Chris Rock is catching heat for something he admitted himself. In a New York Times interview published this week, the comedian said he refused to pay for a lawyer for his childhood best friend’s brother, Roger Logan, who went to prison for a murder he did not commit.
Logan was arrested in December 1997 over a fatal shooting in Brooklyn, convicted in 1999, and spent more than 16 years behind bars before prosecutors moved to vacate his conviction in June 2014. He later reached a $3.75 million settlement with New York City.
Rock told the Times that Logan’s brother used to plead with him to fund a lawyer, and he always said no. He said he has a standing rule against paying for lawyers because the costs are open ended. “I had the means to help him, and I didn’t,” he said. “I don’t know if we could have got him out or not, but still.”
The admission split people. Some said a man with his money should have helped without thinking twice. Others said he had every right to set boundaries with his wallet, or that he could have used his influence to get a lawyer to take the case pro bono.
Rock tied the story to a bigger point about how fast accusations stick to Black men, saying they get accused of things they did not do all the time. He added that he has been in police lineups himself.
Photo: Marlene Landu via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0