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Criminal (In)justice

Problems with police, prosecutors and courts have people asking: is our criminal justice system broken? University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris interviews the people who know the system best, and hears their best ideas for fixing it. Criminal (In)justice is an independent production created in partnership with 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh's NPR News Station.
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Now displaying: 2018
Jun 26, 2018

Every four years, the whole sports-loving planet is watching soccer’s World Cup. Soccer is the world’s most popular sport – so how did its governing body, FIFA, become the focus of the most massive corruption scandal in sports history? And why was that scandal broken by U.S. law enforcement?

Our guest is Ken Bensinger, veteran journalist, who helped break the story with his investigative reporting; his new book is Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal (Simon & Schuster, 2018).

Jun 21, 2018

The Trump administration has claimed its policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border is required under existing laws. That's true -- if you choose to carry out blanket criminal prosecution of all illegal border crossings, including those made by legitimate asylum-seekers. Why has every previous administration opted to enforce the law through civil proceedings only? And what does today's executive order actually do?

Jun 15, 2018

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared war on legal marijuana in January. How's that working out?

Jun 12, 2018

We often hear that police work requires split-second responses to keep officers and the public safe. But this might be less true than we think. Can we build a better cop, by training them to slow things down? Emily Owens and her colleagues have produced new research that shows that, with a simple and inexpensive intervention, police officers get better outcomes with less use of force.

Jun 8, 2018

Technological change is disrupting seemingly every field. How will it impact criminal justice systems around the world in the future? 

Jun 5, 2018

Why would a defense attorney decide not to put up a defense at all? Dave answers a question from Liddy in Long Island.

Jun 3, 2018

Police need a warrant to search your home and surrounding property... but not your vehicle. What if your vehicle is parked on your property? A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling settles the matter.

May 31, 2018

A disability lawyer in Texas demonstrates why, when you're in a hole, it's best to stop digging.

May 29, 2018

The word “torture” conjures images of Abu Ghraib in Iraq, or waterboarding at CIA black sites. But in the 70s and 80s, torture went on in parts of the Chicago Police Department for years. We’ll learn what happened, and we’ll talk about the consequences for civilians and the justice system.

Steve Mills is a veteran journalist and Deputy Editor of ProPublica Illinois

May 27, 2018

A recent conversation on 90.5 WESA's The Confluence about cash-strapped municipalities consolidating their law enforcement agencies.

May 24, 2018

Donald Trump demands an internal investigation into whether the FBI planted an informant in his presidential campaign. That duty that falls to the Inspector General of the Justice Department. What does this lesser-known office actually do?

May 22, 2018

John from Dayton is a government teacher whose students have questions about the impeachment process. We break it down in another "Ask Dave" bonus episode.

May 18, 2018

Analysis of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions handed down this week upholding defendants' rights.

May 15, 2018

We know there are real criminals out there, people who need to go to prison. But what happens when a criminal admits his crimes, but goes to prison for something he swears he did not do -- a notorious double homicide? This is the story of drug dealer Calvin Buari, presented by journalist Steve Fishman in the new podcast Empire on Blood. Fishman talks to us about how he got obsessed with the case for seven years – and what he learned along the way.

May 13, 2018

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the War on Drugs has been "a roaring success," and that ending stop-and-frisk practices caused crime to spike. The evidence says otherwise.

May 11, 2018

Bobbie from Virginia is haunted by her experience serving on a jury that she thinks reached the wrong verdict due to the bullying of two fellow jurors. She asks: what can courts do to mitigate the influence of abusive personalities on jury proceedings?

May 9, 2018

What are pattern-or-practice consent decrees? Trisha wants to know more about how they're being applied in her home city of Baltimore and other cities.

May 1, 2018

The U.S. Department of Justice enforces the federal Constitution and statutes, and has the lead role in upholding the rule of law. But in the last year and a half, DOJ has received withering criticism and outright denunciation from the president. What’s the impact on the Department, and the rule of law? Laura Jarrett – attorney and CNN Washington correspondent, who covers the Department of Justice -  gives us her take.

Apr 29, 2018

Michael Cohen takes the Fifth in the Stormy Daniels suit -- something his client Donald Trump has asserted only mobsters do. What's going on here?

Apr 27, 2018

Analysis of Thursday's guilty verdict in the second sexual abuse trial of comedian Bill Cosby.

Apr 24, 2018

As we await the next shoe-drop in the federal investigation of Trump family bagman and would-be consigliere Michael Cohen, a quick primer on attorney-client privilege: how does it work? what does it cover? is it a get-out-of-jail-free card? (spoiler: nope).

Apr 21, 2018

In convincing a reluctant client to take a plea deal, a Wisconsin lawyer bends the truth about what's in the deal. 

Apr 17, 2018

In the US, there have been almost two thousand wrongful convictions Yet in so many cases, prosecutors, police, judges and even defense attorneys simply refuse to acknowledge these catastrophic mistakes. Our guest – a former prosecutor – explains why we blind ourselves to these injustices.

Mark Godsey is Professor of Law, U. Cincinnati, and author of Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions

Apr 15, 2018

A county sheriff in Alabama helped himself hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fund intended to feed jail inmates — and it’s all perfectly legal. How is that possible? And why do sheriffs have so much power over the conditions in which people are incarcerated in the first place?

Apr 13, 2018

A Texas judge orders a public defender to put less effort into defending poor clients. 

"His Clients Weren’t Complaining. But the Judge Said This Lawyer Worked Too Hard," New York Times, 3/29/18

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