Chris Rock is explaining what he meant after his comments about a wrongfully convicted Brooklyn man sparked backlash online.
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During an October 6 appearance on The Breakfast Club, Rock addressed the reaction to his recent admission that he did not pay for legal help for Roger Logan, the brother of one of his close childhood friends. Rock previously discussed Logan while speaking about accusations, forgiveness, and the danger of treating allegations as established facts.The story quickly traveled across social media, with some critics questioning why a successful entertainer with the financial resources to help would decline to do so. Rock said the viral framing left out an important part of what he was trying to explain.
“Yeah, well, well, it would have been an appeal also appeal, you know what I mean,” Rock said when The Breakfast Club raised the controversy.
Rock explained that Logan was already incarcerated and had been convicted after testimony was presented against him. His hesitation, he said, came from the uncertainty surrounding what an appeal could ultimately cost.
Rock first discussed the situation during a recent interview with The New York Times, saying Logan’s brother had asked him to pay for a lawyer and that the decision not to help still bothered him.
On The Breakfast Club, the comedian expanded on that Chris Rock regret and pushed back on the idea that he simply refused to help someone he believed was innocent.
“Lawyers, especially when you’re, you know, when they already said you’re guilty, it’s like, that could be $10,000 that could end up being $400,000,” Rock said. “And I just didn’t. You know, have it. I had it, but I didn’t, you know what I mean? I didn’t know. I didn’t know where, where it was gonna end.”
Rock compared legal bills with other financial requests he has been willing to cover for relatives and people close to him, including housing repairs, education, and everyday emergencies. His concern, he said, was that an appeal did not come with a predictable price tag or guaranteed outcome.
The underlying Roger Logan case gives the conversation much more weight than the viral clip alone.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Logan was arrested in 1997 in connection with the killing of 18-year-old Sherwin Gibbons in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 and sentenced to 25 years to life.
The Registry reports that Logan’s case was investigated by former NYPD detective Louis Scarcella. Years later, a reinvestigation uncovered serious problems with the prosecution’s eyewitness evidence. Records showed that a key witness who claimed to have seen Logan before and during the shooting had actually been in police custody for much of that period, according to the Registry.
After the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Conviction Review Unit reexamined the case, prosecutors moved to throw out Logan’s conviction. A June 2014 statement from the Kings County District Attorney’s Office said then District Attorney Kenneth Thompson concluded the conviction should not stand. Logan was released on June 3, 2014.
There is also a factual discrepancy in Rock’s retelling. Rock has repeatedly said Logan served 19 years. Official records say the period was closer to 17 years. The Brooklyn District Attorney described Logan as having served 17 years, while the New York City Comptroller’s Office said he spent more than 16 years wrongfully incarcerated.
The Comptroller’s Office later announced a $3.75 million settlement with Logan in 2016 over his wrongful incarceration. The National Registry of Exonerations also reports that he received approximately $2.98 million through the New York Court of Claims.
For Chris Rock, the Logan case became part of a larger argument about accusations and the possibility that institutions can get things wrong.
“In my life, I’ve seen accusations not pan out,” Rock told The Breakfast Club. “And that doesn’t mean ignore anybody, hear everything, but let the system play out, and even when it plays out, it still might be wrong.”
Rock also revealed that he has seen Logan since his release.
“I’ve seen him a couple of times,” he said. “I’ve seen him when I go through the neighborhood.”
