This is the fifth episode of jury duty, a weekly podcast forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling news and narrative analysis brought to you by Crime Story Media. This episode features a conversation between your truly Crime Story Publisher and Editor Kary Antholis and Crime story reporter Molly Miller. Today we focused on Molly‘s recent reporting on the Los Angeles District Attorney race as well as her conversation with a veteran Los Angeles Public Defender.  

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. This week at Crime Story we presented an exclusive and insightful look into the criminal legal process through the eyes of a long-serving public defender. We also continued our in-depth coverage of two ongoing Los Angeles stories: the pre-trial developments in the People vs. Robert Durst, and a debate of the issues in the upcoming election for LA District Attorney. There is a stark contrast between the bottomless resources expended on the Durst trial and the quixotic quest by two DA candidates and a...

This is the fourth episode of Jury Duty, a weekly podcast forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling, news and narrative analysis presented by Crime Story Media.  This episode features a discussion between yours truly, Crime Story, Publisher/Editor Kary Antholis and Crime Story Editor at-large Sean Smith, focused primarily on our coverage of the pre-trial hearings in the prosecution of Robert Durst for the murder of Susan Berman. Durst's trial is scheduled to begin in early March.

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. Crime Story hit the ground running this first full week of the new year. We continued our coverage of two ongoing Los Angeles stories: the pre-trial developments in the People vs. Robert Durst, and the debate of the issues in the upcoming election for LA District Attorney. We began the week with Tim Kontje’s piece contemplating the way a jury processes the limited information that gets through the admissibility screening process. In Rose Colored Glasses in the Litter Box...

Robert Durst has - for the first time - acknowledged that certain audio recordings made by the producers of the HBO documentary series The Jinx are “true and accurate,” including the now infamous recording of Durst muttering to himself, “Killed them all, of course.” The defense’s acknowledgement came to light in an examination by Crime Story reporters of stipulation documents filed jointly by defense and prosecuting attorneys as part of pre-trial motions on December 10, 2019. Durst’s trial for the murder of Susan Berman is scheduled to begin in March.

This is the third episode of Jury Duty, a new weekly podcast forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling, news and narrative analysis presented by Crime Story Media.  This episode features a discussion between yours truly, Crime Story, Publisher/Editor Kary Antholis and Crime Story Consulting Editor, and Georgetown Law Professor, Paul Butler.  Before the conversation, we re-present Butler’s reading of his recent opinion piece for Crime Story about a fatal flaw in the film Queen & Slim that feeds a myth promoted by right wing...

Happy New Year! Welcome to an abbreviated version of our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. We will resume with a full newsletter review of Crime Story events on January 11. But I wanted to offer a quick review of what we presented over the Holiday break. On New Years Eve, we called attention to a New York Times Story reporting that lawyers for Robert Durst (whose story was told in the HBO documentary series The Jinx) acknowledged in court documents that Mr. Durst was the author of a note directing the Beverly...

Tonight, the miniseries Chernobyl (HBO) won the Golden Globe award for Best Miniseries. Actor Jared Harris, who was himself nominated for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his performance as Valery Legasov, accepted the award on behalf of the producers. In this special re-podcast of an article from last year, Harris reads excerpts from the idiosyncratic Closing Statement of attorney Vincent Oliver in the rape trial of his client Wyaunte Cousin. This article was first published on August 21, 2019. As I walk into...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. After the debut of each presentation, you can go to the page with the podcast and the transcript of the presentation that interests you by clicking on the desired interview listing...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 12: a conversation with David Chase, Creator and Showrunner of The Sopranos, which is listed by Rolling Stone as The Greatest TV Show...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is day 11: our conversation with Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, the filmmakers of the documentary series, Making a Murderer. During part one...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 10: a conversation with Pam Veasey, Showrunner of two of the four series in the CSI franchise: CSI: New York and CSI: CYBER.

UPDATE 3:30pm: Crime Story has obtained the public documents referenced in Charles V. Bagli's New York Times article. They were filed as part of a series of stipulations made by both the prosecution and the defense in the Durst case. Notably, in the stipulation the defense also acknowledges that Durst wrote the “dig" note, a list of words on a piece of paper found in garbage on a property near the Westchester County weekend home that Durst shared with his first wife, Kathleen, shortly after she suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The note reads: “town...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 9: A conversation with Hank Steinberg, creator and showrunner of Without a Trace. Hank and I discuss his path...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 8: a conversation with Tom Fontana, ground zero in the explosion of this golden age of television. Tom served as executive producer of St....

