Shows
Life of the LawRelease Day [Rebroadcast]It's official, and it's one more amazing step into the future at Life of the Law: we have a new Executive Director. Six years after Nancy Mullane, Tom Hilbink and Shannon Heffernan launched the first episode of Life of the Law, with stories about jury nullification and jailhouse lawyers, we welcome a new fearless leader. Tony Gannon, whom you have come to know as our talented behind-the-scenes Senior Producer brings his vision and exciting energy to LOTL as our new Executive Director. This change will allow Nancy Mullane to focus on reporting, which, as many of you know, is what N...
2018-09-2620 minLife of the LawCall NOW!When things go bad all you need to do is pick up the phone and CALL. Since the US Supreme Court allowed lawyers to advertise in the 1970s, practices like these have skyrocketed, with often shoddily-produced results. Are tacky lawyer ads trashing the profession or simply making it more easily accessible to those who might not otherwise know who to call when they need an attorney?
We are rebroadcasting a long-time favorite episode from our archive as we slow down for the summer. We aim to publish some classic episodes until we return in the fall. Please do not hesitate...
2018-06-2624 minLife of the LawLaw and Society Association Conference HighlightsWhere does one find a discussion of research on abduction for forced marriage amidst West and Central African conflicts? Where does one find research on how ‘yes means yes’ policies on university campuses have affected the college students intended to follow these new rules of consent? What about a conversation on the various strains of conservative thought?
The Law and Society Association’s annual conference just came to an end, and we were happy to find the scholars and researchers engaging these questions and more. For the first time, Life of the Law set up a listening station where attendees could...
2018-06-1909 minLife of the LawNew Voices Series: Law Students take on ImmigrationImmigration law is a mystery. Unless you’re an immigrant seeking relief under the law, or you’re an immigration law attorney, it’s an unknown. Then, earlier this year, Karla McKanders, a professor of immigration law at Vanderbilt Law School sent us an email. Her law students were producing their final reports on immigration and refugee law as audio stories, and would Life of the Law be interested in listening to, and possibly publishing their work as part of our New Voices series? Absolutely. Tony Gannon, our senior producer and I met with the class for a conference call worksh...
2018-05-2834 minLife of the LawIn-Studio: Peril and Promise of Genetic TestingHow curious are you about your genetic makeup? There are hundreds of companies that provide direct-to-consumer tests that promise your genealogy, deep ancestry and biogeographical ancestry. Other tests offer genetic information about your health and traits, with some promising your whole genome sequencing. But when you get the results, do you really know what you have? And do you know, without a doubt, who ultimately has access to your genetic information?
This week, our team meets up in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to see if we can sort out the answers to the question - genetic testing...
2018-05-1543 minLife of the LawGATTACA REVISITED: Up the Borrowed LadderSome two decades ago, filmmaker Andrew Nicols wrote and directed GATTACA a sci-fi movie that presented a future in which individuals and society were at risk from having gained access to, and control of, our genetic code.
Today, 20 years after the movie's initial release, that future fiction, once considered distant and impossible, is, in many ways, now. More than 500 laboratories offer 2,000 genetic tests. Once limited to medical professionals, the FDA has approved direct-to-consumer genetic tests that can test for 5,000 variants. Instead of looking at simple chromosomes, we can pay for the sequencing almost all of our genetic material.
For some...
2018-05-0145 minLife of the LawIn-Studio: Police, Race and Fatal ForceMothers, brothers, sons and daughters in cities across the country are suffering from the loss of a loved one to police use of fatal force. In 2017 The Washington Post reports police officers in the United States shot and killed 987 people. Sixty eight of them, men and women, some of them teenagers like Tony Robinson, were unarmed when they were shot and killed by police officers. The county with highest number of police shootings per capita in the country, is right here in Kern County in California. Last year, police in Los Angeles shot more than three times the number of...
2018-04-1747 minLife of the LawDeath by Police: A Mother's (audio) DiaryPolice officers throughout the U.S. shoot and kill unarmed people, in Sacramento, Detroit, New Orleans and in Madison. The Washington Post reports 987 people were shot and killed by police in 2017, sixty-eight of them were unarmed. There are marches and calls for investigations and in the end, justice is elusive. So when Life of the Law producer Zoe Sullivan said the mother of an unarmed bi-racial teenager who had been shot and killed by a police officer in Madison had been keeping an audio diary after her son's death, we listened. We hope you will too.
Production Notes:
DEATH BY...
2018-04-0238 minLife of the LawLIVE LAW SF - Initial Public OfferingThis week Life of the Law presents LIVE LAW... stories from people living with the rapid fire shifts that come with tech in the Bay Area, folks who are pushing back against the gentrification and alienation to try to make real life contact through music, journalism, murals, and filmmaking.
LIVE LAW San Francisco: Initial Public Offering took place on Friday night, February 23rd at The Polish Club in San Francisco's Mission District. We recorded the night so we could share it with you -- stories by Fantastic Negrito, Marcus Thompson, Irene Tu, Riddhi Shah, Troy Williams and Sirron Norris.
