Nation Dec 13

Ricky Kidd is finally free -- thanks to his pro bono legal team, led by law professor Sean O’Brien. In this bonus episode, Ricky and Sean tell us about adjusting to life after prison and we talk through some loose…

Politics Dec 09

We’re briefly interrupting your regular podcast feed to offer a sample of our newest podcast series: Broken Justice. In 1997, Ricky Kidd was sentenced to life without parole for a double homicide he says he didn’t commit. And, he argues,…

Nation Dec 03

After 23 years behind bars, and a crushing defeat in 2009, Ricky Kidd finally gets a new day in court. Plus, we take a look inside a new St. Louis County prosecutor’s campaign to uproot the process that fuels the…

Nation Nov 26

The most common tool used to attack problems in public defender systems is the class action lawsuit. But what if there’s a better strategy? Steve Hanlon, a longtime advocate for systemic legal reform, has a big idea about big data.

Nation Nov 19

The American justice system is based around the idea that you can get to the truth when two opposing sides make their cases in court. But what happens if your defense attorney is so overloaded they can’t handle the case…

Nation Nov 13

Americans didn’t always have the right to an attorney. It all started with a pool hall robbery in Florida, and an unlikely legal advocate: a poor drifter named Clarence Earl Gideon. Gideon brought the fight for free counsel to the…

Nation Nov 05

Can an attorney handle more than 100 criminal cases at a time? That’s the reality for a public defender like Jeff Esparza, who represents defendants unable to afford their own lawyers in Kansas City. The public defender system in Missouri—and…

Nation Oct 29

In 1997, Ricky Kidd was sentenced to life without parole for a double homicide he says he didn’t commit. And he says his court-appointed lawyer is the reason. In the U.S. justice system, everyone has the right to an attorney,…

Nation Oct 29

In 1997, Ricky Kidd was sentenced to life without parole for a double homicide he says he didn’t commit. And he says his court-appointed lawyer is the reason. In the U.S. justice system, everyone has the right to an attorney,…

Science Apr 24

Antarctica is virtually uninhabited by people. There are no roads, no cities, no government. But thanks to a remarkable Cold War diplomatic breakthrough, the last continent ever discovered remains a place devoted almost exclusively to science. William Brangham reports on…