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This is the story of the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dassey. When Brendan Dassey uttered “I’m really stupid Mum, I can’t help it” this was not the failure of a vulnerable teenager but the exposure of the systemic failings of Wisconsin's criminal justice system. This season join me as I step back into Manitowoc 2005 and explore and re-examine the factors at the heart of this profound miscarriage of justice.
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The Innocent: The Intentional Conviction of Jason Baldwin
1:35:19
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“Taking the Alford Plea hurt my soul more than being found guilty in 1994 did," shares Jason Baldwin, a man who is so much more than a member of the West Memphis 3. “When they forced me to take the Alford Plea something in me broke…” The presumption of innocence and guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is seemingly reserved for a select few. For many fl…
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The Reformers: Inside the Interrogation Room
1:12:19
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It’s lawful for police to use a variety of psychological techniques to induce suspects to confess including lying about evidence, accusatory questioning, and stomping their size tens up the nine steps of the REID technique because well, that’s what they’ve been taught. But times are a’changing. In this episode of the Sixth Hour, my guests provide a…
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The Collective: Power to the People, Right on!
1:22:14
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Did you walk past, or did you stop? Were you called to act – to advocate - to just do something, because doing nothing felt like a crime? When Making a Murderer was unleashed on an unsuspecting seasonal audience in the December of 2015, it triggered a gut punch for millions of people and birthed a community of criminal justice activists that contin…
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The Homicide Detective: A System of Adversaries
1:12:03
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“I’ll be honest if somebody waives their Miranda rights, and we know how to get people to waive their Miranda rights – we know how to manipulate the hell out of them …” shares former homicide detective, author, reformer, and wrongful conviction expert James Trainum. “You could almost put pins under their fingernails and it’s [confession] still volu…
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When the federal judges that made up the en banc majority found that while there were factors that supported finding Brendan Dassey’s confession involuntary; that his confession was riddled with inconsistencies and that interrogators did offer up broad assurances that honesty would be rewarded with leniency, the slim majority determined that this w…
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The Conspirator: High Crimes and Misdemeanours
1:44:14
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“It was rumoured that there were people in the department of justice here saying, ‘leave it alone, don’t take it further,’ there are people who were offended but you know we got to have our win,” recalls Professor Michele LaVigne. As Brendan’s post-conviction appeal steamrolled its way through the federal courts the Wisconsin legal fraternity was a…
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“Because we could all watch it and we could see it and we could see that slow transformation from no to yes, it just seemed to typify in a way everything that is wrong with police interrogation of children in this country,” said Professor Marsha Levick. As Brendan Dassey’s case hurled through the federal appellate court system, a chorus of eminent …
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The Defender: Between Disparity and Despair
1:43:27
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How culpable was the media in the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dassey? Did the infamous March 2nd press conference directed by DA Kratz prejudice, not just a potential jury pool but the entire state of Wisconsin? Destroying Brendan Dassey’s presumption of innocence with every word uttered Kratz tightened the shackles on young Brendan’s wrists and…
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The Suppression: Nine Steps to Self-Incrimination
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The trial judge says, “so Miranda warnings are not an issue, so, mirandizing is not an issue, and neither is the custodial or non-custodial … okay moving on.” Now it’s in the record, he has sealed the fate. Brendan has had some amazing attorneys work on his case, but I don’t care how good they are that single interchange made their job almost insur…
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This is the story of the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dassey. Confined to a system that provides little more than a modicum of due process for the children caught in the ebb and flow of flawed investigations, judicial ignorance, and spurious interrogation techniques, Brendan readies himself for his 15th year of wrongful incarceration as COVID-19 …
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Was it small-town judicial ignorance or a deceptive ploy to dupe the jury? A jury fattened on media soundbites, unethical press conferences, social bias, and pizza. There was conveniently an absence of expert testimony, and a very special prosecutor indeed! But Brendan's story can be changed, his path forward rewritten. The fight for justice and fr…
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"In a case where the person is genuinely innocent, it's not mercy it's straight-up justice. In a case like Brendan's, you can make the case for his release either on mercy or justice," shares Professor Mark Osler. October 2nd, 2019, Brendan Dassey's legal team filed a petition for clemency with Governor Tony Evers to grant Brendan a pardon or commu…
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The Defendant: Brendan and the Bell Curve
1:07:49
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"We are so cruel, where we pretend to care so deeply about the rule of law - that we let this go through. That somewhere there wasn't a responsible adult saying that's enough, that is enough," exclaims Professor Michele LaVigne. A distinguished clinical professor of law, a leader in the law and co-author of Under the Hood: Brendan Dassey, Language …
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"He believes you did it, Brendan," said Brendan's mother Barb. Brendan Dassey knew nothing of his Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel or that it should entail zealous advocacy - all Brendan knew was that his attorney Len Kachinsky thought him guilty ... and liked cats. Orchestrating his own downfall as he tried to turn Brendan as states witn…
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The Confession: A Ghoulish Game of 20 Questions
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We all have a breaking point. However, for 16-year-old Brendan Dassey, all that was needed was praise, feigned parental concern, and susceptibility to an interrogation technique used to elicit confessions from seasoned adult criminals. The mix was devastating for Brendan. As the first false confession expert to testify on Brendan's behalf in 2010, …
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The Interrogation: Death by a Thousand Cuts
1:10:58
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"Let's stop lying, especially to kids in our interrogations and interviews. It seems so contradictory that we would lie to get to the truth," says Dave Thompson, Partner and VP of Operations for Wicklander Zulawski. Dave joins the Sixth Hour to unpack the interrogations leading up to and including, the March 1st statement that sets in motion the wr…
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When Making a Murderer focused on the plight of Brendan Dassey, who appeared not culpable for anything more than naivete about the processes of the Wisconsin legal system, it was then at its most poignant and its most disturbing.By Tracy Keogh
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This is the story of the wrongful conviction of Brendan Dassey. When Brendan Dassey uttered “I’m really stupid Mum, I can’t help it” this was not the failure of a vulnerable teenager but the exposure of the systemic failings of Wisconsin’s criminal justice system. This season join me as I step back into Manitowoc 2005 and explore and re-examine the…
…
continue reading