This...
2018-03-201h 37Life of the LawInside San Quentin - MoonlightWhat would men in prison say, if we just listened? This week, Life of the Law presents a new INSIDE SAN QUENTIN episode - conversations inside San Quentin produced exclusively by men incarcerated inside the prison.
We have laptops and can watch just about any movie or series anytime we want. Prisoners have access to some tv and select movies approved by the prison, but not all movies and, up until recently, not Moonlight, winner of the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture. One day after watching the movie on my laptop, I described it to a couple of men, scene...
2018-03-061h 14Life of the LawUganda Part 4 - In StudioOver the past month, Life of the Law's team of journalists and scholars have published a three part series of feature investigative reports on Uganda, examining the long-term impact of the violence committed on the people of the East African nation by rebels with the Lord's Resistance Army or LRA.
Beginning in the mid-1980's and for more than a decade, LRA rebels abducted 60,000 people from towns and villages in northern Uganda, many of them young girls and boys who were then forced to fight, kill and loot. Young girls spent years in captive marriages, forced to bear the children...
2018-02-2052 minLife of the LawUganda Part 3 - JusticeFor more than 20 years, rebels with the Lord's Resistance Army abducted 60,000 people from towns and villages in Northern Uganda, many of them young girls and boys who were then forced to fight, kill, and loot. Young girls spent years in captive marriages, forced to bear the children of LRA commanders.
Where were the local police and government troops? How was this allowed to happen to so many children over the course of so many years? Where was the international community?
This week, Life of the Law reporter Gladys Oroma presents the third part of our special series following the lives...
2018-02-0738 minLife of the LawUganda Part 2 - EscapeFor more than 20 years, rebels with the Lords Resistance Army abducted 60,000 people, from towns and villages in Northern Uganda, many of them young girls and boys who were forced to fight, kill, loot and have sex with rebel commanders. Why didn't the government stop the abductions and the violence? Where was the international community? Who was upholding their right to protection under the law?
This week, Life of the Law reporter Gladys Oroma presents Part 2 of our special series following the lives of two of the thousands of children who were abducted beginning in the mid 1980's and continuing through 2008.
...
2018-01-2446 minLife of the LawUganda Part 1 - AbductedToday man named Dominic Ongwen is on trial before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands. The 42 year old Ugandan is charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Northern Uganda.
Ongwen is the only commander with the rebel group, The Lord’s Resistance Army, who is on trial before the ICC, but he wasn’t alone in the commission of crimes against the people of Northern Uganda. From 1986 through 2017, over the course of more than 30 years, LRA rebels abducted tens of thousands of people, 20,000 of them children as young as five years old.
This week at Life...
2018-01-1039 minLife of the Law125: A Whole 'nother World - San Quentin Live (2017 Holiday Rebroadcast)On Saturday night, Dec 5, 2015 more than 200 people filled the pews of the Catholic chapel inside San Quentin State Prison for a first-ever uncensored storytelling event behind the prison walls. Together, inmates and volunteers, officers and staff gathered to hear stories about the all-too-secret, often misunderstood community that sustains each of them inside and outside the prison walls.
For two storytellers, Troy Williams and Watani Stiner, the night would be the first time they would return to San Quentin after being released a year earlier following decades as inmates.
Like those in the audience for Live @ San Quentin, this special episode...
2017-12-271h 03Life of the LawTraditionsTraditions. We all have them. Some good and, well, some not so good. Think for a minute. When you were a kid, what were your holiday traditions? Do you still follow some of them today? Put up lights? Bake special cookies or visit relatives? What if the law makes it impossible to follow your traditions?
More than two million Americans will spend the holidays locked up in a jail or prison. In the Bay Area, volunteers spend a few hours inside San Quentin State Prison's cell blocks singing holiday songs with the men. It's an annual tradition.
What's it like...
2017-12-1241 minLife of the LawThe Battle Over Your Right to VoteThe polls got it wrong. What matters in the end, on election day, is who has the right to vote and who goes to the polls to cast their ballot. Due to strict voter ID laws, not all Americans are allowed to vote on election day. In fact, some 21 million are prevented from voting simply because they don't have the required ID or paperwork when they go to the polls. The Government Accounting Office reports that can shift the election outcome in some states by 2-3 percentage points.
In our most recent episode GOVERNMENT GHOST reporter Megan Marrelli told the...
2017-11-2844 minLife of the LawGovernment Ghost2017 has been a terrible year for tens of thousands of people. Fires in northern California and record-setting torrential hurricanes and floods in Texas and Puerto Rico have meant that families have lost their homes and in many cases all of their belongings, including documentation and identification -- Social Security cards, drivers licenses and birth certificates. What happens when you lose your identification? As it turns out it's not always as easy as you might think getting government issued ID reinstated."The thing is, why do they make it so hard when you lose everything, to get it back? Do you ha...
2017-11-1423 minLife of the LawIn Studio: Brutally Ruthless"As incompetent and bumbling as the Trump Administration has been in so many areas, they have been brutally ruthless on immigration."
