of just put it in one of his briefs. And he said, The Lord is like, oh, send me what you need to send me to us. I sent it to him. He calls me back. Get on the phone. He says, he listen, you sure you did this argument? The Lord didn't do this. I said, No, I you know, I did that argument. I told him. He says, Listen, this is an incredible argument. I'm going to put it in

the brief. He puts it in the guy gets reversed, makes new law. So now I take the new law, I use it in my case. I get my kingpin conviction reversed and but let me tell you what they did. They vacated the kingpin, vacated my life sentence, but affirmed the other convictions. And so now I'm still doing 70 years after all that work, that's where the other hearing came in. So what I also did, I was also doing civil cases, suing the prisons for inmate conditions, medical conditions, things like that.

And I also sued the state, the prosecutor, the prosecutor's office, for wrongful conviction. In one of the suits that I did, I want a motion where the court ordered me to be transported from a maximum security prison to the prosecutor's office and made the prosecutor allow me to look through their files. I was

there all day. I went. I arrived at eight o'clock in the morning, and I looked through files until the office closed that evening, and I found a single piece of paper that I used three years later to get a police officer to confess that they set me up. It was an interoffice memo. It directed the police officers. It was a memo that was written before I went to trial by the prosecutor himself, to the police officers that was going

to testify against me. It directed about five officers to read my files, to sign it and pass it down to the officer up under them. I understood when a police officer takes a stand, some of them write reports. Some of them don't what's important about a police officer taking a stand is not the report that he writes, they are trained to say that they didn't read any other reports. It's always good for a police officer to read everybody's report so he can get a broad understanding what

everybody says. But when he takes the stand, he's never supposed to say that he read another Officer's Report. And here's the reason why, because if you wrote a report, I can destroy you before you even take the stand. If the officer that's currently understand has read your report, because he could testify to his knowledge, his personal knowledge. So if he read your report, I can then start impeaching you based on the things that he read. I can even introduce your report to

him and start ripping your report apart. The memo is directing these officers to read all the files, which means each other's reports. So this is why this is important. I know two things those police officers don't know I have this document, and I know if I ever get a chance to ask any one of them if they read the other officers report, they're going to lie, that document is going to say something else. So I get him on the stand, and I geared up his honesty and his integrity and

and he and he was rolling with me. Yes, I said, you're an argument. Yes, I am. Is you've done everything. Yes, I did. I said, but you wouldn't lie to Police Report. Would you? The last thing that you would do is lying at police report, which is, No, I never, I would never do that. And the last thing officer race would do this is another office would lie in a police report. Woody, he says, Officer race. I see officer race. The other guy that that, the other detective that

investigated this case with you. He says, Mr. Wright, I never read officer racist report. So I said, Are you sure you never read officer racist report? He says, No. I says, Okay, well, what about detective Thornburg? Mr. Ryder, I didn't read detective Thornburgh. Oh, you didn't read detective thornburgh's report either. Oh, I said, what I said, Mr. Wright, let me stop you, right there. Here, the only report I read in this case is the word that I did. I've read no other report.

You're under oath. You're going to swear. He says, No, am I honor? I understand. I've never read another report. I take out the report, and I'm still questioning the witness, and I hear him say, can I see that? I can see the blood rushing up his neck. He read it to himself. I saw him. I saw his nerve. His hands start shaking. He's getting nervous. And I said, Now read that to the record. He reads it, all the officers below that. Read it, read all the files. I said, Did you sign it?

He says, Yes, I signed it. Did you date it? I said, Yes, I did. You pass any of our officers? He said, Yes. I snatched it from his hand, started walking back to my chair, turned around and says, So you lied. And all your honor today, you lied to the this this court today, didn't you? You lied under oath? He stammers. He stammers and stamina. He says, I didn't lie. I go tell the truth about what you did. He breaks down. He says, I've been holding this in for seven and a half years, and

I can't hold it anymore. And he starts telling the entire story on how they set me up. Oh my god, I was, I was, I don't know I was. Like, it was an out of body, experience. Because, in the background, my mom, you know, my family, was in the courtroom, and she was, she was crying and screaming and yelling back at them, why did you do this? Like, why? Why? Why did

you do this to my son? So it was, like, it was a very emotional the reporters was running back in and out of the courtroom, because, you know, back then, they used phones, so they were running back and forth in and out of the courtroom using the phone telling, you know, updating everybody what happened, and all that other stuff. And it was a very crazy moment. Everything was was vacated, all my sentences, all my convictions, was vacated, but the prosecutor wanted to try me

again and reindict me. So the judge gave me a bail and released me. While I was out, a reporter found me and asked me about the new trial, and I told I said, I can't wait for a new trial, because the things that's going to come out in the new trial is going to be 10 times more egregious than what came out in my previous trial and what came out at that hearing. So I'm I can't wait for a new trial. Two weeks later, they dismissed everything and said it wasn't going to try me again.

