Justice Champion Spotlight: Filmmaker Jia Wertz

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

When I was about 20-years-old I read Rubin Carter’s book The Sixteenth Round, and was very moved by his words. Carter was wrongfully convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, and after losing all of his appeals and really having nowhere to turn, he wrote the book as a last attempt to seek help from anyone that would listen. It was a heart- wrenching read. His raw account of how his life had been ripped apart and the emotional and physical hell he was going through left a lasting mark on me and always stayed in the back of my mind, even today.

Fast-forward to 2014 I listened to the Serial podcast and was shocked and horrified by how Adnan Syed was treated and wrongfully put in prison. While it seemed the world was entertained by the podcast, there was an innocent man who had been sitting in prison since he was 17 years old – I couldn’t shake that thought from my mind. Hearing his story and remembering Rubin Carter’s words, made me want to do something to help people who’ve been wrongfully convicted, so a friend and I organized a fundraiser for Adnan to raise money for his legal defense fund. While planning that fundraiser, my friend introduced me to Jeffrey Deskovic, who had also been wrongfully convicted of murder and had spent 16 years in prison – and had an eerily similar story to Adnan’s. Jeff spoke at our fundraiser and that is how I first met him.

Tell us a little bit about your film “Conviction” — how did you find out about and decide to pursue that story and that subject?

A few years after I organized the fundraiser for Adnan, while trying to figure out what more I could do to support this cause, I was at Adnan’s post-conviction hearing and there was a camera crew there filming the HBO documentary series The Case Against Adnan Syed. With my 20 years of experience in photography, I started to think that films would be a great way to reach a broader audience and that was something I would enjoy doing while also supporting the cause. That led me to enrolling in a documentary film program at New York Film Academy – which was the beginning of my new career.

When I decided to go into filmmaking, I knew I wanted to focus on true crime films about wrongful convictions, and Jeff was the first person I approached since I knew him personally. And at that time, he was the only person I knew who had been wrongfully convicted. Today, I know so many people who have been unjustly imprisoned – it happens far more than we know.

How did making the film change your perspective on the criminal justice system?

Making the film didn’t necessarily change my perspective of the criminal justice system, but it did open my eyes to how frequently people are wrongfully convicted. It seems that wrongful convictions are not on the average person’s radar, and yet there is a large population impacted by it.

There are far more wrongful convictions than you would think. A very conservative estimate is that about 2-5% of people incarcerated in the US are wrongfully imprisoned. At this rate, it could mean tens or even hundreds of thousands of people – the numbers are staggering.

What do you see as the most significant obstacles facing people who have been wrongfully convicted?

People who are wrongfully convicted seem to have many disadvantages through the entire ordeal, as the criminal justice process fails them at every step.

One, of the many, significant obstacles is parole eligibility. The way the criminal justice system works, when it comes time for a parole hearing, if you say you're guilty and show remorse, you have a much better chance of getting parole – as the parole board views remorse as a sign of rehabilitation and evidence that an individual will do better if released into society. But these people are innocent so, of course, they don’t have remorse, and that impacts them negatively. They are left with two options, to lie and say they are remorseful just to have a chance at parole, or stick to the truth and say they didn’t do the crime and therefore they aren’t remorseful. Maintaining their innocence and telling the truth hurts their already slim chances of getting out of prison.

What role does the business community play in addressing those obstacles?

The business community can aid people who are reintegrating into society after wrongful conviction by giving them job opportunities and making the process easier for them. Quite often, even though these people are innocent and have not committed any crime, there is a stigma that continues to follow them after they are released from prison. Not only have they endured one of the most horrific of circumstances, but even when they beat the system against all odds, they are faced with a brand new set of obstacles – it seems that there are a lot of changes we can make, especially in the business community, because quite often exonerees have a hard time finding work, which leads to housing challenges, and can even lead to recidivism when people aren’t left with any viable options for employment and housing.

If you could change one thing about the criminal justice system, what would it be and why?

I think the one thing that could make the most impact on the criminal justice system is to limit prosecutorial immunity – it simply allows those prosecutors who are corrupt and violate court rules with things such as Brady violations, and gives them a free pass to get away with it. If there was some type of repercussions for these actions, many prosecutors would be less likely to do many of the things that lead to wrongful convictions.

When you aren’t working, what do you enjoy doing?

I love spending time with family and friends, happy hours, photography, and traveling.

What’s a fact about yourself that would surprise people?

I am of Pakistani and Indian decent, was born in Africa, a Canadian citizen, and immigrated to the States 20 years ago, so when people ask me where I’m from, it can be a very convoluted response.