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. Following on my interview with the Creator of The Wire, David Simon (which you can find a link to here), this is Day 7: a conversation with...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 6: a conversation with David Simon.  David and I met when he came in to HBO to pitch The Corner as...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 5: a conversation with Jonathan Tropper. Jonathan and I met when he pitched me an idea for a Cinemax show called Banshee. We worked...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. Today’s is Day 4: 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...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 3: This is a two-part conversation with the co-creator of Third Watch and Executive Producer and founding showrunner of Criminal Minds,...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. This is Day 2: Our conversation with Vince Gilligan, the creator and showrunner of one of the great series in television history, Breaking Bad and one of...

Over the twelve days from Monday, December 23 and concluding on Friday, January 3, we will present special Re-Podcasts of my Crime Story Podcast interviews with storytellers in the world of crime and justice. Each interview will be presented in its entirety, and so interviews that were previously offered in multiple parts can now be accessed in one download or streaming session. Today’s podcast is a conversation with longtime members of the team at This American Life and co-creators of the podcast series Serial - Sarah Koenig and Julie...

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. FYI, this will be our last newsletter of the year. We will resume with a fresh newsletter review of Crime Story events on January 11. This week each of our pieces, in its own way, reflects the cumulative power of Crime Story’s reporting in exploring the areas where crime, justice and storytelling meet. Monday: Jury Duty – New Podcast Series – Ep. 2 – Covering Robert Durst On Monday, we presented the second...

This is the second episode of Jury Duty, a new weekly podcast forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling, news and narrative analysis published by Crime Story Media. This episode features a discussion between Crime Story, Publisher/Editor Kary Antholis and Crime Story Reporters Molly Miller and Sean Smith about the stories, themes and issues that have arisen in both reporters’ coverage of the Los Angeles Criminal Justice System. We pay particular attention to Sean’s coverage of the hearings leading up to the trial of Robert Durst for the murder of Susan...

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. This week we published a number of exciting and unique pieces on the site, and thereby demonstrated how innovative Crime Story can be in exploring the areas where crime, justice and storytelling meet. On Monday we introduced the pilot episode of Jury Duty, a new Podcast Series which is intended be a fun, lively, up-to-the-moment and free-ranging forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling, news and narrative analysis. The pilot features a discussion between Crime Story Reporter Molly...

Last night, the first Candidate Debate for the 2020 Los Angeles District Attorney race, held at the California African American Museum, attracted a standing room only crowd and was replete with emotional moments that served to underscore how personal and intensely followed this election will be. Only two candidates appeared at the event: Former San Francisco DA George Gascon, and former federal and county Public Defender and former US Senate aide, Rachel Rossi. LA Deputy DA, Richard Ceballos, dropped out of the race the previous night, and Current District Attorney, Jackie Lacey did not...

On July 12, 1997, Oz premiered on HBO, ushering in the new era of uncensored and on interrupted one hour drama to the television landscape. Since that time, HBO has produced some of the most groundbreaking and influential crime TV series of all time, and the creators of four of those series have been guests on the Crime Story Podcast. On today’s episode, we take a look at why those creators believe that HBO was such a special place for them to work. We...

Today we introduce the pilot episode of Jury Duty, a new weekly podcast forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling, news and narrative analysis published by Crime Story Media. The pilot features a discussion between Crime Story, Publisher/Editor Kary Antholis and Crime Story Reporter Molly Miller about the stories, themes and issues that have arisen in Molly's coverage of the Los Angeles Criminal Justice System. Thanks for checking it out.

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. This was another banner week for powerful and provocative pieces. On Monday and Wednesday, Molly Miller continued her look into the power dynamics and economic dysfunctions woven into our justice system with pieces about the some of the arbitrary economic calculations that go into determining whether a crime is a felony or a misdemeanor (Felon-omics) and about how plea bargaining works and how it dominates the judicial landscape (How Is a Plea a Bargain?). You can hear...

