Last Friday, our community gathered for the closing ceremony of Missoula artist Aaron Jennings’ powerful exhibit, What Does the Fight for Justice Sound Like? — an innovative, audio-based exploration of the Montana Innocence Project’s work and, in particular, the case of Bernard “Bernie” Pease Jr.
The exhibit invited visitors into an immersive soundscape of interviews, stories, recorded court transcripts, and music woven together to tell Bernie’s story. One interactive element asked participants to place a record on a turntable. A voice prompted them to speak their name into a microphone and answer whether they understood the nature of the crime they were accused of. Then, at random, the system declared them either “guilty” or “not guilty,” underscoring the terrifying reality that wrongful convictions are beyond one’s control.
The words spoken into that microphone — the hesitations, reflections, and conversations — became part of the piece itself by recording onto a separate audio device at the end of the exhibit.
Behind the installation stretched nearly 20 feet of audio waveform from the audio recording about Bernie’s story. Printed across it were the words: eat eat eat sleep — repeated for every single day of Bernie’s 39 years of wrongful incarceration.
The evening began with remarks from MTIP Executive Director Amy Sings In The Timber, followed by a Q&A with Aaron. Aaron shared that of all the MTIP cases he studied, Bernie’s stood out. He was born the same year Bernie was wrongfully convicted in 1984, meaning his entire life has unfolded during the time Bernie has been incarcerated.
“Working on this helped me figure out my relationship with the justice system and to the justice system,” Aaron told the audience during the artist talk. “Because of cultural conditions, it’s easy to tune this stuff out. It’s hard to hold. It’s easy to ignore. But it’s terrifying being ejected from a normal life into a system you have no control over.”
Reflecting on his conversations with Bernie while preparing the exhibit, Aaron shared:
“The system is designed to drain your endurance. Knowing that you’re innocent is one thing; fighting for your innocence while you’re in the system is another thing.”
Aaron added:
“I want to be a person who believes people do the right thing, but it’s discouraging when you dig into it. Still, a takeaway for me is how much humanity exists in this completely inhuman system.”
During the community discussion, attendees asked about Aaron’s creative process and about juvenile justice in Montana. Our Investigations Manager, Karl Pitcher, spoke about MTIP’s efforts to better understand and collect data on youth in the system, which is often complicated by restricted access to data. Amy spoke to both the urgency and complexity of addressing juvenile convictions.
“We’re learning how to best address the root causes of the issue while triaging, but I still have hope we can make changes,” Amy remarked.
We closed the evening with a conversation between MTIP Board President Colin Stephens and John Lovi, who recently stepped off the board, reflecting on John’s years of service and his belief in Bernie’s case.
“I feel so strongly that that case should be won,” John said. “Despite that the government is only supposed to care about justice, they care about their careers, their egos, their stats. It signals everything that’s wrong with our system that creates the need for this organization. That’s a problem bigger than law, bigger than justice — it’s a human problem.”
The night ended with a fundraising appeal, and we were grateful to have a generous matching gift to amplify the impact of every donation.
To everyone who attended, listened, asked questions, donated, and held this work with care and curiosity: thank you!
And a special thank you to Aaron Jennings and the contributing artists who donated proceeds from their art sales to support MTIP’s work. Your creativity and generosity helped turn reflection into action.
We are also grateful to Torrents Arts at the Confluence Center, a venue dedicated to both artistic expression and collective action, for hosting this powerful exhibit and helping bring it to the community. Learn more about Torrents Art and the other artists featured in the show by visiting their website and Facebook page.
If you weren’t able to attend but would like to make a gift in honor of the event, it’s not too late. Our match is still active, and your support will help us continue the fight for justice.