Public Defenseless

178: How Does the Tennessee Youth Legal System Allow Judges to Make up Crimes and Illegally Jail Kids w/Christina Kleiser and Meribah Knight

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Today, Hunter is joined by two fierce advocates for youth justice in the state of Tennessee. Chris Kleiser, a Knox County Public Defender, and Meribah Knight, a Senior Reporter for Special Projects with Nashville Public Radio, bring us a story of how one rouge judge illegally policed and caged young people in Rutherford County Tennessee. Many of you may have read the shocking reporting last year about Judge Donna Scott Davenport. Over more than two decades, she abused her position of power on the bench, and today’s episode is designed to figure out what structural things in the Tennessee criminal legal system allow this to happen.

 

 

Guests:

Christina Kleiser, Assistant Public Defender and Youth Lead, Knox County, Tennessee

Meribah Knight, Senior Reporter for Special Projects, Nashville Public Radio

 

 

Resources:

Black Children Were Jailed for a Crime That Doesn’t Exist. Almost Nothing Happened to the Adults in Charge

https://www.propublica.org/article/black-children-were-jailed-for-a-crime-that-doesnt-exist

Judge Davenport Plans to Retire

https://www.propublica.org/article/new-bill-seeks-to-remove-tennessee-judge-who-illegally-jailed-children

Check out the In Defense of Children Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/show/5RrAfBAibvkm117xBx8GmW

https://www.instagram.com/indefenseofchildrenpodcast/

Follow Meribah Knight on Twitter

https://twitter.com/meribah?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Read Meribah’s Work

https://www.meribahknight.com/

Serial’s Podcast with Meribah

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/podcasts/serial-kids-rutherford-county.html

https://open.spotify.com/show/4SwSDvOGcbc4cPA52nS4ww

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kids-of-rutherford-county/id1707247008

Knox County Public Defender

https://www.pdknox.org/

 

 

Contact Hunter Parnell:                                

[email protected] 

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Public DefenselessBy Hunter Parnell
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