“Serial arsonists are known to keep logs of their fires or keep pictures of them and I am sure that they get off on their coverage on the news.” — John Orr, April 1992 January 12, 1992. I was driving to a business breakfast and heard a radio report about a man who was under home detention on suspicion of being a serial arsonist. The reporter said that this man was one of the leading arson investigators in the state of California, a well-respected teacher of other investigators. I thought...

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. During the first few days of Thanksgiving week, the Crime Story Podcast took a look back at some of the themes that have emerged in the posts at crimestory.com.   On Monday our focus was “wobblers.”  According to the Nolo online legal dictionary: “A “wobbler” isn’t a misdemeanor, nor is it a felony. It’s both. Prosecutors have the choice of whether to charge a wobbler as a felony or a misdemeanor. But even...

During the first few days of this Thanksgiving week, the Crime Story Podcast is taking a look back at some of the themes that have emerged in the posts at CrimeStory.com. Today we look at the origins of three great Crime Dramas.  The list of "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time" was published in October 2016. It was based upon a tally of ballots cast by entertainment industry professionals. The top three shows on that list were Crime Dramas. Breaking Bad was third on the list,...

During the first few days of this Thanksgiving week, the Crime Story Podcast is taking a look back at some of the themes that have emerged in the posts at CrimeStory.com.  Today we offer a special reprise presentation of the two interviews that kicked off crimestory.com and The Crime Story Podcast. In one podcast episode, we present my interviews with Attorney General William Barr and Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler, who offered his thoughts on AG Barr's responses to my questions. To me justice is the right outcome... I...

During the first few days of this Thanksgiving week, the Crime Story Podcast is taking a look back at some of the themes that have emerged in the posts at CrimeStory.com.  Today our theme is “wobblers.”  In an editorial that we posted on October 8, Molly Miller and I wrote:  “Our dedication to examining systemic inequities in the criminal justice system drew us to defendants, their defenders, and their collective Sisyphean struggle against the power and the practice of powerful prosecutors. We were prepared — by the...

Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. We begin in the heart of the week. On Wednesday and Thursday, we presented my two-part conversation with David Chase, Creator and Showrunner of The Sopranos, which is listed by Rolling Stone as “The Greatest TV Show of all time.” In the first part of our chat, David talks about his development into adulthood and his path to becoming a professional storyteller with a particular focus on the projects that he worked on that were related to...

Today’s podcast is part two of a two-part conversation with David Chase, Creator and Showrunner of The Sopranos, which is listed by Rolling Stone as The Greatest TV Show of all time. In this second part of our chat, David talks about the origins of the idea for The Sopranos, making a gangster show in the shadow of The Godfather and Goodfellas, how it landed at HBO and the process of getting it to the screen, ending the series and the impact and legacy of the Sopranos.

Today’s podcast is part one of a two-part conversation with David Chase, Creator and Showrunner of The Sopranos, which is listed by Rolling Stone as The Greatest TV Show of all time. In this first part of our chat, David talks about his earliest memories of storytelling; his family life growing up, particularly his relationship with his mother; the development of his view of the world and specifically morality and religion; his appreciation of gangster movies; and his path to becoming a professional storyteller leading up to The Sopranos, with...

“Right now young men who sing and rap and rhyme are suffering for their ability to say what they want to. We all benefit from the artists who push the boundaries of speech, and so as a country we should see a collective interest in protecting them. This is especially true for artists who criticize the state, because once the state — which is supposed to be a representation of the people — is above reproach, we are entering Orwellian waters. That scares the shit out of me.” Excerpt From...

Welcome to our round up of the week's events at crimestory.com. Our continuing coverage of crime and the criminal legal process offers us the opportunity to identify themes that we plan to explore and reflect upon in the weeks and months ahead. The week began on the Tuesday after Veterans Day with Molly Miller's Tiny Evil, Rap and Gang Conspiracy, a piece that kicks off our exploration of the way that gang conspiracy laws are prosecuted in Los Angeles, and raises questions about whether police and prosecutors approach hip hop culture in a way that...

“If you’re in Las Vegas and in trouble, call David Chesnoff.” Peter Lattman, Wall Street Journal Law Blog - May 8, 2007 This is the seventh 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, While Robert Durst Flips Through Photos, Robert Durst Fades Away, Robert Durst and the Inequity of Judicial Time, Robert Durst’s Warrior in Court and Robert Durst Stares into the Camera.

