AJCRADIO
Exposing Injustices Wherever Found
an Organization for Social Justice
Interim Regional Director - Laura Magnani
Laura Magnani (pronounced Munyani) is the Interim Regional Director of AFSC’s San Francisco office. She is a nationally known expert on areas of mass incarceration and solitary confinement. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action. Drawing on continuing spiritual insights and working with people of many backgrounds, to nurture the seeds of change and respect for human life that transform social relations and systems.
Website: https://afsc.org/image/laura-magnani
Professor Currently Serving Provost - Todd Clear
Todd Clear is a Professor currently serving Provost at Rutgers University-Newark, New Jersey. Previously, he was Dean of the School of Criminal Justice. In 1978, he received a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from The University at Albany. Professor Clear has also held professorships at Ball State University, Florida State University (where he was also Associate Dean of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice) and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (where he held the rank of Distinguished Professor).
Website: http://rscj.newark.rutgers.edu/faculty/member/dr-todd-clear/
Professor of Law - Nancy Marder
Nancy Marder is a Professor of Law, Director of the Justice John Paul Stevens Jury Center, and Co-Director of the Institute for Law and the Humanities. She joined the faculty of IIT Chicago-Kent in the fall of 1999. She has a B.A. (summa cum laude) in English and Afro-American Studies from Yale College. She was a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court (1990–92). She also clerked for Judge William A. Norris on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (1989–90) and Judge Leonard B. Sand in the Southern District of New York (1988–1989).
Website: http://www.kentlaw.iit.edu/faculty/full-time-faculty/nancy-s-marder
Private Investigators - Bob Rahn & Kim Anklin
Robert (Bob) Rahn is the President and Director of Investigations of Management Resources. He is a former homicide detective and has over thirty years of investigative experience. Bob has come full circle in his investigative career utilizing his extensive law enforcement experience and adapting it to the private sector by assisting attorneys, insurance companies and corporations. Kim Anklin is the Vice President of Management Resources and is a Senior Investigative Analyst. Kim’s prior work included working for the Ventura Police Department as their crime and intelligence analyst.
Website: http://www.nysleuth.com/PrivateInvestigations/About.aspx
ON TONIGHT'S SHOW, WE DISCUSS THE UNITED STATES' JUDICIAL SYSTEM AND COMPARE IT TO THE JUDICIAL SYSTEMS OF OTHER COUNTRIES. LISTEN IN AND SEE HOW OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM STACKS UP AGAINST THE REST.
Assoc. Prof. of Dept. of Criminal Justice & Criminology - Jona Goldschmidt
Dr. Jona Goldschmidt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Illinois-Urbana in Communications (News-Editorial) (1972), his J.D. at DePaul University College of Law (1975), and his Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Program in Justice Studies at Arizona State University (1990), where his area of concentration was Dispute Resolution.
Website: http://www.luc.edu/criminaljustice/faculty/goldschmidt_j.shtml
THIS IS AJCRADIO'S FIRST "OPEN MIC NIGHT" AND WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! PLEASE CALL IN TONIGHT AND SHARE WITH US ANY INJUSTICE(S) YOU HAVE WITNESSED THAT OUR LISTENING AUDIENCE NEEDS TO BE INFORMED OR EDUCATED ABOUT!
LET'S FIGHT THESE INJUSTICES TOGETHER!
Assoc. Clinical Professor of Law - Laura O'Sullivan
In August 2011, Professor O'Sullivan joined the University of Missouri as a clinical professor teaching a Wrongful Convictions course, as a pre-requisite to participation in the Midwest Innocence Project Clinic. Laura received her accounting and business administration degrees from the University of Kansas. She entered Billiken territory, earning her Juris Doctorate from St. Louis University School of Law. She is currently advocating for the wrongful conviction of Rodney Lincoln, who was convicted and sentenced in 1982 for murdering a mother and her two little girls in St. Louis, Missouri.
Website: http://law.umkc.edu/faculty-staff/people/osullivan-laura.asp
Dad, Rodney Lincoln, Wrongly Convicted - Kay Lincoln
Rodney Lincoln has been incarcerated since May 23, 1982. He was convicted of murdering a young mother and the brutal attack of her two little girls. Rodney was arrested almost a month after the attack based on a composite sketch created in a very unconventional manner and a biased photo line-up followed by an extremely unfair physical line-up that contained him and three people all more than 15 years younger than him who looked nothing like him.
