Matthias Clamer/ABC
Nicholas Pinnock as Aaron Wallace inFor Life.Giovanni Rufino/ABC
In August 1989, Wright wasindicted and chargedin New Jersey with leading a drug trafficking network, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, maintaining or operating a narcotics production facility, and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Prior to his arrest, he’d been an entrepreneur, he recently toldEsquire. Though he’d “never been through the system before,” he had little faith in it from get-go.
“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,” he told the magazine. “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.”
He only had a high school diploma, but Wright decided to represent himself at trial.
“I wasn’t going to pay somebody to send me to prison,” he told the magazine. “I might as well strap up the boots and put on the gloves and get into the fight myself.”
Isaac Wright Jr.Arturo Holmes/ABC via Getty
After he was convicted, Wright was sent to the maximum security New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where he began working as a paralegal on other inmates’ cases, perEsquire. He told the magazine he got “over 20 people out of prison.”
“The act of representing these other prisoners who were also wronged was a part of me fighting them back and getting them back for what they had done to me,” he said.
Wright continued working on his own case — while Bissell’s story took a sharp turn. In May 1996, the former prosecutor wasconvicted on 30 felony counts, including tax fraud, embezzlement and other charges.
The judge ordered a new trial for Wright, and the new prosecutor decided to delay his retrial “indefinitely.” Wright was freed on bail on Dec. 17, 1996, for the first time in seven years.
In 1997, the courtreversed Wright’s remaining convictions, and the indictment against him was dismissed without prejudice.
According toEsquire, after his release, Wright completed college and then law school. Today, he reportedly works with New Jersey law firm Hunt, Hamlin and Ridley as a general practitioner who specializes in criminal law.
“[His story] blew me away,” the rapper, 44, said onGood Morning Americaon Tuesday. “I was Googling it at the same time that he was talking to me because I couldn’t believe it was true.”
“I was like, ‘This belongs on television,'” he continued. “Initially his idea was to create a feature film, but it would be only two hours to tell the story. And it requires more time to explain that journey.”
Isaac Wright Jr. (left) and Nicholas Pinnock.Paul Morigi via Getty
Added Pinnock, 46, “Isaac’s an incredible man.”
“When we had the table read for the first episode, I took him into a room for 45 minutes and we just talked and talked and talked,” recalled the actor. “He was very gracious, he opened up — any question I had for him, he answered.”
“It was just a really great way of getting an essence of who he was, so I could introduce that to the show,” he added.
For Lifepremieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
source: people.com