before the Supreme Court, winning three of them. Tell us what it's like to when you really firmly believe in something, you will stand behind it no matter what.

like a disease to people that were innocent. What happened to me was a culmination of the prosecutor doing this to people that were actually guilty time and time again and and so when it got to me, he was emboldened. He didn't care about guilt or innocence anymore. So you know, this is a situation where you have to die on principle, not only in order to protect yourself, but but to protect the integrity of the system and the other and other people that may come after you.

follow. And so it's like legacy to me, means that I can look back at the road that I've traveled, and I can compare it to all the things that's happening today, and I can see that every sweat, every tear, every emotional turmoil, every loss that I've taken and the losses of my family is embedded in this authoritative law that are helping people on and

helping lawyers and helping judges On a daily basis. In essence, Legacy means the future impact that you have on not only the current generations, but generations to come, infinitely so and that's and that impact, hopefully is a very, very positive one. I mean, legacies can be bad and they can be good, and my hope is that my legacy is one of positivity.

for the for worse. So, you know, I it's very difficult for me to to kind of understand how what I've done for people in facts and packs them on a personal note, my concentration more is on the impact of society than it is on the individual person. But what I can say to you, just from my observations and my experience, that these changes are profound, not only for the

person, but for the family. And I don't know one person that I've helped that hasn't picked that torch up and and done some really good things in their lives, not only for themselves, but for other people. So you know, from from my vantage point, the impact has been profound for those people.

professionally is profound. In fact, I am aware of my progress. I'm aware of my positivity as a professional, but when I was going through it, personally, I wasn't even aware of the magnitude of the changes that I was making when it was happening. I wasn't aware of it. I was so personally engulfed in in the fight, I wasn't aware of it. And to this day, it's still foggy, you know, because that you can't get, you can't get

past that tragedy. But professionally, I'm very clear on what I'm doing, where I'm going, and how I'm affecting people. So yeah, it's totally, it's totally day and night in terms of the effect professionally, as opposed to personally.

understand how much danger that he or she was in. So mark for life is a, is, is, is a title that describes this ex parte understanding of danger that a person is completely unaware of the danger that he is in until he actually is engulfed in it, and so you're marked for life first, before your life becomes in jeopardy. And that's what the title tries to represent. My Mark was my success. I mean, um, the prosecutor that actually went after me was was running a criminal enterprise out of his

office, and it was his office was set up for forfeiture. The laws on forfeiture at that time was really lax, and the only thing that needed to happen was there a reasonable suspicion that you were engaged in crime. They could take your assets, and then you'd have to prove, in a civil case, you know, that your assets is clean and fair. And so he used that. He used his power and the infancy of the forfeiture laws to enrich himself and enrich the detectives and other law

enforcement officers working in that office. And so my mark was my success and my wealth, and he got eye of that, and he came after it.

that has a lot of a lot of substance to it. I mean, we all, each individual life has a story, but there's certain

common denominators. And the in the book, The what I'm hoping that people get from the book when they read it is a common denominator that we all have as human beings going through our story, and that is that some of the hard answers, some of the ways of overcoming the more significant challenges that we face in life, is within ourselves, and sometimes the expectation that others are going to come to our rescue is misplaced in ways where that answer, that that savior is

yourself, that individual that's going to pick you up and help you along the way is your own intuition, your own judgment and your in your own essence. And sometimes we have to leak reach deep down into ourselves for answers, because there's a lot of people that out there that believe that life is hopeless. There's a lot of people that encounter challenges that appear to be hopeless. There's a lot of people that believe that they're alone, and sometimes, you know, we've lost ourselves from

finding our own self. So I believe that the best thing that can come out of this book is when all else fails for an individual that they have the ability within to find that thing that God has given them, to pull themselves out of the problems that they're having, and at that point, you know, seek additional help, but but the answer begins within, and that's what I'm hoping that that the book inspires people to believe to believe in themselves and their own abilities.