Isaac Wright Jr.

You know something…

So I want to let everyone know right off the bat that Isaac’s middle initials are not “MF.” You might ask what does “MF” stand for? Well lets just say it stands for something polite people don’t use in public. Last time I heard it, a fellow named Rill Black was changing David Mesher’s name to Toby. Anyway let me tell you the story of Isaac Wright.

In 1991 Isaac Wright was sentenced to life imprisonment under New Jerseys drug kingpin laws. The 1986 law requires that anyone convicted under it serve at least 25 years. So to be charged with a violation of the law, the government must prove six elements. 1) Its gotta be real dope.. like coke or heroin that you peddling… excuse the rhyme.. If it’s weed, you got to have at least 25 pound. That will earn you 10-20 years unless you serve up a minor or a pregnant women. In New Jersey that’s called an Aw!! Hell!! No-!! Not only do you have to wear an orange jumpsuit with the letters DOC on the back, ( Department Of Corrections) but they also paint your hands and face orange and put the letters FTROYNL -AH (For The Rest Of Yo Natural Life – Ass Hole) on the front!! They also got a more severe penalty for dope dealers where they tattoo FTROYMFNL-AH on yo forehead… but we will tell that story another day… Okay, okay… I am exaggerating… but if you do sell dope to a minor or a pregnant women, then the time of imprisonment and fines are doubled… that’s mandatory. 2) There existed a scheme or course of conduct to manufacture, sell or distribute the substance. For instance if you buy dope bags, have three scales or have five cases of Vicks Dayquil Cold and Flu medicine on the kitchen floor with a pot on the stove boiling with some #@@! in it. The Vicks Dayquil is not really a black thing, crank chemist use the active ingredient to make meth. 3) You selling drugs to make a profit... because why else would you be selling drugs. 4) The defendant acted purposely to promote or facilitate the scheme or course of conduct.. I guess this would be something like telling somebody, “Drop off those sacks of dope to my peeps in front of the White House… What’s the tag boss? Lets call it 99 Years…Yeah!! We Got That 99 Years here youngin!!” 5) The defendant had an agreement with at least one other individual involved to commit, attempt or solicit the commission of, that crime, or he would aid another person or persons in planning, committing, attempting, or soliciting the crime. For instance you say to ya boy ” Go tell that nig@g if he ain’t got my dope money by sundown then Ima come ova dere like Walmart and roll back his prices…” 6) The defendant organized, supervised, financed or managed the conspiracy. This would be like someone saying..” Is that dope dust on the floor? Lick it up!!” So Isaac’s prosecutor would have to prove all of these elements to convict him. They also tacked on an extra 70 years as ancillary crimes.

Seven Years A Slave

I don’t know why I alway equate serving time in prison with slavery. Maybe because it’s written in our Constitution? ” The 13th Amendment : “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Anywho, Isaac served seven years in prison. While there he studied law and martial arts…because he bedda. Okay I am just kidding about the martial art stuff.. I guess I having been watching “The World’s Toughest Prisons.” once to many times. To quote one of the inmates.. ” You bleedin or sumpin when you come in heh.” These guys spell the word kill with an “e”. ” Ima keel you!!” Well let’s get back to the story and away from these.. how do they say it.. unpleasant folks. Representing himself at trial and again on appeal, Isaac successfully overturned his kingpin conviction and life sentence in prison. Still you remember those ancillary crimes I mentioned earlier? He still had to face those, which had added decades to his prison term. He had a mountain to climb because to overturn those convictions meant he had to prove the DA and police were in cahoots to trample on his civil rights. So the closer he got to exonerating himself, the closer officer “Billy Club” got to him. Through false witness testimony, falsified police reports and bribes to defense attorneys, a prosecutor named Nicholas L. Bissell Jr., was able to put an innocent man behind bars for life. (That’s a picture of him above.) He knew that if Wright proved his case, he would also prove corruption in the prosecutors office and criminal conduct in the courtroom. Ain’t nothing worse than lying to a hang em high with the short rope Texas Long Neck Judge. If you be messing around in his courtroom, den he gonna do something to yo greens…

Porkchop’s Greens…

Porkchop: You chillun’s sit down… Do ya want me to tell ya the story bout yo great, great, great, great Uncle.. who was a real African King? “Yes Uncle Porkchop, please, please please!!” Ok… weh back in eighteen hunert and thuddyfive, our great great, great uncle was brought to Amerca on a slave ship to be sold in Muddy Water, Mississippi. Da story goes like this.. his massa, Judge White S. Hale, saw my uncle on the block with some udder nig@as. Massa Hale walked down the block and told the slave sella.. ” I’ll take this one… and I’ll take this one too… but I want you to cut some of it off.. ain’t nobody gonna be walking around on my plantation with one bigger than mine… “Bigger den his what Uncle Porkchop?” Chile you wanna hear the story or not!! “Yes Uncle.” Then leave me be!! Ok now where was I… oh yeah…. Massa said…let me see… I’ll take this one too.. Our uncle looked up and was immediate smacked across da lips.. Now he was a very proud man… but not stupid.. he kept his head down and told massa White S. Hale, that he was an African King and that his real name was Wasselm the Mighty… Well da massa looked at my uncle and said “nig@@ hold yo head up.. I want you to look me in the eyeball!” Yo name is Annabelle!! I’m naming “you” afta my late wife. Well as time went on… Uncle and his wife Fred, (that massa was so disrespectful…) had ten chillun and the massa named all the male chillun Annabelle.. Now our uncle being a proud man couldn’t stand his sons being called Annabelle and his wife being called Fred. He had made up his mind… he was gonna smack the plantation taste out the massa mouth. So he hid behind the bushes and waited for the massa to come out… he was gonna put it on him!! He sat there all night.. with his fists balled up, nose was running and eyes watering… he was so mad… when the massa came out…. he jumped up with both his fist balled up.. he was huffing and puffing… he stumped towards the massa hollering and spittin… den he smacked him!! He looked right in the massa’s eyeball and said, “I’ma whip it good.. I’ma whip it right off yo back!!!… And den I’ma throw it down the hill over deh by dat big ole oak tree and cover it up with horse shat!!” Well dey say folks had neva eva seen the massa look at no one like he looked at Uncle… den da massa…. Suddenly Porkchop hears the phone ringing. He gets up and opens the screen door… “Uncle Porkchop!! Uncle Porkchop… tell us what happened next.. what happened!!”

