Miscellaneous
This month, my cohost Amanda Marzullo and I interviewed attorneys for Rodney Reed, who is on death row with an execution date of November 20th. We plumbed unknowable but interesting questions about misdemeanor arrests, discussed the sad, grim, story of Atatiana Jefferson's shooting in Fort Worth, and complained that the time spent reading and talking about a new ACLU report on how to end mass incarceration is time we'll never get back again. But hey, now you don't have to! :) Top Stories First takes on the Atatiana Jefferson shooting in Fort Worth (2:34) Evaluating ACLU decarceration recommendations for Texas (8:34) Interview This month, Mandy and I spoke to Bryce Benjet of the national Innocence Project and Quinncy McNeal of Mayer Brown in Houston on the Rodney Reed case. Reed is scheduled to be executed on November 20th. (14:38) This is excerpted from a longer conversation. I'll publish the full interview, which goes into more detail about debunked forensic testimony in the case, separately in a couple of days. Suspicious Mysteries Why have misdemeanor arrests declined? Why didn't they decline earlier when crime first dropped? What do we really know about why crime dropped or the relationship between crime and arrests? Mandy and I discuss some known unknowns. (27:15) The Last Hurrah (36:40) Hard to reprimand Texas judges Years-long backlogs at crime labs Message sent by jury in prison-guard murder trial