Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby joined the Everyday Injustice podcast to discuss her office's new sentencing review unit. The unit will review cases of certain incarcerated people to determine whether the office supports their release. “Our state has a mass incarceration problem caused by lengthy and excessive sentences, which are disproportionately imposed on people of color. My office’s duty to fairness and justice does not end at sentencing. Evidence shows that people age-out of...
Jan 06, 2021•43 min
While the advent of DNA testing and the Innocence Project pushed wrongful convictions into the mainstream consciousness. There was important work done on wrongful convictions dating back well into the last century and through the work of trail blazers like Jim McCloskey with Centurion Ministries. Martin Yant's book from nearly 30 years ago marked the first comprehensive account of wrongful convictions in several decades, but predated the rise of DNA testing - and yet it in many ways it reads lik...
Nov 24, 2020•40 min
In February of 2019, longtime legendary public defender Jeff Adachi died. Taking over the position as the only elected public defender in California was Mano Raju. His first 18 months has seen not only the sudden ascent to head the office, but the COVID epidemic, a series of protests for racial reform, and a tumultuous election. Everyday Injustice discusses these and the role of being of public dfender with Mano Raju.
Nov 16, 2020•49 min
This week on Everyday Injustice we speak with Michael Bobelian, author of the Marel Palace who chronicles the 1968 Court battle over Abe Fortas’s nomination to elevate him from associate to Chief Justice by LBJ. The discussion has interesting parallels to this current debate over Amy Barrett's nomination that went through last week. Bobelian argues that the Fortas battle marked the turning point in the way and manner in which these were conducted. He agrees that the media got their history wrong...
Nov 01, 2020•49 min
Andrew Warren was a federal prosecutor who ran for Florida State Attorney in Hillsborough County (Tampa) in 2016 and is now running for reelection. He ran as a reformer. Listen as he discusses issues of protests, police accountability and criminal justice reform.
Oct 15, 2020•40 min
Dan Quart has been in the NY State Assembly for nearly a decade. Now he is among many running for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, a position currently held by Cy Vance, but it is unknown if by 2021, he will seek another turn. In the meantime, Quart is positioning himself as a reformer on a variety of issues which he discusses on Everyday Injustice.
Oct 14, 2020•39 min
David Greenwald (Vanguard Editor) and Jordon Varney (Vanguard at UC Davis City Editor) host a discussion with the three young council candidates: Kelsey Fortune, Connor Gorman and Dillan Horton. Discussion ranged from policing, to race, to commissions and rental issues.
Oct 09, 2020•1 hr 34 min
Ben Pogue is a candidate for the Ninth Circuit Solicitor in South Carolina, representing Charleston and Berkley Counties. He is looking to bring reform and accountability to the criminal justice system. During the interview he talked about the prosecutor's office's failure to bring accountability in the police killing of unarmed Walter Scott, who he said the solicitor "blamed for his own murder."
Oct 08, 2020•50 min
Everyday INjustice sat down with four individuals in the community of Davis California looking to make changes to policing at the local level. The participants: Morgan Poindexter,Aarthi Sekar, Lupita Torres, and Dillan Horton. The discussion ranged from data on racial profiling, race and policing, to alternative models - defunding the police, reimagining policing and CAHOOTS.
Oct 05, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Elected in November 2019 in San Francisco as a reformer, Chesa Boudin has been on the job for nine months and already accomplished a lot. We discuss some of the reforms - racial disparities, police accountability, the post conviction review, and much more.
Oct 01, 2020•52 min
In the wake of George Floyd's killing, California legislators put forward a number of police reforms - many of which died prior to getting to a vote. One of those was Senator Bradford's SB 731 which would allow for police officers who committed misconduct to be decertified and not allowed to serve as officers. California is only one of five states that doesn't have such a process.
Sep 29, 2020•34 min
Everyday Injustice podcast covers criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and more. – Episode 76: It Could Happen to You Jeffrey Deskovic and Bill Bastuk. Deskovic was wrongly convicted at age 16 and released after 17 years in prison, has become a lawyer and founded the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation. Bastuk wrongly accused of a crime but acquitted. The two have started It Could Happen to You. They helped to pass the Prosecutorial Misconduct Commission in New York and ar...
Sep 26, 2020•38 min
Everyday Injustice talks with Yolo County Public Defender Tracie Olson who discusses Public Defense work, defunding the police, officer involved shootings, racial disparities, and zero bail.
Sep 22, 2020•42 min
Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton is not like most sheriffs, his approach to law enforcement looks to reduce racial disparities and mass incarceration. He has a different take on defunding the police than many, but looks to change policing and looks to tools other than simply enforcement to deal with many of society's problems.
Sep 17, 2020•41 min
USC Professor Jody Armour wrote the provocative book, "N*gga Theory" and on everyday injustice we talk about issues like racism, language, symbols such as the confederate flag as well as well mass incarceration and concentrated poverty. Want to understand racism in America - listen to this podcast and read his book.
Sep 15, 2020•48 min
Everyday Injustice speaks to Brendon Woods, the chief Public Defender in Alameda County, the only Black Chief Public Defender in the state of California. He discusses mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, policing and race.
Sep 10, 2020•37 min
Last July, DA Jaime Esparaza announced he would not seek election after serving 28 years. In 2016, Yvonne Rosales, running as a reformer a reformer narrowly lost to Esparaza. Rosales who began her career as an Assistant District Attorney before going into private practice. She is pushing for reforms in the criminal justice system and discussed issues like police accountability, mass incarceration and wrongful convictions during her interview with Everyday Injustice. The primary runoff starts on ...