Website: http://www.freerodneylincoln.com/
Author/Journalist - Donald S. Connery
Donald S. Connery is an author, independent journalist and former foreign correspondent. He roamed the world reporting on major world events for Time, Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated and NBC while raising four children with his wife, an educator. In 1973, a “wrong man’s” murder case led to his unique career shift from international reporting to rescuing the innocent. He has been a pioneer in the movement that has spurred the DNA revolution, the founding of the national network of innocence projects, and the new awareness of the magnitude and reasons for unjust convictions.
Website: http://www.FalseConfessions.org
Professor of Criminology, Law & Society - C. Ronald Huff
C. Ronald Huff is Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Law and Society and previously served as Dean of the School of Social Ecology at Univ. of California, Irvine. He has served as a consultant on gangs, youth violence, and public policy to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the F.B.I. National Academy, the U.S. Department of Justice, and numerous other agencies and organizations throughout the nation.
Actor - Seth Meriwether
Seth Meriwether co-starred with Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon in the movie titled “Devil’s Knot”, written by Author Mara Leveritt. The movie, Devil’s Knot followed the trial of the West Memphis Three. The film centered on the murder of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas,in 1993, and the subsequent trial and conviction of three teens. Seth was casted as Jason Baldwin, one of the convicted teens, all of whom were released from prison in 2011.
Website: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5111965/
Wrongly Convicted at 16 - Jason Baldwin
Jason Baldwin served 18 years for a crime he never committed. The murder of 3 young boys mutilated in Arkansas. The case was well-publicized, as the West Memphis Three: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. All 3 men were finally released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea. The film, "Devil's Knot," is adapted from Mara Levitt’s 2001 book of the same name, one of many chronicles of Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jesse Misskelley Jr., otherwise known as The West Memphis Three. Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley served 18 years after being wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of three boys.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Baldwin/145944238773717
Trial Lawyer - Norman Pattis
Norman (Norm) Pattis is veteran of more than 100 successful jury trials, many resulting in acquittals for people charged with serious crimes, multi-million dollar civil rights and discrimination verdicts, and successful criminal appeals. Newsday describes Norm as the "Legal Top Gun", the Hartford Courant says his work is "Brilliant and Audacious", and legal icon F. Lee Bailey describes Norm Pattis as "One of the giants of the profession." Norm founded and leads Pattis Law Firm, a Connecticut based criminal defense and civil rights firm which focuses on serious felonies including violent felonies, white collar crimes, sex offenses, drug crimes, and misconduct by lawyers, doctors, and government officials.
Activist/Writer - Kris Hermes
Kris Hermes is an activist, legal worker and contributing journalist to the Huffington Post. He has nearly 30 years of social justice activism experience. He has worked in various cities around the U.S. generating media and mobilizing people to effect change in federal and state policy on issues involving hunger, poverty, criminal justice, and access to health care. Kris is actively involved in the Grand Jury Resistance Project, which educates the public that the FBI, police harassment and secret grand juries are being used to attack Muslims and other immigrants, Black, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Native, anti-war, anarchist, environmental and animal rights activists and movements.
Wrongly Convicted Son & His Father - Ryan & Bill Ferguson
Ryan Ferguson a 17 year old junior in high school was convicted for the 2001 murder of local reporter Kent Heitholt found strangled in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. Ryan’s conviction was based solely on the testimony of two ‘witnesses’, who later in 2012 recanted their stories and admitted they committed perjury. There were even members of the original jury who, based on new evidence, felt that Ryan deserved a new trial. Yet Ryan Ferguson remained locked up, and a victim of the Missouri justice system for almost 10 years. Ryan’s story has been featured extensively on NBC’s Dateline, CBS’s 48 Hours and in numerous TV reports, magazines and newspapers. Ferguson's case is listed by the National Registry of Exonerations as an exoneration.
