While thinking about forgiveness, Chris Rock shares his regrets after failing to help his childhood best friend’s brother who was wrongfully convicted in a 1997 murder. In his interview with The New York Times’ podcast, ‘The Interview,’ Rock mentioned Roger Logan. He was exonerated in June 2014 after being convicted in 1997 for a fatal shooting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York.
Although Rock claims it was 19 years, official records show Logan spending nearly 17 years in prison while wrongfully serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for something he did not do. In January 2016, New York City settled and agreed to pay him $3.75 million after having all charges cleared. New York state was also ordered to pay him $2.975 million.
According to The New York Times, Logan was exonerated after a unit dedicated to reviewing old convictions in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office discovered new evidence that weakened the credibility of an eyewitness.
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As Rock reflected on forgiveness and regret in his new interview, he began by declaring, “I’m Black. What does that mean? When you’re Black, White people believe every accusation is a conviction.” He continued to share Logan’s story and how he regrets not helping him beat the case. Rock said:
“His brother used to plead with me to pay for a lawyer and I never did it. I always had like a ‘no lawyer’ thing, ‘cause lawyers are an open-ended thing. Like, I’ll pay your mortgage, or whatever. Bunch of sh*t I’ve paid for. Education, all sorts of sh*t. But I always stay out of lawyers ‘cause it’s so open-ended. It still f**ks with me. I had the means to help him. And I didn’t. And I don’t know if we could’ve got him out or not, but still. So, all that to say, I’m Black. Black men get accused of sh*t they didn’t do all the time. Every day. In the paper. We let Black men out of jail and we go, ‘Whoops. Whoo, that Black guy just did 30 years. Too bad.’ All this rumor sh*t—hopefully I don’t get accused of anything. But, I’m handling it from a real place. The sh*t’s real when people get accused of things. And you better be real sure they did it.”
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