-- Jose Chito Vela, Immigration Attorney and Candidate for Texas State Legislature
It’s been a year since the Presidential election of 2016 and the night the world turned upside down and inside out. Polls showed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton ahead by a solid margin. But by the end of the night, the networks had declared Donald Trump the next President of the United States.
Now, one year later, the Trump Presidency is in turmoil. On Monday, October 30, Paul Manafort, Tr...
2017-10-3156 minLife of the LawLife Un-DACAmentedNearly two years ago on January 26, 2016, Life of the Law presented Un-DACA-mented, a report on the Obama Administration's DACA Program, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program, begun in 2012 offered undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children, a chance to defer deportation.
Life of the Law producer Jonathan Hirsch traveled to Texas where he met Luis Morales, a young man who came to the US from Mexico with his family when he was eight years old. In 2015, with the help of his family and Jose "Chito" Vela, a local immigration attorney, Luis was sorting out DACA requirements...
2017-10-1737 minLife of the Law119: Live Law DetroitLook around. Change is happening. People you know and people you pass on the street are in transition. They are transforming their lives. Unless you stop to hear their story, you may miss it.
Each year new and former Soros Justice Fellows gather for four days of discussions, workshops, plenaries, breakout sessions, and meals to debate and discuss issues facing the US criminal justice system.
On the last night of this year's gathering in Detroit, seven Fellows took to the stage to share personal stories of transition and transformation. Life of the Law selected three of the seven stories presented t...
2017-10-031h 13Life of the Law118: In Studio - Global Intellectual PropertyAll over the world people create. Music, art, literature. But is their creative work protected? Sure there are international copyright laws, but are they enforced? And if not, what then? This week our team took to the studio for a discussion to sort out global culture and international copyright law. If you haven't yet listened to our most recent feature episode GIFT AND CURSE OF MUSIC - Haiti's Fight for Copyright by reporter and composer Ian Coss, take a minute to hit the play button.
Then come back and join us for our in-studio discussion on the incentives and rewards...
2017-09-1942 minLife of the LawThe Gift & Curse of MusicAs a child, Serge Turnier fell in love with the sounds of the carnival bands that would pass near his house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Now one of the top music producers in the country, Turnier is faced with the reality that Haitian law offers little protection for music copyrights and he must decide whether to quit the music business altogether, in order to provide financial security for his family.A musician is not even recognized as a real job here in Haiti. You're just nothing in eye of the law. -- Serge Turnier, music producer and composer in HaitiOne of t...
2017-09-0539 minLife of the Law116: In Studio - Prosecuting Discretion"Every criminal trial is a competition between the prosecution and the defense. The judge has relatively less dominant role than in other countries and a lot of times, we have the guilt and innocence of people decided by juries, unless of course there's a plea bargain. This means prosecutors are crucially important because they're the ones who decide whether a case is going to go through, and what shape that case is going to take."
- Hadar Aviram, Professor of Law, UC Hastings
This week on Life of the Law, our team met up in the studios of KQED to t...
2017-08-2251 minLife of the Law115: Ten Hours to Twenty YearsIt all started out as a plan to steal some comic books, sell them and split the cash. That was before a busted lip, a heart attack, and federal prosecutors stepped in.
Reporter Mary Lee Williams, a graduate of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, tells the whole messy story of some people who got caught up in two different systems of laws, and two prosecutors who saw their crime from two very different perspectives, with long term consequences. Our story… Ten Hours to Twenty Years.Ten hours to Twenty Years was reported and produced by Marylee Williams. Tony Gannon se...
2017-08-0832 minLife of the Law114: Inside San Quentin - To Be HeardIt's been more than 45 years since a thousand inmates at Attica Prison (Correctional Facility) in New York took control of the prison. In her 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, Professor Heather Thompson pieces "together the whole, gripping story, from the conditions that gave rise to the rebellion, which cost the lives of 43 men, to the decades of government obstructionism that prevented the full story from being told." (NYTimes)
If you listened to our most recent Episode 114: In-Studio-Locking People Up, you know we're talking about the fact that more than 2.2...
2017-07-2551 minLife of the Law113: In StudioAmerica is a nation that locks up more people per capita than any other country in the world. The Sentencing Project reports 2.2 million people are incarcerated in America's prisons. That's a 500% increase over the past 40 years. The Institute for Criminal Policy Research in London reports America locks up 670 people per 100,000. Russia locks up 439 per 100,000. Rwanda 434 per 100,000. China 118 per 100,000. How in the world did this happen? Are Americans criminally prone? Or has America's desire for security and tough sentencing policies lost its way?
This week on Life of the Law we ask scholars who have studied the history and changing conditions o...
2017-07-111h 12Life of the Law112: In StudioWhat does it take to win an NBA Championship? On Monday night, June 12th, Oakland's Golden State Warriors, aka "Dub Nation" silenced the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2017 NBA Championship. Three days later, thousands of diverse, loyal, cheering, screaming fans filled the streets of Oakland to celebrate a victory many felt belonged as much to them, as to the players. For now at least. After 40 years homed in Oakland, the Warriors are moving across the Bay to a new arena in San Francisco.
