Life of the Law

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99: Shaken Dec 20, 2016

Show notes

Tonia Miller lost control and shook her baby to death. That’s what prosecutors said. Miller denied it, but a Michigan jury wasn’t convinced and convicted her of murder. At 19 years old, Miller was separated from her family, sent to prison and found herself having lost something else: her life.

Over 13 years later, those who knew the young family are haunted by moments when the child showed signs something was wrong during the short time she was alive. According to medical experts, authorities may have foreclosed the possibility that the death was the result of something other than murder—birth trauma, an accident or illness.

This shaken-baby syndrome investigation was reported by The Medill Justice Project, an award-winning national investigative journalism center based at Northwestern University that examines potentially wrongful convictions and criminal justice issues.

Production Notes

Shaken was a co-production with The Medill Justice Project and was reported by Adele Humbert and Taylor Mullaney with production by Adele Humbert and editing by Alec Klein and Amanda Westrich. Our Senior Producer is Tony Gannon. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain.

We want to thank Allisha Azlan and Rachel Fobar, Medill Justice Project associates, and Anthony Settipani, former Medill Justice Project fellow for their help with the reporting and production of our story.

Our engineers were Adam Yoffe at WBEZ in Chicago and Howard Gelman at KQED Radio in San Francisco.

Music in this episode was from The Audio Network.

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98: Fair Fight for a Fair Court Dec 13, 2016

Show notes

The 2016 elections are over. But what did we learn from the results? Over the past 11 months, Life of the Law’s team of reporters, editors and scholars have been taking a hard took at how money and an increase in spending by special interest groups has played a role in the outcome of elections for judges on state supreme courts. And those outcomes may impact our shared access to our state courts, courts that are supposed to represent fairness in the law and the highest ideals of justice.

We called our five part series A Fair Fight for a Fair Court -- and now we’re presenting all five stories with updates in two hour-long special feature episodes on Life of the Law.

In this, the second hour, you’ll hear three stories: Recuse Yourself from reporter Chloe Prasinos, Courting Voters from reporter Ashley Cleek, and Judges v. Attack Ads from reporter Jess Engebretson. We'll also bring you updates on those stories.A Fair Fight for a Fair Court: Election Year Special - Part 2 was reported by Chloe Prasinos, Ashley Cleek, and Jess Engebretson and was edited by Ibby Caputo and Nancy Mullane. We had sound design and production by Shani Aviram and Tony Gannon. Our post production editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. We want to thank members of our Advisory Panel of Scholars and our Advisory Board, Brittny Bottorff, Ellen Horne and Osagie Obasogie for their support. Howard Gelman was our engineer.

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97: Fair Fight for a Fair Court Nov 29, 2016

Show notes

The 2016 elections are over. But what did we learn from the results? Over the past 11 months, Life of the Law’s team of reporters, editors and scholars have been taking a hard took at how money and an increase in spending by special interest groups has played a role in the outcome of elections for judges on state supreme courts. Ultimately, the outcomes of those races may impact our shared access to our state courts, courts that represent fairness in the law and the highest ideals of justice.

We are presenting all five stories in our series A Fair Fight for a Fair Court -- with updates in two, hour-long special feature episodes on Life of the Law. The first hour is being presented on November 29th. Part two will be presented on December 13.

A Fair Fight for a Fair Court: Election Year Special - Part 1 was reported by Ashley Cleek and Jonathan Hirsch and edited by Annie Aviles and Nancy Mullane, with sound design and production by Shani Aviram and Tony Gannon. Our post production editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle, Rachael Cain and Alyssa Bernstein. We want to thank members of our Advisory Panel of Scholars and our Advisory Board Brittny Bottorff, Ellen Horne and Osagie Obasogie for their support. Howard Gelman and Katie McMurran were our engineers.

Music in this episode is from Blue Dot Sessions.

Special thanks to Michael Leachman, Director of State Fiscal Research at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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96: Live Law San Quentin: Hope Nov 16, 2016

Show notes

On Saturday, November 12, 2016 members of the San Quentin Wednesday Night Creative Writing Class presented the stories they have been writing, to fellow inmates and guests inside the prison’s education center. The event, the Eleventh Annual Public Reading, was sponsored by the William James Association’s Prison Arts Project. And so, down on the “yard” inside a double-wide modular bungalow, inmates stood before an audience of free and incarcerated to share their creative fiction, spoken word, and poetry.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Live Law San Quentin: Hope is a co-production of Life of the Law and San Quentin’s Creative Writing Program, Brothers In Pen. James Rowlands produced the live recording. Tony Gannon, Life of the Law’s Senior Producer designed and produced the episode. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Katie McMurran and Howard Gellman were our in-studio engineers.

Music was composed and performed by David Jassy and the San Quentin Prison Report.

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95: Judges v. Attack Ads Nov 01, 2016

Show notes

Judges across the country are in a fight to keep their jobs. You see, Unlike judges appointed to federal courts, many state judges have to run in elections to either get voted onto the court or keep their seat on the bench after they’ve been appointed… that means they have to convince voters to vote for them. So they do what candidates in elections do: they go to state fairs, they shake hands, they kiss babies and they spend hours on the phone fundraising. And now, they dodge harsh attacks.

