Serial WBEZ

It amazes me that you can win an appeal to a new trial, once again defeat the state at a higher court, and then lose 4-3 at the highest court in the state. The odds are stacked against you the minute you are arrested. Then to win an appeal only to give the states two more cracks at it is disgusting.This defendant followed the same rollercoaster as Brendan Dassey.

I don’t know the guilt of AS or BD but winning an appeal for a new trial should be honoured instead of giving the state two “do-overs”. Winning an appeal is damn near impossible and could take a decade.

The WM3 were done for had HBO not rescued them and got celebrity money to fund their appeal process showing all the mistakes untrained and biased police made.

We really need to look at how the appeals process is done. Recent studies have at least 10 percent of prison population wrongly convicted.

I thought this was an excellent analysis and exploration of a specific case and it’s implications on the gulf between what the justice system aspires to be and what it actually is.
It’s very disappointing that after supposedly listening to this podcast reviewers comment with the same venom toward the defendant that you’d expect from the uninformed and ignorant. The take home message isn’t a conclusive proof of guilt or innocence, it’s that there is so much reasonable doubt this shouldn’t have gotten near prosecution, but is an excellent example of how people get convicted despite this. The sad fact is juries rarely grant the defendant a presumption of innocence or the right to innocence in the presence of reasonable doubt, and this fascinating case is a perfect example. Even on the occasion I thought the defendant was guilty I played devils advocate in the jury room to make sure people have to think through and argue their opinions. 2 hours of deliberation for a 1st def. murder verdict is insulting to the process and the defendant.

For those who want an update, he won his appeal, and then defeated the states appeal against that win at the higher court. As a last ditch attempt to keep him in jail the State appealed to an en blank hearing at the very highest state level and managed to keep him in jail by a 4:3 majority verdict. When you consider since the Law was changed after the Oklahoma bombing to make appeals even more difficult than they already were in that Judges can’t just disagree with the conviction they must find a gross mistake has been made (I can’t remember the exact wording) which 3 out of 4 apparently did - I find it disturbing that a Majority of one under these circumstances have condemned him to life in jail (short the near impossibility of the Supreme Court first taking his case and then siding with him).

The system which should be looking dispassionately for the person responsible is clearly far too rigid once they think they have the right person - perhaps this is inevitable in an adversarial system but I can’t help but think that’s not helpful for justice - and especially after a conviction if that conviction appears to be weak. Clearly a not insignificant percentage of convictions are going to be incorrect but once convicted it becomes almost impossible to reverse and irrespective of evidence (I’m actually thinking of much more clear cut examples here) the state will still oppose conviction relief with upmost vigour even when it’s obvious they have the wrong person and how does that serve justice.

What’s happened to Adnon since update 3? It just kind of ended...? Are there more episodes that have disappeared?

Loving the podcast. Like the way you present it and keep us hooked from one episode to the next.