Life of the Law goes "In-Studio" to try and sort it all out -- the controversial calls...
2017-06-2847 minLife of the Law111: WarriorsIt's official! The Golden State Warriors are the 2017 NBA Champions! Life of the Law honors the team and each of the players with this special episode.
One day a year, the Golden State Warriors' coaches, managers, and players go behind the walls of San Quentin State Prison for a game on the prison's lower yard against the San Quentin Warriors, a team of hard-driving inmates. And like all real basketball, it's an annual battle of will and determination against time and rules.
"I love coming in here. Although I'd never seen a cell.That's the scariest thing I've seen. A...
2017-06-1322 minLife of the Law110: In StudioWhat does color of skin have to do with equal access to justice in America? The Equal Protection Clause, part of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction "the equal protection of the laws." In 2017 America, does every person have equal protection under the law, or not?
Over the past month, Life of the Law presented Sarah Marshall's two part report on the life and execution of Warren McCleskey.
Unequal Protection Part 1
Unequal Protection Part 2
Warren McCleskey was a black man living in Georgia. He w...
2017-06-0251 minLife of the Law109: Unequal Protection - Pt. 2Last time on Life of the Law we presented Unequal Protection - Part 1, the story of Warren McCleskey’s unsuccessful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. McCleskey argued that his death sentence by the state of Georgia had been prejudiced by the color of skin and that he had not been given equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Walking into the prison, I was the first one. I walked in and his lawyers were walking toward me. I was looking at them and I said, 'What’s wrong?' They said, Tthey denied him...
2017-05-2335 minLife of the Law108: Unequal Protection - Pt. 1America is a country plagued by racism. Culturally, socially, economically. But what about in the courts? 30 years ago, Warren McCleskey, a black man on Georgia’s death row, took proof to the US Supreme Court that his trial and sentence had been affected by racial prejudice. It’s a landmark case that nearly every law student in American is familiar with -- but few of us know the whole story.
And I sort of said, "Well, Gird up your loins. If that’s, in fact, a problem in our criminal justice system, we have to confront it. We can’t simply a...
2017-05-0359 minLife of the Law107: In StudioWelcome to In-Studio from Life of the Law. This week we're talking about our most recent episode Mother and Son, the role of corporal punishment in the house, and the recent United Airlines situation.
Each month we present an investigative feature report and two weeks later our team -- a scholar, journalist, producer, and attorney -- meet up in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to talk about our investigative reports, the law in the news, and the law on our minds. Join us for this month's In-Studio conversation:
Brittny Bottorff Attorney and Chair of LOTL Advisory BoardKirsten Jusewicz-Haidle LO...
2017-04-1949 minLife of the Law106: Mother and SonPrison is a walled off, secret world, where inmates and officers live a sort of altered reality. For the past 10 years Life of the Law's Executive Producer, Nancy Mullane, has been reporting on the people inside San Quentin State Prison in Northern California and over those years, some of the men she's been reporting on have themselves become journalists -- writing print stories for the San Quentin News and producing audio stories for the San Quentin Prison Report, stories told by reporters rom the unique perspective of life inside prison looking out, rather than from the perspective of free journalists...
2017-04-0537 minLife of the Law105: In StudioWant to know how heroin treatment centers in Canada, the Affordable Care Act, President Trump's new budget and Henrietta Lacks all fit into one conversation? Welcome to In-Studio from Life of the Law.
Each month we present an investigative feature report and two weeks later our team -- a scholar, journalist, producer and attorney meet up in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to talk about our investigative reports, the law in the news and the law on our minds. Join us for this month's IN-STUDIO conversation:
Brittny Bottorff Attorney and Chair of LOTL Advisory BoardTony Gannon LOTL's Senior Pr...
2017-03-2157 minLife of the Law104: Heroin TownHeroin is illegal in Canada. And just like in the United States many doctors and treatment centers treat heroin addiction by providing a legal alternative, such as methadone. But methadone treatment doesn’t always work. So what do you do?
These people are currently injecting heroin in alleyways, facing overdose and risk of disease and causing all kinds of problems for the public. Why wouldn't you want them to be getting the heroin from a doctor to bring them in off the street and in contact with the health care system?
-- Martin Schechter, professor at the School of Population an...
2017-03-0851 minLife of the Law103: In StudioWelcome to In-Studio from Life of the Law. Each month we present an investigative feature report, and two weeks later our team of scholars, journalists, producers and guests will meet up in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to ask questions and get some answers about the law, or at least start to look for some answers.
Do you have questions about the law you'd like us to discuss? Write to us at Life of the Law with your stories and questions about the law, connect@lifeofthelaw.org.
This month join our In Studio team for a conversation about...
2017-02-2156 minLife of the Law102: Radio SilencedIn April of 2014, federal agents raided the studios of 106.1 TOUCH FM in Boston, Massachusetts. They took turntables, microphones, transmitters, pretty much everything. The reason was simple: the radio station was operating without a license. But that raises questions: could the owner get a license? If not, why not? And why did he need one in the first place?