Website: http://freeryanferguson.com/
Prof. of Criminology, Law & Society - Simon Cole
Professor Simon Cole specializes in the historical and sociological study of the interaction between science, technology, law, and criminal justice. He is Director of The Newkirk Center for Science & Society, and he is affiliated with the Department of History. Prof. Cole is a member of the American Judicature Society Commission on Forensic Science & Public Policy, he has spoken widely on the subjects of fingerprinting, scientific evidence, and science and the law, and he has consulted and testified as an expert witness on the validity of fingerprint evidence. He has also written for many general interest publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Author/Activist/Contributing Editor - Sarah Shourd
Sarah Shourd is an author, prisoner rights advocate, Contributing Editor at Solitary Watch, and a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, currently based in Oakland, California. Sarah writes, speaks and advocates against the use of prolonged solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. Sarah’s written for The New York Times, CNN, SF Chronicle, Newsweek’s Daily Beast and has a blog on Huffington Post. Sarah was held as a political hostage by the Iranian government from 2009-2010. She was captured, along with her two companions, while hiking near the unmarked Iran/Iraq border in semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan while on a weeklong trip from her home in Damascus, Syria.
Websites: http://www.sarahshourd.com/bio/ ; http://solitarywatch.com/
Program Coordinator - Arnie Alpert
Arnie Alpert serves as American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Economic Justice Program Analyst and has been the New Hampshire Program Coordinator since 1981. He is a leader in movements for economic justice and affordable housing, civil and worker rights, peace & disarmament, and abolishing the death penalty. His areas of expertise are Federal Spending and Privatization of Prisons. Arnie publishes a blog, In Zane Times.
Prof. of Law, Univ. of Michigan - Samuel R. Gross
Samuel R. Gross is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He graduated from Columbia College in 1968 and earned a JD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1973. He was a criminal defense attorney in San Francisco for several years, and worked as an attorney with the United Farm Workers Union in California and the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Committee in Nebraska and South Dakota.
Website: http://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=srgross
Prof. of Law, Columbia Law School - James S. Liebman
James S. Liebman is a Professor of Law at Columbia University School of Law. He was a Law Clerk to Judge Carl McGowan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1977-78, and Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. States Supreme Court from 1978-79. Professor Liebman is author of numerous articles on the death penalty, federal habeas corpus, equal protection, evidence, and public education reform. He has argued several habeas corpus and death penalty appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ret. Lower Court Judge - Donna Hamm
Donna Hamm, a retired lower court judge is the Founder and Executive Director of Middle Ground Prison Reform, an all-volunteer non-profit organization, officially formed in 1983. Donna is an international speaker on the issues of prison and jail reform. She is frequently a guest speaker/presenter at civic and community groups and to college and university classes throughout Arizona. She has appeared on CBS "60 Minutes," The Bill Moyers Program, numerous PBS specials, and is regularly contacted by the Associated Press and other print and electronic media organizations for her views on prison-related issues.
Prof. of Sociology & Criminology - Kimberly Cook
Kimberly J. Cook is professor and chair of the department of sociology and criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has co-authored a book with Saundra Westervelt titled, Life after Death Row that examines the post-incarceration struggles of individuals who have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, sentenced to death, and subsequently exonerated.
Website: http://uncw.edu/soccrm/cook.html
Assoc. Professor of Sociology - Saundra Westervelt
Saundra D. Westervelt is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She has co-authored a book with Kimberly Cook titled, Life after Death Row that examines the post-incarceration struggles of individuals who have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, sentenced to death, and exonerated.
Wrongly Convicted/Exonerated - Sabrina Butler
On April 11, 1989, Sabrina Butler rushed her 9 months old baby, Walter to the hospital after he suddenly stopped breathing. Doctors attempted to resuscitate the child for thirty minutes, but failed, and Sabrina's baby died the next day. The very day of her son's death, Sabrina was arrested for child abuse due to the bruises left by her resuscitation attempts. 12 police officers questioned her and 3 detectives interrogated her without her mother, father, brothers, or an attorney present. Sabrina was charged with capital murder.
Websites: www.sabrinabutler.webs.com ; http://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/exonerees/sabrina-butler.html
Forensic Science Consultant - Barry Fisher
Barry A. J. Fisher served as Crime Laboratory Director for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. He began his career in criminalistics with the Sheriff’s crime lab in 1969. His current interests concern the interrelationship between forensic science and the law along with public policy issues concerning the timely delivery of quality forensic support services to the criminal justice system.
