For this September 26, 2013 broadcast, your Crimes of the Century co-hosts conduct an online Open House for "The Plea for Justice Program" (P4J), a grassroots initiative to reform America's plea bargaining system. Reports indicate as of mid-Summer 2012 that 97% of federal and 94% of state criminal cases are resolved by plea bargains. Learn why lawyers, legal scholars, and criminal defendants regularly denounce the whole process as unconstitutional coercion and extortion and why coming together through P4J can help turn the situation around.
Our jaws are dropped and it’s only the first broadcast in our ongoing series, “FLAWED FORENSICS: The Science of Wrongful Convictions”. On September 19, 2013, your Crimes of the Century co-hosts began what will be a periodic examination of questionable uses and exclusions of forensic evidence in criminal prosecutions. Our initial guest in the series, former Deputy Sheriff Mark Lipton, leaves us struggling to make sense of his conviction for a violent assault when it seems that all available forensic evidence backs his repeated claims of innocence.
"Crimes of the Century" co-hosts consider whether federal equal protection provisions allow judges to lawfully ignore the indisputable, discriminatory impact of facially neutral laws in America. This vitally important episode is based on the controversial May 2013 decision by a panel of Sixth Circuit judges on the retroactivity of Congress' 2010 Fair Sentencing Act intended to eliminate decades of bias against African Americans in the enforcement of federal crack cocaine laws.
Anyone concerned about any form of unlawful government bias in the U.S. should consider what Crimes of the Century co-hosts have to say on the subject and follow the underlying case of U.S. -vs- Blewett.
