It is rare for a jury to hear from a victim in a murder trial. But… Kathie Durst finally has her opportunity to offer her contribution to the effort to hold Robert Durst accountable for his actions. Nearly 40 years after her disappearance, Kathie’s plea is being relayed to a Los Angeles jury through her friend Marion Watlington.  WATLINGTON: SHE SAID, SHOULD ANYTHING HAPPEN TO ME, YOU MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LET THE BASTARD GET AWAY WITH IT. Watlington, a blonde-haired woman in her early to...

Former federal prosecutor Mark Godsey is a law professor at UC Law and the co-founder and director of the Ohio Innocence Project, which has secured the freedom of 29 people on grounds of innocence who together served more than 525 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. On April 20, Marion Correctional Institution, an Ohio state prison, became the largest known source of COVID-19 infections in the U.S., according to the New York Times, with one in five confirmed COVID-19 cases tracing back to the state's prison system. 

In 2016, Daniel Holtzclaw became a poster child for racism, sexism, and abuse of power when he was found guilty of sexually assaulting eight at-risk black women while on duty as an Oklahoma City police officer. Publicly disavowed by the police and protested against by Black Lives Matter, these interest groups which historically butted heads found a common enemy in Holtzclaw, and called for the full crushing force of the government to come down upon him. And it did: Holtzclaw was sentenced to 263 years in prison. But could these...

“Thank Goodness We’re Not Inside Right Now”: An Interview with Heidi Goodwin By Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson In 2003, a jury convicted 24-year-old Heidi Fero of first-degree assault in connection to a 2002 incident that inflicted permanent brain damage on 15-month-old Brynn Ackley. Physicians diagnosed Ackley with the now discredited shaken-baby syndrome, and Fero was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, later reduced to 10 on appeal. Fero served her full sentence, but in 2016, her conviction was vacated when pediatric trauma experts debunked the faux...

Amanda weighs in on Netfilx's Tiger King and the rush to judgement on Carole Baskin. I’m sure you’ve seen the memes, even if you haven’t yet seen Netflix’s addictive, moving, and insane docuseries Tiger King. Stuck in quarantine, the Twitterverse isn’t even waiting for Halloween to dress up like the flamboyant, gay, private zoo owner and former presidential candidate Joe Exotic, polygamist, ponytailed cult leader Doc Antle, and leather-clad, Las Vegas conman Jeff Lowe.  But while these flawed, felonious figures ultimately come off as tragic or amusing, there’s...

Dogs. They are a recurring theme in the trial of Robert Durst for the murder of Susan Berman. Attorneys on both sides identified themselves as dog lovers during voir dire. Deputy District Attorney John Lewin incorporated his own Great Dane, Boomer, into his lesson on reasonable doubt and indirect evidence. Lewin also has indicated that Durst’s relationship with his family’s Alaskan Malamutes, all named Igor, will be presented as evidence at trial. And of course, Berman’s wire-haired terrier, Lulu, prompted witness Kathryn Shaw-Cutter’s phone call to the police after a...