Interview: Mike McCready and Tennessee Innocence Project Discuss Justice Jam 2026 in Nashville

On October 27, Cannery Hall in Nashville will host Justice Jam, a benefit concert bringing together artists from across the spectrum to support the fight against wrongful convictions.

Organized by the Tennessee Innocence Project and in partnership with the Washington Innocence Project, the event features an impressive lineup led by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and country star Dierks Bentley. But beyond the music, the mission is deeply personal for the people working to ensure that innocent individuals are not forgotten by the justice system.

Ahead of the show, I spoke with Mike McCready and Jason Gichner, executive director of the Tennessee Innocence Project, about the importance of their organizations, the work being done to help wrongfully convicted individuals, and the role Justice Jam can play in bringing greater awareness to this cause.

We discussed the need for continued advocacy, the connection between music and social change, and what it means when artists and communities come together to stand behind people who need their voices heard.

Because the consequences of a wrongful conviction reach far beyond a courtroom, and the fight for justice requires people willing to keep showing up.

Pat Rogers:

Mike and Jason, thanks for joining me today. I appreciate you taking the time. Before we get deep into Justice Jam and the heavy conversations I just wanted to thank you Mike, for the music. Pearl Jam has been the soundtrack of my life since my early teen years. I've seen Pearl Jam well over 100 times. It’s an absolute pleasure to speak with you.

Mike McCready: Thank you. I love hearing that. That means a lot. That’s more of me than I’ve seen myself. (laughs) Really, Thank you.

Pat:

So, Justice Jam. How did it come together? What’s the origin  and why now?  

Mike McCready: 

I'm going to let Jason start out with that. 

Jason Gichner:

So Pat, innocence projects around the country, a lot of people think it's a big national organization. It's not.

It's really local places on the ground that are doing the work to bring people home and you know we do this work in Tennessee and Laura, my friend runs the Washington Innocence Project and we've been talking about doing something like this for a while and you know Mike's been involved for a long time supporting the Washington Innocence Project and we thought if we were gonna figure out a way to do some sort of event where we were bringing together music and advocacy for innocence work you know it'd be pretty cool to do a show in Nashville and Mike and some of his friends wanted to get involved.

So we were sort of over drinks talking about that and Mike took all of three seconds to be like, yeah, let's do it . And from there it's just been rolling.

Mike:

And Pat, my wife Ashley went to law school and she was working as an intern in the Washington Innocence Project. So that's where I was kind of first and knew about the Washington Innocence project with her in training there.

Pat: 

Correct me if I'm wrong, Ashley is on the board now, correct? 

Mike:

Yes, she is and that's how you know I got into that work and my awareness of it through Ashley and I'm just excited about it because it's bringing these two organizations together because  Jason does phenomenal work there in Tennessee and Laura and Ashley and the whole crew here. It's exciting to bring those two worlds together and hopefully we can do more of this because I don't know if it's happened before.

Pat: 

It’s an amazing lineup. 

Mike:

I'm excited. Deirks Bentley is coming out and he’s an old friend of mine and he stepped up and said he wanted to be part of it and it means a lot to him . So I'm happy about that.

Pat: 

Justice Jam, obviously it's going to be an incredible night for music right but, the cause is much bigger so what do you hope that people understand about wrongful convictions when they leave the event?  

Jason:

Yeah I mean I want people to know that wrongful convictions are a bigger problem that folks  realize. You know people hear these stories and they think they're sort of one-offs and sadly they're not one-offs you know in the last really five years just in Tennessee alone, 10 people have been exonerated who served more than 300 years of prison time combined, that they didn't commit..

Pat: 

Wow. That’s a number that is absolutely mind blowing. 

Jason: 

Yeah, and you know, our criminal justice system it's run by people. It's run by human beings.

So there's going to be an error rate..

Pat: 

Of course.

Jason:  

And at any given time, just in Tennessee, there's more than 30,000 people locked up.

Pat: 

Oh my God.

Jason: 

So if we're getting it wrong 3% of the time or 4% of the time, we're probably getting it wrong more than that. But even at that level, that means there's, you know, hundreds if not thousands of innocent people locked up for stuff that they didn't do..

