Using Appropriate Legal Channels Series

Introduction

In 1999, Sonny Bharadia, a 25-year-old Indian immigrant and recent college graduate working as a convenience store clerk in Savannah, GA, was wrongfully convicted of assaulting and murdering 19-year-old Stephanie Bennett.

The crime occurred in a parked car near a local park.

Bharadia was arrested two days later based on a single eyewitness identification from a passerby who claimed to have seen him near the scene.

Despite no physical evidence linking him—no DNA, fingerprints, or blood matches—the prosecution built its case on this shaky testimony and a coerced confession.

Bharadia later said the confession was extracted after 18 hours of relentless interrogation without a lawyer or proper Miranda warnings.

He was sentenced to life without parole.

He spent over two decades in Georgia’s prison system, where he maintained his innocence while pursuing self-education in law and advocating for other inmates.

In 2018, the Georgia Innocence Project took up his case.

They secured post-conviction DNA testing on evidence that had been preserved.

The results were exonerating.

None of Bharadia’s DNA was found on the victim or at the scene.

Further investigation revealed prosecutorial misconduct, including the suppression of evidence about the eyewitness’s reliability and alternate suspects.

Bharadia’s case moved forward to the Georgia Supreme Court.

On May 16, 2025, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously vacated Bharadia’s conviction in a landmark ruling, citing “actual innocence” based on the new DNA evidence and constitutional violations in his interrogation.

Bharadia said afterwards, “Prison stole my youth, but truth gave me back my life” (https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/general/sonny-bharadia-exonerated/).

The Apostle Paul had been held in custody in Caesarea for two years.

Like Bharadia, Paul asserted his innocence and kept proclaiming the truth with unwavering conviction.

Today, we will examine Paul’s fourth of six defenses in the Book of Acts (Acts 22:1–21; 22:30–23:10; 24:10–21; 25:1-12; 26:1–29; 28:17–29) in a sermon I am calling, “Using Appropriate Legal Channels.”

Scripture

Let’s read Acts 25:1-12:

1 Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. 2 And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, 3 asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem—because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way. 4 Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly. 5 “So,” said he, “let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him.”

6 After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. 7 When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. 8 Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.” 9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?” 10 But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well. 11 If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.” 12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go.”

Lesson

Acts 25:1-12 shows us how God sovereignly protects his servants in the face of hostile opposition, enabling them to proclaim the truth with unwavering conviction.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. God Preserves His Servants from Assassination (25:1-5)

2. God Protects His Servants from Accusations (25:6-7)

3. God Provides His Servants with Answers (25:8)

4. God Prompts His Servants to Appeal (25:9-12)

I. God Preserves His Servants from Assassination (25:1-5)

First, God preserves his servants from assassination.

Porcius Festus replaced Felix as the governor of Judaea.

Desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix kept Paul in custody in Caesarea, where he had already been for two years (Acts 24:27).

“Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea” (v. 1).

Unlike Felix, Festus was not a procrastinator.

He had inherited all the problems that Felix had left behind.

So, Festus went to Jerusalem to meet the Jewish leaders and learn about their concerns.