Fifteen years ago, judges were pretty much exempt from attack ads like this one. But today independent groups pour millions of dollars into state judicial races and fund attack ads hoping to influence voters, one way or another. In this fifth and final part of our series A Fair Fight for A Fair Court, Jess Engebretson reports on how the rise of attack ads affects our justice system.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Judges v. Attack Ads was reported by Jess Engebretson and edited by Ibby Caputo, with sound design and production by Tony Gannon. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Special thanks to Benjamin Hardy for his help with reporting this episode. Howard Gelman was our engineer.

We’d also like to thank Professor James Gibson of Washington University in St. Louis for his scholarly advice about judicial elections.

Music in this episode is from the Audio Network.

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94: Courting Voters - Pt 4: A Fair Fight for a Fair Court Oct 18, 2016

Show notes

On October 4th, the justices on the Kansas Supreme Court traveled to Hutchinson, a small town in central Kansas. The seven men and women donned their black robes and took the bench in a community college auditorium to hear oral arguments in upcoming cases. This is pretty much the extent of campaigning the justices are allowed to do and for more than 50 years this has been enough.

But this year, many people in Kansas say they are disillusioned by several rulings the justices on Kansas’ highest court have made and now, they want to boot four of the five justices on the ballot, from the bench. Never before has a sitting justice on the Kansas Supreme Court not won a retention election. But as we all bear witness, 2016 is a different sort of election year.

In Part 4 of our A Fair Fight for a Fair Court series, Life of the Law reporter Ashley Cleek takes us to Kansas for COURTING VOTERS.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Courting Voters was reported by Ashley Cleek and edited by Nancy Mullane with sound design and production by Shani Aviram. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Ceil Muller and Howard Gelman of KQED in San Francisco and Paul Ruest of Argot Studios in New York were our sound engineers.

Special Thanks to Hutchinson Community College and Lisa Taylor at the Kansas Supreme Court and Professor James Gibson of the American University for his scholarly advice.

Full Transcript of Courting Voters

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93: Last Count Oct 04, 2016

Show notes

Douglas Collier is serving a life sentence inside San Quentin State Prison. For years he shared a 9x4 foot cell with his friend Tony, a fellow inmate. One day Tony couldn’t stop coughing. His arteries were clogged. Several months later, Tony died -- one of the hundreds of inmates who die in California state prisons each year.

In this story, reported by Greg Eskridge, an inmate and journalist with the San Quentin Prison Report, Douglas tell us what it was like to witness, and come to terms with, his friend’s death.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Last Count was reported by Greg Eskridge and edited by Jess Engebretson with sound design and production by Jonathan Hirsch. We want to thank the journalists with the San Quentin Prison Report and David Jassy for providing additional production support for the story. Special thanks to Lt. Sam Robinson and Larry Schneider with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and to Nigel Poor. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain. Howard Gelman was our engineer.

This episode of Life of the Law was funded in part by grants from the Open Society Foundations, the Law and Society Association, the Proteus Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Last Count was sponsored by Blue Apron and by Denial.

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92: Live Law Phoenix - Borders Sep 20, 2016

Show notes

Each summer, people from all around the country gather for the Soros Justice Fellowship Conference -- three days of meetings, conversations, and workshops by scholars, journalists, attorneys, and advocates working on projects that explore the criminal justice system in America.

This year six fellows, some new and some former, shared personal stories about their work and their lives. It was hosted by Adam Culbreath, Program Officer of the Soros Justice Fellows Program. Here are their stories…

PRODUCTION NOTES

Live Law Phoenix - Borders was held at summer gathering of the Soros Justice Fellows. We’d like to thank Adam Culbreath, Program Officer of the Soros Justice Fellowship, for hosting and Christina Voight, Program Coordinator, for her co-production of the event. Jonathan Hirsch designed the sound. Our post-production editors are Kirsten Jusewicz Haidle and Rachael Cain. Howard Gelman was our engineer.

Music in this episode was from Martin Landh

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91: Death on a Dairy Sep 06, 2016

Show notes

“Being trampled, being struck by livestock, being struck by vehicles, backed over. People have fallen into and drowned in manure pits.”

- Steve Kaplan, OSHA

Turns out small dairy farms can be some of the most dangerous, unregulated places to work. There are hinges and machines and huge cows to contend with. Over the past decade in New York State alone, 70 dairy workers have died on the job. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, investigated only six of those deaths.

Life of the Law reporter Eilis O’Neill traveled to upstate New York to find out why it's so dangerous to work on small dairy farms.

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90: Kids Doing Life Aug 23, 2016

Show notes

When you’re sixteen or seventeen do you really think about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with? Sometimes, sure. But not all the time. There’s science to show that teens don’t think like adults. Their brains aren’t fully developed. That means two things. First that they don’t have the same ability as an adult to consider the consequences of their actions, and second, that in time, when their brain does become fully developed, they can be rehabilitated.

For these and many reasons, the US Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that teens can’t be sentenced to death and they can’t be given an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole. But what does that mean? How long can a state send a teen to prison before they have a chance at parole?

If you break the law and are sent to prison as a teen, how long do we wait to give you another chance? This week on Life of the Law, reporter Brenda Salinas tells us Ashley Ervin's story.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Kids Doing Life was reported by Brenda Salinas and edited by Jess Engebretson with sound design and production from Shani Aviram.

We want to thank Rachael Cain, our summer intern, and Megan Flynn, Beth Schwartzapfel, and Terry Langford for their reporting and help with production. Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle is our Post Production Editor. Howard Gelman is our engineer.

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