Jaws of Justice Radio Hour will begin with Teresa Wilke talking with Cooper Overstreet, a criminal defense attorney with The Swain Law Office.  Cooper Overstreet is a Democratic candidate for the District Attorney in Douglas County, KS.  He is going to talk with us about mass incarceration, lack of transparency and unfair treatment of minorities and the poor, issues that have inspired him to run for Douglas County district attorney.  He sees mass amounts of infection in our prison system and a lack of action by leaders. Then, Elisa Breitenbach will talk with Curtis Scott Hansen and his attorney, Matt Radefeld.  Curtis Scott Hansen was a teenager when he was indicted in 1989 of the sexual abuse of his three nephews, aged 8, 9 and 10, children who were subsequently placed in foster care.   Those nephews, now adult, report that they were coerced by a caseworker to give false testimony against Curtis Scott Hansen.  This is a story of corruption by child protective service workers and provides another  illustration of the tangled web of our criminal justice system.  Mr. Hansen states he is not a criminal, nor has he ever been a criminal! curtisscotthansen.com Calendar for the week of May…

Our Jaws of Justice Radio Hour will have a live interview of Curtis Scott Hansen and his attorney, Matt Radefeld, by host Elisa Breitenbach.    Curtis Scott Hansen was a teenager when he was indicted in 1989 of the sexual abuse of his three nephews, aged 8, 9 and 10; children who were subsequently placed in […]

Our Jaws of Justice Radio Hour for April 27 will begin with a live interview of Lauren Bonds by host Craig Lubow.  Lauren is the Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas.  She will be talking about the lawsuit the Kansas ACLU filed in early April 2020 that asks the Court to compel the State to protect Kansas inmates from Covid19 and to act quickly. The ACLU of Kansas filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of people imperiled by dangerous conditions inside ill-equipped and overcrowded state prisons amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic. “When inmates who are over 50 and suffering from diabetes or Hep C are forced to stand, sleep and eat within six feet of other inmates, we are literally putting people’s lives at risk,” said ACLU Legal Director Lauren Bonds. “This is an emergency situation requiring urgent action.” The suit asks the court to grant the release of people who would otherwise find themselves exposed to the deadly virus. The Petitioners also have proposed the appointment of a Master to oversee the expedited release, to “reduce inmate populations within correctional centers and facilities, while preserving Respondents’ ability to object to the release of specific inmates.” It also seeks…

Our Jaws of Justice Radio Hour for April 20 will feature a live interview of Sheryl Ferguson by host Patricia Bartholome. On December 3, 2019, Kansas City police shot and killed 26-year-old Cameron Lamb, a black male, in his own backyard. Sheryl Ferguson knew Cameron Lamb and his family for years. She’s familiar with the police department, having been given a police certificate of appreciation in 2016 for her work in the community. She used her public comment time during January’s police commission meeting to the full and will talk with us about her message – nationwide, police killed 1,099 people in 2019. Of those, 24% were black, a number disproportionate to the total numbers of black people in our country. In 2019, there were two such deaths by Kansas City police officers and one by a Clay County Sheriff’s deputy. Sheryl Ferguson will talk about Cameron Lamb. He was a friend to her family, loved by his family and a loving father to his children. There has been a lack of answers about what happened the night Cameron Lamb was shot and killed by three plainclothes police officers in Kansas City. Family learned of Lamb’s death through social media…

Mumia Abu- Jamal - World's Best-Known Death Row Inmate Our show will air news of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a political activist and journalist. He has been involved with the Black Panther Party and he supported the MOVE Organization in Philadelphia. He covered the 1978 confrontation in which one police officer was killed. Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted of the murder of a Philadelphia police officer and sentenced to death in 1982. The murder trial of Abu-Jamal has been seriously criticized for constitutional failings; he has steadfastly claimed that he is innocent, and many opposed his death sentence. The family of the murder victim, public authorities, police organizations, and conservative groups believe that Abu-Jamal's trial was fair, his guilt undeniable, and his death sentence appropriate. He is described as "perhaps the world's best-known death-row inmate" by The New York Times. He became widely known while on death row for his writings and commentary on the criminal justice system in the United States. During his imprisonment, Abu-Jamal has published books and commentaries on social and political issues. His death penalty sentence was overturned by a Federal court and in 2011, the prosecution agreed to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole. He entered the…