Just because something’s law, doesn't make it right. I like to call us the Rosa Parks of radio. The Harriet Tubman of radio. The Nat Turner of radio. The Malcolm X of radio. Everyone deserves a voice.
-- Charles Clemons
This is...
2017-02-0744 minLife of the Law101: In StudioAt Life of the Law, we're going to shake things up a bit so our team can jump into the national conversation that's taking place about the law. We're going to ask questions and hopefully get some answers, or at least begin to look for answers.
We want to welcome you to join us for In Studio and we encourage you to write to us at Life of the Law with your stories and questions about the law.
Each month we'll present an investigative report, and two weeks later our team of journalists, scholars, producers and guests will meet up...
2017-01-2445 minLife of the Law100: Live Law NSFThe US Constitution sets the rules for how our our society is governed. Lawyers and advocates, legislators and lobbyists, judges and courts work to enforce it, or change it. All the while, legal and social scholars work behind the scenes for years, often decades conducting research that gets to the heart of the history, evolution, practice, and potential of the law in our society.
To celebrate Life of the Law's 100th Episode, Life of the Law and the National Science Foundation brought five NSF funded scholars to the NSF Headquarters in Washington DC to share their stories, personal experiences, professional...
2017-01-101h 09Life of the Law99: ShakenTonia 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...
2016-12-2032 minLife of the Law98: Fair Fight for a Fair CourtThe 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 Cou...
2016-12-131h 01Life of the Law97: Fair Fight for a Fair CourtThe 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 fo...
2016-11-2957 minLife of the Law96: Live Law San Quentin: HopeOn 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...
2016-11-1654 minLife of the Law95: Judges v. Attack AdsJudges 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...
2016-11-0121 minLife of the Law94: Courting Voters - Pt 4: A Fair Fight for a Fair CourtOn 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...
2016-10-1821 minLife of the Law93: Last CountDouglas 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 Esk...
2016-10-0420 minLife of the Law92: Live Law Phoenix - BordersEach 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 O...
2016-09-2043 minLife of the Law91: Death on a Dairy“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 dange...
2016-09-0624 minLife of the Law90: Kids Doing LifeWhen 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...
2016-08-2332 minLife of the Law89: Live Law Philadelphia - Prison PositiveIf you’ve had unprotected sex the only way to know if you’ve been infected with the HIV is to take a quick saliva or blood test. It’s free and it's easy. And then whether you’re negative or positive you can get on with life and, if you test positive, start the really important early treatment.
Today people with HIV who get treatment can live a normal life. But if they don’t -- if they avoid the test and treatment -- in around 10 to 15 years HIV so severely damages their immune system that AIDS develops.
It hasn’t alw...
2016-08-091h 04Life of the Law88: ClemencyLast December 95 prisoners had their sentences shortened by President Obama. This was part of an ongoing effort to use clemency to free non-violent drug offenders who were given harsh sentences for their crimes. For 53 year old Ramona Brant this meant she would not spend the rest of her life in prison. Brant was a first time offender convicted in 1995 on charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.
This summer Life of the Law is presenting some of the best and the brightest new voices in investigative reporting and audio production. This week's episode is from Shandukani Mulaudzi of the Co...
2016-07-2627 minLife of the Law87: Bail or BustHundreds of people in cities throughout the US have been arrested for participating in Black Lives Matter protests. In Chicago, a judge set one protestor's bail at $350,000. To "make bail" he will have to present the court with the money or property as s promise, a sort of collateral, that he will return for his hearing in exchange for his freedom while he awaits trial. When he appears for his trial, he will get his money back."There really are two systems of justice. There’s one for people who can make bail, and one for people who can’t."
- Josh...
2016-07-1230 minLife of the Law86: Winter of LoveThis summer, we’re changing things up a bit at Life of the Law. We’re presenting some amazing audio documentaries produced by at universities and colleges around the country. Our first story is from Aviva DeKornfeld of Pitzer College in Southern California. Aviva was curious about marriage. Marrying the person you love is the ideal, right? But what happens when you find your mate, your dream, your love...and you get married but then a few months later, the government tells never mind, your marriage doesn’t count. Aviva has the story…
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...
2016-06-2835 minLife of the LawBONUS: Life as Lady JWhile North Carolina sorts out whether children who identify as transgendered should be able to use the bathroom of their choice, shots were fired inside a gay dance club in Orlando, Florida. Fifty innocent people were killed and dozens of others were seriously injured.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals are more likely to be targeted for hate crimes than people who are part of any other minority group.
The Human Rights Campaign reports more transgender people were killed in 2015 than during any other year on record.
And the National Coalition of Anti-Violence programs repo...
2016-06-2129 minLife of the Law85: Live Law New Orleans - A Scholar's LifeWhat’s it like to be a scholar? You go to college, get graduate degree maybe a phd to study something about the law in our lives. Years pass. You live in the hallowed halls of academia. Who are you now? Life of the Law traveled to New Orleans for the Law and Society Association’s annual meeting where more than 2000 law and social science scholars from around the world got together to share their work and personal stories about their lives. Host Osagie Obsaogie, a Law Professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco, and a member of Life of the L...
