Crime Story Editor

CRIME STORY’S Sean Smith continues his weekly analysis of the news stories aggregated in CRIME STORY DAILY related to COVID-19 and our carceral system. By reconsidering early reporting on the crisis in the light of subsequent developments, CRIME STORY hopes to point out trends in the narrative of COVID-19 and the prisons. You can find links to each of Sean’s analysis pieces here. This article covers the week beginning May 3.  WEEK 8 (May 3-9)  On May 5, President Donald Trump toured a Honeywell International factory in Phoenix that manufactures N95 masks; Trump refused to wear a mask himself, later insisting that he...

On December 5, 2020, Crime Story published the story Former Prosecutor and Prosecutorial Reform Advocate Accused of Sexual Assault, detailing the allegations against Adam Foss made in a November 20 blog post by Reagan Sealy. You can find that story here. “We are a business that works with human beings, we know nothing about humans.”: An Interview with Adam Foss By Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson Adam Foss, founder of Prosecutor Impact, is a criminal justice reformer and former prosecutor. In his 2016 Ted Talk, Foss bore witness to the many ways prosecutors squander their outsize power of discretion to deflect vulnerable...

The Case of Michael Thompson: An Interview with Sarah Gersten In 1996, 45-year-old Michael Thompson was convicted in Michigan on five charges: possession with intent to deliver marijuana; conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver marijuana; delivery of marijuana; possession of a weapon by a convicted felon; and possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony. The maximum penalty for these combined offenses amounted to just over a decade in prison. However, Thompson’s sentence was significantly lengthened when prosecutors applied the habitual offender law. Thompson already had three previous felony convictions for nonviolent drug offenses on his record. The...

CRIME STORY’S Sean Smith continues his weekly analysis of the news stories aggregated in CRIME STORY DAILY related to COVID-19 and our carceral system. By reconsidering early reporting on the crisis in the light of subsequent developments, CRIME STORY hopes to point out trends in the narrative of COVID-19 and the prisons. You can find links to each of Sean’s analysis pieces here. This article covers the week beginning April 26.  WEEK 7 (APRIL 26 - MAY 2)  On Tuesday, April 28, a bare-faced Vice President Mike Pence toured the Mayo Clinic, flouting that facility’s mask requirement. “Since I don't have the coronavirus,”...

“Anyone can be on the receiving end of a prosecutor's mistakes”: An Interview with Emily Bazelon By Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, a lecturer at Yale Law School, co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest podcast, and the author of two best-selling works of nonfiction: Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy and Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration. Charged is a deep dive into the prosecutor’s oversized role and influence in the U.S. criminal justice...

In April, as part of our effort to understand how the public health emergency is affecting criminal defense attorneys and their clients, we spoke with a Los Angeles-based Bar Panel Attorney, who requested anonymity so that they could speak freely. Last week we followed up with that attorney to catch up on his observations two months later. But before we share that perspective, we should clarify how the system of indigent criminal defense works in California and in Los Angeles specifically.  The primary practitioners of indigent criminal defense in California are public defenders. Most cities and large towns have public defender...