#561 Jason Flom with Rodney Roberts
Wrongful Conviction
Lava for Good Podcasts
4.4 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rodney Roberts was arrested in 1996 in Newark, NJ, after an altercation with a friend. After several days in custody, he found himself charged with the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old girl. His court appointed attorney advised him to plead guilty or spend the rest of his life in prison. Rodney had a good job and had recently moved with his young son into a new apartment. Hoping to get back to his son as soon as possible, Rodney pleaded guilty to the crime in exchange for a seven-year sentence. He would end up spending 18 years in custody before DNA evidence excluded him as a perpetrator and he was exonerated and released in 2014.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | America has 2.2 million people in prison. If just 1% is wrong, that's 22,000 people. |
| 0:07.0 | That's a lot of people's lives destroyed. |
| 0:11.0 | If the system want to take you out of society, they will do it. |
| 0:20.0 | No matter what laws they have to break, |
| 0:22.5 | saying that they are enforcing the laws, |
| 0:24.6 | but they're breaking the law. |
| 0:27.3 | Having to hear those people say |
| 0:29.7 | that I was guilty of a crime that I did not commit |
| 0:32.3 | and then hear my family break down behind me |
| 0:34.3 | and not be able to do anything about it, |
| 0:36.5 | I can't describe the crushing weight that was. |
| 0:39.6 | I'm not anti-police. |
| 0:41.5 | I'm just anti-corruption. |
| 0:44.2 | A lot of times we look and we see something happen to somebody, |
| 0:48.0 | and that's the first thing we say. |
| 0:49.2 | That could never happen to me, but it can. |
| 0:56.7 | This is wrongful conviction. |
| 1:16.2 | Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom. |
| 1:19.5 | Today's guest is the one and only Rodney Roberts. |
| 1:28.3 | Rodney Roberts was held for 17 years for the crime of raping, a 17-year-old girl he had never met. Rodney was advised by his public defender to plead guilty. |
| 1:32.3 | He was told that the 17-year-old girl was right outside the courtroom, |
| 1:37.3 | had identified him, and if he did not plead guilty, |
... |
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