2016-06-141h 13Life of the Law84: Liberte & SecuriteThere’ve been a series of terrorist attacks in Europe, and now France, one of the countries hardest hit, is adjusting to the elevated threat.
Since the shootings at the offices of Charlie Hebdo last year and the attacks that killed 130 people this year, French people have been trying to cope with the fact that not only is their country a target for terrorism, but a few of the terrorists who engineered and even participated in the attacks were born and raised in neighboring Belgium and France.
And now the French are asking a question Americans have been struggling with:How...
2016-05-3129 minLife of the Law83: Recuse Yourself - Pt 3: A Fair Fight for a Fair CourtWhen should a judge step aside? Most people can agree that when a judge’s family member appears in court, it’s the judge’s responsibility to bow out. Or, if a judge stands to profit directly from the outcome of the ruling — that’s pretty cut and dry, too. But what about this: can a judge remain impartial when a case concerns a person or group that contributed money, sometimes millions of dollars, to help that judge get elected? What then? As more and more money floods into judicial elections across the nation, states are grappling with this question. Perhaps no...
2016-05-1734 minLife of the Law82: The Holdup“I feel like I need to do those things cause the court has to appear normal to the outside world, even though things are really abnormal inside, it's my job to keep a sense of normalcy and not to draw attention to the court.”
--Chief Judge Keith Watkins, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
This year is an election year, which is already pretty rough going. Then in February, Justice Antonin Scalia died, leaving an open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. More like a black hole. Senate Republicans immediately declared that they would not hold...
2016-05-0325 minLife of the Law81: Rig the System - Pt 2: Fair Fight for a Fair CourtThe law isn’t always black and white. Let’s say your neighbor wants to drill for oil in their backyard. It could be loud and it might even pollute the groundwater. You’re worried. Who has the authority under the law to determine whether your neighbor can drill for oil or not?
People living in states like Ohio, want their local governments to decide… and have gone as far as to change the state constitution to grant local governments something called “home rule”, which gives locals the power to govern themselves, as long as local law don’t conflict with state and...
2016-04-1926 minLife of the Law80: Live Law Nashville – Blood, Sweat, and TearsHosted by Hal Humphries, our live show, Blood Sweat and Tears explores music and the law in “Music City”.
We host live storytelling events that are unlike any other. All across the country, our Live Law shows showcase the stories of lawyers, judges, storytellers, and everyday people share their experiences and encounters with the law.
So Not all stories about the law fit snugly into one of our feature investigative reports. Some stories have to be told live, in front of an audience, no editing and no backing out.
This week we take you to Nashville, for BLOOD SWEAT AND TEAR...
2016-04-051h 02Life of the LawBONUS: A Conversation on Eugenics and the LawLast week, we published STERILIZED, Reporter Jess Engebretson's disturbing story of Rose Brooks and Lewis Reynolds, two of more than 60,000 men and women forcibly sterilized in the United States by doctors working in state hospitals. The doctors and nurses who performed the vasectomies and salpingectomies weren't breaking the law.
Throughout the 20th Century, state legislators passed laws that allowed these surgical procedures. It was all part of the early 20th century eugenics movement. But, you might ask, how could this happen? How could the law deny tens of thousands of men and women the right to have children?
Life of t...
2016-03-2933 minLife of the Law79: SterilizedBeginning in 1907, states in the US began to forcibly sterilize over 60,000 Americans -- people considered by scientists to be “unfit” -- the mentally ill, the disabled, the morally suspect. Now, a few states are trying to figure out what they owe to the program's survivors.
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2016-03-2226 minLife of the Law78: Revolution in a CornfieldIn Kansas, public schools are at the heart of a debate about how much money the state should budget for education -- a debate that comes down to a fight over nothing less than the balance of power among the three branches of government.
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2016-03-0835 minLife of the Law77: Harris CountyAll over the country, critics argue that ID laws discourage voter participation--particularly among poor and minority voters. This is particularly true in Texas, which passed a voter ID law in 2011. By 2050 the state’s population is expected to double--and most of that growth will be come from the Latino community. How are all of these voter ID laws impacting who votes today in the US, and who will have access to the polls in the future?
This episode of Life of the Law is sponsored by Squarespace.
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2016-02-2327 minLife of the Law76: JuggalosIn 2011 the FBI’s National Gang Intelligence Center released their Gang Threat Assessment, which listed Juggalos as a “loosely affiliated hybrid gang.” Juggalos, who are more commonly known as fans of horrorcore rap and the Insane Clown Posse, say that this designation has been unfairly attributed to them based on the actions of a few violent outliers in the community. In 2014 the Juggalos teamed up with the ACLU to sue the FBI to remove the gang classification. This case, Parsons v U.S. DOJ, is still making it’s way through the courts. But what does this mean for an average J...