Team Crime Story: Welcome to our round up of the week's events at crimestory.com. The week began with RightWay Youth: Lafawn’s Story, the third in our series of youth stories from our partnership with The RightWay Foundation (which you can read more about here). Lafawn Taylor (writing with Leland Hall) relates his experience growing up never knowing his parents and churning through four foster homes and around 30 group homes. Lafawn recounts how he faced the prospect of addiction, homelessness and possible incarceration. He then relates that the practical life coaching that he receives...

I am delighted to announce that Paul Butler is joining CRIME STORY as Consulting Editor. Paul has been an advisor to CRIME STORY since the early development of the company. He has already joined me for two Podcast interviews, which you can find here and here. And today, he publishes and reads his first Op-Ed for CRIME STORY. "Trump, Jussie Smollett and "Embarrassment to Our Nation" which you can find here. Paul and I met through my involvement in the alumni of Georgetown Law, where he is a professor, and one of the nation’s...

Team Crime Story:Welcome to our round up of the week's events at crimestory.com.The week began with my essay about Chip Lewis, Robert Durst’s Warrior in Court. This article is part of a series of pieces exploring how the Durst trial is educational in its contrasts with the ordinary realities of the criminal legal process in Los Angeles.The middle of the week was populated by our release of two sets of podcast interviews. The first was our conversation with Pam Veasey, Showrunner of “CSI: NY” and “CSI: Cyber”. During our conversation, we explored Pam's storytelling origins and how she took custody of the CSI vision, and how...

Today’s podcast is part two of a two-part conversation with Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, the makers of the breakout, true crime series Making a Murderer. (To find the podcast and transcript of Part 1, click here.) During this part of our conversation, we discuss Moira’s and Laura’s making a deal with Netflix to broadcast Making a Murderer as their first documentary series, the experience of watching the series become a cultural phenomenon, the process of making season two of the series, and where things stand in the cases of Steven Avery and...

Today’s podcast is part 1 of a 2-Part conversation with Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, the makers of the breakout True Crime series Making a Murderer. 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 their values and aims as storytellers in the world of crime and justice. During part one of our conversation, we discussed Moira’s and Laura’s...

Today’s podcast is a conversation with Pam Veasey, Showrunner of two of the four series in the CSI franchise: CSI: New York and CSI: CYBER. 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 their values and aims as storytellers in the world of crime and justice. During our conversation we discussed Pam’s path into storytelling,...

This is the fifth 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, While Robert Durst Flips Through Photos, Robert Durst Fades Away, and Robert Durst and the Inequity of Judicial Time. Robert Durst admitted that he cut up his neighbor’s body and threw it in Galveston Bay. And yet a Texas jury acquitted him of murder. Durst has a habit of ignoring his attorneys’ guidance and engaging with people who...

Welcome to our roundup of the week’s events at crimestory.com. It should be clear to anyone who has been paying attention to Crime Story over our first 10 weeks that Molly Miller has emerged as a star storyteller. Molly bookended this week with two of the most powerful and trenchant pieces that we have run on the site.On Monday, in Facing Your Rapist in a Courtroom, she explored the history and implications of the Victim’s Impact Statement as a part of the criminal legal process, in the context of her own experience as a rape survivor.On Friday,...

Joining me today on the podcast is Georgetown Law Professor, Paul Butler. As you may recall, Paul joined me on the day we launched Crime Story to offer his perspective on my interview with Attorney General William Barr. Professor Butler is the author of the widely lauded books “Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice,” and “Chokehold: Policing Black Men.” Paul is also one of the nation’s most frequently consulted scholars on issues of race and criminal justice. Prior to becoming a professor, Butler served as...

Team Crime Story,Welcome to our roundup of the week’s events at crimestory.com.We begin with Hannah Teich’s curated selection of some of the more interesting stories from Crime Story Daily over the past week.Hannah, who edits this Daily section, groups the aggregation into four general topic areas: criminal justice policy reporting; muckraking/watchdog reporting; complex crime storytelling; and stories that examine the impact of criminal justice and true-crime in the culture.Click on the link below to go to Hannah’s weekly essay. CRIME STORY DAILY - The Week’s Highlights This week in our original content created for the...

