Legal-Ease Podcast

Today on this podcast episode we talk about FREE BUT NOT FREE, post-conviction work. We are joined by Lindsay Herf, Executive Director of The AZ Justice Project, Karen Smith, Senior Litigation Counsel for the AZ Justice Project, and Chris Tapp, who served 20 years in prison in Idaho for a crime he did not commit (was ultimately fully exonerated). You can find their full biographies on the Academy for Justice's website.

When Academy for Justice Deputy Director Valena Beety first became a federal prosecutor, her goal was to protect victims, especially women, from cycles of violence. What she discovered was that not only did prosecutions often fail to help victims, they frequently relied on false information, forensic fraud, and police and prosecutor misconduct. Seeking change, Beety began working in the Innocence Movement, helping to free factually innocent people through DNA testing and criminal justice reform. In her new book Manifesting Justice, Beety focuses on the shocking story of her client Leigh Stubbs—a young, queer woman in Mississippi, convicted of a horrific crime she did not commit because of her sexual orientation and bogus bite mark evidence.

In this episode of Measured Justice, A4J Faculty Director Erik Luna speaks with Beety; as well as Richard Saenz, Senior Attorney and Criminal Justice and Police Misconduct Strategist at Lambda Legal; and Candace Bond-Theriault, Director of Racial Justice Policy & Strategy for the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, to discuss the implications of Beety’s book and the broader story of a broken criminal justice system where defendants—including disproportionate numbers of women of color and queer individuals—are convicted due to racism, prejudice, coerced confessions, and false identifications.

Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. Since 1949, the United States has observed the month of May as Mental Health Awareness Month to raise awareness and educate the public about mental illnesses, the realities of living with these conditions, and strategies for attaining mental health and wellness. In this episode of Measured Justice, our hosts Erik Luna and Ashley Oddo are joined by Stephen Morse, the Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry, and Associate Director for the Center for Neuroscience & Society at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; as well as Margo Schlanger, the Wade H. and Dores M. McCree Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, to discuss the effects of mental health on the criminal justice system. Our guests take a look at mental health while incarcerated including access to care, access to medications and the types of charges that can be attributed to mental health issues; the implications of solitary confinement on a prisoner’s mental health; and the fact that prisoners with mental health issues are more likely to be incarcerated for a longer period of time and have a worse experience in incarceration than those without.

April is Second Chance Month which begs the question - second chances or second opportunities? This podcast dives into the background of second chance month, explores legislation and various second chance proposals, and provides context for the landscape of clemency in light of new awareness. In this episode our hosts Erik Luna and Ashley Oddo are joined by Professor and Robert Marion Short Distinguished Chair in Law, at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Mark Osler, and Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Correctional Solutions at ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Kevin Wright. Professor Osler and Professor Wright draw upon a combined 45 years of experience and share their expertise while discussing second chances, clemency, prison framework, and the retributive nature of our country as a framework for driving second chance policy decisions.

Discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear, resent, and resist the police. In the book The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth, Author and Georgetown University Law Professor Kristin Henning draws upon 25 years of experience representing Black youth in Washington, D.C.’s juvenile courts to confront America’s irrational, manufactured fears of these young people and makes a powerfully compelling case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children. In this episode of Measured Justice, our hosts Erik Luna and Valena Beety are joined by Associate Dean for Clinical Education, the Director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, and the Mayer Brown/Robert A. Helman Professor of Law at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Robin Walker Sterling, to speak with Professor Henning about her book and how we can stop criminalizing Black children by using common sense solutions.

Today on this podcast episode, we’re talking about criminal justice in Indian County. We’ll hear from 3 leaders and scholars in Indian County to discuss this important topic.

We’re fortunate to be joined by

Addie Rolnick, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Professor of Law at University of Nevada Las Vegas Law School and Faculty Director of their Indian Nations Gaming & Governance Program; Robert Miller, Professor of Law at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, as well as the Interim Chief Justice for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals; Chrissi Nimmo, Deputy Attorney General for the Cherokee Nation and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Did you know Arizona is the first state to eliminate peremptory challenges? In this episode, MEASURED JUSTICE invites lawyers to discuss Batson and peremptory challenges.

In this episode, MEASURED JUSTICE invites legal experts to discuss Batson and peremptory challenges.

Join us for our podcast spinoff launch for MEASURED JUSTICE, covering criminal justice reform topics in America.

For our first episode, we discuss issues in prison which precipitated the Dignity Act and similar legislation across the country.

Guests: Kurt Altman, State Director in Arizona and New Mexico for Right on Crime, Owner and Principal of Kurt M. Altman, P.L.C. a law firm and lobbying practice built on quality advocacy; Holly Harris, President and Executive Director of the Justice Action Network; Darrell Hill, Policy Director of the ACLU of Arizona; Kara Williams, Smart Justice Organizer of the ACLU of Arizona; and Pamela Winn, Founder of RestoreHer US. America.

Today's podcast episode features leaders in reforming accountability for police who use excessive or deadly force against civilians. They each have proposed statutory reforms, which have been adopted in this past year. We're joined by Professor Cynthia Lee at the George Washington University Law School, Professor Catherine Smith at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and Professor Frank Rudy Cooper at University of Nevada – Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law, where he directs the Program on Race, Gender, and Policing.