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Innocence Project
Deirdre Enright
Enright is perhaps best known to fans of the super-popular podcast Serial as the legal sleuth questioning the guilt of convicted murderer Adnan Syed. As director of the University of Virginia’s Innocence Project, she has a front row view of failures in our judicial system, from underpaid and inept lawyers to over-eager and biased police officers.
Other Side of the Bench
Steve Helvin
As a district court judge for 21 years, Helvin says that incorrect rulings probably happen more than you might expect and the court system should be ready to reverse bad decisions.
Love and Jealousy
Mindy Erchull
When it comes to love, jealousy is sometimes thought of as “natural” or even desirable. We explore a study that suggests women who see jealousy as a positive thing may be more likely to find themselves in abusive relationships.
Gun Ownership
Alex Tabarrok and Justin Briggs
Tragedies like the Newtown shootings dominate the debate over gun ownership. But in an average year, suicides outnumber homicides by 3 to 1 and most are by firearm. We look closer at whether more gun ownership means more suicides.
In this hour we look at the failures in our judicial system. We’ll also hear about the impact jealousy has on relationships and whether there’s causal relationship between more gun ownership and more suicides.
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Hello Sarah
Great Show today. I know that (The Police and Prosecutors) are not the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the innocent but it starts there.
There was a dept. policy in the 1980’s that a ticket had to be written at every accident (not a good policy) your guest Judge Steve Helvin told a woman in court who was requesting to speak in her own defense that her lawyer Officer Lugar has already made her case and he was finding her not guilty. (Judge Helvin had a great sense of humor) This speaks to your guest Ms. Enright’s issue, all information needs to be presented not just evidence to convict. Disinformation and or misinformation has no place in the prosecution stage.
Knowing the difference between reasonable suspicion, probable cause and beyond a reasonable doubt along with elements of all minor and major crimes are vital educational fundamentals. This also starts the reduction of wrongful prosecution.
You hear people always talk about what is your policy and procedures, the simple fact is the Code Of Virginia and the U.S. Constitution are policy along with cases written by the Courts. Code Books should be Standard Issue. I purchased mine for years.
I was blessed back in the day with low calls for service and took advantage of that by get out of my car and meet folks everyday. Also the Sheriff’s way was hiring local men and women from area’s across the county when he want attention paid to that part of community.
Judge Helvin also paid a great part in trained us back then, we didn’t have a prosecutor in Gen Dist. court, it was just him and us and you conducted yourself based on his direction. He would talk at length in chambers about his views and our enforcement. This was training at it’s best.
Last note: I also feel we have addressed our few bad apples fairly quickly as it should be.!!
I enjoy your show for time to time and I hope you liked hearing a blast from the past. (your drive time friend back in the day)