Attorney at Law - Jennifer Blagg
Jennifer Blagg has 11 years of law experience and has worked both behind the scenes, as a Clerk for the Honorable Andree Layton Roaf, and as a zealous advocate for her clients in both the Appellate and Circuit Courts. Jennifer has extensive experience writing and researching criminal cases, as she worked for seven years at the Office of the State Appellate Defender in the First District. For the past three years, Ms. Blagg has been in a successful private practice focusing on criminal defense at every level - trial, appellate, and post-conviction petitions.
Website: http://blagglaw.net/index.html
Wrongly Convicted - Johnnie Lee Savory
Johnnie Savory was twice convicted of the murders of siblings James Robinson Jr., 14, and Connie Cooper, 19, who were found stabbed to death in their Peoria home on January 18, 1977. Savory has sought DNA testing since 1998, but Peoria County prosecutors opposed it and the courts denied it on the ground that the requested testing could not yield a result relevant to his claim of actual innocence.
Website: www.thesavoryfiles.org
Professor/Pace School of Law - Bennett Gershman
Professor Bennett Gershman is one of the original faculty members at Pace Law School and has taught as a visiting professor at Cornell Law School and Syracuse Law School. While in private practice he specialized in criminal defense litigation. He was a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office for six years, and he is the Author of numerous articles as well as two books on prosecutorial and judicial ethics.
Wrongly Convicted/Exonerated - Ronald Cotton
On August 1, 1984, Ronald Cotton was arrested for the crime where, an assailant broke into an apartment, severed phone wires, sexually assaulted a woman, searched through her belongings, and took money and other items. In January 1985, Cotton was convicted by a jury for one count of rape and one count of burglary. In a second trial, in November 1987, Cotton was convicted of both rapes and two counts of burglary. An Alamance County Superior Court sentenced Cotton to life, plus fifty-four years.
We celebrate our 100th show! Join us and many of our past guests and learn how AJC Coast 2 Coast has helped expose the injustices that have been done to them. Thank you to all of our listeners who have supported us for this long, and we look forward to bringing you more education, awareness, and information about judicial injustice.
Film/TV Producer - Charles Belk
On Friday, August 22, 2014, Fitting The Description, Charles Belk was walking alone to his car to add additional money to his parking meter. A nearby bank had just been robbed, and Charles was detained because he "fit the description." Charles was handcuffed and forced to sit down on the curb for approx. 45 minutes and then transported to the station, where he was finger-printed, mug-shot was taken, denied a phone call, denied being told the charges he was being booked on, told by a booking officer that "this is a serious crime you have committed," denied immediate access to an attorney, imprisoned for several hrs under a $100K bail for Armed Robbery & Accessory to Armed Robbery.
1st Maryland Exoneree - Leslie Vass
On February 15, 1975, Leslie Vass was a 17 year old high school senior and basketball player, with no criminal record. All of this would change when he made his daily trip to Baltimore’s Westport Pharmacy, to purchase a newspaper for his mother. Upon entering the store, Vass was identified by Joseph Chester as one of the three men who had robbed him four months earlier, while he was making a delivery to the pharmacy. While it took another week for Chester to contact the police and identify him, Vass was arrested and charged with armed robbery.
Website: http://www.exonerate.org/other-local-victories/leslie-vass/
Mother of Wrongly Convicted - Brenda Kiehlmeier
Brenda Kiehlmeier is the Mother of Joel Atkin, who back in 2010 a jury found Joel Atkin guilty of 3rd degree murder, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment in the shooting death of 30 year old Jayson Sack in 2009. Since then, Brenda have been advocating for her son because he is wrongfully convicted, for a crime he says’ he didn’t commit.
Author/Activist - Gina McGill
Gina McGill is a Writer, Activist, and a former Computer Programmer and IT Business Analyst. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and a Master of Science degree in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Gina created her book, "State of Florida v. Trayvon Martin", from a place of hurt, pain, grief, and an outrage at injustice. She never knew Trayvon Benjamin Martin personally, but his murder felt like a relative of hers had been murdered. She made a promise to Trayvon that she would do something to help achieve justice for his death. This is the fulfillment of her promise to him.