Jun 27, 2020•36 min
Since May 25 and the death of George Floyd at the hands of officers in Minnesota, protesters have taken to the streets and the nation has been debating policing and the legacy of racism. Everyday Injustice speaks to Calvin Handy, a retired police chief from UC Davis with decades of experience in law enforcement who discusses the problems with policing today and ways to correct these problems into the future.
Jun 22, 2020•35 min
Franky Carrillo was one of the cases featured on Netflix’s series, “The Innocence Files,” the story begins in 1991 when Donald Sarpy was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting as he was standing in the driveway of his home in Lynwood, California. There were six witnesses to the murder, but none of them got a good look at the shooter due to the dark conditions. Nevertheless, pressured by a sheriff’s deputy, then 16 year old Franky Carrillo was identified and convicted of murder. All six witnesses...
Jun 12, 2020•35 min
On May 19, Walter Barton became the first person executed in the US in over two months, convicted of killing an 81 year old acquaintance nearly three decades ago. But the Innocence Project and others believed him wrongfully convicted. The Midwest Innocence Project believed that the evidence was unreliable. Barton was convicted based on the testimony of an unreliable jailhouse informant and the use of bloodstain pattern analysis — a forensic method whose validity scientists have questioned. The o...
Jun 09, 2020•41 min
Melissa Mark-Viverito, born in Puerto Rico, has been a councilmember in New York City representing areas of the Bronx for several terms and she is running to replace longtime incumbent Jose Serrano. She is running on a platform that includes criminal justice reform and talked extensively about efforts to close down Rikers Island, the notorious jail in New York, bail reform and stop and frisk.
May 22, 2020•40 min
Mimi Rocah is a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, serving from February 2001 until October 2017. She is running for DA in Westchester County, NY. She is running on a platform of reform looking to impose though ethical standards and transparency to the office she believes is lacking in both. She is also looking at issues such as decarceration, bail reform, and other key issues of the progressive reform movement.
May 13, 2020•41 min
Matt Toporowski is running for DA in Albany, NY. A current defense attorney and former prosecutor, he is challenging the incumbent DA in the Democratic primary, scheduled for June 23. Albany County DA David Soares headed the state's DA Association last year and has led a pushback against some of the enacted reforms by the state legislature - filing a lawsuit against a prosecutorial misconduct commission, the nation’s first independent commission to investigate prosecutorial conduct. Soares also ...
May 04, 2020•40 min
Kim Gardner was elected chief prosecutor in St. Louis in 2016. Since then she has been taking on the system - the first black circuit attorney in St. Louis, in January she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit that accuses the city, the city's police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office. The lawsuit among other things alleges the city's police union "has gone out of its way to support white officers accused of perpetrating acts of violence and...
May 01, 2020•38 min
Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Joe Gonzales took office in January of 2019 on a pledge to reform the office, restore public confidence, and make the office more accountable to the voters. Since being elected he has pushed for reforms in the criminal justice system and looking at ways to reduce the jail population - before and since the COVID crisis. In the fall of 2019, he sent a letter to Governor Abbott, noting new evidence and numerous witnesses that recently have come forward in the...
Apr 29, 2020•38 min
In 1981, Jodie Sinclair was a journalist visiting the Angola Prison to do a story on the newly reinstated death penalty. She met Billy Sinclair, who had been sentenced to death for his role in a robbery gone wrong, had his sentence reduced to life and eventually earning parole in 2006. She fell in love and married him in the early 80s, beginning a 25 year fight for his freedom. Joining her on the podcast was Billy Sinclair, they talked about the book, the conditions at Angola, his role as a jour...
Apr 24, 2020•40 min
Jacquelyn Esser is running for DA in Honululu, Hawaii. She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Hawaiʻi in 2000 to attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and earned a law degree at the University of Hawai‘i William S. Richardson School of Law. She became a public defender and now is a candidate for prosecutor - one of six in the race. She said, “I am running for Prosecutor because I have seen firsthand how ...
Apr 20, 2020•36 min
Pamela Price ran for DA in Alameda County, home of Oakland in California but was unsuccessful in 2018 in knocking off incumbent Nancy O'Mally. Price, a civil rights attorney, ran on a platform that vowed to enact a series of criminal justice reforms if she defeated the incumbent who is a traditional tough on crime prosecutor. In the podcast she talks about the problems of police accountability that are ongoing in Oakland and Alameda under the current DA. Those problems continued this year when t...
Apr 17, 2020•35 min
Arlington Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti was elected overwhelmingly in November after stunning incumbent prosecutor Theo Stamos by a 52-48 margin. She ran a progressive campaign centered on criminal justice reform during a contentious and expensive primary. Her focus on reform has turned her into a target for reactionary criticis. As the Washington Post wrote recently: "Ms. Dehghani-Tafti is part of a new generation of prosecutors who have criticized tough-on-crime policies...
Apr 13, 2020•38 min
Anand Jon Alexander was a rising star in the fashion industry in 2007 when he was arrested and ultimately convicted of one count of rape and many counts of lesser sexual offenses. Although there were no injuries on anyone and he had no history of violence, he was sentenced to 59 years to life in prison. He has spent over 13 years in prison and barely survived a racial hate crime stabbing in 2019. He is suing the State of California for an undisclosed amount. Joining Everyday Injustice is attorne...
Apr 10, 2020•59 min