2016-02-0926 minLife of the Law75: UnDACAmentedIn 2012, the Obama Administration signed a memo addressing all branches of the Department of Homeland Security, which granted undocumented immigrants who migrated as minors to the United States a renewable deferral of deportation. It’s called Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals. DACA, for short.
Luis Perez Morales is one of those children. He crossed the border with his family when he was 8, and has been living in the U.S. since then. When he heard about the program, Perez Morales scheduled an appointment with an immigration attorney to apply for DACA. An encounter with Border Patrol agents, a week before his...
2016-01-2626 minLife of the Law74: OverruledIn the U.S., juries are often seen as democracy in action. Twelve men and women are asked to hear an entire case, and ultimately, decide another person’s fate. But in Alabama, the jury’s decision between life and death is only a recommendation.
Life of the Law Episode 74 "Overruled" was sponsored by Squarespace.
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2016-01-1126 minLife of the Law73: “A whole ‘nother world” – Live @ San QuentinOn Saturday night, Dec 5, 2015 more than 200 people filled the pews of the Catholic chapel inside San Quentin State Prison for a first-ever uncensored storytelling event behind the prison walls. Together, inmates and volunteers, officers and staff gathered to hear stories about the all-too-secret, often misunderstood community that sustains each of them inside and outside the prison walls.
For two storytellers, Troy Williams and Watani Stiner, the night would be the first time they would return to San Quentin after being released a year earlier following decades as inmates.
Like those in the audience for Live @ San Quentin, this special episode of...
2015-12-251h 09Life of the Law72: Outside The Walls“I didn’t go to prison because I was a saint. I went to prison because of my lifestyle. Since the age of 13 I was a gangbanger, and did what gangbangers do. I’m 49 years old now. After 20 years of a life sentence, I got paroled. That was a year ago. My name is Troy Williams and this is a diary of my first year as a free man.”
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2015-12-1528 minLife of the Law71: Space Law 2.0When you look up at the sky the last thing you probably think about is the law. But space is exactly where the next frontier of law is being played out.
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2015-11-2418 minLife of the Law70: Live Law – Truth or DareTruth or Dare? What's it gonna be? On this episode, we have three stories told live: two truths and a dare.
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2015-11-1735 minLife of the Law69: Bit of an EdgeIn real life, the business of jury selection is a 400 million dollar industry. So in a world of high priced jury consultants what does a jury of our peers look like? How do jury consultants work? How do juries even get picked?
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2015-11-0328 minLife of the Law68: Thorpe’s BodyThe body of legendary Native American athlete Jim Thorpe rests in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania ... but some members of his family say he should be dug up and reburied on tribal land in Oklahoma. A lawsuit seeking to move his body back to his birthplace shows how difficult it can be for the law to provide justice for Native Americans.
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2015-10-2028 minLife of the Law67: The StopWe all know this feeling. You're driving. Maybe you're speeding. Maybe you don't think you're doing anything wrong. All of a sudden blue lights flash in your rear-view mirror. Your stomach drops. You've been stopped.
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2015-10-0619 minLife of the Law66: Who’s the Criminal?Ever committed a crime? Were you caught? Arrested? Maybe not. Between a quarter and a third of all adults in America were caught and arrested. Now they have a criminal record. What about those who got away?
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2015-09-2217 minLife of the Law65: Commuter CopsLaws that required cops to live in the cities they patrolled were common in the early 1900s and still exist in the United States today. However, some law enforcement officials say residency requirements restrict their freedom of movement and the effectiveness of these laws have been questioned and even challenged in the US Supreme Court. Yet, many citizens still want the police who patrol their communities to live where they work.
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2015-09-0831 minLife of the Law64: Block BossOn every city block, there are rules. Some are unspoken, some require friendly reminders, some are enforced by the law. Is it ever OK to break the rules in order to prevent others from breaking the rules themselves?
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2015-08-2520 minLife of the Law63: Water RightsIn the Western United States, water law is based on what seems like a simple principle: "first in use is first in right." In other words, first come first served. But take a severe drought, a Native American tribe and a hardscrabble band of ranchers, and it’s actually pretty complicated.
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2015-08-1118 minLife of the Law62: No Lawyers AllowedAt disciplinary hearings in prison, inmates are not guaranteed the right to an attorney. In fact, they aren't allowed to have one at all.
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2015-07-2824 minLife of the Law61: Outside the WombWhat happens when the law changes and people find themselves in legal limbo in a foreign country?
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2015-07-1422 minLife of the Law60: The BearFrank 'The Bear' Abramovitz lost his wife to cancer. That’s when he took over her business, and became a bounty hunter.
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2015-06-3023 minLife of the Law59: The Trauma RoomWhen prisoners act out, they get put in solitary confinement -- the penal version of go to your room and think about what you've done. But for the women that reporter Annie Brown talked to with histories of trauma, being in solitary confinement was more like go to your room and think about what’s been done to you.
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2015-06-1619 minLife of the Law58: Oswald Is Still DeadLee Harvey Oswald was murdered before he could stand trial for the assassination of JFK. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying to get him into a courtroom, over and over again.