Jaws of Justice programmer Keith Brown El will have a talk with Clifford Miller, an inmate at Western Missouri Correctional Center.  Clifford believes he is innocent of the charges that hold him in prison, and he will speak on his experience with the criminal “justice” system. Jaws of Justice Radio Hour will have a re-play of our  show with Qadhafi, aka James Shelby, who has been incarcerated in Missouri for over 22 years. While inside, Qadhafi was active with the NAACP prison branches and he helped found the Missouri chapter of IWW's Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). Since his release last year, Qadhafi has continued to be a leader in the struggle. He worked with KC Tenants to pass legislation that prevents landlords from discriminating against felons in housing. He founded his own non-profit – HugYoHood. He has worked as a community advocate for Elad Gross’s campaign for Attorney General of Missouri.  Stay tuned to hear us talk with Qadhafi about his activism, contributions and insights to the movement as a formerly incarcerated person. https://www.facebook.com/HugYoHood/ Calendar for the week of April 6th: In compliance with the local instruction, all live meetings are suspended until the all clear is given by…

We have vulnerable populations because our social caste system exploits people of color and women of all colors.  Jaws of Justice will feature an interview with two leaders of the More²  Criminal Justice Task Force of Kansas City Kansas - David Grummon, Attorney and Khadijah Hardaway, a community leader. Both are working on all the systemic issues associated with the Lamonte McIntyre exoneration, from the resignation of the chief of police to the surveys More² got KCKS to conduct for the new chief search.  They will talk about some of the systemic issues associated with the trauma of having experienced violence and exploitation from the police. Is it hard to believe a trigger for these bad acts are race, sex, color, and national origin?  More² is on track to make Wyandotte County a welcoming community. BE SURE AND LISTEN to how this is done and how you can be involved! https://themip.org/clients/lamonte-mcintyre/ https://www.more2.org/ The Calendar for the week of March 30th: Usually, Corey’s Network will have their weekly meeting with a Survivors’ Workshop – Beginning the Journey 2 - on Monday, from 6 – 8 PM at the Church of the 4 Corners – The City House, 14300 E. US HWY…

Secret courts... Freezing courtrooms... Video judges... sounds like the plot to a bad movie set in a third world country. Would it surprise you to know this is happening in the United States of America? In the year 2020? Host David Bell is joined by attorney Rekha Sharma-Crawford and they take a look inside the secret Immigration Tent Courts on the U.S. southern border.  Rekha recently traveled to the southern border and went into these tent courts to witness first-hand the ongoing struggle to preserve due process and the rule of law.  They will discuss why we should be concerned. BE SURE AND LISTEN!

Jaws of Justice programmer Elisa Breitenbach speaks to Major Greg Volker Commander of the Kansas City Police Department Violent Crimes Division, Ann Murphy from Youth RISE and Jennifer Heinemann from Operation Breakthrough.  The show will be a discussion about the murder problem we are facing in Kansas City. As a community we must find ways to do better. http://kcpd.org https://operationbreakthrough.org/ https://www.youthrisekc.com/ After the calendar, in the second half of our hour, Teresa Wilke and Edward Pennington will discuss how the coronavirus is being addressed in our state prisons. Power is of two kinds.  One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love and respect.   Power based on love and respect is a thousand times more effective and permanent then power derived from fear of punishment. We will air the 420 Drug War News at the end of our program.

In 2012, St. Louis voters chose to eliminate the state review board appointed by the Missouri Governor to oversee their police department and moved control of the police directly to the city.  The system used for Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) governance is a Missouri Governor-appointed Board of Police Commissioners, too.  Kansas City is still subject to an appointed review board to control the police department. In the wake of the shootings of Ryan Stokes and Cameron Lamb, the state's responsibility for accountability and oversight of the KCPD has been called into question. On March 9th, host Elyse Max talks about the issue of local control of the police department with John Chasnoff. John leads the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression aka CAPCR (pronounce CAP-CAR), a St. Louis based organization which aims to end police crimes and abuse. In February 2020, Kansas City's City Council adopted a resolution that formed a public safety committee appointed by the Mayor to look at the benefits and downfalls of local control of the KCPD. Jaws of Justice Radio Hour’s show will focus on the movement in KC, and lessons learned from the struggle in St. Louis, to gain local control of the…