Hank Steinberg and I discuss his path into storytelling, culminating in how he came to create Without a Trace as a relative novice to the television business, how he developed the chops to run that show and build it into a top 10 television juggernaut. And we discuss the creative satisfaction and limitations of creating a successful network television crime procedural franchise. You can find a transcript of the interview here.

Welcome to our roundup of the week’s events at crimestory.com. We begin by introducing a new Crime Story feature. Hannah Teich, the editor of our Crime Story Daily aggregation section, offers a curated selection of some of the more interesting stories from Crime Story Daily over the past week. In planning this feature, we identified four broad topic areas that help us organize and choose the stories for the Crime Story Daily. Those topic areas are: criminal justice policy reporting; muckraking/watchdog reporting; complex crime storytelling; and stories that examine the impact of criminal...

Today’s podcast is a conversation with Tom Fontana, ground zero in the explosion of this golden age of television. Tom served as executive producer of St. Elsewhere, Executive Producer and Showrunner of Homicide: Life on the Streets, and Creator and Executive Producer of the first prestige drama of the cable television era, Oz. Tom is currently the Executive Producer and Showrunner of the Showtime crime drama City on a Hill. In this conversation, Tom and I discussed the people and forces that shaped his creative thinking, and we zeroed in...

We’ve noticed something. The more time we spend in the criminal courts building, the more familiar faces have taken on meaning. The elegant “swan woman” is Karen, the Spanish translator. The friendly security guard on the ninth floor is Carlito who writes children’s books. The bespectacled blonde with a massive bag is Terri, the meticulous reporter from City News. And then there are the judges. The bench officers weren’t originally the subjects of particularly intense interest to us. They are the proverbial referees of the courtroom, and we’ve been reporting on...

This week on Crime Story began with David Simon, the creator and executive producer of The Wire, referring his 250,000 Twitter followers to my interview with him.On Monday we published RightWay Youth: Leo’s Story by Leo Jimenez with Molly Miller, the first in our series of youth stories from our partnership with The RightWay Foundation (which you can read more about here).  Leo relates his experience of growing up gay in “21 foster homes, three psych wards, and one group home,” and recounts how the therapy services offered by RightWay has offered him a path to healing. “Sometimes the pain from my...

Following on my four-part interview with the Creator of The Wire, David Simon (which you can find links to here), today’s podcast is a conversation with his frequent collaborator, George Pelecanos. George is one of the great detective novelists of his generation and the executive producer several HBO dramas including The Wire and The Deuce the latter of which he co-created with David Simon.  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...

In case you missed it, David Simon, the creator and executive producer of The Wire, referred his Twitter followers to my interview with him, writing: “Even I can’t stand to hear myself this long, but Kary Antholis — the singular spark to my work at HBO who has now launched the new Crimestory venture — has delivered a comprehensive, exhaustive, four-part interview on a Baltimore scribbler’s origin story. I’m exhausted, anyway.” As David said, we present my interview with him in four parts: In part one we discuss David’s formative years...

This week at Crime Story, we began with Chris Tarricone’s Police Force Expert — Taser Certified, which offered a snap-shot perspective on a prosecutor and a witness in the trial of Andrea Moorer (also the subject of Molly Miller’s Strong Female Lead). On Tuesday we published Sean Smith’s Your Honor? I’m Here to Give Myself Up, in which Sean captures two ordinary (for the court) and yet extraordinary (for the defendants) moments of pleas for mercy in the courtroom of Judge Katherine Mader. On Thursday, Molly Miller’s The Truths of Louie Cordero explores the complex motivations and...

Today’s podcast is the final part of our four-part interview with David Simon. (You can find part one of the interview here, part two here, and part three here.)   In part four, we discuss David’s creation of The Wire and some of the key themes explored in that series. You can find a complete transcript of this interview here.

Today’s podcast is the third part of our four-part interview with David Simon. (You can find part one of the interview here and part two here.) In part three, we discuss David’s reporting for the book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner City Neighborhood and his experience producing the multiple Emmy Award-winning miniseries based on that book. You can find a complete transcript of this interview here.

This podcast is the second part of a four-part interview with David Simon. (You can find part one of the interview here.) In part two we discuss David’s work as a crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun, his writing the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, and his transition to writing for television. You can find a complete transcript of this interview here.