Pat:

And our system doesn't do enough to address the situation.

Jason: 

Not only that, they certainly don't do enough to address it in an efficient manner. Our folks on average serve 27 years in prison before they get out.

Pat: 

Wow, that's the average..

Jason: Yeah, here in Tennessee it's been.

Mike:

That's insane..

Jason:

So we need to be doing a lot better on a lot of fronts. Tennessee was really late to the game  getting involved in doing this. We've only been around since 2019. We're one of the last states to have a statewide organization that does this work.

Pat: 

Mike, maybe hearing all that, this is kind of directed towards you as a musician and an advocate of the cause. From your perspective, what do you think a concert is going to do that a news story or a policy discussion can't accomplish? 

Mike:

I mean I think there's elements to a concert that are celebratory and life affirming. You've definitely been to a bunch of shows and so in terms of this organization, these organizations are shedding light you know. 

On a smaller level there's merchandise people can buy to support it. That way maybe the concert itself becomes a news item so it works both ways and I think you know people want to come out and hear some music and I'm excited to play with these killer Nashville musicians that are incredibly good musicians and I've got to keep up with them and I'll learn some things myself. 

Pat: 

It’s a stacked bill, seriously. 

Mike: 

Pat, they're legit and you know, Dierks will bring his cool thing to it. We've got a really great line up.

Pat: Want to talk about the whole lineup?

Mike: 

Yeah, it's Wyatt Flores, Dierks Bentley, there’s Terri Clark, The McCrary Sisters, Jaid Joice, Bobby Messano and I'm going to be up there and just do some leads and stuff. I think it's going to raise some sort of awareness at the show.

Jason, any thoughts on that? 

Jason: 

I agree with everything Mike said. I also think the celebration part is important. Because it can highlight it in a different light. 

Pat: 

Absolutely. Now, Mike, you kind of touched on your connection with your wife Ashley and the  Washington Innocence Project and then Pearl Jam of course has a long history of support with the West Memphis three.

Jason, you've dedicated yourself to working with people who have been wrongly convicted. Was there a particular person or story in addition that changed how you view this that really made the cause hit home?  

Mike: 

I would say for myself it definitely was the West Memphis Three.  When that happened it was kind of obvious that these kids were wronged and it seemed you know the evidence didn't line up with what was going on and it was horrible and we were as a band, we were aware of that as were a few other bands, like Metallica. But we were very early on wanting to donate money to them and to their defense and it was very important to us because we felt that they had been wronged and that was my introduction to it.

Pat: 

Sure, you guys definitely were early advocates. Jason, what about you?

Jason: 

I mean I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever prioritized any of our cases over others, but I kind of think about maybe the most recent thing that happened you know and it's been only about a month since Thomas Clark came home. 

Thomas was in for 17 years. For a murder that he didn't commit. His conviction was overturned. He got out for 22 months and then a court on a technicality, overturned that and sent him back to prison. Thomas had to walk him back into prison. He served another full year and then finally after we litigated the clemency, the Governor commuted his sentence about a month ago. Thomas has been home for about a month, maybe a little bit longer than that. 

Pat:

Wow. Is he going to be there on Tuesday?

Jason: 

He will be. 

Pat: 

That’s amazing.

Mike:

It’s great. They get to come out to this event. It's just really special. I love Jason for making that happen because what a nightmare for that guy to be in, get out and then put back in. 

That's the quagmire of prison rules and laws that you have to deal with to get out. It’s insane.

And obviously Jason deals with all that. So we need people like that to champion this fight because people will not get out without chasing it.

Pat: 

You're doing amazing work for sure and that's great to hear that Thomas is there..

I'd love to do some portraits with you guys and with Thomas in addition to shooting the show.

Jason: Yes, please and there'll be a bunch of exonerees there. I want to say it's going to be like maybe 10 freed folks that are going to be there and their families.

Pat: Oh, that's going to be a powerful moment for them all. Getting together like this, That'll be really special. 

