The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper S02E07 - Justice Delayed: The Story of C.J. Rice

This episode follows CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper's efforts to shine a light on the harrowing story of C.J. Rice, a Philadelphia man convicted of attempted murder in 2013. Two years before his conviction, Rice, then 17 years old, was shot three times, with a bullet fracturing his pelvis, making it nearly impossible for him to walk. He turned to his childhood physician and Tapper's father, Dr. Theodore Tapper, to help him recover. But just three weeks after Rice was shot, he was accused of shooting four people and fleeing the scene, which, according to Dr. Tapper, would have been virtually impossible to commit in his poor physical state. Despite Dr. Tapper testifying to that fact, Rice was later convicted of these crimes in 2013 and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

After speaking with his father about the case, Jake Tapper published a thorough, long-form investigation in The Atlantic in October 2022 called "This Is Not Justice: A Philadelphia teenager and the empty promise of the Sixth Amendment," diving into what happened the night of the shooting, how little evidence there was against Rice, and revealing how ineffective representation led to his wrongful conviction. Rice's attorneys, Karl Schwartz, Amelia Maxfield of the Exoneration Project, and Nilam Sanghvi of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, made this precise argument that Rice was denied his Sixth Amendment right to adequate counsel to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. District Attorney Larry Krasner's office investigated the matter and agreed. On the morning of Monday, March 18, a Philadelphia judge granted a motion from the Philadelphia District Attorney exonerating Rice. C.J. Rice is a free man after more than twelve years in prison.

"Covering C.J.'s struggle and the efforts of my dad and the amazing lawyers to get him out of prison has been one of the most remarkable and rewarding journalistic experiences of my life," Tapper said. "I'm so glad the story has a happy ending, and I am immensely grateful to The Atlantic and to CNN for giving me the platforms to tell this story."

In an emotional reunion, Tapper and his father reconnect with Rice, who speaks for the first time in an expansive interview. In "Justice Delayed: The Story of C.J. Rice," Tapper recreates the scene of the shooting and the events that followed to illustrate clearly how the system failed Rice. The episode also follows Rice's time in prison in his own words through the powerful letters Rice sent to Dr. Tapper throughout the years.