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2015-06-0224 minLife of the Law57: Drag.netAmateur sleuths armed with their own laptops, public information and a lot of spare time are working alone and in groups to crack criminal cases. Sometimes it works and sometimes it goes very, very badly. Welcome to the future of crowdsourced law enforcement.
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2015-05-1936 minLife of the Law56: Tipping the ScalesAre aggressive, expensive elections corrupting the court system? Or are they evidence of a strong democracy?
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2015-05-0528 minLife of the Law55: Marijuana RulesRecreational pot has earned the state of Colorado $53 million dollars in tax revenue. All on a drug that, according to federal law is still illegal. How does a marijuana business navigate all the uncertainty?
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2015-04-2027 minLife of the Law54: Bad GigExotic dancers, on-call drivers, and writers might have a different name for what they do -- freelancing, part-time work and independent contracting -- but it all means the same thing. Work that doesn’t start at 9 and end at 5. And sure, it has its perks, but do 1099 workers have protections?
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2015-04-0718 minLife of the Law53: Anatomy of a ConfessionA triple murder, a habitual liar on a stolen motorcycle and a confession that doesn’t add up. Why would anyone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? On Life of the Law, the story of a man dying of cancer on Texas’s Death Row who confessed to a crime he says he didn’t do.
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2015-03-2435 minLife of the Law52: Birth RightsPregnant with options. There’s the stroller, the crib, and the adorable baby clothes. And, for more than 50,000 women each year birthing plans also include choosing the right midwife even in states where birth by midwife is not legal.
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2015-03-1018 minLife of the Law51: Call NOW!When things go bad all you need to do is pick up the phone and CALL. Or so lawyers like Saul on AMC’s new series tells us. Since the US Supreme Court allowed lawyers to advertise in the 1970s, practices like these have skyrocketed, with often shoddily-produced results. Are tacky lawyer ads trashing the profession or simply making it more easily accessible to those who might not otherwise know who to call when they need an attorney?
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2015-02-2425 minLife of the Law50: The Diaper WarsIn the 1980's, the world's two largest diaper companies set out to destroy each other, in a patent battle known as the Diaper Wars. The court battles lasted seven years and cost millions of dollars. What did we get out of it? Better diapers -- and one very messy lesson in patent law.
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2015-02-1021 minLife of the Law49: Life After DoxingThe internet is anonymous. Except for when it isn't. When someone wants to hurt you, they can find your address and other personal information and post it online, inviting others to harass you, stalk you, or worse. And thanks to minimal regulation of the Internet, there may not be a whole lot you can do about it.
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2015-01-2720 minLife of the Law48: Boiled AngelFreedom of speech is a right guaranteed in the first amendment of the constitution. One exception to the rule is obscenity. But determining what is obscene is difficult – especially for those making it.
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2015-01-1319 minLife of the Law38: One Reporter on California’s Death RowOver the past decade, the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation has denied press access to all death rows in the state.
But on one day in June 2012, Nancy Mullane was given exclusive press access to all
three death row cells blocks and the prisoners serving death sentences.
Here is the story of that day. (Note: The California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation has said no other reporter will be
allowed on Death Row for the forseeable future.)
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2014-07-1731 minLife of the Law25: Release DayFor eighteen years, California’s three strikes law leveled harsh penalties against repeat felons: anyone with two felony convictions received 25 years to life for committing a third felony. In 2012, Californians voted to change the three strikes law, allowing some of the prisoners sentenced under it to petition for release for time served. Curtis Penn is one of those prisoners. Life of the Law executive producer Nancy Mullane chronicles the day Curtis was released from prison.
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2014-01-1519 minLife of the Law13: A Life on the BenchWhat does it take to become a judge? No one starts their legal career as a jurist. First they work as a lawyer advocating for one side of a case over another. But transitioning from lawyer to judge means hearing both sides of a case objectively and then making decisions that carry the weight of the court. In a break from our usual feature format, this week Life of the Law’s Executive Producer, Nancy Mullane talks with James R. Lambden, an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeal about living a life immersed in the law.
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2013-05-0716 minLife of the LawFull Interview with Justin HelzerJustin Helzer died Sunday night, April 14th. He committed suicide inside his cell on San Quentin’s Death Row (the cell in this photo). If you look closely you can see him sitting on his bunk, leaning against the door. Listen to his full interview with Nancy Mullane in this Life of the Law special.
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2013-04-1614 minLife of the LawBehind the Walls of the Most Restricted CellsIn California, there is one place where people considered to be the most dangerous inmates are incarcerated, it’s called the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison. Life of the Law Executive Producer, Nancy Mullane, pushes for access to this prison’s most restricted cells and to the people who are living inside them.
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2012-11-1728 min
Scripts & ScribesEp 28 – Nancy MullaneWe talk to journalist and author Nancy Mullane about how she came to know five prison inmates, the intricacies of researching within the prison system, how she organized four years of research into a manuscript, the role her publishing house Public Affairs played in submitting her book for the Pulitzer Prize, and how she landed […]
2012-08-0942 min