- Read Ricky Kidd’s desperate letters begging his public defender to do more
- WATCH: Missouri public defenders are overloaded with hundreds of cases while defendants wait in jail
- How ‘the incarceration capital of America’ embraced criminal justice reform
- Why defendants plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit
- Broken Justice Episode 1: Triage – the full transcript
- Broken Justice Episode 2: How did we get here? – the full transcript
- Broken Justice Episode 3: When things go wrong — the full transcript
- Broken Justice Episode 4: Public defenders fight back — the full transcript
- Broken Justice Episode 5: Where do we go from here? — the full transcript
- Broken Justice Episode 4: Public defenders fight back — the full transcript
- After 23 years wrongly imprisoned, Ricky Kidd is free — and using his voice
Trailer
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,…
Episode 5
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…
Episode 4
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.
Episode 3
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…
Episode 2
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…
Episode 1
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…
Epilogue
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…





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