Jason, for the people who aren't really familiar and as you touched on, Tennessee's Innocence Project started just in 2019. What do you kind of wish the people understood about the Tennessee Innocence Project and the people who come to you for help?  

Jason:

Yeah , I mean the people who are coming to us are trying to navigate an impossible system on their own. You know, when somebody is innocent and they've been in prison for decades for something they didn't do, they're long past the time where they're entitled to have a lawyer appointed to them.

They're trying to navigate a really difficult legal system by themselves. It takes time. It takes money. It takes experts.

Pat:

It’s something people just can't do without advocates, right? 

Jason: 

Without boots on the ground, without people fighting for them.  We were really late to the game . But, we're catching up. And there's a lot of folks that are waiting for their truth to be told, that are waiting to come home. 

We're lucky to get to do the work. You know, we represent every one of our clients free of charge and we're only able to do it because people believe in the mission, people support us, people like Mike step up and do events like this to help us. 

Without that we don't keep the lights on, we don't have lawyers and courtrooms litigating these cases. It’s 100% based on folks believing in the work and having our back. 

Pat: 

Yeah and Mike seeing this work up close, what has surprised you the most about how hard it can be for an innocent person to get a second look?

Mike:

I mean just the amount of, I keep saying Kafka-esque. The puzzle, the hoops that they have to go through  and things that are denied and it's just insurmountable, like what Jason said and he's seen it all, but it almost gives you pause.

Pat: 

I don't know how you wouldn't just give up and not have any hope if you're ever getting out. 

Mike: 

But you can actually get some hope with these organizations. With the Tennessee Innocence  project and Washington Instance Project. That’s the coolest thing that I've seen. I've met a few exonerees. They're just like the most kind; they'll become very zen. You know, there's a very zen like thing about them.  

I would think that they'd be super bitter and angry, you know but they’re not.

I'm not sure if Jason's seen the same kind of thing,  but I think it's kind of fascinating to see somebody rise above these situations because what they had just gone through was so horrible.

Jason:

Yeah, I totally agree with that. When I first started doing this stuff and people would get out and  they would kind of have that Zen or grace about them. I didn't understand it.

I didn't know how they weren't just constantly walking around with anger and bitterness..

But, you know, I have the theory that in order to go through those decades of being locked up in a cage for something you didn't do, you just get your spirit kicked in over and over again . You have to have that special thing in you that most of us probably don't have.  

To be able to endure that and keep getting up and fighting and fighting and fighting.

I mean the sad part is that I think there probably are a lot of innocent people that are just broken within a few years and we don't ever hear from them again. And the folks that are kind of able to navigate and come out of the other side really are special and kind of have this thing to them that most folks don't have.

Pat:

There has to be something they have. I’m honestly not sure it would be a fight I could endure for years on end. Because like you said, there's that human cost to it all right? I think you said it was what 27 years on average, people are spending in prison in Tennessee. 

Those years won't come back. Kids grow up, parents die, life moves on without them. How do we help people truly understand and navigate the human cost of a wrongful conviction and all the things that come along with it? 

 Because beyond release, if someone loses decades of their life and the problems that led to the conviction remain, is release enough?  What do you think justice should look like beyond opening prison doors?  

Jason:

I don’t know. I get asked sometimes like what does justice look like? What does it mean? And honestly, I have no idea. Like I have a much better idea of what injustice looks like because you can't fix any of this stuff, right? 

At best we can mitigate the damage and we can help bring people home. Which is wonderful and important, but yeah, you can't give people back decades of their life. You can't change the fact that kids are growing up without their parents. It doesn't even matter if you pay them which in Tennessee they don't really do.

That doesn't solve anything either. I think the reason that a lot of folks are exonerated and then stay in the movement and tell their stories is not because they think that they're going to get justice, but because they think speaking it out and telling their stories and letting people know what this stuff is all about.

Maybe it won't take 27 years the next time. Maybe it won't happen the next time. I mean maybe we start to do things right on the front end so projects like us don't need to be around 30 years later.

Pat:

With that, I kind of want to raise a difficult issue that's taken place in Tennessee right now. Jason, I know you're aware of it and maybe you’ve seen it as well Mike? 