Website: https://ginamcgill.com/
Retired Federal Judge - Mary E. Bullock
Mary was the Chief Trial Litigator and owner at the Law Firm of Mary Elizabeth Bullock. As the Federal Administrative Civil Rights Judge at EEOC, she presided over cases where a federal employee (applicant, current or terminated) alleged a Title VII violation against their federal employer, a U.S. government agency. She also held hearings ruling on both liability and damages, ruled on a variety of motions, and initiated telephonic conference calls. She also acted as a settlement judge for cases not assigned to her.
Co-Director, Associate Producer, Writer - Mike Riley
Mike Riley is a filmmaker from Los Angeles, California. His career began in the background of the music industry working as a Rep. for various recording labels, radio stations and sometimes directly with artists themselves. He began his journey in film producing and directing music videos for many of the artists he had built relationships with as music producer. His immense interest in human social behavior as well the results of the 2013 LA Mayoral election is what inspired him to make this film, “The Uniformed States of America”.
Websites: www.finallyfreemedia.com ; www.theusafilm.com
Deputy US Program Director, Human Rights Watch - Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno
Maria McFarland, as Deputy US Program Director for the Human Rights Watch organization helps to guide the organization's work on national security, immigration, and criminal justice in the United States, including mass surveillance and drug policy. McFarland has conducted extensive advocacy before the governments of the United States, Canada, and European and Latin American countries; has authored and edited numerous Human Rights Watch reports; has testified before the US Congress and Canadian Parliament; and is a frequent voice in the media.
Website: http://www.hrw.org/bios/maria-mcfarland-s-nchez-moreno
Executive Director - Carmen Perez
Carmen Perez has been an activist nearly her entire life. Carmen is the founder of the youth leadership group R.E.A.L. (Reforming Education, Advocating for Leadership) and also the co-founder of The Girls Task Force in Santa Cruz County, which is dedicated to improving gender-responsive services to better support all girls in our communities. In 2010, Carmen became the Executive Director of The Gathering. Her work took her internationally promoting peace, interconnectedness, and alternatives to incarceration and violence while collaborating in national policy presentations.
Website: http://gatheringforjustice.org/
Wrongly Convicted at 16 - Mark Clements
Mark A. Clements spent 28 years behind Illinois prison walls as the result of being tortured and forced by a detective that worked under the command of Jon Burge who tortured African American and Latino men inside area’s two and three violent crime units in Chicago, Illinois from 1972 until 1993. Mark now works with the Northwestern Center for Wrongful Convictions in Illinois to help others who have been wrongly convicted for crimes, they didn’t commit.
Website: www.nodeathpenalty.org
Author, Columnist & Broadcaster - Joyce King
Joyce King is a native Texan who has traveled the world with her message of justice, hope, and healing. The award-winning veteran broadcaster was a news anchor and reporter for CBS Radio until she stepped down to write her first book, Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas (Pantheon, 2002). Hate Crime was critically acclaimed and featured on several programs and networks, including Good Morning Texas, NPR, BET, CNN, Book TV, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Website: http://writerjoyceking.com
Wife of Wrongly Convicted Ronnie Long - Ashleigh Marie Long
Ashleigh Marie Long has been diligently advocating to free her husband Ronnie Wallace Long, who thirty-nine years ago was convicted by a jury that was not of his peers. Ronnie, whom is Black was convicted by an all-White jury for burglary and rape of a prominent white woman in Concord, North Carolina. Ronnie was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences with absolutely "No evidence linking him to the crimes."
Websites: http://www.ronniewallacelong.com/ ; http://www.thefactshe3t.com/2014/06/the-ronnie-wallace-long-case.html
Project Editor/Co-Founder - Andrew Kreig
Andrew Kreig is an investigative reporter, attorney, and non-profit executive based in Washington, DC. “Presidential Puppetry” grew out of his work leading the Justice Integrity Project, a non-partisan legal reform group that investigates official misconduct. The major “Who’s Who” reference books have listed him since the mid-1990s. He holds law degrees from Yale and the University of Chicago. He studied history at Cornell, where he was a student newspaper editor, rower and boxer. He blogs for OpEdNews and several other sites on such topics as corrupt practices and cover-ups, including by self-censorship by the mainstream media.
Websites: www.justice-integrity.org ; http://www.andrewkreig.com/
