Kary Antholis

Today’s podcast is a conversation with Jonathan Tropper. Jonathan and I met when he pitched me an idea for a Cinemax show called Banshee. We worked together on that series and on his most recent Cinemax series Warrior. I asked Jonathan to join me for this conversation for two reasons: First, Banshee explores ideas of crime and justice in ways that are very unique in the television landscape. It is a violent and pulpy show that also examines the existential toll taken by deceit and betrayal. Second, Banshee is the show that connected me to William Barr, the man...

Today’s podcast is a conversation with Steve Zaillian. Steve won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for Schindler’s List and won a Directors Guild Award for his miniseries The Night Of. The conversation was recorded as part of a series of classes that I taught at The University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Each week I would host an artist for a discussion that would help us better understand the values and aims of storytellers in the world of crime and justice. I got to know Steve working as the HBO executive overseeing The Night Of. Steve served as showrunner,...

Does President Trump’s Twitter tirade taunting Chrissy Teigen (and her husband, musician and activist John Legend) suggest a shift in his administration’s narrative regarding criminal justice reform? Trump’s four tweet lament (pleading that he gets no credit for the reform legislation that passed last year, while undeserving others take that credit) reeked of resentment, jealousy, and recrimination, and it may be the latest in a series of signals that — as we move into an election year — he is abandoning the “Reform” mantle in favor of a punitive, retributive “law and order” narrative. Let’s look at how we got here. Back...

Team Crime Story,This week on Crime Story we began and ended with examinations of national media stories, and -- in the middle of the week -- explored three dark and troubling LA stories, and a case in a new location for us, the Alhambra Courthouse. We started the week with my piece entitled Robert Durst Fades Away, in which I observe how, as Durst recedes into a shell of infirmity, the man who is prosecuting him is flourishing with theatrical bluster. In Molly Miller’s The Matter of the Intersex Shooting, she presents a story where societal norms and transgressive behavior are used by...

This is the third in a series of articles about the hearings before the murder trial of Robert Durst. You may click on the hyperlinked titles to read Two Hearings: Robert Durst and Armon Nelson and While Robert Durst Flips Through Photos. Robert Durst seems to be fading away. In the first hearing in his trial for the murder of Susan Berman observed by our Crime Story reporters, Robert Durst yells about the wardrobe brought for him. In the second, he sits, virtually mute, and only becomes engaged by a series of evidentiary photographs, which he flips through, as if on...

Hello friends, We brought our first month to close with a set of articles and podcasts that our readers clearly found engaging, as we surpassed our previous week in traffic and engagement. We began and ended the week with pieces by Owen Smith. Owen's An Appeal for Commutation explored the Sisyphean struggle of Delon Broussard to persuade Judge Curtis Rappe to commute his murder conviction based on a 2018 California Law.  His story Special Docket explores the efforts of Community Collaborative Courts to address the special needs of certain special defendants. Tuesday, we published the second article by Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson. Expressions of Guilt explores the...