Today’s podcast is a conversation with David Simon.  David and I met when he came in to HBO to pitch The Corner as a television series. The Corner is a book that he wrote with Ed Burns about the year that they spent in an inner-city Baltimore neighborhood ravaged by drug abuse and distribution. Together with his book Homicide, The Corner was the foundation for David’s series The Wire, which has been widely acclaimed as one of the great television series of all time. My aim in sitting down with...

Team Crime Story:This week’s Crime Story activity actually began last Friday, with Ken White’s piece for us about The College Bribery Scandal called Felicity Huffman’s Smarter Choices.  That article got considerable traffic throughout the weekend and into the middle of last week as it coincided with the announcement of Huffman’s sentence of 14 days in jail and a $30,000 fine. We followed that with my story story about the implications of President Trump’s unhinged Twitter tirade against John Legend and Chrissy Teigen for the future of his administration’s approach to criminal justice reform.  On...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

In Part Two of the interview with Ed Bernero we zero in on two of the show’s episodes to discuss how the details of their creation offer us broader insights into the creative process that Ed established on the show. We also hear Ed’s answers to questions posed by USC students. You may find a transcript of this Podcast here.

Hi Crime Story Friends, In our third week we enjoyed intense reader interest and growth in traffic to the site. We truly appreciate your readership, support and willingness to subscribe to our communications. Early in the week, there was a lot of activity and engagement around a few stories that we published at the end of the prior week including Molly Miller’s A Chair and a Killing, my piece Wait, What? A Closing Statement, and Leland Hall’s Off the Path of Self-Destruction - our second of three pieces about our writers’ experiences at a Defy...

Part One of a conversation with the co-creator of Third Watch and Executive Producer and founding showrunner of Criminal Minds, Edward Allen Bernero. Ed is a charming, funny, passionate storyteller. We hear about his unusual path into storytelling, and we learn how he came to run the show and how he built the story mythology that has allowed Criminal Minds to achieve global financial success. Here is a link to the transcript of Part One.

Today’s podcast is part two of a two part conversation with Vince Gilligan, the creator and showrunner of one of the great series in television history, Breaking Bad and one of his key collaborators on that series, director/executive producer Michelle MacLaren. In this episode, we talk about the actors and zero in on two of the show’s episodes to discuss how the details of their creation offer us broader insights into the unique creative process behind this television masterpiece. Part One of the podcast is available...

Greetings Team Crime Story, Week 2 represented another step forward in realizing the unique opportunities that Crime Story offers in exploring the many facets of Crime narrative. We began a feature on our Crime Story Podcast where we present recordings of our writers reading their articles. Molly Miller read The Bullet and the Door, the first of Crime Story’s articles about the trial of David Martinez. This coincided with publication of our second Martinez article, my piece called Anatomy of Doubt about the emotionally wrenching and ultimately multi-layered testimony of LASD Deputy Jim Moss.

Today’s podcast is part one of a two part conversation with Vince Gilligan, the creator and showrunner of one of the great series in television history, Breaking Bad and one of his key collaborators on that series, director/executive producer Michelle MacLaren. 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 their values and aims as storytellers in the world...

Subscribe to the Crime Story Podcast on your favorite podcast platform, and you will receive an alert on Thursday when we go live with our latest episode. Thursday’s podcast is part one of a two part conversation with Vince Gilligan, the creator and showrunner of one of the great series in television history, Breaking Bad and one of his key collaborators on that series, director/producer Michelle MacLaren. The conversation was recorded as part of a series of classes that I taught at The University of Southern California’s School of...

I would like to call your attention to some of the stories that are in our Crime Story LA section. These stories exemplify the tone and approach of our reporting here at Crime Story. We want our pieces to be both accessible and illuminating; thoughtful and emotional; unexpected and satisfying. Sean Smith’s Slouching towards Babel introduces to the world of the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles, and his Two Hearings piece juxtaposes the massive defense posse representing multi-millionaire Robert Durst in a pretrial hearing with the valiant efforts of an Alternate Public Defender representing a young indigent man in...