The Crista Pike case, the botched execution, which wasn't a wrongful conviction case. She admitted her guilt and I want to make that distinction, first and foremost.

But with the state's failed attempt at an execution, it raises questions about accountability and transparency. When a state has the power to impose an irreversible punishment like that, what does the moment tell us about the need for accountability within the system? How do we keep them to a high standard?  

Jason: 

Yeah, I mean that's a great and difficult question. There's so many issues that are going on around these botched executions. Christa is the second botched execution within the last six months in Tennessee. The other one was Tony Carruthers and Tony says he's innocent.

There's DNA that hasn't been tested in Tony's case that he's been asking to get tested.

And he wasn't given the opportunity to do that before they tried to kill him and botched that execution as well. So I've always thought that the crossroads with the death penalty was gonna be innocent stuff.

I thought at some point it's just going to be one more innocent person that is wrongfully killed and people are going to question, does this policy make sense?  

I have started to think that it's actually the fact that we can't competently do it that is going to get people to rethink the issue. Christa’s case is tragic in so many different ways, but in that, you know, it was told to the court just weeks before the execution, she has a medical condition. If you try to give her lethal injection, this is what's going to happen and exactly what they said was going to happen, happened.

Mike:

I think there are a hundred different reasons why we can talk about the death penalty being a failed policy. 

Jason:

But I mean, now we're at the point where we're talking about how two out of the last three executions in Tennessee have been botched. I don't see how we can continue to go forward with this plan, the way we've been doing business here.

Pat: 

Mike, you know better than anybody music brings people into a room who might never be in the same room together otherwise, right?  And a lot of them aren't going to be thinking about wrongful convictions and things of that nature. It’s all about forgetting issues and situations like these that we hear about on the news. 

How do we turn this moment of attention into change that actually helps people on the inside of a prison cell and the outside in daily life?

Mike: 

Well, to raise awareness and to be aware of the work that Jason does in Tennessee,  the Tennessee Innocence Project and Washington state innocence project. Every state has an innocence project, I believe at this point. 

And know that if people are wrongly convicted all the time and it's just terrible and horrifying and it can happen to anybody. So these organizations are there to battle that. And if you come to this you'll hear some stories and things like that. But you'll also be able to have some music and hopefully have a good night along with that. There will be some education on the subject as well with the music and entertainment. I think that those two things can go hand in hand and just bring more awareness to it.

Pat: 

And it kind of answers the next question a little bit, but what success is going to look like a year from now? What would you like to see have happened for Justice Jam to be more than just a successful night of music, what's the lasting impact look like?  

Mike:

I'd love to see more of these. I think getting all the states involved. To communicate together and work together and do shows or whatever and split the profits and raise more awareness by doing shows. Whether it's you know in Nashville or Florida or wherever  it is, let's do more of these and open the door to you know more conversations about the innocent. 

Pat: 

There we have it! Justice Jam 2026 is taking over Cannery Hall in the heart of Nashville on Oct 27th. Are there any tickets left at this point guys? 

Jason: 

There's still some tickets left. Go to Justicejam.com 

Pat:

Mike, any surprises that you want to reveal before you get off the line. I know, I’m probably not going to get that answered but, I have to ask. 

Mike: 

(Laughs)

I get it, you’re doing your job. 

Pat: 

No, I’m literally asking for myself. I want to know. 

Mike: 

It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you! I think it's gonna be fun and exciting and you're gonna hear great music and yes, Pat there will be a couple of surprises in there . 

Pat:

Amazing.I figured you had something up your sleeve. 

Mike:It's just gonna be a fun night and yeah just when you're there Pat, come find me. Let’s take some  pics and make all that stuff happen.

Pat: Absolutely, will do. Mike, one more thing that I need to know. All Pearl Jam fans want to know. Is Abe the guy? Is he Pearl Jam’s new and permanent drummer? 

Mike: 

(laughs) I have no official comment right now but, I do love playing with Abe Laboriel.  

Pat:

Can’t blame a guy for trying! Guys, thank you again for taking the time to chat with me today. I will see you both on Tuesday for the show.