The Huge Ballot Measures You Forgot Existed
The focus today, and late Tuesday night, is on the presidential race. But farther down the ticket is often where we find the greater impact —representatives, judges, and statewide ballot measures.The...
View ArticleBallot Measures Mark Change in States
Voters in 38 states also cast their votes yesterday on a total of 176 ballot measures.Among the initiatives that passed: Maine and Maryland became the first states to approve same-sex marriage by...
View ArticleThe Legal Questions Around the Boston Bombing
With the arrest of a suspect in the Boston bombing, there are now a host of legal questions emerging. Should he have been immediately read his Miranda rights? Should he be labelled an "enemy...
View ArticleThe Re-Birth of the First Amendment
Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court made a decision in the case New York Times v Sullivan that would forever alter the way journalists practiced journalism. Brooke speaks with Andrew Cohen, contributing...
View ArticleCriminal Intent and a Brain Aneurysm
Click on the 'Listen' button to hear the interview.Audiences around the country have been taken this year by stories that are windows into our justice system, podcasts like "Serial" and television...
View ArticleStriving for Justice: DNA Test Comes Too Late to Save Two Men
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.The fairness of our criminal justice system has come under the microscope in recent years, and it remains one of only a few issues where...
View ArticleIn Alabama, Voter Suppression Looks A Lot Like Double Jeopardy
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.According to The Sentencing Project, about 6.1 million Americans are not eligible to vote because of a felony conviction. While some of those...
View ArticleA Murderer Mistaken by Memory
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.In 1982 , JoAnn Tate was murdered in front of her two young children. It was Tate's 7-year-old daughter, identified in court papers as "M.D.,"...
View ArticleA Ray of Hope For Inmates With Mental Illness
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. You don't hear many "good" stories from ADX-Florence, the "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado.The facility is known for housing the worst...
View ArticleA Criminal Justice Failure at All Levels
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.This week, the team at The Marshall Project is exploring a breakdown in the criminal justice system that goes beyond wrongful convictions and...
View ArticlePhillip Chance and The Punishing Price of Freedom
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. In 1971, Phillip Chance was just 15-years-old. A young black boy living in Michigan, he went to visit family in Choctaw, Alabama. On the trip,...
View ArticleHorror in Oklahoma: Man's Brutal Death Reveals Abuse in Tulsa Prison System
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. The final five days of the life of Elliot Earl Williams were caught on surveillance tape, and have been condensed into a 10 minute video online....
View ArticleSCOTUS to Decide: Can a Facebook Post Be Illegal?
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.In 2010, a man named Lester Packingham did what so many of us do: He shared a bit of happy news on social media after he beat a parking...
View ArticlePrisoner Death Shines Light on Private Health Contractors
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.Nicholas Glisson died on October 10, 2010 in Indiana State Prison. Glisson was just 37 days into an eight year prison sentence for a felony drug...
View ArticleA Common Practice Among Local Police Draws Criticism from a Supreme Court...
A common practice among New York and New Jersey police came under sharp criticism from a Supreme Court Justice this week. It's called "civil forfeiture."As Andrew Cohen, Senior Editor at The Marshall...
View ArticleWhen the Right to Remain Silent is Called Into Question
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. Under the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, an accused person has the right to remain silent but the application of that right is more difficult...
View ArticleWhen Justice Goes Wrong
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. Susan King was wrongly convicted of murder in Kentucky in 2006. She spent over six years behind bars and is now the plaintiff in a federal...
View ArticleIs It Murder if There’s No Homicide?
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.Jessie McKim has spent the last 20 years behind bars for a murder that never took place.McKim is serving a life sentence without parole for...
View ArticleDefendants Struggle to Find Justice in Tennessee
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. One of the fundamental rights of people caught up in our criminal justice system is "due process." But for some people, good legal...
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Released From Prison Decades After a Retrial That Never Came
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment.On Monday afternoon, Jerry Hartfield was released from Hutchins State Jail in Dallas, Texas, after spending 41 years behind bars for the murder...
View ArticleWho Pays for Jail Rape?
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.This week’s Case in Point from The Marshall Project examines a nuanced piece of legal doctrine known as “qualified immunity.” "Qualified...
View ArticleDespite Wrongful Convictions, Securing Freedom Isn't So Easy
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. In 1983, Victor Rosario was convicted of setting fire to a building in Lowell, Massachusetts — a fire that claimed eight lives, and he was...
View ArticleIs There a Constitutional Right to Cash in on the Poor?
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. This week's "Case in Point" from The Marshall Project takes us to Craighead County, Arkansas, where a private probation company called The...
View ArticleThe Last Jim Crow Law
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court may decide whether to take a case that directly addresses racial prejudices in the law. The case centers on...
View ArticleA Tragedy of Errors
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. This week's Case in Point delves into issues of judicial misconduct, jury misconduct, police misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct — all...
View ArticleWho Polices Perjury?
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. On June 11, 2001, Lariec Sherman was shot to death outside the Taft Homes, a housing project in Peoria, Illinois. A man named Paysun Long was...
View ArticleWhen Coercion Enters The Interrogation Room
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. This week’s Case in Point focuses on the case of Jovan Djurdjulov, who was arrested in 2009 for a gang-related arson that took the lives of two...
View ArticleCorporate Accountability? Why Big Businesses Favor the 'C' Plea
The weeks Case in Point is about plea deals — in particular “C” pleas — which tend to favor mostly corporations. Drug maker Aegerion arranged one such "C" plea after being charged with misconduct for...
View ArticleOld Law Lets Social Media Giants Side With Prosecutors in Criminal Cases
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment A case that could have major implications for social media privacy rights is currently before the Supreme Court of California. It involves the...
View ArticleWhen Capital Punishment is a Game of Chance
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segmentThis week's Case in Point from The Marshall Project examines the case of Renard Marcel Daniel.Daniel was charged with a double murder in Alabama...
View ArticleDoesn’t Anyone Want to Know Who Killed Louise Cicelsky?
If you’ve been convicted of a crime and believe DNA might exonerate you, it can be an uphill battle to get a judge to reopen your case.Laws vary state to state, and in New York, where the laws are not...
View ArticleDespite Low I.Q. and Young Age, Corey Williams Received Death Penalty
In 1998, Corey Williams was sentenced to death for the murder of Jarvis Griffin, a pizza delivery man in Shreveport, Louisiana. Corey, who was 16 years old and had an intellectual disability, was found...
View ArticleCase in Point: Jury Discrimination May Force Retrial of Man Imprisoned for 41...
41 years ago, an all-white jury convicted Johnny Lee Gates, an intellectually disabled black man, for the murder of a white woman in Georgia. Despite little to no evidence and another lead in the case,...
View ArticleA New First Amendment
Nearly six decades ago, the Supreme Court made a decision in the case New York Times v. Sullivan that would forever alter the way journalists practiced journalism. Brooke spoke with Andrew Cohen,...
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