Jim Moss’s job is to save lives. A 29-year veteran of the LA County Sheriff’s Department, Moss has spent 14 of those years serving as a rescue paramedic for the Special Weapons (SWAT) Team. His primary duty, he says, “is to provide advanced life support on SWAT operations.” But on May 23, 2019, Moss has a different job. His duty today is to testify for the People of the State of California in their prosecution of David Martinez for the murder of SWAT officer Shaun Diamond. Moss takes the stand wearing the LASD uniform...

Yesterday morning at a little after 11 AM, a Los Angeles jury returned verdict of guilty on two counts of homicide with special circumstances and one count of attempted homicide against Michael Gargiulo.  The trial which, has lasted several months, now moves to “the sanity phase“ during which Gargiulo‘s lawyers will argue that he suffers from dissociative personality disorder, and presumably that he should be sent to a psychiatric facility rather than to state prison. Crime Story reporter Chris Tarricone has been observing the trial, and has written these two pieces here and here about the...

Today’s podcast is a conversation with longtime members of the team at This American Life and co-creators of the podcast series Serial - Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder. 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 their values and aims as storytellers in the world of crime and justice. In addition to discussing the works and artists who shaped their creative thinking,...

I am at the Criminal Court Building to watch arraignments and pretrial hearings. As Sean Smith wrote in Slouching to Babel, these hearings can offer a good deal of drama and detail about the dynamics of the LA justice system in a relatively short period of time. But on this day, the pace in arraignments is slow, so I wander up to the legendary ninth floor. This area requires additional security clearance to enter, as it is home to the most serious and high profile criminal trials. OJ Simpson was tried on this same floor. So was Richard...

I would like to call your attention to some of the stories that are in our Crime Story LA section. These stories exemplify the tone and approach of our reporting here at Crime Story. We want our pieces to be both accessible and illuminating; thoughtful and emotional; unexpected and satisfying. Sean Smith's Slouching towards Babel introduces the world of the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles, and his Two Hearings piece juxtaposes the massive defense posse representing multi-millionaire Robert Durst in a pretrial hearing with the valiant efforts of an Alternate...

Hello everyone,Thank you again for subscribing to Crime Story.As you know, on Thursday we launched crimestory.com with two separate interviews in two simultaneously-released podcasts. The first is an exclusive interview with United States Attorney General William Barr where we discuss the legacy of the push for increased incarceration, criminal justice reform and the justice narrative in certain film and television programs. The second is a conversation with Georgetown law professor and former US Justice Department prosecutor Paul Butler, where we discuss my interview with Attorney General Barr. Here’s a recap of the response to our launch over...

To me justice is the right outcome... I believe a sense of justice is hardwired into human beings. Don't ask me why, but it is there… There's that scene in Dirty Harry where… Dirty Harry asks, "Where is she?" And the… guy smirks at him and he shoots him in the leg or something and the guy tells him where it is. I say, now was that an unjust or morally repellent act? Is the reason the audience applauds when that happens because the audience is morally bankrupt? Or is there something else going on there? United States Attorney...

In the days following the 2016 election I had an epiphany of sorts.  The immediate cause of this epiphany was not the unexpected election results, but a November 9 event hosted by Georgetown University Law Center, on whose Board of Visitors I serve. The Dean of Georgetown Law, Dean Treanor, brought together screenwriters Steve Zaillian and Richard Price and a group of legal scholars from the Law School. The panelists focused their discussion on the thematic insights that an HBO miniseries (that I oversaw) called The Night Of offered into our criminal justice system. 

As you may have seen in this piece on Deadline, today we launched crimestory.com.  You can read about the genesis of this endeavor here, and you can read more about me and my background here. Our aim at Crime Story, simply put, is to appeal to those who are engaged by a well-told crime story, to those who want to know more about how and why stories of crime and justice are told AND to those who care about the fairness and humanity of our justice system.   As a key part of...

Durst Developments Set Against the Quixotic Quest for Fairness in the Legal Process (Week 23) A Big Scoop in the Durst Trial, Gang Enhancements in the DA Debate and a Preview Podcast for 2020 (Week 22) Big News in the Robert Durst Trial and the 12 Days of Crime Story (Weeks 20 & 21) The Cumulative Power of Crime Story Reporting (Week 19) A New Podcast, A Fairy Tale 6-Pack, A Debate, A Movie’s Fatal Flaw and HBO Crime (Week 18) The...