Dang it… hold on for a minute chillun’s… “Yeah baby, who is that on the phone?” “I don’t know honey… some bill collector looking for somebody named Annabelle Porkchop…” “Okay… Tell them I’m not home Fred…“

The Short Version

“Dissrespecttfull I tell you!!…” Anywho, to go with the short version… Wright got Bissell in 1996… Like I said earlier for Wright to proved his case, he would also have to prove corruption in the prosecutors office and criminal conduct in the courtroom. He got his chance when he did something no other defense attorney had been able to do. During an evidentiary hearing in 1996, Wright cross-examined a police officer named Detective James Dugan. Dugan confessed!! He confessed to systemic police misconduct, illegal cover-ups, and secret deals with defense attorneys to have their clients lie under oath. Wright’s seven years behind bars studying law and martial arts had paid off… Now that he had won.. he was going to use his martial arts skills to kick a little ass in the hallway outside the courtroom… okay… I’ll stop… anywho… Dugan identified Bissell as the man who personally ordered the frame up of Wright. “Dugan said that Bissell secured false testimony from witnesses and made deals with defense attorneys in the case to have their clients lie on the stand and point to Isaac Wright Jr. as their drug boss.” Wright asked for a brief recess so that he could change into his Judogi, the traditional uniform used for Karate practice and competition… okay I’m lying… but that’s what I would have did…  Bissell eventually faced over 30 charges, including obstruction of justice, perjury and abuse of power. Placed on house arrest after his trial, Bissell was sent home with an ankle monitor to await sentencing. Two days before sentencing Bissell cut off his ankle monitor and escaped. It triggered an international manhunt with Wright dressed in his Judogi leading the way.. there I go again… Anywho, Bissell was subsequently tracked to a Nevada hotel room. When police broke down the door, Bissell shot himself in the head committing suicide.

Free At Last..

After spending seven years at a maximum security facility in New Jersey, Isaac Wright was set free. He had been fully exonerated. But Wright didn’t stop there, the dude had a brilliant legal mind…

“I found Mr. Wright to be highly intelligent and…a better brief writer than most attorneys I have encountered. I was most impressed with Mr. Wright’s ability as a legal strategist. Mr. Wright developed the legal strategy and authored a defense pro se brief in an attack on the king-pin jury instruction in State v. Alexander, 136 N.J. 563 (1994). Mr. Wright’s arguments prevailed in Alexander. Mr. Wright used his success in Alexander to have his own kingpin conviction reversed.” – Attorney Gilbert G. Miller, Assistant Somerset County Prosecutor

Wright set his mind on becoming a lawyer. I didn’t mention it but twenty other inmates had been set free based on briefs submitted to their attorneys by Wright. “He was a bad motherf… now hush yo mouth… no need to be dirty…” Anywho… He finished his undergraduate degree in 2002, and graduated from Saint Thomas University School of law in 2007. The following year he took the New Jersey Bar exam and passed it with flying colors. So you might expect this to be the end of the story… a happy ending and all. Short answer.. nope. You might pass the bar examine, but you still need to be accepted by the bar. Remember that scene in the movie Selma when Oprah Winfrey playing Annie Lee Cooper was trying to register to vote..

“Name them huh… Look.. Ima saved y’all some time and trouble… here is a rope and some matches… cause I’ma bout to jump back there and whoop yo ass!! Yessiree Bob!!” Anyway… the New Jersey’s legal system did everything in its power to prevent Isaac Wright Jr. from practicing law. For the next nine years they investigated every aspect of Wright’s life. They turned over every stone and then scraped the bottom. “Nigg@ those directions say one scoop of Tide!! Did I see you put in a scoop and a half!!” Anything they could find, they was willing to use it to deny admitting Wright to the bar. Called the “Committee on Character,” this arm of the bar can request documentation from candidate’s “named references, current or former employers, Federal and State regulators or agencies, law enforcement agencies, educational institutions, financial institutions, or medical personnel.” You heard the saying “When they go low, we go high?” Well their motto is” When we go low and they go high.. it’s time to get a shovel…” In the end, it took the State’s highest court to bring it to a close… the New Jersey Supreme Court.  Isaac Wright was finally admitted to the bar in 2017, nearly ten years after passing the bar examine. In December 2017, Isaac Wright walked into the same courtroom where he had been falsely convicted 17 years earlier… as an attorney for the law firm of Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley. His job? Co-counsel in the defense of Isaiah Bell…. and that’s the story of Isaac Wright… Isaac MF Wright.